Nigeria: Power reforms need funding

The Nigerian federal government has approached the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) for a $450 million loan to fund on-going power sector reforms. The request was made by Vice-President Namadi Sambo earlier in the month in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, when bank president Ahmed Ali paid him a courtesy visit.

The vice-president, who chairs the power sector reform committee, had been in Saudi Arabia for Umrah, the lesser Hajj during the fasting month of Ramadan.
 

Sambo informed the IDB president that Nigeria still required about $450 million to augment transmission in an on-going power sector reform that is targeting the generation of 20,000 MW of electricity. He also solicited the support of the bank in financing other projects beneficial to Nigeria, such as the construction of a highway linking Lagos State, the commercial hub of the country, to Abidjan, the capital of Côte d'Ivoire.
 

Ali noted that his visit was a reinforcement of the cooperation between IDB and Nigeria, stating that his organisation had already approved three of the five projects for which the country recently sought funding. The other two are still being considered.
 

The approved projects are the $17.9 million construction of four science-specialist secondary schools, a $43.15 million 330-bed capacity specialist hospital, and the $81 million Zaria water project.
 

All the projects are based in Kaduna, northwest Nigeria. Their location has raised quite a few eyebrows, in view of the fact that Sambo is a former governor of the state.
 

Some of the projects, such as four secondary schools, are also considered rather pricy in the opinion of a local quantity surveyor. The $81 million project to improve the water supply across the Zaria metropolis also raises a red flag: the project has been underway for several years but remains incomplete in spite of the funds that have gone into it. Some have called for an investigation.
 

Multiple sources claim that a company owned by the vice-president is involved with the project and has been working on several components of it, dating back to the 1990s.
 

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

© 2013 Menas Associates

Ramadan coincides with pending unrest among the independent trade unions

The government is already worried about this year's Ramadan, notably the coincidence (10th September) of Aid El Fitr (the festival marking the end of Ramadan), the start of the new school year, and the likelihood of renewed unrest among the independent trade unions.

Much of the social unrest that has been sweeping the country on a more or less continuous basis over the last couple of years is related to people's living conditions, in which food prices play a major role. Hence the government's fear that the country's highly corrupt meat market will be manipulated, as is usual, to ramp up prices (and hence profits) over the Ramadan period. The government is, therefore, making efforts, without any clear signs of success, to import meat from the Sudan, India and almost anywhere else it can find it, in a bid to stop market manipulation.

The tradition of Ramadan is that it is period when prices go down, through various means including charitable provision, to assist the poorer elements of society. In Algeria, it appears that this tradition has been effectively reversed since 1992. With the ultimate corruption of the state in 1992, the regime has progressively lost whatever control it ever had over either prices or the semblance of an open market. The meat market across the country is estimated to be in the hands of some 80-90 people whose identities are not widely known but who are commonly believed to be closely linked to the country's 200 or more 'Generals', including and especially those in the DRS.

Thus, as elements within the government, fearing that a meat shortage and price manipulation could spark the unrest that the government most fears, are trying to ramp up and subsidise meat imports as a matter of urgency, the 'Generals' market', as it is known, appears bent on using the Ramadan shortage to once again cream off its unwarranted profits.

For more news and expert analysis about Algeria please Algeria Focus, Sahara Focus and Algeria Politics & Security.

© 2010 Menas Associates