LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria’s debt office said on Thursday it raised 2.07 billion naira ($6.6 million) from a new two-year savings bond intended for retail investors.

Nigeria forecasts a budget deficit of 2.36 trillion naira in 2017, half of which it aims to fund through domestic borrowing.

The Debt Management Office (DMO) has said it offered the bond to help broaden the country’s funding base. It will be available for purchase on a monthly basis and have a maximum subscription of 50 million naira. It carries a coupon of 13.01 percent.

The March auction attracted subscription from over 2,500 applicants during the five-day sale period, the DMO said, adding that the next sale will be on April 3.

The government plans to increase public spending by almost 20 percent this year and has obtained parliament’s approval for a $500 million Eurobond, after raising $1 billion from international debt market last month.

Outstanding total debt rose to 17.4 trillion naira last year from 12.6 trillion naira in 2015 and is set to increase further, as Africa’s biggest economy grapples with its first recession in a quarter of century, caused by low oil prices.

($1 = 314.50 naira)

(Repoorting by Chijioke Ohuocha, editing by Larry King)

Read more

RABAT (Reuters) – Morocco’s state grains agency ONICL launched a tender on Thursday to buy 132,000 tonnes of soft wheat in the local market, it said in a statement.

ONICL will open the bidding on April 3. The soft wheat, which can be either imported or from the local harvest, will be used to make subsidised flour, ONICL said.

(Reporting by Samia Errazzouki; editing by David Clarke)

Read more

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African private education group Advtech reported a 24 percent increase in full-year profit, buoyed by strong performance from its businesses and expects growth to continue, it said on Wednesday.

* Advtech said basic normalised earnings per share increasedto 66.7 cents in the full-year to end December 2016 from 53.9cents in 2015. * The company, which runs 78 schools and 27 tertiarycampuses, said group revenue increased by 24 percent to 3.4billion rand ($267 million). * “In our core markets we expect growth to continue despitethe fact that competition has increased and difficult economicconditions remain,” the company said in a statement. * Revenue from the school division was up 15 percent, whilerevenue from the tertiary division grew by 28 percent to 1.3billion rand. * The group declared a final gross dividend of 19 cents from17 cents. * Advtech has been growing at a lightning-fast rate asparents frustrated with under-resourced, over-crowded state runschools splash out on private education. * In the year, it increased its presence in the Western Capewith the Glenwood House School acquisition and Elkanah House andgrew its tertiary education by buying a majority stake inUniversity of Africa in Zambia. * “The group remains focused on delivering on its strategy.We intend to generate 30 percent of revenue from the rest ofAfrica by 2020,” said Chief Executive Roy Douglas. ($1 =12.7200 rand)

(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath)

Read more

LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria has floated the naira “within a range” against the dollar, central bank governor Godwin Emefiele said on Tuesday.

The naira, held around 305 per dollar for almost a year, was recently effectively devalued for certain categories of the population, though the central bank continues to tightly manage the rate.

He didn’t say what the range was but said the exchange rate was looking “better than expected”.

“We have seen the rates converging and we are strongly very optimistic that rate will converge further,” he said referring to the gap between the naira’s official and black market rate.

The central bank earlier kept interest rates steady at 14 percent.

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing; writing by Sujata Rao)

Read more

ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigeria’s monetary and fiscal authorities must cooperate on their policies to help Africa’s largest economy to develop, the central bank governor said, according to his spokesman.

Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele made the comments at a two-day retreat for members of the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee and the ministers for finance, budget and investment. The closed-door meeting, which takes place about three times a year, ended on Saturday.

OPEC member Nigeria is in its first recession in 25 years, largely brought on by low oil prices. Crude oil sales account for about two-thirds of government revenue.

The central bank has faced criticism from investors for keeping Nigeria’s currency, the naira, at a rate some 30 percent above the black market, where entrepreneurs are forced to go for foreign exchange with the dollar scarce on official channels.

“Godwin Emefiele reiterated the need for the country’s monetary and fiscal authorities to collaborate and harmonize standpoints so as to develop the economy rapidly,” central bank spokesman Olalekan Ajayi said in an emailed statement on Sunday.

The finance ministry has previously said adjustments were needed to narrow the spread between exchanges rates on the official and black market. The central bank devalued the rate for retail customers in February after Nigeria’s top economic advisor body called for an urgent review.

The bank’s Monetary Policy Committee is due to meet on Monday and Tuesday to set interest rates. Twelve out of 13 economists polled by Reuters predicted that the bank would leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 14 percent on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Camillus Eboh and Alexis Akwagyiram, in Lagos, editing by Larry King)

Read more

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla said on Sunday his country had received two cargoes of diesel fuel from Saudi Arabian state-owned oil company Aramco on Friday and Saturday.

Molla was speaking at an energy conference in Cairo.

Saudi Arabia agreed in April last year to provide Egypt with 700,000 tonnes of refined oil products a month for five years, but the cargoes stopped arriving in early October.

Though officials from both sides have denied the existence of tensions or disagreements between the two countries, the two have been at odds on a number of political issues.

Egypt voted in favour of a Russian-backed but Saudi-opposed U.N. resolution on Syria in October, which excluded calls to stop bombing Aleppo.

In January an Egyptian court rejected a government plan to transfer two uninhabited Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.

Egypt announced last week that the petroleum product shipments would resume.

Egypt had turned to the spot market in recent months after Aramco’s halt of shipments but also sought similar deals to make up the shortfall. Crude from Iraq was expected to arrive in late March as part of an agreement for 1 million barrels a month.

Molla said he was revising the import schedule with distributors following Aramco’s decision to resume shipments.

In the longer term, Egypt’s petroleum products imports will decrease from 35 percent of its consumption needs currently to 5-7 percent of consumption by 2020, Molla said, saving the country billions of dollars per year.

(Reporting by Abdelrahman Adel; Additional reporting by Eric Knecht; Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Read more