Hundreds of employees working for oil firms in Benghazi, Libya, have embarked on a strike action, it emerged on Tuesday, as the security situation in the troubled North African country worsened. The striking oil workers belong to oil companies like Gas Processing Company and Ras Lanuf Oil, Arabian Gulf Co, and two units of Libya’s National Oil Corp (NOC), a Reuters report stated. Workers who started the labour action on Tuesday joined the civil servants that had already been on strike, protesting against the worsening security situation in the troubled North African country. At the top of the oil workers’ and civil servants’ list of demands is that private armies that wander Benghazi, which is located east of Libya, vacate the city with immediate effect. “Staff in the oil sector in Benghazi… will join the civil disobedience starting today,” Saad Fakhri, deputy head of Libya’s union of oil workers, confirmed this to Reuters. Militias have allegedly demanded higher pay and more political rights, putting to a stop oil exports out of the country.
Updated 7 Years ago

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Tuesday said about $129 billion (N20.6 trillion) was fraudulently transferred out of Nigeria in the last 10 years through various sources. The commission, quoting Global Financial Integrity, based in Washington D.C., cited some of the sources to include tax avoidance, corruption, tax evasions, illegal mining activities, drugs and human trafficking.
Updated 7 Years ago

China may not have the most billionaires, but it does have the youngest. At 53 years, China's billionaires are the youngest in the world, while the average age of India's super rich people is 63 years, a year older than the global average of 62, says a report. According to the Wealth-X and UBS Billionaire Census 2013, the average age of China's 157 billionaires is 53 years which is nine years younger than the global average age of 62.
Updated 7 Years ago

A drop in gold prices below $1,200 an ounce may precipitate a fresh round of production cuts in the mining sector aimed at re-balancing the market, strategists told CNBC. Although the short-term view on gold remains overwhelmingly negative – with nearly three quarters of respondents in this week's CNBC gold sentiment survey forecasting further weakness for bullion – many say prices may start stabilizing below $1,200 – levels where a supply response from the mining sector may kick in. "Gold production may fall at prices below $1,200 as it becomes uneconomical for many mines to operate profitably," said Mark O'Byrne, Founder and Executive Director of Dublin-based bullion dealer GoldCore. An estimated 36 percent of the South African gold industry is loss-making even at today's spot prices, O'Byrne said, adding that 28 percent of the country's gold miners failed to turn a profit in the third-quarter, based on a gold price of $1,330. Curbs on mine supply, according to UBS strategists Giovanni Staunovo and Dominic Schnider, "should come with the gold price decline toward the marginal cost of production." UBS estimates that 10 percent of supply "on a cash cost basis would be loss-making at a price between $1,050 and $1,150/oz. At this level, the gold market should be adequately balanced and find a new equilibrium," they said. Edmund Moy, Chief Strategist at Morgan Gold and a former director of the U.S. Mint, said major gold miners such as Toronto-based Barrick Gold are already starting to scale back production. The world's largest producer by sales, Barrick sold three Australian mines this year and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Sokalsky said the company is in talks to sell more assets. "Many miners have been reducing their capacity like Barrick," Moy said but warned that "if demand for physical gold picks up in the U.S., it will take miners quite a while to re-open their shuttered mines and produce gold."
Updated 7 Years ago

India has overtaken China as the most attractive investment destination, according to Ernst & Young (EY), with the sharp depreciation in the rupee and opening up of new sectors to foreign players boosting the South Asian nation's allure. Companies are most likely to invest in India, followed by Brazil (2), China (3), Canada (4) and the United States (5), EY's ninth bi-annual Capital Confidence Barometer - a survey of 1,600 senior executives across more than 70 countries - showed. In the eight edition of the survey, published in May, China had the top spot, followed by India and Brazil. "The investor outlook for India remains positive, despite the challenges the country's economy has faced in the recent past," said Amit Khandelwal, national leader & partner, Transaction Advisory Services at EY. "At the same time, the improved condition of the world economy has helped increase confidence amongst deal makers, prompting them to take a bolder stance toward executing transactions...the Fed's [Federal Reserve] reassurance on not pulling back stimulus in the near term has boosted confidence in the board rooms," Khandelwal said. Over the past year, India has ramped up efforts to attract overseas capital, relaxing foreign direct investment (FDI) across several industries including telecoms, single brand retail and oil and gas.
Updated 7 Years ago

