LAGOS, March 4 (Reuters) – The high cost of raw beans and crippling power shortages in Africa’s top oil producer may force its cocoa grinders to relocate to neighbouring countries with an easier business climate, an industry association said.

Scores of firms in other industries have already relocated from Nigeria in the last five years citing poor infrastructure, erratic power supply, excessive bureaucracy and multiple taxation among the factors that make business uncompetitive.

Nigeria’s cocoa processing capacity has slumped by about 90 percent in the last two years due to these problems and a weak global demand for products, the Cocoa Processors Association of Nigeria (COPAN) said at a news conference late on Thursday.

The world’s number four cocoa grower had about 18 grinders crushing over 200,000 tonnes a year in 1986 when the sector was deregulated, but only a few are now partially operational, processing less than 40,000 tonnes.

Many have closed due to the rising cost of beans, which have hit an all-time high at the farmgate of 550,000 naira ($3,570) a tonne, compared to $3,775 in the international market on Friday.

Nigerian industry depends largely on generators because power supply from the national grid is at best unpredictable. The price of gasoline has also climbed 33 percent to 150 naira a litre in the last three months.

Cocoa processors have invested over 100 billion naira in the Nigerian sector over the last five years, industry experts say, but the return on investment has been weak. Cocoa is Nigeria’s biggest non-oil foreign exchange earner.

LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria’s former military leader Ibrahim Babangida on Monday became the first major politician to announce he will run for president next year.

The race for president of Africa’s most populous nation is expected to be wide open since many believe the ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua, a northerner, will not seek re-election.

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, who is from the south, has assumed executive powers for Yar’Adua, who remains too sick to govern and has been out of the public eye since November.

But Jonathan is unlikely to stand in 2011 because of an unwritten agreement among the political elite that the presidency rotates between the north and south every two terms.

Following are some of the northern names being mentioned within the PDP and in Nigerian media as possible successors to Yar’Adua:

IBRAHIM BABANGIDA

Babangida, a 68-year-old northerner from Niger state, seized power in 1985 in a bloodless coup, ruling the oil exporter for nearly eight years.

LAGOS, Feb 19 (Reuters) – Nigeria’s privatisation agency on Friday published letters promising financing from Dubai and China for a $2.5 billion bid for former telecoms monopoly Nitel, which it said were seen by its advisor, BNP Paribas.

Nigeria announced its preferred bidder for Nitel on Tuesday, naming China Unicom and the Minerva Group from Dubai as part of the New Generation Telecommunications Ltd consortium, whose bid valued Nitel at five times what many thought it was worth.

Doubts surfaced over the planned deal two days later when Unicom <0762.HK>, China’s second biggest carrier, denied involvement and there was uncertainty over the identity of the Dubai company.

The Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) said it stood by the bid process for a stake in of one of the world’s fastest growing telecoms markets and sent out a copy of what it said was a letter from Minerva Group in Dubai pledging financing.

The letter, signed by Minerva Group chairman Ahmed Abdullah, states that the Dubai firm intends to acquire 68 percent of the bid consortium, equivalent to 51 percent of Nitel.

“Additionally we can also provide a loan up to and in excess of $5 billion as and when due following Minerva procedure,” the letter, dated Jan. 19, says.

The letter, on Minerva Group headed notepaper, gives telephone and fax numbers as well as a P.O. Box in the United Arab Emirates, along with email addresses including public Gmail and Yahoo! accounts.

LAGOS, Sept 6 (Reuters) – Nigeria has extended the deadline for expressions of interest in its former telecom monopoly Nitel, which has been struggling to find investors for the last few years.

The Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) said on Tuesday it had extended its Aug. 28 deadline following requests by investors for more time to sort out issues with their proposed technical partners. It was the government’s first update on the tender since the deadline passed.

“The new deadline is now Oct. 26. Some investors say their partners are from overseas so they need more time to get things done, to get their partners ready,” BPE spokesman Joe Anichebe said.

“Because of the delicate nature of the transaction, we need to accommodate their suggestions.”

The BPE invited bids in July for a 75 percent stake in Nitel and each of its subsidiaries, which include mobile unit MTEL, the South Atlantic Terminal underwater cable (SAT-3) and analogue cellular phone units STAC and CDMA.

The agency said that 14 potential investors, including the Nigerian arms of South Africa’s MTN Group <MTNJ.J> and Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat) <ETEL.AD>, MTNL India <MTNL.BO>, a group involving Spain’s Telefonica <TEF.MC> and local firm Globacom, had expressed interest.

Nigeria is one of the world’s fastest growing markets, adding 7 million new subscribers in the last quarter of 2008 alone and has overtaken South Africa to become the biggest on the continent.