Young entrepreneurs in Rwanda can now breathe a sigh of relief after the Government and other partners unveiled a new initiative dubbed 'Envisage Youth Agribusiness Incubator Programme', which looks to help the entrepreneurs turn their startups into sustainable and profitable ventures. The program was unveiled on Thursday at the University of Rwanda's College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine (UR-CAVM) in Musanze District, Northern Province. The business incubation center for youth in agribusiness is part of an initiative that officials say will remain operational to insure it mentors a critical mass of young entrepreneurs so as to accelerate the country's agriculture growth. The idea was championed by the Rwanda Youth in Agri-Business Forum (RYAF), which has about 12,000 members so far. RAF, which was initiated by five ministries in the last three years to engage youth in agribusiness, is now implementing the project in partnership with the University of Rwanda, Business Development Fund (BDF), and three Finland-based universities which will be assisting the local youth to acquire high tech knowledge in entrepreneurship. The universities are Hanken School of Economics, University of Helsinki and Aalto University. Patrice Habinshuti, RYAF Capacity Building Manager, said that the incubator program will equip youth with relevant knowledge and other incentives for their respective businesses to thrive.

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KPMG has listed global pressure points and external shocks, fiscal unsustainability, exchange rate market, credit, and reactive policy environment as factors that would determine the success of the Nigerian economy in 2020. The multinational professional services firm disclosed this at the America Business Council’s second economic update on Wednesday in Lagos. Speaking at the forum, the Associate Director, Strategy and Economics, Management Consulting, KPMG Nigeria, Olusegun Zaccheaus, explained that the global developments in 2020 portend significant risks for the Sub-Saharan countries. Other factors are an investment for growth, productivity, technology, and digital disruption, socio-economic pressure, and consumer pressure points.

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Local manufacturers and exporters have continued to lament over the land border closure policy of the Federal Government as they disclosed that over N5 billion had been lost in respect of imported materials waiting to enter the country. The disclosure came from manufacturers under the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria Export Promotion Group (MANEG) as they demanded that goods with fully paid duties be allowed into the country. That the manufacturers noted that releasing the goods would enable them to offset credit facilities procured for the business. According to the report, over 1,000 trucks with containerized goods valued at about hundreds of billions of naira belonging to members of MANEG are still trapped at the borders despite payment of duties and tariffs.

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The number one citizen in Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that the needs of Nigeria cannot be catered for by earnings from petroleum resources the country possesses. The president’s spokesperson, Mr. Femi Adesina disclosed this on Thursday when he received the outgoing Cuban ambassador to Nigeria, Carlos Trejo Sosa, at Aso Rock, Nigeria’s presidential villa. President Muhammadu Buhari expressed his pleasure with the relationship between Cuba and Nigeria, with the hope that the two countries could further strengthen ties. Nigeria had enjoyed support from Cuba in the areas of health care and knowledge transfer. However, the statement reportedly made by Muhammadu Buhari can be seen to be largely true, as reduced oil prices have put the county’s finances in a precarious situation, which has led to increased borrowing by the Nigerian government. This has also led to sweeping tax reforms, with the new Finance Bill set to come into effect on 2nd January 2020. The outgoing Cuban ambassador, Carlos Trejo Sosa, reportedly expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to serve, stating that his stay in Nigeria had been filled with love and warmth. The Finance Bill is looking to increase taxes and improve the ease of doing business, in order to boost economic growth and development in the country.

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J.P. Morgan has an optimistic outlook on Asian stocks, with South Korea and India positioned to perform particularly well going into 2020. Still, J.P. Morgan said its 2020 year-end target for the index — which tracks large and mid-cap stocks across Asian markets, including China, Korea, and India — is roughly 8% above current levels. “bullish on Asian equities,” explaining, “With aggressive policy easing this year, bottoming of the trade uncertainty-driven sentiment shock, and limited macro imbalances, growth looks set to bottom out in 4Q19 and improve in 2020.” But Sullivan told CNBC that the environment could “get significantly more difficult” in the back half of the year. But stocks in Asia could benefit as global tech demand recovers and companies resume investments. Korean and Indian equities, in particular, could benefit from these trends and “surprise” investors, Sullivan said.

