Nigerian fx reserves down 3.4 pct in Sept 28

Nigeria's foreign exchange reserves fell to $24.59 billion by Sept. 28, down 3.37 percent from the previous month, latest central bank data showed on Friday, as the bank stepped up its intervention to prop up the ailing naira currency.

The reserves of Africa's largest economy stood at $25.45 billion last month. The reserves had declined 19 percent from a year ago.
The central bank has been selling the dollar to support the currency, but the naira hit a fresh all-time low of 490 per dollar on the black market on Friday
"Dollar is very scarce in the market right now because many people don't know how low it will fall in the near term, so people are holding on to their hard currencies in order to watch the direction of the market," one dealer said.
Traders from neighbouring countries and some importers had also been moving in recently, mopping up dollars and putting pressure on the naira in a possible speculative bid, Aminu Gwadabe, president of the association of bureau de change operators told Reuters.

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Gas shortages turn Nigeria's Dangote to coal to make cement

Nigeria's Dangote Cement has turned to locally-mined coal to fire its cement plants because of gas shortages due to militant attacks on Nigerian facilities and to lower its production costs.
"All our cement plants have been converted to coal," Aliko Dangote, the company's billionaire majority owner and chairman, told a business conference on Thursday, adding they would use 12,000 metric tonnes of coal each day.

Dangote is shifting to coal rather than gas to fire the kilns which produce clinker, an ingredient of cement.
BUA Group, said it is also switching one of its plants in northern Nigeria to run on coal to fire its kiln to address fuel shortages. It said technological advances have helped in the processing of coal to reduce emissions. Dangote’s main cement plant is also located in northern Nigeria.
BUA Group said its other plants in the south of the country still run on gas to heat the kilns.
Coal's use to generate U.S. electric power fell in April to its lowest monthly level since 1978, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a June report. Natural gas, meanwhile, surpassed coal as the United States' top fuel source for the third straight month, the EIA said.
But gas shortages have plagued Nigeria, with militants in the oil heartland of the Niger Delta regularly disrupting the West African nation's oil and gas production.
Dangote, Africa's biggest cement producer, has an annual production capacity of 43.6 million tonnes and targets output of between 74 million and 77 million tonnes by the end of 2019 and 100 million tonnes of capacity by 2020.
The company has invested more than $5 billion to expand outside its home market in the past few years.
Dangote said Nigeria has become a cement exporter generating $1.25 billion of sales as against annual imports of $2.5 billion which the country would have spent before the sector was liberalised in 2002.
(C) Reuters News

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Woman kidnaps sister’s daughter for 30,000 naira ransom

Nigerian Police, Lagos State command has arrested a Ghanaian, Enyolam Believe, for her involvement in the kidnapping of her niece in the Ikotun area of the state in her attempt to raise 30, 000 naira for a business venture.

Believe, a resident of Lagos for the past 17 years, was alleged to have conspired with her friend, Agatha Aigbomiam, to kidnapped her eight-year-old niece on her way to school and taken to Ogun State by Aigbomiam.
The victim was said to have raised the alarm which drew the attention of residents, leading to the arrest of both suspects.
A police source said 43-year-old Believe and the victim’s mother had searched for the child, including reporting a case of missing person at a police station.
He said, “The suspect and the girl’s mother are sisters. Believe, however, colluded with her friend, Aigbomiam, to abduct the girl so that she could make money from the mother.
“Their plan was that the friend would kidnap the child and hide her somewhere in Ogun State, while she would negotiate the ransom with the mother on the phone.
“When the girl went missing, the girl’s mother called her and they both searched for the girl. She even suggested that they should report the case to the police. The mother never suspected that she was behind the kidnap.”
The source said while people were looking for the girl, the suspect was also trailing the movement of her friend and the victim on the phone.
He said the kidnapped girl, while in captivity, raised the alarm that Aigbomiam was not her mother and called for help from some Ogun residents, who came to her aid.
The matter was said to have been reported to a community leader, who invited the police.
The source said, “When the police discovered that Aigbomiam was not alone in the crime and she was receiving calls from Believe, they decided to play along. They asked her to invite Believe to Ogun State.
“It was when she arrived that the police arrested her. The case was subsequently transferred to Lagos State where the offence was committed. That was where the mother of the girl saw that her own sister was behind her ordeal.”
The suspects, who were paraded before journalists at the police command headquarters in Ikeja on Thursday, confessed to the crime.
Believe said she hoped to make 30,000 naira from the kidnap, adding that she needed the money for a business.
She said, “I have my own children. I needed money badly that time and I thought of different ideas, which didn’t work. So, I decided to kidnap my sister’s daughter and demand 30,000 naira ransom from her. I involved my friend because I didn’t want to be the one to take the girl from school. I don’t know what came over me.”
Aigbomiam, a 42-year-old trader from Ekpoma, Edo State, said Believe asked her to kidnap the victim after she returned from a surgery in Benin.
“She said she wanted to use the girl to collect some money from her sister. She just showed me the girl’s school and I kidnapped her around 7.30am on Tuesday, while she was going to school. I took her to my relative’s house in Ogun State. I was stupid for doing such a thing.”
The state Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, while advising parents and guardians to be vigilant over their children and wards, said the suspects would be arraigned in court at the end of investigation.

(C) Punch Newspaper

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Nigerian naira hits new low as dollar shortage persists

Nigeria's naira tumbled more than five percent to another record low against the dollar on the black market on Thursday, as a dollar shortage persisted.
Low prices for oil, the country's top foreign currency earner, have drained the country's forex reserves, which hit an 11-year-low of $24.61 billion on Tuesday.

"Dollar is very scarce in the market right now because many people don't know how low it will fall in the near term, so people are holding on to their hard currencies in order to watch the direction of the market," one dealer said.
Traders from neighbouring countries and some importers had also been moving in recently, mopping up dollars and putting pressure on the naira in a possible speculative bid, Aminu Gwadabe, president of the association of bureau de change operators told Reuters.
Gwadabe, however said about $15 million may be sold to bureau de change operators on Friday by Travelex in line with the central bank's instruction accompanied its licensing of 11 new international money transfer operators last month.
"Our members are already filling forms at the Travelex office to get the supply and we hope this will help reduce pressure on the naira as the full implementations of the central bank's policy address the supply gap gradually," Gwadabe said.
He said bureau de change operators are expected to buy the dollar at 346 to the dollar from Travelex and sell to forex endusers at 356 a dollar.

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Exotix Partners on Nigerian banks: Just a flesh wound

·   Back under coverage, with a mix of Buys and Holds. We reinstate coverage on Nigerian bank bonds with Buy recommendations on the First Bank of Nigeria, Zenith Bank, GT Bank and Access Bank 2017 bonds and Hold recommendations on the Access Bank 2021, Ecobank Nigeria, Diamond Bank and Fidelity Bank securities. Most bonds’ prices have recovered relative to YTD lows, but valuations do not appear stretched relative to other frontier market peers. Further, spreads on Nigerian bank bonds are still between 1.5x and 6.1x the spreads on equivalent sovereign bonds.

·   We see GT Bank as the most resilient. We think GT Bank is best placed to navigate the challenging operating environment. Zenith Bank also has solid fundamentals. Like GT Bank, this lender fares relatively well in our currency-based stress test. Access Bank has so far exceeded expectations on almost all fronts, including capital and asset quality, and profitability compares well to most peers. We believe valuations of the FBN bonds already reflect the challenges there.

