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  • Investors optimistic South Africa’s new govt. can deliver growth-friendly reforms

    Investors optimistic South Africa’s new govt. can deliver growth-friendly reforms

    Optimism

    Johannesburg, June 19, 2024 (Reuters/NAN) Investors are optimistic South Africa’s new unity government can deliver stable economic policies to revive growth, but are cautious about how the new coalition’s main partners can reconcile stark ideological differences.
    The African National Congress (ANC) – which has governed since a vote in 1994 that marked the end of apartheid – has struck a deal with the white-led, pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA) and smaller parties after failing to win a parliamentary majority in national elections last month.
    The agreement between the ideologically opposed ANC and DA marks a major political shift in the country and paves the way for a Government of National Unity under President Cyril Ramaphosa to bring reforms needed to create economic growth and tackle high levels of unemployment and inequality.
    Investors and credit rating agencies see the two biggest parties in the unity government agreeing on more liberal economic policies, but they could struggle to overcome their ideological differences.
    The ANC, for instance, has increased spending on welfare payments, but the DA had in the run-up to the election pushed to roll back some of them and to scrap some ANC Black empowerment policies.
    The left-leaning Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the party of former president Jacob Zuma, uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), will not join the unity government, choosing instead to be part of the opposition alliance.
    “With populist parties choosing to reject the GNU, and the ANC’s bigger partners in the governing coalition centre-leaning and favouring more liberal economic policies, we think the GNU opens the possibility for more growth-friendly structural reforms and prudent macroeconomic policy choices,” HSBC economist David Faulkner said in a note.
    “But the GNU could also face ideological divisions and exacerbate fractures within the ANC, factors that could make establishing a stable policy framework difficult.”
    Among its priorities, the unity government is set to focus on rapid, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, the promotion of fixed capital investment, job creation, land reform, and infrastructure development, the ANC has said.
    “The election outcome is broadly favourable for the economic and fiscal outlook, compared with the alternatives,” S&P Global Ratings said on Tuesday, but it also said the government faces an uphill battle to revive growth and maintain fiscal discipline, while navigating the new realities of coalition politics.
    “Despite the reasonably constructive outcome, significant ideological differences between the ANC and the DA on issues such as affirmative action and foreign policy could destabilise the government,” S&P said.
    Smaller parties in the unity government include the socially conservative Inkatha Freedom Party and the right-wing Patriotic Alliance.
    Financial markets have welcomed the unity government, with South Africa’s banking index, seen as a gauge of local economic recovery prospects, up 19% since June 7 – when the ANC announced it would seek to form a unity government.
    The rand, one of the few emerging market currencies to chalk up gains since the start of the year, and local government bonds have also reacted positively.
    “The spread between our bonds and U.S. bonds, it’s pretty much back to where it was pre-election,” said Mike van der Westhuizen, portfolio manager at Citadel, a local wealth management firm.
    “That risk premium in bonds is at sort of fair value,” he added.
    Investors anticipate that the unity government will pick up the pace on the ANC’s existing reform plans for electricity, rail and port sectors.
    These are needed to revive an economy that has barely grown in the last decade and has an unemployment rate that is among the highest in the world.
    The DA has endorsed a government programme code-named “Operation Vulindlela”, a Zulu term meaning clear the path, that was initiated in 2020 by the ANC-led government to speed up structural reforms.
    Adam Furlan, emerging markets fixed income portfolio manager at NinetyOne investments – South Africa’s largest asset manager, said the DA’s desire to support the initiative bodes well for policy continuity.
    “We expect that to continue and hopefully at a more brisk pace,” said Furlan.
    Ramaphosa is expected to announce his new cabinet, in consultation with his new coalition partners, a few days after his inauguration on Wednesday.
    Some analysts expressed concern that the ANC is unlikely to give up the key finance portfolio.
    “The best case scenario for asset prices from this point is that DA gets responsibility for finance, public enterprises, and energy, and the worst case, is that their cabinet representation is merely a token one,” Tellimer market research said in a note. (Reuters/NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
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    (Edited by Emmanuel Yashim)

