Italy judge expected to rule on Eni, Shell indictment over Nigeria on Dec. 20 - source

An Italian judge is expected to decide on December 20 whether to send oil majors Eni and Shell to trial over alleged corruption in Nigeria, two legal sources said on Tuesday.
Milan prosecutors have asked for the two companies and some past and present managers, including current Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi, to be indicted in a case revolving around the purchase of a Nigerian oilfield in 2011.
A judge must now rule whether to press charges or dismiss the case.
The Italian inquiry is one of several underway into the acquisition of the OPL-245 field for about $1.3 billion, including current cases in the Netherlands and Nigeria.
Under Italian law, a company can be held responsible if it is deemed to have failed to prevent, or attempt to prevent, a crime by an employee that benefited the company.
On Tuesday a court in Milan decided to wrap a strand of the investigation involving three former Shell managers and former Shell Foundation chairman Malcolm Brinded into the main inquiry, the sources said.
Brinded stepped down as chairman on a temporary basis while the case is running.
All the parties involved have denied any wrongdoing.

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AfDB says 'll continue to support Nigeria reforms

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has reiterated its continued support for the government of Nigeria and its economic reform programme.

The bank in a statement on Tuesday said it was encouraged by the economic recovery of Nigeria from a recession and lauded the government's efforts towards diversification of the economy.

"The Bank also strongly supports the Economic and Growth Recovery Plan of the Government and efforts to stem corruption and strengthen fiscal consolidation and efficiency," it said in the statement meant to refute publications claiming that the bank had cancelled a budget support loan to the government of the West African country.

Last November, the Board of AfDB approved a $600 million loan to support Nigeria's efforts to cope with macroeconomic and fiscal shocks that arose from the massive decline in the price of crude oil.
An additional $400 million in support could be considered, if requested and approved by the Board, as part of a larger coordinated effort with other development partners, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The bank said it was in consultations with the government on how best to continue its support for its Economic and Growth Recovery Plan through investment projects that will help address existing structural challenges, including infrastructure, power, agriculture and support to boost the private sector and job creation.
The Bank pledged its support for the government reforms programme to diversify the economy and boost economic growth and development.

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Heineken plans $35.5 mln investment to double beer production in Ivory Coast

Heineken, the world’s second-largest beer producer said it plans to invest $35.49 million to double its beer production in Ivory Coast by next year.

This was in a bid to increase its share of the market in the West African country and compete with French company Castel in a booming market.

“We will invest 20 billion CFA francs ($35.49 million) by the end of the year...to double our capacity,” said Alexander Koch, general manager of the brewery.

“We had planned to make this investment between 2018 and 2019. But with the strong demand, we are doing it before the end of the year,” he said.

Beer consumption in Africa’s fastest growing economy has increased since the end of a decade-long political crisis in 2011, and Castel dominates sales with its popular Castel, Flag and Solibra Bock brands.
By doubling the capacity of the Brassivoire brewery that opened last year near the commercial capital Abidjan, Heineken, the world’s second-largest beer producer, hopes to take a greater share.
Total investment in the brewery is expected to hit 100 billion CFA francs.
This year’s investment will increase beer production to 160 million litres annually by next year, more than half Ivory Coast’s 270-million litre consumption, most of which is currently supplied by privately-owned Castel from its Solibra brewery in Abidjan.
The Dutch brewer has operations in 10 other African countries including Nigeria, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.

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Kenya's inflation slows to 5.72 percent in Oct, currency stable

Kenya’s inflation slowed to 5.72 percent year-on-year in October to its lowest level in 17 months, driven by a fall in prices among food items, the statistics office said on Tuesday.
The rate, which stood at 7.06 percent a month earlier, had shot outside of the government’s preferred band of 2.5-7.5 percent earlier in the year due to a severe drought.
Month on month, inflation was -0.63 percent, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement. Inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages was -1.78 percent during the month. The category has a 36.04 percent weight in the goods used to calculate inflation.
Meanwhile, Kenya's shilling was stable on Tuesday and traders said they were watching for an announcement by opposition leader Raila Odinga after the election board declared President Uhuru Kenyatta winner of a repeat vote that Odinga boycotted. 

At 0839 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 103.60/80 to the dollar, the same as Monday's close. Traders forecast the shilling to trade in the 103.50-104.00 range in the next few days.

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Nigeria saves $2 bln from local cement productions, capacity rises to 30 mln tonnes

Nigeria cement firms have ramped up local productions to about 30 million tonnes yearly thus saving the West African country around $2 billion in foreign exchange, Abdulsamad Rabiu, chairman of BUA Group has said.

Dangote Cement, majorly owned by African richest man Aliko Dangote is the largest producers in the country with presence in 14 other African countries. 

Dangote Cement's current total production capacity in Nigeria stood at 20.25 million tonnes per annual. Breakdown from its three existing cement plants namely Obajana (10.25MMTPA), Ibese (6.0MMTPA) and Gboko (4.0MMTPA).

Lafarge Africa, BAU and the other cement firms accounted for less than 10 million tonnes cement production locally.

