Newscast - Africa

Ethiopia says it plans to develop its own social media platforms after accusing global companies like Facebook of acting against the interests of the country.
The director of the government’s Information Network Security Agency, Shumete Gizaw, says that Facebook and Twitter had become instruments for political forces.
He criticised the fact that some accounts had been blocked and content removed.
Mr Shumete also said Ethiopia was developing platforms that can substitute the messaging programme WhatsApp and the video conferencing platform Zoom.

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has lauded the enthusiasm of the youth for Covid-19 jabs after the country expanded its vaccination programme.
The president says more than 500,000 youth registered on Friday when vaccination became available for 18-34-year-olds.
Mr Ramaphosa says he was impressed watching videos of young people queuing for vaccines and interviews of them explaining the benefits of receiving the jab.
He says the group has good information and should convince all adults to get vaccinated.
South Africa has so far administered 10 million doses of either the J&J or Pfizer vaccine.

Minister of State for Health, Dr Olorunnimbe Mamora, says the menace of drug abuse has reached an alarming proportion in the country and there is a need for a concerted effort by all Nigerians to tackle the problem.
Momora says the prevalence of drug usage in Nigeria stood at 14.4 per cent, which was estimated at 14.3 million people between the ages of 15 and 64 years.
The minister says the figure was about three times more than the 2017 global prevalence of 5.6 per cent among the adult population.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive, Jaiz Bank Plc, Mr Hassan Usman, says that the federal government utilised Islamic financing instruments, particularly the Sukuk, to raise over N350 billion within the past three years to execute road projects across the country.
Usman says that the bank has been able to expand credit to the real sector of the economy, financing Small and Medium Enterprises as well as working with women, vulnerable groups and those at the bottom of the pyramid to deepen financial inclusion.
The Jaiz Bank boss says the banks have the traditional mandate to engage in forex transactions.
He pointed out however that the apex bank in a bid to bring forex services closer to customers decided to use the BDCs, a privilege that had been abused.

Human Rights Activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana has faulted the Presidency’s approval to review grazing reserves in 25 states in the country.
Falana says the country has gone beyond the stage of looking for grazing routes adding that the President cannot be talking of looking for grazing routes in 2021, Nigeria.
He says the Northern Governor Forum, the Southern Governors Forum, and even the Miyetti Allah group have all come to a conclusion that open grazing is obsolete.

The Federal Inland Revenue Service has directed taxpayers in the country to continue to pay their Value Added Tax to it or risk penalties for failing to do so.
The FIRS says it decided to issue the directive following numerous enquiries in view of a recent court ruling obtained by Rivers State at a Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, that states, and not the federal government, are constitutionally empowered to collect VAT.
The FIRS argued that since it had already appealed the Rivers judgment seeking a stay of execution order, the status quo ante subsists on the VAT collection authority hence taxpayers should continue to pay their VAT to it.

The leadership of the National Association of Resident Doctors has refused assent to a new memorandum of understanding brokered by the Nigeria Medical Association to end the three weeks old strike that has crippled medical services in government hospitals across the country.
NARD President, Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi says NARD’s leadership has to consult with members of the association before he appends his signature.
Chris Ngige says all other unions in the negotiation, including the Nigeria Medical Association and the Medical and Dental Consultants of Nigeria, signed the new agreement, has agreed on all the issues raised.
The minister also clarified that the meeting did not discuss the issues of no work no pay but said all parties at the meeting agreed to an out-of-court settlement.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has sued President Muhammadu Buhari over his failure to probe allegations that N106bn of public funds are missing from 149 ministries, departments and agencies and to ensure the prosecution of those suspected to be responsible, and the recovery of any missing public funds.
The group asked the court to direct and compel President Buhari to promptly investigate the alleged missing N106bn of public funds, ensure prosecution of anyone suspected to be responsible and the full recovery of any missing public money.
SERAP argued that recovering the alleged missing public funds would reduce the pressure on the Federal Government to borrow more money to fund the budget, enable the authorities to meet the country’s constitutional and international obligations, and reduce the growing level of public debts.

Uganda's foreign affairs minister says the government has not yet reached a formal agreement with the US to take in refugees who have fled Afghanistan in the aftermath of the Taliban's seizure of power.
Jeje Odongo's says discussions were continuing but no decision had yet been made.
He added that the US had approached Uganda because of its track-record on hosting refugees.
Members of parliament asked the government to explain why it made a commitment to take in the Afghans without consulting the legislature.

The United Nations Secretary-General has called for an immediate ceasefire in the Ethiopian region of Tigray, where government forces and rebel fighters have been locked in conflict since November.
António Guterres described the humanitarian conditions in Tigray as hellish and says aid agencies needed unrestricted access.
He condemned the use of sexual violence against women in Ethiopia as a weapon of war.
Mr Guterres says there could be no military resolution to the fighting, which has spread to neighbouring states.