Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 26 October 2022

[Bulls n Bears]

 <https://bullszimbabwe.com/> 

 


 

 <http://www.bullszimbabwe.com> Bullszimbabwe.com
<mailto:info at bulls.co.zw?subject=View%20and%20Comments> Views & Comments
<https://bullszimbabwe.com/category/blogs/bullish-thoughts/> Bullish
Thoughts        <http://www.twitter.com/BullsBears2010> Twitter
<https://www.facebook.com/BullsBearsZimbabwe> Facebook
<http://www.linkedin.com/pub/bulls-n-bears-zimbabwe/57/577/72> LinkedIn
<https://chat.whatsapp.com/CF6wllAfScU9Wr6dXxoQnO> WhatsApp
<mailto:info at bulls.co.zw?subject=Unsubscribe> Unsubscribe

 


 

 


Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 26 October 2022 

 


 

 


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

 


 

 


 

ü  China Covid: Universal Resort shuts due to Beijing coronavirus cases

ü  Energy bill help for all is too expensive, warns the World Bank

ü  Google and Microsoft hit by advertising slowdown

ü  Adidas cuts ties with rapper Kanye West over anti-Semitism

ü  WhatsApp back online after worldwide outage

ü  Pound hits highest level since before mini-budget

ü  New York cleaners create new path to entrepreneurship

ü  Ford Fiesta car set to be discontinued as model scrapped

ü  Heathrow warns normal passenger levels years away

ü  Deadline for Aberdeen paper mill sale passes with no deal struck

ü  Stansted Airport accepts council's £2.1m legal costs offer

ü  Prices of pasta, tea, chips and cooking oil soar

ü  Nigeria: eNaira Recorded N8bn Transactions in One Year - Emefiele

ü  Nigeria: Why 30m Nigerians Are Still Without Internet Access

ü  Nigeria: Transparency Crucial for Nigeria to Maximise Benefits From Oil &
Gas - IMF

ü  Tanzania: 'Gone Like It Was Nothing' - the Irrepressible Rise of Mobile
Scams

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


 

China Covid: Universal Resort shuts due to Beijing coronavirus cases

The Universal Resort theme park in Beijing has temporarily closed due to
Covid-19 prevention measures.

 

Cases have been rising in the city despite having some of the world's
toughest anti-coronavirus restrictions.

 

For yesterday, the Chinese capital - which is home to more than 21 million
people - reported 19 symptomatic infections and one asymptomatic case.

 

China's zero-Covid policy has seen cities and attractions locked down over
relatively small numbers of infections.

 

The park, which is part-owned by the US media giant Comcast, did not say
when it would reopen, but pledged to refund or reschedule tickets.

 

"We will continue to assess the impact on operations and strive to resume
operations as soon as possible," it said on Weibo, a Twitter-like social
media platform.

 

"At the same time, we will continue to carry out a series of work related to
epidemic prevention and control, such as deep cleaning, disinfection and
nucleic acid testing," it added.

 

Some users on Weibo took issue with the short notice given to customers by
the company.

 

"The pandemic shutdown is understandable. But why didn't you give earlier
notice?" one user asked.

 

Another said: "Who is responsible for the loss if I specially took leave to
visit?"

 

This is the second time the theme park, which was opened in September 2021,
has been forced to close its gates this year. It was shut for six weeks from
the start of May due to Covid measures.

 

Rising infections

Strict zero-Covid policies have seen some of China's biggest cities being
locked down, including the financial, manufacturing and shipping hub of
Shanghai.

 

Beijing is the only major Chinese city to have so far avoided a full
lockdown.

 

However, infections have been rising after the national Golden Week holiday
earlier this month.

 

Last Thursday, some housing estates and shopping centres in Beijing were
locked down because of a steep rise in cases.

 

Other major attractions in China have been shut in recent months because of
rises in Covid infections.

 

Earlier this year, Shanghai Disneyland was closed down for three months
because of a coronavirus outbreak.

 

When it reopened in June, visitors had to wear face masks and stick to
strict social distancing rules.

 

President Xi Jinping, who secured a historic third term in power at the
weekend, has signalled that the country will continue to pursue its strict
zero-Covid approach even as the measures have weighed on economic
growth.-BBC

 

 

 

Energy bill help for all is too expensive, warns the World Bank

It is too expensive for governments to help everyone with their soaring
energy bills, the World Bank has warned.

 

The bank's president said Covid support schemes had not been targeted enough
towards the most vulnerable and the debt will take decades to pay off.

 

David Malpass told the BBC the same policy was being adopted to help people
cope with rising energy bills.

 

"Governments are saying we will take care of everyone, which is just too
expensive," he said.

 

It is pushing global debt to record levels and people at the bottom of the
income scale are hardest hit, he said.

 

What is the energy price cap and what will happen to bills?

It comes as separate research suggests the UK's own energy support scheme is
far too expensive in its current form.

 

 

The government is limiting average bills for households using a typical
amount of energy to £2,500 a year for six months, but will review the
support offered from April.

 

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research said the current
scheme could cost some £30bn because it was untargeted.

 

It also said households could save up to £20bn per year if they were
incentivised to invest in energy-saving measures like solar panels.

 

Covid comparison

During the pandemic governments borrowed billions of pounds to get through
lockdowns.

 

They paid for job retention schemes like furlough, increased benefit
payments and loans and grants for business that were forced to close.

 

Mr Malpass told the BBC's World Service there was an accepted economic view
that there should be a social safety net, some protection for people during
a crisis.

 

The subsidies should be temporary and targeted to those who need them most,
he said.

 

But Mr Malpass said many of the Covid subsidies were not targeted. "They
went to everyone...and now the consequences are coming home.

 

"People will be left for years and even decades paying for that debt," he
added.

 

The Institute of International Finance reports that global debt topped $305
trillion earlier in the year and is expected to increase further.

 

The war in Ukraine is causing energy prices to spike. Across Europe,
governments have introduced energy subsidies to help households pay for
rising prices.

 

The energy crisis comes at a time when governments have already run up large
amounts of debt.

 

Mr Malpass said he was concerned that the additional help for people will
push inflation - the measure of rising prices - even higher.

 

In the UK inflation is at a 40-year high of 10.1%.

 

The International Monetary Fund expects global inflation to peak this year
at 9.5% and says it will not begin to fall until 2024. It's causing many low
income countries to default on loan repayments and pushing vulnerable people
into poverty.

 

You can listen to Business Daily's full interview with David Malpass
here.-BBC

 

 

 

Google and Microsoft hit by advertising slowdown

Sales at the tech giants Alphabet and Microsoft have slowed sharply, adding
to fears of a downturn in the economy.

 

Alphabet, which owns Google and YouTube, said sales rose just 6% in the
three months to September, to $69bn, as firms cut their advertising budgets.

