Newscast - Africa

Uganda has handed over $65m as the first instalment of a fine it was ordered to pay the Democratic Republic of Congo for invading the east of the country two decades ago, Congolese authorities say.
The ICJ ordered Uganda to pay five annual instalments of $65m between 2022 and 2026, with the first instalment due in September.
The payment is a sign of the vastly improved relations between the two neighbouring countries.
It is also a rare case of accountability for violations of international law.
Back in 2005 the court said Uganda's invasion of eastern DR Congo led to civilians being killed and tortured while villages were destroyed.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Exchange Group Plc, Oscar Onyema, says that the agricultural sector will have a huge role to play in solving Nigeria’s foreign exchange crisis.
Onyema noted that crop production was the major driver of the agriculture sector, given that it accounted for 91.99 per cent of the overall nominal growth of the sector in the second quarter of 2022.
Onyema further stated that Nigeria’s arable land area of 34 million hectares provided a veritable platform to achieve food safety and security.
He says It comes as no surprise that Agriculture accounts for about 24 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP and Nigeria is a leader in various types of agricultural production, such as palm oil, cocoa beans, pineapple, and sorghum.

The Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission, says the governments, especially states have been getting a rather low revenue from the mining sector.
Osun State at the Commission, Mr Oladele Gboyega, says the team was in Osun for the second phase of the nationwide monitoring of revenue collections, and to also observe mining activities across the state.
He frowned at the level of land degradation going on in mining sites across the state, saying there was an urgent need for sensitisation of the miners.
He says they have identified the problem that we’re not communicating with ourselves. The state is not communicating with the federal agency, the federal is not communicating with the state.

Senior Advocate of Nigeria Femi Falana has faulted the nomination of 14 persons for confirmation as Resident Electoral Commissioners for the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Falana says President Muhammadu Buhari failed to comply with the provisions of the Constitution in nominating the 14 persons.
He says the President had previously consulted the Council of State to appoint the Chairman and members of INEC in compliance with the provisions of Section 154 (3) of the Constitution.
The nominations have since generated controversy as some of the nominees have been accused of being members of the President’s party, the All Progressives Congress.
Falana says the move also contradicted the promise of the President to ensure a free and fair general election next year.

The Nigerian Communications Commission has teamed with the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps to tackle some of the criminal activities bedevilling the telecom industry, such as telecom equipment vandalism and fraudulent registration of Subscriber Identity Module cards among others.
Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, hailed the Memorandum of Understanding sealed between the agency and the Commission, for which the gathering was to explore how the Corps will deploy enabling laws, subsidiary legislations, and extant guidelines to arrest any form of criminality in the sector.
Danbatta, says over the years, the NCC has been working with relevant law enforcement agencies, and in particular the NSCDC, towards protecting the telecom sector from all kinds of criminal behaviour.

The Biden administration says US tech companies that receive federal funding will be barred from building advanced technology facilities in China for 10 years, The guidelines were unveiled as part of a $50bn plan aimed at building up the local semiconductor industry.
They are faced with a global microchip shortage which has slowed production.
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo says they are going to be implementing the guardrails to ensure those who receive CHIPS funds cannot compromise national security.

The European Commission proposed five billion euros in financial aid to Ukraine, in the latest instalment of a promised nine-billion-euro rescue package agreed by EU leaders in May.
The commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, says the situation in Ukraine requires their full support.
A European diplomat says the rescue was part of the $39 billion in aid promised by the G7 group of nations to prop up Ukraine’s battered public coffers.

The state minister for Public Service Grace Mugasa has revealed that Cabinet has approved an enhanced pay plan for all civil servants starting next financial year.
Mugasa explained that the discrepancy in pay for science and art teachers, for example, was due to the limited wage bill for teachers' salaries under the Ministry of Education and Sports.
The minister says that the Ministry of Public Service approved the structures for the education ministry, adding that recruitment and payment of salaries for the structures, entirely depend on the wage bill.

China has removed Tariffs on 98% of products imported from 9 of Africa's poorest countries. Experts believe the measure will have little economic impact.
The new tariff policy, which took effect on September 1, is applicable to mineral and agricultural imports from Chad, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Djibouti, Mozambique, Guinea, Rwanda, Togo, and Sudan.
Xi stated at the time that the goal was to increase continental imports to US$300 billion in the next three years, ultimately reaching US$300 billion per year by 2035

The European Union announced that it is providing additional support to the African military mission in Mozambique in the form of $15m which will go towards the Southern African Development Community mission to Mozambique.
The EU says the money will go towards peacebuilding and will focus on the capacity building of police and correctional services officers, women and youth empowerment, and dialogue with civic leaders tailored towards good governance and the rule of law".
The EU says with this money, it will join Mozambican and international efforts to restore peace, safety and security in the North of Mozambique.