Unmask NG understands that last year (2020), the Nigerian citizenry took to different parts of the country to express their displeasure at the way men of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), especially those of the defunct Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS), a notorious unit of the police force known for wanton arrests, extra-judicial killings, assaults, and harassments, were making life unbearable for them to live.

As part of their demonstration, the #EndSARS protesters secured funding from donors through various channels, amongst which is cryptocurrency.

Shortly after the infamous Tuesday, October 20, 2020, massacre, the apex bank started to clamp down on #EndSARS protesters, as it froze the bank accounts of the campaign leaders.

However, speaking on the clampdown in an interview on Arive TV monitored by Unmask NG, Emefiele explained that CBN’s disapproval of cryptocurrency transactions in Nigeria is because of its illegality, and not #EndSARS as widely claimed.

While maintaining that Nigeria’s banking space would not support cryptocurrency, Emefiele noted that even in most developed countries, the digital asset was yet to be fully adopted.

His words: “As you said, the #EndSARS issue came up in October 2020 and we came up with the issue of saying that we would not make our banking and payment system space available to those who were involved in cryptocurrency business because we feel that a substantial portion of the transactions going on there are illegal.

“Look at it this way: what is there to hide? Why are the transactions so hidden? Why are they encrypted? If I conduct a transaction and a regulator or security authority wants to see the nature of the transaction, those (transactions) can’t be encrypted for people to know what happened.  It means that cryptocurrency is a product that is embedded in high level of illegality.

“ENDSARS has nothing to do with it. It so happened that some people used their cryptocurrency to fund it but it has nothing to do with it (CBN’s stance).

“In fact, I have not seen more than one or two countries that have supported cryptocurrencies. You will not find developed economies or economies where high level of payment standards is put in place where the government is serious about tackling money laundering; you won’t find central banks in those climes supporting cryptocurrency.”

The post Emefiele: Crypto Ban Has Nothing To Do With #EndSARS appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

For jumia, the recorded losses didn’t come as a surprise, as they are usually skeptical about insecurities in any economy and due to that, their investments are often influenced as it is in the case of the #EndSARS protest.

While addressing the situation of its operating environment, Jumia said: “EndSARS is a challenge or factor to its market volatility.The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the ensuing economic challenges, result in substantial uncertainty concerning our operating environment and financial outlook.

“This may be further exacerbated by instances of social protests, as experienced in Nigeria over the course of October as part of the End SARS campaign. These external factors, combined with a continued focus on cost efficiency and, to a lesser extent, the continued effects of the business mix rebalancing, are likely to drive continued volatility across some of our key performance indicators.

What you should know

 So many factors contribute to losses in the financial market. One of which is ‘event’.

In the operating market, Business and economic cycles aren’t always stable; they expand and decline variably. But it comes as a surprise that companies and investors pay little or absolutely no attention to economic and investment cycles,

However, as witnessed since the start of the month,(October 2020), the Nigeria economy  has experienced  a huge blow due to what looked like a just conclude nationwide protest against police brutality, dubbed #ENDSARS.

The #EndSARS protesters, during their demonstration, disrupted the country’s activities, by impeding people from travelling and restricting access to workplaces. These restrictive activities have negatively impacted the economy, thereby leading to major losses for different sectors of the economy.

The post 2020 Q3: Jumia Records Significant Loss appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

As reported on Unmask NG, between October 20 and Friday, October 23, while some stores were looted, government properties and individually-owned buildings, were set ablaze by miscreants who hijacked the nationwide peaceful protest against police brutality in Nigeria.

With many business owners losing their investment and survival means, Emefiele stated that the private sectors who formed the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID), will draft up a blueprint that will lead to the support of businesses and households affected.

He said: “Our youths have immense potential, energetic and if well-handled can catapult our nation to the forefront of leading nations in the world. “We must, therefore, seek to promote increasing policies that will equip our youths in the right skills that will support innovation, employment and wealth creation.

“It is in this light that key stakeholders in the Nigerian private sector came together under the auspices of CACOVID to brainstorm of the ways to prevent the effect of the recent unrest from eroding confidence in our economy.

