Nigerian Equities is Soaring; Amazon Axed Employees That Leaked Emails; Ghana Launched Beyond The Returns; Zimbabwe Charged SAA $877 Million in Weather Fine.

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South Africa’s Power Utility Giant announces a further load-shedding for January 2020, following the report that came in mid-afternoon on Monday 6th January 2020, as a warning to whom it may concern. Several Eskom facilities break-downs during the festive season and as a result, Eskom’s system is in a critical condition that warrants for a further stage 6 load shedding. This is an indication of a 6,000MW dropped from the grid to avoid the system becoming unstable.According to the latest market performance data from the Nigeria Stock Exchange, investors went home smiling as at the end of the trading session for the week ended 3rd January 2020. Tracking the various market, The NSE All-Share Index and Market Capitalization appreciated by 2.09% to close the week at 26,968.79 and N13.019 trillion respectively and also a year to date returns on 0.47%. The NSE 30 Index, NSE CG Index, NSE Premium Index, NSE Banking Index, and the NSE Insurance Index, all recorded a positive Year-to-Date return, except the Pension Index and the Main Board Index that recorded negative Year-to-Date Returns.There is also an indication of an impressive both the volume and the value of trades, compare to the previous week; A total turnover of 2.309 billion shares worth N21.675 billion in 14,906 deals were traded this week by investors on the floor of the Exchange in contrast to a total of 735.702 million shares valued at N7.132 billion that exchanged hands last week in 7,138 deals.Following the recent development after the assassination of the Iranian General, Qassem Soleimani, who is the head of the elite Quds Force, and also a top Iraqi militia commander, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a drone strike ordered by the US President Donald Trump last week; the price of spot gold rose to an all-time high during the early hours of today as markets open across Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, according to the market data obtained, the price of the precious metal rose to a level last seeing almost 6 years ago. This represents a clear indication that investors are rushing to saver assets in a bid to avoid being caught up in the possible risk in the equity market, as speculations of an imminent war between Washington and Tehran.Spot gold was up 1.2% at $1,547.19 an ounce as of 10.12 am GMT, having touched its highest since early September, when bullion scaled a multi-year peak of $1,557. US gold futures rose 1.4% to $1,549.70.--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support

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South Africa’s Power Utility Giant announces a further load-shedding for January 2020, following the report that came in mid-afternoon on Monday 6th January 2020, as a warning to whom it may concern. 
Several Eskom facilities break-downs during the festive season and as a result, Eskom’s system is in a critical condition that warrants for a further stage 6 load shedding. This is an indication of a 6,000MW dropped from the grid to avoid the system becoming unstable.
According to the latest market performance data from the Nigeria Stock Exchange, investors went home smiling as at the end of the trading session for the week ended 3rd January 2020. 
Tracking the various market, The NSE All-Share Index and Market Capitalization appreciated by 2.09% to close the week at 26,968.79 and N13.019 trillion respectively and also a year to date returns on 0.47%. The NSE 30 Index, NSE CG Index, NSE Premium Index, NSE Banking Index, and the NSE Insurance Index, all recorded a positive Year-to-Date return, except the Pension Index and the Main Board Index that recorded negative Year-to-Date Returns.
There is also an indication of an impressive both the volume and the value of trades, compare to the previous week; A total turnover of 2.309 billion shares worth N21.675 billion in 14,906 deals were traded this week by investors on the floor of the Exchange in contrast to a total of 735.702 million shares valued at N7.132 billion that exchanged hands last week in 7,138 deals.
Following the recent development after the assassination of the Iranian General, Qassem Soleimani, who is the head of the elite Quds Force, and also a top Iraqi militia commander, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a drone strike ordered by the US President Donald Trump last week; the price of spot gold rose to an all-time high during the early hours of today as markets open across Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, according to the market data obtained, the price of the precious metal rose to a level last seeing almost 6 years ago. This represents a clear indication that investors are rushing to saver assets in a bid to avoid being caught up in the possible risk in the equity market, as speculations of an imminent war between Washington and Tehran.
Spot gold was up 1.2% at $1,547.19 an ounce as of 10.12 am GMT, having touched its highest since early September, when bullion scaled a multi-year peak of $1,557. US gold futures rose 1.4% to $1,549.70.

