Nigeria will export June-ending its first container of yam to Europe. This was revealed by Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, in Abuja.  “On the 29th of June this year, the first container of yams will be leaving the shores of Nigeria for UK,” he said. “Yes, we have been dealing with vegetable and lot of other produce already and we will continue to be selling pulses...

Thanks to a USD 10 million loan granted to Nakheel Palestine for Agricultural Investment (“Nakheel Palestine”), the No. 1 Palestinian producer of Medjoul dates, Proparco has made its first investment in Palestine. Nakheel Palestine, with the support of Proparco, will create around 350 seasonal jobs and generate more than USD 100 million in foreign exchange earnings for the Palestinian...

From November 14 to 17 this year, Land Policy-Initiative (LPI) will hold the second edition of the Conference on Land Policy in Africa (CLPA-217). LPI is a joint programme of the tripartite consortium consisting of the Africa Union Commission (AUC), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). The 2017 edition of the conference aims at deepening...

The government of Niger has ratified during a council of ministers held last Wednesday, a loan agreement worth more than 19 million units of account, or about 15 billion CFA franc for the trans-Saharan fiber optic backbone project. The agreement was signed on April 6, 2017 in Abidjan between Niger and the African Development Fund (ADF). Regarding the trans-Saharan project, which includes the...

In Côte d'Ivoire, cocoa farmers sell the kilogram of beans for 500 CFA francs (FCFA), a level which is fairly below the minimum price set at 700 CFA francs for the interim campaign, reports Reuters. Among reasons for this is buyers’ economic fragility as exporters face difficulties in the market given global fall of the commodity’s prices. Indeed, since exporters do not buy the crop...

In Nigeria, the Federal Mortgage Bank (FMBN) has released about N1.2 billion for federal public workers to renovate their houses. This was announced by the executive secretary of the Federal Government Staff Housing Loans Board (FGSHLB), Hannatu Adamu Fika. Speaking about beneficiaries who applied for the loans previously, she said: “Already, thousands of such applications for the renovation...

Chinese firm China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) has been appointed to Kaduna develop a new 50,000 bpd refinery in Kaduna. This was revealed by the Refinery Consortium subsequent to a visit in China last week. A memorandum of understanding for the project was signed by Malam Nasir El-Rufai, governor of Kaduna and representing the Kaduna Refinery Consortium, and Li Minggiang for CMEC....

$200 million. That is the amount that was earmarked by the World Bank for the Fadama III Additional Financing of projects in Nigeria. Disclosing this at the opening of the Fadama III Additional Financing Mid-Term Review Mission to Cross River, World Bank’s consultant on the project, Idris Badiru said: “Cross River is moving in the right direction; we hope they will continue to improve”....

Philippine firm International Container Terminal Services (ICTSI) has announced on May 25 that it has abandoned port contract in Nigeria, due to prolonged delays of the project. According to the firm, the port, which was to be operational this year, could not be constructed as a result of funding issues. ICTSI and Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise, the project’s promoter, have both agreed to...

Nigeria is poised to attract over $30 billion worth of investments, as its Senate passed yesterday long-awaited oil governance bill, BusinessDay reports citing Chairman, Senate Committee on Gas, Bassey Akpan (photo). “Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) could attract a minimum of $30 billion investment to Nigeria in the next three years,” Akpan said. The bill,...