Survival fund

Excitment as FG credits Nigerian man under Survival Fund program.

by with No Comment financeNews

A young man identified as Kunle O is one of the beneficiaries of the FG’s MSME Survival Fund programme- Kunle O shared a screenshot of a credit alert he got from the Bank of Industry –

READ ALSO: ANALYSIS: Can GTBank replicate WorldPay in Africa with HabariPay?

The young man said he was happy to be one of the beneficiaries of the programme, noting he does not know anyone in government

Simply identified as Kunle O, a young Nigerian could not contain his excitement on Monday, March 8, when he received a credit alert from the Bank of Industry following his successful application for the federal government’s Survival Fund programme.

The Survival Fund is an initiative by the federal government set up to ensure Nigerian Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) survive amid the damaging impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Payroll Support is meant for business owners who are experiencing difficulties paying their staff salary.

The salary support ranges between N30,000 and N50,000. Under the MSME Grant, the federal government will provide credit support to MSMEs and key sectors impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic with a view to enabling an increase in manufacturing capacity.

The Guaranteed Off-take scheme, as the name implies, is to guarantee the offtake of the products of the beneficiary companies.

The target beneficiaries are the MSMEs that are ready to launch their products.

Sharing a screenshot of the bank alert on Twitter, Kunle O, expressed happiness that he benefited from the programme, noting that he got the fund on merit as he does not have any connection in the government.

The excited young man tweeted:

“It don happen ooo! the FG has kept to their words as touching #SurvivalFundNG I know no body in govt. Am happy to say am a beneficiary.”

Answering a question regarding the process, Kunle O said he started the process in 2020. He added that he experienced some “difficulties” along the line but he “didn’t throw in the towel”.

Meanwhile, the federal government has announced that the Nigeria Youth Investment Fund (NYIF), being implemented by the Ministry of Sports and Youth Development, has successfully completed its pilot disbursement of loans totalling N165,700,000 to 239 beneficiaries.

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NNPC

Cost of petrol subsidy: What NNPC unremitted N4trn can do for Nigerians

by with No Comment financeNews

The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is currently being scrutinised by the Wole Oke-led

The billion naira waste Nigeria incurs fixing its leaking pipelines and subsidising petrol is no longer news, but what is news is the opportunity cost forgone by this waste in a creaking economy.

READ ALSO: CBN/NIRSAL reopens portal for MSMEs, Individuals To Access Up To N25m

The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is currently being scrutinised by the Wole Oke-led House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts (PAC) over an alleged failure to remit N4 trillion into the federation account as contained in a report from the office of the Auditor-General for the Federation.

In response, a representative of the NNPC group managing director, Mele Kyari, justified the deductions by saying that it was in line with the law that established the corporation.

“What we do is backed by the provisions of the law. First, the NNPC Act is very clear that we should submit the net revenues of our cost,” the NNPC told lawmakers at the meeting Wednesday in Abuja.

Umar Ajiya, NNPC’s chief finance officer, who represented the GMD, conceded that “there is confusion within government circles at the moment for which a lot of consultations are ongoing on how to handle the implication of sustained subsidy.”

He was responding to a report by the Auditor-General of the Federation claiming the NNPC did not remit N4 trillion.

The corporation admitted that fuel subsidy and other costs accounted for the shortfall in remittance.

However, the issue has further raised concern about how urgently Nigeria plans to reform its alleged corrupt national oil company through a new oil bill yet to be passed after 20 years of first presentation.

Financial experts have raised concern about the opaque system that is bleeding Nigeria’s economy considering the high level of life-threatening hunger in a country with over 95.9 million people living in extreme poverty.

Refineries:

For instance, Emerald Energy Institute at the University of Port Harcourt estimated the construction cost of a 100,000-barrels per day (bpd) refinery plant at $2 billion (N600bn). This means the unremitted N4 trillion could have helped the country construct at least six of such refineries, instead of importing light petroleum products estimated at $15 billion per annum.

Primary health centre, education

Using Freedom of Information requests and analysis by transparency campaign group Public Private Development Centre, it would cost an estimated N28 million to build primary healthcare centre and N17 million for a 3-classroom block. This means N4 trillion is capable of building 142,857 primary health centres or 235,000 blocks of classrooms needed across Nigeria’s 774 local governments.

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NIRSAL CBN

CBN/NIRSAL reopens portal for MSMEs, Individuals To Access Up To N25m

by with No Comment BusinessfinanceNews

GoldenNewsNg reports that  CBN/NIRSAL has reopened its portal for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

READ ALSO: Corporate oil, gas deals in Nigeria fall to lowest in 5yrs

And households affected by COVID-19 to access up to N25 million.

