The Constituency for Africa (CFA) today announced that His Excellency Hage Geingob, the President of the Republic of Namibia, will participate in CFA’s 2016 Ronald H. Brown African Affairs Series.

President Geingob will provide Keynote Remarks at CFA’s Roundtable on Increasing U.S.-Africa Trade and Investment, and will Co-Chair the U.S.-Africa Policy Forum, the signature event of this year’s Series. “As a leader among Africa’s many distinguished leaders, President Geingob will bring a much needed perspective to the Ronald H. Brown Series, particularly as we discuss strategies to strengthen U.S.-Africa relations. As for trade, Namibia’s beef recently qualified for export to the U.S. market, the first African country to do so. We are extremely excited to have President Geingob join us this year,” said Mr. Melvin P. Foote, President and Chief Executive Officer of CFA.

The theme of this year’s series is “Setting the US-Africa Agenda for the Next Administration”. Confirmed Co-Chairs for the series include His Excellency Hage Geingob, President of Namibia; Ambassador Andrew J. Young, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Mayor of Atlanta, GA; the Honorable Ronald V. Dellums, former Member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Mayor of Oakland, CA; Ambassador Jendayi E. Frazer, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Africa at the Council on Foreign Relations, and former U.S. Secretary of State for African Affairs; Mr. Denis-Christel Sassou Nguesso, Founder and President of the Foundation Perspectives d’Avenir in the Republic of Congo; Congresswoman Karen Bass; Mr. Mohammed Kachallah, Acting Director General at the Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa; Mr. Renato Almeida, Manager of International Government Affairs at Chevron; Mr. Raymond Dabney, President and CEO of the Cannabis Science Research Foundation; and Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole, Director of the National Museum of Africa Art.

Sponsors for the 2016 Ronald H. Brown African Affairs Series include the Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa, Foundation Perspectives d’Avenir, Chevron, Cannabis Science Research Foundation, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and Nixon Peabody LLP.

Government has been forced to reduce duty and surtax on some products imported from South Africa in response to concerns raised by that country over the restriction of imports under Statutory Instrument (SI) 64 of 2016.

Early this month, South Africa gave Zimbabwe two weeks to remove duty and surtax on 112 products after Zimbabwe had restricted the importation of 43 products under SI 64.

Sources told Standardbusiness last week that after Industry and Commerce minister Mike Bimha took the matter to Cabinet, a few concessions would be made.

The source said: “government will be falling back on trading protocols from the World Trade Organisation to avoid some of the stipulations in the Sadc Trade Protocol of 1996. South Africa also has restrictions of its own on what Zimbabwe can export to that country.”

Industry and Commerce deputy minister Chiratidzo Mabuwa last week said the government’s response to the request to reduce duty on the 112 products would be revealed at the Sadc regional meeting.

An extraordinary committee of ministers’ meeting was held last week on August 24.

“If the SI 64 of 2016 affected, for example the informal traders, it is government’s duty to come up with alternative means such as looking at (what could be done about) other products that are still permissible to bring in,” Mabuwa said.

“For example, we have the importation of palm oil, olive oil, fridge-free margarine, washing powder, so we can let it go now but as long as firms for these products are established here, we have to create a market for them. We go and do our due diligence, look at what is involved, go into the industries where economists do their work, come up with what the national demand is, and what it is that we can do and how can we produce it.”

SI 64 of 2006 came after a number of imports regulations — SI 6 of 2014, SI 126 of 2014, SI 18 of 2016, SI 19 of 2016 and SI 20 of 2016 — which were introduced to support local industries.

Some of the 43 restricted imports include coffee creamers (Cremora), camphor creams, white petroleum jellies and body creams.

“In 2016 we issued Statutory Instrument’s number 18, 19 and 20 looking specifically at issues but it is just that SI 64 is the fattest because it has 43 items that have been grouped together. If you look at it, we did not issue anything in 2015 which means we had a lot of representations from industry and we came up with these 43 items and it is not going to be the last one. We might come up with more depending on the representations,” Mabuwa said.

