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The government launched an anti-corruption initiative in late April backed by the country’s inspector general, Hassan Sultan. “From the public procurement process to electoral reform and international co-operation, corruption can have a negative impact on a wide range of important functions of the state, and it is our responsibility to eradicate it wherever it is found,” he said. The launch came a few days before Sultan travelled to London for the UK-Djibouti Trade and Investment Forum.

Former Delta State governor (1999-2007) James Ibori has lost his appeal against a 13-year prison sentence handed down in April 2012 by London’s Southwark Crown Court after he admitted ten counts of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering. Ibori, a powerful southerner, was arrested in Dubai in 2010 and extradited to the UK to stand trial. He is one of the few senior Nigerian politicians to be successfully prosecuted for corruption.

The authorities in charge of Libya’s oil and gas sector are contemplating a radical shift to private financing of major upstream and downstream developments to get around budget constraints which are putting many essential projects out of reach. Under the former regime of late leader Muammar Qadhafi, the idea of using domestic or international finance to back National Oil Corporation (NOC) projects was unthinkable. Even now, the idea may be opposed by newly formed trade unions or armed groups representing local interests who continue to promote themselves under the banner of ‘revolutionary’ forces. However, a well-attended two-day seminar on sources and methods of financing and prospects for investment in the oil and gas sector, held by NOC in Tripoli on 14-15 May, showed the corporation was serious about bringing in outside money.

The Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (FEACC) has announced the 10 May arrest of 13 high-level government officials on charges of corruption. Those arrested include Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority director-general (with ministerial rank) Melaku Fenta, his deputy, Gebrewahid Woldegiorgis, and the authority’s chief prosecutor, Eshetu Semayat. Local media reports say some businessmen have also been arrested as part of the FEACC investigation, including KK Trading’s Ketema Kebede, Intercontinental Addis Hotel owner Simachew Kebede and Netsa Trading owner Nega Egziabher.

Missouri-based TJGEM LLC has filed a case (1:2013cv00382) in the Columbia District Court against the Republic of Ghana, former finance minister Kwabena Duffuor, Accra mayor Alfred Vanderpuije and US company Conti Construction. In the 76-page complaint filed in late March, TJGEM details how company officials travelled to Accra several times in 2011 to hold meetings with Vanderpuije about TJGEM’s potential involvement in a multi-million dollar sewerage project in Accra.

Libya will experience its worst power supply deficit during the summer peak, expected in the first week of August and coinciding with the final week of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Load may exceed capacity by as much as 1,000MW unless urgent measures are taken, deputy minister for electricity and renewable energy Mohammed Ekhlat told African Energy in Tripoli. This is the maximum estimate. Other industry sources, such as General National Congress (GNC) energy commission vice chairman Abdulkarim El Gayash have said the system may be overloaded by as much as 800MW.

A former consultant with US pipeline contractor Willbros International has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to pay some $6m in bribes to Nigerian officials. The consultant, Paul Novak, was also managing director of Addax Nigeria before it was sold to Sinopec.

South Africa’s Protection of State Information Bill, which was passed by a majority vote in parliament in late April and is now before President Jacob Zuma for signing, has been criticised by a number of bodies, including the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the Right2Know campaign and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The former head of state electricity company Société Nigérienne d’Electricité (Nigelec) Foukory Ibrahim has been arrested and jailed on suspicion of embezzling some CFA20bn (£25.7m). Ibrahim was an ally of former president Mamadou Tandja, who was toppled in a February 2010 military coup. Ibrahim had immunity as a serving MP for the Mouvement National pour la Société du Développement, which is now in opposition, but this was lifted last year.

Following the 14 April arrest in Florida of a former BSG Resources (BSGR) associate, Frédéric Cilins, the Guinean authorities have detained Ibrahima Sory Touré, a senior manager in the company’s local unit. Cilins, who was involved in setting up the BSGR office in Guinea in the mid-2000s was charged with obstructing a criminal investigation, tampering with a witness and destruction of records.

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) temporarily suspended the Democratic Republic of Congo on 17 April, saying its reports were not up to standard in terms of full disclosure and the reliability of the figures. EITI national co-ordinator Mack Dumba Jeremy has said that tax authorities have failed to account for $88m in revenue from the mining sector.

The World Bank Group (WBG) has approved $121.46m of energy sector financing to help Tanzania make best use of its newly discovered gas reserves, while Norway has agreed to fund rural electrification. The WBG has approved a $100m Power and Gas Sector Development Policy Operation, described as the first in a series of three. The funding will help the government to address the financial gap in the power sector, especially in Tanzania Electricity Supply Company (Tanesco), as well as to expand power generation from gas, reform the sector’s institutions, and strengthen policy and institutional foundations for maximizing the benefits of natural gas reserves.

South Sudan energy minister Stephen Dhieu Dau was due to hold an official ceremony on 27 April to mark the first oil flows from Unity State into a pipeline to Sudan operated by Greater Pioneer Operating Company (GPOC). The flow of oil from Upper Nile State into the second export pipeline to Sudan, operated by Dar Petroleum Operating Company (DPOC), was due to begin on 30 April. Though the Ministry of Oil in Khartoum reported the arrival of a small test shipment from the South in early April, the full-scale resumption of both pipelines has been delayed and no new date has been set for either, according to sources in Juba.

Houston-based oil services company Parker Drilling agreed in mid-April to pay the US authorities $15.9m to settle foreign bribery charges. The company was accused of making a payment to a third party while knowing that it would be used to influence a Nigerian government panel’s decision on whether the company had broken local customs laws.

The World Bank is considering a $585.4m loan for the 1,950MW Helwan South power project, to be built at Helwan, south of Cairo. The $2.4bn project entails construction of a supercritical steam power plant, a 93km pipeline connecting the power plant to the gas transmission network at Dahshur, and a 65km pipeline to take gas from producing fields to the plant.