Images

Nigeria will build four nuclear power plants

Nigeria is in talks with Russia’s Rosatom to build as many as four nuclear power plants costing about $ 80bn as Africa’s biggest economy seeks to add 1 200 megawatts of capacity by the end of the decade.

Peak electricity output of Africa’s biggest economy is about 3 800 MW, with a further 1 500 MW unavailable due to gas shortages. South Africa, with a third of Nigeria’s population yet eight times more installed capacity has also signed an agreement with Rosatom as the nation looks to add 9 600 MW of atomic power to its strained grid.

Rosatom would hold a majority, controlling stake in Nigeria’s nuclear facility, while the rest would be owned by the country, with roles to be specified in contracts.

The plants would be financed by Rosatom, which would than build, own, operate and transfer them to the government.

Nigeria, with a population of around 170 million, broke up its monopoly on power generation and distribution by privatizing the sector two years ago, hoping to attract foreign investors.

Source, Business Report International, 15th April 2015, Daily News, 15th April 2015

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Nigeria, Others to Attract $73.5bn Foreign Investments in 2015

By Eromosele Abiodun

Following plans by United States retail giant, Walmart to enter Nigeria’s retail market, increasing greenfield investment from China, India and South Africa, foreign investments in Nigeria and other African countries are expected to reach $73.5 billion by the end of this year.

A report by the African Economic Outlook (AEO) revealed that official remittances have increased six-fold since 2000 and are projected to reach $64.6 billion in 2015 with Egypt and Nigeria receiving the bulk of flows.

The AEO is a product of collaborative work by three international partners: the African Development Bank (AFDB), the OECD Development Centre and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Official remittances, the report added, remained the largest source of international financial flows to Africa, accounting for about 33 per cent of the total since 2010.

Conversely, the report predicted that Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) will decline in 2015 to 54.9 billion, “and is projected to diminish further”.

“More than two-thirds of states in sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of which are low-income countries, will receive less aid in 2017 than in 2014. FDI is diversifying away from mineral resources into consumer goods and services and is increasingly targeting large urban centres in response to the needs of a rising middle class.

“African sovereign borrowing is increasing. Private external flows in the form of investment and remittances are driving growth in external finance. Despite significant improvements in tax revenue collection over the last decade, domestic resource mobilisation remains low. Public domestic finance in Africa has increased more than threefold in a decade from $157 billion in 2003 to $507 billion in 2013. Compared to 2012, total tax revenue in 2013 registered a slight decrease of about 1.5 per cent mainly on account of lower resource rents, “the report revealed.

According to the report, “The report added that recent trends in African total trade flows – exports and imports – highlight a shift in trade dynamics and increasing competition from China for the African market. Although Europe remains Africa’s largest trading partner, Africa’s trade with Asia rose by 22 per cent between 2012 and 2013, while trade with Europe grew by just 15 per cent.

Manufactured exports from Europe to Africa fell from 32 per cent of the total in 2002 to 23 per cent in 2011. On the other hand, Asia’s share in Africa’s trade rose from 13 per cent of the total to 22 per cent during the same period. In 2009, China overtook the United States as Africa’s largest single trading partner.”

Source: Thisday, 12th August, 2015

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

World Bank raises forecast for 2015 global crude prices

Washington – The World Bank is nudging up its 2015 forecast for crude oil prices from 53 dollars in April to 57 dollars per barrel after oil prices rose 17 per cent in the April to June quarter.

The forecast is contained in the bank’s latest Commodity Markets Outlook released on Wednesday.

The bank said energy prices rose 12 per cent in the quarter, with the surge in oil offset by declines in natural gas and coal prices.

However, it said it expected energy prices to average 39 per cent below 2014 level.

“Natural gas prices are projected to decline across all three main markets including the United States, Europe and Asia.
Continue reading World Bank raises forecast for 2015 global crude prices

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

$2.5trillion address Nigeria’s infrastructure gap — IA&CE

By Emmanuel Elebeke & Grace Udofia

The Institute of Appraisers and Cost Engineers, (IA&CE), has said that Nigeria would require about $2.9 trillion investment in the next 30 years to close current infrastructure gap in the country. The engineering economists disclosed this at the 2015 National Technical Conference of the IA&CE which took place in Abuja.

The body also called on Federal Government to follow internationally acceptable standard procedures in the concept, design, development and execution of engineering projects in the country.
Continue reading $2.5trillion address Nigeria’s infrastructure gap — IA&CE

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Oyebola: Nigeria is West Africa’s Most Viable Investment Destination

15 Jun 2015

By Obinna Chima

The Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of FBN Capital Asset Management Limited, Mr. Michael Oyebola, has highlighted Nigeria’s position as the top foreign institutional funds destination in West Africa.

He made this known in a presentation titled: “Nigeria: West Africa’s most viable destination for US institutional funds,” during the 2015 edition of the Africa Institutional Funds and Managers’ Series (AIFMS), held in New York recently.

Oyebola stated that Nigeria has a compelling investment business case, despite the socio-economic challenges she is contending with.  He noted that Nigeria continues to show great potential in core areas of interest to traditional institutional fund managers, while her burgeoning middle-class and status as Africa’s largest economy following her Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rebasing, establishes her as the sub-region’s most viable investment destination.

He also highlighted the country’s ongoing revival in agriculture, its vast and untapped power resources, a progressive financial services sector, the untold potential which remains in oil and gas, as well as a vibrant telecoms and ICT industry, among other investment-stimulating factors.  According to him, “in agriculture the investment opportunities which exist in food processing and storage facilities, crop production, and animal husbandry due to a huge domestic demand are many, while in the power sector, the nation’s gas agenda facilitates a potential for aggressive gas-based industrial growth.”

Furthermore, he noted that crucial to the successful performance of institutional fund investment from the US and other continents to Nigeria, was partnership with leading investment and asset management firms in the sub-region to ensure knowledge and expertise of the local operating environment.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail