LAGOS, April 19 (Reuters) – Pan-African lender United Bank
for Africa is in talks with billionaire industrialist
Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, for a partnership to
provide banking services to his Dangote Cement empire in 13
countries, its chief executive said.

Phillips Oduoza told the Reuters Africa Investment Summit in
Lagos on Thursday the move would leverage their overlapping
presence across the continent.

LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria’s Stock Exchange is three weeks away from completing a revamp that will see it relax restrictions on price swings, adopt the Nasdaq platform, open into U.S. trading hours and allow short selling, its executive director said on Tuesday.

Ade Bajomo, executive director of market operations and technology, told the Reuters Africa Investment Summit in Lagos the bourse would implement new rules allowing stock prices to move by up to 10 percent a day, from its current 5 percent, and introduce market makers who can borrow stocks for shorting.

LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria’s banking crisis is over and the sector’s earnings should see a substantial recovery when results come in for the first quarter of 2012, the chief executive of state-owned “bad bank” AMCON said on Monday.

AMCON was set up in 2010 to clean up the banking system in Africa’s most populous country following a $4 billion rescue of nine lenders that came close to collapse.

LAGOS, March 19 (Reuters) – Nigeria’s super rich are no
strangers to conspicuous consumption, and there’s no better way
to flaunt your wealth than by buying a brand new European sports
car.

German carmaker Porsche officially opened a new
car dealership on Friday in the heart of Lagos’ wealthiest
district, Victoria Island, a place with one of the world’s
highest concentrations of millionaires.

LAGOS (Reuters) – A Briton and an Italian held hostage in Nigeria were killed by their captors on Thursday as a joint British-Nigerian rescue mission stormed a compound to try to free the men, witnesses and security officials said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said he had authorized the Britain’s involvement in the rescue attempt after being told the men’s lives were in “imminent and growing danger”.

ABUJA/LAGOS (Reuters) – Jolted by a public outcry since the start of the year, Nigeria’s government has announced a series of measures to address oil industry corruption in the world’s eighth biggest producer. It is an issue that may come to define Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency.

An important supplier to the United States because of the oil’s high gasoline content, Nigeria has attracted billions of dollars of investments from the world’s top oil companies. Yet poverty in Africa’s second biggest economy is rising, with almost 100 million people living on less than $1 a day, data released last month shows. The percentage of Nigerians living in absolute poverty – those who can afford only the bare essentials of food, shelter and clothing – has risen to around 60 percent.

ABUJA/LAGOS, March 8 (Reuters) – Jolted by a public
outcry since the start of the year, Nigeria’s government has
announced a series of measures to address oil industry
corruption in the world’s eighth biggest producer. It is an
issue that may come to define Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency.

An important supplier to the United States because of the
oil’s high gasoline content, Nigeria has attracted billions of
dollars of investments from the world’s top oil companies. Yet
poverty in Africa’s second biggest economy is rising, with
almost 100 million people living on less than $1 a day, data
released last month shows. The percentage of Nigerians living in
absolute poverty – those who can afford only the bare essentials
of food, shelter and clothing – has risen to around 60 percent.

LAGOS, Feb 22 (Reuters) – Econet Wireless is seeking
at least $3.1 billion in damages from Bharti Airtel in
a dispute over ownership of its subsidiary Airtel Nigeria,
according to a suit filed on Wednesday.

The move follows a Nigerian court ruling on Jan. 30 that
Bharti Airtel’s ownership of its subsidiary Airtel Nigeria is
“null and void” because co-founder and 5 percent shareholder
Econet was not consulted on the transfer.

ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan challenged the violent Islamist Boko Haram sect on Thursday to identify themselves and state clearly their demands as a basis for talks, while acknowledging that military confrontation alone will not end their insurgency.

In an interview with Reuters at the presidential villa in the capital Abuja, Jonathan also said there was no doubt that Boko Haram had links with other jihadist groups outside Nigeria.