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Kayode Fayemi,
governor of Ekiti State, on Wednesday in Abuja, promised to partner the
World Bank on health, agriculture, education, infrastructure
development, and good governance.

The governor said
this was with a view to ensuring improved standard of living for the
people, as well as adequate development of the state.

Mr. Fayemi gave the promise when he paid a courtesy call on the World Bank acting country director, Foluso Okunmadewa.

“We are aware of
the role the World Bank has been playing in Ekiti State; our focus is
to ensure that the state is moved forward,” Mr. Fayemi said.

Ifueko
Omoigui-Okauru, the executive chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue
Service (FIRS), has said that the Value Added Tax (VAT) laws would be
reviewed to align with the General Tax System (GTS).

Mrs. Okauru said at the opening ceremony of the VAT Administrators
in Africa (VADA) conference in Abuja, on Wednesday, that Nigeria was
trying to simplify its VAT laws to attain the overall goals of the
system.

Zambia’s annual inflation slowed in October, official data showed on Thursday.

The Central Statistical Office (CSO) said in a statement that the drop was largely driven down by a decrease in non-food costs.

It said that inflation dropped to 7.3 percent year-on-year in October when compared with 7.7 percent in September.

Zambia, which is Africa’s largest copper producer, had targeted inflation of 8 percent by year-end.

But the Bank of Zambia govenor, Caleb Fundanga, told Reuters on Thursday he was confident a December print would be lower.

“Food inflation is well under control because of the good production of food,” he said.

South Africa’s
state power utility, Eskom, is financially sound and will be able to
service its debt, a senior treasury official said on Thursday.

Earlier, finance
minister, Pravin Gordhan, told a parliament committee the government
had extended guarantees to Eskom from 174 billion rand to 350 billion
rand to enable it to continue with its power generation programme
through 2017.

“Backed by these
guarantees … when they complete (new power stations) Medupi and
Kusile, the energy that is going to be generated by these power
stations should actually enable Eskom to service its debt,” Lungisa
Fuzile, head of asset and liability management at the treasury told the
same hearing.

MTN, Africa’s
biggest mobile operator, on Thursday, forecast a near 10 percent rise
in subscribers by year-end, reaping the dividend from billions of
dollars of spending on its networks.

The company said
subscriber numbers grew 4 percent in its third quarter, overcoming
intense competition and price cuts from rivals.

Strong growth in
Nigeria, Iran, and its home market of South Africa prompted the company
to lift its forecast for new users this year by 8.5 percent, to 22.9
million from 21.1 million.

MTN, which operates mobile phone networks across Africa and the
Middle East, has spent almost 100 billion rand on capital expenditure
over the last four years.

The Kenyan and
Ugandan shillings should strengthen next week, although minor political
uncertainty surrounding an election in neighbouring Tanzania is likely
to keep its currency in check.

Kenya’s shilling is seen firming, helped by dollar proceeds from sectors such as tourism, and remittances from Kenyans abroad.

“We favour a
stronger shilling going forward if, as expected, the euro makes further
gains in the days to come,” Bank of Africa said in a note.

“We also expect the local unit to receive support from strong
inflows from tourism, diaspora repatriation, and non-governmental
organisation proceeds – all of which could give the local unit impetus
to chart new levels,” it further said.

South Africa’s
Treasury said on Wednesday it would relax exchange controls further,
with individuals being allowed to take more money abroad in the latest
government attempt to weaken the rand.

At a briefing,
central bank governor, Gill Marcus, said she would give details next
week, but could not estimate how much money would leave South Africa
due to the easing of controls.

“The question of the amount that would flow out depends on what people want to do.

“By the end of next week, circulars will go out,” she said.

Niger has announced
it will renew uranium exploration permits, which was largely
unexploited during a period of unrest, and begin an overhaul of its
mining code to boost the sector’s productivity.

The top uranium
supplier to France’s nuclear industry has attracted billions of dollars
in investments, but development has slowed in recent years due to
political instability, simmering rebellion, and an uptick in al
Qaeda-linked kidnappings in the lawless Sahel part of West Africa.

Tuareg militants
waged a low-level insurgency from 2007 to 2009 in the country’s
northern desert, leading Niger’s government to declare a state of
emergency in the zone where foreign firms held more than 100 3-year
exploration permits, hindering mining activity.

Copper production
in Zambia, Africa’s largest producer of the metal, increased by 20
percent to 548,326 tonnes from January to August, compared with the
same period last year, the central bank said on Wednesday.

The Bank of Zambia
(BoZ0) said in a fortnightly report that copper exports in the first
eight months of 2010 rose to 541,396 tonnes from 435,460 tonnes in
2009. Production was 456,735 tonnes of copper in the 2009 period.

Frederick
Bantubonse, the general manager of the Chamber of Mines of Zambia,
which represents foreign mining companies, told Reuters the higher
output reflected increasing investment.

“Both copper and cobalt production are rising because mining companies have invested heavily in the mines,” Mr. Bantubonse said.

The transport
minister, Yusuf Suleiman, on Wednesday reiterated Federal Government’s
commitment to the execution of the concept of intermodal transportation.

He told the News
Agency of Nigeria in Singapore that the concept involved a process in
which the various modes of transportation such as rail, road, water,
and air would be interlinked.

“We must have an integrated transport infrastructure that complements one another,” he said.

Mr. Suleiman said
that when a ship berths at the Lagos Port, the movement of the cargoes
should be complemented by both rail and road services. He said that the
final draft of the National Transport Policy, which was all
encompassing, had just been produced.