Africa Business Radio

The Ethiopian government says it will continue its fight against Tigrayan rebel forces, despite growing international calls for a ceasefire. A statement on social media says Ethiopia was fighting an existential war and would not crumble under foreign propaganda. African nations, the European Union and the United States have reiterated calls for a truce and talks to end the conflict. The government says it's on the brink of victory, but Tigrayan forces have been advancing towards the capital and seizing key towns in recent days.

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has called for both administrative and financial autonomy for the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation to ensure optimal performance and transparency in its operations. The Chairman of the committee, Oluwole Oke, says he had sponsored a bill to grant the autonomy which had already passed the second reading at the House. Oke stated that caging the operations of the all-important office through financial and administrative control limits transparency and accountability

MTN Nigeria Communications Plc says it is set to proceed with a public offer for the sale of 575 million shares. The company says Its parent company, MTN Group, is set to proceed with this sale by means of a bookbuild to institutional investors and fixed price to retail investors. The company says the Offer is anticipated to open in November 2021 with a bookbuild to institutional investors, after which a fixed price is expected to be announced for retail investors also in November 2021. MTN says that it successfully completed the issuance of its N89.99bn series II 10-year 12.75 per cent fixed-rate bonds due 2031 under the N200bn bond issuance programme.

Operators in the telecommunication space say the minimum price set for the planned 5G spectrum is too expensive and higher than what obtains in most other countries. The Nigerian Communications Commission says the telcos expressed their concerns directly to them in a comment and recommendation format sent to the regulator. MTN and Airtel say the reserve price of about N75bn is too high and above what obtains in other world climes. The GSMA- an umbrella body for all the operators in the sector- raised concerns over the spectrum price, saying it might affect the plan to achieve affordable Internet access for a large portion of the populace. The GSMA added that they should consider the licence tenor of about 15 years if the spectrum price is sustained.

The House of Representatives ad hoc committee set up to investigate the current state and use of the Federal Government’s property and assets has asked the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and its subsidiaries to provide a list of Federal Government’s assets under their control. The committee says oil depots, pipelines, rigs and other facilities, which could have generated revenues for the government and reduced borrowing and budget deficit, had been abandoned in various parts of the country. The Chairman of the committee, Ademorin Kuye, says all assets in the custody of MDAs; assets that are being trespassed and encroached; assets that are just wasting away could be converted to revenue for the Federal Government for the development of the country.

Elon Musk challenged a United Nations official’s claim that just a small percentage of his wealth could help solve world hunger.Musk was responding to comments by David Beasley, director of the UN’s World Food Programme, who made a call asking billionaires like Musk to step up now, on a one-time basis.Beasley specifically called for action from Musk and Amazon.com Inc. co-founder Jeff Bezos, the two men atop the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.Beasley says just $6 billion could keep 42 million people from dying.Musk says If the World Food Programme, using transparent and open accounting, can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, he will sell Tesla stock and do it.

Facebook Inc says it shut down a troll farm run by the Nicaraguan government that had been spreading anti-opposition messages across multiple accounts, a move that comes just days before presidential elections are set to be held in the Central American nation.The social media giant says that the troll farm was intended to amplify pro-government and anti-opposition content.Threat intelligence lead for Facebook’s parent company Meta, Ben Nimmo says this was really a cross-government operation; the troll farm consisted of several clusters which were run from multiple government entities at once.He says the company closed 937 accounts, 140 pages and 24 groups on Facebook, as well as 363 Instagram accounts, last month.

India’s country’s prime minister has announced that the country’s economy will become carbon neutral by the year 2070.The target date is two decades beyond what scientists say is needed to avert catastrophic climate impacts.India is the last of the world’s major carbon polluters to announce a net-zero target, with China saying it would reach that goal in 2060, and the United States and the European Union aiming for 2050.Modi also said India would increase its 2030 target for an installed capacity of non-fossil energy from 450 to 500 gigawatts.

China and Russia are pushing the United Nations Security Council to ease sanctions on North Korea by reviving a 2019 attempt to remove a ban on Pyongyang’s exports of statues, seafood and textiles, and expanding it to include lifting a refined petroleum imports cap.China and Russia want the 15-member council to remove those sanctions with the intent of enhancing the livelihood of the civilian population in the isolated Asian state.The draft resolution also includes other measures first proposed by Russia and China nearly two years ago, including lifting a ban on North Koreans working abroad and exempting inter-Korean rail and road cooperation projects from sanctions.