·   Fundamentals are weaker than before. It has been a difficult year for the Nigerian banks. There have been a number of profit warnings and delayed results. There have also been rating downgrades and the banks have had to deal with the impact of a currency devaluation. In most cases, asset quality and capital metrics are weaker than at the start of the year. It is hard to see all this as ‘just a flesh wound’. However, a number of lenders booked very significant gains as a result of the devaluation. This helped offset some of the impact of much higher provisions and weaker core revenues on net income. Having said that, the economic slowdown has clearly taken its toll on bank fundamentals and things may get worse before we see a meaningful recovery.

·   NGN1,000 to US$? We estimate the impact that significant currency weakness could have on banks’ capital ratios in four exchange rate scenarios. We do not expect local currency weakness of the magnitude in our more severe scenarios, but given lingering concerns about the disparity between parallel and official exchange rates and the ability of the CBN to continue to support the NGN, we believe it is useful to assess the potential impact of significant NGN weakness on the banks. We believe GT Bank and Zenith Bank are best placed to weather further potential NGN weakness. These two banks’ capital ratios remain the highest in the peer group in our currency stress test.

·   Handle stress test results with care. Our stress test does not take into account any impact on Tier-1 or total capital from currency weakness. Further, the stress test assumes no change in NGN-denominated risk-weighted assets as FC-denominated RWAs rise, and assumes the banks take no remediation measures (such as asset sales) to offset the impact of a weaker local currency. These are important caveats as in our stress test, all the banks end up with single-digit total capital ratios in the most extreme scenario of NGN1,000/US$. 

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African economic growth dips to two-decade low - World Bank

Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa is likely to slip to 1.6 percent this year, its lowest level in two decades, due to continuing woes in the continent's largest economies South Africa and Nigeria, a World Bank report said on Thursday.

Africa has been one of the world's fastest growing region's over the past decade, but a commodities slump has hit its oil and mineral exporters hard, bringing growth down to 3 percent in 2015.
However, other countries, including Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Tanzania, have continued to record GDP growth above 6 percent, according to "Africa's Pulse", the Bank's twice-yearly analysis of economic trends.
The report, which was unveiled in Ivory Coast's commercial capital Abidjan, also singled out Ivory Coast and Senegal as top performers.
"Our analysis shows that the more resilient growth performers tend to have stronger macroeconomic policy frameworks, better business regulatory environment, more diverse structure of exports, and more effective institutions," said Albert Zeufack, World Bank Chief Economist for Africa.
Growth will pick up slightly to 2.9 percent next year, the report said, and Africa's economies are expected to expand by 3.6 percent in 2018.

(C) Reuters News

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US, Singapore and Switzerland Are World's Most Competitive Economies

The World Economic Forum's new Global Competitiveness Report 2016-2017 looked at 138 nations, and it put the United States, Singapore and Switzerland at the top.
The organization announced :

This year's edition highlights that declining openness is threatening growth and prosperity. It also highlights that monetary stimulus measures such as quantitative easing are not enough to sustain growth and must be accompanied by competitiveness reforms. Final key finding points to the fact that updated business practices and investment in innovation are now as important as infrastructure, skills and efficient markets.
One other conclusion was that central banks cannot save the world's economy no matter how low they drop interest rates or buy back fixed income instruments.
Based on recent history, only a few nations have the wealth and the research and development facilities at the government and individual company level to "invest in innovation" via both invention and access to capital.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) starts the report with a relatively negative point of view:
The Global Competitiveness Report 2016–2017 comes out in the context of persistent slow growth and a near term outlook that is fraught with renewed uncertainty fueled by continued geopolitical turmoil, financial market fragility, and sustained high debt levels in emerging markets. Despite unorthodox monetary policy, global GDP growth has fallen from levels of 4.4 percent in 2010 to 2.5 percent in 2015. This fall in growth reflects not only the productivity slowdown documented in last year's Report, which has continued during 2016, but also what now seems like a long-term downward trend in investment rates.
Several international organizations, including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have made similar warnings about growth.
However, all is not lost:
On the bright side, tremendous promise for higher economic growth and societal progress dawns with the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Based on digital platforms ,the Fourth Industrial Revolution is characterized by convergence of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres.
The WEF lists aging populations, income inequality and a slowing of productivity as the major challenges to these changes. None of those is likely to change soon, and the aging population is a problem that cannot be solved for the time being.
Following the United States, Singapore and Switzerland at the top of the list are Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden.
Virtually undeveloped countries are at the bottom: Yemen, Chad, Sierra Leone, Burundi and Mozambique. No surprises there.

(C) Wall Street Journal

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Nigerian naira hits new record low of 460 per dollar on black market

The Nigerian naira plunged further to a new record low on Wednesday, down 1.76 percent against the dollar on the parallel market even as dollar supplies dry up.
The local currency fell to 460 to the dollar on the black market, down from 452 at the close of trading on Tuesday.
Though the naira closed at 305.50 to the dollar on the official interbank market against 305 a dollar the previous day, traders said dollar liquidity remains a major challenge in the market. "Trading has continued to be thin on the interbank market as the dollar shortage persists while demand for the greenback remains strong," one dealer said.

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MTN denies illegal transfer of $14 billion from Nigeria

 South Africa's MTN on Wednesday denied allegations it illegally repatriated $13.92 billion from Nigeria, the latest setback for the telecoms firm in its biggest but increasingly problematic market.
The upper house of Nigeria's parliament agreed on Tuesday to investigate whether Africa's biggest telecoms company illegally transferred the money out of the West African country between 2006 and 2016. 

"The allegations made against MTN are completely unfounded and without any merit," MTN Nigeria Chief Executive Ferdi Moolman said in a statement. MTN shares fell more than 3 percent on Tuesday and slipped another 0.4 percent on Wednesday.
The allegations first appeared in a motion proposed by Senator Dino Melaye to launch an investigation and come as Nigeria struggles with its first recession in a generation and chronic foreign currency shortages due to a slump in oil prices.
The Senate motion said Stanbic IBTC,  Standard Chartered Bank, Citigroup and Diamond Bank were involved in the alleged illegal transfers, while Trade and Investment Minister Okechukwu Enelamah was among people used by MTN to help repatriate the funds.
Citi and Diamond Bank declined to comment, a spokesman for Stanbic was unavailable and Standard Chartered said it would cooperate fully with law enforcement agencies. A spokesman for Enelamah did not respond to requests for comment.
The Senate move is likely to raise tensions between Nigeria and MTN just three months after the Johannesburg-based firm agreed to pay a greatly reduced fine of 330 billion naira to end a long-running dispute over unregistered SIM cards.
MTN is the largest mobile phone firm in Nigeria, which is the continent's biggest economy and accounts for a third of MTN's revenue. The company had threatened to pull out during the SIM card row, before the fine was reduced by nearly 70 percent.
POWER STRUGGLE
Clement Nwankwo, director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, a think-tank in the capital Abuja, said the Senate move might stem from a power struggle between parliament and President Muhammadu Buhari's office over how MTN's fine was cut.
"(Presidency officials) negotiated to reduce the fine and the committees of the National Assembly were upset," Nwankwo said.
In June, following the SIM card fine settlement, parliament said it would investigate the legality of the deal. On Friday, MTN denied paying a bribe to secure the reduction.
The crux of the allegation in the motion is that MTN's bankers did not inform the central bank in time when the company brought in hard currency five to seven years ago. This meant MTN did not have certificates showing it had brought the money in so it could repatriate funds earned at its Nigerian business.
The motion alleged that the banks then issued certificates of capital importation worth a total $13.92 billion subsequently - but without central bank approval - so the South African firm could repatriate the hard currency.
The bankers were in "strict violation" of Nigeria's foreign exchange laws, the motion said, calling for an investigation as such practices were not healthy for a country struggling to come out of an economic downturn.
The naira has lost more than a third of its official value since a peg was removed in June and this week hit a record low against the dollar on the black market.