Buy Zimbabwe chief executive officer Munyaradzi Hwengwere said South Africa had in the past introduced the preferential trade arrangements on Zimbabwe’s textiles. He said South Africa imposed a 65% duty on textile products, a move which suffocated textile companies in Bulawayo.

Deputy Agriculture minister Paddy Zhanda said companies complaining about the effects of import restrictions should be “ignored”.

He said trading was not really free and was actually a “war” suggesting that Zimbabwe deals with the costs of the potential effects. However, Mabuwa disagreed saying there was need to honour trading agreements.

Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce president Davison Norupiri said although some companies had been affected, others had seen increases well above 30% capacity utilisation and increased productivity.

“We have got companies that have registered growth in terms of capacity utilisation [and] employment [creation] which is something we cherish as a chamber. The government also whet the appetite of those who want to invest in our country. We have also witnessed massive expansion on most of the oil companies in this country,” Norupiri said.

Zimbabwe is South Africa’s fifth biggest export market in Africa. In 2015, Zimbabwe imported goods and services worth $1,8 billion from South Africa, according to statistics from South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry.

South African firms like trading with Zimbabwe due to the strong currency the country uses at a time when the South African rand has been volatile.

Authorities at the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development yesterday confirmed the discovery of world class nickel in Kaduna State, by an Australian mining syndicate.

Top officials at the ministry, who confirmed the development in separate telephone chats with LEADERSHIP, on Monday night, said a more comprehensive report would be made available by the Ministry today.

One of the sources, who craved anonymity as he was not authorised to speak on the matter, said: “Yes it is true. Nickel has been found in Nigeria, but we cannot say anything right now. But be rest assured that a comprehensive report on the matter will be made available by the Ministry today, or as soon as possible.”

Nickel is a silvery-white metal with a shiny surface common to most metals, and is ductile and capable of being drawn into thin wires. The name is said to come from the German word Kupfernickel, meaning “Old Nick’s copper,” a term used by German miners. It is also said to be one of three naturally occurring elements that is strongly magnetic. The other two are iron and cobalt, but nickel is less magnetic than either iron or cobalt.

Nickel is used in many forms, including electric guitar strings, magnets and rechargeable batteries. It is added to a very important metal, alloy-stainless steel, which has numerous applications. It is used in cookware, cutlery, kitchen appliances and various bronzes and brasses as well as coins among several others.

LEADERSHIP findings revealed that the top ten countries where the mineral is found in tonnage include the Philippines (73,000) , Russia (240,000), Canada (240,000), Australia (234,000), New Caledonia (190,000), Indonesia (170,000), Brazil (110,000) China (102,000), Colombia (73,000) and Cuba (57,000).

Following the discovery, Nigeria is set to join the league of the world’s largest producers as the find is said to offer potential for early cash flow. Nigeria’s current major source of nickel, scrap metals, currently yields an average 2.5 metric tons annually.

The discovery was first reported by an Australian national daily, The Australian, which reported that the private mining syndicate that made the discovery was led by Hugh Morgan, a mining industry veteran.

“The discovery is unusual because the nickel is found in small balls up to 3mm in diameter of a high purity in shallow soils in what could be the surface expression of a much bigger hard-rock nickel field.

“The nickel balls, rumoured to grade better than 90 per cent nickel, and thought to be a world first given their widespread distribution, offer the potential for early cash flow from a simple and low-cost screening operation to fund a full assessment of the find that has exploration circles buzzing,” The Australian reported.

Though the newspaper reported that details of the discovery were sketchy, it indicated that the discovery was on a border town in Kaduna State, close to Dangoma, a small farming settlement about 160 kilometres northeast of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

According to the report, Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, is one of 13 African ministers of mines scheduled to attend this year’s three-day Africa Down Under mining conference at Perth’s Pan Pacific Hotel in September.