“I am pleased to note that the CACOVID alliance will, over the next week, be unveiling a blueprint that will provide details of our planned support that positively affect households and businesses.

“This is in addition to measures that will create millions of jobs for our youths over the next five years. Many parts of the country were affected by the unrest but Lagos remains the worst hit.”

The central bank governor added that the businesses will be at the focal point of CACOVID in the coming weeks.

The post #EndSARS: CBN Discloses Plan To Help Affected Business Owners appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

Recall that between Tuesday, October 20, 2020, and Friday, October 23, some stores (both private and public), were looted, while properties were also destroyed by miscreants who hijacked the nationwide peaceful protest against police brutality dubbed #EndSARS, to unleash mayhem in the state.

With many business owners losing their investments and survival means to the civil unrest in Lagos, economic experts, including Muda Yusuf of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Teslim Shitta-Bey of Proshare, Seye Adetunmbi of Capital Market Roundtable (CMR), amongst others have in separate interviews expressed confidence that the looting and arson of properties and stores will negatively impact Nigeria’s economy.

According to the experts, many investors are now skeptical as to if Nigeria is a good investment destination.

Yusuf, LCCI Director, said: “Definitely it will negatively impact on the perception of Nigeria as an investment destination. The scale of the looting and destruction is unprecedented in our recent history. I expected better responses from security agencies to prevent these wanton destructions and lootings. The mayhem and destruction of public and private properties in the last few days were most unfortunate. The loss of lives is regrettable and we empathize with families affected. The escalation was avoidable;

“It was a case of complete breakdown of law and order. The costs of these to the economy, the government and private entities are huge;

“No efforts should be spared to ensure the restoration of normalcy. It is sad that this is happening at a time when the economy is yet to recover from the devastation of COVID 19;

 “Many businesses were still grappling with the consequences of the pandemic and lockdowns. We should have an urgent discussion around a permanent resolution of the crisis.”

Speaking on the development, the managing editor of proshare, Teslim Shitta Bey  pointed out that looting raises risk profile of doing business in nigeria and raises the cost of business funding.

 “The looting raises the risk profile of doing business in Nigeria and raises the cost of business funding;

 “This, in turn, discourages capital importation (which has already been adversely affected by COVID-19) and would likely equally constrain potential job creation. In other words, looters suffer the consequences of their own actions in what economists might call the fulfillment of ‘Murphy’s law’ or a situation in which what can go wrong can really get worse.”

Proshare’s Shitta-Bey stressed that the principal economic growth impact of the mayhem may include lost work place man-hours nationwide; lost business output and workplace disruptions leading to lost income, buildings and movable assets torched during the riots.

“The buildings would be marked-to-market value rather than book value. The movable assets would be adjusted for depreciation; lost lives, the protesters, police and other casualties;

“This would involve the lost cash flow from the future stream of their earnings adjusted for the country’s average life expectancy; intangible costs exist including the cost of the pain and anguish of a nation traumatized by a war on itself; “It would be a surprise if ShopRite goods were not insured; “If the shopping outlet was insured for riots or vandalism then part of the cost of business recovery would be borne by the superstore’s insurers;

“The cost would likely run into hundreds of millions which would worsen the insurance company’s operating loss ratio and cut 2020 profitability.”

Similarly, CMR’s Adetunmbi said the attack, destruction and looting of shopping malls is bad news for the nation and as such, it will be classified as an unstable state, politically, due to bad governance and poor leadership.

Adetunmbi, who is also Chief Responsibility Officer, Value Investing Limited, explained that it is also a red flag for investors that Nigeria is not a safe place for investment destination, especially in the economic sectors and cities prone to vandalism in the event of an uprising.

“The resultant effect is loss of job, which will have a negative multiplier effect on the economy in the short and long run. Coming when we are yet to get over the effect of the pandemic Covid19 and dwindled oil revenue on the economy;

“It is a tripartite economic misfortune for Nigeria – Collapsed oil revenue, Covid19 pandemic and EndSARS fallouts. It is triple jeopardy for the Nigerian economy.

