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Nigerian stocks hit 10-month low on Dangote drop, election risk

Published

5 years ago

August 11, 2018

Nigerian stocks hit a 10-month low on Friday, dragged down by losses in the country’s biggest listed firm Dangote Cement and mounting concerns over political risk in the run-up to next year’s presidential election, traders said.

The stock market shed 2.9 percent this week, its biggest weekly fall since June 2018. It fell 2.17 percent on Friday after declining for a fifth straight day.

Dangote Cement is one of the most liquid stocks on the Lagos bourse and accounts for around a third of market capitalisation. The company fell 6.1 percent on Friday, its single biggest drop in more than a year and its lowest level in ten months. The reason was not immediately clear.

Reuters reported on Friday that an oil refinery being built in Nigeria by Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, is unlikely to start production until 2022, two years later than the target date, citing sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

In July, Dangote Cement posted a 1.53 percent decline in pretax profit to 77.1 billion naira for the second quarter.

Analysts at FBNQuest Capital said Dangote Cement’s results were weaker than expected in the second quarter, citing that as a reason for the decline.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election bid has become a contentious issue after a faction of his ruling All Progressives Congress last month said it no longer supported him, triggering a wave of defections to the opposition party.

Nigeria’s security forces temporarily stopped lawmakers entering parliament on Tuesday in a blockade seen by the opposition as a bid to intimidate its leaders. Some analysts said it highlighted the potential for a fractious campaign ahead of February’s presidential election.

“Recent events … have raised the level of political uncertainty and hit market activity. Market turnover declined to a 16-month low on Wednesday,” Vetiva Capital analysts wrote in a note. “We do not anticipate much joy for the market until the political terrain settles.”

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Court stops Facebook’s dismissal of content moderators in Kenya

Published

7 hours ago

June 4, 2023

Ifeoluwa Dada

The mass retrenchment by a subcontractor for Facebook’s parent company, Meta has been stopped by a court in Kenya.

The court obliged the prayer of 184 content moderators employed in Nairobi by Sama, an outsourcing firm for Meta, who claimed their dismissal was “unlawful”.

Judge Byram Ongaya said Meta and Sama were “restrained from terminating the contracts” pending the determination of the lawsuit challenging the legality of the dismissal.

“An interim order is hereby issued that any contracts that were to lapse before the determination of the petition be extended” until the case is settled, the judge added.

The court also ordered to “provide proper medical, psychiatric and psychological care for the petitioners and other Facebook content moderators”.

Mercy Mutemi, the petitioners’ lawyer, while commending the ruling, said it was “critical that the court found Facebook to be the true employer of its moderators,” adding that they were “very pleased” with the orders.

“This ruling is significant not only for the petitioners but for the entire social media and artificial intelligence industry,” Mutemi said in a statement.

Another local NGO and two Ethiopian citizens have also accused the tech giant of failing to act against online hate speech in Africa. The complainants claimed that this inaction resulted in the murder of an Ethiopian university professor and demanded the establishment of a $1.6 billion fund to compensate the victims.

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South Africa: Power rotation suspended ‘until further notice’ —Eskom

Published

1 day ago

June 3, 2023

Ifeoluwa Dada

South Africa’s state utility firm, Eskom has announced that its power rotation has been suspended “until further notice”.

The situation with the country’s electricity has been critical in recent months and load shedding exercises have gone as high as twelve hours a day.

Eskom spokeswoman, Daphne Mokwena told journalists “Load shedding was suspended today at 11:40 am (09:40 GMT) and until further notice, thanks to improved generation capacity and lower demand.”

“It is not possible to predict at this stage how long the suspension will last. We encourage the public to monitor their consumption, especially during peak hours,” stressed Ms. Mokwena, adding that load shedding could otherwise resume “at any time”.

The firm said it would immediately communicate any significant changes in the new development which South Africans would be hoping lasts long.

President Cyril Ramaphosa in February declared the situation a disaster and appointed a Minister of Electricity, in an attempt to get out of the crisis.

South Africa still draws 80% of its electricity from coal. A $98 billion investment plan was approved by rich countries last year at COP27 as part of an agreement for a “just transition” to clean energy.

Being one of Africa’s most industrialized economies, the power outages have threatened businesses and the general economy of the country. One of its leading companies, Tiger Brands had during the week revealed that its revenues were expected to drop due to the prolonged power challenges.