Nigeria's Forte Oil to raise up to 100 bln to fund expansion

Nigeria's Forte Oil said it plans to raise up to 100 billion naira ($503 million) to expand its operations in the country, Africa's biggest economy, and will seek shareholder approval at its annual general meeting on April 26. The company may raise the funds through a rights issue, bond or share offering, or global depository receipts, according to a statement issued on Thursday. "The capital raising is part of our preparations to take advantage of opportunities in the economy," Akinleye Olagbende, Forte Oil's chief compliance officer, told Reuters. Olagbende...

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Nigeria to raise 219 billion naira in Treasury bills

Nigeria plans to raise 218.89 billion naira in short-dated treasury bills on April 7, the central bank said on Wednesday.The bank said it will sell 55.40 billion naira of three-month and 33.49 billion naira of six-month bills and 130 billion naira of one-year debt, using the Dutch auction system.The results of the auction are expected to be released on Thursday. According to the central bank's issuing calendar for treasury bills, the same amount of bills on offer will also be due for repayment the day of the auction.Nigeria issues treasury bills...

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US, Nigeria in talks on currency control, devaluation

The United States government is ready for talk with its Nigerian counterpart on the need to make the naira exchange rate flexible in a bold move to increase economic activities in Africa’s biggest economy. President Muhammadu Buhari is slated to travel to the US on Wednesday to join other world leaders on discussion on Nuclear, but American officials are willing to take advantage of the summit to discuss other economic related issue with the Nigerian...

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Nigeria's overnight interbank closes higher at 13 pct

Nigeria's overnight interbank lending rate closed at 13 percent on Thursday, down from the initial quote of 20 percent after fresh injection of cash call payment to joint crude oil production partners by government hit the banking system. In early trade, the overnight lending rates was quoted at 20 percent after the central bank recalled some 400 billion naira ($2.02 billion) from the banking system to meet a new cash reserves ratio (CRR) on deposits. On Tuesday, Nigeria's central bank raised its benchmark interest rate from 11 to 12 percent,...

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Nigeria raises 115 bln naira in Treasury bills at higher yields

Nigeria sold 114.97 billion naira ($579.05 million) worth of three-month to one-year treasury bills on Wednesday at higher returns than in its previous auction, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said on Thursday.The debt office said 18.12 billion naira of three-month paper was sold at 5.99 percent, up from 5.74 percent at a sale on March 3. Emefiele, CBN Gov It raised 13.68 billion naira of six-month debt at 8.30 percent against 7.95 percent, while...

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Nigerian bond yields rise after rate hike aimed at luring investors

Nigerian bond yields spiked across the curve on Wednesday after the central bank unexpectedly tightened monetary policy in an about-turn to curb inflation and attract foreign investors.The central bank on Tuesday raised its benchmark rate to 12 percent from 11 percent, having cut rates only four months ago by 2 percentage points, and lifted the cash reserve ratio for commercial banks to 22.5 percent from 20 percent.Yields on the benchmark 20-year bond rose 55 basis points (bps) to 12.7 percent while the 10-year yield climbed 45 bps to 12.65 percent....

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Nigeria central bank raises benchmark interest rate to 12 pct

Nigeria's central bank raised the benchmark interest rate from 11 to 12 percent, Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele said on Tuesday. The bank also raised the cash reserve ratio for commercial banks to 22.5 percent from 20 percent. And it held the liquidity ratio at 30 perce...

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IFC, EIB and Ecobank Deepen Partnership to Boost SME Finance across Africa‏

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), parent company of the Ecobank Group and leading pan-African full-service banking group, today signed a landmarkrisk-sharing agreement that will help fill the gap in financing for small and medium sized enterprises in some of Sub-Saharan Africa’s poorest and most fragile countries.Under the agreement, EIB, which is already a key partner in IFC’s Global SME Finance...

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Tanzania searches for "ghost workers" on public sector payroll

Tanzanian authorities have launched a national audit to find "ghost workers" and remove them from civil service payrolls under a corruption crackdown ordered by the president, a minister said.The public sector wage bill has escalated sharply over the past few years, analysts say, partly because of the numbers of people registering fake names to collect extra wages.A 2015 audit found the government had paid 141.4 billion shillings ($64.80 million) to fake workers over that year. "We are conducting an audit of employees across the entire civil service...

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Nigeria's parliament to start debating petroleum bill next week

Nigeria's Senate president said on Monday that the country's parliament would start debating next week an amended Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), a much-delayed plan to overhaul the vital energy sector hit by graft and mismanagement. President Muhammadu Buhari has made it a priority to get approval for the PIB, which has been in the works for a decade. The bill is meant to change everything from taxes to overhauling state oil firm NNPC, environmental...

