A majority of the U.S. Senate on Thursday agreed to extend the coronavirus pandemic Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) until the end of May, giving small businesses more time to apply and the government more time to process requests.

The bill, passed on a vote of 92-7, has already been approved by the House of Representatives and now goes to Democratic President Joe Biden, who is expected to sign it into law.

The PPP provides loans to small businesses struggling to survive during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in millions of businesses curtailing their operations or even shutting down for periods.

The loans convert into grants if the recipients meet certain conditions.

Without congressional action, the program would expire at the end of this month.

Senate Small Business Committee Chairman Ben Cardin said that applications could not be completed by then, adding that the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid approved by Congress this month expanded eligibility to more first-time borrowers, including non-profit organizations such as the YMCA.

“We are reaching the most needy,” Cardin said in a speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday urging passage of the extension.

Mobile Money transactions rose by 65 per cent in 2020 with accounts across the globe hitting 1.2 billion. The Global System for Mobile telecommunications Association (GSMA) disclosed this yesterday while unveiling its yearly ‘State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money’.

It noted that there was a dramatic acceleration in mobile transactions during the COVID-19 pandemic as lockdown restrictions limited access to cash and financial institutions.

GSMA said it found out that the number of registered accounts grew by 13 per cent globally in 2020 to more than 1.2 billion – double the forecast. It stressed that the fastest growth was in markets where governments provided significant pandemic relief to their citizens.

GSMA in the report observed that to minimise the economic toll of COVID-19, many national governments distributed monetary support to individuals and businesses.

According to the report, the value of government-to-person payments quadrupled during the pandemic, with the mobile money industry working hand-in-hand with administrations and NGOs to distribute social protection and humanitarian payments quickly, securely, and efficiently to those in need.

Britain’s Nationwide Building Society and Santander UK have become the latest banks to take an axe to their office space, cementing remote working arrangements put in place during the COVID-19 crisis.

Nationwide has told all its 13,000 office-based staff to work from anywhere in the country.

The lender said on Thursday it will not renew the leases on three of its offices in its hometown of Swindon in the southwest of England but will retain its headquarters there along with other regional hubs.

Santander UK said it will close four offices in Bootle, Newcastle, London Portman House and Manchester Deansgate and switch the location of its headquarters from London to Milton Keynes.

The bank also said it would close 111 branches by August, adding that a long term shift towards mobile and online banking accelerated by the pandemic had prompted the decision.

Around 5,000 staff based at closing office sites would be offered new working arrangements, combining working from home with access to local collaboration spaces, the bank said.

The moves to slash office space are a further sign of how companies are taking advantage of remote working to cut overhead.

The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) has been in the making for over 20 years. a first attempt at passing a new bill took place in 2008 when former president Umar Yar’Adua sent it to the national assembly. ever since there has been tussles here and there in the oil and gas industry concerning the passage of the bill.

With the Rehabilitatation of a 32 year old Port-harcourt refinery and the new privately own refinery what is the fate of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria? Reactions have continued to trail the federal executive council recently approved $1.5billion (about n575b) for rehabilitation of the 32-year-old refinery.

some stakeholders have urged federal government to suspend its plan to spend about $1.5 billion on rehabilitation of the 210,000 barrels per day (bpd) port Harcourt refinery.

Minister of state for petroleum resources, Timipre Sylva, had explained, that contract for the rehabilitation was awarded to an Italian firm, and would be executed in three phases.

Experts preferred that the refinery is sold by bureau of public enterprises (bpe) to core-investors with proven capacity to repair it with their own funds.

the $26.5billion spent altogether in trying to fix three refineries over the years have not yielded any results as they lament the length of deplorable state the refineries in Warri, Kaduna and Portharcourt.

The Port Harcourt refining company limited came into business to process hydrocarbon into petroleum products for the benefit of all stakeholders. the company’s vision is to be an innovative international hydrocarbon processing company of choice.