© Reuters News 

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Ghana's economic growth slows in Q2 as oil output falls

Ghana's economic growth slowed to 2.5 percent in the second quarter compared with a year earlier, provisional official data showed on Wednesday, due mainly to a temporary halt in oil production.
Ghana saw sustained GDP growth of above 8 percent until 2013, helped by exports of gold, cocoa and oil, but then slumped because of lower global commodity prices and a fiscal crisis that forced it to secure an aid deal with the International Monetary Fund that began last year.

"The economy is growing but not at the same rate as in the first quarter, when it was 4.8 percent," government statistician Philomena Nyarko told a news conference, adding that revised 2015 second quarter GDP stood at 3.8 percent.
The slowdown in the second quarter was mainly due to a halt in oil production caused by a technical fault at Ghana's main production vessel, or FPSO, Nyarko said.
The offshore Jubilee field operated by British company Tullow Oil was Ghana's first field, producing around 100,000 barrels per day. Output stopped between March and May, however, due to the fault. It has since resumed.
"Between 2015 Q2 and (the same period in) 2016 the year-on-year (oil sector) growth rate was negative 49 percent and that was due to the shutdown of the FPSO. That is the major issue that is accounting for the lower GDP growth rate," Nyarko said.
In August, Ghana opened a second field and the government hopes its oil and gas will boost the economy.
The economy is key for voters in the run-up to an election in December, when President John Mahama faces opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo in what is expected to be a tight vote.
The government says it is fixing fiscal problems and the economy will return to a growth rate above 8 percent in 2017. The opposition says only it can rebuild the economy and put it on a sustainable footing.
Ghana's producer price inflation rose to 11.1 percent year-on-year in August from a revised 10.4 percent in July, Nyarko said. PPI is a major component of consumer inflation, which has for years remained above government targets.
(C) Reuters News

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Nigeria to raise 250-340 bln naira in bonds in Q4 -debt office

Nigeria plans to raise between 250 billion naira and 340 billion naira ($794.91 million-$1.08 billion) in local currency-denominated bonds in the fourth quarter, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said on Tuesday.
The debt office said it would auction between 90-120 billion naira worth of bonds maturing in 2021, 70-100 billion naira in the debt maturing in 2026 and 90-120 billion naira worth in the paper maturing in 2036.
In its latest issuance calendar, the debt office said the bonds will be re-opened from previously issued debt.
Nigeria had planned to raise between 305-395 billion naira worth of debt in the third quarter but ended up issuing 460 billion naira worth.
Nigeria issues sovereign bonds monthly to fund its budget deficit, support the local bond market and create a benchmark for corporate issuance.
Nigeria said it will borrow about 900 billion naira locally to finance part of the 2.2 trillion naira deficits in its 2016 budget.

(C) Reuters News

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Nigeria’s external debt is uniquely of top investment grade - debt office

      By Abraham E. Nwankwo
As Nigeria reforms, restructures and strategizes towards pulling back the economy unto a path of inclusive and sustainable growth, it is useful to pay detailed attention to the sectors and subsectors. This is because while summary pictures succeed in showing the prevailing conditions, the secrets to the various pieces of the solution lie in the details.

That is, appropriate disaggregation is good for effective diagnostics, analytics and strategics, as well as for understanding investor calculus. In respect of Nigeria’s public debt, it is important conceptually and practically, to recognize that the domestic and external components are conditioned and governed by dynamics that are considerably different. 

Indeed, it is pertinent to note that in spite of the drastic drop in the country’s foreign exchange earnings, following the oil-price shock since mid-2014, the external debt liability hardly constitutes a source of vulnerability. What are the sources of strength in Nigeria’s external debt profile? 

At the end-June 2016, external debt accounted for only 18.33 percent of the country’s total debt stock of about 16 trillion naira ($61 billion) – compared to the optimal target of 40 percent established in the country’s medium-term Debt Management Strategy (2016-2019). 

Moreover, within that very small external debt, concessional debt (with average interest rate of about 1.25 percent per annum and average tenor of about 40 years) accounted for about 80 percent of the total. 

Similarly, the ratio of the external debt to the GDP was only about 2.24 percent as at end-June, 2016 – compared to the internationally defined threshold for external debt, of 40 percent for the applicable peer group. Correspondingly, the external debt service accounted for an insignificant proportion of the total public debt service expenditure: The annual external debt service expenditure for the last 5 years was always less than 6.5 percent of the total public debt service outlay. These features reflect the strategic stance taken after the exits from the Paris and London Club debts in 2005 and 2006 respectively. 

Nigeria deliberately decided to develop and to depend more on the domestic bond market as a reliable alternative source of borrowing by the government. This was to avoid compelled dependence on external sources. 

We need to evaluate the ability of the country to service its external debt as and when due. The capacity to service external debt is defined in terms of the cover provided by export earnings of the borrower. The external debt stock is currently about 23 percent of the export earnings, whereas the applicable threshold is 150 percent: this means that the indicator is seven times stronger than it needs to be. Similarly, the external debt service is currently about 0.74 percent of total export earnings, compared to the applicable threshold of 20 percent: this means that this liquidity indicator is 27 times stronger than what is required to guarantee that the external debt can be serviced as and when due. In addition, there is an administrative safeguard: since 2005, Nigeria’s prudential public debt management practice has been that debt service charge is the topmost item in the sequence of the line of expenditures in the budget.

Only very few other developing economies could boast of such a healthy and attractive external debt condition. Therefore, taken by itself, Nigeria’s external debt is uniquely of top investment grade. Empirically, this position is well supported by investors and the markets. That is why in spite of global economic, financial and foreign exchange tribulations, as well as local structural challenges which have manifested since mid-2014, Nigeria’s Eurobonds have continued to trade creditably at stable low yields relative to the weight of the challenges and compared to other countries’ Eurobonds. For example, Nigeria’s 10-year Eurobond (2013-2023), which traded at an average yield of about 6.945 percent for 2015 and at 8.680 percent for January 2016, has been trading at a daily yield of between 6.147 percent and 6.571 percent so far throughout the month of September 2016. Similarly, the current yields on both the 2013 – 2018, 5-year Eurobond and the 2011-2021, 10-year Eurobond are lower than their January 2016 figures by about 280 basis points and 215 basis points, respectively. In summary, Nigeria’s Eurobonds are substantially in greater demand and are more highly priced than they were about a year ago. 

What do these market statistics show? One, they show that after the initial distraction and exhibition of historically-ingrained pessimistic tendency, investors and the markets have had to realign to the reality that Nigeria’s external debt is, indeed, of a top-class grade – it is adequately insulated from shocks, even deep ones. Two, they show that investors are confident that Nigeria has the capacity to move, and is moving, from economic downturn to turn around and prosperity – in spite of initial glitches. 

Three, they show that no matter how much the speculative invasion unleashed against Nigeria’s economy by unimaginative and analytically-static credit rating and news agencies (for examples, Standard & Poors and Bloomberg News, on September 16, 2016), the boundless investment opportunities, market resilience and positive dynamics of ongoing reforms, which characterize Nigeria’s economy, are well-known to, and usefully digested by, real investors – local and foreign. Four, and finally, they show that investors have substantial appetite for new Eurobond issues from Nigeria – an appetite which, in spite of acknowledged alternative investment destinations, only Nigeria can satisfy. 

