In Nigeria, many companies have suffered the drop in oil prices, as their operating costs surged significantly. Among these are companies from the Dangote Group. Additionally, the slump in oil revenues pulled the Naira down in June, subsequently reducing the value of Nigerian assets in US dollars. These two factors combined caused Dangote to lose $4.9 billion, a third of his wealth,...

During the council of ministers held on December 28, 2016, the government of Burkina Faso, based on an alarming report from the Parliamentary investigation commission for urban land, said all illegally acquired and occupied lands will be recovered. Released last October 13, the report revealed that more than 105,000 plots of lands, in urban areas, had been fraudulently awarded between 1995 and...

The government of Mozambique has announced that all measures has been put in place and the country is ready to switch to low-sulphur diesel from starting from June next year. The sulphur content of the diesel being imported by the Southern African country is at 500 parts per million (ppm) but this is to be substituted by diesel with only 50 ppm of sulphur from June. According to the national...

Algeria’s Prime Minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, has announced that revenues from oil and gas exports are expected to increase by $35 billion next year compared to the $27.5 billion in 2016. According to Sellal, revenues regarding the hydrocarbon exports will increase from $27.5 billion in 2016 to $35 billion in 2017 and expected to reach $45 billion in 2019. Data from...

Mali’s government will invest FCFA316 billion (around $504 million) in the security and defense sectors next year. Under its plans, defense will get FCFA265 billion (about $422 million) and FCFA51 billion (about $82 million) for security. This is 13.9% of the country’s total budget for 2017, knowingly FCFA FCFA2,270.647 billion (around $3.88 billion). Expenditures, in...

Sana Wony Tieminta, Malian jurist and president of Femmes en Action (Women in Action) agricultural cooperative, told a conference recently organized by the Foundation for Agriculture and Rural environment in the world of challenges that women face to access agricultural land. A situation which gets more preoccupying as they do not have the law on their side. The new agricultural law allocates a...

AIM-listed gold miner Goldplat Plc, which operates the Anumso project in Ghana, got its operating licence for the project renewed for three years. The firm can thus continue processing mining residues at its operations to produce and export gold and concentrates. According to the renewal’s terms, Goldplat will pay the Ghanaian government a 5% royalty for all minerals it gets via its...

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Heritage Bank granted a N2 billion ($6.5 million) long-term loan to Triton Aqua Africa Limited (TAAL). This loan is part of a commercial loan system for agriculture that aims to boost Nigerian aquaculture so as to cut down frozen fish imports. The facility will first be invested in a fishery unit including a hatchery and in equipment to produce...

The Government of Uganda has announced plans to introduce a Bill aimed at addressing environmental concerns arising from oil and gas activities, as the country prepares for oil production. This National Environment Management Bill, seeks tighter measures on pollution and wastes in the oil sector which have not been specified in existing laws governing the industry. “The Bill will deal with...

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Total and Eni are planned to meet by early January concerning the $15 billion Brass Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project located on Brass Island, Bayelsa State. This shareholders who have invested about $1 billion on early works, without signing a Final Investment Decision (FID), are to meet in London between January 10 and 12, 2017 in...