LAGOS State Government has announced plans to channel the proceeds from its recent bond issuance, totalling N244.82 billion, into critical infrastructure development.

The funds will be invested in key sectors, including transportation, housing, environmental sustainability, healthcare, and education, with the aim of driving sustainable and inclusive growth in the state.

The state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who spoke at the state’s Ministry of Finance and Debt Management Office bond-signing ceremony held over the weekend, reaffirmed the state’s commitment to responsible financial stewardship and thanked the investors for the confidence they continue to show in Lagos State.

He noted that the event marked the final stage in the documentation for both the state’s green bond and its conventional bond under the Lagos State N1 trillion Debt and Hybrid Instruments Issuance Programme.

Sanwo-Olu said that the state’s bond-market trajectory had been characterised by steady breakthroughs since his administration assumed office.

He recalled that the first bond issued in 2020, valued at roughly between N100 billion and N110 billion, set a new benchmark at the time, and each subsequent issuance has exceeded the record set before it.

(From the Guardian)

The Dangote Sugar Refinery, a subsidiary of the Dangote Group, is expanding its sugar business by investing an additional $700 million.

The CEO of Dangote Sugar Refinery, Ravindra Singhvi, told journalists in Lagos during the 2025 Lagos International Trade Fair, that the money is going into land development, equipment, infrastructure, training, and community engagement, to build a supply chain that can produce enough raw sugar locally to meet domestic demand and support future manufacturing expansion.

The sugar packs, according to him, will come in 100g, 250g, 500g and 1kg sizes, broadening access to households and small businesses.

Fatima Aliko-Dangote, the conglomerate’s Group Executive Director of Commercial Operations, added that the company’s wider goal remains the same – to strengthen Nigeria’s industrial base and keep more of the value chain within the country.

According to her, industrial expansion offers the strongest path to job creation and can help support smaller businesses that rely on local manufacturing.

Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has linked the North’s slow economic growth and rising insecurity to decades of policy inconsistency and chronic electricity shortages.

Dangote spoke today during the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) 25th anniversary dinner in Kaduna State.

He told the ACF leaders that  many promising northern industries collapsed because government policies “kept shifting the goalpost,” eroding investor confidence.

He recalled that Arthur Andersen (now part of KPMG) was commissioned to study why northern textile magnates and other industrialists failed despite strong starts.

The findings, he said, pointed largely to unpredictable government policies and an unreliable power supply.

Dangote disclosed that his group connects to public electricity to public electricity only in South Africa and Ethiopia, because of Nigeria’s unstable grid.

“Without electricity, you cannot have growth, no matter how hard you try,” he warned.

He added that today’s insecurity — banditry, youth joblessness and economic displacement — is a direct consequence of long-standing neglect.

Dangote urged northern leaders to commit to a coherent, long-term economic roadmap anchored on education, industry and agriculture, aligning with the transformation agenda highlighted by the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

Atiku stressed that the ACF was conceived not only to foster political harmony, but to drive development in line with the vision of Sir Ahmadu Bello.

He cited the Sardauna’s 1961 priorities — education, agriculture and industrial growth — noting that they remain more urgent today than ever.

He outlined past initiatives such as the Northern Education Project, which exposed the region’s crumbling school system and triggered reforms that boosted enrolment and transition rates.

He also referenced the Northern Development Project, NDP, which sought to rebuild agricultural value chains and address climate-induced productivity challenges.

Yet, he lamented that key obstacles— from energy poverty to multiple taxation — still plague northern industries two decades on.