LAGOS (Reuters) &#8211; Nigeria&#8217;s commercial hub, Lagos State, has redeemed 57.5 billion naira ($183 million) worth of local currency bonds it issued seven years ago, it said on Tuesday. 
Finance Commissioner Akinwunmi Ashade said the state was paying off its debts to create space for new issuance to raise funds for infrastructure investment. He said the state has saved more than 103 billion naira in a sinking fund to redeem bonds maturing in 2019, 2020 and 2023.
Lagos State, which accounts for around a third of Nigeria&#8217;s economic output, sold the bonds in 2010 to fund badly-needed infrastructure projects, Ashade said.
Nigeria is in its second year of a recession brought on by lower oil prices, which have slashed government revenues, weakened the currency and caused dollar shortages, frustrating business and households.
Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun has said the government needs to invest in infrastructure as a way to spur economic growth.
The state government redeemed 167.5 billion naira in bonds last year.
($1 = 314.50 naira)
(Reporting by Oludare Mayowa; Editing by Chijioke Ohuocha and Catherine Evans)

Nigeria’s Lagos State redeems 57.5BN naira from bondholders

Chijioke Ohuocha | LAGOS
Nigerian stocks rose by more than two percent on Monday after the central bank introduced a new policy to allow foreign investors to engage in foreign exchange trading at rates the buyers and sellers set.
The market all share index rose in early trade by 2.37 percent, lifted by Dangote Cement, which accounts for a third of the market capitalisation.
A central bank circular seen by Reuters also said all people or businesses, local or foreign, who need dollars to repay loans, pay dividends, repatriate capital or settle trade-related obligations will be eligible for the new trading system.
(Reporting by Chijioke Ohuocha; Writing by Oludare Mayowa)
&nbsp;

Nigerian stocks rise 2.37 pct on new Cenbank forex window

Chijioke Ohuocha | ABUJA
Nigeria plans to get out of recession by boosting government revenues and cracking down on corruption, Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun said on Thursday, and will also issue more international debt to pay for infrasturcture projects.
The country is in its second year of recession, brought on by lower oil prices, which have slashed government revenues, weakened the currency and caused dollar shortages frustrating business and households.
World Bank chief economist for Africa, Albert Zeufack, on Wednesday said fiscal adjustments in Nigeria would be &#8220;extremely challenging&#8221; and that the country needs to reform its finances to ensure it can hedge against any future currency crisis.
Nigeria also ranks well into the bottom third of Transparency International&#8217;s global corruption index. On Wednesday, for example, more than $43 million found in an apartment complex in Lagos was said to be related to an investigation into the handling of humanitarian aid.
Adeosun said her aim was to get the non-oil sector of Nigeria&#8217;s economy which accounts for around 90 percent of GDP to contribute to government revenues.
&#8220;Improving non-oil revenues is something we are working hard on. We are rolling out measures to get more people into the tax net,&#8221; Adeosun told CNBC Television.
&#8220;We are get out of recession because we are following the right type of policies. We are improving our revenues, we are improving our efficiencies in how we spend money.
http://cnbc.africa/news/western-africa/2016/11/21/nigerias-recession-deepens/
&#8220;We are investing in the infrastructure that is needed, power, rail, road, the big enablers of growing sustainable economies.&#8221;
Adeosun said liquidity on currency markets has been improving as the central bank has boosted dollar supply, thanks to recently rising oil prices. She added that government was harmonising fiscal, monetary and trade policies to get the economy growing again.
However, the central bank, worried about the currency effects on inflation, has so far resisted calls to lower interest rates for 14 percent to enable the government borrow cheaply to spend its way out of recession.
Adeosun said Nigeria plans to issue long-term debt on the international markets more regularly for infrastructure projects, taking advantage of the country&#8217;s debt to GDP ratio of 13 percent. But the interest burden is rising due to low revenues.

