play videoAgnes Naa Momo Lartey is the Minister of Gender, Children, and Social Protection-designate

The vetting of Agnes Naa Momo Lartey, the Minister of Gender, Children, and Social Protection-designate, is currently underway as the Appointments Committee of Parliament evaluates her qualifications and expertise for the role.

The 11-member committee is expected to focus on key areas such as the Affirmative Action Bill, the welfare of school feeding caterers, the growing cases of child labor, and other relevant issues.

Agnes Naa Momo Lartey was born on April 16, 1976, in Krowor, Greater Accra Region. She is a distinguished politician and advocate for social justice, best known for her grassroots mobilization and commitment to championing women’s and children’s rights.

Naa Momo began her political career in 2000, serving as an assemblywoman and later as the presiding member of the Krowor Municipal Assembly.

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Professional services firm, De­loitte, has reiterated that the persistent rise in inflation in Ghana and Nigeria will hinder economic growth.

This is because businesses are experiencing increased costs, whilst consumers are cutting back on spending.

In its inflation update, Deloitte West Africa said, “The underly­ing inflation pressures, driven by food price volatility, exchange rate fluctuations and global commodity prices, are expected to persist in 2025.”

To this end, the firm believed that monetary policy was expected to continue in Nigeria.

At the same time, it said the Bank of Ghana was likely to main­tain the status quo with a possible rate hike if inflation continues to rise.

Rising food prices pushed Ghana’s inflation higher to 23.8 per cent in December 2024, the 4th consecutive increase.

Nigeria’s headline inflation lso surged to 34.80 per cent on festive-related spending.

Meanwhile, the Economist Intelligent Unit is forecasting an average inflation rate of 27.7 per cent and 15.5 per cent for Nigeria and Ghana respectively in 2025.

It further stated that infla­tionary pressures are expected to ease from the more elevated levels recorded in 2023 for all but a small handful of African countries including Seychelles and Sudan.

“Inflationary pressures are expected to ease from the more elevated levels recorded in 2023 for all but a small handful of Afri­can countries—namely Angola, Seychelles, Sudan and Tanzania, where country-specific factors will push up consumer price inflation,” it said.

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There was even bold talk of Liverpool winning the quadruple from the media after their 2-1 victory at home to Lille.

The Reds were triumphant in the Champions League on Tuesday evening, making it seven wins out of seven in the competition this season.

After a low-key opening to the game, Mohamed Salah put Liverpool 1-0 up before half-time, bagging his 50th European goal.

Jonathan David then equalised for Lille after the interval, but Harvey Elliott‘s deflected strike sealed another three points for Arne Slot‘s men.

Here’s how the media reacted to the Reds’ victory.

Liverpool made it feel like a routine night…

On X, David Lynch felt Liverpool’s win was never in doubt:

“The scoreline makes it look tight, but that was a dominant performance from Liverpool and a fully deserved win.

“And securing top spot with a game to spare has wider benefits, which Arne Slot can reap when his side travel to PSV Eindhoven next week.”

Gregg Evans of The Athletic hailed Liverpool’s record-breaking defence:

“Liverpool’s ability to keep the ball out of the net this season was highlighted by another European club record being broken.

“Until they conceded in the 62nd minute, Liverpool had gone a total of 599 minutes in Europe without shipping a goal, surpassing the previous record of 572 minutes without conceding held by Rafa Benitez’s team in the 2005-06 season.

“The defence has been a key factor in propelling Arne Slot’s team to the top of the Champions League table.

[…]

“That Liverpool were able to keep it so tight with a makeshift back line again illustrates the quality in the defensive ranks. They have by far the best defensive record in the Champions League this season, conceding just twice in seven games.”

Arne Slot’s cool manner is rubbing off…

The Telegraph‘s Chris Bascombe praised Liverpool’s 100 percent record in the Champions League:

“Slot can give thanks to the new Champion League format and acclaim Liverpool as Europe’s best. For another week, at least.

“Victory over Lille guaranteed qualification into the round of 16, although an unlikely comeback by nearest rivals Barcelona means they will have to wait to do so as table toppers.

[…]

“Seven out of seven is some achievement given the calibre of many of their opponents, although Slot will be the first to warn this is all about laying a foundation for the more important business in spring.”

35 – Virgil Van Dijk has ended on the winning side in 35 of his 50 UEFA Champions League appearances for Liverpool; the joint-most by any player for the Reds through their first 50 games in the European Cup/Champions League (also 35 by Phil Neal). Standards. pic.twitter.com/DKm8aBHZ0p

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) January 21, 2025

The Daily Mail‘s Lewis Steele even dared mention talk of a potential quadruple for the Reds this season:

“Arne Slot could be used as a dictionary example for the definition of cool, calm and collected – but even he must have some moments where his achievements so far at Liverpool take him aback.

“Maybe it sinks in when he is sitting in his Aston Martin, stuck in the inevitable traffic on his commute home from training every day. Or maybe when he is cooped up in his office poring over clips of upcoming opponents.

“Seven wins from seven and into the knockout stages of the Champions League without even a tiny blemish, top of the Premier League with just one defeat and still in both domestic cups.

“We will not discuss the ‘Q’ word just yet but soon it will become a hard conversation to avoid.”

It was a good night for Harvey Elliott…

Evans focused on a strong evening for Elliott, as he looks to become more of a regular:

“It’s a line Harvey Elliott has said on multiple occasions: ‘I don’t want to be known as a supersub.’

“Yet, here we are again, discussing the 21-year-old’s performance off the bench.

[…]

“Still, Elliott wants to play more minutes and establish himself in the side after fighting back from an injury earlier in the season, and these 45 minutes were a good start.

