Africa Business News

The military is restating its commitment to the Nigerian Constitution with a promise that it will remain apolitical and loyal to the civil authority and the President who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.The acting Director of Defence Information, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu made the pledge on behalf of the military in a statement on Monday.The military pledged that it would continue to discharge its constitutional responsibilities professionally, especially in protecting the country’s democracy, defence of its territorial integrity, as well as protecting the lives and property of the citizens.It added that the current security challenges in the country were not insurmountable, saying the Armed Forces and other security agencies were working assiduously to ameliorate the problems.

The United States denied a report by Iran's state television that the arch-foes had reached a prisoner swap deal in exchange for the release of $7 billion frozen Iranian oil funds under U.S. sanctions in other countries.Iranian state television says that Tehran would free four Americans accused of spying in exchange for four Iranians held in the United States and the release of the frozen Iranian funds.The U.S. government denied that an agreement has been reached. Iran's envoy to the United Nations, Majid Takht Ravanchi, says the report could not be confirmed, adding that Tehran has always called for a full prisoner exchange with Washington.Iran and world powers are holding talks to revive the 2015 nuclear accord that Washington abandoned three years ago and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told Reuters that the Group of Seven richest countries will look at a proposal to build a rapid response mechanism to counter Russian propaganda and disinformation.Raab says the United Kingdom was getting the G7 to come together with a rapid rebuttal mechanism to counter Russian misinformation.He says they must come together to provide a rebuttal and frankly to provide the truth, for the people of in the country but also in Russia or China or around the world.British, the U.S. and European security officials say Russia and China are trying to sow mistrust across the West, whether by spreading disinformation in elections or by spreading lies about COVID-19 vaccines.

South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize in a statement says Pfizer Inc will ship 4.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to South Africa by June.He says the first batch of 325,260 doses will arrive in the country Sunday night, adding that they will be expecting a same number of doses to arrive on a weekly basis.He says the vaccine supply will increase to an average of 636,480 doses weekly from 31 May which will see us accumulating close to 4.5 million doses by the end of June.South Africa has secured 30 million doses of Pfizer's two-shot vaccine.The country's health regulator also approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine in early April and the government has ordered 31 million doses of the one-shot vaccine.

A former government minister in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been sentenced to three years in prison for money laundering and the illegal transfer of funds abroad.Congolese prosecutors had been investigating Willy Bakonga over the embezzlement of funds earmarked for free primary education.In February the World Bank suspended the first tranche of $100m which was to be used to fund free education in DR Congo because of concerns about corruption.

Chad’s army spokesman said the military junta that took power in Chad last month after the shock death of veteran leader Idriss Deby Itno named a transition government on Sunday.The Transitional Military Council had pledged to restore democracy to the poor Sahel country within 18 months after what the opposition condemned as an institutional coup.Junta spokesman Azem Bermandoa Agouna in a televised statement says Deby’s son Mahamat, the country’s new strongman, named a government comprising 40 ministers and a deputy minister.Deby also created a new national reconciliation ministry to be headed by Acheick Ibn Oumar, a former rebel chief who became a diplomatic adviser to the presidency in 2019.

President of the Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi declared a state of siege in two provinces.Government spokesman Patrick Muyaya says the objective is to swiftly end the insecurity which is killing our fellow citizens in that part of the country on a daily basis.He did not say what steps would be taken next under the state of siege.A Ugandan insurgent faction active in eastern Congo since the 1990s called the Allied Democratic Forces is believed to be responsible for much of the recent bloodshed.

Nigeria will ban travellers coming from India, Brazil and Turkey because of concerns about the rampant spread of coronavirus in those countries.Boss Mustapha, chairman of the presidential committee says Non-Nigerian passport holders and non-residents who visited Brazil, India or Turkey within Fourteen days preceding travel to Nigeria, shall be denied entry into Nigeria.He says the ban will take effect from May 4.

The Kaduna State University Chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and the students have rejected the proposed 500 per cent increase in tuition fees by the government.They stated that if a monumental school fees increase was allowed to stand, it would force about 75 per cent of the university’s students to drop out of school, causing massive youth unemployment and restiveness.ASUU Branch Chairman, Dr Peter Adamu, decried that the consequences of the upward review of the school fees would be unquantifiable.He urged the state government to rescind the decision, stressing that it was not the best time to increase tuition fees due to the present economic instability in the country.Adamu argued that public education should not be for revenue generation and asked the government to look for other better ways of funding the system.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has faulted governors yet to pay the new minimum wage to workers in their states.He stated this Channels Television’s Sunday Politics saying that any employer paying its employee below N30,000 was doing so in contravention of the law.The minister says the law does not give room for picking and choosing, it is a must and the state governors not paying are breaching the law of the land.The Minister of Labour says he is authorized or any person nominated or designated by the minister to take action against such an employer on behalf of the worker to recover the balance of the wages.