The presidency has condemned a recent statement by a retired colonel, Dangiwa Umar, against the ongoing anti-corruption campaign of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

A presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, made the condemnation in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday.

Mr. Shehu was reacting to a statement issued by Mr. Umar in which he accused the government of President Muhammadu Buhari of being unfair in the war against corruption.

In his statement on Sunday, the retired colonel commended President Buhari for suspending two officials enmeshed in scandals, but criticised other actions of the administration.

“The decision by the Federal Government of Nigeria to suspend the SGF Mr David Babachir Lawal and the DG NIA Mr Ayodele Oke while they are being investigated is a welcome development in its war against corruption,” Mr. Umar said. “It is also remarkable and commendable that the Government has decided not to detain the duo while they are being investigated.”

Mr. Umar faulted the continued detention of former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, despite various court judgements.

“The only explanation one can find for Col. Dasuki’s lengthy detention without trial is that he belongs to the wrong camp. He has also the misfortune of having served as National Security Adviser to the much vilified Nigerian President of Ijaw extraction,” he said, while accusing the federal government’s anti-corruption war of being a “President Buhari personal struggle.”

In his reaction on Monday, Mr. Shehu said the Buhari administration would neither succumb to media attacks nor would it be deterred by false accusations.

“The war against corruption is here to stay. As long as President Buhari is in power, Nigerians can rest assured of that.

“It will not succumb to media attacks. It will not be deterred by false accusations. It will not be quenched by disgruntled elements.”

The spokesperson said President Buhari’s administration is quite familiar with the barrage of verbal attacks that have accompanied the administration’s determined war against corruption.

“A number of Nigeria’s elite, uncomfortable with the disruption of business as usual, have fought viciously, usually via the media.

“However, this comment, coming from Umar, is highly disappointing. Because he is not in a position to label accusations. He should, instead, allow others to do this.

“Curiously, despite the various accusations and media attacks, no one has so far come forth with any evidence of President Buhari’s selectiveness in the war against corruption,” he said.

Mr. Shehu challenged anyone or organisation with any evidence of bias or partiality in the fight against corruption to make it public

He stated that all the agencies involved in the war against corruption were allowed freedom to carry out their responsibilities, without any interference whatsoever from the Presidency.

He said, “If Umar or anyone else feels that they have any evidence to the contrary, they are encouraged to make this public.

“Ultimately, the final frontier of the war against corruption is the judiciary.

“After the anti-graft agencies have gathered proof of corruption and made arrests, they present the accused before competent courts of the land, who have the final say on who is guilty of corruption and who is not.”

Mr. Shehu maintained that President Buhari had never interfered with the judicial process, despite publicly expressing his frustration with how slowly corruption cases were handled.

“Again, anyone with a shred of evidence to the contrary is encouraged to go public with it.”

“A number of Nigerian elites have over the years benefitted from various forms of corruption, including monthly payouts from the office of previous National Security Advisers.

“Let me clarify that this is not in reference to Colonel Umar in particular.

“The Buhari administration has offended so many of our greedy elite by putting a stop to this, plugging many of the holes through which our country’s resources, belonging to each and every one of us, were looted by a few.

“Naturally, these elites are frustrated. But we shall not allow them to frustrate the war against corruption,” he said.

By Theopista Nsanzugwanko

Guangzhou — Large Chinese ladies shoe manufacturing firm, Huajian Footwear, says it now wants to invest more into Africa where it hopes to create at least 100,000 job opportunities.

The factory management also says it expects to train 2,000 African citizens in China in the art and technology of making quality shoes -comparable anywhere around the globe.

The President of the Huajian Group of companies, Zhang Huarong said that when he met the journalists from 27 African countries who visited the factory located in the city of Dongguan, Guangdong. He said this was the plan for the next two decades, targeting middle-income countries, which are also pro-quality and trust in the development process and political stability, the safety of people and working tools.

Zhang said that already, this company had begun to invest in Ethiopia, where his factory was known as Huajian International, a light industry in a city that employs more than 6,000 staff. He said the factory pays (minimum) wages of between $75 and $95 while others receive up to $500 and $ 1,000 for management staff, a remarkable improvement on the existing government minimum wages in Ethiopia – which are pegged at between $15 and $20.

He said the factory gets up to 50 per cent of its resources from within Ethiopia, 20 per cent from China while the remaining 30 per cent is sourced from other African countries. Zhang said the company that produces more than 20 million pairs of shoes in two factories, and that it sells the bulk of its shoes to the United States and Europe where they have clients who give orders to a specific brand or celebrities.

“In both these industries we make ladies shoes that we do not sell in these countries of China and Ethiopia but we send everything to our markets in Europe where we have got many customers all the time,” he said.

He said the two factories’ total sales amount to $300 million, and generated a profit of five percent per annum. He said so far more than 150 Ethiopians had undergone training within the company, and that 50 others are getting further training, but the strategy is to ultimately recruit 1,000 to 2,000 more across Africa.

He said the African recruits were trained in China to get to know the required qualities and other issues relating to the manufacture of shoes – always aiming at achieving ‘excellence’ in their industries.

On its investments in Ethiopia, he said the factory went at the express invitation of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who encouraged the Chinese to invest in his country during his visit to China recently.

The Huajian firm itself was established in 1984 in the city of Nanchang in China, initially with 18 employees and three machines; in 1996, it moved to Dongguan and set up a company with 600 employees – where it is producing one million pairs of shoes to date.

Khartoum — The Sudanese Agricultural Bank has signed four agreements with major American companies in the fields of axial irrigation, irrigation pumps, silos, solar energy, and water technology.

“Sudan’s regional and global openness is a great opportunity to transfer technology for the development of agricultural sector,” according to the director-general of the Agricultural Bank, Salaheldin Hassan Ahmed.

“The lifting of the [US] economic embargo is a breakthrough for the banking sector in general and for the Agricultural Bank in particular in its capacity as the backbone of the financing of agriculture,” he told the Sudan News Agency (SUNA) after his visit to the USA last week as a member of a delegation of the federal Ministry of Agriculture.

Ahmed said that after the exchange of documents and the opening of an account at “a major US bank”, the agreements will immediately be implemented.

He described the developments as a good beginning of operations with global banks in Europe, the Arab world, and Asia.

In end March, the Sudanese Minister of Agriculture, Dr Ibrahim El Dikheiri, told SUNA after a two-day visit to the USA that Washington promised to support the agricultural sector in Sudan, and would begin to permanently revoke the economic sanctions against Sudan during the coming three months.

Sanctions

In January, just days before leaving office, US President Barak Obama ordered the easing of financial sanctions against Sudan in recognition of “positive actions in countering terrorism”.

The executive order revoked parts of a US trade embargo, in place since the Bill Clinton administration in 1997. President Obama also lifted a freeze on certain assets of Al Bashir’s government, in light of Sudan’s “positive actions over the past six months.

“These actions include a marked reduction in offensive military activity, culminating in a pledge to maintain a cessation of hostilities in conflict areas in Sudan, and steps toward the improvement of humanitarian access throughout Sudan, as well as cooperation with the United States on addressing regional conflicts and the threat of terrorism,” Obama said at the time.

By Press Release

Justice Efreti Abang of the Federal High Court sitting in Asaba, Delta State has ordered that Fidelia Omoile, a serving Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, official in Isoko- South Local Government Area of Delta State, be remanded in prison custody following her arraignment on Monday, on a two- count amended charge, bordering on conspiracy and money laundering, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

Mrs. Omoile was docked for allegedly collecting the sum of N112,480,000.00 (One Hundred and Twelve Million, Four Hundred and Eighty Thousand Naira), as a bribe during the weeks leading to the 2015 presidential election. She was among the over 100 INEC Officials that allegedly collected part of the $115million (N23bn) disbursed by a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison- Madueke, during the countdown to the 2015 presidential election.

