The federal government and some private firms have planned to build Ashama 200 megawatts (MW) solar power farm, which may be the largest in West Africa.
 
The Minister of Power, Mamman Sale who spoke in Lagos, said when it is completed, “it will serve as the biggest utility solar project not only in the country but the West African region.” Mamman, who was represented by his policy adviser, Abba Aliyu, said the project would be developed in partnership with Singapore-based renewable energy firm, B&S Power and SunnyFred Global. He said it would be located on about 304 hectares of land in Ashama village, Aniocha South of Delta State as part of the government’s Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative…
 
More details through:
https://dailytrust.com/fg-plans-200mw-solar-power-largest-in-w-africa

Ghana and Nigeria have made steady progress with the integration of payment systems as part of the implementation of an integrated payment system for West African states. Ghanaweb quoted Mr. Archie Hesse, Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems GhIPSS), as revealing that the technical level of integration had been completed, and currently what remains is to synchronise the settlement of currency exchanges during transactions. “We are transacting in cedis, Nigeria transacts in naira. What do we do? Are we going to have a daily exchange rate between the two countries’ currencies? This is a key factor [currency settlement] to be looked at,” he said.
 
The final integration of West African states’ payment systems will be implemented by the end of 2022. GhIPSS is expected to introduce a scheme to link the National Switching and Processing System—gh-Link- TM—with other West African countries…
 
More details through:
https://www.newtelegraphng.com/integration-nigeria-ghana-payment-system-progresses/
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The Federal Government has said its reforms in the automotive industry attracted investments worth over $1bn in 2019. The Director-General, National Automotive Design and Development Council, Mr Jelani Aliyu, made this known at the House of Representatives in Abuja on Wednesday.
 
The House had set up an ad hoc committee which is organising a two-day investigative hearing on the budgetary approvals and multilateral donations on skills acquisition and related programmes of the Federal Government and its agencies.
 
Aliyu said, “We have the core responsibility of developing the automotive sector. That is to encourage and promote the assembling and production of the vehicle in Nigeria, as opposed to continued importation of them from overseas and exporting jobs and revenues outside of Nigeria…
 
More details through:
https://punchng.com/automotive-industry-attracted-1bn-in-2019-says-fg/

A recent report published by We Are Social and Hootsuite has shown that Nigeria maintains high record of internet usage, but with very low download speeds. According to the report, the download speeds could be attributed to the capacity of devices used for downloads as well as the type of internet connectivity services provided by Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
 
According to the report, with a population of over 208 million people in Nigeria, the total number of internet users is 104.4 million, which is about 50 per cent of the population, yet the average download speed of mobile internet connections is as low as 18.4 megabytes per second (mbps) and the average download speed of fixed internet connections is also as low as 16.07 mbps…
 
More details through:
https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2021/02/25/report-nigeria-records-high-internet-usage-low-download-speed/

Hyundai Motors Nigeria has launched locally assembled petrol-powered Hyundai Kona and the all-new 2021 Hyundai Grand i10 Sedan into the Nigerian market.
 
The company had launched the Hyundai Kona Electric last year in Lagos and Abuja respectively. The new petrol-powered cars are to provide options to the Hyundai Kona Electric vehicle customers. The brand’s Head (Sales and Marketing), Gaurav Vashisht, said HMNL launched the petrol-powered option of Kona for its regular customers, according to a statement signed by the automobile’s Marketing & Media Lead, Olu Ibironke…
 
More details through:
https://punchng.com/hyundai-launches-petrol-electric-cars-in-nigeria/

Nigeria has imported 4.25 million used vehicles as local production slumped by 57.2 per cent from 350,000 units to 150,000 units within four year.
 
The used vehicles were shipped into the country between 2017 and 2018 when exchange rates was between 367 and 379.5 per dollar. Data obtained from International Trade Administration (ITA) revealed that 734,659 units of used vehicles were imported into the country in 2017, while in 2018, it ferried 1.22 million units; 2019, 1.3 million units and 2020, one million units.
 
Although, the imports was reduced by 23.1 per cent last year from 1.3 million units to one million units, the trade portal noted that total global vehicles importation into the country was $11.24 billion between 2018 and 2020, noting that the country received $2.24 billion worth of used vehicles in 2018, $5.63 billion in 2019 and 2020 $3.37 billion…
 
More details through:
https://www.newtelegraphng.com/used-vehicle-import-hits-4-25m-units/
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Metro fibre concentrations networks in Nigeria account for less than 25 per cent of the total fibre distances in the country, a report has revealed.
 
The networks are concentrated in major cities such as Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and within Edo and Ogun states while other locations remain unserved or underserved.
 
The report by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) reveals that access of fibre networks within 5 kilometers of the population currently stands at an average of approximately 39 per cent reach with a high of 85 per cent in Lagos State and a low of 12 per cent in Jigawa State…
 
More details through:
https://guardian.ng/business-services/metro-fibre-networks-account-for-25-of-sectors-infrastructure/
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The West Africa Container Terminal (WACT), Onne, has acquired 15 new Kone Rubber Tyred Gantry Cranes (RTGs) to enhance service delivery at its terminal in Onne Port, Rivers State. The first batch of six RTGs has arrived at WACT, Onne.  The Commercial Manager of WACT, Mr. Noah Sheriff, who confirmed this in a statement issued by the company on Monday, said the concessionaire had commenced training operators of the highly technical cranes, which are the first in Nigeria’s eastern ports.
 
“We expect to deploy this first set of RTGs into operations in May 2021. Awareness campaign with the trucking community is also ongoing,” he said.
 
Sheriff said the deployment of the six new cranes “is the start of WACT’s transformation from the use of Reach Stackers to RTGs in the terminal, which will immediately increase our current import yard capacity…
 
More details through:
https://www.sunnewsonline.com/wact-acquires-15-new-rubber-tyred-gantry-cranes/
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The Federal Government on Tuesday carried out the groundbreaking ceremony of the Gold Processing Cluster, located in Mopa, Mopamuro council area of Kogi State. The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Oluwatoyin Akinlade, who led the Federal Government team for the event, said the projects is part of the FG efforts to refocus the economy from oil depended.
 
Dr. Akinlade said the Gold Processing Cluster will also cater for other gem stones and solid mineral mining activities in the north central of the country. “The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development has commenced the implementation of programmes aimed at establishing and accelerating mineral value chain activities through the development of a mineral mining cluster in each of the six geopolitical zones…
 
More details through:
https://www.newtelegraphng.com/fg-flag-off-gold-processing-cluster-in-kogi/

Although Nigeria has bitumen reserves worth up to $1.5 trillion, the country spends over $770m (N300 billion) importing the product, Akinwunmi Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank Group, has said. 
 
Speaking virtually on the theme ‘Towards A New Nigeria: From Federal Fatherism To a Commonwealth,’ the AfDB boss said there is a need for an urgent review of the current federal system practised by the country if it hopes to grow out of her economic woes.
 
“Nigeria’s federalism does not grow its constituent entities. It simply makes them perpetually dependent,” said Mr Adesina, a former minister of Agriculture…
 
More details through:
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/444838-restructuring-nigeria-rich-in-bitumen-spends-n300bn-importing-it-adesina.html