Nigeria plans to cut its stake in joint oil ventures with multinational oil companies to 40 percent this year, its budget minister said, as the country seeks to boost revenue to grow an economy recovering from recession.
Oil companies including Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron and ExxonMobil, operate in Nigeria through joint ventures with the state-owned NNPC.
NNPC owns 55 percent stake in its joint venture with Shell and 60 percent stakes with others.
The government has considered reducing its majority stakes in these joint ventures for more than a decade but was under little pressure as higher oil prices boosted state coffers.
Budgets under Muhammadu Buhari, who starts a second term in May, have been Nigeria’s largest ever and the government has been seeking to boost revenue after it emerged from a 2016 recession two years ago.
Budget Minister, Udoma Udo Udoma, said the government will intensify efforts to improve its finances including the “immediate commencement of the restructuring of the joint venture oil assets so as to reduce government shareholding to 40 percent,” he said in a statement.
He added during a presentation to lawmakers that Buhari wanted the oil restructuring completed this year.
Buhari won re-election last month for another four years, defeating his pro-business rival Atiku Abubakar, who had touted selling the state-owned NNPC as one of his key reform policy.
In 2017, the debt office said the government wanted to raise 710 billion naira ($2.32 billion) via restructuring its equity in joint venture oil assets and that it had captured the proposals in the 2018 budget.
In the past, Nigeria has held talks with oil companies regarding financing agreements for joint ventures after it struggled to fund its portion of such partnerships through cash calls which have often been delayed in parliament.
The government has asked the petroleum regulator to collect past-due oil license charges and royalties, within three months.
The country has also ordered oil majors to pay nearly $20 billion in taxes it says are owed to local states.
Buhari has presented an 8.83 trillion naira budget for 2019, laying out plans to drive growth. He has directed NNPC to take measures to achieve the targeted oil production of 2.3 million barrels per day this year, the minister said. ($1 = 306.3000 naira) (Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
Reuters
Thursday, March 21, 2019
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Lagos among one of the world's cheapest cities
Nigeria’s commercial city, Lagos is one of the 10 cheapest cities in the world, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s bi-annual survey.
Lagos was ranked 127 in the survey that compares the cost of more than 150 items such as cars, food, rent, transport and clothing in 133 cities.
The results are a far cry from two years when Lagos was named by estate agent, Savills as the most expensive African city to stay and work in.
The survey is aimed at helping companies calculate compensation packages and allowances for expatriate staff and business travellers.
It also tracks whether prices have gone up or down by comparing them with the cost of living in New York, which is used as a benchmark.
World’s 10 cheapest cities
1. Caracas (Venezuela)
2. Damascus (Syria)
3. Tashkent (Uzbekistan)
4. Almaty (Kazakhstan)
5. Bangalore (India)
6. Karachi (Pakistan)
7. Lagos (Nigeria)
8. Buenos Aires (Argentina)
9. Chennai (India)
10. New Delhi (India)
On the other end of the spectrum, Paris and Hong Kong were tied with Singapore as the world’s most expensive cities to live in.
It was the first time in more than 30 years that three cities shared the top spot, a sign that pricey global cities are growing more alike, said the report’s author, Roxana Slavcheva.
“Converging costs in traditionally more expensive cities … is a testament to globalization and the similarity of tastes and shopping patterns,” she said in a statement.
“Even in locations where shopping for groceries may be relatively cheaper, utilities or transportation prices drive up overall cost of living,” she said.
The top ten list was dominated by Asian and European cities, with Osaka and Seoul in joint fifth and joint seventh places respectively. Zurich (4th), Geneva (joint 5th) and Copenhagen (joint 7th) also in the elite club.
Africa News
Lagos was ranked 127 in the survey that compares the cost of more than 150 items such as cars, food, rent, transport and clothing in 133 cities.
The results are a far cry from two years when Lagos was named by estate agent, Savills as the most expensive African city to stay and work in.
The survey is aimed at helping companies calculate compensation packages and allowances for expatriate staff and business travellers.
It also tracks whether prices have gone up or down by comparing them with the cost of living in New York, which is used as a benchmark.
World’s 10 cheapest cities
1. Caracas (Venezuela)
2. Damascus (Syria)
3. Tashkent (Uzbekistan)
4. Almaty (Kazakhstan)
5. Bangalore (India)
6. Karachi (Pakistan)
7. Lagos (Nigeria)
8. Buenos Aires (Argentina)
9. Chennai (India)
10. New Delhi (India)
On the other end of the spectrum, Paris and Hong Kong were tied with Singapore as the world’s most expensive cities to live in.
It was the first time in more than 30 years that three cities shared the top spot, a sign that pricey global cities are growing more alike, said the report’s author, Roxana Slavcheva.
“Converging costs in traditionally more expensive cities … is a testament to globalization and the similarity of tastes and shopping patterns,” she said in a statement.
“Even in locations where shopping for groceries may be relatively cheaper, utilities or transportation prices drive up overall cost of living,” she said.