Nigerian finance minister says country needs to tap its non-oil revenues

Following the resolution of the political impasse in The Gambia, a great deal of attention has focused on the role played by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas). The regional body brought a swift end to the potentially explosive crisis sparked by the refusal of former President Yahya Jammeh to hand over to the newly elected Adama Barrow. 
Jammeh’s flight to exile was preceded by weeks of diplomacy to persuade him to hand over power peacefully. When this failed regional troops and military assets were mobilised to install Barrow forcibly. The rest is history. Barrow is now officially in the presidential seat. 
This resounding success, unrivalled by any African regional organisation, has taken decades to craft. It is remarkable to think that at its inception in 1975, joint military action was not even on the cards. 
The fractious 1960s 
By the close of the early 1960s most countries in the West African sub-region had gained political freedom from colonial powers. They adopted a variety of political systems including multiparty democracy, one-party civilian administrations and military autocracies. The region developed quite a reputation for military coups. There were more in the region than anywhere else on the continent. 
Initial attempts to form Ecowas floundered in the early 1960s. This was due largely to the differences between Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, and Nigeria’s first prime minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, on the kind of integration necessary for the states in the region. 
The fall of these two personalities from power in 1966 did not end the political rivalries in the region. Attempts at integration were further delayed by the civil war in Nigeria between 1967 and 1970. Its aftermath further affected any chances at integration due to the struggle over the supremacy of the West African region between Nigeria and Côte d&#8217;Ivoire along Anglo-Francophone lines. 
Eventually two influential military leaders – Generals Yakubu Gowon of Nigeria and Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo – formed the nucleus of Ecowas in the 1970s. They succeeded in bringing on board the other military leaders of Dahomey (now Benin), Ghana and Niger among others. This explains the dominant role of the military in the life of the organisation. 
Ecowas was eventually formed on May 28 1975, in Nigeria as a regional economic grouping of 15 states. Membership went up to 16 when Cape Verde joined in 1976. But it declined again to 15 when Mauritania withdrew in December 2000. 
The Ecowas Treaty of 1975 envisaged the group as an economic community with the aim of promoting 
cooperation and development in all fields of economic activity. 
The grouping saw its role as raising the living standards of people in the region, increasing and maintaining economic stability, fostering closer relations among its members and contributing to the progress and development of the continent. 
It is significant that no reference was made to defence or security in any of the treaty’s 65 articles. 
How did the economic bloc blossom into a dominant sub-regional peace and security organisation in Africa? 
The need for a security organisation 
When Ecowas was formed in 1975 only Nigeria had experienced a civil war. But there was an increase in the number of violent conflicts after the late 1980s. 
Several factors contributed to the intractability and complexity of violent conflicts in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Côte d&#8217;Ivoire. These included the effects of the Cold War, economic malaise, human rights abuses and political rivalries and interests of states in the region. The conflicts had deleterious implications for peace and security of the region. 
The effect of the civil wars was that some states became places for recruiting disenchanted unemployed youth into various armed banditry groups. They pillaged the region for natural resources and committed heinous war related crimes. 
Ecowas was formed at a time when power vacillated between civilian and military rulers in the region. The period was characterised by governments accusing one another of supporting dissidents. There were also accusations of domestic problems being instigated externally. 
Against this backdrop, the treaty was revised in 1993. The “Revised Treaty” allowed the promulgation of protocols to regulate the peace and security architecture of member states. 
The peace and security architecture of Ecowas 
The first protocol promulgated was a nonaggression pact signed on April 28 1978 in Lagos, Nigeria. The region’s leaders present noted that the community 
cannot attain its objective save in an atmosphere of peace and harmonious understanding among Community members. 
This marked the beginning of future steps by member states to address security matters in the region. But the protocol proved inadequate against either external attacks or intrastate conflicts which were becoming more frequent. This led to the mutual assistance in defence protocol being passed. 
This was signed in May 1981 despite fervent opposition from Mali, Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. It did not create a standing army but provisions were made for joint action in the event of any security threat to a member state through a voluntary contribution of troops. These were referred to as the Allied Armed Forces of the Community. 
But the reliance on troop contributions from member states was a major challenge. This was because by the time troops were assembled the violence would have escalated. 
These and many other bottlenecks, in particular, the harrowing experiences of the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (Ecomog) in Liberia and Sierra Leone, led to the next big step. Which is why in 1999 a mechanism for conflict prevention, management, resolution, peacekeeping and security was agreed. 
Current peace and security framework 
The 1999 protocol put in place comprehensive structures and processes that have to be followed in the event of conflict breaking out. 
The mechanism makes provision for diplomatic and military interventions. It empowers regional leaders to decide on the deployment of political and military missions. 
Ecowas has a standby force in member countries which can be deployed rapidly to prevent conflicts from escalating. The rapid deployment of troops from Nigeria and The Gambia’s neighbour Senegal in the recent deadlock is a case in point. 
Other protocols relating to the prevention, management and resolution of conflict make up a significant part of the regional peace and security architecture. These include a supplementary protocol on democracy and good governance adopted in 2001. 
There are a number of other security related structures. These include an early warning system and a mediation and security council which advises the authority of heads of state and government. In addition, there are offices of the special representatives, a council of elders and special mediators. 
But the challenge of preventing conflicts from escalating remained. To meet this challenge, a conflict prevention framework was agreed in 2008. This enabled the regional powers to harness human and financial resources from other important players such as private and civil society organisations. 
A major challenge that now remains is the financial burden associated with political and military missions. But with its long history of meeting its challenges full square, there is every chance Ecowas will make a success of that, too.

How West Africa built the muscle to rout dictators and keep the peace

Chijioke Ohuocha | ABUJA
Nigeria needs to reform its finance to ensure it can hedge against any future currency crisis, the World Bank chief economist for Africa said on Wednesday.
Albert Zeufack said currency adjustments could lead to higher inflation but continued monetary policy tightening would price pressures, adding that making fiscal adjustments in the West African country now in its second year of recession would be &#8220;extremely challenging&#8221;.
Africa&#8217;s biggest economy is facing a currency crisis brought on by low oil prices, which has hammered its foreign reserves and created chronic dollar shortages, frustrating businesses and individuals.
(Reporting by Chijioke Ohuocha; editing by John Stonestreet)

Nigeria needs reforms to hedge against future FX crisis – World Bank Africa economist

Felix Onuah and Alexis Akwagyiram | ABUJA
Nigeria&#8217;s President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday ordered an investigation into corruption allegations against a senior civil servant related to the use of funds intended for handling a humanitarian crisis in the northeast of the country.
The director general of the National Intelligence Agency was also ordered to be suspended after the discovery of more than $43 million in an apartment complex in Lagos in what the presidency described as a &#8220;related development&#8221;.
Buhari suspended David Babachir Lawal, secretary to the Nigerian government, and ordered a probe into contracts awarded under the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE), his spokesman said in a statement.
Reuters was not immediately able to reach Lawal &#8211; a Buhari appointee &#8211; for comment. PINE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
PINE was set up to coordinate the government&#8217;s response to the humanitarian crisis in the northeast where 4.7 million people, many of them refugees from the Islamist insurgency by Boko Haram, are on the brink of famine and survive on rations.
Alleged corruption and mismanagement have threatened to intensify the situation, one of the world&#8217;s largest humanitarian crises, say critics of the government&#8217;s handling of the northeast.
Analysts warned for years the insurgency &#8211; which has killed more than 20,000 people and forced 2 million to flee their homes since 2009 &#8211; would spill over, but critics say authorities and some aid agencies were slow to address humanitarian issues.
<blockquote>The presidency statement said it had also ordered an &#8220;investigation into the discovery of large amounts of foreign and local currencies&#8221; by the financial crimes agency in a residential property in commercial capital Lagos, in what it called a &#8220;related development&#8221;, without giving further details.</blockquote>
It said the National Intelligence Agency, Nigeria&#8217;s equivalent of the CIA, had said the money belonged to it. It said the investigation would inquire &#8220;whether or not there has been a breach of the law or security procedure in obtaining custody and use of the funds&#8221;.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said last week, on its official Facebook page, it had discovered $43.4 million, 27,800 pounds and 23.2 million naira in cash in the same Lagos apartment complex identified in the presidency statement.
The presidency statement said Buhari, who took office in May 2015 on promises to crack down on corruption, ordered the suspension of the director general of the NIA, Ambassador Ayo Oke, pending the outcome of the investigation.
Reuters could not immediately reach Oke for comment. The NIA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A three-man committee, headed by the vice president, is to conduct both investigations and submit its report to the president within 14 days.
($1 = 305.0000 naira)
(Reporting by Felix Onuah and Alexis Akwagyiram; Additional reporting by Paul Carsten; Editing by Alison Williams)

Nigeria’s Buhari orders corruption probe over humanitarian funds

By Kieran Guilbert
DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) &#8211; The devastation wrought by Boko Haram, which has left millions of people in northeast Nigeria on the brink of famine, could exacerbate Europe&#8217;s migration crisis if the world fails to act urgently, the country&#8217;s chief humanitarian coordinator said.
Nearly five million people in the region are desperately hungry and risk starving to death this year if they do not receive food aid, according to figures from the United Nations.
This could drive even more Nigerians to flee the country and attempt the perilous journey to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea, unless the international community ramps up support and funds, said Ayoade Alakija, Nigeria&#8217;s humanitarian coordinator.
&#8220;With so many people facing famine, this is the wrong time to criticise us and simply say &#8216;You are the giant of Africa&#8217;.
&#8220;The world could see a mass exodus from a country of 180 million people if support is not given, and fast &#8230; if people facing famine fall into famine,&#8221; she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview in the Senegalese capital of Dakar.
While the European Union has been strained by the influx of 1.6 million refugees and migrants between 2014 and 2016, a greater number of people in northeast Nigeria, some 1.8 million, are displaced and unable or unwilling to go home, Alakija added.
&#8220;For Nigeria, this is an unprecedented humanitarian crisis of large magnitude. We, and the wider world, were largely unprepared for it,&#8221; she said, adding that Nigeria was struggling to respond as it deals with its first recession in 25 years.
Jihadist group Boko Haram&#8217;s eight-year insurgency to carve out an Islamic state in northeast Nigeria has killed at least 20,000 people and forced some two million to flee their homes.
http://cnbc.africa/news/western-africa/2016/08/10/failure-to-help-farmers-in-northeast-nigeria/
TACKLING ROOT CAUSE
The state&#8217;s handling of the situation in northeast Nigeria has been hit by allegations of officials stealing and selling aid, and having sex with women in exchange for food.
Alakija said the Borno state government had taken measures to improve protection efforts &#8211; such as having more female officials in camps for the displaced &#8211; and tackle corruption.
&#8220;But you need to put such incidents in the wider context of widespread suffering and desperation,&#8221; she said. &#8220;We need to tackle the root cause of the crisis, not just these symptoms.&#8221;
The humanitarian response has also been fraught at times due to tensions between the state and international aid agencies.
The president&#8217;s spokesman in December said aid agencies, including the United Nations, were exaggerating levels of hunger to get more funding from donors, while Borno&#8217;s state governor in January said many of the groups were profiting from the crisis.
&#8220;This arose from a lack of understanding and the fact that Nigeria has never faced this kind of situation before &#8230; there is no denial of the scale of the crisis within the country, but rather incredulity around what has been going on,&#8221; Alakija said.
&#8220;For the first six years of the insurgency, the previous government did not adequately acknowledge or respond to it,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It was not until (President Muhammadu) Buhari came to power (in 2015) that Nigeria, and the world, woke up and smelt the coffee.&#8221;
With Boko Haram&#8217;s insurgency in its eighth year and showing little sign of ending, many aid agencies are thinking beyond just emergency aid, and considering how best to foster and improve long-term development and resilience-building efforts. 
&#8220;The government is tackling the crisis on several fronts, not just handing out food parcels,&#8221; said Alakija. &#8220;We are focusing on rebuilding entire communities, so that people can go back to their homes, jobs, and resume their lives as normal.&#8221;
http://cnbc.africa/news/western-africa/2017/04/11/nigeria-frees-people/
(Reporting By Kieran Guilbert, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women&#8217;s rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit <a href="http://news.trust.org/">news.trust.org</a>)

World must aid famine-threatened Nigeria to avoid ‘mass exodus’

ABUJA (Reuters) &#8211; The United Nations&#8217; World Food Programme could in a few weeks run out of funding to feed millions living on the brink of famine in Nigeria, four people familiar with the matter said, intensifying one of the world&#8217;s largest humanitarian crises. 
In the northeast, 4.7 million people, many of them refugees from the conflict with Islamist insurgency Boko Haram, need rations to survive, according to the World Food Programme (WFP), one of the main aid groups handing out food. Many of those living in camps for displaced people say they already barely get enough to eat. 
&#8220;With the money they have right now, and if they won&#8217;t cut rations, they can only go to May 18,&#8221; one person said, citing talks with the WFP, who asked to not be named because they were not authorised to speak to media. 
The WFP was &#8220;reasonably certain&#8221; it would get enough funding to last until late June, the person added. 
&#8220;All humanitarian crises globally are woefully underfunded and for WFP Nigeria is in one of the worst situations for funding,&#8221; a WFP spokeswoman said. 
&#8220;We are trying to save lives. We need over the next six months $207 million for Nigeria. At the moment the programme is 13 percent funded for 2017. It&#8217;s extremely low. Of the four countries facing famine it is the least funded.&#8221; 
The conflict with Islamist insurgency Boko Haram, which seeks to establish a caliphate in Nigeria&#8217;s northeast, began in 2009 and shows no sign of ending. It has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced more than two million. 
Nigeria&#8217;s northeast is now teetering on the brink of famine, aid organisations say, pointing to two years of missed crop harvests in what was once a breadbasket for the country, and the high likelihood of missing a third. 
The approaching rainy season increases the risk of disease spreading, especially within camps for the displaced, adding more stress to efforts to respond to the humanitarian crisis. 
The wet season also means tens of thousands of refugees are attempting to return home to farm, despite facing serious dangers, saying there is not enough food provided in the camps to sustain them.
CONTINGENCY PLAN
In a meeting on Monday with the WFP in Nigeria&#8217;s capital Abuja, donor countries and organisations, criticised the group for not having a satisfactory contingency plan if funding starts to dry up, two of the people with knowledge of the talks said.
The WFP spokeswoman said meetings with donors were genial, open and frank. 
&#8220;When we are funded and able to get out to the field we are getting to people. This crisis can be averted and we want people to understand this will work if it&#8217;s funded. We can avert the famine.&#8221; 
The U.S. Embassy in Abuja said the U.S. government was working &#8220;urgently and cooperatively with our partners in an effort to address the critical humanitarian needs in northeastern Nigeria&#8221;. 
&#8220;There is not adequate funding to sustain the global response to those needs here. Additional resources must be found urgently so that feeding does not stop,&#8221; the embassy said in emailed comments to Reuters. 
The WFP and donors have also locked horns over who is to blame for the lack of funding reaching the aid organisation, with the U.N. agency saying the money promised has not been released to them and donors arguing that basic paperwork still has not been submitted, the two people said. 
&#8220;There&#8217;s a dark cloud hanging over them that they&#8217;ll cut rations,&#8221; one person said. &#8220;It shouldn&#8217;t be this way.&#8221; 
The WFP, along with other groups, has come under fire in Nigeria for its slow reaction to the humanitarian crisis in the northeast, only launching a full-fledged response last year while other aid organisations had been in the country since at least 2014. 
On Wednesday, the U.N. children&#8217;s fund said its response to the crisis &#8220;remains severely underfunded&#8221;, a warning echoed by many other aid groups. 
The United Nations says it needs $1.5 billion in humanitarian aid this year for the Lake Chad region &#8211; which spreads across parts of Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad &#8211; and $457 million had been pledged for 2017 by late February. 
Despite the Nigerian army saying the insurgency is on the run, large parts of the country&#8217;s northeast, particularly in Borno state, remain under threat from Boko Haram. Suicide bombings and gun attacks have increased in the region since the end of the rainy season late last year.
(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Susan Thomas)

With Nigeria’s northeast facing famine, WFP funds could dry up in weeks –sources

Nigeria&#8217;s military said on Thursday that it had destroyed 13 illegal refineries in the restive Niger Delta oil hub, in an operation in which two soldiers died in clashes with &#8220;sea robbers&#8221;.
Military authorities say there are hundreds of illegal refineries in the region, which process stolen crude from oil company pipelines.
The Nigerian government said last week that it plans to legalise illicit refineries as part of an attempt to bring peace to the production heartland of crude oil, but it is unclear when it will put the plan into action.
Major Abubakar Abdullahi, a military spokesman, said troops &#8220;discovered and destroyed 13 illegal refineries&#8221; on Wednesday while on patrol in the Iyalama Adama axis of Rivers state. The two soldiers were killed in the Ijawkiri general area, in Rivers state, he said.
Makeshift refineries, usually hidden in oil-soaked clearings, support tens of thousands of people locally.
Nigeria&#8217;s navy chief has said that 181 illegal refineries were destroyed last year, 748 suspects were arrested, and crude oil and diesel worth 420 billion naira ($1.3 billion) was confiscated. The military shut down around 50 bush refineries in the first few weeks of 2017.
Tensions remain in the Niger Delta where an uneasy peace is being kept as the government holds talks with local communities, including militants whose attacks cut Nigeria&#8217;s oil production by as much as a third last year.
Crude oil sales provide two-thirds of government revenue.
Africa&#8217;s largest economy fell into recession in 2016 for the first time in 25 years, largely due to low oil prices and the impact of militant attacks. 
($1 = 314.5000 naira)
(Reporting by Tife Owolabi,; writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; editing by Susan Fenton)

Nigeria’s military destroys 13 illegal oil refineries

By <a href="http://www.reuters.com/journalists/stephanie-nebehay">Stephanie Nebehay</a> | GENEVA
The risk of mass starvation in four countries &#8211; northeast Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen &#8211; is rising rapidly due to drought and conflict, the U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday.
About 20 million people live in hard-hit areas where harvests have failed and acute malnutrition rates are increasing, particularly among children, it said.
In South Sudan, where the United Nations declared famine in some areas in February, &#8220;a further 1 million people are now on the brink of famine&#8221;, UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said.
&#8220;We are raising our alarm level further by today warning that the risk of mass deaths from starvation among populations in the Horn of Africa, Yemen and Nigeria is growing,&#8221; Edwards told a news briefing.
&#8220;This really is an absolutely critical situation that is rapidly unfolding across a large swathe of Africa from west to east,&#8221; he said.
People are on the run within their countries and greater numbers of South Sudanese refugees are fleeing to Sudan and Uganda, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.
A preventable catastrophe, possibly worse than that of 2011 when 260,000 people died of famine in the Horn of Africa, half of them children, &#8220;is fast becoming an inevitability&#8221;, Edwards said.
TOO LATE
&#8220;Always the problem that we have with humanitarian crises in sub-Saharan Africa is that they tend to get overlooked until things are too late,&#8221; he said. &#8220;A repeat must be avoided at all costs.&#8221;
&#8220;There&#8217;s acute malnutrition, very high rates, if you don&#8217;t help people with worsening rates of malnutrition, people die.&#8221;
Seven million people in northeast Nigeria and the Lake Chad basin are suffering from food insecurity, Edwards said.
Food security in 4 countries is expected to continue to deteriorate until at least mid-year, he said.
UNHCR is scaling up its operations but has a funding shortfall, with some country programmes only funded at between 3 and 11 percent, he said.
Overall the United Nations has appealed for $4.4 billion for the four countries but has received less than $984 million to date, Jens Laerke of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
In northeast Nigeria, especially Borno state, aid workers had &#8220;almost zero access&#8221; a year ago, due to Boko Haram militants, Laerke said.
&#8220;Now that access is opening up. That is one of the reasons why the numbers have grown. Because as we have pushed into these areas we have simply discovered more and more need of an extreme nature including extreme food insecurity so that there is a risk of famine,&#8221; he said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned in late March that the world had three to four months to stop starvation in the four countries.
David Hermann, ICRC operations coordinator for Somalia, told the briefing: &#8220;If it doesn&#8217;t happen now, there will be no escaping a situation that this country already experienced a few years ago, meaning probably people are going to die from starvation and disease.&#8221;
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt and Janet Lawrence)

