DD
MM
YYYY

PAGES

DD
MM
YYYY

spot_img

PAGES

Home Blog Page 3144

Dangote Refinery Begins Export to West Africa, Disrupting Market for European Refiners

0

Nigeria’s new Dangote oil refinery is rapidly disrupting the landscape of gasoil exports in West Africa, significantly impacting European refiners.

The $20 billion refinery, heralded as a game-changer for Nigeria’s oil industry, is capturing market share from European suppliers despite facing substantial domestic challenges.

According to traders and shipping data cited in a report by Reuters, the refinery has been producing a lower grade of gasoil than initially planned, as it awaits the restart of units essential for cleaner fuel production. However, this delay has not stopped the refinery from finding eager buyers in neighboring West African markets.

In May, gasoil exports from the refinery surged to nearly 100,000 barrels per day (bpd), almost double the exports of April, with most shipments directed to other West African countries and one shipment reaching Spain. Preliminary June data indicates a decline in gasoil volumes, although total oil product exports, including fuel oil, naphtha, and jet fuel, remained robust at 225,000 bpd.

Shifts in West African and European Markets

The Dangote refinery has shifted market dynamics in West Africa, reducing the region’s dependency on European refiners. According to Kpler data, EU and UK gasoil exports to West Africa plummeted to a four-year low of 29,000 bpd in May. Simultaneously, Russian exports to the region dropped to an eight-month low of 87,000 bpd.

A European distillates trading source told Reuters, “The refinery has shifted the balance in West Africa,” noting the significant impact on European markets.

The Dangote refinery’s ability to produce and export substantial volumes of gasoil is expected to continue altering trade flows.

While Dangote has been selling some high-sulfur gasoil within Nigeria, a dispute has arisen with local fuel retailers over responsibility for the distribution of this dirtier fuel. The Petroleum Industry Bill 2021 mandates a sulfur content of 50 parts per million (ppm) to align with sub-regional ECOWAS standards adopted in 2020. However, the regulator allowed the sale of gasoil with sulfur content above 200 ppm locally until June 2024, giving local refineries and importers time to meet the new standards.

As European countries, including key hubs like Belgium and the Netherlands, enforce stricter regulations on high-sulfur gasoil exports, the Dangote refinery has found markets in regions with more lenient fuel standards. This strategic adaptation enables the refinery to maintain high export levels despite regulatory challenges.

Domestic Challenges: Sourcing Crude Oil

The ambitious project, however, faces significant domestic hurdles, particularly in sourcing crude oil. Nigeria’s oil production has been plagued by inefficiencies and disruptions, creating a substantial obstacle for the Dangote refinery. Despite its vast capacity, the refinery has struggled to secure a steady supply of crude oil, a critical component for its full operational capability.

Nigeria, once a leading oil producer, has seen its production levels decline due to a combination of aging infrastructure, theft, vandalism, and regulatory uncertainties. These issues have exacerbated the refinery’s difficulties in sourcing sufficient crude oil to ramp up operations to full capacity. Consequently, the refinery’s plans for full-scale operations have been delayed, impacting its potential to meet both local and regional demand comprehensively.

Aliko Dangote, Chairman of the Dangote refinery, stated in May that the refinery’s capacity is designed to supply products not just to Nigeria but to West and Central African countries, given its scale. This capacity aligns with reports suggesting that the refinery could significantly reduce the continent’s $17 billion oil import bill and potentially lead to the closure of some European refineries.

In 2023, West Africa emerged as the largest regional recipient of Europe’s gasoline exports, accounting for about one-third of the continent’s average exports of 1.33 million bpd.

While the refinery is pushing its ambition to export refined petroleum beyond West Africa, the region alone has been described by analysts as a huge market that could sustain the refinery’s plan for economic growth, if it successfully tackles the challenge of insufficient crude oil supply.