“We are in for a long haul of economic challenges. Most companies are going to report poor performance in the 2020 financial year;

“Dividend yield earned on some investments will reduce in 2021. “Solution includes being prepared for a rough ride until things pick up again and make necessary adjustments appropriately. “Government should seize the opportunity to block leakages in the system and reduce excessive cost of governance; cut drastically recurrent expenditure on the redundant workforce; and review the overheads on the executive and legislative arms of government.

“There has to be a way to help businesses that were adversely affected by the vandalism during the riots.

“The Federal Government needs to make positive pronouncements and take decisive policy directions that will reassure investors (locally and internationally) that Nigeria is a safe investment destination.”

However, US-based economist, risk & data analyst, Waheed Alabede, revealed that the total long term loss to Nigeria’s economy will top N1.5 trillion in direct and indirect losses now and in the next couple of years even if normalcy returns.

Alabede’s words: “Conservative estimate of direct losses of Wednesday alone is currently over N60 billion when replacement cost, loss of use, and other costs are factored in.

“On the economic front, and coupled with downturn caused by COVID-19, it will take over eight years for Nigeria, and especially Lagos, to recover from the loss of confidence among investors occasioned by the attacks on private and public properties;

“One of the effects of destructive protest or riot is that it heightens the level of risk assessment of nations which in turn means local, and international investors and lenders will increase interest rates to compensate for the high-risk business environment brought on by the disruption of business activities, and the destruction of private and public properties.

“The cumulative effect of the shock to the economy is an increase in the unemployment rate, especially among the youth;

 “Additionally, government will have to divert funding from essential services like education to repair or replace the damaged properties;

 “Government must do all it can to bring the youth to the table and the youth must understand that it is time to select a leader within their rank and file;

 “Nigeria survived worse events in the past and we will survive this too but we must work together to turn this to a win for all;

“As it often happens during any economic crisis, there are losers and winners;

 “While the majority of Nigerians including large corporations and SMEs will be losers, the winners, in this case, are the construction and maintenance companies, suppliers of damaged goods, CSOs and NGOs;

 “Due to the recent event, CSOs will be flooded with donations from within and mostly outside of the country. CSOs and NGOs are in one of the few industries that often expect strong financial performance after a major crisis.”

The post Economic Experts Lament Losses After Looting And Arson Of Properties In Lagos appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

Oluchi who has been actively involved in the nationwide protest against police brutality by cooking for the #EndSARS protesters, said her account manager informed her that Access Bank acted on an order from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

According to her, the manager said CBN had directed Access Bank to restrict the deposit of funds into her account alongside agitators of police brutality across the country.

She wrote: “Kindly don’t send any money to my access bank account anymore. It’s the account i have been using to receive funds to cook for the protesters; my banker just confirmed that it has been placed on a Post-No-Credit (PNC). Apparently, they are working on a CBN directive for any #ENDSARS activist receiving funds with such descriptions;

“When we say this country is messed up, you won’t understand how deep this rot is. It’s so deep that any and everything can be used against you. So so deep;

“We are just Nigerians, trying to air our grievances and make the government listen to us, peacefully by marching through our streets. How hard is that? How hard can it be for them to peacefully listen to us and not get petty? How hard? I mean, we are the ones suffering this SARS menace for years.”

Access Bank’s overboard action

An average Nigerian would agree that due to the excesses and misuse of power by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), so many lives have been cut short while others have been innocently extorted and abused brutally.

To this effect, the Nigerian youth have come together under one voice to urge the Federal Government to put an end to SARS and reform the police unit.

However, It is pertinent to know that Access Bank has gone beyond the line to ensure that such actions of a peaceful protest are disrupted by placing a Post-No-Credit (PCN) on account of activists who have been participating in the protest thereby denying customers the right to access and operate their account. With this line of action taken by Access bank, their reputation is questioning.

Meanwhile, efforts to reach Access Bank for comment proved abortive at the time of writing this report.

The post Access Bank Accused Of Restricting #EndSARS Protesters’ Accounts appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.