Risk of mass starvation rising rapidly in Africa, Yemen – U.N

By Stanley Carvalho and Chijioke Ohuocha
The Nigerian arm of Abu Dhabi telecom group Etisalat is yet to agree a deal on restructuring a $1.2 billion loan with local banks after it missed a payment, a company source told Reuters.
Etisalat Nigeria told Reuters last month that it was in talks with lenders to restructure the loan.
The source, who is not authorised to speak to media, said that Etisalat and the group of 13 Nigerian lenders were yet to agree on a debt restructuring proposal.
The source was speaking on the sidelines of Etisalat&#8217;s annual general meeting in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, where Chief Executive Saleh Al Abdooli declined to comment on the debt talks when asked by Reuters.
Etisalat did not respond to a request for comment.
Nigerian regulators agreed with local banks in March to pursue a default deal rather than a receivership for Etisalat Nigeria so as not to deter investors and to avoid a wider debt crisis.
Sources have said that Etisalat would consider selling its stake in the Nigerian entity after the debt deal is agreed.
(Editing by Susan Fenton)

Etisalat Nigeria yet to agree debt deal with lenders: source

The report below was first published by <a href="http://www.bmiresearch.com/">BMI Research</a> (a unit of Fitch Group) 
We predict that six economies will grow to exceed USD1 trillion in nominal GDP over the coming ten years: Argentina, Indonesia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan and Turkey. They will join a number of emerging markets that have already achieved trillion-dollar-economy status : China, India, Brazil and Mexico. As shown in the chart, the pace of expansion in the newcomers will vary greatly, underscoring our &#8216;reformers to outperform&#8217; global theme.
<a href="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/BMI-Trillion-economy.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-118896 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/BMI-Trillion-economy.png" alt="" width="875" height="719" /></a>
Indonesia and Argentina are poised for swift economic growth and are closest to becoming trillion dollar economies, in our view. Indonesia is poised to cross the trillion-dollar threshold in 2018 , thanks to its large domestic market and natural resource wealth, as well as ongoing (albeit slow-paced) structural reform efforts . Argentina is currently a long way from being a trillion dollar economy (see table below), but will leapfrog several others to achieve that status by 2019 , according to our forecasts . Following the broad-based liberalisation of the economy under President Mauricio Macri, investment is strong and will increasingly trans late into new productive activity, particularly in energy, infrastructure and real estate (see &#8216;What A Difference A Year Makes&#8217;, December 8, 2016).
Turkey and Saudi Arabia are next in line to become trillion dollar economies , but they will not achieve this until 2023 in our view, barring radical changes in policy. The Turkish economy looks set to suffer from weak investment amid rising authoritarianism and a widening budget deficit (see &#8216;Precarious Fundamentals No Matter Referendum Outcome&#8217;, March 29). Saudi Arabian growth will likely be curtailed by fiscal austerity and the underdevelopment of the nonoil sector.
Meanwhile, we anticipate that Taiwan and Nigeria will take ten years to become trillion dollar economies . In Taiwan&#8217;s case, a number of structural factors are set to weigh on growth: an uncompetitive technology sector, a rigid labour market, deteriorating demographics and the slowdown in China (a key trade partner). Nigeria will suffer from a dearth of domestic capacity and critical reforms to the power, infrastructure and oil and gas sectors will be slow in coming.
<a href="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Trillion-club-21-e1491904419606.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-118729 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Trillion-club-21-e1491904419606.jpg" alt="" width="922" height="209" /></a>

This African country is destined to have a trillion dollar economy in the next ten years

Nigeria&#8217;s Mosimi oil depot has resumed loading after almost a year, when a major pipeline was vandalised last May, the state oil company said on Monday.
The resumption of loading could help the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) cut losses that stemmed from the damage, as trucks had to drive from Lagos to replace the pipeline, said Maikanti Baru, group managing director of the NNPC, in the statement.
The NNPC also plans to bring back online pipelines from the city of Kaduna to Kano, Jos and Suleja, Baru said, though he gave no further details.
Theft, sabotage and other attacks on oil product pipelines are a major problem for the NNPC. Last year, militant attacks on facilities in the Niger Delta region cut Nigeria&#8217;s oil production by as much as a third.
Nigeria&#8217;s government relies on crude exports for roughly two-thirds of its revenue. (Reporting by Paul Carsten; additional reporting by Libby George in London; editing by Jason Neely)
&nbsp;