Mrs. Omoile was arrested on April 11, 2016 following intelligence received by the EFCC on the activities of some INEC Staff, who allegedly connived with some Non-Governmental Organisations, NGOs, in defrauding the Federal Government huge sums of money, running into millions of Naira.

Count one of the charge read: “That you Fidelia Omoile on or about the month of March, 2015 at Asaba within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did conspire among yourselves to receive cash payment in the sum of N 112,480,000.00 (One Hundred and Twelve Million, Four Hindered and Eighty Thousand Naira only) exceeding the statutory limit without going through a financial institution and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18 (a) of the Money laundering (Prohibition) Act 2012 as amended and punishable under Section 15 (3) and (4) of the same Act”.

Count two of the charge read: “That you Fidelia Omoile on or about the month of March, 2015 at Asaba within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did receive cash payment in the sum of N112,480,000.00 (One Hundred and Twelve Million, Four Hindered and Eighty Thousand Naira only) exceeding the statutory limit without going through a financial institution and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1 (a) of the Money laundering ( Prohibition) Act 2012 as amended and punishable under Section 16 (b) and (4) of the same Act”.

The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charge when it was read to her.

In view of her plea, prosecution counsel, Sadiq Hussaini, asked for a trial date and sued that the defendant be remanded in prison custody. However, counsel to the defendant, K. O Obamogie, made an oral application for bail of his client and urged the court to grant his prayers. Mr. Hussaini opposed the prayers.

In his ruling, Justice Abang turned down the defendant’s application for bail, directing that the application be filed formally. He also adjourned the matter to June 6, 2017 for hearing and ordered the defendant to be remanded in prison custody pending the determination of her bail.

Morogoro — New plastic bag manufacturing factories in the country will have to install recycling facilities as the government moves to curb environmental degradation, the National Environment Management Council (NEMC) has announced.

NEMC Coordinator for the Eastern Zone Jaffar Chimgege, speaking here over the weekend, said: “As a country, we face a serious challenge when it comes to littering the environment by plastic materials and solid waste…they both pose serious threat to the environment.”

He made the revelation shortly before he welcomed Morogoro Regional Commissioner Stephen Kebwe to officiate at a two-day workshop for environment and health officials on enforcement of the Environment Act.

The officials were drawn from local government authorities in Tanga, Coast and Morogoro regions. Mr Chimgege said various measures, including compelling manufacturers to produce plastic materials of approved specifications, were being undertaken to address the environmental pollution situation.

He cited the recent total ban on production of plastic sachets hitherto used to pack alcoholic drinks, saying new manufacturers of plastic materials will be required to install recycling facilities.

“The aim is to curb environment pollution through reduction of indiscriminately discarded litters of plastic materials on land and water bodies,” he stressed.

Speaking at the workshop, NEMC’s Chief Environment Officer Glory Kombe, pleaded with members of the public, particularly urban dwellers, to reduce the uses of plastic bags when shopping.

“In rural areas, people re-use one plastic bags for several times, they wash and reuse them…this has checked scattering of plastic materials in villages. We should as well consider other materials like baskets,” she advised.

The official as well urged people to separate solid waste to enable recycling factories to reprocess plastic materials for other uses.

Morogoro RC, Dr Kebwe, urged the environment and health officials to effectively enforce the Environment Act, saying the central government has now given more powers to local government authorities to oversee the legislation.

By Kennedy Senelwa

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a $14.57 million supplementary loan for South Sudan’s power project.

The money will be used to rehabilitate and expand electricity distribution networks in the capital city.

Juba lacks a reliable power supply network due to dilapidated infrastructure. Consumers are therefore forced to rely on diesel generators.