Rabiu, who spoke on the sidelines of the Presidential Industrial Advisory Council chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday said the cement manufacturers will continue to save the country a lot of foreign exchange.
“If for example, you look at what we have produced in Nigeria today, maybe 25 million tonnes to 30 million tonnes, if we quantify that in terms of foreign exchange it is almost $2bn per year.
“That is a lot of money being saved because if we do not have these cement plants definitely we have to import cement.
“And not only do we have to spend money in terms of foreign exchange import but the price of cement definitely would have been higher than what it is today,’’ he said.
Rabiu also spoke about the expansion of his company’s facilities in order to make more cement available for local consumption.
According to him, we will be inaugurating our Sokoto plant next quarter, early 2018, and also our Edo second cement line will come on stream probably by the second quarter of next year.
Rabiu mentioned the reduction of price of Low Pour Fuel Oil, and the appreciation of the local currency in the foreign exchange market as things that helped the sub-sector to grow.
“The foreign exchange has also come down; it is stable even though as we all know the cement industry does not really require a lot of foreign exchange.
“But the fall in foreign exchange rate has really helped in terms of the things that we import into Nigeria like spare parts, some raw materials like gypsum,’’ the industrialist said.

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Nigeria's foreign exchange reserves climb 4.04 pct by Oct 27

Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves climbed 4.04 percent to $33.68 billion as at October 27, from $32.37 billion in the previous month, latest data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has shown.
The Africa's biggest economy dollar reserves also jumped 40.68 percent on year-on-year basis. The reserves stood at $23.94 billion in the corresponding period of last year.
The reserves hit their highest since 2015 as the global oil prices continue to rise due to tighter supply and comment by Saudi crown prince on determination to sustain output cut beyond 2018.
For the first time in over two years, Brent – the international benchmark for oil prices, rallied on Monday to $60.5 per barrel, above its highest level since July 2015.
Nigeria, OPEC member country depend largely on foreign exchange earnings from crude oil export, which means a continue rise in oil price will raise the level of its dollar reserves.
The West African country had suffered currency crisis two years ago in the wake of global fall in prices of oil, pushing the local currency down by more than 30 per cent.
However, with the improved dollar reserves, the country's central bank has been further strengthened to support the local currency.
The regulatory bank has consistently injected dollar into the forex market since its reform in February, while the exchange rate of the local currency has remained stable at all segment of the FX markets.
On the parallel marker other wise known as black market, the local currency has consistently traded around 363 to the dollar,while it remains stable at 305.50 to the dollar in the official interbank market.
On the investor and exporter forex window, the naira was quoted at 359.72 to the dollar on Tuesday.
Increased dollar flow into the investor window has also helped to boost the dollar buffer for Nigeria.

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Two Banks Drop McKinsey In Fallout From South Africa Scandal

Barclays Africa and Standard Bank said on Monday they would stop working with McKinsey, a further blow to the global consultancy as it faces allegations of bribery for work done with friends of South African President Jacob Zuma.
Privately-held McKinsey, the world’s largest management consultancy, has denied doing anything illegal but said this month that it was embarrassed by mistakes it made while working with South African state utility Eskom last year.
McKinsey said it regretted working on a 1.6 billion rand ($113 million) contract at Eskom alongside a company controlled by the Gupta family, wealthy friends of President Zuma who are accused of unduly influencing government contracts.
Zuma and the Guptas deny wrongdoing.
Barclays Africa and Standard Bank told Reuters in separate emailed responses to questions that they would terminate their relationships with McKinsey without giving reasons.
McKinsey declined to comment.
The Gupta brothers, who work with Zuma’s son, Duduzane, were accused by South Africa’s anti-corruption watchdog last year of using control over state agencies to siphon public funds.
South Africa’s parliamentary committee on public enterprises is investigating whether McKinsey knowingly let funds from Eskom be diverted to Gupta-controlled firm, Trillian, as a way of securing the deal.
Corruption Watch, a South African anti-graft NGO, is preparing a submission to the U.S. Department of Justice asking it to investigate McKinsey’s dealings with Trillian.

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Oil price breaks above $60: Are we out of the woods yet? - United Capital

For the first time in over two years, Brent – the international benchmark for oil prices, rallied on Monday to $60.5 per barrel, above its highest level since July 2015, thanks to comments by the influential crown prince of Saudi Arabia about cutting production.
What's our take on the outlook of Oil prices for the rest of the year?
Broadly, we note that the factors that have given oil prices a boost so far this month stem largely from "un-fundamental dynamics" like geopolitical tensions and expectations that OPEC and others will extend production-cut agreement. 

Two critical questions are pertinent to the sustainability of the recent rally: 1) Is demand for oil being maintained? and 2) What is the update on OPEC's rebalancing act?
Answering, the large supply surpluses of 2014 - 2016 have vanished, even as bulging demand in Q2 gave rise to the first oil balance deficit the market has witnessed since 2013. 

We therefore think the recent precipitous rally is sustainable in the short-medium term, as the market moves further into balance. 

Nevertheless, the downside risk remains significant gains in non-OPEC supply, especially from U.S. shale producers.

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Nigeria to build Nuclear power plant, signs deals with Russian firm

Nigeria government has signed an agreement with a Russian firm, Rosatom for the construction and operation of a nuclear power plant and research centre in its quest to boost power supply in Africa’s biggest economy.

