Nigerians’ electricity bills will be cut by as much as half after the regulator said on Tuesday it banned distribution companies from charging consumers for losses caused by billing mistakes.
President Goodluck Jonathan, who is standing for re-election in a postponed vote scheduled for March 28, pledged to improve Nigeria’s chronically unreliable power supply in his administration’s current term in office. South Africa, with a third of Nigeria’s population, has eight times more installed capacity.
“Removing the collection losses will lead to lower tariffs for consumers,” Sam Amadi, chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, said in a statement posted on the Abuja-based agency’s website. “The removal of collection losses from customer tariff has reduced tariff by more than 50 percent in some places.”
Peak electricity output in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, reaches about 3,800 megawatts, with another 1,500 megawatts unavailable because of gas shortages, the NERC said this month.
“While the move will be welcomed by many, low levels of electrification in Nigeria will limit its economic impact,” John Ashbourne, an Africa economist at Capital Economics in London, said in an e-mailed note on Wednesday. “Fewer than half of Nigerians have access to electricity, and spending on power tariffs makes up a tiny fraction of consumer spending.”
In 2013, Nigeria broke up the state electricity monopoly and sold power utilities to companies including Korea Electric Power Corp., and Siemens AG, in an effort to bring in much-needed investment. In September, authorities set up a $1 billion bailout fund to help generation and distribution companies pay off gas-supply debts. They also raised the price of gas supplied to power stations in order to encourage more gas to flow into the system.
The move to cut electricity bills “will be a boost to both consumers and commercial users, and has been conveniently announced only 10 days before President Goodluck Jonathan faces a close re-election battle,” Ashbourne said.
Bloomberg
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote's oil refinery to go online in Nigeria by 2017
Outside Boko Haram carnage and pre-election tension and fears, here is at least some good news from Nigeria.
A new $9 billion oil refinery producing 500,000 barrels per day being developed by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, is expected to come onstream in Nigeria by 2017, a senior Dangote Group official said Tuesday.
The refinery, to be located in Lagos, will cut reliance on international markets for Africa’s largest oil producer, which imports more than 80 percent of its fuel needs.
The lack of sufficient refining capacity is a major handicap in Africa’s biggest economy.
“By the third quarter of 2017, we expect to be looking at commissioning,” Mansur Ahmed, Dangote Industries Ltd’s executive director of stakeholder management and corporate communications, told Reuters at an African refiners conference in Cape Town.
The refinery is being designed to process Nigerian crude mix and produce products conforming to Euro V fuel specifications, as fuel demands across the continent are forecast to rise rapidly with many countries enjoying strong economic growth.
Poor infrastructure, competitive global markets and financial constraints have traditionally held back Africa’s refining capacity, while fuel subsidies in Nigeria are also an issue, said Ahmed, who spoke on behalf of Aliko Dangote.
Ahmed said the refinery, which is being funded by debt and equity, including a $3 billion commitment from Dangote himself, could list in future should additional capital be needed.
“In the past when we have reached a point where we feel we need to increase capital we have listed,” Ahmed said.
“We have listed our cement business, we have listed our sugar business and our salt business… and, if you like, history is the best teacher.”
The Dangote Group has interests ranging from cement to basic food processing to oil and gas.
A boost to its refining capacity would be a blow to European refiners and oil traders, which make huge profits bringing gasoline into the country.
The News
Related story: Video - Aljazeera speaks with Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote
A new $9 billion oil refinery producing 500,000 barrels per day being developed by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, is expected to come onstream in Nigeria by 2017, a senior Dangote Group official said Tuesday.
The refinery, to be located in Lagos, will cut reliance on international markets for Africa’s largest oil producer, which imports more than 80 percent of its fuel needs.
The lack of sufficient refining capacity is a major handicap in Africa’s biggest economy.
“By the third quarter of 2017, we expect to be looking at commissioning,” Mansur Ahmed, Dangote Industries Ltd’s executive director of stakeholder management and corporate communications, told Reuters at an African refiners conference in Cape Town.
The refinery is being designed to process Nigerian crude mix and produce products conforming to Euro V fuel specifications, as fuel demands across the continent are forecast to rise rapidly with many countries enjoying strong economic growth.
Poor infrastructure, competitive global markets and financial constraints have traditionally held back Africa’s refining capacity, while fuel subsidies in Nigeria are also an issue, said Ahmed, who spoke on behalf of Aliko Dangote.