*Dr. Nwankwo is the Director-General of the Debt Management Office (DMO)

 NIGERIA: EXTERNAL DEBT RATIOS AFTER PARIS & LONDON CLUB DEBTS EXITS

Year	(a) External Debt Stock as Percentage of Total Debt Stock (%)	(b)  External Debt Stock/GDP Ratio (%)	(c)  External Debt Stock/Export Ratio (%)	(d)  External Debt Service/Export Ratio (%)
2006	20.43	4.28	15.79	20.05
2011	13.64	3.10	8.40	0.50
June, 2016	18.33	2.24	23.37	0.74
Applicable Limit	40.00*	40.00	150.00	20.00

*Established in Nigeria’s Debt Management Strategy, 2016-2019

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African Development Bank aims to lend Nigeria $4.1 bln for power and farming

The African Development Bank (AfDB) is set to lend Nigeria a total $4.1 billion over 2016 and 2017, and $10 billion by 2019, its president said on Monday, to help Africa's biggest economy plug its budget gap and develop its infrastructure.

Akinwumi Adesina said he would go to the pan-African lender's board next month to seek approval for a first, $1 billion loan to cover this year's deficit as Nigeria grapples with its first recession in more than 20 years.
"The bank is going to provide in total between 2016/2017 $4.1 billion to Nigeria in various areas," said Adesina.
"I expect that our portfolio in Nigeria will not decrease -- it will actually grow. We expect to invest in Nigeria, by 2019, a total of $10 billion."
Adesina said funds that the AfDB aims to lend over the next two years would be used to develop the power and agriculture sectors in the west African country, aiding a move away from the country's reliance on oil revenue.
Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun had earlier said the budget support facility would be concessional and carry an interest rate of 1.2 percent.
The OPEC member's economy has been shrinking largely as a result of the plunge since mid-2014 in oil prices, which generate 70 percent of government revenues. Additionally, attacks on energy facilities in the Niger Delta have cut crude production by around a third since the start of the year.
That has left Nigeria struggling to fund a record 6.06 trillion naira ($18.6 billion) 2016 budget that aims to stimulate growth by tripling capital expenditure.
Aside from a wealthy elite who have profited from oil wealth, most of the 180 million people in Africa's most populous nation live on less than $2 a day. Development has been held back for decades by poor power, road and rail networks.
Adesina, a former Nigerian agriculture minister, said the AfDB had invested $500 million dollars in the Development Bank of Nigeria, which is being set up by Nigerian authorities.
He said the government was appointing a team to run the bank which they expect to be in place as early as November.
The Ivory Coast-based AfDB was founded in 1964 and is funded by African nations and shareholder countries outside the continent.
Adesina said "diversification in critical sectors" such as agriculture and manufacturing were needed, and that incentives such as tax cuts needed to be provided to encourage infrastructure development by the private sector.
Earlier, finance minister Adeosun said the country was not borrowing too much. "What we are trying to do is to ensure that this money we are borrowing, we use it on the key infrastructure that will drive the economy," she said.
Last week the central bank left its benchmark rate at 14 percent, defying calls from Adeosun to lower rates so that the government could borrow domestically to boost the economy without increasing debt-servicing costs.
Adesina said the AfDB had "asked for the need for better synergies between the macro policy side and monetary policy side and also the fiscal policy side of the economy".

(C) Reuters News

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Nigeria plans 0.5 trln naira investment in housing to stimulate economy -finmin

Nigeria is planning about 500 billion naira new housing fund as part of its bid to stimulate the economy of the West African country and brings it back from recession and return it back to the path of growth, the Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, has said.

Adeosun, who fielded questions from some journalists in her office at the weekend, said a mass housing scheme that would make Nigerians become homeowners under a mortgage arrangement would commence in the next three to four weeks.
According to a statement by her media adviser, Festus Akanbi, the minister said under the initiative known as the ‘Family Home Fund’, the sum of N500bn had been earmarked to create mortgages for affordable houses for Nigerians, starting with the construction of 100,000 houses annually from next year.
According to her, the housing fund is expected to increase from N500bn to N1tn to make it possible for the government, through the private sector, to deliver about 400,000 houses annually through mortgages.
The mortgage, according to her, will be created at a single digit interest rate of 9.99 per cent payable in 20 years, with homeowners making an initial deposit of 10 per cent.
She said the low and middle-income earners would benefit more from the scheme as about 70 per cent of the houses would be given out for between N2.5m and N4.5m depending on the type.
Adeosun said, “We have done a lot of work around how we can bring down the cost. The tag is N2.5m and it is a house you can move into. So, we are bringing down the cost.
“These are affordable houses for Nigerians;the scheme is going to be linked with the BVN. One house per person; so, you cannot buy the house and rent it to somebody else.”

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Egypt eyes $10 bln in foreign investment as it upgrades infrastructure

Egypt hopes to attract $10 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) next year and will automate the process of establishing a company, its investment chief said, highlighting efforts to revive the economy and earn much-needed hard currency.

The most populous Arab country has been scrambling to attract investment needed to restore growth since the 2011 uprising, which ushered in protracted political turmoil and scared away tourists and foreign investors - key sources of hard currency.
Mohmmed Khodeir, CEO of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), said Egypt drew over $6.8 billion in FDI in the 2015-16 fiscal year and hoped for $10 billion in 2016-17 after big upgrades to ageing road and power infrastructure.
Khodeir said that not all the targeted FDI might come in dollars but all of it would be fresh investment.
"Egypt has had a very difficult five years preceded by a historical baggage of things that needed to be done and were not done, and Egypt has taken a decision to confront this," he told Reuters in an interview. "So you have issues such as subsidies being tackled, issues such as electricity infrastructure, files that have been left alone for so many years."
Egypt's cabinet approved a long-awaited draft law on investment last year aimed at making deals less vulnerable to legal disputes or changes in government, and reducing stifling bureaucracy. But the law was widely criticised over a lack of clarity on issues including taxes and the role of GAFI.
Khodeir said authorities were seeking feedback on the law, and this could form the basis for possible amendments.
"Learning from experience, we are adopting a very inclusive approach, making sure our stakeholders contribute their thoughts. We asked investors for their wish list..."
Khodeir would not say which aspects of the law might change. "There will be amendments if there is consensus within the market and the stakeholders that a new law is needed."
The government hopes a raft of new legislation will help slice through notorious red tape and make it easier and quicker for investors to do business.
Khodeir said the process of incorporating a company had been simplified through the introduction of a one-stop-shop, though securing regulatory licences remained slow.
"If you're a factory, you need certain specific regulatory approvals...That's the second phase that we're trying to embed into the one-stop-shop."
Khodeir said it would also be possible to incorporate a business online as early as next year. "We're working and doing everything we can to have it automated in 2017."
(C) Reuters News

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Cocoa prices fall as crop outlook improves, stops hit

Cocoa futures were sharply lower on Friday, with a decline linked to improving crop prospects for the 2016/17 season accelerating as sell-stops were triggered.
March New York cocoa was off $92 or 3.2 percent at $2,794 per tonne at 1408 GMT.
The market had rallied during the last few days from a low of $2,743 set on Sep. 12 to a peak on Thursday of $2,902.

