Newscast - Africa

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige says the Federal Government is not opposed to the idea of giving university lecturers a raise.
He made the remark at the State House after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Minister noted that such a decision will be taken after an investigation is conducted to comparatively assess the pay of their counterparts in other climes.
The Minister noted that the issue of earned allowances have remained inconclusive as the Federal Government is willing to make the university lecturers happy after due process has been completed.

The Trade Union Congress says it will embark on a solidarity strike with the Academic Staff Union of Universities if the Federal Government does not resolve the lingering issues with the academics within two weeks.
ASUU is currently on a one-month warning strike as it negotiates with the government.
TUC President, Comrade Quadri Olaleye says the Government must engage ASUU in constructive negotiations to find lasting solutions to their complaints without further delay.
The TUC also condemned the behaviour of the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, during a meeting with the National Association of Nigerian Students on Monday.

The National Assembly granted financial and administrative autonomy to all the local governments across Nigeria.
Both chambers of the National Assembly during voting on the Constitution Amendment voted in favour of Local Government administrative autonomy as a tier of government and guarantee their democratic existence and tenure.
The bill to create a special account through which funds for local governments will be paid directly from the Federation Account had 257 ‘YES’ votes while nine persons voted ‘NO.’

The United States says that it was expelling 12 members of Russia’s UN mission from America for being intelligence operatives.
A spokeswoman for the US mission to the UN, Olivia Dalton says those ordered to leave had abused their privileges of residency in the United States by engaging in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security.
Richard Mills, the US’s deputy ambassador to the UN, had earlier told a Security Council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine that the dozen had engaged in non-diplomatic activities.
Russia’s ambassador to the UN informed reporters of the decision first.
Vassily Nebenzia says that the 12 have been ordered to leave the United States by March 7.

Russian President Vladimir Putin laid out conditions for ending his invasion of Ukraine, as Moscow's forces shelled the country’s second city and Western nations prepared even more sanctions.
Putin’s ultimatum came as Moscow and Kyiv held their first talks since the outbreak of war last Thursday, which shocked the world and provoked a massive diplomatic, economic, cultural and sporting backlash.
Putin laid out his prerequisites for ending the war in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron agreeing merely to hold the second round of negotiations soon.
Kremlin says Putin stressed that a settlement is possible only if Russia’s legitimate security interests are unconditionally taken into account, including the recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, the demilitarisation and denazification of the Ukrainian state and ensuring its neutral status.

The Russian central bank raised its key interest rate to 20% from 9.5% on Monday in an emergency move, and authorities told export-focused companies to sell foreign currency as the rouble tumbled to record lows.
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov says Russian authorities told Russian exporting companies to sell 80% of their foreign currency revenues on the market.
Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina says the central bank had stopped interventions on Monday due to the latest western sanctions, suggesting the rouble was supported by other unnamed market participants.
Nabiullina says the Bank of Russia sold around $1 billion from its reserves the day Russia started what it calls a special operation in Ukraine and also carried out FX selling.

Uganda and Tanzania have signed several Memorandum of Understanding including agreements that will see the removal of non-tariff barriers between the two countries as one of the ways to ease trade.
Uganda's Foreign Affairs Minister, Jeje Odongo applauded both countries for working towards bilateral cooperation and also expressed happiness that the two sides had agreed to appoint focal points for all ministries, departments and agencies in the two countries who will coordinate and follow up on issues to ensure quick and full implementation.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe says it has cleared the nearly US$200 million ring-fenced foreign currency backlog on the auction system.
Governor, Dr John Mangudya says that the apex bank was now working to ensure it is current on all allotted fresh bids.
The backlog accumulated from bids allotted on the auction but which the bank The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries president, Kurai Matsheza, however, says although the RBZ had cleared the ring-fenced amount, some firms still had backlogs going back to December last year.
Dr Mangudya says there had been a lot of progress on efforts to clear all the allotted outstanding bids on the bank's weekly auction system.

Kenya’s statistics office says the country’s year-on-year inflation slid to 5.08% in February from 5.39% a month earlier.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics says on a monthly basis, inflation was 0.40% from 0.31% in January.

US-based research lab AidData says a top Chinese lender has imposed aggressive repayment terms on a $200 million loan to expand Uganda’s international airport criticizing the bank for forcing the government to repay its debt before funding public services.
AidData says under the loan from China’s Exim Bank to modernise the Entebbe Airport, the Ugandan government is required to channel all revenue from the country’s only international airport into an account held jointly with the lender.
Chinese creditors require governments to deposit some earnings from big infrastructure projects in bank accounts they control to serve as collateral.