Ahmed said the refinery, which is being funded by debt and equity, including a $3 billion commitment from Dangote himself, could list in future should additional capital be needed.
“In the past when we have reached a point where we feel we need to increase capital we have listed,” Ahmed said.
“We have listed our cement business, we have listed our sugar business and our salt business… and, if you like, history is the best teacher.”
The Dangote Group has interests ranging from cement to basic food processing to oil and gas.
A boost to its refining capacity would be a blow to European refiners and oil traders, which make huge profits bringing gasoline into the country.
The News
Related story: Video - Aljazeera speaks with Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote
Monday, March 16, 2015
Nigerian government denies hiring mercenaries to fight Boko Haram
The Nigerian government has not hired any foreign mercenaries in its battle to defeat the Boko Haram insurgents, an official said on Sunday.
Mike Omeri, the Director General of the National Orientation Agency, NOA, stated this on Sunday when he paid a courtesy call to PREMIUM TIMES head office in Abuja.
The official’s statement comes amidst reports that the Nigerian military hired mercenaries from South Africa and other countries since the renewed offensive against the insurgents began on February 14. Several territories initially captured by the insurgents have since been retaken by Nigerian soldiers working with soldiers from neighbouring West African countries. Mr. Omeri said a lot of Nigerians mistake consultants helping in the deployment and use of newly acquired military hardware as mercenaries.
“When our weapons were acquired recently, we needed training because training component came with the people who supplied these weapons,” he said. “It is therefore easy to see a white man where these things are happening like in Maiduguri and elsewhere and conclude that we have mercenaries.”
“What we have are trainers who came from security companies to help us manage and learn how to use some of the much more modern weapons because there is no time; we are in a war situation and we need the capability to use the weapons immediately.”
Mr. Omeri, who coordinates the National Information Centre, where Nigerians are briefed on the progress made in the fight against Boko Haram, also questioned why some Nigerians appeared more concerned with the presence of mercenaries to the neglect of the insurgency.
“Why are we leaving the issue of fighting insurgency and concentrating on the issue of mercenaries, when the use of mercenaries by governments the world over, including the United States has been on since the 1840s,” he said.
“Mercenaries such as the foreign legion in France, Gurkhas in the UK, and even the US Marines are foreigners. They are mercenaries. It is at the completion of their terms that they are made either citizens through green cards or passports.
“They recruit them give them very hard training and send them to the toughest of battles and they are mostly foreigners.” Mr. Omeri said the Nigerian government has not hired any mercenary, despite having the right to do so.
“If Nigeria wants to recruit mercenaries, there are legitimate ways of doing it and this government knows how to do it and it would have gone that way to do it and to inform citizens appropriately,” he said.
Premium Times
Mike Omeri, the Director General of the National Orientation Agency, NOA, stated this on Sunday when he paid a courtesy call to PREMIUM TIMES head office in Abuja.
The official’s statement comes amidst reports that the Nigerian military hired mercenaries from South Africa and other countries since the renewed offensive against the insurgents began on February 14. Several territories initially captured by the insurgents have since been retaken by Nigerian soldiers working with soldiers from neighbouring West African countries. Mr. Omeri said a lot of Nigerians mistake consultants helping in the deployment and use of newly acquired military hardware as mercenaries.
“When our weapons were acquired recently, we needed training because training component came with the people who supplied these weapons,” he said. “It is therefore easy to see a white man where these things are happening like in Maiduguri and elsewhere and conclude that we have mercenaries.”
“What we have are trainers who came from security companies to help us manage and learn how to use some of the much more modern weapons because there is no time; we are in a war situation and we need the capability to use the weapons immediately.”
Mr. Omeri, who coordinates the National Information Centre, where Nigerians are briefed on the progress made in the fight against Boko Haram, also questioned why some Nigerians appeared more concerned with the presence of mercenaries to the neglect of the insurgency.
“Why are we leaving the issue of fighting insurgency and concentrating on the issue of mercenaries, when the use of mercenaries by governments the world over, including the United States has been on since the 1840s,” he said.
“Mercenaries such as the foreign legion in France, Gurkhas in the UK, and even the US Marines are foreigners. They are mercenaries. It is at the completion of their terms that they are made either citizens through green cards or passports.
“They recruit them give them very hard training and send them to the toughest of battles and they are mostly foreigners.” Mr. Omeri said the Nigerian government has not hired any mercenary, despite having the right to do so.