Nigeria’s Mosimi oil depot resumes loading after almost one year

Express visas for Nigeria are currently not available due to an internal audit being conducted at the Nigerian consulate, Flight Centre Business Travel has warned.
Flight Centre Business Travel, the corporate division of Flight Centre Travel Group, SA’s largest travel company, says that travellers needing to travel to Nigeria need to note that it currently takes up to two weeks to get a visa (if all documentation is provided) – which means last minute or emergency trips are not possible.
Express visas for Nigeria are normally issued within two to five working days while a standard visa typically takes seven to 10 working days.
“Our visa supplier has been informed by Nigeria’s visa processing centre that the Nigerian Consulate is doing an internal audit and as such express visas are not available. That means that last-minute or emergency travel to Nigeria is not possible at the moment and companies needing to do business in Nigeria or planning trips to Nigeria need to take notice and take the necessary measures,” says Michelle Jolley, Corporate Brands Marketing Leader for Flight Centre Business Travel.
Jolley says it is unclear when the Consulate will resume processing express visas.
“Our supplier has been informed that normal service should be reinstated this week, but an exact date has not been identified. We will keep our customers advised,” she says.
Jolley says there was no indication on whether a new online system which is being launched in Nigeria to expedite the processing of visas is available. According to reports, visitors to Nigeria can apply online from 48 hours before arriving in the country and collect their visa on arrival. 
“The Nigerian Immigration System (NIS) has declined to comment around the new 48 hour 
online visa application system and advised they won’t be issuing any express visas yet. 
We strongly advise South African travellers to proceed as normal for the time being, which is to allow a lot of time to apply for your visa,” she says.
Meanwhile, Abuja’s Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport (ABV) in Nigeria’s capital city, remains closed until 18 April 2017 due to upgrades to the existing runway as well as the building of a new second runway. Repairs have been extended for an additional 18 weeks, but this shouldn’t affect day-time flights as these repairs will be done at night.
South African Airways, British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France have suspended all flights to and from ABV until then. 
Passengers have been advised to contact their airlines and Flight Centre Business Travel to discuss alternate arrangements.

No emergency, last-minute travel possible to Nigeria for South Africans

Intellectual property theft, like a diamond, has many faces. It could be the turn of a phrase in poetry or the meticulous duplication of a catchy riff in a song; the thing that makes you think, “I’ve heard this somewhere before. It is the same but different.” 
A lot of the time it isn’t even that adroit. It is the product of someone’s talent, plagiarized completely by another with all the subtlety of a plane crash. And then there’s piracy, best practiced in the infamous stalls of Lagos’ Alaba market, bursting with CDs and DVDs that come from everywhere but the hands that made the content they hold. The creative’s profits delivered into the pocket of another aided by a computer with a disc drive. 
They are brave in the face of the law. As the rapper Vector tha Viper mused to CNBC Africa, “I’ve always wondered why the Nigerian government has not found a way to merge with them (Alaba Market). It’s the only way to truly measure the sales of what the industry produces.” It would not be far-fetched to say that if there is anything that stands in the way of Nigeria’s soon to be $8 billion entertainment industry according to PWC, it is the people who laugh in the face of the country’s inability to enforce its copyright laws. 
“The Nigerian Copyright Act is one of the best in the world.” Said Obafemi Agaba, a partner at Jackson, Etti, and Edun, a firm that’s thought to be one of the best in the country when it comes to intellectual property. An expert in his field, he isn’t wrong. The law has been amended twice since 1938, a detail that seems unremarkable until you consider that Nigeria’s Trademark law is exactly as it was nearly 80 years ago, a relic from 1938. And there’s a digital sized update on the way. Agaba was a member of the technical working group that drafted the new copyright bill. In an interview with CNBC Africa he said, “The important thing about the new bill is that it provides for what you call the technology era. The present law does not take care of things that happen in the digital space. The new bill has been able to address this.”
Some members of the Nigeria’s entertainment industry believe that the problem lies not with the law but with    people’s knowledge of it, and their faith in the legal system’s ability to defend it. Femi Oke, the Head of Commercial at the Temple Management Company said, “It’s down to the individual and individual awareness. It’s down to respecting individual creativity and not overstepping the bounds.” He later said, “People disregard these laws and feel that not much can be done if they take someone else’s work and only change a word or two.” However, this perception seems to be changing.
Last week, local newspapers were awash with reports about a film called Okafor’s Law. Its premiere screening was cancelled because of a pending claim in court that the movie’s script had been stolen from a Nigerian writer in Canada without compensation or accreditation. The claim was ultimately unsuccessful in blocking the film’s release but it signalled a previously unseen willingness from the affected to seek legal action in cases where they believed their rights infringed. As a result, the much-uttered phrase, see you in court, has gained more weight than it had before.
However, there is a degree of unwillingness from artists to deal with such incidents personally. The Afropop star, Patoranking, said, “All I want to do is go to the studio record, jump on stage, perform, talk to fans on social media, and take selfies with the girls. The fun part. So we need people to be in charge of the business part because you can’t do everything.” Obi Asika, the founder of Cabal entertainment agrees. He said, “A lot of artistes in Nigeria say they can do it on their own, and they use Jay Z as an example. But I say have you been to the Roc Nation building? There is 75 staff there, working in a serious 9-5 to get things done.”
For Obafemi Agaba, the informal nature of the industry is to blame. He said, “I’ve seen a lot of script writers come to me after they’ve got their fingers burnt and I have had to resolve the problem behind the scenes instead of the scriptwriter or creative player negotiating from a point of strength right from the beginning. So many are just operating on a friendly basis. They say, “Oh he’s my pal, let me just give him this story.” But things happen!”
To deal with the pirates of the entertainment industry, Nigerian creatives have all but turned their backs on making physical copies of their work. Yoruba pop music sensation, Olamide said, “Right now. It’s online.” Phyno, who hails from Nigeria’s east provided more detail. When speaking about selling physical records he said, “It isn’t what it’s supposed to be. Mediums like iTunes, Spotify, tidal, and amazon, pay.” He too blamed the culture saying, “It’s an educational process. We need to make people understand that music is not free.” Dare Olaitan, the writer and director of the critically acclaimed new film, Ojukokoro, has no plans to release his movie on DVD when it leaves the cinema. He said, “The plan is to follow the other avenues of distribution. Video on Demand (VOD), airlines, paid television, and then terrestrial tv. In that order. I have no plans to release DVDs.” When I asked him why not, he was curt. “The others are forms of release in which we can have security in getting returns on our investment.” 
As bleak as the situation seems, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. The Copyright Society of Nigeria was set up at the turn of the new millennium to promote and protect the copyright of players in Nigeria’s music industry. The body has tackled intellectual property theft with a sea of lawyers and a storm of litigation, slapping telecommunications giants MTN and Etisalat with lawsuits worth N16 billion and N12 billion respectively. Their crusade is one Vector is glad for. He said, ‘I have to shout out to COSON because I’ve gotten royalty checks and they were quite impressive. At one point I thought, “you want to give me a check for Royalties, um, why?’ Because it’s never happened before.’
Obi Asika has called for artistes to join the copyright crusade. He said, “We need to get the artistes now, when they are young and hot, to promote the importance of copyright, because when they’re older and they don’t have any hit records, it may be the residual income from publishing or royalties that’s keeping them going.” 
Players in the industry look to Nigeria’s government for help. In the words of the President of the Association of Nollywood core producers, Alex Enyeho, “What we expect from the government is to create an enabling environment for us to practice our trade.”

