Newscast - Africa

The business secretary says an extra £1bn will be spent to insulate the UK's least energy-efficient homes.
Grant Shapps says the new funding was part of a strategy of working towards an energy-independent future for the UK and would save those who benefitted around £310 a year.
The ECO+ scheme will target homes that have a low energy efficiency rating and are in the lower council tax bands.
The Department for Business, Energy, Industry, and Skills says households who currently did not benefit from any other government support would be able to upgrade their homes under the expansion of the scheme.

Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed diversified group Meikles Limited says it is seeking shareholder approval to delist from the London Stock Exchange.
The company says that the company cancels the listing of its 4 556 899 ordinary shares on the official list of the financial conduct authority and the trading on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.
Other key issues to be discussed at the AGM as highlighted are to receive, consider and adopt the Group Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022 together with reports of the Directors and Auditors thereon.

Rwanda and Eni, an Italian energy company, have signed four cooperation agreements to develop innovative joint initiatives in agriculture, the protection of unique forest ecosystems, technology, and health.
The four agreements were signed with the Rwanda Development Board, the Health Ministry, the National Industrial Research and Development Agency, and the Ministry of ICT and Innovation on November 24.
The project, which represents the first 'open-air laboratory' on the African continent, according to officials, will use the most advanced precision farming techniques to produce quality seeds in Rwanda.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has filed a lawsuit against the government of President Muhammadu Buhari over the failure to probe the operations of illegal oil pipelines between 2001 and 2022, to name and prosecute those suspected to be involved, and to recover proceeds of crime.
The suit was filed by SERAP following recent reports of the discovery of at least 58 illegal oil pipelines used to steal the country's oil wealth.
The plaintiffs are also seeking an order directing and compelling the Buhari government to fully recover any proceeds of crime, and to respect, protect, and fulfill the human rights of the people of the Niger Delta that have continued to suffer the effects of oil theft by non-state actors.

The Project Coordinator, Nigeria Digital Identification for Development, Solomon Odole, says that the project is addressing the inadequate infrastructure of the National Identity Management Commission alongside other issues with identity management.
He says the project has made adequate provisions for financing institutional capacity development, aimed at building trust and credibility within the country’s ID ecosystem.
He also noted that the project was committed to creating a robust foundational ID system for Nigeria that would involve NIMC and the Civil Registration system under the National Population Commission.
He added that the project had begun engagement with the NPC for areas of support, including digitizing the registration of births and deaths, capacity building, and a review of their legal and institutional frameworks.

Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State has frozen all government accounts and also reversed the state’s name.
He made the decision in his inaugural speech as the governor of the South-West State on Sunday, saying the move will be backed by the right orders.
He accused his predecessor Gboyega Oyetola of taking some malicious actions against him including the appointment of permanent secretaries.
Governor Adeleke thus issued the directives which will be backed up with appropriate Executive orders

The Federal Government has pledged to continue skills acquisition programs across Nigeria to deepen the economy estimated at $420bn.
Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mariam Katagum, says nations confronted the challenges of poverty, soaring unemployment, and related challenges with skills acquisition, noting that Nigeria must do the same.
Katagum says though agencies like the Industrial Trust Fund had taken advantage of relevant government policies to train hundreds of thousands of Nigerians through various skills intervention programs, more still needed to be done for the rapid growth and development of the nation’s economy.

Presidential aide Femi Adesina believes his principal President Muhammadu Buhari has done enough to leave a safer nation.
He maintained that the government had done much to curtail the challenges and would end on a high note.
Adesina admitted, however, that one administration cannot fully tackle the country’s security challenges and wants the next government to continue from where President Buhari would stop.

The European Environment Agency says no fewer than 238,000 people in the European Union died prematurely in 2020 due to exposure to airborne pollutants in spite of an improvement in air quality.
Analysis by the agency shows that air pollution is the largest environmental health risk in Europe and significantly impacts the health of the European population, particularly in urban areas, in spite of declining emissions of all key air pollutants in the EU.
The EEA’s latest estimates show that no fewer than 238,000 people died prematurely in the bloc in 2020 due to exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5), with about 96 percent of the urban population exposed to levels above World Health Organisation guidelines.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres held a meeting with Morocco's King Mohammed VI on Wednesday, where they discussed the disputed Western Sahara region.
Morocco controls 80% of the territory and the rest is held by the Polisario movement - which fought with Morocco for years after Spanish forces withdrew in 1975.In October, the UN Security Council called on both sides to resume negotiations
The two leaders met on the sidelines of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations held in the Moroccan city of Fez.
King Mohammed reaffirmed Morocco's position that the dispute is resolved on the basis of the autonomy initiative, within the framework of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom.