Newscast - Africa

The Senate has extended the implementation of the 2021 Appropriation Act from March 31 to May 31, 2022.
Senate Leader Yahaya Abdullahi, says the extension of the budget period is necessary to ensure that ongoing projects are completed.
He also explained that that Appropriation Acts in the past were passed mid-year, with their implementation usually extended to the following year and these extensions are covered by a Clause, in line with the provisions of Section 318 of the Constitution.
Abdullahi says that the extension of the budget period became necessary in order to complete projects close to completion.

President Muhammadu Buhari is seeking an increase in the provision for petrol subsidy for 2022 from N442 billion to N4 trillion.
Buhari cited the rising market price of crude oil heightened by the Russian-Ukraine war.
He says there have been new developments both in the global economy as well as in the domestic economy which have necessitated the revision of the 2022 Fiscal Framework on which the 2022 Budget was based.
He added that these developments include spikes in the market price of crude oil, aggravated by the Russian-Ukraine war, significantly lower oil production volume due principally to production shut-ins as a result of massive theft of crude oil between the production platforms and the terminals.

Sri Lanka’s opposition has rejected an invitation from the president to form a unity government urging his resignation over the country’s worsening shortages of food, fuel and medicines.
The opposition’s demand on Monday came as anti-government protests continued throughout the country over its worst economic crisis in memory and deepening mistrust in President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s leadership.
The president’s office says he invites all political parties represented in the parliament to come together to accept ministerial portfolios in order to find solutions to this national crisis.

US President Joe Biden has called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a war criminal and suggested holding a war crimes trial.
The Kremlin has categorically denied accusations that its forces have killed civilians in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian government has demanded crippling new sanctions from Western powers over what it called the Bucha massacre.
A team from the International Committee of the Red Cross says it was prevented from reaching the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol to evacuate civilians.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he will address the UN Security Council on Tuesday.

South Africa has announced the ending of Covid restrictions, two years after they were imposed.
President Cyril Ramaphosa says the national state of disaster would end at midnight on Monday.
He says although the pandemic was not over, he was confident that there were only better times ahead.
Mr Ramaphosa says it was important to boost the economy and create jobs.
South Africa has recorded far more coronavirus cases than any other African country.

France has called for an international investigation into reports that hundreds of civilians have been killed by government troops and Russian mercenaries in Mali.
The EU and the US have made similar calls related to the deaths in the central Moura region.
The Malian military says it had killed more than 200 Islamist militants during 10 days of fighting in the area.
Mali denies mercenaries from Russia's Wagner group are helping it fight an Islamist insurgency.

The federal government alleged that Shell Nigeria, Chevron and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited are hindering the full operation of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas project by not allowing third parties to transit gas through their pipelines.
The government appealed to the partners to allow the transportation of third-party gas through its joint pipelines to increase gas supply to the NLNG and boost the supply of the product to Europe.
The Senior Adviser, Media and Communications to the Minister of State, Petroleum, Mr Horatius Egua, noted that the NLNG is at present only able to produce at about 70 per cent installed capacity.

The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika has reacted to the offer by the management of Emirates Airlines to partner with the Nigerian government in its quest to establish a national carrier.
The Minister says the offer serves as an encouragement to the many bidders currently preparing their Public-Private Partnership bids for Nigeria Air in response to the recently advertised Request for Proposal.
Sirika added that the offer by Emirates cannot be anything other than an endorsement of the need, the zeal, and, of course, the process for the national carrier project.

The National Bureau of Statistics shows that Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos received at least 86.9 per cent of the capital imported into the country in 2021.
The region with the second-highest figure was the Federal Capital Territory with 12.4 per cent of the over $6.7bn worth of capital imported into the country in 2021.
More capital was imported through Banking $1.4bn, Shares $1bn and Production $934mn than other sectors.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has warned Nigerians to avoid dealing with illegal and unlicensed financial operators who lure and defraud members of the public.
The Apex Bank says the increase in the activities of Illegal Financial Operators is becoming worrisome and portends a grave risk to public confidence and the stability of the Nigerian Financial System.
CBN advised members of the public to visit its official website and that of the Securities and Exchange Commission and other relevant member agencies of the FSRCC to verify the registration and license status of such companies and schemes before investing in them.
They also advised Nigerians to report any individual or entities suspected to be involved in such nefarious activities to the law enforcement agencies.