Dangote Refinery inauguration, MPC meeting… 7 business news to track this week

Here are the seven top business news you need to track this week — May 22 to May 26.

INAUGURATION OF DANGOTE REFINERY, NAVAL FLEET

President Muhammadu Buhari will inaugurate the Dangote Refinery, Africa’s biggest oil refinery, on Monday, May 22, 2023.

The facility is a 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) integrated refinery project located in the Lekki free trade zone area of Lagos state.

The project, which cost an estimated $19 billion to build, is expected to generate 9,500 direct, and 25,000 indirect jobs.

Last week, the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, said it was set to supply 300,000 barrels of crude oil to Dangote Refinery.

Meanwhile, Buhari will also induct new warships, gunboats and helicopters for the Nigerian navy, as part of the presidential fleet review, today.

CBN TO HOLD 291ST MPC MEETING

The monetary policy committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will meet to decide on key lending rates on May 22 and May 23, respectively.

The monetary policy rate (MPR) is the baseline interest rate in an economy, every other interest rate used within the economy is built on it.

At the last meeting in November, the apex bank raised the interest rate from 17.5 percent to 18.5 percent to tame rising inflation.

Last week, the consumer price index (CPI), which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services, rose to 22.22 percent in April 2023 — up from 22.04 percent in the previous month.

NBS REPORT

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is expected to release a report on Nigeria’s domestic and foreign debt for the first quarter (Q1) of 2023.

The bureau will also release a report on energy generated and sent out in Q1 the same quarter.

Also, the bureau will release data on Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) by output for Q1.

In addition, NBS will also release a report on company income tax, road transport and sectoral distribution of value-added tax for Q1 of 2023.

NERC DIRECTS DISCOS TO DISCONNECT DEFAULTING CONSUMERS

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has directed distribution companies (DisCos) to disconnect consumers who fail to pay their electricity bills for at least 12 days.

The directive was contained in the commission’s recently released ‘Customer Protection Regulations, 2023’.

NERC said a DisCo may disconnect supply to a customer’s premises when the client fails to pay the amount billed by the payment date specified on the bill or violates other terms and conditions agreed upon with the firm.

The commission outlined the conditions that must be fulfilled before DisCos can exercise their rights to disconnect customers for failure to pay their bills as and when due.

NEEC advised consumers to adhere to the guidelines to avoid sudden or unnotified power disconnection.

CBN TO PAY EXPORTERS N25/$ OF PRODUCTS SOLD

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), last week, said exporters of raw and unprocessed items will be paid a rebate of N25 for every dollar of non-oil export proceeds sold to third parties at the importers and exporters (I&E) window.

In a circular dated May 10, 2023, O.S. Nnaji, director of trade and exchange department, CBN, said the payment of the graduated rebate amount is expected to encourage exporters of primary products to enhance their capacity and eventually engage in value-added exports.

The move is part of the benefits under the non-oil export proceeds repatriation rebate scheme — a major anchor of the CBN’s RT200 FX programme, which is aimed at attracting $200 billion in foreign exchange earnings from non-oil export proceeds over the next three to five years.

‘NIGERIA MAY SPEND 100% REVENUE ON DEBT SERVICING’

KPMG says Nigeria’s debt service to revenue ratio may exceed 100 percent in 2023.

The professional services firm, in its latest ‘macroeconomic snapshot’, raised concerns over Nigeria’s risk of sliding into critical debt servicing problems unless urgent actions were explored to significantly raise revenue.

“With the federal government revenue to GDP ratio of 4.49 percent as of December 2022, Nigeria’s debt service to revenue ratio may surpass 100 percent in 2023, which will limit the fiscal space and the government’s ability to pay for its operations and functions, unless urgent measures are taken to build revenue,” KPMG Nigeria said.

NIGERIA TARGETS 30GW OF ELECTRICITY BY 2030

President Muhammadu Buhari, on Thursday, inaugurated some projects in the power sector in pursuit of his administration’s aim to ramp up electricity supply.

The projects include the Kashimbila multipurpose dam, 40 megawatts (MW) hydropower station and associated 132 kilovolts (KV) switchyard, transmission line and distribution substation (phase one).

The projects — inaugurated less than two weeks to the end of Buhari’s tenure — are located at the Kashimbila dam site in Taraba state.