Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 15 May 2023

[Bulls n Bears]

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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 15 May 2023 

 


 

 


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

 


 

 


 

ü  Elon Musk names Linda Yaccarino new Twitter CEO

ü  AI creator on the risks, opportunities and how it may make humans
'boring'

ü  Mike Lynch: Autonomy founder extradited to US in criminal case

ü  Royal Mail boss Simon Thompson to step down

ü  Percy Pig ice cream renamed after 'polite' M&S request

ü  Is the UK too late to beat the US in the global trade war?

ü  US company refuses to recall 67m airbag inflators after regulator's
request

ü  Nigeria Loses U.S.$420 Million Annually Due to Onions Scarcity

ü  Nigeria Not Seeking Another U.S.$800 Million World Bank Loan, FG
Clarifies

ü  Africa: Social Media Mobile Phone Data in Disaster Management and the
Implications That It Has On Vulnerable Populations

ü  Nigeria: Sharia Law Won't Be Incorporated Into Traffic Regulations - FRSC

ü  Nigeria: Don Tasks Farmers on Mushroom Cultivation to Boost Agro-Revenue

ü  Nigeria: Fresh U.S.$800 Millio Loan - Why Nigeria Needs Lame Duck
Legislation

 


 

 


 <https://www.cloverleaf.co.zw/>          Elon Musk names Linda Yaccarino
new Twitter CEO

Elon Musk has named a new chief executive of Twitter, just over six months
after his controversial takeover of the social media company.

 

The billionaire said Linda Yaccarino, the former head of advertising at
NBCUniversal, would oversee business operations at the site, which has been
struggling to make money.

 

He said she would start in six weeks.

 

Mr Musk will remain involved as executive chairman and chief technology
officer.

 

"Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X,
the everything app," he wrote on Twitter, confirming the decision a day
after he had stoked speculation by writing that he had found a new boss
without revealing their identity.

 

Mr Musk - who bought the social media platform last year for $44bn - had
been under pressure to find someone else to lead the company and refocus his
attention on his other businesses, which include electric carmaker Tesla and
rocket firm SpaceX.

 

With fewer than 10% of Fortune 500 tech companies headed by women, Ms
Yaccarino will become that rare example of a woman at the top of a major
tech firm, after rising steadily through the ranks of some of America's
biggest media companies.

 

Who is Linda Yaccarino?

Ms Yaccarino was raised in an Italian-American family, with a father who was
a police officer and a mother who never went to college.

 

After graduating from Penn State, she worked at Turner Entertainment for 15
years before joining NBCUniversal, where she oversaw roughly 2,000 people,
and was involved with the launch of its streaming service.

 

Her work has been marked by close collaborations with big brands, finding
opportunities for product placement and convincing them to advertise
alongside television shows - even ones with a reputation for edgy content,
such as Sex and the City when it first launched.

 

She has also built relationships in new media with the likes of Apple News,
Snapchat and YouTube.

 

A 2005 profile in an industry publication portrayed her as a busy, married
mother-of-two children, then aged 13 and 9.

 

"I have absolutely no hobbies," she said at the time.

 

Business Insider's Claire Atkinson has followed Ms Yaccarino's career for
two decades and said her background in advertising could help Twitter, which
has seen its ad sales drop sharply since Mr Musk's takeover.

 

"If Twitter are looking to monetise better than they have been, then that
would be the place to start and Linda would be the ideal person to make that
happen," the chief media correspondent said.

 

"She's the kind of person that I can imagine Elon Musk needs," Ms Atkinson
added. "She won't be rolled over."

 

Indeed, her negotiating style within the industry earned her the nickname
the "velvet hammer", according to the Wall Street Journal in 2012.

 

Ms Yaccarino will face the challenge of running a business that has
struggled to be profitable, while facing intense scrutiny over how Twitter
handles the spread of misinformation and manages hate speech.

 

When Mr Musk first started discussing his plans for Twitter last year, he
said he wanted to reduce the platform's reliance on advertising and make
changes to the way it moderated content.

 

He also said he wanted to expand the site's functions to include payments,
encrypted messaging and phone calls, turning it into something he called X.

 

But Mr Musk courted controversy when he fired thousands of staff upon his
takeover, including people who had been tasked with dealing with abusive
posts.

 

He also overhauled the way the service authenticates accounts, charging for
blue ticks in a move critics said would facilitate the spread of
misinformation.

 

Some of the changes raised concerns among advertisers, worried about risks
to their brands, who subsequently halted spending on the site.

 

Mr Musk has acknowledged "massive" declines in revenue, though he told the
BBC last month that companies were returning.

