Newscast - Africa

The Managing Director, NDPHC, Chiedu Ogbo, says the indebtedness of the power sector to the Niger Delta Power Holding Company is now over N100bn.
The NIPP was conceived in 2004 and developed to address the issues of insufficient electric power generation and excessive gas flaring from oil exploration in the Niger Delta region.
Ugbo says that the NDPHC had diversified into renewable energy, as it had installed 20,000 solar home units and plans to add another 100,000 units across the country.
He outlined the 10 thermal plants that were designed under the NIP to include the Ihovbor Power Station Benin, Edo State; Calabar Power Station, Cross River State; Egbema Power Station, Imo State; Gbarain Power Station, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

The Federal Government will complete the concession of the $1.3bn Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Plant next year and will commence operations by the second quarter of the same year.
The agency had closed up the submission of bids from investors on November 24.
The winner of the bid will operate the plant for 30 years before transferring it to the government.
The enterprise says that after the release of the RFQ, it would release a shortlist of prospective investors; the issue of RFQ; evaluation of technical proposals; and shortlist prospective investors for financial bid opening; as well as set a date for the financial bid opening, all within a short timeframe.

US media reports says the US is planning to send Patriot air defence missiles to Ukraine,
President Joe Biden is likely to announce the move this week, according to unnamed officials.
Ukraine has been requesting further air defence support for some time, as Russian attacks have continued to kill civilians and cause major blackouts.
Patriot is one of the most advanced US air defence systems but supplies to Ukraine are likely to be limited.

Multi-billionaire Elon Musk has sold another 22 million shares, worth $3.58bn (£2.9bn), in the electric car maker Tesla.
The shares were sold on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week, according to a filing with a US financial regulator.
It brings the total of Tesla stocks sold by Mr. Musk over the past year to almost $40bn.
Earlier this week Mr. Musk lost his position as the world's richest person.
Financial market data provider Refinitiv says the reason for the latest share sales has not been disclosed. He remains Tesla's biggest shareholder with a 13.4% stake,

The US central bank has hiked interest rates again, and warned more rises will be necessary to rein in the rapid pace of price increases.
They agreed to lift the bank's key interest rate by 0.5 percentage points.
That pushed the target range for the Fed's benchmark rate to 4.25% - 4.5% - the highest rate in 15 years. But it was a smaller increase than in recent announcements.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says the bank wanted to slow down to see how the economy is responding to the cumulative impact of the hikes, which have increased the cost of mortgages, car and business loans, and credit card debt.
He however warned that Wednesday's rise was still a historically large increase and we still have some way to go."

Rwandan President Paul Kagame says nobody is going to bully us when it comes to internal Rwandan affairs, in response to the US request to release government critic Paul Rusesabagina.
Mr Kagame was asked if the US’s Antony Blinken advocacy on Mr Rusesabagina was helping or hurting his case.
Mr Kagame says that somebody in America wanted the case to be nullified because this person is a celebrity.
The US has stated that Mr Rusesabagina is being “wrongfully detained” in Rwanda.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs says that over 4.4 million people have been affected by the floods since July 2022.
The OCHA Flash also noted that at least 2.4 million people were displaced in the country due to flooding.
It also stated that more than half of the displaced persons were residents of Bayelsa State. The report also accounted for the destruction of farmlands and lamented that this may lead to high food insecurity in the country.
The agency advised that Priority humanitarian needs remain shelter, access to clean water and sanitation, food, health care, and interventions to prevent or address disease outbreaks such as cholera.

The Federal Government says Nigeria is nowhere in the map of countries that export yam despite being a leading producer of the crop.
It, however, stated that this must be addressed, stressing that it was currently collaborating with relevant stakeholders to resuscitate yam export from Nigeria to boost wealth creation and food security.
The Director of the Federal Department of Agriculture, Abdullahi Abubakar, the permanent secretary says the aim of the meeting was to resuscitate the nation’s consciousness on the export of yam.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has disclosed that it has so far recovered over N30 billion out of the N109 billion allegedly siphoned by the suspended Accountant-General of the Federation, Idris Ahmed.
The Chairman of the Commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa, stated this while appearing at the Ministerial Media Briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday.
Idris was nabbed by operatives of the EFCC on May 16, 2022, in connection with a series of frauds that was initially thought to be N84 billion.
The EFCC boss announced that the nationwide auction of forfeited automobiles will be followed by the disposal of over 150 houses to interested buyers.

The Federal Government approved a new whistleblower draft bill.
It also lamented that the existing whistle-blowing policy launched on December 21, 2016, was losing momentum.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr. Zainab Ahmed, says the Council approved the draft bill to strengthen the fight against corruption and protect whistleblowers that provide helpful information to the FG.