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COVID-19: World Bank foresees Sub-Sahara Africa’s 1st recession in 25 years
The World Bank Group says Coronavirus (COVID-19), is taking Sub-Saharan Africa towards its first recession in 25 Years.
The bank stated this in a statement released on Thursday.
It explained that growth in Sub-Saharan Africa had been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, and was predicted to fall sharply from 2.4 per cent in 2019 to -2.1 to -5.1 per cent in 2020.
The bank stated that it based its forecast on the latest Africa’s Pulse, the World Bank’s twice-yearly economic update for the region.
The statement quoted Hafez Ghanem, World Bank Vice President for Africa as saying “the COVID-19 pandemic is testing the limits of societies and economies across the world, and African countries are likely to be hit particularly hard.
“We are rallying all possible resources to help countries meet people’s immediate health and survival needs, while also safeguarding livelihoods and jobs in the longer term.
“This includes calling for a standstill on official bilateral debt service payments, which would free up funds for strengthening health systems to deal with COVID 19 and save lives.
“Social safety nets to save livelihoods and help workers who lose jobs, support to small and medium enterprises, and food security.”
According to Ghanem, the Pulse authors recommend that African policymakers should focus on saving lives and protecting livelihoods by strengthening the health systems and taking quick actions to minimise disruptions in food supply chains.
The bank noted that the authors also recommended implementing social protection programmes, including cash transfers, food distribution and fee waivers, to support citizens, especially those working in the informal sector.
The analysis shows that COVID-19 will cost the region between 37 billion dollars and 79 billion dollars in output losses for 2020 due to a combination of effects.
“They include trade and value chain disruption, which impacts commodity exporters and countries with strong value chain participation; reduced foreign financial flows from remittances, tourism and foreign direct investment,” it stated.
It further listed others as foreign aid, combined with capital flight; and through direct impacts on health systems, and disruptions caused by containment measures and the public response.
“While most countries in the region have been affected in different degrees by the pandemic, real gross domestic product growth is projected to fall sharply, particularly in the region’s three largest economies like Nigeria, Angola, and South Africa, as a result of persistently weak growth and investment.
“In general, oil exporting-countries will also be hard-hit; while growth is also expected to weaken substantially in the two fastest growing areas, the West African Economic and Monetary Union and the East African Community, due to weak external demand, disruptions to supply chains and domestic production.
“The region’s tourism sector is expected to contract sharply due to severe disruption to travel.
“The COVID-19 crisis also has the potential to spark a food security crisis in Africa, with agricultural production potentially contracting between 2.6 per cent in an optimistic scenario, and up to seven per cent if there are trade blockages.
“Food imports would decline substantially as much as 25 per cent, or as little as 13 per cent due to a combination of higher transaction costs and reduced domestic demand” the bank explained. (NAN)
April 10, 2020
IMF board to meet on Nigeria’s $3.4bn loan request
The International Monetary Fund executive board would soon meet over a fresh $3.4bn loan request from Nigeria.
In a statement issued acknowledging the request, IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, said the lender is working hard to respond to this request so that a proposal can be considered by the IMF’s executive board.
The Federal Government is banking on the IMF credit and similar loan requests from the World Bank and the African Development Bank to cushion the effects of the pandemic on the economy.
Nigeria’s economy is being threatened by the twin shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated sharp fall in international oil prices.
April 9, 2020
NSE: Market capitalisation rises N77bn, amid renewed interest in blue chips
The Nigerian equities market maintined upward trend on Wednesday with the market capitalisation growing further by N77 billion following renewed interest in high capitalised stocks.
The market capitalisation which opened at N10.905 trillion rose by N77 billion or 0.71 per cent to close at N10.982 trillion.
Similarly, the All-Share Index increased by 148.07 points, representing a growth of 0.71 per cent to close at 21,073.26, against 20,925.19 on Tuesday.
The uptrend was impacted by gains recorded in large and medium capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Lafarge Africa, Dangote Sugar Refinery, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Flour Mills and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI).
Analysts at Afrinvest Limited said, “We do not expect to see a sustained bullish run, although investors have continued to seek bargain hunting opportunities.”
Market breadth closed positive with 25 gainers in contrast with eight losers.
