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Nigeria Earned $34 Billion From Gas, Oil In 2019 – NEITI

Elizabeth Williams
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Nigeria Earned $34 Billion From Gas, Oil In 2019 – NEITI

Nigeria realised $34.22 billion from the oil and gas sector in 2019, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has disclosed in its latest audit report.

The report showed the revenue was 4.88 per cent higher than the $32.63 billion realised in 2018.

The 2019 report covered 98 entities, including 88 oil and gas companies, nine government agencies and the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG).

A breakdown of the earnings showed that payments by the companies accounted for $18.90 billion, while flows from the government’s sales of crude oil and gas accounted for $15.32 billion.

Details of the report showed that 10 years (2010-2019) aggregate financial flows from the oil and gas sector to the government amounted to $418.544 billion, with the highest revenue flow of $68.442 recorded in 2011, while the lowest revenue flow of $17.055 was recorded in 2016.

According to NEITI, the total crude oil production in 2019 was 735.244 mmbbls (million barrels of oil or natural gas liquids), representing an increase of 4.87 per cent over the 701.101mmbbls recorded in 2018.

South Africa’s Economy Seen Growing 4.1% 2021

Elizabeth Williams
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South Africa’s Economy Seen Growing 4.1% 2021

South Africa’s economy is on track to grow 4.1% in 2021, above recent median forecasts for Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole but not enough to make up for last year’s huge contraction.

The rebound comes after a 7.0% contraction last year and the latest median forecast of economists polled in the past week was 0.2 percentage points better than in last month’s survey. Next year’s growth was expected to slow to 2.4%.

Eskom, which supplies most of the electricity to Africa’s most industrialised nation, has been implementing regular power cuts, or load-shedding, due to ageing coal-fired power stations. A slow pace of COVID-19 vaccinations is another drag on growth.

“Until now, concerns about load-shedding, a third wave of COVID-19 infections, and the pedestrian local vaccine rollouts have been the crucial factors explaining the hesitancy to notably boost the real GDP growth forecast for 2021,” said Hugo Pienaar at the Bureau for Economic Research.

The country’s gross domestic product expanded by 1.1% quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of 2021 on a seasonally adjusted basis, after an expansion of 1.5% in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Pienaar added risks were now materialising but better-than-expected Q1 GDP data, as well as indications that at least some of the momentum was sustained this quarter, imply GDP growth of potentially well above 4% in 2021 was becoming a reality.

On a seasonally adjusted and annualised basis, the economy grew 4.6% quarter-on-quarter, following growth of 5.8% in the previous quarter. “Importantly, like the second wave, this assumes a continued light(er) touch from government on lockdown restrictions through the third wave,” said Pienaar.

Car Bomb Targets France’s Barkhane Force In Mali

Zoe Maven
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Car Bomb Targets France’s Barkhane Force In Mali

A massive car bomb attack reportedly targeted France’s Barkhane force in the central Malian town of Gossi on Monday injuring several soldiers.

The attack occurred in the Kaigourou neighbourhood of Gossi in central Mali injuring several soldiers operating under France’s Operation Barkhane in Sahel, according to local sources.

According to witnesses, several military helicopters could be seen heading to the area after the massive explosion to evacuate the wounded.

The attack came days after French President Emmanuel Macron announced a reduction of France’s military operations in Africa’s Sahel region, saying France’s existing Barkhane force needs “profound transformation”.

Macron is calling for a new international force for the region.

France currently has 5,100 troops in the arid and volatile Sahel region, which stretches across Africa under the Sahara desert encompassing Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

The Sahel is seen by many Western politicians and experts as a major risk because of the growing strength of jihadist groups there, as well as its role as a crossroads for arms and people-smuggling.

The attack came days after French forces in Mali captured a senior commander of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS) group. 

Mali has been in turmoil since a 2012 uprising prompted mutinous soldiers to overthrow the country’s president of a decade.

The power vacuum that was created ultimately led to an Islamic insurgency and a French-led war that ousted the jihadists from power in 2013.

EU Blacklists Belarus Ministers Amid US Sanctions On Officials

Zoe Maven
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EU Blacklists Belarus Ministers Amid US Sanctions On Officials

After the US imposed sanctions on several top Belarus officials, the European Union blacklisted the country’s defence minister Viktor Khrenin and transport minister Alexei Avramenko over the plane diversion row.