The conservative-majority US Supreme Court hears challenges to the most restrictive law passed since abortion was made a constitutional right nearly 50 years ago.Dozens of protesters gathered outside the court in downtown Washington ahead of two hours of arguments before the nine-member panel.The Texas Heartbeat Act bans abortions after a heartbeat can be detected in the womb, which is normally around six weeks and makes no exceptions for rape or incest.The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority after Donald Trump nominated three justices, is to hear two hours of arguments in a case that has sparked a fierce legal and political battle.

Downing Street says Prime Minister Boris Johnson will fly back to London from Glasgow rather than taking the train, hours after he chided world leaders for not doing more on climate change.Johnson flew into COP26 late Sunday from Rome, where he was attending a weekend G20 summit, aboard a chartered Airbus plane painted in a patriotic UK livery.He will use the same jet to return to London after opening a two-day COP26 summit by warning that future generations will not forgive them if leaders fail to act.Johnson’s spokesman told reporters in Glasgow that it is important that the prime minister is able to move around the country and they face significant time constraints.

More than 120 world leaders meet in Glasgow on Monday in the last, best hope to tackle the climate crisis and avert a looming global disaster.Observers had hoped a weekend meeting in Rome of leaders of the G20 nations would give a strong impetus to the Glasgow COP26 summit, which was postponed for a year due to the pandemic.The G20 major economies committed to the key goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — the most ambitious target of the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement.They also agreed to end funding for new unabated coal plants abroad — those whose emissions have not gone through any filtering process — by the end of 2021.

Unvaccinated Ugandan MPs will be denied access to the country's parliament building from Monday.Deputy Speaker Anita Among says the move was to demonstrate a good example in support of the government’s public health policy".Nile Post reported that Uganda’s parliament becomes the third state institution to ban non-vaccinated people following similar moves by the Ministry of Health and the government-run National Medical Stores.President Yoweri Museveni said last week that many Ugandans were hesitant to get the jab but expressed hope that some 12 million residents would be vaccinated by the end of December.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed says foreign forces have fought alongside Tigrayan rebels in recent battles in strategically important areas in Amhara region.He says fighters who are not Ethiopian have taken part in the recent battles around the two cities.Mr Abiy says the government's calls to arms from a few months ago had not been met with the proper organisation despite the massive number of youths who had joined.He accused the Tigrayan rebels of wanting to return to power to implement a policy in which members of one group are treated as first-class citizens.He also repeated an earlier statement from the government that rebel forces had killed more than 100 civilians in Kombolcha, which the Tigrayan forces have denied.

The UN has accused the army in the Democratic Republic of Congo of beating up a human rights activist to death.The UN Joint Human Rights Office says Cabral Yombo succumbed to injuries after he was tortured by soldiers who were under instructions of local authoritiesMr Yombo had protested against illegal taxes imposed by the Bakano area chief in eastern DR Congo.The army and the local authorities have not responded to the allegations.

President Muhammadu Buhari has declared that Africa’s ambition of restoring over 100 million hectares of the degraded landscape for productive agriculture is realisable.President Buhari says it was noteworthy that the meeting was tailored towards ameliorating the problems of land degradation, desertification, depletion of the forest ecosystems and biodiversity in Africa.He says that Africa’s ambition of restoring over 100million hectares of the degraded landscape for productive agriculture is achievable.

At least four persons have died after a high-rise building collapsed in the Ikoyi area of Lagos on Monday.Some five persons have also been rescued alive as rescue operations intensified into the night. More people are believed to still be trapped in the rubble.The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency says it was fully on the ground with heavy-duty equipment and life detection equipment have been dispatched. The President prays for God’s intervention in the ongoing rescue operations.

The Senate Committee on Health refused to consider the 2022 budget proposal of the Ministry of Health, citing inconsistencies in its 2021 budget performance.Committee members during the budget defence session of the Ministry observed anomalies in the documents presented by the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire as regards capital releases and information on the implementation of the basic healthcare provision fund.The committee asked the Minister to effect the corrections on the issues raised by the lawmakers on the document and report back on Tuesday with evidence of all funds released to the ministry from 2018 to date.

The Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, says there is a greater need for stronger collaboration in the armed forces, in order to effectively deal with contemporary security challenges in the country.The defence chief says several ongoing military operations across the country, require collaboration between the army, navy, air force and the police to succeed.He says these operations are either targeted at combating security threats posed by proscribed groups, or other organized criminal groups who kidnap, kill or attack public infrastructure across the country.

G20 leaders meeting in Rome committed to the key goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and pledged action on the use of coal, but fell short on a target of zero emissions, according to a final draft communique.The pledges by the Group of 20 major economies, who emit nearly 80 per cent of carbon emissions, are viewed as crucial to the success of make-or-break UN climate talks taking place in Glasgow over the next fortnight.The leaders agreed to keep in play key commitments agreed at the landmark 2015 Paris accords.