Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council has approved the payment of €15.21m Euro (offshore) and N1.7bn (onshore) counterpart funding for its power deal with German energy company, Siemens AG. The deal was a result of a meeting between Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari and German Chancellor, Angela Merkel in 2018, which culminated in the signing of a letter of…
Nigerians are up in arms on social media criticising a new government policy which would see small and medium scale businesses which use courier services paying $645 to obtain a licence and $258 for renewal According to the Nigeria Postal Service which oversees this new revenue drive, international courier and logistics services are expected to…
Nigeria’s electronic bill payments reached $1.1bn between January and May 2020, more than double the amount for the same period in 2019. According to the latest Nigerian Interbank Settlement Scheme, this signifies an 86 per cent increase from the $615.4m payment of utility bills and other subscriptions recorded the previous year. A marked decline of…
An investigative panel looking into allegations of ethical infractions against the President of the African Development Bank, Akinwunmi Adesina has declared him innocent. An ethics committee report following an earlier investigation had exonerated him of all 16 allegations levelled against him, an outcome the US which is the second largest shareholder of the bank rejected….
South Sudan, set to capitalize on renewed peace, has pegged 2020 as a year of stability and economic growth, underpinned by the country’s revived oil and gas sector Amid COVID-19, South Sudan shows the world it is open for business and committed to economic prosperity and inclusive growth; South Sudan hosted a webinar organized by…
The objective of the operation is to support Uganda’s efforts to contain the human cost of COVID-19, mitigate its social and economic impact, and support economic recovery The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund today approved a $31.6 million COVID-19 Crisis Response Support Program (CRSP) to Uganda to support the government’s response to…
The first ever artisanally mined and processed gold in Nigeria has been sold to the Central Bank of Nigeria for $3.2m. The government said the gold would now be added to the country’s reserve. The bar of gold weighing 12.5kg was said to have been refined according to LBMA standards. It was presented at the…
The West African coast is increasingly becoming a dangerous route for commercial shipping as a report has shown that the area accounts for over 90 per cent of global maritime kidnappings. 77 seafarers were kidnapped for ransom between January and June 2020, majority of them in the Gulf of Guinea off West Africa. According to…
Nigeria made $206.06bn from crude oil in the last five years, newly released figures from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries has shown. According to the 2020 Annual Statistical Bulletin of the body, as Africa’s largest oil producer, Nigeria’s revenue from crude oil was fifth after Saudi Arabia ($202.37bn), Iraq ($80.03bn), Kuwait ($52.43bn) and the…
Business owners, workers and residents of Lagos are jittery as the government has announced that Third Mainland Bridge, the business bridge in Nigeria and the second longest in Africa would close for six months. The Nigerian government announced that one lane of the 11,800m bridge would be closed for three months followed by the other…
As Nigeria reopened its aviation sector on Wednesday after lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority has suspended 14 aircrafts used in private in the country for violating some aviation regulations. The NCAA listed the aircrafts affected as Hawker 800XP: N838BB; Hawker 800XP: N552ME; Hawker800XP: N749WW; Hawker800XP: ZS-EXG; CL604-D-ANGB; CL604-T7-NMN; CL601-N580KR,…
Nigeria’s leading banks, Access, has been trending on social media platforms, but not in a positive way. Customers of the bank across Nigeria were up in arms, at least verbally, calling out what they described as “theft” of their bank savings in the name of stamp duty.https://twitter.com/p_mystic/status/1277157739052126208?s=20 Even though Access Bank was not the only…
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the aviation industry globally has been enormous, with job cuts, bankruptcy and revenue losses hanging over each operator in the aviation value chain like a malevolent spectre. In Nigeria, the impact has been equally hard-hitting. The Africa Regional Director of the International Air Transport Association, Funke Adeyemi, said the…
An April forecast by the International Monetary Fund has been reviewed downwards to show that the Nigerian economy would contract by 5.4 per cent. According to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook in April, Nigeria was to expect a 3.4 per cent contraction of its economy, but in the face of the havoc being wreaked by…
The World Bank has announced the approval of a $750 million International Development Association credit for Nigeria’s Power Sector Recovery Operation. According to the bank’s Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, the credit would help “increase annual electricity supplied to the distribution grid, enhance power sector financial viability while reducing annual tariff shortfalls and protecting the…
Nigerians have long had a running battle with the country’s electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) for unjustified estimated billing system that sees customers most times paying far beyond their electricity consumption. This billing system made possible by the country’s old postpaid meters became a reason for a Meter Assets Providers scheme kicked off in May 2019…
South Africa’s unemployment rate has increased to 30% as the country continues to battle the biggest Covid-19 outbreak on the continent. The hard lockdown which began in March is a contributing factor, but Africa’s most industrialised economy entered the year in recession, received a credit rating downgrade to junk status and has seen low economic…
Any day of the week, between the hours of 7 in the morning and 5 in the evening, traders mostly women would gather at the Olowu Market in Epe, about 100 kilometers from the centre of Lagos, Nigeria and receive wildlife of different types, species and sizes from hunters. They pay the hunters a fraction…
Nigeria’s aviation industry was preparing to reopen domestic operations on June 21 after almost three months of closure but the Federal Government has now said the date is not feasible. The Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Capt Musa Nuhu, said on Thursday that despite the pressure to reopen, safety was not yet guaranteed. He…
After months of wrangling and internal disputes, South Africa’s embattled national carrier SAA finally has a business rescue plan, but it’s going to cost the state nearly $600 million for the plan to work. The funds will cover creditors along with voluntary severance packages for thousands of staff who are set to be retrenched. The…