"The short covering rally has ended in cocoa and we've seen the resumption of the downtrend ahead of presumed better crops in November, December," one trader said.
"Overall people are getting less concerned about next year's issues," the trader added.
Abundant rain and sun in most of Ivory Coast's main cocoa growing regions appears to have improved the outlook for the 2016/17 main crop in the world's top grower.
Global cocoa production is expected to rise in the upcoming season, which starts on Oct. 1, potentially swinging the market into surplus after a substantial deficit in 2015/16.
March London cocoa was off 41 pounds or 1.8 percent at 2,216 pounds a tonne.
ICE raw sugar futures also fell, extending the previous session's late decline.
March raws were down 0.04 cents, or 0.2 percent, at 22.63 cents per lb.
Dealers said the recent rally in raw sugar, which has risen to four-year highs in the past week, was driven by funds which are now beginning to cash out.
"The rally last Friday was very sustained for most of the day, and this means that there was new, fresh speculative money coming in to the market," said Carlos Mera, senior commodity analyst at Rabobank.
December white sugar futures were down $4.70, or 0.8 percent, at $587.00 per tonne.
November robusta coffee  was down $15, or 0.7 percent, at $1,987 per tonne. The contract touched a 19-month high of $2,028 in the previous session on supply concerns in top producers Brazil and Vietnam.
December arabica was down 2.05 cents, or 1.3 percent, at $1.5320 per lb.
Arabica coffee had also risen to its highest levels since February 2015 in the previous day's session.
"In arabica we have a different situation (from robusta). There was a very high crop, higher than in the past two years. It (the price) is still going up mainly because of speculation and probably some concerns that the first flowering in the arabica crop in Brazil may be failing," Mera said.

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Nigerian interbank rate eases as budget cash disbursed

Nigeria's interbank lending rate eased to around 15 percent on Friday, down from nearly 40 percent for overnight lending a week ago, as the disbursal of August budget allocations to government agencies boosted market liquidity.

Overall the market had a liquidity surplus of 283.61 billion naira at Friday's opening, compared with the previous week's deficit of 128 billion naira.
Nigeria distributes money monthly to its three tiers of government from a centrally held account fed by oil revenues and taxes, which helps provide liquidity and cut borrowing costs for the banking sector in Africa's biggest economy.
Traders said about 231 billion naira ($733.33 million) was injected into the banking system late on Thursday as states and local government were paid their budget portions.
The sale by the central bank of 201 billion naira and 206 billion naira of Treasury bills on Thursday and Friday did not fully offset the positive impact on market liquidity of the cash injection, dealers said. The bills were sold at yields of between 18 and 18.5 percent.
"We expect the central bank to continue to sell treasury bills in the coming days in its bid to reduce pressure on the local currency, with the consequent impact on interbank rate," one dealer said.
A persistent shortage of dollars in the official market, which effectively forces importers to use the unofficial market helped push the naira currency to a new record low of 436 per U.S. dollar on the black market on Thursday.
It remained stable on the official interbank forex market, however, closing at 304.50 per dollar on Friday, in line with levels around 305 seen over the last two weeks.
The naira however, gained by one naira to 435 a dollar on the black market on Friday from 436 a dollar closed on Thursday.
(C) Reuters News

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Tanzanian lecturer charged with insulting president on WhatsApp

A Tanzanian lecturer has been charged with insulting President John Magufuli in a WhatsApp message, a senior police official said on Friday, bringing the number of people charged under a tough new cybercrimes law to 10.

Magufuli, nicknamed "the bulldozer" for pushing through his policies, has won some praise from Western donors for anti-corruption drives and cutting wasteful government spending since coming to power in November.
But opponents accuse him of becoming increasingly authoritarian, undermining democracy by curbing political activity and restricting live television coverage of parliamentary sessions.
Insulting the president was made a criminal offense in Tanzania under a cybercrimes law passed last year, punishable by up to three years in jail, a fine of around $3,000, or both.
"The senior university lecturer was arraigned in court yesterday, and I think he was later released on bail," Julius Mjengi, police chief of the south-west Tanzanian town of Iringa told Reuters by telephone.
Police said the lecturer was charged with offenses under Tanzania's strict cybercrimes law. The lecturer denies the charges.
"The number of people who have been arrested across the country thus far for insulting the president has now risen to 10," Tanzanian newspaper Mwananchi said in an article on Friday.
Those who have faced trial for insulting Magufuli in recent months include students and opposition politicians.
A U.S. aid agency in March canceled nearly $500 million of funding for Tanzania partly on concerns over enforcement of the new cybercrimes law.
The U.S. government's Millennium Challenge Corporation said Tanzania has "engaged in a pattern of actions inconsistent with MCC's eligibility criteria" hence the decision to suspend its partnership with the East African nation.
(C) Reuters News

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MTN denies paying bribe to reduce Nigerian fine

South Africa's MTN denied it paid a bribe to Nigerian officials to reduce its fine to 330 billion naira ($1.05 billion) as part of settling a dispute over disconnecting unregistered SIM cards in the West African country.

MTN said in a statement on Friday there had been allegations that a top official in the Nigerian presidency took a payment towards reducing the fine.
The telecom group was initially fined $5.2 billion last October for failing to deactivate more than five million unregistered SIM cards.
In June, MTN agreed to pay a reduced fine of 330 billion in a settlement with the Nigerian government and said the fine will be paid by MTN Nigeria over three years.
Meanwhile, Sahara reporters an news website has reported that President Muhammad Buhari received evidence that his Chief of Staff (CoS), Abba Kyari, took N500m from operators of MTN to help the telecommunications giant mitigate the fine imposed on it by the federal government, SaharaReporters has learned.
Sources say the evidence was presented to President Buhari several times including during the Sallah holiday.
According to the website, the mind-boggling revelation is the latest in the mounting allegations of corruption involving members of the top echelon of President Buhari’s administration.
Sahara reporters noted that when the COS was confronted with the evidence, he claimed he was helping the All Progressives Congress party raise funds for the gubernatorial election in Bayelsa State, to which the president is said to have asked him if he was the party chairman, but did not relieve him of his post.
SaharaReporters has previously revealed several corrupt actions of the Chief of Staff. They include taking money from Jide Omokore, a shady businessman who was massively involved in corruption in the oil sector in the preceding administration.

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Nigeria naira at record black market low as dollar reserves shrink

Nigeria naira hit a new record low of 436 on the black market on Thursday as dollar shortages on the official market persist,traders said.
Traders said dollar shortage continue to fuel demand at the unofficial market, amidst declining currency reserves in Africa's biggest economy, traders said.

Nigeria's dollar reserves stood at $24.83 billion by Sept. 19, down 3.4 percent from a month ago, to its lowest level in more than 11-years, as the central bank sells the greenback on the interbank market to support the naira.
The naira ended at 305.50 per dollar on the official market, a level its has closed at for the past one month.
Traders said there had been no significant policy response to the fall in the reserves, further fuelling the concerns.
The naira was quoted at 315 to the dollar on the official interbank market on Thursday, down from 305 a dollar, where it had settled in the last one week.

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Guinness Nigeria gets Diageo loan to help with currency shortages

Guinness Nigeria said on Wednesday that it had received a $95 million loan from parent Diageo to help it cope with dollar shortages in the West African country caused by a slump in crude prices.
Chief finance officer Ronald Plumridge said the company's currency needs were much bigger than it was able to source locally and from its exports and so Diageo had stepped in with the loan.
The loan was priced at 3-month Libor plus 4.75 percent, he said.

Nigeria is in recession due to a slump in oil prices, which has hurt its currency and government revenues.
In June, the central bank floated the naira to try to resolve the dollar shortage and to preserve its dwindling foreign reserves. The naira lost a third of its value after the float.
"Longer term we intend to source raw materials locally," Plumridge told an analysts' call. "The mix of the business, FX impact and inflation, put pressure on the growth."
Guinness Nigeria on Tuesday recorded a pretax loss of 2.35 billion naira for 2016, its first loss in 30-years, hit by declining sales, dollar shortages and domestic inflation running at 11-year high of 17.6 percent.
It said it would cut its total dividend to 0.50 naira for 2016 from 3.20 naira a year ago and also cut 310 staff in the last quarter of the year, the CFO said.
Guinness plans to start local production of spirits half way through 2017 and to cut costs to revive profits, the company said.

