Thread by @ugodre

Good Evening and welcome to @Nairametrics Corporate News Roundup for the week ended September 22, 2019.
This thread is brought to you by
@BluechipTechNG

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Thread starts here.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG 1. Last week, the police in Kano shut down the office of online payment portal, OPay.
No specific reason was given for the move.
A spokesman for the Kano State police command, DSP Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa....

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG however, accused the firm of non-compliance with the rules and regulations of the state government.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG 2. Crowdyvest launched PlentyWaka, its bus riding service, in Lagos, last week. The startup will commence with a pilot phase of 25 buses.

PlentyWaka allows users to schedule their rides from their preferred pick-up locations to their desired destinations.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG PlentyWaka would be operating in a space with existing players O'Bus, and potentially, Uber somewhere down the line.
Will we see bus wars?
Crowdyvest, by the way, is the crowdfunding platform run Farmcrowdy.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG 3. Andela announced that it was laying off as many as 420 junior engineers across its operations in Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda.
In a press statement, the company disclosed that this was in line with the restructuring of its talent pool in a bid to meet growing market demands.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG Andela’s Co-founder and current Chief Executive Officer, Jeremy Johnson, said that customers’ demands informed the decision to lay off staff. The company’s customers are in need of more highly-skilled and highly-experienced (senior) tech professionals instead of junior engineers.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG In view of this, Andela plans to hire and equip some 700 senior tech professionals by next year, in a bid to meet customers’ demands.
Payment processor, flutterwave alongside a few other firms organized a job fair over the weekend. A few of the techies got new job offers.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG 4. A Paris-based fintech, FairMoney, has secured the sum of A Paris-based fintech, FairMoney, has secured €10 million euros in seed funding.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG The funds were raised in a Series A round of investment led by Flourish, the venture capital arm of the Omidyar Group, the partners of DST Global, and existing seed investors, Newfund, Speedinvest, and Le Studio VC.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG Proceeds would be used to scale the company’s engineering team in order to develop a fully-fledged mobile banking platform.
The startup, commenced operations in 2017, as a mobile app, and currently has over 200,000 customers.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG 5. Instituto de Empresa, IE University launched its first African Digital Venture Day in Lagos, last Friday.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG Six start-ups were selected to pitch. The winner of the IE Digital Venture Day will get the chance to pitch on IE’s stage in the South Summit Spain in order to win a full pass to the event taking place at the beginning of October 2020.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG 6. 6. Datasonic Group Berhard, a Malaysian firm, has unveiled plans to invest the sum of $100 million into Nigeria’s ICT sector with the aim of improving technological services in the country.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG The company disclosed this following a meeting between its senior management and the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Niyi Adebayo.

Datasonic will embark on the project in conjunction with the Chrome Group.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG The deal is expected to cover the production of secured passports, chip-based driver’s licenses, surveillance systems, and facial recognition systems.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG 7. The Federal Government has set up an inter-agency committee for the purpose of recovering the N5 trillion debt owed the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON). The committee was inaugurated by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG Members of the committee include representatives of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, the ICPC, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Ministry of Justice, AMCON, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG 8. The Central Bank of Nigeria has issued a new circular reviewing the process for merchant collection on electronic transactions.
Banks shall unbundle merchant settlement amounts and charge applicable taxes and duties on individual transactions as stipulated by regulations.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG Individual POS transactions will now attract a N50 stamp duty.
Merchant service charge has been reviewed downwards from 0.75% capped at N1,200 to 0.5% capped at N1000.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG 9. The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has reacted to the Central Bank of Nigeria's plan to begin to charge bank customers making cash deposits and withdrawals above certain thresholds.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG The chamber said that the time frame was too short and the policy had disruptive effects on bank customers and other stakeholders.

Director-General of the chamber, Muda Yusuf, stated that that the CBN should have given a much longer notice instead of just a day.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG 10. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has granted a super-agent licence to Itex Integrated Services Limited.
The company now has the CBN’s backing to operate in the financial sector and recruit agents to carry out financial services.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG The Super Agent license will enable Itex to provide basic financial services such as account opening, funds transfer, cash withdrawals, bill payments to the unbanked, and others.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG 11. Sterling Bank has set aside the sum of N50 billion for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in the country, according to the Group Head, Retail Assets and Liability, Sterling Bank, Benedicta Sadoh during a media briefing.

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@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG Small businesses eligible for this scheme are those that generate cash flow on a daily basis and pay rental on a monthly basis.

SMEs can access N5 million to N20 million
worth of loans The interest rate would be determined via the use of a scorecard.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG 12. The Federal Government has backtracked on a planned bulk deduction of bailout funds given to states. Laolu Akande, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity, Office of the Vice President, disclosed this in a press release.....

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG issued after the 97th National Economic Council (NEC) meeting.
Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clement Agba, stated that State Governments are expected to start servicing the loans from September 2019 and repayment is over a 240-month period

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG 13. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) will commence full rehabilitation of the nation’s three refineries in January next year.
Group Managing Director, NNPC, Malam Mele Kyari, made this known during a visit to the Port Harcourt refinery.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG According to him:
“I believe that with the support that we have from the shareholders – the government of this country, the entire staff of this company and the contractors– I believe it is doable and we will deliver the project.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG Still on the NNPC,
14. The corporation will secure a $2.5 billion Pipeline Financing agreement from China in the next six months. Group Managing Director Mr Mele Kyari, disclosed this in an interview with Bloomberg on the sidelines of the World Energy Conference held in Abu Dhabi

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG The pipeline contract would enable 2,600mw of power to be sourced from three power plants to be located in Kaduna, Abuja and Kano. This would spur industrialization of the cities.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG 15. An Abuja Federal High Court has ordered the shutdown of operations and the forfeiture of the assets of Process and Industrial Development Limited (P&ID), Virgin Island and its Nigerian affiliate, P&ID Nigeria Limited.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG Justice Inyang Ekwo gave the order, following the arraignment of two representatives of Process and Industrial Developments Ltd (P&ID) on an 11-count charge.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG They were alleged to have fraudulently claimed to have acquired land from the Cross River State Government in 2010 for the gas supply project agreement that resulted in the $9.6 billion judgment.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG They also pleaded guilty to another count of obtaining land from the state government with the intent to defraud, as well as to the count of conspiring with certain individuals to commit a felony by dealing in petroleum products without the appropriate license.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG The firms (P&ID Ltd in British Virgin Island, and P&ID Nigeria Limited) were represented by the Commercial Director, Mohammad Kuchazi and a lawyer, Adamu Usman respectively.
The court ordered the FG to wind up the two firms and confiscate all their assets in the country.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG 16. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is set to investigate the finances of telecom operators in the country.
The commission is taking this action as a result of a N165 billion interconnectivity debt.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG 17. The Kogi State Government has completed plans to launch a N4 billion rice mill. The mill has a capacity of 50 tonnes of rice per day.
Governor of the State, Yahaya Bello, disclosed this during an inspection tour of the facility situated in Ejiba, Yagba West local government

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG The factory has the capability to produce over 1000 bags of 50 kg high-quality rice every day and is expected to employ about 5000 people

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG That's it for this week. Thanks to @BluechipTechNG for sponsoring this thread every week.
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