“The project will contribute in reducing inefficiencies in the power distribution network and increase electricity access in Juba,” said Gabriel Negatu, AfDB’s director- general of the East Africa regional development and business delivery office.

He added: “The project will increase the electrification rate in south Sudan, both for residential and commercial use.”

Mr Negatu said that the country’s infrastructure particularly the energy sector is in its infancy and would require substantial investments to create an enabling environment for economic development.

He said that South Sudan needs the support of development partners to forge ahead.

The money will be used to build 145 kilometres of 33kilovot (kV) lines, 370 km of 415 and 230 volt lines, buy 20,000 pre-paid meters to connect new customers to the national grid, and buy and install 195 transformer stations.

The supplementary loan to be distributed under the African Development Fund, covers a budget deficit of the total project financing granted four years ago.

On December 18, 2013, AfDB approved a grant of $26 million to finance South Sudan’s power project.

Millions of Safaricom customers were unable to make calls Monday morning after the mobile service provider experienced a technical hitch.

The technical problem affected subscribers countrywide with the company saying it is working to resolve the issue.

“Sorry we are having a slight technical fault with the network services countywide but the issue is being resolved,” the company posted on its Twitter account.

Data from Communications Authority of Kenya shows that Safaricom has the highest number of mobile subscribers with 26.6 million customers.

By Kathy Sikombe

Zambia has long relied on rainfall to generate electricity. But with climate change rapidly depleting water sources, people are turning to charcoal for their power needs, prompting calls to ban the black fuel.

As dropping rainfall levels continue to dry up many of the dams generating power in the country, Zambians have been left searching for alternative energy sources. Amid the country’s energy crisis, the government has rationed electricity and a shortage of sustainable options has led to a skyrocketing demand for charcoal.

While a new market for the black fuel has generated economic opportunities for many, its harvesting, production and burning comes at great cost to the Zambian landscape.

Economy versus environment

As more and more people turn to charcoal prices have rapidly increased. A 50 kilogram bag of charcoal now costs around 15 euros ($16 USD) compared to 8 euros ($9 USD) a year ago.

Emma Mwanza sells charcoal at Mtendere Market in the capital Lusaka. Her sales, she said, have helped improve her personal finances, allowing her to better take care of her children.

“I continue to sell charcoal because I find a lot of money in it. In a day I can make 200 euros or so even more,” Mwanza said. “I raise my children through this business – I take them to school,I find food, I bought a house using this business. I can’t stop it because the business, I have found, is better for me than anything else.”

Despite its economic advantages, this charcoal boom is threatening the country’s already fragile environment.

Charcoal is made using wood, which means hundreds of thousands of hectares of woodlands must be felled for its production. Forests cover around 60 percent of Zambia’s territory or some 45.8 million hectares of land. The country already has one of the highest deforestation rates in the world, clearing around 300,000 hectares of forest per year, according to the United Nations Forestry Department.

Unsustainable deforestation rates

Although the rate of forest felling is acknowledged as unsustainable, the lack of alternative energy supply has pushed Zambia into a ‘charcoal trap,’ which must be regulated, said Mwape Sichilongo from the World Wide Fund for Nature.

“If over 90 percent of the population depends on charcoal then it’s definitely not sustainable,” Sichilongo said. “Charcoal production means removal of trees and with the increasing pressure and the increasing prices, it means it’s also driving deforestation.”

Although the charcoal industry is supporting livelihoods especially in rural areas, the consequences of increased deforestation and land clearing outweigh any economic benefits, Sichilongo added.

In Zambia, deforestation has devastated supplies of food like mushrooms and wild fruits on which people and animals both depend. Forests are also a key part of protecting further climate damage as they significantly impact the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The more woodland there is, the more carbon is removed from the air and absorbed back into wood, leaves and soil.

Cyclic trap

Cutting trees down to replace other energy sources only further compounds the impact that climate change is having on diminishing alternative energy sources, like water.

