Finabiz: September 2014

Tuesday, 30 September 2014

FG to establish 1,000MW coal power plant in Enugu

The Federal Government has announced plans to establish a 1000 mega watts coal power plant in Enugu state.

The President, Goodluck Jonathan, who disclosed this in Enugu, said the plant is expected to help address the epileptic power situation in the country.

Jonathan, who was represented by Vice President Namadi Sambo, said the plant would complement other electricity projects being executed by the Federal Government and private investors in the area and ensure that Enugu and the rest of the South-east region enjoyed improved electricity supply.

The Federal Government had a couple of weeks ago said the country is capable of generating up to 30 per cent of its energy needs from its coal resources using environmental-friendly clean technology.

Jonathan said the country is endowed with abundant coal reserves of the required quality necessary for power generation.

To this end,

The Edo House of Assembly on has passed the 2015 budget estimates of N159.3 billion.

Governor Adams Oshiomhole had on September 23 presented a budget size of N156.551 billion to the assembly for consideration.

Considering the budget, the assembly shored up the appropriation bill with about N3 billion.

Speaking on the occasion of the 2015 appropriation, the Chairman, Committee on Appropriation and Project Monitoring, Hon. Peter Aliyu (APC Etsako East), said the budget proposal as presented by the governor reflected the views of the people and meant to complete all ongoing projects.

During the consideration of the appropriation bill, the sum of N88.6 billion was

UK economic growth has been revised up to 0.9% for the second quarter of the year by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), compared with a previous estimate of 0.8%.

UK GDP was 3.2% higher in the second quarter compared with a year earlier.

Revised ONS figures also show the UK economy surpassed its pre-recession peak in the third quarter of 2013.

Previously, this was thought to have been achieved in the second quarter of 2014.

The video streaming site Netflix will release its first feature-length film next year after striking a deal with the Weinstein Company.

The sequel to Ang Lee's Oscar-winning martial arts drama Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon will be shown on Netflix and in Imax cinemas in August.

Netflix has over 50 million subscribers, in more than 40 countries.

The firm already produces its own TV programmes, notably the politically-themed House of Cards.

"The movie-going experience is evolving quickly and profoundly, and Netflix is unquestionably at the forefront of that movement," said Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of the Weinstein Company.

"We are tremendously excited to be continuing our great relationship with Netflix and bringing to fans all over the world the latest chapter in this amazing and intriguing story."

The sequel, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend, will see

A US judge has ruled that the Republic of Argentina is in contempt of court for refusing to obey an order to repay the debt it owes to two US hedge funds.

Argentina has been mired in a US court dispute with the funds, which bought the country's debt at a discount after its default in 2001.

In July, Judge Thomas Griesa ruled that Argentina must repay the funds before it can repay other bondholders.

Argentina refused, sending the country into default.

Earlier on Monday, Argentina's ambassador to the US warned in a letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry that if the country was found to be in contempt of court, it would represent "unlawful interference" in Argentina's domestic affairs.

A Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday vacated an order granted the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) to take over Terminal 2 of Murtala Mohammed International Airport.

Justice Ibrahim Buba, in a ruling, upturned the order on the grounds that it was an abuse of court process since the order was obtained in the face of previous pending cases and specific orders, reports News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Justice Okon Abang of the same court had on September 22 granted receivership of assets of Wale Babalakin, Bi-Courtney’s chairman, to Olisa Agbakoba.

Agbakoba was appointed receiver/manager over all the companies of Babalakin, including MMA2, Bi-Courtney Ltd, Chartered Investment Limited, Resort International Ltd and Roygate Properties Ltd.

The orders were based on

Nigeria recorded significant improvements in its ‘Doing Business’ index within the last four years, the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business in Nigeria 2014’ report has revealed.

This year’s report is the third in a series of reports analysing business regulations across Nigeria.

The Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, which gave insight into the report yesterday said the study, which benchmarked four regulatory areas such as starting a business; dealing with construction permits; registering property and enforcing contracts, also measured the progress made by the respective states since January 2010, when the last benchmarking exercise was conducted.

According to the report, from 2010 till date, the country recorded 34 improvements in its ‘Ease of Doing Business’ index, of which 13 focused on starting a business, eight on dealing with construction permits, 10 on registering property, and three on enforcing contracts.

