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Welcome to the new website of the South Africa-Nigeria Chamber of Commerce, a resource for companies doing business in Nigeria or exploring the market and Nigerian companies looking at South Africa. The new site will now be a reservoir of useful information about the two countries that will be updated regularly. You will find contact details for our members and access to their goods and services under our Members link. Please note that some parts of the site are for members only.

Nigeria risks long-term oil decline

25 March 2012


 ABUJA/LONDON, March 21 (Reuters) - Nigeria's oil production will begin falling soon unless the government can reduce political uncertainty, corruption and criminality. Rising output of Nigeria's high grade crude, highly prized by competing U.S. and Chinese buyers, could stall and even sharply reverse, shattering the ambitious development plans of Africa's most populous nation.

Oil output from ageing onshore fields in the Niger Delta is declining, data analysed by Reuters shows, and while deep offshore production has been steadily increasing over the last decade, it is set to plateau due to a lack of new projects.

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Passengers reel under flights delays, cancellations

16 March 2012

The Guardian

In Nigeria, flight delays have assumed an alarming dimension with passengers not able to get to their destinations as planned. Frequently, passengers have had to spend the whole day in the airports. The carriers have not helped the situation. Bulk passing between the airlines, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has helped to worsen the situation.

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Unseemly diplomatic spat could easily have been avoided

12 March 2012

Dianna Games - Business Day - 12 March 2012

THE icy wind blowing down to SA from hot and humid Nigeria over mass yellow-fever certificate deportations this past fortnight has highlighted the tensions that lie close to the surface in this uneasy relationship between Africa’s two pivotal states.

This issue highlights not the problem of health requirements as much as the negative perceptions about each other’s nationals. The yellow-fever certificate issue is not new. It has been a thorny issue between the countries for years. The question is why it has not yet been resolved by authorities on both sides of the fence. Notwithstanding SA’s apology to Nigeria for the poor treatment of Nigerian nationals, the issue at the heart of the matter has not been clarified. Are many Nigerians travelling on fake or problematic yellow-fever certificates or not?

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Back from brink as SA apologises to Nigeria

11 March 2012

 

SOUTH Africa and Nigeria on Thursday stepped back from the brink as relations between the continent’s two emerging and rival superpowers threatened to hit new lows, amid a furious diplomatic row and tit-for-tat deportations.

Pretoria on Thursday apologised unreservedly to Nigeria for having deported 125 Nigerians last week. They had landed at OR Tambo International Airport with yellow-fever certificates that local officials suspected to be bogus. The deportation of the Nigerians ratcheted up tensions, with Abuja retaliating by sending back 78 South Africans this week, mainly business travellers.

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Massmart could open up to 20 stores in Nigeria

29 February 2012

  South African retailer Massmart sees scope for up to 20 stores in Nigeria, its chief executive said, the second business leader in as many days to talk up consumer demand in Africa's most populous country, one where poverty is on the rise.

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MTN to invest $1bn in Nigeria

23 January 2012

MTN would spend more than $1 billion (R8.1bn) in 2012 to improve its network in Nigeria, says Akinwale Goodluck, the spokesman for MTN's Nigerian unit.

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Why Lagos is most expensive hotel destination in the world

16 March 2012

The Guardian

IT is no longer news that hotels in Nigeria are about the most expensive in the world. Many factors have been attributed to this. The factors are numerous. They range from the challenge on providing security to electricity. It is no longer news that the country is in total or partial darkness depending on the area one lives and depending also on the generosity of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

While a standard hotel room in some countries, like Dubai, Kenya, South Africa, costs between $200 (N30,000) and $250 (N37,500), the same room costs between $300 (N45,000) and $350 (N52,500) in Nigeria. This is because of the comparatively higher cost of hotel operations in Nigeria, a major cause of which is the lack of electricity supply. Hotels have to spend a lot of money on diesel and generators to generate electricity.

General Manager, Southern Sun Hotels, Ikoyi, Mark Loxley said there is a lot of financial pressure out there, adding that a guest that comes here knows in advance that he will be paying $380 for a room and at the same time he knows that in Dubai the same room goes for $250 in a four-star hotel.

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South Africa and Nigeria commit to strengthen bilateral relations

11 March 2012

Statement issued by SA and Nigeria Governments - 8 March 2012

The Governments of the Republic of South Africa and the Federal Republic of Nigeria are considering implementing a variety of measures to strengthen the historic bilateral relationship between the two sister African countries.

South Africa and Nigeria have long-standing bilateral relations. The two countries share a common commitment to the unity and prosperity of the African continent as well as a just and equitable world – and we continue to work together at various levels to achieve this common objective. Notwithstanding the above, recent unfortunate events involving immigration matters may have created contrary impressions.

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Nigeria: Boko Haram – more complicated than you think

11 March 2012

By Richard Dowden, Royal Africa Society

Nothing in Nigeria is what it seems. Beneath a confusing, disorderly surface lie networks of association and obligation of which outsiders, and sometimes insiders, are unaware. Money is chopped (stolen), people paid off, budgets looted and shared. Power, political and financial, is never transparent. In other nation states a citizen’s obligations to the state or employer, trump friendship or family connections. In Nigeria the state and institutions often rank far lower than personal affiliations. Outsiders are often shocked at the way public institutions are looted and distributed to buy personal loyalty or simply given to family and friends. The state is not a revered institution serving all citizens. It is a treasure house of power and money to be captured and looted.

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Shoprite sees scope for 700 stores in Nigeria

29 February 2012

Johannesburg -  Nigeria has the potential to become as big a retail market for Shoprite Holdings [JSE:SHP] as its home base, the head of the supermarket chain said on Tuesday, playing down concerns of rising poverty in Africa's most populous country.

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Tourism expert advocates Nigeria-South Africa collaboration

23 January 2012

A South African travel and hospitality consultant, Elisha Maistry, has identified a number of steps that Nigeria and South Africa should take to achieve a mutually-rewarding business relationship in the travel and hospitality sector. 

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