Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 26 March 2021

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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 26 March 2021

 


 

 


 <https://www.nedbank.co.zw/> 

 


 

 


ü  Hauliers 'must expect Covid test to enter UK'

ü  Covid: February redundancy plans fall despite lockdown

ü  Minimum wage fight: 'There's no recovery without raising it'

ü  Nike, H&M face China fury over Xinjiang cotton 'concerns'

ü  Suez blockage is holding up $9.6bn of goods a day

ü  Burberry becomes first luxury brand to suffer Chinese backlash over
Xinjiang

ü  Big Tech CEOs told ‘time for self-regulation is over’ by U.S. lawmakers

ü  GameStop soars 32%, leads meme stocks higher with Koss, AMC surging too

ü  Uber to reopen San Francisco offices with limited capacity next week

ü  EXCLUSIVE Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi to make EVs using Great Wall's
plant -sources

ü  New wave of ‘hacktivism’ adds twist to cybersecurity woes

ü  Namibia: Banking Fees Likely to Reduce By Digital Channel Migration -
Murorua

ü  Namibia: NYC Job-Creation Millions Diverted

ü  South Africa: New Bill Wants SA to Halt Trade With Israel

ü  Nigeria: Zamfara, Bauchi, Ekiti Residents Paid Highest Transport Fares in
February - NBS

ü  Malawi Minister Hails Zimbabwe Agriculture

 

 

 

 


 <https://www.facebook.com/Hyundaizimbabwe/> 

 


 

Hauliers 'must expect Covid test to enter UK'

A haulage industry source has said they have been told by the government to
expect drivers to have to take a Covid test when coming into the UK from
mainland Europe.

 

The tests are expected to take place on the UK side.

 

Lorry drivers had previously been exempt from testing coming into the UK.

 

The Department for Transport said it was "carefully monitoring" an increase
in cases in Europe and would keep all measures under review.

 

Four days ago Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that a third wave of the
pandemic in Europe could "wash up on the UK's shores."

 

This week Germany extended its lockdown over Easter due to a third wave of
infections and France's president Emmanuel Macron said he wanted
vaccinations "morning, noon and night" after an increase in intensive care
cases and hospital admissions.

 

Now, some in the haulage industry say they've been told to expect that lorry
drivers will be required to take a Covid test after travelling from mainland
Europe to England.

 

France has stopped mandatory testing for hauliers travelling from the UK to
France, a measure that had been in place from December due concerns about a
UK variant of the disease.

 

Hauliers travelling from the UK to Denmark, Germany or the Netherlands still
require a test.

 

The Department for Transport said: "We are carefully monitoring the increase
in cases in Europe and will keep all measures under review as we cautiously
remove restrictions throughout our roadmap."

 

The government has been encouraging international hauliers due to be in the
UK for more than 48 hours to take a free coronavirus test.

 

Hauliers leaving the UK can also take a free test.

 

Tighter restrictions ahead

Trade volumes with the continent declined in January due to Covid-19
restrictions and the impact of new arrangements under Brexit.

 

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that UK goods
exported to the European Union fell 40.7% in January, while imports tumbled
28.8%.

 

Nevertheless, the Prime Minister has indicated the government might further
tighten restrictions on arrivals from France, including hauliers, to stop
new variants of the Covid-19 virus spreading from the rest of Europe.

 

Britain has banned foreign travel until at least 17 May, except for
essential work, education or health reasons. Ministers are due to review
that position in April.

 

Questioning the PM at the Liaison Committee on Thursday, Labour's Yvette
Cooper said every week 20,000 people arrived from France, and two-thirds of
them - including lorry drivers - were exempt from those restrictions.--BBC

 

 

 

Covid: February redundancy plans fall despite lockdown

British firms planned fewer job cuts last month despite many being forced to
close by Covid lockdowns.

 

About 26,600 jobs were put at risk, one-fifth below January's figure and
slightly lower than February 2020.

 

The numbers suggest that government support schemes have helped prevent the
mass redundancies seen in the first lockdown.

 

The figures from the Insolvency Service were obtained by a BBC Freedom of
Information request.

 

Employers planning 20 or more redundancies have to notify the government via
the Insolvency Service by filing a form called HR1.

 

Because these filings happen at the start of the redundancy process, they
give an early indication of labour market changes months before they show up
in unemployment figures published by the Office for National Statistics
(ONS).

 

Chart showing planned redundancies by month for 2019, 2020 and 2021

The numbers vary considerably from month to month, so it is hard to draw
conclusions from small changes.

 

But there is no sign of a significant spike in job cuts as seen last summer,
when businesses were first counting the cost of large parts of the economy
being forced to shut.

 

Government support schemes, such as the furlough scheme where the government
contributes to workers' wages at struggling firms, have helped to keep
redundancy and unemployment figures down.

 

At least 4.7 million workers were on furlough at the end of February,
according to provisional figures from HMRC.

 

In March, the chancellor announced that furlough would be extended until the
end of September. But experts fear that unemployment and business failures
will increase again as government support is withdrawn.

 

"A lot of those firms are not going to be able to afford to pay the full
wages after 30 September," says Dr Nicola Headlam of Red Flag Alert, a
company that monitors the financial health of companies.

 

"Without furlough, a lot of those jobs are gone. There is going to be a lot
of shakeout."

 

For one rural restaurant on the road to the Scottish Highlands, the furlough
scheme has been a lifeline.

 

With only 150 people in the village, the Real Food Cafe in Tyndrum depends
almost entirely on travellers - and that trade all but dried up when the
pandemic hit.

 

It has 21 full-time staff who will have spent 44 weeks out of 60 on furlough
by the time they reopen in April, says co-owner Alan McColm.

 

Without furlough, he would have had no option but to make his staff
redundant, help them as much as possible, and hope to hire them back once
the business reopened.

 

Avoiding that has been a "godsend", he says.

 

Attracting workers to his beautiful but remote location is not easy. So if
his team did feel they had to leave, it would be tough to replace them.

 

He is confident that his business will survive and thrive after lockdown.
Some of the changes he has made to cope with Covid, such as ordering by
phone, will continue to pay dividends for years to come.

 

Nonetheless, keeping those workers on furlough has cost £6,000 a month in
national insurance, pension and payroll costs.

 

And the stress of depending on an ever-changing furlough scheme has taken a
toll on his mental health.

 

"I like to be in control," says the former IBM executive. "And this is the
first time I have not been able to remove the uncertainty. That has been the
biggest challenge of the whole thing."

 

The number of firms filing redundancy notifications is broadly unchanged in
February at 340. This figure also shows a big decline from the extraordinary
levels seen last summer.

 

Employers only notify government about proposed redundancies, and they often
make fewer job cuts than they initially plan.

 

But because the notifications are only necessary for employers planning 20
or more job cuts, the overall number of redundancies measured by the ONS
usually turns out to be higher than HR1 total.

