Nigeria

In a bid to improve the federal republic's education sector, Nigeria's National Council on Education (NCE) recently adopted a new plan to make school reform a top priority. "The Roadmap on the Nigeria Education Sector" targets four major areas: access and equity; standards and quality assurance; technical and vocational education; training funding, and resource mobilisation and utilisation. By approving the plan in May, the NCE has signalled its commitment to transforming the nation's underperforming schools.

Nigeria's mobile telecommunications market has grown rapidly in recent years, filling a gap left by the small number of landlines. The government has announced it expects to see reductions in tariffs in the near future, prompting companies to consider cost-saving strategies.

The upward pressure on cement prices has attracted attention this month, as the Nigerian government struggles to keep prices low enough to support the development of the construction industry.

On April 17, Nigeria's Ministry of Information and Communication launched its rebranding campaign for the Federal Republic by announcing a new logo and slogan, "Nigeria: Good People, Great Nation", in a bid to increase awareness of Nigeria's cultural offerings . One industry in particular is playing a crucial role in this promotional push: the extremely popular Nigerian film industry, Nollywood.

Even as President Umaru Yar'Adua signed Nigeria's 2009 budget into law on March 10, following months of parliamentary debate, the IMF was warning of the impact of the financial crisis on growth in Sub-Saharan Africa at a conference in Tanzania. Faced with the global slowdown, Nigeria is looking to mitigate the possibility of adverse conditions brought on by recession in export markets in the months to come.

New products along with the promise of an expanded bond market could herald an era of fresh dynamism for Dubai's capital markets, despite their difficult time of late.