http://mendnigerdelta.com/archive/archive-rss/en-usFinancial Gazette (Harare)SEED CO, the leading breeder and distributor of hybrid seeds, has reaffirmed its African growth ambition, stressing that it would increase its regional footprint to capture new markets.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-seed-co-reaffirms-strategy/Wed, 16 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000AfricaPlus (Evanston, IL) Common Wealth Newspaper vendor outside a polling station during the 2011 elections in Nigeria. In the third of a three-part series for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Dr. Richard Joseph examines Africa's "prismatic narrative," in which African developments must be viewed "through the prism of how key dimensions interrelate and the complex interplay of local, regional, and global factors." The article can be read below or on the Chicago Council's website.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-islamic-militancy-draws-us-into-african-security/This Day (Lagos) CBN Central Bank of Nigeria. Former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof Chukwuma Soludo, Tuesday admonished Nigerians to stop crying over split milk in the aftermath of the global financial meltdown and its impact on the Nigeria capital market. Instead, he said stock market crashes could not be prevented, irrespective of the amount of 'reforms' or 'regulation' injected into it.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-soludo-stock-crashes-not-preventable/Daily Trust (Abuja)Asaba - Delta State government is spending N75 million every month on diesel on fuelling of generators to power streetlights in Asaba and Warri, Commissioner for Power and Energy, Charles Emetulu, has said.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-delta-fuels-six-generators-with-n36-billion-in-four-years/Leadership (Abuja)Policy measures undertaken by the federal government in the past few months would likely result in slower growth for the nation's economy in the current year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-govt-policies-will-slow-economic-growth-statistics-bureau/Daily Trust (Abuja)...and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington 16 Jan, 1787http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-world-without-press-ii/Daily Trust (Abuja)Umuahia - Abia State Governor Theodore Orji has called on the presidential monitoring committee on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to proffer solution to the issue of abandoned projects in the state.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-orji-tasks-committee-on-abandoned-projects/Daily Trust (Abuja) This Day Kanos wedding ceremony. And so it came to pass yesterday when Kano State Government delivered on its promise to marry off 100 out of the state's estimated one million widows and divorcees to suitably screened men who turned up at the Hisbah Office to seek a wife out of the multitudes.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-one-woman-one-stranded-man/Daily Trust (Abuja)Lagos - Stakeholders operating at various seaports in Lagos have said that unspecified but large quantities of petroleum products mainly Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as petrol were illegally imported into the country by unauthorized persons and might have formed part of the products listed under the imports that attracted subsidy.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-petrol-smuggling-and-subsidy-controversy/Daily Trust (Abuja)Nigeria's Excess Crude Account is not growing as it should because of bunkering activities in the Niger Delta causing shortage in oil production output, the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of Economy has said.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-excess-crude-account-not-growing-enough-okonjo-iweala/Daily Trust (Abuja)Lagos - Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) says it paid over $1.1 million last year to communities affected by oil spills in the country.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-oil-spills-shell-pays-us11-million-to-communities/Daily Trust (Abuja)Lagos - The Managing Director of Skye Bank Plc Duro Simi-Etti said yesterday that the bank's loans exposure to the oil and gas sector rose to $1 billion (about N159 billion) within the last 24 months.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-skye-bank-oil-loans-exposure-hits-us1-billion/Ghanaian Chronicle (Accra)Mr. Clifford Sacks, Chief Executive Officer, Africa, Renaissance Capital, says Africa will be the investment success story of the next decade, since the continent, as an emerging market, was attracting unprecedented attention, as capital shifts from developed to growth markets.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-continent-to-attract-more-investment/Daily Trust (Abuja) Vanguard President Goodluck Jonathan The Congress for Progressive Change CPC in a press statement has berated the PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan over its recent replies to predictions of "blood letting" by its presidential flag bearer, General Muhammadu Buharo (rtd).http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-war-of-words-as-cpc-replies-jonathan/This Day (Lagos)Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Skye Bank Plc, Mr. Kehinde Durosinmi-Etti, has stated that he and other members of the management team will continue to ensure adequate returns to shareholders in the years ahead.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-skye-bank-promises-enhanced-returns-to-shareholders/This Day (Lagos) George Osodi/IRIN Petrol thief (file photo) Lagos - Nigeria is on the verge of a major fiscal crisis following unabated massive theft of crude oil in the Niger Delta, THISDAY has learnt.