 

Firms in Northern Ireland file their HR1 forms with the Northern Ireland
Statistics and Research Agency and they are not included in these
figures.-BBC

 

 

 

Minimum wage fight: 'There's no recovery without raising it'

When 23-year-old Jamila Allen cast her vote for Joe Biden in the US
presidential election last year, one thing was top of her mind: his promise
to raise the country's minimum hourly wage to $15 (£10.80).

 

Jamila, a full-time manager at a fast food restaurant in North Carolina,
earns about $11.20 an hour. With an increase, she saw a chance to breathe
easier financially - to not worry about the cost of food and other basics,
maybe live on her own, even save up to go to university.

 

But though Mr Biden won the White House, the prospects of such a change to
the minimum wage remain unclear.

 

Last month, a proposal to include the increase in the $1.9 trillion economic
relief package failed - sunk in part due to lack of support from key members
of his own political party, the Democrats, who said requiring businesses to
pay $15 an hour by 2025 went too far.

 

Now, as Mr Biden turns to other priorities, such as a massive package of
infrastructure spending, there is a risk the issue will get lost.

 

"We've been fighting for so long," Jamila says. "To see that the people we
voted for really denied it made me feel really disappointed."

 

Can a $15 minimum wage still pass?

Polls show widespread support for raising the national minimum wage, which
has been stuck at $7.25 (£5.22) - roughly $15,000 annually - since 2009.

 

In recent years, under pressure from activists, 30 states and Washington DC
have taken steps to boost pay above that standard. Nine will have minimum
rates at or above $15 per hour by 2025.

 

Major employers like Amazon, Target and grocery store Kroger have also set
starting pay at that amount.

 

But efforts to extend the increase countrywide have repeatedly failed.

 

The Raise the Wage Act would have increased the minimum hourly rate to $9.50
this year and to $15 by 2025. It also proposed expanding the minimum rate to
more groups, such as people under the age of 20, disabled and tipped
workers.

 

Economists estimate such a move would boost pay for roughly 30 million
people, or about one in six US workers - disproportionately black and
Hispanic women in southern states.

 

"There are 20 states that haven't and won't raise their own minimum wages
[without] federal action," says Judy Conti, government affairs director at
the National Employment Law Project, which has pushed for an increase. "It
is leaving way too many people behind
 and it is leaving them behind in a
systemically discriminatory way."

 

Senators from both political parties have said they are open to an increase.

 

After all, the current minimum is so low that less than 2% of US workers
earn at or below that rate - even less than in the UK, where the comparable
figure stands at about 7%.

 

But many business groups and politicians favour a smaller increase - to $10
or $11 an hour - arguing that $15 doesn't account for the difference between
places like high-cost New York City and rural Mississippi.

 

Lawmakers looking at a rise should account for regional cost-of-living
variation, reconsider the timeframe to phase in a hike, and include other
support for businesses, says Sean Kennedy, executive vice president of
public affairs for the National Restaurant Association, which opposed the
increase to $15 in the relief bill, including the expansion to tipped
workers.

 

"We are absolutely ready for a real conversation on what to do about
increases to the minimum wage, but the Raise the Wage Act is not the right
way to do it," he says.

 

'Wrong' time?

The pandemic has complicated the conversation.

 

Many on the right say acting now will hurt small firms in the already
battered restaurant and hospitality sector, risking millions of jobs needed
for a recovery - an estimated 1.4 million by one government estimate.

 

But supporters of a change say $15 hourly pay - a target activists first set
back in 2012 - would help stimulate spending, and argue that the dollars
involved are not radical.

 

Equating to roughly $31,000 a year, it is barely enough for a single adult
to afford basic necessities in most parts of the country, according to a
living wage calculator put together by researchers at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT).

 

"Workers in this country have compromised enough," says Lauren Jacobs,
executive director at the Partnership for Working Families, a national
network of advocacy groups.

 

"The reason why so many people and so many families are on the precipice of
eviction and that hunger has expanded so much is because of the working
conditions that existed before the pandemic started. Raising the minimum
wage is a long-term fix to getting at some of the root causes."

 

Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage, which represents tipped workers
and restaurants that support an increase, says the topic remains the subject
of active discussions in Washington and she is optimistic that it will pass
eventually.

 

"There is no recovery without raising the wage. You can't 'build back
better'," says Ms Jayaraman in a pointed reference to Mr Biden's campaign
slogan. "So it's not dead by any means - it's actually much more alive than
it's been in a very long time."

 

Activists don't plan to let Mr Biden forget his promises.

 

"We need $15. I know people who are getting paid $13 and still can't afford
things," says Jamila, who joined the Fight for $15 campaign a few years ago
when she started working at the Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers chain
in Durham.

 

"So we're going to keep pushing, keep yelling, keep talking and we're going
to make them listen."--BBC

 

 

 

 

Nike, H&M face China fury over Xinjiang cotton 'concerns'

Retail giants Nike and H&M are facing a backlash in China after they
expressed concern about the alleged use of Uighur forced labour in cotton
production.

 

Many Chinese have called for boycotts, celebrities have cut ties and
e-commerce platforms have dropped H&M.

 

Several Western countries imposed sanctions on China this week.

 

It is accused of committing serious human rights violations against the
Uighur Muslim minority in the Xinjiang autonomous region. China denies this.

 

The sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, target senior
officials in the north-west region.

 

In December the BBC published in an investigation based on new research
showing China was forcing hundreds of thousands of minorities including
Uighurs into manual labour in Xinjiang's cotton fields.

 

How did Nike and H&M find themselves here?

The statements in question were made by the companies last year, but only
resurfaced in recent days following the announcement of Western sanctions.

 

Both companies had said in separate statements that they were "concerned"
about reports that Uighurs were being forced to pick cotton in Xinjiang, and
that they did not source products from the region.

 

But the latest furore appears to have been sparked by a recent social media
post by the Communist Youth League, a Chinese Communist Party group.

 

"Spreading rumours to boycott Xinjiang cotton, while also wanting to make
money in China? Wishful thinking!" it said on microblogging platform Weibo
on Wednesday morning, as it shared screenshots of H&M's statement.

 

Fashion brands face scrutiny over Xinjiang cotton

UK tightens rules on using Uighur-picked cotton

State media outlets have since launched campaigns defending Xinjiang cotton
and criticising the brands.

 

Chinese state media CGTN shared a video on Weibo claiming to show the
reality of cotton-picking in Xinjiang, which involved automation and quotes
from a Uighur farmer saying that people "fought" to work there for high
earnings.

 

State broadcaster CCTV said that H&M (Hennes & Mauritz) - a multinational
firm with the headquarters in Sweden - had "miscalculated" in trying to be a
"righteous hero", and that it "must pay a heavy price for its wrong
actions".

 

H&M China has not yet responded to queries from the BBC, but the company
posted a statement on Weibo on Wednesday saying that it "respects Chinese
consumers as always" and that it "does not represent any political
position".

