Africa Business News

A new bridge over the Zambezi River linking Botswana and Zambia has been officially opened and should boost trade in the region.The Kazungula road and rail bridge built at a cost of more than $250m were paid for by the African Development Bank and a loan from the Japanese government.Truck drivers can also now avoid long waits at Zimbabwe's border.The Botswana government tweeted this shot of the 1km-long bridge.Other countries in the region should get an economic boost as it'll speed up trade between South Africa's ports and countries to the north, including the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Federal Government has declared Wednesday and Thursday as public holidays to mark this year’s Eid-el-Fitr celebration.Minister of Interior, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, believes that development cannot thrive in a rancorous atmosphere and urged all Nigerians to be law-abiding and embrace the spirit of love, self-discipline, kindness, and tolerance, as taught by the Holy Prophet Mohammed.He called on all security agencies in the country to be more courageous and patriotic to surmount the ongoing battle against resurging insecurity and activities of criminal elements in the country.

The Lagos State Government has announced that it would launch buses to replace motorcycles popularly known as Okada and tricycles known as Keke to ply inner roads in the state.Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu added that over 500 minibuses would be deployed next week.He said the move is to alleviate the pain residents of the state go through following the restriction of motorcycle and tricycle operations.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, stated that returning foreign passengers who fled the quarantine facilities and violated the compulsory requirement will not go unpunished.Mustapha condemned the violation of the nation’s laws and hospitality, noting that the committee was awaiting the report of ongoing investigations and would impose appropriate sanctions on the violators.He revealed that the PSC has considered several pre-emptive measures to be taken to mitigate the likely impact of the variants of COVID-19, should they get imported into Nigeria.

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has announced the review of the existing night-time curfew in the state.He noted that the initial starting time of 10 pm has been adjusted to 7 pm until further notice.The governor explained that the time was adjusted by the State Security Council after an appraisal of the recent security situation in which seven police officers were killed in another overnight attack on two police stations and a checkpoint.He described the killing of innocent policemen as sad and unfortunate, stressing that the security officials did no wrong but were killed doing their job of protecting the people.

The Federal Government has reintroduced COVID-19 restrictions across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.A member of the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19, Dr Mukhtar Mohammed, declared that the new directive is to take effect by midnight of Tuesday.Mohammed says the government has directed that bars and nightclubs should remain closed and the nationwide curfew will be in force until further notice.He added that only essential international travels would be encouraged, and all existing protocols must strictly adhere to.

The US Navy seized a huge cache of illicit Russian and Chinese weapons from a stateless vessel sailing in international waters of the northern Arabian Sea.The US Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain says the guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey intercepted the boat and discovered the cargo during a routine boarding in a two-day operation on May 6-7.It says the arms are in US custody and their source and intended destination is under investigation.The Fifth Fleet says the Monterey was in operation for 36 hours, providing security for boarding teams.

The U.K government says England will move ahead with plans to ease further COVID-19 restrictions on May 17, including allowing people to hug and meet indoors, thanks to favourable data on infections and vaccines.Prime Minister Boris Johnson will hold a news conference on Monday afternoon to announce the details of the third step in the United Kingdom’s roadmap out of the crisis, following discussions with colleagues and advisers in the morning.The country is in the process of gradually lifting its latest lockdown across a period of months, in line with a four-step plan unveiled in February.

Eli Lilly and Co said it had signed licensing agreements with three Indian generic drugmakers to expand the availability of its arthritis drug baricitinib in the country for treating COVID-19 patients.The three Indian drugmakers - Cipla Ltd, Lupin Ltd and Sun Pharma - will collaborate with U.S.-based Lilly to help make and sell baricitinib in India.Eli Lilly in an emailed statement says Baricitinib has been given restricted emergency use approval by India's drug regulator for use in combination with remdesivir for the treatment of hospitalised COVID-19 adult patients requiring supplemental oxygen.

Top pandemic advisor Anthony Fauci says the United States, which has reported the world’s worst overall Covid-19 death toll, has no doubt been undercounting fatal cases.The United States has reported over 32.6 million cases since the virus was first identified at the end of 2019 in China.White House Covid-19 coordinator Jeffrey Zients told CNN’s State of the Union that they are turning the corner. He says there is 58 per cent of adult Americans with at least one shot, over 110 million Americans fully vaccinated.