… Can Generate N5trn Annually From Mining – Fayemi

Meanwhile, Fayemi has said that the analysis conducted by major stakeholders in the solid minerals sector, the Association of Metal Exporters of Nigeria, indicates that Nigeria can generate at least N5 trillion annually from mining and exporting of its vast solid mineral deposits.

He stated this in his keynote address at the opening of the 5th International Mining Investment Conference/Exhibition on Nigeria, which started in Abuja yesterday, with the theme, ‘Connecting the Global Mining Industry to the Opportunities of the Solid Minerals Sector in Nigeria.’

The minister said: “Based on current data, Nigeria’s solid minerals sector only makes up about 0.34 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

“While that is significant, it is much smaller than its true potential as the vast majority of our mining assets have yet to be exploited.

“According to one of the major stakeholders in the solid minerals sector, the Association of Metal Exporters of Nigeria, we can generate at least N5 trillion annually from mining and exporting of its vast solid mineral deposits, with several multiplier effects on job creation, state development and social infrastructure that could position the solid minerals sector as the main catalyst for national development.”

Fayemi noted that should Nigeria successfully implement the proposed recommendations, growth is expected to return to the sector in the form of new exploration activity, operations and production from active mining, functional and expanded processing and refining capacity, and higher value-addition in exports.

“The net outcome will be the creation of thousands of direct jobs and potentially hundreds of thousands of indirect jobs. We anticipate contribution to mining GDP to exceed $25 billion by 2026 as industries are better able to use the output of the sector, substituting for imports,” he added.

The minister, however, lamented that the sector was faced with both internal and external challenges which include the lack of viable geosciences data and information, low industry participants, institutions and governance

On the external challenges, he said: “Asides the negative perceptions about the Nigerian investment environment is the turmoil besetting the global commodities market as key sources of demand that supported decent prices over the past two decades have steadily declined.

“This has put mines and mining houses under immense pressure which is reflected in the sharp decline in the share prices of major industry players such as Glencore, Anglo-American and Rio Tinto. “Naturally, as the prices of metals and their assets plunge, many of the top mining houses are pulling back from investment planning, shutting down mines and optimizing current operations. This greatly affects our prospects for new entrants into the Nigerian mining space.

He, however, stated that in spite of the abovementioned challenges, the sector was resolved to overcome them and fulfil its mandate.

“As things currently stand, in 2015, the sector contributed approximately 0.33 per cent to the GDP of the country. This contribution is a reversal from historically higher percentages (about 4-5 per cent in the 1960s-70s).

“Our policy goal is to return to a contribution level of 5 per cent -7 per cent over the next 10-15 years, and the recently approved Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) is very supportive of this aspiration.

Also speaking the vice president, Prof Yemi Osinbanjo, who was represented by the special adviser to the president on Economic Matters, Dr Adeyemi Dipeolu, said: “The conference is important because it is coming at a time when the world is mired in economic crises, which requires a synergy of efforts to restore goals and normalcy.

“The administration of President Buhari has consistently advocated and pursued the formidable policy of diversifying the Nigerian economy from over reliance on crude oil with the current economic downturn. It had become imperative that we focus on areas of comparative advantage, like agriculture and solid minerals development.”

While urging the participants to bring up strategies of engagement, he assured that the federal government, through the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, had developed a roadmap to provide the basis for some key initiatives which had been identified as crucial to the success of the sector.

Government has warned foreign envoys against trying to lecture Zimbabwe on human rights saying they needed to deal with the logs in their eyes first. Responding to statements issued last week by the United States and Canadian embassies to Zimbabwe on recent violent demonstrations by the opposition, Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Dr Christopher Mushohwe yesterday said the ambassadors betrayed clear hostility towards the Government of Zimbabwe, and a sinister partiality for the opposition.He said both embassies were not in Zimbabwe to involve themselves in the domestic affairs of Zimbabwe, let alone to interfere with, or take sides in local politics or even to give themselves an imperious role of judging Zimbabwean politics.