 

By Wednesday night, at least three major Chinese e-commerce platforms -
Pinduoduo, JD.com and Tmall - had withdrawn H&M products from sale, reports
said.

 

Various celebrities such as Wang Yibo, Huang Xuan and Victoria Song released
statements that they were severing ties with the brands, with one noting
that "the country's interests are above all".

 

Social media has seen a huge wave of backlash against both companies, with
numerous calls for people to boycott their products. The hashtag "I support
Xinjiang cotton" is now the top trending topic on Weibo with more than 1.8bn
views.

 

Analysis box by Robin Brant, Shanghai correspondent

H&M has a long relationship with China, which is important to both sides.
China is one of H&M's main sources of supply and it is a big market too.

 

But calling out China on what it regards as a core domestic issue is
something Beijing doesn't like. Just ask South Korea or the Philippines,
whose shop chains and fruit exports both suffered after diplomatic spats.

 

China likes to use its trading might and retail nationalism to pressure
governments and multinationals - both at the same time preferably - to keep
them quiet about its abuses.

 

The timing of this sudden "grassroots" reaction, led by celebrities who've
been happy to take H&M money in exchange for endorsement, is down to a wave
of co-ordinated sanctions imposed by the UK, US and EU in the last few days
- endorsed by Sweden among others.

 

What is Xinjiang and who are the Uighurs?

Xinjiang, China's biggest region, produces about a fifth of the world's
cotton. An autonomous region in theory, in reality it faces restrictions
which have only increased in recent years

Millions of China's Uighurs, a Muslim minority that sees itself as
culturally and ethnically close to Central Asian nations, live in Xinjiang

In recent decades, mass migration of Han Chinese (China's ethnic majority)
to Xinjiang has fuelled tensions with Uighurs which has at points flared
into deadly violence

This has resulted in a massive security crackdown and an extensive state
surveillance programme, which critics say violate Uighur human rights. China
says such measures are necessary to combat separatism and terrorism

Uighurs have been detained at camps where allegations of torture, forced
labour and sexual abuse have emerged. China has denied these claims saying
the camps are "re-education" facilities aimed at lifting Uighurs out of
poverty--BBC

 

 

 

Suez blockage is holding up $9.6bn of goods a day

The stranded Ever Given mega-container ship in the Suez Canal is holding up
an estimated $9.6bn (£7bn) of goods each day, according to shipping data.

 

This works out at $400m an hour in trade along the waterway which is a vital
passageway between east and west.

 

Data from shipping expert Lloyd's List values the canal's westbound traffic
at roughly $5.1bn a day, and eastbound daily traffic at around $4.5bn.

 

Despite efforts to free the ship, it could take weeks to remove experts say.

 

The Ever Given, operated by the Taiwanese company Evergreen Marine, is the
length of four football pitches and one of the world's biggest container
vessels. The 200,000-tonne ship is capable of carrying 20,000 containers.

 

Its blockage is causing huge tailbacks of other ships trying to pass through
the Suez Canal.

 

"What are we thinking? Have vessels gotten too large? Containers being
jettisoned overboard, delayed transits due to terminal congestion and let us
not forget the long line of vessels at many ports waiting for a berth," said
Jon Monroe, who runs his own ocean transportation consultancy.

 

The canal, which separates Africa from the Middle East and Asia, is one of
the busiest trade routes in the world, with about 12% of total global trade
moving through it.

 

Along with oil, the sea traffic is largely consumer products such as
clothing, furniture, manufacturing components and car parts.

 

According to Lloyd's List tracking data there are more than 160 vessels
waiting at either end of the canal. These include 41 bulk carriers and 24
crude tankers.

 

BIMCO, an international shipping association, says the delays will only
continue to grow and affect supplies.

 

"For each day of delay my thought is it will take two days to undo the
delays," said Alan Baer, president of logistics provider OL USA.

 

"Right now three days creates six days of ongoing delays. I'm not sure this
is a perfect formula, but it will be close," he told the BBC.

 

In addition to delaying thousands of containers loaded with consumer items,
the stranded ship has also tied up empty containers which are needed for
exports.

 

Contingency plans

If the delays are short, most companies will absorb the extra delay in
transit times. But salvage officials said the congestion could last days or
even weeks, in a blow to global supply chains already strained by the
Covid-19 pandemic.

 

"If it appears that this will go on for an undefined time period, vessels
will start to go around Africa adding seven to nine days of steaming," added
Mr Baer.

 

"Once the cargo is on the ship there is not much a shipper or consignee can
do to change that individual vessel's ETA."

 

Some companies will be considering flying replacement merchandise for higher
value products, or transporting them via trains.

 

Two major shipping companies, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, said they are looking
into options to avoid the Suez Canal.

 

Egypt's Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said it was doing all it could to refloat
the ship with tug boats, dredgers and heavy earth-moving equipment.--BBC

 

 

 

Burberry becomes first luxury brand to suffer Chinese backlash over Xinjiang

Burberry (BRBY.L) has lost a Chinese brand ambassador and its hallmark
tartan design was scrubbed from a popular video game, becoming the first
luxury brand assailed by the Chinese backlash to Western accusations of
abuses in Xinjiang.

 

China on Friday sanctioned organisations and individuals in the United
Kingdom over what it called "lies and disinformation" about Xinjiang, days
after Britain imposed sanctions for alleged human rights abuses in the
western Chinese region. read more

 

Burberry is a member of the Better Cotton Initiative, a group that promotes
sustainable cotton production which said in October it was suspending its
approval of cotton sourced from Xinjiang, citing human rights concerns.

 

Award-winning Chinese actress Zhou Dongyu terminated her contract with
Burberry as the brand's ambassador, as Burberry has not "clearly and
publicly stated its stance on cotton from Xinjiang," her agency said on
Thursday.

 

The company's iconic plaid design was also removed from the clothing worn by
characters in Tencent Holdings Ltd's (0700.HK) wildly popular video game
"Honor of Kings", according to a post on the game's official Weibo account,
winning praise from China's netizens.

 

Burberry China did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Burberry cotton is sourced from the United States, Australia, Turkey, India
and Egypt, according to its website.

 

The backlash - particularly in social and traditional media - has also
enveloped mass-market brands like H&M (HMb.ST), Adidas AG (ADSGn.DE) and
Nike Inc (NKE.N) which have previously expressed critical views on labour
conditions in Xinjiang, China's biggest cotton-producing region. read more

 

Activists and U.N. rights experts have accused China of using mass
detainment, torture, forced labour and sterilisations on Uighurs in
Xinjiang. China denies these claims and says its actions in the region are
necessary to counter extremism.

 

In a letter to British lawmakers in November, Burberry said it did not have
any operations in Xinjiang or work with any suppliers based there, adding
that it did not condone any form of modern slavery among its suppliers,
including forced, bonded or involuntary prison labour.

