Daily Watch – West Africa faces flood crisis, NNPC says it has no monopoly on Dangote fuel

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has said it will not be the sole buyer of gasoline from Dangote refinery but would step in if the facility sold above pump prices. The refinery had said NNPC would be the sole buyer of its petrol, also known as Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and that the government would set prices. However, the NNPC stated that Dangote will set its gasoline price and sell directly to marketers, who distribute to fuel stations. Previously, NNPC was Nigeria’s sole gasoline importer. “The NNPC Ltd. will only fully offtake PMS from the DRL (Dangote Refinery Ltd) if the market prices of PMS are higher than the pump prices in Nigeria,” NNPC said.

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has granted UTM Offshore Limited the first licence to operate a floating Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant, to tap flared gas from an ExxonMobil oil field in the Niger Delta. The 2.8 million tons per annum (MTPA) floating vessel owned by UTM will tap flared gas from ExxonMobil’s Oil Mining Lease 104 (Yoho field) in offshore Akwa Ibom, in Southern Nigeria. Farouk Ahmed, NMDPRA head, said the plant’s capacity had been upgraded from 1.2 MTPA to 2.8 MTPA due to growing LNG demand. The engineering work will be completed in 2028, with production starting in early 2029, UTM Offshore CEO Julius Rone said. The facility will provide 500,000 metric tons of Liquefied Petroleum Gas for the domestic market, while LNG will be exported.

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) says the real sector indicators, notably consumer spending activities and manufacturing activities, increased in the first half of 2024.  The central bank said consumer spending, represented by domestic Value Added Tax (VAT) collections and retail sales, posted a positive performance in May 2024 compared with the corresponding period in 2023.  The bank’s July Monetary Policy report showed a 28.7% year-on-year rise in domestic VAT collections to GH¢1.36 billion. Manufacturing activity improved in May 2024, and total direct taxes increased by 43.7% to GH¢4.11 billion from GH¢2.86 billion in May 2023. Cumulatively, direct taxes for the first five months of 2024 rose by 31.6% to GH¢22.19 billion, compared to GH¢16.86 billion in the same period in 2023.

Recent heavy rains and floods across Mali, Nigeria, and Niger have displaced nearly 950,000 people. Widespread flooding has affected 29 of Nigeria’s 36 states. The torrential rainfall has forced many to flee their homes. Save the Children, a Non-Governmental Organisation, has warned of the risks of disease, hunger from crop destruction, and disruption to education for the hundreds of thousands of displaced children. This year’s rains have been more severe than usual, causing dams to overflow and raising water levels in the Niger and Benue rivers. In Mali, three western regions and Gao in the northeast have been hit, while in Niger, all eight regions have been affected since floods began in May, washing away houses and leaving destruction in their wake. The Maradi region in the south was hit hardest, according to Save the Children. At least 460 people have been killed across the three countries.