Nigeria’s DMO Dollar Bond Raise Shines, US PPI Report + More | Business Incorporated

hello and welcome to business Incorporated live on channels television it's another trading day right here in Lagos Nigeria but the trading week is winding down coming up in the next 55 minutes as Nigeria's first domestic dollar Bond records 180% subscription get an outlook for Nigeria's debt [Music] stockan government just local and foreign investors to participate as the government opens business for the blue [Music] economy theop Airlines expands Africa route with the new port and Sudan [Music] service all right let's get a check on the markets now starting with Metals now see the bullion that today uh expectations of a US Federal Reserve rate cut next week that's um pushing sentiment right there $2,515 per ounce that's for spot gold up 0.2% we'll see the US Gold futures um that's unchanged at$ 2543 um dollars so definitely a lot a lot of issues there to look at for investors um geopolitics Consumer Price um that came out yesterday for August showing um yeah the the the Central Bank in um the US closed to their target and still staying there but core inflation was the only sticky spot there in that uh report let's get a check on the oil market now see oil prices um Rose almost 2% today extending a rebound that was spurred with concerns of hurricane Francine's impacts on the uh us output $711 Cent Barrel 0.6% over half% up for Brent crude we see WTI that's a US grade $67 see the range between both closing up a bit 0.5% up so still um fears that there might be short-term loss for that 70 um doll range guest I spoke to yesterday but we'll see how it plays out going forward either demand or supply issues but both contracts Rose more than 2% in the previous session as um Offshore platforms in US Gulf of Mexico were shot and refiner ations and Coast were disrupted by hurricane frantin landfall in Southern Louisiana that was yesterday let's get a check meanwhile the International Energy agency has cut its 2024 all demand growth forecast by 70,000 barrels per day it's about 7.2% to 900,000 uh Barrel per day the Paris Bay agency cited um slow down in Chinese demand as the main driver of wicked Global demand growth is now expects Chinese demand to grow by only 180,000 bars per day in 2024 as a broader macroeconomic slowdown coincides with higher uptake of electric vehicles that's EVS um playing into that market uh to stories now working to achieve consistent food supply in Nigeria the federal government is has commenced the distribution of farm inputs in the southwestern part of the country a member for various crops of and animal production associations have uh received fertilizers a couple of members have received in Lego State um do take a listen Farmers involved in different crop and animal production are here at the instance of the flag off of the distribution of fertilizers to Southwest Farmers by the federal government it's a good place to share challenges experienced in the process of ensuring food supply in the country if the government can help us maybe assessing all those land like we said 57 SDA inos state ifos state can have like 1,000 of land and say okay like all our a we give them 10 10 hear as a cluster fing and the government can come in to help us in the clearing of plan because that has be the maor challenge when you try to ass those land individually clearing land has always been the challenges and comment come in this area to help us Mr RAF sh generate possible solutions that can be implemented by the same farmers I am also a ptry farmer and I can tell you how price of feet increases from 18,000 to 28,000 almost every week the only way we can solve it man there's no magic oh is when you improve or you increase production of what mace and soyer the purpose of the meeting is next fertilizers are distributed to screened Farmers the representative of the special advisor to the Pres says there areans even more incen the beginning so the president is going to bring so many intervention into the Southwest so the president is going to support the husbandry sector it's going to support the Fisheries so there are so many interventions on the way so we use this medium to thank the president so the president did bring us in from the private sectors so that we can actually make sure this fertilizer get to the hands of the main farmers the threat of food insecurity is real in Nigeria and seemingly little efforts and ideas carried out here hold the potential to contribute to supply and to Other Stories the Federal Ministry of Arts culture and creative economies mapping out Hobs that support talents in order to collaborate with them and create more jobs in the country the minister of Arts culture and creative economy anatu masawa made this known at an event in Lagos with an appeal to for the private sector to collaborate with it in order to realize the many ideas initiatives and projects the ministry has in the pipeline the artistic Community media public and private sector all Under One Roof for a meeting put together by the Federal Ministry of Arts culture and the creative economy Legos to interface and explore opportunities that will not just move the industry forward but create more jobs Nigeria is having a moment the whole world is interested in Nigeria not for our oil talent in our content and in our culture in our films in our music in our fashion so we want to leverage on that we want to ensure that we bring traction into Nigeria through our cultural and creative industry these stakeholders in the creative sector and its support systems are here to serve as partners in progress to improve the sector through smart strategic collaboration and investment the minister of art culture and the creative economy hanat musawa gives the Gathering more information on this it's important for them to have a