 

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk leaves the Phillip Burton Federal Building
in San Francisco, California.

 

 

At an advertising conference last month Ms Yaccarino interviewed Mr Musk and
pressed him on what he was doing to reassure firms that their brands would
not be exposed to risk.

 

"The people in this room are your accelerated path to profitability," she
said. "But there's a decent bit of sceptics in the room."

 

There has also been some instant scepticism at Ms Yaccarino's appointment on
social media, where many were looking for clues to her politics, which
reportedly lean conservative.

 

Her work for the World Economic Forum, an organisation viewed negatively as
"globalist" by those on the right, has not been well-received in some
quarters along with her role in a coronavirus vaccination campaign featuring
Pope Francis.

 

Others on the left have questioned her political involvement in a White
House sports, fitness and nutrition council under former President Donald
Trump.

 

Mr Musk, who has also put women in senior positions at SpaceX and Tesla, is
known to be a notoriously unpredictable and demanding boss.

 

Even the announcement unfolded in an unusual manner, after media reports
sparked by Mr Musk's post that identified Ms Yaccarino appeared to catch her
bosses at NBCUniversal off guard.

 

As of mid-Friday in the US, Ms Yaccarino had still not commented publicly on
the move.

 

Industry watchers will be curious to see how the relationship develops
between the New Yorker and the until now hands-on Mr Musk.

 

Ms Atkinson said the two Twitter executives would be facing "difficult
conversations" about how to handle moderation, especially with the 2024
presidential election approaching in the US.

 

"How long Linda can last under these tricky management situations is
anyone's guess," Ms Atkinson said.-bbc

 

 

 

AI creator on the risks, opportunities and how it may make humans 'boring'

"Humans are a bit boring - it will be like, goodbye!" That's the personal
prediction - that artificial intelligence (AI) will supplant humans in many
roles - from one of the most important people you've probably never heard
of.

 

Emad Mostaque is the British founder of the tech firm, Stability AI. It
popularised Stable Diffusion, a tool that uses AI to make images from simple
text instructions by analysing images found online.

 

AI enables a computer to think or act more like a human. It includes what's
called machine learning, when computers can learn what to do without being
giving exact instructions by a human sitting at a keyboard tapping in
commands. Last month, there was a dramatic warning from 1,000 experts to
press pause on its development, warning of potential risks, and saying the
race to develop AI systems is out of control.

 

In an interview we'll show in full on Sunday, tech founder Mostaque
questions what will happen "if we have agents more capable than us that we
cannot control, that are going across the internet
 and they achieve a level
of automation; what does that mean?

 

"The worst case scenario is that it proliferates and basically it controls
humanity."

 

That sounds terrifying, but he is not alone in pointing out the risk, that
if we create computers smarter than ourselves we just can't be sure what
will happen next.

 

Mostaque believes governments could soon be shocked into taking action by an
event that makes the risks suddenly real. He points to the moment Tom Hanks
contracted Covid-19 and millions sat up and paid attention.

 

When a moment like that arrives, governments will conclude "we need policy
now", the 40-year-old says.

 

There's been a spike in concern for example after a Republican attack advert
on Jo Biden was created using fake computer generated images.

 

When there's a risk to information that voters can trust, that's something
governments have to respond to, says Mostaque.

 

Despite his concerns, Mostaque says that the potential benefits of AI for
almost every part of our lives could be huge. Yet he concedes that the
effect on jobs could be painful, at least at the start.

 

Mostaque says he believes AI "will be a bigger economic impact than the
pandemic", adding that "it's up to us to decide which direction" this all
goes in.

 

Some jobs will undoubtedly disappear, the bank Goldman Sachs suggested an
almost incomprehensible 300m roles could be lost or diminished by the
advancing technology.

 

While no one wants to be replaced by a robot, Mostaque's hope is that better
jobs could be created because "productivity increases will balance out" and
humans can concentrate on the things that make us human, and let machines do
more of the rest. He agrees with the UK's former chief scientific advisor,
Sir Patrick Vallance, that the advance of AI and its impacts could prove
even bigger than the industrial revolution.

 

Mostaque is an unassuming mathematician, the founder of a company he only
started in 2020 that has already been valued at $1bn, and with more cash
flooding in, including from Hollywood star Ashton Kutcher, is likely to be
soon worth very much more. Some speculation has put the value as high $4bn.

 

Unlike some of his competitors he is determined his technology will remain
open source - in other words anyone can look at the code, share it, and use
it. In his view, that's what should give the public a level of confidence in
what's going on.

 

"I think there shouldn't have to be a need for trust," he says.