As Nigeria Upgrades Withholding Tax Regime, We Must Update the TRUST Component

2

The team upgrading Nigeria’s withholding tax regime has gotten an approval with the summary presented by the Chairman: “A SIMPLIFIED AND BUSINESS FRIENDLY WITHHOLDING TAX REGIME HAS BEEN APPROVED”. Well done team, as we continue to reform the tax system. 

Nonetheless, let me drop these words: people willingly pay taxes when taxes are working in their lives. Where am I going? I want, as part of this tax reform, for the team to put efforts on how to deepen the TRUST of the Nigerian people on this matter. 

See, I am not sure people really hate to pay taxes in Nigeria. Yes, as a primary school kid, my grandmother gave me money to give to the principal, to send to legendary ex-Governor of Imo State, Chief Mbakwe,  because the governor was on TV, and asked the citizens to send him funds to develop Imo State.

This experience was not an isolated one. The Peoples Club of various branches in South East Nigeria was the IMF and World Bank then. Governors went to them, and asked for funds, and men will return with FREE cash raised to help the government execute projects. 

But when Nigeria institutionalized corruption, the Peoples Club stopped giving, and the citizens moved back. So, a “reform” on the tax system that will bring that old TRUST back will be the most potent as Nigeria continues to struggle to increase its tax tickets.


A SIMPLIFIED AND BUSINESS FRIENDLY WITHHOLDING TAX REGIME HAS BEEN APPROVED

Background

Withholding tax was introduced into the Nigeria tax system in 1977 to serve as an advance payment of income tax on specified transactions. It was designed to provide the government with regular revenue flow and to serve as a means of curbing tax evasion.

Challenges

As the regime expanded over time to cover more transactions, various ambiguities and complications crept in. This resulted in many businesses, especially SMEs, being exposed to excessive burden of compliance and a strain on the working capital of low-margin businesses.

Other unintended consequences include:

1) Ambiguities regarding persons required to comply, eligible transactions, applicable rates, and timing of the obligation for remittance, among others.

2) Treatment of the deduction as a separate tax, thereby adding to the list of multiple taxes and cost of doing business.

3) Challenges regarding obtaining refunds for excess withholding tax.

4) Lack of exemption threshold making the cost of compliance by taxpayers and cost of enforcement by the tax authority uneconomical.

5) Some emerging and contemporary issues are not properly addressed.

6) The overall structure of the withholding tax regime promoted tax inequity.

 

Key changes

As part of the ongoing fiscal policy and tax reforms, a new withholding tax regime has been approved. The key changes introduced are to address the identified challenges and specifically include: 

1) Exemption of small businesses from Withholding Tax compliance

2) Reduced rates for businesses with low margins

3) Exemptions for manufacturers and producers such as farmers

4) Measures to curb evasion and minimise tax avoidance

5) Ease of obtaining credit and utilisation of tax deducted at source

6) Changes to reflect emerging issues and adopt global best practices

7) Clarity on the timing of deduction and definition of key terms

 

The approved regulation is expected to be published in the official gazette in the coming days.

Exchange for Fractionalization of Real Estate Investment – Tekedia Live

0

Join us today as we discuss how you can use N100 to invest in that N20 billion real estate project. It is a new vista in the world of real estate investment. Yes, technology is making it possible to fractionalize assets and unlock opportunities for all.

What can we learn from this redesign, and how can you participate? Join the #best school as our faculty, UGO PETERS, CEO of HXAfrica takes us into that evolving journey.

This is Tekedia Mini-MBA; register and get big discounts for the next edition here.

Investors Are Excited Over JASMY and MATIC Potential But Nothing Comes Close To Excitement Around Rollblock (RBLK)

0

The crypto markets have been on fire this year, with huge gains being made across all sectors of the space. JasmyCoin (JASMY) and Polygon (MATIC) have long been on many investors’ watchlists as they have grown and developed the potential of Web3. However, despite strong bullish trends, both projects are being outperformed by Rollblock.

