Author: Editorial Staff

THE opening of three new ports over the past two months is bolstering Djibouti’s efforts to increase its share of transit and trans-shipment traffic in East Africa. In May the $590 million Doraleh Multipurpose Port was officially inaugurated on schedule after two years of construction, following major expansion works by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation. The upgraded port, which was backed by the Djibouti Ports and Free Zone Authority (DPFZA) and state-owned China Merchants Port Holding, has a total annual capacity of 8.8 million tonnes, spanning 690 ha with 15 berths, each of which is 1.2 km in length.…

SEVEN thousand local and 5,000 international observers have been deployed in Kenya to witness elections for president, parliament and regional governments on August 8. There are teams from the African Union and the Commonwealth as well as Europe and North America. The battle for the presidency is between two scions of the leading figures in Kenya’s independence struggle: Uhuru Kenyatta, 55, son of Jomo Kenyatta, the country’s first leader, and Raila Odinga, 72, son of Oginga Odinga, Kenya’s first Vice-President. Kenyatta, representing the Jubilee Party, is seeking a second five-year term with his Vice-President, William Ruto. Odinga and his running…

LIBERIA’S outgoing President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf says she will actively campaign for the handful of female candidates contesting elections in October, while her male vice-president seeks to replace her. There is just a single female candidate among 20 contenders running for president this year in Liberia, as Sirleaf steps down as Africa’s first female head of state following more than a decade in power. ‘I will not be seeking re-election in the October 2017 elections. I will be on my feet everywhere in my own little way to campaign for women listed and certified by the National Elections Commission as…

NIGERIA’S ailing President Muhammadu Buhari, who has been away in London for almost three months, has become the subject of a sports betting game in his homeland. A popular sports gaming site, NaijaBet.com, is asking those interested to stake their money on when Buhari, who left Nigeria on May 7 on his latest medical trip to the British capital, will return. The company usually focuses on English Premiership, Champions League and other sporting events, but recently launched the ‘Buhari to Return’ game. Punters can bet on whether the president will return in the second or fourth week of August. The…

THE recent announcement by the US Treasury that it would like to see Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) such as the World Bank have a re-think on their opposition to the use of fossil fuels, especially coal, and help countries to access these fuels more cleanly and efficiently, should be welcome news for African countries that are sitting on 50 million tons of coal reserves. US President Donald Trump had signalled his administration’s coal U-turn at the Munich G20 last month amid opposition from climate change activists who argue that emissions from fossil fuels are damaging the environment. Under President Barack…

BOOMING refinery profits are helping African oil producers sell cargoes quickly, aided by a shortage in certain types of crude amid Opec production cuts and Venezuelan troubles. A fight for sour crude has helped keep demand high from southern African oil state Angola, and even long-suffering Nigerian grades are finding keen buyers in the US and Asia as refineries run full steam on strong margins. ‘Everything has been so supportive and bullish these past three or four weeks,’ one trader said, adding that between draws from storage and strong margins, ‘refiners are buying up ahead of normal timeline to make…

TULLOW Oil says it plans to drill more wells off Ghana once a ruling on a border dispute is out of the way. Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire disagree over their maritime boundary, frustrating projects to pump oil and gas offshore. In September, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, or Itlos, will rule on the matter, likely clearing the way for an expansion of Tullow’s Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme project, the company said. ‘We were aware of the dispute before we initiated the overall TEN project,’ Paul McDade, CEO of the London-based producer, said early August. ‘Ourselves and our partners and…

ANADARKO Petroleum has announced that it had finalised two agreements with the Mozambique – together known as the ‘marine concessions’ – which would allow it to design, build and operate the marine facilities for its LNG project in northern Mozambique. This follows the publication of the Mozambican Government Decrees approving those agreements. ‘This is a key milestone on the path to a final investment decision (FID) for our initial two-train LNG project,’ said Mitch Ingram, Anadarko executive V.P., Global LNG. ‘It marks the completion of the core components of the Legal and Contractual Framework with the Government. We will now…

THE Nigerian government has said it relies heavily on the Dangote refinery to fulfil its promise to Nigerians to end fuel importation by December 2019. To this end, the minister of state for petroleum resources, Ibe Kachikwu, who visited the Dangote oil refinery site at Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos, said the government is ready to play its part as a responsible government to assist in making sure the project is completed before the scheduled date. The minister, who said he was overwhelmed by the dimension of the project, explained that the present government had always believed that the…

MTN is extending its partnership with energy and financial services firm Fenix International to launch pay-to-own solar home systems in Zambia. The Swedish Embassy in Zambia is committing nearly $3 million to Fenix in Zambia between now and 2020, with USAID contributing an additional $750,000 to the company. The launch in Zambia represents the first step in Fenix’s expansion across Africa with their flagship product, ReadyPay Power, which provides off-grid customers access to ultra-affordable solar power. About 15 million Zambians live without access to the electrical grid, representing 80 per cent of the total population and 95 percent of rural…