 

It marked the US firm's weakest quarterly growth in nearly a decade outside
of the start of the pandemic.

 

Microsoft meanwhile said demand for its computers and other technology had
weakened.

 

Its sales rose by 11% to $50.1bn, marking its slowest revenue growth in five
years.

 

Consumers and businesses around the world are cutting back as prices rise
and interest rates go up, fuelling fears of a global recession.

 

A strong US dollar has also hurt American multinationals, making it more
expensive to sell products abroad.

 

Profits at Alphabet dropped nearly 30% to $13.9bn in the quarter, as YouTube
ad revenues declined for the first time since the firm started to report
them publicly.

 

Sales growth at the firm has slowed for five consecutive quarters.

 

Boss Sundar Pichai said that Alphabet was "sharpening" its focus and "being
responsive to the economic environment".

 

"When Google stumbles, it's a bad omen for digital advertising at large,"
said Evelyn Mitchell, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence, noting that
Google's core website has in the past been more resilient to ad spending
downturns than social media sites like Facebook or Snap.

 

"This disappointing quarter for Google signifies hard times ahead if market
conditions continue to deteriorate."

 

Microsoft said it expected demand for its PC and cloud computing technology
to continue falling this year as business customers cut back.

 

Sales in its Xbox video game business have also slumped.

 

Big tech firms saw their sales jump in the pandemic as locked-down consumers
and workers came to rely more on their technology. But the sector's fortunes
look bleaker in the current climate.

 

In recent months, Alphabet has said it was slowing hiring, while Microsoft
has cut jobs.

 

Many other tech companies have decided to lay off staff, including Netflix
and Twitter, or slow the pace of recruitment, such as social media platform
Snap.

 

Shares in both Alphabet and Microsoft fell sharply in after-hours trading on
Tuesday.-BBC

 

 

 

Adidas cuts ties with rapper Kanye West over anti-Semitism

Clothing giant Adidas has cut ties with rapper Ye, known as Kanye West,
saying it does "not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate
speech".

 

Adidas's Yeezy brand collaboration with Mr West was put under review, after
he showed a "White Lives Matter" T-shirt design at Paris Fashion Week.

 

Days later, the rapper posted anti-Semitic comments on his Twitter account.

 

His products will be pulled from sale with immediate effect, said Adidas.

 

The sportswear brand has previously said the Yeezy brand collaboration with
Ye was one of the most successful in the company's history.

 

Cutting the partnership means Adidas will make a net loss of £217m in 2022
as a result, it said.

 

 

Ye, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, had previously accused
Adidas of stealing his designs in a now-deleted Instagram post.

 

In a statement on Tuesday, Adidas wrote: "Adidas does not tolerate
antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech. Ye's recent comments and
actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the
company's values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness."

 

Adidas puts Kanye West Yeezy deal under review

Kanye West to buy right-wing platform Parler

Instagram and Twitter suspended Ye's account in the days following his
anti-Semitic remarks. His business partnerships have also come under
increasing pressure: Bank JP Morgan and clothing retailer Gap said in recent
months that they were ending their relationship with Ye.

 

Ye accused Gap of not honouring terms of their deal, including by failing to
open standalone stores for his Yeezy fashion label.

 

Gap wrote in a statement on Tuesday that it will be removing Yeezy Gap
products from its stores, and that it had shut down the YeezyGap.com
website.

 

"Antisemitism, racism and hate in any form are inexcusable and not
tolerated... We are partnering with organisations that combat hate and
discrimination," Gap said on its Instagram account, @yeezyxgap.

 

Although Adidas put its relationship under review after Ye showed his "White
Lives Matter" T-shirt, the company did not say the collection was the reason
for the review.

 

It told the BBC it had made the decision to put the partnership under review
after "repeated efforts to privately resolve the situation" of being accused
by Ye of "stealing" his designs.

 

The phrase "Black Lives Matter" was widely used after George Floyd, an
unarmed black man, was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis in the
summer of 2020. It has since become a political and social movement that
seeks to highlight racism experienced by black people, particularly
incidents of police brutality and racially motivated violence.

 

High-end fashion house Balenciaga and talent scouts Creative Artists Agency
also cut ties with Ye earlier in October.

 

Film and television production company MRC said on Monday it will not be
airing its recently completed documentary on the rapper.

 

"Kanye is a producer and sampler of music. Last week he sampled and remixed
a classic tune that has charted for over 3,000 years - the lie that Jews are
evil and conspire to control the world for their own gain... As leaders of
this company (a Jew, a Muslim, and a Christian), we feel duty bound to say
to all of you this is a pernicious, terrible use of false logic," MRC wrote
on Monday.

 

'Net worth falls'

Shares in Adidas fell as much as 8% after the announcement but have since
pared their losses.

 

Adidas had warned in its last financial forecast in October that
deterioration in its business in China, along with lower consumer demand in
major Western markets, have put pressure on its profit forecasts for 2022.
The brand is also looking for a new chief executive, after announcing in
August that current boss Kasper Rorsted would be leaving in 2023.

 

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: "Adidas has finally
joined other brands and agencies and cut ties with Ye (Kanye West). This
would not have happened without the almost 175,000 who signed our petition
and the celebrities and influencers on both sides of the Atlantic and around
the world who helped promote it and amplified the message."

 

The rapper has also lost his position in Forbes magazine's list of
billionaires. The magazine estimates the loss of the Adidas partnership has
cut Ye's net worth from $1.5bn to $400m.

 

The BBC has contacted Ye's representatives for comment.-BBC

 

 

 

WhatsApp back online after worldwide outage

The messaging platform WhatsApp has come back online after an outage that
affected users around the world.

 

Meta, which owns WhatsApp, said the problem had been fixed but did not give
a reason for the disruption.

 

People trying to send and receive messages on WhatsApp, which has about two
billion users globally, began reporting issues just before 08:00 BST.

 

More than 12,000 reports were posted within half an hour, according to the
service status website Down Detector.

 

However, by about 10:00 BST service seemed to be returning for many users.

 

In a statement Meta said the problem had been resolved.

 

"We know people had trouble sending messages on WhatsApp today," the
statement said.

 

"We have fixed the issue and apologise for any inconvenience."

 

As WhatsApp experienced difficulties many people complained on social media
that they could not send or receive messages.

 

Users who tried to use the app on Tuesday morning were faced with a
"connecting" message.

 

The outage is likely have caused significant disruption.

 

The app, which offers end-to-end encryption for messages, is a popular
method of group communication for social, work and parenting activities.

 

It has even been used, controversially, by government ministers.

 

According to internet monitoring organisation NetBlocks the outage affected
users both in the UK and around the world.