Experts have warned that weather extremes are likely to become more frequent as the world becomes warmer. The only way to lessen the possibly devastating environmental impact is to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

Last September, Zambian President Edgar Lungu signed the Paris Agreement, committing to reduce greenhouse emissions and combat global warming. Late last year, Environment Minister Jean Kapata also announced plans to ban charcoal burning. While a ban on charcoal would be a step towards addressing environmental threats, it offers no solution for Zambians who have no other alternative, experts argue.

Friendlier Alternatives?

Ireen Chipili is the spokesperson for the government-run Zambia Environmental Management Agency. In the absence of reliable hydro-electricity, she insists that alternative sources of energy have to be put in place first, before charcoal can be banned.

“It is an intervention, but I think as a country we need to be more broad-minded in dealing with the issue. I mean first of all we need to look at why a significant population is using charcoal,” Chipili said. “We also need to embrace other approaches of energy. We need to remove reliance on hydro power, and promote alternative sources of energy such as solar.”

Elias Chipimo, the president of the Opposition National Restoration Party, said that the country needs to invest in environmentally-friendly methods of power generation like solar and thermal power to ensure its citizens don’t have to turn to charcoal when the hydropower supply fails.

“The problem with just relying on hydro is that it’s very costly to set up the hydro infrastructure,” Chipimo said. “What we are saying, is that through this alternative energy we can actually deliver development in a sustainable way and at the same time protect the environment and that is an amazing combination which will help us with issues of load shedding (the deliberate shutdown of power) and that will help us reach out and develop sectors that have been abandoned for a very long time.”

By Joseph Hanlon

The lowest non-agricultural minimum wage, for civil servants, has fallen below $60 per month for the first time since 2006. In 2006 it was $54.50/month, but by 2014 it had risen to $98.65/mo; for 2017 it has fallen back to $59.51/mo.

Minimum wages from 1 April 2017 were approved and announced by the Council of Ministers yesterday, 18 April. There are now 16 different minimum wages, and in Meticais there were sharply different increases – only two sectors had increases above the 21.6% annual inflation rate to March and most were much below inflation. One of the lowest paid sectors, civil servants, had a 21.9% rise in their minimum wage, and workers in large gas, electricity and water companies receive a 22.3% rise in their minimum. The smallest increases in minimum wages were 5.5% for hotel workers (a new category), 5.8% for salt workers, and 6% for quarry workers. The agricultural minimum wage increases 10.4%.

But the rapid devaluation of the Metical in the past two years pushes minimum wages back to what they were a decade ago. The agricultural minimum wage falls from $99/month in 2014 to $54 in 2017. The mining minimum drops from $176/mo in 2014 to $104 now; industry falls from $145 to $89.

Attached is a special supplement with the complete minimum wage table and historic minimum wages and exchange rates, also postedhere. There is now a quite good table of government salaries (not yet updated for these changes) here.

IMF Res Rep attacks lack of debt strategy

Mozambique’s debt renegotiations have slowed down and the government has “no clear overview or strategy”, warned IMF Resident Representative Ari Aisen in two recent speeches. And he warns that “new loans for investment projects are being contracted” without full discussion, including a $157 million Chinese export credit to fund the long-delayed digital migration project. The talks were to the donor coordination platform on 6 April and the US-Mozambique Chamber of Commerce on 12 April.

Aisen praises the cut to bread and fuel subsidies, and demand further cuts, including to the electricity subsidy. And he notes there is still a “substantial accumulation of arrears to suppliers (e.g. oil companies) and VAT refund.” And he warns of fiscal problems in the large state companies. In his speeches, made before the new minimum wages were announced, Aisen specifically called for “containing the expansion of the wage bill,” but the civil service minimum wage has been increased by the rate of inflation.

