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In 2012, the United States and European Union introduced new financial and energy sanctions designed in part to curb Iran’s oil exports. The US threatened foreign financial institutions dealing with Iran’s Central Bank, making it hard for Iranian companies to acquire the dollars needed to buy imports. In any case foreign currency dried up, because the sanctions halved Iran’s oil exports – its main source of foreign exchange – and cut oil revenue from $95bn in 2011 to $69bn in 2012. Even when dollars were available, the cost of imports became prohibitive as the rial fell on the open market from 19,000 in 2011 to 32,000 in 2012. While the sale of medicine to Iran was supposedly exempt from sanctions, most western banks and suppliers were so afraid of problems that they ended all trade. Shabnam Safamanesh, a businesswoman involved in importing pharmaceuticals, told Tehran Bureau that western banks soon refused letters of credit issued by Iranian financial institutions. “They didn’...

By Paul Loomis Nigeria has an infrastructural deficit that is difficult to calculate. Every industry is restricted by a lack of power, by inadequate and failing road infrastructure, by crowded ports, and by the paucity of rolling stock to transport goods across the nation’s vast geography. President Buhari mentioned infrastructure in his inaugural speech, calling it “dilapidated,” a signal of its importance to the new administration. After moving into the presidential villa at Aso Rock in Abuja, he also announced that he had inherited an almost empty treasury. The Nigerian government cannot spend the billions of dollars required to improve and massively expand the country’s infrastructure at todays or next year’s oil prices. That, however, is not the end of the story. Outside of the highly liquid Arabian Gulf states and China where governments have the hard cash to finance construction, many government strategists in emerging economies have settled on concession-based and ...

By Ehijeagbon Oserogho  Introduction According to BusinessDictionary.com, there is no globally accepted, industry recognised benchmark(s) for the grading, rating or classifying of Hotels and other Hospitality Establishments. Hospitality and Tourism Establishments are required to be graded and classified based on the minimum operating standards of the facilities and the services provided, managed and maintained in each Grade or Class of such establishment. FIVE STAR – This is usually an internationally recognised branded Hotel, offering the highest standards and luxuries in its premises, with some of the finest architecture, ambience, accommodation, amenities, range of top-class guests and services provided. A Five Star Hotel should have a gym, a bigger sized Swimming Pool, Cuisines, more than one Restaurant, Casino, on-site shopping facilities and other in-premises recreational facilities. For Restaurants, their classification or grading is usually in One, Two,...

(By ABIODUN DOHERTY ). The world is governed by laws and regulations but more importantly, the whole universe operates in accordance with laws and principles. These principles are often general in nature and are applicable irrespective of location and culture. Real estate investment is equally governed by certain principles which when understood and applied could help an investor make informed decisions under various circumstances. These principles are also applicable to several other spheres that share similar characteristics with the real estate sector. First, let’s examine how the law of demand and supply operates in real estate. In simple terms, when the demand for a thing is very high and supply is low the usual tendency is for price to increase. Put in another way, when the number of people willing and able to buy properties is more than the number of properties in the market for sale then prices will go up. This law also operates in reverse. When the number of those w...

The Federal Government has signed N47.4bn ($237m) risk guarantees with the World Bank in support of the 450 megawatts Azura-Edo Independent Power Plant. It was learnt that the government signed the agreement with the World Bank on Friday after it took three years to complete the loop. Parties to the agreements are the Federal Government, represented by the Ministry of Finance and Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc; the World Bank, in its role as the provider of the guarantees; the project sponsors, represented by Azura Power West Africa Limited; and various lenders represented by JP Morgan, Standard Chartered Bank, Rand Merchant Bank, Standard Bank; and Siemens Bank. The project is scheduled to add 450MW, about 10 per cent of the country’s current power generation capacity to the national grid by 2018 and is the first of a series of new IPPs expected to drive growth in the power sector. Impeccable sources at the NBET told our correspondent on Sunday that the exe...

Price of home means anyone with a household income of less than £77,000 is unlikely to get a mortgage. A shared ownership flat valued at more than £1m has gone on sale in east London, in another sign of London’s growing affordability problem for would-be homebuyers. Shared ownership, offered through housing associations, is designed to help people on low incomes get on the housing ladder by offering them the chance to buy a stake in a property which they can increase over time. The buyer also has to pay rent on the remainder of the property that is not mortgaged. However, rising house prices in the capital mean even this kind of “affordable” housing is getting more expensive. The three-bedroom flat in a new award-winning development near fashionable Old Street in Hackney is valued at £1,025,000, with buyers offered a minimum stake of 25%. The advert for the sixth-floor flat, which is being sold by Islington and Shoreditch Housing Association (Isha), says priority will ...

The Cross River State Government has concluded plans with Irish investors to build 5,000 units of modular homes across the state. This is coming barely two week after the state governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, led a trade delegation to the Republic of Ireland. The property developers from Ireland arrived in Calabar last week to seal the housing deal. Already, modalities have been worked out between the Cross River State Government and an Irish building firm, Affordable Building Concept International, to build affordable houses across the state in an effort to develop new cities. The state governor, while receiving the team, said that the meeting was a continuation of an earlier discussion held in Dublin on the plans by his administration to provide affordable and comfortable shelter for the poor in the state. Ayade, who reiterated his passion for the scheme, said, “There is no amount of value you can give to mankind that will be enough if he is dehumanised by lack of shelter...

The Federal Housing Authority says about 50,000 members belonging to 800 cooperative societies nationwide have indicated interest in its social and cooperative housing programme. The FHA’s Managing Director, Prof. Mohammed Al-Amin, said many of the cooperatives came on their own upon knowing about the social and cooperative housing scheme. It said in a statement that the FHA was deliberately cultivating cooperatives in various parts of the country so as to strengthen them to tap into the programme. Al-Amin was quoted as saying that financially weak members of cooperative societies could latch onto the strength of the group to make their homeownership dreams come true. “The authority is focusing on housing delivery for the most vulnerable groups in the society comprising the no-income, low-income and middle low-income earners. To that end, the FHA has developed special packages in collaboration with non-governmental, faith-based and community-based organisations,” he said. ...

Petroleum products’ marketers across the country have continued to ignore the directive of the Federal Government on kerosene price as they sell the product between N110 and N160 against the regulated price of N50 per litre. The Federal Government is paying N58.65 as subsidy for every litre of kerosene being sold in Nigeria, according to investigation by our correspondents. Figures obtained from the Petroleum Pricing Regulatory Agency on Thursday showed that the Expected Open Market Price or actual landing cost of kerosene plus margins stood at N108.65 per litre. This, however, was against the product’s regulated price of N50 per litre as stipulated by the government. This price is hardly adhered to by many filling stations. PUNCH correspondent observed that most petrol stations in Abuja were not dispensing kerosene on Thursday, particularly those in the city centre. The filling stations in remote towns sold the product above the regulated N50 per litre. It was the sa...

The fixing of petroleum products’ prices is denying the country investment in the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry and depriving Nigerians certain benefits from the country’s petroleum resources, industry stakeholders said on Thursday. The Federal Government currently regulates the prices of Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol, and kerosene, and subsidises their prices to enable Nigerians to get the products at the regulated prices. The regulated price of petrol is currently N87 per litre while that of kerosene is N50 per litre. But the products are sold above the regulated prices in parts of the country, despite government’s subsidy. The Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Emmanuel Kachikwu, in his address at the National Association of Energy Correspondents’ conference in Lagos, said, “Subsidy creates distortions in government revenue distribution as a result of round-tripping and unnecessary carry-over of expenditur...