ETI and Ikeja Hotel led the gainers’ chart in percentage terms with 10 per cent each, to close at N4.40 and 99k per share, respectively.
Wema Bank followed with a gain of 9.80 per cent to close at 56k per share.
Lafarge Africa rose by 9.77 per cent to close at N11.80, while Dangote Sugar Refinery appreciated by 9.55 per cent to close at N9.75 per share.
On the other hand, Union Diagnostics and Skyway Aviation Handling Company led the losers’ chart in percentage terms by 10 per cent each, to close at 27k and N2.16 per share, respectively.
Ardova followed with a decline of 9.64 per cent to close at N11.25 per share.
GlaxoSmithKline lost 9.38 per cent to close at N4.35, while Courteville Business Solutions shed 9.09 per cent to close at 20k per share.
In spite of the rise in market indices, the total volume of shares traded declined by 76.02 per cent, with an exchange of 346.41 million shares worth N5.22 billion traded in 4,660 deals.
This was in contrast with 1.44 billion shares valued at N5.57 billion exchanged in 4,647 deals on Tuesday.
Transactions in the shares of Guaranty Trust Bank topped the activity chart with 102.24 million shares valued at N1.4 billion.
FBN Holdings followed with 64.707 million shares worth N289.32 million, while Zenith Bank traded 30.294 million shares valued at N395.41 million.
Lafarge Africa sold 27.92 million shares worth N329.43 million, while Fidelity Bank transacted 24.93 million shares valued at N51.07 million. (NAN)
April 9, 2020
COVID-19: Nasarawa residents decry hike in prices of food items
Some residents of Nasarawa State have decried the spike in the prices of food items in the market over partial lockdown in the state in order to curtail the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country.
Some of the residents told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in separate interviews on Thursday in Keffi that the increase in the prices of goods have created more hardship to them.
They called on traders not to take advantage of the partial lockdown in the state to increase the prices of commodities in order to cushion the effect of the lockdown.
Mrs Litini Luka, a resident of Keffi, said: “It is unfortunate that in Nigeria, people take advantage of some situations to cause hardship on the people.
“Just because of partial lockdown and directive by the government that people should stay at home over Coronavirus, traders took the advantage by increasing the prices of goods in the market.
“Before COVID-19 directive by govrnment, a measure of local rice which is previously sold at between N300 and N350 is now sold about N450 and a measure of maize which previously sold at N120 to N130 is now sold between N160 and N170, while a bag of maize is now sold at N16,000 to N17,000 instead of N12,000 per bag.
“A measure of Garri which was previously sold at N120 is now sold at N200 per measure.
“You can see, we are facing the hardship created by Coronavirus and traders again are creating more hardship to us by increasing the prices of goods in the market; it is unfortunate,” she said.
She called on the government to regulate the prices of food items in the market in order to improve on the living standard of the people and for the overall development of the country.
Another resident, Mallam Abubakar Isah, called on the traders to have the fear of God in their trade.
“Just imagine the prices of maize, rice, garri and beans, among others, had gone up. A measure of beans previously sold at N170 is now sold between N200 and N250 per measure; where are we going?
“I want to use this medium to plead with traders to consider what Nigerians are going through at the moment, ” he said
Mr Thomas Bulus lamented over unnecessary hike in the prices of goods in the market and called on government to regulate their prices.
“The present situation in the country is uncalled for as the prices of almost all commodities have increased in the market. There is need for the Federal Government to checkmate as well as regulate the prices of goods in the market,” he said.
Mrs Hauwa Isah also expressed dismay over the soaring prices of goods in the market.
“We are facing COVID-19 problem and traders are taking advantage of lockdown directive which is not good at all. It is adding more hardship to people,” she said.
However, most of the traders interviewed attributed the increase in the prices of commodities to transportation and scarcity of the products because of the restriction in movement order. (NAN)
April 9, 2020
COVID-19: SON deploys 29 free int’l standards on essential products
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has deployed 29 relevant international standards to support the manufacturing and importation of essential materials to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
Mr Osita Aboloma, SON Director-General, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja.
Aboloma said that the standards were deployed to meet emergency needs occasioned by COVID-19 globally while the process for the adoption would continue unhindered in spite of the lockdown.
