Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Nigeria
A new bill to strengthen counter-terrorism measures in the West African country is awaiting approval by parliament, Vice President Goodluck Jonathan said in an e-mailed statement today from the capital, Abuja.
Following the Dec. 25 bombing attempt, for which Al-Qaeda in Yemen claimed responsibility, the U.S. included Nigeria among countries from which airline passengers will face special screening before boarding flights to American destinations. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old native of Nigeria, has been charged in the U.S. with trying to blowup the Northwest Airlines flight with 278 passengers on board as it landed in Detroit. Read the rest of this entry »
The most reliable route to riches in Africa once lay via politics and “public” service. No surprise, since the state in many of sub-Saharan Africa’s 48 countries controlled the principal levers of the economy in the decades following independence.
The Zambian Development Agency (ZDA) has revealed that it has shortlisted eight companies interested in acquiring a stake in fixed line monopoly operator Zambia Telecommunications Company (Zamtel).
Oando Plc, Nigeria’s biggest independent energy company, Saipem SpA and Modec-Itochu of Japan will develop gas facilities in Ghana in a project estimated at $1 billion. 
Globacom announced last weekend that its long-delayed Glo-1 cable has landed in Lagos, Nigeria. Globacom’s Group Executive Director, Paddy Adenuga, said in a statement to mark the landing of the cable that Glo-1 “will stimulate a new era of prosperity in the continent by offering cheap, fast, and reliable international calls, unprecedented fast access to the internet and revolutionary data transfer”.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will invite more countries into Western Power Corridor Co. (Westcor), the regional partnership that plans to build the $5 billion Inga 3 hydropower plant on the Congo river, Africa’s biggest river. 
South African banking group Absa said on Thursday it has entered into a $150 million funding deal with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to invest in sub-Saharan African infrastructure projects. 
Economic growth in Nigeria, which vies with Angola as Africa’s biggest oil producer, accelerated in the second quarter as agricultural production increased, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said. 
