VenturesNow

Nigeria beats competitors to host Africa Energy Bank

Published

5 months ago

July 5, 2024

Nigeria, the continent’s largest oil producer, defeated three rival nations to win the rights to host the newly established Africa Energy Bank (AEB), the country’s oil minister announced on Thursday.

Nigeria will be at the vanguard of Africa’s energy future thanks to a decision made at an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers of the African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO), according to a statement from Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri.

After ratifying the bank’s charter and President Bola Tinubu approved an investment of $100 million, surpassing the needed $83.33 million for member nations, Nigeria’s quest to host the AEB was reinforced in late May.

Funded by Afrexim Bank and APPO, the fossil fuel-focused bank seeks to assist the continent’s energy transformation objectives and finance energy projects across the continent.

“This decision reflects our collective ambition to create African solutions to African energy challenges,” Lokpobiri said.

“The African Energy Bank will be instrumental in providing the financial backbone for energy projects that will drive growth and development across the continent,” he added.

When the AEB launches later this year, its first spending authority is $5 billion. According to analysts, Nigeria, one of Africa’s leading energy producers and an original member of APPO, has expressed a great deal of interest in the bank as it launches a fresh initiative to attract investment into its flagging oil and gas sector.

“Hosting the bank would be a vote of confidence in Nigeria at a time its energy industry badly needs a boost,” Clementine Wallop, director for sub-Saharan Africa at political risk consultancy Horizon Engage, said before the announcement.

After Ivory Coast and South Africa failed to meet the requirements, Algeria, Benin, and Ghana are the three other countries that bid to host the AEB.

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Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery exports first fuel to Cameroon

Published

1 day ago

December 12, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The Dangote Refinery in Nigeria said on Wednesday that it had exported its first petrol to Cameroon, marking a significant milestone that may help stabilise gasoline costs throughout the region and open the door for regional energy integration.

When fully operational, Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote’s 650,000-barrel refinery in Lagos is intended to alter the trade of refined products in the Atlantic basin and compete with refineries in Europe.

According to a statement by Neptune Oil, an energy company based in Cameroon, both businesses were looking into new projects to create a dependable supply chain that would assist in stabilising fuel costs and opportunities throughout the area.

According to Neptune Oil, there were no middlemen involved in the petrol delivery deal.

It is anticipated that the refinery’s operations will spur growth in the upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors, increasing investments in cement manufacture, plastic and rubber production, chemical and pharmaceutical goods, and oil refining.

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Egypt’s November inflation drops to 25.5%, near 2-year low

Published

3 days ago

December 11, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

According to figures released Tuesday by statistics agency CAPMAS, Egypt’s annual urban consumer price inflation rate fell more than anticipated to 25.5% in November, the lowest level since December 2022.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which caused international investors to pull billions of dollars out of Egyptian treasury markets, inflation started to rise sharply in early 2022.

In September 2023, headline inflation reached a record high of 38.0%. It dropped to 26.5% by October 2024.

In a Reuters survey last month, 15 economists’ consensus prediction was for annual inflation to gradually decline to 26.4%.

According to CAPMAS statistics, headline inflation decreased from 1.1% in October to 0.5% in November every month.

Compared to October, when they fell 1.1%, food costs fell 2.8% over the month, making them 23.3% more than they were a year ago.

An increase in the money supply has been a major contributor to inflation. According to central bank data, Egypt’s M2 money supply increased by 29.54% in October compared to the same month last year.