BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Nigeria’s inflation rate to hit 25%; Tinubu signs Executive Orders on tax; Other stories

Hello, and welcome to Business Roundup this week. Here, we bring you highlights of events that happened during the week -from the capital market to the mainstream business activities, while not forgetting the tech/economy build up.

Here are the Headlines:

• Tinubu sets up committee on fiscal policy, tax reforms to achieve 18% Tax to GDP ratio
• Kano govt arraigns ex-works commissioner for alleged N1bn fraud
• Nigeria’s inflation rate to hit 25%
• Intercity bus fare rises by 9%, highest in South-West, North-East
• Tinubu signs Executive Orders on tax

Summary:

The establishment of the presidential committee on fiscal policy and tax reforms has been approved by President Bola Tinubu, a day after signing executive orders to suspend the five per cent excise tax.

Tinubu approved the committee which would be chaired by the Fiscal policy partner and Africa tax leader at PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Taiwo Oyedele.

This was disclosed on Friday by the Special adviser to the president on special duties, communications and strategy, Dele Alake.

Four Executive Orders delaying and suspending the start of certain taxes paid by businesses in the nation have received President Bola Tinubu’s approval.

Dele Alake, the President’s Special Adviser on Special Duties, Communications, and Strategy, revealed this to reporters on Thursday at the State House in Abuja.

He said that this action was consistent with President Tinubu’s promise to address business-unfriendly fiscal policy measures and tax multiplicity at his inauguration on May 29, 2023.

The average fare for intercity bus transport in Nigeria increased by 9.09 per cent on a year-on-year basis to N4,002.16 in May, transportation data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday, disclosed.

According to the Transport Fare Watch, May report by NBS, the average fare for intercity bus transport rose to N4,002.16, from N3,668.64 reported in the same month in 2022.

READ ALSO:BUSINESS ROUNDUP: FG, states, LGs share N786.1bn; Foreign reserves drop by 1.86%; other stories

However, bus transport within the city cost passengers N649.59 during the period in review, against the N581.79 recorded in May last year.

The Kano State government on Tuesday arraigned the state’s former Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Idris Wada-Saleh, at the state’s Chief Magistrate Court for alleged N1 billion fraud.

Saleh, who was arrested by operatives of the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC) on Monday, served under former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje’s administration in the state.

He was charged with giving false information and cheating.

The prosecution counsel, Salisu Tahir, Assistant Director PCACC, alleged that the defendant released N1 billion to Arafat Construction Company, No Stone Construction Company, and Multi Resources to rehabilitate 30 roads in the metropolis that were not carried out.

The World Bank has projected Nigeria’s inflation rate to reach 25 percent this year due to the removal of fuel subsidy.

The World Bank had in January last year predicted that Nigeria might have one of the highest inflation rates in the world and the seventh highest in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In its June 2023 edition of the Nigeria Development Update obtained by Ripples Nigeria on Sunday, the Bretton Wood institution said inflation would be driven by a hike in prices of commodities in response to the increase in fuel prices.

On NSE ROUNDUP: Nigeria capital market posts N555bn gain, Omatek among top entities

The Nigerian capital market posted a N555 billion gain at the close of trading on Friday.

This followed the rise in the value of investments in the capital market from N33.77 billion to N34.32 trillion after five hours of trading today.

Similarly, the All-Share Index rose by 1,020.53 basis points to close at 63,040.41, up from 62,019.88 posted by the bourse on Thursday.

Investors traded 1.22 billion shares worth N13.84 billion in 10,393 deals on Friday.

However, this fell short of the 5.44 billion shares valued at N95 billion traded by shareholders in 9,948 deals the previous day.

On the tech scene, Threads, Twitter, NOMU, ENGIE, Estafsar, Seedstars, Masroofi, EduTech, FUTA, alfii, Nuru, moove were some of the names that made the headlines this week.

alfii, a tech startup based in Dubai, has announced securing $2.5 million in pre-seed funding to expand its team and further develop its fintech-powered HR automation platform.

Also, Nuru, an energy company based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has closed a $40 million in equity funding as it pursues its goal of providing 24-hour power to five million people in the country.

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