look at the pillars to see which one they aligns with their own brand but I really want to walk away here with um one or two or 100 Partnerships for the entities already making their contributions to the visual art theater music film and the Ingenuity in the country it's a good move this was a well thought out Vision it was explained well very well articulated in terms of the journey we need to go on she painted a picture a very rich tapestry of you know our culture the assets we're sitting on and the opportunities in that space it's extremely broad as you know tourism alone is bringing 4 million people to South Korea in between six months just to one Museum so Nigeria have everything so you look at countries like France Botswana to name a few of them Angola Rwanda they've all thrived on tourism culture and arts these are sectors that have contributed largely to their economy independently so for the minister for the ministry of Arts culture and creative economy to have put this platform together convening multi-stakeholders from various sectors to discuss the way forward for investment unveiling their plan is is something that has never been done at least not in the last 10 years a lot of ideas are on the table execution is at the heart of the matter and the ministry has been applauded for getting this conversation started so no creative sub sector is Left Behind in the drive to create more jobs all right now to our first conversation uh with he Nigeria has reached a significant Milestone with the successful launch of its first a domestic dollar denominated Bond join over $900 million in subscriptions uh this $500 million Bond orchestrated by the Africa Finance Corporation represent a crucial advancement in niger's economic growth and underscores the increasing confidence in its capital market now to uh discuss and address debt stock and expectations after the August us CPI data um that's for the us we have joining us ug dreu a Founder Nom metrics joining me vom show hey same here L how are you doing I'm fine so so much excitement about this um raise um over subscribed by 180% how you seeing it um any risk to be worried about well I mean uh it's a sovereign debt so risk is not as elevated as yeah I mean you would have thought if it wasn't if it was maybe a corporate corporate bond uh Nigeria I think is in a good place when it comes to uh its public debt uh I mean bear in mind we do have about 40 43 or 4 so 43 or so billion dollars in in in foreign debt at the moment um a lot of our rates are you know relatively okay uh even the spacing of when repayment for some of these debts are meant to happen is uh fairly uh you know well spaced so not a lot of risk there uh not also surprising go is Frozen there but he was uh making a sense about the risk hear all right I can hear you now yeah you can you can carry on I lost you for a moment but you're back all right all right so I said I'm not surprised that it was it was highly oversubscribed um a lot of Nigerians do have a lot of effects uh deposits in their bank accounts uh I mean obviously for for obvious reasons uh people don't want to you know be that exposed uh to a weakening NAA and so and a lot of that money just slashed in Banks doing nothing and so uh with a yield of 9. you know 75% or or coupon of 9.75% I think was a good deal so not no surprises there l no surpris all right and of course I don't see any imminent risk all right I guess um good deal you know according to you but um you know we still keep talking about Nigeria's um debt stock um how much would this impact our current state when it comes to debt stock yeah so I mean like I mentioned I think in terms of uh total external debt stock I think we have about 43 or so billion dollars uh external desktop that's at as at March uh 2024 uh could be slightly higher um by the time the NB the DMO releases latest numbers and so not a lot of U you know impact it's just 900 million dollar assuming that they they accept the entire subscription uh so not that much and so I don't also see uh a lot of that's why I said I don't see a lot of risk in here at all it seems relatively okay that we're having this sort of um uh we're seeing Nigerians at least subscribing both locally and in diaspora so nothing to worry about uh for now now where do get worried though is uh our ability to meet some of these obligations say three four five years from now uh and of course that depends on how well we're able to manage a lot of our resource issues uh be it our ability to export out of the country I think that's that's where I'll be a little worried right and I was speaking with my guest um yesterday and with talk about how much the has been devalued in the past um say five years and uh we see lost about 500% um value in that space and um definitely that I I I'm wondering if there's a relationship between you know Rising debts and the strength of your currency uh rather I mean there would always be a relationship but I think the relationship to me is when you have large physical deficits as we're currently running uh you do know we have large fiscal deficit despite the fact that we're seeing government revenue increase of late but we're still running a very large fisal deficit economy and so long as you continue to run a large fisal deficit economy then uh there's always risk that your currency uh can be devalued or will be will continue to be under pressure and of course uh the fact that we're even borrowing also suggest uh you know also addresses why we're running Lar L fiscal deficit if you're run a large fiscal deficit you won't be borrowing anyway so you borrow just to plug those deficit now the flip side is that because you're borrowing in dollars I think the conventional uh uh impression people have is that that sort of fits into the central bank's uh ability to defend the naira at least provide liquidity