<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

<div>
<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>
<p> </p>


Nigeria resumes payments to former Niger Delta militants: official

<div>
<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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<p class="copyright">© Thomson Reuters 2017 All rights reserved﻿</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 sells $1 bln to help clear backlog in dollar

<p>More than 3,000 people in northeast Nigeria who were forced to flee the seven-year insurgency waged by Islamist militants have returned to their hometown following the reopening of major roads in the area, the army said on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Damasak &#8211; in the northwest of Borno, the state worst hit by the militants &#8211; was taken over by Boko Haram in late 2014, when it controlled an area the size of Belgium in northeast Nigeria. The insurgents were pushed out of the town by the army in July.</p>
<p>President Muhammadu Buhari said on Saturday that the army had taken back Boko Haram&#8217;s main camp in the Sambisa forest.</p>
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<p>On Sunday, the government said it was reopening two roads between Borno&#8217;s capital, Maiduguri, and the northern towns of Damasak and Baga.</p>
<p>Army spokesman Sani Usman said more than 3,000 people used one of the roads to return to Damasak on Monday.</p>
<p>Reuters was unable to independently verify his statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;They were residents of Damasak displaced by the insurgency staying as refugees in the neighbouring Niger Republic and internally displaced people in Maiduguri,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Usman said the returnees went through military security checks when they arrived and were met by local government officials and community leaders.</p>
<p>More than two million people have been displaced during the insurgency as Boko Haram tries to establish an Islamic state, run using a strict interpretation of sharia, in the northeast. About 15,000 people have been killed.</p>
<p>After the announcement that the Sambisa camp had been taken, the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, said the former game reserve would be used as a military training base to prevent the insurgents returning.</p>
<p>Security analysts say Boko Haram split this year with one faction led by Abubakar Shekau operating from the Sambisa forest and the other, allied to Islamic State and led by Abu Musab al-Barnawi, based in the Lake Chad region.</p>
<p>Despite having been pushed back by a military offensive in the last few months, Boko Haram still stages suicide bombings in northeast Nigeria and in neighbouring Niger and Cameroon.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


3,000 people who fled Boko Haram return home

<p>LAGOS &#8211; Nigerian authorities are involved in negotiations aimed at securing the release of some of the more than 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014 in the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok, the president&#8217;s spokesman said on Thursday.</p>
<p>His comments, posted on Twitter, came in response to reports in Nigeria&#8217;s media that some of the girls had been released by the Islamist militant group, which he said were untrue.</p>
<p>&#8220;The negotiations are ongoing and the Department of State Service, DSS is full of optimism that they will be successful,&#8221; Garba Shehu, a spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari, said in a tweet.</p>
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<p>&#8220;To my friends spreading the news of a further release of Chibok Girls, we are not there yet,&#8221; he tweeted.</p>
<p>Around 270 girls were taken in April 2014 from their school in Chibok, Borno state, where Boko Haram has waged a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state, killing more than 15,000 people and displacing over two million.</p>
<p>Dozens escaped in the initial melee, but more than 200 girls remained missing until October when 21 of the girls were freed following mediation by Switzerland and the International Red Cross.</p>
<p>The jihadist group has kidnapped hundreds of men, women and children but the kidnapping of the Chibok girls brought worldwide attention to the group.</p>
<p>The Nigerian military has in recent weeks been carrying out a large-scale offensive in the Sambisa forest, Boko Haram&#8217;s vast northeastern woodland stronghold.</p>
<div class="related-content group-one">A military spokesman, in a statement issued late on Wednesday, said the army had rescued 1,880 people during operations in the forest over the past week. Reuters was unable to independently verify the claim.</div>
<p>(Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram, editing by G Crosse)﻿</p>


More Chibok girls could be released

<div>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) &#8211; A Nigerian man is facing U.S. charges that he participated in scams targeting thousands of victims globally in which company executives or vendors were impersonated in emails directing employees to make large wire transfers.</p>
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<p>David Chukwuneke Adindu, 29, pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday to charges including wire fraud, prosecutors said, more than three weeks after the FBI said he was arrested at a Houston airport.</p>
<p>Adindu&#8217;s attorney could not be immediately identified.</p>
<p>The case was the latest example of a growing type of cyber scam called a &#8220;business email compromise,&#8221; in which fraudsters target businesses that work with foreign suppliers or regularly perform wire transfers.</p>
<p>The Federal Bureau of Investigation said in June that since October 2013, U.S. and foreign victims have reported 22,143 complaints involving business email compromise scams in which criminals sent requests for almost $3.1 billion in transfers.</p>
<p>According to the indictment, Adindu, who during the period in question resided in both Guangzhou, China and Lagos, Nigeria, worked with others to carry out the scams from 2014 to 2016.</p>
<p>The indictment said Adindu and others exchanged information regarding, among other things, scripts for requesting wire transfers and lists of names and email addresses for contacting and impersonating potential victims.</p>
<p>Among those targeted, the indictment said, was an unnamed New York investment firm, where an employee received an email claiming in June 2015 to be from an investment adviser at another firm asking for a $25,200 wire transfer.</p>
<p>The employee later learned the email was not actually sent by that adviser, and as a result did not comply with a second wire transfer request for $75,100, the indictment said.</p>
<p>The case is U.S. v. Adindu, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 16-cr-00575.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Peter Cooney)</p>
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<p class="copyright">© Thomson Reuters 2016 All rights reserved﻿</p>
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US charges Nigerian with role in cyber scam targeting thousands