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Flour Mills of Nigeria targets export to Europe, weaker naira helps

Flour Mills of Nigeria has exported 10 percent of its locally processed soya bean products for the first time to feed mills in Europe and North Africa, its chairman said, helped by a weaker domestic currency.

It exported 15,000 tonnes of soya bean products from its plant in Ibadan, southwest Nigeria, John Coumantaros told Reuters, after Nigeria floated its currency in June, which made the company's products competitive abroad.
The naira lost a third of its value after the central bank floated it to preserve its dwindling foreign reserves and resolve chronic dollar shortages caused by a slump in oil prices, which has frustrated businesses.
Flour Mills' plant, one of the largest soya bean mills in Africa, mills about 150,000 tonnes of soya beans a year into ingredients used for animal feed and vegetable oil, Coumantaros said.
He declined to say how much the exports fetched but said improved earnings in the first quarter reflected the export revenues. Nigeria's biggest flour miller posted first-quarter profit of 5.87 billion naira in August, up 393 percent from a year ago.
Coumantaros said he expected "palm kernel oil, soya bean meal and other processed exports from locally grown raw materials will achieve between $50 million to $100 million in potential exports within the next one to two years".
The firm aims to grow its use of local raw materials each year by 10 percent over the next five years, he said. He did not say how much the company currently imports.
Flour Mills has over the years invested in sourcing its raw materials, such as cassava, maize, rice, sugar and palm oil, locally and cut its import bill.
"Our supply chain is turning inwards. We are substituting for imports and exporting more," Coumantaros told Reuters in an interview.
Coumantaros said the food manufacturer is converting its wheat milling plant in Kano, northern Nigeria into a mill for locally sourced maize and sorghum.
Flour Mills will cut its capex for 2017 to around 15 billion naira ($47.62 million) after a five-year expansion period, during which it spent around $750 million to grow capacity, he said.

(C) Reuters News

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Nigeria central bank holds rates, defying reduction call

Nigeria's central bank kept its benchmark interest rate at 14 percent on Tuesday, resisting a call from the country's finance minister to lower borrowing costs.

Africa's largest economy is going through its first recession in more than 20 years, brought on by low oil prices, and inflation accelerated to an 11-year high of 17.6 percent in August. The naira has traded at a record low of 425 to the dollar on the parallel market since last week.
Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun said on Monday the central bank should lower interest rates so that the government can borrow domestically to boost the economy.
But after raising the benchmark interest rate by 200 basis points to 14 percent when it last met in July, the monetary policy committee decided to leave borrowing costs unchanged.
Central bank governor Godwin Emefiele said the MPC had considered calls for a rate cut but concluded that the biggest challenges the economy faces were "unsystematic and incomplete structural reforms" which raised "cost, risk and uncertainty".
Economists polled by Reuters last week predicted that the central bank would keep its benchmark interest rate at 14 percent and reiterate its focus on resuscitating growth.
"The Central Bank of Nigeria disappointed our expectation for further gradual interest rate tightening," Razia Khan, Chief Economist Africa at Standard Chartered Bank, said in an email.
"While the MPC resisted giving in to political pressure to cut interest rates, and positive real market interest rates provide an important mitigant to the lack of further policy tightening, nonetheless, we expect markets to be disappointed with this outcome."
(C) Reuters News

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Oil at six-week low as oversupply outweighs output freeze talks

Oil prices fell to the lowest in nearly six weeks on Tuesday as concerns over a potential rise in U.S. crude stocks, adding to swelling oversupply, outweighed OPEC comments that a possible production freeze agreement could last longer than expected.

Global benchmark Brent crude oil futures were trading at $45.20 per barrel at 1338 GMT, down 75 cents day on day and the weakest since Aug. 11.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 60 cents at $42.70 a barrel, also the lowest in nearly six weeks.
Analysts polled by Reuters expected U.S. commercial crude oil inventories to have risen 2.3 million barrels in the week to Sept. 16, paving the way for a bearish market reaction because a rise in stocks indicates growing oversupply.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) is scheduled to release its weekly crude stocks data at 2030 GMT on Tuesday.
Oil prices also reacted to comments made by Venezuela's Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino on Monday that global oil supply of 94 million barrels per day (bpd) needs to fall by about a tenth if it is to match consumption.
This outweighed comments made by OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo, and reported by RIA news agency, that a potential deal between oil producers to freeze output levels could last one year, longer than previously expected.
Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other oil producers are set to hold an informal gathering in Algiers next week, which the oil market hopes could lead to an agreement to freeze production levels.
Algeria's Energy Minister Noureddine Bouterfa said on Tuesday he was "optimistic" participants would reach consensus on how to prop up the oil market.
"I would not be surprised to see some short-covering in the second half of this week just ahead of the informal OPEC meeting," said Tamas Varga, lead oil analyst at London brokerage PVM Oil Associates.
Official data released late on Monday confirmed a rise in Saudi Arabian oil exports in July to 7.622 million bpd, up from 7.456 million bpd in June.
"(An output freeze) would only secure an even higher push of Saudi crude oil and would be a case where the proposed cure is worse than the disease," said Olivier Jakob, managing director of PetroMatrix in Switzerland.
A fire at Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura oil terminal which broke out on Tuesday morning and injured eight people did not affect operations and was extinguished, operator Saudi Aramco said.
Technical market indicators were also weak, with WTI likely to test support at $42.78 per barrel soon, after which a fall towards $42 would be likely, according to Reuters analyst Wang Tao.
For Brent, he said prices may test support at $45.63 per barrel and, failing to hold that level, could fall to just over $45 a barrel.

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Sterling slides to 5-week low as Brexit chatter weighs

Worries about the political and economic risks from Britain's pending exit from the European Union drove sterling to a five-week low on Tuesday in markets thinned by anticipation of U.S. and Japanese central bank meetings.

After a solid start, sterling slid 0.5 percent to $1.2960, its weakest level in five weeks against the dollar. It also lost 0.6 percent to 86.22 pence per euro.
While the economy has ridden out the immediate aftermath of June's vote to leave the EU better than financial markets had expected, the past week has brought the first serious discussions of the terms on which it will leave.
"The noise on Brexit over the past week has given us more reason to sell any rallies," said Tobias Davis, head of corporate treasury sales at Western Union in London.
"$1.33 was viewed as a short-term uptick by most in the market and a decent enough level to sell."
There was no obvious catalyst for Tuesday's moves but dealers said it was big picture worries over Brexit.
"The market in general is just starting to think that although it wasn't a complete disaster in the first couple of months, all of the big problems are still ahead of us," the head currency dealer with one large custodial bank in London.
The head of Germany's Bundesbank warned on Monday that banks based in Britain would lose "passporting" access to EU markets after Brexit unless the country remains in the broader European trading group that includes nations such as Norway.
London's huge financial sector accounts for around 10 percent of the UK economy as a whole.
According to figures compiled by sector regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), 5,476 UK-regulated financial firms use passporting rights to operate in other EU countries. But 8,008 EU firms also used them to sell services in Britain.
The custodial bank dealer - who asked not to be named - also pointed to the lack of support for the pound below post-Brexit vote low of $1.2798 but underlined that pricing was not there yet.
"It always looks heavy at the bottom and I do think this move might be a bit overdone. There is uncertainty, but that works both ways," he said.
This week's big focus is the Bank of Japan and U.S. Federal Reserve meetings both ending on Wednesday, with expectations higher for action by the former as it battles a strong yen and long-running low inflation.
That follows a Bank of England meeting last that stuck with a warning about the risks to the economy of the Brexit talks, saying it may still need to cut interest rates again this year.
Positioning data suggests investors have become net slightly less negative on the outlook for the pound in the past week while still holding massive "short" bets that leave them exposed to any rise.
Analysts from Dutch bank ABN Amro said they had upped their forecasts for the pound for the end of the year.
"With positions being this substantial, other positive surprises in UK macro-economic data will likely result in an enormous squeeze of these net-short sterling positions," ABN analyst Georgette Beale said.
"Our year-end forecasts for EUR/GBP and GBP/USD are 0.83 and 1.33, respectively. The risk is tilted towards the upside."
(C) Reuters News

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Nigeria must consider oil asset sales as foreign loans delayed -Senate leader

Nigeria must consider selling stakes in joint ventures with oil majors and other assets as talks to borrow abroad have not succeeded yet and would in any case not generate enough funds to stimulate economic recovery, the leader of the Senate said.
Senate President Bukola Saraki, the third most powerful official in Africa's biggest economy, also said the oil producer might struggle with recession for up to nine months or even longer unless it got serious about attracting investors.

