Hello, and welcome to Business Roundup this week. Here, we bring you highlights of events that happened during the week -from the capital market to the mainstream business activities, while not forgetting the tech/economy build up.

Here are the Headlines:

· World Bank to partner Nigerian govt on digital national IDs

· Nigeria’s GDP rises by 2.51% in Q2 2023

· Nigeria’s unemployment rate down to 4.1% in Q1 2023 — NBS

· Domestic airlines demand special forex window to buy dollars

 Fuel consumption in Nigeria drops by 12.96m after fuel subsidy removal

Summary:

The World Bank will collaborate with the Federal Government to roll out digital national identity cards for Nigerians.

The World Bank Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, disclosed this at a dinner organised with the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy on Friday in Abuja.

He said: “Our mission here in Nigeria is to eliminate poverty, make lives better, and create jobs for all Nigerian youth. One of the areas that we think have the greatest potential, is the area of using digital technologies to transform. Now, to do that, it begins with having this digital national ID.”

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) recorded a growth of 2.51 per cent in real terms in the second quarter (Q2) of 2023

In its Nigerian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Report Q2 2023, released on Friday, the NBS revealed that the growth contrasted with the 2.31 per cent increase reported in the first quarter (Q1) of this year.

However, it fell below the 3.54 per cent growth netted in the second quarter of 2022, when the GDP grew by 3.54 per cent.

Ripples Nigeria learnt that the performance of the GDP in the second quarter of 2023 was driven mainly by the Services sector, which recorded a growth of 4.42 per cent and contributed 58.42 per cent to the aggregate GDP.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday Nigeria’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.1 percent in the first quarter of this year.

In a report titled: “Nigeria Labour Force Statistics for Q4 2022 & Q1 2023,” the bureau revealed that the rate was lower than 5.3 percent recorded in the fourth quarter of 2022

NBS added that the data was sourced through the Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) in line with International Labour Organisation (ILO) guidelines

The report read: “About three-quarters of working-age Nigerians were employed – 73.6% in Q4 2022 and 76.7% in Q1 2023. This shows that most people were engaged in some type of jobs for at least one hour in a week for pay or profit

The spokesperson for the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Obiora Okonkwo, has requested a special foreign exchange window for airline operators to access dollars.

Okonkwo said the aviation sector is increasingly finding it difficult to exchange their naira for dollars, as the United States currency is not readily available when needed.

“You have naira and you can’t convert it to the dollar. So, the solution to this is for our minister to understand that we need a special window with the CBN to access foreign exchange,” he said in an interview with AriseTV on Wednesday.

The three tiers of government on Tuesday shared the sum of N966.110 billion as revenue allocation for July.

The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) disclosed this in a communiqué issued at the end of its meeting for August and chaired by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun.

According to the communiqué, the N966.110 billion total distributable revenue comprised distributable statutory revenue of N397.419 billion, distributable Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue of N271.947 billion, and Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) revenue of N12.840 billion.

Petrol consumption in Nigeria dropped in July by 19.95 per cent month-on-month, following the removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu

According to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) report for the month of July 2023, Nigerians consumed 52 million litres daily

This is contrasted with the 64.96 million litres per day recorded in June of the same year, indicating a decline of 12.96 million within one month.

Over N29.29bn shares traded in five days; ABC, Tantalizer top gainers’, losers’ lists

On NSE ROUNDUP: At the just concluded week, Nigerian stock market traders exchanged N29.299 billion in 31,163 deals to trade 1.812 billion shares within five days.

During trading the previous week, investors in the stock market traded 1.689 billion shares, valued at N29.407 billion, in 29,477 deals.

The Financial Services Industry topped the table by volume of shares traded, as investors exchanged 936.685 million shares valued at N10.116 billion traded in 12,886 deals.

Next was the Conglomerates Industry, which recorded 461.589 million shares worth N2.333 billion in 3,451 deals.

In the third place was the Consumer Goods Industry, with a turnover of 127.310 million shares worth N5.003 billion in 5,792 deals.

On the tech scene, GEM Capital, Moove, Lumi AI, Dabchy, M-PESA, Tramatch, d.light, Traction, Twitter (now X) were some of the names that made the headlines this week.

Nigerian startup Traction, an innovative platform tailored for African Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), has announced intent to expand its footprint across its service threshold.

Also, Tramatch.com, a Nigerian-founded dating app that connects lovers, has announced its beta launch on mobile to democratize how people connect with potential partners