Economy
e-Commerce Boosts Local Restaurants’ Sales
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The food industry may after all see the COVID-19 pandemic as a blessing because the virus gave players in the sector other ways of reaching their customers.
During the lockdown imposed in Nigeria, some local restaurants relied on e-commerce and online food delivery platforms like the Jumia Food to reach their customers.
Online food delivery gained momentum during this period and e-commerce platforms became the major connection between numerous buyers and sellers.
Nigeria, with an estimated population of over 200 million people, representing 2.5 per cent of the global population, is a readymade market for food and beverage related business.
Buttressing this is the popular Nigerian saying that ‘you can’t do food business and run at loss, especially in commercial nerve cities like Lagos and Port Harcourt.
In the Nigerian food and beverage market, the food segment was the market’s most lucrative, with total revenues of $33.7 billion, equivalent to 75 per cent of the market’s overall value.
With this huge opportunity, it was not surprising that players in the sector quickly looked for alternative to meet the demands of customers and one of them was Jumia Food.
“Our partnership with Jumia has consistently provided us with an opportunity to expand our existing customer base, attend to the dining needs of our customers at their convenience and in an efficient manner and reward our customers for continually trusting us,” said Ufuoma Ogeleka, Head of Marketing, The Place Restaurant while speaking on the benefit of Jumia partnership with the restaurant.
Other restaurants such as Chicken Republic, Sweet Sensation, Kilimanjaro, Drumstick, Sooyah Bistro to mention a few, have also embraced the ecommerce platforms like Jumia to reach more customers.
According to a pop singer and CEO of Sooyah Bistro, Mr Bankole Wellington, otherwise known as Banky W, online platforms such as Jumia were crucial to food business survival connecting with their customers during the lockdown.
“Sales dropped drastically, companies shut down, and a lot of people lost their jobs. We’re grateful that Jumia kept their operation going; it was reassuring to customers, helped give them options for food at a very uncertain and difficult time, and for vendors like us, it was a huge help to still be able to keep sales going during that period. The sales we got through Jumia helped greatly in keeping our employees paid, and our operation running,” the singer said.
It is expected that the online food delivery trend will become a common lifestyle among the emerging middle class population, with many relying on having their hot meals and groceries delivered at their doorsteps, as against going out to offline retail stores to purchase.
“In the coming years, we expect the internet will still have a very strong influence on overall customer decision making, an increase of self-serving order taking portals within the restaurants for walk-in and dine-in customers to become widely adopted and voice ordering integration to most mobile applications,” Ogeleka added.
The online marketplace is no doubt boosting local food sales for restaurants, as new generations of Nigerian middle-class consumers are spending more money on food and grocery products, thereby helping to fuel growth in the market. With proper support, the apparent boom in the sector will rub off positively on the agricultural sector with creation of more jobs and massive food production.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Oil prices gained more than 3 per cent on Friday, after comments by US President Donald Trump and Iran’s foreign minister further dented hopes of a deal.
Brent crude settled at $109.26 a barrel after chalking up $3.54 or 3.35 per cent, and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) finished at $105.42 a barrel, up $4.25 or 4.2 per cent. Over the week, Brent has climbed 7.84 per cent and WTI 10.48 per cent on uncertainty over the shaky ceasefire in the Iran war.
President Trump said he was running out of patience with Iran and has agreed with Chinese President Xi Jinping that the Middle East nation cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon and must reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which is the waterway where about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes.
On his part, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Friday that it does not trust the US and is interested in negotiating only if the US is serious, adding that Iran is prepared to go back to fighting but also prepared for diplomatic solutions.
On the US-China front, while the Chinese President did not directly make a comment on Iran, a statement from the foreign ministry spoke out against the conflict.
Among the deals the market was looking for from the US-China summit, President Trump said China wants to buy oil from the US, also saying he could lift sanctions on Chinese companies that buy Iranian oil.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said 30 vessels had crossed the strait between Wednesday evening and Thursday, far from 140 a day that was typical before the war. Two of the 30 vessels that reportedly cleared the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week were tankers, one en route to Japan and the other headed to China.
A prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz points toward tighter physical markets, potential refined product shortages, and upward pressure on prices in the coming weeks and months.
Even though the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) announced production increases in recent weeks, traders saw little immediate benefit because many barrels still cannot move efficiently through the Gulf region.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria received its first credit rating upgrade since 2012 from S&P Global Ratings, driven by improved oil market conditions and the country’s growing ability to refine and export crude locally.
The credit ratings agency upgraded the country’s rating by one notch to B, five levels below investment grade, according to a statement on Friday.
It raised its long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Nigeria to ‘B’ from ‘B-‘ and affirmed its ‘B’ short-term ratings. It also raised its long- and short-term Nigeria national scale ratings on the sovereign to ‘ngA+/ngA-1’ from ‘ngBBB+/ngA-2’.
S&P also cited Nigeria’s decision to liberalise the exchange rate as crucial to the development, and changed the outlook to stable.
The decision also comes as the federal government ruled out the reintroduction of subsidies on refined petroleum products, in order to avoid a return to larger budgetary deficits and drains on foreign currency (FX) liquidity.
S&P projected the general government deficit will widen to over 4 per cent of GDP on average during 2026 and 2027, a year of a general election.
It added that the implementation of reforms to broaden the tax base from very narrow levels is underpinning a steady decline in Nigeria’s debt-to-revenue ratio to 338 per cent in 2026 versus 500 per cent in 2023.
The agency said it could raise ratings over the next two years if fiscal outcomes improve significantly, either due to fiscal consolidation or structurally higher revenue, resulting in lower debt service costs.
It, however, warned that it could also lower the ratings if the implementation of Nigeria’s reform programme, particularly the series of critical steps taken to liberalise the exchange rate in 2023, reverses.
On the oil production forecast, S&P expects 2026 production to average approximately 1.66 million barrels per day, including condensates.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Nigerian maritime sector may soon witness the inflow of $600 million in investment from APM Terminals.
On the sidelines of the ongoing Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, Rwanda, the Regional President of APM Terminals for Africa-Europe, Mr Igor van den Essen, informed President Bola Tinubu that his company was interested in deepening its investment in Nigeria.
According to a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President of Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, the investment would be deployed in Apapa port modernisation, logistics infrastructure, and long-term private-sector investment in Nigeria’s maritime sector.
President Tinubu welcomed the investments, emphasising that Nigeria is repositioning itself for greater competitiveness through ongoing economic reforms and infrastructure modernisation.
He said the country is determined to move beyond structural bottlenecks and outdated systems, stressing the need for advanced technology, faster cargo processing, and improved operational efficiency across the nation’s ports.
He emphasised that Nigeria possesses the market scale, talent base, and economic potential to support globally competitive maritime and logistics infrastructure investments and called on other investors to take advantage of Nigeria’s reform outcomes.
Earlier, Mr Igor van den Essen lauded President Tinubu’s reform agenda and policy direction, which had strengthened investor confidence and created renewed momentum for long-term infrastructure investments.
He described Nigeria as a strategic stronghold within its African operations, referencing over 20 years of collaboration and substantial existing investments in the country’s port ecosystem.
He reaffirmed his company’s commitment to expanding investments in Nigeria and disclosed plans to support the development of world-class terminal infrastructure and technology-driven port operations.
He also commended Mr Tinubu for establishing the National Single Window (NSW), which has streamlined trade procedures, improved Customs coordination, and reduced delays in cargo clearance.
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