GHANA

Ghana will receive its first payment for oil flows later this month, the country's finance minister said on Wednesday after parliament passed a long-delayed oil revenue management bill in a unanimous vote.

Muammar Gaddafi launched a land and air offensive to retake territory in Libya's east at dawn on Wednesday, sparking a rebel call for foreign air strikes against African mercenaries they said were helping him cling to power.

Producer prices in Ghana rose 23.14 percent in January from a year earlier, the country's statistics office said on Wednesday, up from 17.79 percent in December.

Inflation is likely to rise further in Mauritius, central bank governor Rundheersing Bheenick said on Saturday, reinforcing speculation that the central bank may raise rates at its March meeting.

The following is a White House transcript of President Barack Obama's remarks on Egypt from the Grand Foyer in the White House on February 11, 2011.

A halt to cocoa-buying in Ivory Coast is leaving beans to rot in farm warehouses, while smuggling through Ghana intensifies and some growers switch to other crops, farmers said on Thursday.

Ghana's inflation rate jumped to 9.08 percent in January, the first increase in 19 months and due partly to a 30 percent rise in petrol prices, but analysts still expect the central bank to keep interest rates on hold next week.

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.

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.