 

"If you build open models and you do it in the open, you should be
criticised if you do things wrong and hopefully lauded if you do some things
right."

 

But his business also raises profound questions about ownership, and what's
real. There's legal action underway against them by the photo agency Getty
Images which claims the rights to the images it sells have been infringed.

 

A 

In response, Mostaque says: "What if you have a robot that's walking around
and looking at things, do you have to close its eyes if it sees anything?"

 

That's hardly likely to be the end of that conversation.

 

The entrepreneur is convinced that the scale of what's coming is enormous.
He reckons that in 10 years time, his company and fellow AI leaders, ChatGPT
and DeepMind, will even be bigger than Google and Facebook. Predictions
about technology are as tricky as predictions about politics - educated
guesses that could turn out to be totally wrong. But what is clear is that a
public conversation about the risks and realities of AI is now underway. We
might be on the cusp of sweeping changes too big for any one company,
country or politician to manage.

 

The first steam train puffed along the tracks in Darlington more than 50
years after the steam engine was patented by James Watt. This time we're
unlikely to have anything like as long to get used to these new ideas, and
it's unlikely to be boring!-bbc

 

 

 

Mike Lynch: Autonomy founder extradited to US in criminal case

British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch has been extradited to the US to face
criminal charges over the $11bn sale of his firm Autonomy to
Hewlett-Packard.

 

Mr Lynch - once dubbed "Britain's Bill Gates" after the Microsoft co-founder
- will stand trial on charges including fraud, which he denies.

 

He is accused of overinflating the value of his software firm when he sold
it to HP in 2011.

 

The Home Office confirmed that Mr Lynch was extradited to the US on
Thursday.

 

The 57-year-old businessman, who is a founding investor in the UK
cyber-security firm Darktrace, has long fought attempts by US prosecutors to
stand trial in America.

 

According to US court documents, Mr Lynch has been ordered to pay bail of
$100m with authorities claiming he is a "serious risk of flight" following
his years of fighting extradition.

 

He will be confined to an address in San Francisco, guarded by private
security which he must pay for himself.

 

Mr Lynch's net worth is estimated to be between £988m and £1.1bn.

 

A court filing said: "After lengthy extradition proceedings in the United
Kingdom, Defendant Michael Richard Lynch has finally landed on our shores to
stand trial, accompanied by the United States Marshals Service."

 

Last month, Mr Lynch lost an appeal in the High Court arguing that he should
instead be tried in the UK.

 

The Home Office said: "On 21 April, the High Court refused Dr Lynch's
permission to appeal his extradition. As a result, the normal 28-day
statutory deadline for surrender to the US applies."

 

As a result, he was sent to California on Thursday where the trial will take
place.

 

At the time of the sale in 2011, Autonomy was the UK's biggest software
company and it was the largest-ever takeover of a British technology
business.

 

HP was primarily known as a technology hardware company and buying Autonomy
was aimed at diversifying its business.

 

However, just a year later, HP wrote down the value of Autonomy by $8.8bn
and claimed it had been duped into overpaying for the company.

 

HP, Mr Lynch and Autonomy's former chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain
have been mired in litigation ever since.

 

Hussain was jailed for five years and fined millions of dollars in 2019 on
16 counts of fraud, securities fraud and other charges.

 

Presentational grey line

What is Autonomy?

The company was founded in 1996 by Mr Lynch out of a specialist software
research group called Cambridge Neurodynamics.

 

Autonomy developed software that could extract useful information from
"unstructured" sources such as phone-calls, emails or video.

 

The software could then do things such as suggest answers to a call-centre
operator or monitor TV channels for words or subjects.

 

It gained a listing on the US Nasdaq exchange in May 2000 at the height of
the technology boom and was listed in London six months later.

 

The company suffered when the technology bubble burst, dropping out of the
FTSE 100 and having to issue a profit warning in 2001.

 

But it grew rapidly and opened joint head offices in Cambridge and San
Francisco, with other offices worldwide, to serve 65,000 customer companies.

 

Autonomy was sold to Hewlett-Packard for $11.1bn in 2011. Mr Lynch left the
company in 2012.

 

Presentational grey line

Last year, HP won a civil fraud case against Mr Lynch and Hussain. The
"unusually complex" trial lasted 93 days and involved millions of documents.

 

At the heart of the case, according to Mr Justice Hildyard, was HP's claim
that "they were fundamentally misled and are victims of fraud".

 

Mr Lynch and Hussain's defence was that HP's claim was "'manufactured' to
cover and justify a change of corporate mind, and to cast them as scapegoats
for what in reality is buyer's remorse coupled with management failings".

