BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Twitter ban costs Nigeria N153.43bn in two months; Bitcoin value up by 4.38% despite govt’s ban; 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:
• Twitter ban costs Nigeria N153.43bn in two months
• Bitcoin value up by 4.38% despite FG ban
• Nigerian govt to borrow from int’l debt market
• Nigeria’s foreign reserves increase by $123.3m in July

Summary:

The decision by President Muhammadu Buhari’s government to suspend Nigerians from accessing Twitter has so far cost the business in Nigeria at least N153.43bn.

The ban was announced on June 5, 2021 after the San Francisco-based digital company deleted President Buhari’s tweets.

Today, August 8 marks 1,488 hours (62 days) since the ban, and in that time period, according to Netblocks Cost of Shutdown Tools, which employs the Free Digital App GDP effect technique, Nigeria has lost at least N103.1 million per hour, or $250,600 per day (exchange rate of N410.75/$).

Bitcoin holders pocketed $32.26 billion on Monday following a 4.38 percent rise in their investment in the most popular cryptocurrency.

READ ALSO: BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Govt debts to banks hit N12.5tn; DPR hints at fuel price hike to N1,000 per litre; Other stories

Three months after Tesla founder, Elon Musk, announced that his company would no longer accept Bitcoin as a payment option, the cryptocurrency’s price has continued to hover around $40,000.

In the early hours of Thursday, Bitcoin market capitalisation was $735.88 billion with its price valued at $39,192.24.

The Federal government has announced eight successful winners from a pool of 38 bidders as transaction advisers for the sale of it’s $6.2 billion Eurobond.

President Muhammadu Buhari had informed the National Assembly when it presented the 2021 Appropriation Act that the sum of N2.3 trillion ($6.2 billion) would be required to finance part of its estimated N5.2 trillion deficit in the 2021 Budget.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Debt Management Office said it has approved JP Morgan, Citigroup Global Markets Limited, Standard Chartered Bank and Goldman Sachs would act as International Bookrunners/Joint Lead Managers; while Chapel Hill Denham Advisory Services Ltd would act as Nigerian Bookrunner.

Nigeria’s external reserves returned to growth in July gaining $123.3 million after months of consecutive declines.

This is according to the latest figures obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria on Wednesday.

CBN data showed that the reserves, which stood at $33.27billion on July 1 increased to $33.40 billion by July 30.

NSE ROUNDUP: Market indices down by 0.02% as investors trade shares worth N1.66bn

Investors at the Nigerian stock market traded shares worth N1.66 billion during trading on the floor of the bourse Friday.
The investors traded 167.77 million in 3,267 deals on the day.

This surpassed the 139.78 million shares valued at N1.40 billion that exchanged hands in 3,655 transactions the previous day.

Investors also pocketed about N10 billion following the increase in the market capitalization to N20.22 trillion at the close of business.

On the tech scene, it’s been a long week for industry players as activities began to pick up.

READ ALSO: BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Naira gains N5 against U.S dollars; Nigerian refineries report N10.3bn loss in two months; Other stories

We recorded a venture expansion during the week with Kuda bank leading the week on fundraising.

Also, Cash2Cash joined Catalyst Fund fintech accelerator while Nigeria’s Topship began operation as a freight forwarding company.

Remarks

Thanks for joining the roundup this week. See you next week for another serving. Don’t forget, for the latest news and updates from around the globe, keep reading Ripples Nigeria.

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