Category: Business

The Special Investigative Panel on Oil Theft/Losses in Nigeria, has submitted its report to the National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno, in Abuja.

The Head, Strategic Communication, Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Mr Zakari Usman, in a statement on Tuesday, said the report was submitted on Monday.

While submitting the report, the Chairman of the panel, retired Maj.-Gen. Barry Ndiomu, said the panel engaged key stakeholders from within and outside the oil and gas industry.

Ndiomu said stakeholders from state governments, ministries, departments and agencies, security agencies, regulatory agencies, international and indigenous oil companies, traditional institutions, host communities, artisanal refiners, among others were also engaged.

He said the panel received and reviewed several memoranda and reports on oil theft and losses during the various engagements.

According to him, the panel discovered several layers of involvement in the illegal theft of crude oil in spite of the best efforts of the Armed Forces and other security agencies to combat oil theft.

“The panel also observed that crude oil losses arose from lack of proper reporting of crude oil production, illegal refining, theft from wellheads and diversion from sophisticated pipelines network.

“The panel also attributed losses to the absence of a robust industry-wide metering system and an unworkable security arrangement.

“The confusing roles of regulatory agencies was also cited as being responsible for making the detection of theft/losses difficult,” he added.

Ndiomu called for quick implementation of the report and asserted that if the government implemented the recommendations in the report, oil theft/losses would be adequately addressed.

He said prompt implementation of the report would not only create an immediate impact on crude oil production levels to meet OPEC’s quota but would also attract foreign direct investment and serve Nigeria’s economic and national security concerns.

Receiving the report, the NSA thanked the panel for keeping to the timeframe and for addressing the issues of oil theft and losses comprehensively.

Monguno assured that government would study the report and see to its immediate implementation, especially the recommendations with short-term perspectives.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the NSA had on Dec. 6, 2022, inaugurated the investigative panel with extensive terms of reference to investigate all aspects of crude oil theft/losses in all its ramifications.

The panel was expected to investigate oil theft/losses in all its ramifications and propose wide ranging implementable recommendations to enable the administration take decisive action to end the criminal enterprise within the shortest possible time.

The panel was given 10 weeks to complete the assignment effective from the date of inauguration. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

The unique opportunity to stimulate investment in Africa’s digital transformation. During the event, the 36 African countries, members of the Smart Africa Alliance, may tap into the $102.9 billion investment opportunities that this event offers for the financing of the digital economy.

By the editorial staff

Ahead of the 6th Transform Africa Summit (TAS2023) to be held in the western Zimbabwean city of Victoria Falls from 26 to 28 April, the Smart Africa Investment Forum (SAIF) will take place on 25 April 2023 in the same city. The announcement was made on Wednesday 22 March 2023 by the organisers of TAS2023 on their website.

According to the organisers, “FISA is exclusively reserved for Platinum and Gold level delegates who have paid a registration fee of US$ 950 and US$ 450 respectively. This gives them access to a high level of activities during the event. The April 25, 2023 Forum offers participants high-level engagements on critical topics such as digital infrastructure financing, initiatives to reduce the cost of broadband, start-up funds and scholarship funding.

“This “pre-forum” is an opportunity for investors to connect to innovative solutions for the growth of the digital economy”

This event, in effect a “pre-forum”, is “a powerful and dynamic event” that reflects the importance of a multi-stakeholder approach to funding. “It is an excellent opportunity for investors and investment seekers to connect and collaborate on innovative solutions that will drive the growth of the digital economy,” says the TAS2023 press release. The focus will be on fostering partnerships, promoting investment and sustainable development in Africa.

As a reminder, it was at the end of a selection process involving the 36 members of the Smart Africa Alliance that the city of Victoria Falls, in Zimbabwe, was chosen to host the 6th edition of the Transform Africa Summit, the main African Tech and Digital event organised by Smart Africa, from 26 to 28 April 2023. Smart Africa is an innovative commitment by African Heads of State and Government to accelerate sustainable socio-economic development on the continent, to move Africa towards a knowledge-based economy through affordable access to broadband internet and the use of information and communication technologies.

“The 36 African countries of the Smart Africa Alliance are offered $102.9 billion to finance the digital economy”

The first edition of the Transform Africa Summit was held in Kigali, Rwanda, from 28 to 31 October 2013. On this occasion, seven African heads of state (Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Mali, Gabon, Burkina Faso) adopted a Smart Africa Manifesto. This was a kind of commitment ‘to play a leading role in accelerating socio-economic development through ICT’. On 30 and 31 January 2014, this was approved by all the heads of state and government of the African Union meeting in Addis Ababa. This places this strategic document at the heart of the ICT agenda in Africa, beyond the 7 original signatories of the Summit, in all 53 African countries.

