‘Investors in power sector to get government enabling environment’

Godknows Igali, permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Power, on Monday said the Federal Government was working hard to improve the enabling environment for investors to invest in the power sector.

Igali said this in Abuja at the opening of a two-day conference on “Powering Africa: Nigeria.’’

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the conference was organised by the World Bank and the Ministry of Power with the theme: “Maintaining Momentum in Nigeria Power Sector.’’

“The president has restated that this government will do everything to make the enabling environment in the power sector better for our investors. Investors can have a confidence that their investments in the power sector are not only secured.

“But, we will ensure that there is sanctity of a stable and regulatory environment for you to do your investment. You can be sure that government on its part will continue to refine anything that needs to be refined for you to do your business.

“Potentially, the Nigerian power market is the biggest infrastructure in Africa and there is no other market that could be bigger than it,” he said.

Igali said that gas was a major hindrance to power supply in the past, saying that the government had started addressing it and this had started affecting the power supply positively.

In his remarks, Bart Nnaji, a former minister of power, said transmission was one of the major constraints of power supply in the country, saying this was because of the frequent vandalism and poor voltage profile.

He, however, said segmenting the grid and fast tracking the training of management of sub-stations and power lines could solve the problem of transmission.

“Also, provision of a complete state of the art Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and associated IT infrastructure should be considered,’’ he said.

Nnaji also advised the federal and state governments to devise a policy framework to ensure consistency for easy and cost effective acquisition of right of way.

Sam Amadi, chairman, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), said that collaborations were on to regulate gas supply price for operators.

He said one of the major problems of the commission was the issue of estimated billing suffered by Nigerians, and urged investors to intervene in metering, saying that it was very critical to reduce losses and give confidence to the consumers.

The NERC chairman said this was because many Nigerians were still grappling with the problem of estimated billings.

“One of the big problems we are facing is estimated billings and by the regulatory framework, before any customer is connected, there must be a meter.

“But, because of the legacy of the past where there were no investments in generation or distribution, there are about 40 or 50 percent of customers who do not have functional meters. That is a problem because in this market,’’ he said.

Culled from Business Day by Ike Onwubuya

Ethiopia's exchange plans more commodities with electronic trading

Ethiopia's commodity exchange plans to double the items it trades by next year after introducing an electronic platform to replace its system of shouting and gesturing orders, the firm's chief executive said. Launched in 2008, the exchange (ECX) trades seven commodities, including coffee and sesame, two of the Horn of Africa country's top exports, using an "open outcry" system. 

Ethiopia is Africa's biggest coffee producer with output of about 450,000 tonnes for both the 2013/14 and 2014/15 seasons. In an interview with Reuters, ECX's Chief Executive Ermias Eshetu said the launch of the electronic platform in July would allow a trading capacity of 5,000 times more than now. "The whole point of having this capacity is to have the bandwidth to be able to trade multiple commodities with no limits," Ermias said. 

"We are going to go after sugar, teff, chickpeas, and whatever the market needs. We will be hoping to double year to year the number of commodities we are trading," he said. The exchange has so far focused on the country's main cash crops. In a bid to boost storage facilities, ECX announced on Thursday that a new government enterprise would handle its warehouse operations, whose dearth was an obstacle to expansion. 

The exchange traded 590,000 tonnes of commodities in the 2014/2015 year that ended on June 30, according to company figures. It expects an annual growth of 15 percent each year for the next five years. ECX also plans to introduce futures and forward trading next year, Ermias told Reuters, in a country where farmers are often accused of hoarding supplies in anticipation of price rises. 

Ethiopia exported nearly 184,000 tonnes of coffee during the 2014/15 fiscal year, according to trade ministry officials, down from the 190,000 exported the previous period. Ethiopia prides itself on being the birthplace of coffee. The livelihoods of more 15 million people depend on its production, mostly in smallholder farms in the misty forested highlands in the country's west and southwest. 

Doing Business In Nigeria Still Very Hard – World Bank

Nigeria may be the largest economy in Africa but it is one of the hardest places to do business.

According to the World Bank Group, in its Doing Business report, Nigeria ranks 170th out of 189 countries on the ease of doing business list released by the lender.

However, there was an improvement of 2.9 percent on the 175 position the country occupied last year.

Also, Nigeria was ranked 129 on the ease of starting a business (138 last year), on dealing with construction permits it was ranked 171 as against 168 last year. On registering property it remained 185th as it was the previous year.

The country improved immensely on access to credit ranking as it moved from 125 in 2014 to 52nd position in the current ranking. However, it fell by one basis point on protecting minority investors ranking as it moved from the 61st position last year to the 62nd position this year. On paying taxes, Nigeria was ranked 179 as against 177 in 2014.

The report showed that Singapore was the best country in the world to do business, while Mauritius remained the best in Africa with a ranking of 28.

Haiti, Angola, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Congo DR, Chad South Sudan, Central African Republic, Libya and Eritrea were ranked the top 10 worst places to do business on the planet.

The annual World Bank Group Doing Business report analyses regulations that apply to an economy’s businesses during their life cycle, including start-up and operations, trading across borders, paying taxes, and resolving insolvency.

The aggregate ease of doing business rankings are based on the distance to frontier scores for 10 topics and covers 189 economies.