Trump is eager to do deals with African countries, US secretary of state Says
United State Secretary of State Michael Pompeo pressed African governments to adopt the Trump administration’s limited-government approach for economic success, taking a veiled swipe at the Chinese model of debt-heavy infrastructure projects that have permeated the continent.
Pompeo lambasted centralized planning and heavy government spending, decrying the “failed socialist experiments of years past” during a speech in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, on the final day of a three-nation swing across the continent on Wednesday. He said a South African plan to expropriate private property without compensation would be “disastrous” for its economy.
He didn’t mention China by name in his speech, but he’s called out the threat posed by countries’ willingness to take on expensive debt from the country during his trip, and the target of his criticism was clear.
“Not every nation doing business in Africa from outside the continent adopts the American model of partnership,” Pompeo said. “Countries should be wary of authoritarian regimes and their empty promises. They breed corruption, dependency, they don’t hire the local people.”
Nigeria’s death toll from Lassa fever rises to 103
Since the onset of the Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria, no fewer than 103 people have lost their lives to the disease, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has disclosed.
This was made known in the weekly situation report released by the health agency on Wednesday.
According to the agency, there has been a spike in the number of suspected and confirmed cases as well as in deaths from the disease.
The disease has become a yearly epidemic in Nigeria as it is diagnosed all year round, but peaks between November and May.
As of February 16, the number of newly confirmed cases increased from 109 cases in week six, to 115.
These were reported from 16 states: Ondo, Edo, Ebonyi, Kano, Kogi, Kaduna, Taraba, Plateau, Bauchi, Enugu, Abia, Benue, Borno, Gombe, Sokoto and Katsina.
Cumulatively from week one to week seven, 103 deaths have been reported with a case fatality rate (CFR) of 17.6 per cent. This is lower than the CFR for the same period in 2019 pegged at 21.1 per cent.
EIA Cuts 2020 Oil Demand Forecast by 378,000 Bpd
Energy Information Administration followed has revised its global oil demand forecast by as much as 378,000 bpd on the back of the Chinese coronavirus outbreak.
The authority said it expected the outbreak to reduce China’s oil demand by some 190,000 bpd this year due to travel restrictions prompted by the outbreak.
OPEC last Friday said it expected global oil demand to rise by 990,000 bpd this year, most of which will come from non-OECD countries. OECD demand, the cartel said in its February edition of its Monthly Oil Market Report, will grow by a modest 100,000 bpd.
The International Energy Agency went further: it warned that global oil demand will actually take a dip during the first quarter of the year because of the coronavirus outbreak. The dip will be significant, the IEA said, at 435,000 bpd, representing the first contraction in demand in a decade.
As for the rest of the year, the IEA said it expected demand to grow by 825,000 bpd, a downward revision close to that made by the EIA, at 365,000 bpd.
These updates should be worrying for oil producers even though some observers are already talking about a quick recovery.
NAICOM may force mergers to avert liquidations in ongoing recapitalisation
The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) says it will as much as possible avoid going into liquidation of failed companies in the ongoing insurance industry recapitalisation.
The commission said rather than liquidating those that fail to recapitalise, it is considering forced mergers that will make them become one big company.
Sunday Thomas, acting commissioner for insurance/CEO, NAICOM, who dropped the hint during the Insurance Industry 2020 Economic Outlook in Lagos, said the cost of liquidation was high for the commission.
Thomas said NAICOM may apply regulatory forbearance to ensure it does not go through that route at the end of the recapitalisation exercise billed to end on December 31, 2020.
Reps order centre to remit N542 million within three weeks
For failing to remit a total sum of N542.4 million between 2012 and 2018, the House of Representatives Committee on Finance has ordered the Centre for Management Development (CMD) to remit the fund in three weeks.
Failure to comply, the committee said, it would either recommend that the agency be scrapped or the agency’s debt be deducted from its monthly allocation.
The amount, the committee said, is a backlog of unremitted N378.4 million in 2012, N86 million in 2016 and N78 million in 2017.
The Managing Director of CMD, Bitrus Chinoko, on Wednesday, appeared before the House committee with no clearcut explanation as to why his agency failed to pay those sums into the federation account.
By law, the agency, as a revenue-generating one, has a duty to remit 25 per cent of its IGR to the nation’s treasury.
Chinoko admitted that there was outstanding revenue yet to be remitted by his agency, but he blamed this on the agency’s lack of facilities in its Abuja centre.
He said this made it run at a loss running the centre in the capital city, unlike Lagos where it has its own facilities to run its activities. There, he said they made profit.
Nonetheless, he told the committee that the agency would make amends. In defence of himself, he explained that he had just assumed office and not only were the accounts of the agency audited in 2019, funds were remitted.