 

In the end, Mr Justice Hildyard found the "claimants have substantially
succeeded in their claims in this proceeding".

 

The BBC has contacted Mr Lynch's investment firm Invoke Capital for
comment.-bbc

 

 

 

 

Royal Mail boss Simon Thompson to step down

Royal Mail boss Simon Thompson is to step down from his role, the owner of
the postal giant has said.

 

Mr Thompson said he believed it was the "right time" to go after Royal Mail
and the main postal union struck a deal that could end a long-running
dispute.

 

He has had a difficult two years in charge of the firm.

 

Mr Thompson had come under pressure after he was accused of misleading MPs
when he denied Royal Mail tracked workers' productivity.

 

He will remain in post until the end of October, and the board is in
"advanced stages" of appointing a new chief executive, it said.

 

There were reports that Mr Thompson had become "increasingly disillusioned"
during strike action by members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

 

It is believed leaders of Royal Mail's parent company, International
Distributions Services, also wanted fresh leadership at the firm after the
dispute over pay and conditions.

 

Last month, union bosses recommended that workers accept the new deal which
would end the bitter dispute. Union members will be balloted later this
month.

 

The company had said that more industrial action, which had already cost it
£200m, could lead to Royal Mail going bust.

 

2px presentational grey line

Analysis box by Emma Simpson, business correspondent

Royal Mail will be soon be appointing its third boss in five years.

 

Mr Thompson's predecessor, Rico Back, was ousted after he promised to
transform the service but ended up at loggerheads with unions as well as
being criticised for commuting from his home in Switzerland.

 

Given all the structural challenges the business faces, it feels like the
job has become mission impossible.

 

But Simon Thompson also didn't do himself any favours with his performance
in front of MPs, and his handling of a pay dispute became increasingly
confrontational as industrial action wore on.

 

Whoever the new chief executive is, they will have to improve the Royal
Mail's relationship with its workforce, and push through some big changes to
modernise the business and make it more efficient.

 

It's a big and difficult job.

 

The CWU, which had called for Mr Thompson to go, said on Friday that he was
"one of the key individuals responsible for the financial crisis that Royal
Mail Group has created over the course of the last year".

 

It called for "further change in Royal Mail Group's leadership team", saying
Mr Thompson "was only one of the senior leadership team responsible for the
unacceptable actions and behaviours of managers across the UK throughout
this dispute".

 

Mr Thompson's position within the company was weakened after he was recalled
by MPs to give evidence to an inquiry in January.

 

This followed "hundreds" of complaints about the accuracy of an earlier
testimony, in which he denied that the firm tracked workers' productivity
through their handheld computers.

 

MPs also questioned his denial that Royal Mail prioritised parcels over
letters.

 

Hack attack

At the beginning of the year, Royal Mail was also hit by a ransomware attack
linked to Russian criminals which disrupted overseas mail.

 

It took more than a month for international mail services to resume.

 

In the statement announcing his departure, Mr Thompson said he had been
"incredibly proud to lead Royal Mail during this crucial period".

 

He said the firm "now has a chance to compete and grow" after changes to the
business and the agreement with the union.

 

"It is now the right time to hand over to a new chief executive," he said.

 

Board chairman Keith Williams said Mr Thompson had made a "significant
contribution" to the firm.-bbc

 

 

 

 

Percy Pig ice cream renamed after 'polite' M&S request

An ice cream parlour has changed the name of one its products after a
"polite" request from Marks & Spencer.

 

Fabio's Gelato, based in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, only began making its Percy
Pig ice cream last week.

 

But the retailing giant sent the owner Fabio Vincenti a letter which said he
could continue to use the sweets, but not the name of the product.

 

"It is what it is, they've got to protect Percy Pig," he said.

 

Marks & Spencer said the name of Percy Pig, which started life as a bag of
sweets in 1992 but has since evolved to other ranges, could only be used on
"official M&S products".

 

The ice cream parlour uses several different branded items for flavours,
including chocolate bars, energy drinks and Marmite.

 

Mr Vincenti said: "We've done so many different brands of ice cream."

 

He said the feedback was generally positive from the various companies but
he "wondered why no-one ever moaned and always knew someone might say
something".

 

The "polite and fair" letter from M&S was received on Thursday, along with
some packets of the swine-faced treat, he said.

 

'Flattering'

Mr Vincenti posted a copy of the letter on social media, saying he could
continue to make the ice cream, but had to change the name to something such
as "Pig Faces or Pig Sweets".

 

He said the ice cream had already proved popular online and would, for now,
be renamed "Fabio's Pig".

 

An M&S spokesman said it was "careful to only put [Percy Pig's] name on
official M&S products".