 

The China National Textile and Apparel Council in a statement on Friday
urged international brands to cease "wrong behaviour", including the
exclusion of cotton from Xinjiang in their supply chain, out of respect for
Chinese customers.

 

Hong Kong lawmaker Regina Ip said she would stop buying Burberry.

 

"Burberry is one of my favorite brands. But I will stop buying Burberry
products. I stand with my country in boycotting companies that spread lies
about Xinjiang," Ip wrote on her Twitter account.

 

 

 

 

Big Tech CEOs told ‘time for self-regulation is over’ by U.S. lawmakers

In their first appearance before Congress since Trump supporters stormed the
U.S. Capitol, the chief executives of Facebook, Google and Twitter were
asked by U.S. lawmakers whether their platforms bore some responsibility for
the riot: “yes or no?”

 

 

Social media has been widely blamed for amplifying calls to violence and
spreading misinformation that contributed to the Jan. 6 attempt to violently
overturn the election results.

 

Only Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) CEO Jack Dorsey replied "yes" to the question, but
said the "broader ecosystem" had to be taken into account. Sundar Pichai,
chief executive of Google parent Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), said the company
always feels a sense of responsibility but it was a complex question.

 

Facebook Inc (FB.O)'s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company was responsible
for building "effective systems". He also said that the rioters and former
President Donald Trump should be held accountable.

 

Lawmakers widely slammed the platforms' approach to false or dangerous
content. The three companies have taken steps to curb misinformation but
researchers have shown it is still widely present on the platforms.

 

"We fled as a mob desecrated the Capitol, the House floor, and our
democratic process," said Democratic Representative Mike Doyle, who asked
the CEOs about their responsibility. "That attack, and the movement that
motivated it, started and was nourished on your platforms," he added.

 

The hearing was virtual but advocacy group SumOfUs erected cut-outs of the
three CEOs dressed as Jan. 6 rioters on the National Mall near the Capitol.
One showed Zuckerberg as the "QAnon Shaman," a shirtless rioter wearing
horns.

 

In the joint hearing, held by two subcommittees of the House Energy and
Commerce Committee, lawmakers also questioned the executives on the
proliferation of COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation and raised concerns
about the impact of social media on children - including asking questions
about Facebook's plan to create a version of Instagram for kids.

 

"Your business model itself has become the problem and the time for
self-regulation is over. It's time we legislate to hold you accountable,"
said Democratic Representative Frank Pallone, chair of the Energy and
Commerce committee.

 

Some lawmakers are calling for Section 230 of the Communications Decency
Act, which shields online platforms from liability over user content, to be
scrapped or rejigged. There are several pieces of legislation from Democrats
to reform Section 230 that are doing the rounds in Congress, though progress
has been slow. Several Republican lawmakers have also been pushing
separately to scrap the law entirely.

 

In written testimony released on Wednesday, Facebook argued that Section 230
should be redone to allow companies immunity from liability for what users
put on their platforms only if they follow best practices for removing
damaging material.

 

Pichai and Dorsey said in the hearing they were open to some of the changes
in Facebook's proposal. Pichai said there were some "good proposals." Dorsey
endorsed some of the suggestions from Zuckerberg but said it would be
difficult to distinguish between small and large services.

 

Republicans on the panel also criticized the tech giants for what they see
as efforts to stifle conservative voices.

 

Trump was banned by Twitter over inciting violence around Jan. 6, while
Facebook has asked its independent oversight board to rule on whether to bar
him permanently. He is still suspended from YouTube.

 

At one point in the hearing, Dorsey appeared to grow frustrated and tweeted
“?” with a poll asking Twitter users to vote “yes” or “no.” There were more
than 40,000 votes cast in about 30 minutes.

 

 

 

GameStop soars 32%, leads meme stocks higher with Koss, AMC surging too

Shares in GameStop (GME.N) and other so-called meme stocks popular among
members of Reddit's WallStreetBets forum jumped on Thursday as investors
bought shares whose prices tumbled in the previous session.

 

Shares in video-game retailer GameStop were last up 32.1% at $159.02 with
brisk trading volume, erasing much of the previous session's 33.8% decline
after the company said it was evaluating the possibility of a share sale.
read more

 

Volatility has spiked this year in GameStop shares, which have risen from
just $18.84 at the end of 2020 and reached a record high of $483 in late
January before falling sharply and then kicking off another rally in late
February.

 

The company has benefited from a push by retail investors such as Reddit
members to drive up prices of heavily shorted stocks.

 

Investors have also been eyeing efforts by billionaire investor and Chewy
Inc (CHWY.N) co-founder Ryan Cohen, who is on GameStop's board, to transform
the retailer into an e-commerce firm that can take on big-box store rivals
such as Target Corp (TGT.N) and Walmart Inc (WMT.N).

 

Shares in headphone maker Koss Corp (KOSS.O) were up 30.5% at $21.44 with
volume surpassing twice the 10-day moving average. The stock had fallen
almost 22% on Wednesday.

 

Cinema operator AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (AMC.N) were up 15.9% at
$10.45 after falling 36% in the last four sessions with Disney's
announcement on March 23 that it was delaying the release of Marvel Studios
film "Black Widow" by two months until July and planning a simultaneous
theaters and Disney+ streaming release. 

 

 

 

Uber to reopen San Francisco offices with limited capacity next week

Uber Technologies Inc (UBER.N) said on Thursday it plans to reopen its
offices at Mission Bay, San Francisco, with 20% occupancy on March 29, and
provide an option for its staff to return to work on a "voluntary basis".

 

The ride-hailing firm had previously announced the extension of its
work-from-home policy until Sept. 13.

 

The employees returning to office shall adhere to COVID-19 protocols such as
requirement of face coverings during the initial reopening phase,
maintaining safe distance and wipe down areas such as their desks, Uber said
in a statement.

 

The company also said that employees or those with family members who are
sick are required to stay at home.

 

 

 

 

EXCLUSIVE Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi to make EVs using Great Wall's
plant -sources

China's Xiaomi Corp (1810.HK) plans to make electric vehicles (EVs) using
Great Wall Motor Co Ltd's (601633.SS), factory, said three people with
direct knowledge of the matter, making it the latest tech firm to join the
smart mobility race.

 

The tech firm's stock price jumped as much as 6.71% in early Friday trade
after Reuters reported the plan. Great Wall's Hong Kong stock rose more than
8% and its Shanghai shares gained than more than 7%. read more

 

Xiaomi, one of the world's biggest smartphone makers, is in talks to use one
of Great Wall's plants in China to make EVs under its own brand, said two of
the people, who declined to be identified as the information is not public.

 

Xiaomi will aim its EVs at the mass market, in line with the broader
positioning of its electronics products, the two people said.

 

Great Wall, which has not before offered manufacturing services to other
companies, will provide engineering consultancy to speed up the project,
said one of the people.

 

Both companies plan to announce the partnership as soon as early next week,
said one of the people.

 

Xiaomi and Great Wall declined to comment.

