NIGERIA

New vehicle imports into Nigeria declined 18 percent in 2010, reflecting weak credit growth in sub-Saharan Africa's second-biggest economy in the wake of a $4 billion bank bailout the previous year.

Halliburton Co , the world's second-largest oilfield services company, posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on strong demand in its North American market.

BP, Total, Eni and other international majors were awarded concessions to explore in Angola's ultra-deep water blocks known as pre-salt blocks, Angola's state-owned oil firm Sonangol said on Monday.

Gunmen have killed a soldier guarding a church in northeastern Nigeria, the army said on Monday, the latest in a string of attacks in a region with a history of religious violence.

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.

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.

Three people were killed in central Nigeria on Monday when soldiers opened fire to quell a fight between Christian and Muslim youths over voter registration for April elections, police and witnesses said.

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.

Clashes between political gangs rather than attacks on oil facilities are the greatest threat to Nigeria's Niger Delta ahead of April elections and the long-term security of its oil output depends on much more than who wins.

Shell is putting up four Nigerian onshore oil blocks for auction as the oil major focuses on transferring some assets in Nigeria to local companies, Platts reported on Thursday, quoting sources close to the process.

Nigeria's fast-moving consumer goods sector is attracting foreign investors as parent companies pump cash into local units to offset slowing growth at home.

India's will overtake the U.S. in forty years in terms of GDP at purchasing power parities (PPP) while China will sail past its financial and political rival as early as 2018, a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) report said on Friday.

If statistics is your thing – whether for scholarly work, trivial pursuit, or just to impress a date – you may want to look into the latest edition of the U.S. government’s best-selling reference book: the Census Bureau’s Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2011.

Paris-based telecoms equipment giant Alcatel-Lucent SA and three of its subsidiaries have agreed to pay a combined $92 million penalty to settle a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) investigation into the global sales practice of Alcatel S.A. prior to its 2006 merger with Lucent Technologies Inc.

OPEC output has risen slightly in December as Nigerian supply has increased, a Reuters survey found, indicating the group has yet to boost production substantially in response to prices at a 26-month high.

OPEC output has risen slightly in December as Nigerian supply increased, a Reuters survey found on Thursday, indicating the group has yet to boost production substantially in response to prices at a 26-month high.

Fresh religious clashes that broke out in the city of Jos in Central Nigeria on Sunday reportedly killed at least one person while several other have been injured. Many buildings and cars were set ablaze in the violence between Muslim and Christian groups. Police and military units have been deployed to prevent further hostilities by the mobs. The clashes came just a day after three blasts rocked the city killing 32 people. Tensions are escalating as unconfirmed reports are also suggesting that ...

France asked its citizens to leave Ivory Coast and the World Bank froze funding to the West African state on Wednesday, as a violent power struggle deepened between incumbent Laurent Gbagbo and his rival presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara.

Exxon Mobil said on Monday it had restarted 15,000 barrels per day of Nigerian Oso condensate production, which was shut in following a militant raid on an offshore platform on November 14.