N28trn 2024 budget, CAC penalty extension… 7 business stories to track this week 

Here are the seven top business stories you need to track this week — January 1 to January 5, 2024.

N28.7 TRILLION 2024 BUDGET

On December 30, 2023, the two arms of the national assembly passed the 2024 appropriation bill, increasing its size from N27.5 trillion proposed by President Bola Tinubu to N28.7 trillion.

The bill was passed for the third reading at the senate after Solomon Olamilekan, chairman of the senate committee on appropriation, presented a report for consideration.

The budget has N1.7 trillion as statutory transfers, N8.7 trillion as recurrent expenditure, and N9.9 trillion as capital expenditure.

Alongside the budget, President Bola Tinubu’s request for the securitisation of the outstanding N7.3 trillion ways and means debt balance was also approved.

FOREIGN CAPITAL INFLOW DECLINED TO $654 MILLION IN Q3 2023

Nigeria’s capital importation recorded a drop of 36.45 percent in the third quarter (Q3) of 2023, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The bureau said the total capital imported stood at $654.65 million, down from the $1.03 billion recorded in Q2 2023.

The NBS data for Q3 is the lowest capital importation into the country in over 10 years.

Capital importation is divided into three main investment types: foreign direct investment (FDI), foreign portfolio investment (FDI) and other investments — each comprising various sub-categories.

Meanwhile, 27 states did not attract foreign investment in nine months.

BLOOMBERG PREDICTS A GLOOMY OUTLOOK FOR THE NAIRA IN 2024

Bloomberg, a US-based media organisation, says the naira will decline to its worst performance in 2024.

According to the firm, the naira is poised for its worst year since the return to democracy in 1999, as analysts are predicting further depreciation of the local currency in 2024.

Bloomberg also said the naira fell 55 percent in 2023 to N1,043 per dollar at the official market on Thursday.

The decline, the company said, made the naira the third worst-performing currency in the world behind the Lebanese pound and the Argentine peso — among the 151 currencies it tracked.

CBN ASSURES NIGERIANS OF BANKS’ SAFETY

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on December 27, 2023, assured depositors of the safety of their funds in the country’s financial institutions.

Hakama Sidi-Ali, CBN’s director of corporate communications, on December 29 2023, encouraged citizens to continue their usual banking activities without succumbing to unverified rumours.

Sidi-Ali also said the financial regulator is fully equipped to carry out its statutory duty of upholding a stable financial system in Nigeria.

The apex bank spoke after the special investigation panel on the CBN and related entities asked the federal government to take over Titan Trust Bank and the Union Bank of Nigeria over illegalities.

FCCPC FINES BATN $110 MILLION FOR REGULATORY INFRACTIONS

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has fined the British American Tobacco Nigeria Limited (BATN) and other affiliated companies $110 million for “infractions” of several laws.

The commission said the affiliated companies are British American Tobacco Marketing (Nigeria) Limited (BATMN), British American Tobacco Plc, and British American Tobacco (Holdings) Limited.

The agency said the companies contravened the FCCPC Act, and the National Tobacco Control Act, among others.

However, the FCCPC did not mention the infractions linked to BATN and its affiliated companies.

GOOGLE SETTLES $5 BILLION LAWSUIT FOR PRIVACY VIOLATION

Google, a multinational technology firm, has agreed to pay $5 billion to settle a class action alleging that it violated users’ privacy.

The landmark case, filed in 2020, alleged that Google collected users’ data even when their browsers were set to “incognito” or “private” mode.

The lawsuit argued that the firm could not continue its “covert and unauthorised data collection” from users without their consent.

While Google maintained that it was upfront about the data it collected in private browsing modes, many users assumed their activity was truly private.

CAC EXTENDS PENALTY DEADLINE FOR FIRMS TO FILE ANNUAL RETURNS

The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) recently announced an extension of the deadline for applying penalties on companies who have failed to submit their annual returns, from January 1, 2024, to April 1, 2024.

The extension provides a three-month window for firms to file their annual returns with the commission.

The agency also said the deadline extension was due to glitches experienced on its portal.