in the FX Market which is which is possible but that doesn't always that doesn't take away the fact that you're Runing large deficit and of course uh Bond buyers know this and so uh what can start to happen is that as they see your physical uh you know uh side and see check whether you're actually physically responsible how you're able to generate enough revenues to pay uh you know government expenditure then that deter the kind of rates that they can give you going forward and so that that potentially is where uh I would you know grabit on my search light on uh but in terms of uh the currency weakness I think that you will continue to see a lot the pressure that we've been seeing of late that's because as a country we're still not generating enough export Revenue a lot of the mixes a lot of the Forex that we're seeing at the at the moment is largely uh foreign portfolio induced and so uh nothing that organic yet uh and of course we're still very much exposed to what's happening in the foreign markets you're seeing what's happening with oil prices uh good oil prices under pressure so everybody has one eye on that and when you have good oil prices uh falling the way it is then that obviously puts the exchange rate exch puts exchange rate stability at risk so uh so you know by large I do think that um yes as much as it's a good thing that we we're seeing uh effects coming through um um Insurance of um uh you know foreign foreign debts or foreign bonds as as the case may be uh we still have that issue of fiscal deficit and to me that is probably the biggest problem we have uh facing our FX our ability to stabilize our Forex markets right and you know you did mention um Imports there and trade and looking at our recent trade data we're seeing you know exports exceeding Imports uh this time I know we've all been clamoring for for us to you know improve our exports and get Imports lower so we're seeing that happen now but is this the one to be excited about yeah it is I mean you always want to have a trade stop loss uh um when you're looking at your trade data and I think we've seen two consecutive quarters of of improved trade stop loss obbe it's pretty easy to understand why we're seeing a lot more um you know crude oil exports value-wise not that uh in terms of actual crude numbers is increasing but in terms of value of the C exports that we're getting the numbers are are of course increasing um factor in exchange rate and you can understand uh why uh but L on the other side you're also still seeing an increase uh in things like uh you know petroleum Imports uh in increase in the value of P Imports um you know from what we saw we've seen the highest ever second quarter for petroleum Imports in Nigeria in terms of import Bill uh so that is also pressure and of course if you also look at the mix of exports that we're doing still not are still heavily reliant on crude oil exports uh so whilst is good that we're seeing trade suppl very good don't get me wrong uh but that is that doesn't tell the entire the entire the entire story uh most of the exports you're seeing are crude related and of course you also have uh a lot of people not also still being able to import uh because of know the cost of importation uh factor in effects factor in purchasing power of Nigerians and of course if if you go to supermarkets today or even go to regular shops out there L you're pretty sure a lot of the things you tend to see a lot you know in in aisles you don't see them anymore in Market Isles because people really can't afford import that much and so that would obviously fit into the trade data that you're seeing but I mean uh Economist will tell you that the whole idea around trying to uh you know Implement um an effect regime that is not subsidize whatsoever uh let uh you know let the market decide how you know what sort of um uh you know products Nigerians want to buy whether it prefer imported products local local products and then uh so that you don't start to subsidize aspects of the economy that don't need uh you know being subsidized so right uh to me yes the numbers were good good trade stoploss uh we should expect more of that but you want to see a lot more uh you want to see that export mix uh go beyond relying just on crude you want to see more products being exported out of Nigeria right I guess currency devaluation will humble your taste for you know imported goods with what we're seeing from that data well thank you so much it's great having you g founder Nar metrics thank you a pleasure yeah right we'll take a break now we'll come back head straight to the markets that's in a moment just stay with us [Music] [Music] n [Music] all right let's head straight to the markets now we have an edet with the details and definitely going to give us details for what's happening at local BS at intraday and major markets we track um internationally great to have you on N so we've all been talking CPI CPI CPI what's happening um to the consumer with prices rising but now all eyes on the producers producer inflation in most of these countries prod yes good afternoon L producers and especially you know the number one economy that's us yesterday was the CPI but this time is producers price and not just from the world's largest economy also in one of the world's um well one of the world's biggest economy that's um Japan as well as India there also Japan has has already released its own producer price IND big boys at this point exactly the big boys and uh I think two other countries are also releasing that but the all important one which is from the United States which comes about just we're still counting down to that all important um Federal uh federal reserves meeting for next week so it it is also like a pointer to what will the FED do is it going to be a quarter of a percent some people say it's it's