Nigeria, which first signed a broad nuclear cooperation agreement with Rosatom in 2009, is turning to nuclear power as Africa’s most populous nation tries to end decades of blackouts that has hindered its economy.

“The development of nuclear technologies will allow Nigeria to strengthen its position as one of the leading countries of the African continent,” Anton Moskvin, Rosatom’s vice president for overseas marketing and business development, said in a statement.
The deals are the latest signed by Russia’s state nuclear agency as it looks to expand in Sub-Saharan Africa beyond a planned bid to build nuclear power plants in South Africa.
The deal was signed on behalf of Rosatom by Moskvin while Simon Mallam, chairman of Nigeria’s Atomic Energy Commission, signed on behalf of Nigerian government on the sidelines of a nuclear conference in Abu Dhabi.
Feasibility studies for the new nuclear power plant, which would be the first in the continent’s main crude oil exporter, include site screening and financing schemes, Moskvin said.
Rosatom, South Korea’s Kepco, France’s EDF and Areva, Toshiba-owned Westinghouse and China’s CGN are competing for South Africa’s project, which could be worth tens of billions of dollars to develop up to 9,600 megawatts, should it get the green light amid cost concerns in a stagnant economy.
South Africa’s Koeberg power plant is the only commercial nuclear site in Africa.

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Nigerian farmers accuse telco firm MTN of aiding terrorism with unregistered sims

Nigerian farmers in the northeastern part where Boko Haram terrorists have continued to commit havoc on the region have asked wireless telecommunications operators to block SIM cards that haven’t been formally registered by their users, saying such sims aided the activities of the terror group.

They particularly accused the local unit of South Africa telecom firm MTN of being a major culprit in the unregistered sims saga.

The farmers believe that unregistered SIMs make it easier for Boko Haram to communicate, coordinate attacks and recruit youths without being detected by authorities.

“We will stage a protest against MTN and take necessary legal action if it fails to comply with this directive within 48 hours,” Mohammed Sani, the head of the region’s association of small-holder farmers, said on Monday.

MTN was fined $1 billion by the federal government last year for missing a deadline to disconnect about five million subscribers in a security crackdown. 

MTN is Nigeria’s market leader with more than 50 million customers base according to latest data from the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC).

A spokesman for MTN’s local unit in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, couldn’t immediately comment when contacted by phone.
Boko Haram began a violent campaign in 2009 to impose its version of Islamic law on Africa’s most populous country of more than 180 million people. Farming communities in the northeast have been among the most vulnerable to the group’s bombings, kidnappings and hit-and-run attacks.
“Unproductive youths of the region could be properly harnessed into productive use through agriculture,” Sani said. 

“No serious, commercial scale and employable farming activity can take place without the security of lives and property.”
MTN Nigeria’s customer numbers have been revised down from 60 million in the past six months as it refined the definition of what counts as a subscriber, the company said last week. 

The shares traded 0.4 percent higher at 122.97 rand at the close in Johannesburg on Monday, valuing the company at 232 billion rand

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IMF says rising debt, political risk dim sub-Saharan Africa's economic outlook

Economic growth is expected to rise to 3.4 percent in sub-Saharan Africa next year from 2.6 percent in 2017, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a report on Monday.

The Fund, however, warned that rising debt and political risks in larger economies would weigh down future growth.
Nigeria and South African are the biggest economies in Africa south of the Sahara, but both nations have been clouded by political uncertainty linked to the tenure of their leaders.
The IMF said a good harvest and recovery in oil output in Nigeria would contribute more than half of the growth in the region this year while an uptick in mining and a better harvest in South Africa, as well as a rebound in oil production in Angola, will add to growth.
South Africa has been clouded by the rule of Jacob Zuma, who has battled scandals, including corrupt allegations ahead of his ANC party’s conference in December to elect a new party leader.
“Key downside risks to the region’s growth outlook emanate from the larger economies, where elevated political uncertainty could delay needed policy adjustments and dampen investor and consumer confidence,” the IMF said in a report launched in Harare.
“A further pickup in growth to 3.4 percent is expected in 2018, but momentum is weak, and growth will likely remain well below past trends in 2019.”
To help maintain growth, countries should diversify from dependence on commodities and oil, implement fiscal reforms to stimulate growth and attract private investment.
The IMF said public debt would rise to 53 percent of GDP this year from 48 percent in 2016. More worryingly, most countries were now borrowing from local banks, which could destabilise the domestic financial sector and fuel inflation.
Debt servicing costs were also up, but high debt levels were, in particular, complicating the economic outlook for six nations, including Zimbabwe, which is gripped by a crunch forex shortage.
“Debt servicing costs are becoming a burden, especially in oil-producing countries ... and are expected to absorb more than 60 percent of government revenues in 2017,” IMF said.
While some countries had made progress in reducing their fiscal deficits, others, like Africa’s most advanced economy South Africa would see the deficit widen.
South Africa last week raised its estimate for this year’s budget deficit, saying the country faced sluggish economic growth, shortfalls in revenue and costly bailouts of struggling state-owned companies.
Inflation pressures are easing especially in east Africa, which was hit by drought and the governments there increased maize imports to cut food prices. But in other places like Zimbabwe the high cost of imports is raising price pressures.

