The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, has launched a $ 9 million dollar Grant Scheme for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in the tourism sector.

The Scheme, earmarked for interventions to strengthen the industry severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, is under the Ghana Tourism Development Project, a world bank funded project.

According to the Sector Minister, Barbara Oteng-Gyasi, this new intervention has come to complement already existing support schemes introduced by government.

She said the GHS 1 billion stimulus package launched by the President to support Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SME) affected by the novel Coronavirus pandemic while the GHC 3 billion Cedis facility for larger businesses.

The Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Marfo, said it is critical that every effort is made to sustain the industry after the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, has expressed some reservations about the processes being used in the prosecution of officials found culpable in the banking sector crisis.

He however says although the banking sector regulator has no control over the judicial processes, it is collaborating with the relevant state agencies to ensure that justice is served.

Dr. Addison made the comments when he appeared before the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament.

He said they wish the processes could have been faster and they are supporting the Attorney-General’s Department with some materials to help them prosecute shareholders and directors that are culpable.

According to the Finance Minister, the clean-up cost the country US$4 billion, which is about GH¢21 billion.

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The Bureau of Public Enterprises on Wednesday said the Federal Government is dividing the Nigerian Postal Service into three subsidiary companies which will operate on the principle of commercial viability.

The BPE’s Director-General, Alex Okoh, said the ongoing reform of NIPOST was not privatisation of the entity but an unbundling process, adding that the core postal service function would remain with NIPOST as the parent company.

Okoh disclosed this while inaugurating the sub-committee of the implementation committee for the postal sector reform, restructuring and modernisation at the bureau’s office in Abuja.

He named the three commercial ventures to be carved out of NIPOST as NIPOST Properties and Development Company; NIPOST Transport and Logistics Company; and NIPOST Microfinance bank Limited.

He said the clarification became necessary to disabuse the minds of many Nigerians, especially the workforce of NIPOST that the commercialisation, reform and modernisation of the organisation was outright privatisation.

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Aviation unions have expressed their displeasure with the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency’s decision to slash the salary of workers in the month of June.

The union warned that the failure to pay full salaries to NAMA’s workers would amount to gross embarrassment, not only to the aviation industry but to the whole country.

It advised NAMA against the decision, promising that there would be grave consequences.

The workers made their stance known in a joint letter signed by the General Secretary of Nigeria Union of Air Transport Employees, Ocheme Aba, and the secretaries of the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals and Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical.

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The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved the N2.3tn stimulus plan proposed in the Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan designed to support the nation’s economy in the face of the disruptions and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The plan was designed by a committee led by Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo.

The approval was given at a virtual meeting of the council presided over by the President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the meeting.

She said the total package presented was a sum of N2.3tn; N500bn of which was a stimulus package that was already provided for in the amended 2020 Appropriation Act.

She added that they were funds sourced from special accounts.

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The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation announced a trading deficit of N9.53bn for March 2020, which stood out as the oil firm’s first operational loss since October 2018.

Findings showed that the last time the corporation posted a deficit was in October 2018, when the corporation recorded a cumulative loss of N12.66bn.

An analysis of various monthly operational reports of the corporation showed that in November and December 2018, the firm made trading surpluses of N2.06bn and N12.13bn respectively.

The oil firm’s surpluses persisted in January and February 2020 as it recorded N1.87bn and N3.95bn respectively.

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There was tension at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Wednesday, prompting the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria to threaten that it may embark on an industrial action soon.

It was gathered that the threat by the Group Executive Council of PENGASSAN at the NNPC followed plans by the oil firm’s management to carry out what it described as Internal Open Resource exercise.

The exercise would result in a situation where employees from lower levels would be moved to deputy managerial levels without passing through the mandatory qualifying exams.

PENGASSAN, in a letter addressed to the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mele Kyari, advised the management of the oil firm to suspend the planned exercise.

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The International Monetary Fund has downgraded Nigeria’s 2020 growth projection, saying the economy will shrink by 5.4 per cent.

The IMF had in April 2020 projected that the country’s economy would contract by 3.4 per cent this year.

The IMF disclosed this in its overview of the World Economic Outlook for June, titled, A crisis like no other, an uncertain recovery, which was released on Wednesday.

It stated that Global growth is projected at –4.9 per cent in 2020, 1.9 percentage points below the April 2020 World Economic Outlook forecast.

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Ben and Jerry's have joined a growing list of firms pulling advertising from Facebook platforms throughout July.

It's part of the Stop Hate for Profit campaign, which calls on Facebook to have stricter measures against racist and hateful content.

Ben and Jerry's Tweeted that it will pause all paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram in the US.

Earlier this week outdoor brands The North Face, Patagonia and REI joined the campaign.

Ben and Jerry's said it is standing with the campaign and all those calling for Facebook to take stronger action to stop its platforms from being used to divide our nation, suppress voters, foment and fan the flames of racism and violence, and undermine our democracy.

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South Africa’s rand moves firmer early on Wednesday ahead of a much-awaited COVID-19 budget speech by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, with a return of risk sentiment globally overshadowing investors jitters over the local economy.

At 0530 GMT, the rand was 0.17% firmer at 17.2100 per U.S. dollar versus an overnight close of 17.2400 in New York, matching advances by other emerging currencies as upbeat data in Europe bolstered hopes for a global economic recovery.

The special budget, brought forward by the treasury in response to the coronavirus outbreak and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 500 billion rand ($29 billion) stimulus package, is set to show ballooning deficit and debt in Africa’s most advanced economy.

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