“Zimbabwe is a sovereign state which, is equal to any other in the world, including the US and Canada, whatever illusions ambassadors of those two countries here may harbour in their minds. Beyond diplomatic relations as regulated by the Vienna Conventions, there is nothing else that gives governments of those two countries or their emissaries here any special claim to our politics, or a judgmental role on occurrences

“Their statements last week were not only unacceptably repugnant, but vainly suggested their governments play father figure to a sovereign state, as if Zimbabwe is under some kind of joint US-Canadian trusteeship. For the record, Zimbabwe gained its Independence in 1980 following a national liberation struggle which never enjoyed an iota of support from the West,” he said.

Dr Mushohwe said Zimbabwe, being a sovereign state, was equal to any other in the world, and was free to pursue its own national policies as supported by its democratically elected sitting Government.

He said Zimbabwe took no orders from any foreign state – big or small, far or near – in the pursuit of its politics, policies and decisions.

“The US government, with more than a decade of a raft of punitive measures it took to unilaterally sanction Zimbabwe, is the least qualified to lecture Zimbabwe on welfare issues relating to Zimbabwean citizens. Through those illegal sanctions, the US government has undermined the Zimbabwean economy, thereby bringing untold suffering to the People of Zimbabwe.

“The US thus should never be allowed to blame the Zimbabwe Government for effects of its spiteful policies here. The least the US Ambassador Harry Thomas here can do, is to keep his mouth shut, instead of compounding the crimes of his government against the people of Zimbabwe by parading false piety,” he said.

Dr Mushohwe said Western governments, including those of the US and Canada, did not support the constitution-making process when it was underway but were hostile to it.

“Today, they cannot remind us of provisions of the same law they opposed only yesterday or stand as watchdogs over its daily observance here. In any case, before both ambassadors issue out their condescendingly sick statements on local politics, and on the upholding of human rights here, let them pause a while to examine their home environments where rights of men and women of colour, and rights of indigenous populations, are daily wantonly trampled upon by their own governments, with absolutely no recourse to countless victims,” he said.

Dr Mushohwe said hardly a month ago, more and more African-Americans were shot and killed in cold blood by the US police but the ambassador who was himself an African-African American remained silent on the issue.

“Why did he not write home to remind his own government on the need to uphold the rights of fellow blacks back home? Or resign in protest to vindicate his claim to commitment to human rights? Such rank hypocrisy is not only sickening but, for the American Ambassador, amounts to complicity with his Government in a war against his own kind. Let not those with logs in their eyes seek to cure imaginary specks in African eyes,” he said.

Last week, the United States Embassy, Canada and Australia issued separate statements supporting the protests and condemning law enforcements agents for maintaining peace and order by arresting illegal protesters.

“The United States is troubled by the economic policies and financial strains that have prompted numerous recent protests in Zimbabwe and we join many Zimbabweans in their deep concern over reports of violence during some of the protests,” reads statement released by the US embassy in Harare yesterday.

The US embassy also said it was “monitoring recent threats to crackdown on activists using social media”.

On the other hand, the Canadian embassy said: “The Embassy of Canada to Zimbabwe is increasingly concerned with reports of violence and human rights violations in response to public protest.

“The Embassy of Canada calls for calm and stresses the importance of peaceful dialogue. The Embassy of Canada reiterates its call on all stakeholders to respect the Constitution of Zimbabwe, in particular, the freedom to peacefully demonstrate, the right to personal liberty, the right to personal security and the rights of arrested and detained persons,,” read the statement.

Information, Media and Broadcasting Services permanent secretary and Presidential spokesperson, Mr George Charamba warned opposition elements that Government would come hard on protesters who seek to destroy the country.

Speaking to ZBCTv, Mr Charamba said Government would not allow another demonstration that the opposition groups were planning for Friday.

“Let them test the authority of the State. Let them test the authority of the State and then they will realise that until and unless you keep within the lawful confines of the law, the full might of the State will visit you.

“Of course, they have crossed the line. This whole nonsense of trying to create a Zimbabwe which is a burning country will not be repeated. We needed what happened last Friday and Wednesday because if we had moved and moved decisively, ahead of such demonstration of hooliganism, then there would have been an outcry to say the Zimbabwean Government is trampling on human rights. So they got their first and last chance,” said Mr Charamba.