 

The plan comes as eight-year-old Xiaomi seeks to diversify its revenue
streams from the smartphone business which accounts for the bulk of its
income but carries razor-thin profit margins. It flagged on Wednesday rising
costs from a global chip shortage and reported quarterly revenue below
market estimates. read more

 

The move also comes against the backdrop of automakers and tech firms
working closer together to develop smarter vehicles with technology such as
smart cabins and autonomous driving.

 

Chinese search engine provider Baidu Inc said in January it plans to make
EVs using an auto plant owned by Geely (GEELY.UL) - an automaker with
aspirations to offer engineering consultancy and contract manufacturing.
read more

 

Reuters has also reported Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Huawei Technologies Co
Ltd's (HWT.UL) respective auto ambitions. read more

 

Xiaomi's founder and chief executive, Lei Jun, believes the firm's expertise
in hardware manufacturing will help accelerate the design and production of
its EVs, one of the people said.

 

Alongside smartphones, Xiaomi makes dozens of internet-connected devices
including scooters, air purifiers and rice cookers.

 

The firm plans to launch its first EV around 2023, one of the people said.
It will enable its cars to connect with other devices in its product
eco-system, the people said.

 

Baoding-based Great Wall, China's biggest pickup truck maker, this year
launched a standalone brand for electric and smart vehicles. It is also
building an EV factory in China with Germany's BMW AG (BMWG.DE).

 

The automaker sold 1.11 million vehicles last year helped by the popularity
of models such as the P-series pickup truck and Ora EVs. It is currently
building its first factory in Thailand.

 

 

 

New wave of ‘hacktivism’ adds twist to cybersecurity woes

At a time when U.S. agencies and thousands of companies are fighting off
major hacking campaigns originating in Russia and China, a different kind of
cyber threat is re-emerging: activist hackers looking to make a political
point.

 

Three major hacks show the power of this new wave of "hacktivism" - the
exposure of AI-driven video surveillance being conducted by the startup
Verkada, a collection of Jan. 6 riot videos from the right-wing social
network Parler, and disclosure of the Myanmar military junta's high-tech
surveillance apparatus.

 

And the U.S. government’s response shows that officials regard the return of
hacktivism with alarm. An indictment last week accused 21-year-old Tillie
Kottmann, a Swiss hacker who took credit for the Verkada breach, of a broad
conspiracy.

 

"Wrapping oneself in an allegedly altruistic motive does not remove the
criminal stench from such intrusion, theft and fraud," Seattle-based Acting
U.S. Attorney Tessa Gorman said.

 

According to a U.S. counter-intelligence strategy released a year ago,
"ideologically motivated entities such as hacktivists, leaktivists, and
public disclosure organizations," are now viewed as "significant threats,"
alongside five countries, three terrorist groups, and "transnational
criminal organizations."

 

Earlier waves of hacktivism, notably by the amorphous collective known as
Anonymous in the early 2010s, largely faded away under law enforcement
pressure. But now a new generation of youthful hackers, many angry about how
the cybersecurity world operates and upset about the role of tech companies
in spreading propaganda, are joining the fray.

 

And some former Anonymous members are returning to the field, including
Aubrey Cottle, who helped revive the group’s Twitter presence last year in
support of the Black Lives Matter protests.

 

Anonymous followers drew attention for disrupting an app that the Dallas
police department was using to field complaints about protesters by flooding
it with nonsense traffic. They also wrested control of Twitter hashtags
promoted by police supporters.

 

"What’s interesting about the current wave of the Parler archive and Gab
hack and leak is that the hacktivism is supporting antiracist politics or
antifascism politics,” said Gabriella Coleman, an anthropologist at McGill
University, Montreal, who wrote a book on Anonymous.

 

Gab, a social network favored by white nationalists and other right-wing
extremists, has also been hurt by the hacktivist campaign and had to shut
down for brief periods after breaches.

 

DISRUPTING QANON

 

Most recently, Cottle has been focused on QAnon and hate groups.

 

"QAnon trying to adopt Anonymous and merge itself into Anonymous proper,
that was the straw that broke the camel’s back," said Cottle, who has held a
number of web development and engineering jobs, including a stint at
Ericsson.

 

He found email data showing that people in charge of the 8kun image board,
where the persona known as Q posted, were in steady contact with major
promoters of QAnon conspiracies.

 

The new-wave hacktivists also have a preferred place for putting materials
they want to make public - Distributed Denial of Secrets, a transparency
site that took up the mantle of WikiLeaks with less geopolitical bias. The
site’s collective is led by Emma Best, an American known for filing prolific
freedom of information requests.

 

Best’s two-year-old site coordinating access by researchers and media to a
hoard of posts taken from Gab by unidentified hackers. In an essay this
week, Best praised Kottmann and said leaks would keep coming, not just from
hacktivists but insiders and the ransomware operators who publish files when
companies don’t pay them off.

 

"Indictments like Tillie's show just how scared the government is, and just
how many corporations consider embarrassment a greater threat than
insecurity," Best wrote.

 

The events covered by the Kottmann indictment took place from November 2019
through January 2021. The core allegation is that the Lucerne software
developer and associates broke into a number of companies, removed computer
code and published it. The indictment also said Kottmann spoke to the media
about poor security practices by the victims and stood to profit, if only by
selling shirts saying things like “venture anticapitalist” and “catgirl
hacker.”

 

But it was only after Kottmann publicly took credit for breaching Verkada
and posted alarming videos from inside big companies, medical facilities and
a jail that Swiss authorities raided their home at the behest of the U.S.
government. Kottmann uses non-binary pronouns.

 

"This move by the U.S. government is clearly not only an attempt to disrupt
the freedom of information, but also primarily to intimidate and silence
this newly emerging wave of hacktivists and leaktivists," Kottmann said in
an interview with Reuters.

 

Kottmann and their lawyer declined to discuss the U.S. charges of wire fraud
for some of Kottmann's online statements, aggravated identity theft for
using employee credentials, and conspiracy, which together are enough for a
lengthy prison sentence.

 

The FBI declined an interview request. If it seeks extradition, the Swiss
would determine whether Kottmann’s purported actions would have violated
that country’s laws.

 

DISDAIN

 

Kottmann was open about their disdain for the law and corporate
powers-that-be. “Like many people, I’ve always been opposed to intellectual
property as a concept and specifically how it’s used to limit our
understanding of the systems that run our daily lives,” Kottmann said.

 

A European friend of Kottmann’s known as "donk_enby," a reference to being
non-binary in gender, is another major figure in the hacktivism revival.
Donk grew angry about conspiracy theories spread by QAnon followers on the
social media app Parler that drove protests against COVID-19 health
measures.

 

Following a Cottle post about a leak from Parler in November, Donk dissected
the iOS version of Parler’s app and found a poor design choice. Each post
bore an assigned number, and she could use a program to keep adding 1 to
that number and download every single post in sequence.