Specifically, the report stated: “For the first time,

The Nigerian Union of Pensioners, Electricity Sector, Rivers/Bayelsa Chapter has protested against the non-payment of their arrears and pension for over nine months.

During the protest in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the union drew the attention of President Goodluck Jonathan to the hardship which their members are going through due to the irregular and non-payment of monthly pension since the beginning of the year.

The union insisted that the Ministry of Finance and Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Company, NELMCO Board should apologise to the families of its late union members, who

Microsoft pips Sony to launch Xbox One in China

Microsoft has launched the Xbox One in China - becoming the first major console maker to enter what could be a massively lucrative market.

The first consoles were sold in Shanghai, priced at 4,299 yuan ($699, £430). Sony and Nintendo are yet to launch their respective products.

In January, the Chinese government lifted a 14-year ban on consoles, made because of worries over content.

However, many popular titles, such as Call of Duty, will still be banned.

Only 10 games were available to buy on the Xbox One's release - but Microsoft has said 70 titles are in the pipeline.

Beating its rivals to the market may give Microsoft a much-needed sales boost. Its console is currently being outsold by Sony's PlayStation 4 in all major markets.

But Piers Harding-Rolls, a games analyst from

Lloyds Banking Group has dismissed eight staff members following an investigation into the manipulation of some key interest rates set in London.

The move follows the bank's £218m fine in July for "serious misconduct" over the setting of Libor.

Chair Lord Blackwell said the actions of those responsible for the misconduct were "completely unacceptable".

Lloyds, which is 24.9% owned by the government, said the individuals had also forfeited £3m in unpaid bonuses.

The bank said its remuneration committee would now ensure the outcome of the disciplinary process was "fully and fairly reflected" in other staff bonus payments.

Regulators found that Lloyds manipulated the London interbank offered rate (Libor) for yen and sterling and tried to rig the rate for yen, sterling and the US dollar.

It was also found to have

The European Commission will set out its case on Tuesday against Apple's tax arrangements in Ireland.

The report is part of a broader EU investigation into tax policies in Ireland, Netherlands and Luxembourg.

The Commission is examining whether these countries have unfairly favoured multinational companies including Apple, Fiat and Starbucks.

The EU will make its case that Apple's tax arrangements with Dublin amount to illegal state aid.

The Commission will argue that backroom tax deals it believes were struck between Apple and the Irish government could constitute a breach of EU regulations on state aid.

However, Apple denies any special arrangements were in place.

"There's never been anything that would be construed as state aid," Apple's chief financial officer, Luca Maestri, told the Financial Times newspaper.

Apple says it pays all the tax it owes.

Shares in the world's biggest listed winemaker, Australia's Treasury Wine Estates (TWE), have plunged after it rejected two separate multi-billion takeover offers.

TWE said that the two offers - both worth A$5.20 (£2.80) a share or A$3.4bn (£1.88bn) - "undervalued the company".

One of the bids was from US private equity giant KKR and partner Rhone Capital, with the second from an unidentified firm.

TWE shares fell 13%.

"It is now apparent to the company that the bidders are not able to support a transaction on terms and at a price acceptable to the board," TWE added.

TWE said it had discussed the offer with shareholders holding around 50% of the firm's shares.

The firm owns brands such as Wolf Blass, Rosemount and Lindeman's.

It is also behind

Prada's two chief executives are being investigated by Italian authorities for possible tax evasion, the company said.

Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli are being examined over "the accuracy of certain past tax filings by them as individuals in respect of foreign-owned companies", it said in a statement.

The inquiry comes after Prada disclosed it was bringing its holding company back to Italy from Luxembourg in 2013.

The alleged tax evasion stems from the 10 years they were based in Luxembourg.

Heritage Bank Limited has announced plans to host its maiden business fair to support the small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in the country.

The two-day exhibition is one of the activities to mark the bank’s 2014 customer service week scheduled for October.

Explaining the rationale behind the maiden Business Fair, Group Head, SME, Heritage Banking Company Limited, Bayo Ogunnusi said, it is being organised in line with the bank’s vision of promoting economic development through supports for SMEs.

He added, in a statement that

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reviewed the guidelines on international monetary transfer services.