This was disclosed by the Personal Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on New Media, Bashir Ahmad, via his Twitter handle on Wednesday.

He tweeted, “The CBN, through @NirsalMFB introduces a stimulus package to support households and MSMEs affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. An individual can access up to N25million.” CBN/NIRSAL.

The Federal Government had announced that the MSME Survival Fund Payroll Support Portal would be exceptionally reopened for 30 states that had been unable to meet their quotas.

The government, in its announcement, said that the scheme is aimed at supporting vulnerable MSMEs in the payroll obligations of over 500,000 employees

by pandemic

What you should know

  • The Federal Government had announced that the MSME Survival Fund Payroll Support Portal would be exceptionally reopened for 30 states that had been unable to meet their quotas, according to Nairametrics.
  • The government, in its announcement, said that the scheme is aimed at supporting vulnerable MSMEs in the payroll obligations of over 500,000 employees.

SOURCE LINK

Business Condition

PMI: Business Conditions in Nigeria Show Improvement

by with No Comment Businessfinance

The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc has shown that in February 2021, there was another modest expansion in the Nigerian private sector.

READ ALSO: AfCFTA: SON seeks return to port

In a statement from the lender, it was disclosed that the growth was buoyed by a solid increase in new orders and output as companies continue to expand their purchasing activity and resumed hiring efforts during the month.

The report indicated that signs of spare capacity were again evident, with a fresh record reduction in backlogs registered.

However, unfavourable exchange rate movements, higher material costs and a rise in wages added to strong inflationary pressures with overall input prices increasing at a record pace.

Stanbic IBTC said headline PMI registered at 52.0 in February, up from 50.7 in January, indicative of a stronger improvement in overall business conditions. New order inflows rose sharply, with the pace of growth accelerating during the month.

Readings above 50.0 signal an improvement in business conditions on the previous month, while readings below 50.0 show deterioration.

The improving demand environment supported growth in output which was solid and extended the period of expansion to three months. Despite the continuation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) restrictions in foreign markets, exports rose during the month, with foreign demand for Nigerian goods and services showing signs of improvement.

To support higher output volumes, companies added to their purchasing activity for the eighth month in succession.

Consequently, firms raised their inventory holdings in anticipation of greater output in the months ahead. Vendor performance also improved, although the degree at which lead times shortened eased to the softest in nine months.

Elsewhere, further signs of spare capacity were signalled, with backlogs falling at the most marked rate in the series.

Nonetheless, firms added to their workforces, with employment rising marginally. The rate of overall input price inflation quickened to the strongest in the series, largely reflecting higher purchase costs.

According to panellists, higher material costs and unfavourable exchange rate movements contributed to a sharp uptick.

However, the stronger demand environment allowed firms to pass on higher prices, with charges rising substantially. Looking ahead, sentiment regarding output over the next 12 months reached a ten-month high as business expansion plans fuelled positive expectations.

That said, the degree of optimism remained below the long-run series average suggesting pandemic uncertainty weighed slightly on hopes for the future.

SOURCE LINK

YOUTHS

Bulk of young Nigerians shut out of N75bn youth investment fund

by with No Comment financeNews

Bulk of young Nigerians eligible to apply for a loan from a N75-billion Nigeria Youth Investment Fund (NYIF) are stuck on the waiting list in what may scupper the government’s efforts to create badly needed jobs in Africa’s most populous nation.

READ ALSO: Stock market gains N128bn on renewed buy interest

Since it was set up in October 2020, only 395 youth had benefited from the Fund, which aims to financially empower Nigerian youth to generate at least 500,000 jobs between 2020 and 2023, as at January, according to the government.

In that time, 3 million youths applied for a loan which means only one in every 7,594 youths that applied for the loan was successful.

The number of youths that have applied till January implies that an average of 750,000 people apply every month, which means the number of applicants may have jumped to 4.5 million as at March. If the trend in disbursements is sustained, then only a fraction would have successfully applied.

While the list of beneficiaries has not been published, BusinessDay spoke with one of the applicants, who was frustrated over the delay in accessing the facility.

Amaefule Chinonmso, who is based in Port Harcourt, said he applied for the fund around October or November 2020.

Last month, he got a text message saying he was pre-qualified for the loan but had got no further feedback since then.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that Nigeria’s unemployment rate as at the second quarter of 2020 stood at 27.1 percent with the youth population accounting for about 64 percent of total unemployed Nigerians.