 

After the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots, Donk shared links to the web addresses
of a million Parler video posts and asked her Twitter followers to download
them before rioters who recorded themselves inside the building deleted the
evidence. The trove included not just footage but exact locations and
timestamps, allowing members of Congress to catalogue the violence and the
FBI to identify more suspects.

 

Popular with far-right figures, Parler has struggled to stay online after
being dropped by Google and Amazon. Donk's actions alarmed users who thought
some videos would remain private, hindering the its attempt at a comeback.

 

In the meantime, protesters in Myanmar asked Donk for help, leading to file
dumps that prompted Google to pull its blogging platform and email accounts
from leaders of the Feb. 1 coup. Donk's identification of numerous other
military contractors helped fuel sanctions that continue to pile up.

 

One big change from the earlier era of hacktivisim is that hackers can now
make money legally by reporting the security weaknesses they find to the
companies involved, or taking jobs with cybersecurity firms.

 

But some view so-called bug bounty programs, and the hiring of hackers to
break into systems to find weaknesses, as mechanisms for protecting
companies who should be exposed.

 

"We're not going to hack and help secure anyone we think is doing something
extremely unethical," said John Jackson, an American researcher who works
with Cottle on above-ground projects. "We're not going to hack surveillance
companies and help them secure their infrastructure."

 

 

 

 

Namibia: Banking Fees Likely to Reduce By Digital Channel Migration -
Murorua

Traditional banking fees in southern Africa, which some believe are the
highest in the world, are expected to plateau and eventually reduce given
the escalating migration of bank customers to digital channels.

 

This is according to Nedbank Namibia Managing Director Martha Murorua, who
yesterday told New Era it is unlikely banks will consider increasing their
banking fees in light of the current operating environment, where
traditional brick and mortar options are being replaced by less costly
digital options.

 

Speaking during a virtual conference on Nedbank's latest financial results,
Murorua noted that banking fees are usually kept at a minimum and are only
subject to an inflationary increase.

 

Adding that Nedbank's banking fees are the cheapest in the Namibian market,
Murorua pointed out that many of Nedbank's digital channels are actually
free.

 

Nedbank Namibia's financial results for the year ended 31 December 2020
showed negative growth of just over 64%, which saw the bank lose more than
N$200 million in profit, compared to the previous year.

The latest results indicate Nedbank Namibia's profit level for 2020 stood at
about N$117 million, compared to more than N$330 million the previous year.

 

The annual financial statements also show a significant reduction in net
interest income, where slightly over N$116 million was lost, registering
negative growth of more than 13%.

 

Meanwhile, Nedbank Namibia's impairments of advances increased by N$137
million to N$246 million from N$108 million the previous year.

 

Murorua confirmed the huge increase in impairments is attributed to the
recessionary environment, which has been exacerbated by reduced economic
activity as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

Meanwhile, the results revealed that over 1 500 Nedbank Namibia clients
asked for payment holidays, restructuring and overdraft assistance to the
tune of N$2.1 billion.

Moreover, Nedbank Namibia's parent company in South Africa, the Nedbank
Group, improved their financial performance in the second half of 2020, as
headline earnings declined by 56.5%, compared to a decline of 69.2% in the
first half of 2020.

 

The Group's headline earnings for the year were affected by higher
impairments and lower revenues; the latter is mainly due to lower levels of
client activity and the impact of lower interest rates on endowment income.

 

Commenting on the latest results, Nedbank Group CEO Mike Brown said the
group had demonstrated strong levels of resilience in a difficult economic
environment and was able to provide significant levels of cashflow support
to clients who were negatively impacted by the Covid lockdowns, while
remaining well-capitalised, liquid and profitable, albeit at levels lower
than in the prior year.

 

"Our primary focus has been on the health and safety of our stakeholders,
including employees and clients, as well as on helping our clients in good
standing to navigate the financial challenges that arose in their business
and personal finances. We thank all our committed Nedbank employees for
remaining resilient during an extraordinarily difficult time," said Brown.

 

"Ultimately, the pace of the domestic economic recovery will depend on how
quickly SA can achieve population immunity as the phased Covid-19 vaccine
rollout races against new and more contagious variants of the virus. Simply
put, in 2021 vaccination is the best economic policy. The outlook for the SA
economy is nevertheless more promising, with the recovery supported by
firmer consumer spending, the rebuilding of domestic inventories and
stronger commodity prices and export growth, particularly during the second
half of the year," Brown concluded.-New Era.

 

 

 

Namibia: NYC Job-Creation Millions Diverted

THE National Youth Council spent funds meant for entrepreneurship projects
on its general assembly and restructuring exercise, while local youths
continue to cry out for job opportunities to sustain themselves.

 

The NYC received N$15 million specifically for youth entrepreneurship
projects in addition to the council's annual budget allocation for the
2019/20 financial year.

 

During the 2019/20 budget statement, former finance minister Calle
Schlettwein reiterated that this additional allocation was solely for youth
entrepreneurship projects to resuscitate growth and jobs in the economy.

 

During the same financial year, NYC also received an additional N$9,5
million to support youth employment and self-employment.

 

These were to complement youth-related projects under the youth and sports
ministry as well as support facilities at the Development Bank of Namibia
and other government agencies.

As yet, no permanent job has been created with the additional allocation.

 

Instead of spending money on the intended projects, the council splashed
millions on its internal restructuring process, including huge amounts paid
out for travel and subsistence allowances. The total amount spent on the
council's internal processes includes N$1,5 million on the restructuring of
constituencies and regional youth forums and N$1,3 million on its general
assembly held late last year.

 

More than N$350 000 spent for the Rietfontein event was paid out as travel
and subsistence allowances for NYC officials, delegates, and the interim
board.

 

The council also paid close to N$100 000 on overtime, N$213 100 on
accommodation, N$220 075 on drinks and food supply and N$8 000 on youth
volunteer allowances.

Since Schlettwein's time, Namibia's economic conditions worsened with a
budget deficit of 12,5% of gross domestic product, over 12 000 people losing
jobs and businesses closing with the dragging Covid-19 pandemic.

 

According to the Namibia Labour Force Survey 2018, the country's youth
unemployment rate is 46,1%, which is an increase of 2,7% compared to the
43,4% reported in 2016.

 

The additional allocation only reached the council's account towards the end
of August 2019. The budget of the general assembly and the restructuring
should have come from the council's annual budget allocation.

 

This redirection of the funds was approved by the council's management and
former board before it was shared with the Ministry of Sport, Youth and
National Service to which it reports, Sharonice Busch, who was elected as
NYC executive chairperson in December last year at the council general
assembly, told The Namibian.

The council originally planned to spend only N$1,2 million but overspent by
N$166 007 on the four-day general assembly held at Rietfontein.

 

Meanwhile, the NYC restructured its constituencies and regional youth forums
with money meant to create entrepreneurship projects for the youth.

