Africa Business News

President Xi Jinping told German leader Angela Merkel that he hoped Europe would make positive efforts with China following an international row over the treatment of Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang.Chinese state media reports that Xi said China-EU relations are facing a new development juncture, as well as various challenges also urging the EU to make a correct judgment independently.The president added that China wishes to put multilateralism into practice with the EU, and cooperate with the bloc on issues including climate change.China and the EU completed negotiations for a landmark trade deal in December, which has yet to be ratified by the EU Parliament.

Uganda says it has signed a military intelligence-sharing agreement with Egypt against a backdrop of rising tensions between Egypt and Ethiopia over a hydropower dam on a tributary of the Nile river.A statement by the Uganda People’s Defence Forces says the agreement was signed between UPDF’s Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence and the Egyptian Intelligence Department.Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has warned of the risk of conflict over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam which Addis Ababa is building on the Blue Nile, one of the tributaries of the Nile.Ethiopia is banking on the dam to boost its power generation capacity and fuel economic development but Egypt fears the project will imperil its freshwater supplies.

The head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong says the African Union has dropped plans to secure COVID-19 vaccines from the Serum Institute of India for African nations and is exploring options with Johnson & Johnson.John Nkengasong says the institute will still supply the AstraZeneca vaccine to Africa through the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility but the African Union would seek additional supplies from Johnson & Johnson.Nkengasong says the possible link had nothing to do with the African Union’s decision. He says the bloc of 55 member states shifted its efforts to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine citing the deal signed last week to secure up to 400 million doses beginning in the third quarter of this year.

Tanzania has clarified that the lifting of a media ban announced by the country's new president only applies to online television.President Samia Suluhu Hassan had earlier directed authorities to lift a ban on media outlets, imposed under the previous president John Magufuli's regime. She also asked the information ministry to ensure that the concerned media follow the law.President Samia says she only lifted the ban on online television only and not other media, including newspapers that were banned according to the laws”.Information Minister Innocent Bashungwa says the government will first consult the laws involved in banning newspapers.

Ugandans have reacted to the announcement that the government has allocated land for Senegalese-American singer Akon to build a city that will operate on his Akoin cryptocurrency.Akon says he had identified the preferable piece of land after being given various options by the government.He says the city will borrow a lot from a similar project planned in Senegal but didn't disclose how much it will cost to set up and who will finance it.Ugandans online questioned why the government was giving land to Akon when local investors were also in need.

Former Head of State Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar expressed concern over the proliferation of all calibres of weapons in the country, which he estimated at six million.Abdulsalami lamented that the proliferation of weapons has heightened insecurity in the country and led to over 80,000 deaths and close to three million persons internally displaced.He stated that the challenges facing the country were not only insecurity in the narrow sense of the military definition but that it had assumed an all-encompassing nature.He listed the challenges to include the Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, increasing poverty, the threat of hunger arising from the insecurity that farmers have faced and continue to face and the increasing sense of collective despair and despondency among the populace.

The Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe asked the Federal Government to be more sincere in handling the security affairs of the country.Abaribe was of the opinion that if Nigeria is to be saved from implosion, then the government must become more nationalistic.The senator called for a thorough investigation into the rising wave of attack on police formations across the country, especially the ones that happened in Imo State.Senator Abaribe further expressed worry that the country is fast sliding into total anarchy and cautioned that the time has come when the federal government should rise up and address the poor security situation in the country holistically looking at Nigeria as a nation.

Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki has raised an alarm over the country’s rising debt profile, saying the situation is more critical now because of the huge amount borrowed to service the ailing economy.Obaseki noted that the major oil giants like Chevron and Shell no longer invest so much oil as was obtainable in the past.The governor explained that Chevron is now one of the world’s investors in alternative fuel, adding that Shell intends to pull out of Nigeria. He says his fear is that Nigeria might keep borrowing without any means or idea of how to pay back.

Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma has blamed the recent attack on security facilities in the state on aggrieved politicians, saying their aim was to destabilise his government and that of President Muhammadu Buhari.He explained that security agencies have gathered intelligence on the sponsors of the thugs and their planning leading to the attack on government establishments on Monday.He says they have credible evidence leading to those who paid the hoodlums, where they met, and how they met.He says security agencies are already working with this information.

Taiwan foreign minister says the country will fight to the end if China attacks, adding that the United States saw a danger that this could happen amid mounting Chinese military pressure, including aircraft carrier drills, near the island.Joseph Wu told reporters at his ministry that they clearly see the danger of the possibility of China launching an attack against Taiwan.Washington, Taiwan’s most important international backer and arms supplier, has been pushing Taipei to modernise its military so it can become a porcupine, which is hard for China to attack.Wu says they were determined to improve their military capabilities and spend more on defence.Taiwan’s Defence Ministry added that they will run eight days of computer-aided war games this month of a Chinese attack on Taiwan, forming the first phase of Taiwan’s largest annual war games, the Han Kuang exercises.