Channel for disbursement

Out of the over 800 microfinance banks in Nigeria, NIRSAL Microfinance Bank (NMFB) was chosen as the sole eligible participating financial institution for the disbursement of the Fund.

NMFB is a subsidiary of the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL plc), a non-banking financial institution established in 2013 by the CBN with a mandate to facilitate the free flow of affordable finance and investments to the agricultural sector.

Other loans offered by NIRSAL include The Agric, Small Medium Enterprise Scheme (AGSMEIS), Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, and NIRSAL Microfinance Bank Access Target Account, among others.

Who should access the youth fund?

According to the regulatory framework, eligibility criteria for accessing the Fund include, youth within the age bracket of 18-35 years, a youth that has business/enterprises domiciled and operational in Nigeria, has not been convicted of any financial crime in the last 10 years, has a valid Bank Verification Number (BVN), and possesses local government indigene certificate.

The framework stated that applicants currently enjoying NMFB loans, including the Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) and Agribusiness/Small and Medium Enterprises Investment Scheme (AgSMEIS) loans that remain unpaid are not eligible to apply.

Beneficiaries of other government loan schemes that remain unpaid are also not eligible to participate.

A huge percentage of youth are engaged in the informal sector. Accordingly, the NYIF will facilitate the transition of informal enterprises owned by youth into the formal mainstream economy where they can be supported comprehensively, build a bankable track record, and be accurately captured as active participants in economic development.

In addition, there is a need for the provision of a business plan summary or completed questionnaires as well as an Entrepreneurship Training Certification from the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development (FMYSD) Entrepreneurship Development Institutes (EDIs).

For registered businesses, these are the requirements: Formal business enterprises (youth-owned enterprises), duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Business plan Summary or Completed Questionnaire, valid BVNs of Directors, Provision of Tax Identification Number (TIN), and Entrepreneurship Training Certification from FMYSD EDIs.

Amount you can access/collateral

As an individual or non-registered business, you can access up to N250,000, while as a registered business (Business Name / Limited Liability / Cooperative Societies/ Commodities Associations) you can have access up to N3,000,000. The interest rate under the intervention is 5 percent per annum (all-inclusive).

In terms of collateral, there is no collateral required but all assets purchased under the scheme must be registered with the National Collateral Registry (NCR). Also, the Global Standing Instruction (GSI) mandate will be activated to ensure full repayment by loan obligor.

How to access NYIF

First step requires applicants to attend compulsory entrepreneurship training with an approved Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development (FMYSD) EDIs. The second step takes successfully trained prospective applicants to NIRSAL Microfinance Bank (NMFB) portal to apply for the loan.

The third step requires eligible applicants to submit applications successfully on NMFB’s portal. Then, NMFB conducts loan assessment in line with Risk Assessment Criteria and programme guidelines, makes appropriate decisions and forward recommended applications to CBN for final approval.

Finally, the CBN reviews applications and gives final approval for disbursement to NMFB. The NYIF has a maximum tenor of not more than 5 years with a one-year moratorium.

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Nigerian Stocks

Stock market gains N128bn on renewed buy interest

by with No Comment financeNews

Investors on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) are beginning to buy into recent dip as earlier envisaged. This move led to the record positive close on Tuesday March 10.

READ ALSO: Investment in Nigeria’s manufacturing sector down 76% on COVID-19

Investors showed remarkable interests in stocks like Champion Breweries (+8.91 percent ), Neimeth (+8.85percent) and Nahco (+6.64percent).

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index (ASI) and Market Capitalisation moved up from 38,686.85 points and N20.241trillion respectively on Tuesday to 38,931.25 points and N20.369trillion.

Stock market gains N128bn on renewed buy interest – Businessday NG

The NSE ASI increased by 0.63percent at the close of trading, while the value of listed stocks decreased by N128billion.

In 4,437 deals investors exchanged 368,216,369 units valued at N4.909billion. UBA, FBN Holdings and GTBank were actively traded stocks on the Bourse.

The market’s year-to-date (YtD) negative returns decreased to -3.33percent, while the record dip this month stood at -2.18percent.

SOURCE LINK

Investors in Nigeria’s equities market became worse off in the trading week ended March 5 after booking about N245billion loss as funds moved out of equities due to impressive yields in the fixed income (FI) market.

Investors are now battling with the decision to either buy into the recent dip or to stay out of the market pending when there are major positives capable of reversing the negative trend.

