Newscast - Africa

President Putin's former chief economic adviser has suggested that a real embargo on Russian energy by Western countries could stop the war in Ukraine,
Dr Andrei Illarionov says Russia did not take seriously other countries' threats to reduce their energy usage.
Despite trying to reduce its reliance on Russian sources, Europe is continuing to buy oil and gas.

The Organisation Petroleum Exporting Countries says the ongoing war by Russia in Ukraine is making the global oil market highly volatile.
OPEC’s Secretary-General, Sanusi Barkindo, says both Ukraine and the Russian Federation were also key exporters of commodities and essential agricultural goods.
He says they could potentially see the loss of more than seven million barrels per day of Russian oil and other liquids exports, resulting from current and future sanctions or other voluntary actions.
He further pointed out that these were non-fundamental factors that were out of OPEC’s control.

Turkish authorities are considering raising the share of foreign currency revenues that exporters are required to sell to the central bank to as high as 50% from 25% now.
Authorities could decide not to change the level or hike it by any amount to as high as 50%,
The mandate only covers revenues in U.S. dollars or euros.
The government had earlier mandated exporters to sell 25% of their foreign currency revenues to the central bank, which is seeking to bulk up its reserves in the wake of a currency crisis late last year.

The International Monetary Fund has warned that Zimbabwe's failure to compensate white former farmers as per the agreement will result in the country's public debt bulging.
The institution warned the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's failure to fully compensate for losses incurred when the country embarked on currency reforms will exacerbate the situation.
The IMF says the external debt burden is excessive and the country is incurring external arrears.

Ethiopia's Ministry of Finance has issued a directive allowing importers of essential foodstuffs to use franco-Valuta privileges without waiting for foreign exchange permits and import their items directly through the Customs Commission.
The Ministry says that Ethiopians in the diaspora are calling on the government to expedite Franco Valuta's licenses by taking into account the current inflation and in order to allow more Ethiopians living abroad to play their part.
The Ministry says that to comply with a letter dated 20 December 2020 by the Ministry of Finance with regard to taxation implementation, the implementation of the directive allowing Franco-Valuta privileges will be closely monitored by the concerned parties.

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya says the government will continue pushing for key reforms in the national tea sector to ensure farmers reap maximum benefits from their produce.
Munya says the government was mainly focusing on farmer-centric reforms considering the fact that farmers were the primary stakeholders in the sector.
He says some of the reforms being undertaken aimed at ensuring that farmers had a definite stake in the way their factories were run, through the power given to them to elect those in charge of their respective factories.
Munya says farmers will start receiving their bonuses by July 10, so that they can be well informed on the type of leaders to elect based on their performance.

The International Monetary Fund has warned Nigeria and other low-income countries that high public and private borrowing will likely increase financial vulnerability and lead to more inflation.
The IMF says the war in Ukraine is adding risks to unprecedented levels of public borrowing and the pandemic is still straining many government budgets.
The lender says increases in energy and food prices were adding to pressures on the poorest and most vulnerable since food accounts for up to 60 per cent of household consumption in low-income countries

The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, has refuted media reports on the rehabilitation of the Ajaokuta Steel Plant, saying that the Federal Government is not handing it over to a British firm.
He says that a Nigerian firm, which is a partner of a British firm, had offered to implement a technical audit of the steel plan for free.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Mr Gbenga Komolafe, says the agency was targeting the first half of 2022 for marginal field awardees to begin drilling in an effort to find their first oil.
He says the process which commenced in 2020 had been bogged down by bureaucratic challenges, meaning that the actual drilling for oil has yet to effectively take off over a year after the awardees were officially handed award certificates.
Komolafe says although the commission inherited a difficult situation, it expects that by the first half of this year, all the issues would be sorted out.

Iran has added 24 United States officials and people to its blacklist of sanctioned individuals over charges of terrorism and violations of the human rights of the Iranian people.
The Iranian foreign ministry announced it has targeted nine individuals for their involvement in terrorist acts.
The foreign ministry also blacklisted 15 individuals for gross violations of human rights.
This list mainly includes people who helped impose and expand punishing US sanctions on Iran during the Trump and Obama administrations.
Several former treasury department officials and several top executives at Kharon, a data analysis and consultancy firm, were also blacklisted.