Daily Watch – Nigeria declares Brit wanted, Ghana to hike cocoa farmer prices

The Federal High Court, Abuja, remanded 10 #EndBadGovernance protesters accused of plotting a war against Nigeria and trying to topple President Bola Tinubu’s administration. Judge Emeka Nwite gave the order following the protesters’ arraignment on six charges filed by the Nigerian police. The defendants pleaded not guilty to all six counts, and their lawyers requested bail. But the prosecutor, Simon Lough, opposed it. The judge remanded the defendants in prison until the bail ruling on 11 September, after they had already spent over three weeks in police custody. In a related development, the Nigerian police have accused a British socialist, Andrew Wynne of building “a network of sleeper cells to topple” the Bola Tinubu administration and the country. He has been declared wanted.

Nigeria’s debt servicing in the first seven months of this year rose by 53.63% or $971.47 million, to $2.78 billion, up from the $1.81 billion recorded in the same period in 2023. This was disclosed in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Weekly International Payments data. CBN data showed that external debt servicing had gulped the highest amount in May at $854.36 million followed by $560.51million in January and $542 million in July. Payments in February, March, and April were below $300 million, with June 2024 being the lowest at $50.82 million. Nigeria’s debt was ₦121.67 trillion at the end of Q1, according to the Debt Management Office. Business activities in the private sector were stagnant in August, according to the Stanbic IBTC Bank Purchasing Managers Index (PMI). The headline PMI rose slightly to 49.9 from 49.2 in July but remained below the 50.0 mark.

Ghana will increase the state-guaranteed price paid to its cocoa farmers by nearly 45% for the 2024/25 crop season, to boost their incomes and deter bean smuggling, two sources told Reuters. The country raised the farmgate price by more than 58% to 33,120 cedi ($2,123.08) per metric ton, or 2,070 cedi per 64 kilogrammes (kg), in April for the rest of the 2023/24 season. One source said Ghana’s cocoa producer price review committee had pegged the price at 48,000 cedi per ton, translating to 3,000 cedi per 64 kg of cocoa, for the 2024/25 season due to begin in September. The source said the decision would be sent to the cabinet, but it is unlikely the cabinet will alter it. The second source added that the price cannot exceed 48,000 cedis per ton without causing a deficit for Ghana’s cocoa marketing board.

Saudi Arabia and Libya have financed the purchase of gas cargoes worth at least $200 million to help Egypt address its energy crisis amid declining domestic gas output, two industry sources told Reuters. Egypt needs some $2 billion worth of gas to cover summer demand through October, but a hard currency crisis means it lacks funds to fully cover imports of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Officials are looking to raise more money from allies. The sources said Saudi Arabia financed three of the 32 LNG cargoes Cairo has bought this year, which, according to Reuters’ calculations, are worth around $150 million at current prices. Libya bought one cargo in July worth around $50 million with funds of the Libyan National Oil Corporation, the sources added.