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Nigeria sees inflation fall to single-digits next year

Nigeria has projected that its consumer inflation rate will decelerate to a single digit level by the middle of next year, its central bank governor, Godwin Emefiele has said.

“We are very optimistic that food prices will come down, and as they come down it will help to complement the reduction in core inflation,” Emefiele said on the sidelines of an investment conference at the London Stock Exchange last week.

He said he expected a “more aggressive moderation.”
According to him, “We are hoping that by the middle of next year we should begin to approach the high single digits,” he said. Around nine percent would be a good target, he said.

Emefiele also said he would like to see low-interest rate as well as low inflation figure in the coming year.

“I would like to see low-interest rates and I would like to see low inflation and I would he happy to see it as quickly as possible. When? I cannot categorically say.”

He said as the economy began to hit thresholds on inflation and other gauges, he expected the monetary policy committee would begin to look at interest rate cuts a bit more favourably and think about easing.

Annual inflation in Nigeria slowed for an eighth month in September, easing to 15.98 percent.
Nigeria, which has Africa’s largest economy, emerged from its first recession in 25 years in the second quarter as oil revenues rose. But the slow pace of growth suggests the recovery remains fragile.

However, the central bank held interest rates at 14 percent in September to keep liquidity tight, saying it felt that loosening would worsen inflation and drive bond yields negative which could lead to capital flight and hurt the currency.

Asked about the outlook for unifying the country’s multiple exchange rates, Emefiele said Nigeria needed to see more foreign investors coming and was analysing the situation on which further steps to take.
In April, Nigeria introduced the Investors & Exporters FX Window”, which allows investors and traders to swap nairas for dollars at market-determined rates.
“We are beginning to get it right, and all I want to do is to continue to enforce what we are doing, and we will not want to take any action that ...will upset any gains that we have seen so far.”
The World Bank forecast Nigeria’s economy to grow by one percent in 2017 - 0.2 percentage points below its forecast in April.

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Positioning Nigeria for a prosperous future -Kemi Adeosun

Since the middle of 2014, when the price of crude oil fell dramatically, Nigeria’s finances became challenged. This is not hard to explain: we’ve historically depended on crude oil for as much as 70 percent of government revenues, and 90 percent of foreign exchange earnings. 

The outcome – pressure on government’s finances – was by no means unusual. A similar fate befell most oil-rich countries around the world.
Where Nigeria possibly stood out was in the fact that during the preceding three years when oil prices were in excess of 100 dollars per barrel, the Government did little in terms of saving and investing for the future. Our Sovereign Wealth Fund, which was established in October 2012 with just US$1 billion, did not receive any further inflow during the oil price boom. Instead, billions of dollars were squandered through corrupt oil and defence contracts. It is a terrible thing for a country to fall on hard times without a savings buffer. There was nothing unexpected about our downturn. It was the inevitable result of the choices we made or didn’t make during the years of boom.
What is remarkable, yet not as talked about, is the way we have worked so hard to exit the recession, reset the economy and reposition it for a brighter future for the present and future generations of Nigerians. The Administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is laying the foundation for the kind of economic growth that makes a real impact in the lives of citizens.
The downturn has inspired unprecedented levels of fiscal responsibility, in line with President Buhari’s determination to fight Nigeria’s endemic corruption.
Shortly after taking office, he issued a Presidential order mandating the immediate implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) system, consolidating thousands of government accounts scattered across deposit money banks into a unified system that is transparent and easy to centrally monitor and track. Under the old system, it was common for government accounts to be converted into personal use, but under the TSA this is impossible. Also, the proliferation of accounts encouraged rent-seeking rather than questionable practices.
Budgetary reform has also taken a lot of our time and attention. We are pioneering the use of software to prepare our annual budgets, which allows greater transparency and the ability to track changes.
We have insisted on using biometric verification in the deployment of our Social Investment Programme, which includes a Job Scheme for unemployed graduates, a School Feeding Scheme for Primary School Pupils, a Conditional Cash Transfer scheme targeting a million of our poorest citizens, and a Micro-Credit scheme for artisans, farmers, and traders. In the past the Social Investment payments would have been done as cash handouts.
A similar insistence on biometric verification for the federal payroll has resulted in the detection of tens of thousands of bogus beneficiaries – or ‘ghost workers’, as we often refer to them, in Nigeria – and savings running into billions of naira every month.
We are pursuing unprecedented cooperation with foreign governments and powers, as part of our transparency and anti-corruption drive. For the simple reason that a disproportionate amount of public funds looted in Nigeria end up in the United Arab Emirates’, Nigeria has signed bilateral agreements with the UAE Government on extradition, exchange of information, and repatriation of stolen public funds.
One strong demonstration of our political will has been a Whistleblowing Scheme we launched months ago that empowers citizens to report public corruption. The impact in terms of recoveries has exceeded our expectations. The tighter rein on public finances allowed us to invest $500 million in our Sovereign Wealth Fund, during a recession.
A lot of the work we have done over the last two and half years has been focused on dismantling the old ways of doing things, rebuilding them, and empowering and fortifying our institutions with technology to block loopholes, discourage abuse, and prevent a relapse into the destructive ways of the past.
The new Nigeria we seek will not happen without this kind of foundational reform that imposes on us new ways of thinking and of doing things. The early results are already being seen. A concerted focus on agriculture has seen our rice imports from Thailand dropping by 90 percent between 2015 and 2016, and replaced by locally grown variants.
As oil has let us down, we have started to do what we should have done decades ago, invest in agriculture and mining. Throughout the recession, agriculture recorded healthy growth. As we emerge from the recession, its impact is certain to multiply and position Nigeria for a prosperous future.
Let me point out that the most important elements of any reform effort tend to be the least flamboyant. We are confident that in the months and years ahead, Nigerians and the world will see the full impact of the foundational resetting that the Buhari administration has been focused on since 2015.
There is, of course, a lot of resistance to reform, by vested interests within and outside the system. But we are not fazed. The work of reform goes on. It is, to borrow from the Nigerian novelist, Chinua Achebe, morning yet on Creation Day. Not very long from now, Nigerians and the world will look back on this recession we have just emerged from, and realise that it was the turning point in Nigeria's journey to true growth and greatness.

