Africa Business News

Canada on Thursday announced billions of dollars in spending on infrastructure projects that will support a transition to a low-carbon economy during pandemic recovery and create 60,000 jobs over three years.
The government’s nascent Canada Infrastructure Bank will oversee the spending, which totals Can$10 billion (US$7.5 billion) and is meant to fund electric buses, renewable power generation and building retrofits.
It is hoped the projects will also attract private investment.
Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna told a news conference that families and businesses want to locate and build where they know infrastructure is modern, clean and resilient.
He added that the infrastructure money will also go to connect about 750,000 homes and small businesses to broadband in underserved communities and to irrigate 700,000 more acres (283,300 hectares) of land to allow Canadian farmers to produce more food.

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Spain’s government on Thursday published a decree extending drastic restrictions across the capital with partial lockdown measures to come into play within 48 hours, despite fierce opposition from Madrid’s regional authorities.
The government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday evening said it had reached an agreement with most of Spain’s regions on the imposition of tough restrictions in areas where the virus is spreading rapidly.
Madrid leader Isabel Diaz Ayuso told EsRadio on Thursday said the government and the regions cannot impose anything on us and certainly no like this.
The decree stated that the agreement is obligatory for all regions within a maximum of 48 hours.

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This episode is sponsored by
· Afrolit Podcast: Hosted by Ekua PM, Afrolit shares the stories of multi-faceted Africans one episode at a time. https://open.spotify.com/show/2nJxiiYRyfMQlDEXXpzlZS?si=mmgODX3NQ-yfQvR0JRH-WA

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US President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, have contracted COVID-19, with the US leader taking to social media on Friday to confirm the development.
The extraordinary setback for Trump had immediate political consequences just 31 days before election day, forcing him to cancel campaign trips and adding new volatility to a contest already steeped in tension.

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This episode is sponsored by
· Afrolit Podcast: Hosted by Ekua PM, Afrolit shares the stories of multi-faceted Africans one episode at a time. https://open.spotify.com/show/2nJxiiYRyfMQlDEXXpzlZS?si=mmgODX3NQ-yfQvR0JRH-WA

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The UN Food and Agriculture Organization says the record floods in Sudan have affected nearly one third of cultivated land, and close to 600,000 households.
Over a million tonnes of grain have been destroyed, particularly sorghum, which is a staple crop, and many families are having to cut down to one small meal a day.
Incomes have been affected too, as commercial crops including bananas and mangoes have also been badly hit.
The FAO says that the locust storms which have devastated crops in the Horn of Africa also still threaten the country.

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This episode is sponsored by
· Afrolit Podcast: Hosted by Ekua PM, Afrolit shares the stories of multi-faceted Africans one episode at a time. https://open.spotify.com/show/2nJxiiYRyfMQlDEXXpzlZS?si=mmgODX3NQ-yfQvR0JRH-WA

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A report by France 24 showed that Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta said he would not approve US drone strikes on al-Shabab militants on Kenyan soil.
The president, who is on a state visit to France, said he had not yet received such a request.
The New York Times had last month quoted unnamed US government sources as saying that the US military was seeking approval to carry out drone strikes against al-Shabab targets in eastern Kenya.
The report came days before a military court in Somalia sentenced an Islamist militant to life in prison for his role in a deadly attack on a US base in Kenya.
The US often carries out air strikes in Somalia to target al-Shabab militants.

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The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) is to readjust its timelines for the privatisation of some of the 19 government-owned companies slated for sale in 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The agency had earlier slated 19 enterprises for privatisation with estimated proceeds in excess of N260 billion.
the BPE Director-General, Mr. Alex Okoh, stated that due to the disruptions engendered by the pandemic, it was unlikely for the agency to conclude transactions on all the entities slated for privatisation this year.
The privatisation proceeds are factored into the financing the 2020 budget.

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This episode is sponsored by
· Afrolit Podcast: Hosted by Ekua PM, Afrolit shares the stories of multi-faceted Africans one episode at a time. https://open.spotify.com/show/2nJxiiYRyfMQlDEXXpzlZS?si=mmgODX3NQ-yfQvR0JRH-WA

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President Muhammadu Buhari has defended the current price of fuel in the country, stating that a responsible government must face realities.
President Buhari in his Independence Day Speech stated that while petroleum prices are to be adjusted, the government must take tough decisions.
The president compared the oil price in Nigeria to those of neighbouring countries, arguing that it makes no sense for oil to be cheaper in Nigeria than it is in other oil-producing nations.
The president called for a sincere process of national healing as the nation marks the 60th anniversary of its independence from Great Britain.

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This episode is sponsored by
· Afrolit Podcast: Hosted by Ekua PM, Afrolit shares the stories of multi-faceted Africans one episode at a time. https://open.spotify.com/show/2nJxiiYRyfMQlDEXXpzlZS?si=mmgODX3NQ-yfQvR0JRH-WA

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The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has confirmed 153 new cases of coronavirus in the country. This brings the total number of COVID-19 infections recorded in the country so far to 59,001.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in a tweet on its official handle, showed that the new cases reported on Thursday were from 14 states.
Lagos had Eighty-one case, Rivers had twenty-one cases, (21), FCT had eleven cases, Ogun had eight case, Kaduna had seven case, Oyo had six case, Akwa Ibom had five case, Osun and Katsina had three cases each, Edo, Ebonyi Nasarawa had two cases while Plateau and Kano had one case each.
A total of 50,452 persons have recovered from the virus while the death toll now stands at 1,112.

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This episode is sponsored by
· Afrolit Podcast: Hosted by Ekua PM, Afrolit shares the stories of multi-faceted Africans one episode at a time. https://open.spotify.com/show/2nJxiiYRyfMQlDEXXpzlZS?si=mmgODX3NQ-yfQvR0JRH-WA

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Exports from South Korea jumped 7.7 percent from a year earlier to USD 48 billion in September 2020, the first time increase in seven months and the strongest growth since October 2018, and beating market expectations of a 2 percent rise, as more countries gradually reopen the economy, after the loosening of restriction measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus. 

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This episode is sponsored by
· Afrolit Podcast: Hosted by Ekua PM, Afrolit shares the stories of multi-faceted Africans one episode at a time. https://open.spotify.com/show/2nJxiiYRyfMQlDEXXpzlZS?si=mmgODX3NQ-yfQvR0JRH-WA

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Oil prices fell on Thursday amid fears over rising global COVID-19 infections, which could slow a recovery in fuel demand. Reuters reported that concerns were growing in New York, where virus cases continued to climb. The pandemic so far has infected more than 7.2 million and killed more than 206 thousand in the US.

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This episode is sponsored by
· Afrolit Podcast: Hosted by Ekua PM, Afrolit shares the stories of multi-faceted Africans one episode at a time. https://open.spotify.com/show/2nJxiiYRyfMQlDEXXpzlZS?si=mmgODX3NQ-yfQvR0JRH-WA

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support