  • South Africa’s Ramaphosa vows to fight inequality as power-sharing begins

    South Africa’s Ramaphosa vows to fight inequality as power-sharing begins

    Inequality

    Pretoria (South Africa), June 19, 2024 (Reuters/NAN) A weakened South African President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged on Wednesday that his new multi-party government would work to improve basic living conditions for all citizens as he was sworn in for a second term in office.
    Ramaphosa’s African National Congress will share power with five other parties after it was humbled in a May 29 election, losing its parliamentary majority for the first time in 30 years of democracy.
    The voters “have been unequivocal in expressing their disappointment and disapproval of our performance in some areas where we have failed them,” Ramaphosa said at his inauguration ceremony in the capital Pretoria.
    He said the voters wanted everyone to have enough food, decent homes, clean water, affordable and uninterrupted electricity supply, well-maintained roads, good care for the sick and elderly, quality schools, and other basic services.
    “Today, I stand before you as your humble servant to say we have heard you,” he said.
    “In this moment we must choose to move forward, to close the distances between South Africans and to build a more equal society.”
    The ANC remains the largest party after the election, followed by the pro-business Democratic Alliance, a critic of the ANC’s record in office which has agreed to join the new government.
    While investors have welcomed the inclusion of the DA, which wants to boost growth through structural reforms and prudent fiscal policies, analysts say sharp ideological divisions between the parties could destabilise the government.
    Just before the election, Ramaphosa signed into law a National Health Insurance bill that the DA says could collapse a creaking health system. It was unclear what would happen to that law under the new government.
    The DA advocates scrapping the ANC’s flagship Black economic empowerment programme, saying it hasn’t worked — a highly contentious topic in a nation grappling with huge inequalities, some inherited from apartheid.
    Ramaphosa has yet to announce his new government, to be negotiated with members of the new alliance.
    A former liberation movement, the ANC came to power under Nelson Mandela’s leadership in the 1994 elections which marked the end of apartheid and had long been unbeatable.
    However, it lost its shine after presiding over years of decline.
    Weary of high levels of poverty and unemployment, rampant crime, rolling power cuts, and corruption in party ranks, voters punished the ANC, which lost millions of votes on May 29 compared with the previous election in 2019.
    “Our society remains deeply unequal and highly polarised,” Ramaphosa said.
    “We are divided between those who have jobs and those who do not work, between those who have the means to build and enjoy a comfortable life and those who do not.”
    African heads of state and dignitaries from as far afield as Cuba, a historical friend of the ANC, gathered outside the Union Buildings in Pretoria, the seat of the South African government, to bear witness to Ramaphosa’s inauguration.
    A ceremony full of military pomp and pageantry began with inter-faith prayers by Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, and traditional African religious leaders, reflecting the country’s diversity.
    Military helicopters flew past in blazing sunshine, trailing South African flags, to cheers from the audience. (Reuters/NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
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    (Edited by Emmanuel Yashim)

  • Egypt unlawfully deported Sudanese refugees – Amnesty Int’l

    Egypt unlawfully deported Sudanese refugees – Amnesty Int’l

    Deportation

    Cairo, June 19, 2024 (Reuters/NAN) Egypt has carried out mass arrests and unlawful deportations of thousands of refugees fleeing the war in Sudan, Amnesty International said in a report on Wednesday.
    The rights group said it had documented 12 incidents in which Egyptian authorities returned an estimated total of 800 Sudanese nationals between January and March this year without giving them the chance to claim asylum or challenge deportation decisions.
    It also said it had documented in detail the cases of 27 Sudanese refugees arrested between October 2023 and March 2024, 26 of whom were among those collectively expelled.
    Refugees had been held in cruel conditions ahead of their deportation, it added.
    The total number of arrests and deportations is unclear as there are no publicly available statistics.
    The UN refugee agency said thousands were deported late last year, many of them Sudanese.
    Egypt’s State Information Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
    Amnesty International said Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights denied its findings about a rise in the number of arrests and deportations of Sudanese refugees, asserting in a response to the group that authorities respect international law.
    The arrests were part of a campaign starting in September 2023 in which plain-clothes police have made random checks on Black people, arresting those not carrying valid identity documents or residence permits, Amnesty International said.
    The checks happen frequently in the capital Cairo and its sister city of Giza, where large numbers of Sudanese have settled, as well as in the southern Egyptian city of Aswan, where many Sudanese refugees stop on their way north.
    The war that erupted in April last year between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has created the world’s biggest displacement crisis, with over nine million fleeing inside Sudan or crossing to neighbouring countries.
    More than 500,000 people, or about 24 per cent of the total who have left Sudan, have crossed to Egypt, according to the International Organization for Migration.
    Less than two months after the war started, Egypt suspended a treaty commitment to visa-free access for Sudanese women, children, and men over 49, slowing entries.
    Arrivals led to occasional tensions, with some Egyptians blaming Sudanese and other foreigners for pushing up rental prices, and Egyptian TV commentators citing the “burden” of millions of migrants at a time of high inflation and economic pressures.
    After Egypt’s foreign currency shortage worsened last year many Africans arrested for not having valid papers were held in squalid conditions and asked to pay fees in dollars to avoid deportation, according to lawyers and witnesses.
    European states see Egypt as an important player in preventing mass migration across the Mediterranean.
    In March, Egypt and the European Union announced a strategic partnership underpinned by 7.4 billion euros of funding, an agreement widely seen as driven by European concerns about migration. (Reuters/NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
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    (Edited by Emmanuel Yashim)