* Adeosun is Nigeria’s Minister of Finance

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Nigeria to promote transparency in extractive sector - VP

Nigeria will continue to embrace transparency in the extractive sector because it is in the country’s overriding national interest to do so, said the country's Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Osinbajo stated this during a bilateral meeting with the Chairman of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), Fredrik Reinfeldt, on the sidelines of the just-concluded EITI Beneficial Ownership Conference in Jakarta, Indonesia.
“Transparency in this sector is very important for Nigeria. It is in our enlightened self-interest to do so because of the strategic nature of this sector to our economy. So we are doing this more for ourselves," Osinbajo said.

He noted that Nigeria has made such commitments to promote transparency in the sector with all sense of seriousness, not because it was looking for applause or commendation, but because the country was convinced they are in its best interests.

At the bilateral meeting on Monday, the Vice President reaffirmed the Buhari administration’s commitment to a sustained EITI implementation in Nigeria and the establishment of a publicly accessible register of the ultimate owners of companies operating in the country.
Earlier in his keynote address, Prof. Osinbajo had noted that the EITI implementation was in line with President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s anti-corruption drive, and the commitment the President made at the May 2016 London Anti-Corruption Summit.
The Vice President pledged that the administration will continue to support the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) to deliver on its mandates.
The EITI Chairman, a former Prime Minister of Sweden, commended Prof. Osinbajo for his “outstanding speech” at the opening plenary and pledged that the EITI board and secretariat will continue to support Nigeria in its initiatives. Reinfeldt also praised Nigeria for attaining “meaningful progress” at the last validation despite the complexity of EITI operation in Nigeria.



Validation, which provides an independent assessment of EITI implementation, is used to assess whether a country implementing the EITI has met the requirements for compliance with the EITI Standard.



The EITI, a global standard to promote prudent management of oil, gas and mineral resources, is implemented in 52 countries, including Nigeria, which signed up to the initiative in 2003 and started implementation in 2004. The implementation of EITI in Nigeria is backed by the NEITI Act 2007. Nigeria is regarded as one of the leading EITI-implementing countries as its operations have shaped the evolution of the global body.



The EITI Beneficial Ownership Conference brought together representatives of governments, companies and civil society groups to exchange ideas and share practices on how to end secret ownership in the extractive sector in all EITI-implementing countries by January 2020.



Others at the bilateral meeting include the Minister of State for National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, who is also a member of the EITI board; the Nigerian Ambassador to Indonesia, Mr Hakeem Balogun; and the Executive Secretary of NEITI, Mr. Waziri Adio. Accompanying the EITI chairman were Mr. Eddie Rich and Mr. Pablo Valverde, both of the EITI Secretariat in Oslo, Norway.

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Lafarge Africa to raise 25 bln naira in commercial paper

Lafarge Africa, the local unit of Franco-Swiss group LafargeHolcim plans to issue 25 billion naira in a commercial paper on Monday as part of a 60 billion naira programme, a senior company official has said.
The company also intends to raise 131.65 billion naira in a rights issue from existing shareholders subject to the approval of capital market regulators. It has filed a request for approval with the market regulators and expecting approval soon.
Lafarge, which announced a loss of 40.37 billion naira last year due to foreign exchange debt said the capital and debt issuance are parts of its bids to refinance its outstanding debt.
The company, however, reurned to profit at the end of its nine months financial year, posting a pretax profit of 1.09 billion naira .
Lafarge has invested mainly in Nigeria where it has around 11 million tonnes capacity with another 4 million tonnes in South Africa. It started exports to Ghana in the third quarter.
Already, the parent firm LafargeHolcim has expressed support for the planned capital raise promised to subscribe to its shares including converting its quasi-equity in the company to ordinary shares.
The company outstanding debt stood around 225 billion naira and with the plan capital raise it may cut back on its indebtedness to below 200 billion naira.

