According to influential economist Jeffrey Sachs, the deepening cold war between the US and China will be a bigger worry for the world than coronavirus.

He told the BBC that the world is headed for a period of massive disruption without any leadership in the aftermath of the pandemic.

He warned that the divide between the two superpowers will exacerbate this.

The Columbia University professor blamed the US administration for the hostilities between the two countries.

He said in an interview with BBC's Asia Business Report that the US is a force for division, not for cooperation.

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Scandal-hit payments firm Wirecard has said the €1.9bn (£1.7bn) missing from its accounts simply may not exist.

Wirecard's chief executive quit on Friday as the search for the missing cash hit a dead end in the Philippines.

On Sunday the central bank of Philippines said none of the money appears to have entered the country's financial system.

The German company also said it was withdrawing its financial results for 2019 and the first quarter of 2020.

The company in a statement on Monday said the Management Board of Wirecard assesses on the basis of further examination that there is a prevailing likelihood that the bank trust account balances in the amount of 1.9 billion EUR do not exist. The missing money accounts for around a quarter of its total balance sheet.

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in a stament said it has approved $148 million in emergency credit to Guinea to bolster the West African country’s economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The IMF said Worsening global conditions and a rapidly spreading local outbreak have deteriorated Guinea’s short-term growth prospects and hindered mining exports and tax revenues.

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The National Treasury on Saturday said the New Development Bank established by the BRICS group of emerging nations has approved a $1 billion COVID-19 emergency loan to South Africa to help reduce the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic.

South Africa was already in recession before the pandemic wreaked further havoc in Africa’s most industrialised economy.

The Treasury in a statement said the COVID-19 emergency program loan to South Africa will be provided in response to the urgent request and immediate financing needs of the South African government.

Finance minister Tito Mboweni is expected to unveil an emergency budget with major changes to spending and revenue forecasts in parliament on Wednesday.

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South Africa’s rand weakened early on Monday, reflecting the gloom in global markets as fears of a second wave of coronavirus infections around the world increased investor jitters ahead of a local emergency budget later this week.

At 0700 GMT the rand was 0.49% weaker at 17.4050 per dollar from Friday’s 17.3200 close, with the sell-trend that took root last week, pushing the currency to its lowest in June, set to continue until at least Wednesday’s budget.

Bonds also took a hit, with the yield on the government issue due in 2030 up 9.5 basis points at 9.315%.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is expected to paint a bleak picture in a revised budget that comes almost three months after government announced a 500 billion-rand ($28.78 billion) stimulus package leaning heavily on new borrowing.

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The South African government on Monday said it planned to oppose an application by regional airline SA Airlink to put South African Airways (SAA) into provisional liquidation and prevent a meeting of SAA’s creditors to discuss a restructuring plan.

State-owned SAA went into a form of bankruptcy protection in December and since then state-appointed administrators have been trying to see what they can salvage.

SAA has failed to turn a profit since 2011 after expansion into competitive, loss-making global routes. Its problems were exacerbated when the airline had to suspend commercial passenger flights in March due to COVID-19 crisis.

SAA’s creditors were due to meet on Thursday this week to consider a proposed business rescue plan for the airline.

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South African telecoms provider Telkom suspended dividends for three years on Monday after a 66% slump in full-year earnings it attributed to the coronavirus crisis.

The steep earnings drop was also a result of a 1.2 billion rand ($69.1 million) one-off cost relating to voluntary severance and early retirement packages for 2,200 workers who left in March as part of a restructuring plan.

Telkom, which is partly state-owned, declared a dividend of 50.1 cents per share but said it will suspend its dividend for the next three years and redirect the capital towards buying more airwave spectrum and its capital expenditure programme.

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A banking consultant, Nana Otuo Acheampong has said the financial sector cleanup carried out by the Bank of Ghana, is responsible for the resilience of banks amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

A new report by the Bank of Ghana has established that even though banks have been resilient to shocks amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the same cannot be said for Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions such as Savings and Loans Companies and Microfinance firms.

Nana Otuo Acheampong told Citi Business News the capital base of the 23 banks in the country have become stronger than all 317 Specialized Deposit-taking Institutions (SDIs) put together.

He said this can be credited to the financial sector clean-up which saw the revocation of licenses of nine commercial banks aside from the twenty-three insolvent savings and loans companies and finance houses, and the 347 microfinance firms that were also declared insolvent.

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Power distribution companies on Sunday blamed the high import duty on meters imposed by the Federal Government for the low metering of power users across the country.

According to the Discos, the high import duty on meters was among the hurdles slowing their metering target under the Meter Asset Providers regulation.

They disclosed this in a statement issued by their umbrella body, the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, in Abuja.

The Discos urged the Federal Government to intervene by reducing the cost of duty on imported meters as this would enable faster metering of power users and end the estimated billing regime.

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Nigeria has been losing about 44,000 barrels of crude oil daily since Saturday following the shutdown of the Odidi and Batan oil flow stations by protesting youths in some Delta oil-producing communities.

Aggrieved youths from Odidi/Kantu and Diebiri-Batan communities in Warri South West Local Government Areas are protesting against alleged nonpayment of bills owed the host communities by the major oil-producing companies.

The protesting youths had vowed that the station would remain shut until the operator, Neconde Energy Limited, had cleared all bills owed the host communities.

The spokesperson for the Diebiri Batan community, Mr Peter Dio, insisted that the Batan flow station would remain shut until the alleged debts owed the community were cleared.

He accused Neconde Energy Limited of reneging on its agreements with the community.

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