MPC meeting, Buhari’s Lagos visit… 7 top business stories to track this week

Here are the seven top business news you need to track this week — January 23 to January 27.

CBN TO HOLD MPC MEETING

The monetary policy committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will meet to decide on key lending rates on January 23 and January 24, 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 15.1 percent to 16.5 percent to tame rising inflation.

Last week, the consumer price index (CPI), which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services, eased to 21.34 percent in December 2022, down from 21.47 percent in the previous month.

BUHARI TO INAUGURATE PROJECTS IN LAGOS 

President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to be in Lagos on a two-day working visit to inaugurate projects in the state.

The event will take place on January 23 and January 24, 2023.

In respect to this, the state government said traffic will be diverted on the Island during  the Buhari’s visit.

The projects to be inaugurate include the Lekki deep sea port, the blue line rail project (first phase), 32-metric tons Lagos Rice Mill, Imota, and 18.75km Eleko to Epe T-Junction express road.

Others are the John Randle centre for Yoruba culture and history and the groundbreaking for the blue line rail phase 2 (Mile 2 to Okokomaiko).

NBS’S FOOD, TRANSPORT REPORTS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is expected to release a report on selected food prices and transport fare watch for December 2022.

The bureau will also release a report on Nigerian capital importation for the third quarter (Q3) of 2022.

It also intends to release road transport data for the third quarter (Q3) of 2022.

NEW NAIRA CASH SWAP AS DEADLINE DRAWS NEAR

CBN will begin a cash swap programme in partnership with super agents and deposit money banks (DMBs) Monday, January 23, 2023.

It says the initiative is aimed at enabling citizens in rural areas or those with limited access to formal financial services to exchange old naira notes for redesigned notes.

In view of the deadline fixed for the demonetisation , the CBN had said commercial banks that fail to pick up the new naira notes for distribution will be fined N1 million daily.

The old notes are expected to be out of circulation by January 31.

NPC FIXES DATES FOR NATIONAL CENSUS

The National Population Commission (NPC) has fixed dates for the census exercise in the country.

The commission which announced this on Friday said the exercise will be carried out from March 29 till April 2, 2023.

This is its first national census in 17 years.

NGF APPOINTS SIX-MAN COMMITTEE ON NEW NAIRA NOTES

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has set up a six-member committee to engage the CBN to address anomalies in the country’s monetary management and financial system.

The committee is also to manage the discourse on the issuance of new naira notes.

Aminu Tambuwal, interim chairman of NGF and governor of Sokoto, in a communique issued on Saturday, said the forum received a briefing from Godwin Emefiele, governor of CBN, on the naira redesign policy, its economic and security implications.

The forum, however, said it was not opposed to the naira redesign policy.

PETROL VOLUME LIFTED BY OIL MARKETERS DROPPED BY 40%

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) said the volume of petrol supplied to marketers by private depots has dropped by about 40 percent.

In December 2022, the NNPC said it had 1.9 billion litres of petrol in stock, assuring Nigerians of steady supply to quell the lingering scarcity across the country.

But according to Zarma Mustapha, IPMAN deputy president, depot prices have increased, and marketers are finding it difficult to get.

Mustapha also said NNPC is responsible for the importation of petroleum products and distribution to private depots, adding that independent marketers do not have depots.

Nearly two weeks ago, oil marketers projected that the current scarcity would linger till June, when the government plans to scrap petrol subsidy payments.