The catastrophic failure in November of Nigeria’s US$340 million, Chinese-built satellite NIGCOMSAT-1, launched only a year ago, is the latest, most visible indication of increasing difficulties...

Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou’s desire to put an end to ‘dollar diplomacy’ (AAC Vol 1 No 11) has been put to the test by his counterparts in Burkina...

Three groups of ambitious politicians stalk Abuja's corridors of power, hoping for events to unfold in their favour. There are the men who would be king: former Vice-President...

After months of speculation, President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has sacked half his cabinet but retained several of his old associates and surprisingly kept on a few of the...

Last week's discovery of a consignment of weapons in a car en route to Mali raises yet more questions about corruption and divisions within Guinea's security forces. A...

A sizable and much-ballyhooed credit line looks to be little more than a goodwill gesture from China to Nigeria, promising much but delivering little. The brief fanfare attached to the initial...

Born in 1954, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala studied economics at Harvard University, then earned a Ph.D in regional economics and development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981. She joined the World...

Since joining Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's cabinet in 2007 as Finance Minister, Shamsudeen Usman has courted foreign investment - particularly from China - to rejuvenate Nigeria's infrastructure and boost its petroleum production....

Ambassador to Africa’s biggest oil producer, Xu Jianguo has presided over a rapid expansion of commercial and diplomatic ties since his posting to Abuja in September 2006. Chinese...

Agreements signed this month between Dangote Industries of Nigeria and China's Sinoma International Engineering Company to build 13 cement production lines across Africa at a cost of US$2.8 billion will give...