Economy
Cote d’Ivoire Joins African Trade Insurance Agency
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) announced today that Côte d’Ivoire has joined a growing list of African countries who are members of the institution.
ATI is a multilateral investment insurer whose specialised investment and commercial risk insurance products are expected to help attract up to USD2 billion worth of inward investments and trade into the country, and to potentially help lower its sovereign borrowing costs by up to 1% annually.
The pan-African institution now insures investments equal to approximately 0.6 to 1.4 percent of GDP annually in a majority of its member states and includes support of strategic deals such as cover on African Development Bank’s USD159 million loan to fund Ethiopian Airline’s fleet expansion. Côte d’Ivoire’s membership in ATI is seen as an integral part of the government’s strategy to attract more investments and to diversify the economy through increased trade and investment opportunities.
“Our country membership in ATI will contribute to creating the economic conditions that will enable us to reach emerging country status by 2020,” commented Mr Adama Kone, Minister of Economic and Finance of Côte d’Ivoire.
Côte d’Ivoire becomes the third country to join ATI in the last six months following Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, which became members in late 2016. Rapid membership growth, particularly in significant African economies, is core to ATI’s medium-term plan to broaden its reach and impact and to better distribute risk across more countries in Africa.
ATI’s membership push is supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB), which to date has provided a combined USD30 million in soft loans for the membership subscription of Ethiopia, Côte d’Ivoire and Zimbabwe as well as an increase in the capital subscription of Benin. Reflecting its catalytic role in African economies, ATI expects to leverage Côte d’Ivoire’s initial share capital investment by up to 60 times in terms of supported investments into the country on an annual basis, as ATI does in other member states..
In the next two years, ATI will continue to target other ECOWAS and large African economies for membership.
Increased membership by these countries elevates ATI’s impact in Africa’s economic development, where the company increasingly participates in priority projects targeting sectors such as energy, water, road and rail construction and rehabilitation, building construction, agriculture and telecommunications.
ATI provides medium to long term credit risk mitigation products to support investors, banks, businesses, governments and government agencies in Africa.
For banks for instance, ATI offers protection against non-payment risks that allow lenders to expand their loan portfolios. For governments, ATI’s products can be used as a substitute for guarantees, which helps sovereigns to lower their debt ceiling.
“ATI’s entry into the Ivorian market is a real leverage for us to attract more foreign investments and to boost trade both regionally and internationally,” notes Mr. Guy M’Bengue, CEO of Côte d’Ivoire’s Export Promotion Agency (APEX-CI) and a Board member of the Private Sector Employer’s Association (CGECI).
“Our focus this year and beyond continues to be membership growth, particularly in West Africa. We see this region as an important part of our pan African mandate and Côte d’Ivoire is poised to be an important West African market for ATI’s products.
“In partnership with other international players, ATI is now in a position to support strategic projects in West African member states in order to benefit the region,” notes George Otieno, ATI’s Chief Executive Officer.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has once again trimmed its 2024 and 2025 oil demand growth forecasts.
The bloc made this in its latest monthly oil market report for December 2024.
The 2024 world oil demand growth forecast is now put at 1.61 million barrels per day from the previous 1.82 million barrels per day.
For 2025, OPEC says the world oil demand growth forecast is now at 1.45 million barrels per day, which is 900,000 barrels per day lower than the 1.54 million barrels per day earlier quoted.
On the changes, the group said that the downgrade for this year owes to more bearish data received in the third quarter of 2024 while the projections for next year relate to the potential impact that will arise from US tariffs.
The oil cartel had kept the 2024 outlook unchanged until August, a view it had first taken in July 2023.
OPEC and its wider group of allies known as OPEC+ earlier this month delayed its plan to start raising output until April 2025 against a backdrop of falling prices.
Eight OPEC+ member countries – Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman – decided to extend additional crude oil production cuts adopted in April 2023 and November 2023, due to weak demand and booming production outside the group.
In April 2023, these OPEC+ countries decided to reduce their oil production by over 1.65 million barrels per day as of May 2023 until the end of 2023. These production cuts were later extended to the end of 2024 and will now be extended until the end of December 2026.
