The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has reiterated it’s commitment to environmental sustainability, on the one hand, and to continuing oil production, on the other, at an address by the country’s climate change envoy.

Speaking at the opening event for the first-ever UN Middle East and North Africa Climate Week, Dr. Sultan Al Jaber said that the UAE was the first country to sign the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, the first to announce the goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and host to the world’s biggest single solar field.

The country stopped flaring (burning natural gas from oil extraction) 30 years ago, he added, radically slashed methane emissions 20 years ago, and began capturing climate-warming carbon dioxide long before people started talking about it.

At the same time, “we can’t just switch off the energy system, as current events show,” he said, referring to the rising price of oil brought on by the Russian invasion of Ukraine alongside restricted supply in the face of a rapid uptick in consumer demand in the COVID era.

Weaning the world off hydrocarbons “will be gradual, and needs sober planning,” Al Jaber said. “It cannot be rushed.” The push to reduce hydrocarbons was having an impact on those who were most vulnerable, he added, noting that it is important to keep investing in low-cost, low carbon energy.

Alongside renewable energy, the world needs nuclear energy, gas, and oil from places where the extraction causes lower carbon emissions, such as the UAE and the MENA region.

The Republic of Côte d’Ivoire has signed the hosting agreement for the Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2023), which officially confers it as the host of IATF2023.

The agreement which took place in Abidjan was between Côte d’Ivoire , African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank), the African Union (AU) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the IATF2023 will be the third edition of the African continent’s premier trade and investment event.

This follows the resoundingly successful second edition held in November 2021 in Durban, South Africa, and realised over $42.1 billion in trade and investment deals, with 1501 exhibitors and over 32,500 attendees from 128 countries across Africa and beyond.

 President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank,Prof. Benedict Oramah, said “The IATF has become a platform for actualising the vision of the African continental Free Trade Agreement.

“It is opening up new trade routes, rapidly expanding knowledge of the continents trading environment and exposing our cultural heritage to our markets and faraway consumers.

“The combined $75 billion in deals sealed during the Durban  and Cairo trade fairs are reminders of the abundant intra-African trade  and investment potentials.

“They represent the remarkable trade and investment arrangements that wouldn’t have seen the light if not for the trade fair.’’

Citing instances of some of the successes as a result of the IATF, he said: “For instance, the Government of Malawi has expanded the market for his agricultural products to South Sudan and other African markets.

“Thanks to the bilateral government to government trade deals signed during the 2021 trade fair.

“It was at the 2018 Inter African trade fair that the $2.9 billion Rufiji  dam project was signed between the Government of Tanzania and Egyptian contractors, making it the largest ever intra-African  EPC contract.

The Central Bank of Nigeria CBN has released a guideline for Credit Guarantee Schemes to solve the challenge of limited access to credit by MSMEs in the country.

This was disclosed in a recently released circular to all banks and other financial institutions, titled “Guidelines for Regulation and Supervision of Credit Guarantee Companies in Nigeria”.

Finance Guarantee Schemes have long been regarded as one method of resolving the problem of MSMEs’ limited access to credit.

The CBN enabled the formulation of rules for the establishment and operation of credit guarantee businesses in Nigeria as part of its attempts to boost lending to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). For potential credit guarantee businesses, the Guidelines provide minimum licensing governance and prudential standards.

The CBN licenses Credit Guarantee Schemes (CGC) with the primary goal of providing guarantees to banks and other lending financial institutions licensed by the CBN, also known as Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs), against the risk of obligor default.

Credit Guarantee Companies (CGCs) are expected to provide third-party credit risk mitigation to lenders through the absorption of a portion of the lender’s losses on the loans made to Nigeria-based MSMEs in case of default. A guarantee issued by a CGC represents a legal commitment to discharge an agreed portion of the liability of a borrower in the case of default.

However, Credit Guarantee Companies (CGCs) are unable to provide guarantees to entities outside of Nigeria, as well as to entities within their holding company structure and related entities.

Without prior written authorisation from the CBN, Credit Guarantee Companies (CGCs) cannot purchase, sell, dispose of, acquire, or lease any real estate for any reason.

The Federal Government of Nigeria says it remains committed to articulating policies that will attract responsible, inclusive, balanced and sustainable investments into the country.

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Evelyn Ngige, said this while opening a meeting with stakeholders from the North, on review of the draft on Nigeria Investment Policy, on Monday in Kano.

Represented by the Director, Investment Promotion Department in the ministry,  Olukemi Arodudu, the permanent secretary said that the stakeholders’ meeting would also hold in Lagos and Enugu.

According to Ngige, the engagement is part of the proces of developing Nigeria’s first ever investment policy.

She explained that until now, Nigeria’s investment regime was governed by the enabling Acts of the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission and other agencies of government.

“This has made it difficult for would-be investors to accurately determine what Nigeria’s Investment Policy actually is.

“It is a fact, however, that African countries that have clearly outlined investment policies attract more foreign direct investment.

