The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Europe

  • Nigeria sells $Ibn bonds – Okonjo- Iweala

    Nigeria sells $Ibn bonds – Okonjo- Iweala

    The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said on Wednesday that Nigeria returned to the capital market after two years of absence and sold $1 billion dollar bond with ease.

    Okonjo-Iweala said this in Abuja while briefing journalists on the recently concluded road show in Europe and United States to float the billion dollar bond to international investors.

    She said the bonds, which were four times oversubscribed, were improvements on investors’ response to the $500 million bonds floated in 2011.

    “The reason we are excited is because as you know, these are turbulent times, especially following expectations of tapering of Qualitative Easing by the U.S Federal Reserve Bank.

    “So, the fact that Nigeria could go to the bond market, after waiting a while and we got four times our subscription, shows confidence in the strength of the Nigerian economy,’’ the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the minister as saying at the briefing.

    Okonjo- Iweala said the transaction attracted top investors primarily from US, Europe and Asia.

    “ The demand was such that we couldn’t meet all of them. Over 200 investors could not get any share of the bonds because we were oversubscribed,’’ she added.

    The minister said the $1 billion bond was offered in two categories at the international capital market.

    She said that $500 million was offered as a five-year bond at 5.125 per cent interest rate, while the other $500 million was offered as a 10-year bond at 6.375 per cent interest rate.

    She added that the two-category offer gave Nigeria the opportunity to achieve an overall cheaper cost of borrowing.

     

  • FG targets $1.3b from cassava chips export to China, Europe

    Nigeria is to rake in about $1.37 billion before 2015 through existing contractual agreements with China and European nations on export of dried cassava chips.

    The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. AkinwumiAdesina, gave the assurance at the 2013 Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) Mid-Term review at the weekend in Abuja.

    He said the Federal Government had already secured a contract to export 3.2 million metric tons of the produce to China.

    According to him: “Export opportunities exist for dried cassava chips as the world’s leading cassava producer. Nigeria is well positioned to benefit from this export market.

    “Based on existing contracts, Nigeria can earn between $802 million and $1.37 billion from dried chips exports to China and Europe.”

    He placed global market for cassava chips export between $1.5 and 2 billion dollars, adding that China remains world’s largest buyer of the produce used for ethanol production.

    Speaking on the value chains which include rice, cassava, livestock, cocoa, oil palm, cotton, among others, rice production, he said, have received significant boost in last one year.

    He said within one year, the nation was able to produce about 690, 000 metric tons of rice and milled 1.1 million metric tons of the produce during its first dry season farming in 10 northern states.

    According to him, the dry season rice plantation supported 268, 000 farmers on 264, 000 hectares in Bauchi, Gombe, Jigagwa, Kano, Katsina and Kogi states.

    Others are Niger, Sokoto, Zamfara and Kebbi.

    To avoid post production losses of citrus, pineapple and tomato crops, Adesina disclosed that Teragro has invested about N1 billion in processing fruit concentrates in the country.

    He lamented that concentrates of citrus fruit juice produced internally were mostly imported while water remains the only local ingredient.

  • All set for Davido’s tour of Europe

    All set for Davido’s tour of Europe

    COMING on the heels of the May 31st release of the video to his new African-themed single, One of a Kind, award-winning music sensation, Davido, has announced a headlining tour of Europe.

    According to information, the tour kicks off June 8 at Vienna Austria at the Opera Club. June 14, the artiste goes to Antwerp, Belgium where he will be performing at Noxx Club Straatsburgdork. The tour also takes him to Amsterdam, Turin, Malaga, Parma, Paris, France and Prague, where he will be wrapping up his performances June 30. The tour is presented by Big Jamz World Entertainment.

  • Nigerian jailed for trafficking teenagers across Europe

    Nigerian jailed for trafficking teenagers across Europe

    A man has been jailed for 14 years for his role in the”horrific” ordeal of two teenage girls being trafficked via London to work as prostitutes in mainland Europe.

