Ethereum keeps breaking new highs, trading at $4,115
Ether, the world’s most popular utility crypto broke above $4,000 in the early hours of Monday and keeps soaring high after passing the all-important resistance level on many crypto exchanges’ barriers including the FTX exchange.
Such a milestone comes barely a week after it breached above the $3,000 price level.
At the time of writing this report, Ether traded at $4,115.72 with a daily trading volume of $53.5 billion. Ethereum is up 3.85% for the day and is presently the second most valuable crypto asset by the market value of $476.7 billion.
Crypto pundits argue that the leading altcoin has attracted a new wave of institutional investors in credence to its recent approval of 3 Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in North America.
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Nigeria’s revenue crisis may further worsen as India cuts oil imports by $39.5 billion
The revenue to be earned by Nigeria has come under further threat due to India’s drop in crude oil importation.
Data from India’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell showed that the country, which took over from the United States as Nigeria’s largest crude oil importer, reduced crude oil imports by $39.5 billion in April, compared to the same time the previous year.
According to reports, the Indian High Commission in Nigeria said that India’s crude oil imports from Nigeria in 2020 amounted to $10.03 billion, representing 17% of Nigeria’s total crude exports for the year.
India has been badly hit by a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic which led to a spike in infections in April and lockdown in major cities with the attendant negative effect on Nigeria’s oil sales.
The NNPC was prompted to drop the official standard price of its main export streams, Bonny Light, Brass River, Erha, and Qua Iboe, by 61-62 cents per barrel, below its April 2021 prices. They traded at $0.9, $0.8, $0.65, $0.97 per barrel respectively, below international benchmarks, as Oilprice.com showed.
Dangote Maintains Ranking as Forbes’ Africa’s Richest Man
For the tenth time, Nigeria’s entrepreneurial giant and richest black man on earth, Aliko Dangote, has retained his position as the richest man in Africa with a net worth of $12.1 billion, according to the 2021 edition of the Forbes’ Top 10 Africa’s Billionaires List.
Two other Nigerian business gurus– the Founder of Globacom, Mike Adenuga, and Chairman of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, emerged the fifth and sixth on the list, with $6.3 billion and $5.5 billion net worth, respectively.
Also, the analysis showed that Dangote’s net worth is higher than that of Adenuga and Rabiu by $5.8 billion and $6.6 billion respectively.
However, Egyptian investor, Nassef Sawiris, ranked second with a net worth of $8.5 billion, while two South African business moguls, Nicky Oppenheimer and Johann Rupert, emerged third and fourth respectively on the list with $8 billion and $7.2 billion net worth.
Algerian billionaire businessman and Chief Executive Officer of the Cevital Industrial Group, Issad Rebrab, is the seventh on the list with a net worth of $3.2 billion, while, another Egyptian (Nassef Sawiris’ brother), Naguib Sawiris, who is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding was ranked eighth with a net worth of $3.2 billion.
Nigeria reverts to COVID-19 restrictions as WHO classifies Indian variant major threat
Nigeria on Monday has reverted to non-pharmaceutical measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) classified the double mutant strain in India as a variant of concern.
A new directive by the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19 taking the course by Tuesday midnight has restricted public gatherings to 50 people across the country.
Bars and nightclubs are particularly directed to shut down operations as the nationwide curfew will be in force until further notice.
According to Mukhtar Mohammed, head of Technical Secretariat, PSC, access to government institutions would also be denied to anyone not wearing a face mask while government meetings and travels have been limited to the virtual platform.
SEC wakes up to follow money into foreign stocks
No doubt, Nigeria’s capital market apex regulator has suddenly realised the growing interest in foreign equities by the locals as it makes attempt at muting growing demand for offshore stocks with its much-publicised licensing of firms operating in that space.
Just recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) notes that the requirement will ensure regulatory responsibilities in on-boarding clients, custody of assets, and compliance with reporting requirements are met, adding that about 400,000 Nigerians invested in foreign stock through online brokers in the last 18 months.
Under a “digital sub-broker” regulation, Nigeria’s SEC says the move is to provide a form of clarity to the activities of those brokers. This development is pushing many Fintech on board. “I am sorting regulation. Pushing, pushing hard,” a CEO of a renowned Fintech firm told BusinessDay in a terse message when asked on his take in line with the regulator’s decision.
Through the Fintech firms, Nigerian investors have continued to build and preserve wealth through digital investment opportunities in foreign stocks, even as the financial firms are showing a willingness to serve their customers with more investment options.