He said that the deployment of 28 standards was through the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), while one was from the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO) on alcohol based hand sanitisers.
“The standards, which are being provided at no cost to local manufacturers, are being made available to the National Committee on Sustainable Production and Delivery of Essential Commodities during the pandemic of which SON is a member.
“This is to guide local manufacturers as well as to provide a benchmark for adjudging all imported products in the category during the pandemic.’’
He said that SON had received free, unlimited usage of the ISO web conferencing system (zoom) for national standards development work only.
“With this offer, Nigeria, as an eligible member will be assigned a zoom account for developing countries, which we can share with our Technical Committee (TC) members and experts, creating the equivalent of a `virtual conference room’ at the national level.
“Nigeria’s TC meetings could continue largely, while its stakeholders and experts keep safe in this time of bans on gatherings and travels,’’ he said.
Aboloma told TC members nationwide to expect invitations from the secretariat for participation in the consideration and adoption of several international standards from ISO resources, to support global efforts in dealing with the pandemic.
He listed some of the international standards compiled by ISO to support global efforts in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis as follows:
“ISO 374-5:2016 Protective gloves against dangerous chemicals and micro-organisms – Part 5: Terminology and performance requirements for micro-organisms risk.
“ISO 10651-3:1997 Lung ventilators for medical use – Part 3: Particular requirements for emergency and transport ventilators.
“ISO 10651-5:2006 Lung ventilators for medical use – Particular requirements for basic safety and essential performance – Part 5: Gas-powered emergency resuscitators.
“ISO 13688:2013 Protective clothing – General requirements.
“ISO 17510:2015 Medical devices – Sleep apnoea breathing therapy – Masks and application accessories.
“ISO 19223:2019 Lung ventilators and related equipment -Vocabulary and semantics.
“ISO 22301:2019 Security and resilience – Business continuity management systems – Requirements.
“ISO 5356-1:2015 Anaesthetic and respiratory equipment – Conical connectors – Part 1: Cones and sockets.
“ISO 80601-2-12: 2020 Medical electrical equipment – Part 2-12: Particular requirements for basic safety and essential performance of critical care ventilators.
“ISO 80601-2-80: 2018 Medical electrical equipment – Part 2-80: Particular requirements for basic safety and essential performance of ventilatory support equipment for ventilatory insufficiency.’’
Aboloma said that the TC would also consider the adoption of a French National Standard “AFNOR SPEC S76-001 Barrier Masks – Guide to minimum requirements, methods of testing, making and use.’’
This, he said, would provide necessary quality guidance for mass production of face masks in the country, especially by Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). (NAN)
April 8, 2020
Zenith Bank deploys automated voice banking service to ease transactions
Zenith International Bank Plc has introduced an automated voice banking service, an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) solution to enable customers perform basic banking transactions.
Mr Ebenezer Onyeagwu, the bank’s Group Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, said on Wednesday in Lagos that the IVR solution was launched to ensure convenient service to customers.
Onyeagwu said the IVR solution would enable customers perform basic banking transactions by dialing a dedicated phone line through their registered phone numbers and following the prompts.
“By simply dialing +234 (1) 278 7000 from the phone number linked to their accounts and following the prompts, customers can pay DSTV/GOTV bills, restrict their accounts or block their cards, request account statement via email, view the last five transactions, transfer funds, buy airtime, among others.
“Zenith automated voice banking service is designed to ensure a truly amazing experience that will offer convenience for our teeming customers,” Onyeagwu said in a statement.
He added that the self-service product offered quick response to customers in addition to security entrenched by the multilayer authentication mechanism.
Onyeagwu urged the bank’s customers to take advantage of this unique service, particularly at this critical time when the physical interface with the Bank had been greatly impacted due to COVID-19 pandemic.
“Zenith Bank has clearly distinguished itself in the Nigerian financial services industry through superior service quality, unique customer experience and sound financial indices.
“The bank remains a clear leader in the digital space with several firsts in the deployment of innovative products, solutions and alternative channels that ensure convenience, speed and safety of transactions,” he added.
According to him, the bank’s commitment to world-class service standards has led to several product innovations over the last couple of months.
