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

Here are the Headlines:

• Local airlines extend flight suspension
• 500,000 traders to benefit from Nigerian govt’s N5bn credit
• Nigeria agrees with OPEC to cut oil output by 10 million barrels
• Nigerian govt cuts 2020 budget capital expenditure by N312bn

Summary:

Some local airlines in the country have declared an extension of their flight operations after lockdowns were imposed by many state governments in order to contain COVID-19 spread. About a fortnight ago, domestic carriers halted flight services with plans to resume operations between this week and next.

Dana Airline, which suspended flight services on 15th March, said Friday it was postponing resumption indefinitely.Management said all tickets booked from 26th March and the date of resumption would remain valid till 31st December. Read more

Micro credits adding up to N5 billion will be disbursed to 500,000 traders in Nigeria in few weeks as government’s financial response against the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on small businesses in the country.

The Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development said through a statement that the scheme would be executed via the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, which had been launched. The programme would engage the social welfare packages – Tradermoni, Marketmoni and Farmermoni – in achieving this purpose. Read more

Nigeria has allied itself with the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to reduce global crude oil production by 10 million barrels per day (bpd) between May and June 2020, 8 million bpd from July to December 2020, and 6 million bpd between January 2021 and April 2022.

Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, made the declaration in a signed speech on Friday. He said Nigeria would henceforth produce 1.412 million bpd, 1.495 bpd and 1.579 million bpd respectively for the corresponding periods in the agreement. Read more

The Nigerian government has on Wednesday, April 8,reviewed its proposed capital spending for 2020 downward by N312 billion.

The cut in the capital projects figure of the 2020 budget was necessitated by fall in revenue and oil prices following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.  The national assembly and the judiciary will decide the reductions to be made to their allocations. Read more

On NSE ROUNDUP: Three-day straight gains suggest market could be regaining confidence

The likelihood is huge that market confidence is gradually increasing with three consecutive days of gain experienced Tuesday through Thursday. There were no activities on Friday being a public holiday marking good Friday.

All the key market performance indicators closed lower. A positive market breadth was recorded this week as 35 gainers emerged against 18 losers. The All Share Index (ASI) and the Market Capitalisation both increased by 1.37% to 21,384.03 basis points and N11.144 trillion respectively.

Trade Volume of 2.440 billion shares worth N19.932 billion was recorded in 18,918 deals this week compared to the 1.534 billion shares valued at N11.267 billion posted in 18,928 deals last week. Read more

Thanks for joining the roundup this week.