The Nigerian Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde Fashola (photo), has ruled out plans to review the sale of power assets to private investors. According to Fashola, reviewing the sales is unnecessary, as three years were enough to judge the capability of the new owners. Fashola urged electricity consumers to join forces with the power investors in order to improve their services...

MTN Group has said it may postpone plans to list its operation on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) until 2018, as it is making efforts to resolve a regulatory dispute and awaits an economic recovery. “It’s a work in progress and hopefully within the 12 to 18 month period, we will be able to do it. Regulatory issues need to be resolved, and the macro conditions need to have improved,’’...

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has ordered the Deposit Money Banks and other financial institutions in the country not to transact in digital currencies as they are not legal tenders in Nigeria. This digital currency according to CBN includes, bitcoin, ripples, monero, litecoin, dogecion and onecoin. It warned that any institution or individual caught dealing in such currencies was doing...

The National Assembly has agreed to adopt the N305 to one US$ exchange rate stipulated in the 2017 budget, in spite of fears that it is unrealistic. Naira currently trades at about N500 in the unofficial market, but the legislators ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to close the gap between the official and black market rates. The lawmakers gave the order while passing the Medium Term...

The stage has been set for a showdown in Gambia as Nigeria and other neighbouring African countries, have deployed troops and fighter jets ahead of today’s end of President Yahya Jammeh’s tenure. Nigeria in line with the Economic Community of West African States’ (ECOWAS) mandate, deployed 200 Air Force troops from the 117 Air Combat Training Group (ACTG), in Kainji, Niger State. The Air...

The United Nations (UN) and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (ICRC) have reacted to the accidental Nigerian air force strike on a camp for displaced people on Tuesday, which resulted in the killing of dozens of civilians. The global body has asked the Nigerian government to ensure a thorough investigation of the attack and ensure that the unfortunate incident does not happen...

While chairing on 18 January 2017 in Yaoundé, the discussion panels on the power grid update programme for the period covering 2016 to 2022, the Minister of Water and Energy (Minee), Basile Atangana Kouna, revealed that Cameroon will invest FCfa 800 billion in this endeavour. To this effect, the Minee indicated, the management of said programme was given to the Société nationale de transport...

President Muhammadu Buhari (photo) has again written to the National Assembly, informing the lawmakers of his 10-day leave and temporary handover of power to Vice-president, Yemi Osinbajo. According to Buhari, he was writing in line with Section 145 (1) of the 1999 constitution as amended and the 10-day leave will take place from January 23 to February 6, 2017. “In compliance with Section 145...

The Ivorian coffee and cocoa council (CCC) denied plans to cancel and resell contracts of indebted cocoa exporters, the Ivorian Press Agency (AIP) reports citing a statement from CCC’s management dated Jan. 18. CCC’s move comes after Reuters published an article the day before citing a source from the ministry of finance who claimed the organization was going to cancel and sell the...

The White House said it has disbursed an additional $500 million for the Green Fund for Climate. Adding this to the sum U.S. provided last March ($500 million also), it makes a total of $1 billion that the nation has invested in the fight against global warming. During the COP21 held in Paris in 2015, the U.S. committed to provide, by 2020, $100 billion to help less developed...