The Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria has said that currency speculators will lose huge funds as the Central Bank of Nigeria plans to resume dollar sales to over 5,000 Bureau De Change operators across major cities nationwide.

A report by ABCON stated that the naira was facing its greatest risk from the coronavirus pandemic as currency speculators continued to make spurious demand for dollar with hope to make good returns from the rising gaps between official and parallel market rates.

It noted that the CBN and ABCON had estimated losses of over N10bn for speculators in the next few months as the CBN prepared to commence forex sales to the BDCs.

The report said that it is especially true now that the local currency has come under intense pressure that is purely driven by speculative demand for the dollar.

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Nigeria may face petrol scarcity as oil workers threatens to withdraw their services nationwide should the Federal Government insist on registering employees in the oil sector on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers made the threat in a letter addressed to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva.

The unions kicked against plans by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to register oil workers on the IPPIS platform.

The unions said their apprehension about the IPPIS platform stemmed from the fact that it discountenanced the peculiarities of the oil and gas sector with regards to collective bargaining agreement and approved pay structure between the unions and the Federal Government.

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Brent crude jumped more than 2.5% to above $42.5 on Friday, its highest level since March 6th and heading for an over 9% gain in the latest week. Prices were boosted after Iraq and Kazakhstan committed to compensating oil overproduction in May at the latest OPEC+ meeting and have been rising as output was cut by around 10% of the global supply since May 1 while demand from European countries shows signs of recovery as economies lift lockdowns restrictions. On Thursday, oil for immediate delivery costs more than supply later for the first time since March, indicating tightening supply and encouraging storage to be drawn down.

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The UK's debt is now worth more than its economy after the government borrowed a record amount in May.

The £55.2bn figure was nine times higher than in May last year and the highest since records began in 1993.

The borrowing splurge sent government debt surging to £1.95 trillion, exceeding the size of the economy for the first time in more than 50 years.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the figures confirmed the severe impact the virus was having on public finances.

He said the best way to restore our public finances to a more sustainable footing is to safely reopen our economy so people can return to work.

He added that they have set out plans to do this in a gradual and safe fashion, including reopening high streets across the country this week, as they kickstart our economic recovery.

Income from tax, National Insurance and VAT all dived in May amid the coronavirus lockdown as spending on support measures soared.

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Colgate-Palmolive is reviewing Chinese toothpaste brand Darlie as firms reassess race stereotypes in products.

The popular Chinese brand features a caricature of a man with blackface make-up and the name translates as "black person toothpaste".

It is owned by Colgate and its joint venture partner Hawley & Hazel and sold widely across Asia.

A string of high-profile brands are also reviewing names and logos in light of the racism debate in the US.

The toothpaste brand was originally called Darkie before it was changed to Darlie in 1989, following pressure from shareholders and other groups. But the blackface logo remained.

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South Africa’s rand firmed against the U.S. dollar early on Friday, recovering from the previous session’s tumble as global risk sentiment was dented by fears of a second wave of coronavirus infections.

The rand was trading 0.3% up 17.4050 per dollar at 0700 GMT, having fallen more than 1% on Thursday.

South African-focused investors are now awaiting a supplementary budget pencilled in for June 24.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is expected to unveil a major shake-up in spending and revenue forecasts for the recession-hit economy when he tables the supplementary budget.

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Barrick Gold on Thursday said there is absolutely no truth in a news release circulated on social media in Zambia claiming the gold miner sold its Lumwana copper mine.

The fake press release, dated June 15, claimed Barrick had sold its Zambian copper mine to Metalinvest Capital Corporation and Zambia’s National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA) for $895 million in cash.

A Barrick spokeswoman told Reuters in a statement that they don’t know the person behind the action and they have alerted the relevant securities regulators and law enforcement authorities. 

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Two South African unions on Friday rejected job cuts proposed to rescue South African Airways, which has cost the government more than a billion dollars to stave off bankruptcy and will cost it about half that again to reform.

State-owned SAA went into a form of bankruptcy protection in December, and since then state-appointed administrators have been trying to see what they can salvage.

Unions had been in discussions with them and had previously accepted that some job cuts would be necessary.

The current plan, which would involve laying off about 90% of staff leaving just 1,000 jobs, will cost at least 10 billion rand ($573.9 million). That is on top of the 20 billion rand that has been spent just keeping the airline afloat in the past three years.

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The Ghana Stock Exchange has expelled Liberty Securities Limited and First Atlantic Brokerage Limited from the membership of the Exchange.

According to the GSE, its decision to expel the membership of Liberty Securities Limited and First Atlantic Brokerage Limited is in view of their violation of some market rules.

The two entities are barred from executing trades on the stock market, providing advisory services to clients on capital market issues and holding in place or in trust, clients’ accounts or their security holdings.

Both entities were found to be operating without an authorized dealing officer for more than three months, having a low liquid position and inactivity on the market due to the lack of an Authorised Dealing Officer to execute trades.

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The Ghana Revenue Authority, GRA, has reassured freight forwarders that technical challenges that have disrupted the Integrated Customs Management, ICUMS, will be addressed by the end of June.

The ICUMS, also known as UNIPASS, was rolled out on June 1, to take over the single window platform from GCNet and West Blue Consult at the Ports.

But the challenges of the new system have disrupted clearing activities at the Ports.

The Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Mr. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah while speaking at a press briefing, said even though the system is fraught with challenges, government has been able to rake in 490 million cedis in 17 days, which is more than half of the amount raised by the previous system in a month.

Mr. Owusu-Amoah explained that per the calculation, UNIPASS has done well if it has been able to mobilize 490 million cedis within 17 days.

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