Rejoinder: Imo House Splinter Group Elects New Speaker

News Report: Cote D’IvoIre's Alassane Ouattara Elected ECOWAS Chairman

Alassane Ouattara

ECOWAS today voted President of Cote D’IvoIre Alassane Ouattara as its new chairman.

Ouattara succeeds Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan.

The West African regional body also voted Desire Ouedraogo,  a former Burkina Faso prime minister, as President.  Desire Ouedraogo succeeds Victor Gbeho a former Ghanaian Foreign Minister.

The outgoing Chairman, President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria told news reporters at the Abuja venue of the ECOWAS meet that "We have unanimously agreed that the President of Cote d'Ivoire Alassane Ouattara would take over as Chairman of ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government,"

News Report: Nigeria To Issue Seventy Billion Naira In Sovereign Bonds

The Federal Government of Nigeria will on Wednesday February 29^th, 2012 in a second debt auction this year, issue 70 billion naira in sovereign bonds to mature in 2019 and 2022, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said yesterday.

DMO said it will sell 35 billion naira of each of the bonds. chidi opara reports learned that Previous issues in the auction result are expected to be re-opened the following day.

 DMO further said that it reserves the right “to alter the amount allotted in response to market conditions,"

The Federal government of Nigeria issues sovereign bonds monthly mainly to fund its budget deficits.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) also announced that it would auction treasury bills worth 149.65 billion naira next week.