Nigerian mobility startup, Metro Africa Xpress (MAX), has issued a N10 billion ($22 million) multi-currency bond.
 
The company says it has already raised ₦400 million in the first segment of the N10 billion issue. With the new move, MAX became the first mobility company in Africa to issue a bond. MAX Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, Adetayo Bamiduro, said the company’s bond programme was structured in line with its mission to build the technology and financing infrastructure for mobility across Africa…
 
More details through:
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/business/business-news/417734-nigerian-startup-max-floats-n10-bn-bond.html

Fitch, a global credit rating agency, has upgraded the outlook on Nigeria’s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating (IDR) to ‘stable’ from negative and affirmed the IDR at ‘B’. 
 
The outlook released Wednesday showed a decrease in the level of uncertainty surrounding the impact of the global pandemic shock on the Nigerian economy. 
 
Fitch said the ‘B’ rating reflects weak fiscal revenues, comparatively low governance, and development indicators, high dependence on hydrocarbons, and a track record of subdued growth and high inflation…
 
More details through:
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/09/breaking-fitch-upgrades-nigerias-outlook-to-stable/
​

Data hosting in Nigeria is set to wear a new face, as one of the country’s leading data centre operators, Rack Centre, is set to pull $100 million into expansion.
 
With more capacity and reliability at the core of this expansion, stakeholders in the country have expressed confidence that more Nigerians would be encouraged to host their data locally, thus reducing the N60 billion the country loses annually to foreign hosting.
 
According to the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), the country loses up to N60 billion worth of foreign exchange to other countries every year as payments for web hosting services. Many had blamed the preference for foreign hosting on the high cost of bandwidth to access the sites all year round and high cost of generating electricity, which contributed to the exorbitant fees when servers were hosted in the country…
 
More details through:
https://www.newtelegraphng.com/data-centre-new-investment-to-cut-nigerias-n60bn-loss/
​

The Federal Government on Monday said its interventions in the rice value chain led to an increase in rice production in Nigeria by 1.2 million metric tonnes within three years.
 
Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mustapha Shehuri, said this while assessing the Federal Government rice farms/mills in Omor and Umerum at Ayamelum Local Government Area, Anambra State, under the Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme-1.
 
Shehuri also stated that government would revitalise its rice farm in Anambra to boost rice production, create jobs and improve the living standard of people in the state and the region…
 
More details through:
https://punchng.com/rice-production-has-increased-by-1-2-million-metric-tonnes-fg/
​

Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade, has signed the transaction advisory agreement for the Full Business Case of the construction of the Bakassi Deep Seaport between the state government and a Canadian firm, CPCS Transcom Limited.
 
Under the terms of the agreement, CPCS is expected to deploy its expertise in the areas of transaction structuring, public-private partnerships, financial and economic modelling, as well as engineering and social and environmental advisory in the execution of the project…
 
More details through:
https://punchng.com/cross-river-canadian-firm-sign-bakassi-deep-seaport-advisory-document/
​

Netflix Inc. became the world’s largest subscription-streaming service by flooding the market with popular content that’s cheaper than the competition.
 
Yet five years after it arrived in Africa, the U.S. company is struggling to grow beyond the wealthiest segment of the population, held back by poverty, piracy and limited access to broadband. In a continent of more than a billion people, the service has 1.4 million subscribers, according to Digital TV Research. That compares with almost 20 million customers signed up to African pay-TV company MultiChoice Group Ltd.
 
An important battleground is Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest economy and the heart of its TV industry. The rapid expansion of 4G mobile networks gives streaming services a new channel to reach audiences -- as long as they’re able to pay…
 
More details through:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-29/netflix-bets-on-mobile-content-blitz-to-strengthen-africa-grip
​

The Federal Government says it’s building numbers of recycling plants that would take used plastics, wash and make all kinds of things out of them. The Minister of Environment, Dr. Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar, disclosed this while on a working visit to the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) headquarters, in Lekki Lagos.
 
According to him, some would be made into pallet, which will be used to make interlock, pointing out that interlock made from plastics would last longer than the brick interlocks. Abubakar said: “We have built and we are building numbers of recycling plants that will take used plastics, wash and make all kinds of things out of them. For example pallet, and this pallet will be used to make interlock, the interlock made from plastics will even last longer than the brick interlocks...
 
More details through:
https://www.newtelegraphng.com/were-building-recycling-plants-fg/

Despite the COVID-19 outbreak that has obstructed the global economy, Nigeria’s start-ups attracted over $126million investment deals in the first nine months in 2020. Experts in the country’s start-up ecosystem say it is an indication that entrepreneurship is gaining momentum in the country.
 
A recent venture capital data compilation by Startuplist Africa – a data-driven platform that focuses on African start-ups shows that start-ups in the financial services industry accounted for the largest investment deals of the total investments for the period…
 
More details through:
https://businessday.ng/enterpreneur/article/nigeria-start-ups-attract-126m-investment-deals-in-9months-despite-virus-outbreak/

Nigeria’s long-awaited oil reform bill would privatise the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, amend changes to deepwater royalties made late last year and scrap key regulatory agencies in favour of new bodies, according to a copy of the bill seen by Reuters.
 
President Muhammadu Buhari has sent the bill to the Senate, which along with the House of Representatives must sign off on it before it can become law. Nigeria is Africa’s largest crude exporter…
 
More details through:
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL8N2GP1LL

A total of 953,064 metric tonnes of liquefied natural gas valued at N163.7billion ($355.96million) has been ferried out of Onne Port between August and September, 2020. The products were ferried by 14 vessels to different destinations in Europe and Asia where the demand is high.
 
The cargoes left the port at a time China had decided to cut LNG imports in the third quarter due to sluggish demand and fall in LNG spot prices in Asian markets. It was gathered that the China’s comprehensive import price index for liquefied natural gas rose to 2,647 yuan ($373.5) per tonne, last month…
 
More details through:
https://www.newtelegraphng.com/nigeria-exports-n163-7bn-liquefied-gas/