“If Nigeria wants to recruit mercenaries, there are legitimate ways of doing it and this government knows how to do it and it would have gone that way to do it and to inform citizens appropriately,” he said.
Premium Times
Friday, March 13, 2015
Nigeria is PayPal's second largest market in Africa
Malvina Goldfeld, PayPal’s Head of Business Development, sub-Saharan Africa, recently made the revelation to tech news site IT Web Africa, while expressing satisfaction with PayPal’s overwhelming success in Nigeria since it officially launched in July last year.
“We are very happy to see that PayPal has been widely welcomed by Nigerians since the launch of the service in the country last year,” Goldfeld said.
South Africa is PayPal’s largest market in the continent, with more than one million active accounts; Nigeria and Kenya follow closely.
Goldfeld said PayPal is meeting the needs of Nigerians that purchase goods and services on foreign platforms.
“There are millions of people in Nigeria who are eager to engage in online commerce and our goal is to help them make payments more easily and securely. Currently, we offer Nigerians the opportunity to register for free for a PayPal account to make payments on overseas websites,” she said.
But PayPal’s relationship with Nigerian users is one-sided. Nigerians are only allowed to send payments abroad through the platform. Users are currently unable to receive money, and even though Nigerian internet users have continuously demanded for this service, PayPal and Goldfeld have been elusive as to if and when the service will be accessible to Nigerians.
“Nigeria is a very interesting market and over time we may expand our presence, but for now we are satisfied to help Nigerians register for free for a PayPal account and make payments on overseas websites,” she told ITWeb Africa.
When PayPal opened up its services to Nigerians last year, it signed up tens of thousands of users within its first week as consumers scrabbled to purchase goods from foreign e-commerce sites. Before then, PayPal was inaccessible to Nigerians even though much smaller African countries like Tanzania, Kenya, Chad and Mauritius were included in PayPal’s network. It is generally believed that the online payment processor avoided Nigeria for many years owing to its reputation as a hub for internet-related fraud.
Last year, PayPal made its entry into Nigeria and 9 other countries – Belarus, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Monaco, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe and Paraguay, bringing the total number of countries under the PayPal network to 203.
Forbes
Related stories: PayPal signs "tens of thousands" in first week of launch in Nigeria
Bitcoin exchange market coming to Nigeria
ISIS accepts Nigeria's Boko Haram pledge
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants have accepted a pledge of allegiance by the Nigerian-grown Boko Haram extremist group, a spokesman for ISIS said Thursday.
The development comes as both movements, which are among the most ruthless in the world, are under increasing military pressure.
ISIS seized much of northern and western Iraq last summer giving it control of about a third of both Iraq and Syria. But it is now struggling against Iraqi forces seeking to recapture Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, while coming under fire from U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in other parts of the country and in Syria.
Boko Haram, meanwhile, has been weakened by a multinational force that has dislodged it from a score of northeastern Nigerian towns. But its new Twitter account, increasingly slick and more frequent video messages and a new media arm all were considered signs that the group is now being helped by ISIS propagandists.
Then on Saturday, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau posted an audio recording online that pledged allegiance to ISIS. On Thursday, ISIS's media arm Al-Furqan, in an audio recording by spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, said that Boko Haram's pledge of allegiance has been accepted, claiming the caliphate has now expanded to West Africa.
Al-Adnani had urged foreign fighters from around the world to migrate and join Boko Haram.
"We announce our allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims ... and will hear and obey in times of difficulty and prosperity, in hardship and ease, and to endure being discriminated against, and not to dispute about rule with those in power, except in case of evident infidelity regarding that which there is a proof from Allah," said the message.
J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council, a think tank in Washington, noted the Islamic State group's quick acceptance of Boko Haram's allegiance and said that the bond highlights a new risk.
"Militants finding it increasingly harder to get to Syria and Iraq may choose instead to go to northeastern Nigeria and internationalize that conflict," he said.
The Boko Haram pledge of allegiance to ISIS comes as the militants reportedly were massing in the northeastern Nigerian town of Gwoza, considered their headquarters, for a showdown with the Chadian-led multinational force.
Boko Haram killed an estimated 10,000 people last year, and it is blamed for last April's abduction of more than 275 schoolgirls. Thousands of Nigerians have fled to neighbouring Chad.
The group is waging a nearly six-year insurgency to impose Muslim Shariah law in Nigeria. It began launching attacks across the border into Cameroon last year, and this year its fighters struck in Niger and Chad in retaliation to their agreement to form a multinational force to fight the militants.