In addition, in November 2023, these producers had agreed to voluntary output cuts totalling about 2.2 million barrels per day for the first quarter of 2024, in order to support prices and stabilise the market.
These additional production cuts were extended to the end of 2024 and will now be extended to the end of March 2025; they will then be gradually phased out on a monthly basis until the end of September 2026.
Members have made a series of deep output cuts since late 2022.
They are currently cutting output by a total of 5.86 million barrels per day, or about 5.7 per cent of global demand. Russia also announced plans to reduce its production by an extra 471,000 barrels per day in June 2024.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
A minority equity stake in Chappal Energies Mauritius Limited has been acquired by a Nigerian energy firm, Aradel Holdings Plc.
This deal came a few days after Chappal Energies purchased a 53.85 per cent equity stake in Equinor Nigeria Energy Company Limited (ENEC).
Chappal Energies went into the deal with Equinor to take part in the oil and gas lease OML 128, including the unitised 20.21 per cent stake in the Agbami oil field, operated by Chevron.
Since production started in 2008, the Agbami field has produced more than one billion barrels of oil, creating value for Nigerian society and various stakeholders.
As part of the deal, Chappal will assume the operatorship of OML 129, which includes several significant prospects and undeveloped discoveries (Nnwa, Bilah and Sehki).
The Nnwa discovery is part of the giant Nnwa-Doro field, a major gas resource with significant potential to deliver value for Nigeria.
In a separate transaction, on July 17, 2024, Chappal and Total Energies sealed an SPA for the acquisition by Chappal of 10 per cent of the SPDC JV.
The relevant parties to this transaction are working towards closing out this transaction and Ministerial Approval and NNPC consent to accede to the Joint Operating Agreement have been obtained.
“This acquisition is in line with diversifying our asset base, deepening our gas competencies and gaining access to offshore basins using low-risk approaches.
“We recognise the strategic role of gas in Nigeria’s energy future and are happy to expand our equity holding in this critical resource.
“We are committed to the cause of developing the significant value inherent in the assets, which will be extremely beneficial to the country.
“Aradel hopes to bring its proven execution competencies to bear in supporting Chappal’s development of these opportunities,” the chief executive of Aradel Holdings, Mr Adegbite Falade, stated.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Afriland Properties Plc helped the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange record a 0.04 per cent gain on Tuesday, December 10 as the share price of the property investment rose by 34 Kobo to N16.94 per unit from the preceding day’s N16.60 per unit.
As a result of this, the market capitalisation of the bourse went up by N380 million to remain relatively unchanged at N1.056 trillion like the previous trading day.
But the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) closed higher at 3,014.36 points after it recorded an addition of 1.09 points to Monday’s closing value of 3,013.27 points.
The NASD OTC securities exchange recorded a price loser and it was Geo-Fluids Plc, which went down by 2 Kobo to close at N3.93 per share, in contrast to the preceding day’s N3.95 per share.
During the trading session, the volume of securities bought and sold by investors increased by 95.8 per cent to 2.4 million units from the 1.2 million securities traded in the preceding session.
However, the value of shares traded yesterday slumped by 3.7 per cent to N4.9 million from the N5.07 million recorded a day earlier, as the number of deals surged by 27.3 per cent to 14 deals from 11 deals.
Geo-Fluids Plc remained the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 1.7 billion units sold for N3.9 billion, trailed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.5 million units worth N5.3 million.
Also, Aradel Holdings Plc remained the most active stock by value (year-to-date) with 108.7 million units worth N89.2 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.5 million units sold for N5.3 billion.
-
Feature/OPED5 years agoDavos was Different this year
-
Travel/Tourism8 years ago
Lagos Seals Western Lodge Hotel In Ikorodu
-
Showbiz2 years agoEstranged Lover Releases Videos of Empress Njamah Bathing
-
Banking6 years agoSort Codes of GTBank Branches in Nigeria
-
Economy2 years agoSubsidy Removal: CNG at N130 Per Litre Cheaper Than Petrol—IPMAN
-
Banking2 years agoFirst Bank Announces Planned Downtime
-
Sports2 years agoHighest Paid Nigerian Footballer – How Much Do Nigerian Footballers Earn
-
Technology4 years agoHow To Link Your MTN, Airtel, Glo, 9mobile Lines to NIN