 

For the constituency forum restructuring, the council spent N$700 000 and
the restructuring of regional youth forums cost N$560 000. Both amounts
included travelling and accommodation costs.

 

The regional coordinators regional executive committee got daily allowances
amounting to N$58 425 and youth officers' travel allowances totalled
N$97,185.

 

The travelling allowances for the interim board cost N$31 847 and N$53 496
for the officials.

 

For catering, the council spent N$16 829. This was confirmed in financial
reports seen by The Namibian.

 

JOBS CREATED

 

NYC did use some of the money to create temporary jobs, with the hope that
this would result in permanent jobs.

 

Busch recently told The Namibian that as of 31 December 2020, NYC created
610 jobs of less than 12 months, of which 126 were created through the
horticulture project and 484 under a project labelled 'Namibian youth
response to Covid-19' where young people were hired to educate fellow youths
and the general population on how to stop the spread of the virus.

 

Another 84 young people were also hired for 12 months for the horticulture
project.

 

The council hopes the 84 young business owners who were trained through its
youth development grant programme will permanently employ at least one
person.

 

These temporary jobs cost the council N$4,9 million.

 

THE ACTUAL YOUTH PROJECTS FUNDED

 

To date, the council primarily spent the money on the vegetable production
project (horticulture), their response to Covid-19 during youth week,
support for youth organisations as well as regional forum restructuring.

 

Horticulture seems to be the council's biggest project, taking up N$3,2
million of the N$15 million funding.

 

The money was spent on contractors' fees, greenhouses, the launch,
travelling allowances and the solar system, among other expenses.

 

Fourteen sites were identified for the project countrywide.

 

Six young people per region will own businesses and each get equipment
support worth N$25 000.

 

Other projects the council funded were support for youth organisations (N$54
000), monitoring and evaluation (N$26 000), credit for youth in business
(N$56 000), youth expo (N$520 000) and European Union Erasmus projects
(N$120 000).

 

Currently, most of the registered job seekers have senior secondary
education (393) followed by those with junior secondary education (446),
certificates/diplomas (216), primary education (146), university degrees
(63), post-graduate (28), and no formal education (26).

 

Youth executive director Audrin Mathe referred The Namibian to the council's
board chaired by Busch.

 

STUDENTS' REACTIONS

 

The Students Union of Namibia secretary for political education Maximilliant
Katjimune expressed disappointment in the NYC, saying it is disheartening
considering the massive youth unemployment in the country, standing at over
44%.

 

"However, this does not surprise us. We know that NYC has been suffering
from a gross incapacity of leadership and good corporate governance. This
gross incapacity is not only on the administrative level, but also on the
political leadership level in terms of the board," Katjimune added.

 

Katjimune believes the employees at that organisation must be held
accountable for this gross abuse of taxpayers' money.

 

"And it must start with us getting clarity on this N$15 million that was
misused," he added.

 

Meanwhile, the Namibia National Students Organisation (Nanso) spokesperson
Dylan Mukuroli concurred with SUN and urged the NYC leadership to ensure the
remainder of the funds serves the intended purpose of job creation.

 

"If their programmes managed to create 84 permanent jobs, they must
immediately duplicate that and roll out more. There is no time to continue
experimenting," he said.

 

Mukuroli further said NYC must also see how they can continue providing
support to the temporary workers.-Namibian.

 

 

 

South Africa: New Bill Wants SA to Halt Trade With Israel

Israel's export of weapons to the United States and South Africa - and a
proposed law to stop this and other trades - was discussed at this year's
Israeli Apartheid Week.

 

Member of Parliament Mandla Mandela has endorsed a bill that would make it
illegal for the South African government and private sector to have trade or
diplomatic ties with Israel.

 

The Implementation and Protection of Palestinian Solidarity Rights Bill is a
citizen's bill, written by human rights attorney Ziyaad Patel and endorsed
by Mandela, Nelson Mandela's grandson, who is one of the ruling party's
parliamentarians.

 

The bill was discussed at an online seminar on 20 March organised by the
South African Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Coalition as part of
Israeli Apartheid Week. The initiative launched in 2004 and features annual
global protests and seminars to build support for the global BDS campaign
and highlight Israel's apartheid policies against Palestinians.

Mandela said the bill was a "long overdue and worthy contribution to our
collective efforts to mobilise all sectors of society towards our mutual
goals of ending the occupation, right of return of all Palestinian refugees,
freeing of all political prisoners, stopping expansion of illegal settlement
and securing the right to free political determination for all citizens of
occupied Palestine".

 

A summary of the bill says it aims to "construct a legally enabling
framework which converts the political rhetoric of South Africa's governing
political party, the African National Congress and/or other such political
parties into tangible support for the international Palestinian Solidarity
Intifada".

 

While the "BDS movement has breathed new life and impetus into the struggle
for Palestine", there were still "contradictions and failures" in the South
African government's approach to Palestine, such as "the denial of visa free
status to Palestinians whilst apartheid Israel enjoys such privilege, the
security status of [Israeli national airline] El Al at OR Tambo
International Airport and ... the movement of financial services and goods
to apartheid Israel", said Mandela.

"I am in full support of the draft bill. BDS is the most powerful tool in
the hands of the Palestinian people and of activists in the solidarity
movement," he added.

 

The willingness of governments

 

Some municipalities in the United States and Europe - and many global
institutions such as the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of
America and College Retirement Equities Fund, and the Presbyterian Church in
the US - have divested from companies such as Caterpillar, Veolia and G4
Security Services over the past eight years because of their support for the
Israeli military occupation of Palestine.

 

But sanctions against Israel are dependent on the willingness of individual
governments.

"We know that the Palestinian cause is at a tipping point where Palestinians
are undergoing an incremental genocide. South Africa sits with a huge
responsibility and we need to be taking the Palestinian cause to the next
level," said Patel.

 

The proposed act would be a "state response by South Africa forcing Israel
to alter its current policies violating fundamental Palestinian human
rights". If the law is passed, the government would be legally compelled to
establish boycotts, trade divestment, economic sanctions and a lawfare
council that would agree a deadline by which BDS and the breaking of
diplomatic, trade and economic relations with Israel would have to take
place.

 

The council would be a statutory regulatory body made up of 30 politicians,
lawyers and activists, and nine attorneys. The bill also proposes a set of
fines and jail terms - from R300 000 to five years in prison - for
individuals or businesses who continue to trade with Israel.

 

Weapons tests

 

Another Israeli Apartheid Week seminar organised by South African Jews for a
Free Palestine discussed how the Israeli weapons trade affects activists and
protesters in South Africa and the US.

 

The organisation's research has shown that "Israel perfects its use of the
skunk water cannon [highly stinky water] on Palestinian protesters in the
West Bank and then the South African Police Service uses this on student
protesters in South Africa," said Rosa Manoim of South African Jews for a
Free Palestine.

