Africa Business News

A top White House economist says President Joe Biden will propose a tax hike on investment gains of the wealthiest individuals to help pay for his massive infrastructure and jobs package.Biden is expected to lay out his plan this week for $2 trillion in investments to create millions of jobs and has said higher taxes on the rich and corporations will offset the hefty price tag.Head of the White House National Economic Council, Brian Deese says the increased tax on profits earned from sales of stocks and other assets will only impact those earning $1 million a year, a narrow sliver of American taxpayers — about 500,000.He says the change will only apply to three-tenths of a per cent of taxpayers, which is not the top 1 per cent, it’s not even the top one half of 1 per cent.He did not provide any details of the new higher tax, but media reports last week cited officials saying Biden will increase the capital gains tax rate to 39.6 per cent from 20 per cent.

AstraZeneca says EU legal action taken against AstraZeneca over shortfalls in its delivery of Covid vaccines is without merit.The company in a statement says they believe any litigation is without merit and we welcome this opportunity to resolve this dispute as soon as possible.AstraZeneca says it had fully complied with the Advance Purchase Agreement with the European Commission.It added that in line with AstraZeneca’s forecast, the company is set to deliver almost 50 million doses to European nations by the end of April.The EU executive and AstraZeneca have been at loggerheads as the British-Swedish company’s alleged shortfall of deliveries to the bloc hobbled the early efforts to roll out jabs.Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman says he was unaware of the specifics around the legal action.

Giant telecom operators from the UK, South Africa, Kenya and Japan are bidding to enter Ethiopia’s untapped telecom market.The country's finance ministry announced that it received two bids - from South Africa's MTN Group and a consortium that includes Kenya's Safaricom - as it works to open the telecom market to international operators.The consortium also includes Vodafone and CDC companies from the UK, South Africa's Vodacom and Japanese firm Sumitomo.Financial and technical assessments of the bids will be done by a national evaluation committee.

The UN has warned that the slow implementation of the peace accord in South Sudan is putting the country at risk of a return to large-scale conflict.A new report has recommended that the arms embargo be extended and for new sanctions against those who hinder the implementation of the peace deal.The country has experienced many incidents of violence between supporters of President Salva Kiir, and his rival, Riek Machar, who under the terms of the agreement was reappointed vice-president.The report says the conflict has prevented the delivery of humanitarian aid putting the people of South Sudan in urgent need of assistance.

The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged Ethiopia to address what he described as an impending humanitarian disaster in the northern region of Tigray.He says troops from neighbouring Eritrea should be withdrawn immediately, in full and in a verifiable manner.He expressed concerns about ethnic tensions elsewhere in the country.The State Department Spokesperson Ned Price says that during the conversation with Mr Abiy, the secretary of state had stressed his support for Ethiopia, but also expressed concerns about human rights abuses in Tigray.He says although the Eritrean government had said that it would withdraw its troops it hadn't actually done so.

Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari, has insisted that Nigeria has the ability, capacity, and resources to deal decisively with the current and lingering security situation bedevilling the country.The governor believes the present problems in the country are parts of the process of growth and development, as well as indicate that nothing good comes easy.Governor Masari added that recent happenings call for more action and more unity among members of the National Assembly. He says the nation needs leadership and you have a history to make. We need to look at our problems and other challenges facing the country without blame games.

Nigerian Lawmaker Gbajabiamila explained that the President listens to ideas and is keen on bringing solutions to the ongoing crisis in various parts of the country.He added that the National Assembly would do everything possible to assist the President to reach a consensus on the nation’s security challenges.The speaker noted that the House of Representatives had passed a resolution and set up a special ad-hoc committee to find solutions to the nation’s problems.He says the House of Representatives some time ago passed a resolution and they set up a special ad-hoc committee, which involves all principal officers and 30 other members of the House.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has rejected the calls for secession, saying that more effort is needed to break Nigeria than to fix it.The Minister says the nation’s strength lies in its diversity and the agitation for political restructuring is okay.He says Nigerians would need more energy to break Nigeria than to fix it. As a matter of fact, the strength of Nigeria is its diversity. So everybody agreed that secession is not an option.”He also backed several calls for the creation of state police and called on the National Assembly and the States House of Assemblies to collaborate to enable it to happen.

Bandits have killed two more students abducted from Greenfield University in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.The Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs in the state, Samuel Aruwan, confirmed this in a statement on Monday.He disclosed that two more bodies of the abducted students were recovered by security agencies and have been evacuated to a mortuary, while the university has been notified of the development.This brings the total number of students abducted from the school and killed by the bandits to five.Aruwan has said that the remains of the three students were found in Kwanan Bature village, while Governor Nasir El-Rufai has condemned the killing as sheer wickedness, inhumanity, and an outright desecration of human lives by vile entities.

The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Faisal Shuaib says the Nigerian government is expecting about 29.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.He added that the government signed off to receive the vaccines through the African Union while vaccine deliveries through the COVAX facility were expected by the end of May or early June.He noted that by then, Nigeria would have completed the process of administering the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine to those who got the first dose.He revealed that the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has continued discussions with manufacturers to examine their vaccines, in anticipation of emergency use listing from the World Health Organisation.