Kenya’s central bank has ordered Absa Bank Kenya to stop foreign exchange dealing between April 9 and April 15 for failing to observe anti-money-laundering rules on some trades, the regulator said.

The central bank said it took action over some foreign exchange trades Absa Bank carried out in March, and said Absa also failed to satisfactorily make in the trades.

The bank said Absa would also be required by April 15 to have put in place stronger measures to make sure all documentation needed for foreign exchange transactions was available and followed the regulations.

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Power distribution companies on Wednesday announced that they were in support of the proposal by the National Assembly and the Federal Executive arm of government that Nigerians should get two months of free electricity.

The Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, the Discos stated that modalities for the free power would be worked on and made public in due course.

The Executive Director, ANED, Sunday Oduntan, disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday night said the electricity distribution companies recognise the challenging effects of the coronavirus on the economic and daily lives of our customers.

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Nigerian stocks on Wednesday sustained its positive outlook as the overall performance measures, NSE ASI and market capitalisation, rose further by 0.71 per cent each.

Market watchers attributed the development to renew of confidence as bargain hunters leverage undervalued stocks.

Consequently, the All-Share Index gained 148.07 basis points or 0.71 per cent to close at 21.073.26 as against 20.925.19 recorded the previous day.

The market capitalisation of equities appreciated by N77bn or 071 per cent to close at N10.982tn from N10.905tn as market sentiment remained in the green zone. Meanwhile, a turnover of 3646.4 million shares exchanged in 4,660 deals was recorded in the day’s trading.

Premium subsector was the most active (measured by turnover volume); with 149.3 million shares exchanged by investors in 2,328 deals.

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The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers has said any deregulation in the petroleum sector that is still dependent on importation of oil would affect the economy negatively.

The union’s General Secretary, Afolabi Olawale, said this in a telephone interview with our correspondent.

He said the position of the union had always been that the government should fix the refineries and they should be up and running before deregulation.

He said the position of the union has always been that deregulation should be on local production. By this we are saying that the refineries should be working before government can deregulate.

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World stocks turned negative on Wednesday as the coronavirus death toll mounted and euro zone finance minister failed to agree a rescue package to help economies recover from the impact of the outbreak.

After two sessions of gains, European equities fell amid renewed concern about the spread of the virus and the continent’s response to it.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index dipped 0.7%. London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.9%, as the country’s coronavirus death toll crossed 6,100. Germany’s DAX shed 0.8% after rallying more than 8% in the past two days, as the number of confirmed cases rose for a second straight day.

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Zoom Video Communications Inc is being sued by one of its shareholders accusing the video-conferencing app of overstating its privacy standards and failing to disclose that its service was not end-to-end encrypted.

Shareholder Michael Drieu claimed in a court filing that a string of recent media reports highlighting the privacy flaws in Zoom's application have led to the company's stock to plummet.

The company's shares closed down about 7.5% at $113.75 on Tuesday. Zoom has lost nearly a third of its market value since touching record highs in late-March.

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A total of 81 percent of the global workforce of 3.3 billion people have had their workplace fully or partly closed. This is according to the International Labour Organization, which says it has been looking at the global impact with a series of charts. Their work shows the global scale of the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. The ILO says nearly 200 million people could end up out of work. The outbreak is expected to wipe out 6.7 percent of working hours across the world during the second quarter of 2020. The worst-hit region is predicted to be the Arab states, with an 8.1 percent decline in working hours. The ILO says it is "the most severe crisis" since World War Two.

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The Ghana Union of Traders, GUTA, says it is looking forward to clarity from government on the modalities for the disbursement of the GHS600 million loan support scheme for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, SMEs.

President Akufo-Addo on Sunday Sunday, April 5, announced that the scheme, in collaboration with the National Board for Small Scale Industries, Business and Trade Associations and selected commercial and rural banks; will sustain affected industries and address the distraction in economic activities caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

GUTA President, Joseph Obeng, told Citi Business News the support will go a long way to help struggling GUTA members who have been badly hit by the pandemic.

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Kenya’s finance minister, Ukur Yatani, says the nation's economic growth will slow to 3 percent or less this year from an earlier forecast of 6.1 percent. In a television broadcast, Yatani said the drop is due to the effects of the novel coronavirus.

The finance minister adds that the government will give a firm figure after it takes on board the impact of the virus in a month's time.

Yatani said revenue collection was expected to also be affected. Kenya has 172 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, with six deaths.

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South Africa’s rand weakened early on Wednesday, ending a recent rally with risk sentiment souring as hopes that the coronavirus crisis in Europe and New York was slowing dimmed.

In early trade, the South African currency was 0.37 percent weaker at 18 rand, 38 cents, climbing down from Tuesday’s five-session peak.

Bonds also opened weaker, with the yield on the government issue due in 2030 adding 7.5 basis points to 11.03 percent.

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