The International Monetary Fund said Nigeria’s major fiscal challenge has a very low revenue and not so much of its debt profile.

The low revenue, it explained, had led to low debt-servicing capacity and limited funding for critical sectors such as education, health and social welfare.

IMF’s Mission Chief and Senior Resident Representative for Nigeria, Jesmin Rahman, said these on Tuesday at a webinar hosted by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Fiscal Policy Roundtable and Tax Investment and Competitiveness Policy Commission.

The IMF said it considered Nigeria’s public debt stock average at 29 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product as of the end of 2019, when compared to emerging and developing market average, which is about 53 per cent of GDP.

It noted that the 29 per cent includes not just government’s debt, but takes into account overall public sector liabilities, such as Central Bank of Nigeria’s overdraft, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria’s debt and other things.

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The House of Representatives has summoned the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, and the management of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria over failure by the SON to audit its accounts for six years.

The House Committee on Public Accounts particularly summoned the minister on Tuesday over the alleged failure by the SON to answer a series of invitations sent to its management.

The committee, therefore, asked Adebayo and the management of the Organisation to appear before it on Friday unfailingly.

According to the lawmakers, the summons was based on information from the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation that the SON failed to render accounts from 2014 to 2019.

The Chairman of the committee, Mr Wole Oke, stated that the SON was being given an opportunity to answer audit queries and defend its non-rendition of accounts for the financial years under review.

Oke ruled that those summoned must appear before the committee on Friday or it would be forced to invoke the relevant sections of the law against them.

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Ford Motor Co.’s new Ranger truck topped a ranking of vehicles that contribute most to the U.S. economy, while three Tesla Inc. models placed in the top nine.

The two companies’ brands were absent from Cars.com’s top 10 last year but stood out in the 2020 version of automotive site’s “American-Made Index.” Ford’s pickup and Tesla’s Model S, X and 3 all made their debut in the annual study.

The senior editor of Cars.com, Kelsey Mays, said Tesla’s participation is one of the major developments this year.

She said the electric-car maker fared well because it uses a lot of U.S.-sourced drivetrain components, and its U.S. vehicle assembly employs many workers.

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China has successfully put into orbit the final satellite in its BeiDou-3 navigation system, further advancing the country as a major power in space.

Tuesday's launch will allow China to no longer rely on the US government-owned Global Positioning System (GPS).

The $10bn (£8bn) network is made up of 35 satellites and provides global navigation coverage.

It comes as tensions between Beijing and Washington are increasing over the coronavirus, trade and Hong Kong.

The third version of the Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) offers an alternative to Russia's GLONASS and the European Galileo systems, as well as America's GPS.

Future plans promise to support a more accessible and integrated system scheduled to come online by 2035 with BDS at its core.

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The finance minister of Rwanda on Monday said the country’s economy is expected to grow 2% in 2020, 6.3% in 2021 and 8% in 2022, as he presented the budget to parliament.

Uzziel Ndagijimana said tourism revenues had decreased by 35% so far, while foreign direct investment would decrease by 62% because of the impact of COVID-19 on trade.

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South Africa’s pharmaceutical giant Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd on Monday said the company had sufficient local capacity to produce injections to meet any demand surge for dexamethasone.

The 60-year-old drug dexamethasone has been found to be able to save the lives of COVID-19 patients, scientists at University of Oxford said last week, calling the discovery a major breakthrough.

Aspen, South Africa’s biggest supplier of drugs with a market share of 22% in sub-Saharan Africa, manufactures both the injectable and tablet forms of the drug, mainly used for treatment of tumours, asthma and other respiratory ailments.

Group Chief Executive of Aspen, Stephen Saad said Aspen fortunately has necessary capacity to ramp up considerably.

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A Reuters poll found that South Africa’s consolidated budget deficit is expected to widen markedly this year, with its National Treasury struggling to squeeze it back to levels it anticipated before the coronavirus pandemic disrupted economic activity.

The poll, taken over the past week, showed a median of 21 economists expect the government budget deficit for this year to widen to a record 14% of gross domestic product, from an official estimate of 6.3% of GDP in the last financial year.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is due to deliver an emergency budget on Wednesday in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

Standard Bank’s Elna Moolman said the focus in this budget will be partly on the magnitude of the deficits and, in turn, funding requirement, and perhaps even more importantly whether government can credibly project debt stabilisation in the medium-term.

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South African rand edged up on Tuesday amid a global recovery of risk-sensitive currencies after U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S.-China trade pact was fully intact, clarifying earlier confusing statements from the White House about the deal.

At 0600 GMT, the rand was 0.27% firmer at 17.2975 per dollar closed at 17.3450 in New York. In the previous session, the local unit was weighed down by investor fears about a second wave of COVID-19 infections globally as cases in the United States and Brazil spiked.

Overnight statements from the Trump administration that the trade deal with China was still on track lifted risk appetite roiled by simmering tensions between the two superpowers that has soured in recent months.

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South Africa’s City Lodge Hotels Ltd on Monday said the hotel chain aimed to raise up to 1.2 billion rand ($69.3 million) via a rights issue to stave off a cash crunch.

The money raised will help pay debt, meet other obligations and generate working capital to plug a cash flow shortfall.

South Africa went into a two-month lockdown in March to curb the spread of coronavirus, shutting beaches and game reserves, the country’s main tourist attractions, and dealing a blow to the hotel industry.

City Lodge said the rights issue would create debt capacity and a flexible capital structure to position the company for future growth.

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South Africa’s Edcon on Monday said that more that 75% of its creditors have approved a proposed rescue plan that will see the retailer sold in parts or whole after it entered a form of bankruptcy protection in April.

The approval paves the way for the administrators to finalise the sale process by the end of June to allow time for supplier negotiations and for summer stock to be purchased.

About 15 parties have shown interest in the sale, with the selection of the offer expected in early July. Edcon entered business rescue after sales were hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Creditors voted during a virtual meeting that started on Monday afternoon.

The business rescue practitioners, Piers Marsden and Lance Schapiro of Matuson Associates, said they will proceed with implementing the adopted Business Rescue Plan, keeping all stakeholders updated as the plan progresses.

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