In a statement published on March 31, International Monetary Fund (IMF) scaled down Nigeria’s growth forecast for 2016 to 2.3%, from 3.2% last February amid oil price slump. In 2015, Africa’s top oil producer recorded an economic growth of 2.7%. “Key risks to the outlook include lower oil prices, shortfalls in non-oil revenues, a further deterioration in finances of state and local...

Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta said about 1.2 million Kenyans were added to the national grid. In his State of The Nation Address, he said it was possible by adding new capacities. “This has enabled us to connect many more Kenyans to the national grid. In the last 12 months, we have connected an additional 1.2 million Kenyans to electricity in their homes and places of work,” he said....

In a statement published on March 31, African Development Bank (AfDB) said it granted Kenya a credit line of $228 million to rehabilitate 172km of road between Ahera (South-East of Lake Victoria) and Isebania, near the Tanzanian border. The project will help ease trade between Kenya and Tanzania, and reinforce the Sirrari corridor which links South Sudan to Tanzania, via Kenya. Once the...

Japanese investment bank Nomura said in a statement published on March 22, it will open a branch in Cape Town, South Africa, as it aims to take advantage of growth opportunities in sub Saharan Africa. “The new branch which is to open on April 4 will focus on providing a relevant and tailored range of investment banking and risk solution services to further support its current and new clients in...

Three oil ports in Libya that have been shut down for over a year are to be reopened, as the country now has a unity government in Tripoli, a spokesman Petroleum Facilities Guard said . “We are planning to reopen the ports. It’s under the control of the unity government now,” Ali al-Hassi, a spokesman for the Petroleum Facilities Guard, said. The oil ports in Es Sider, Ras Lanuf and...

Following Total Uganda’s decision to route the pipeline through Tanzania, the African Development Bank (AfDB) on Friday revealed that it is ready to be the lead arranger for the financing of Kenya's planned oil pipeline to transport crude from fields in the far north county of Turkana. Kenya and Uganda have been negotiating which route to select for an oil export pipeline that Kenya wants to...

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is going to present two proposals at the forthcoming Doha meeting which will be held on April 17 2016 to discuss oil output cuts and freezes, OPEC sources revealed. The first proposal involved the replacement of all steel oil barrels with plastic barrels, mainly made from crude oil as there has been approximately 1 trillion steel oil...

In spite of talks regarding routing an oil pipeline through Kenya, Total Uganda has finally chosen to direct the pipeline via Tanzania. “As a company, our position remains that we are going through Tanga. I understand there are issues being discussed but our position remains the same,” Adewale Fayemi Total E & P Uganda General Manager said. Kenya in March, made every effort to convince...

Maersk Oil has revealed plans to reduce its establishments in Angola and the US due to low crude prices in the global market and the challenging market conditions for deepwater developments. This will bring about the shutdown of the company’s Houston office and a decrease in the team in Luanda. The decision is coming after the extensive and unending work to cut capex and improve returns of...

In Cote d’Ivoire, telecom regulatory authority ARTCI withdrew the operating licences of GreenN Network, Comum, Café Mobile and Warid Telecom. A decision which has been pending since last year. The regulator sanctioned the operators for failing to pay significant royalties, providing services of poor quality according to consumers, having a low network coverage and a low level of investment as...