EU announces €5 million support for sustainable energy in Africa

The European Commission will provide €5 million in new funding to accelerate the use of renewable energy in Africa.

The funding is aimed at helping the continent meet future energy needs and increase access to modern and sustainable energy services.

 The support is part of the Africa-EU Renewable Energy Cooperation Programme.

The Africa-EU Renewable Energy Cooperation Programme was launched in September 2010 in Vienna as an integral part of the Africa-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP).

The funding will be officially announced at the Second High Level Meeting of the AEEP, which takes place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, between February 11 and 13 this year.

Sub Saharan Africa has the lowest electrification rate in the world, and more than 650 million people rely on traditional biomass for heating and cooking.

This is why the EU has set itself the goal to help developing countries provide 500 million people with access to sustainable energy services by 2030, as part of the Sustainable Energy for All initiative (SE4ALL) led by the UN. 

EU Commissioner for Development , Andris Piebalgs, notes in a press release that, "energy is fundamental to development. No energy means no sustainable economic growth, no sustainable agriculture, no quality healthcare; no decent education. In short, no energy means no development."

Source: The New Statesman

Senate Takes Over Forensic Audit of NNPC

NNPC Headoffice

The Senate has taken over the forensic audit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) accounts, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said.

The Senate’s decision to handle the forensic audit of NNPC accounts came last Friday, a day after Okonjo-Iweala appeared before its Committee on Finance and made a recommendation to set up of a team of forensic auditors, to determine the exact amount of oil revenues that was remitted into the Federation Account.

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, had in a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan last year claimed that the state run oil corporation had not remitted $49.8 billion into the federation account. An inter-agency meeting involving officials of the CBN, finance ministry, NNPC and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources later put the unremitted funds at $10.8 billion -which the NNPC said it had judiciously expended - prompting the Senate to order its committee on finance to conduct a probe into the matter.

At the Public Hearing held by the senate committtte, the CBN governor further claimed that of the $67 billion worth of crude shipped by NNPC between January 2012 and July last year, the apex bank only had records of the remittance of $47 billion, leaving $20 billion unaccounted for. Sanusi also said that Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), a subsidiary of NNPC, along with two other companies, Atlantic Energy and Seven Energy, shipped $6 billion worth of crude oil from the nation's oil wells and failed to remit accrued proceeds to the Federation Account.

CBN releases fresh guidelines for N300bn power fund

CBN headquarters, Abuja

The Central Bank of Nigeria has released fresh guidelines that will shape the disbursement of the N300bn Power and Airline Intervention Fund.

According to the eight-part guidelines obtained by our correspondent, any power or airline company that defaults in the payment of the loan shall be charged the commercial interest rate (over 20 per cent) on the amount of default, instead of the seven per cent stipulated in the Fund.

Also, any Deposit Money Bank or Development Financial Institution that fails to disburse the fund within 14 days of receipt to the power or airline firm shall be charged the maximum lending rate of the bank as a penalty for the period that the fund was not disbursed.

The CBN’s guidelines read, “Diversion of funds by the participating banks shall attract a penalty at the banks average lending rate at the time of infraction. In addition, such participating banks shall be barred from further participation under the fund.

“Non-rendition of returns or the rendition of false returns shall attract the penalty stipulated by Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, Section 60.

“Any participating bank that fails to disburse the fund within 14 days of receipt to the borrower shall be charged the maximum lending rate of the PB as a penalty for the period that the fund was not disbursed.

The Nigerian buck stops here

 Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

There are many roadblocks on Nigeria's path to prosperity and finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala intends to eliminate them one by one.

Poor, corrupt and hopeless — that's how Nigeria looked just 10 years ago, but now it's Africa's second-largest economy, and its future is increasingly promising.

Africa's most-populous nation is growing twice as fast as its continental rival, South Africa, and holds nearly as much in foreign reserves, around $50 billion. Nigeria's GDP may be smaller — $292 billion to South Africa's $354 billion — but it is expected to catch up soon. The country's GDP per capita also doubled from $1,400 in 2000 to an estimated $2,800 in 2012.