The EU added 71 individuals including Russian tycoon Mikhail Gutseriyev, Lukashenko’s son Dmitry and daughter-in-law Liliya to the sanctions list.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell had earlier said that new sanctions would be imposed against “86 people and entities”.

EU states are set to impose fresh sanctions on Belarus’ financial, oil, tobacco and potash sectors, reports said as Austria’s foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg stated that Europe is set to “tighten the thumbscrews” over the country’s “air piracy”.

President Lukashenko’s government had earlier forced a Ryanair flight to land and forcibly arrested dissident blogger Roman Protasevich who was onboard leading EU nations to come down heavily against the regime.

The EU had earlier slapped sanctions against 88 individuals last year over crackdown on protests as President Lukashenko claimed victory in polls which was deemed fraudulent by European officials.

Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya claimed victory in the polls but was forced to leave the country. Meanwhile, UN High Commissioner for human rights Michelle Bachelet said that the situation in Belarus continues to deteriorate.

Bachelet hit out against restrictions on freedom of expression including raids against civil society. The rights chief said there were numerous reports of “arbitrary arrests, detentions, torture and ill-treatment.”

Swedish Government Toppled In No-Confidence Vote

Zoe Maven
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Swedish Government Toppled In No-Confidence Vote

Sweden’s parliament has passed a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Stefan Lofven. A total of 181 of the 349 MPs voted in favour of the motion, with 51 abstentions.

It is the first time in Swedish history that a prime minister has been ousted in such a vote.

The Social Democrat leader has a week to resign or call a snap election. The decision came after a dispute over rent controls led the Left party to withdraw its support for the coalition.

The result means a collapse of the Social Democrat’s minority coalition government with the Green Party.

If the prime minister decides to step down, the parliament’s speaker will have to begin cross-party negotiations to form a new government.

Sweden’s Left party called for the no-confidence vote last week amid a row over proposals to end a rent cap on new-build flats. Although Mr Lofven’s party does not support the measure, it had agreed to consider the plans to appease other opposition parties.

The vote was proposed by the nationalist Sweden Democrats and backed by two centre-right opposition parties.

Any new government would remain in place until general elections, which are set to take place in September next year.

The irony is that Sweden’s centre-left Prime Minister Stefan Lofven is himself in favour of rent controls. His coalition only agreed to look into the idea of scrapping them in new-build blocks, to appease two small centre-right opposition parties to help prop up his fragile minority government.

But in doing so he’s ended up losing the backing of a long-time ally, the Left Party. It withdrew its support for the government last week, paving the way for the no-confidence vote.

Spain Confirms Plans To Pardon Catalan Separatists

Zoe Maven
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Spain Confirms Plans To Pardon Catalan Separatists

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has confirmed plans to pardon Catalan separatists this week. Their pardons will be sent to the cabinet on Tuesday.

Nine leaders were jailed for sedition over a failed independence attempt in 2017. Another three were found guilty of disobedience but not jailed.

Tens of thousands of people protested against the plans earlier this month, but the government says the move will help calm tensions over Catalonia.

The semi-autonomous region’s drive for independence almost four years ago plunged Spain into its biggest political crisis in 40 years but Opponents accuse the Spanish government of using the plans to gain political support.

During a speech in Barcelona on Monday Sánchez said tomorrow, guided by this constitutional spirit of forgiveness, he will propose that the cabinet approve the pardon,”

Opposition to the decision has been widespread, with a recent poll for Spanish newspaper El Mundo finding that about 61% of people were against pardoning the separatist leaders.

The country’s Supreme Court has also said it opposes the decision, although its position is not binding.

But the prime minister’s decision has also been met with anger by Catalan protesters, who believe the leaders should never have been jailed in the first place.

Separatist leader Quim Torra, who was banned from holding public office after refusing to take down a pro-independence symbol from a government building, had refused to join the prime minister’s announcement, describing it as an act of “propaganda”.

Libya Reopens Highway Linking Its East And West

Zoe Maven
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Libya Reopens Highway Linking Its East And West

Libya’s interim authorities have reopened the Mediterranean coastal highway linking the country’s long-divided eastern and western cities, in the latest bid to reunite the land after years of civil war.

It comes three days ahead of an international conference on Libya that will be hosted by Germany and the United Nations in Berlin.

Addressing a crowd that had gathered as bulldozers towed away rocks and sand blocking the road, Libyan Prime Minister Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah expressed delight at participating in the opening of this essential lifeline linking the east of our country to its west.

