<p>Nigeria has ratified the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), making it the 107th World Trade Organisation (WTO) member to do so. Only three more ratifications from members are needed to achieve the two-third threshold that will bring the TFA into force.</p>
<p> Nigeria&#8217;s instrument of acceptance was submitted to the WTO today by the Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah (<a href="http://www.fmiti.gov.ng/">www.FMITI.gov.ng</a>).</p>
<p> Enelamah met with WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo on the margins of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to mark the deposit.</p>
<p> “Nigeria&#8217;s ratification of the Trade Facilitation Agreement is a reflection of our commitment to the WTO and a rules-based economy. It is evidence of President Muhammadu Buhari&#8217;s commitment to rapidly implement his presidential initiative on the creation of an enabling environment for business,” Enelamah said.</p>
<p> “Nigeria would like to see a strengthened WTO that reflects the development principles of developing countries like Nigeria and we praise the effectiveness of DG Azevêdo in this regard,” he added.</p>
<p> On November 10, 2014, Nigeria submitted its Category A notification to the WTO outlining which substantive provisions of the TFA it intends to implement upon entry into force of the Agreement.</p>
<p> The TFA will enter into force once two-thirds of the WTO membership has formally accepted the Agreement and ratification is a means of expression for a country to be legally bound by a treaty.</p>
<p> Concluded at the WTO’s 2013 Bali Ministerial Conference, the TFA contains provisions for expediting the movement, release and clearance of goods, including goods in transit. It also sets out measures for effective cooperation between customs and other appropriate authorities on trade facilitation and customs compliance issues. It further contains provisions for technical assistance and capacity building in this area.</p>
<p> According to a 2015 study carried out by WTO economists, full implementation of the TFA would reduce members’ trade costs by an average of 14.3 per cent, with developing countries having the most to gain. The TFA also has the ability to reduce the time to import goods by over a day and a half while also reducing time to export by almost two days, representing a reduction of 47 per cent and 91 per cent respectively over the current average. The TFA also has the potential to increase global merchandise exports by up to $1 trillion.</p>
<p> In addition to Nigeria, some other African countries that have ratified are Botswana, Niger, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Zambia, Lesotho, Mali, Senegal, Swaziland, Gabon, Ghana and Mozambique.</p>
<p> The TFA broke new ground for developing and least-developed countries in the way it will be implemented. For the first time in WTO history, the requirement to implement the Agreement was directly linked to the capacity of the country to do so. In addition, the Agreement states that assistance and support should be provided to help them achieve that capacity.</p>
<p> A Trade Facilitation Agreement Facility (TFAF) was also created at the request of developing and least-developed country members to help ensure that they receive the assistance needed to reap the full benefits of the TFA and to support the ultimate goal of full implementation of the new agreement by all members. </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>


Nigeria ratifies the Trade Facilitation Agreement

<p>Nigeria&#8217;s efforts to secure funds from international lenders to help haul it out of recession have stalled because it has not submitted the required economic reform plans, according to one of the banks and sources close to the matter.</p>
<p>The government has been in loan talks with the World Bank for a year. It had told the lender it would present its proposed reforms to make the economy more resilient and attractive to investment by the end of December, according to Western diplomats and a Nigerian official who declined to be named as they are not authorised to speak publicly.</p>
<p>But this has not happened and as a result of the delay, which the government has not explained, the Washington-based bank has not been able to consider a loan yet, the sources said.</p>
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<p>Nigerian finance minister Kemi Adeosun and the World Bank declined to comment.</p>
<p>The African Development Bank (AfDB), meanwhile, is holding back the second tranche of a $1 billion loan for Nigeria, AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are waiting for the economic policy recovery programme and the policy framework for that,&#8221; said Adesina, without specifying when the AfDB had expected to receive the reform plans.</p>
<p>Nigeria has said it is seeking to borrow $4 billion in total from the World Bank and other foreign institutions and $1 billion through Eurobonds to plug a yawning budget deficit and fund badly needed infrastructure projects.</p>
<p>The country, which relies on oil revenue for most of its income, has been hit hard by the sharp fall in crude prices since 2014 and is struggling to drag itself out of its first recession in 25 years.</p>
<p>It is unclear why the government has not submitted reform plans to the international lenders. The funding deadlock could throw into doubt badly needed infrastructure projects planned for this year, including new roads and improvements to power infrastructure.</p>
<p>The failure to secure the funds, and to present a reform programme, could also deter some investors from Nigeria&#8217;s planned $1 billion Eurobonds sale in March.</p>
<p>A Nigerian financial source said the government was working with a consultancy on putting together a package of proposed reforms. The source, who declined to be named as the matter is confidential, did not elaborate.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>RECORD BUDGET</p>
<p>Nigeria needs money to help plug a budget deficit of 2.2 trillion naira ($7 billion) for 2016 and to help fund a record budget of 7.3 trillion naira for 2017 which is aimed at stimulating the economy.</p>
<p>It has been holding talks with various institutions and China over the last year to borrow funds but apart from a $1 billion loan from the African Development Bank, at a rate of 1.2 percent, nothing has been made public.</p>
<p>The Abidjan-based AfDB has paid out an initial $600 million in November but is awaiting the economic reform proposals before it disburses the rest of the money.</p>
<p>It is unclear how much money Nigeria is seeking from the World Bank, or whether the lender was pushing for any specific economic reforms from the government.</p>
<p>The diplomatic sources, however, said the bank wanted to see how Nigeria planned to lower its dependence on oil revenues and boost investment, which has been hit by a high official exchange rate for the naira currency.</p>
<p>Nigeria&#8217;s central bank, backed by President Muhammadu Buhari, has kept the naira rate to the dollar at 40 percent above the unofficial &#8211; or parallel &#8211; market rate, which has dried up dollar supplies on official channels.</p>
<p>The policy has also made investors reluctant to commit new projects as they expect the central bank will have to devalue the naira eventually as oil production has been hit by an insurgency in the Niger Delta oil hub.</p>
<p>The central bank has also imposed hard currency curbs making impossible the import of almost 700 goods, which has forced dozens of plants to close running out of spare parts.</p>
<p>Adesina told Reuters on Tuesday that the currency rate problem needed to be addressed by the government in its reform programme, which he said the AfDB was coordinating with the World Bank.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are being clear that the quantitative restriction in terms of access to FX is what&#8217;s creating huge gap between parallel market rates and official rates,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>($1 = 314.5000 naira)﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Nigeria's efforts to secure international loans hit deadlock