Boko Haram followed the lead of ISIS in August by declaring an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria that grew to cover an area the size of Belgium. ISIS had declared a caliphate in vast swaths of territory that it controls in Iraq and Syria.
The Nigerian group has also followed ISIS in publishing videos of beheadings. The latest one, published March 2, borrowed certain elements from ISIS productions, such as the sound of a beating heart and heavy breathing immediately before the execution, according to SITE Intelligence Group.
In video messages last year, Boko Haram's leader sent greetings and praise to both ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and leaders of al-Qaeda. But Boko Haram has never been an affiliate of al-Qaeda, some analysts surmise because al-Qaeda considers the Nigerians' indiscriminate slaughter of Muslim civilians as un-Islamic.
Recent offensives have marked a sharp escalation by African nations against Boko Haram. An African Union summit agreed on sending a force of 8,750 troops to fight Boko Haram.
Military operations in Niger's east have killed at least 500 Boko Haram fighters since Feb. 8, Nigerien officials have said.
Members of the UN Security Council proposed Thursday that the international community supply money, equipment, troops and intelligence to a five-nation African force fighting Boko Haram.
CBC
Related story: Video - Boko Haram pledge allegiance to ISIS
The development comes as both movements, which are among the most ruthless in the world, are under increasing military pressure.
ISIS seized much of northern and western Iraq last summer giving it control of about a third of both Iraq and Syria. But it is now struggling against Iraqi forces seeking to recapture Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, while coming under fire from U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in other parts of the country and in Syria.
Boko Haram, meanwhile, has been weakened by a multinational force that has dislodged it from a score of northeastern Nigerian towns. But its new Twitter account, increasingly slick and more frequent video messages and a new media arm all were considered signs that the group is now being helped by ISIS propagandists.
Then on Saturday, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau posted an audio recording online that pledged allegiance to ISIS. On Thursday, ISIS's media arm Al-Furqan, in an audio recording by spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, said that Boko Haram's pledge of allegiance has been accepted, claiming the caliphate has now expanded to West Africa.
Al-Adnani had urged foreign fighters from around the world to migrate and join Boko Haram.
"We announce our allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims ... and will hear and obey in times of difficulty and prosperity, in hardship and ease, and to endure being discriminated against, and not to dispute about rule with those in power, except in case of evident infidelity regarding that which there is a proof from Allah," said the message.
J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council, a think tank in Washington, noted the Islamic State group's quick acceptance of Boko Haram's allegiance and said that the bond highlights a new risk.
"Militants finding it increasingly harder to get to Syria and Iraq may choose instead to go to northeastern Nigeria and internationalize that conflict," he said.
The Boko Haram pledge of allegiance to ISIS comes as the militants reportedly were massing in the northeastern Nigerian town of Gwoza, considered their headquarters, for a showdown with the Chadian-led multinational force.
Boko Haram killed an estimated 10,000 people last year, and it is blamed for last April's abduction of more than 275 schoolgirls. Thousands of Nigerians have fled to neighbouring Chad.
The group is waging a nearly six-year insurgency to impose Muslim Shariah law in Nigeria. It began launching attacks across the border into Cameroon last year, and this year its fighters struck in Niger and Chad in retaliation to their agreement to form a multinational force to fight the militants.
Boko Haram followed the lead of ISIS in August by declaring an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria that grew to cover an area the size of Belgium. ISIS had declared a caliphate in vast swaths of territory that it controls in Iraq and Syria.
The Nigerian group has also followed ISIS in publishing videos of beheadings. The latest one, published March 2, borrowed certain elements from ISIS productions, such as the sound of a beating heart and heavy breathing immediately before the execution, according to SITE Intelligence Group.
In video messages last year, Boko Haram's leader sent greetings and praise to both ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and leaders of al-Qaeda. But Boko Haram has never been an affiliate of al-Qaeda, some analysts surmise because al-Qaeda considers the Nigerians' indiscriminate slaughter of Muslim civilians as un-Islamic.
Recent offensives have marked a sharp escalation by African nations against Boko Haram. An African Union summit agreed on sending a force of 8,750 troops to fight Boko Haram.
Military operations in Niger's east have killed at least 500 Boko Haram fighters since Feb. 8, Nigerien officials have said.
Members of the UN Security Council proposed Thursday that the international community supply money, equipment, troops and intelligence to a five-nation African force fighting Boko Haram.
CBC
Related story: Video - Boko Haram pledge allegiance to ISIS
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