The review, according to the bank, was carried out in order to accommodate inbound as well as the outbound money transfer services that was introduced recently.

The 19-page document titled: ‘Guidelines on International Money Transfer Services in Nigeria, obtained on the CBN’s website yesterday, stated that all inbound money transfer to Nigeria would be disbursed to beneficiaries who operate a bank account, mobile money wallets with the agent or through ATM.

Also, the central bank noted that the maximum allowable cash withdrawals for inbound money transfer shall not be more than $500, adding that any amount in excess of $500 would be paid through an account.

However, where the beneficiary does not have a

For allegedly dumping their part of a partnership deal to establish a polymer currency printing plant in Nigeria, the Reserve Bank of Australia and two other firms, Securency Private Limited and Innovia Films Limited, all based in Australia, may pay damages of up to four billion Euros (€4bn) to a Nigerian firm.

They are to face a €126 million specific damages for loss of revenue for failure to establish a local polymer plant up to date; and €1.5 billion euros damages for breach of contracts to carry out technology transfer to a Nigerian entity or establish a polymer plant in Nigeria.

This is the value of what would have been saved if the Australian institution, through its subsidiary firms, had effectively transferred and domesticated the technology for the production of polymer currency notes in Nigeria.

The Australian apex bank and the firms are to

As the country celebrates 54 years of independence Wednesday, and 15 years of uninterrupted democracy, the nation’s telecommunication sector has witnessed a tremendous change and achievements during the democratic period.

The sector is adjudged an indispensable catalyst for the development of all other sectors in the country.

The democratically elected government in 1999 showed keen interest in the full liberalisation of the telecommunication sector.

The licensing of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) by the Obasanjo administration saw three firms emerged, ECONET Wireless Nigeria, Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN) Communications and M-Tell Nigeria.

The new GSM licences, which were awarded for a period of

Following alarming evidence of the spread of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the World Bank Group has announced that it will nearly double its financing to $400 million to help the worst-affected countries address the emergency and build stronger health systems for the years ahead.

This represents $170 million in new funding. With this announcement, the bank will put $230 million toward the emergency response and $170 million for medium- and long-term projects.

The new resources – which the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors will consider in the coming weeks – will be targeted at rapidly increasing the health care workforce and purchasing needed supplies in order to bring care and treatment to all parts of the affected countries.

The funding also is aimed at

The level of global liquidity will increasingly determine the naira – dollar exchange rates as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), confronts a new era of a domestic economy that is more closely integrated and co-related with the global economy.

Analysts say the naira value will be influenced mostly by events outside the control of the CBN. These are the level of global liquidity as U.S economic stimulus or quantitative easing (QE) begins to get rolled back, which in turn will affect the price of oil.

“The outlook for the naira is hinged on the relative availability of liquidity in the global economy,” said Ayo Teriba, CEO of Economic Associates, a risk analysis and research firm.

The naira traded at N163.93 against the

World Bank approves $500m credit for SME in Nigeria

The Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank has approved 500-million- dollar credit for Medium and Small Scale Enterprises in Nigeria, to increase their access to finance, a statement issued by Bamidele Oladokun said on Friday.

In the statement, Oladokun, the bank’s Communication Specialist, said that the fund was from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) to support SME projects.

“The project is in support of the government’s efforts to promote the growth and job creation potential of the private sector through improved access to financing.

Australian ne-gotiator, Stephen Davis yesterday gave some details of how top Nigerians have been channeling huge sums of money to bankroll the activities of the Boko Haram sect.

The influential Nigerians, whose names were however not revealed, were said to have created a strong network which assisted them to wire a large sum of money via the Central Bank of Nigeria to an agent in Egypt. The agent, he said, purchases the arms and military uniforms for the insurgents.

Australian negotiator, Dr. Stephen Davis, and Boko Haram commanders in 2013 after BH reportedly agreed to dialogue

Apart from the Cairo agent buying arms directly for the sect, vehicles and some materials are sometimes moved to Benin Republic where

Nigeria’s interbank lending rates inched up this week to an average of 10.50 percent on Friday, up from 10.37 percent last week after a treasury bill sale drained liquidity, dealers said.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sold a combined N200 billion ($1.2 billion) worth of bills on Monday and Thursday this week, to manage excess liquidity. It also sold N114.39 billion in treasury bills at a primary market auction.

