Economy
Akwa Ibom Firm Unveils Online Marketplace for SMEs, Others
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A tech company in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State known as Classified Market Limited has launched a safe and secure platform for Nigerians to buy and sell their products and services with ease online.
A statement issued by the firm disclosed that its platform offers new users the opportunity buy and sell in over 100+ categories ranging from cars and vehicles to real estate and job vacancy listing.
According to Classified Market Limited, with its integrated advanced search system, users can easily search for any products or service they want in any specific location and category within a few seconds.
“cmc.ng is our way of making the process of buying and selling seamless for Nigerians. The platform ensures that anyone from the comfort of his or her bedroom anywhere in Nigeria can sell off old and new items with ease.
“For local businesses, it offers a new front through which they can advertise and sell their products/services to a much wider audience.
“The best part of it is that buyers can even haggle the price of items with a seller on the platform using the price bidding tool and reach an agreement even before any physical meeting. This makes the process of buying and selling a very stress-free engagement for all parties involved,” General Manager of Classified Market Center Limited, Ms Unwana Akpan, was quoted as saying in the statement made available to Business Post on Friday.
She added that the social registration feature on the Classified Market Center site makes it easy for anyone to sign up easily with the click of a single button using his/her social media profile (Facebook, Google+ or Twitter).
This, Ms Akpan noted, creates a connection between the platform and the user’s social media account such that once the seller advertises a new product, such seller can easily share the advert with friends on social media.
In order to ensure the security of buyers and sellers in the marketplace, there is a “report a seller” feature which anyone can use to report any suspicious or fraudulent activity on the platform to the admin so that necessary actions can immediately be taken to protect users.
In addition to the above-mentioned, the Classified Market Center team said it offers a 24/7 support to buyers and sellers so that all complains and inquiries are handled speedily and no one is confused about any feature on the marketplace.
The company said individuals and local business owners interested in buying and selling online with ease can logon to www.cmc.ng to submit their products/services for free, with approval of new listing done within 30 minutes and the seller receiving an alert immediately.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday disclosed that inflation in Nigeria increased by 16.82 per cent in April 2022 from the 15.92 per cent recorded in March 2022.
However, on a year-on-year basis, the rate moderated by 1.3 per cent as inflation was 18.12 per cent in the corresponding month of 2021.
The NBS disclosed that the percentage change in the average composite consumer price index (CPI) for the 12 months period ending April 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous 12 months period was 16.45 per cent, 0.1 per cent lower than the 16.54 per cent recorded in March 2022.
It also stated that in the month under review, the urban inflation rate increased to 17.35 per cent (year-on-year) in April 2022 from 18.68 per cent recorded in April 2021, while the rural inflation rate increased to 16.32 per cent in April 2022 from 17.57 per cent in April 2021.
On a month-on-month basis, the urban index rose to 1.78 per cent in April 2022, up by 0.02 from the rate recorded in March 2022 at 1.76 per cent, while the rural index also rose to 1.74 per cent in April 2022, up by 0.01 from the rate that was recorded in March 2022 at 1.73 per cent.
The corresponding 12-month year-on-year average percentage change for the urban index is 17.01 per cent in April 2022, lower than 17.10 per cent reported in March 2022, while the corresponding rural inflation rate in April 2022 is 15.91 per cent compared to 16.00 per cent recorded in March 2022.
In the report, the stats agency said in April 2022, the composite food index rose by 18.37 per cent in contrast to the 22.72 per cent achieved in April 2021, attributing the increase to a hike in the prices of bread and cereals, food products n.e.c, potatoes, yam, and other tubers, wine, fish, meat, and oils.
On a month-on-month basis, the food sub-index increased to 2.00 per cent in April 2022, up by 0.01 per cent points from 1.99 per cent recorded in March 2022, the report added.
It was further stated that the average annual rate of change of the food sub-index for the 12-month period ending April 2022 over the previous 12-month average is 18.88 per cent, 0.34 per cent points from the average annual rate of change recorded in March 2022 at 19.21 per cent.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange closed marginally lower by 0.02 per cent on Monday on the back of a price depreciation in Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc.
The stock, which was the only price loser yesterday, went down by 5 kobo or 0.29 per cent to sell at N16.95 per unit compared to the previous session’s N17.00 per unit.
At the close of transactions, it reduced the market capitalisation of the OTC securities exchange by N250 million to N1.05 trillion from N1.06 trillion and sliced the NASD Unlisted Securities Index (NSI) by 0.19 points to 807.56 points from 807.75 points.
Business Post observed that the level of activity during the session was low as the volume of securities recorded a decline of 99.8 per cent to 61,131 units from 7.5 million units, the value of trades also depreciated by 99.8 per cent to N4.6 million from N2.2 billion, while the number of deals remained unchanged at 11 deals.
AG Mortgage Bank Plc closed the session as the most traded stock by volume (year-to-date) with 2.3 billion units worth N1.2 billion, CSCS Plc was in second place with 661.6 million units worth N13.9 billion, while Food Concepts Plc held the third position with 94 million units worth N77.8 million.
But the most active stock by value (year-to-date) was CSCS Plc with 661.6 million units valued at N13.9 billion, VFD Group followed with 9.4 million units valued at N2.9 billion, and AG Mortgage Bank Plc with 2.3 billion units valued at N1.2 billion.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The rationing of foreign exchange (FX) to traders in Nigeria by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) amid a shortage in supply is putting the Naira under pressure.
At the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the market on Monday, the Nigerian currency depreciated by 0.6 per cent or N2.50 against the US Dollar to N421.50/$1 from the previous session’s N419.00/$1.
According to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange, FX traders could not execute many transactions yesterday as they could not meet the high demand for forex from their customers.
FX trades valued at $70.68 million were carried out during the session compared with the $169.38 million executed last Friday, indicating a shortfall of 58.3 per cent or $98.7 million. Amid these low FX deals, the Naira could not gain strength against its American counterpart due to a shrink in the supply end.
At the spot market, the local currency also depreciated against the Pound Sterling on Monday by N2.17 to trade at N509.50/£1 versus the preceding session’s N507.33/£1 and lost N1.18 against the Euro to close the day at N433.05/€1 compared with N431.87/€1 of the previous day.
But at the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) window, the Nigerian Naira appreciated by N1 against the greenback to trade at N614/$1 in contrast to the preceding session’s value of N615/$1.
At the cryptocurrency market, things continued to worsen for the Luna-backed coin, TerraUSD (UST) as it plunged by 27.8 per cent to trade at $0.1269.
This is coming as Luna Foundation Guard, a fund set up by Terra creator, Mr Do Kwon, said on Monday that the company spent almost all of the Bitcoin in its reserve last week in a futile attempt to save UST.
It was joined yesterday by Cardano (ADA), which depreciated by 0.2 per cent to sell at $0.5742.
However, Litecoin (LTC) gained 3.7 per cent to trade at $70.56, Solana (SOL) improved by 2.6 per cent to $56.77, Binance Coin (BNB) appreciated by 1.3 per cent to $305.71, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 1.2 per cent gain to trade at $0.4356, Dogecoin (DOGE) rose by 0.3 per cent to $0.0899, Bitcoin (BTC) increased by 0.2 per cent to $30,358.88, Ethereum (ETH) went up by 0.1 per cent to $2,075.77, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) also gained 0.1 per cent to sell for $0.9989.
