THE state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation said its northern Kaduna oil refinery would be back on stream by the middle of September instead of the earlier target of end August. The 110000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery was shut down early this month after its five boilers, which had shown signs of wear for some […]

SOUTH Africa’s central bank governor Tito Mboweni said that the rand was grossly undervalued due to negative sentiment which was not based on the country’s economic fundamentals. In an interview with an Afrikaans-language television station, Mboweni also repeated that the central bank was determined to hit its 3% to 6% target for the inflation measure […]

Karlin Lillington ‘Ahanging garden of Babylon overlooking Silicon Valley,” is Rich Gold’s description of the most famous research laboratory in the history of computing, Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center, or Parc. Oddly, the place where virtually all of modern computing was invented is not a computer company but a self-proclaimed ”document company”. Windows, screen icons, […]

REUTERS, Abidjan | Thursday THE central bank that serves all the francophone West African countries, the BCEAO, has tightened the minimum reserve requirements for banks in some of the zone’s countries, but not in the area’s biggest economy, Ivory Coast. Previously, minimum obligatory reserves of 3% were required of banks in all eight countries of […]

THE Senegal government has ordered the local Coca Cola affiliate to halt production of Coca Cola and Sprite after a consumer protection organisation complained that “slimy substances” had been discovered in several one-litre bottles, the BBC reported. The ban came in response to a growing public outcry which has prompted the government to conduct immediate […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Bloemfontein | Thursday CAPE Town is fast becoming the leading child sex tourism destination of the world, where regular sex tours are organised in much the same fashion as wine route tours, according to one of South Africa’s top welfare officials. Law enforcement officials are fully aware of the trend, but are either […]

KENYAN women soldiers will be allowed to marry following sweeping new changes introduced by the country’s Defence Council aimed at restructuring the armed services. Female soldiers will be free to marry either civilians or soldiers, following the integration of the former Women Service Corp into other sectors of the armed forces. However, there are limitations: […]

A NEW bill has been tabled in Parliament that will write off the R4.1bn debt incurred by the former homelands and possibly bury forever unanswered questions on unauthorised spending. The Finance Bill which was approved by the finance portfolio committee, will allow the former homelands to start will a clean slate. The Treasury said that […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Dar Es Salaam | Thursday SMALL-scale gold miners in the Geita district, in northern Tanzania are seeking compensation from Ashanti Goldfields after claiming that they were forcibly evicted from their mines. Local miners in the region are said to have written a letter to the president describing how the Geita district commissioner with […]