Flutterwave

Flutterwave Closes USD $170m Funding

by with No Comment financeNews

Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company, today announces it has secured USD $170 million from a leading group of international investors as part of a successful Series C round.

READ ALSO: SunFunder closes US$70m solar energy fund

The round was led by growth-equity firms Avenir Growth Capital (“Avenir”) and Tiger Global Management LLC (“Tiger Global”) with participation from new and existing investors.

Founded by entrepreneur Olugbenga Agboola in 2016, the company’s valuation is considered to be valued at more than USD $1 billion.

The fundraise brings the total investment in Flutterwave to USD $225 million and is one of only a very small number of African fintech companies to have raised significant funds in a period of widespread disruption and economic uncertainty.

The new funds will allow Flutterwave to execute an ambitious growth strategy to become a leading global payments company, empowering SMEs and multinational brands by connecting the highly fragmented African digital payments landscape. Flutterwave will invest the new capital to accelerate customer acquisition in existing and international markets, as well as develop complementary and innovative products such as the newly launched Flutterwave Mobile, an app to help accelerate ecommerce growth as a result of the success of the Flutterwave Stores.

This fundraise comes at a time when Covid-19 has accelerated the shift to digital payments in Africa, which has contributed to Flutterwave’s exceptional revenue growth of 226% CAGR from 2018-2020.

Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, said: “When Flutterwave was founded in 2016, the payments landscape in Africa was highly fragmented so the goal was to build a pan-African platform that simplified payments for everyone. However our successes would not be possible without (1) Our amazing team of 300+ employees that work tirelessly to achieve our goals (2) The trust and support we have received from our investors and customers and (3) Regulatory bodies like the Central Bank of Nigeria which – under the leadership of the current Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele – has remained at the forefront of the significant efforts that are currently being made by African governments to create the enabling environment for technology, innovation and financial inclusion. This humbling support has created the backbone upon which companies like Flutterwave have been able to thrive.”

As we look to the future, our focus remains the same which is to stand by our 290,000 merchants across Africa every day as they strive to build their mom-and-pop stores into global businesses. We look forward to increasing our investments across the continent and deepening the impact our platform has on lives and livelihoods as we take more businesses in Africa to the World, and at the same time continue to bring more of the World to Africa.”

Jamie Reynolds, Partner at Avenir Growth Capital, commented: “Flutterwave is at the forefront of innovation in payments technology, and we are excited to support the team as they build the last available payments infrastructure frontier in the world – connecting merchants and consumers intra-Africa and globally.”

Scott Shleifer, Partner at Tiger Global Management LLC, added: “We are excited to partner with Flutterwave as they continue building a world-class payments platform. We were impressed by Flutterwave’s focus on customer success and believe the company is well-positioned for sustainable long-term growth.”

This latest funding round was led by Avenir and Tiger Global with participation from DST Global, Early Capital Berrywood, Green Visor Capital, Greycroft Capital, Insight Ventures, PayPal, Salesforce Ventures, Tiger Management, WorldpayFIS, and 9yards Capital. Avenir and Tiger Global have funded some of the brightest tech start-ups in the world including Current, Latch, Savage x Fenty, JD.com and Facebook.

Flutterwave was founded with the mission to create endless possibilities for customers and businesses in Africa and the emerging markets. It enables its customers to build customisable payment applications through its APIs. Flutterwave’s Series C fundraise comes on the back of an impressive run of 4 years in which Flutterwave reached over 290,000 merchants and over 500,000 registered Barter users, launched a range of new products and partnerships and expanded its infrastructure into over 33 countries.

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SME LOANS

TAX: Oman to cut income tax on SMEs

by with No Comment Businessfinance

According to state television, Oman will reduce income tax for small and medium enterprises in 2020 and 2021, as well as give long-term residency permits to foreign investors.

READ ALSO: NSE completes demutualisation

The proposals, which were reported on state television, are part of Oman’s Vision 2040, which aims to diversify the economy away from oil, which accounts for the majority of the country’s revenue.

Oman’s economy is one of the poorest in the Gulf, having been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and low oil prices. Last month, the International Monetary Fund predicted that the economy will contract by 6.4 percent in 2020, with a moderate rebound to 1.8 percent growth this year.

Income tax will also be lowered for businesses that will start operating this year in sectors aimed at economic diversification.

Until the end of 2022, Oman will also reduce rent in the Duqm Special Economic Zone and industrial areas.

