News Express

The global surge in food prices is taking a toll on emerging and developing economies and Nigerians now deploy over 56 per cent of their total spending on food as food inflation in the country heads to 18 per cent after printing 17.20 per cent year on year in March 2022, current figures from the National Bureau of Statistics shows.
Average commodity prices in Nigeria rose by almost 127 per cent between 2020 and 2022 depicting the reality on the ground with consumers still getting stretched, squeezed and embattled at a time official inflation is at 15.92 per cent, rising for the third consecutive month in 2022.
The purchasing power of Nigerians remains eroded by the continued onslaught on the naira, a pressure that is trading at about N600 to the dollar in the parallel market.
The continuing face-off between Ukraine and Russia finally registering in the country, continues to mount pressure on commodity prices domestically

Nigeria’s debt service cost is putting severe pressures on the purse carrying its revenue, which continues to dwindle.
This is happening at a time when many indices show an economy that is worse for wear, with external reserves below $40 billion, the Naira weakening daily against the United States dollar, both at the parallel and the investors and exporters’ segments of the FX market, an inability to benefit from a rally in the crude oil price to above $100 per barrel, and the country’s daily oil production has dropped drastically.
With over $3 billion lost to oil theft alone in 2021, the country has been kept on a fiscal cliff. Nigeria’s spending problem is now becoming the new song in the mouths of many, including Nigerians and analysts, as they see the looming and about to be triggered macroeconomic instability in Nigeria, “If the trend of continued rising debts costs without a corresponding revenue increase remains longer

The pictures that have been coming out of the Nigerian economy and its investment climate in the last two weeks have left many local and international analysts worried about what they consider to be the deepening of the uncertainties that have surrounded Africa’s largest economy by gross domestic product and market size, as well as by population numbers, for nearly a decade.
Caught up in the current global economic misalignments as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war in Europe, Nigeria’s own domestic economic misalignments are continuously being exposed, say analysts.
It appears to be follow-through from a 2014-2015 dip in oil prices that ushered in, not one, but two recessions in the lifetime of the present government headed by President Muhammadu Buhari, a former maximum military ruler.

When the crisis finally settles, if indeed, it does, between Russia and Ukraine, analysts say there would be a lot of rebalancing to follow, in Europe and then globally. That rebalancing is already on somewhat.
The world has been rudely awakened in just a little over a month to the realisation that it is dependent on the Russian-Ukrainian axis for so many things. Europe’s wholesome dependence on Russia for its energy needs and, overall, the huge influence both countries have on global commodities markets has led many to question why it now looks like nobody saw any potential danger in it.
Now, for the first time, Business A.M. learned from sources in London, it is beginning to emerge that, concerning gas supply, a push is on to establish more supply sources that would ensure that Western European countries do not have to go through this kind of dependency crisis again.

Well over 48 hours after the Court of Appeal, Owerri Division ordered global oil
giant, Shell, along with its Nigerian alter ego, Shell PetroleuOim Development Company, to deposit with the court a judgement debt of N800 billion awarded in 2020 for oil spill and environment spoilage, and failing to carry out the order of the court, lawyers to the judgement creditors have returned to the court with a Form 48 notice on the consequence of disobedience of court order.
The notice seen by Business A.M. was registered at the Court of Appeal, Owerri Division on 17th March and the lawyers to the Egbalor Community in Rivers State, noted that it was brought in pursuant to Section 72 Sheriffs and Civil Process Act & Order IX Rules 13(1) & (2) Judgement Enforcement Rules and it is made out to Jan Van Bunnik, Finance Director, Shell Nigeria, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria

Away from pandemic induced effects and the pressures from Covid-19, the lingering Russia-Ukrainian watershed, yet to exert an immediate impact on Nigeria’s economy, is likely to have significant effects in the coming weeks and months as the conflict continues to worsen global supply disruptions, pushing prices of commodities higher than expected.
Even worse, Nigeria continues to be buffeted by currency pressures on the Naira, which has fallen to around N600 to the dollar at the parallel market despite the rise in crude oil prices to above $130 per barrel.

In what looks like they are out of their depth, Nigerian policy hunches, particularly on the fiscal side of the equation. have been caught off guard as international crude oil prices continue to rally while the country’s external reserves take a tumble.
A number of analysts say it the short view approach to policy cooking, as well as its eating, take that for implementation, where the long view that accommodates the interests of generations yet unborn is ignored for the here and now approach, often leaving the government and its policy eggheads railroaded, and unable to act meaningfully.

Crude oil revenue, The Nigerian government’s major source of revenue and foreign exchange earnings, appear to be facing serious underlying setbacks despite a positive rally in global oil prices to $100 per barrel, and well ahead of the 2022 federal government’s budget benchmark of $62 per barrel.
With the naira still exchanging at the rate of N410.50 to the dollar, the government’s fiscal managers are failing to help the country take advantage of the global oil play even as it grapples with ramping up production to expected capacity owing to continuous operational challenges being faced in the oil sector

Governor Godwin Emefiele, Central Bank of Nigeria honcho, simply gave it away as, perhaps, one of his many adventures in the fiscal policy space, when he announced another leg in the dogged pursuit of his chosen role as a ‘development’ central banker, the RT200 FX Programme, designed to see Nigeria accrete $200 billion within three to five years from non-oil exports

A total of $506 Million was generated as investment banking fees across sub-Saharan Africa in 2021, A report on investment banking performance by Refinitiv Deals Intelligence, a subsidiary of the LSEG’s (London Stock Exchange Group) Data & Analytics division, has revealed.
The just over half a billion dollars generated last year was still 8% down on the figure
recorded for 2020 and is the lowest generated as annual total fees since 2014, the Refinitiv Deals report shows.
Out of the $506 million fees raked in, the report showed that governments and their agencies accounted for 20%, those in the financial sector paid the largest (25%).
Also, the energy and power sector, technology, materials and other sectors generated 12%, 10%, 10%, and 23% respectively, Refinitiv, one of the world’s largest providers of financial markets data and infrastructure revealed.