Embattled Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan allegedly told Treasury staff at a meeting on Friday that the Guptas were attacking him because of the work the department was doing.

News24 understands that Gordhan also explained to staff that the Hawks had a faulty legal reading of the charges against him and there was no legal basis for their investigation.

He also allegedly said that what was currently happening in the country was a battle for “Mandela values” versus the values of those who steal.

Treasury spokesperson Phumza Macanda did not comment on the meeting, referring News24 to the media statement it released on Wednesday.

Gordhan’s staff meeting comes days after it emerged that the Hawks had asked Gordhan, his former deputy at Sars Ivan Pillay, and four other senior former Sars officials to provide warning statements.

A warning statement is a precursor to a suspect being charged criminally.

Gordhan, Pillay, former Sars commissioner Oupa Magashula, former head of risk Pete Richer and Johann van Loggerenberg, former head of the Sars investigations unit called the National Research Group, were summoned to appear before the Hawks on Thursday morning.

The Western Cape Hawks had already obtained a warning statement from Van Loggerenberg’s predecessor, Andries “Skollie” Janse van Rensburg.

The unit wanted to question Gordhan regarding his alleged contravention of the National Strategic Intelligence Act and Public Finance Management Act. These related to his approval of former Sars commissioner Pillay’s early retirement in 2010 and to the alleged creation of an intelligence unit within Sars.

In a statement on Wednesday, Gordhan said he had taken legal advice and had no obligation to present himself to the Hawks. He said he should be left to do his job in a difficult economic environment.

Gordhan was Sars commissioner between 1999 and 2009. During this period a so-called “rogue unit” was allegedly established. It was allegedly involved in illegal intelligence gathering.

Pillay and Van Loggerenberg met with the Hawks amid support from civil society who were concerned the investigation was really a battle for control of the country’s purse strings.

The lawyer representing them said his clients will follow due process in their case with the Hawks.

“Our clients wish to thank civil society for their support. Our clients consider the allegations to be baseless and our clients will be following due process in accordance with their rights. That is all we are going to answer now,” lawyer Robert Levin told reporters after meeting with Hawks investigators.

Members of Section27, Right2Know, Freedom Under Law, the Helen Suzman Foundation and Advocate George Bizos gathered outside the offices of the Hawks in Pretoria to pledge their support. They accused the Hawks of going on a witch hunt fuelled by baseless accusations.

Van Loggerenberg thanked the people of South Africa for their support but declined to comment on the matter.

“The support is wonderful and thanks very much. Not only to the people who came but to the people who continuously send us messages. I have received thousands of messages since yesterday. I don’t know why the meeting took so long, you should direct those questions to the Hawks,” he said.

President Jacob Zuma meanwhile said that he had full confidence in Gordhan but he did not have the power to stop any investigations into any individuals.

A Cape Town duo is set to become one of the first bands in the world to produce a song in collaboration with a supercomputer.

The electronica outfit Original Swimming Party (OSP) is an audio-visual group from Cape Town who define their music style as a mash-up of Western electronic, with African influences from genres like kwaito and house.

Recently, OSP began working with supercomputer Watson Beat, which is based in Austin, Texas. The band sends through chords of an original song with a “mood”, and the supercomputer then uses the same notes to create an entirely new piece according to the mood.

OSP member Tom Glendinning, who produces his work from music software Ableton Live, said the group had collaborated with international artists before, and working with the supercomputer felt no different.

“It has been a very interesting process and scarily similar to working with live artists,” Glendinning told Fin24.

“Watson is meant to be artificially intelligent and emulate human intelligence. It has been like working with any other artist,” he added.

OSP sends Watson a midi file, which they explain to be music notation that a computer can understand.

Through algorithms the supercomputer listens and learns how the music written.

When a mood has been selected, Watson will send back a midi file with its own composition according to the music notes sent in the midi file by OSP.