<p>At least 70 civilians were killed in Tuesday&#8217;s Nigerian Air Force strike on a refugee camp and more than a hundred were wounded, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>The air force has said an unknown number of civilians were killed and wounded in the mistaken strike in Rann, northeast Nigeria. It said the attack was intended to target Islamist militant Boko Haram fighters.</p>
<p>Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has said 52 were killed and 120 were wounded.﻿</p>
<p>MSF said the strike occurred in Rann in Borno state, the epicentre of the jihadist group&#8217;s seven-year-old bid to create an Islamic caliphate. Regional military commander General Lucky Irabor located it at Kala Balge, a district including Rann.</p>
<p>Irabor, who said it was too early to determine the cause of the mistake, told journalists an unknown number of civilians had been killed, adding that humanitarian workers from MSF and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were injured.</p>
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<p>&#8220;MSF teams have seen 120 wounded and 50 dead following the bombing,&#8221; said Charlotte Morris, a spokeswoman for the medical charity. &#8220;Our medical and surgical teams in Cameroon and Chad are ready to treat wounded patients. We are in close contact with our teams, who are in shock following the event.&#8221;</p>
<p>A spokeswoman for ICRC said six Nigerian Red Cross members were killed and 13 were wounded.</p>
<p>The insurgency has killed more than 15,000 people and forced two million to flee their homes, many of whom have moved to camps because it has been too dangerous to return home.</p>
<p>The air strike came amid an offensive against Boko Haram by Nigeria&#8217;s military over the last few weeks. President Muhammadu Buhari said last month a key camp in the jihadist group&#8217;s Sambisa forest base in Borno state had fallen.</p>
<p>A statement issued by the presidency said the air strike was a &#8220;regrettable operational mistake&#8221; that happened during the &#8220;final phase of mopping up insurgents in the northeast&#8221;.</p>
<p>Boko Haram has stepped up attacks in the last few weeks as the end of the rainy season has enabled its fighters to move more easily in the bush.</p>
<p>A video featuring an audio recording purporting to be Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, which was posted on social media late on Monday, said the group was behind twin suicide bombings at a university earlier that day which killed two people and injured 17 others.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


