Business News

Sunday, 17 May 2020 05:15

NAFDAC announces palliatives for small businesses

Federal government has rolled out new set of palliatives to help Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) survive the economic fallouts of the coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria. Under the scheme, government will give 80 percent discount to all MSMEs that registered their product on the electronic platform National Agency for Food and Drug Administration (NAFDAC) unveiled on Friday. NAFDAC Automated Product Administration and Monitoring System (NAPAMS), is a software solution for the regulation and control of the importation, exportation, manufacture, distribution, advertisement, sale and use of foods, drugs, cosmetics, medical devices, chemicals, detergents and bottled water in Nigeria. Apart from…

Sunday, 17 May 2020 05:14

FG-owned refineries lose N19bn in two months

Refineries owned by the Federal Government recorded a total loss of N18.96bn in the first two months of this year, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has said. Latest data from NNPC showed that the refineries managed by the corporation lost N9.60bn in January and N9.36bn in February. Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer, relies largely on importation for refined petroleum products as its refineries have remained in a state of disrepair for many years despite several reported repairs. The refineries, located in Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri, have a combined installed capacity of 445,000 barrels per day but have continued to operate…

Saturday, 16 May 2020 05:13

Tomato may cost more as ‘Tomato Ebola’ destroys farms in Kano

Kano State chairman of Tomato Out Growers Association of Nigeria (TOGAN), MrSani Danladi, has revealed that Tuta absoluta, one of the most devastating pests affecting tomato crops, has resurfaced in the state, destroying farms. Tuta absoluta is a species of moth in the family of Gelechiidae. It is also known by the name tomato leaf miner or tomato Ebola. It is well known as a serious pest of tomato crops in Europe and South America. In 2016, Tuta absoluta ravaged many tomato farms across Nigeria which resulted in farmers losing over half of their anticipated harvest, whilst causing an astronomical…

Friday, 15 May 2020 05:14

Nigeria raked in N338.9bn from VAT in Q1 - NBS

National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) yesterday, said the country generated N338.94 billion as Value Added Tax (VAT) in the first quarter of the year (Q1’20). This represents a 15.66 percent year-on-year (YoY) rise when compared to N293.04 billion generated in the corresponding period of last year. It also shows a 9.9 percent increase quarter-on-quarter, against N308.48 billion generated in the fourth quarter of 2019. NBS disclosed this in its Sectoral Distribution of VAT Report for Q1’20. The report showed that professional services generated the highest amount of VAT overtaking “Other Manufacturing” sector which has been in the top position of…

Thursday, 14 May 2020 05:40

Jumia cuts cost, sees hope in easing of lockdown

Struggling e-commerce platform Jumia Technologies reported an almost 7 percent fall in first quarter revenue due to supply chain disruptions, particularly in China, but saw lower cash burn and signs that lockdowns were hastening a shift towards online shopping in Africa. Jumia was the first Africa-focused tech start-up to go public on the New York Stock Exchange and reached a market capitalisation of over $1.5 billion just days after it listed last April. But the company has struggled to find its way, and its share price has tumbled some 90% from its peak a year ago. On Wednesday, its shares…

Wednesday, 13 May 2020 05:17

Forex scarcity drives manufacturers to the brink

Nigerian manufacturers are struggling to stay in business because a foreign-exchange shortage spawned by the collapse in oil prices means they can’t import raw materials. The industry’s difficulties are the latest signs of strain in Nigeria’s foreign-exchange regime. The central bank was forced to devalue the naira in March as income from crude sales that generate 90% of the West African nation’s export earnings dried up. Foreign investors looking to repatriate their funds have been asked to be patient. Members of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria have been unable to access hard currency for the past five weeks, the group said…

Wednesday, 13 May 2020 05:16

Investors lament losses caused by Wike’s closure of Rivers ports

Users of the Rivers and Onne Ports have raised the alarm over loss of their investments and perishable consignments as a result of the arrest of port workers by the state Covid-19 task force on the orders of Mr Nyesom Wike, the governor. The governor, who has imposed a 24-hour lockdown on Port Harcourt and Obi Akpor local government areas over the Covid-19 pandemic, refused to place port workers under essential duty. This is contrary to the guidelines of the presidential task force of Covid-19 which classified port operations as essential services. Federal government had said despite lockdown, ports should…

