China is expected to account for 66 percent of the debt-service payments International Development Association (IDA) countries will be making on their official bilateral debt in 2022, the World Bank has said.

The World Bank Group President, David Malpass, made this known in his opening remarks during the launch of the International Debt Report 2022 on Tuesday, According to details of the transcript of his speech posted on the World Bank website, while China’s debt stock is roughly half of bilateral debt, its debt service payments are around 2/3 of bilateral debt service payments.

Malpass, noted “At the end of 2021, China was the largest bilateral creditor to IDA countries, accounting for $100 billion of their bilateral debt stock, that is up from $15 billion in 2010,”.

The International Development Association (IDA) is the part of the World Bank that helps the world’s poorest countries. Established in 1960, IDA aims to reduce poverty by providing zero to low-interest loans (called “credits”) and grants for programs that boost economic growth, reduce inequalities, and improve people’s living conditions.

Several countries of the world are eligible to receive IDA resources. Some countries, such as Nigeria and Pakistan, are IDA-eligible based on per capita income levels and are also creditworthy for some IBRD borrowing. They are referred to as “blend” countries.

Saudi Arabia and China showcased deepening ties with a series of strategic deals on Thursday during a visit by President Xi Jinping, including one with tech giant Huawei.

King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud signed a “comprehensive strategic partnership agreement” with Xi. Agreements worth about $30 billion were being signed on Thursday, Saudi state media said.

Earlier on Thursday, Saudi state media announced 34 investment agreements in sectors including green hydrogen, information technology, transport and construction. State broadcaster Al Ekhbariya said another 20 agreements worth 110 billion riyals ($29.3 billion) were due to be signed.

XI and King Salman “agreed to hold a heads of state meeting between the two countries in turn every two years,” Chinese state media said.

A memorandum with China’s Huawei Technologies, on cloud computing and building high-tech complexes in Saudi cities, was agreed.

Huawei has participated in building 5G networks in most Middle Eastern countries.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director-General’s annual overview of developments in the international trading environment has shown that trade restrictions are increasing, particularly on food, feed and fertilizers, while the stockpile of import restrictions in force also continues to grow.

Speaking at her annual WTO Trade Monitoring Report presentation at a meeting of the Trade Policy Review Body, the Director-General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala called on WTO members to refrain from adopting new trade-restrictive measures.

According to her, particularly export restrictions that can further contribute to a worsening of the global economic outlook, while urging them to cooperate to keep markets open and predictable in order to allow goods to move around the world to where they are needed.

“Members have increasingly implemented new trade restrictions, in particular on the export side, first in the context of the pandemic and more recently in the context of the war in Ukraine and the food security crisis. Although some of these export restrictions have been lifted, many others persist,” she said.

“Out of the 78 export restrictive measures on food, feed, and fertilizers introduced since the start of the war in late February, 57 are still in place, covering roughly $56.6 billion of trade. These numbers have increased since mid-October, which should be a cause for concern.

In a bid to put Nigeria at the forefront of digital payment innovations in Africa and the world at large, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, insisted that contrary to speculations, the cashless policy was not targeted at anybody, adding that there was no going back on the policy.

The CBN governor also said the Apex bank would honour the invitation by the Senate to brief the lawmakers on its recent policy direction.

Emefiele, insisted that the apex bank’s policies were in the interest of Nigerians and the economy, in general, adding that it was, “just meant for the good and development of the Nigerian economy”. As he clarifies that the new cash withdrawal limits expected to be implemented from next month was not politically motivated, insisting that it was for the overall benefit of the economy.

He insisted that cash withdrawal limits is subject to review, the deadline of January 31st to deposit all old notes remains sacrosanct.

In addition, the CBN governor disclosed that deposit money banks were now in possession of the redesigned N200, N500 and N1,000 banknotes and would start to dispense them to customers, earlier than the December 15 timeline initially projected.

Emefiele disclosed this to journalists after a meeting he had with President Muhammadu Buhari in his hometown, in Daura, Katsina State.

This was as the president reiterated his firm support for the central bank’s Naira redesign project and well as the revised cashless policy which put a cap on the amount of physical currency that could be withdrawn at any particular time.

The CBN had on Tuesday introduced new cash withdrawal limits for banks and other financial institutions. The new policy followed its recent currency redesign project in which it had expressed concerns over the high volume of cash outside the banking system.

Under the new dispensation, the central bank among other limits, restricted the maximum cash withdrawal over the counter (OTC) by individuals and corporate organisations per week to N100,000 and N500,000 respectively.