Rollblock ($RBLK) is an entirely new concept in online gambling – a fully crypto-native platform with huge scope for growth in the coming bull run. With a burgeoning community and impressive levels of hype, it looks set to dominate the GambleFi scene in the coming months and has huge potential to make enormous gains for early adopters. Analysts predict the coin could be 50x in the coming months as the project gains market share.

JasmyCoin (JASMY): A Titan of IoT and Data Management

JasmyCoin (JASMY), often labeled the ‘Bitcoin of Japan,’ has seen incredible growth this year and emerged as a market leader in the IoT (Internet of Things) space. JasmyCoin lets users control their own data securely and has revolutionized how personal data can be stored and managed in Web3.

JasmyCoin’s utility token, JASMY, trades on Ethereum and has seen considerable volatility in recent months, as the token has risen to highs of $0.04 from the bear market lows of $0.003, and currently sits below the 50-day simple moving average (around 0.034) at $0.03.

Although JasmyCoin has seen a considerable decline from all-time highs, this swing reflects market-wide adjustments, and the coin’s recovery in terms of price action and volume is impressive. Analysts look towards a future price of around $0.16 for JasmyCoin, though experts believe that JasmyCoin could experience considerable resistance on the way.

Polygon (MATIC): Will the Giant of Scaling Solutions Rise Again?

Polygon (MATIC) has been on the scene since late 2017 and has established itself as a leading Layer 2 on the Ethereum blockchain, allowing for increased throughput and vastly reduced fees. Polygon went on an almighty run during the previous bull market, with price running from $0.07 to heights of $2.93 in December 2021. Since then, Polygon has languished slightly and recently lost its position in the Crypto top 10.

However, there is hope for a resurgence as the Polygon team has been building furiously during the bear market. It rebranded as Polygon 2.0 and launched Polygon zkEVM, which leverages zero-knowledge proofs to improve scalability and interoperability. If the coin can reclaim the $1.00 mark, there will be little to stop MATIC reaching old highs – many analysts predict an easy 10-20x from here.

Rollblock (RBLK): A Innovative Disruptor in the GambleFi Space

Rollblock (RBLK) recently emerged as a coin likely to follow in the footsteps of JASMY and MATIC to become a major player in its niche. Making moves into the $450 billion online gambling space, Rollblock is set to gain massive adoption as the first fully community-backed Casino and ‘Play-to-Earn’ token.

Rollblock has a considerable ace up its sleeve as it requires zero KYC from users signing up, ensuring a welcome level of privacy and security. Users can create an account with an email address, make a deposit and choose from a huge range of games including Roulette, Blackjack, and many new options exclusive to the site. As all bets are made on-chain, there is no danger of the house editing or manipulating the transactions.

An innovative system of tokenomics will ensure that the native $RBLK token will become highly deflationary over time, with users earning coins in game, and staking rates offered at an attractive APY. The platform will also run an aggressive ‘buy-back and burn’ mechanism, ensuring that over time the supply will decrease as adoption grows.

Up to 30% of the Casino’s profits will be allocated to the market, buying $RBLK tokens each week through a decentralized exchange (DEX). 50% of the tokens repurchased will be immediately burned, and the remaining 50% will be distributed to stakers as a source of passive income for holders. This will allow Rollblock to offer their holders some of the best APY in the crypto space.

Right now $RBLK is in stage 3 of its prelaunch, with over 90 million of its total 1 billion tokens being purchased already. The price will soon rise from $0.015 with early adopters already enjoying returns of 50%. The price is set to jump up many multiples from here and experts are predicting a likely 50x move in the coming weeks and months.

 

Discover the Exciting Opportunities of the Rollblock (RBLK) Presale Today!
Website: https://presale.rollblock.io/

 Socials: https://linktr.ee/rollblockcasino

The General Practices of Converting PDF to Black and White

1

Black and white photography has a long and rich history. The first photos did not have color. Later solutions allowed the introduction of color. However, black and white photos were cheaper and easier to take and therefore more popular. Currently, in the era of digital photography, color is the leader. Today, you can easily and quickly take photos in color, and also modify it to your own preferences.