 

BBC journalists in Australia and Ukraine reporting problems accessing the
service.-BBC

 

 

 

Pound hits highest level since before mini-budget

The pound has hit its highest level since mid-September, as investors
welcomed the appointment of Rishi Sunak as prime minister and the dollar
fell.

 

Sterling surged by 1.9% to $1.149 on Tuesday - the highest it has been since
before Liz Truss's mini-budget.

 

Government borrowing costs also fell back to where they were last month, in
a boost for Mr Sunak who took over on Tuesday.

 

Financial markets have been rattled by fears over the economy in recent
weeks.

 

In a speech today Mr Sunak warned the country faced a "profound economic
crisis" with "difficult decisions" ahead.

 

Experts said the pound's strength was partly a "relief rally" after Mr Sunak
was appointed, but also due to the dollar's weakness.

 

 

The US currency dropped on Tuesday after data showed slowing US house price
growth and a decline in US consumer confidence.

 

"The dollar is losing ground across the board today," said Jeremy Stretch,
head of FX Strategy at investment bank CIBC.

 

"But there's no doubt there's a relief rally here in terms of apparent
stability in the macro-economic picture after Sunak came in."

 

Last month, sterling plunged to a record low against the dollar and
government borrowing costs rose sharply in the aftermath of former Prime
Minister Liz Truss's mini-budget.

 

Investors were spooked after then-Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng promised major
tax cuts without saying how they would be paid for - something Mr Sunak
warned about during this summer's Tory leadership contest.

 

Mr Sunak, a former hedge fund manager, is seen as a safer pair of hands by
investors and has pledged to fix "mistakes" made under Liz Truss's
leadership.

 

New Chancellor Jeremy Hunt - who reversed almost all of Ms Truss's tax cuts
- will keep his job in the new cabinet and is scheduled to set out his
economic plan for tax and spending on 31 October.

 

On Monday Shevaun Haviland, director general of the British Chambers of
Commerce, cautioned that the country "cannot afford to see any more
flip-flopping on policies".

 

"The political and economic uncertainty of the past few months has been
hugely damaging to British business confidence and must now come to an end,"
she said.

 

Borrowing costs fall

On Tuesday government borrowing costs fell back to levels seen just before
the mini-budget, with the interest rate - or yield - on bonds due to be
repaid in 30 years' time dropping to 3.6%.

 

Meanwhile, the yield on bonds due to be repaid in five years' time, which
underpins the cost of new five-year fixed rate mortgages, fell to 3.7%.

 

Yields are still well above rates seen this summer but the fall will come as
a relief to the government, whose September borrowing figures were the
second highest on record.

 

Mortgage-holders will also hope it feeds through to the mortgage market,
where rates hit 14-year highs after the recent turmoil.

 

On Monday, the deputy governor for markets and banking at the Bank of
England, Sir Dave Ramsden, said recent falls in government borrowing costs
had shown that "credibility is returning to British economic policy".

 

Yet despite the improving picture, experts warned Mr Sunak faced tough times
ahead.

 

"The former chancellor has a mammoth task ahead of him as he tackles the
mounting economic crisis facing the UK and his warring political party,"
said CityIndex strategist Fiona Cincotta.

 

Jordan Rochester, a strategist at Nomura, said every new leader tended to
get a "honeymoon period".

 

"Liz Truss's didn't last very long. The question will be how long does this
honeymoon period last for Rishi Sunak?"-BBC

 

 

 

New York cleaners create new path to entrepreneurship

When Julieta Aquino leaves for work in the New York City neighbourhood of
East Harlem, she does so on her own terms. She gets to decide when she works
and what her pay is as a housecleaner, something she could only dream of in
years gone by.

 

The change has come since she joined Brightly Cleaning - an immigrant-led,
worker-owned co-operative in New York City that is trying to transform the
gruelling job of cleaner into a path to entrepreneurship.

 

To do so, it is adapting the franchise business model - that which turned
McDonald's into a global behemoth, with thousands of small business owners
operating under a shared brand.

 

In this instance, Co-opportunity, a New York-based non-profit, acts as the
corporate overlord, giving members access to the Brightly brand, marketing,
training and tools like an online scheduling and payment system, that would
be costly to create independently.

 

In return, it collects 5% of gross sales, which it says goes towards
administrative costs.

 

The set-up makes it easier to start a business, allowing cleaners to become
owners without having the tens of thousands of dollars on hand it can take
to start a company.

 

But unlike a typical franchisor, Co-opportunity is governed by its members,
with a "one worker, one vote" rule that applies to decision-making.

 

"What we did was we sort of turned the franchise model on its head. And we
decided it should be owned by the workers themselves, not by an individual
who would profit alone from them," says Julia Jean-François, the
co-executive director at the Center for Family Life, the non-profit that
helped launch Brightly in 2018.

 

"What we've done is decided that the worker-owners can be their own engine
of change, they can own the economy in their own way. And so, with the
franchise model, they take on that role and responsibility. And we see now
the incredible outcome of that."

 

There are now five Brightly locations, with dozens of worker-owners and more
than 1,000 customers driving roughly one million dollars in sales.

 

Presentational grey line

Small Business USA

If it's true to say the US is the engine of the world economy, then small
and medium-sized businesses are the fuel that drives that engine.

 

Small businesses create nearly two-thirds of new jobs in the workforce and
account for 44% of US economic activity. So what's the secret to their
success? What challenges do they face and which are the best cities and
regions for them to thrive?

 

Read more from our Small Business USA series

 

Presentational grey line

Julieta, who emigrated from Mexico 24 years ago, says she was initially
hesitant when she heard about the idea through a social worker.

 

But the worker-owner model and better pay reeled her in. With Brightly, she
earns $31 (£27) an hour - four times what she earned in her previous job and
almost double the $17 average hourly wage for a cleaner in New York City.

 

For Julieta, who spent years supporting her child by herself with bosses
calling the shots, the highlight is setting her own schedule. "I give myself
time for health and for my home. I can now focus on my quality of life. It's
about me.

 

"It is an awakening because I used to say, 'No, this is just for those who
study because they are intelligent, and I am not.'

 

"When I realised that I can be in finance, I can be in marketing, I can
lead, it's not something that's impossible... I feel very proud."

 

Is the small business surge in the US sustainable?

Co-operatives have proven appealing to immigrants, like Julieta, who account
for one in six workers in the US and are more likely to work in low-paying
service jobs than American-born workers.

 

Immigrants are the country's biggest and fastest growing segment of
worker-owners, according to the Democracy at Work Institute, which tracks
co-ops around the country.

 

But such enterprises remain a tiny fraction of the US business landscape -
numbering roughly 600, and employing about 6,000 people, according to the
institute.

