Summary of Business News for 01 December 2022 highlights issues on scarcity and hike in price of fuel, NNPC zero revenue in Sept, stability of the Naira, rising inflation, and other news.
Fuel Scarcity: No planned price hike, says FG, queues spread
For the first time in weeks since the scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, began, the Federal Government opened up and declared on Wednesday that there was no plan to increase the pump price of petrol, at least during the Yuletide season.
However, the government’s comments came amid a worsening and persistent fuel scarcity, which spread further on Wednesday across the country.
Also, the cost of the commodity rose to as high as
N285/litre in some filling stations in Abuja (__PUNCH).
NNPCL flares 100% gas output, earns zero revenue in Sept
Despite the federal government’s gas monetization policy and pledge to the United Nations to attain net zero by 2060, state oil firm, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd flared 100 per cent of their gas output in September and earned no revenue from it during this period.
The NNPCL gas production and utilization data for September
2022, obtained by The PUNCH, described its subsidiary, Nigerian Petroleum
Development Company as one of the worst offenders in gas flaring in September,
as the firm and its Joint Venture partners, Seplat Petroleum Development
Company and NPDC-Chevron Nigeria, flared 100 per cent of their entire gas
output of 106 million standard cubic feet of gas and 7 million standard cubic
feet of gas, respectively (__PUNCH) .
CBN defends naira with $11.24bn in seven months
The Central Bank of Nigeria injected $11.24bn into the economy to stabilize the value of the naira from January 2022 to July. This was obtained in the banking regulator’s monthly economic reports on foreign exchange market developments.
The report showed that $7.6bn was used to stabilize the
naira in the first five months of the year. It stated, “Total foreign exchange
sales to authorized dealers by the Bank were $1.75bn in July, a decrease of
15.4 per cent relative to $2.07bn in June (__PUNCH).
Nigerians lose over N911b to Ponzi schemes, related fraud in 23 years
The Director of the Bank Examination Department, the Nigeria
Deposit Insurance Company (NDIC), Michael Oladele, has disclosed that no less
than N911.45 billion has been lost to various Ponzi schemes and related frauds
across the country in the last 23 years (___GUARDIAN).
Shrinking industrial sector growth raises concerns for inflation
Though the latest GDP growth numbers showed a dip to 2.25
per cent in the third quarter of 2022, from 3.54 per cent in the second
quarter, reflecting the diverse headwinds that have been bedeviling the
Nigerian economy, there are concerns that the overwhelming effect on the
manufacturing sector may linger, with implications for higher inflation (___GUARDIAN).
Increase in Reliance on Telecom, Sector Growth Bane of Legal Adjudication
Experts in the telecom and judicial sectors of the Nigerian
economy have traced the delays in adjudicating telecom matters to the
exponential increase in the reliance on telecom solutions, and the growth of
the sector, especially in the online space, insisting that the judiciary needs
broader knowledge of the sector, to enable speedy adjudication and justice in
all telecom matters (___THIS DAY).
Stocks rally, yields
and dollar fall as Powell signals slower hikes
Wall Street equities closed sharply higher on Wednesday
while U.S. Treasury yields declined and the dollar sank after Federal Reserve
Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank could slow the pace of interest rate
hikes "as soon as December," even as he cautioned that inflation was
still too high. While roughly in line with previous comments, Powell's words
were a relief for investors who had feared more hawkishness (___REUTERS).
Fed's Powell: Rate hikes to slow, but adjustment just beginning
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday said it was time to slow the pace of coming interest rate hikes while also signalling a protracted economic adjustment to a world where borrowing costs will remain high, inflation comes down slowly and the United States remains chronically short of workers (___REUTERS).
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