LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria central bank will sell dollars to private individuals at 360 naira per dollar, it said in a tweet on Monday.

The bank has been intervening on the official currency market to try to narrow the spread with the black market rate, which was 520 to the dollar a month ago after it devalued the naira for retail customers to 375.

The naira traded at 315 on the official market on Monday.

(Reporting by Paul Carsten and Oludare Mayowa; Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha; editing by John Stonestreet)

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By Aidan Lewis

TUNIS (Reuters) – Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on Sunday that it had identified “illegal” efforts to sell crude oil without its approval and warned potential buyers not to enter into such contracts.

Factions based in eastern Libya have previously tried to sell oil independently of NOC in Tripoli, but their moves have been frustrated by U.N. resolutions that remain in place.

“NOC identified a group of individuals abusing the current status of political division in Libya by entering into illegal contracts with unknown or unqualified companies,” NOC said in a statement without providing detail on who was involved.

“These individuals, and others associated with them, have offered Libyan crude oil for sale at huge discounts below the official selling price (OSP).”

The statement added that this could cost the state of Libya hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue.

The NOC reasserted in the statement that it was the only body authorised by U.N. resolutions to export crude oil and oil products from Libya, and that only the 16 international oil companies that already hold contracts with NOC could buy oil or charter tankers from Libyan ports.

It warned that entering into contracts with other buyers could lead to “serious legal consequences and financial losses” for those concerned.

The statement comes after eastern forces lost and regained control of the key oil ports of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf this month, angering eastern factions that accused their western rivals of backing the temporary seizure of the ports.

Some eastern officials cast doubt on arrangements under which oil produced in the east is sold by the Tripoli NOC with revenues processed by the central bank in the capital.

However, NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla said he was confident of regaining control over oil operations following the port fighting and that operations at the terminals have already restarted.

Since 2014 Libya has been divided between factions based in Tripoli and the east of the country, with rival governments, financial institutions and armed forces competing for power. The eastern government set up its own branch of the NOC in Benghazi but has never gained control over oil operations.

Libya’s oil production has more than doubled since last year to about 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) but remains well below the 1.6 million bpd the OPEC member was exporting before a 2011 uprising.

On Friday ambassadors for the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council reaffirmed their support for the Tripoli NOC, saying it should retain “exclusive stewardship” of Libya’s oil resources.

“We call for all parties to exercise restraint, avoid military solutions and resolve differences through political processes,” the statement said.

(Editing by David Goodman)

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LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria’s overnight lending rate rose as high as 100 percent this week after the central bank withdrew naira liquidity to offset dollar purchases, but it fell sharply on Friday as the government disbursed budget funds through the banking system.

Overnight rates fell to 10 percent on Friday after the government passed 285 billion naira ($928 mln) for February allocations through the money market, reducing borrowing costs.

The central bank has been intervening on the official market to try to narrow the currency spread with the black market rate.

The black market rate was 520 to the dollar a month ago after the central bank devalued the exchange rate for retail customers to 375 naira to the dollar.

The bank sold $100 million in forwards on Thursday.

($1 = 307 naira)

(Reporting by Oludare Mayowa; Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Larry King)

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BAMAKO (Reuters) – Mali forecasts cotton production for the upcoming 2017/18 season at 725,000 tonnes, up about 12 percent from the current season’s record yield of at least 645,000 tonnes, the agriculture minister said on Friday.

The 2016/17 season ending in March will see the highest yield in more than a decade for the West African country, aided by increased prices and fertiliser subsidies fixed in 2015.

The new target will be achieved by planting more land, renewing subsidies and continuing a two-year-old programme that provides tractors at reduced prices, according to a statement from the agriculture ministry.

“In terms of cotton production, we have just crossed the threshold of 645,000 tonnes for a forecast of 650,000. This is a production record. We want to go … to 725,000 tonnes for the next campaign,” minister Kassoum Denon said on state radio.

Mali is West Africa’s biggest cotton producer and its season runs from April to March in two phases, production between May/June and September/October, with commercialisation from October/November to March 31.

(Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo; Writing by Nellie Peyton and Mark Potter)

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CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt doubled the price of tickets for millions of commuters on Cairo’s loss-making metro on Thursday, angering residents already hit by a sharp rise in living costs.

Transport Minister Hisham Arafat said the increase to 2 Egyptian pounds (11 U.S. cents), effective from Friday, followed losses of 500 million pounds which put the network at risk, state-owned newspaper Al Ahram reported.

The move comes four months after Egypt floated the pound under an economic reform programme which secured it billions of dollars of loans from the International Monetary Fund – and led the currency to lose half its value and prices to soar.

“All prices have gone up,” said Mona Yasin, a 27-year-old masters student leaving a metro station on Mohamed Farid street in central Cairo.

“What is happening exactly? We can’t find medicine or any of the necessary goods in the market, and every time they blame it on the (high price of the) dollar,” she said.

“Everyone takes the metro – can you live without money?”

The minimum wage in Egypt, which is not always enforced, is 1,200 Egyptian pounds ($66) a month. The government statistics agency said that 28 percent of Egyptians earned less than $2 a day in 2015.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in December that Egyptians were coping well with challenges, but he is facing increasing pressure to revive the economy and get prices back under control. Last month Egypt’s urban consumer price inflation hit 30 percent, its highest level in 30 years.

“I earn only 1,000 pounds a month, which is not even the minimum wage,” said 31-year-old Amal, who works in a printing house and said she had put off her wedding because she could not afford to buy simple household goods.

“People are suffering. This is the cheapest and easiest means of transportation and they raised its price”.

Other passengers complained that the metro, which was opened 30 years ago, had deteriorated over time and they hoped the extra money would make a difference.

“Two pounds is OK, but only if they improve the service. The service is very bad, there are a lot of delays during rush hour,” said Mohamed Ezzat, a 43-year-old accountant.

($1 = 18.1800 Egyptian pounds)

(Reporting by Amina Ismail,; Editing by Dominic Evans and Ed Osmond)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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