 

Co-operatives are often inefficient and have difficulty expanding, says
Adria Scharf, an expert at the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee
Ownership and Profit Sharing.

 

"We've been struggling with the issue of scale," she says. "The hope is that
this franchise model could take more worker co-operatives to scale in a way
that reaches and benefits many more workers, in particular workers who have
been marginalised and excluded from more traditional workplace settings."

 

For now, however, Brightly remains the only co-op in the country that has
tried to grow through a franchise model, raising questions about how easy it
is to adapt.

 

The Center for Family Life created Brightly from scratch, a process that
required costly legal expertise and months of negotiations with co-owners.
Without ample financial backing, the process can be a deterrent to the
low-income groups Brightly is trying to target.

 

Melissa Hoover, co-executive director for partnerships and growth at the
Democracy at Work Institute, says the problem is that Brightly is ahead of
its time.

 

"One of the reasons it's so hard to franchise worker-owned entities is the
system is not set up for it," she says. "But with a few policy tweaks, you
could make capital available. You can make small business supplements
available, technical assistance.

 

"The franchise model is actually intended to make it easier to set up in the
long run. Just keep your eye on the prize, and in like, five to 10 years,
we'll have an ecosystem of support."-BBC

 

 

 

Ford Fiesta car set to be discontinued as model scrapped

The popular Ford Fiesta is set to be discontinued as early as next year as
costs of parts rise and drivers opt for SUVs, the BBC understands.

 

Ford bosses are expected to announce in the next few days that the
production of the Fiesta will end by mid-2023.

 

Executives are believed to be holding talks with dealers, suppliers and
staff ahead of the announcement.

 

The Sun first reported that Ford had no plans for an electric version of the
car despite its popularity.

 

A spokesman for Ford said that it was "accelerating our efforts to go all in
on electrification", and so the company is reviewing the portfolio of cars
it has on offer.

 

He added that the carmaker does not comment on speculation and that more
information would be made available soon.

 

 

The Fiesta is currently produced in Germany, although the first model rolled
off the production line in Dagenham, Essex, in 1977.

 

The car was at the forefront of the US carmaker's efforts to corner the
British car market because of its more affordable price point.

 

It was created originally as a more fuel-efficient, small car in the wake of
the 1973 oil crisis. More than 20 million of the cars have since been built
for customers worldwide, after it shot to the top of best-seller lists and
remained there for decades.

 

In recent years, it has been displaced by newer models such as the Puma.
Although last month, the Fiesta was still the sixth best-selling new car in
the UK with 4,570 registrations, according to the latest data from industry
body the Society of Motor Manufacturers.

 

Ford is thought to be using electrification as an opportunity to reinvent
the brand for eco-conscious consumers.

 

They have already announced an electric version of the F-150 pickup, one of
the best-selling vehicles in the US, and launched an electric SUV under the
Mustang brand.

 

As the UK's 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars approaches, it is thought
the Puma, a smaller, hybrid, SUV, will take the lead as the more affordable
option as Ford puts more of its focus on design.

 

It has already dropped the Focus model too, without an electric version
tipped for production.

 

The company, which is investing $50bn (£43.bn) globally through 2026 to
electrify its fleet, now says it is on track to deliver more than two
million electric vehicles annually by 2026.-BBC

 

 

 

Heathrow warns normal passenger levels years away

Heathrow Airport has said it is unlikely to carry as many passengers as it
did before the pandemic "for a number of years," with 25% fewer seats to be
filled this year than in 2019.

 

Britain's largest airport said it expected to carry between 60 million and
62 million passengers in 2022.

 

The cost of living crisis, Ukraine war and impact of Covid had hit demand
for international travel, it said.

 

It also warned it needed to recruit 25,000 staff across the airport.

 

Airports and airlines have struggled to recruit workers to cope with the
surge in demand after Covid travel restrictions were lifted. This led to
delays and disruption for travellers during the peak summer season.

 

The staff shortages across the aviation industry led to Heathrow imposing a
100,000 daily cap on the number of departing passengers. Despite this, the
airport said it was the busiest in Europe with 18 million people passing
through over the summer.

 

On Wednesday, Heathrow confirmed the cap would be removed at the end of
October, but warned it could bring such limits back in the run-up to
Christmas "if needed". It said such a move would avoid flight cancellations
"due to resource pressures".

 

"We don't want to have a cap at all, we want to get back to full capacity as
soon as possible but the reason for having a cap is to make sure we keep
supply and demand in balance," said John Holland-Kaye, chief executive of
Heathrow Airport.

 

"It was absolutely the right thing to do over the summer. It meant for the
summer holidays people could get away with confidence."

 

Despite lower passenger numbers, Heathrow returned a pre-tax profit of £643m
in the nine months to the end of September. This followed a heavy £1.4bn
loss over the same period last year.

 

Mr Holland-Kaye said businesses across the airport needing to recruit 25,000
staff was a "huge logistical challenge" and called on the government to help
with speeding up security checks.

 

He said having access to HMRC data of where applicants had worked for the
past five years would be the "simplest thing to help us".

 

The government has previously said it has introduced a "range of measures to
help process security checks as quickly as possible", claiming about 97% of
accreditation checks are completed in five days on average.

 

The Department for Transport has said it has provided flexibility for
employers to start new staff on certain training courses while their
background checks are ongoing.-BBC

 

 

 

 

Deadline for Aberdeen paper mill sale passes with no deal struck

The deadline for selling a historic Aberdeen paper mill, which went into
administration with the loss of more than 300 jobs, has passed.

 

Stoneywood paper mill - which operated for more than 250 years - suddenly
went into administration last month.

 

Administrators have been trying to find a buyer who would run the business
as a going concern.

 

However, that deadline has now passed without success and assets at the site
will now be sold off.

 

In 2019, the business was sold to a new parent company, securing the jobs at
the mill.

 

However, administrators were appointed in September, and a total of 301 out
of the 372 members of staff in Aberdeen were made redundant.

 

 

The remainder were retained to continue limited activity while the
administrators explored the possibility that the mill and assets could be
sold.

 

The mill's problems were blamed on the Covid pandemic and the economic
challenges facing industrial manufacturing businesses, including rising
energy costs.

 

Administrators were also appointed at the Arjowiggins Group mill at
Chartham, Kent.

 

The joint administrators said in a statement: "The initial sale of business
deadline passed without identifying any immediately deliverable transactions
to secure the sale of either UK mill as an operational facility.

 

"The joint administrators will continue to look for buyers, but this will
now be alongside the site wind-down strategy and the sale of assets on a
piecemeal basis.

 

"If any party has a genuine interest in acquiring both or either mill as an
operational facility, then they should contact the joint administrators
immediately."

 

Scottish Enterprise has given the mill owners more than £12m worth of
support over the last three years.