You may have been in a situation where you needed to convert a color PDF to black and white. For example, to make your PDFs fit better into the colors of a website or to compare a colored PDF with a modified grayscale one. This is also possible with a PDF converter – just a few clicks are enough to make a black and white PDF from a color one.

Principles to Convert PDF to Black and White

There are many different methods for converting color PDF to grayscale. The averaging method is the simplest because it takes the average of the colors into account. For example, for an RGB image (which contains three primary colors: red, green, and blue), the formula is grayscale = (red+green+blue/3). However, this method does not take into account the wavelengths of the different colors, so the converted image will look darker than it should.

Another option is the brightness or weighted method, based on colorimetry. Its goal is to measure the contribution of each color to the image by calculating its wavelength. This method gives better results because it also takes into account human perception. Studies show that the human eye perceives colors differently.

Methods to Convert PDF to Black and White

It is worth adding that from a technical point of view, certain PDFs in black and white look a little better or are a little less bothersome. This includes digital noise. Color noise is more visible and less pleasing to the eye.

In the black and white version, digital noise is less bothersome. Similarly, overexposed areas in monochrome PDFs are a little less striking than in color ones. Therefore, in some situations you can save a photo by converting it to grayscale, sepia, or another monochrome form.

Convert PDF to Black and White Using Grayscale Printing

Grayscale printing refers to the process of printing documents in shades of gray and not in color. This can be especially useful when printing text-heavy documents such as reports, forms or CVs with a PDF.

Grayscale Printing with SwifDoo PDF

SwifDoo PDF for Windows offers high-quality grayscale printing feature for ebooks, documents, notes and many other materials in the form of PDFs. Its virtual printer supports various types of PDFs, depending on the user’s preferences and requirements. The grayscale printing option makes a PDF to black and white possible.

There are many PDF conversion tools available on the internet. And SwifDoo PDF is definitely one of the options that you will probably come across. Apart from converting PDF to black and white, you can also use the tool to convert PDF to many other file formats such as PDF to DWG, Word, PPT, JPEG, and HTML.

Convert PDF to Black and White with Online Tools

There are many multi-functional tools that serves as a platform for converting color PDF files to black and white. Most of them offers several customization options, including the ability to adjust the grayscale level, thus offering users some flexibility. The simple user interface and easy-to-use websites make them popular tools among the users.

The general principles of converting PDF to Black and White online are as the following:

  • To get started, drop a PDF file or upload one from your device or cloud storage service.
  • Select the document elements to convert to grayscale (graphic elements, images, text, form fields, annotations) and click the Convert to Grayscale button.
  • Download the PDF file to your computer or save it directly to a cloud storage service.

The tech continues to evolve including for a way to merge PDF documents files elegantly.

Processing Photos in Black and White with Graphic Programs

Of course, there is also an additional option. Processing photos to black and white in a graphics program, as converting PDF to black and white mostly only involves the pictures within. Thanks to the appropriate PDF editors, you can add the grayscale images to a PDF more preciously.

The most common changes to the photo include: increasing the contrast, deepening the black, brightening or darkening specific parts of the image. Nowadays, such and similar changes to the photo are easier to make with the appropriate slider in a graphics program. You also have greater control over the degree of these changes.

So you don’t have to use color filters on the lens in digital photography, as was the case when converting image PDFs to black and white. But this is just a small digression.

In Closing

Although the principle of coherence with the surroundings is a basic determinant when converting a PDF to black and white, there are some exceptions. In a situation where a given photograph particularly captivates us and we want to particularly highlight it in a PDF presentation, we can decide to create contrast. A well-thought-out application of such a procedure can bring a really interesting effect.