Africa Business News

The Independent National Electoral Commission has commenced the online continuous voter registration exercise where intending voters can register before they complete the process at a designated centre.
New voters can pre-register on the INEC portal while those who have registered in the past can access the platform to review their voter registration status.
Registered voters can also request for replacement of damaged or defaced Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVC) on the portal.
New voters are only required to fill the forms on the portal with their biodata and required documents, after which they are expected to visit an INEC state or local government office.

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo blamed corruption and lack of transparency, among other factors, for poor contract negotiations in Nigeria.
The Vice President made the comment while addressing a two-day capacity building workshop for negotiators.
Vice-President Osinbajo cited the P&ID case and the Strategic Alliance Contract case where Nigeria is at risk of losing billions of dollars due to poor and shrewd negotiations of the contracts.
He called for proper negotiation by Nigeria in the ongoing discussion on climate change which he says should put into consideration Nigeria’s peculiar economic situation and needs of the citizens.

A reformist newspaper says a group of Iranian lawmakers are working on a draft bill that could further restrict access to the internet.
The bill calls for organising social media and the banning of virtual private network software used widely by Iranians to bypass internet restrictions and blocks imposed on several social media websites.
Etemad says internet users in Iran have expressed concern over the draft bill proposed by some conservative lawmakers, who hold the majority in parliament since 2020.
The newspaper added that the text also calls for jails terms of between 91 days and six months for anyone found guilty of violating the terms of the bill if it becomes law.
The Repeat offenders could also be fined, receive up to 30 lashes and be deprived of their civic rights.

Thailand will reimpose Covid-19 restrictions on restaurants, construction sites and gatherings in the capital Bangkok and its suburbs as it tries to contain a wave of coronavirus cases.
The government says in an order published Saturday that new restrictions will begin Monday and last for a month.
They include closing construction sites in Bangkok and surrounding areas, banning workers from leaving, prohibiting eat-in customers at restaurants, and restricting gatherings to a maximum of 20 people.
Checkpoints will be set up in Thailand’s southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala and Songkhla. Travellers must carry a letter of intent to leave or enter.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has called out vaccine selfishness in the world but says it will wake up Africans to be self-sufficient.
President Museveni says what Africa needs is raw materials to produce its own Covid vaccines and not donations from the developed nations.
President Museveni said countries across the continent need to stop waiting for vaccine donations and manufacture them locally.
President Museveni says Uganda was in the process of making its own Covid vaccine and only needed help with some raw materials.
The African Union has been calling for a Covid vaccine patent waiver to allow the continent to make its own vaccines as the shortage continues in different countries.

Sudan will cut its government spending and increase social spending after completing a raft of rapid economic reforms this month that threatens to compound pressures on the majority of the population.
Sudan fully removed subsidies on car petrol and diesel, and in February it devalued its currency and began a policy of a flexible managed float.
The country will cut costs of external official trips by 50%, reduce fuel quotas for government vehicles by 20%, sell all surplus government vehicles and cut embassies' budgets by 25% among other measures.
The cabinet after three days of closed meetings says the government will expand the registration of a family support project called Thamarat or Fruits to include three million families or about 15 million people within two months.

A senior official says Sudan has rejected an Ethiopian proposal to manage the filling for a second time of a giant dam that it is building on the Blue Nile deepening a regional dispute over the project.
Addis Ababa has said it will again fill the reservoir behind the multi-billion dollar hydropower dam after seasonal rains start this summer, a move that both Sudan and Egypt oppose without a binding agreement on filling and operating the dam.
The senior Sudanese official says the Ethiopian proposal for the second filling was not real and a way to buy time, adding that any such proposal should come under the auspices of AU mediators and involve all parties.
The official also said that Ethiopia had put forward impossible conditions related to the division of the share of the water, which Sudan considers outside the scope of negotiations.

Members of the organised private sector have advised state governors to eliminate multiple taxations and introduce measures to further improve Ease of Doing Business in order to attract investors and promote economic growth.
The advice by the OPS followed the recent EoDB report released by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council which ranked Gombe State number one among the 36 states with an overall average score of 7.69 out of a maximum score of 10.
Officials of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry says the state governments should focus on eliminating multiple taxations, improving electricity supply, transportation, security and investment promotion, to ease doing business.
They also called for streamlining tax administration, introduction of legislation to provide a legal framework for doing business in their respective states.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has asked the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Banjul, The Gambia, to issue provisional measures to urgently stop the Nigerian government and National Assembly from supporting and pushing through two bills to gag the media, and impose arbitrary and harsh punishment on journalists, broadcast stations, media houses and media practitioners in Nigeria.”
The right group says these anti-media bills are the latest threats to freedom of expression, access to information and media freedom in the country.
They said the bills are not in keeping with the provisions of the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa, which supplements articles 1 and 9 of the African Charter.

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has asked Nigerian leaders to begin at this moment in the nation’s history, to prepare for and against population explosion.
Obasanjo says Nigeria’s population is becoming a liability due to its improper management, stressing that except there is urgent intervention, then the nation may be declared the third most populous nation in the world.
He says population management must come to the fore, especially in the face of the geometric population explosion without a corresponding socio-economic development.
Obasanjo expressed worry over the management of the population of the nation.