 

The mill had been bought for an undisclosed sum in September 2019 by
subsidiaries of a new venture, Creative Paper Holdings Ltd.-BBC

 

 

 

 

Stansted Airport accepts council's £2.1m legal costs offer

London Stansted Airport has accepted a council's "all in" offer of £2.1m to
cover its legal costs following a High Court battle over expansion.

 

The airport won an appeal against Uttlesford District Council (UDC) in 2021,
allowing it to increase capacity to 43 million passengers per year.

 

The council was ordered to cover the airport's legal costs after an appeal
and voted to offer £1.4m in June 2022.

 

But this was rejected by the Essex airport in June.

 

Earlier this month, the council voted to make two new offers of £2.05m,
including £50,000 interest, and a second "all in" offer of £2.1m.

 

According to a council report published ahead of that meeting, £1m had
already been paid to the airport in June, and this was included in the £2.1m
figure.

 

The bill was expected to wipe out the council's strategic initiative fund,
which had a balance of £1.65m before the £1m was paid.

 

The report said the medium term financial strategy will be used to cover the
remaining £437,000.

 

In a statement, the airport said: "We can confirm we have accepted UDC's
offer in relation to our planning appeal costs, which it was ordered to pay
by the Planning Inspectorate."

 

At a meeting earlier this month, councillors from local authority's ruling
Residents for Uttlesford (RfU) party said the airport had asked for a far
larger figure, but that this had been negotiated down.

 

Stansted Airport said "we welcome this positive step forward" by the
council.

 

The offer, which included £50,000 in interest, was voted through by
councillors, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

 

'It's been a long two years, we want to get away'

Heathrow Airport: PM says she backs expansion with third runway

Airport workers on travel problems

RfU previously said the group hoped the offer would bring an end to the saga
for the council.

 

Opposition councillors had criticised the administration over the legal
case.

 

-BBC

 

 

Prices of pasta, tea, chips and cooking oil soar

The price of pasta, tea, chips and cooking oil has soared, according to new
data, with vegetable oil going up by 65% in a year.

 

Overall, the price of budget food in supermarkets rose by 17% in the year to
September, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

 

It comes as a separate ONS report sheds light on the cost of living crisis.

 

Almost half of adults who pay energy bills and 30% paying rent or mortgages
say these are difficult to afford.

 

Inflation - the rate at which prices are rising - is at a 40-year high.

 

Food prices drove the latest rise in living costs in September, along with
energy bills and transport costs.

 

 

Earlier this year, anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe criticised the way
that the rate of inflation was calculated stating that it "grossly"
underestimates "the true cost of living crisis".

 

The official inflation data measures the prices of 700 goods, but since May
this year the ONS has started releasing a new data set, which measures the
change in price of 30 everyday grocery items across seven supermarkets.

 

This is the second time it has released this data.

 

It found sharp increases in the price of some household staples in
supermarkets. Pasta prices rose by 60% in the year to September 2022, while
tea prices went up by almost 50%.

 

Other everyday items such as chips, bread, biscuits and milk also recorded
large increases.

 

But some other items fell in price during the period, including orange juice
and beef mince.

 

The rise in the cost of groceries has been accelerated by the war in
Ukraine, which has disrupted grain, oil and fertiliser supplies from the
region.

 

For many families doing a weekly shopping trip has turned into sticker
shock, that dismay you feel when you find out just how expensive products
are.

 

No wonder we're turning, in droves, to cheaper own label products to try to
save money. The major supermarkets have been investing heavily to match the
discounters, trying to keep a lid on inflation for hundreds of the cheapest,
most popular, everyday staples.

 

But these figures show even these products are going up in price.

 

Some of the percentage changes are eye watering. The supply of vegetable
oil, for instance, has been seriously disrupted by the war in Ukraine and
the price has soared.

 

Rising food prices have a bigger impact on those with the lowest incomes and
these figures lay bare the challenges facing Rishi Sunak over the cost of
living crisis.

 

"What we are seeing is that the price of low-cost goods is going up at the
same rate as food across the piece with some real highlights... cooking oil
and pasta, I would add tea, chips and bread to that - really going up and
very, very few things going down at all," the chief executive of the UK
Statistics Authority, Prof Sir Ian Diamond, told the BBC.

 

"We are really seeing that the squeeze on people who buy the lowest cost
things is pretty hard at the moment."

 

When asked whether things are getting worse, he said: "I think things are
tight. I think we are not seeing much of a getting worse at all but we are
seeing things remaining really tight."-BBC

 

 

 

Nigeria: eNaira Recorded N8bn Transactions in One Year - Emefiele

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele yesterday
disclosed that the country's digital currency, the eNaira recorded a total
of N8 billion transactions in the first one year after it was launched by
President Muhammadu Buhari.

 

The CBN governor also said the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) was part
of the central bank's plan to make Nigeria fully a cashless economy.

 

Emefiele, also noted that in the coming days, the CBN and the Bankers'
Committee would unveil plans which would ensure the cashless policy is fully
integrated across the county.

 

 

He also said the central bank was set to collaborate with the Ministry of
Humanitarian Affairs for targeted social welfare programs as well as to
on-board revenue collection agencies on the digital currency platform.

 

Emefiele said these in Lagos, at a conference to mark the one-year
anniversary of the eNaira in Lagos.

 

He said: "Since its launch, the eNaira has offered Nigerians endless
possibilities in using financial services thus, living up to the chosen
slogan, 'Same Naira, More Possibilities,' as well as achieving some set out
objectives.

 

"Specifically, there has been overwhelming interest and encouraging response
from Nigerians and other parties across the world with 33 banks fully
integrated and live on the platform; N3 billion has been successfully minted
by the bank, N2.10 billion has been issued to financial institutions and
about one million (919,000) customers have been on-boarded.

 

 

"Over 3,305 merchants have successfully registered on the eNaira platform
across the country including Shoprite, Sahad Stores, A.A. Rano fuelling
stations, Fraser Suites, November Cubes, among others; over 700,000
transactions amounting to about N8 billion have been recorded on the
platform and over 2.5 million daily visits to the eNaira website."

 

Speaking further on the central bank's plan to make Nigeria fully cashless,
he said: "The journey has been to make Nigeria a predominantly cashless
economy where transactions are done with limited, little, or no cash.

 

"Banks have incurred a lot of costs in an attempt to embrace a cashless
economy. We also had collaborations with mobile networks and had payment
service banks (PSB) using all sorts of channels.

 

"The destination as far as I am concerned is to achieve 100 per cent
cashless economy in Nigeria. I know that those who doubt us will say that
100 per cent cashless is unattainable.

 

 

"Yes, it is true but Nigeria must move from being a predominantly cash
economy to a predominantly cashless economy.