“This is one of the reasons why the development of an investment policy for Nigeria has been part of the heartbeat of the industry, trade and investment sectors at the federal level for the last few years,” Ngige said.

The permanent secretary said Nigeria had taken bold steps of reforming its International Investments Agreement between 2014 and 2016.

According to her, Nigeria also contributes immensely to the development of ECOWAS Common Investment Code and ECOWAS Common Investment Policy, which are negotiations of competition, investment and intellectual property rights policies.

In her remarks, Director Legal Services, Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, Mrs Patience Okala, said the development of Nigeria investment policy was timely, as the country focused on diversifying its economy.

The Delta State government in South South Nigeria has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Adventium Global Delta Consortium Limited, a subsidiary of Adventium Global Incorporation, United States, for the transformation of Songhai Delta Farm at Amukpe in the Sapele Local Government Area into an Agro-Industrial Processing, Tourism, and Training Park.

Speaking at the event of the MoU signing in Asaba, the Secretary to the State Government, Patrick Ukah, said the agreement between the state and the consortium was part of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s ambition of creating jobs for youths in the state and diversifying the state’s economic base away from crude oil revenue.

He said, “I commend members of the committee set up to drive the process as they were able to deliver on the set goals within the stipulated time. The management team of the consortium should ensure that they keep to the terms of the shareholders’ agreement to achieve the goals of the Public-Private Partnership arrangement with the state government.”

Earlier, the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Adventium Global Delta Consortium Limited, Isaac Oghogho, represented by the firm’s Chief Operating Officer, Simeon Asaboro, said the consortium’s investment in Songhai Delta was made under a Public-Private Partnership agreement in which the consortium will invest $40 million, bring in technical partners, and manage the farm’s transformation.

He noted that the initiative would have a socio-economic and developmental impact on the state, including the creation of jobs for the state’s many unemployed and underemployed adolescents and women.

The Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has emphasised the important role trade could play to help member countries head off what appeared to be emerging food crises due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

The Organisation’s trade official told newsmen, that global economic growth original projected by IMF of 4.2 per cent would now see slower growth somewhere between 3.1 and 3.7 per cent and trade growth could be cut by half from 4.7 per cent projected in October to 2.5 per cent.

Okonjo-Iweala made this statement yesterday during an informal meeting of the general council of the WTO, and also called for coordinated action to address the recent sharp rise in commodity prices that threatens food security in many countries, especially in Africa and the Middle East.

She said: “Trade can help WTO members adjust to, and overcome, the shocks of events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the crisis in Ukraine.

“Trade has been and will remain a critical means of adaptation to the mounting global shocks that the world is currently experiencing.”

She added: “This is not the time to retreat inward … This is the time to stress the importance of multilateralism, global solidarity and cooperation.”

The director general of WTO observed that COVID-19 crisis and the war between Ukraine and Russia have raised concerns about the vulnerability of global supply chains and led to calls in some quarters to re-locate production and sourcing locally in order to ensure stable supplies of critical goods and staples.

She, however, underlined that supply resilience “will ultimately be best served by deeper and more diverse international markets.

“Concentrating sourcing and production at home, while understandable, could also create new vulnerabilities and may not be the best risk management strategy.

“A region’s wheat crop could be destroyed by drought, flooding, or other weather-based phenomena. A harsh winter and an earthquake could knock out electricity and factory production,” she argued.

Okonjo-Iweala said that the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war had caused immense human suffering and loss of life and unleashed an ongoing humanitarian crisis.

“It has also dealt a severe blow to the global economy still recovering from the impacts of the pandemic and has raised the spectre of food shortages in countries dependent on Ukraine and Russia for imports of key staples like wheat. Already in Africa, prices of key commodities have risen by 20-50 per cent between January and March.

The WTO was also expected to play a key role in finding solutions to the food crisis, the Director-General noted.

The Vice-President of Association of Organic Agriculture Practitioners of Nigeria and also the Country Coordinator of Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative in Nigeria, Olugbenga Adeoluwa, has said that the organic agriculture in Nigeria policy has been sent to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approval and adoption.

Adeoluwa who disclosed this at the Annual General Meeting of the Association held on Monday in Abuja Nigeria’s, said the policy will address issues like production, processing, inputs, marketing, quality control, certification of organic products in the country.

Nigeria is on the good track as far as organic development is, because one of the indicators of a country doing well is having a policy in place that could support or that can support organic agriculture”.

Adeoluwa added, “And we are lucky in Nigeria, that although the country is young, as far as development of organic, not just globally but in Africa, but late year, December precisely, the dialogue of the stakeholders on organic policy in the country that was carried out by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in conjunction with ecological agriculture initiative in Nigeria, is moving. That’s a very good step”.

President of the association, Victor Idowu said organic agriculture relies mostly on what one can produce within the system, and does not depend more on external inputs.

He said it is a production system that every family, no matter how small their size is, can practise organic agriculture.