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<p>UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) &#8211; Incoming United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Thursday appointed Nigeria&#8217;s Environment Minister Amina Mohammed as his deputy secretary-general amid a push by more than a third of the 193 U.N. member states for gender parity at the world body.</p>
<p>Guterres, who will take over from current Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Jan. 1, was sworn in on Monday as the ninth male U.N. chief and pledged to reach gender parity among senior leadership within his five-year term.</p>
<p>He also appointed Brazilian diplomat Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti as chef de cabinet and Kyung-wha Kang of South Korea to a newly created position as special adviser on policy.</p>
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<p>&#8220;These appointments are the foundations of my team, which I will continue to build, respecting my pledges on gender parity and geographical diversity,&#8221; Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister, said in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am happy to count on the efforts of these three highly competent women, whom I have chosen for their strong backgrounds in global affairs, development, diplomacy, human rights and humanitarian action,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Guterres beat out 12 other candidates, seven of whom were women, as the next secretary-general amid a strong push by some U.N. states as well as civil society groups for a female to be elected.</p>
<p>The 66-member U.N. Group of Friends for Woman Secretary-General &#8211; led by Colombia &#8211; has renamed itself the Group of Friends for Gender Parity and hopes to build on the momentum created during the election campaign.</p>
<p>The group on Tuesday launched an exhibition at the United Nations celebrating leading women throughout the history of the 71-year-old organization.</p>
<p>&#8220;The initial target for the equal representation of women and men among U.N. staff was the year 2000. Sixteen years later, we are far from that goal,&#8221; Guterres told the U.N. General Assembly on Monday after taking the oath of office.</p>
<p>As of June 30, 34.8 percent of the 40,131 members of the United Nations secretariat staff were women, while just 17 of the 79 under-secretaries-general, or 21.5 percent, were female, according to the latest report on staff demographics.</p>
<p>Before her appointment as environment minister a year ago, Mohammed was Ban&#8217;s special adviser on post-2015 development planning &#8211; a role that culminated last year with the adoption by the General Assembly of sustainable development goals for the next 15 years. </p>
<p>(Reporting by Michelle Nichols, editing by G Crosse)</p>
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<p class="copyright">© Thomson Reuters 2016 All rights reserved﻿</p>
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Incoming UN chief appoints Nigerian Minister as deputy