“As a testament to its excellent performance, commitment to best-in-class service and recognition as one of the most innovative financial institutions in Nigeria, Zenith Bank was ranked as the Best Digital Bank in Nigeria 2019 by Agusto and Co.
“The bank was also voted as the Best Commercial Bank in Nigeria 2019 by the World Finance and emerged as Bank of the Year and Best Bank in Retail Banking at the 2019 BusinessDay Banks and Other Financial Institutions (BOFI) Awards,” he said. (NAN)
April 8, 2020
COVID-19: Lagos markets record drop in prices of perishables food items
One week after the restriction of movement in a bid to curtail the spread of COVID-19, prices of perishable food appears to be plummeting.
This is according to a survey conducted by NAN in no fewer than ten markets including Mile 12, and Oyingbo, on Tuesday.
NAN reports that a 40 kilogramme (kg) basket of tomato, which sold for N12, 000 immediately the lockdown was announced had dropped to N8, 000.
Similarly, a 50kg basket of bell pepper (Tatashe) dropped from N10, 000 to N7, 000.
The survey also showed that a 50kg Chilli pepper (Shombo) has now been pegged at N8, 000 instead of its former price of N10, 000.
Also, the price of a jute bag of scotch bonnet pepper was equally affected as it dropped from N9, 000 to N7, 000.
Mr Femi Odusanya, Spokesperson, Mile 12 Market Traders Association, attributed the situation to fear of depreciation of life of the items, adding that supply was now greater than demand due to the lockdown.
“ Citizens are observing the movement restrictions as ordered by the government and this has also led to traffic in our markets,’’ he said.
Odusanya explained that the prices of most perishable items had soared immediately the lockdown was announced due to increase in demand.
He also said the time frame allotted for markets across Lagos might have been too short to stimulate greater demands for perishable food items, adding paucity of fund was also responsible for the downward slide of the demand graph.
Odunsanya, therefore, urged the government to intervene by providing farmers and dealers of such items with some palliatives to cushion the effect of the losses.
Malam Mauzu, a dealer of perishable food items in Oyingbo market confirmed the situation, saying that the high cost of transportation had increased the burden.
“I would usually leave home as early as 4am and pay triple to transport my produce to get to the market only to sell them at very ridiculous prices,’’ he said.
However, there seem to be exponential increases in prices of bags of sachet water, tomato paste and other food items like garri, yam flour and the likes.
Mrs Funmilayo Makinde, a water retailer, said a bag of pure water which sold for N80 had increased to N150 at the last chain.
She said retailers had before the shutdown bought the product at N80 and resold at N100.
She attributed the increase to scarcity and increase in cost of getting nylons for packaging.
Also, a carton of sachet tomato paste which sold for N2, 250 had soared to N3, 400.
“No enough supplies of these items due to the restrictions and many stores are hoarding what they have and increasing the prices,” she said.
The sharp drop in prices of perishable food items may not be unconnected with the neighbourhood markets constructed by the Lagos State Government to ameliorate the suffering of residents during the lockdown.
However, the reported increases of prices of some other manufactured food items could simply be linked to interplay between high demands and hoarding which allowed prices to be determined by negative market forces. (NAN)
April 7, 2020
COVID-19: CBN cautions Nigerians on activities of cyber criminals
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has cautioned Nigerians on activities of cyber criminals taking advantage of the current COVID-19 pandemic to defraud citizens.
The CBN gave the warning in a statement signed by the Bank’s Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr Isaac Okorafor in Abuja on Monday.
Okorafor explained that the criminals steal sensitive information or gain unauthorized access to computers or mobile devices using various techniques.
He said this trend was not peculiar to Nigeria as there had been a rise in COVID-19-related cyber criminal activities all over the world.
According to him, the CBN priority is to ensure that Nigerian banking customers are aware of the ongoing trend, to prevent them from falling victims to such cyber crimes.
He stated that the criminals had also produced COVID-19 maps to steal information in the background.
Okorafor urged citizens to be wary of these antics and not to fall victims to these cyber crimes.
He said while Nigerians work to keep safe physically and prevent further spread of the virus, they must also endeavour to apply caution in order to beat not just the COVID-19 virus but also the cyber criminals seeking to take advantage of its spread for nefarious acts.
