Africa Business Radio

President Muhammadu Buhari has explained how his administration took painful decisions to invest for a prosperous future for all Nigerians.The Nigerian leader says upon assuming office in 2015, his government understood the importance of inclusive policies for sustainable peace.The President says in the past six years, the government took very painful but necessary decisions to invest for a long-term prosperous future knowing very well that this will come with short term pains.He says the Federal Government will keep encouraging public and private initiatives that increase investments in health, education, capacity building, youth empowerment, gender equality, poverty eradication, climate change and food security.

The Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum and Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, has accused politicians of fuelling crisis in his state.Lalong says the governors of the 19 northern states are in full support of the creation of state police to tackle the numerous security challenges facing their domain.He noted that Plateau has long been known as a state of peace and tourism before some political actors started creating problems in the state.

The Minister of Power, Engineer Abubakar Aliyu, believes Nigerians will soon begin to experience a turnaround in the power sector.Aliyu says the Federal Government is aware of the challenges facing the sector and is working to resolve them.He noted that the government is focusing on improving liquidity in the sector, improving services in terms of hours of supply, billing transparency and accuracy, and wider access to electricity.The Minister added that the government is working to explore opportunities that will, in the short term, deliver the much-desired quick wins while still focusing on the long-term objectives of increasing the available power.

The Nigerian Army has taken delivery of 60 new VP – 1 Type Tracked Armoured Personnel Carriers manufactured in China to boost the ongoing war against Boko Haram insurgency and banditry in the North-East and North-West.The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Faruk Yahaya says the deployment of new platforms to the battlefield underscores the Federal Government’s commitment to ensure that a state of normalcy is achieved across the country.The Army Chief assured that the military is taking cogent steps in ensuring that bandits and terrorists are neutralised and annihilated throughout the country.

President Buhari approved the construction and equipping of a 14-bed space Presidential Clinic at a cost of N21 billion.The Permanent Secretary State House, Mr Umar Tijjani explained that the Presidential Clinic was conceived in 2012 by the previous administration and will be open to people from other African countries for medical treatment.He further says most of the preliminary work has been concluded and a Certificate of No Objection has been sought from the Bureau of Public Procurement.

Washington has revoked the US licence of one of China's biggest telecoms companies citing national security concerns.China Telecom must stop providing services in America within 60 days.Officials said the Chinese government's control of the company gave it the opportunity to access, store, disrupt, and/or misroute US communications.They said this in turn could allow it to engage in espionage and other harmful activities against the US.The decision comes hours after US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen spoke to China's Vice Premier Liu He about the state of the global economy.

Reserve Bank Of Zimbabwe has banned bulk airtime sales, ordering telecommunications service providers to stagger the reduction of physical airtime sales to 10% in a bid to contain illicit foreign currency dealings.The Financial Intelligence Unit director-general, Oliver Chiperesa ordered the companies to control the production and sale of airtime.The FIU says bulk airtime recharge vouchers are being abused by airtime dealers to facilitate illegal foreign currency trading and money laundering.The unit says airtime dealers have been purchasing airtime vouchers in bulk from mobile telecommunication service providers using local currency and then disposing of the same at discounted foreign currency prices.

The United Nations says Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere reached record levels last year, in a stark warning ahead of the COP26 summit about worsening global warming.The UN’s World Meteorological Organization says that continued rising greenhouse gas emissions would result in more extreme weather and wide-ranging impacts on the environment, the economy and humanity.The WMO says the economic slowdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic triggered a temporary decline in new emissions but had no discernible impact on the atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases and their growth rates.

Poland Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak says the country will increase to 10,000 the number of soldiers deployed to help border guards stop migrant crossings from Belarus, He says they are increasing the number of soldiers to help the border guard service by 2,500. Soon, about 10,000 soldiers will be guarding the security of the border.The EU believes the Belarusian regime is deliberately sending the migrants over in retaliation against EU sanctions.

