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Construction, manufacturing take lead as investment pledges to Nigeria rise 57% in Q1

Pledges by domestic and foreign investors to projects in Nigeria rose 75 percent year-on-year to March 2021, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) has said.

Proposed investments by the investors rose to $8.41 billion in the first quarter of this year from $4.81 billion reported in the comparable quarter of 2020, NIPC said in a report released on Thursday.

“This follows the gradual return of investors’ confidence globally after the COVID-induced decline,” it said.

Due to the COVID-19 induced lockdown and, consequently, a slowdown in global economic activities, investment pledges to Nigeria declined by 67 percent in the first half of 2020.

How Nigeria’s tech startups are defying daunting ecosystem

Nigeria may be missing in the list of the top five tech ecosystems on the continent, but it has the largest tech startups, which despite the difficult business environment they operate, have remained investors’ favourite.

A ranking compiled by fDi Intelligence in collaboration with Briter Bridges titled, the African Tech Ecosystems of the Future (2020-2021), puts South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, and Tunisia ahead of Nigeria – the most populated country in Africa.

Nigeria beats the rest of Africa with the number of startups, many of which operate within the financial technology sector, taking advantage of the under-provision of banking services in the country.

Read Also: EXPLAINER: What NSE’s rebranding as Nigerian Exchange Group means

What NSE’s rebranding as Nigerian Exchange Group means

Following the successful demutualisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), changes have been made to the nomenclature and brand identity of the now-defunct NSE.

Under this arrangement, the Nigerian Exchange Group has three operating subsidiaries, namely, Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) which is the operating exchange, the NGX Regulation Limited (NGX REGCO), the independent securities regulator, and NGX Real Estate Limited (NGX RELCO), the real estate company.

Demutualisation is the process of converting a non-profit, mutually-owned organisation into a profit-making, investor-owned company. This means the bourse has joined the list of exchanges that have transited into a limited liability company, owned by shareholders who provide capital and shares in profits or losses.

Demutualisation enables the exchange to raise capital efficiently and effectively at market-determined pricing. Members can realise the economic value of their interest by exercising the right to sell.

Economic realities warn of impending food scarcity

Food prices in Nigeria are at an all-time high, inflation is shrinking disposal income and marauding herders have chased farmers off farmlands tipping Africa’s most populous country towards scarcity.

Analysts warn that the risk of famine is very real, citing a theoretical explanation for famine as proposed by Amartya Kumar Sen, an Indian Nobel Prize economist.

SBM Intelligence, an Africa-focused research firm, says the high food prices in the face of dwindling income means that affordability will become a problem that conveys a decline in “entitlements” as described by Sen’s theory of famine.

“Nigeria may experience famine in the nearest future as Nigerians have experienced a decline across all the dimensions of entitlement as explained as the legal ways to get food has reduced,” notes Glory Etim, an analyst at SBM.

India’s Covid infection galloping out of control and sends jitters around the world

India’s rapidly worsening coronavirus outbreak is now expanding on a scale beyond any previously measured in more than a year of the pandemic: The health ministry reported a world record of 312,731 new infections on Thursday, the most recorded in any country on a single day.

India’s total eclipsed the previous one-day high of 300,669 recorded coronavirus cases, set in the United States on Jan. 8, according to a New York Times database, though differences in testing levels from country to country, and a widespread lack of tests early in the pandemic, make comparisons difficult.

Over the past two months, the outbreak in India has exploded, with reports of superspreader gatherings, oxygen shortages and ambulances lined up outside hospitals because there were no ventilators for new patients.

As cases worldwide reach weekly records, a substantial proportion of the infections are coming from India, a sobering reminder that the pandemic is far from over, even as infections decline and vaccinations speed ahead in the United States and other wealthy parts of the world. India has surpassed 15.6 million total infections, second-most after the United States.