kind of a mixed feeling on or mix expectation because if the FED should cut by what percentage Point some says it could be detrimental to the market while some say it could be profitable to the market but guess is yeah yeah definitely a lot to ponder there because um everyone wants to know how big the the US fed can actually go with this raate CA but at the end of there so much data for them to take a look at but it was expected the road to raate Cuts will not be straight but we'll see we'll definitely see it's a bumpy road very bumpy but we'll get there bumpy slow and steady Win race okay okay so Africa is where we always start off from for the market at itay numbers before all the markets close although in some parts of Asia or most parts of Asia they already Clos 8 hours 7 hours ahead of local time here but let's take a look at intraday Market numbers for starting off with Nigeria 0.06% and although this number has gone into the green is making a seesaw back and forth up and down movement for intraday 96773 one9 that was the last number that we tracked month to date the allare index is about uh well about plus 20 29.3% or year to date month to date is just a slight movement there in the green 0.1% now for the Johannesburg Stock Exchange 1.14% at inad day and for the Egyptian Stock Exchange we see uh kind of some gains there also um 0.52% while for the Nairobi Stock Exchange on Kenya for Wednesday's Clos 0.38% and of course it has climbed to a new level 107.7 for the the close of mid C session and of course that market will be open today much later uh on the trading for uh for for Thursday okay now we're still with Nigeria's financial markets and this time we're going to be having like a mixture of both the equities Market as well as the fixed income Market but we're starting first with the primary Market auction yesterday where we saw the the the Central Bank on behalf of the the domestic the debt management office had offered a total of um 1618 billion Nara worth of MTV Prim Market auction instruments there and of course we also saw that result this is what you see the results there for for the close of the NTB primary Market auction the second one for for the month September last week yes the the the CBN did carry out one primary Market auction but this is for the result yesterday I see the auction date 11th of September 2024 across here you see the stop rate as well as the allotment the subscription the tenor across the 91 day the 182 day as well as the 364 day uh instrument so well that that's it for the market uh uh numbers okay so now let's get a closer perspective and of the result and a better understanding of what this means for Nigeria's fixed income Market the debt uh debt market and we bring in nabila muhhamad a financial Market analyst with Chapel Hill denim thank you for joining us nail for having me good afternoon okay okay so now for for the for the better understanding of most of our viewers here yeah so give us a better give us more clarity on what this figure here means for the markets so really what we've noticed especially since August 15th when the inflation data was released for July 2024 we've seen the fixed income Market rally significantly I mean we've seen yields we've seen investors just trying to take positions and take advantage of the previously high yield environment in order to you know enjoy the fixed returns that comes with it and that's what really played out in yesterday's auction and what we noticed was that despite the offer being 161 billion as you rightly mention and the subscription level sprinting higher than it representing a bit to offer ratio of around 3.5 times we did see that they exited the market with exactly what they offered and what we are seeing now trickling in secondary Market is investors just cherry picking instruments especially around that the ones that were optioned um just trying to beid uh at rates such as 17 to 18% for the one year so that's what we're seeing currently in the market however liquidity is still a bit tight and we expect it to be tight through the rest of this week until next week when we see some level of improvement in terms of liquidity that could potentially Spore um activities in the fixed income Market and as I earlier mentioned where with the inflation print that came out we there was this expectation that uh You better lock in your Investments now in fixed income space before the monetary policy authorities try to take another stance in terms of addressing inflation but we all know what has happened to for price that the PMS which can possibly have an attendant impact on inflation and can be another reason for reconsideration for leaving yields elevated generally speaking in the fixed income Market okay all right so now let's move let's take a little bit of a side Switch and Go to gtco that's one of the biggest biggest banks in Nigeria one of the leading financial markets take a look at this numbers here so now it has been the first to report this um pre-tax profits of 1 trillion naira uh and of course you've called this numbers very very impressive so now uh NAA can you tell us more about this I know that the company uh has declared an interim dividend of One n one n per share against what was declared last year at about 50 c so now give us more details about this um impressive numbers by gtco so really as you rightly mentioned the numbers are impressive and we did see them break grounds in terms of the profit before tax that they recorded which is around 1 trillion in fact it's a part Market consensus because Market was expecting the end the consensus in the market was that they would post that level of PBT by full year but for them to have delivered that in h124 IS F remarkable and it's largely as a result of three key factors we have the first one which is as a result of high interest rate environment