The market opened with a cash balance of

Air France insists budget airline must be low cost

Air France has said it will go ahead with plans to develop its low cost airline within France despite objections from striking pilots.

Conditions at the budget operator are the main sticking point between management and Air France pilots.

Talks on Thursday failed to find a resolution to the 12 day old strike.

Air France said demands that pilots at the new operation receive the same pay and conditions as at Air France were incompatible with the low-cost model.

The pilots are demanding that the same contract be offered to all pilots across Air-France KLM's subsidiaries.

No single contract

Air France originally hoped to develop its low cost operation, Transavia, via regional hubs around Europe. But

The NIGERIA Deposit Insurance corporation, NDIC, has warned the Nigerian public to be wary of “wonder banks” which offer mouth-watering deposit interests but indeed are out to defraud unscrupulous MEMBERS of the society.

The Managing Director, MD, of the corporation, Alh. Umaru Ibrahim, gave the warning at a press briefing in Abuja, yesterday, to mark its 25th anniversary.

“The problem of wonder banks are emerging again and the public must be careful about anyone coming to them and promising very high deposit interests which could be at the detriment of the deposit itself.

“If someone comes and promises a very high interest in order to take YOUR money. You should be careful because his real intention might be to run away with your deposit”, he warned.

He regretted that in the current efforts to sanitise the MicroFinance Banking sub-sector, his officials couldn’t even trace the addresses of some of them, adding,

China has uncovered $10bn (£6.1bn) worth of fake trades as part of a nationwide crackdown on companies.

The currency regulator said 15 fraud cases had been handed over to the police for prosecution.

Companies sometimes falsify transactions as a way of GETTING MONEY in and out of China.

"Fake trade deals can do severe harm to ...the overall economy" said Wu Ruilin, deputy head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).

"They not only increase the pressure of hot money inflows, but also provide illegal channels for cross-border capital flows," he added.

Blame has also been placed on

Hungary's gas pipeline operator, FGSZ, says it has suspended delivery of gas to neighbouring Ukraine "indefinitely".

Ukraine has been receiving gas from Hungary, Poland and Slovakia since Russia cut off supplies to Ukraine in June in a dispute over unpaid bills.

Ukraine's state-owned gas firm, Naftogaz, confirmed the stoppage. It called the move "unexpected and unexplained".

FGSZ said it cut deliveries to Ukraine to raise the flow of gas to Hungary.

With winter approaching fears are mounting that Ukraine will be unable to heat homes and power industry without Russian gas.

On Friday Russian and Ukrainian energy ministers

Apple has responded to claims that its new handsets are prone to bending by saying such damage would be "rare" during normal use.

Media outlets across the globe had reported that several iPhone 6 owners had complained of handsets becoming misshapen after being carried in trousers pockets without a case.

Several of the US firm's rivals have also helped publicise the claims.

Apple said nine customers had told it their iPhone 6 Plus phones had bent.

In a statement the company noted that the handsets' shells had been constructed out of "anodised aluminium, which is tempered for extra strength" and also featured stainless steel and titanium parts to reinforce the areas of the phones likely to experience the most stress.

"We chose these high-quality materials and construction very carefully for their

The Consul General of the Peoples Republic of China, Mr. Liu Kan, yesterday placed the trade volume between Nigeria and China in the first six months of 2014 at $11.76 billion.

Kan who spoke in Lagos at the 65th anniversary of the founding of his country, also noted that Nigeria's export to China during the period rose by a significant 117.9 per cent, higher than all the export from Nigeria to China in the whole of the previous year, 2013.

"In the first half of the year, the trade volume between China and Nigeria reached $11.76 billion, among which the import from Nigeria to China increased by 117.9 per cent, which surpassed the total for last year," Kan stated.

Noting that Nigeria now is the biggest export market for China, and the third largest partner in Africa, the envoy said, the advantages of the Nigeria economy attract more

The Internet will be a key driver for the Nigerian economy, where the number of mobile Internet subscribers is expected to surge from 7.7 million in 2013 to 50.4 million in 2018.

