the Retail community of West Africa

Senegal: Youth who refuse to farm

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:41:00 +0200

ZIGUINCHOR: Landmines and armed attacks in Senegal's Casamance region are preventing farmers from maximising production from the region's fertile soil, but there is another problem, too: not enough young people are taking up farming, residents and experts say.
Read full story... | Send to a friend

Nigerian bank reform

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:14:00 +0200

Nigeria's banking sector has been ordered to start reporting on suspicious cash transactions from people involved in politics. The new regulation requires banks to check the identity of anyone making a transaction above 250,000 naira (around US$1,600).
Read full story... | Send to a friend

Guinea-Bissau: Beyond cashews and rice

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:55:00 +0200

SAN DOMINGOS: Aid agencies are encouraging communities to diversify their agricultural production in Guinea-Bissau, where 90% of farmers grow rice or cashews to survive, making them vulnerable to erratic rainfall and price fluctuations.
Read full story... | Send to a friend

Nigeria urged to bargain harder over China oil deals

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:55:00 +0200

Nigeria is being urged to take a tougher stance in negotiating oil contracts with China, including an insistence that technology and skills transfers become part of the deals.
Read full story... | Send to a friend

Nigeria: Government steps in to curb farmer-nomad clashes

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:10:00 +0200

KANO: The national government has started marking out grazing reserves across Katsina and Bauchi states in northern Nigeria, as well as the capital Abuja, to curb often deadly clashes between farmers and nomads over pasture.
Read full story... | Send to a friend

Nigeria to use oil cash

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:00:00 +0200

Nigeria is planning to spend up to two billion US dollars from its oil cash reserves to boost its economy in response to the global downturn, the country's junior finance minister Remi Babalola announced this week. The National Economic Council has already approved the economic stimulus package, Babalola said.
Read full story... | Send to a friend

Nigeria bails out banks

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 06:58:00 +0200

The Nigerian government is considering a temporary nationalisation of some underperforming banks, according to the country's finance minister Mansur Muhtar. He talked about the possibility during a press conference in Istanbul, but emphasised that long-term nationalisation is not in the government's plans.
Read full story... | Send to a friend

West Africa to benefit from youth program

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:00:00 +0200

WASHINGTON: The World Cocoa Foundation, late last week, announced a public-private partnership for rural education with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Africa Education Initiative and its members as well as The Jacobs Foundation and the Norwegian Association of Chocolate Manufacturers.
Read full story... | Send to a friend

Nigeria: oil talks with China

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:01:00 +0200

A Chinese state-owned oil company is negotiating drilling rights for several onshore oil blocks in Nigeria, the Financial Times reports yesterday, 29 September 2009. China's CNOOC is said to be attempting to buy six billion barrels of oil, equivalent to one sixth of Nigeria's proven reserves.
Read full story... | Send to a friend

Launch of fourth annual Makhulu Polane design competition

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:33:00 +0200

The annual Makhulu Polane t-shirt design competition is open for entries from Thursday, 16 July 2009. This local initiative was started by Big Blue in 2006 in a quest to discover and support fresh home-grown talent.
Read full story... | Send to a friend