MPC meeting, Q3 GDP report… 7 top business news to track this week

Here are the seven top business news you need to track this week — November 21 to November 25.

CBN MPC MEETING 

The monetary policy committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will meet to decide on key lending rates as inflation continues to shrink wages and salaries. 

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

In September, the apex bank raised the MPR from 14 percent to 15.5 percent to tame rising inflation.

With Nigeria’s inflation rising to 21.09 percent in October 2022, up from 20.77 percent in the previous month, the CBN is expected to hike interest rates to tame the pressure of inflation on citizens.

VALIDATION PHASE OF FIRST CRUDE OIL DRILLING IN NORTHERN NIGERIA 

President Muhammadu Buhari will flag off the validation phase of the first integrated Oil Development project in northern Nigeria on Tuesday, November 22, 2022.

The event will hold at the Kolmani OPLs 809 and 810 exploration sites in a border community between Bauchi and Gombe states.

CBN HOSTS FINANCIAL INCLUSION CONFERENCE 

The National Financial Inclusion Steering Committee, headed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), will host the maiden International Financial Inclusion Conference (IFIC ’22) on November 24 and 25, 2022.

The two-day conference themed “financial inclusion for all: scaling innovative digital models” will hold in Abuja.

The event is the first since the country launched the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) in 2012. 

The event would examine the opportunities, identifying concrete solutions and interventions that would ensure the achievement of the nation’s financial inclusion objectives.

The theme for this conference is “Financial Inclusion for all scaling Innovative Digital Models”.

DIRECTORS’ CONFERENCE 

The annual directors’ conference would hold from November 24 to 25, 2022, in Lagos.

The two-day conference is a yearly forum where contemporary issues affecting leadership, ethics, and corporate governance are discussed, and professionals and practitioners provide global best practice solutions.

Expected speakers and attendees are captains of industry and directors in private and public sectors of the Nigerian economy.

THIRD QUARTER GDP REPORT

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is expected to release a report on the federation account allocation committee (FAAC) in October 2022.

The bureau will also release Nigeria’s gross domestic product by output report for the third quarter (Q3) of 2022.

MORE GRAIN SHIPMENT TO AFRICA

The United Nations has welcomed the agreement to extend the Black Sea grain deal to facilitate Ukraine’s agricultural exports from its southern ports.

Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the UN, said the continuation of grain export would eliminate major obstacles of the global food crisis.

Since the shipment of grain began in July, over 630,000 tonnes of grain and other types of food have been shipped from Ukraine’s ports, according to the UN.

The first African shipment with over 23,000 metric tonnes of wheat from the Ukrainian port left for Ethiopia in August 2022.

NIGERIA’S OIL OUTPUT TO INCREASE

Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo) says the 2022 Turnaround Maintenance (TAM) of the Bonga Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel has been completed.

With this development, Nigeria’s crude oil production is likely to improve 

The Bonga FPSO has a processing capacity of 225,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and a storage capacity of 2 million barrels of crude oil.