OSP plan to work with the supercomputer to produce a world-first collaboration between artists and a supercomputer.

“The beauty of Watson is that the more complex notes we send to Watson, the more it learns. Right now it’s like a high school student, with no style of its own,” Glendinning said.

“Part of our project is to send more complex notes back and forth to Watson, to produce our own song,” he added.

Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, yesterday, blamed the current lull in Nigerian economy on inability to regain the confidence of investors, both local and foreign, which had resulted in uncertainty in foreign exchange market.

Director General, LCCI, Muda Lawal, who stated this in his comment on the state of the economy, said: “Regrettably, the instability and inconsistency in the foreign exchange management policy have been complicating matters.

“The economy has a major structural defect of being heavily import-dependent. This cannot be fixed in the short term. Therefore, the shocks arising from the collapse of oil price and the corresponding depreciation in exchange rate of the naira, were inevitable. But the policy responses could make a whole lot of difference in the profundity of the impacts of these shocks on the economy and the citizens.” He said historically, autonomous supply of foreign exchange had been higher than the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, supply, adding: “This has virtually dried up because of the collapse of investors’ confidence. Of course, the plunge in crude oil price was a major causal factor. But perhaps the bigger issue is the unstable and inconsistent foreign exchange policy which has continued to create uncertainty in the forex market, thus deepening the liquidity problems.

“For an economy that is in fragile mode and for an economy that is highly exchange rate sensitive, policy actions and pronouncements that could impact the market should be done with utmost caution and care.

“This is imperative to avoid unintended consequences which may hurt the economy in very profound ways. Such is the recent suspension of nine banks from the forex market. These are shocks that the economy can ill afford at this time.

“It is right to penalize banks for proven infractions, but this should be done in a way to minimize collateral effects on investors and the larger economy, given the high sensitivity of the economy to developments in the foreign exchange market.

“This is even more so at a time when the economy is grappling with a major confidence issue in the forex market. There should be more creative and less disruptive ways of imposing such sanctions.

“Many innocent investors and citizens are already bearing the brunt of this action given the unprecedented hike in naira exchange rate. Ongoing forex transactions in the affected banks have been stalled with serious consequences for investors.” he emphasized.

Continuing, he said “The second major policy development that could pose a risk to the stability and transparency of the foreign exchange market is the recent policy on sectoral allocation of foreign exchange. The CBN circular did not indicate any Code to properly define what would qualify as raw materials and machineries. The first concern will be that of definition. The result of this will be discretionary interpretation by the banks as what qualifies as raw materials and machineries.

The second major concern is the potential crowding out of other sectors in the forex market. Sectors outside the manufacturing sector account for over 85 per cent of the country’s GDP and jobs in the economy. They all have varying import contents in their operations. Therefore, if a minimum of 60 per cent of all forex allocation goes to manufacturing for raw materials and machineries; what happens to other sectors? Currently petroleum products imports are priority and could take another 25 per cent of foreign exchange. This implies that the rest of the sectors would settle for the balance of 15 per cent. This is clearly not a sustainable framework.

Lawal, stressed that fiscal policy measures are better suited to address sectoral imbalances than monetary policy. According to him ” Such policy tools include import tariffs, taxation and other incentives. Above all, there is need to upscale infrastructure investments very urgently. These are the more effective ways to fix the structural problems of the economy than monetary policy. What is key for monetary authorities is to ensure that financial markets are efficient and transparent; and to ensure that there is discipline among players.

“This is the time to seek quick wins. One of the quick wins is to review current trade policy measures in order to reduce the pressure of cost on investors and citizens. The exchange rate depreciation has an inherent structural correction effects on the economy. It naturally rewards inward looking initiatives and resource based enterprises. It is too much of a shock on the economy to combine high import duty regimes with a weak and rapidly depreciating currency. Conversion of import values at current exchange rates for purposes of computation of import duty and other port charges have escalated costs beyond measure and had paralyzed many businesses. Ensuring a balance between the interests of investors, producers, consumers and the welfare of citizens is a strategic imperative at this time” the LCCI director general stated.

