South Africa has allocated an extra 4 billion rand to buy COVID-19 vaccines and extend a special distress grant to thousands of people hit by the pandemic, in a Special Appropriation Bill presented by the finance minister.The bill, expected to be debated with the National Treasury in a parliamentary committee meeting allocates an additional 1.25 billion rand to the department of health to purchase COVID-19 vaccines and another 2.82 billion rands to social development for funding the distress grant.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation sold crude oil worth N267.59 billion in February, while its total daily production stood at 1.42 million barrels per day in the first quarter of 2021.The value of the crude, both export and domestic for February, was 97 per cent higher than that of January which was N134.35 billion.Similarly, crude oil export revenue received in March amounted to $93.37 million, equivalent to N35.72 billion, representing a 204 per cent increase compared to February’s receipts.NNPC says Nigeria maintained a 1.426 million BPD OPEC production cut in 1Q21. The overall NNPC crude oil sale valued at N267.59bn (export & domestic crude) in February 2021 is 97.71 per cent higher than the N134.35 billion recorded in January 2021.

The Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise Limited says it has received the sum of $60m, which is the first instalment of the $629m loan facility from the China Development Bank for the construction of the deepest seaport in Sub-Sahara Africa.The Managing Director, Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise Limited, Du Ruogang stated that the first instalment of the loan facility was received on Thursday, April 29 as the company had satisfied all the conditions necessary for the release of the funds.He stated that receipt of the first instalment of the loan facility is a major breakthrough in the quest to deliver a world-class deep seaport and to ensure that commercial operations commence before the end of 2022.

The Charted Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Ikeja and District Society, has urged governments to imbibe and display the culture of accountability and transparency in administration and utilisation of tax income.The tax body said corruption was responsible for the low income from tax in the country.The Chairman, CITN, Ikeja and District Society, Mr Funso Abidakun, made reference to recent research by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, which revealed that more than 81 per cent of taxable Nigerians did not pay their income taxes as and when due.The research showed that the local governments and their officials were among the most untrustworthy, followed by the state governments and the tax officials, the statement said.He says figures available revealed that there were 20 million registered taxpayers in the country, which was low compared to the country’s population of nearly 200 million people.

The country’s external reserves lost $350m in two weeks, falling to $34.9bn on April 29 from a high of $35.25bn as of April 16.Figures obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday revealed that the reserves, which had been fluctuating, rose from $34.85bn as of April 1 before returning to a downward path in the middle of the month.The CBN had recently attributed the improvement in the level of external reserves to the recent upsurge in crude oil prices on the backdrop of the renewed optimism on the successful deployment of COVID-19 vaccines across the globe.It added that available data showed that Nigeria’s reserves per capita decreased to $171.88, compared with $176.89 at end-December 2020.

The military is restating its commitment to the Nigerian Constitution with a promise that it will remain apolitical and loyal to the civil authority and the President who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.The acting Director of Defence Information, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu made the pledge on behalf of the military in a statement on Monday.The military pledged that it would continue to discharge its constitutional responsibilities professionally, especially in protecting the country’s democracy, defence of its territorial integrity, as well as protecting the lives and property of the citizens.It added that the current security challenges in the country were not insurmountable, saying the Armed Forces and other security agencies were working assiduously to ameliorate the problems.

The United States denied a report by Iran's state television that the arch-foes had reached a prisoner swap deal in exchange for the release of $7 billion frozen Iranian oil funds under U.S. sanctions in other countries.Iranian state television says that Tehran would free four Americans accused of spying in exchange for four Iranians held in the United States and the release of the frozen Iranian funds.The U.S. government denied that an agreement has been reached. Iran's envoy to the United Nations, Majid Takht Ravanchi, says the report could not be confirmed, adding that Tehran has always called for a full prisoner exchange with Washington.Iran and world powers are holding talks to revive the 2015 nuclear accord that Washington abandoned three years ago and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told Reuters that the Group of Seven richest countries will look at a proposal to build a rapid response mechanism to counter Russian propaganda and disinformation.Raab says the United Kingdom was getting the G7 to come together with a rapid rebuttal mechanism to counter Russian misinformation.He says they must come together to provide a rebuttal and frankly to provide the truth, for the people of in the country but also in Russia or China or around the world.British, the U.S. and European security officials say Russia and China are trying to sow mistrust across the West, whether by spreading disinformation in elections or by spreading lies about COVID-19 vaccines.

South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize in a statement says Pfizer Inc will ship 4.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to South Africa by June.He says the first batch of 325,260 doses will arrive in the country Sunday night, adding that they will be expecting a same number of doses to arrive on a weekly basis.He says the vaccine supply will increase to an average of 636,480 doses weekly from 31 May which will see us accumulating close to 4.5 million doses by the end of June.South Africa has secured 30 million doses of Pfizer's two-shot vaccine.The country's health regulator also approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine in early April and the government has ordered 31 million doses of the one-shot vaccine.

A former government minister in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been sentenced to three years in prison for money laundering and the illegal transfer of funds abroad.Congolese prosecutors had been investigating Willy Bakonga over the embezzlement of funds earmarked for free primary education.In February the World Bank suspended the first tranche of $100m which was to be used to fund free education in DR Congo because of concerns about corruption.