At least 70 civilians killed in Nigeria refugee camp air strike

<p><em>This article first appeared on <a href="http://www.theglobalcommunique.com/2017/01/nigerias-market-women-express-their-views-on-matters-relating-to-nigerias-economy/">The Global Communiqué</a> and is republished with its permission. </em></p>
<p>Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest economies, slipped into an economic recession in 2016. Nigeria was particularly hit the hardest by the decline of global oil prices which make up 70% of government revenue. Various policies were put into place in 2016, with the aim of propping up the Nigerian economy; however, the economy currently remains in a quandary.</p>
<p>The most recent data from Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics reveal that inflation has now hit <a href="http://www.nigerianstat.gov.ng/report/495">18.55%</a> (an increase of 0.07% from the 18.48% inflation rate that was recorded in November 2016). The food index also rose from 17.19% to <a href="http://www.nigerianstat.gov.ng/report/495">17.39%</a>. Notwithstanding Nigeria’s current economic difficulty, the World Bank’s January 2017 Global Economic Prospects report forecasts that Nigeria will rebound from the recession and grow at <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2017/01/10/global-growth-edges-up-to-2-7-percent-despite-weak-investment">1%</a> .</p>
<p>Despite all these figures and reports, what does all this mean for ordinary citizens going about their daily lives? This is what a late morning conversation with Ikotun Market’s small business owners illuminated: their view on life in Nigeria before and after the country’s economic recession, their views and opinions on Nigeria’s political landscape, as well as whether they would like to be involved (in some capacity) in the policy-making of their country. The interview was conducted on Tuesday, January 10<sup>th</sup>, 2017.</p>
<p>Q: Good morning. Please tell us your name and what you do for a living.</p>
<p>Grace: Good morning. My name is Grace. I sell dry fish.  </p>
<p>Esther: My name is Esther and I am a business woman. I sell “okrika” – second-hand clothing.</p>
<p>Victoria: Good morning. My name is Victoria and I own a boutique business. I sell ladies’ wear – gowns, skirts, trousers and jeans.</p>
<p>Q: Have you always sold items here in Ikotun Market?</p>
<p>Grace: I did not always live in Lagos. I was living at the village. I only moved to Lagos when my husband died. Following the death of my husband, I was suffering in the village with my 6 children. So that is when I decided to move to Lagos with my children and start this business of selling dry fish.</p>
<p>Esther: I used to sell dry fish and crayfish before selling okrika.I stopped selling the fish because it became dangerous to gather the fish before bringing them to the market to sell. The sea men were killing people. So I stopped selling the fish and instead started selling second-hand clothing. I buy the second-hand clothing from Cotonou (in Benin) and bring them here to the market to sell.</p>
<p>Victoria: I used to live in Aba, in Abia State before moving to Lagos. I was an employed woman in Aba – I was not engaged in a business. I moved to Lagos when my husband moved to Lagos. I have been selling here for 6 years now. I lived in Aba for 10 years.</p>
<p>Q: How has life been for you ever since Nigeria entered into an economic recession?</p>
<p>Grace: Life has really changed for me and my family. I did not know it could get like this. For example, this dry fish that you are seeing, I used to buy one packet to sell for only 8,000 naira [approximately US$25]. But today, the same packet of dry fish is 30,000 naira [approximately US$95]. Everything was low; now everything is high. As a widow, things are very difficult, school fees are high. My oldest child is 29 years and my youngest child is 14 years.</p>
<p>Esther: During the time of Jonathan, okrika was cheap. A bale was between 25,000 naira and 32,000 naira [approximately US$79 and US$100]; but today with Buhari okrika is 100,000 naira [approximately US$317]. Things used to be cheap for market women, now it is very expensive. That is not the only thing: since Buhari became president, the customs have started seizing second-hand clothes on our back from Cotonou. They say we cannot bring the clothing to the market. They do not give a reason, besides that the clothing is contraband. They do not give us alternatives, they just seize the clothing. This is making it very difficult for us market women. During Jonathan we were free and things were better. I used to eat freely: me and my family used to afford to buy chicken and we used to cook using four scoops of rice. But today, under Buhari, we cannot afford to eat chicken, it is too costly. Instead, we eat dry fish and cook using two scoops of rice.</p>
<p>Victoria: The present economic situation has not been easy at all. People are not buying clothing the way they used to. Life was better before the current economic situation. For example, in previous years, at Christmas time people used to come here and buy a lot of clothing, without a care on how much they were spending. But this past Christmas (2016), people hardly bought things – people cannot afford clothes. I want to switch over to selling food stuff – like rice and beans. People cannot do without food; but things like clothing, people can survive without them, so you get fewer buyers in situations like this.</p>
<p>Q: Do you blame this difficult economic situation on the current president, President Buhari?</p>
<p>Grace: Everything was low, now everything is high.Gari [a type of food] under Jonathan was 200 naira but today under Buhari, it is 800 naira. Now people are suffering.</p>
<p>Esther: Things used to be cheap for market women. I cannot eat the things I used to eat. People who said ‘change’ was coming are now regretting. In this market, you cannot see someone come out to publicly say that they voted for Buhari.</p>
<p>Victoria: I don’t want Buhari for another term.</p>
<p>Q: If your opinion was asked on how the government should improve the current economic situation, what would you say?</p>
<p>Grace: As a person, you don’t want to use your mouth to demand things. But what I can say is that people are suffering.</p>
<p>Esther: The customs should find other ways to seize contraband items, a way that does not affect the poor market women who rely on sellingokrikafor their livelihoods. The government should also give assistance to women like me who want to enter the farming business.</p>
<p>Victoria: If the government could give funding to small business owners, it would help. The government should also have a way to hear the voices of the poor.  </p>
<p>Q: Now that America is getting a new president, soon to be President Trump, is there anything in particular you would like to see him do for Africa, specifically Nigeria?</p>
<p>Esther: I do not want any president from any rich country to borrow Nigeria money – borrowed money will just get Nigeria deeper into problems because to pay that money back will become a problem.</p>
<p>Victoria: America can help us with enforcing the rule of law.</p>
<p>Q: Thank you for all of your time.</p>
<p>As the World Bank has made a rather promising forecast for Nigeria’s economy in the year 2017, what remains important is to remember that these economic figures that are frequently hurled about affect real people who would also like to be involved – in some capacity – in the decision-making of their own country.</p>
<p>Bearing in mind the rise in populist movements across the west, it is important to take stock of what was learnt in 2016, particularly as it relates to amplifying (and not disregarding) the voice of the general populace and those at the grassroots. In this case as Nigeria climbs out of its economic valley, the Nigerian government ought to create more inclusive and more effective policies for the benefit of the general populace.</p>
<p>In crafting such policies, it is fundamental to have community participation, in the form of incorporating the interests (and preferences) of the underprivileged groups, when formalizing policies in the higher echelons of government.</p>
<p>Banerjee and Duflo in their book &#8220;Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty&#8221; state that “if we listen to [those at the base of the pyramid] and force ourselves to understand the logic of their choices […] then we may be able […] to construct a toolbox of effective policies […]”. The creativity of small business women in going about the daily endeavours has the potential to bring transformational impact when rolled out on a larger scale, only if their voices are taken seriously.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Op-Ed: Grassroots conversations at Nigeria’s Ikotun Market