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Men who have performed oral sex on 5 or more partners prone to head and neck cancer

Men who have performed oral sex on five or more partners have the highest risk of HPV-related head and neck cancer, a new study shows.
While the current rate of diagnoses is low - affecting just 0.7 percent of the male population - researchers at Johns Hopkins warned men may not be aware that they have a far higher risk than women, especially if they smoke.
The study, released today, is the latest piece of evidence to show that boys do need the HPV vaccine as much as girls - and in some cases, it is more pressing for males.
When the vaccine was first rolled out, it was only provided to teenage girls to protect them from HPV-related cervical cancer.
But data suggest the incidence of oropharyngeal cancer will overtake cervical cancer in the US by 2020 - and sexually active men have a high risk.
There are over 100 different kinds of HPV but only a few are known to cause cancer.
HPV strains 16 and 18 are already known to trigger most cervical cancer, and HPV16 also causes most oropharyngeal cancer.
But the new paper, published in the leading cancer journal Annals of Oncology, says we now need to go a step further: we could better curb the rate of HPV-related cancers if we identify who is most at-risk and why.
'For these reasons, it would be useful to be able to identify healthy people who are most at risk of developing oropharyngeal cancer in order to inform potential screening strategies, if effective screening tests could be developed,' said lead author Dr Amber D'Souza, associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
'Most people perform oral sex in their lives, and we found that oral infection with cancer-causing HPV was rare among women regardless of how many oral sex partners they had.
'Among men who did not smoke, cancer-causing oral HPV was rare among everyone who had less than five oral sex partners, although the chances of having oral HPV infection did increase with the number of oral sex partners, and with smoking.'
The researchers analyzed data on 13,089 people between the ages of 20 and 69 who were part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and had been tested for oral HPV.
They then compared those data with federal figures on oropharyngeal cancer diagnoses and deaths to predict the risk of cancer from oral HPV.
They also specifically investigated the numbers of new cases of oropharyngeal squamous cell cancer (OSCC) - the commonest type of oropharyngeal cancer.
The researchers found that women had a low risk of oral HPV infection from oral sex in general - regardless of their number of sexual partners.
Those who'd had one or no oral sex partners had the lowest rate of cancer-causing oral HPV - affecting 1.8 percent of smokers and 0.5 percent of non-smokers.
If women had had two or more oral sex partners in their lifetime, the rate of infection increased slightly to 1.5 percent.

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Nigeria to spend 8.6 trln naira in 2018, GDP at 3.5 pct, Inflation at 12.12 pct - budget document

President Buhari

Nigeria plans to spend 8.6 trillion naira for the 2018 fiscal year, up 15.59 percent against 7.44 trillion naira 2017 budget, details from the 2018-2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy has shown.
President Muhammadu Buhari has submitted the document to the National Assembly this week ahead of the presentation of the 2018 budget proposal.
The document revealed the government proposes to spend 1.16 trillion naira more next year.
The fiscal policy document also showed that the government intends to increase the deficit component of the budget to 2.95 trillion naira in 2018 against 2.36 trillion contained in this year’s budget.
The government of President Buhari has consistently increased its budget proposal since its first fiscal policy in 2016. Its first budget in 2016 was 6.06 trillion naira, while in 2017 the government raised its spending proposal to 7.44 trillion naira.
Next year, the government projected a total revenue generation of 5.65 trillion naira, which was 11.22 percent more than the amount proposed for this year.
The revenue was based on 2.3 million crude oil bpd at the benchmark price of $45 per barrel and at a conversion rate of 305 naira to the dollar exchange rate, compared with 2.2 million bpd at a benchmark price of $44 per barrel.
Major expenditure heads include N12.12tn for recurrent and N2.03tn for capital expenditure.
The fiscal policy paper expects the economy to grow at 3.4 percent in 2018 and inflation rate of 12.42 percent.

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Nigerian financial market this week - Citibank

The naira traded the week between 359.00 and 361.00 per dollar as daily turnover in the investor and exporter (I&E) FX window continues to grow. 

Daily turnover in the I&E window yesterday was $269.48 million. 

Overnight rates remained elevated in double digits throughout the week as CBN continued its mop of liquidity through OMO issuances. 

Overnight rates opened at 26 percent and closed at about the same rate. 

The yields on 30-60-day T-bills rose as a consequence of the tight money markets. 

The 30, 90, 180 and 364-day bills opened in the secondary market at 20.52 percent, 17.18 percent, 17.46 percent, and 16.13 percent respectively, and closed at 21.30 percent, 17.15 percent, 17.15 percent, and 15.40 percent. 

There will be a bond auction next week with 50 billion naira each of the 2021 and 2027 bonds on offer. 

Bond yields inched down week-on-week. The 2020, 2021, 2022, 2027, 2036 and 2037 maturity bonds opened in the secondary market at 14.54 percent, 15.07 percent, 15.11 percent, 14.85 percent, 14.83 percent, and 14.71 percent respectively, and closed at 14.53 percent, 14.77 percent, 14.89 percent, 14.82 percent, 14.81 percent, and 14.76 percent. 

We expect overnight rates to remain elevated for most of the coming week and hence short end bills. Bonds would likely trade within a -10/+10 band as the market looks to the primary auction to get a wider gauge of investor interest.