Nigeria’s entertainment and media revenues will reach an estimated US $8.5bn in 2018, more than doubling from the 2013 figure of US $4.0bn at a CAGR of 16.1 percent.

“This represents one of the fastest growth rates in the world,” said PwC in a recent report.

The report also predicted that television in the form of advertising and subscriptions and licence fees, will also become a US$1 billion-plus market in 2018, while the market will grow steadily.

According to recent data released by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), motion pictures, sound recording and music production represent 1.2 percent of nominal GDP, amounting to just under N1 trillion.

The bureau, in its 2014 second quarter report issued in Abuja, said that motion pictures,

The Federal High Court sitting in Calabar has restrained the Standards Organisation of NIGERIA(SON) from implementing the proposed cement standards it introduced recently.

The ruling was issued by Justice Emmanuel Obile in suit No. FHC/CA/CS/50/14 instituted by the United Cement Company of NIGERIA Limited (UniCem) against the Attorney General of the Federation, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment and the SON.

In the ruling, the presiding judge urged counsel to SON (the 3rd defendant) to ensure the regulatory body maintains the status quo over the proposed cement standardisation.

The judge warned the counsel to SON, D. S. Lawson– Ogaree of Rickey Tarfa (SAN) and Co., to advise their client to

The deplorable condition of roads in the country has continued to take a toll on human lives and other resources, with an estimated N300 billion spent yearly on maintenance of cars damaged by the roads, BuysinessDay investigations have shown.

According to the 2007 figure from the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), NIGERIA currently has about seven million registered vehicles on the roads, with four used vehicles for every new one registered yearly.

Of this figure, heavy duty trucks and other articulated vehicles and commercial buses account for 50 percent of the total annual expenditure.

The frightening figure of seven million vehicles and N300billion spent on yearly repairs and spare parts replacement, along with the near collapse of the rail system and the high COST of air travel, have put a lot of pressure on the nation’s road transport industry, which accounts for

Unity Bank raises N19.2bn in share sale

Nigeria’s Unity Bank has raised N19.23 billion ($117.4 million) in a share sale to existing shareholders to bolster its capital position as the central bank implements stricter international regulations.

The mid-tier lender sold 38.45 billion shares at 0.50 naira each, the issuing adviser said on Thursday.

The issue was oversubscribed and the bank will refund excess subscription monies to shareholders.

Unity Bank raised the funds to bolster its capital base and finance working capital, the adviser said in a notice.

Nigeria’s central bank has asked lenders to

Facebook (FB.O), the world's leading social network, will win unconditional EU approval for its $19 billion offer for mobile messaging startup WhatsApp in a deal pitting it against telecoms operators, two people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The landmark acquisition, the largest in Facebook's 10-year history, will give the company a firm foothold in the fast-growing mobile messaging market.

A plan by WhatsApp to add free voice-call services for its 450 million customers later this year, however, makes it a potentially powerful competitor to companies such as Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE), Telecom Italia (TLIT.MI) and Telefonica (TEF.MC).

Analysts said the move is likely to hit

Shares in Nigeria’s Access Bank fell 8.2 percent on Thursday after the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) lifted a week old price freeze on the stocks, pending a proposed shareholder vote on its N68 billion rights issue on October 13.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange froze the bank’s shares last week after it said it planned to raise fresh capital of about 68 billion nigerian naira ($415.95 million) in a rights issue, but Access applied to have the freeze lifted because the information on the issue was

Google has responded to an attack by the chief executive of News Corp, who called it a "platform for piracy".

Robert Thomson's letter had urged the European Commission to take a tougher approach to Google's market dominance.

But in a detailed response on its website, the search company said it "has done more than almost any other company to help tackle online piracy".

Google also defended itself against accusations that it uses its market position to stifle competition.

The Commission is currently in the process of deciding how far to curtail Google's market dominance in Europe.

Google's blog, posted by Rachel Whetstone, senior vice-president for Global Communications, argued that the internet offered more choice than ever.

"Because the competition is just one click away online, barriers to switching are very, very low," it said.

"Google is of course very popular in Europe, but we are not

The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) on Thursday said that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) would play major role in the newly drafted standards for cassava products in the country.