 

Speaking at the same seminar, Khury Petersen-Smith, a founding member of
Black 4 Palestine in the US, said every major police department in the US
has some collaboration with the Israeli state. The police used the same
"skunk truck" that was developed in Israel and used in South Africa in St
Louis, Missouri, to put down the Ferguson protests in 2014, following the
police murder of Michael Brown, and in the city of Boston. Many colleges and
universities had their own police departments that trained with Israel, as
did the Boston airport and transit police, said Petersen-Smith.

 

"Policing in the US is so extensive, which is why our freedom really is
bound together. It is the case that when Palestinians fight for their
freedom and score victories against Israeli violence, that is connected with
us fighting for our freedom in this country against the myriad ways that we
are policed."

 

Israel's state-owned weapons companies specialise in "homeland security
weaponry ... the kind of technology that is needed to control a civilian
population", said German academic and writer Shir Hever. "This is used in
Belarus, Hong Kong by the Chinese police, in Myanmar against the Rohingya
and in many other places around the world where there is very severe
inequality and people are rising up to fight against that injustice."

 

Hever said Israel first tested the weapons on Palestinians. "Every two years
or so, the Israeli military would invade the Gaza Strip ... bombarding whole
neighbourhoods and killing thousands of people and then waiting two years
for the Palestinians to try to recover a little bit, rebuild and then invade
again. Every time they would have an arms fair immediately after the
invasion to say "these are the new technologies that we have used in this
invasion and now you can buy them as well," said Hever.-New Frame.

 

 

 

Nigeria: Zamfara, Bauchi, Ekiti Residents Paid Highest Transport Fares in
February - NBS

The average fare paid by commuters for journey by motorcycle per drop
increased by 2.8 per cent month on month.

 

Residents of Zamfara, Bauchi, Ekiti States paid the highest bus journey
fares within city in February, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has
reported.

 

The bureau, in its Transport Fare Watch Report for February released
Wednesday, said residents of Zamfara paid an average of N620.15, residents
of Bauchi paid N530.10 and those in Ekiti paid N475.25 in the month under
review.

 

The report added that the states with the lowest bus journey fares within
the city were Oyo N190.45, Abia N208.55 and Borno N250.72.

 

According to the report, the average fare paid by commuters for bus journey
within the city increased by 2.60 per cent month on month and by 78.08 per
cent year on year to N361.31 in February from N352.15 in January.

The transport fare watch report for February 2021 covers the following
categories: bus journey within the city per drop constant route, bus journey
intercity, state route, charge per person, airfare charge for specific
routes single journey, journey by motorcycle (okada) per drop and waterway
passenger transport.

 

States with the highest bus journey fares intercity were Abuja FCT
N4,500.88, Sokoto N3,350.60 and Lagos N3,340.60 while the states with the
lowest bus journey fare within city were Bayelsa N1,650.32, Bauchi N1,690.80
and Enugu N1,700.00.

 

Air and Water

 

The report said the average fare paid by air passengers for specified routes
single journey decreased by -0.02 per cent month on month and increased by
17.97 per cent year on year to N36,458.11 in February from N36,463.65 in
January 2021.

 

Also, the average fare paid by commuters for journey by motorcycle per drop
increased by 2.8 per cent month on month and by 97.68 per cent year on year
to N266.74 in February from N259.33 in January 2021.

 

The report also said the average fare paid by passengers for waterway
passenger transport increased by 1.00 per cent month on month and by 39.63
per cent year on year to N794.02 in February 2021 from N786.19 in January
2021.-Premium Times.

 

 

 

Malawi Minister Hails Zimbabwe Agriculture

Visiting Malawi Minister of Agriculture Lobin Clarke Lowe has applauded
Zimbabwe's agriculture sector saying his country has a lot to learn.

 

Speaking after touring several demonstration plots of varieties of crops
that being bred by SeedCo owned Rattray Arnold Research station in
Mashonaland Central, Minister Lowe said his country will send a delegation
to Zimbabwe.

 

"After going through the research station, we appreciate and have learnt a
lot. Soon we will send a delegation to visit the Ministry of Agriculture and
Seed Co. There is a lot to learn from transformative agriculture in
Zimbabwe.

"My Government is going towards transformative agriculture and for that to
happen we need to be oriented and Zimbabwe is the best country to get that
orientation. I wish we had stakeholders or partners like Seed Co. If we have
similar investment in research it would help the country and the region. I
like the way you collaborate with your Government," Lowe said.

 

He also commended SeedCo for their efforts in the area of research saying it
is advancing the region.

 

"For SeedCo you are doing a wonderful job and I like the way you coordinate
as a company and the Government. Your efforts are benefitting the region."
he said

 

Minister Lowe was accompanied by Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, water and
Rural Resettlement Minister Anxious Masuka who said there was need to
transform agricultural colleges and universities' curriculum so they do not
produce extensionists, but entrepreneurs.

 

"Those already in Agritex should transform their minds to become business
advisers. We have motorised them and given them gadgets. They should be
prepared for paradigm shifts so they can help households to transform from
farming for subsistence to business." said Minister Masuku

 

Varieties of crops that include rice, soyabeans, sorghum, onions and
cabbages are being bred at the station.-263Chat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 


 


Invest Wisely!

Bulls n Bears 

 

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Skype:         Bulls.Bears 



 

 

 


 

INVESTORS DIARY 2021

 


Company

Event

Venue

Date & Time

 


 

 

 

 

 


CFI

AGM

Farm & City Boardroom, 1st Floor Farm & City Complex, 1 Wynne Street

31/03/21 | 11am

 


 

Good Friday

 

02/04/21

 


 

Easter Sunday

 

04/04/21

 


 

Easter Monday

 

05/04/21

 


 

Independence Day

 

18/04/21

 


 

Public Holiday in lieu of Independence Day falling on a Sunday

 

19/04/21

 


 

 

 

 

 


Companies under Cautionary

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


ART

PPC

Dairibord

 


Starafrica

Fidelity

Turnall

 


Medtech

Zimre

Nampak Zimbabwe

 


 

 

 

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


 

 


DISCLAIMER: This report has been prepared by Bulls ‘n Bears, a division of
Faith Capital (Pvt) Ltd for general information purposes only and does not
constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or
subscribe for any securities. The information contained in this report has
been compiled from sources believed to be reliable, but no representation or
warranty is made or guarantee given as to its accuracy or completeness. All
opinions expressed and recommendations made are subject to change without
notice. Securities or financial instruments mentioned herein may not be
suitable for all investors. Securities of emerging and mid-size growth
companies typically involve a higher degree of risk and more volatility than
the securities of more established companies. Neither Faith Capital nor any
other member of Bulls ‘n Bears nor any other person, accepts any liability
whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from any use of this report or its
contents or otherwise arising in connection therewith. Recipients of this
report shall be solely responsible for making their own independent
investigation into the business, financial condition and future prospects of
any companies referred to in this report. Other  Indices quoted herein are
for guideline purposes only and sourced from third parties.

 


 

 


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