<p>One morning during my time in the Nigerian army, I woke up with painfully swollen eyes and itching skin. Concerned, I visited the local clinic, where they ran tests and offered me the chance to see the culprit up close. What I saw under the microscope was an image I’ll never forget: dozens of tiny worms crawling around my skin. I’d contracted a neglected tropical disease (NTD) whose name I couldn’t even pronounce – onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness.</p>
<p>I was fortunate enough to be treated quickly and avoid any lasting symptoms like permanent blindness. Instead, I was able to pursue a career in business and invest my resources into worthy causes like NTDs, polio and education. But millions of others across Africa aren’t so lucky.</p>
<p>NTDs are a group of infectious diseases that collectively affect over one billion of the world’s poorest people. The most prevalent NTDs in sub-Saharan Africa include lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis), onchocerciasis (river blindness), schistosomiasis (bilharzia), soil-transmitted helminths (intestinal worms), and trachoma.</p>
<p>Left untreated, NTDs debilitate and disable, causing cognitive impairments and keep children out of school; preventing parents from working and tending to farmland; and further marginalizing individuals from already disadvantaged communities.</p>
<p>The toll of these entirely preventable and treatable diseases on Africa’s families and economies is enormous. Simply put, NTDs are keeping the continent from achieving its full potential.</p>
<p>The investment case is simple. First, it is a proven way to improve local economies in Africa. For every dollar invested in NTD control in sub-Saharan Africa, <a href="http://www.end.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/end-fund-ntd-fact-sheet_may-2016.pdf?sfvrsn=2">at least $50 is saved in economic productivity</a>. Meeting the World Health Organization (WHO)’s targets for the five most common NTDs in this region would <a href="http://www.end.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/end-fund-ntd-fact-sheet_may-2016.pdf?sfvrsn=2">save $52 billion by 2030</a>.</p>
<p>The ripple effects of preventing and treating NTDs are massive. When more children are in school and more adults are working, entire families, communities and nations will thrive. Investing in NTDs is one of the best ways to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of <a href="http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/">ending poverty and ensuring prosperity for all</a>.</p>
<p>Second, investing in NTDs would alleviate tremendous suffering in Africa. The region bears over 40% of the global burden of NTDs, with hundreds of millions of people affected by one or more of these diseases – for example, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2727001/">schistosomiasis alone affects an estimated 192 million across sub-Saharan Africa</a>.</p>
<p>Across our continent, NTDs needlessly disable, disfigure and stigmatize millions of people who are already suffering from poor sanitation, unsafe water, crowded living conditions, and limited access to medical services. Investing in ending NTDs is not only the smart thing to do; it’s also the right thing to do.</p>
<p>Finally, simple solutions and effective programmes already exist – they just need to be scaled up. Fortunately, all five of the most common NTDs in Africa can be effectively treated using low-cost, proven interventions. NTD efforts are backed by the largest-ever drug donation programme, valued at $4 billion annually, and industry partners have <a href="http://unitingtocombatntds.org/report/fourth-report-reaching-unreached">donated over 5.3 billion tablets of NTD treatments</a> since the launch of the <a href="http://www.who.int/neglected_diseases/London_Declaration_NTDs.pdf">2012 London Declaration</a>. This is making NTD programs more cost-effective and far-reaching than ever before.</p>
<p>Dozens of other partners are also deeply committed to this issue. The <a href="http://www.end.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/end-fund-ntd-fact-sheet_may-2016.pdf?sfvrsn=2">END Fund</a>, for example, has helped distribute over $300 million worth of treatment to nearly 59 million people at risk of NTDs in 20 countries across sub-Saharan Africa. I am proud to say that the <a href="http://www.tydanjumafoundation.org/programme-areas">TY Danjuma Foundation</a> provides grants to local community health initiatives, including the <a href="http://mitosath.org/">Mission to Save the Helpless</a>, which supports control and elimination efforts for NTDs like onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis in Nigeria.</p>
<p>And this May, WHO’s Africa Regional Office and its partners made a major step forward when they launched the <a href="http://www.afro.who.int/en/espen/about.html">Expanded Special Project for Elimination of NTDs</a> (ESPEN). ESPEN will accelerate progress against NTDs in Africa by working to fill gaps and improving coordination across national NTD programmes.</p>
<p>But to address an issue so immense and so closely tied to Africa’s future, this field urgently needs more resources. We need our leaders from Africa and around the world – in both politics and business – to think even bigger and bolder.</p>
<p>Government leaders must ensure NTD programmes are sustainably integrated into community health efforts including water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), education, and nutrition. Philanthropists must be partners, providing support for NTD programs and related efforts. Industry partners must help to improve supply chain and drug delivery, and raise awareness about NTD prevention and treatment.</p>
<p>Imagine how greatly Africa’s economy would benefit if the millions of people affected by NTDs received the treatment they need – if more children could go to school, study hard and become Africa’s next and biggest-ever generation of entrepreneurs.</p>
<p>I was lucky enough to escape a lifetime of blindness. It’s up to all of us, as global and African leaders, to ensure everyone else is able to do the same. It’s time for us to end the neglect and make one of the best investments we can make for our people, for our nations and for Africa. Let’s do it together.</p>
<p><em>*Theophilus Danjuma is the Chairman and Founder of the TY Danjuma Foundation and Grand Patron of MITOSATH (Mission To Save The Helpless).﻿</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>


Why this Nigerian multi-millionaire is working hard to eradicate neglected tropical diseases in Africa

