West Africa News Desk — September 30, 2026 AM

Zach Martin

KMKT IR Hub Radio. It's Wednesday, September 30, 2026. Emily, ten seconds, go.

Emily Martin

Burkina Faso opens its first gold refinery. NNPC posts a big audited profit. Ghana wins a tax ruling. And Nigerian workers are lining up strike notices.

Zach Martin

Ha, that was, um, that was nine seconds. Okay. West Africa News Desk. Start us off with the gold.

Emily Martin

KMKT IR Hub Radio. West Africa News Desk. On Monday, September 28, junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré inaugurated RAFFINOR-BF in Ouagadougou. It's the country's first gold refinery. It cost more than CFA 11 billion, roughly $19 million, paid for by the state through Sonasp, with domestic private partners.

Zach Martin

Nineteen million. That's, that's small for something that big.

Emily Martin

It is. It starts at 164 tonnes of gold a year and could scale to 515. And the official figures say the refinery is expected to create 100 direct jobs and 5,000 indirect jobs.

Zach Martin

Hold on. Five thousand indirect off a hundred direct? Who's, who's counting those?

Emily Martin

Fair question. Those are official projections, so I'd hold them loosely. But the idea is clear. Traoré said they no longer want to just extract raw materials and send them abroad. The mines minister called it taking back the keys to their own house.

Zach Martin

Think of it like growing cocoa and selling it, versus baking the chocolate. Same soil, very different margin.

Emily Martin

That's the pitch, yes.

Zach Martin

Okay, now the other big number this morning. KMKT IR Hub Radio. West Africa News Desk. NNPC Limited's group chief executive, Bayo Ojulari, presented audited 2025 results in Abuja. Profit after tax up 33 percent, to ₦7.2 trillion, from ₦5.4 trillion in 2024.

Emily Martin

And revenue went the other way.

Zach Martin

Right, right. Revenue fell 24 percent to ₦34.5 trillion. Lower crude prices, and fewer white product volumes after deregulation. So less coming in, more staying put.

Emily Martin

Wait, so how does profit jump when sales drop a quarter?

Zach Martin

His own answer was, we improved how we operate and kept discipline across the businesses. Now, the company didn't break out which segments drove it, so I'd flag that. But the payouts are big. Taxes, royalties and other remittances to the government increased by 39 percent to ₦22.3 trillion. And a dividend of ₦5.8 trillion.

Emily Martin

Plus the operations. Crude and condensate averaged 1.77 million barrels a day, a five year high. Gas hit 7.2 billion standard cubic feet a day, a three year high.

Zach Martin

Yeah. And here's the part that, that nags at me. That's the company's kitchen table, and it looks great. Now picture your kitchen table.

Emily Martin

Mm. Petrol prices.

Zach Martin

Exactly the thing. The state balance sheet is stacking wins while households are stretched. Ojulari himself said the bar is now set one level higher. I'd say the same about how that money reaches people.

Emily Martin

Sharp point. Strong numbers don't automatically pay anyone's bills.

Emily Martin

KMKT IR Hub Radio. West Africa News Desk. Ghana's money and corporate side. Tullow Oil lost a tax dispute in Ghana and the shares tanked. CNBC Africa put the figure at $196.5 million.

Zach Martin

But GhanaWeb says the Ghana Revenue Authority won a US$393 million claim against Tullow Ghana. Two numbers, one ruling.

Emily Martin

Yes, and I can't tell you why they differ. Could be different parts of the claim. I'd say the direction is clear, Ghana came out ahead, and the exact amount is worth checking.

Zach Martin

Meanwhile at the pump, fuel prices are set to rise from October 1. Diesel is projected to jump 22.91 percent.

Emily Martin

That's, that's a lot of diesel.

Zach Martin

KMKT IR Hub Radio. West Africa News Desk. Nigeria. President Tinubu is back in Lagos after about four weeks in Europe, and he says he's healthy, sound, ready to kick. He called the health rumours politics.

Emily Martin

But the welcome home isn't quiet. Public servants issued an October 2nd strike notice over hardship. And Punch reports workers set an October strike over the petrol price hike.

Zach Martin

So, so the timing. He lands, and within days there's a strike deadline.

Emily Martin

Airlines are feeling it too. Headlines say they face disruptions as fuel costs soar.

Zach Martin

Now, Dangote. Kenya. A court halted construction of his $16 billion refinery in Lamu, but his company says the groundbreaking still holds. His words were, we are ready for them.

Emily Martin

And President Ruto says the refinery will be listed in Nairobi, with the government taking a stake.

Zach Martin

Confident, but a court order is a court order. I'd watch that one.

Emily Martin

On tech, CyFrica 2026 returns as Nigeria's cybersecurity summit, backed by NITDA, NDPC and Galaxy Backbone. And the IMF says Nigeria's AI opportunity hinges on power, broadband and skills.

Zach Martin

Which is just, uh, the boring stuff first. You can't run smart tools on a dumb grid. Small steady upgrades beat flashy ones.

Emily Martin

Last one, and it ties back to where we started. Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have left ECOWAS, and the new ECOWAS Commission President, General Birame Diop, says the bloc will keep reaching out. His line was, our neighbours have left us, but geography remains the same.

Zach Martin

And the numbers back him up. ECOWAS and the AES countries shared about 5,250 kilometres of borders, with millions of people continuing to move, trade and interact across them.

Emily Martin

Which loops back to that refinery. Gold refined in Ouagadougou will still have to cross borders to reach buyers.

Zach Martin

Ha, good catch. Okay, that's the desk. All figures come from the public reports we've named, and none of this is investment advice. KMKT IR Hub Radio, back soon.