Newscast - Africa

Lebanon’s central bank says that it would fulfil all data requests from the consultancy Alvarez & Marsal for a forensic audit of its accounts amid reports that the firm was set to pull out due to a lack of cooperation.
The audit is seen as a key condition for an International Monetary fund support programme and other foreign aid to stem Lebanon’s deepest economic crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war.
Little progress has been made to address the crisis since the pound began to decouple from its 23-year-old peg to the US dollar in 2019.

Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube has announced that the country’s economy is expected to rebound from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and grow by over 7% next year.
The minister says the growth will be spurred by a strong agricultural season and higher global commodity prices while presenting the annual budget.
Mr Ncube described the budget as a people’s budget, one that lowers taxes and increases spending on social services.
Spending on health services will take up 14% of government expenditure including a pledge to revamp dilapidated public hospitals.

Britain is halting all flights from South Africa and five other countries in the region in response to the discovery of a highly transmissible new coronavirus variant.
Direct flights from South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Eswatini will be suspended until further notice.
The British health secretary, Sajid Javid, says it was possible that current vaccines might be less effective against the heavily mutated variant.
South African experts say it had spread rapidly among students in Pretoria. It's not clear whether the variant is more deadly than previous mutations.

Scientists in South Africa say they had detected a new Covid-19 variant with a large number of mutations, blaming it for a surge in infection numbers.
The number of daily infections in Africa’s hardest-hit country has increased tenfold since the start of the month.
Virologist Tulio de Oliveira says the variant, which goes by the scientific lineage number B.1.1.529, has a very high number of mutations while expressing hope that the World Health Organization will give it a Greek name on Friday.
He added that the variant has also been detected in Botswana and Hong Kong among travellers from South Africa.
The WHO says it is closely monitoring the reported variant and is expected to convene a technical meeting on Friday to determine if it should be designated a variant of interest or of concern.

The World Health Organization has released its HIV drug resistance report for 2021.
WHO’s latest report gives an in-depth picture of the extent to which drug resistance is growing, and the steps that countries are taking to ensure people will receive effective medicine to treat and prevent HIV.
It reveals that in 2020, 64% of focus countries (countries with a high burden of HIV infection) had national action plans to prevent, monitor and respond to HIV drug resistance.
WHO encourages countries to monitor resistance and recommends that for people starting antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) called pretreatment HIV drug resistance.

The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading company announced that its operating license had been renewed for additional three years by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.
It says in a statement issued by the firm in Abuja that the license was renewed following a review of NBET’s application and corporate business plan.
The firm in the statement says that NBET was established to undertake the business of managing and trading in wholesale electricity.
It explained that the agency functioned as a bulk purchaser and bulk reseller of power and ancillary services pursuant to the Electric Power Sector Reform Act 2005.

The Nigeria Labour Congress has rejected a planned petrol price hike in the country and the Federal Government’s proposal to pay the sum of N5000 monthly to Nigerians as palliative.
NLC President, Ayuba Wabba in a statement described the plan of the Federal Government as a penny wise-pound foolish gamble.
Wabba lamented that there are no ongoing talks between labour and the Federal Government, as negotiation was adjourned.
He accused the government of adopting monologue in arriving at its conclusion on subsidy removal, stressing that it will continually reject deregulation that is anchored on the importation of petroleum products.

President Muhammadu Buhari has renewed charges to all security agencies to double down on their response to all those challenging Nigeria’s sovereignty and creating insecurity through criminality in whatever way.
The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, told State House correspondents that the meeting which lasted more than four hours also discussed the resurgence of criminal activities along the Abuja-Kaduna Highway.
He says all agencies concerned with security have been ordered to improve on their activities, intensify surveillance, and minimise if not eliminate totally any threat.

The Federal Government has declared that it will begin the process of reviewing the National Oil Spillage Detection and Response Agency in order to mete out stiffer penalties to oil companies involved in oil spillage in the country.
The Minister of Environment, Sharon Ikeazor noted that a strong legal framework has become expedient to stop ongoing oil spills.
The Environment minister further revealed that the OML29 oil spill in Nembe, Bayelsa State has been brought under control while blaming the oil spillage on sabotage by the locals.
She says necessary personnel and equipment have been deployed to begin recovery and remediation efforts handled by NOSDRA, as the agency assures that a post-spill impact assessment will be concluded in one month.

The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, believes Nigeria is on the right path to economic diversification focusing on non-oil exports, with the zero-oil plan actively promoted by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC).
The Vice President commended the outgoing NEPC chief for his foresight, and for putting in place a well-structured and detailed plan.
He says it is important to note that Nigeria is certainly getting away from the oil and gas era.