From January 7 to 12, China’s minister of foreign affairs, Wang Yi, will be on official visit in five African countries. These are: Madagascar, Zambia, Tanzania, Congo Republic and Nigeria. According to the official’s spokesperson, Gene Shuang, who made the announcement, “China's diplomacy is rooted in strengthening relations with developing countries, including those in Africa” Xinhua...

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has announced the commencement of exploration activities in the Gongola Basin as part of drives to further boost the nation’s oil resource base. “Aside increasing the nation’s oil and gas reserves to 37 billion barrels of oil and 192 trillion cubic feet of gas respectively, the Corporation has also commenced exploratory activities in the...

Nigeria has recorded the biggest oil production drop amongst the members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), according to Industry sources. The West African country in December recorded an output drop of 200,000 barrels to 1.45 million barrels per day. This is even as OPEC’s crude production dropped by 310,000 barrels a day, as unexpected disruptions in the country...

In Ghana, the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) is expected to start processing crude oil from the Tweneboah Enyerra Ntonme (TEN) field from Friday, January 6, 2017. This was declared by the Managing Director of TOR, Kwame Awuah Darko, who sees the development as historic. According to Darko, he is optimistic that the company will process the one million barrels of crude oil it acquires from the...

A technical commission of the Wilaya Chlef, Northern Algeria, is presently going round to identify abandoned or underutilized agricultural lands, El Watan reports. The commission will subsequently produce a report which will be used by local authorities to optimize agricultural output in the Wilaya. “The lands will be recovered and re-awarded under an agricultural development operation. They...

To support the efforts of Ivorian authorities to secure agricultural land, the European Union (EU) announced in a statement to the Agence Ivoirienne de Presse that it would allocate FCFA3.3 billion to the State budget. This funding is part of a CFA27 billion pledge from the EU to Cote d’Ivoire in December 2015 as Neven Mimica, European Commissioner for International Cooperation and...

LSE-listed mining company, Caledonia Mining, which operates on the Blanket gold mine in Zimbabwe, said it plans to produce 60,000 ounces of gold in 2017, and by 2021, an average annual output of 80,000 Ounces. To achieve this, the firm relies on a major program launched at Blanket, during which it will mine the ore at a depth of more than 750m. Meanwhile, the firm declared a quarterly dividend...

Indian firm Aaviskaar Venture Management Services (AVMS) has announced plans to raise between $100 million and $150 million for Africa investments. “We will start the fund-raising around the middle of 2017 and we expect to close it in 2018,” said Vineet Rai, founder of Intellecap-Aavishkaar group. The new African fund will focus on investing on African low-income groups, especially...

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has announced that it has granted 39 companies its crude oil term contracts for 2017. The Corporation in a statement said the contracts which covers about 1.31 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil were granted to 18 Nigerian companies, 11 international trading houses, five foreign refineries, three national oil companies and two NNPC...

Zambia’s foreign exchange revenues could increase in 2017 as the price of copper rose at the end of 2016. The increase occurred after U.S incoming President, Donald Trump, announced the construction of various infrastructures in his country. Another factor behind the increase is the significant surge in Chinese demand which represents about half of world’s demand. In this context,...