Africa Business News

The total domestic debts for the 36 states of federation and the Federal Capital Territory stood at N4.1tn as of the end of March, 2020, the Debt Management Office has disclosed.
According to the DMO, Lagos led with a debt profile of N444.22bn followed by Rivers that had a debt of N266.93bn.
Niger, Ogun, Ondo and Osun had N59.83bn, N143.53bn, N65.29bn and N137.3bn, while Oyo, Plateau, Sokoto and Taraba had N100.59bn, N130.73bn, N47.74bn and N81.26bn respectively.
The DMO disclosed that Yobe’s domestic debt profile was N29.29bn, while Zamfara and the FCT had N70.84bn and N106.8bn respectively.
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General Motors Co’s vehicle sales in China dropped 5.3% between April and June from the corresponding period last year, underperforming the industry average amid a recovery from the coronavirus fallout on the world’s biggest auto market.
The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM)China’s said overall figure, which includes passenger and commercial vehicles, rose 4.4% in April and 14.5% in May, adding that it expected auto sales to grow 11% in June.
The company in a statement said GM, China’s second-biggest foreign automaker after Volkswagen, delivered 713,600 vehicles in the country in the second quarter, after reporting a drop of 43% in sales in the first quarter, due to the pandemic.

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The head of Ubisoft has promised a structural shift to eliminate toxic behaviour following allegations of sexual assault and harassment by managers at the French video game publisher.
Ubisoft, whose games portfolio includes Assassin’s Creed, Tom Clancy’s, Far Cry and Watch Dogs, and is one of the world’s top gaming companies, apologised last week and launched an investigation after the claims were made on social media.
Guillemot acknowledged that employees were eager for the probes to wrap up, but said it was important they are conducted with rigour.

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Social media platform Twitter is dropping the terms master, slave and blacklist in favour of more inclusive language.
The terms are frequently used in programming codes which originated decades ago.
US bank JPMorgan has also announced a similar move as more companies address racism following the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.
Replacing the terms could cost millions and take months, according to experts.
On Thursday, Twitter's engineering division tweeted out a set of words that it wants to move away from using in favour of more inclusive language. The list includes replacing whitelist with allowlist and master/slave with leader/follower.

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U.S. Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, has welcomed a decision by the African Development Bank to re-examine a probe into the AfDB's president that ignited a dispute between America and Nigeria.
In a statement, Mnuchin said the international financial institutions must adhere to the highest standards of governance and transparency, and the decision to pursue an independent review demonstrates the strength of the African Development Bank. According to him, “Undertaking an independent review is fully consistent with a presumption of innocence.”
Former Irish President, Mary Robinson, will head a panel that includes a top ex-South African prosecutor and Gambia’s chief justice to review an ethics committee report that found no evidence of wrongdoing by AfDB President Akinwunmi Adesina.

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The Portuguese government has taken control of a stake held by Angolan investor Isabel dos Santos in Efacec Power Solutions SGPS SA as it tries to help the manufacturer find a new shareholder.
The 72% stake in Efacec was held through Malta-based firm Winterfell 2, which is indirectly controlled by dos Santos. Portugal's Economy Minister, Pedro Siza Vieira, disclosed this in Lisbon after a cabinet meeting. The government will immediately start a plan to sell the stake and there are already proposals from various companies.

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Low-cost carrier Fastjet Plc says it is suspending commercial flights in South Africa and Zimbabwe due to the coronavirus pandemic, jeopardizing negotiations to raise emergency funds through a disposal.
In a statement on Friday, Fastjet said an investor group, including Solenta Aviation Holdings, and Zimbabwean investors have expressed interest.
Fastjet, the first discount airline spanning sub-Saharan Africa, is in a precarious situation with just enough funds to survive until the end of August. The company's cash reserves at the end of June stood at $1 million. For now, Fastjet will operate about three repatriation flights per month from South Africa to Zimbabwe
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The African Union commissioner for infrastructure and energy, Amani Abou-Zeid, on Thursday, said African countries have lost almost $55 billion in travel and tourism revenues in three months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Abou-Zeid told a news conference the economic impact of lockdowns and border closures to curb the spread of the virus would be severe, with the continent’s air industry hit particularly hard. She said tourism and travel represented almost 10% of the gross domestic product of Africa.
On his part, Prosper Zo’o Minto’o, regional director for the International Civil Aviation Organization, told the news conference that African airlines would need an estimated $20 billion to resume operations.

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South Africa’s National Treasury on Friday said there was no further action planned to bailout struggling national airline SAA except to settle guaranteed debt as attempts to revive the airline hang on a knife edge.
The South African government wants creditors to back a restructuring plan for South African Airways (SAA) but did not allocate new bailouts for the loss-making state airline in an emergency budget last week.
The National Treasury told lawmakers they would not provide any new money to the airline as they are insolvent and turnaround plans have not been finalised yet
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A survey has shown South African private sector activity shrunk much less quickly in June. Markit’s Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 42.5 in June from 32.5 in May, the latter being its lowest level since the survey began in 2011.
This comes after a record pace of contraction the month before, as the easing of a nationwide lockdown to contain the coronavirus boosted orders and activity.

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