World’s largest refinery to cost $10bn; Dangote secures $650m loan

Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has signed a $650 million loan facility with the African Export-Import Bank for his oil refinery project in Nigeria, estimated to cost about $10 billion

Published

5 years ago

July 17, 2018

Africa News Watch

Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has signed a $650 million loan facility with the African Export-Import Bank for his oil refinery project in Nigeria, estimated to cost about $10 billion.

The seven-year term loan would attract a moratorium of five years, according to facility terms read out during the signing.

Dangote Group Executive Director Devakumar Edwin said that the oil refinery would be completed by December 2019.

He added that the company would borrow $3.3 billion for the project, arranged by Standard Chartered Bank. The remainder will be funded by equity and through export agencies.

Dangote is building the world’s largest single oil refinery and aiming to address long-standing problems in Nigeria’s energy markets.

The refinery and petrochemical complex is located on 25,000 hectares of swampy land with a jetty to ferry products by sea within Nigeria and abroad including an undersea pipeline to transport gas.

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Nigeria’s central bank governor, Godwin Emefiele suspended by President Tinubu

Published

15 hours ago

June 9, 2023

Ifeoluwa Dada

Nigerian president, Bola Tinubu has suspended the country’s central bank governor, Godwin Emefiele.

The office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation announced the suspension of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) head on Friday evening.

The director of information at the SGF office, Willie Bassey, in a statement, said the suspension was with immediate effect.

The CBN under Emefiele announced new designs of the N200, N500, and N1,000 notes in December. The implementation of the policy was however controversial as it launched an era of cash scarcity which some observers say was targeted at then ruling party’s candidate, Bola Tinubu, and some believe limited his chances.

Tinubu has signalled going in a different direction. During his inauguration speech, he pledged to pursue unification of the exchange rate windows and backed ease of repatriation of funds for foreign investors, policies that have not been favoured by the CBN under Emefiele.

Former president Muhammadu Buhari reappointed Emiefele for a second and final term of five years in 2019. He was appointed by former President Goodluck Jonathan in February 2014, hours after he announced the suspension of his predecessor, Sanusi Lamido.

He was the managing director of top Nigerian bank, Zenith Bank before his appointment .

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Ghana records 32% increase in gold production in 2022

Published

16 hours ago

June 9, 2023

Ifeoluwa Dada

West African country, Ghana has returned to top of gold production on the continent after displacing South Africa following a 32% increase in 2022.

According to the president of the mines chamber, gold output rose to 3.7 million ounces in 2022 from 2.8 million ounces the previous year, as a result of growth in the output of both large and small-scale sectors.

Joshua Mortoti, while addressing members of the Ghana Chamber of Mines at an annual general meeting revealed that “The large-scale gold sub-sector recorded its highest output in the country’s history in 2022.”

He further revealed that the expansion of production at existing mines facilitated the large-scale sector’s gold output up by 13% to 3.1 million ounces last year from 2.7 million ounces in 2021.

Over 77,620 ounces of gold were sold in 2022 under the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, a scheme launched by the Bank of Ghana to boost reserves.

Mining is a major economic activity in Ghana and a key contributor to the Ghanaian economy. Gold mining accounted for 48.4% of gross merchandise exports in 2020.