(C) Citibank Nigeria

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Nigeria's Ecobank Ceo slams 100 mln naira suit against Police over harrasement

Kie, Ecobank CEO

The chief executive officer of Ecobank Nigeria Limited, Charles Kie, has filed a 100 million suit against the Nigerian police for harassing him over his refusal to conduct an illegal transaction on its behalf.
Kie, who was seeking the protection of the Federal High court in Lagos to enforce his fundamental rights, said he now lives under the fear of police intimidation and harassment.
According to the Ecobank CEO lawyer, Anthony Idigbe, Kie claimed that the police had been stalking him, with the aim of forcing Ecobank to “illegally” transfer $10.5 million from the account of one of its customers to a third party.
In the suit, the plaintiff said some policemen had invaded the headquarters of the bank on September 28, seeking to arrest him “on the grounds that he refused to comply with their instruction to illegally transfer the sum of $10.500,000 from a customer’s account to a third party account.”
In a ruling on Thursday, Justice Muslim Hassan ordered that status quo should be maintained pending the final determination of Kie’s N100m suit against the police.
The judge said the police should be put on notice and adjourned hearing in the case till November 9.
In the suit, which he filed through his lawyer, Chief Anthony Idigbe (SAN), Kie claimed that the police had been stalking him, with the aim of forcing Ecobank to “illegally” transfer $10.5m from the account of one of its customers to a third party.
He said some policemen on September 28 besieged the Corporate Headquarters of Ecobank on Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island, Lagos, seeking to arrest him “on the grounds that he refused to comply with their instruction to illegally transfer the sum of $10.50 million from a customer’s account to a third party account.”
He accused the policemen of bribing some security personnel stationed at the entrance of his office, asking them to disclose his movement and residential address to them.
He said the “damaging scene” caused by the Police at the headquarter's of the bank during its invasion disrupted the bank's business activities.

He said he had since been living under the fear of police intimidation and harassment, which he said had in turn been taking its toll on Ecobank’s daily business activities where he has the responsibility of making key decisions daily.

He sought an order of perpetual injunction restraining the police from “harassing, oppressing, detaining, arresting and/or intimidating the applicants or their officers or interfering, in any way, with the personal liberty of the applicants or the smooth running of their business in any manner whatsoever that will breach the fundamental rights of the applicants.”

In his ruling, Justice Hassan ordered the parties to maintain status quo while he adjourned till November 9, to hear the main suit.

Joined as respondents in the suit were the Inspector-General of Police; the Lagos State Commissioner of Police; DCP Bolaji Salami; and one Akin Jegede.

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Nigeria's GTbank profit before tax rises 8.7 pct to 150 bln naira in Q3

Nigeria's top tier 1 bank, Guaranty Trust Bank has posted a profit before tax of 150.03 billion naira for the third quarter of the year, ended Sept. 30, about 8.72 percent higher than the figure posted the same period of last year.
The bank profit after tax rose 7.25 percent to 125.57 billion naira in the same period, compared with 117.08 billion naira in the corresponding period last year.
The bank said in its financial results published on Thursday, its interest income surged to 248.270 billion naira from 181.91 billion posted the previous year, while total assets increased to 3.21 trillion naira from 3.12 trillion naira reported at the end the third quarter of last year.
GTBank loans and advances to customers dropped to 174.86 billion naira in the period from 178.07 billion naira, representing about two percent drop.

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African Dev Bank plans $24 bln investment in Agriculture to boost food security

President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Nigerian born Akinwunmi Adesina has unveiled plans by the bank to invest $24 billion in agriculture over the next 10 years in a bid to unlock its potential and assure food security in the continent.

Adesina, who spoke on the sideline of the ongoing Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, USA on Wednesday, said AfDB would provide support to strengthen African agricultural research and development systems to play significant roles in the transformation processes.

He expressed the need for supportive public policies and significant investments in infrastructure, especially for roads, irrigation, storage, warehousing and agro-processing.

Adesina, a former Agriculture Minister in Nigeria, said the support was to ensure that valuable research no longer simply gathered dust on the shelves of academia.
He said AfDB’s Feed Africa strategy had launched the Transformation of the African Savannah Initiatives (TASI) to help unlock the potential of the Savannas of Africa.
He said that the initiative would start by bringing approximately two million hectares of savannah in eight African countries – Ghana, Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia and Mozambique.
According to him, the countries come under the cultivation of maize, soybean and livestock production in optimum conditions.
“Success in this endeavour requires that we wake up the savannas of Africa. When we do so, African agriculture will indeed rise up from its slumber," Adesina noted.
“Let’s wake up Africa’s savannas and turn them into the new wealth zones of Africa and unleash Africa as a global powerhouse in food. Together let arise and feed Africa.
“Valuable research must meet the needs of farmers and agri-businesses in ways that exponentially increase productivity and improve the quality of lives of our rural poor.
He said Africa must learn from the experiences that have worked elsewhere while tailoring the interventions to the specific realities of the continent.
“We must ensure that small, medium scale and large-scale commercial farmers co-exist in a way that allows opportunities for all. ” Partnerships in research and development will be crucial,” Adesina said.

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How Nigerian corporates are dealing with financing pressure - United Capital

The recent economic recession in Nigeria was evident in the severe pressure on corporate performances. 

A combination of weaker revenue, higher production cost, bloated finance expenses and unbearable impairment losses hammered profit margins across sectors. 

To restore positive GDP growth via expansive fiscal response, the federal government embarked on a broad-based borrowing scheme driving the cost of funds in the local debt market to record high amid higher inflation rate and a very aggressive monetary policy stance. 

