Renault is cutting 15,000 jobs worldwide as part of a €2bn (£1.8bn) cost-cutting plan after seeing sales plunge because of the virus pandemic.

Chief executive Clotilde Delbos, who announced cuts in production to focus on more profitable car models said the plan is essential.

Renault's strategic partner Nissan on Thursday unveiled huge job cuts.

The company is slashing costs by cutting the number of subcontractors in areas such as engineering, reducing the number of components it uses, freezing expansion plans in Romania and Morocco and shrinking gearbox manufacturing worldwide.

Renault, which claims more than 4% of the global car market, said the plans would affect about 10% of its 179,000-strong global workforce and cost up to €1.2bn (£1.1bn).

The head of Kenya’s central bank said Kenya’s small and medium businesses need urgent help to survive the economic slowdown caused by the novel coronavirus, and many are at risk of shutting down by the end of June.

The bank had earlier said business were expected to take advantage of credit available to them once a planned credit- guarantee scheme was in place.

Central bank Governor Patrick Njoroge told a virtual news conference that he wanted to underscore the urgency of putting in place the credit guarantee scheme. He said it is extremely urgent and businesses cannot be done as usual.

PIC chairman Reuel Khoza told Reuters in an interview that South African state asset manager has submitted a proposal to government on converting bonds it holds in struggling state utility Eskom into equity.

Khoza said the PIC had discussed the proposal with its main client, the Government Employees Pension Fund, and that the two were in principle in agreement.

Khoza gave 90 billion rand ($5.17 billion) as a ballpark figure for the PIC’s holdings of Eskom bonds, out of Eskom’s total debt of around 450 billion rand. Eskom’s debt is one of the main reasons why it is mired in financial crisis.

South Africa’s rand weakened against the dollar early on Friday as investors monitored the latest U.S. response to China tightening its control over the city of Hong Kong.

At 0637 GMT, the rand traded at 17.5510 per dollar, 0.18% weaker than its previous close, retreating from a nine-week high of 17.3000 touched on Thursday on optimism over recovering global growth.

Analysts at NKC African Economics said in a note that the local unit ran out of steam mid-session as US-Sino tensions outweighed positive sentiment.

Traders said they expect the content of an address U.S. President Donald Trump to set the course for the local unit.

South African central bank data on Friday showed that growth in private sector credit in South Africa in April slowed to 7.37% year on year from a revised 7.75% in March.

Expansion in the broadly defined M3 measure of money supply quickened to 10.47% in April from 9.49% in March.

The Board Chairman of the Minerals Commission, Sampson Kwaku Boafo, has called on all well-meaning Ghanaians to help eradicate the menace of illegal mining by reporting influential persons behind these activities in various mining communities.

According to him, the continuous activities of illegal miners popularly known as galamsey, even after a massive government crackdown, is not only polluting water bodies and the environment, but also causing more harm to the lives of many residents in those mining areas.

Mr. Boafo called on residents to support the government’s fight by exposing the culprits.

According to Energy think tank, the Institute of Energy Security, IES,  said consumers of petroleum products are likely to pay more for the fuel they purchase at the various pumps in the first pricing window in June.

The Institute of Energy Security explained to Citi Business News that, per its analysis, it expects the prices of fuel on the domestic market to go up, and above April 2020 levels.

IES attributes this to the 23.25% surge in price of Brent crude oil, in addition to the 41.80% and 22.68% significant rise in the prices of Gasoline and Gasoil respectively on the international market.

It added that the marginal depreciation of the local currency would also be another determinant for the Bulk Distribution Companies (BDCs) in selling to the OMCs, and that would definitely reflect at the pump.

President Muhammadu Buhari has designated all digital and telecommunications infrastructure as Critical National Infrastructure and directed all security agencies to ensure their protection.

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Patanmi, made this known on Thursday at a webinar hosted by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group.

He said the COVID-19 pandemic had made all stakeholders realise the importance of focusing and developing a digital economy while speaking on the theme assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on the Nigerian Digital Economy and Post-Pandemic Strategies.

Patanmi said the President directed the National Security Adviser to inform him that he had already approved his directives to be conveyed to all security institutions to ensure that all digital infrastructure and telecom infrastructure should be protected in the country.

He called on all stakeholders to work collectively to speedily improve digital literacy and roll-out of telecom infrastructure in the country.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has said it is looking to cut down the cost of producing a barrel of crude oil to $10 and below in oilfields across the country.

The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, on Thursday said that the national oil firm had sustained operations despite disruptions and slowdown in economic activities.

Kyari said countries producing at the cheapest price would remain in the market while those with high costs of production would not be able to cope with the competing prices.

Kyari, in a presentation to journalists on Thursday, said revenue flow had been greatly impacted by the oil price decline of about 65 per cent.

He said the development had affected the corporation’s liquidity position and the anticipated remittances to the federation of N1.27tn from April to December 2020.

Electricity distribution companies have dragged the Federal Government to court to restrain it from further interfering in the corporate business activities of the power firms.

According to the firms, the government, through the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission and other agencies, had been interfering in the corporate activities of the Discos, a development, they claimed, had hampered their smooth operations.

Senior officials of some of the power firms told newsmen in Abuja on Thursday that the Discos resolved to take the matter to the court.

Nigeria’s power distribution firms include Abuja, Benin, Eko, Enugu, Ibadan, Ikeja, Jos, Kaduna, Kano and Port Harcourt Discos.

The official said they cannot continue to fold our arms and watch how the government through its agencies sustain their undue interference in our corporate business activities.

The official added that the NERC, TCN (Transmission Company of Nigeria) and even NEC (National Economic Council) often interfering in Discos’ activities, and they need to be called to order.