Nigeria

ABUJA, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Officials in Nigeria discovered an illegal connection line from one of its major oil export terminals into the sea that had been operating undetected for nine years, the head of state oil company NNPC LTD said.

The 4-kilometre (2.5-mile) connection from the Forcados export terminal, which typically exports around 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil, into the sea was found during a clamp-down on theft in the past six weeks, NNPC Chief Executive Mele Kyari told a parliamentary committee late on Tuesday.

ABUJA, Oct 1 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) — The World Bank has approved a US$750 million credit line for Nigeria to help the country push through reforms to attract investment and create jobs.

Several states in Nigeria are struggling to pay wages due to low revenues and are resorting to borrowing from the domestic bond market and banks to fund infrastructure projects.

The World Bank said Nigeria has made strides in improving business activity, but the country’s ability to attract domestic and foreign investment has remained weak compared to others.

LAGOS, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari emphasized on Saturday the importance of continuing to fight corruption and preventing opportunities for corrupt practices in the country.

The president's remarks came while addressing the nation in a broadcast as part of activities to mark the nation's 62nd Independence Day on Saturday in Abuja, the nation's capital.

Referring to the achievements in anti-corruption during his presidential terms, Buhari said the progress was one step in the reform process, which he had vowed to continue.

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria is losing 470,000 barrels of crude oil per day to theft and pipeline vandalism, regulators say, and has now lost its status as Africa’s largest crude producer to Angola.

With the decline, Nigeria has dropped to fourth place among Africa’s largest crude-producing countries, according to the International Energy Agency’s latest oil market report released this week.

LAGOS, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- At least two bodies were recovered from the rubble of a seven-story building under construction that collapsed in Lagos, Nigeria's economic hub, in the early hours of Sunday, an official told Xinhua.

The bodies were recovered by rescue agencies conducting search and rescue operations, said Ibrahim Farinloye, zonal coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency in the southwestern region.

ABUJA, Aug 29 (Reuters) - A Nigerian judge on Monday rejected a request by the federal government to extradite a suspended police chief to the United States to face charges linked to fraud.

Commissioner Abba Kyari has denied involvement in what a U.S. indictment describes as an elaborate scheme to defraud a Qatari businessperson of more than $1 million, masterminded by a Nigerian celebrity fraudster known as "Hushpuppi". 

Kyari has denied any wrongdoing.

DAMATURU, Nigeria, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Lying on a small bed next to her mother, 14-month-old Aisha Usman stares blankly, her eyes sunk in their sockets and rib cage visible.

She is the latest arrival at a treatment centre for severely malnourished children in Nigeria's northeast, where a long running Islamist insurgency has uprooted millions, forcing farmers to abandon fields and causing food shortages.

Some 1.74 million children under the age of 5 face acute malnutrition in the area, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says.

ABUJA, Aug 23 (Reuters) - The United States will turn over to Nigeria $23 million taken by former military ruler Sani Abacha, officials said at an event to sign the agreement on Tuesday.

Nigeria has reached several agreements to return stolen cash in recent years. Abacha ruled Africa's most populous nation and top oil exporter from 1993 until his death in 1998, during which time Transparency International estimated that he took up to $5 billion of public money. He was never charged.

LAGOS, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Nigerian police are to tighten security at schools and hospitals and conduct stop and search operations in a bid to stamp out increasing gang attacks, they said on Sunday, at the same time as being urged to be "professional and humane".

Attacks by Islamist militants and armed gangs are some of the biggest security challenges facing the country as it prepares to hold elections in February.

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Africa recorded a ten-year growth in its healthy life expectancy from 2000 to 2019, the World Health Organization Africa office said Thursday, exceeding the global average and progress seen in any other region over the same period.

The healthy life expectancy in the region “rose by almost ten years to stand at 56 years in 2019 compared with 46 years in the year 2000,” Dr. Lindiwe Makubalo, assistant regional Director for WHO Africa, said at an online briefing, citing the new WHO’s State of Health in Africa report.