Category: INTERNATIONAL
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South Africa’s cenbank warns of effects of ratings downgrade
South Africa’s central bank warned on Monday that a ratings downgrade would hit the currency hard and see short-term interest rates rise 80 basis points while longer-term bond yields would likely increase by 104 basis points. Higher borrowing costs would likely see the government allocate more spending towards debt-service costs, South Africa’s Reserve Bank in…
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Uganda: Loan Value Under Agricultural Facility Rises, but Fewer Lenders
The value of loans offered under Uganda’s Agricultural Credit Facility (ACF) has risen by nearly Ush150 billion ($44.5 million) in five years, even though the number of active lenders on the scheme’s register has dropped. Data from the Bank of Uganda shows that the value of loans rose to Ush196 billion ($57.6 million) as at…
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Nigeria: State to Launch N59.7 Billion Youth-in-Agriculture Scheme
The Director-General, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, IITA, Nteranya Sanginga, on Sunday said the Federal Government would launch N59.7 billion Youth-In-Agriculture Scheme in September. Mr. Sanginga, who disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Ibadan, said the scheme would be sponsored by the federal government and the African Development Bank,…
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Index launched to measure Africa’s regional integration smartly
The African Development Week 2016 on Saturday took a bold step towards data-driven integration by launching the African Regional Integration Index. The initiative is spearheaded by the Economic Commission for Africa and is aimed at ensuring that regional integration policy is targeted and informed by real gaps unique to each region. Deputy Executive Secretary and…
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Tanzania: Gold Firm ‘Guilty’ of Tax Evasion
London-based giant gold mine company, African Barrick Gold Plc (ABG), has been found to have evaded tax for four years consecutively from 2010 and ordered to pay a total withholding tax amounting to 41,250,426 US dollars (about 82bn/-). In a judgment issued last week, the Tax Revenue Appeals Tribunal noted that ABG, currently known as…
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Nigeria: NNPC Vows to Deal With Saboteurs
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has promised to deal with saboteurs of the oil industry, including pipeline vandalism, which is partly responsible for the current fuel crisis in the country, saying all betrayers in the system will be brought to book. Speaking in Kaduna during a tour of the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company…
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Zimbabwe: Chinese Ambassador Urges Zimbabwe to Respect Investment Protection Pact
China has urged Harare to respect a bilateral investment protection pact and safeguard Chinese investors’ lawful rights. The ambassador made the appeal as the Zimbabwean government took steps to consolidate foreign diamond mines and pressed ahead with an indigenisation policy requiring foreign companies to cede majority interests to black Zimbabwean partners. Huang said in a…
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Economic analysts express worry over growth decline in Sub-Saharan Africa
Analysts are worried over the drop in capital investment in Sub-Saharan Africa. The region has been predicted in the past to lead the growth chart in the world as the general conditions of its inhabitants improve but a decline in growth for the last decade has left economist worried. Some West African economic power homes…
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Sub-Saharan Africa poised for growth—DHL
Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to witness some level of growth despite a downturn recorded in the region in 2015. According to a World Bank report in January 2016 Sub-Saharan Africa’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at its lowest rate since 2009 in 2015 with a growth of a 3.4%. Notwithstanding, the Managing Director of…
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New Report Says…NNPC Fails to Remit U.S.$4.2 Billion Under Buhari
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) continues to withhold billions of dollars in oil sale revenues from the treasury under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, a new report said. The report released yesterday by the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) said in the second half of 2015, NNPC’s sales of export crude, domestic crude and oil…