The coastal highway has been closed since April 2019 after east-based military commander Khalifa Hifter launched a military offensive to try to take the capital, Tripoli, from the U.N.- recognized government.

Its reopening was a long-held demand by the U.N. to enable the safe passage of civilians and goods.

The US embassy in Libya hailed the move, saying in a Tweet it was “paving the path for Libyans to have full control over their own affairs.”

Dbeibah was elected as interim prime minister, along with a four-member presidential council, by Libyan delegates at a U.N.-sponsored conference in February.

They are meant to shepherd the country to nationwide elections late this year.

The resumption of traffic on the route stretching along Libya’s Mediterranean coastline comes amid tensions between interim authorities and Hifter’s troops.

Hong Kong’s Apple Daily Newspaper Says It May Shut Down

Zoe Maven
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Hong Kong’s Apple Daily Newspaper Says It May Shut Down

Hong Kong’s embattled pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily on Monday said its board of directors has asked authorities to unfreeze some assets so it can pay salaries and avoid labor violations.

Apple Daily said in an article on its website on Monday that if its board decides on Friday to cease operations of the newspaper, its website could stop publishing as soon as early Saturday morning, and Saturday’s print edition of the newspaper would be its last.

An internal department memo sent to some employees at Apple Daily also stated that those who wish to resign immediately could do so.

Last week, Police arrested five top editors and executives of Apple Daily under the city’s tough national security law on suspicion of foreign collusion, searched and its offices froze $2.3 million worth of assets of three companies linked to the newspaper.

The arrests and freezing of assets came as Hong Kong authorities crack down on dissenting voices as Beijing tightens control over the territory in what critics say is an erosion of freedoms it promised the city for 50 years when the former British colony was handed over to China in 1997.

Apple Daily has been outspoken in defending Hong Kong’s freedoms, and in recent years has often criticized the Chinese and Hong Kong governments for limiting the city’s democratic freedoms as well as constricting the rights of free speech and assembly.

The Security Bureau said it would not comment on the details of the case because legal proceedings were ongoing. It said endangering national security is a “very serious crime.”

Iranian President-Elect Refuses To Meet With Biden

Zoe Maven
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Iranian President-Elect Refuses To Meet With Biden

Iran’s president-elect says he will not meet with President Joe Biden, whose administration seeks to reinstate the nuclear agreement with the nation that was signed during the Obama administration and revoked by President Donald Trump.

Ebrahim Raisi, formerly the chief of Iran’s judiciary, said on Monday that he is unwilling to negotiate over the proliferation of his country’s nuclear weapons program.

He instead urged the U.S. to ease pressures imposed on top officials and the Iranian economy.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif previously indicated that there was no interest among the country’s leadership for direct meetings between top U.S. and Iranian officials and implicated sanctions

Meanwhile, representatives from both countries were scheduled to meet days later in Vienna, Austria, to discuss complying with the nuclear deal.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki expressed a more optimistic view ahead of the Vienna negotiations, describing it as a welcome and potentially constructive early step.

Raisi, who himself is subject to U.S. sanctions in part for his involvement in a “death commission” responsible for the execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988, also addressed his role in the executions by calling himself a “defender of human rights” during the Monday press conference.

One In Five Restaurants In S. Korea Now Using Food-Delivery Apps

Angel Gimalo
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One In Five Restaurants In S. Korea Now Using Food-Delivery Apps

Since the start of the pandemic, more restaurants in South Korea have been offering delivery services and new data shows that nearly one in five restaurants in the country now use food-delivery apps.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs on Monday almost 20% of restaurants used delivery apps last year up 8.7% points compared to the previous year.

The number of Japanese restaurants that used these apps soared by more than 27% points on-year and usage by bakeries also went up by 26% points.

By sales restaurants with higher revenues tended to use delivery apps.

But delivery apps were only used by 6.4% of restaurants that had sales of less than 44, 000 dollars.

On average, restaurants paid about 300 U.S. dollars a month in delivery app fees up 13.3% on-year.

Through this the country’s largest delivery app company, Bae-min, saw its revenue soar last year to about 965, 000, 000 U.S. dollars.

This is up about 95 percent compared to the previous year.

The company saw an operating profit of 51, 000, 000 dollars, and a net profit of 18.8 million dollars.

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