BUSINESS ROUNDUP: UAE to invest in Africa’s tech start-ups; Oil prices drop as US moves to crash price; 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 used borrowings as tool for economic recovery – DMO
• UAE to invest in Africa’s tech start-ups
• International Breweries suffers N17.65bn loss in twelve months
• Oil prices drop as US moves to crash price

Summary:

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of State for African affairs, Shakhboot Nahyan Al-Nahyan, said on Friday the Middle East nation would invest in housing and Fintech companies across the continent.

Al-Nahyan, according to a statement published on the African Development Bank (AfDB) website, stated this during the visit of the Bank’s President, Akinwumi Adesina, to UAE.

The visit was aimed at strengthening the economic ties between the country, the Bank, and Africa.

Oil prices fell more than 5% on Monday to the lowest in nearly two weeks following the announcement from the United States government that it will release 180 million barrels of oil over six months.

Also, a pandemic-linked travel ban in China has also cast doubt on demand.

Data shows that on Thursday, Brent the international oil benchmark fell $5.77, or 5.1%, to settle at $106.90 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell $6.32, or 5.8%, to settle at $103.01.

Despite spending a whooping N17.67 billion on marketing and advertising, the management of International Breweries Plc couldn’t prevent the company from suffering profit loss in 2021.

International Breweries had upped its promotional expenses to drive consumption of its products such as Trophy Lager Beer, Betamalt, Budweiser, Hero Lager and Eagle Lager, having spent N12.65 billion in 2021.

READ ALSO: More headaches for Nigeria’s economy as oil production crashes to 1.15mbd

The company’s marketing yielded 1.23% growth in revenue, generating N182.29 billion last year, against the N136.79 billion it recorded in 2020, International Breweries Full Year Audited Financials for 2021 period shows.

The Debt Management Office (DMO) said on Thursday the Federal Government used loans secured from multilateral lenders as a tool for economic recovery.

The Director-General of the DMO, Patience Oniha, stated this in a keynote address at the fourth national budget roundtable and panel discussion at Covenant University, Ogun State.

She said Nigeria’s current debt profile to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio was 22 percent, lower than the 40 percent stipulated for developing countries by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

On NSE ROUNDUP: Investors lose N58.3bn as bears reclaim Nigeria’s capital market

Investors at the Nigerian stock market lost N58.3 billion on Friday after the bourse slipped back to the bear territory.

The lose represents -0.23 percent drop in the market capitalisation, which plunged from N25.31 trillion to N25.25 trillion.

Also, the All-Share Index was down by 122.62 basis points to close at 46,842.86 compared to 46,965.48 achieved the previous day.

This was after investors splashed N2.86 billion on 157.32 million shares in 4,586 deals on the floor of the capital market.

On the tech scene, Mikron, Sticitt, Minit, Al Mada, Waspito, Malt, and Zepto were some of the names that made the headlines this week.

American tech giant, Microsoft, has completed the acquisition of mining technology vendor, Minit.

Also, Al Mada, a Morocco-based investment company, during the week, launched a US$110 million pan-African venture capital fund.

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