  • China takes firm steps to prevent exchange rate surge

    China takes firm steps to prevent exchange rate surge

    Prevention

    Shanghai, June 19, 2024 (Xinhua/NAN) China has taken firm steps to prevent the risks of exchange rate overshooting, said Pan Gongsheng, Governor of the People’s Bank of China, on Wednesday.

    The RMB (Renminbi, the currency system in China), exchange rate has remained basically stable in complicated circumstances, Pan said at the 15th Lujiazui Forum held in Shanghai.

    Entering this year, the major advanced economies have postponed, yet again, their monetary policy reversal timing and the China-U.S. interest rate spread has continued to be relatively high, he added.

    Letting the market play a decisive role in the formation of exchange rates, China’s central bank has maintained the flexibility of the exchange rate.

    While strengthening guidance of expectations and taking firm steps to prevent the risks of exchange rate overshooting, Pan said.

    The governor said that through sustained efforts over the years, China’s foreign exchange market has achieved substantial progress, with market participants becoming more mature and transacting in a more rational manner.

    He added that as the RMB cross-border receipts and payments now account for 30 per cent of trade in goods, the exposure of enterprises to currency exchange risks has been reduced.

    An increasing number of business entities are using the tools for exchange rate risk hedging, Pan said.

    Pan said China is also more experienced in coping with foreign exchange market fluctuations.

    As major economies are gradually reversing their monetary policies this year and the dollar appreciation is weakening, the difference between the monetary policy cycles at home and abroad is narrowing, he said.

    Pan said  that these factors combined would help keep the RMB exchange rate basically stable and balance cross-border capital flows, thereby gaining more space for China’s monetary policy manoeuvres. (Xinhua/NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

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    Edited by Cecilia Odey/Bashir Rabe Mani

  • Explosions occur at ammunition depot in Chad

    Explosions occur at ammunition depot in Chad

    Explosions

    Yaounde, June 19, 2024 (Xinhua/NAN) Explosions has occurred on Tuesday night at an ammunition depot in the Chadian capital N’Djamena, authorities reported on Wednesday.

    “A fire broke out in a military ammunition warehouse located in Goudji, causing major explosions.

    “We urge the population to remain calm,’’ Koulamallah Abderaman, Chadian government spokesman and foreign minister, said on social media.

    The exact cause of the explosions remained unclear at the time of the report . (Xinhua/NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

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    Edited by Cecilia Odey and Abiemwense Moru

     

  • COVID-19 hit German Olympic qualifying in athletics

    COVID-19

    Munich, June 19, 2024 (dpa/NAN) Corona virus infections have hit some athletes ahead of the German Athletics Championships, which acted as a last chance for Olympic qualification.

    German Athletics Association head of sport Jörg Bügner said on Wednesday that infections had been reported following this month’s European Championships in Rome.

    The majority of these were among the support staff but also among the athletes, he said in anonymity.

    COVID-19 cases have plummeted over the last two years.

    Few sporting events have been affected, in contrast to the height of the pandemic, which even led the Tokyo Olympics to be delayed by a year.

    The team have allocated 23 places via direct qualification for the Paris games, which runs from July 26 to Aug.11.

    Konstanze Klosterhalfen, the German 5,000 metre runner, is expected to return in at the German championships in Braunschweig.

    After missing out on defending her title at the European Championships due to illness.

    “I am positive that she’ll get the hang of it for the Olympic Games,’’ said Bügner.

    Germany won 11 medals at the European Championships including gold for Olympic champion long jumper Malaika Mihambo. (dpa/ NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

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    Edited by Cecilia Odey/Rotimi Ijikanmi

  • U.S., Nigeria working toward convening maiden energy security dialogue – Envoy

    Amb. Geoffrey Pyatt, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Energy Resources.

