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Nigeria to enter agreement with ECOWAS for the construction of Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline

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The Nigerian government has concluded top level plans to enter into an agreement with the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, for the construction of the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline.

The authorization came on Wednesday during a meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to immediately set in motion the modalities for the agreement.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, disclosed the decision to journalists after the meeting held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in the absence of President Muhammadu Buhari who is in Madrid, Spain, on a state visit.

According to the Minister, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources had presented a memo to the FEC with the Council authorizing the NNPC to sign a memorandum of understanding with ECOWAS for the construction of the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline which will pass through several countries in the sub-region.

The pipeline, according to the Minister, would connect Nigerian gas to all West African coastal countries including Benin, Togo, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Senegal, and Mauritania, ending in Tangier, Morocco and Cadiz, Spain.

The 7,000-kilometer-long pipeline which will also cross the territorial waters of 13 countries, is intended to be a catalyst for the economic development of the North-West African region and carries a strong desire to integrate as well as improve the economic and social development of the region.

It also aims to boost the regional economy through the promotion of economic development in North-West Africa, the development of job-generating industries, the reduction of gas flaring and the use of reliable and sustainable energy.

The Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline mega-project had been first discussed during the official visit of King Mohammed VI of Morocco in December 2016 to President Buhari in Abuja.

Following the high powered meeting, a related agreement was signed on June 10, 2018, during a reciprocal visit to Rabat Nigeria’s President Buhari.

The mega project is also the subject of an agreement between the NNPC and the Moroccan National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM).

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Binance vs Nigeria: Court adjourns hearing on right abuses 

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The office of Nigeria’s National Security Adviser and an anti-graft agency— the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC)— have been sued by two executives of Binance, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, for allegedly violating their fundamental rights following their recent arrest.

Following Nigeria’s decision to outlaw several cryptocurrency trading websites, United States citizen Tigran Gambaryan, who oversees financial crime compliance for Binance, and British-Kenyan Nadeem Anjarwalla, regional manager for Binance in Africa, took a plane to Nigeria on February 26 and were arrested upon arrival.

Anjarwalla may now be subject to an international arrest warrant after reportedly escaping Nigerian custody last week.

Last month, Nigeria’s central bank governor revealed that Binance is under investigation in Nigeria due to “suspicious flows” of cash through Binance Nigeria in 2023. Government organizations such as the Securities and Trade Commission of the nation are already wary of the cryptocurrency trade.

In a court appearance on Thursday, Gambaryan asked Judge Iyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in the country’s capital, Abuja to rule that the National Security Adviser and the Economic and EFCC detention and seizure of his passport “amounts to a violation of his fundamental right to personal liberty” as stipulated by the Nigerian constitution.

The Binance chiefs also demanded a public apology, a restraining order to prevent them from being detained any longer, and an order to be released and return their passports. They said they had not been told of any offences.

Due to the absence of attorneys from the EFCC and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), the judge adjourned the hearing till April 8 without rendering a decision. Nigeria is currently struggling with ongoing dollar shortages, a situation that has made several cryptocurrency websites become the go-to venues for trading Nigerian currency.

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Kenya, Uganda settle oil import dispute

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In an effort to patch things up between the two neighbours, Kenya will permit Uganda’s landlocked state oil company to import petroleum products through its port of Mombasa, the country’s energy ministry said on Thursday.

After decades of receiving their cargo through affiliated firms in Kenya, Uganda has been looking for alternative ways to import petroleum products, including through a port in Tanzania. According to Solomon Muyita, a spokesman for Uganda’s ministry of minerals and energy, the first shipment under the new arrangement is scheduled for May.

“Kenya has agreed to give us a licence, UNOC (Uganda National Oil Company) is now free to import through Mombasa,” he said.

According to reports, UNOC would use the Kenya Pipeline Company to transport the goods, so Kenya would still profit from the agreement, according to Kenyan Energy Minister Davis Chirchir.

In 2022, Uganda imported petroleum products valued at $1.6 billion, the majority of which came from the Gulf. Kenya serves as the import gateway for about 90% of the goods.

It declared in November that it would transfer all exclusive petroleum product supply rights to a division of the international energy trader Vitol, which would subsequently supply UNOC.

According to what the government said at the time, using Kenyan companies to import oil had “exposed Uganda to occasional supply vulnerabilities” whereby Ugandan retail companies were viewed as secondary whenever there were supply disruptions changing retail prices.

The two African nations that make up the Great Lakes are partners in a variety of fields, including trade, infrastructure, energy, education, agriculture, and military security.

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