The Biden administration has announced pausing US assistance to Sudan after the military takeover and urged the immediate restoration of the civilian-led government.Department of State spokesperson Ned Price told reporters that Washington will evaluate its entire relationship with Khartoum unless the country returns to the transitional path to democracy.Price says the United States condemns the actions taken overnight by Sudanese military forces.Price warned that the recent developments will affect bilateral ties between Khartoum and Washington if they are not reversed.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced that Australia will commit to a target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 but will not improve its goal for 2030 at a crucial United Nations climate summit.Morrison says Australians want action on climate change but they also want to protect their jobs and their livelihoods. Morrison published an opinion piece in the Australian News Corp newspapers explaining his decision, which will commit to the 2050 net-zero goal but will not improve on an election pledge to reduce emissions between 26 per cent and 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

The United States suspended $700 million in aid to Sudan after a military takeover and urged the immediate restoration of a civilian government.State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters that the civilian-led transitional government should be immediately restored and represents the will of the people.He says that the suspension concerned a $700 million package in economic support meant to assist Sudan’s democratic transition.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rowed back from his threat to expel 10 Western envoys over their joint statement of support for a jailed civil society leader.The reversal came after the United States and several of the other concerned countries issued identical statements saying they respected a UN convention that required diplomats not to interfere in the host country’s domestic affairs.He concluded the meeting by victoriously announcing in televised comments that the 10 ambassadors had learnt their lesson and will be more careful now.The new Western statement shows they have taken a step back from the slander against the country.

Tesla became the latest US tech giant to hit $1 trillion in market value Monday as investors cheered a large order from Hertz and shrugged off criticism from a US auto safety official.Shares of Elon Musk’s company finished at $1,024.86, up 12.7 per cent and topping $1 trillion for the first time.The surge followed an announcement from rental car giant Hertz of an order to buy 100,000 autos from Tesla by the end of 2022 in the latest embrace of electric car technology by a mainstream auto player.

The German firm, BioNTech, has signed deals with Rwanda and Senegal to build Africa’s first vaccine manufacturing facility based on mRNA technology.BioNTech says the plant will have an initial capacity to produce 50 million doses annually. The plant will be built in Rwanda.The partners say mRNA vaccines could also be developed to fight other diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis.Rwanda’s Health Minister Daniel Ngamije said the goal was to include Africa in networks of scientific innovation and production.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced the lifting of the state of emergency in place since deadly jihadist attacks on Coptic Christian churches more than four years ago.The North African country has been under a state of emergency since April 2017 bombings of two Coptic churches by an Islamic State group affiliate that killed more than 40 people.Sisi says Egypt has become, thanks to its great people and its loyal men, an oasis of security and stability in the region.Under a state of emergency, police powers such as arresting and holding citizens are extended and constitutional rights such as freedom of speech and assembly are curtailed.

The government of South Sudan is urging the military and differing parties in neighbouring Sudan to quickly return to dialogue amid a coup.A press release issued by South Sudan’s foreign affairs ministry says President Salva Kiir affirms his unwavering solidarity with the people of Sudan.The ministry in a press release says it remains steadfast in supporting the aspirations and stance of the Sudanese people and will avail all its diplomatic channels to support Sudan.

Agusto & Co, has predicted an influx of new entrants into the small and medium scale enterprises segment of the Nigerian economy.It also estimated that Nigeria recorded a volume of $12 billion transactions on online purchases in 2020, and projected that online transactions might hit the $75 billion mark by 2025.The report stated that the growing surge in e-retailing would continue to see an upward trend and would be buoyed by the uptick in digital payments that have been growing on the back of the spread of information technology with internet penetration increasing to 46.6 per cent in 2020 from 23.7 per cent in 2015.

The President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba asked workers across the country to take the COVID-19 vaccine for a chance to stay alive.Wabba appealed to workers to take advantage of vaccination provisions made by the Federal Government, in order to reduce hospitalisations and fatalities among workers.He says while health issues need to be approached with great caution, it would be foolhardy to undermine the protective powers of vaccines against the virus.

President Muhammadu Buhari says Nigeria’s new digital currency, eNaira, will increase the country’s Gross Domestic Product by $29 billion over the next 10 years.The President says the launch of eNaira makes Nigeria the first country in Africa and one of the first few countries globally to introduce a digital currency.The new payment system is expected to drive financial inclusion, serve as a backbone for electronic payment in Nigeria and also enable the movement of more people from the informal to the formal sector, hence scaling up the tax base of the country.