 

"I want to say we have provided all the needed infrastructure that will
enable us make cashless a nationwide journey. It is not something that some
of us will like, but we would in the coming weeks and months make
pronouncements that must make cashless go nationwide. I believe part of
those pronouncements will begin from tomorrow and there will be some
breaking news tomorrow.

 

"Even the bankers' committee will hold a special bankers' committee meeting
tomorrow to deliberate on this, so let us expect the news."

 

According to Emefiele, "as with most digital revolutions, the eNaira is a
journey that started five years ago, precisely 2017. It is not a one-off
event, but a journey of possibilities. "Thus, the bank would continue to
refine, fine-tune and upgrade it. Therefore, Nigerians should expect to see
additional functionalities in the coming months, including the on-boarding
of revenue collection agencies to increase and simplify collections and
collaborating with the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs through the creation
of sector-specific tokens to support the federal government's social
programmes and distribution of targeted welfare schemes in a bid to lift
millions out of poverty by 2025.

 

"Let me reiterate that the success of the eNaira project could not have come
without the active collaboration of several stakeholders inside and outside
the government. Let me use this medium to acknowledge the partnership and
unwavering support of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy
through National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the
partnership with the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs. I would also like to
commend the African Fintech Foundry and Merchants and Consumers for
onboarding and conducting their transactions on the eNaira Platform."

 

"The CBN acknowledges the daunting task ahead. We therefore call on all
relevant stakeholders, including the Financial Institutions, Nigeria
Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS), FinTech groups, Telcos and merchants
to collaborate, innovate, deepen and enhance the value of eNaira to
Nigerians and to Nigeria. It is the Bank's hope that the eNaira will drive
the digital economy agenda and foster a more prosperous Nigeria."

 

-This Day.

 

 

 

Nigeria: Why 30m Nigerians Are Still Without Internet Access

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) estimates that
approximately 5.3 billion people - or 66 per cent of the world's population
- are using the Internet in 2022. This represents an increase of 24 per cent
since 2019, with 1.1 billion people estimated to have come online during
that period. However, this still leaves 2.7 billion people still offline,
according to ITU.

 

In Nigeria, 30 million people still lack access to internet as of October,
2022, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The
Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, stated this
at the maiden Broadband Technical Awareness Forum for Governors (BTAF)
organised by the commission in Abuja last week.

 

 

He said that the over 30 million Nigerians affected are not connected to the
internet due to infrastructural deficits.

 

He explained that nations with leading broadband infrastructure are those
with the highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita.

 

Danbatta said, "When you take a look at the Global Broadband Infrastructure
Ecosystem, you will find that the leading broadband infrastructure nations
are those with the highest GDP per capita. They include Japan, South Korea,
Sweden, Finland, France, Britain and the United States of America. These
countries have a GDP per capita between 50,000 to 60,000 dollars.

 

"With a GDP of over $500 billion, Nigeria has a GDP per capita of only
$2,000. With $2000 GDP per capita, we are very close to the bottom in the
broadband Infrastructure Ecosystem."

 

The NCC study reveals that Fibre Optic Broadband Networks in Nigeria cover
less than 25 per cent of the total fibre cables laid in the country even as
broadband penetration is still as low as 45%.

 

 

Danbatta, who solicited the cooperation and support of the state governments
in the provision of broadband infrastructure across the country, said
broadband penetration cannot be achieved in Nigeria without the support of
states.

 

He explained that with adequate broadband infrastructure, there will be
efficient management, control and use of energy, delivery of health services
to the citizenry, guarantee of best and quality education, streamline of the
transportation system, better management of the environment and meeting the
Sustainable Development Goals (GDP), among others.

 

Also speaking, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa
Ali Ibrahim Pantami, pointed out that broadband penetration is no longer a
luxury but a necessity in Nigeria.

 

 

The minister noted that the deployment of broadband infrastructure would
enhance the security, education and economic growth of states.

 

Pantami, therefore, urged the governors to cooperate with the federal
government to deepen broadband penetration in line with the implementation
of the National Broadband Plan.

 

He further tasked the state governments to create enabling environment
through the provision of the Right of Ways as well as avoid multiple
taxations to telecom providers.

 

In his remarks, the governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, said that
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enables a smarter governance
system and that broadband penetration cuts down the cost of governance in
the state.

 

Obaseki said that through one of the initiatives of the state government
tagged 'Edo Best', over 15,000 teachers have been provided with tablets for
teaching.

 

While assuring that before he leaves office, all the operations of the state
will be automated, the governor, however, counselled stakeholders at the
federal level to build trust with state governments as well as open channels
of communication for everyone to be carried along.

 

On behalf of the state governors, Obaseki also assured the federal
government of their full cooperation on the right of way issue to boost the
nation's digital economy drive.

 

Obaseki who said broadband penetration is very vital to improve governance
in the states also said that the regulator must create a mutual trust for
the governors to key into the programme.

 

"I want to assure the minister and the NCC that states are willing and ready
to collaborate and work with you. What we need to do is to build more trust.
A few things happened in the past during COVID-19; MTN wanted to give states
like Edo access to more broadband but they didn't get approvals from the
regulator.

 

"When the policy of broadband came out five years ago, states were allocated
certain providers but they didn't have capacity. For Edo State, for
instance, we decided to bypass the instruction and went to get another deal
with a different provider who had the capacity that was how we were able to
get 400km," the governor said.

 

Meanwhile, the mobile phone revolution offers numerous benefits including
positive effects on economic development, entrepreneurship, education and
health care. New programs in both the developed and undeveloped world have
had success. But, these advances obscure challenges towards a long-term goal
of universal Internet availability.

 

In a recent paper, Darrell West examines some of the economic and political
factors that prevent an estimated 2.7 billion people from accessing the
Internet.

 

Barriers to Internet access

 

In many countries - even among some of the world's largest economies - there
is a gap in Internet adoption between rural and urban areas. A lack of
infrastructure is responsible in many cases for this divide, especially in
developing countries like Nigeria.

 

But West describes how the lack of, "fiber optic lines, cell towers,
Internet routers, wireless spectrum, [and] reliable electricity" can inhibit
Internet proliferation.

 

There is considerable variation in Internet adoption among age groups.
Seniors in many countries are much less likely to use the Internet. Many
people, particularly in rural areas lack literacy in addition to a general
understanding of how to use a computer. Both factors create obstacles for
potential new Internet users.

 

Many non-Internet users are also fearful of the technology. There is a
general anxiety associated with learning how to use the Internet. Some also
describe fear about 21st century threats like, "computer viruses, hacking,
surveillance, or identity theft."

