A presidential dissent saved Nigeria $238m as the country back pedaled on an earlier resolve and confirmed its willingness to host the FIFA Under-17 tourney next year. The country would now host the tournament for $76m after the Local Organising Committee drastically reviewed the earlier costing. - President YarAdua had announced a government decision to renounce its earlier commitment regarding hosting of the junior tournament because of the high cost. The Local Organising Committee for the tournament had presented a bill of N35.5b or $314million, causing the government to do a double take. Yar’Adua’s dissent and the consequence is a powerful but quiet statement in support o…

- Nigeria’s state oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, has outlined another adventure in search of oil in the Lake Chad Basin, in the country’s savannah region. NNPC will invest $500m in the venture over a two-year period, beginning November 2008. Alhaji Abubakar Lawan Yar’Adua, group managing director, outlined the plans in Maiduguri, capital of Borno State as he sought support of the traditional institutions in the state as well as the communities and state government. YarAdua told reporters, ‘We will also be spending $300m -$500m on the project.” The hope is that by December 2009 NNPC would be able to strike oil in commercial quantity in N…

- African broadcasters have asked their governments to urgently “enact and enforce laws banning the importation of analogue television sets into their countries” as a key step to preparing them for implementation of the global deadline for digital broadcasting. The International Telecommunication Union stipulates a deadline of June 17, 2015 for transition from analogue to digital broadcasting worldwide. Digitisation of broadcasting was thus the focus of the seventh biennial conference of Africa Broadcasters, AFRICAST, held at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Abuja from October 21 to 0ctober 23. The theme was Digitisation and the Challenges of Broadcasting. Over 300 participants…

- Nigeria’s central government has intensified efforts to tackle Nigeria’s power infrastructure challenge with the release of $168m (approx N19.5b) for revival of ailing power plants in the country. The money is alongside earlier releases of N65b from the excess crude account in collaboration with the 36 states, the FCT and the country 776 local governments. Minister of State for Energy (Power) Mrs. Fatima Ibrahim who disclosed the release said the Federal Government of Nigeria was undertaking the repairs as a short term measure to improve generation capacity. Longer term, the country is working on building several power projects across the country to increase generation capaci…

- Creative writing for an audience of children and teens will feature prominently as the Association of Nigerian Authors gathers in Gusau, Zamfara State for their 27th Annual Convention and Awards October 30 to November 2. Three awards are on offer for children’s literature. They are the ANA/Atiku Abubakar Prize, the ANA/Fun Time Prize as well as the ANA/Lantern Prize. Competition will hold in only two categories, as the judges think “quality too low for award and honourable mention” in the other categories. In contention is who wins the N100,000 prize money and diadem for the ANA/Atiku Abubakar Prize for Children’s Literature. Finalists are Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo w…

- The Niger Delta and the country’s poor infrastructure were the key thematic concerns as a writer and scientist won $50, 000 each for the Nigerian Prize for Literature and the Nigerian Prize for Science. The prizes, the highest in Africa, are courtesy of the Nigeria LNG Limited, the gas-to-liquids firm based in Bonny Island. Soil scientist Dr. Ebenezer Meshida, senior research fellow in Geotechnics at the University of Lagos, won the Nigeria Prize for Science for his work on improving the staying power of the soil for Nigerian roads. Ms. Kaine Agary, economist and writer, won the Nigeria Prize for Literature for her novel Yellow Yellow, which examines the effect of oil pollution on…

- Buoyed by a consolidation exercise that raised their capitalisation and balance sheet size, Nigerian banks have become strong players in the continent, going by recent ratings and awards they have garnered. With five of 17 awards, Nigerian banks and bankers shone brightly in Washington DC at an awards ceremony hosted by African Banker, magazine of London-based IC Publications. The ceremony held on the eve of a crucial World Bank meeting to discuss the global financial crisis. Winners from Nigeria are Dr. Tony Elumelu, Group MD, UBA plc, African Banker of the Year Intercontinental Bank plc – African Bank of the Year Otunba Michael Subomi Balogun, Lifetime Achievement Award Fide…

