The Zinox Group, an integrated ICT solutions and Original Equipment Manufacturer, has acquired Konga after several months of negotiations with major investors, Naspers and AB Kinnevik.

As part of the acquisition, Zinox Group would assume ownership of the e-commerce group which includes Konga.com, Nigeria’s largest online mall; KongaPay, a CBN-licensed mobile money platform with over 100,000 subscribers as well as KOS-Express, a digitally-driven and world class logistics company.

Nigeria and neighbour Niger Republic plan to build an oil refinery as part of efforts to tackle smuggling of petrol across their shared borders.

Nigeria’s Minister of state for petroleum resources, Ibe Kachikwu, led a Nigerian government delegation to Niamey, the Nigerien capital, on Wednesday to discuss a firm agreement for the design and construction of the refinery to be strategically located at a border town between the two countries.

According to a statement by his ministry, Kachikwu said the move would be “in line with the commitment to collaboratively work across the region to ensure definitive solutions to [oil] sector challenges”.

Singapore’s tourism agency has expressed displeasure over the recent ranking of the city by a lifestyle magazine, Time Out as one of the least exciting cities in the world.

Time Out magazine released a video that mockingly declares, “There is nothing exciting to do” in Singapore.

The magazine’s City Life Index 2018, published this week, ranked Singapore 31st out of 32 cities, one spot above Istanbul, based on a survey of more than 15,000 people.

Indian government has vowed to stamp out use of cryptocurrencies, which it considers illegal, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday, launching a no-holds-barred attack on virtual currencies such as Bitcoin. Governments around the world are grappling with how to regulate cryptocurrency trading, and policymakers are expected to discuss the matter at a G20 summit in Argentina in March.

South Africa's main stock index ended lower on Friday, wrapping up its worst week in two years as an extended bull run loses steam, while the rand dropped two percent after strong U.S. jobs data lifted the dollar.

The blue-chip JSE Top-40 index fell 1 percent to 51,908 points, bringing losses this week to 4.8 percent - the biggest weekly decline since January 2016. The broader all-share index fell by the same margin to 58,656.82.

Investors have been piling into equities for much of last month amid growing optimism that the newly-elected ruling party leadership would push through business friendly policies.

Global oil companies, Shell Integrated Gas Thailand Pte Ltd and Thai Energy Company Ltd, affiliates of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, have agreed to an asset sale of their 22.2222% interest in the Bongkot field and adjoining acreage offshore Thailand to PTT Exploration & Production Public

Company Limited (PTTEP) and PTTEP International Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of PTTEP, for a transaction value of $750 million. The transaction is expected to complete in the second quarter of 2018, subject to completion conditions as prescribed in the agreement.

The Central Bank of Nigeria in its Purchase Managers Index (PMI) report released on Thursday stated that the expansion of economic activities was sustained in January for the ninth consecutive month. The apex bank hinted that 29 out of the 30 sectors surveyed and captured in the report recorded significant expansion in January.

Photo: Guardian Nigeria

The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday summoned the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefieli, Managing Directors of Banks and Bankers Committee among others over increasing cases of illegal deductions by Deposit Money Banks. The issue was brought to the floor of the senate by Senator Magnus Abe in a motion titled “Urgent need to investigate, regularise and amend conflicting, vague and unjust remedies which the Central Bank of Nigeria offers to victims of excess and arbitrary bank charges and illegal deductions by commercial banks.”

No fewer than 5, 000 youths have been listed to benefit from a World Bank assisted programme, Public Work Fare (PWF), a component of the Youth Employment and Social Support Operations (YESSO) in Kwara state.

Head of the State Public Workfare Unit, Mr. S.O. Aregbe disclosed this in a statement in Ilorin.

Aregbe, in a statement signed by Dr Muyideen Akorede, the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Media to Gov. AbdulFatah Ahmed, said that the governor had approved the engagement of the youth.

A State High Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, has convicted and sentenced two oil marketers - George Ogbonna and Emmanuel Morah, owners of Rocky Energy Limited to eight years imprisonment on a 26-count amended charge bordering on conspiracy, obtaining by false pretence and forgery to the tune of N789.6million.

The convicts were prosecuted alongside one Adamu Maula, owner of Downstream Energy Sources Limited, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

They were said to have imported 10, 862 metric tonnes of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, for which they were paid the sum of money by the Petroleum Support Fund, PSF.