Africa Business Radio

A former vice presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Peter Obi says Nigerians are getting poorer because the government is borrowing for the wrong reasons.Mr Obi argued that while it is not a crime to borrow money, the funds must be used solely for productions that enhance the lives of the citizens and enrich the economy.He says the nation’s Gross Domestic Product cannot be growing while the people are getting poorer.He believes the growth Nigeria needs is one that pulls people out of poverty by making the people have disposable income and be able to feed themselves.

Japan and Vietnam have agreed to step up cooperation amid worries about China’s growing military influence, signing a new deal that enables the export of Japanese-made defence equipment and technology to Hanoi.Japan’s Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi says the deal elevates the two countries’ defence partnership to a new level and that Japan and Vietnam plan to deepen defence ties through multinational joint exercises and other means.The Japanese Defence Ministry in a statement says details about the transfer of specific equipment, including naval vessels, will be worked out in subsequent talks, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also says China and Vietnam should refrain from any unilateral actions regarding the South China Sea that could complicate the situation and magnify disagreements.

The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog and Iran’s nuclear chief have reached an agreement that will prevent another crisis looming over the prospect of restoring Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal.Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi met Mohammad Eslami, the newly appointed head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.Both sides called the meeting constructive and agreed they will continue discussions on the sidelines of the agency’s general conference in Vienna later this month.They also agreed that Grossi would travel to Tehran again soon to replace the agency’s monitoring cameras’ memory cards, which will still be kept in Iran in line with a law passed by the hardline Iranian parliament in December

The Taliban’s new higher education minister says Afghan women will be allowed to attend university as long as they study separately from men.Minister Abdul Baqi Haqqani was unapologetic about bringing an end to mixed-sex classes.He says they have no problems in ending the mixed-education system adding that the people are Muslims and they will accept it.The Taliban announced earlier this month that women could still study at university if they wore an abaya robe and niqab covering most of the face, with classes segregated by sex.

China handed over to Cambodia a $150 million stadium in Phnom Penh, with officials saying it is the result of Beijing’s biggest ever infrastructure grant to the country.The presentation of the arena, intended as the main venue when Cambodia hosts the Southeast Asian Games in 2023, was made by China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his visit.Cambodia’s tourism minister Thong Khon says the $150 million stadia represented China’s largest-ever grant to Cambodia for an infrastructure project.Official says the Morodok Techo National Stadium resembles a sailing ship, symbolising the two nations long-standing friendship as Chinese people used to travel to Cambodia by boat.

Tunisia’s President Kais Saied has indicated plans to change the country’s constitution, seven weeks after he seized power in moves his opponents called a coup.Saied says he respected the 2014 democratic constitution but that it was not eternal and could be amended.He says amendments must be made within the framework of the constitution. The president was planning to suspend the constitution and offer an amended version via a referendum, prompting opposition from political parties and the powerful UGTT labour union.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa announced plans to introduce Covid-19 vaccine passports amid widespread scepticism of the jab, ahead of an easing of movement restrictions this week.Ramaphosa stressed that an immunised adult population was key to fully reopening the economy and avoiding a fourth infection wave.He says in two weeks, they will be providing further information on an approach to vaccine passports which can be used as evidence of vaccination for various purposes and events”, he said without providing further details.He added that a sustained decline in infections over the last few weeks would allow for an easing of confinement measures from Monday.

A delegation from the West African regional bloc Ecowas has had an initial meeting with members of the military junta in Guinea's capital, Conakry.The diplomats, including foreign ministers from Ghana, Burkina Faso and Togo, flew into the country following Sunday's overthrow of President Alpha Condé.Ecowas condemned the coup and suspended Guinea from the organisation.BBC's reports that the Ecowas delegation will be looking for assurances that Mr Condé is in good health, pressing for his release from custody and asking for a timetable for the return of constitutional order.

Former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has advised the National Assembly not to legislate on the collection of the Value Added Tax and Stamp Duties, which are currently subjects of litigation between some states and the federal government.Ekweremadu says allowing the litigations to run the full course would be a major step towards strengthening the country’s federalism.Ekweremadu recalled that he had for over a decade warned the country against feeding bottle federalism in which states depended on redistributed resources of other federating units for survival.He stressed that since past legislative efforts to get things right had failed or had been scuttled, it was natural and imperative to allow the judiciary to play its role in shaping the country’s federalism.

Mastercard has partnered with African Fintech and Start Pathcompany Paycode, to provide both company’s offerings on one biometric smart card that will help increase access to critical services and advance economic inclusion for Africans living in remote communities.The company says the partnership is expected to address Africa’s challenges, where an estimated 57 per cent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa remains financially excluded while close to 30 per cent remain without a form of identification and 60 per cent of the continent has no internet connectivity.Sales & Market Development, H&D for Mastercard, Ricardo Pareja, says adding Inclusive ID functionality to Paycode biometric smart cards helps reach those currently excluded from critical government programs.

