Africa Business News

The United States has imposed visa restrictions on people accused of inciting violence in English-speaking western Cameroon.Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the US was deeply concerned by the continued violence in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon”.He says they condemn those who undermine peace through engaging in or inciting violence, human rights violations and abuses, and threats against advocates for peace or humanitarian workers.He urged the Cameroonian government and separatist armed groups to end the violence and engage in a dialogue without preconditions to peacefully resolve the crisis.

A member of the House of Representatives, Isiaka Ibrahim lamented over the refusal of Heads of government to appear during the investigative hearing on recovered loots.Ibrahim lamented that the repeated absence of the Head of Governments is disrespectful to the National Assembly.Those invited to the hearing and refused to show up include, CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele; the Inspector General Of Police, Usman Alkali Baba; the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno; and the Director-General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency.Ibrahim added that the lawmakers have no business being in the parliament if agencies of government who are creations of the parliament refuse to respect the institution that created them.

Senator Kola Balogun has called on the Federal Government to grant the South-West Security Network codenamed Amotekun the license to bear arms. The lawmaker says they are not as equipped as these invaders who are savages and who go on the rampage.Senator Balogun appealed to the IG and the police to grant them the license to be well-equipped as long as what they are doing is in support of what the police is doing.

Analysts called on the federal government to address structural factors, which have jacked up the cost of production of goods, thereby encouraging importation over local production.The analysts urged the federal government to also narrow the trade imbalance by making exports more attractive than imports, adding that “though devaluation becomes a tool in achieving this.”They urged the government to invest in value addition to raw materials and agricultural products as well as create a conducive environment for manufacturers.The National Bureau of Statistics says Nigeria’s total external merchandise increased to N9.76 trillion in the first quarter of the year, representing a 6.99 per cent rise over the N9.12 trillion recorded in the preceding quarter.

President Muhammadu Buhari called on the operators of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry to search for more efficient ways of exploiting the commodity to reduce the cost of production per barrel.He says that although Nigeria is observing the trend in the global movement toward renewables, he is optimistic that oil would remain relevant in the coming years.He says his administration’s drive for the discovery of more reserves and ramping up oil production is irrevocable.He stated that his administration has demonstrated commitment to the overhauling of the oil and gas industry to make it fit for the future.The president says the accelerated and unprecedented oil demand disruption and the supply glut that generated the crisis in the global economy had presented both challenges and opportunities.

Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, rejected the secession agitation by some groups in the South-west and ruled out the break-up of Nigeria.He urged the over 200 million Nigerians to utilise the numerical strength and the beauty of the diversity of the country to foster economic prosperity and political stability.He argued that it is important for fairness and equity to take their rightful places in the governance of the country so that no group is aggrieved or feels sidelined in the running of the country.Sanwo-Olu says he remained committed to one united and prosperous Nigeria where fairness and equal distribution of resources are the order of the day.

The federal government’s suspension of Twitter might have left both in a catch-22 situation as the duo has lost millions of followers that they had built for more than half a decade.The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had last week announced the suspension of Twitter after the firm deleted some aspects of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweet, which the company found to be in breach of its rules.Muhammed added an extra reason for the act, saying the temporary prohibition of the internet platform was a response to the firm’s persistent violation of the nation’s national security interest.However, many Nigerians have circumvented the federal government’s blockage of the micro-blogging facility, resorting to the virtual private network to connect Twitter.

Staff members of a Brazilian Senate inquiry into the country’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic have called for the upcoming Copa America football tournament to be postponed, citing low vaccination rates and the risks of spreading the virus.The Senate commission staffers say only 10.77 per cent of the population had received first doses of coronavirus vaccines as of Friday across Brazil.The staffers say Brazil does not offer sanitary security for holding an international tournament of this magnitude. In addition to transmitting a false sense of security and normality, opposite to the reality that Brazilians are living, it would encourage agglomerations of people and set a bad example.

There is growing public support among the world’s scientific community for fully exploring the possibility the coronavirus may have emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.Observers say the hypothesis became perniciously intertwined with the administration of former US President Donald Trump’s inflammatory anti-China rhetoric and xenophobic framing of the pandemic, causing an apparent chilling effect among the scientific community.J Stephen Morrison, director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Al Jazeera that the question of whether a lab accident was the origin got stuck in this hyper-politicised context.He says when Trump was instrumentalising the issue as part of an anti-China and anti-Asia campaign, people didn’t want to associate with that so they kept their distance.

Namibia says the deal agreed with Germany for €1.1bn in aid following the colonial-era genocide is not enough but it would revisit and renegotiate as funding is rolled out.A week ago Germany issued a long-awaited apology for the murder of tens of thousands of Herero and Nama people.Germany's apology resulted from the first negotiations of their kind by a former colonial power.Campaigners say the impact of the atrocities endured and the return of ancestral lands that were confiscated.There are also calls for compensation to made directly to the victims' descendants, for fear the money won't reach those for whom it's intended.