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-fiscal-crisis-looms-as-oil-theft-ravages-niger-delta/Tue, 15 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000This Day (Lagos)Abuja - Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said plans to take a Final Investment Decision (FID) on the two-train, 10 million metric tonne per year (mmt/y) Brass Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project on or before December this year remains on track despite indications by one of the project's promoters, ConocoPhillips, that it wants to sell its Nigerian assets.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-nnpc-vows-to-conclude-brass-lngs-fid/This Day (Lagos)Former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia, has said that the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), when eventually passed into a law, would serve as the catalyst needed to revolutionise the country's oil and gas industry.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-ajumogobia-pib-will-attract-massive-investment-in-oil-industry/This Day (Lagos)Abuja - The Supreme Court will on July 10 deliver judgment in a case filed by the Cross River State Government claiming that 76 oil wells transferred to Akwa Ibom State by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) belong to it.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-suprem-court-to-resolve-cross-river-akwa-ibom-oil-wells-dispute/Daily Trust (Abuja)Last week, we examined the weaknesses of the leading sectors of our expanding economy, and tried to understand why the much publicised massive growth has failed to provide employment or decent incomes to our impoverished masses. We argued that unless our governments, at both federal and state levels changed track, the situation may not get any better, even in the long-run.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-explaining-our-expanding-economy-and-rising-poverty-ii/Leadership (Abuja)The Senate Committee on Investment yesterday advocated the review of the Export Expansion Grants (EEG) following the inability of the scheme, as it is presently constituted, to serve the purpose of encouraging export of non-oil products from the country.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-senate-advocates-review-of-export-grants/Leadership (Abuja)Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke has said that Nigeria will lead other Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members to push for the stabilisation of the international oil market at the forthcoming OPEC meeting in Vienna next month.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-country-leads-opec-to-stabilise-oil-price/Daily Trust (Abuja)President Goodluck Jonathan said Nigeria and Cameroun will soon begin joint exploitation of hydro-carbon resources along their borders.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-country-cameroun-to-exploit-oil-along-borders/Daily Trust (Abuja)For decades, agriculture in Nigeria has been viewed as a profession associated with poverty. It is the general notion that only the poor practice in agriculture and therefore if one wants to make it big, he/she should be looking at the oil sector or other professions such as medicine and engineering.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-agriculture-is-profitable/This Day (Lagos)Former Director-General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mrs. Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke has supported calls for direct injection of funds into the nation's capital market as the best way forward for the market.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-stock-market-okereke-onyiuke-backs-calls-for-fund-injection/This Day (Lagos)The naira maintained its downswing against the United States dollar at the interbank Monday due to renewed demand for the greenback by importers of petroleum products and others goods.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-again-naira-weakens-on-increased-dollar-demand/Ghanaian Chronicle (Accra)THE RECURRENT pirate activities in the Gulf of Guinea and the increasing threat of terrorism in neighbouring Nigeria has raised grave security concerns to oil shipments in the West African sub-region and these are invariably too close for comfort to Ghana's oil installations.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-ghanas-oil-and-pirate-activities-in-the-gulf-of-guinuea-a-cause-for-great-concern/Daily Trust (Abuja)The Senate today urged a review of the Export Expansion Grant and the Negotiable Duty Credit Certificate Schemes.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-senate-urges-review-of-export-grant-credit-certificate/Mon, 14 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000Vanguard (Lagos)The Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, recently disclosed plans by his Ministry to improve the country's global competitiveness ranking from its current position of 137 to 34th by 2015. He said the Ministry is working to ensure that Nigeria occupies the top-five position in Africa in this regard, and increase manufacturing contribution to GDP to eight per cent from the current 4.5 by the same year. Excerpt:http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-we-are-concerned-about-substandard-goods-from-china-aganga/Vanguard (Lagos)Senator Uba Ahmed was a two time member of the Nigerian Senate who came to national renown as Secretary General of the defunct National Party of Nigeria, NPN the ruling party at the federal level in the second republic.http://mendnigerdelta.com/2012/05/mend-nigerdelta-nigeria-news-how-we-plotted-omoboriowos-victory-sen-uba-ahmed/