GHANA

Newmont Mining Corporation (NEM.N) expects to more than double its African gold production to 1.2 million ounces by 2015, driven by its projects in Ghana, a senior executive said on Tuesday.

The companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trade on Tuesday are: Sandisk, ProLogis, Urban Outfitters, Newmont Mining, Ford Motor, Avon Products, Akamai Technologies, Genworth Financial, Nyse Euronext and Sara Lee.

A cocoa export ban in Ivory Coast and a liquidity shortage since incumbent Laurent Gbagbo seized the central bank's local branch has left the top grower's cocoa industry in chaos, with beans piling up on farms or being smuggled out, farmers said on Wednesday.

Ghana is on track for a record 800,000-tonne cocoa harvest this season, the head of sector body Cocobod told Reuters on Thursday, adding that any impact from smuggling from neighbouring Ivory Coast was limited so far.

A small but increasing flow of cocoa beans is being smuggled out of Ivory Coast as exporters halt shipments from the top grower due to a political crisis, sending global prices to one-year highs.

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni is against the United Nations' recognition of Alassane Ouattara as winner of Ivory Coast's election and wants an African Union probe into the poll, his spokesman said on Tuesday.

Lovers of chocolate probably have no clear idea where the Ivory Coast is located, but political turmoil in that West African nation will likely drive up the price of their favorite sweet treat.

The Ghana cedi extended record losses against the greenback on Monday as corporate demand for the dollar remained high and inflows sluggish, traders said.

Nigeria wants U.N. backing for military intervention in Ivory Coast to prevent it slipping into a civil war that could destabilise the West African region, Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia said on Monday.

EU sanctions aiming to squeeze Ivory Coast incumbent Laurent Gbagbo's access to funding could hurt the nation's 40,000-barrel-per-day oil sector and may shut down its 80,000 bpd refinery within months, according to the head of the state oil firm.

Nigeria has issued guidance for its $500 million debut Eurobond indicating a yield of around 7 percent, higher than that of West African peer Ghana, market sources said on Thursday.

Ghana's stock exchange expects at least four new listings this year, including a local float by oil group Tullow Plc, and predicts that inflows of new pension funds will boost trading volumes.

Ghana is still making preparations to launch a second Eurobond originally due in 2010, Finance Minister Kwabena Duffuor said on Tuesday, stressing that market conditions were not behind the delay.

China has lent more money to developing nations than the World Bank in the past two years, the Financial Times said on Tuesday, underlining Beijing's ambitions to increase its global influence.

Uganda's shilling looks set to plumb new record lows against the dollar over the next week due to soaring foreign exchange demand from the oil sector, while Kenya's unit should strengthen slightly.

Ghana's inflation slowed to a new 18-year low of 8.58 percent in December, feeding expectations the West African economic heavyweight will keep its policy interest rate on hold in the short term.

Ghana, the latest entrant to the club of African oil producers, has sold its first crude oil exports to Exxon Mobil Corp., oil trading sources said on Wednesday.

Stock index futures dipped on Wednesday after a warning for Spain about its credit rating, rekindling fears about euro-zone debt.

Three telecoms firms have subscribed to a new undersea cable linking Nigeria and West Africa to Europe, paving the way for a transformation in internet access in Africa's fastest-growing telecoms market.

World Bank studies the business environment for FDI in various nations

An eagerly-awaited submarine cable linking West Africa to Europe has gone live, paving the way for cheaper and more reliable internet access in one of the world's fastest-growing telecoms markets, its operators said on Friday.