At the Association of Social Anthropologists Blog: Most notably, banking conferences – like marriages – provide a chance for a social group to assemble iin one place, in a way that reaffirms their common identity and enabled them to forge new alliances, often in opposition to others. It also provides a forum for the group… Read More »
NYTimes, Germany Looks at Ways to Protect Online Journalism: As Angela Merkel begins her second term as chancellor of Germany, her government is promoting a novel way to help embattled newspaper and magazine publishers manage the transition to a digital future. The new governing coalition, led by Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats and including the Free… Read More »
WSJ: A Lack of Flare: In the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria, petroleum companies use giant torches to burn off natural gas found with deposits of crude oil. The decades-old industry practice, known as flaring, has long been criticized as wasteful and harmful to the environment because of the carbon dioxide it releases into… Read More »
reports the BBC: Nigerian officials are reportedly planning to give 10% of the country’s oil revenues to people in the Niger Delta, an area plagued by insurgencies. Presidential adviser Emmanuel Egbogah told the UK’s Financial Times that the money would go directly to communities, bypassing powerful state governors. Analysts say the government fears local officials… Read More »
Stephen Gudeman’s post on the Association of Social Anthropologists’ Globalog series on the financial crisis: Economists may see economies as flat or smooth plains consisting of markets and market-like behavior that lead to equilibrium situations, but I think they consist of overlapping and conflicting spheres of value and practices. I label these fuzzy-edged spaces House,… Read More »
Remember this story about the Nigerian central bank taking over five Nigerian banks? Well, it seems that a result of that has been a sort of credit crunch in the country. From the BBC: Lagos-based manufacturing firm, supplying cables to Nigeria’s fledgling national grid. With more than 500 skilled staff, it is exactly the kind… Read More »
1. Remember the list of debtors that was published a last week by the Central Bank of Nigeria? Well, some of the money is now recovered 2. It seems that the Nigerian stock market is getting over the initial shock of the banking reform 3. More on the effects of the rescue of Nigerian banks… Read More »
Mr. Lamido Sanusi, Nigeria’s not-so-long-ago-appointed Central Bank Governor, a risk-management person, is at it. From Financial Times: “A few Nigerian banks, mainly due to huge concentrations in their exposure to certain sectors … but [also] due to a general weakness in risk management and corporate governance, have continued to display signs of failure,” Mr Sanusi… Read More »
From Vanguard: Nigeria’s excess crude account has dropped from $20 billion (N3.004 trillion) at the beginning of the year to $11.2 billion (N1.646trn) in June. This implies that in the last six months, the various tiers of government in the federation have shared a total of $9bn (N1.323tr) from that account. This use of the… Read More »
Sometime ago I wrote a post about my efforts to understand the Nigerian oil industry. Some Next reporters have done an article on their efforts to understand the industry. Nobody seems to know how much Nigerian exports, or how much it makes from oil: Even a cursory check by NEXT has revealed that various agencies… Read More »