The government said this month it had approved loans from China, the World Bank, Japan and the African Development Bank, but Saraki, whose relations with the president have cooled since last year, said such talks were still ongoing with no deals yet.
"There is a big hole now in the fiscal deficit because that funding is not coming through. So we've got to look for alternative ways to fund that," Saraki said in a joint interview with the Financial Times on Monday when asked about the loans.
The government has said it plans to borrow as much as $10 billion, with half of that coming from foreign sources, including a planned $1 billion Eurobond issue, to fund a budget deficit of 2.2 trillion naira ($7.21 billion) and boost an economy hammered by low oil prices and hard currency shortages.
Saraki said that even if the loan talks succeeded, the amount raised would not be enough to plug the hole in public finances. "My take is that even if it does come through, it's money too little, too late," he said, referring to the loan talks.
He said Nigeria needed to sell stakes in oil and gas joint ventures, oil exploration contracts and refineries to raise funds. "In my view, I really can't see any other pathway to recovery. We need investors, we need to raise capital."
Such an asset sale would be necessary even if global crude prices recovered to $70 a barrel and Nigeria managed to restore oil production to 2 million barrels per day (bpd) with an end to militant attacks in the Niger Delta oil hub, Saraki said. Officials say the attacks have reduced output by 700,000 bpd.
Saraki said Nigeria could overcome recession in six to nine months if swift action was taken -- a more downcast view than that of the government, which has forecast a quick recovery.
Central bank governor Godwin Emefiele was due to hold a news conference at around 1315 GMT after a meeting of the rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee. The finance minister said on Monday the central bank should lower interest rates so that the government can borrow domestically to boost the economy.
Economists polled by Reuters last week predicted that the central bank would keep its key interest rate at 14 percent and reiterate its focus on resuscitating growth.
The government has said it is considering asset sales, but has given no details.
"If we do things right, the confidence will come in," Saraki said. "If we carry on waiting for government revenues to go up, if we don't do anything seen as thinking out of the box" the recession could drag on longer.
Nigeria's 2016 budget was the largest in the nation's history, but the oil price drop and Delta attacks have left the government scrambling for funds.
Saraki is from the same ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as President Muhammadu Buhari, who was elected in March 2015 on a promise to end graft and mismanagement in the West African nation.
But relations between the two have been strained since Saraki ran unopposed for the position of Senate president last year, mainly with the backing of the opposition. He was not the APC's preferred candidate.
(C) Reuters News

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YOU AND YOUR CAR: Dashboard Warning Lights and What Do They Mean?

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Oil climbs as Venezuela sees output deal

Oil prices rose on Monday from multi-week lows after Venezuela said OPEC and non-OPEC producers were close to a deal to stabilise the market and as clashes in Libya disrupted attempts to boost crude exports.

Brent crude futures were $46.15 per barrel at 1337 GMT, up 38 cents from their previous settlement but off an earlier peak of 46.62. U.S. crude was up 47 cents, or 1.1 percent, at $43.50 a barrel.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said a deal could be announced this month to stabilise oil markets, which have come under pressure due to persistent oversupply.
"We think there is a great window of opportunity for a freeze here," Natixis analyst Deshpande Abhishek said. "It will not just help balance the markets, but it is also a win-win for OPEC and Russia, as Iran is unlikely to add extra production anyway for the next 6-12 months."
Crude exports from OPEC's third-biggest producer Iran jumped 15 percent in August from a month ago to more than 2 million barrels per day, according to a source with knowledge of its tanker loading schedule, closing in on shipment levels seen five years ago before Western sanctions.
Last week, Brent hit a two-week low and U.S. crude fell to a five-week low on concerns about oversupply with more deliveries from Libya and Nigeria.
On Monday, ICE exchange data showed hedge funds and other large money managers have raised their weekly bets on rising crude oil prices, with net long positions in Brent stabilising around levels seen in mid-August when the market got the first indications of a possible OPEC output deal.
Prices were also supported by a weaker dollar <.DXY> and as the expected boost to Libyan exports was delayed.
Clashes in Libya have halted the loading of the first oil cargo from the port of Ras Lanuf in close to two years and raised fears of a new conflict over Libya's oil resources.
However, concerns about rising supplies remain a bugbear. A preliminary Angolan November loading plan showed supplies were set to bounce back from a 10-year low.
In the United States, drillers have added oil rigs for 11 out of the past 12 weeks.

(C) Reuters News

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Ghana's central bank holds benchmark policy rate at 26.0 pct

Ghana's inflation will fall faster towards government targets than expected, the head of the central bank said on Monday, raising prospects of a cycle of interest rate cuts as it held benchmark borrowing costs at 26.0 percent.

Inflation much higher than in comparable African economies has dogged Ghana for years, a symptom of a broader economic crisis that emerged in 2013 with falling commodity prices, forcing the government to seek financing from the International Monetary Fund, which prescribed an austerity programme last year.
While Ghana's broad measure of consumer price inflation rose to 16.9 percent in August, having dropped from 19.2 percent since March, the Bank's Governor Abdul-Nashiru Issahaku said core inflation - which excludes energy and utility prices - had continued to fall.
Issahaku said inflation would hit the bank's target of 8 percent, plus or minus two percentage points, by the second quarter of 2017 rather than the third as previously forecast.
Business leaders and commercial banks say the ultra-high benchmark rate distorts the economy and inhibits growth.
Issahaku said the "substantial" fall in inflation would pull rates lower.
"It's a bitter pill we are swallowing right now to ensure that stability returns to the economy," he told a news conference after a policy meeting.
"The (rate-setting) committee noted the moderation in headline inflation since the July meeting on the back of continued cedi stability, easing inflation pressures and tight credit conditions."
Ghana, which earns most of its foreign currency from exports of gold, cocoa and oil, saw the cedi roughly halve in value between 2013 and the end of 2015. This year it has fallen just 4.1 percent and stood at around 3.95 to the dollar on Monday afternoon.
The decision to hold rates - for a fifth policy meeting running - was in line with the expectations of analysts polled by Reuters though Razia Khan, head of Africa research at Standard Chartered, had expected a cut of 100 basis points.
Khan said the tone of the policy committee's statement was dovish.get range by Q2, 2017, any improvement in year-on-year inflation is likely to allow for the start of a sustained easing cycle," he said.
Ghana is due to hold an election on Dec. 7 at which President John Mahama will contest a second and final term. Issahaku said the vote was of no relevance to monetary policy.

(C) Reuters News 

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Nigerian finance minister urges interest rate cut to help economy

Nigerian finance minister Kemi Adeosun said on Monday she wanted the central bank to lower interest rates so that the government can borrow domestically to boost the economy, which is stuck in recession, without increasing its debt-servicing costs.