- By Chido Nwakanma in Lagos, Nigeria More investment opportunity beckon in Nigeria as the central government unveiled a measure to sell off its equity in enterprises that are now owned by the federal authorities. The Bureau of Public Enterprises, the Nigerian privatisation agency, said late in September that it would carry out 105 transactions from the last quarter of the year to October 2009 to sell shares of several government enterprises. BPE director of public communication Chigbo Anichebe disclosed that the superintending National Council on Privatisation approved the work plan to sell off the firms. The transactions would include privatisation, reform and commercialisation of firm…

- Nigeria has rolled out a new tariff regime that seeks to provide fiscal support for local industry in the wake of loud complaints by the country’s manufacturers about de-industrialisation arising from uncompetitive operational environment. The new framework provides a new tariff band of 35% to 50% duty on imported manufactured products that local firms produce in Nigeria. The goal is clearly to help the local manufacturing sector. Many of Nigeria’s textile manufacturing firms have closed down due to inability to compete with cheap and sometimes better quality imports from Asia and Europe. More recently, the country’s two tyre manufacturers also closed down their facilit…

Financial authorities in Nigeria have rolled out strong fiscal measures to save the country's stock market in the wake of the turmoil in world markets caused by the collapse of major United States financial institutions. - Nigeria’s Central Bank and the Securities and Exchange Commission announced new policy measures aimed at preventing haemorrhaging of the Nigerian capital market or deleterious impact on the money market. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) measures, announced by its Governor Prof Chukwuma Soludo, aim at enhancing liquidity in the financial system. They include the following: Central Bank Measures · 500 Basis Points Reduction in Monetary Policy Rate (MPR…

Nigeria is set to float in the international market a $500million bond aimed at facilitating private sector participation in development of the country's infrastructure. Nigeria's Federal Executive Council approved in September a proposal from the Finance Ministry to issue Sovereign Bond in the International Capital Market. - It said it would use the proceeds of the Naira-denominated bond to redeem the outstanding oil warrants liability. It has a tenor of ten years. Information and Communications Minister Mr. John Odey, briefing reporters, said the country has received several proposals from international banks requesting that the country should raise funds in the international …

The Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs has been created as part of the Nigeria's central government moves to tackle developmental challenges in the country's oil hub. President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua said the troubled area has been of greater concern to his government and the international community. - Restiveness in the Niger Delta in the last three years has led to spiraling increases in the price of crude oil, moving from an average of $60 per barrel to over $100 per barrel. Hijackings, sabotage of oil installations and kidnapping of foreign as well as local executives have forced oil exploration firms in Nigeria to cut back Nigeria’s oil production by 30%. President Yar…

Etisalat has begun operations in Nigeria as the fifth Global System Mobile (GSM) network in the country. The United Arab Emirates firm hopes to broaden consumer choices in the sector of mobile telephony as it enters into a stiffer competition in the giant West African country. - Etisalat commenced operations more than a year after the Nigerian Communications Commission issued a spectrum license to Mubadala Development Corporation for $400m. It paid a much larger price than earlier players who paid $285m at the commencement of GSM service in Nigeria seven years ago. It acquired 40% stake in Emerging Markets Telecommunications Services, the special purpose vehicle set up by Mubadala to man…

- Governors of Nigeria's 36 states teamed with the central Federal Government to approve an extra-budgetary expenditure of US$5.37 billion for tackling Nigeria's crippling power infrastructure challenges. The money represents 50 percent of the extra revenue that has accrued to Nigeria from the escalating price of crude oil on the global market. The funds would come from the Excess Crude Account established by the Nigerian federal authorities as a savings and investment fund to tap into the high oil price windfall. The governors endorsed release of a total of US$10.24billion with the understanding that the central government would remit the balance into the Federation Account fo…

- The 53 million mark in subscriber numbers comes against the backdrop where in 2001 there were only 450, 000 lines for all of Nigeria's then 120 million people, representing a teledensity of 0.4 percent or less than one line per 100 people. Deregulation of the sector had started since 1998 but it was not until the highly acclaimed Digital Mobile License auction of 2001 supervised by the NCC that a telecom revolution took off in the country. Nigeria offered four licenses. Econet Wireless, now Zain and MTN secured the first two for a princely $285m dollars each while the government bought a license for the mobile arm of the previous monopoly, Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, for…