    Envoy

    By Mark Longyen

    Abuja, June 19, 2024 (NAN) Amb. Geoffrey Pyatt, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Energy Resources, said the U.S. and Nigeria are working closely toward convening a maiden Energy Security Dialogue (ESD) in 2024.

    Amb. Pyatt announced this at a digital news conference on Wednesday following a U.S.-Angola energy security dialogue to strengthen U.S.-Africa Energy Partnerships in Luanda, Angola.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Angola ESD was the first in-person dialogue in sub-Saharan Africa to be held during U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration.

    Pyatt said that the U.S.-Nigeria ESD would border on a broad agenda, including decarbonisation of fossil energy production, acceleration of clean energy deployment, and liquified natural gas.

    He said other issues to be discussed during the event would be the challenges of the global gas market, critical minerals, energy access, grid interconnections, and partnerships.

    The U.S. envoy said Deputy Secretary of State, Kurt Campbell, had discussed the prospective dialogue with Nigerian government officials during his recent visit to Nigeria, after which he took it up.

    “And then I followed up at the Corporate Council for Africa summit meeting in Dallas just a few weeks ago, where I joined Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield for our meeting with the Nigerian foreign minister.

    “So, I think our governments are agreed that we want this to happen. We want it to happen in 2024, and I’m hopeful that we will have an announcement in the next couple of weeks about the specific timing.

    “Much like the dialogue with Angola, our dialogue with Nigeria would be built around a broad agenda, including decarbonization of fossil energy production, acceleration of clean energy deployment, LNG and the global gas market, critical minerals, issues of energy access and grid interconnections,” he said.

    According to him, the dialogue will also involve a business element, whereby U.S. and Nigerian companies come together to explore opportunities and push their governments to accelerate the deepening of their energy partnerships.

    He noted that for most of Sub-Saharan Africa, the number one energy priority was energy access; how to deliver the expanded volumes of energy that citizens needed to meet the aspirations for uplifting their situation.  

    The envoy said the U.S. was partnering with Sub-Saharan African countries in providing massive access to energy, adding that American companies were already partners in that regard, operating in Angola, Mozambique, and Nigeria, among others.

    He said the most crucial issues on the U.S-Africa energy partnership agenda include tackling climate change challenges and addressing energy transition through partnerships.

    “We also understand, and this is painfully clear, in a country like Angola, where you see the impact that the climate crisis has on traditional agriculture and weather patterns. 

    “And so, taking climate action and being as ambitious as we can in our targets to reduce the carbon footprint of the energy that we produce, the energy that the world needs, is job number one. 

    “We want to ensure that we support, in Africa in particular, a just energy transition.

    “Every country is going to have its energy mix and a unique endowment of natural resources,” he said.

    Amb. Pyatt said that Nigeria and Angola as two of Africa’s largest oil producers, are important countries with a globally significant capacity to produce crude oil, hence their ESD significance.

    “They are also countries whose crude oil economies have been significantly impacted both by Russia’s weaponization of its energy resources and also the role of China. 

    “When I was in Angola, we talked a lot about the fact that Angola owes about 17 billion dollars to China for years and years of checkbook diplomacy. 

    “So we want to talk to both governments about their role in the global energy matrix, our partnership, the role of the United States as a major oil producer, and how we see energy,” he said.

    “Our energy security interests are impacted by the disruptions created by Russia’s weaponisation of its energy resources and how our producers are responding to that,” he added.

    NAN recalls that the State Department had in June 2023 announced the formation of an energy security dialogue with Nigeria to advance collaboration on shared energy and climate goals, saying it would host it this year. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

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    (Edited by Emmanuel Yashim)

  • Sao Tome and Principe Forum woos investors to explore business opportunities

    Sao Tome and Principe Forum woos investors to explore business opportunities

    Partnership

    By Patricia Amogu

    Abuja, June 19, 2024 (NAN) Sao Tome and Principe Forum said on Wednesday the country would work toward deepening relations with Nigeria by exploring business opportunities that would mobilise private sector players for national development.

    The President of the forum, Dr Mike Ozumba, stated this in Abuja when he led members of the forum on a visit to the Ambassador of Sao Tome and Principe to Nigeria, Gjazaide Aguar.

    Ozumba added that the purpose of the meeting was to deepen engagement with Nigerian investors and entrepreneurs and to encourage them to take advantage of the off-shore economic opportunities in Sao Tome and Principe.

    He said that the visit would provide the forum with the chance to discuss mutually beneficial opportunities on offer at the Sao Tome and Principe Investment Summit to be held in February 2025.

