Nigeria’s Q2 GDP, capital importation report… 7 business stories to track this week

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

INAUGURATION OF NEW MINISTERS

President Bola Tinubu will inaugurate his new cabinet on Monday, August 21 2023.

The ministers are expected to implement Tinubu’s key policies to stabilise the Nigerian economy.

The list, comprising 48 persons filling different offices, has the north-west with 10 ministers, while the north-east has six.

The north-central and south-west have eight and nine ministers respectively, while the south-east and south-south have five each.

NBS REPORT

The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is expected to release a report on selected food prices and transport fare watch for July 2023.

The bureau also intends to publish a report on Nigeria’s capital importation for the second quarter (Q2) of 2023.

In addition, the NBS will, on August 25, publish a report to show the country’s gross domestic product by output for (Q2) of the current year.

CBN INTRODUCES NEW FX POLICY, LIFTS BAN ON BDCS

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), last week, released fresh operational mechanisms for the sale of forex by Bureau De Change (BDCs) operators within the country. 

This is coming 25 months after Godwin Emefiele, the suspended CBN governor, announced the discontinuance of foreign exchange sales to that segment of the forex market.

According to the apex bank, “The spread on buying and selling by BDC operators shall be within an allowable limit of -2.5% to +2.5% of the Nigerian Foreign Exchange market window weighted average rate of the previous day”.

Since June, the CBN has introduced policies to strengthen the naira.

One of which is the unification of all segments of the FX market as part of efforts to engender transparency in the markets and boost investors’ confidence.

NNPC SECURES $3BN TO SUPPORT FG

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited has secured a $3 billion emergency crude repayment loan to support the naira and stabilise the foreign exchange market.

NNPC Limited secured the crude-for-cash funding from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.

Commenting on the development, Ajuri Ngelale, special adviser to President Bola Tinubu on media and publicity, said the new FX accretion is to enable NNPC to defray taxes and royalties in advance.

Ngelale said the funds would also provide the federal government with dollar liquidity to stabilise the naira via incremental releases based on the federal government’s needs.

INFLATION RATE CLIMBS TO 24% IN NIGERIA

The consumer price index (CPI), which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services, rose to 24.08 percent in July 2023 — up from 22.79 percent in the previous month.

The latest figure is the seventh consecutive rise in the country’s inflation rate this year and also the highest since 2005.

The NBS captured the nation’s inflationary trend in its CPI report for July 2023, released on Tuesday.

The report also said the food inflation rate in July 2023 hit 26.98 percent on a year-on-year basis.

X REMOVES BLOCKING FEATURE

Elon Musk, owner and chief executive officer of X (formerly known as Twitter), says users will no longer be able to block other accounts.

In a post shared via the platform on Friday, the billionaire businessman said the feature made “no sense” and will soon be unavailable for users.

He, however, said the block feature will remain for direct messages.

Musk said users can use the mute feature as an alternative for blocking.

“Block is going to be deleted as a ‘feature’, except for DMs,” Musk wrote.

FG HALTS PETROL PRICE HIKE

President Bola Tinubu has said there will be no more hikes in the price of petrol.

Ajuri Ngelale, special adviser to Tinubu on media and publicity announced this while speaking to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday last week.

The development followed the proposed strike by the National Labour Congress (NLC) over plans for the increment of the petrol pump price.