<p>LAGOS Dec 14 (Reuters) &#8211; Nigeria&#8217;s President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday presented a record 7.298 trillion naira ($24 billion) budget for 2017 to lawmakers which is aimed at pulling Africa&#8217;s biggest economy out of its first recession in 25 years.</p>
<p>The budget, which Buhari said marked an increase of 20.4 percent on last year&#8217;s spending plan, seeks to boost spending to revive the economy. The recession was largely caused by low global oil prices, as crude sales account for two-thirds of the government&#8217;s revenue.</p>
<p><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="/news/western-africa/2016/12/14/nigerians-vent-frustration/">Nigerians vent frustration as President Buhari prepares to submit record budget﻿</a></p>
<p>Buhari said the budget was based on an exchange rate of 305 naira to the dollar and a projected oil output of 2.2 million barrels per day at an assumed price of $42.5 dollars per barrel.</p>
<p>The president also said he wants to restore oil output to 2.2 million barrels per day following a series of attacks since January on energy facilities in the southern Niger Delta that deepened the recession by hitting the economic mainstay.</p>
<p>The attacks cut oil production in the OPEC member, which stood at around 2.1 million barrels per day at the start of 2016, by more than a third earlier this year. &#8220;We must all come together&#8221; to achieve peace in the Niger Delta, Buhari said.</p>
<p>The budget must be agreed by parliament before being sent back to the president to be passed into law, which could take months. The 2016 budget became law in May after being delayed by several months by wrangling between the government and the upper house of parliament. (Additional reporting by Oludare Mayowa; Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Chijioke Uhocha and Hugh Lawson)</p>
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Nigeria's President Buhari delivers $24 billion budget for 2017

<p>LAGOS, Dec 13 (Reuters) &#8211; With Christmas just weeks away, Dolapo Beckley was among a throng of shoppers haggling at a market in Nigeria&#8217;s commercial capital Lagos, where the prices of some goods have doubled in the last year.</p>
<p>Beckley voted for President Muhammadu Buhari in the election that swept him to power last year on promises to fix endemic mismanagement and corruption.</p>
<p>But 19 months into his term, public support is crumbling as people like the 34-year-old baker blame Buhari for Nigeria&#8217;s first recession in 25 years and a rise in inflation to an 11-year high of 18.3 percent.</p>
<p>&#8220;I do regret voting for Buhari. We wanted a better economy and things are turning upside down, even worse than the way it was before,&#8221; said Beckley, who was at the Lagos Island market to buy gifts for her children.</p>
<p>Buhari&#8217;s aides say the woes of Africa&#8217;s biggest economy stem from the previous government&#8217;s failure to set money aside in the years when Nigeria&#8217;s crude oil fetched over $100 a barrel, before the price plunged in late 2014. It now stands around $56.</p>
<p>The OPEC member relies on oil sales for two-thirds of state revenue, and Buhari has said his government is working to diversify the economy by boosting manufacturing and farming. On Wednesday he will submit a record budget worth 7.2 trillion naira ($23.6 billion) to lawmakers, drawing partly on foreign borrowing to pay for a boost in capital spending.</p>
<p>But in a country where the U.N. estimates that 70 percent of the 180 million inhabitants live on a dollar a day, anger at the state of the economy is tangible.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are no longer asking President Buhari to develop Nigeria,&#8221; states a message shared widely on social media. &#8220;At this point, we are only asking him to return Nigeria to the state it was before he became president.&#8221;</p>
<p>Despite a 40 percent devaluation of the naira currency in June, a shortage of dollars persists, and they fetch a premium of up to 40 percent on the black market. In Nigeria&#8217;s import-driven economy, this has pushed up the cost of everything from rice to spare machine parts.</p>
<p>&#8220;Everything has skyrocketed. It&#8217;s just too expensive for the masses,&#8221; said Victor Adinye, a civil servant at the Lagos market.</p>
<p>Surrounded by makeshift stalls, some adorned with tinsel, Beckley said she could only afford one piece of clothing to give each of her two children for Christmas. Last year they got four items each.</p>
<p>Even the Buhari government&#8217;s successes against the Islamist militants of Boko Haram have come at a cost. Its advances have revealed mass hunger in liberated areas, which the U.N. said could see 75,000 children starve to death in the coming months.</p>
<p>And a wave of arrests of former officials, part of a promised anti-corruption drive, has yet to yield any convictions.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is not the change we bargained for,&#8221; said Beckley.</p>
<p>Fellow shopper Ayo Omope, a 27-year-old make-up artist, said she was contemplating joining the thousands of Africans who leave each year to seek a better life in the United States or Europe because &#8220;there is no hope any more&#8221; in Nigeria.</p>
<p>(Editing by Ulf Laessing and Mark Trevelyan)﻿</p>
<p> </p>


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3,000 people who fled Boko Haram return home

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Why this Nigerian multi-millionaire is working hard to eradicate neglected tropical diseases in Africa

Nigeria's President Buhari delivers $24 billion budget for 2017

Nigerians vent frustration as President Buhari prepares to submit record budget

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Nigeria

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

3,000 people who fled Boko Haram return home

More Chibok girls could be released

US charges Nigerian with role in cyber scam targeting thousands

Incoming UN chief appoints Nigerian Minister as deputy

Why this Nigerian multi-millionaire is working hard to eradicate neglected tropical diseases in Africa

Nigeria's President Buhari delivers $24 billion budget for 2017

Nigerians vent frustration as President Buhari prepares to submit record budget

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