BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Oil companies lose N803bn from sabotaged pipelines; Nigeria’s inflation rate hits 21.34%; other stories

Hello, and welcome to the 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:

· Oil companies lose N803bn to sabotaged pipelines

· Nigeria’s inflation rate hits 21.34%

· Economic group projects Nigeria’s unemployment rate to hit 37%

· New report shows Nigeria is highest importer of generator in Africa

· Banks to pay N1m daily as CBN moves to enforce distribution of new Naira notes

Summary:

The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) has revealed that oil companies in Nigeria lost N803 billion worth of crude oil to spills suspected to emanate from sabotaged pipelines and operational issues in 2022.

The amount recorded is the highest in the last three years data from the oil spill agency showed.

A breakdown from NOSDRA data disclosed that oil companies recorded a N362 billion loss in 2020 and N674 billion in 2021.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will henceforth impose a fine of N1 million daily on any commercial bank that fails to pick up the new Naira notes for distribution to customers in the country.

The CBN’s Deputy Director in charge of Research, Osun State branch, Adeleke Adelokun, stated this during a sensitization programme on the new Naira notes at the Ayegbaju Market in Osogbo.

He said the CBN has printed enough new naira notes but most banks have refused to collect the money.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)has said Nigeria is the highest importer of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and diesel generator in Africa, and one of the largest importers worldwide.

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In a new report released by the agency for the month of January 2023, titled; ‘Renewable Energy Roadmap: Nigeria’, it was said that no other African country imports as many generators as the largest economy on the continent does.

The global intergovernmental agency for energy transformation blamed it on poor electricity supply in the country and lack of financing in the power sector.

The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has projected the unemployment rate in Africa’s most populous nation to hit 37 percent this year.

This indicates that the expected unemployment rate is nearly four percentage points higher than the 33.3 percent projected by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for 2020.

NESG In its latest 2023 Macroeconomic Outlook report titled: “Nigeria in Transition: Recipes for Shared Prosperity,” said the projected rate and the poverty headcount would amplify to 45 percent this year.

Nigeria’s inflation rate slowed to 21.34% in the month of December 2022 from 21.47 percent in the previous month.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced the drop on Monday in its latest Consumer Price Index report.

December inflation rate is a big surprise given the Christmas and New year festivities.

On NSE ROUNDUP: Nigeria’s capital market down by -0.06% amidst sell-off in Jaiz Bank, Linkage Assurance, others

The equity capitalization in the Nigerian capital market dropped slightly by -0.06 percent at the close of trading on Friday.

This represented a dip in the market capitalization by N17.28 billion from N28.66 trillion posted on Thursday to N28.64 trillion today.

Similarly, the All-Share Index dropped by 31.74 basis points to close at 52, 594.68, down from 52,626.42 achieved by the bourse the previous day.

On the tech scene, Google, Meta, Twitter, Fincra, Wikimedia, Flow, Tabby, Carry1st, Tesla were some of the names that made the headlines in the tech ecosystem this week.

Fincra announced Friday that the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN has approved it as a provider of payment service solutions (PSSP).

Also, Wikimedia Foundation, the organization overseeing the Wikipedia project, has announced revising the interface of its content encyclopedia.

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