 

Policies to mitigate the digital divide

 

Zero rating services

 

A lack of disposable income is a major factor that prevents many from
gaining Internet access. Users must also pay for data in addition to the
cost of a device. Zero rating services circumvent this barrier by providing
access to applications that have no associated data costs. For example,
Wikipedia makes a zero rated version of their app available, which is free
to use. This practice has huge potential to provide the benefits of the
Internet to all people. (Source: The Digital Divide)

 

Reducing taxes

 

Nigeria has "connectivity taxes" on mobile and fixed Internet connections.
These taxes drive up costs for consumers, which can make the Internet
unaffordable for many families. In some cases, it also reduces the
incentives for Internet Service Providers to make infrastructure investments
in underserved areas. Research has shown that reducing these types of taxes
can increase the number of Internet users.

 

Diversifying content

 

English is the primary language of the Internet. This excludes millions of
educated people who could use the Internet if the content were available in
their native tongue. Expanding the type of content on the Internet would
also increase its attractiveness to people around the world. For example,
Ghana's CocoaLink project provides expert information to farmers through
text messages. Useful services like these provide an incentive for new
users.

 

The number of Internet users increases every year by hundreds of millions of
people. However, the per cent of worldwide Internet penetration has declined
from recent peaks. Fortunately, there are a number of options available to
governments that seek to mitigate barriers to Internet access for their
poorest citizens.

 

New policies are necessary to make sure that all people regardless of their
socio-economic status have access to the benefits of the Internet.

 

-Daily Trust.

 

 

 

Nigeria: Transparency Crucial for Nigeria to Maximise Benefits From Oil &
Gas - IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has insisted that for Nigeria to
benefit from the oil and gas sector with the newly restructured Nigerian
National Petroleum Company (NNPC), there needs to be transparency in its
reporting and its entire ecosystem of the sector.

 

The Brentwood institution stated this in its latest report titled, "Good
Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa: Opportunities and Lessons."

 

Again, it re-emphasised the need to strengthen oversight on the NNPC through
the office of the auditor-general of Nigeria as well as improve legislative
actions.

 

It stated: "Strengthening transparency is crucial if Nigeria is to receive
maximum benefits from the oil and gas sector. The IMF's Fiscal Transparency
Code requires that resource corporations report on project-level fiscal
payments to and from the government, reconciled with government receipts in
line with international standards, with no major unexplained reconciliation
errors. In line with good practices, it is important for the NNPC to
disclose all revenue transfers and remittances to the federation account by
providing complete and timely information that ensures the accountability of
its receipts and expenditures. The corporation could also consider enhancing
and integrating its transparency practices by reporting on environmental,
social, and governance considerations."

 

 

The fund noted that the Sustainability Disclosure Guidelines established by
the Nigeria Exchange Limited (NGX) could provide useful guidance in this
regard. The guidelines are intended primarily to provide the value
proposition for sustainability in the Nigerian context citing that it
articulates a step-by-step approach to integrating sustainability into
organizations, indicators that should be considered when providing annual
disclosures, as well as timelines for such disclosures.

 

 

Furthermore on oversight, it added: "The role of the auditor-general can be
strengthened. The constitution does not give the auditor-general a direct
mandate to audit NNPC. It establishes the appointment of the auditor-general
to audit public accounts and offices of the federation but explicitly
excludes the accounts of government statutory corporations from the mandate.
However, it grants the auditor-general power to conduct periodic checks
aimed at verifying that spending is in accordance with the Ministry of
Finance's instructions and at investigating expenditure patterns of the
government, including payments by NNPC to the federation account.

 

"The Office of the Auditor-General is resource-constrained and requires
greater financial and operational independence, and this impacts the
timeliness of the information provided to the National Assembly. The
relationship between the Office of the Auditor-General and the oversight
committees of the National Assembly should be enhanced to ensure that, to
the extent possible, current financial, fiscal, and governance challenges
related to SOEs are being analysed and discussed. In addition, these steps
could be combined with examinations of audit reports by parliamentary
committees, allowing public hearings during the review process, and
submission of a report to Parliament on the issues arising from the audit
reports."

 

 

The IMF added that the fiscal oversight role of the Ministry of Finance
should be enhanced, "The Finance Act gives the Minister of Finance powers to
supervise and control the expenditure and finances of the federation and all
matters related to the financial affairs of the federation that are not by
law assigned to any other Minister. However, the Ministry's fiscal oversight
function over NNPC should be strengthened."

 

It further stated: "The Nigerian authorities must accelerate their
anticorruption efforts to maintain momentum against both entrenched
challenges and evolving threats. The high-level commitment of the government
and the devotion of many public servants working in the SOE sector, as well
as in the country's institutions dedicated to countering corruption and
combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism are the foundation
for reform. To make a durable dent in the incentive structures that underpin
corruption in Nigeria, however, the government will need to accelerate and
intensify its reforms in this area as stated in its ERGP.

 

"The Nigerian authorities' efforts to enhance transparency in the oil sector
should include full disclosure of NNPC's JV arrangements and establishing
clear institutional responsibilities for revenue assessment, collection, and
reporting. Achieving critical improvements to governance will require a
combination of legislative action, institutional reform, and additional
resources."

 

-This Day.

 

 

 

Tanzania: 'Gone Like It Was Nothing' - the Irrepressible Rise of Mobile
Scams

Despite Tanzania making SIM card registration mandatory, people still
receive daily texts from fraudsters trying to trick them into sending money.

 

Out of the blue last year, Sauda Nyange received the kind of news every
parent dreads. According to the message on her phone, her young son, who was
in the third grade at a boarding school in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, had
suddenly collapsed while playing. The sender asked her to send money
urgently to treat him.

 

"There has never been a day that has astounded me as that one," says Nyange.
"My son had never fainted before and had no health issues. I panicked and
burst into tears, wondering what illness my son had just contracted."

 

In a panic, she called her husband, who was away on business. She asked him
to transfer the money immediately. When he asked her some questions about
what had happened, however, Nyange realised there were some important gaps
in the text she'd received. She rang the number back.

 

 

"When I called the person and asked him about the child's name and the
school he attends, he hastily insisted that I send the money or else I could
lose a child, and [then] he hung up," she recalls. In the meantime, her
husband called their son's school. They told him that there was no emergency
and that no one had tried to contact them.

 

"When my husband called to tell me that our child was safe, I realised we
had survived being defrauded," she says.

 

Nyange was fortunate to escape being scammed, but many are not so lucky. In
Tanzania, the number of registered SIM cards rose by 4.5% to 55.37 million
in the year leading up April 2022. In the same period, the number of people
using mobile money transactions grew by 30.8% to 35 million people, or about
60% of the population. These advancements have enabled Tanzanians to send
money much more quickly and easily - including, unwittingly, to fraudsters.