    A court heard Odosa Usiobaifo, 35, from Enfield, north London, was involved in a “significant” organised crime gang trafficking young women for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

    Usiobaifo was arrested after two Nigerian girls missing from local authority care in London were given false passports and tickets and placed on a flight to Spain.

    The 35-year-old, who had collected the girls from a pre-arranged meeting point before they were given the false documents and put on the flight, was found guilty of conspiring to traffick for the purposes of sexual exploitation following a four-week trial at Isleworth Crown Court.

    He had pleaded guilty to conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration earlier in the trial.

    The court heard the girls, aged 14 and 15 at the time, had previously been stopped by Border Force officers at Heathrow Airport separately on September 17 and November 23, 2011.

    Both were using false passports which indicated they were adults.

    They had arrived on flights from Lagos, Nigeria, and were attempting to travel on to Paris, the trial heard.

    During interviews with the Serious Organised Crime Agency’s Vulnerable Persons Team it became clear that the pair were being trafficked to mainland Europe, via London, for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

    They were placed in local authority care but on April 6, 2012 were reported missing to Sussex Police by their respective foster carers.

    Investigations revealed that contact had been made with the girls and Usiobaifo had collected them from a pre-arranged meeting point before they were given false passports and tickets and placed on a flight to Spain.

    One of the girls was refused entry to Spain and returned to the United Kingdom, where she remains in the care of the UK authorities. The other passed through Spanish border controls and is still missing.

    Usiobaifo was arrested at his flat in Enfield on September 3, 2012 alongside his partner Katie Igha, 25.

    Last Thursday a jury found Usiobaifo guilty of all charges but acquitted Igha of trafficking. They failed to reach a verdict on a charge of conspiring to facilitate against Igha.

     

  • 65 Nigerians deported from Europe

    About Sixty-five Nigerians were on Friday deported from Europe, an official of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN)  has disclosed.

    The FAAN official who declined  to be named disclosed that the Nigerians were brought home aboard a chartered flight which landed at  Murtala Muhammed International Airport Cargo section in Lagos.
    He explained that   they  were deported from Spain, Bulgaria, Romania and the United Kingdom.
    It was learnt that they were brought back home for immigration and related offences.
    The source said that the deportees  arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos  about 7:40 a.m. They were 48 males, 12 females and five children.
    Some of the deportees were  alleged to to possess   invalid travel  documents  while eight  including three females were deported for alleged criminal offences.
    The eight persons were reportedly  immediately arrested on arrival by policemen and taken to the Criminal Investigation Department, Nigeria Police  Ikoyi, Lagos, in a Toyota pick-up with registration number “Ontario AZKC-549”.
  • Europe foreign ministers want equal representation in UN Council

    Europe foreign ministers want equal representation in UN Council

    European Foreign Ministers on Friday called for greater representation of countries in the United Nations Security Council.

    German Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, Netherland Foreign Minister, Uri Rosenthal, and Malta Deputy Prime Minister, Tonio Borg, made the call at the ongoing debate of the 67 General Assembly of the UN.

    They urged the Security Council to adapt to a dynamic and changing world.

    “We will weaken the Security Council if we fail to adapt it to today’s world. It cannot be that Latin America and Africa have no permanent seats in the Security Council or that dynamic Asia has only one seat.

    “That does not reflect the realities of today’s world, and more especially, it does not reflect the realities of tomorrow’s world. The challenges are too great for us to simply accept the status quo,” Westerwelle said.

    On the crisis in Syria, the German Foreign Minister said that the Security Council had failed to live up to its responsibility to protect the people in that country and called on the Council to break its diplomatic deadlock.

    The News Agency of Nigeria says he warned that the escalating violence in the Middle Eastern country risked engulfing the entire region.

    “As we Germans have experienced what it is to lack freedom in the course of our own history, we will always stand by those who, wherever they are in the world, call for freedom.

    “Our values and our interests compel us to take the side of those around the world who are fighting peacefully for freedom, dignity, and self-determination,” he said.