BUSINESS ROUNDUP: World Bank’s static economy warning; Debt escalation concerns; See other stories that made our pick

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

Here are the Headlines:

• Nigeria’s economic growth will be stagnant for the next 3yrs – World Bank
• BMO faults World Bank, IMF projections, says 2.9% economic growth achievable
• Unilever posts N4.224bn loss amidst revenue crunch
• CBN raises concern against govt’s escalating debt profile

Summary:

The World Bank predicted that the next three years will prove gloomy for Nigeria as growth in the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will stall at 2.1% for 2020, 2021 and 2022.

The Washington-headquartered institution, in its January 2020 Global Economic Prospects, gave a bleak prognosis of Nigeria’s economic growth in the years ahead, saying a rudderless government policy framework would account for the poor GDP growth in 2020. Read more

The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) on Wednesday faulted the forecasts by the World Bank and the International Monetary Organisation (IMF) on Nigeria’s 2020 economic growth, which both Bretton Woods institutions had put at 2.1 percent and 2.5 percent respectively.

The organization said in a statement issued by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, that the Federal Government’s estimate of 2.9 percent growth is achievable irrespective of the IMF’s and the World Bank’s stances.

It said measures taken by the federal government to enhance the predictability of economic policies had yielded positive results in the past. Read more

Consumer goods company, Unilever Nigeria Plc, has declared a N4.224 billion loss for the year ended 31^st December 2019.

This and other details of its financials are stated in Unilever Nigeria Plc Unaudited Interim Financial Statements, posted on the website of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday.Read more

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday sent a cautionary note to the Federal Government in respect of the rising debt profile of the country.

Read also: BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Access Bank’s across border expansion; 7.5% VAT implementation; See other stories that made our pick

Godwin Emefiele, the apex bank chief, while briefing journalists after the CBN’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, called for dampers to be put in place in a bid to subdue the adverse effects of oil price decline on the economy. Read more

On NSE ROUNDUP: Market Capitalisation inches up marginally as bourse records two bearish days

Just like last week, the Nigerian bourse recorded two straight bearish sessions this week as investors moved to recoup their investments on Tuesday and Wednesday.

There was a rally on the last two trading days thanks to gains recorded in some blue-chip stocks mostly in the Industrial Goods sector. However, three days of gain had a very modest impact on market performance, causing market capitalisation to rise by N6 billion week on week.

All the key market performance indicators appreciated. A positive market breadth was recorded this week with 32 gainers against 28 losers. The All Share Index (ASI) grew marginally by 0.03% to 29,628.84 basis points. Market Capitalisation similarly grew by the same margin to N15.262 trillion. Read more

Meanwhile, on our editorial Business Review segment;

We considered, during the week, the Paga story -how Appositmoves from being its auxiliary service provider to becoming a full subsidiary.

We started off by noting that more Nigerian-owned companies, especially those operating in the tech space, are recording significant growth as they increasingly acquire other startups, fund multimillion projects, or simply expand to new verticals.We reviewed the prospect in the new deal for both parties and looked forward to the future eventualities from the new formation. Read more

We equally went behind the news on Whatsapp’s recent upgrade where the instant messaging App added the dark mode features. We revealed that this introduction might be another way to dig Telegram’s grave.

We explained how the rivalry between 6 years old Telegram and the Mark Zuckerberg-owned Whatsapp has become intense, in recent time. And, how the heat of this competition has remarkably been instrumental to how these instant messaging apps have been constantly rebuilding, and upgrading existing features. We illustrated by citing the 2019 Google/Facebook war that came in similar light. Read more

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

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now