He stated that one of the cyber crime activities was phishing campaigns where the criminals sent out emails claiming to be from health organisations such as Nigerian Centre for Disease Control or the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The director said that the email might contain a link which if clicked, steals login credentials or other confidential information from the victim’s computer or mobile device.
Okorafor disclosed that other means were on relief package where cyber criminals had also been sending messages via social media or emails asking people to click on links to register in order to get their relief packages from government or other organisations.
He said that the criminals would simply use this to get confidential information from unwary victims.
According to him, the relief package scams also come in the form of phone calls asking people to provide their banking details to receive relief packages.
He stated that CBN would continue to monitor and investigate these activities and provide updates as they occur. (NAN)
April 6, 2020
NSE: Investors lose N222bn in 6 hours
Activities opened on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the week on a bearish posture with the market capitalisation losing N222 billion in about six hours of tradimg.
Specifically, the market capitalisation which opened for the week on Monday at N10.993 trillion shed N222 billion or 2.02 per cent to close at N10.771 trillion.
In the same vein, the All-Share Index dipped 425.24 points or 2.02 per cent to close at 20,669.38 compared with 21,094.62 achieved on Friday.
The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Seplat, Dangote Cement, BUA Cement, BOC Gases Nigeria and Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO).
This week, analysts at United Capital Plc expected sentiment for stocks to remain broadly tepid, with renewed interests anticipated on select blue-chip stocks, as discerning investors continue to take advantage of the current market valuation.
Cutix, Learn Africa and NAHCO led the losers’ chart in percentage terms dropping by 10 per cent each, to close at N1.26, 90k and N2.34, per share, respectively.
Seplat followed with a decline of 9.99 per cent to close at N490.10, while BUA Cement lost 9.92 per cent to close at N31.80 per share.
BOC Gases depreciated by 9.88 per cent to close at N3.65 and Academy Press declined by 8.82 per cent to close at 31k, per share.
On the other hand, Access Bank topped the gainers’ table in percentage terms, improving by9.92 per cent, to close at N6.65 per share.
AIICO Insurance followed with a gain of 9.59 per cent to close at 80k, while Lafarge Africa appreciated by 9.50 per cent to close at N9.80 per share.
Wema Bank grew by 8.51 per cent to close at 51k, while Fidelity Bank rose by 8.28 per cent to close at N1.83 per share.
The total volume of traded increased by 42.98 per cent as investors bought and sold 336.43 million shares valued at N4.13 billion exchanged in 4,184 deals.
This was in contrast with 235.29 million shares worth N2.98 billion traded in 3,988 deals on Friday.
Transactions in the shares of FBN Holdings topped the activity chart with 98.62 million shares valued at N393.42 million.
Guaranty Trust Bank followed with 55.66 million shares worth N1.003 billion, while Zenith Bank traded 32.53 million shares valued at N392.77 million.
FCMB Group sold 27.15 million shares worth N40.63 million, while Fidelity Bank sold 23.61 million shares valued at N41.75 million. (NAN)
April 6, 2020
COVID-19: Nigeria seeks $3.4 billion loan from IMF
Nigeria has applied to the International Monetary Fund for a rapid credit loan of 3.4 billion US dollars as part of measures to cushion the effect of COVID-19 in the country.
The Minister of Finance and Chairman, Special Ministerial Task Force on COVID-19, Zainab Ahmed, stated this at a news conference in Abuja.
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The loan is one of the measures being taken by the government to shore up the economy from the ravaging pandemic, especially with the steady fall in the price of crude in the international market.
Mrs. Ahmed says the loan being sought from thr IMF is a pre-determined fund with no conditions attached.
She says the requested loan is Nigeria’s contribution to the IMF so far.
She says 150 million dollars will also be withdrawn from the Stabilization Fund to support dwindling monthly allocations to federal and state governments.
The country is also expecting interventions from the World Bank and the Africa Development Bank as part of measures to take the pain of lockdown off the people.
About 150 trucks of foreign rice seized by the Nigeria Customs Service will also be shared for the downtrodden to ease their burden.
April 6, 2020