<p>A new terminal at northern Nigeria&#8217;s Kaduna airport is still under construction with cables hanging from ceilings less than two months before it is due to become an aviation hub when the capital&#8217;s airport closes temporarily for runway repairs.</p>
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<p>Nigeria plans to shut Abuja airport for six weeks from March 8 to repair its runway and divert flights to Kaduna, an airport used primarily for domestic flights about 160 km (100 miles) to the north, after airlines threatened to stop flying to the capital.</p>
<p>Abuja-bound passengers will have to fly to Kaduna and travel in buses, guarded by security, on a road where kidnappings have taken place in the past few years.</p>
<p>Kaduna airport handled 12 flights in December 2015, the last month for which Nigeria&#8217;s airports authority has figures, compared with 812 that used Abuja.</p>
<p>The government hopes international carriers will use Kaduna during the closure but the new terminal, in the works for about four years, was still a building site when a Reuters team visited the airport on Jan. 10.</p>
<p>Bricks were stacked throughout what will be the lounges, cables hung from the ceiling and mounds of sand were dotted across the ground. Most of the workers, who numbered around 30, were sat idle outside.</p>
<p>&#8220;We will try and fast track the contractor to deliver the terminal building before the end of February so that we can take it over in March,&#8221; Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika told a forum of businesses and aviation industry figures this month.</p>
<p>&#8220;Whether that happens or not, we have an alternative,&#8221; he said, explaining that the existing terminal would be used.</p>
<p>Sirika said the building could handle up to 500 passengers, although a visual assessment by the Reuters team suggested the capacity may be far lower. The check-in desks have no computers and there is only one security checkpoint.</p>
<p>Airport officials, who did not want to be named, said modifications could be made to the building such as creating an extra entrance, covered by a canopy, to ease the flow of people.</p>
<p>An Aviation Ministry spokesman did not to respond to emailed questions on Monday about details of the contingency plan if the terminal is not finished on time and the size of its capacity.</p>
<p>&#8220;If the government says it will be ready, it will be ready,&#8221; Mohammed Joji, chairman of a government-appointed committee that is overseeing the temporary airport closure and transition, said last week.</p>
<p>The temporary closure of Abuja&#8217;s airport has been criticised by aviation labour unions, business leaders and diplomats.</p>
<p>&#8220;Some businesses will fold up and be unable to recover,&#8221; said three Nigerian aviation unions in an open letter, adding that the country&#8217;s aviation industry &#8220;will lose colossal sums of money&#8221;.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Nigeria's Kaduna airport terminal still building site ahead of air hub switch

<p>Gunmen kidnapped five students and two staff, including a Turkish national, from an international school in Nigeria&#8217;s southern state of Ogun, police said on Saturday.</p>
<p>The kidnappers, who abducted the six Nigerians and Turkish staff member late on Friday, have not made contact with police or school authorities and no arrest has been made, Ogun police spokesman Abimbola Oyeyemi said.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have deployed police operatives and are making serious efforts to release the victims unhurt and bring the culprits to book,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>In September, Ogun state police rescued two kidnapped Chinese nationals who were working for a quarry company.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Gunmen kidnap five students, two staff from Nigerian school-police

<p>Taiwan objected on Thursday to a Nigerian request to the island to relocate its representative office in the African country, a request Taiwan sees as more pressure by China to isolate it.</p>
<p>Beijing regards Taiwan as a renegade province, ineligible for state-to-state relations, and to be taken back by force if necessary, especially if it makes moves toward independence.</p>
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<p>Taiwan has no diplomatic ties with Nigeria, but has an office for handling business affairs in Abuja.</p>
<p>But Taiwan&#8217;s foreign ministry said Nigeria has asked Taipei to move its office from Abuja to its former capital, Lagos.</p>
<p>Taiwan called on Nigeria to consider the issue as both sides have an understanding based on reciprocity, under which Nigeria runs a trade office in Taiwan&#8217;s capital, Taipei.</p>
<p>&#8220;The foreign ministry urges Nigeria to leave room for discussion,&#8221; Taiwan&#8217;s ministry said in a statement, referring to the request to move the trade office.</p>
<p>&#8220;The foreign ministry seriously objects and condemns the unreasonable actions by the Nigerian government,&#8221; it said.</p>
<p>Nigerian officials met their Chinese counterparts in Abuja on Wednesday and pledged to stick to Beijing&#8217;s &#8220;one China&#8221; policy, that Taiwan is a part of China, media reported.</p>
<p>Taiwan has 21 formal allies, only two in Africa. Last month, former African ally Sao Tome switched its diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China.</p>
<p>In countries with which Taiwan has no formal diplomatic relations it often sets up trade and commerce offices, in capitals and major cities.</p>
<p>While economic ties between the mainland and Taiwan have grown considerably in recent years, their relations have worsened since Tsai Ing-wen, who heads a pro-independence party, was elected president of the island last year.</p>
<p>Beijing has been stepping up pressure on her to concede to its &#8220;one China&#8221; principle.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Taiwan says Nigeria wants it to move its trade office