Since then, the Smart Africa Alliance has grown to include 36 African countries representing approximately one billion people. To whom the alliance now offers investment opportunities worth $102.9 billion in digital infrastructure financing.

Source: Africa News Agency

Seychelles’ Port Victoria is working towards digitalising its services to coincide with the commercial port’s 50th anniversary in October, said a top official on Monday.

“The Port of Victoria Management Information System (PVMIS) is an ambitious goal, yet crucial in modernising and synchronising the port’s operations,” said transport minister Antony Derjaques at the launch of the project.

PVMIS is a web-based solution designed for real-time planning and management of port operations through full control of core port activities such as vessel traffic management, vessel calls and cargo-handling operations among others.

The deputy chief executive of the Seychelles Ports Authority (SPA), Egbert Moustache said “the system will streamline processes before the vessels’ arrival, optimise cargo flows and improves the efficiency of operations by giving all stakeholders access to quality information via a single web-based application.”

Local representatives from immigration, the port and relevant partners attended a meeting on Monday at the New Port in Victoria where the digitalisation process was explained through presentations.

Derjaques said that the project is in line with the government’s digitalisation plans, calling for the automation of most operations and having a national database.

The project will also allow Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, to comply by 2024 with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Convention for Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic known as the FAL Convention.

The FAL Convention came into force in 1967, with all countries that ratified it benefitting from the formulation and adoption of uniform measures facilitating maritime traffic.

“The Convention encourages the use of the so-called “single window” concept in which all agencies and authorities exchange data via a single point,” Moustache elaborated.

According to the IMO, a maritime single window is “a one-stop service environment that covers maritime and port administrative procedures.”

“So far most countries in our region are already compliant,” said Moustache.

In addition to celebrating the commercial port’s 50th anniversary, Moustache said the project, “which has been on the SPA ‘s strategic plan for over a decade, comes at the right moment since the authority is undertaking the port expansion project to modernise its facilities and infrastructure.”

The project is a collaboration between SPA, as well as InfoPort and 4SH – both companies based in Reunion, a French overseas department – and the European Union through its Africa RISE initiative.

Over the coming days, consultants will be carrying out the business mapping process through which they will get information from all SPA’s stakeholders. Once this is done, they will proceed to develop the system that will be used, provided by InfoPort.

While the EU is assisting Seychelles with the consultants for the project, Moustache told the press that it would cost the SPA €400,000 to buy the application.

“The money was already in the SPA budget, it is just that certain situations have delayed the implementation. When you realise that it costs more than the stated price that we are going to pay, I believe we have had a very good deal,” he added.

One of the areas that will be covered is also passenger information on cruise ships, which the authorities say they are still in discussion on how to proceed with Travizory technology of the Seychelles Electronic Border System, which is already in place for issuing travel authorisations for travellers entering the country.

Source: Seychelles News Agency

Stakeholders have called for collaboration among the governments, academia and industry for revolution in the Nigeria’s industrialisation through research and development of commercialisation of raw materials and local production.

The News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN) reports that the Executive Secretary, of Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Dr Bello Gusau; Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan (UI), Prof. Kayode Adebowale and Chief Executive Officer, Jola Global Industry Ltd. and Dr Moses Omojola, were among the stakeholders who spoke in Ibadan.

They made the call at the Knowledge Sharing Workshop, organised by the University of Ibadan, in collaboration with PTDF.

The theme was: “Nigerian Petroleum Industry and Energy Transition: Opportunities for Research, Innovation and Development.”

Gusau, represented by Mr Olayinka Agboola of Strategic Planning and Documentation (SP&D) Department, PTDF, said that the fund, as agent of government for building capacity in the oil and gas industry, used avenues like human capacity building, institutional support and funding research and development.

He said the organisation has eight endowment funding in various institutions in Nigeria, adding that in UI, PTDF has endowed chairs funded to conduct research in topical areas in Oil and Gas Industry.

According to him, the event is one of the outcomes of all the researches that the chair of the fund had conducted over the years.

We tried to expand the frontiers of knowledge based on the outcome of research and developmental efforts, which we have funded.

“You don’t do research in isolation; you have to work with stakeholders because at the end of the day researches are supposed to translate into products in the market.

“So, you need to have an industry, the institution and the government and the triple elites need to be applied to ensure that the researches are effective and you will be able to generate value.

“We don’t want to be funding theoretical researches that would just end up on the shelf in the laboratories in the institutions.

“We have to make sure that researches are adopted and applied in the industry, you have to collaborate with all the relevant stakeholders.”