Adeosun said she is working with the debt office, Nigeria's sovereign wealth fund and the pension industry to issue an infrastructure bond to raise money for road and housing projects, although she did not elaborate.
She said she wanted the central bank to reconsider its July interest rate hike, which it implemented to help support the naira and attract foreign investment inflows.
The central bank, which is independent of the government, is due to announce its rate decision on Tuesday.
Economists polled by Reuters last week predicted that the central bank will keep its key interest rate at 14 percent and reiterate its focus on resuscitating the economy.
"We need lower interest rates because when we are borrowing and interest rates go up, it increases our cost of debt service and it reduces the amount of money that is available to spend on capital projects," she told CNBC Africa.
"The attempt was to manage inflation and the trade-off for the economy right now is what is a bigger problem: Is it growth or inflation? For me it is growth. I would rather seek growth. We can manage inflation. I think for us, at the moment in the Nigerian economy, growth is the most important thing."
Africa's biggest economy slid into recession for the first time in more than 20 years in the second quarter, and the naira was quoted at a record low of 425 per dollar on the black market as chronic hard currency shortages continued to hurt businesses.
Adeosun said the government is working with parliament to cut procurement timelines to get contractors back to work and inject money into the economy.
Nigeria has said before that it plans to set up a $25 billion infrastructure fund to invest in the transport and energy sectors.
She said some adjustment was needed to narrow the spread between the official and black market currency rates, which is running at 25 percent after the central bank floated the naira.
"We still need to make some necessary adjustment to ensure that the spread is narrow so that we have true price discovery," she said.

(C) Reuters News

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Energy crisis: 10 power plants shut, 1,041MW lost

The nation’s power generation fell by over 1,000 megawatts as four power plants were down on Saturday, bringing the total number of plants not generating electricity at the moment to 10.
The nation recorded a total system collapse on Friday, September 16, 2016, the 17th time this year, industry data obtained by our correspondent on Sunday showed.
The total power generation stood at 2,555.7MW as of 6am on Saturday, down from 3,596.2MW the previous day, worsening the outage being experienced by households and businesses across the country.

Electricity from the nation’s biggest power station, Egbin, located in Lagos, hit a record low of 246MW on Saturday from 425MW on Friday, while output from the Shiroro Power Station in Niger State, one of the nation’s hydropower plants, hit a high of 600MW.
The plants that were shut down after the collapse included Olorunsogo I and Olorunsogo II in Ogun State; Omotosho II in Ondo State; and Ihovbor located in Edo State, with installed capacities of 294MW, 500MW, 500MW and 225MW respectively.
Olorunsogo II and Omotosho II, which were built under the National Integrated Power Project, had on Friday generated 171MW and 83.5MW, while Olorunsogo I and Ihovbor produced 148.1MW and 165.6MW, respectively.
The units GT1 and 3 of Olorunsogo II were said to be untied after the system collapse of September 16; while GT2 and ST2 were out due to gas constraints; GT4 out due to water leakage on the generator cooler; and ST1 out on maintenance.
Omotosho II’s units GT2, GT3 and GT4 were said to be out due to gas constraints, while the GT1 was not yet tied after the system collapse.
Five of Omotosho I’s units, namely GT1, 3, 5, 7 and 8, were not yet tied after the system collapse; GT2 and 4 out due to gas constraints, and GT6 out on vibration trouble.
Ihovbor’s units GT1 and 3 were not yet tied after the system collapse; GT2 shut down due to oil leakage from the auxiliary compartment, and GT4 out due to unit transformer problem.
The system collapse also affected the Jebba Hydro Power Station as two of its units, 2G4 and 5, were said to be still untied as of Saturday, with its output falling to 277MW from 408MW on Friday.
Units GT2, 5, 7 and 8 of Omotosho I and GT2 of Alaoji II in Abia State are also not yet tied.
Other plants that did not generate any megawatts of electricity on Saturday were Sapele I, Afam IV&V, Afam VI, AES, ASCO and Rivers IPP.
The national grid has recorded 22 collapses this year – 17 total and five partial.
The country generates most of its electricity from gas-fired plants, while output from hydropower plants makes up about 30 per cent of total generation.
In what was a big blow to electricity generation in the country, Shell’s Forcados export terminal was hit mid-February, forcing the oil major to declare force majeure on the export of the crude oil grade.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had recently said, “The nation has lost over 1,500MW of power supply to the damage as gas supply from Forcados, which is Nigeria’s major artery, accounts for 40 to 50 per cent of gas production.”
The Transmission Company of Nigeria on February 2, 2016 announced that the nation had achieved its peak generation of 5,074.70MW.
But the feat was short-lived as generation dropped below the 4,000MW mark later that month, plunging to a record low of 1,400MW on May 17, according to the TCN.

(C) Punch

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African nations should borrow closer to home, AfDB president says

African governments in the grip of Eurobond fever should look closer to home to secure financing vital to their economic development as borrowing costs on international debt markets rise, the president of the African Development Bank said.

Africa has seen a boom in dollar-debt issuance over the past decade as countries have sought to borrow, often for costly infrastructure projects, at a time when investors in the United States and Europe sought out higher yields in emerging markets.
Over 20 African nations have now sold at least one Eurobond, Akinwumi Adesina told Reuters in an interview late on Friday, roughly double the number back in 2004.
"It's all well and good when the interest rate environment is quite accommodating," he said. "But as the Federal Reserve rates go up and you begin to see a lot more movement of money out of emerging markets, you'll have a tightening of that capital market."
Adesina, a former agriculture minister in Nigeria who is completing his first year as head of the Abidjan-based institution, said many African countries have ignored the potential for borrowing cheaply on domestic and regional debt markets.
Africa is also sitting atop vast unexploited capital, including $334 billion in pension funds and sovereign wealth funds worth $164 billion.
"These are pools of capital that need to be tapped for Africa's development," he said.
"We're helping countries issue bonds in domestic currencies to raise money and also with the pension funds to create the regulatory environment that allows them to have asset classes in which they can invest."
"NOT ALWAYS ROSY"
Exploiting new sources of financing is becoming more pressing due to the economic problems in Africa's oil and mining-dependent nations brought on by the steep declines in commodities prices.
Those governments are now facing budget deficits, stagnating or contracting growth and in some cases currency depreciation that increases the cost of servicing and paying off existing dollar-denominated debt.
Once such country, Ghana, issued a $750 million dollar bond earlier this month. Another, Nigeria, plans to issue a $1 billion bond in December.
"There's nothing wrong with taking debt. It really depends on how you raise it and what you raise it for," Adesina said. "But if you are raising money simply to be able to pay back old debt, that may be an issue."
He cited Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Ivory Coast among countries that are adeptly navigating Africa's current economic headwinds.
"They may raise Eurobonds but it's not just that," he said. "All these countries are investing very well in infrastructure, which is very important for boosting growth. Many of them have a very stable macroeconomic environment. Many of them are encouraging private sector investment."
But the key to steady, long-term development lies not in how countries weather the bad times but rather how they prepare when business is good, he said.
Referring to Senegal and Mauritania, two small economies that may be on the cusp of an oil and gas boom following recent offshore discoveries, Adesina said their governments needed to avoid the mistakes of other African producers.
He urged them to negotiate advantageous royalty arrangements and tax regimes before the first barrel of oil is pumped and to then ensure the money is spent the right way.
"They should invest a lot of that money in human capital development, in infrastructure that's going to enable growth," he said.
"It's not always going to be rosy ... So save for a rainy day. Setting up a sovereign wealth fund is a great way ... And use the resources to further diversify the economy."

(C) Reuters News

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