<p>Africa Finance Corp (AFC), a pan-African multilateral institution based in Nigeria, is likely to make a debut U.S. dollar sukuk issue by early February, banking sources close to the deal said on Wednesday.</p>
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<p>If AFC makes a final decision to go ahead with the proposed debt sale over coming days, the sukuk will be issued in two or three weeks through a private sale, a banking source familiar with the transaction said.</p>
<p>At least one of the banks arranging the transaction is based in the United Arab Emirates, the source added. A spokeswoman at AFC declined to comment.</p>
<p>A private placement normally requires less documentation than a bond listed on a public exchange.</p>
<p>The sukuk would be structured with a murabaha format, a popular cost-plus structure in Islamic finance, and use Nasdaq Dubai&#8217;s platform for murabaha transactions, according to a report by Moody&#8217;s Investors Service, which assigned a provisional A3 credit rating to the Cayman-domiciled special purpose vehicle.</p>
<p>&#8220;We will see more sukuk issuance from Africa-based issuers over the next few years&#8221; as borrowers seek to expand their investor bases, said Dr. Mohamed Damak, global head of Islamic finance at S&amp;P Global Ratings.</p>
<p>&#8220;Another reason for issuers in Africa to choose the sukuk route is that sometimes sukuk can be cheaper than (conventional) bonds in terms of cost of funding, especially when it attracts significant interest from the market.&#8221;</p>
<p>AFC obtained a 15-year, $50 million line of financing from the Saudi Arabia-based Islamic Development Bank [ISDBA.UL] in 2015. It issued a debut $750 million conventional bond in 2015, a five-year deal that offered a 4.375 percent coupon.</p>
<p>Last year it issued a 100 million Swiss franc bond. That paper, with a maturity of three years and 150 days, pays a 0.85 percent coupon and was arranged by Deutsche Bank and UBS.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>(Editing by Andrew Torchia)﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Maiden sukuk for Africa Finance Corp

<p>Five Nigerian soldiers and more than 15 Boko Haram fighters were killed when the jihadists attacked an army base in the remote northeast where the group has been fighting for an Islamic state, a military source said on Sunday.</p>
<p>Boko Haram attacked an army brigade in Buni Yadi in Yobe state late on Saturday, an army spokesman said by text message, without giving a casualty figure.</p>
<p>&#8220;Five soldiers lost their life in the attack though more than 15 Boko Haram were killed by troops,&#8221; the military source said.</p>
<p>Several explosions could be heard on Sunday in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state where Boko Haram started its seven-year insurgency that has killed about 15,000 people and displaced more than 2 million.</p>
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<p>Officials or medics were not immediately available to give a casualty figure.</p>
<p>In early 2015, Boko Haram controlled an area about the size of Belgium. It has been pushed out of most of that territory over the past year by Nigeria&#8217;s army and troops from neighboring countries, moving to a base in the Sambisa forest.</p>
<p>Last month, the army said it had taken Boko Haram&#8217;s key camp in the forest, although the group has staged suicide bombings since then.</p>
<p>Security analysts say the group&#8217;s ability to carry out attacks in neighboring Niger, Cameroon and Chad suggests it has multiple bases.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Boko Haram attacks Nigerian army base

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<p>LONDON (Reuters) &#8211; A court in London will decide in coming weeks whether Royal Dutch Shell can face trial in the UK over oil spill allegations in Nigeria, a decision some legal experts predict could attract more cases against multinationals in Britain.</p>
<p>The High Court will judge whether members from two communities, Bille and Ogale in Nigeria&#8217;s oil-rich Delta region, can sue the Anglo-Dutch company in British courts.</p>
<p>The communities say Nigerian courts are unfit to hear the case against Shell subsidiary Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC). Shell says the case should be heard in Nigeria because the matter is “uniquely a Nigerian problem”.</p>
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<p>Shell also denies responsibility for the spills, which it says were due to sabotage and illegal refining.</p>
<p>If the High Court rules in favour of the communities, some legal experts say other claimants against British-based multinationals would be emboldened to pursue legal action through the British courts.</p>
<p>Some legal experts also warned that a victory by the communities could encourage unscrupulous residents to let oil spills worsen at remote sites by denying clean-up access, as payouts are often linked to the scale of the damage.</p>
<p>&#8220;This case brings home the message that multinationals may increasingly face claims in the English courts arising from disputes which have little or no connection to England,&#8221; said Tom Cummins, a partner at law firm Ashurst.</p>
<p>The Bille and Ogale groups launched their claim just months after Shell agreed a 55 million pound ($68 million) settlement in 2015 with another Nigerian group, the Bodo community.</p>
<p>That case covered two pipeline leaks in 2008, which Shell accepted were its fault due to corrosion, and marked the largest ever out-of-court settlement relating to Nigerian oil spills. Law firm Leigh Day, which is representing the Bille and Ogale communities and also brought the Bodo case in London against Shell, says Nigeria&#8217;s court system is not robust enough to give a fair ruling in reasonable time.</p>
<p>Leigh Day, which is licensed only to practise in Britain, has also raised concerns over whether companies will conduct clean-up operations properly without international pressure.</p>
<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve got a dual problem: the systemic ineffectiveness of the courts and the fact that people (in local communities) just can&#8217;t get the evidence together or even representation to take on these companies,&#8221; Daniel Leader, partner at Leigh Day, told Reuters.</p>
<p>For its part, the Nigerian government’s National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency defended the effectiveness of the Nigerian court system, saying it had successfully sanctioned and sued several companies locally, including SPDC.</p>
<p>Shell said it settled the Bodo case in part because it admitted responsibility for the spill, but never agreed that the case should be tried in London.</p>
<p>It said it would fight to stem a potential landslide of cases from groups whose lands Shell says were spoiled by sabotage, oil theft and illegal refining that are endemic across the Delta.</p>
<p>&#8220;We fully intend to have this (jurisdictional issue) decided by a trial judge, to determine the issue once and for all,&#8221; said Gaurav Sharma, senior legal counsel for Shell&#8217;s global litigation team.</p>
<p>Shell said 92 percent of all oil spilled from SPDC facilities in 2009-13 was a result of theft, sabotage or illegal refining.</p>
<p>In part due to such attacks, the oil major is divesting pipelines and other onshore assets after more than 50 years of operations in Nigeria.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>FEW GOOD SOLUTIONS The Bodo case was hailed by some as a victory for communities, but more than eight years after the spill, the clean-up has not yet begun.</p>
<p>Shell paid the agreed damages, but said the community denied it access in August 2015 when work was set to begin – asking instead for cash to do it themselves.</p>
<p>Barisi Kkabe, a Bodo youth leader, told Reuters the community was unhappy with the contractor picked by Shell, and &#8220;out of fear that (the clean-up fund) may be misappropriated, decided that &#8230; they should share it among the people&#8221;.</p>
<p>An SPDC spokesman said the company was unable to meet the Bodo community’s request to distribute clean-up work to local contractors because it was “not procedurally correct”.</p>
<p>A United Nations Environmental Programme report into oil pollution in Nigeria’s Ogoniland said communities should avoid protracted negotiations over access to spill sites as delays result in far greater environmental damage.</p>
<p>&#8220;Communities deserve compensation for damages when it&#8217;s Shell&#8217;s fault,&#8221; said Aaron Sayne of the Natural Resource Governance Institute, a non-profit group that advises nations on how to manage oil, gas and mineral resources without financial links to the oil industry.</p>
<p>&#8220;But I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s going to be easy for a foreign court to get its head around how complicated it is.&#8221;</p>
<p> </p>
<p>(Additional reporting by Anamesere Igboeroteonwu in Onitsha, Nigeria; Editing by Dale Hudson)</p>
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<p class="copyright">© Thomson Reuters 2017 All rights reserved﻿</p>
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Shell battles Nigerian communities in high-stakes London lawsuit