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Nigeria's NNPC withheld $25 bln between 2011 and 2015 - RMAFC

Nigeria's state oil company failed to remit 4.9 trillion naira ($25 billion) to the public purse between January 2011 and December 2015, the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) said on Tuesday.It is the latest announcement on the issue of remittance by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in recent days. Last Monday the auditor-general said 3.2 trillion naira was not remitted in 2014, which NNPC later denied....

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Nigerian interbank rate rises on bonds settlement

Nigeria's overnight interbank lending rate inched up marginally week-on-week to an average 6 percent on Friday, up from 5.5 percent last week, as the naira cash level dropped after payment for bonds and treasury bills purchases. Nigeria raised 125 billion naira worth of bonds with maturities ranging between 5 and 20 years this week, with settlement due on Friday, while 166.58 billion of treasury bills were issued at the primary market on Wednesday. Traders said the central bank offered 50 billion naira in the open market operations (OMO) bills...

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Nigeria raises 125 bln naira in 5-, 10-, 20-yr bonds at lower yields - debt office

Nigeria raised 125 billion naira in local currency-denominated bonds maturing in 2036, 2026 and 2020 at an auction on Wednesday, paying lower yields than at the previous auction on Feb. 10, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said on Friday. The office said it had sold 40 billion naira of 2036 paper at par with 12.40 percent yield, 40 billion naira of the 2026 debt at 12.09 percent returns against 12.39 percent at the previous auction in February. It also sold 20 billion naira of the 2020 debt at 11.33 percent against 12.19 percent previously. The...

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Africa's richest man Dangote bids for Peugeot Nigeria stake

Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man, has teamed up with two Nigerian states to bid for a majority stake in Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN) Limited, a local joint venture with the French automaker, the governor of Kaduna State said on Thursday. Dangote Governor Nasir El-Rufai said the states of Kaduna and Kebbi, along with development lender Bank of Industry (BoI) and Dangote had submitted bids for the stake which AMCON, Nigeria's state-backed...

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Nigeria inflation at almost 3-1/2 year high in Feb - Stats office

Nigeria's annual consumer inflation rate rose 11.4 percent in February, 176 basis points higher than in January, to near a three-and-a-half year high, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Tuesday. Africa's biggest economy is facing its worst economic crisis in decades fuelled by the collapse in crude prices, which has slashed government revenues, weakened the currency and caused growth to slow. The economy grew 2.8 percent last year, its slowest pace in decades. Food prices, which account for the bulk of the inflation basket,...

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Egypt announces more flexible exchange rate policy as it devalues pound

Egypt's central bank devalued the pound on Monday and said it would move to a more flexible exchange rate policy in an effort to rebalance markets and ease a foreign exchange shortage that had stifled business activity and hit confidence.Egypt devalued the pound to 8.85 per dollar from 7.73 and simultaneously pumped nearly $200 million into the dollar-starved banking system in a surprise sale. Dollars "The Central Bank of Egypt has decided to follow...

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Nigerian interbank rate rises on cash shortage

Nigeria's overnight interbank lending rate rose week-on-week to an average of 5.5 percent on Friday, up from 3.5 percent last week, as naira cash dries up in the banking system after payment for dollar and treasury bills purchases.Nigeria issued 160 billion naira worth of 213-day treasury bills at an open market operations (OMO) auction on Monday at 7.75 percent returns.The central bank also directed commercial lenders on Tuesday to pay for their dollar purchases 48 hours in advance of its Thursday intervention in the official interbank forex market,...

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Nigerian tribunal adjourns asset declaration case against senate president

A tribunal considering false asset declaration charges levelled at Nigeria's Senate President Bukola Saraki, the third most powerful person in the country, was adjourned on Friday to deal with questions over its authority. Saraki Saraki, who heads the upper house of parliament, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he falsely declared his assets when he was governor of the central Nigerian state of Kwara from 2003 to 2011. The hearing has just...

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Lower fuel costs, savings to narrow Kenya Airways losses

Kenya Airways expects to report an improvement in operating profit and narrower losses for the year ending in March because of savings made by reducing the size of its fleet and lower fuel costs, its chief executive officer said. Kenya Airways Mbuvi Ngunze also told Reuters that the airline expects to receive the second $100 million tranche of its $200 million bridging loan within a month, part of a broader plan to keep the carrier flying after...

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Zimbabwe looks to the sun as drought hits hydropower

Zimbabwe is pushing forward with plans to build four new solar power plants, amid a drought that has battered its ability to generate hydroelectricity.Severe dry conditions - linked to the El Niño weather phenomenon bringing extreme weather around the world - are affecting big and small producers of hydropower alike.Phillip Muwungani of Chipendeke village, 70 km southeast of Mutare city, said his community’s vision of producing its own clean electricity using water is fading.Drought has affected water levels in Chitora River which powers the Chipendeke...