It said granting longer residencies for foreign investors would be done “in accordance with specific controls and conditions that will be announced later after their study is completed by the Council of Ministers, in addition to incentives related to the market.”

The cabinet also approved a long-term urban growth strategy that “is considered a key enabler for achieving Oman Vision 2040,” state TV said citing Oman’s ruler, Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said.

SOURCE LINK

investors loose

Investors Lose N371.33bn as NSEASI Dips…

by with No Comment Businessfinance

Investors Lose N371.33bn as NSEASI Dips by -1.80%, Close Below 39,000bpts

Equities market closed today on a negative note, as NSEASI depreciated by -1.80% to close at 38,686.85 basis points as against +0.17% appreciation recorded previously.

READ ALSO: Inflation: February Headline May Jump To 17.27%

Its Year-to-Date (YTD) returns currently stands at -3.93%.

Market Breadth

Market breadth closed negative as CHAMPION led 14 Gainers as against 24 Losers topped by UBA at the end of today’s session

– an unimproved performance when compared with previous outlook.

Market Turnover                                                                                             

Market turnover closes positive as volume moved up by +64.83% as against -49.92% downtick recorded in the previous session. 

UBA, NOTORE and MBENEFIT were the most active to boost market turnover. MTNN and UBA topped market value list. Investors lose.

Volume Shockers            

MTNN leads the list of active stocks that recorded impressive volume spike at the end of today’s session.  

NSE30 1087.68 Proshare-0.01% NSE BANKING 375.22 Proshare-0.03% NSE INSURANCE 194.41 Proshare1.26% NSE INDUSTRIES 1933.61 Proshare0.47% NSE OIL 262.26 Proshare1.01% NSE ASeM 729.87 Proshare0.00% DANGOTE 116.84 Proshare0.47% ELUMELU 89.02 Proshare-6.79%

NSE30 1087.68 Proshare-0.01% NSE BANKING 375.22 Proshare-0.03% NSE INSURANCE 194.41 Proshare1.26% NSE INDUSTRIES 1933.61 Proshare0.47% NSE OIL 262.26 Proshare1.01% NSE ASeM 729.87 Proshare0.00% DANGOTE 116.84 Proshare0.47% ELUMELU 89.02 Proshare-6.79%

Investors lose

SOURCE LINK

Inflation

Inflation: February Headline May Jump To 17.27%

by with No Comment finance

We are estimating a sharper increase in headline inflation to 17.27% for February 2021 up from 16.47% in January. If this happens, it will be the 18th consecutive monthly increase in Nigeria’s inflation rate. It will also be the highest level in 46-months.

READ ALSO: AXA Mansard empowers female business owners

Inflation is moving further away from the upper band of the CBN’s 6- 9% target. It is likely to impede output growth. Real GDP growth increased marginally by 0.11% in Q4’20 after two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

In the last two months, we have seen a divergence between the direction of month-on-month and annual inflation due to the base year effects and supply shocks. The month-on-month inflation is estimated to remain relatively flat at 1.49% (19.47% annualized) in February.

We have also seen the impact of high- powered money and the massive borrowing of the FGN via the CBN. The impact of the crowding out of private investors from the public debt market by the CBN printing money is now playing out in higher price inflation.

Food and core sub-indices to increase

We expect the food and core sub-indices to move in tandem with the headline inflation. Food price pressures will remain the primary driver of inflation, rising to 21.98% in February. The impact of the recent blockade of food supply from the Northern states to the south-west is unlikely to reflect in the February inflation numbers.

However, the impact will be felt in the month of March. Core inflation (inflation fewer seasonalities) is also projected to cross the 12% threshold to 12.02% in February due to exchange rate pressures and higher logistics costs. The impact of higher transport fares will be more potent in March.

Inflation expectations more to the upside: Tighter monetary policy stance likely in H2’21

Expectations, which is the basis for policy formulation is more to the upside due to supply shocks emanating from the food blockade and heightened insecurity, exchange rate pass-through effect and higher energy and logistics costs.

Recently, the naira has been allowed to crawl up to N411.63/$ at the I&E window, whilst hovering around N480- N482/$ at the parallel market. This coupled with the periodic dilemma on the adjustment of PMS price will continue to increase production costs and push up commodity prices.

The persistent rise in inflation increases the chances of a tighter monetary policy stance albeit in H2’21. The CBN has indicated that it is unlikely to change its accommodative stance in the near term.

The MPC committee will continue to monitor the impact of recent policies and stimulus on economic growth while using orthodox tools to mop up liquidity and contain inflationary pressures.

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