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Nigeria/Indonesia trade volume rose to $2.46 billion in 2021 as both look to better relations

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Indonesia’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Amb. Usra Harahap has disclosed that bilateral trade volume between Africa’s biggest economy, Nigeria and   Indonesia rose to $2.46 billion in 2021.

Amb. Usra Harahap, made the claim while briefing journalists in Abuja on Tuesday.

“In 2016 it reached 1.59 billion dollars and in 2021 it increased to 2.46 billion dollars. Since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, however, there has been a drastic decline from 2.34 billion dollars in 2019 to 1.2 billion in 2020. The trade volume increased significantly in 2021 with Indonesia recording a deficit trade balance with increasing imports from Nigeria.” Harahap said.

“Indonesia’s main exports to Nigeria are clothing, food, paper products, pharmaceuticals, electronics, plastics, soaps, and lubricating oils.

“Meanwhile, Indonesia’s main imports from Nigeria are petroleum products, cotton, cocoa, and hides and shin,’’ he added.

The Ambassador further said that Indonesia’s main economic focus is improving economic relations with Nigeria, citing efforts made to introduce, promote and boost the bilateral economic relations of the two countries, as 25 Indonesia companies now invest in Nigeria.

“Our main focus is on the economic relations; we have made lots of effort to introduce, promote, as well as improve the bilateral economic relations of the two countries. Every year we organise Nigerian Businessmen to come to the Trade Expo Indonesia (TEI) and this year it will be held in October 2022.”

Nigeria is Indonesia’s second-largest trade partner in Africa after South Africa, in 2011 the trade value reached US$2.09 billion accounting for 21.66 percent of Indonesia’s total trade with Africa. In 2013, the bilateral trade volume between the countries hit $2.2 billion.

The diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Nigeria began in 1965 by the opening of the Indonesian Embassy in Lagos, as well as the Nigerian Embassy in Jakarta, which opened in 1976.

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Nigeria: Senate cautions executive over central bank loans, illegal spending

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The Nigerian Senate has advised President Bola Tinubu to send a supplementary budget for the country’s Compressed Natural Gas initiative and cautioned him against engaging in illegal spending.

Through its Gas Committee, chaired by Senator Jarigbe Jarigbe, the Senate urged Tinubu to swiftly submit a 2023 Supplementary Budget to the National Assembly in order to launch the compressed natural gas project.

This request was made just 48 hours after President Bola Tinubu announced plans to ease Nigerians’ pain from the removal of fuel subsidies. The law, insisted the legislators, forbade extra-budgetary spending.

Nigerian President, Bola Tinubu, in a nationwide broadcast on the commemoration of the country’s independence on Sunday, announced an interim wage rise for low-income workers, and deployment of mass transit buses running on gas to ease the impact of petrol subsidy removal.

Tinubu, in his address, said the government “has opened a new chapter in public transportation through the deployment of cheaper, safer CNG buses across the nation. These buses will operate at a fraction of current fuel prices, positively affecting transport fares. New CNG conversion kits will start coming in very soon as all hands are on deck to fast track the usually lengthy procurement process.”

The Central Bank of Nigeria’s advances to the federal government rose 2900 per cent in the last seven years to N23.8 trillion under Tinubu’s predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, an unprecedented rise that violated the law, triggered inflation and worsened the country’s debt burden; and the Senate is worried the latest “CNG move ” by the executive might degenerate into a similar position

Although the committee’s chairman praised Tinubu for the CNG initiative, he also cautioned that other projects in the gas value chain and the use of taxpayer money without National Assembly approval would be illegal. The senators cautioned against extra-budgetary spending through Ways and Means, saying that the legislature was ready to support and assist the populace.

Jarigbe said, “The noble initiative would ameliorate the hardship of the citizens. Also, the President needs to come up with a supplementary budget to enable the government to fund the gas value chain, including the provision for CNG infrastructure and CNG vehicles.

“The President should not embark on extra-budgetary expenditure because it would be inconsistent with the provisions of the law.”

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Nigeria, Egypt, S’Africa, other developing economies need $2tn annually to achieve net-zero emissions— IMF

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) stated in a report released on Monday that emerging economies, some of which are African countries, would require about $2 trillion per year by 2030 to meet the target of net-zero emissions by 2050.

An emerging economy is a market that has some characteristics of a developed market but does not fully meet its standards; African countries like Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, and Kenya are in this category.

The report “Emerging economies need much more private financing for climate transition”, pointed out that investing significantly in climate mitigation in emerging markets and developing economies, which currently emit about two-thirds of greenhouse gases, was necessary to achieve the transition to net-zero emissions by 2050.

The report read in part:

“These countries will need about $2tn annually by 2030 to reach that ambitious goal, according to the International Energy Agency, with the majority of that funding flowing into the energy industry. This is a fivefold increase from the current $400bn of climate investments planned over the next seven years.

“We project that growth in public investment, however, will be limited and that the private sector will therefore need to make a major contribution toward the large climate investment needs for emerging market and developing economies.

“The private sector will need to supply about 80 per cent of the required investment, and this share rises to 90 per cent when China is excluded, as shown in an analytical chapter of our latest Global Financial Stability Report.”

Additionally, the report asserts that while China and other larger emerging economies have the necessary domestic financial resources, many other nations lack sufficiently mature financial markets that can provide significant amounts of private finance.

Phasing out coal power plants, the single largest source of global greenhouse gas emissions (about 20%), is another major challenge.

Meanwhile, some pan-African arguments have emerged in reaction to the calls to phase out existing energy sources, seeing it as a conspiracy against the continent’s use of energy for development after the sources had been adequately explored for developed economies.

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