Nigeria wins a landmark US $11 billion fraud case in the UK

E kaaro o, Ututu Oma, Barka da Safiya - Good morning, and a warm welcome to ThinkBusiness Africa, your Monday – Friday dose of commentary, contexts, and insights on business and economic news that matter to you.

The P&ID court ruling in favour of Nigeria is great news. However, after seen the list of potential beneficiaries if the case had gone against Nigeria, this is a case I think should not end here. The company and its promoters should be prosecuted for fraud and investigations carried out to unmask the ‘real’ Nigerians that orchestrated the potential heist against the country.

Remember to visit www.tb.africa to continue to enjoy the second phase of our media services development. Also remember to share your feedback.

ThinkBusiness Africa thank you.

Please, also share so we can continue to build a community of “business thinkers”.

Markets

In partnership with

Africa Headlines

• Nigeria wins a landmark US $11 billion fraud case in the UK – Nigeria has won the five year long legal battle against Process and Industrial Development (P&ID), a British Virgin Island firm that would have cost the federal government US $11 billion. Justice Robin Knowles agreed with the government that the 2010 deal to build a power plant in Calabar, Cross River State in the South South oil region of the country was obtained fraudulently. The legal case started after an initial out of court US $800 million settlement reached in the twilight of President Goodluck Jonathan was not followed through under President Buhari in 2015, leading to an award of US $6.6 billion in 2017 plus interest dating back to 2013. However, this should not be the end of the case. There should not be an iota of doubt that the conspiracy to defraud Nigeria is deeper and broader than the nonentities at P&ID. There should be further investigation and prosecution.

• 3MTT gets IHS’s backing – Nigeria’s and federal government quest to build an army of three million technical talent in the Information Technology now has the support of Nigeria and Africa’s largest telecommunications infrastructure providers IHS Towers. The N1 billion (US $1.1 million) support is to build learning communities in the 36 States and Federal Capital Territory (FCT). It also includes the payment of salaries for 37 dedicate learning community managers for each of the location for three years. Nigeria’s seeking to transform the scale of supply of technical talent in the country and for global needs through the Three million technical talent (3MTT) programme. The three-month programme in the first phase is focused on key technical areas such as software development, UI / UX design, data analysis and visualization, product management, data science, animation, Ai, and machine learning etc.

• Nigeria’s Supreme Court reserves judgement on Atiku and Obi’s appel – Nigeria’s supreme court started sitting yesterday and immediately reserved judgement on the admission of new material evidence and the judgement of the case itself brought by the People’s Democratic Presidential Candidate Atiku Abubakar and the Labour Party Candidate Peter Obi. They are challenging the outcomes of the presidential elections of 25^th February 2023 and seeking the nullification of the election. The case is being heard by a group of seven supreme court justices led by Justice Inyang Okoro. After the elections in February, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was declared winner. Last month September 6th, the presidential election tribunal led by Justice Haruna Tsammani dismissed the petitions and affirmed the outcome of the February 25 elections. The supreme court is the last in the process of the election petitions and appeal and the country keenly awaits the conclusions of the process.

• Africa currencies against the US $

  - Kenya’s Shillings reached a new low against the US $ yesterday when it traded S150 to the US $. It is symptomatic of the heavy depreciation most African currencies have experienced in the last year. The South Africa Rand depreciated against the US $ from January 2023 to reach a new low of R19.8 to $ May 25, now trading at R18.94. Ghana Cedis GHc, following debt default became one of the weakest currencies in the world, losing over 45% in 2022 but slightly recovered since. Sierra Leone was in the same phase. Nigeria this year have been hit the most, first devaluing by about 40% and depreciating by over 30% since June 2023. Most of the reasons Africa currencies are doing badly are exogenous. Started with Covid – 19 but exacerbated by the Russian / Ukraine war and the global market and economic uncertainty that followed. It was now compounded by the rise in interest rates in the US since early last year and the recent rise in US treasury yields.

   

Global

• Chevron to acquire Hess in all share deal of US $53 billion – The US oil giant Chevron is acquiring Hess, a US oil and gas producing firm for US $53 billion in an all-shares deal. It is like waiting for a long time for consolidation deals in the oil and gas but two have arrived in quick successions. The deal gives Chevron access to the growing prolific production region of Guyana that just over four years ago produced nothing but production now estimated at 250,000 barrels per day. The Guyana oil fields is the largest oil discovery in the last decade. The deal follows ExxonMobil’s acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources valued at about US $60 billion two weeks ago.

• The right versus the Centre left in Argentina’s rerun election – After the weekend votes, the runoff election scheduled for Nov. 19 in the Argentina presidential election will be between the right-wing candidate Javiel Milei who got 30% of the votes and the current economic minister of the Centre left party Sergio Massa who got 37.6% of the vote. The opposition vote was largely split between Javiel Milei and Patricia Bullrich who got 24% of the vote.  The rerun elections will hold because who becomes President must win 45% of the votes or 40% but by 10% lead over the second placed candidate. Growth rate is expected to decline by 2.5% this year compared to over 4% in 2022. Inflation was 138% in September 2023. One of the extreme proposals by Javier Milei is the scrapping of the Central Bank and the dollarization of the Argentine economy. While the official rate to the US $ is currently pegged at 365 pesos to the US $, it is exchanged for close to 1,000 pesos to the US $, widening the gaps between the official and black-market rate to about 165%.

• Deadly bombardments continue while hostages are released – The Israeli bombardment against Hamas continues in Day 18 of the latest Israel / Palestinian crisis. The UK Guardian reported yesterday that the Israeli army hit Gaza in one of its deadliest nights of bombing. This comes amidst the release of two more hostages by Hamas. Latest reports also suggest that the US is pressing Israel for a delay in ground assault to allow for the release of more hostages and the delivery of aid to Gaza. From last week, the crisis has raised tensions in the region to very high levels and risks of a lengthy and wider conflict materialising. The US President Joe Biden has made a request to the Congress for emergency support for Israel and Ukraine. It is estimated that over 5,000 and about 1500 people have been killed in Palestine and Israel, respectively. Also, in Gaza, about 1m people have been internally displaced, including women, children, and the elderly. The blockage of water, food, and fuel have started to ease.