The old refinery commissioned in 1965 with current nameplate capacity of 60,000 barrels per stream day (bpsd) and the other refinery commissioned in 1989 with an installed capacity of 150,000 bpsd bringing a combined crude processing capacity of the Port Harcourt refinery to 210,000 bpsd, but today that vision has fallen so short.

Dangote refinery significance for Nigeria

with the new kid on the block, estimated to hold 37 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, the Dangote refinery will increase Nigeria’s refining capacity two-fold and help meet the increasing domestic fuel demand, while generating foreign exchange through exports.

Dangote refinery is a 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) integrated refinery and petrochemical project under construction in the Lekki free zone near Lagos, South West Nigeria. it is expected to be the Africa’s biggest oil refinery and the world’s biggest single-train facility, upon completion in 2020. as federal government’s officials toute the project as they anticipate to learn what is needed to be captured in the petroleum industry bill.

A document expected to provide a framework to boost oil and gas output while enhancing the sector attractiveness for international investors, thus increasing foreign direct investment, has been on the pipeline for decades as the latest oil and gas code, passed in 1969, still governs the petroleum sector in Nigeria.

Whatever, the case may be, the new oil refinery seen as a game changer, owned by a single individual is developing a project with an estimated investment of $12bn.

A new leeway was discovered and  paved for digital currency during the pandemic and lockdown of things globally.

Bitcoin trade had its highest spike of 30% during the national lockdown in Nigeria and the highest volume traded during the peak of the pandemic.

Bitcoin is a digital currency that was created in January 2009.

According to experts, Bitcoin offers the promise of lower transaction fees than traditional online payment mechanisms and, unlike government-issued currencies, it is operated by a decentralized Authority.The identity of the person or persons who created the technology is still unknown.

Bitcoin is a type of cryptocurrency. There are no physical bitcoins, only balances kept on a public ledger that everyone has transparent access to. All bitcoin transactions are verified by a massive amount of computing power.

During the End – Sars protests in Nigeria in October 2020, bitcoin came to play when the government shut out protesters from using local payment platforms for collecting donations to support it.

The young, tech-savvy protesters quickly switched to using bitcoin, and in about a week bitcoin accounted for around 40% of the nearly $400,000 raised. It was just one high-profile example of how young Nigerians increasingly use bitcoin to navigate a complicated and restrictive banking and monetary system.

Hence the ban on cryptocurrency by the Apex bank in Nigeria, to stem the possibility of another incedent from re-occuring.

Tesla can now be bought for bitcoin, Elon Musk says

Tesla Inc. customers can now buy its electric vehicles with bitcoin, its boss, Elon Musk, said on Wednesday, marking a significant step forward for the cryptocurrency’s use in commerce.

“You can now buy a Tesla with bitcoin,” Musk said on Twitter, adding that the option would be available outside the United States later this year.

The electric-car maker said last month it bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and would soon accept it as a form of payment for cars, in a large stride toward mainstream acceptance that sent bitcoin soaring to a record high of nearly $62,000.

Bitcoin, the world’s biggest digital currency, rose more than 4% after Musk’s tweet and was last trading at $56,429.

In the last five years, Nigeria has traded 60,215 bitcoins, valued at more than $566 million which, apart from the US, is the largest volume worldwide on Paxful, a leading peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace.

Nigeria is the second largest bitcoin market on Paxful, Kenya No. 8 and South Africa, No. 10

Country              Volume $                  Country                         Volume BTC

USA                       $3,755,463,837                  USA                       535,660

Nigeria                  $566,668,692                      Nigeria                  60,215

China                     $181,329,392                      China                     20,553

Experts say, bitcoin transfers are “much cheaper and faster than using traditional money transfer operators

The company says Nigerians make up around a quarter of its customer base with 1.3 million registered accounts.

Tech investors say, In Nigeria, as banks were closed, the agency outlets recorded much higher transaction volumes. They think this shift was inevitable, and it is not a temporary pandemic boost alone but appears to be the order of the day moving forward. With all the uncertainties trailing the digital currency market, from regulation issues, fluctuations or outright ban, one may begin to wonder what the fate of Digital economy will be in developing countries with little or no technological development.