As Former president Jacob Zuma prepares to finally face the state’s 15-year-old corruption prosecution against him, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has agreed to hear his challenge to a judgment that cut government funding of his defence costs.

On Tuesday, the SCA ordered that Zuma’s lawyers be allowed to argue his challenge to the Pretoria high court’s ruling that he was not entitled to continue receiving government sponsorship of his corruption trial legal costs. The high court had also ordered that Zuma repay the more than R16m already spent by the state on his defence costs.

---

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board has established some fresh palliatives for beneficiaries of loans under the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund in a bid to spur business continuity in the oil and gas sector.

The NCDMB has reduced the interest rate from eight to six per cent per annum.

The Executive Secretary, NCDMB, Mr Simbi Wabote, said the palliatives were aimed at reinforcing the various economic stimulus packages by the Federal Government to support businesses to overcome the difficulties created by the coronavirus outbreak. According to a statement, the palliatives, which include an extension of moratorium and tenor, takes effect from April 01, 2020.

---

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Telecommunication operators are struggling to keep up with the rise in voice and data traffic that has led to congestion on all the networks.

The Head of Operations, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, Mr Gbolahan Awonuga, explained that before the lockdown started, the operators had requested for some palliatives from the NCC to ensure the smooth delivery of communication services.

He said the congestion was caused by the remote work by many Nigerian companies and lockdown in states with high incidents of COVID-19.

---

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The allocation to the three tiers of government rose by N199.36bn from N581.56bn shared in February to N780.92bn in March despite the drop in crude oil price from $42.3 per barrel in February to $26.44 in March,

The allocation was made on Wednesday shortly after the Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting which was held through virtual conferencing

A statement issued by the Office of Accountant General of the Federation said that the N780.92bn was made up of statutory revenue of N597.67bn; Value Added Tax of N120.26bn and exchange gain of N62.92bn.

---

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has declared that Nigeria has not stopped producing crude oil however a persistent crash in oil prices may lead to a halt in production.

On Tuesday, global oil price benchmark, amid the demand collapse caused by reduced economic activities, Brent, against which Nigeria’s crude oil is priced, fell by $6.34 to $19.23 per barrel.

Nigeria recently slashed the oil price benchmark for its budget to $30 per barrel from $57 per barrel, but oil prices kept crashing since the outbreak of coronavirus as demand plunged.

---

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Global payments are projected to decline sharply by about 20 percent in 2020 due to the economic crisis induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and shutdown.

This is according to the World Bank in a statement on Wednesday, which added the projected fall, which would be the sharpest decline in recent history, is because of the fall in wages and employment of migrant workers, who tend to be more vulnerable to loss of employment and wages during an economic crisis in a host country.

---

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Still on Facebook, the company’s local servers in Vietnam were taken offline early this year, slowing local traffic to a crawl until it agreed to significantly increase the censorship of "anti-state" posts for local users. According to Reuters, the restrictions, which were carried out by state-owned telecommunications companies, knocked the servers offline for around seven weeks. This meant the website became unusable at times.

In an emailed statement, Facebook confirmed it had reluctantly complied with the government's request to "restrict access to content which it has deemed to be illegal.

---

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Facebook has said it is investing $5.7bn (£4.6bn) in cut-price Indian mobile internet company Reliance Jio, which is owned by the country's richest person Mukesh Ambani.

The deal makes the social network the largest minority shareholder in the telecoms unit of Reliance Industries, with a 9.99% stake.

It gives Facebook a major foothold in India, where its WhatsApp chat service has 400m users and is about to launch a payments service.

Facebook also said that it plans to focus on the collaboration between WhatsApp and Reliance's e-commerce venture JioMart to enable people to connect with businesses, shops and purchase products.

---

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chinese e-commerce giants Alibaba Group and JD.com have announced that they have each launched booking services for COVID-19 tests.

Users searching for "Coronavirus Nucleic Acid Test" in Taobao or Tmall, Alibaba's two main e-commerce sites, are directed to a page offering appointments at nearby sites.

Prices depend on the city, with tests in Shanghai costing 180 yuan and tests in Beijing costing 258 yuan. They are available in nine cities but Alibaba intends to extend this.

JD.com, one of Alibaba's main rivals in China, launched a similar booking platform last week for tests in Beijing.

---

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Germany has authorised its first clinical test of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus. This is according to the country’s regulatory body. In a statement on Wednesday, the agency says it has green-lighted trials on human volunteers for an RNA vaccine developed by German firm Biontech and US giant Pfizer.

It added that approval was the “result of a careful assessment of the potential risk/benefit profile of the vaccine candidate”.

---

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices