Nigeria has been ranked among top importers from China between 2007 and 2020.
 
According to statistics by CEIC Data, an ISI Emerging Markets Group Company, the average monthly imports from China stood at $628 million.
 
For instance, Nigeria total Imports from China recorded 1.441 USD billion in December 2020, compared with 1.712 USD billion in November of the same year.  The highest import figure was $ 1.712 billion in November 2020 and a record low of $7.073 million in June 2009…
 
More details through:
https://thenationonlineng.net/monthly-imports-from-china-totalled-628m/
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West Africa’s regional bloc said it has launched a 330 kilowatt interconnection line to supply electricity from Nigeria to Niger, Burkina Faso, Benin and Togo at a cost of $568 million.
 
Once the newly-launched project is completed, all 14 member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will be connected, which will jump start a regional electricity market, the group said in a statement.
 
Heads of states from Niger and Ghana attended an ECOWAS meeting in Niger on Thursday to launch the interconnection line, which will facilitate electricity trading in the region and extend power to Burkina Faso and Niger…
 
More details through:
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL8N2UZ80I
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There are indications that the Federal Government is set to attract local and foreign investors into the solid minerals sector of the economy. This, it was learnt, is in order to be able to increase the sector’s contributions to the country’s Gross Domestic Product ( GDP) from 0.1 per cent to five per cent by 2015.
 
This is as government, through the Ministry of Mines and and Steel Development, continue to shop for more investors in Africa and Europe, among others, in recent times…
 
More details through:
https://www.newtelegraphng.com/solid-minerals-fg-eyes-5-gdp-growth-by-2025/
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Despite the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the African continent’s developer ecosystem is on the rise, findings of a study conducted across 16 Sub-Saharan African countries have revealed.
 
Technology giant, Google, Monday launched the Africa Developer Ecosystem Report 2021, which is the outcome of a study conducted through fielded and analysed surveys of software developers, as well as interviews with local experts. Africa Developer Ecosystem Report 2021 is the second in a series of studies on the state of the continent’s internet economy…
 
More details through:
https://dailytrust.com/5000-nigerians-joined-pool-of-professional-developers-in-2021

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has approved the Leveraging Energy Access Finance Framework (LEAF) programme, under which the bank will commit up to $164 million to promote decentralised renewable energy in Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tunisia.
 
In a press release, AfDB said that under the $800 million LEAF programme, some 18 decentralised renewable energy projects are expected to be financed, providing access to six million people and businesses, resulting in 28.8 million tonnes CO2 eq. in greenhouse gas emission reductions over the lifetime of the systems.
 
The statement said that AfDB developed LEAF programme, in collaboration with the Green Climate Fund, which approved $170.9 million in concessional financing for it in July 2021, adding that the framework forms part of the bank’s broader off-grid strategy under the New Deal on Energy for Africa and complements existing initiatives, such as the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa…
 
More details through:
https://www.newtelegraphng.com/afdb-commits-164m-to-promote-renewable-energy-in-nigeria-others/

CDC Group, the U.K.’s development-finance arm, will provide a $100 million credit facility to First Bank of Nigeria Ltd. to help support women-owned businesses and small companies in Africa’s largest economy…
 
More details through:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-21/u-k-backs-nigerian-lender-with-100-million-financing-facility
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Despite Federal Government’s warning over distortion in National Sugar Master Plan (NSMP), importers have ordered 1.93 million tonnes of sugar valued at N527 billion ($925.05 million) for 2022.
 
The NSMP, which started in 2013, is a 10-year roadmap designed for the sector to enable the country attain self-sufficiency in sugar production, create jobs and generate electricity, among other objectives.
 
But nine years after, the programme has not achieved its primary objective as findings by New Telegraph revealed that local production stood at 75,000 metric tonne as at 2021 instead of 1.7 million tonnes envisaged under government’s Backward Integration Programme (BIP), leading to a deficit of 93.3 per cent or 1.62 million tonnes…
 
More details through:
https://www.newtelegraphng.com/importers-order-n527bn-sugar-over-dicey-masterplan/
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To avoid a near collapse of the Trans-Saharan gas pipeline project, Nigeria and other African countries have committed to reviving the project targeting gas supply to Europe.
 
Energy Ministers of Nigeria, Niger and Algeria signed the ‘Declaration of Niamey’ during the third edition of the Economic Communities of West African States (ECOWAS) Mining and Petroleum Forum (ECOMOF) in Niamey on February 16, 2022. The pipeline will enable Europe to tap directly into the three country’s significant natural gas reserves.
 
Endorsed by Chief Timipre Sylva, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mahamane Sani Mahamadou, Minister of Petroleum, Energy and Renewable Energies for the Republic of Niger and Mohamed Arkab, Minister of Energy and Mines, Algeria, the agreement will see the resumption of the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline project…
 
More details through:
https://www.sunnewsonline.com/nigeria-others-restart-13bn-trans-saharan-gas-pipeline-project/
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The federal government has signed a €9.3 million (about N4.39 billion) agreement with eight local firms to deliver 23 mini-grid solar power projects across 11 states.
 
The projects are expected to generate a 5.4-kilowatt peak electricity to connect about 27,600 households, and impact over 138,000 Nigerians in two years. The project is coordinated by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) with support from the European Union (EU) and the German government through the Nigerian Energy Support Programme (NESP).
 
Speaking at the signing of the Interconnected Mini-grid Acceleration Scheme (IMAS) award grant agreement at the REA office in Abuja yesterday, the Minister of State, Power, Goddy Jedy-Agba, commended the management of REA for their effort and actions towards ensuring power reached the off-grid communities…
 
More details through:
https://dailytrust.com/fg-signs-n4bn-pact-with-8-firms-for-23-solar-projects
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For the first time in six years, activity in Nigeria’s wholesale and retail trade sector grew in 2021, according to data by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
 
According to the GDP report released Thursday by the NBS, the trade sector grew 8.62 percent. Before now, it had contracted by 8.49 percent, 0.38 percent, 0.63 percent, 1.05 percent, and 0.24 percent in 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016, respectively...
 
More details through:
https://businessday.ng/big-read/article/trade-sector-records-positive-growth-first-time-in-6yrs/