The secret weapon behind Nigeria's economic renaissance? Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: the minister of finance and economy since 2011, who has led landmark reforms to combat corruption, reduce foreign debt and attract investment.

With a bachelor's degree from Harvard and a Ph.D in regional economic development from MIT, Okonjo-Iweala spent 12 years at the World Bank, including five as managing director. In 2012, she narrowly lost an election to Jim Yong Kim to become the institution's next president, despite winning the support of the Financial Times and Newsweek, which declared that if the competition "were a normal process, Jim Yong Kim wouldn't stand a chance."

Winners of Africa Impact Economy Innovations Fund announced

Tony Elumelu

The Rockefeller Foundation and the Tony Elumelu Foundation have announced the winners of the Africa Impact Economy Innovations Fund (IEIF).

Launched in April 2013 at the Africa Impact Investing Forum supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Tony Elumelu Foundation, IEIF provides grant capital for entrepreneurs with projects that create jobs in underserved sectors, and supports proposals geared toward enabling capital solutions, fostering entrepreneurial ecosystems and promoting impact investing industry infrastructure.

Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Tony Elumelu Foundation, the winners were selected from a highly competitive pool of hundreds of applicants from across Africa, and represented several sectors across the continent including Finance, Agriculture, Policy & Research and Information Technology.

Administered by the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), the rigorous selection process was undertaken by a committee which included Malik Fal, Managing Director of Omidyar Network Africa; Emmanuel N. Nnorom who was at the time, CEO of UBA Africa and currently the President of Heirs Holdings Group; Amit Bouri, Managing Director of the Global Impact Investing Network; Eme Essien Lore, Senior Associate Director at the Rockefeller Foundation Africa Regional Office,; and Dr. Wiebe Boer, CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Five African startups receive Microsoft funding boost

Five startups from Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda have been awarded financial grants by software giant Microsoft through its 4Afrika Initiative.

The 4Afrika Initiative was launched by Microsoft last year to help Africa improve its global competitiveness and reach 2016 goals that aim to place tens of millions of smart devices in the hands of African youth and get everyone online.

The five startup companies to subsequently receive funding from Microsoft are access.mobile LLC from Uganda, two Nigerian companies Gamsole and Save & Buy, and Kenyan startups Africa 118 and Kytabu.

According to a statement from Microsoft, the companies have been selected based on the uniqueness and scalability of their solutions, their business models and the relevance of the key problems they are addressing.

The solutions and apps developed by the startups are relevant to consumers and the African market, ranging from agriculture, education and consumer, the statement reads.

The level of funding has not been revealed though.

"As part of the 4Afrika initiative, we are excited to be supporting startups that have developed innovative solutions that address key issues in Africa," said Amrote Abdella, director of startup engagement and Partnerships for 4Afrika.

Abdella added, "Our support is aimed to showcase the importance of local innovation, but, more important, it highlights the great potential that African innovators have in competing with world-class developers and entrepreneurs."

Microsoft also revealed that in addition to the grants it plans to provide technical support and mentorship to help the startups develop their businesses through the company’s ‘centre of expertise.’

Below is a brief description of the different startups:

* access.mobile LLC - A solution with a key focus in the agriculture and healthcare industries, giving enterprises the ability to collect, analyse and share clear, real-time information about their operations and supply chain activity.

* Africa 118 - A mobile directory services solution that helps bridge the information gap both for enterprises and consumers.

* Gamsole - A mobile game production company creating Windows games, with downloads topping more than 4 million.

* Kytabu - A textbook leasing application for low-cost tablets. Students can save more than 60 percent of their education cost by renting their textbooks on an hourly, weekly, monthly, school term or annual plan.

* Save & Buy - A Web and mobile platform that enables Nigerians to save toward the purchase of items conveniently and securely through e-commerce channels.

Banks Exploit Loophole in Forex Market

Amidst the spirited attempts of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to halt naira depreciation and bridge the widening gap between the official and parallel market rates, indications emerged at the weekend that some banks are already taking advantage of the inadequate supply of foreign exchange, especially the dollar, and are actually profiting from the unpleasant situation.

