Dear Subscriber,

Black Friday- all you need to know

Black Friday is a hectic day for retailers, it is also a day of frantic shopping for those in search of quality at steep discounts and bargain prices. What do you really know about Black Friday? Do you know that the term Black Friday has its origin in the volume of shoppers that caused traffic accidents and violence on the day after Thanksgiving? Do you know also that leading e-commerce firm Alibaba Group makes billions of dollars from its annual Black Friday sales? Therefore, it is no wonder that the co-founder, Jack Ma, visited Nigeria to discuss opportunities in Nigeria’s digital economy last week. This means that the Nigerian consumer is on the radar of all the big boys, Zuckerberg, Jack Ma, Bill Gates etc. The Lifestyle Section of this Digest offers a brief history of Black Friday and all you need to know about the day.

Border closure pushes up local prices

As widely expected, headline inflation increased by 37bps to 11.61% in October due to supply bottlenecks, border closure and seasonally induced demand as we approach the Xmas period. All sub-indices except for core inflation increased. The spike in inflation puts policy makers on the spot and forces them to make some hard choices.

This issue contains an analysis of recent economic and social developments such as October’s inflation data released by the National Bureau of Statistics as well as an update of Nigeria’s power output. Also, look out for social news such as Google’s acquisition of Fitbit and the visit of Twitter CEO to Nigeria.

Enjoy your read!