Africa Business News

The Independent National Electoral Commission has declared Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the 2024 governorship election in the South-South state. Okpebholo, 54, secured 291,667 votes to defeat Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who got 247,274 votes and Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party (LP) who came a distant third in the race with 22,763 votes. Fourteen other candidates contested the seat but got less than the three frontline candidates.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/africa-business-news--4166630/support.

TikTok will start making its case against a law that will see it banned in the US unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells the social media app within nine months. The measure - signed into law by President Biden in April - has been prompted by concerns that US users' data is vulnerable to exploitation by China's government. TikTok and ByteDance have always denied links to the Chinese authorities and have described the law an "extraordinary intrusion on free speech rights. The firm will make its arguments before a three-judge panel at an appeals court in Washington DC. Company representatives will be joined by eight TikTok creators, including a Texas rancher and a Tennessee baker, who say they rely on the platform to market their products and make a living.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/africa-business-news--4166630/support.

The government of South Sudan is holding an emergency cabinet meeting hours after it announced that long-delayed national elections would be postponed by two years. The polls were due to take place this December. A 2018 peace deal that ended a civil war allowed President Salva Kiir to remain in charge of a transitional government with his former foe Riek Machar serving as his deputy. South Sudan, the world's youngest country, has not held national elections since independence in 2011. This has fuelled suspicion that they are clinging to power in the oil-rich country. President Salva Kiir's office says essential tasks like writing a new constitution must happen before an election. Officials have also cited logistical and security challenges, which could not be overcome by the end of the year.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/africa-business-news--4166630/support.

The Lagos Waste Management Authority plans to introduce community recycling centres to support businesses in the circular economy. LAWMA CEO, Muyiwa Gbadegesin says the centres are part of upcoming innovations from the waste management agency during the Lagos Recyclers Association Conference held on Friday in Lagos State. Gbadegesin says the community recycling centre will be a drop-off point for people in the community to bring recyclable materials, whether it’s paper, PET bottles, other types of plastic, glass, metals, even textile waste, and then food waste.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/africa-business-news--4166630/support.

President Bola Tinubu has returned to Abuja after his official visit to China and his short stay in the United Kingdom. President Tinubu held bilateral meetings with President Xi Jinping and Chinese Premier Li Qiang, and there were five memoranda of understanding signed between Nigeria and China. He also attended the forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing, and as chairman of ECOWAS, delivered a paper on global peace, stressing multilateralism and cooperation as essential ingredients for international peace.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/africa-business-news--4166630/support.

The Dangote Refinery located in Lagos has denied selling petrol to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited at N898 per litre. A spokesman for the refinery Anthony Chiejinadescribed the claim by the NNPCL as “misleading and mischievous”. He urged Nigerians to disregard this malicious statement and await a formal pricing announcement by the Technical Sub-Committee on Naira-based crude sales to local refineries, appointed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He added that they the products to NNPCL in dollars with a lot of savings against what they are currently importing so there will be petrol in every local government area of the country regardless of their remote nature

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/africa-business-news--4166630/support.

Boeing is offering its staff a 25% pay bump over a four-year contract, in a bid to avoid a strike that could potentially shut down its assembly lines as early as Friday. Union leaders representing more than 30,000 employees have urged the workers to support the proposal, describing it as the best contract they had ever negotiated. Boeing workers in the Seattle and Portland region are set to vote on the deal. The aerospace giant's chief operating officer, Stephanie Pope, described the proposal as a "historic offer" adding that If ratified by union members, it would be the first full labour agreement between the firm and the unions in 16 years.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/africa-business-news--4166630/support.

Sudan's military-led government has rejected a call by a UN fact-finding mission for the deployment of an international force to protect civilians from the country’s ongoing civil war. The UN mission reported that Sudan’s warring parties had committed "harrowing" human rights violations against civilians. The UN mission’s lead, Chande Othman, says given the failure of the warring parties to spare civilians, an independent and impartial force with a mandate to safeguard civilians must be deployed without delay. The head of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also called on the world to wake up and help Sudan out of the nightmare it is living through.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/africa-business-news--4166630/support.

Ethiopia's Prime Minister has warned that anyone planning on invading the country should "think 10 times" before doing so because, any attack would be repelled. Ethiopia has been experiencing some rising tensions with neighbouring Somalia and Egypt. Somalia has described a maritime pact that Mr Abiy's government signed with the self-declared republic of Somaliland in January as an act of "aggression", and has responded by forging closer military ties with Egypt. Egypt has also been involved in a long-running dispute of its own with Ethiopia over Addis Ababa's decision to build a large dam on a tributary of the River Nile.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/africa-business-news--4166630/support.

The Federal Government has signed a $1bn iron ore steel deal project with China. The Minister of Solid Minerals Development Dr Oladele Alake, said the deal was signed for Kogi State as a breakthrough in the Federal Government’s campaign to make local value addition the development model in the solid minerals sector. He says the Federal Government has reversed the pit-to-port policy under which mining companies exported raw minerals to extraction with local value addition which is the best guarantee of jobs for the youths, skills transfer and better trade balance between the country and her trading partners. He noted that to promote local value addition, he has announced that applicants for licences to mine must disclose plans for processing the raw minerals as part of the conditions for approval.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/africa-business-news--4166630/support.