Here are the highlights from the Business Roundup this week:
1. Railway debt service costs the Nigerian government $62.66 million in the first quarter of this year, with a significant portion used to service debt on railway modernization projects.
2. PoS agents in Lagos State have increased charges for cash withdrawals and transfers. The Lagos State chapter of the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria announced a charge of N500 for N10,000 cash withdrawals.
3. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic has successfully completed its first commercial flight into space, charging passengers between $200,000 and $450,000 for the trip.
4. Cooking gas prices have dropped, with the highest prices in the North-Central states and the lowest in the South-East region of Nigeria.
5. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has set new transaction limits on contactless payments, with a maximum limit of N15,000 per transaction and a daily cumulative limit of N50,000.
6. The average retail price for refilling a 5kg cylinder of cooking gas dropped to N4,360.69 in May 2023, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
7. The Nigerian capital market saw a growth of N467.9 billion in equity capitalization, lifting the market by 1.42 percent.
In the tech scene:
– Creditchek, a Nigerian fintech startup, launched to help lenders across Africa assess credit risks by providing reliable verification of potential consumers’ creditworthiness.
– Haul247, a logistics tech platform in Nigeria, secured $3 million in seed funding. The platform connects businesses with haulage and warehousing services.
These were the key highlights in business, finance, and technology this week.
