- Sixty five people were killed and one hundred and thirty six others injured in Saturday’s attacks on Dalori village in Borno State. Dalori is less than 10 km from Maiduguri and was attacked by the Boko Haram insurgent group. The National Emergency Management Agency said that response teams included itself, the Police Anti-bomb Squad, the National Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Nigerian Army, the Federal Road Safety Corps and the Nigerian Red Cross. Victims were evacuated to Umaru Shehu Hospital, the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital and Borno General Hospital for medical attention where 40 persons were confirmed dead, while the Dalori community buried another 25 people.
- Nigeria and Angola, Africa’s two biggest oil producers, are both in talks with the World Bank about support to help cope with low crude prices, weakening currencies and strained public finances. Nigeria has held exploratory talks with the World Bank on borrowing to help fund a record budget in 2016 but has not applied for any emergency loans. Angola also held talks with the World Bank between January 25-29 about securing funding support in a deal that would see Africa’s second biggest oil producer implement unspecified reforms. The World Bank and other institutions like the International Monetary Fund have recommended that Nigeria and Angola devalue their currencies which both trade officially at a huge premiums to the secondary market. Devaluations could form part of loan deals, two banking sources said on Monday. Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, is against devaluing the naira.
- Telecommunications companies have threatened to shut down their operations in six Nigerian states over alleged arbitrary taxes and incessant closure of Base Transceiver Stations sites, among others. The Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, said that the action had become necessary given the continued harassment of telecoms operators by state agents. “Such harassment in Ogun, Ondo, Akwa-Ibom, Ebonyi, Osun and Kaduna states is impacting negatively on service quality,” he said.
- According to export schedules, Nigeria is expected to witness a rise in oil exports in the month of March. This is because of the reopening of Shell’s Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP) and the lifting of the force majeure on Brass River crude by ENI. Nigeria will increase its exports by three cargoes which is scheduled for February. Shell last week announced the re-opening of its Trans Niger Pipeline, or TNP, which carries Bonny Light crude oil to the export terminal. The pipeline had been out of operation since November, 2015.
