Despite the coronavirus pandemic breaking out in China and the subsequent reduction in movement of goods to and from the Asian country, Nigeria still imported more goods from China than any other country in the world, data from the National Bureau of Statistics have indicated.
 
In its third quarter 2020 foreign trade in goods statistics, the NBS reported that goods worth N1.6tn were imported from China, representing 30.51 per cent of total import.
 
The third quarter statistics, (N1.6tn in imports) show that at the height of the pandemic, Nigeria imported more goods from China than it did in preceding months…
 
More details through:
https://www.newtelegraphng.com/china-still-nigerias-most-preferred-import-destination-despite-covid-19/
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The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr Olamilekan Adegbite, announced on Sunday that the Federal Government had embarked on initiatives to use coal to generate power. Adegbite, who made the announcement at a forum of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, said that coal to power plants were being built to generate power by some companies in parts of the country.
 
The minister described coal as the cheapest source of power generation in Nigeria. He said that coal had huge potential but regretted that the world was moving away from fossil fuel, a development that made Nigeria not to get needed support from foreign donors to exploit coal…
 
More details through:
https://www.sunnewsonline.com/fg-encouraging-coal-to-power-initiatives-minister/

The Federal Government has packaged the mineral, known as Barite, found in Nigeria to meet international standards to attract revenue for the nation.
 
The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr Olamilekan Adegbite, made the announcement in Abuja on Sunday at a forum of the News Agency of Nigeria of Nigeria (NAN). Barite is a mineral used mainly in the petroleum industry in the formulation of drilling mud. It is found largely in Cross River in Nigeria’s resource-rich Niger Delta belt. The mineral is also found in in the U.S., China, India and Morocco…
 
More details through:
https://www.sunnewsonline.com/fg-packages-barite-for-global-market-says-minister/

The French Development Agency and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria have put together an $81m funding scheme for the development of renewable energy and the energy efficiency sector in Nigeria.
 
Both organisations are supporting renewable energy development in Nigeria through the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Energy Finance programme.
 
SUNREF is a green financing line for businesses developed by the French agency and MAN, as both organisations just hosted an investor’s conference to attract investment into Nigeria’s renewable energy and energy efficiency sector…
 
More details through:
https://punchng.com/french-agency-man-provide-81m-for-renewable-energy/
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A Chinese firm, Chinese Green Industry Company on Saturday indicated its interest to invest $50 million in Nigeria’s agricultural sector.
 
The investment which will come in the form of partnership with a Nasarawa State based farmers’ group, Nigerian Farmers Group and Cooperative (NFGCC), will start before the start of the 2021 farming season. A consultant and representative of the company, Li Jian said this in Keffi, Nasarawa State during her visit to NFGCS Managing Director, Mr Reston Tedheke, who also doubles as the National Coordinator of the group
 
She outlined key areas of its interest to include: warehousing, dairy, machinery upgrade, improved seedlings, animal feeds, and the value chains…
 
More details through:
https://dailytrust.com/chinese-firm-to-invest-50m-in-narasawa-farm
 

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/