A new report from Oxfam says West African governments are planning to slash and burn their way out of Covid-19 induced economic loss.
Its report singled out Nigeria as the worst-performing West African country when it came to tackling inequality going into the pandemic.
It says that the country’s health spending is the third-lowest in the world at 3.6% of GDP and that 40% of its population does not have access to healthcare services.
The report warned that any massive cut on public finances could push millions more West Africans into poverty and hunger.

President Muhammadu Buhari says he will hasten the signing of the Consolidated Insurance Bill 2020 once it lands on his desk.
The President says once the National Assembly has finished the process of reviewing the Consolidated Insurance Bill 2020 and forwarded he would speedily subject it to the necessary executive checks and sign it into law.
The President commended the leadership of the Institute for bringing some sanity into the Nigerian Insurance Industry as well as giving more visibility to the importance of the industry in national development, counselled them to do more.

A total of 3,577,860 doses of the Pfizer vaccine have arrived in Nigeria from the United States.
A statement released by the United States Mission in Nigeria says the arrival of 3,577,860 doses of Pfizer vaccine is for the public health and benefit of the Nigerian people through COVAX, the worldwide initiative ensuring equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.
The mission noted that safe and effective vaccines remain the best tool to ending the pandemic.

The House of Representatives has passed two bills to establish the North-Central and North-West development commissions.
The commissions are charged with the responsibility to receive and manage funds allocated from the federation accounts.
The funds will be directed towards the reconstruction and rehabilitation of roads, houses and other infrastructural in the regions.
The commissions have become imperative, according to the lawmakers, due to the ecological and security challenges in the affected regions.
It is also hoped that the commissions will help to reduce poverty in the regions.
This comes after two related bills to establish development commissions in the South-West and South-East were passed in the green chamber.

The Nigerian Communications Commission has confirmed it is 97% ready for the implementation of 5G deployment in the country.
NCC Executive Vice Chairman, Professor Umar Danbatta, stated that this paradigm shift in communication has led to a significant increase in network connectivity requirements as a result of an unprecedented upsurge in internet traffic, occasioned by the use of a plethora of web applications.
He explained that the NCC is working with operators to implement a number of initiatives to ensure network expansion.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has expressed displeasure over what it describes as a slow pace in the implementation of the Memorandum of Agreement it reached with the Federal Government last year.
ASUU President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke also urged the National Assembly to initiate a law that makes it compulsory for public office holders to send their wards to public schools in the country, saying such a step would let the officials know the decay in public universities.
The meeting is a follow-up of the reconciliation meeting held in August to evaluate the progress so far made in the implementation of the memorandum signed in 2020.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo tasked states to think out of the box in raising their respective Internally Generated Revenues.
He says by thinking differently there is a need for a sub-national to think like a sovereign State.
He says there is a different mindset when they are sure of a monthly allocation of cash at least enough to pay salaries, whether they generate income or not.

Qatar believes that recognising the Taliban government in Afghanistan is not a priority now and that the focus should be on engaging with the new administration and addressing humanitarian issues.
Mutlaq al-Qahtani, the special envoy of the Qatari foreign minister, called for other countries to engage more deeply with the Taliban as Afghanistan’s de facto authority while urging the group to act as a responsible administration and respect the right of women to work and girls to attend school.
Al-Qahtani explained that although the group wants international recognition and agreed on a peace deal with the US, it has resorted to public hangings and other brutal tactics since taking power.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi says the Group of 20 has agreed to work together to avoid a humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan, even if it means having to coordinate efforts with the Taliban.
The European Union opened the talks by pledging one billion euros which will go to urgent humanitarian needs and also assist neighbouring countries in taking in Afghans who have been fleeing since the Taliban took control of the country on August 15.
Draghi says there has basically been a convergence of views on the need to address the humanitarian emergency.
Draghi says the absence of China’s President and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin did not undercut the importance of the meeting organised by Italy, the current G20 chair.

IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath says Energy prices, which have soared in recent days, are likely to remain high in the coming months but begin to retreat early next year,
She says while energy prices will be elevated for the next couple of months, they expect that to come back down by the end of the first quarter next year and into the second quarter.
Gopinath cautioned that the weather will play a factor since a very severe winter could lead to broader power outages that will have a much bigger effect on the world.