Dr Joseph Odumodu, the Director General of SON, said this in Lagos at the conclusion of the work of a technical committee set to up to elaborate and review standards of cassava products.

“It was not the first time SON is elaborating standards on cassava products. It was just a combination of review and elaboration of new ones,” he said.

Odumodu, who was represented by Mr Louis Njoku, Head of Laboratory in SON, said that cassava had been adopted by the African Union as one of its focal crops.

He said that standardisation of cassava bread was on the agenda of the African Regional Organisation for Standardisation Agenda.

“The benefits of our deliberations today go beyond Nigeria and will

Leading US shares have fallen on Wall Street, dragged lower by Apple, which slipped 3.5% after the technology giant was forced to pull an update to its iOS 8 operating system.

The main Dow Jones index was down more than 200 points, or 1.3%, at 16,986 in early trading.

Investor confidence was also knocked by weak durable goods orders figures released by the Commerce Department.

European markets also fell sharply after Wall Street opened.

Germany's Dax and France's Cac 40 indexes were down about 1.5%, while the UK's FTSE 100 was 1.2% lower.

'Under fire'

Other technology stocks listed on Wall Street were also hit by Apple's slide - both Microsoft and Intel were down 1.6%.

Earlier, the world's biggest technology company apologised after

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said it expects full compliance with the provisions of the Nigeria Sustainable Banking Principles (NSBP) reporting template by all concerned institutions by January 2015, saying it is necessary for a level playing field.

In line with global trends on sustainability, the CBN on March 6, 2014 issued the NSBPs reporting template to banks, discount houses and development finance institutions for compliance.

The purpose of the reporting template is to provide reporting institutions with a uniform format for reporting their implementation efforts.

Franklin Ahonkai, deputy director, sustainability department, CBN, who spoke on ‘Regulatory Reporting and Expectations’, at the NSBP pre-reporting workshop organised by Access Bank in Lagos, noted that by the circular sent out by the apex bank reporting institutions were informed that sustainability reporting will commence in June 2014 with the submission of the one-off report (first quarter) not later than July 7, 2014.

The circular, he said, also required that

Tesco executives could be quizzed by MPs after its "stratospheric" error over profits, the chairman of the Parliamentary Business Committee, Adrian Bailey, has told the BBC.

He told Radio 5 live's Wake Up To Money it was "unbelievable" that the retailer could get into "such a mess".

On Monday, Tesco admitted that it had overstated its guidance for half-year profits by £250m.

The UK's accountancy watchdog says it is "monitoring the situation closely".

However, the Financial Reporting Council, said it would not act until Tesco's own investigation was completed.

Too little, too late?

On Tuesday, Tesco said that its new chief financial officer, Alan Stewart, would be joining the company immediately, more than two months earlier than originally planned.

He replaced Laurie McIlwee, who resigned from Tesco in April but was not due to leave the company officially until October.

On Wednesday evening, Tesco admitted that

Air France and pilots' union SNPL have resumed talks in the hope of resolving the 11-day strike that is costing the airline up to 15m euros (£11.8m) a day.

The two parties are discussing a counter-offer made by the union following the airline's proposal to scrap plans to expand its Transavia low-cost airline in Europe.

These plans sparked concerns among pilots over pay and job security.

The resulting strike is affecting almost half of all Air France flights.

On Wednesday evening, Air France offered to

Additional 8.8 megawatts of electricity is to be added to existing capacity from embedded generation in Lagos State from next month.

The 8.8 megawatts are coming from the Mainland Independent Power Plant (IPP) which is to be switched on by Governor Babatunde Fashola on October 31, as part of activities to mark the 2014 Energy Conservation month in the state.

The Mainland IPP located within the Government Reserved Area (GRA), Ikeja, will bring to four, the number of IPPs so far embarked upon by the Lagos State government in partnership with some private investors.

Among the existing IPPs in the state include the 12.15 megawatts Akute IPP which currently enables the Lagos Water Corporation to pump over 130 million gallons of water daily, the 10 megawatts Lagos Island IPP which supplies 24-hour electricity to selected public institutions and facilities on the island, and the 10.4 megawatts Alausa IPP supplying power to the state secretariat complex.

The Mainland IPP, according to Danmilola Ogunbiyi, general manager, Lagos State Electricity Board, will

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