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Ukraine has denounced Apple for referring to the annexed Crimean Peninsula as a Russian territory on its apps. The way global companies identify Crimea has been a highly sensitive issue for both countries since Kremlin-backed forces annexed the region from Ukraine in March 2014. Ukraine and its Western allies have maintained that this move was illegal. For users of Apple devices in Crimea, the territory is now shown as part of Russia when it is searched on the U.S. tech giant’s Weather or Map apps. However, those same apps do not show Crimea as part of any country when it is viewed from outside of the region.

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EXPORT Processing Zones Authority (EPZA) has said building a huge base of industrial skills may make Tanzania a preferred investment destination by investors. This was said by the EPZA Director General Col (rtd) Joseph Simbakalia when addressing a delegation of senior lecturers from 16 Technical and Vocational Education and Training institutes from Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Kenya participating in the Eastern Africa Skills for Transformation and Regional Integration Project (EASTRIP) funded by the World Bank. "Investors across the world are like the flying birds because they always go where there is friendly environment to support their businesses," he told the academicians during their tour at the Benjamin William Mkapa Special Economic Zones in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday. He said Tanzania and the rest in the continent have almost everything needed by investors' namely abundant raw materials and energy sources, enough land and huge market but lack of quality demand-driven industrial skills is a shortfall that impedes the flow of investment. He challenged the academicians and their institutes to focus on nurturing skilled labors that are much needed by industrial investors from different parts of the world.

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The Nigerian government has reviewed its policy on stamp duty charges, levied on electronic payments. The new proposed finance bill disclosed that the N50 stamp duty charge would now be levied on electronic payments above N10,000 as against payment above N1,000. The finance bill is a plan by the Federal Government to revamp tax administration in the country by introducing various tax increment. However, the new bill exempts bank transfers between two accounts owned by the same person or organization from stamp duty charges. The bill repeals a provision of the Stamp Duty Act 2014 which holds the threshold for receipts chargeable with stamp duty as N4 and above.the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), through a circular released on the 17 of September, which majorly affected Point of Sale transactions, authorized banks to unbundle merchant settlement amounts and charge applicable taxes and duties on individual transactions. The directive, which took effect immediately, was widely rejected by industry stakeholders and Nigerians at large, with concerns that the policy would stern the cashless economy and financial inclusion agenda of the government. Meanwhile, in recent developments, some merchants had upgraded their POS machines to automatically charge N50 for transactions above N1,000 to avoid the occasional backlash that comes with seeking customers’ consent before adding the charge manually during POS payments.

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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed that it is in talks with telecommunications companies (telcos) and the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) for new Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) charges. The disclosure was made by Samuel Okojere, CBN’s Director of Payment System Management while speaking at the 2019 Mobile Money Conference organized by the Association of Licensed Mobile Payment Operators (ALMPO) Okojie, who was represented by Aisha Isa-Olatinwo, Assistant Director Payment System Department, CBN, while speaking on the role of regulators in accelerating mobile money adoption in Nigeria said, “Engagement with the NCC is still ongoing to find a new conducive pricing regime for USSD services in the Industry. The uproar over USSD charges started on the 20th of October 2019 when telecoms subscribers received text messages from operators on the USSD deductions.

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A bill to ensure that 40% of Nigeria’s national budget is allocated to capital expenditure in the next 10 years has passed second reading at the House of Representatives. The bill was sponsored by the Speaker, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, and debated on his behalf by the Minority Leader of the House, Ndudi Elumelu. The bill seeks to criminalize the failure of the Federal Government to allocate 40% of funds in the country’s annual national budget to capital expenditure. The lawmakers declared their support for the bill, stating that it came at a time when ministries, departments, and agencies needed additional money to execute projects. Mr. Gbajabiamila disclosed that countries around the world allocate more resources to capital projects, saying that only 40% of the capital component in the 2019 budget would be implemented, despite being lesser than the recurrent component of the budget. Meanwhile, the speaker in his ruling disclosed that with the passing and implementation of the bill, Nigeria and Nigerians would experience economic growth, reduced unemployment, and infrastructural deficit.

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