that translated to high net interest income for them we also have the fact that they were able to um book some unrealized effect fair value gains on financial instruments and for transactions total in as high as 623 billion and there was a third element which which was as a result of a drop a 71% Young year drop in impairment charges that also bolstered the PBT performance that we saw them Post in page 124 and just speaking to on the back of the results we did hear that they um announced proposed a dividend of an inter dividend of one n as rightly mentioned it is double what they paid last year which is 50 c but when we look at it in terms of some other metrics that's number one the payout ratio is at uh is of 3.1% and it's lower than the 5.0 % that we saw in terms of dividend payout based on h123 numbers last year uh it is also it also implies a dividend yield of 2.2% that is higher than what it was last year which is 1.3% and we uh also note that these three um the fact that DPS is higher the second is that the interim div the dividend yield is also higher but then the payout is lower relative to H 123 we expect some positive reaction to the results given that last year between the date of announcement of the interim dividend and the payment date the share price gained as higher 16% and just within that short period of time so we expect to see a similar reaction as the stock continues to trade um going forward uh just in 20 seconds what is your expectation for both the fixed income Market as well as the equities market for the close of Thursday's trading session so uh if you're asking for the rest of the week um it's the sentiment in equities Market has been largely bearish but we are seeing some interest especially today we've seen that there has been some interest in Nestle we've seen that there's been some interest as well in First Bank uh both stocks are up uh intraday and even GT is also has traded as high as 4750 intraday so we are seeing that you know it's possibly going to translate to a positive close at the end of today's trading session uh for the fix income Market we still expect to see some rally but for the rest of this week which would end tomorrow um there is no um liquidity or potential activity that could score um um fixed income rally for the rest of this week however next week we're expecting coupon payments that would impact system liquidity and could possibly translate to more cherry peckings in the fixed income SP okay Naila so thank you so much I think we'll leave it there and of course keep our expectations for the market well particularly on the positive side sorry I didn't get your question no I I say I say thank you so much for your analysis and we we're optimistic for a positive close for the markets thank you very much thank you for having me that was nabila Muhammad Financial Market analyst with Market numbers for Nigeria's financial markets okay let's head over to the Middle East where we see the regional indexes they closed well intraday numbers they're still in postive terrain last time I checked the numbers were still in the green except for maybe just some and we see earnings reports coming in across the um Middle Eastern markets the Dubai 0.26% in the green uh its younger brother there Abu Dhabi index uh by by a negative flat at intraday 0000 in the red but 93226 Z is the index number and for the other sides of the Middle Eastern markets we see Saudi Arabia being in the green the T 0.51% and the Qatari Stock Exchange that's the biggest gainer there 1.60% at intraday at 10, 41214 and from the uh Middle East let's go over to Asia what was See Asia Pacific numbers quite impressive the leaders there the the number one there was nikay 3.41% and this is coming all on the back of Nvidia Nvidia is still in the news has been dominating particularly when you talk about the AI space as well as the semiconductor space so we see 36,000 of of course this number has dropped all the way from 40,000 and it's still struggling 36,0 83327 but this impressive number for the close of Thursday's trading session uh that's of course that led the regional gains there the rally there for the Cosby we see the the the tie all the socks tied to Nvidia the likes of Samsung the likes of SK heix these are semiconductor makers they also drove this second biggest G for the across the Asian markets 251 27.8 5 uh points that's for the market and for the Hong Kong Hing index the market is also expecting some uh like I mentioned with uh L couple of minutes ago Japan's producer price index it Rose by 2.5% but was less than the expected 2.8% but um the investors will also be looking out for some numbers there but Shanghai was the only lagged there 0.1 0.17% for the close of Thursday the nifty50 which is India's um Benchmark index 1.89% India uh is is set to release its August CPI late later today and is expected to show a rise of 3.5% year on year so the markets will be on the lookout for one of the Region's biggest economy and finally for the US market there we see that the stock features they're Rising ahead of the producer price index report what you call the PPI of course we ppi is is one of the one of the key gauges to look out for for the uh country's economy in terms of The Producers there so we see the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.31% S&P 500 1.07% for the Futures as well as the NASDAQ futures that's the biggest there 2.17% ahead of the opening opening bell on Wall Street so um other other other other economic uh uh expectations there we're also expecting the labor data which is expected to be released any minute from now um in in the United States so L that's it in a nutshell for all the markets at today as well as for the close of Thursday's trading session right so much data to look out for but we'll definitely get all of that data and we'll share it