Apparently worried by the resurgence of parallel market activities, where a dollar was sold at N172 last Friday, as against the official rate of N160.30, the CBN last week promised to rise to the occasion by adjusting the prevailing policies in order to safeguard the economy in weeks ahead.

However, a wide spectrum of foreign exchange marketers who spoke with THISDAY at the weekend listed factors responsible for the growing disparity in the exchange rates to include deliberate hoarding of dollars by banks, who in most cases, compel desperate forex users to do the transactions through domiciliary accounts.

Nigeria Central Bank releases framework for Mortgage Refinance Companies

The guidelines stipulate what is required to operate a MRC

The Central Bank of Nigeria has released a regulatory and supervisory framework for the operations of a Mortgage Refinance Company (MRC).

A Mortgage Refinance Company, according to the regulatory body, is a financial institution established to provide short-term liquidity and/or medium- to long-term funding or guarantees to mortgage loan originators.

The establishment of such company is primarily aimed at increasing the liquidity within the mortgage sub-sector and availability of mortgage credit in Nigeria, reduce mortgage and related costs, and make residential housing more affordable, the regulatory agency said.

The benefits of such mortgage liquidity facilities are well documented and globally acknowledged. As a financial institution, the MRC would be under the regulatory and supervisory purview of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

“The objectives of the MRC shall be to support mortgage originators such as Primary Mortgage Banks (PMBs) and commercial banks to increase mortgage lending by refinancing their mortgage loan portfolios. It shall act as an intermediary between originators of mortgage loans and capital market investors who typically are looking for long-dated high quality securities” the framework highlighted.

Facebook explores local market as biggest delegation visits Nigeria

Facebook Inc. is exploring the possibility of setting up a regional office in Nigeria as a delegation from its European headquarters in Dublin visits Nigeria.

“This is the biggest delegation that we have come out with and I wanted to come and see what is going on in one of the most exciting countries in Africa,” Nicola Mendelsohn, FaceBook VP for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), who is leading the delegation, said in a Jan. 27 interview with BusinessDay, in Lagos.

“It has been an action packed couple of days meeting with clients, and consumers, understanding how they use technology and getting a feel for the market place. This is a market with such fantastic potential and growth. We can also see it with our own numbers.”

Facebook’s 42 million users in Sub-Saharan Africa SSA make up only 3.5 percent of the tech company’s 1.2 billion global users.

However the growing economies in Africa and other emerging markets is seen by analysts as providing huge pay-off for companies that tap into that growth early.

One area of potential growth is mobile advertising where Facebook currently gets 49 percent of its global revenues from.

GE to invest $350mn in Nigeria’s power sector

General Electric has signed a deal with a Nigerian bank to invest $350 million in Nigeria’s ailing power sector, the country’s trade and investment minister said on Friday.

Olusegun Aganga said the deal between the US conglomerate and Stanbic Bank would finance small-scale projects to generate much-needed electricity.

“They are making available the sum of $350 million for the generation of mini-power projects because that is going to be quicker to do and will help the economic activities in the country,” he added.

The scaled-down facilities will produce between one and 20 megawatts of electricity.

Aganga said GE would also bring 10 of its suppliers to partner Nigerian companies to help develop power capacity and transfer of technology.

“The whole idea is for them to become part of their supply chain in (the) assemblage of turbines,” he told reporters.

GE signed a memorandum of understanding in 2012 to invest $1 billion mainly in Nigeria’s turbine sector.

Multiple power blackouts are a daily occurrence in Africa’s most populous nation, despite its status as the continent’s top oil producer.

Last November, the government formally scrapped its inefficient and graft-ridden power firm, handing its assets to private investors to try to improve supplies.

Nigeria has retained ownership of the national grid, but has privatised its management.

It is hoped that taking distribution, generation and transmission into the private sector will lead to steady supplies and reduce the reliance of homes and businesses on polluting diesel or petrol generators.

Nigeria has been courting foreign investors in recent years to keep the lights on. Deals have been signed with French, Chinese and South Korean firms.

Source: PM News