Fred Bamwesigye, the director human resource and administration at Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) was last week elected the new president of the Association of African Aviation Training Organization (AATO) replacing Togo’s Tchagbele Sadamba writes PAUL TENTENA

Sadamba took office in April 2013 in an election held in Abuja, Nigeria.

Bamwesigye who has vast experience in the Aviation industry will be deputized by Nigeria’ s Samuel Akinyele.

He was elected during the 2nd General Assembly of the Association of African Aviation Training Organization ( AATO) held at imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala.

Uganda’s Minister of Works and Transport Monica Azuba Ntege said Africa’s aviation infrastructure needs to be handled by qualified personnel who can ensure the highest standards of safety.

” Meetings such as this are therefore very instrumental in shaping the future of training in the industry,” said Azuba.

She said Uganda was waiting for the meeting conclusions and recommendations, especially in areas they must implement in order to improve standards of aviation training Organizations.

“By so doing, Uganda will not be doing AATO a favour, rather, as a member, Uganda will be emphasizing the importance of the Association and the role it plays in ensuring harmonisation and standardisation of aviation training in Africa,” she said.

A private mining syndicate has made a potentially “world class and highly unusual” Nickel discovery in Nigeria, The Australian, an Australian national newspaper is reporting.

The private mining syndicate is reportedly headed by Hugh Morgan, a mining industry veteran.

“The discovery is unusual because the nickel is found in small balls up to 3mm in diameter of a high purity in shallow soils in what could be the surface expression of a much bigger hard-rock nickel field,” the newspaper said.

“The nickel balls, rumoured to grade better than 90 per cent nickel and thought to be a world first given their widespread distribution, offer the potential for early cashflow from a simple and low-cost screening operation to fund a full assessment of the find that has exploration circles buzzing.”

Details of the discovery are sketchy, according to the newspaper, but it was rumoured to be close to Dangoma, a small farming town about 160km northeast of the Nigerian capital of Abuja.

Checks by PREMIUM TIMES showed that Dangoma is located in the North-West state of Kaduna.

When asked to comment last week, Mr Morgan reportedly said it was for the Nigerian government to make an announcement.

Kayode Fayemi, the Minister for Solid Minerals, will be among the speakers at a three-day Africa Down Under mining conference at Perth’s Pan Pacific Hotel, Australia, in September.

Mr. Fayemi is to speak first on Wednesday, September 7, and Mr Morgan will follow along with consulting geologist Louisa Lawrance. Mr Morgan is listed as speaking as a director of the private company Comet Minerals.

Olayinka Oyebode, Mr. Fayemi’s Chief Press Secretary, said he had no details of the discovery, but confirmed his principal is scheduled to be in Australia next week.

“I know there is a mining conference coming up in Australia where the Honourable Minister is supposed to make a presentation,” Mr. Oyebode told PREMIUM TIMES via phone on Monday.

“But I don’t have an advance knowledge of what he’s going to talk about but, generally speaking, he’s going to market Nigeria.”

Mr. Oyebode asked this newspaper to give him till Monday evening for Mr. Fayemi’s reaction on the nickel discovery in Kaduna.

But an official of the ministry, who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, said Mr. Fayemi’s delegation would most likely sign an exploration deal with the Australian syndicate at the conference.

Nickel is primarily sold for first use as refined metal. About 65 percent of it consumed in the West is used to produce stainless steel.

The world’s largest producers of Nickel include The Philippines, Indonesia, Russia, Canada, and Australia, according to the US Geological Survey.

In August, Mr. Fayemi told Bloomberg that one of the Nigeria government’s priorities is to meet its annual steel demand of 6.8 metric tons, from a current output of less than 2.5 metric tons, produced mainly from scrap iron.

“In two to five years, we want to have started production of iron ore, lead, zinc, bitumen, nickel, coal and gold at a serious scale,” Mr. Fayemi had said.