with all um of our audience at this point thank you so much n for the details um right there let's um take a quick break now when we come back we're going to head straight to London find out what's happening with the bank of England that's the moment just stay with us [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] n [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome back well let's head straight to our London studio now we have Juliana joining us um great to have you Juliana so we see the bank of England said made a number of changes um some new bank Capital rules what are you hearing yeah good afternoon l so there have been tweaks shall we say not really uh changes although the bank of England um have said that they're going to be fully implementing these Capital uh Rules by 2026 and basically what capital rules are um are amounts that Banks must keep in their coffers to ensure that if there was um a potential shock similar to what we saw in 2009 that they're able to protect um themselves but most importantly particularly when it comes to these changes that the bank want to implement they also of course want to ensure that Banks um can remain profitable and I think that has been the concern from British institutions over the past few years particularly in the light of us leaving the European Union and the single uh Market some banks felt as if the rules um were favoring banks in Europe and in America making them less competitive and I think that's why Andrew Bailey the Central Bank Governor has has been careful not to push the limits too much so that Banks can remain profitable so so rather than saying that they need a large amount in their coffers they've given them options right some of those options will be reducing the amount of loans they give out on houses and other um loans that people want and also giving them the opportunity uh to raise interest rates so that is what these Capital rule changes um have announced however as I said uh Andrew Bailey has said that they won't be fully implemented until the end of 2026 right and another issue right now the burner see uh public debt in the UK that's projected to almost triple uh by the mid 2070s well I guess that's far off yeah it's far off but we know that uh Britain has incredible foresight and that's why uh the government's own office for Budget responsibility has put out this warning um to the current labor Administration um about government debt which I think at the moment sits at just under 100% of GDP but according to their forecast within the next few decades it could balloon to 270% of G GDP which is quite shocking you know we talk about debt in um Africa or other places there is a significant amount of debt here um in the UK and there's a reason why it could balloon a lot of that's down to an aging population climate change the consumer habit changes and is Britain going to be competitive enough prepared enough to keep up with the changes that is a massive issue and I think this is all leading to the chancellor of the EXT cheer Rachel Reeves's first budget which we know is coming imminently I think probably in the first or second week of October and there are going to be significant Cuts now I discussed this with you I think it was yesterday um ly about the fact that labor are finding it really difficult at the moment because as we know campaigning is completely different to governing and sakir starmer's plan was that the UK economy would be fueled by growth not cuts to private sector because of course it's the private the private the public and private sector that uh the labor party are trying to protect but they may not have uh the ability to do so however according to the report by the office for Budget responsibility public spending cuts so this is cuts to welfare this is cuts to institutions like local libraries um schools cutting that funding is projected to fuel the debt and we've heard that from bread and woods institutions too don't cut Public Funding but that appears to be the way uh the labor party will go um and if they don't put a change to that then this projection of 270% of debt to GDP uh could be the way that Britain heads right most most countries are worried about debt at this time we'll see how they navigate this but how the markets looking yeah the old share is up at Inay it's up by 0.86% the 5100 the blue chip that's up to by 0.84% 5250 triple digit gains there it's up by 1.01% in the currencies Market the British pound is trading up up against the US dollar to by 0.14% up against the Euro by 0.07% and up against the Japanese Yen by 0.22% L all right Juliana thank you so much for the update there from the UK thank you all right now let's head on to Europe see shipping was halted in Germany's Elber River following the partial collapse of a major bridge in Dron joining us with more as DW correspondent jabon jbu I'm great to have you chip so tell us um what exactly happened thanks for having me well ly on Wednesday part of a bridge in the city of dresen collapsed no injuries were reported but there's risk of the whole structure crumbling so the authorities have shut off traffic on the bridge and no vessels are allowed Below on the Elba river which leads all the way to Hamburg which is Germany's biggest Port now in Dresden the bridge is used to travel between the old town and the new town and the emergency Clos is a major disruption for the city's Trump system and motorists pedestrians and cyclists have all been affected and dren's heating system is also damaged now what's interesting is that the section of the bridge that collapsed was scheduled to be renovated next year and other parts of the bridge reopened in March after months of renovation so this will probably raise some questions right could this be part of a wider infrastructure problem well yeah the collapse of the Corolla Bridge was surprising but for some it is yet another sign that Germany's roads Bridges and Railways are outdated and dilapitated and when it comes to Bridges as many as 5,000 of them along Germany's Auto bands are so old that they need to be renovated or rebuilt as quickly as possible now more than half of the autoban bridges were built before 198 85 the Corolla bridge in fact was built during the Communist era in what was then the German Democratic Republic in 1967 now bridges built before 1985 were basically designed for less traffic and lighter vehicles and do keep in mind that for instance electric vehicles weigh more than combustion engine cars so even the transition to EVS may require updated Bridges now the only problem is that to little has been done in recent years to fix older Bridges and the federal government's financing options are restrained by a national debt break so this is the limit on borrowing which is enshrined in the German Constitution federal states are banned from borrowing and the federal government is only allowed a maximum of 0.35% of GDP a year so this is why the government is struggling to find the money to fix older infrastructure all right what can we see in the European markets today well European stocks are expected to trade slightly higher today as investors await a much anticipated interest rate cut by the European Central Bank markets have already priced in a 0.25% rate cut which will bring down borrowing rates to 3.5% in the Euro Zone and after that the focus will shift the US fed the latest Consumer Price data in the US has paired down hopes of a 0.5% rate cut next week and in terms of economic data Spain's inflation figures are due and later us initial jobless claims and the latest producer price index will be released thank you so much so much data to look out for right than the us thank you chipo Cho all let's get a check on the Commodities market now see cashew nut one of niger's most important primary products according to Q2 um 2024 foreign tradeing Goods statistics released by the NBS we see a contribution of cash Nots about 229 billion Nara uh to agricultural earnings that increased about 24% from 8.3% in the previous quarter joining us now for more Michael Los is an analyst with FDC great to have you Michael so what is responsible for this increase and what does it mean for the Nigerian economy okay thank you for having me the reason as to why we have this increase is as a result of the ban that was taken on by Ivory Coast around March in quarter one of 2024 I COA they had a B on their exports of cash un because of local um because of the local crisis that they were experiencing they wanted to taper domestic prices of cash unut and as a result they put an a ban on the exports of of cash unut so that allowed um that led to International supplies being diminished because we need to remember that Ivy Coast is the lest producer of cash in the world so as a result of you know constrained International supplies as well as dry conditions even in Vietnam we saw prices of cash not rise by as much as 60% to 1,700 per metric ton and that is what Nigerian Farmers have been able to benefit for right and I I did try to um find out how much bottle of cash was in nigeran it was about over 5,000 7,000 na for one bottle why is it why is it so expensive here the reason as to why it's so expensive is as a result of seasonality farmers have reported that they mainly get um cash us are normally season between February and June as a result of going you know out of season we've seen the prices of these products have increased all right so what can we learn from a country like Ivory Co they're the largest producer of of cash dos globally averaging 1 million tons you know from from Tiny Harvest what can we learn from them okay so I co started to surpass Nigeria's production of cashew notes around 2013 and around that same time there was an increase in there was an increase in investment in modern breeding Technologies Nigeria needs to invest in more modern breeding technologies that will bring varieties to our casos that will lead to a higher yield per Hector and as well as better resist resistance to crop diseases such as the St G that affects cash unut by doing this we should be able to increase our our youth per Hector for casos which is currently at about 400 kilg per hectare and meanwhile the world average is around 700 kg per hect so if you can invest and create Finance for more um varieties of cash not then we should be able to have a high and tap into the market for cashing not because there is a market for cashing notes cashing not are expected to generate about $10 billion in 2031 from 7 billion in 2022 that's a rise of about 50% all right thank you so much Michael but do let me know when the prices come down cuz I want to be able to buy another bottle of cash at some point thank you Michael thank you thank you very much all right to other stories now Ethiopian Airlines announc the commencement of daily flights to Port Sudan and starting October 15 2024 this new uh route represents a key strategic move in Ethiopia's ongoing efforts to boost connectivity throughout Africa promoting Regional economic growth and enhancing trade and tourism the daily service will offer convenient travel options for passengers journeying between Ethiopia and Sudan also linking travelers from Ethiopian Airlines extensive network to this important Red Sea Port City and tanzan are making a bold statement in the blue economy sector with a renewed emphasis on opening its doors to business and investment at according to recent announcement the country set to enhance its focus on leveraging its Maritime resources aiming to boost economic growth and track new opportunities in marine industries uh this strategic move reflects taj's commitments to capitalizing on his extensive Coastline and Maritime