The federal government is considering dragging some medical doctors through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission for illegally collecting medical training allowances meant for House Officers on residency training programme in 2020, to the tune of N540 million.The source said there were three categories of medical officers involved in the scam, including some consultant doctors.The source also said the government had accused the management of some of the Teaching Hospitals of allegedly smuggling names of those who had completed their residency training programme into the list of House Officers that received payment from the medical training fund in 2020.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, and the Nigerian Communications Commission to immediately reverse the apparently unjustified suspension of internet and telecommunication networks in Zamfara State and 13 local government areas of Katsina State.The SERAP says the move is without any legal justification, is inconsistent with the principles of necessity and proportionality. A suspension is a form of collective punishment of Nigerians resident in these states.SERAP says the development is egregious and suggests a disturbing trend, especially given the growing restriction of civic space in Nigeria.

Iran has emphasised its calls for the formation of an inclusive government in neighbouring Afghanistan, shortly after the Taliban formed what it said was an interim cabinet.A foreign ministry statement says Iranian top diplomat Hossein Amirabdollahian told his peers Iran was following up on the formation of an inclusive government with the participation of all people and hoped the Taliban would abide by its promises for such an administration.He says the experience has shown that a non-inclusive government does nothing to help stability, peace and progress in Afghanistan.

US President Joe Biden has announced a series of measures to boost vaccination rates against COVID-19 in the United States, including requiring federal employees to get inoculated and mandating that large employers ensure their workers are vaccinated or tested weekly for the virus.Biden voiced dismay that some Americans were refusing to take the vaccine amid a jump in cases and deaths from the virus largely driven by unvaccinated people.Biden condemned what he called pandemic politics saying that the new requirements aim to reduce the number of unvaccinated people in the US.He said about 80 million eligible people have yet to have a single vaccine shot

The United Nations has warned that Afghanistan is at risk of a total breakdown of the international community does not find a way to keep money flowing into Afghanistan despite concerns over the Taliban government.Nearly $10bn of Afghanistan’s central bank assets are currently frozen overseas and considered key leverage over the new administration.The UN special envoy on Afghanistan Deborah Lyons told the Security Council that a way needed to be found to get the money into the country to prevent a total breakdown of the economy and social order.She noted that Afghanistan was facing a storm of crises including a plunging currency, a sharp rise in prices for food and fuel and a lack of cash at private banks. The authorities also do not have the funds to pay salaries

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urged countries in the G7 group of richest nations to quickly implement a global tax reform aimed at curbing tax avoidance.The Treasury says G20 finance ministers backed the deal in July, followed by 134 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development member countries representing more than 90 per cent of the world’s GDP.Treasury in a statement following a meeting of G7 finance ministers held virtually says Secretary Yellen expressed support for ongoing efforts to improve the international tax system and the importance of swift implementation of the new system. Yellen says the policy will generate funding for a sustained increase in critical investments in education, research, and clean energy.

France has granted citizenship to over 12,000 foreign-born health workers, security guards, checkout assistants and other frontline workers to thank them for their services during the Covid crisis.Marlene Schiappa, junior interior minister in charge of citizenship, says over 16,000 people had applied for a French passport over the past year under a special scheme allowing workers in essential services to apply for citizenship after just two years in France, instead of the usual five.She says among the other categories of employees eligible for the scheme are garbage collectors, home-care providers and nannies.

Europe's medicines regulator has added the nerve-damaging disorder, Guillain-Barré Syndrome, as a possible side-effect of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine, which is widely used in Africa.The European Medicines Agency says a causal relationship between GBS and the jab was at least a reasonable possibility.The EMA however said the side-effect was very rare, saying there has been fewer than one case in 10,000 people.The EMA stressed that the vaccine's benefits outweighed the potential risks.

The World Health Organization says African countries will receive over 100 million doses of Covid vaccines less than they were to get from Covax by the end of the year.WHO says Africa was to receive 520 million doses by December. So far Covax has been able to deliver more than five million doses.The UN global sharing scheme says bilateral deals that manufacturing companies have with rich countries, as well as delays in regulatory approvals, are partly to blame for the reduced target.Out of the 54 countries, only 12 will achieve a global target of vaccinating 10% of their population by the end of September.

Guinea's military junta has ordered banks to freeze all government-related accounts so as to secure state assets.The junta says the order affects institutional and individual accounts of the outgoing government.Senior officials of the ousted President Alpha Condé's government will not be able to access their accounts.The coup leaders seized power said they wanted to end rampant corruption, human rights abuses and mismanagement.The West African regional bloc Ecowas has deployed a mission to hold talks with the Guinean authorities.