Although an attractive yield environment has, evidently, been positive for FX liquidity, it also crowded-out corporate debt issuers from the domestic market. 

Accordingly, the Primary segment of the equities market witnessed increased activities, as a number of consumer and industrial goods companies resorted to the relatively expensive equity capital raise (compared to debt) via right issues.

However, the banks opted for the relatively low-cost Eurobond market, leveraging on their decent credit profile and improving economic fundamentals to boost medium-term capital need and meet the demand for their foreign currency transactions. 

Since Q4-16: ZENITH ($500mn); UBA (500mn) and ACCESS (300mn) and Fidelity ($400mn) have issued Eurobond, totalling $1.7 billion.

As macro headwinds subside, we highlight that there is a need for concerted effort by fiscal and monetary authorities to ensure a more corporate-friendly interest rate environment.

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Why SEC suspends trading on shares of Oando

Wale Tinubu, Oando Ceo

The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) placed a technical suspension on transactions on the shares of Oando Plc after its finding revealed some weighty transgression by the energy company, which has been under investigations since early July this year.
A full suspension is the halt of trading activities in a listed security for a period while a technical suspension is the interruption of price movement in a listed security for a period so that any dealings in the securities which occur during the period of the suspension will not result in any change in price, which change may have occurred had the suspension not been implemented.
For the wise investors, many of them have dumped the shares of the company since the controversy on the ownership structure of the company began in July with the share falling from 8.35 naira per share in July to 5.99 naira a share on Wednesday.
The suspension, which takes effect from Wednesday and until further notice did not come as as a surprise to many discerning investors in the Nigerian capital market as the energy company has been in the news for a while over some allegations by two shareholders of the company.
Following the receipts of two petitions written by Alhaji Dahiru Barau Mangal and Ansbury Incorporated against Oando, the capital market regulator has swung into action to unravel the fact behind the figures of the energy firm.
The outcome of the investigation was considered weighty by the regulator after findings revealed that -Oando has breached some of its rules and regulations.
-Some of the revelations from the SEC investigations include:
-Breach of the provisions of the Investments & Securities Act 2007
-Breach of the SEC Code of Corporate Governance for Public Companies
-Suspected insider Dealing
-Related party transactions not conducted at arm’s length
-Discrepancies in the shareholding structure of Oando Plc. Etc.”
Consequently, SEC decided to place a technical suspension on trading on the shares of the company till further notice and ordered further investigations; this time around a forensic audit of the books of Oando to be conducted by a consortium of experts made up of auditors, lawyers, stockbrokers and Registrars, to protect the interest of the investing public.
Allegations against Oando and its principal officers by the petitioners are that; the company has mismanaged shareholders’ fund committed fraud by altering the ownership structure in favour of some serving directors of the energy company.

Oando had acquired the oil production assets of Conoco-Phillips in 2014 at a cost of $1.65 billion, while aside borrowing from some local commercial lenders, the company was said to have also sourced funds from some key investors, which included the two petitioners to enable it pay for the acquisition.

However, in its response to the petitions, Oando has stated that the allegations against it have no merit as the issues raised have received board, shareholder and where required SEC approval. Other matters highlighted by the petitioners could have been directed to the Company and would have received the necessary clarification.

It further stated that Ansbury Incorporated, one of the petitioners was not a shareholder of the Company, but a shareholder in a company domiciled in a jurisdiction outside Nigeria which in turn holds shares in a Nigerian investment company that is a shareholder in Oando.

Also on the stand of Alhaji Dahiru Mangal that he holds a 17.9 percent interest in the energy firm, Oando said the allegation was false based on the records of shareholders of the company.

It said its records showed that the said Mangal owns approximately 4 percent of Oando PLC’s shares in his personal capacity.

“He is yet to disclose beneficial ownership of 13.9 percent in accordance with Section 95 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, Cap. C20 LFN 2004 (‘CAMA’); failure to do so is a violation of CAMA and this has been flagged by the Company in writing to Alhaji Mangal and the SEC since Wednesday, 24th May, 2017,” the company said.

The outcome of the fresh forensic audit of the company books will determine the future of the oil company that has since it was transformed from a public-owned oil firm to a private sector driven has increase its operations in the the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors.

Oando was an offshoot of defunct Esso Africa, a petroleum marketer and local subsidiary of the United State Exxon Corporation now ExxonMobil and was acquired by the federal government in 1976 as part of its indigenisation policy. The government later in 1992 during its privatization programme sold its majority shares in the company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and it was rebranded Unipetrol Nigeria with the shares listed on the local bourse.

By 2000. Ocean and Oil, a private investment company led by Nigerian entrepreneurs Adewale Tinubu and Omamofe Boyo acquired a 30 percent controlling interest in Unipetrol Plc. In 2001, Ocean and Oil increased its stake in Unipetrol to 42 percent via an irredeemable convertible loan stock issue.

In 2002, Ocean and Oil led Unipetrol's bid for a 60% stake of Agip Nigeria Plc, a rival petroleum marketing firm, owned by Agip Petroli BV, an Italian-based oil company. The merged company was named Oando PLC in 2003, making the company the largest downstream petroleum marketing company in Nigeria.



In 2005, Oando Energy Services was incorporated as an integrated Oilfield Services company to achieve the group’s objectives in the upstream services industry.

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