BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Nigeria’s reserves drop by $384m; Nation fails to meet OPEC quota, loses N49bn; 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:

• Nigeria’s external reserves drop by $384m
• Ibom Air pulls out of planned airline strike as FG begs operators
• IMF warns nations against adopting crypto
• Imported products push forex turnover to $14.53bn
• Nigeria fails to meet OPEC quota, loses N49bn

Summary:

Ibom Air, one of Nigeria’s carriers, has opted to not participate in the planned suspension of flight operations by Airline operators on Monday, May 9, 2022, over the rising cost of aviation fuel.

Ibom Air disclosed it decision in a statement on its Twitter account shortly after Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika appealed o airline operators to reconsider their stance on shutting down.

In a statement on Saturday, Ibom Air stated that it acknowledges the existential threat that these runaway fuel price increases pose to the air transport industry in Nigeria and agrees that this out-of-control situation is simply unsustainable.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, has warned countries to desist from adopting cryptocurrency as their legal tender, against central bank-issued money.

Georgieva’s caution comes on the heels of emerging markets like Central Africa Republic joining El Salvador to officially declare bitcoin as a legal currency, in relations to their country’s fiat.

Ripples Nigeria had reported both Central Africa Republic and El Salvador had adopted the cryptoasset to support their domestic currency and sustain their economy by luring bitcoin holders to their country for business transactions and tourism.

The Central bank of Nigeria (CBN) continues its withdrawal from Nigeria’s external reserves as it continues its intervention in the forex market.

Data obtained from its website shows that the reserves stood at $39.42 billion on Wednesday, May 4th 2022 compared to the $39.81 billion it stood on April 21.

What this means is that the reserves dropped in two weeks by $384 million.

Read also :Investors make N262.7bn as Nigerian stock market hits another milestone

The latest development follows the announcement from the federal government that the balance in the excess Crude Account, as of April 27, 2022, stood at a paltry $35.372 million.

In the first four months (January to April) of 2022, the volume of dollars traded (turnover) in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange market rose to $14.53 billion.

This is a 201.5 per cent increase, year-on-year (YoY) compared to $4.82 billion in the corresponding period of 2021.

Ripples Nigeria analysis on monthly turnover from FMDQ securities where Naira is officially traded showed that $3.22 billion was traded in January followed by $2.13 billion in February.

For the fourth time this year, Nigeria again failed to meet the oil production quota allocated to member countries by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in April.

In a report released by OPEC on Monday, the oil cartel said Nigeria produced 1 .39 million barrels per day as against the expected 1.735 mb/d.

What this means is that Nigeria’s oil production plunged by 40,000 barrels per day, translating to 1.2 mb/d during the period.

On NSE ROUNDUP: Investors pocket N53.4bn amidst gains in Caverton, Cadbury

Investors at the Nigerian capital market pocketed N53.4 billion following the rise in equity capitalisation by 0.19 percent on Friday.

After eight hours of trading, the shareholders’ investment in the capital market rose from N27.40 trillion reported on Thursday to N27.40 trillion today.

The All- Share Index increased by 99.08 basis points to settle at 50,935.03, up from 50,835.95 reported the previous day.

Investors traded 466.28 million shares worth N5.30 billion in 7,442 deals on Friday.

On the tech scene, Norebase, Kwaba, Black Girls in Tech, GoMetro, The Baobab Network, Hello Tractor, and Crop2Cash were some of the names that made the headlines this week.

A world rendezvous for startups, International Finance Corporation (IFC), during the week, shortlisted two Nigerian startups, Crop2Cash and Koolboks among top 45 African startups driving innovations on the continent.

Also, a Nigerian trade technology startup, Norebase, has announced securing a $1M pre-seed funding round.

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