Newscast - Africa

The latest tally by the IATF Advisory Council shows that the recently concluded second Intra-African Trade Fair generated a record $42.1 billion in trade and trade-related investment deals
The latest figures captured additional data submitted by trade promotion agencies of Algeria, Nigeria and South Africa.
It also included other verticals, such as the Creative Africa Nexus programme, the IATF Automotive Show and the African Union’s Youth Start-Up programme.
IATF 2021 surpassed its pre-set target of $40 billion in trade and investment deals, going well beyond the $32 billion in transactions closed during the first edition in Cairo, Egypt in 2018.

Seplat Energy is attempting to purchase ExxonMobil’s Nigerian shallow water business.
The company’s Chief Financial Officer, Mr Emeka Onwuka says deliberations are ongoing and accordingly, there can be no certainty as to the outcome.
He says a further announcement will be made as and when appropriate, in line with regulatory requirements.

The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Policy and Legislative Advocacy Centre have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill recently passed by the two federal legislative chambers.
Executive Director of PLAC, Mr Clement Nwankwo urged the president to sign the new Electoral Act without much delay so as to enable the Independent National Electoral Commission to plan well in advance for the next General Election in 2023.
Nwankwo says there was enough time lag before the 2023 General Election if the president signs the bill now unlike in 2019 when his excuse was that it was too close to the election.

The Federal Government insisted Nigeria is yet to record a case of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19, despite Canadian authorities’ claims that two passengers from Nigeria had tested positive.
Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Ifedayo Adetifa, says there was no need to give in to speculations.
He says citizens should not waste energy on speculating and focus on what they actually know.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says that the public sector is critical for national development, very vital for governance, and quality public service delivery.
Prof. Osinbajo noted at the secretariat that the commissioning was historic because the seat of the civil service of any arm of government anywhere in the world is usually one of the major monuments enshrining not just the power, but also the splendour of the authority of government.
He says the imposing complex clearly meets this requirement and in due course, such buildings become historical monuments.

Britain’s government defended the pace and scale of its response to the new Omicron strain of Covid-19 against criticism that it is again falling behind the curve.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid says mandatory mask-wearing would return to shops and public transport in England on Tuesday, but told families to plan for Christmas as normal, despite new rules to combat the Omicron variant.
The government’s website is instructing all passengers entering the UK to take a PCR test for Covid-19 two days after their arrival, and to self-isolate, until they receive a negative result.
Travel from 10 countries in southern Africa is now banned because of Omicron, but Javid conceded that hundreds of passengers had arrived on flights from South Africa on Friday without being tested.

The United Kingdom’s government has announced plans for its own talks on the Channel crisis with European ministers this week as it was frozen out of a crisis meeting in France.
Government ministers from Belgium, France, Germany, and the Netherlands will meet in Calais on Sunday with officials from the European Union and EU border agency Frontex and police agency Europol following the drownings of 27 people in the Channel last Wednesday.
UK Home Secretary Priti Patel was barred from the meeting after Prime Minister Boris Johnson published the text of a letter he sent to French President Emmanuel Macron setting out London’s demands for concerted action on refugees.

Israel says it will ban the entry of all foreigners into the country, making it the first nation to shut its borders completely in response to a new and potentially more contagious coronavirus variant.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett says the ban, pending government approval, would last 14 days.
Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked says working hypotheses are that the variant is already in nearly every country.
Dr Ran Balicer, head of the government’s advisory panel on COVID-19, told Israel’s Kan public radio the new measures were necessary for the fog of war surrounding the new variant, saying it was better to act early and strictly to prevent its spread.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called on countries to immediately and urgently reverse scientifically unjustified travel bans linked to the discovery of the new coronavirus variant Omicron.
Dozens of nations have blacklisted South Africa and its neighbours since South African scientists flagged Omicron on November 25.
The World Health Organization has labelled Omicron a variant of concern, while scientists are still assessing its virulence.
Ramaphosa says the prohibition of travel is not informed by science and accused Western countries of Afrophobia for shutting their borders.

Sudan’s reinstated Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has replaced the country’s police chiefs, in a move that came after more than 40 people were killed in a crackdown on pro-democracy protests following a military coup last month.
Hamdok says he had sacked the director-general of the police, Khaled Mahdi Ibrahim al-Emam, and his deputy, Ali Ibrahim.
He appointed Anan Hamed Mohamed Omar with Abdelrahman Nasreddine Abdallah as his deputy.
Doctors have accused security forces of targeting protesters in the head, neck and torso with live ammunition, as well as with rubber-coated bullets and tear gas canisters. The police have denied reports they opened fire using live bullets.