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<p>LONDON (Reuters) &#8211; Nigeria&#8217;s sovereign wealth fund is setting up a company in partnership with London-based local currency guarantee firm GuarantCo to enable pension funds to invest in Nigerian infrastructure bonds, its chief executive said on Thursday.</p>
<p>The new business will be launched in a few weeks&#8217; time and aims to overcome some of the challenges facing the financing of infrastructure projects in Africa&#8217;s most populous nation.</p>
<p>&#8220;The company will provide enhancements for infrastructure bonds, and we believe this will make an effective platform for Nigerian pension funds to invest in them,&#8221; said Uche Orji, chief executive of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), which has some $1.25 billion under management.</p>
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<p>GuarantCo facilitates infrastructure development in low income countries by providing credit guarantees denominated in local currency to financial institutions and bond investors. It is funded by Britain, Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Australia, and specialises in frontier market infrastructure.</p>
<p>Poor infrastructure and access to capital is a major bottleneck to growth in Nigeria, and the government has identified infrastructure investment as a major priority.</p>
<p>Unlocking fresh sources of capital will help, with Nigeria&#8217;s pension fund assets at $26.4 billion at December 2015, according to data from Nigeria&#8217;s National Pension Commission.</p>
<p>Orji said that currently, when municipalities want to issue bonds to fund infrastructure projects, most pension funds won&#8217;t buy them because the credit rating of the issuer isn&#8217;t strong enough.</p>
<p>The new venture will provide a form of monoline insurance, giving a guarantee and allowing pension funds and insurance companies to invest. &#8220;The NSIA cannot give guarantees by itself, so we have created a company that can do this,&#8221; he explained.</p>
<p>The tie-up is the latest in a series of partnerships for the NSIA. In August it announced agreements with Old Mutual Investment Group and UFF Agri-Fund to establish two funds to invest in real estate and agriculture respectively.</p>
<p>Orji said these could make their first investments in the first quarter of 2017.</p>
<p>The Agri-Fund aims to improve Nigeria&#8217;s food security and is seeking investments in farms, storage and irrigation infrastructure for everything from arable crops to dairy farming and fish farming.</p>
<p>&#8220;That is more advanced in terms of being able to make an investment, and the first quarter is likely to be very busy,&#8221; Orji said.</p>
<p>The real estate fund is targeting commercial property such as offices, hospitality, logistics and industrial parks.</p>
<p>The NSIA also signed a strategic partnership agreement with its Moroccan peer, Ithmar Capital, to co-operate on bilateral investments.</p>
<p>These include a Trans-African gas pipeline which it is envisaged will support the creation of industrial hubs. Orji said this was an ambitious project but it would be cheaper and more effective than trying to build LNG facilities across Africa to export Nigeria&#8217;s gas.</p>
<p>With a recovery in the oil price in late 2016, and a better macro environment, Orji expects further injections into the NSIA in 2017 following 2016&#8217;s $250 million additional funding.</p>
<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s been a strong commitment shown by the administration in continuing to support the fund, and even in 2016, as difficult as it was with the oil price, there was still an injection,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>(Editing by Hugh Lawson)</p>
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<p class="copyright">© Thomson Reuters 2017 All rights reserved﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Nigeria's strategic plan to boost funding for its infrastructure

