11 African countries to get World Bank’s $5bn investment – Newstrends
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11 African countries to get World Bank’s $5bn investment

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The World Bank says it will invest over $5bn in the next five years to restore degraded landscapes, improve agricultural productivity and promote livelihoods across 11 African countries.

It said the countries were on a swathe of land, stretching from Senegal to Djibouti, without naming the particular nations.

World Bank Group President, David Malpass, in a statement from the bank on Thursday, announced the investment at the One Planet Summit, a high-level meeting co-hosted with France and the United Nations that focused on addressing climate change and biodiversity loss.

He was quoted as saying, “This investment, which comes at a crucial time, will help improve livelihoods as countries recover from COVID-19, while also dealing with the impact of both biodiversity loss and climate change on their people and economies.”

Malpass said more than $5bn in financing would support agriculture, biodiversity, community development, food security, landscape restoration, job creation, resilient infrastructure, rural mobility, and access to renewable energy.

This, he said, would be across 11 countries of the Sahel, Lake Chad and Horn of Africa.

The bank said many of these efforts were in line with the Great Green Wall initiative.

“This builds on World Bank landscape investments in these countries over the past eight years that reached more than 19 million people and placed 1.6 million hectares under sustainable land management,” the bank stated.

Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Mahamat, said, “Restoring natural ecosystems in the dry lands of Africa benefits both people and the planet.”

The bank also stated that working with many partners, PROGREEN, a World Bank global fund dedicated to boosting countries’ efforts to address landscape degradation, would also invest $14.5m in Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Mali and Mauritana, all are Sahelian countries.

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PH refinery: 200 trucks will load petroleum products daily, says Presidency

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Port Harcourt Refinery

PH refinery: 200 trucks will load petroleum products daily, says Presidency

No fewer than 200 trucks are set to load petroleum products at the government-owned Port Harcourt Refinery, the presidency has said.

A presidential spokesperson, Sunday Dare, made this known in a statement through his official X handle on Tuesday.

Newstrends had reported that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company on Tuesday announced that Port Harcourt Refinery has resumed operations and crude oil processing after years of inactivity.

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Reacting, Dare said, “200 trucks are expected to load products daily from the refinery, Renewing the Hopes of Nigeria.”

He added that “the Port Harcourt refinery has two wings.

“The Old Refinery comes on stream today with an installed production capacity of 60, 000 barrels per day of crude oil.”

 

PH refinery: 200 trucks will load petroleum products daily, says Presidency

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Breaking: CBN increases interest rate to 27.50%

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Breaking: CBN increases interest rate to 27.50%

 

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has raised the lending interest to 27.50 per cent from 27.25 per cent.

This latest increase in the Monetary Policy Rate came after a meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday and concluded Tuesday.

The Monetary Policy Rate measures the benchmark interest rate.

The CBN Governor, Yemi Cardoso, announced this in Abuja on Tuesday after the MPC meeting, last for the year, held at the apex bank’s headquarters.

He said the MPC voted unanimously to raise the MPR by 25 basis points from 27.25% to 27.50%; and retain the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) at 50% for Deposit Money Banks and 16% for Merchant Banks.

The CBN governor also said the MPC retained the Liquidity Ratio (LR) at 30% and Asymmetric Corridor at +500/-100 basis points around the MPR.

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Nigeria’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.3% in Q2 – NBS

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Nigeria’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.3% in Q2 – NBS

 

Nigeria’s unemployment rate stood at 4.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2024, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said in its latest report.

The report released on Monday said the unemployment rate decreased compared to the 5.3 per cent recorded in the Q1 of 2024.

The NBS defined the unemployment rate as the share of the labour force (the combination of unemployed and employed people) who are not employed but actively searching and are available for work.

“The unemployment rate for Q2 2024 was 4.3%, showing an increase of 0.1 percentage point compared to the same period last year,” the report stated.

“The unemployment rate among males was 3.4% and 5.1% among females.

“By place of residence, the unemployment rate was 5.2% in urban areas and 2.8% in rural areas. Youth unemployment rate was 6.5% in Q2 2024, showing a decrease from 8.4% in Q1 2024.”

Report also said the unemployment rate among persons with post-secondary education was 4.8 per cent; 8.5 per cent among those with upper secondary education, 5.8 per cent for those with lower secondary education, and 2.8 per cent among those with primary education in Q2 2024.

Employment rate – 76%

The report showed that the employment-to-population ratio, which measures the number of employed workers against the total working-age population, increased to 76.1 per cent in Q2 2024.

“In Q2 2024, 76.1% of Nigeria’s working-age population was employed, up from 73.1% in Q1 2024,” the report stated.

Self-employment – 85.6%

The report further showed that Nigeria’s labour market saw a notable shift as the proportion of self-employed individuals increased in Q2 2024.

It stated, “The proportion of persons in self-employment in Q2 2024 was 85.6%.”

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