The top ten list was dominated by Asian and European cities, with Osaka and Seoul in joint fifth and joint seventh places respectively. Zurich (4th), Geneva (joint 5th) and Copenhagen (joint 7th) also in the elite club.
Africa News
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Atiku Abubakar challenges Nigeria election result
Atiku Abubakar’s petition said that he, the candidate for the People’s Democratic Party, had beaten the All Progressives Congress’s Muhammadu Buhari, who was elected to a second term on Feb. 23.
“We asked that our candidate who won the election massively across the country be declared the winner,” said Emmanuel Enoidem, a legal advisor to Atiku.
The petition asks that the electoral commission overturns the result “on the grounds of irregularities,” Enoidem said.
Buhari’s campaign has rejected Atiku’s allegations, saying the vote was free and fair.
Buhari, the 76-year-old former military ruler, took 56 percent of the vote against 41 percent for Atiku, a businessman and former vice president.
Reuters
Monday, March 18, 2019
Video - Nine killed in attack in Kaduna, Nigeria
At least nine people have been killed in Nigeria's Northeastern state of Southern Kaduna. The attack happened on Saturday in a small farming community. No group has claimed responsibility for this latest attack in the area; and neither has any arrest been made yet. Southern Kaduna State has seen a resurgence of violence in recent months, leading to the death of over 150 people.
Friday, March 15, 2019
Search called off in school collapse in Nigeria
Search efforts were called off at the site of a school building that collapsed in the Nigerian city of Lagos, as rescuers were trying to find a register of children to work out how many have died.
Workers have reached the foundation of the collapsed three-storey building and don't expect to see any more bodies, IbrahimFarinloye, a National Emergency Management Agency official, told The Associated Press on Thursday.
He declined to give an updated toll of the dead and the rescued.
Officials said late Wednesday that eight people had died and 37 had been pulled out alive. An unknown number remain missing.
Residents said some 100 children had attended the nursery and primary school, and people were searching through the tangle of rubble and metal on Thursday to find any belongings of their loved ones.
A few hundred people watched from nearby as an excavator dug through the remains of the debris.
At the site of the collapse, people searched through the tangle of rubble and metal Thursday to find any belongings of their loved ones. By the afternoon, most of the debris had been cleared away.
"We have been able to pull down the remaining part of the building," said Adebayo Kayende, spokesperson for the Lagos state emergency agency.
"We have moved the debris from the ground to have a clear picture to make sure there are no people under the building."
Kayende said the Lagos state ministry of health was checking with hospitals, and once they had finished counting those dead the details would be made public.
Full investigation
Adesina Tiamiyu, general manager of the Lagos state emergency agency, said the number of children involved was still in question and authorities were trying to find a register of the pupils.
Lagos Gov. Akinwuni Ambode, who visited the site hours after the building collapsed, said the building, which had been marked for demolition, was classified as residential and the school was operating illegally on the top two floors. There will be a full investigation into the incident, he said.
Officials moved through the neighbourhood on Thursday, marking other derelict buildings for demolition.
Obiora Manafa with the Standards Organization of Nigeria told reporters that they would analyze samples of the collapsed building's concrete and steel bars "to ascertain the quality ... and know whether they complied with the national building code."
"It touches one to lose precious lives in any kind of mishap, particularly those so young and tender," Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said.
CBC
Workers have reached the foundation of the collapsed three-storey building and don't expect to see any more bodies, IbrahimFarinloye, a National Emergency Management Agency official, told The Associated Press on Thursday.
He declined to give an updated toll of the dead and the rescued.
Officials said late Wednesday that eight people had died and 37 had been pulled out alive. An unknown number remain missing.
Residents said some 100 children had attended the nursery and primary school, and people were searching through the tangle of rubble and metal on Thursday to find any belongings of their loved ones.
A few hundred people watched from nearby as an excavator dug through the remains of the debris.
At the site of the collapse, people searched through the tangle of rubble and metal Thursday to find any belongings of their loved ones. By the afternoon, most of the debris had been cleared away.
"We have been able to pull down the remaining part of the building," said Adebayo Kayende, spokesperson for the Lagos state emergency agency.
"We have moved the debris from the ground to have a clear picture to make sure there are no people under the building."
Kayende said the Lagos state ministry of health was checking with hospitals, and once they had finished counting those dead the details would be made public.
Full investigation
Adesina Tiamiyu, general manager of the Lagos state emergency agency, said the number of children involved was still in question and authorities were trying to find a register of the pupils.
Lagos Gov. Akinwuni Ambode, who visited the site hours after the building collapsed, said the building, which had been marked for demolition, was classified as residential and the school was operating illegally on the top two floors. There will be a full investigation into the incident, he said.
Officials moved through the neighbourhood on Thursday, marking other derelict buildings for demolition.
Obiora Manafa with the Standards Organization of Nigeria told reporters that they would analyze samples of the collapsed building's concrete and steel bars "to ascertain the quality ... and know whether they complied with the national building code."
"It touches one to lose precious lives in any kind of mishap, particularly those so young and tender," Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said.
CBC
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