Newscast - Africa

A court in London has dismissed an attempt by Friends of the Earth to get the British government's financial support for a gas project in Mozambique to be declared unlawful.
The environmental group had argued that the $1bn funding in the form of loans and guarantees would contravene the UK's climate change commitments under the Paris accords.
Friends of the Earth says the judgment was extremely disappointing.
The $20bn liquified natural gas project in northern Mozambique is being led by France's Total.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni over the weekend called for a ban on overseas travel by Members of Parliament and civil servants to save money for priority areas.
He made the remarks while commissioning facilities at Uganda Petroleum Institute-Kigumba where the country intends to train local experts in oil exploration.
The president also suggested a freeze on all allowances, according to the Daily Monitor news site.
A $3.5bn (£2.7m) crude oil pipeline that will connect Uganda's oil fields to a port in neighboring Tanzania has been opposed by climate activists. The two East African countries say their priority is economic development.

A British charity will on Monday morning seek permission from the High Court in London to appeal against a controversial government plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Asylum Aid will argue that the court erred in its ruling in December that the scheme was lawful and will challenge the judgment that the country is a safe destination for migrants.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman have made curbing immigration via the English Channel a political priority.

The World Bank stated that technical problems, insecurity, rising production costs, theft, lack of payment discipline in joint ventures, etc. were responsible for the 40 percent decline in Nigeria’s oil production last year.
The apex bank in its January global economic prospects report says that the fall when compared to its 2019 level, lowered economic growth to 3.1 percent from 3.6 percent the prior year.
The report says Annual inflation surpassed 21 percent in 2022 for the first time in 17 years, disrupting activity and consumer demand adding that persistent fuel and foreign exchange shortages, with the country’s currency depreciating by over 30 percent last year in the parallel market, further dampened economic activity.
World Bank also projected that the country’s growth will decelerate to 2.9 percent in 2023 and 2024.

Figures from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission showed that International and bilateral power consumers that get supply from Nigeria owe the country about N4.71bn,
The NERC revealed this in its first and second quarter reports of 2022, as it named the debtors to include Odukpani-CEET, Paras-SBEE, Ajaokuta Steel, and Mainstream/Inner Galaxy.
Others include Mainstream/KAM Industries, Mainstream/KAM Integrated, KAM Steel Shagamu, NDPHC/Sunflag, North South/OAU, and Mainstream/Adefolorunsho Ventures.
The commission pointed out that the indebtedness by the power firms were to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company Plc and the power Market Operator.
It stated that in the first quarter, moribund Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited failed to pay N0.45bn, while Odukpani-CEET did not remit $3.42m.

The National Salaries Incomes and Wages Commission says it has initiated the process for the review of the National Minimum Wage.
NSIWC’s Head of Public Affairs, Mr. Emmanuel Njoku, says as part of the process to review the minimum wage, which would be due in 2024, the commission had held a series of meetings and training towards nationwide monitoring of the Minimum Wage Act 2019.
He says the monitoring billed to begin on Jan. 23, would help ascertain the compliance level of public and private employers and organisations.
Njoku says the monitoring team for the exercise would be drawn from key stakeholders including the Ministry of Labour and Employment, and the Ministry of Finance and National Planning.

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, says the Federal Government is empowered by law to fix the prices of kerosene and other petroleum prices.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria says the government is backed by Section 4 of the Price Control Act and section 316 of the Petroleum Industry Act to determine and fix the prices of petroleum products Including petrol motor spirit, kerosene and cooking gas.
He countered a claim made by the Minister of State Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, that the government could not intervene in the rising price of kerosene.
Falana however accused the Buhari government of illegally pushing out the deregulation of kerosene on Nigerians.

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX has located more than $5bn of assets, an attorney for the firm says.
A US bankruptcy court however was told that the extent of losses to customers is still not known.
Prosecutors have accused FTX's former chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried of orchestrating an epic fraud that may have cost investors, customers and lenders billions of dollars.
Mr Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to charges that he cheated investors.

President Vladimir Putin removed Russia's top commander in Ukraine, just three months after he was installed.
Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov will now lead what Mr. Putin terms a special military operation.
Gen Gerasimov replaces Sergei Surovikin who has overseen recent brutal attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
The reshuffle comes as Russians claim they are making progress in eastern Ukraine after suffering a series of military defeats in recent months.

Aviation authorities are trying to figure out what caused the outage of a crucial alert system that forced the temporary halt on all US domestic takeoffs, triggering thousands of delays and cancellations.
The US Federal Aviation Administration says normal operations were being restored but the early morning halt created knock-on effects that snarled travel throughout the day.
The grounding order was issued after the FAA identified an issue with the Notice to Air Missions system which provides information to pilots about hazards, changes to airport facilities, and information that can affect flights.
Wednesday’s nationwide order was believed to be the first time since the attacks of 9/11 that such a broad command had been issued, according to aviation experts cited in US media.