Voter registration delayed to January

As expected, electoral registration has been delayed until January 2018, in order not to conflict with the national population census 1-15 August 2017, the National Elections Commission (CNE) announced on 12 April. Because that is during the rainy season, it is likely that the registration will only take place in the municipalities which will vote in local elections on 10 October 2018. There are presently 53 municipalities with elected mayors and assemblies, but that number is likely to be increased as a result of government-Renamo negotiations on decentralization. The electoral law says the CNE must set the number of local assembly members six months before the election, and that is based on the  number of registered voters in each municipality. Processing and checking the electoral role takes up to two months. That means in practice registration must be completed by mid-February 2018.

National elections will be in October 2019 and there will have to be a national registration before that.

The election laws set the time frames. Municipal elections must be announced 18 months in advance, and within 60 days of the announcement (3 June) provincial elections commissions must be in place and in a further 30 days (3 July) district commissions must be in place. In agreeing to participate in 2014 national elections, Renamo was allowed to make major changes to the electoral law, and it opted to substantially increase the number of paid party people involved.

Each provincial and district commission consists of 15 members – 3 chosen by Frelimo Party, 2 by Renamo, 1 by the MDM (Mozambique Democratic Movement) and 9 from civil society. A total of 945 people (Maputo city does not have a separate provincial elections commission) for the present 53 municipalities. In addition there is an election secretariat STAE (Secretariado Tecnico de Administracao Eleitoral) which actually does the work. Each has a director, 2 deputy directors, 3 heads of sectors, 6 deputy sector heads and 6 technical staff – 18 people, or 1134 staff. Of those in STAE, 12 are appointed by parties (6 Frelimo, 4 Renamo, 2 MDM). Thus there are posts for 567 Frelimo-named people, 378 Renamo, and 189 MDM.

CNE spokesperson Paulo Cuinica said the CNE’s estimate is that preparing the elections will cost 970 million meticais ($15 mn), but the government has informed the CNE that so far only 650 million meticais is available. The CNE hopes that donors will provide further money. The next step is organising office space, vehicles and equipment for the election commissions and STAEs.

It doesn’t matter how much sense it makes to ordinary Zimbabweans: Zimbabwe will not formally adopt the rand, the central bank governor says.

John Mangudya has told the state-controlled Sunday Mail that he’s ruling out “rand adoption”.

Here are his reasons:

Zimbabwe uses the rand already

In theory this is true: you just don’t see the rand very much these days.

Mangudya says the rand has been part of the multi-currency basket since 2009 (other currencies supposed to be accepted in major supermarkets include British pounds, Botswana pula and Chinese yuan).

“We continued to use it [the rand] until such a time when some unscrupulous dealers started rejecting it,” he told the paper.

The reason why the rand stopped being welcome in Zimbabwe – certainly in the capital, perhaps less in Bulawayo – was two-fold: the rand lost value so there were quarrels over the exchange rate of the day and Zimbabwe brought in bond coins, which meant there was much less need for rand coins as change.

The rand will get “externalised” too

The authorities have been laying a fair amount of blame for Zimbabwe’s ongoing cash crunch on people, both local and foreign, “externalising” hard cash.

The definition of that includes retailers buying goods from outside Zimbabwe for sale inside the country, apparently.

Mangudya says there’s no guarantee that won’t happen to the rand. “What guarantee do we have that if we adopt it as our major currency it won’t suffer the same fate of externalisation and hoarding? Worse still, it only takes a few hours to reach South Africa,” he said.

What’s really important for Zimbabwe is local production

Finally! However much the authorities bluster on about hoarders and externalisers of hard currency, the main reason for Zimbabwe’s cash squeeze is that local production is low.

“We have always said that the fundamental problem of this economy is not about currency but localised production, stimulating exports and discouraging imports of finished products at all cost,” the central bank chief told the Sunday Mail.

Mangudya did not discuss the reasons why local production is so low.

Some of those are to do with high labour costs, very little foreign investment from outsiders worried about indigenisation and how they’ll get their money out of the country.

But the lack of local production is a huge issue and not one that on its own the rand will be able to sort out.

Source: News24