Newscast - Africa

Japan's competition regulator has filed criminal complaints against the advertising giant Dentsu and five other firms over the alleged bid-rigging of contracts for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The regulator also filed complaints against seven unnamed individuals.
The announcement follows months of investigations into alleged corruption in the planning and sponsorship of Olympics and Paralympics events.
The Japan Fair Trade Commission says it had also filed complaints against advertising agencies Hakuhodo DY Holdings, Tokyo Agency, Fuji Creative Corporation, Cerespo and Same Two.
Dentsu, Cerespo and Fuji Creative have already been banned for nine months from bidding for contracts with Japan's industry, foreign and education ministries.

The financial scandal - named after a 2019 Wikileaks release called the "Fishrot Files" - stretches from Namibia to Iceland, taking in government ministers and involving at least $20m.
Namibia is now preparing for the biggest corruption trial in its short history.
In the Fishrot scandal, a number of prominent politicians and businessmen are accused of running schemes to get control of valuable fishing quotas, for example, those held by the state fishing company Fishcor.
It is alleged that they then diverted them to the Icelandic fishing company Samherji in return for kickbacks.
Ten suspects, including former Fisheries Minister Bernard Esau and ex-Justice Minister Sakeus Shangala, are alleged to have benefitted.

French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated that France harboured no desire to return to past policies of interfering in Africa after he began a four-nation tour of the continent.
Macron said the age of Francafrique is well over while referring to France’s post-colonisation strategy of supporting authoritarian leaders to defend its interests.
Macron gave some details of the redeployment of French forces, after their departure from Mali and the Central African Republic in 2022 and from Burkina Faso last month.
He said there would be a noticeable reduction in the French troop presence in Africa in the coming months and a greater focus on training and equipping allied countries’ forces.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa says e-commerce in Africa will grow by 50 per cent by 2025.
The Acting Executive Secretary, UNECA, Mr Antonio Pedro, explained that investing in the capacity building would be critical to delivering on the growth of e-commerce in the continent.
The acting executive secretary, says a large-scale infrastructure investment must be accompanied by viable policies and strategies both nationally and regionally, adding that digital technologies will also fuel Africa’s accelerated transformation.
Pedro says the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement is the framework under which Africa could ensure an African-owned transformation.

President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the Maiduguri Emergency Power Project, describing the feat as another testament towards achieving a stable, uninterrupted power supply aimed at improving the economy and lives of Nigerians.
The President says his administration has worked hard to fulfil the promise of tackling the nation’s electricity challenges and has succeeded in laying the foundation for a rich and prosperous country through the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.
He noted that a critical execution priority of the ERGP is ensuring national energy sufficiency for Nigerians.

The Nigerian Economic Group Summit says Nigeria’s weak manufacturing is a significant factor fuelling the shortage of foreign exchange
The NESG Senior Economist, Dr Wilson Erumebor, stated that the last seven years for the country had been plagued with hardship especially after battling two economic recessions.
He says Nigeria Is not producing enough for local consumption and export. The consequences of having a weak manufacturing base for a country with such a large population are evident in its foreign exchange shortages, the limited number of jobs created to accommodate workforce entrants, and an import bill that can hardly be met (nor sustained) by current export earnings.
Erumebor noted that 90 per cent of workers are employed in sectors with low productivity levels—agriculture and non-tradable services.

The total amount of currency-in-circulation in the country dropped from N3.29tn as of the end of October 2022 to N1.38tn as of the end of January 2023 as a result of the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The banking sector regulator says all Deposit Money Banks currently holding the existing denominations of the currency may begin returning these notes back to the CBN effective immediately.
He decried the challenges associated with currency management including significant hoarding of banknotes by members of the public, with statistics showing that over 80 per cent of currency-in-circulation was outside the vaults of commercial banks.

Huge rallies have been held in several Mexican cities against what protesters say are government attempts to undermine the electoral authorities.
Lawmakers last week voted to slash the budget of the National Electoral Institute and cut its staffing.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador accuses the INE of being partisan.
But opponents describe the recent vote as an attack on democracy, pressing the Supreme Court to overturn them as unconstitutional.
Massive crowds gathered in Mexico City's historic Zocalo Square.

A newly updated classified report from the United States Department of Energy obtained by the Wall Street Journal newspaper shows that COVID-19 was probably the result of a leak from a laboratory.
The new coronavirus — SARS-CoV-2 — first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 and quickly spread around the world, so far killing nearly 7 million people.
The Journal reported that the judgement for the latest classified report arose out of new intelligence and was made with low confidence.
Four US intelligence agencies believe with low confidence that COVID-19 took place through natural transmission, while two others remain undecided.

Israeli and Palestinian officials have pledged to implement measures to de-escalate surging violence after talks in Jordan.
Israeli and Palestinian officials say that they would work closely to prevent further violence and that they reaffirmed the necessity of committing to de-escalation on the ground.
The joint statement came at the end of a meeting also attended by US, Egyptian and Jordanian officials amid growing concerns over an escalation of violence in the run-up to the holy Muslim month of Ramadan that begins in late March