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<p>MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) &#8211; Nigerian soldiers have found a schoolgirl who was one of more than 200 pupils kidnapped by Islamist militant group Boko Haram from their school in the northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014, an army spokesman said on Thursday.</p>
<p>The troops had found Rakiya Abubkar wandering around near Algarno, a former Boko Haram stronghold, the spokesman said. She had a six-month-old baby with her.</p>
<p><a href="/news/western-africa/2016/10/14/boko-haram-frees-21-kidnapped-chibok-girls-nigerian-government/"><strong>READ:</strong>﻿ Boko Haram frees 21 kidnapped Chibok girls &#8211; CNBC Africa﻿</a></p>
<p>A total of 276 schoolgirls were abducted by Boko Haram from Chibok in 2014 in one of the most infamous actions of their insurgency. More than 20 were released in October in a deal brokered by the International Red Cross. Others have escaped or been rescued but about 200 are believed to be still in captivity.</p>
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<div class="teads-player"><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="/news/western-africa/2016/12/29/boko-haram-may-have-used-chibok-girls/">Boko Haram may have used Chibok girls as shields during attack﻿</a></p>
<p>Boko Haram has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than two million during a seven-year-old insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria.</p>
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<p>The group controlled an area about the size of Belgium in early 2015 but has been pushed out of most of that territory over the last year by Nigeria&#8217;s army and troops from neighbouring countries.</p>
<p>Last month, the army said it had seized a key Boko Haram camp in its last enclave in Nigeria in the vast Sambisa forest. The jihadists still stage suicide bombings in northeastern areas and in neighbouring Niger and Cameroon.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Lanre Ola, Alexis Akwagyiram and Ulf Laessing; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Dominic Evans)</p>
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<p class="copyright">© Thomson Reuters 2017 All rights reserved﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Nigerian soldiers find Chibok girl kidnapped in 2014

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<p>YENAGOA, Nigeria (Reuters) &#8211; Nigeria has resumed payments of cash stipends to former militants agreed under a 2009 amnesty in the country&#8217;s Niger Delta oil hub, an official said on Thursday.</p>
<p>&#8220;Two months of the ex-militants stipends were paid yesterday&#8230;The rest of their stipends will be paid later in batches by (central bank) CBN,&#8221; said Piriye Kiyaramo, an officer in the Amnesty Office.</p>
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<p>He said the paid stipends covered August and September.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Tife Owolabi; writing by Ulf Laessing; editing by Jason Neely)</p>
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<p class="copyright">© Thomson Reuters 2017 All rights reserved﻿</p>
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Nigeria resumes payments to former Niger Delta militants: official

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<p>ABUJA (Reuters) &#8211; Nigeria plans to close the airport in the capital Abuja for six weeks from 8 March to repair its runway, the aviation ministry said on Tuesday, pushing the move back later than previously scheduled.</p>
<p>The decision to shut the airport and divert Abuja-bound flights to Kaduna, an airport used primarily for domestic flights about 160 km (100 miles) to the north, was taken after airlines threatened to stop flying to the capital.</p>
<p>The government had said the six week closure would begin in February. But a statement issued on Tuesday, which said the aviation minister would discuss the matter with stakeholders, said the &#8220;proposed closure&#8221; was set to start on 8 March.</p>
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<p>No reason was given for the change of date.</p>
<p>The meeting with aviation industry figures, on Thursday, is to brief them on efforts being made to ensure that the use of Kaduna&#8217;s airport is &#8220;seamless and hitch-free&#8221; said aviation ministry spokesman James Odaudu.</p>
<p>Analysts have said that the temporary closure of Abuja airport, the country&#8217;s second busiest after the commercial capital Lagos, will have a negative impact on Africa&#8217;s biggest economy, which fell into recession in 2016 for the first time in 25 years.</p>
<p>Passengers travelling to Abuja will have to fly to Kaduna and travel in bus shuttles, guarded by security provided by the government, to the capital on a pot-holed road where kidnappings have taken place in the last few years.</p>
<p>Kaduna&#8217;s international airport handled 12 flights in December 2015, the last month for which Nigeria&#8217;s airports authority has figures, compared with 812 that used Abuja International.</p>
<p>The government has said German company Julius Berger will carry out repairs on Abuja&#8217;s damaged runway.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Felix Onuah; Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram)</p>
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Nigeria changes date for closure of capital's airport

<p>On Tuesday, December 13, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fews Net) stated that the famine threatening the country’s northeast, a region wracked by a seven-year insurgency by extremist group Boko Haram, has already claimed over 2,000 lives this year. The deaths occurred in Bama – the group’s former stronghold.</p>
<p>The news comes a month after United Nations (UN) Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Peter Lundberg, warned that 2017 could see millions requiring international humanitarian assistance and 75,000 children were at risk of dying over the next few months “if we don’t do something rapidly and seriously”.</p>
<p>On December 5, meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari responded to the alarm calls by the UN by saying that he believed aid agencies were creating “hype” in order to encourage donations.</p>
<p>“We are concerned about the blatant attempts to whip up a non-existent fear of mass starvation by some aid agencies, a type of hype that does not provide a solution to the situation on the ground, but more to do with calculations for operations financing locally and abroad,” The Guardian quoted Buhari saying.</p>
<p>The president’s defensiveness should be interpreted in light of the mounting criticism he is facing for multiple crises affecting the country – from militancy in the Niger Delta, the economy stalling, separatist agitation for a Biafran State, Fulani herdsmen causing chaos in the middle belt, and many more – which have eroded his legitimacy.</p>
<p>The famine now detracts from the successes the Nigerian forces, and those of their regional allies, have had in bringing the extremists to heel and the long-overdue release of some of the Chibok girls who were kidnapped in 2014.</p>
<p>Even more embarrassing for the president is the fact that in October the Senate reported that the Presidential Initiative on the North East, which Buhari established last year, has done little to improve conditions on the ground for internally displaced persons and has been marred by corruption.</p>
<p>Readers will remember that Buhari came to power in 2015 promising to end the scourge corruption. </p>
<p>Buhari can obviously not be blamed for the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the northeast. The previous administration should be saddled with the guilt of not ending Boko Haram’s insurgency sooner.</p>
<p>However, the president can be blamed for actions taken to address the situation now.</p>
<p>Downplaying the seriousness of the widespread hunger in order to save face is a public relations disaster – especially when coupled with the failures of his own initiative for the region.</p>
<p>His popularity has sunk to critical levels and, just about halfway through his term, he does not have all that much time to turn the ship around.</p>
<p>When the news media start reporting on more deaths, his defensiveness will be remembered as callousness.</p>
<p>*Jared Jeffery is a Political Analyst at NKC</p>
<p> </p>


Op-Ed: Nigeria's president is ignoring famine warnings at its peril

<p>A man purporting to be the leader of Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, denied the jihadist group has been pushed out of its stronghold in the Sambisa forest.</p>
<p>President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday said Boko Haram&#8217;s last enclave in the forest, a former game reserve in northeast Nigeria, had been captured in the &#8220;final crushing&#8221; of the group.</p>
<p>Reuters has been unable to independently verify that the area was captured.</p>
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<p>&#8220;We are safe. We have not been flushed out of anywhere,&#8221;</p>
<p>the man identifying himself as Shekau said in a video seen by Reuters on Thursday.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you indeed crushed us, how can you see me like this? How many times have you killed us in your bogus death?&#8221; he added in the 25-minute video during which he spoke in the Hausa language and Arabic.</p>
<p>Nigeria&#8217;s military has in recent years said it has killed or wounded Shekau on multiple occasions.</p>
<p>Such statements have often swiftly been followed by video denials by someone who says he is Shekau, but poor footage makes it hard to confirm if the person is the same man as in previous videos.</p>
<p>A military spokesman, in a text message, said a comment would be issued in due course. The presidency declined to comment.</p>
<p>Boko Haram has killed about 15,000 people and displaced more than 2 million in a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating a state adhering to strict Islamic laws in the northeast of Africa&#8217;s most populous nation.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Man claiming to be Boko Haram leader denies Sambisa defeat

<p>Nigeria&#8217;s central bank sold about $1 billion on the forward market last week to clear a backlog of dollar obligations in selected sectors, traders said on Thursday, its largest special auction since a currency peg was removed in June.</p>
<p>Outstanding dollar demand was about $4 billion before June, when the 16-month-old peg was removed. Efforts to cut dollar demand have been largely unsuccessful due to low oil prices.</p>
<p>Crude sales account for about 90 percent of Nigeria&#8217;s foreign exchange earnings.</p>
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<p>Traders said the central bank told banks to prioritise airlines, manufacturing firms, petroleum products importers and agriculture sectors, the sectors worst hit by the dollar shortage, in the auction.</p>
<p>&#8220;The central bank sold $1 billion at last week&#8217;s special forex auction and directed banks to issue fresh letters of credit to reflect the amount sold in favour of the affected sectors,&#8221; a senior currency trader told Reuters.</p>
<p>Traders said the central bank sold 30-day and 60-day forwards at the auction.</p>
<p>On Dec. 19, the central bank instructed commercial lenders to submit their backlog of dollar demand from fuel importers, airlines, raw materials and machinery for manufacturing firms and agricultural chemicals for the special forex intervention.</p>
<p>Nigeria is in its first recession for 25 years, caused by the oil price drop which has cut the supply of dollars needed to fund imports. Attacks by militants on pipelines in the Niger Delta since January have cut crude output, further reducing dollar inflows.</p>
<p>The dollar shortage in the OPEC member, whose crude sales make up two thirds of government revenue, has caused many companies to halt operations and lay off workers, compounding the economic crisis.</p>
<p>Some foreign airlines have closed down or reduced their operations over an inability to repatriate the proceeds of their earnings due to the dollar shortage.</p>
<p>An acute shortage of jet oil in the last few months &#8211; caused by the inability of importers to secure the dollars needed to buy the fuel &#8211; has led to many operators refuelling in neighbouring countries.</p>
<p>Flight cancellations by local airlines have become commonplace as a result of the shortages.</p>
<p>The naira was trading at about 305.25 to the dollar on the interbank market on Thursday and was quoted at 490 a dollar on the unofficial market.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Nigeria

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Op-Ed: Nigeria's president is ignoring famine warnings at its peril

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Nigeria

Nigeria ratifies the Trade Facilitation Agreement

Nigeria's efforts to secure international loans hit deadlock

At least 70 civilians killed in Nigeria refugee camp air strike

Op-Ed: Grassroots conversations at Nigeria’s Ikotun Market

Nigeria's Kaduna airport terminal still building site ahead of air hub switch

Gunmen kidnap five students, two staff from Nigerian school-police

Taiwan says Nigeria wants it to move its trade office

Maiden sukuk for Africa Finance Corp

Boko Haram attacks Nigerian army base

Shell battles Nigerian communities in high-stakes London lawsuit

Nigeria's strategic plan to boost funding for its infrastructure

Nigerian soldiers find Chibok girl kidnapped in 2014

Nigeria resumes payments to former Niger Delta militants: official

Nigeria changes date for closure of capital's airport

Op-Ed: Nigeria's president is ignoring famine warnings at its peril

Man claiming to be Boko Haram leader denies Sambisa defeat

Nigeria sells $1 bln to help clear backlog in dollar

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