Search Results for: Nigeria

BY MONIKA HANLEY, IN RIGA; ALICE TRUDELLE, IN WARSAW; CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG; ROBERT STOKES, IN MALAGA; GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI; LEE ADENDOORF, IN LUCCA; ALAN OSBORN; MJ DESCHAMPS; AND KEITH NUTHALL

Such small plants have clear commercial applications and it could be – going forward – that market-based innovation, rather than government support, that will succour the sector in much of Europe during the ongoing financial and economic crisis.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY, IN RIGA; ALICE TRUDELLE, IN WARSAW; CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG; ROBERT STOKES, IN MALAGA; GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI; LEE ADENDOORF, IN LUCCA; ALAN OSBORN; MJ DESCHAMPS; AND KEITH NUTHALL

IT is a curious irony that for an industry as technical as cogeneration that maybe the biggest handicap to its sustained growth in Europe is actually emotional.…

BY GEORGE STONE, IN CAPE TOWN

It is part of the accountancy profession’s faith that good honest financial reporting and dealings can promote economic growth because of the commercial trust that it engenders. And maybe nowhere can the case be made more strongly than in Africa.…

BY VILLEN ANGANAN, IN BEAU-BASSIN, MAURITIUS

INTERNATIONAL accounting firms are exploring opportunities within Africa, and are using the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius – a regional financial centre – as a stepping stone. All the Big Four: Ernst &Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), KPMG and Deloitte are already successfully offering their services to African clients.…

BY GEORGE STONE, IN CAPE TOWN

SUSTAINABLE growth in Africa outside South Africa faces the challenges of strong population growth, commodity price volatility, climate change and food insecurity. The continent’s current population of 1 billion people is forecast to almost double by 2050.…

DESPITE the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last May, Al Qaeda and its affiliated groups remain a global money laundering and terrorist financing concern. Yet a decade on from the September 11 attacks, counterterrorism specialists say there has been too much focus on Al Qaeda itself (it means The Base in Arabic) but not enough on associated and other militant groups that pose significant threats.…

BY WANG FANGQING IN SHANGHAI

A RECENT Chinese-African cotton agreement could usher in a new era for the African cotton industry but not in the short-term, say industry experts.

Under the agreement, signed in December with four key cotton-producing African countries – Benin, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso (known as the C4) – China stated it would provide machinery, expertise and materials in a bid to increase and improve the quality of local production.…

BY GEORGE STONE

MOZAMBIQUE expects to start exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2018 after major gas finds by Milan-based Eni and American firm Anadarko Petroleum in the waters of the Rovuma basin in the north of the country. The finds mean Mozambique is on course to be a leading LNG supplier to Asia, particularly Japan and rival the region’s leading gas exporters Nigeria and Angola.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A WORLD Bank report has called for the deepening of political reforms in Nigeria to generate more general wealth from its oil reserves. Highlighting how a despotic government acting as an oil firm landlord had concentrated revenues, it said democracy and proposed "reforms for the petroleum sector hold much promise".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UNITED Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is claiming restoring Nigeria’s Ogoniland oil region to ecological health could be the world’s most wide-ranging and long-term oil clean-up. A Shell-funded UNEP assessment says cleansing contaminated drinking water, land, creeks and other ecosystems could take 25 to 30 years, costing USD1 billion for the first five years.…