Electron Native

 

  Nigeria’s diversification plan may still be on track. The nations mines ministry says 50 mines would be operational by 2023.   COVID-19 brought home the reality that oil alone can’t be trusted to earn Africa enough revenue to cater for her citizens. The recent low oil price is a clear evidence of this. The fall in all price resulted in an increase in the price of gold.   Nigeria’s Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite said, the pandemic has slowed things down, but we can catch up”. The nation has a projection of earning 3% from the both processing and available raw minerals.   An example is barite, which used for drilling oil and gas. And the market for it primarily is in Africa, where more exploration for black gold are being carried out.   The minister expects more artisanal miners to benefit from the new plan. This is possible when they form cooperative societies and sell the ores, mostly gold to government buying centres instead of ...

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari comments on the #ENDSARS protests spreading across the nation. He assures of his administration’s commitment to reforming the SARS unit across Nigeria. The President, made the comments in a series of tweets on Friday night, said he had met with the Inspector General of Police, Adamu Mohammed, who he said has briefed him on moves to reform the unit. He urged Nigerians to be patient and calm as they freely exercise their right to protest peacefully. Buhari tweeted: “I met again with the IGP tonight. Our determination to reform the police should never be in doubt. “I am being briefed regularly on the reform efforts ongoing to end police brutality and unethical conduct, and ensure that the Police are fully accountable to the people. “The IG already has my firm instructions to conclusively address the concerns of Nigerians regarding these excesses, & ensure erring personnel are brought to justice. “I appeal for patience & calm, even as Nig...

Mauritius’s economy is expected to contract by between 7.5% and 15% in 2020 due to the effects of the coronavirus, which have hit its tourism, manufacturing, and transport sectors, the central bank governor said on Friday.   Bank of Mauritius Governor Harvesh Seegolam said in a statement that these sectors, alongside information and communications, business and administrative activities, and wholesale and storage, made up almost 40% of gross domestic product. The bank had in March forecast growth of 2.6% to 2.8% this year. “The contraction in output this year will be severe,” Seegolam said. Mauritius has 334 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, 322 recoveries and 10 deaths. It has suspended international passenger travel, restricted movement on the island, and allowed only essential businesses to stay open. Seegolam said tourism, another important sector, had also slumped and that in April and May alone, the sector had lost 12 billion rupees in foreign exchange...

However, Mr Museveni did not mention any time frame with the comment. But latest available data from the country’s statistics’ office states that in 2017 Uganda earned $2 billion from tourism, an increase from $1.7 billion the previous year. President Museveni adds that the Ugandan economy would also lose the $1.3 billion sent home each year by Ugandans in diaspora as many would be out of work because of the global economic aftershocks of the lockdown. Last month, the International Monetary Fund reported that Uganda’s tourism earnings would fall by 54% in the 2019/20 (July-June) fiscal year, and decline by 52% in 2021. The IMF almost cut its forecast for economic growth in Uganda for the financial year ending in June to 3.3% and projects 3.7% growth in the following fiscal year. In the year ended June 2019, the economy grew 6.5%. Tourism is one of Uganda’s main revenue earners as the east African country attracts visitors to her Savannahs and game reserves to watch...

Morocco’s Royal Air Maroc or RAM is seeking a state loan guarantee to pay for June expenses as it struggles with $5 million in daily losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to its chief executive officer, Abdelhamid Addou. Royal Air Maroc Source : Morocco World News The loan will help state-owned airline maintain its cashflow to meet financial commitments, Addou explains in a letter to RAM staff. The lockdown imposed by Morocco having closed down all flights and imposed a lockdown to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. Addou adds that RAM staff should brace for further austerity measures after salary and spending cuts that helped it uphold its financial commitments in March, April and May. “This is the worst crisis in our history,” he said after RAM’s traffic plunged by 60% in March and 100% in April. The company must adapt to new travel requirements and regulations caused by the pandemic, he said, adding that it could take three years to return RAM’s ...

Facebook and a consortium of African and global telecom firms have agreed a deal to build one of the world’s largest underwater or subsea cable networks. This will boost Internet availability across three continents, it focus on Africa, Middle East and some parts of Europe they said in a joint statement on Thursday. 2Africa Source: Tech Africa The partners in this project are South Africa’s MTN GlobalConnect and Mauritius-based infrastructure provider WIOCC are partners in the project, along with China Mobile International, French telecoms major Orange SA, Saudi Arabia’s stc, Telecom Egypt, and Vodafone. The project, called 2Africa, aims to build 37,000 kilometres of subsea cable infrastructure which will directly connect countries around the African coast to Europe and the Middle East, according to its website. The network will have a design capacity of up to 150 terabytes per second (Tbps) on key parts of the system, according to the site . The 11 new cables rolled ...