How piracy threatens Nigeria’s entertainment industry

Nigerian oil tanker drivers ended a strike over pay and the poor condition of the roads just hours after it began on Monday, following a government intervention, ending the threat of fuel shortages developing.
The union called off the strike &#8220;because the federal government has intervened and promised to look into the drivers&#8217; demands,&#8221; said Charles Eleto, a regional chairman for Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), one of Nigeria&#8217;s two major oil workers&#8217; unions.
In a meeting in the capital Abuja on Monday, the head of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation agreed with NUPENG&#8217;s president to increase transportation fees for the workers, said a spokesman for the firm.
(Reporting by Camillus Eboh and Anamesere Igboeroteonwu; Additional reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram in Lagos; Writing by Paul Carsten; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

Nigeria oil tanker drivers call off strike after government pay deal

ABUJA, March 29 (Reuters) &#8211; A consortium led by General Electric submitted the only bid for a Nigerian railway concession project worth around $2 billion for two lines connecting northern cities to others in the south, a procurement process adviser said on Wednesday.
Bids had to be submitted by Wednesday.
Nigeria has been looking for partners to overhaul its ageing railway system, built mainly by British colonial rulers before independence in 1960.
Economic growth in Africa&#8217;s most populous nation has been hampered for decades by the dilapidated road and rail network.
http://cnbc.africa/news/western-africa/2016/10/26/nigerian-lawmakers-to-probe-possible-railway-concession-for-ge/
The concession will cover about 3,500 km (2,200 miles) of existing narrow-gauge lines from the southwestern commercial capital, Lagos, to Kano in the north, and southeastern oil hub Port Harcourt to Maiduguri in the northeast.
&#8220;We received one bid today,&#8221; said Fola Fagbule, vice president and co-head of advisory at Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) which ran a procurement process after being appointed lead adviser by the government.
The only bid, led by GE, was in partnership with Transnet of South Africa, Dutch-based APM Terminals and China&#8217;s Sinohydro Consortium.
Nigeria&#8217;s upper chamber of parliament, the Senate, said in November it would investigate the railway concession over possible violations by Nigerian officials. (Editing by James Dalgleish)
© Thomson Reuters 2017 All rights reserved

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Nigeria

Nigeria’s Lagos State redeems 57.5BN naira from bondholders

Nigerian stocks rise 2.37 pct on new Cenbank forex window

Nigerian finance minister says country needs to tap its non-oil revenues

How West Africa built the muscle to rout dictators and keep the peace

Nigeria needs reforms to hedge against future FX crisis – World Bank Africa economist

Nigeria’s Buhari orders corruption probe over humanitarian funds

World must aid famine-threatened Nigeria to avoid ‘mass exodus’

With Nigeria’s northeast facing famine, WFP funds could dry up in weeks –sources

Nigeria’s military destroys 13 illegal oil refineries

Risk of mass starvation rising rapidly in Africa, Yemen – U.N

Etisalat Nigeria yet to agree debt deal with lenders: source

This African country is destined to have a trillion dollar economy in the next ten years

Nigeria’s Mosimi oil depot resumes loading after almost one year

No emergency, last-minute travel possible to Nigeria for South Africans

How piracy threatens Nigeria’s entertainment industry

Nigeria oil tanker drivers call off strike after government pay deal

GE sole bidder for $2 bln Nigeria rail concession

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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