Three refineries produce 44m litres of petrol in July

Despite the efforts to increase local refining capacity to conserve foreign exchange Nigeria’s three refineries could only produce 43,743,273 million litres of petrol in July.
This means, the country’s forex request for imports of petroleum products, which currently stands at 35 percent will further increase in the coming months, unless something drastic was done about the state of the refineries
The refineries located in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, has a combined daily refining capacity of 445,000 barrels of crude oil per day
The latest production statistics contained in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), monthly report for July 2016, released at the weekend show that the approximatly only 44 million litres of petrol was produced in July is was far below the 211,562,865 million litres of petrol produced by the three refineries in June this year and slightly above the country’s daily consumption figure of 40 million litres.

Oil price rises more than 3% as OPEC meet in Algeria

Oil prices rallied nearly 4 percent at their peak yesterday as the world’s largest producers gathered in Algeria to discuss ways to support the market, with nervous trade driving volatility to its highest since exporters met in April.
Brent crude futures rose $1.58, or 3.4 percent, to $47.47 a barrel having rallied from a session low of $45.74, while U.S. crude prices rose $1.64, or 3.7 percent, to $46.12 a barrel. Skepticism about any deal being reached has prompted money managers to cut their bullish bets to a one-month low last week, when prices fell by nearly 5 percent, dented by signs Saudi Arabia and Iran were making little progress in achieving a preliminary agreement to freeze production. Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, are meeting informally on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum in Algeria from Sept. 26-28, where they will discuss a possible deal to limit output.

Access Bank plan to issue fresh Eurobond

Access Bank Plc is set to issue the first Eurobond from Nigeria in almost two years after choosing banks to arrange a new deal.
Nigeria’s fourth-largest lender by assets will meet investors in the United States and Europe from Tuesday through October 3rd, and plans to sell five-year debsetups Chief Executive Officer, Herbert Wigwe told Bloomberg.
Barclays Plc, Citigroup Incorporated and JPMorgan Chase & Co would arrange the deal, he said.

Emirates rejects naira in payment for flight

Emirates Airlines has rejected the Nigerian currency, naira, for payment by travellers to Brazil.The Dubai-based airline is rather demanding a credit card mode of payment from passengers at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.
The development, which caught many passengers unawares, caused some of them to be left behind, despite having bought tickets weeks earlier.
It was observed that while some passengers were turned back by the airline’s officials at the counter for already buying tickets in naira, they also ensured that a passenger who had earlier checked in for the 5:55 p.m. Lagos-Dubai Sunday flight never boarded the plane.
The Emirates office in Lagos yesterday confirmed that the credit card mode of payment is indeed the company’s policy, though it would not explain the rationale.
An official of the airline, Babatunde Yahaya, who explained the new policy to angry passengers on Sunday said the action was in line with a memo issued to them, demanding that any ticket

Dangote to invest $20bn in petrochemical, fertiliser projects

A fresh investment worth $20 billion targeted at the downstream petrochemical and backward integration in agriculture is in the offing.
Africa’s richest man, and President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, who made the pledge, said his group is set to deploy funds in multi-faceted projects.
The projects include fertiliser, gas pipeline, and backward integration in sugar and rice production.
These, he said, will create over 250,000 jobs and provide foreign exchange earnings and savings of $16 billion for the country and help diversify the economy. Besides, in recognition of his immense contribution to human capital development in Africa through the establishment of businesses across the African continent, a United States of America based Organization, Africa-America Institute (AAI), honoured Dangote with the “2016 African Business Leader Award.”
The business mogul was named and presented the award at a ceremony held on the side-line of the United Nations Congress in New York city, United States.

NACCIMA opposes signing of West Africa-EU agreement

Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), has urged the Federal Government to refrain from signing the West Africa-EU Economic Partnership Agreement until the country’s infrastructure and productive capacity has improved such that exports would benefit from the agreement and output from the sensitive sectors would be able to compete with import from EU.
Giving this hint in a statement over the weekend in Lagos, the President of the association, Dr. Edem Bassey, cautioned government not to sign the agreement, but rather confront headlong the current economic crisis and find a way to pull out of economic recession through appropriate policy measures.
He said that to return Nigeria to the path of economic growth, the country needs to strengthen infrastructure and stimulate aggregate demand for its output. With the policy focus of Nigerian Government on the diversification from crude oil to other sectors of the economy, the Economic Partnership Agreement offers a ready market for Nigerian products that will be the output of the

Stakeholders set agenda for new electricity board

Frank Jacobs

As the Senate prepares to screen nominees to the board of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), some stakeholders have set an agenda for the new management.
Experts, consumers and other stakeholders who spoke at the weekend urged the incoming board of NERC to be more proactive in holding operators in the power sector to account.
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) particularly wants electricity distribution companies to be made efficient. The industrialists want a stop to cost-cutting measures and threats of cutting off electricity, while they seek the enforcement of the provisions of the Electricity Power Sector Reform Act (ESPR 2015).
To effectively manage the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), MAN charged NERC to “begin to operate as an impartial judge that enjoys the confidence of all stakeholders.”
“NERC should establish an all-encompassing stakeholders consultative platform with representation from all stakeholders on the NESI value chain. The incoming board should treat the decisions of the Customers Forum as mandatory,” President of MAN, Dr. Frank Udemba Jacobs

Nigeria loses N6.33trn to Naira devaluation

Nigeria will spend an equivalent of its 2016 budget to service debts as its currency, the naira, continues to lose value against the United States dollar.
Devaluation has put the real value of the country’s debt stock at around N18.9 trillion, when considered at the official rate of N307.79 per dollar, according to figures from the Debt Management Office.
The additional naira stock (per dollar) that would be needed to service existing debt will cause the country to lose about N6.33 trillion, a near-equivalent of the 2016 budget, when compared to N12.6 trillion at N197 per dollar as at December 31, 2015. It is also a disincentive for future external borrowing despite a positive debt-to-GDP ratio.
“Hiding under the mantra of low debt-to-Gross Domestic Product is deceitful,” a public sector financial analyst, who asked not to be named, said in Lagos at the weekend. “The economy is in recession and cannot churn out those activities anymore.
“If we compare our debt service bill without revenue earnings ratio, it is not sustainable and that is where foreign investors will be looking at to price our international bonds,” the public sector