Member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are planning to raise about $26.416 billion for the completion of various critical electricity generation and transmission projects under its West African Power Pool (WAPP) framework. The projects include the proposed 7,092 megawatts (MW) hydropower, 2,375MW thermal and 800MW renewable power generation mixes and a 16,000km length transmission line that would interconnect all the West African countries to the regional power pool by 2018. This proposal was contained in the revised ECOWAS electricity generation and transmission master plan, which was presented to member countries of the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authorities (ERERA) at its fourth regional meeting in Banjul, capital of the Gambia. The plan seeks to amongst other options sort the participation of private sector investors in the region’s ambitious plan to vertically connect its member countries in its shared power pool. An update on the progress of the electricity interconnection plan which was provided by the Director, Information and Control Center (ICC) of the WAPP, Babatunde Adeyemo, at Banjul indicated that while the regional body had made inroads in some of its priority transmission projects, it equally plans to add about 7,170MW to its existing power pool and interconnect at least 14 of its member countries by 2017. Some of power generation projects listed by Adeyemo as WAPP’s expected sources of additional generation capacity include: Felou (Mali) 60MW, Maria Gleta (Benin) 450MW-WAPP programme, Domunli (Ghana) 450MW-WAPP programme, Souapiti Hydro 515MW, Kassa ‘B’ hydro 118MW, Charbon (Senegal) 875MW and Sambangalou (Senegal/ Guinea) 433MW.
Updated 7 Years ago

The Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Industry, trade and Investment, Mr. Dauda Kigbu, has called on stakeholders to come together in their efforts to finding new ways to partner and collaborate with the Ministry and other stakeholders across the globe in the collective search for industrialisation in Africa. Kigbu made the call in his welcome address at the 23rd edition of the commemoration of Africa Industrialisation Day (AID) in Nigeria, which held at the National Centre for Women Development, Abuja. The theme for this year’s AID was ‘Job Creation and Entrepreneurship development- a means to accelerate industrialisation’.
Updated 7 Years ago

German pharmaceutical group Bayer (BAYGn.DE) has offered to buy Norway's Algeta (ALGETA.OL), its partner for a new prostrate cancer treatment, for $2.4 billion, a 27 percent premium to the stock's last close, Algeta said on Tuesday. If successful, the deal would give Bayer outright control over Xofigo, a drug the two have jointly developed since 2009 and started selling in the United States earlier this year. Though the drug only sold $17 million in the third quarter, it received marketing authorization in the European Union this year and analysts expect sales of the drug to take off over the next several years.
Updated 7 Years ago

The market capitalisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) shed N8 billion Monday as investors moved in to take profit after stocks closed at record highs last week. Stocks rode on the wave of positive investor sentiments in reaction to third quarter results (Q3) and lifted the NSE All-Share Index (ASI) by 3.6 per cent to close at 39,246.05 last week. Some stocks rose between 61 per cent and 32 per cent last week. However, when trading resumed for the week yesterday, there was a moderation in pricing as profit-taking ruled the market. As a result, the ASI went down by 0.06 per cent while market capitalisation shed N8 billion to close at N12.545 trillion.
Updated 7 Years ago

Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology Hon. Abiodun Akinlade has disclosed that the House of Representatives would soon come up with a law that will compel flour millers across the country to add at least 10 percent cassava content to wheat flour for bread production. Akinlade,who represents Ipokia/Yewa South Federal constituency in Ogun State stated this shortly after he was conferred with the Patronship of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ogun State Council at its Awards and Galanite held in Abeokuta. He said that the inclusion and utilization of cassava flour for bread production could save Nigeria a whooping sum of N200 billion annually, adding that it would generate employment opportunities for teeming jobless Nigerians and would also affect positively the Nigerian balance of payement.
Updated 7 Years ago