Browsing: West Africa

West Africa will fully adopt cleaner fuels and vehicles by January 1, 2025 in an effort to reduce air pollution across the region’s cities.

The deadline was set by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) during the African Refiners & Distributors Association (ARDA) 2021 Virtual Workshop Series.

According to ECOWAS Director of Energy Bayaornibe Dabire, the range of fuel specifications in the sub-region currently spans 50 Parts Per Million (PPM) sulphur in some countries to 10, 000 ppm in others.

ECOWAS directive

Speaking at the ARDA workshop series, Bayaornibe Dabire said the need for harmonisation led to the issuance of ECOWAS directive C/DIR.2/09/20 last year.

The directive covers exhaust gas and particulate emission limits for two-wheeled, light and heavy vehicles.

Any improvement in fuel specifications without alignment with vehicle emission limits, Dabire said, would not have the desired effect.

He emphasized that member states should prohibit the import …

It is indeed good news to the Petroleum and other Industry players after Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s President finally appended his signature into law the Petroleum Industry Bill after twenty years of deliberation and revision.

The signing of this historic Petroleum Bill comes barely a month after the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) 2021 was voted by both chambers of the National Assembly.

After so many questions surrounded the bill after it was passed by the two houses, major one being whether the PIB was going to be the game changer for the industry, pending the President’s signature, it is now the proverbial saying of only time will tell after the President gave the bill a green light.

The new legislation which aims to Overhauling and transforming the Nigerian Oil and Gas is anticipated to drive investment in the sector by providing a framework for almost all aspects of oil and gas …

A Fair trade research study has revealed that over the past four years cocoa farmers household increased income in Ivory Coast has received a boosted earnings and lower incidences of extreme poverty as reported by Neill Barston.

This latest research comes amid key ongoing challenges within the region’s communities, which are facing significant downward pressures on crop prices impacting on communities earning capability.

Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s largest producer and exporter of cocoa beans. The Ivorian economy is largely dependent on the agricultural sector and about two-thirds of the population is engaged in this area. However, this dependency causes the Ivorian economy to be highly sensitive to changes in the international prices of these products.

According to the Fairtrade’s research key analysis, the average annual Ivorian cocoa farmer household income grew from $2,670 in 2016/17 to $4,937 in 2020/21, an increase of 85% driven, in part, by an upturn …

West Africa region received $465 million in funding from the World Bank for regional electricity access which will see countries in the region expand electricity to over a million people.

The World group approved the funds to the new Regional Electricity Access and Battery-Energy  Storage Technologies (BEST) Project which will increase grid connections to fragile areas, strengthen WAPP’s network operation with battery energy storage technologies infrastructure and build the capacity of the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERERA).

Through the project, countries in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will enhance power system stability for 3.5 million people and increase renewable energy integration in the West Africa Power Pool (WAPP).

The project will pave way for increased renewable energy generation, investment and transmission across the West Africa region.

“West Africa is on the cusp of a regional power market that promises significant development benefits and potential for private …

It is not yet another good year for the Cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast the world’s biggest producer of the key ingredient for chocolate, as the prices of their commodity went down for the second year running.

This is contrary to M’Brimbo, a village in central Ivory Coast which 11 years ago became a testing ground for organic cocoa farming and today is prospering.

The local farmers’ collective, the Fair Cooperative Society of Bandama (SCEB), sell their high-quality produce at twice the market rate for non-organic cocoa.

“When producers are trained and well-paid, they can make very good cocoa in Ivory Coast,” said Arthur Gautier, an agronomist who works for Ethiquable, a French company that specializes in marketing fair-trade products and buys SCEB’s harvest.

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The chocolate made from their cocoa is sold in French supermarkets under the brand “Grand Cru M’Brimbo,” a name that …

According to a data released on Monday by the Central Bank of Egypt, Egypt’s current account deficit climbed to $7.6 billion in the first half (1H) of the current FY2020/2021 from July to December 2020 up from $4.6 in the same half of FY2019/2020.

This Increase in the current account deficit is associated to the decline in service balance surplus and the increase in the non-oil trade balance

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According to CBE, due to the decline in the investment income balance Service balance surplus contracted by 69.9 percent in the 1H of FY2020/21 posted $1.9 billion, down from $6.3 billion in the 1H of FY2019/20.

The decline in Investment income had a larger effect on the Tourism sector with the CBE showing that tourism revenues dropped by 75.3 percent in the 1H of FY2020/21, reaching $1.8 billion.

In April 13 …

Nigeria’s oil production has fallen by 30 per cent in the last four years to 1.423 million barrels per day, mb/d in 2020 from 2.041 million barrels per day, mb/d in 2017.

This is according to a recent investigative study by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries OPEC, which includes pipeline vandalism and oil theft in the Niger-Delta.

The figure excludes 2020 condensate production, according to the data obtained by Vanguard Energy from OPEC’s monthly market reports between 2017 and 2020.

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The nation’s output declined by 19.3 per cent to 1.648 mb/d in 2018 from 2.041 mb/d in 2017 Year-on-year, YoY.

The production level, however, rose by 6.6 per cent to 1.765 mb/d in 2019 from 2018 figure before declining again by 19 per cent to 1.423 mb/d in 2020.

THE IMPACT

The gradual drop in output is a …

A survey revealed that 77 per cent of temporary workers would be willing to receive their wages digitally if this gave them access to health insurance.

Combining digital payments with health insurance benefits offers an excellent opportunity for social inclusion, formalization, and financial innovation.
Data shows that if 50 per cent of temporary workers in Senegal received payments digitally, 45 billion CFA francs would be added to GDP per year (around US$80 million). Paying workers digitally, speeds up the financial inclusion for the population, boosts business competitiveness and increases financial system liquidity. …

The African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA) released its sophomore Industry Survey drawing African Limited Partners and General Partners commitment to African investment as long-term.

The survey report that was released on April 15, was conducted in review of broad cross-section of global and African Limited Partners’ (LPs) and General Partners’ (GPs) to determine perspectives and attitudes of investing in African private equity (PE) across various categories, sectors, geographies, investment stages, challenges, and returns.

According to the survey report, Majority of Limited Partners (86%) plan to raise or maintain their allocation to African Private Equity {PE} over the next three years, with impact and the investment mandates viewed by most Limited Partners as the primary factors driving their investment approach.

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65% of Limited partners said that the African Private Equity {PE} attractiveness remained the …