Adebowale, in his remarks as Chairman of the occasion, said that knowledge sharing had been the direction of building the triple-elite model, desirable in the university, which would strengthen the link between academia and the industry.

He lamented that there were so many researches lacking impact, saying that they were just research for theoretical purposes or advancement in the career ladder.

Adebowale underscored researches that focussed on solving challenges in the industry and sourcing local raw materials that would replace the expensive ones being imported.

“This would solve so many of our problems and halt wasting of our meagre foreign exchange.

“The Oil and Gas Industry needs considerable research and we know that if town and gown do not collaborate, it will be difficult for us to solve specific challenges,” he said.

According to him, this is to prevent all our research and development centres from just relocating outside the country.

“Because, only when we have an effective handshake between the academia and industry, that we can develop our research and development to compete favourably and then industries would not relocate their research and development centres outside the country,” Adebowale said.

One of the lead presenters, Omojola, identified industrialisation as the way out from the present economic challenges facing the country.

He urged the Federal Government to encourage industrialisation by addressing the nation’s energy challenge.

“So much money is spent on energy and if it is not addressed, there is no way our products can compete with the imported goods. We can produce so many SMEs, but they cannot survive without energy,” Omojola said.

Also, a Professor of Petroleum Engineering in UI, Sunday Isehunwa, said Nigeria could address its carbon targets, if it could look inward through research, innovation and development.

Isehunwa, also one of the speakers at the event, said that energy demand would keep rising, saying this was because “energy is linked to development” .

Earlier, Prof Olugbenga Falode, Head of the Department of Petroleum Engineering in UI, said there were various challenges bedeviling the Nigerian Oil and Gas industry based on environmental issues and the rising cost of operations.

Falode said that optimising the “golden egg” was critical for the industry to survive.

“So, there are big chances for oil and gas in navigating the energy transition as it responds to the challenges it is currently confronted with, it must address the issue of human capital development,” he said.

Falode however, highlighted the roles of PTDF in developing indigenous manpower and technology transfer in the petroleum industry as well as to make the country “a no-man-resource-centre for the West African sub-region”.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

African women and girls are discussing the harassment and discrimination challenges they face trying to conduct cross-border business under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).

The meeting in Addis Ababa, called “Gender is My Agenda,” is taking place ahead of the African Union heads of state summit, which is set to begin Saturday and is expected to address progress of the African trade agreement.

Elizabeth Ajok, a South Sudanese national, said women often face problems at border crossings that men don’t have to experience.

“They are facing a lot of challenges like violence at the border, they are being intimidated, and sometimes some of their items are being confiscated or their goods are taken because of clearance,” Ajok said. “And they will also overcharge you because you are a woman. You will be taxed. Sometimes they just look at us. They see that you are just a woman, so you don’t deserve to do business.”

Zaithwa Milzanzi said she encounters similar treatment when she crosses the border from her native Malawi.

“You find yourself with required fees, the papers are in order, everything is in order and yet you find some officers at the border asking you for sexual things and you are thinking, ‘Why?'” Milzanzi said. “It really hinders your progress and your ability to trade as a young woman. So, this needs to be addressed if young women are to be considered and fully protected under this regime.”

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement went into effect in May 2019 with the goal of lowering tariffs between African countries and boosting economies.

African countries trading among themselves, the World Bank says, could boost Africa’s income by $450 billion by 2035.

Memory Kachambwa, head of the African Women’s Development and Communication Network, an organization that promotes women’s development in the continent, talked of the questions that need to be addressed.

“When we talk of AfCFTA, we are looking at [a] Pan-African instrument and within the vision of it is to ensure that even the trade that we do is dignified,” Kachambwa said. “We talk a lot about women cross-border traders, but are they doing it in a dignified way? Are we really ensuring that they have the service, the harassment with the customs union? Are we having those conversations?”

Even within their own countries, female entrepreneurs in Africa often face funding barriers, gender bias, and a lack of training.

Mercy Chukwuma, who advocates and supports women farmers in Nigeria, said some cultural norms have prevented women from owning land, making them unable to produce food.

“Lack of training and retraining of rural women farmers to enable them to stand up in the competitive market. We talk about land as a factor. You will agree with me that women have limited access to land. We do not have access and control over the land, which is a major factor of production,” she said. “If we, who occupy over 70% of the agricultural workforce, do not have access and control over the land, how then do we produce and produce well?”

Women own 20% of Africa’s land but produce more than two-thirds of the continent’s food.

The pre-summit meeting concludes on Tuesday. Participants hope their leaders will address the challenges of doing business in Africa and ending unfriendly business practices along African borders.

Source: Voice of America