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Major markets in Asia were subdued in today's trade even amid greater optimism for U.S.-China relations.China today said it will lower import tariffs on over 850 products from Jan.1, including frozen pork, as well as some information technology products starting July 1.Trade optimism overall boosted sentiment as U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said he had “a very good talk” with China’s leader Xi Jinping about the so-called phase one trade deal they struck in mid-December. That indicated more progress has been made after they reached the initial agreement.The president said in a tweet that China has started “large scale” purchases of U.S. agricultural products, and a formal deal signing is being arranged. On Saturday, he said both countries would “very shortly” sign the deal.

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The Internal Audit Agency (IAA) has completed phase one of its payroll audit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs which led to the discovery of over seven hundred names of unverified individuals, out of the over five thousand employees listing submitted by the ministry for payroll verification.The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) amongst several government entities whose payroll are being audited, in an effort to reduce waste and support the Government of Liberia's Pro-poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development.According to the IAA, the over seven hundred unverified names discovered during the audit process were not physically present during the verification and have been reconciled by both the auditee and auditors as unwanted on the payroll.

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Manufacturers of tobacco products will start contributing 2% of the value of the tobacco products they manufacture or import in a given financial year to assist the State in dealing with the adverse effects of tobacco consumption. This is after the Supreme Court allowed the Tobacco Control Regulations 2014 to be effected without further delay. Director of Public Health Kepha Ombacho says they are in the process of establishing a board to manage the Tobacco Control Fund.He said "We have embarked on enforcing the law because the court has given us the go-ahead. All those in the industry should be able to comply. The bigger winners here are the public. This has taken long but it is finally here.

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President Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose government claims to be too broke to provide basic services to the majority as well as pay its workers a living wage, has promised to fully fund members of the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD).Mnangagwa met leaders of the grouping comprising losing 2018 election candidates at his Sherwood Farm in Kwekwe.Addressing the group, Mnangagwa said he was going to make sure that POLAD was fully funded and operational.He further said, "Initially, when we convened the platform, we didn't have direct funding but now this must be a platform where the government must support because it (POLAD) brings harmony, peace, and development to this country,".

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Nigeria will lose more revenues from energy exports once the Niger Republic starts generating her own electricity.Aside from the Niger Republic, the country, according to the Federal Ministry of Power, exports electricity valued at between $582 million and $665 million annually to countries such as Togo, Chad, and the Benin Republic.Speaking on the side of a stakeholder’s forum in Lagos, the Technical Director, Consistent Energy Limited, Mr. Mohammed Etti, said Nigeria’s export earnings would dip further once the Niger Republic starts generating electricity.He said: “If Nigeria allows the Niger Republic to dam River Niger at Fouta Djullion for her own electricity needs, the country would not be able to export electricity to the Niger Republic and that would go a long way to reduce Nigeria’s earnings.”The Ministry of Power had quoted the Managing Director, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Mr. Usman Mohammed, as saying the country exports 80% of her electricity to other countries in West Africa to improve power supply to the sub-region.He was quoted to have said the issue is inhibiting the growth of the economy, as well as making it difficult for Nigeria to realize her potentials.

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The Federal Government and other shareholders of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited failed to take a final investment decision on the company’s Train 7 project last week. It was gathered that the Final Investment Decision was due to be reached at a meeting held last Thursday in Abuja by the shareholders, with an announcement slated to be made at a press briefing that day. The Train 7 project, which had been delayed for over 10 years, aims to increase the company’s production capacity from 22 metric tonnes per annum to about 30 MTPA and would form part of the investment of over $10bn including the upstream scope of the NLNG value chain, according to the company.The Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mr. Mele Kyari, disclosed late last month that the Final Investment Decision (FID) would be executed in December.Kyari was quoted as saying that with the agreement in place, all was set for the take-off of the project, adding that the FID on the project would be taken the following week (last week). “They didn’t finish the pre-signing formality for which reason they had to delay the signing. They are trying to do the I’s and cross the t’s; until they are done, they can’t be in a hurry to take the FID,” he added.

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