Africa Business News

Qantas Airline said it will axe 6,000 jobs as part of its plans to survive the coronavirus pandemic.
The cuts equate to about a fifth of the airline's workforce prior to the Covid-19 crisis. In March, it furloughed more than 80% of its staff.
Australia's national carrier said the collapse in global air travel had devastated revenues.
Qantas was prompted to cancel all international flights until late October, except for those to New Zealand.
On Thursday, chief executive Alan Joyce said the airline expected smaller revenues in the next three years, forcing it to become a smaller operation to survive.
He said in a statement that the actions to be taken will have a huge impact on thousands of our people.
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Chile’s Nueva Inversiones Pacifico Sur (IPS) said it has made a proposal to Sun International to buy 50.1% of the South African hotel and casino operator for 22 rand ($1.27) a share.
The firm in a statement said the proposed offer also includes an interim liquidity support in the form of a bridge loan of up to 1.2 billion rand to Sun International.
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Mobile operator MTN Group will launch its 5G commercial network in South Africa next week, joining Vodacom Group and Rain in the race to expand fifth-generation technology in the country.
The firm said it is hosting a virtual launch event on June 30, where MTN South Africa CEO Godfrey Motsa will be present with other officials.
Last November, Swedish mobile telecoms equipment maker Ericsson announced that it had been selected by MTN South Africa to build its new 5G core mobile and radio network.
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South Africa’s rand edged lower in early trade on Thursday, pressured by a budget speech that forecast ballooning debt and a higher government deficit, as well as fading hopes globally of a quick economic recovery.
At 0640 GMT, the rand was 0.32 weaker at 17.4425 per dollar, not far off its overnight close following largely uneventful trade in the wake of Wednesday’s emergency budget which failed to push the currency beyond its 17.50 resistance.
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said the budget deficit would widen to record 14.6% of gross domestic product in 2020/21, while public debt would top 80% as the country borrowed more to plug revenue holes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Harmony Gold on Thursday said it has raised $200 million after issuing more than 60 million new ordinary shares to partly fund its purchase of rival AngloGold Ashanti’s last remaining South African assets.
Harmony agreed in February to buy AngloGold Ashanti’s Mponeng mine, the world’s deepest gold mine, and its Mine Waste Solutions assets for about $300 million.
The deal will make Harmony South Africa’s biggest gold producer.
Harmony said it issued 60,278,260 new ordinary shares at a price of 57.50 rand per share, representing around 11% of the company’s issued ordinary share capital before the placing.
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The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, has launched a $ 9 million dollar Grant Scheme for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in the tourism sector.
The Scheme, earmarked for interventions to strengthen the industry severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, is under the Ghana Tourism Development Project, a world bank funded project.
According to the Sector Minister, Barbara Oteng-Gyasi, this new intervention has come to complement already existing support schemes introduced by government.
She said the GHS 1 billion stimulus package launched by the President to support Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SME) affected by the novel Coronavirus pandemic while the GHC 3 billion Cedis facility for larger businesses.
The Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Marfo, said it is critical that every effort is made to sustain the industry after the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, has expressed some reservations about the processes being used in the prosecution of officials found culpable in the banking sector crisis.
He however says although the banking sector regulator has no control over the judicial processes, it is collaborating with the relevant state agencies to ensure that justice is served.
Dr. Addison made the comments when he appeared before the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament.
He said they wish the processes could have been faster and they are supporting the Attorney-General’s Department with some materials to help them prosecute shareholders and directors that are culpable.
According to the Finance Minister, the clean-up cost the country US$4 billion, which is about GH¢21 billion.
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The Bureau of Public Enterprises on Wednesday said the Federal Government is dividing the Nigerian Postal Service into three subsidiary companies which will operate on the principle of commercial viability.
The BPE’s Director-General, Alex Okoh, said the ongoing reform of NIPOST was not privatisation of the entity but an unbundling process, adding that the core postal service function would remain with NIPOST as the parent company.
Okoh disclosed this while inaugurating the sub-committee of the implementation committee for the postal sector reform, restructuring and modernisation at the bureau’s office in Abuja.
He named the three commercial ventures to be carved out of NIPOST as NIPOST Properties and Development Company; NIPOST Transport and Logistics Company; and NIPOST Microfinance bank Limited.
He said the clarification became necessary to disabuse the minds of many Nigerians, especially the workforce of NIPOST that the commercialisation, reform and modernisation of the organisation was outright privatisation.
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Aviation unions have expressed their displeasure with the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency’s decision to slash the salary of workers in the month of June.
The union warned that the failure to pay full salaries to NAMA’s workers would amount to gross embarrassment, not only to the aviation industry but to the whole country.
It advised NAMA against the decision, promising that there would be grave consequences.
The workers made their stance known in a joint letter signed by the General Secretary of Nigeria Union of Air Transport Employees, Ocheme Aba, and the secretaries of the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals and Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical.
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The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved the N2.3tn stimulus plan proposed in the Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan designed to support the nation’s economy in the face of the disruptions and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The plan was designed by a committee led by Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo.
The approval was given at a virtual meeting of the council presided over by the President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the meeting.
She said the total package presented was a sum of N2.3tn; N500bn of which was a stimulus package that was already provided for in the amended 2020 Appropriation Act.
She added that they were funds sourced from special accounts.
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