potential Paving the way for increased investment and development in the blue economy and we have some uh breaking data um out of the US US PPI we've been talking about that um earlier us PPI that Rose about 0.2% in August we have the data out there um and that's in line with estimates and um forecast so I guess nothing to worry about the ppii at this point because we know the US Federal Reserve will be looking out out for all this data so PPI and that's in line with forecast at this time let's get a check on the crypto market now um what's the call on the board it's green green again so we're seeing that rebound continue right then the crypto market 2.65% up for Bitcoin a deep green for binance um coin there that's the native coin for the cryptocurrency exchange binance and um other coins are looking really really green let's look at the sentiment right now is this still a fearful Market uh looking at a fear greed index yesterday there was fear in the market I'm sure some Traders are wondering yeah it did get to extreme fear at some point but not 31 points so we're seeing a recovery with a fear greed um index let's look at some stories um headlines right there in the market Swift that they've unveiled um tokenized assets transfers that so they announced the new initiative that was um yesterday to streamline Global trans actions and enable its members to use their swift connection for transactions involving both traditional and emerging asset types such as uh crypto then we see UK uh there's UK Bill to recognize cryptocurrency as personal property so the UK governments are introducing um that's Parliament they're introducing this um Bill there that would recognize cryptocurrency as a personal asset and that's going be for the first time so we'll see if that's going to scale um through then we see vitalic uh B there he's the founder of ethereum and he's brought up some um talk about layer 2 decentralization so he has some plans to make ethereum more decentralized so um he's going to be laying out most of those plans for nfts cabbon credits and um all of that so keep an eye on that let's um talk to Gilbert jat now Financial Market analyst hello Gilbert hello Gilbert can you hear me he you Mr L yeah fantastic yeah I can hear you now so yeah so Swift um announcing this new initiative to you know streamline Global transaction so their members can actually um use cryptocurrency how bullish is this first of all I think that Swift is smart enough to understand that the blockchain technology is revolutionizing finance itself and has decided to disrupt itself before it get faced out by uh this this technology so uh them integrating uh this this Block Chain means that it can allow it members asset digital assets and currencies via you know its network uh the company actually announced this today and it noted that uh it it users wants to rely on its infrastructure for using Fiat and so they decided they are going to inter uh you know integrate you know our abilities now we could use digital assets which our cryptos we could also uh set cbdcs at the same time with with the N Network this means a lot of things you know if for the blockchain uh industry and cryptocurrency where the heads of digital Assets in Van you know mat Matthew says that uh the this means uh this means uh this this conversation has to do with ethereum and it's layer one however there are different interpretation as well in in the industry because the shenling community uh the the head of community Leone Zach says that no uh they are talking about shin Le and Poss possibly ethereum Aban and quum you know even though there are further there are further conversation around this that say it has nothing to do with regulated asset just like uh xop but I think that it's quite a smart thing for Swift to interrogate uh you know ability to send digital asset there had been a phase one test which included which has been on for about a year they have been a phase one and uh the next phase they are diving into right now is how they can integrate cbdcs and other regulated uh stable currency so for uh even though as the community and Industry which is blockchain there are different interpretation what this means this means that this means that right Swift is being more right now between the bridge between uh you know the digital digital assets and the traditional uh Finance right now okay but Gilbert I thought um you know with cryptocurrency the technology it's about taking out the the middleman so it's Swift not some kind of middleman at this point you know before now I I was heavily of this ideology that the more cryptocurrency goals mainstream is going to uh face out traditional uh currencies but I was very very ter terbly wrong because what I've realized is that the traditional finance and the cryptocurrency Market will have to have a convergence because at the end of the day even though you are holding these digital assets you know or or currencies for you to buy and sell you know in in the real world you need to convert that to uh to you know the traditional Finance squishies uh Banking and yet there are certain persons who may not be of this ideology of of a sovereign man you know being in total control of your Finance they want people to manage Finance uh so there is going to be more of a convergence okay but the idea of Swift is more of an interrup ability so you could just move from digital assets Fiat and convert them to cbdcs and all of that right yeah so so much to unpack there but we'll keep tracking that to see how it really plays out you know for the crypto industry I'm using Swift thank you so much Gilbert jat lead analyst um smart investor Lodge thank you yeah thanks for having me all righty then that's the show today visit channel citycom for more updates I'm L Williams from unun team right here channels HQ it's bye for now