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Hello everyone and welcome to @Nairametrics Corporate News Roundup for the week ended April 12, 2020. This thread is brought to you by @BluechipTechNG.
The thread starts here.
The thread starts here.
As usual, kindly retweet this thread so that others on your timeline may see and engage. If you are just seeing this thread for the first time, we do this every Sunday at 10pm, basically bringing you bitesize news from Corporate Nigeria.
The week was eventful in Corporate Nigeria, especially as the cases of Coronavirus patients and death keep increasing across the globe.
We’ve got news about more companies that are supporting the government with funds, or providing facilities for curbing the killer disease, which is gradually forcing the whole world to embark on holiday.
We have news about corporates that shut down their operations, even as more companies continue to ask their employees to work remotely.
We also have news about new deals and companies that posted either 2019 Full Year, or First Quarter financial results.
Let’s begin...
We also have news about new deals and companies that posted either 2019 Full Year, or First Quarter financial results.
Let’s begin...
1/ Investors are beginning to infuse more capital into the health sector to find a vaccine for COVID-19. One of the latest investments is $20 million from partners in the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator.
The grant was given to three institutions – the University of Washington, University of Oxford, and La Jolla Institute for Immunology. This is to accelerate the development of therapies for COVID-19 and increase access to it as vaccine for the virus.
2/More companies, home and abroad, are still spending fortunes to aid the combat against coronavirus in their communities, states and nations. One of such is fast-growing video-app, TikTok. It pledged the sum of $250 million to support communities in the fight against Coronavirus
In its case, the Beijing based firm is doing something different, as it stated that it would release the fund to assist frontline workers, educators and local communities affected by the pandemic.
While some of the funds would be contributed to major health organizations like CDC Foundation and World Health Organization (WHO), the remaining would be used to help individuals and small businesses.
3/ Still on donations to COVID-19, Flour Mills also donated big to the COVID-19 relief fund. FMN became one of the largest contributors to the fund after CBN, as it donated N2 billion as part of its strategic initiatives and response plan to coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
This donation is made up of N1 billion in cash and another sum of N1 billion which will be spent on food relief items and medical supplies to frontline medical and emergency responders around the country.
4/ While the world awaited the implementation of the crude oil production cut agreement of OPEC+, an oil-producing giant in Nigeria, Shell declared a force majeure on exports of Nigerian Forcados crude oil.
Force majeure is an unforeseeable circumstance that prevents someone from fulfilling a contract.
The Trans Forcados pipeline exports about 240,000 barrels of crude daily.
The Trans Forcados pipeline exports about 240,000 barrels of crude daily.
Reports have it that while explanations were not given for the decision, the pipeline was shut down on April 4th by the operator, Heritage Energy Operational Services.
No doubt, the development would affect the nation’s output, as the Trans Forcados pipeline is one of Nigeria’s main crude oil terminals and was often a target of pipeline vandals and oil militants.
Nigeria produces about 2 million barrels of crude daily and earned about $54 billion from crude oil and gas exports in 2019.
5/ Facebook has added another messaging app to its portfolio. The newly launched app, “Tuned”, which targets couples who want to share private moments with themselves, was developed by Facebook’s New Product Experimentation (NPE) team.
The New Product Experimentation team is saddled with the responsibility of developing new social media products from scratch, and its newest product, Tuned, was developed to allow its users chat, and share photos, music, as well as timelines of shared memories.
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6/ To curb misinformation about coronavirus, social media giant, Facebook, expanded its Information Centre to Nigeria, and 16 other African countries.
6/ To curb misinformation about coronavirus, social media giant, Facebook, expanded its Information Centre to Nigeria, and 16 other African countries.
The centre is part of Facebook’s contributions to the ongoing efforts against Coronavirus.
The Coronavirus Information Centre, in collaboration with trusted health authorities, provides news, critical information and resources, as well as tips for staying healthy and supporting families and communities amidst the pandemic.
7/ Again, WhatsApp, a social media tool, has reduced the number of contacts that can receive forwarded messages at a time to curb the spread of false information about Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19).
From now, users can only forward messages to one contact at a time, rather than to multiple contacts simultaneously.
The messaging app had previously reduced the number of chats that could receive a message simultaneously, but the latest development is a stricter measure.
The messaging app had previously reduced the number of chats that could receive a message simultaneously, but the latest development is a stricter measure.
8/ As Ed-tech apps gain prominence among education institutes globally due to lockdowns forced by the COVID-19 outbreak, Microtraction has invested in Nigerian ed-tech startup, Gradely.
