Content about Nigeria

Michel Maalouf, managing director of Astera Engineering, talks to Jayne Alverca about the company’s exponential success within Africa’s fastest growing telecoms market.

The growth potential of Sub-Saharan Africa may be enormous, but unlocking it requires a sound grasp of a very different set of business drivers and challenges. Johan Van Zyl, manufacturing director of Kraft Foods Sub-Saharan Africa, talks to Jane Alverca.

Swiss food giant Nestlé has opened a new state-of-the-art factory in Nigeria’s Ogun state.

The NGN12 billion (approx. €57 million) Flowergate factory will be primarily dedicated to the production of the company’s Maggi branded range.

The 12 hectare facility—Nestlé’s 27th in Africa—will offer jobs to 180 people and indirect jobs to hundreds more.

Steve Timms, managing director of HGS Ghana Ltd, talks to Jayne Alverca about what it means to protect and enhance mining and industrial assets.

The Nigerian unit of Africa-focused oil and gas company Afren has agreed to buy a stake in oil fields in Nigeria from Royal Dutch Shell, Total and Eni.

First Hydrocarbon Nigeria (FHN), in which Afren has a 45 per cent stake, has agreed to buy a 45 per cent stake in OML 26 in the Delta State for $187.5 million (approximately €135 million). The price includes the cost of the acquisition and FHN's share of planned development.

The remaining 55 per cent stake will be held by the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

Africa-focused oil company Afren has announced strong interim results on the back of higher oil prices, and looks set to double production this year.

The London-based company recorded pre-tax profits for the six months to 30 June of $75.4 million (approximately €59.2 million).

Nigeria's state-run oil firm NNPC has said that three new refineries will be on-stream by 2014, following a deal signed with China State Construction Engineering Corp (CSCEC).

The three refineries will have a combined capacity of 885,000 barrels per day and will cost $25 billion. This will triple Nigeria’s refining capacity to 1.3 million barrels per day and bring it closer to its aim of eliminating its dependence on fuel imports within the next 10 years.

The climate of reform
Although the news is often filled with images of violence in Nigeria, global tobacco giant British American Tobacco has found it an excellent place to do business. Alistair Hide talks to Gay Sutton about building a strong and socially responsible tobacco company.
Blessed with considerable oil resources and a government determined to attract direct foreign investment and stimulate diversification, the republic of Nigeria is one of the world’s fastest growing economies and a country of stunning contrasts. The increasing ethnic and religious violence often hits the international headlines; yet the country’s track record over the past 10 years has been such that in 2005 the investment bank Goldman Sachs ranked it as one of the ‘Next Eleven’ economies—all of whom have the potential to become one of the world’s largest economies in the 21st century.

Rising to the challenge
As a continent lacking in much of the basic infrastructure essential for business, Africa could be seen as too challenging for some. But for those companies in the infrastructure sector, the market is wide open, as Likusasa has discovered. Becky Done reports.
Headquartered in Mauritius but with offices in Johannesburg and the other African countries where it is active, Likusasa’s primary focus is on the rolling out of distributed infrastructure including distributed power and mobile telecommunications networks in sub-Saharan Africa.
 

Harbour masters
Maritime transport is a vital part of the logistics chain in West Africa and Sifax Group of Lagos, Nigeria, is positioning itself to play a part in the oil and gas driven boom that is taking place there. John O’Hanlon spoke to deputy managing director Captain Luc Deruyver.
Congestion is an on-off fact of life in the busy ports of West Africa. In general, conditions had improved over the first half of 2009 but at the time of writing, 52 ships were reported to be waiting to enter the port of Lagos. This is Nigeria’s busiest port, indeed one of the largest in the African continent, and like most large ports it comprises a large number of wharves and terminals. The container terminal is at Apapa, to the west of the network of creeks that cross the city, and this is where Sifax Group has had its headquarters since 1988. The company has also had a storage yard at Tin Can Island since 2002 and a port concession since 2006.