Tuesday, 12 May 2020 05:44

Lockdown damage: Manufacturers have unsold goods worth N420bn - Survey

Although the Covid-19 pandemic may have forced many Nigerians to buy locally produced goods on account of distortions in global economy and supply chain, weak consumer purchasing power and lockdown have affected sales and production, driving inventory of unsold goods to N420billion in the first quarter (Q1) of 2020. According to Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), there is a need for government to initiate policies that will strengthen the purchasing power of consumers to stimulate aggregate demand and deliberately support industries to reduce the production cost of manufactured products in the country. In its latest MAN CEOs Confidence Index (MCCI)…

Tuesday, 12 May 2020 05:43

Naira crashes further, exchanges for N445 to $1

Dollar exchanged for N445 in the parallel market on Monday due to scarcity and shrinking liquidity in the forex market. The extension of the ban placed on flights in the country by the Federal Government, as part of efforts to curtail the spread of coronavirus, further affected access to forex by bureau de change operators. President, Association of Bureax De Change Operators of Nigeria, Mr Aminu Gwadabe, said, “The extension of airport lockdown as well as sale of forex to BDCs pending when air travels resume has impacted the naira negatively from N425/$ to $445/$ in the parallel market. “However,…

Tuesday, 12 May 2020 05:34

Coronavirus will wipe out these three industries for good

Stephen McBride From No. 1… to BANKRUPT. In less than two years. My uncle used to be a chef in Australia’s top restaurant, Banc. The place was always packed. Regular customers included media mogul Rupert Murdoch and former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev. And it was run by top Irish chef Liam Tomlin. Lots of Banc’s customers were international businessfolk in town for work. And this was the place to go if you wanted to impress clients. But then disaster struck. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, air travel ground to a halt. Banc went from Australia’s most-exclusive restaurant, to…

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Monday, 11 May 2020 06:16

Covid-19 takes toll on banks as bad loans doubled in Q1, 2020

Reflecting the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic and devaluation of the Naira, financial performance, banks’ losses to bad loans shot up by 99 percent in first quarter of 2020 (Q1’2020), which caused profit growth rate to fall by 29 percent. Analysis of the financial results of nine out of top ten banks for the first quarter ending March 2020 showed 19.7 percent year-on-year, YoY, increase in profit before tax, PBT, to N263.51 billion in Q1’20 from N243.8 billion recorded in Q1’19. This increase, however, represents 7.9 percent decline in the profit growth rate when compared with the 27.6 percent, YoY…

Monday, 11 May 2020 06:15

Lockdown easing boosts equities market as investors gain N534bn

Investors raked N534 billion in the first week of post-lockdown trading as market sentiments surged on the backdrop of the low prices of equities as well as the inflows of budget facilities from the International Monetary Fund, IMF. As a result of this development, Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, market capitalization, which represents the total value of companies quoted on the exchange, surged by 4.5 percent to close Friday at N12.531 trillion from N11.997 trillion previous week. Consequently, NSE All Share Index, ASI, rose by 4.4 percent week-on-week, to close at 24,045.40 points from 3,021.01 points. Analysis of trading in the…

Monday, 11 May 2020 06:13

FG owns 20 airports, with 17 running at huge losses. Here are their ‘balance sheets’

At least 17 out of the 20 airports owned and managed by Federal Government have turned out to be unviable and have operated at a loss for three years. Except the trio of Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos; Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja; and Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA), Rivers State, none of the other airports has sufficient revenue to cover the cost of operations alone. Investigations showed that additional funding from high-traffic Lagos and Abuja airports’ excess revenue to the tune of N26.1 billion cushioned operational cost deficits incurred by the unviable airports in 2017, 2018 and…

Sunday, 10 May 2020 04:27

Nigeria’s four refineries produced no single drop of petrol, kerosene for 8 months - NNPC

No drop of petrol or kerosene was produced by any of the refineries under the management of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation for eight straight months. Latest figures released by NNPC on refined white products (petrol and kerosene) from local refineries showed that from June 2019 till January 2020, the facilities refined none of the identified finished products. It was further observed that the last time the refineries produced Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise called petrol, was in May last year. The same scenario also applied in the production of Dual Purpose Kerosene, often referred to as kerosene, as the last time…

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