“He should at least take some satisfaction that he was the first attacking player called upon by Slot from the bench.”

Meanwhile, Jacob Leeks of the Mirror lauded another milestone evening for the incomparable Salah:

“It has been a ridiculous season from Mo Salah and he reached yet another landmark on Tuesday.

“Salah struck 11 minutes before the break to bring what had been a fairly banal game to life with a neat finish past Lucas Chevalier.

“The strike was his 50th European goal since joining Liverpool back in the summer of 2017. He had already become the Reds’ all-time leading scorer in Europe, with Tuesday’s goal extending his record.

“The Egyptian now has nine more European strikes for Liverpool than previous record holder Steven Gerrard. His match-winning performance is the latest evidence that Reds chiefs should hand him a new contract.”

Two months ago, Nigeria’s beleaguered energy sector witnessed a very significant event: the Dangote Oil Refinery began producing gasoline and selling it domestically to Nigeria’s state oil firm, Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), marking the first time in decades Africa’s largest oil producer is refining its own crude.

The state-of-the-art $20.5 billion refinery was launched in January 2024, but only began producing gasoline in September, expected to reach full operations in November. The giant refinery has a capacity to process 650,000 barrels of crude per day, considerably bigger than any refinery in Europe and more than enough for Nigeria’s needs.

To sweeten the deal further, the facility is buying crude and selling refined fuels in Nigeria in the local currency, saving the country’s much-needed foreign exchange, especially the US dollar.

But now Africa’s largest refinery is beginning to disrupt Europe’s Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) markets. According to OPEC, the Dangote refinery has cut down Nigeria’s imports of petroleum products from Europe. According to experts, the Dangote refinery might end the decades-long gasoline trade from Europe to Africa, valued at $17 billion per year.

“The ongoing operational ramp-up efforts at Nigeria’s new Dangote refinery and its gasoline (petrol) exports to the international market will likely weigh further on the European gasoline market,” the report states.

“Continued gasoline production in Nigeria, a country that has relied heavily on imports to meet its domestic fuel needs in the past, will most likely continue to free up gasoline volumes in international markets which will call for new destinations and flow adjustments for the extra volumes going forward.”

The Oil Mafia

Unfortunately for Aliko Dangote, Africa’s second richest man and owner of the Dangote refinery, his giant plant has also put him on a collision course with Nigeria’s feared ‘oil mafia’.

“I knew there would be a fight. But I didn’t know that the mafia in oil, they are stronger than the mafia in drugs,” Mr Dangote told an investment conference in June.

“They don’t want the trade to stop. It’s a cartel. Dangote comes along and he’s going to disrupt them entirely. Their business is at risk,” says Mr Emmanuel, a Nigerian oil expert.

According to the BBC, since oil was discovered in the West African nation in 1956, the country’s downstream sector has largely been a cesspit of shady deals with little accountability by the NNPC.

For decades, Nigeria has been producing and exporting its crude which is then refined abroad. NNPC swaps Nigeria’s crude oil for refined products, including petrol, which are shipped back home.

Incredibly, it only started publishing its accounts five years ago, despite the fact that oil revenue accounts for nearly 90% of Nigeria’s export earnings. In other words, until recently, only the NNPC knew exactly how much money changed hands and who was involved in these “oil swaps”.

Dangote’s new refinery should definitely be a boon for the country. Unfortunately, its arrival has coincided with developments completely out of his control. Since the 1970s, the NNPC has been subsidizing fuel prices for local buyers. Every year, the state-owned firm has been gradually clawing this money back by depositing lower royalty payments with the Nigerian treasury.

However, Nigeria’s new President Bola Tinubu was forced to scrap the subsidy in 2023 after it cost the government $10bn, more than 40% of the total money it collected in taxes. Further, he stopped the policy of artificially propping up the value of the naira, and let market forces determine its value. Nigerians are now paying ~$2.30 per gallon of gasoline, dirt-cheap by U.S. standards but triple what they were paying just a couple of years ago.

Only time will tell whether the Dangote Refinery is able to achieve its full potential. Nigeria is the home of the famous Bonny Light crude, a light-sweet crude oil grade produced at the Bonny oil hub and an important benchmark crude for all West African crude production.

Bonny Light has particularly good gasoline yields, which has made it a popular crude for U.S. refiners, particularly on the U.S. East Coast. Two years ago, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC)CEO Melee Kyari revealed that Nigeria is losing nearly all the oil output at oil hub Bonny,

“As you may be aware, because of the very unfortunate acts of vandals along our major pipelines from Atlas Cove all the way to Ibadan, and all others connecting all the 37 depots that we have across the country, none of them can take delivery of products today. The reason is very simple. For some of the lines, for instance, from Warri to Benin, we haven’t operated for 15 years. Every molecule of product that we put gets lost. Do you remember the sad fire incident close to Sapele that killed so many people? We had to shut it down, and as we speak, we have a high level of losses on our product pipeline,” he said.

Oil theft remains a major problem for the Nigerian energy sector, and could hinder the refinery from buying all of its crude locally.

“NNPC doesn’t have enough crude for Dangote. Despite all this instruction to give ample supply of crude to the refinery, NNPC can’t supply Dangote with more than 300,000 barrels per day,” Mr Akinosho of the Africa Oil+Gas Report told BBC.

Meanwhile, the oil and gas multinational divestment from the Niger Delta that kicked off over a decade has hit a peak. Numerous oil and gas majors have exited the Nigerian market over the past few years despite Africa’s largest economy opening its doors for wider exploration courtesy of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.

Nigeria’s oil production has declined to 1.3 million barrels per day currently from around 2.1 million barrels per day in 2018.

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