July inflation report, CBN’s financial statement… 7 business stories to track this week

Here are the seven top business stories you need to track this week —  August 14 to August 18.

NBS REPORT

The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is expected to release a report on the consumer price index (CPI) for July 2023.

In June, the CPI, which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services, rose to 22.79 percent — up from 22.41 percent in the previous month.

Due to this surge, the monetary policy committee (MPC) increased the interest rate to 18.75 percent to tame inflation.

The bureau also intends to publish reports on liquefied petroleum gas (cooking gas) and kerosene price for the same month.

More so, the NBS said it would publish reports on petrol and diesel prices for July 2023.

CBN RELEASE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AMID INVESTIGATION 

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Thursday, released its audited financial statements for 2016-2022, amid an ongoing investigation of its operations.

The apex bank said the financial statements of the last seven years — posted on its website — had been approved by its board in accordance with the provisions of the CBN Act of 2007.

Checks by TheCable Index showed that the CBN recorded a profit of N65.63 billion in 2022 — more than double the figure it reported a year earlier (N31.04 billion).

‘FIRS BEST SUITED TO COLLECT REVENUE, NOT MDAs’

The newly inaugurated presidential committee on fiscal policy and tax reforms says the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and 62 other ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the federal government should not collect revenue directly.

Taiwo Oyedele, chairman of the committee, said the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) is best suited to collect revenue for the MDAs.

Oyedele, a former fiscal policy partner and Africa tax leader at PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), said Nigeria’s revenue collection from taxes is one of the lowest in the world but the cost of collection is high.

X PAYS VERIFIED INFLUENCERS MONTHLY ADVERT REVENUE

Social media giant, X (formerly known as Twitter), has begun its monthly advert revenue payment scheme for verified content creators.

The revenue disbursement commenced in the early hours of Tuesday last week.

TheCable observed that the hashtag ‘Twitter Blue’ trended at the top spot on X with over 489,000 posts, documenting receipts of the beneficiaries of the cash payout.

The development had come six months after Elon Musk, the owner of X, said revenue made from adverts will be shared only with creators whose posts receive adverts in their reply threads.

Musk had said only the content creators who are subscribers to Twitter Blue will benefit from the scheme.

NIGERIA’S INTERNET SUBSCRIBERS DROPPED BY 99,000

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says the country’s internet subscribers decreased to 159.49 million in June 2023, down from 159.59 million in the previous month.

The commission said this in a recent update on industry statistics published on its website.

Out of the total figure, mobile (GSM) accounted for 158.94 million subscribers, while fixed wire and VoIP shared the remaining number of users.

By implication, this means that the country’s internet subscribers reduced by 99,625 or 0.06 percent within a one-month period.

NAIRA TUMBLES TO ALMOST N1000 AT PARALLEL MARKET

The naira fell to an all-time low of N950 to a single dollar at the parallel market last Thursday afternoon.

The figure represents a N53 or 5.9 percent depreciation compared to N897 it traded on August 7, 2023.

Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators in Lagos who spoke to TheCable said there is high demand for foreign currency in the street market.

The street traders, popularly known as ‘abokis’ put the buying price of the dollar at N935 and the selling price at N950, leaving a profit margin of N15.

OPEC: NIGERIA’S OIL PRODUCTION DECLINED  TO 1.08m BPD IN JULY

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), last week, said Nigeria’s oil production declined in July 2023, making the country the third largest oil producer in Africa.

In its latest monthly report for August, the global oil cartel said Nigeria’s oil production decreased to 1.081 million barrels per day (bpd) in July 2023.

In the same month, Libya produced 1.173 million bpd, Angola produced 1.149 million bpd, and Algeria produced 955,000 barrels bpd, respectively.

According to the report, in June 2023, Nigeria’s oil output, which stood at 1.249 million bpd, surpassed Libya and Angola — making it Africa’s largest producer.