    He spoke of the forum’s commitment to providing access to critical information on trade and investment for decision-makers through the relationship with the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).

    “This partnership and development-centered relationship between Nigeria and Sao Tome and Principe is that it stands as a gateway to mutual economic and investment opportunities in the light of the AfCFTA possibilities.

    “AfCFTA is an ambitious trade pact to form the world’s largest free trade area by creating a single market for goods and services across Africa and deepening efforts toward the economic integration of Africa,” the president of the forum said.

    Speaking, Mr Chinedu Amadi, Director of the forum said the visit demonstrated the readiness of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in both countries to leverage the possibilities offered by AfCFTA.

    This move, he explained, will lead to sustainable economic development in Africa, attract foreign investors, and strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries.

    “The beginning of trading under AfCFTA has put Africa on the global map as the largest integrated trading area in the world by allowing liberalisation of trade in goods, services, and talent without tariffs.

    “This has laid bare fresh opportunities and possibilities with greater promises to fast-track industrialisation and value addition,’’ he said.

    Responding, the Sao Tome and Principe ambassador in Nigeria praised the forum for the initiative and visit.

    He described São Tomé and Principe as a choice destination for quality investment.

    Aguar added that the partnership and efforts of the forum would go a long way in strengthening bilateral relations and promoting trade and investment between the two countries. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

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    (Edited by Dorcas Jonah/Emmanuel Yashim)

  • 3 men collapse after smoking contaminated cigarettes

    3 men collapse after smoking contaminated cigarettes

    Smoking

    Berlin, June 19, 2024 (dpa/NAN) Two men collapsed in western Germany on Tuesday after smoking cigarettes containing an unknown substance which they are believed to have purchased from the same vendor.

    However, another person fell ill over the weekend because of this same substance.

    The police said that paramedics had revived an unconscious 52-year-old man in the city of Duisburg who collapsed after smoking a cigarette laced with an unknown substance on Saturday evening.

    According to the police, the man is no longer in critical condition.

    In two similar incidents on Tuesday, a 43-year-old and a 45-year-old man collapsed after smoking contaminated and both men survived.

    However, after questioning witnesses and obtaining a description of the potential cigarette vendor.

    A suspect was detained on suspicion of violating the New Psychoactive Substances Act.

    However, a search at the suspect’s home revealed no further evidence.

    Investigators believe that the consumption of a cigarette containing an unknown substance caused severe cardiovascular complications that could have been fatal. (dpa/ NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

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    (Edited by Cecilia Odey/Emmanuel Yashim)

  • Researchers discover world’s oldest wine preserved in Roman grave

     

    Wine

    Madrid, June 19, 2024 (dpa/NAN) Researchers have identified the world’s oldest wine, a drop of white discovered in an ancient Roman burial site in southern Spain found to be some 2,000 years old.

    The wine was discovered in 2019 in a Roman mausoleum near Carmona, a town near Seville, believed to have been a family tomb dating back to ancient Roman city of Carmo.

    The burial site contained six urns holding human remains as well as several objects, according to the research team from the University of Cordóba and the town’s archaeological department.

    In what they described as a rather exceptional and unexpected discovery, the scientists found the remains of a male individual submerged in a reddish liquid inside a sealed glass funerary urn.

    Analysis of the liquid’s mineral profile and the detection of certain characteristic polyphenols, biomarkers found in every wine, allowed it to be identified as white wine.

    This is according to the findings published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

    The liquid’s red colour was acquired over time, possibly due to solid residues contained in the urn, they said in the paper.

    Identifying the wine’s origins proved most difficult as there’s nothing left to compare it to, the researchers said.

    However, they did find similarities in the mineral profile of modern-day white wines produced in Montilla-Moriles, a wine-growing region to the east of Carmona, and sherry wines from Jerez.

    While wine was extensively used by the Romans for burial rituals due to its religious significance, the remnants of ancient wines reported so far have all been dried up, often absorbed on vessel walls.

    It is according to the researchers, who noted that their findings constitute the oldest ancient wine conserved in the liquid state.

    Previously, the oldest wine ever recorded was a bottle from Speyer, Germany, discovered in 1867 and believed to have been preserved since the 4th century AD, according to a University of Cordóba statement.

    The fact that it was the remains of a male individual that were covered in wine is no coincidence.

    According to the researchers, who point out that for a long time women are forbidden from tasting wine during the Roman times. (dpa/NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

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    Edited by Cecilia Odey/Ese E. Eniola Williams