Africa Business News

The Presidency says President Muhammadu Buhari will travel to London, the United Kingdom on Friday.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, explained that the President’s trip to London was for a scheduled medical follow-up, adding that he would be back in the country during the second week of July.
President Buhari’s scheduled trip to London comes almost three months since he last visited the United Kingdom for the same purpose.
He also stated that there was no need for the Nigerian leader to transmit power to the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, since he would not be away for so long to contravene the law.

The administration of President Joe Biden conceded it won’t meet its goal of administering one or more doses of a Covid vaccine to 70 per cent of US adults by July 4.
Head of the White House Covid response team, Jeffrey Zients thinks it’ll take a few extra weeks to get to 70 per cent of all adults with at least one shot.
The vaccination rate has been declining since April when it hit a peak average of 3.4 million daily shots. The latest average is around 850,000 daily shots.
The bottom of the table is dominated by states in the South, with Mississippi covering just 45 per cent of adults with one shot and 37 per cent with two.
The nationally representative surveys carried out by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that unvaccinated adults are significantly younger, less educated, more likely to be Republicans, people of colour and uninsured.

A coalition of opposition parties in the Central African Republic has called on Russian private security forces to leave the country.
The group says it is organising protests against the Russians, who it accuses of abusing civilians whilst fighting rebels.
The contractors are said to have killed 10 villagers and burned homes in the north-eastern Haute-Kotto region.
The Russians have been training and fighting alongside the security forces in the Central African Republic.
The United Nations Working Group on Mercenaries recently said it had received reports of the contractors committing grave human rights abuses.

Tanzania has announced that school-age mothers can be enrolled back into education from next year.
Tanzania's education ministry has now agreed, after consultations with the World Bank, to allow teenage mothers to attend classes at what is called Folk Development Colleges, which teach basic numeracy and literacy, across the country.
But the ban from school has not been reversed.

Sudan's foreign minister has written to the UN Security Council to intervene on the row over Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam on the Nile River.
Sudan wants the council to meet and discuss the dam's impact on the safety and security of millions of people.
Minister Mariam al-Mahdi's letter to the council head asks him to urge Ethiopia to stop the unilateral filling of the dam.
Ethiopia says the dam is vital for its development as it could bring power to 60% of the population. Sudan says filling the dam without solving outstanding issues would threaten national security.
Sudan wants Ethiopia to commit to a legally binding agreement, rather than guidelines, on the amount of water retained and the timetable for filling the reservoir.

President Muhammadu Buhari has pledged to bequeath a citizen-led policing system to the nation at the end of his eight-year rule in 2023.
He stated that his administration has demonstrated firm commitment towards changing the principle and strategy of policing.
He mandated the Ministry of Police Affairs to receive complaints from the public on cases of abuse and maltreatment by police personnel.
Buhari added that he has directed the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission to review upward police emoluments.
He said the new pay structure would be commensurate with the vital functions of the police performed as the lead agency in internal security operations.

President Muhammadu Buhari has transmitted a 2021 Supplementary Appropriation Bill of N895.842 billion to the Senate for passage into law.
Buhari says the amount captured in the bill was proposed to fund the COVID-19 vaccine programme.
He added that part of the supplementary budget would be used to also fund health-related expenditures for the treatment of additional 50,000 patients under Nigeria Comprehensive AIDS Programme in states and to procure additional equipment to tackle security challenges nationwide.
He says the supplementary budget will be funded through facilities sourced from the World Bank and available new facilities.
Buhari said the supplementary budget was promoted by the need to make provision for procurement and administration of COVlD-19 vaccines.

The Senate has confirmed the appointment of Major General Farouk Yahaya as the new Chief of Army Staff.
The red chamber took the decision following the consideration of the report of its joint committee on Defence and Army led by Senators Aliyu Wamakko and Ali Ndume.
The federal government kick-started the process of resolving its dispute that led to the suspension of the operations of the microblogging platform, Twitter, in Nigeria, with President Muhammadu Buhari raising a team to negotiate with the United States-based company.

The U.S. Consulate General in partnership with the Nnamdi Azikiwe University unveiled the Awka Window on America, the newest addition to the existing network of American Spaces in Nigeria.
The new Window on America will offer dynamic programming on topics including U.S. culture and society, education, women’s empowerment, civic engagement, entrepreneurship, and STEM learning to Nigerians from all walks of life.
U.S. Consulate Public Affairs Officer Stephen Ibelli noted that the new Window on America is open to everyone in the community offering its services, programs, and resources to the public at no cost.

The ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja has restrained the Federal Government from imposing sanctions or harassing, intimidating, arresting, or prosecuting Twitter.
It also restricted the government from carrying out such actions against any other social media service provider, as well as media houses, pending the hearing and determination of a suit challenging the government’s suspension of Twitter operations in Nigeria.
The court gave the restraining order after hearing arguments from parties in a suit filed by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and 176 concerned Nigerians.