 

 

Scammers have taken to playing this numbers game to their advantage. They
send phony messages to countless random numbers expecting that almost all
the receivers will ignore them, but hoping that just enough will be duped to
make it worth their while.

 

"It's analogous to casting a fishing net into a river and waiting for fish
to enter," says Juma Hulwe, a digital security trainer based in Dar es
Salaam. "It is unclear which fish will be caught, but a catch is still a
catch."

 

One who has been caught in such a net is Josephine Ngogo, 33. She received a
message one day asking her to transfer some money. Ngogo didn't recognise
the number, but presumed it was from her sister to whom she'd recently
agreed to send Tsh 50,000 ($21.40). She transferred the cash and thought
little of it. When she'd heard nothing after half an hour, she called her
sister to check she'd received it.

 

"My sister was surprised when I told her I had sent the money to the other
number as per her direction," Ngogo remembers. "She inquired as to what
other number I was referring to. She had not sent me any message regarding
our previous conversation."

 

 

Ngogo had fallen victim to a scam Tanzanians now refer to as utapeli wa tuma
kwa namba hii ("send to this number"). Other common ruses include calls
telling people they have won non-existent prizes or that they were
mistakenly sent money to their mobile accounts that they must refund.

 

Clamping down on scams

 

In 2020, Tanzania's government responded to the explosion in these scams by
making it mandatory for all phone users to register their SIM cards.
Authorities promised that this would allow police to track offenders and
deter crime. Speaking in April 2022, Information Minister Nape Nnauye
reported that 100% of SIM cards in Tanzania are now biometrically
registered.

 

However, mobile money scams have continued as fraudsters have seemingly
found ways to circumvent the regulations. It is possible that staff at
telecommunications companies, for instance, have been registering multiple
SIM cards using one customer's information and then selling them on, a
practice the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority discovered in
2019. Furthermore, some phone company employees may even be directly
involved in scams. In 2020, 15 people working for mobile phone companies
were charged with defrauding customers of millions of shillings, some using
SIM cards registered in other people's names.

 

Either way, the government's failure to clamp down has left ordinary
citizens frustrated.

 

"If we are to believe that the biometric registration is the solution, then
these people should be caught easily," says Paulo Semgalawe, a Dar es Salaam
resident who receives frequent calls and texts trying to defraud him. "I
don't think authorities are doing enough. If they have all our information,
it should be easy to track down these criminals."

 

Alphonsina Marandu, a mobile money agent, is similarly confounded. "We
receive countless texts and phone calls from these con artists on a daily
basis, but we don't hear arrests," he says. "I'm curious if this is all
we'll have to put up with for the rest of our lives."

 

Police spokesperson and Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police (SACP),
David Misime, insists that authorities are actively combatting mobile scams.
"We continue to provide education and arrest criminals, and many suspects'
cases have already been brought to court", he says. However, he urges phone
users to be cautious when receiving texts or calls from numbers they don't
recognise and to report incidents to the police. "Reporting this crime will
aid authorities in their fight," he adds.

 

Aware of the persistent problem, government authorities and telecom
companies have similarly turned to raising awareness. They have launched
campaigns warning mobile money users to think twice before sending money to
unfamiliar numbers.

 

"That money could have helped"

 

Tanzania, it seems, faces an uphill battle combatting mobile phone scams.
And while only a minority may fall victim to them, the consequences of
losing even a small amount of money can be disastrous in a country where so
many people live below the poverty line.

 

"People's capital can be lost, causing them to fall economically," says
Prof. Enock Wiketye, a lecturer in economics at the University of Iringa.
"To avoid the economic consequences that may result from this fraud, it must
be stopped through education as well as harsh punishment."

 

As researchers have found elsewhere, the impact on fraud victims is also not
just financial but can affect mental and physical health, relationships, and
self-esteem. Indeed, for Ngogo, losing Tsh 50,000 ($21.45) was no laughing
matter. Through her job at an eatery, she makes just Tsh 3,500 ($1.50) a
day, part of which she uses to look after her mother. She is still hurt
after losing two weeks' worth of wages and feels "more than stupid" for
being duped.

 

"That money could have helped my family back at home," she says. "My
earnings for several days were gone like it was nothing, and whoever took it
most likely spent it on useless things."

 

Mweha Msemo is a Tanzanian freelance journalist based in Dar es Salaam. He
has a specific interest in social issues.

 

-African Arguments site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 


 


Invest Wisely!

Bulls n Bears 

 

Cellphone:      <tel:%2B263%2077%20344%201674> +263 77 344 1674

Alt. Email:       <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> info at bulls.co.zw  

Website:         <http://www.bullszimbabwe.com> www.bullszimbabwe.com 

Blog:
<https://bullszimbabwe.com/category/blogs/bullish-thoughts/>
www.bullszimbabwe.com/blog

Twitter:         @bullsbears2010

LinkedIn:       Bulls n Bears Zimbabwe

Facebook:
<http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FBullsBearsZimba
bwe&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNGhb_A5rp4biV1dGHbgiAhUxQqBXA>
www.facebook.com/BullsBearsZimbabwe

Skype:         Bulls.Bears 



 

 

 


 

INVESTORS DIARY 2022

 


Company

Event

Venue

Date & Time

 


 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


 

National Unity Day

 

December 22

 


 

Christmas Day

 

December 25

 


 

Boxing Day

 

December 26

 


Companies under Cautionary

 

 

 


CBZH

Meikles

Fidelity

 


TSL

FMHL

Turnall

 


GBH

ZBFH

GetBucks

 


Zeco

Lafarge

Zimre

 


 

 

 

 


 <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.

 


 

 


(c) 2022 Web: <http://www.bullszimbabwe.com>  www.bullszimbabwe.com Email:
<mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> info at bulls.co.zw Tel: +263 4 2927658 Cell: +263 77
344 1674

 


 

 

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listmail.bulls.co.zw/pipermail/bulls/attachments/20221026/579cea36/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 9458 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listmail.bulls.co.zw/pipermail/bulls/attachments/20221026/579cea36/attachment-0003.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.png
Type: image/png
Size: 159273 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listmail.bulls.co.zw/pipermail/bulls/attachments/20221026/579cea36/attachment-0004.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 29258 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listmail.bulls.co.zw/pipermail/bulls/attachments/20221026/579cea36/attachment-0002.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image004.png
Type: image/png
Size: 34378 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listmail.bulls.co.zw/pipermail/bulls/attachments/20221026/579cea36/attachment-0005.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image005.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 29361 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listmail.bulls.co.zw/pipermail/bulls/attachments/20221026/579cea36/attachment-0003.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: oledata.mso
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 65569 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listmail.bulls.co.zw/pipermail/bulls/attachments/20221026/579cea36/attachment-0001.obj>