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South Africa's MTN offers $1.5 bln to settle Nigeria fine

South African telecoms firm MTN Group has offered $1.5 billion to settle a much larger fine from Nigerian regulators for missing a deadline to disconnect unregistered SIM card users, a document seen by Reuters shows. MTN Africa's biggest mobile phone group has been in talks with Nigerian authorities to have the $3.9 billion penalty reduced and last month made a "good faith" payment of $250 million towards a settlement.In a letter to the Nigerian...

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IEA says oil prices might have bottomed out

Oil prices might have bottomed as production declines in the United States and other non-OPEC producers are accelerating and an increase in supply from Iran has been less than dramatic, the International Energy Agency said on Friday.The IEA, which coordinates energy policies of industrialised nations, said it now believed non-OPEC output would fall by 750,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2016 compared to its previous estimate of 600,000 bpd.U.S. production alone would decline by 530,000 bpd this year, it said."There are clear signs that market forces...

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Nigeria's state oil firm NNPC makes more management changes

Nigeria's state oil company, the main revenue earner in Africa's biggest crude producer, has appointed more senior managers in a continued overhaul of the firm, it said on Friday.The announcement comes a day after unions ended a strike to protest against government plans to restructure the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which will be split into upstream, downstream, gas power marketing, refinery groups, and ventures divisions. nL5N16I1RBPresident Muhammadu Buhari, who took office last May, has prioritised overhauling Nigeria's...

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Nigeria to raise 1.07 bln naira from T-bills in Q2

Nigeria plans to raise 1.07 trillion naira from treasury bills issuance in the second quarter of 2016, the central bank said on Thursday.The bank said it would auction 303.77 billion naira worth of 91-day bills, 169.98 billion naira worth of 182-day paper and 599.63 billion of one-year paper between March 17 and June 2.Africa's biggest economy raised 1.22 trillion naira from treasury bills in the first quart...

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Nigeria's electricity generation sinks to 1,580MW

General power failure across African biggest economy in the past few days may worsen as reports showed a partial system collapse at the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), while a major drop in electricity generation due to vandalisation of pipelines that supply gas to the power plants. according to the latest report, power generation has dropped to 1,580.6 megawatts by Wednesday, deeming hope of restoration of power supply in many home across...

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Nigeria's anti-graft agency discovers $1 mln cash in ex-military chief mansion

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission told a Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday that its operatives found cash sum of $1m in the bedroom of an Abuja mansion of the former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh (retd). Badeh, ex-CDS The anti-graft agency alleged that the ex-CDS purchased the house in which the money was found with dollar equivalent of N1.1bn said to have been fraudulently removed from the accounts of the Nigerian...

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Nigerian policymaker advised central bank to devalue naira -MPC minutes

A member of Nigeria's central bank monetary policy committee(MPC) has said the naira should be devalued and allowed to trade within a band, saying that the fixed exchange rate would not work alongside a planned rise in government borrowing. Adedoyin Salami, an academic, said the naira was 10-percent over-valued and voted to move the exchange rate band to plus or minus five percent from 220, minutes from the 12-member MPC January meeting showed. Nigeria faces its worst economic crisis for decades as the falling price of oil has slashed revenues,...

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Nigeria aims to end refined petroleum imports within 18 months

 Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer, wants to remove the need for imported petroleum products within 18 months, Minister of State for Petroleum Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said on Tuesday.Nigeria's four refineries have never reached full production because of sabotage and poor maintenance, causing the country to rely on expensive imported fuel for most of its energy needs."We must target between the next 12 to 18 months we should be able to get out of importations of refined products," Kachikwu, who is also head of the Nigerian National Petroleum...

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Ghana consumer inflation slows to 18.5 pct in February

Ghana's annual consumer price inflation fell to 18.5 percent in February from 19.0 percent the month before, helped by the stability of the local currency, the statistics office said on Wednesday.Consumer prices could fall further if the cedi holds steady and in the absence of any external shock, deputy government statistician Anthony Amuzu told reporters in Accra. After weakening nearly 4 percent in January on seasonal high corporate dollar demand, the cedi GHS=, has remained firm in recent weeks. It was trading at 3.8500 to the greenback on Wednesday,...

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IFC and Fidelity Bank to expand digital financial services in Ghana‏

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, said on Wednesday it has signed an advisory agreement with Fidelity Bank Ghana to expand agent andmobile banking in Ghana.  The agreement is designed to make financial services more easily available to low-income customers, small-scale entrepreneurs and rural communities, according to a statement by the two organisations.Fidelity Bank was the first bank in Ghana to deploy agent banking to expand formal financial services to previously unbanked...

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