 

"It's flattering that he's inspired Fabio's new gelato and we hope they
enjoy the treat we sent," he said.-bbc

 

 

 

Is the UK too late to beat the US in the global trade war?

In the dusty cornfields of West Kentucky, an area which had long ago been
abandoned as an industrial site is once again coming to life.

 

US manufacturer Ascend Elements has chosen the site to build a factory for
electric car batteries made from recycled ones - an industry previously
almost entirely based in China.

 

It has been drawn here by US incentives. The country is spending billions in
new subsidies via loans and tax breaks targeted at green energy and
vehicles.

 

Half of Ascend's initial $1bn build costs were covered by the US government
under this new scheme, known as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

 

The move is part of tectonic shifts emerging in where the world makes
everything. It could spark a global trade war between Western allies, as the
EU responds to the US plans in kind.

 

It is about those in the West refusing to bow to what was thought to be the
inevitable ascent of China to being the world's biggest economy.

 

And it is about the livelihoods of those hoping to find employment in the
industries of the future.

 

In Britain, it means there are choices to be made. A government preoccupied
with Brexit and domestic political turmoil may have missed the start of a
carve-up of future industries between giant trading blocs coming out of the
pandemic.

 

The presumption that has dominated British politics for nearly half a
century that governments do not "pick winners" in industry, is being
severely tested by the fact that most G7 allies are doing just that, because
of the push to reduce carbon emissions to net zero, post pandemic supply
chain concerns and a wish to decouple from China.

 

'Standing on the sidelines'

John Neil, the boss of major UK manufacturing firm Unipart, says the
combination of incentives offered by the US and similar government and
regional plans could amount to $10 trillion - five times the size of the
entire UK economy.

 

"The risk is that we're standing on the side lines while these big blocks
compete
 playing the game. I'm not sure that anybody [in UK politics] has
calibrated the scale of change that that IRA and the Chips Act and the rest
of it is going to have."

 

Mr Neil's publicly stated view reflects the private view of many in the UK
car industry and beyond.

 

The blueprint for the US plan was written during the pandemic. On the side
lines of an IMF finance ministers meeting at the G7 in late 2021 the US
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen invented an entirely new word:
"friendshoring".

 

It was a play on the efforts to "reshore" domestic production in critical
industries, but including allies or "friends" in these rebuilt supply
chains.

 

The French were cock-a-hoop when President Biden expanded upon the plan.

 

Tellingly, French finance minister Bruno Le Maire, back then talked about
reducing dependence, not just on China, but on East Asian allies too.

 

The year before, Le Maire had been privately shocked when his officials
reported that the supply chain for European electric car batteries was 85%
dependent on China. For solar panels it was 95%.

 

Indeed that week, Biden had promised "never again" to be dependent on
another nation in critical industries.

 

'America to lead the world?'

At a rally to promote his push in January President Biden told car workers:
"You see I'm getting criticised internationally for focussing too much on
America. To Hell with that. Where is it written that America can't lead the
world in manufacturing again?"

 

Insiders say that although the focus is on green industries, the strategy is
about supporting middle income jobs and wages in left behind areas - the
regions where US presidential elections are decided.

 

Former US President Donald Trump took Kentucky by some margin in 2016, and
promised to deregulate the industry, abandon climate change efforts and
allow the mines to reopen. It did not happen.

 

Mining union boss Steve Earle recognises the targeted nature of the White
House's investment drive, channelling new industries to set up close to
where the coal mines shut down, going as far as paying former miners their
union wages.

 

"We welcome the funding, we welcome the jobs, but I want President Biden to
come from Washington DC down here and see first hand how these people have
suffered for several years," he tells me.

 

While Mr Earle and his fellow miners seem no fans of Trump, they are
sceptical of this new world of green technology and electric cars. "Range
anxiety" in states as wide open and empty as Kentucky is still inherent, and
especially so for the farmers.

 

The IRA and other policies are designed to capture the clean energy
transition and channel the benefits of these changes to areas that have been
left behind.

 

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen calls it: "Modern supply side economics".

 

Supply side economics is typically seen as the opposite of what President
Biden is doing right now. It focuses on the benefits of free trade, free
markets, low taxes and deregulation.

 

Ms Yellen says that these policies have led a "race to the bottom".

 

Instead, she said in a speech last year: "Essentially, we aren't just
focused on achieving a high, top-line growth number that is unsustainable -
we are instead aiming for growth that is inclusive and green."

 

Strategy change

Washington insiders say there is an important change in strategy on
environmental policy. Where as climate policy had long focused on the stick
of regulation, such as capping emissions, it is now focused on the carrot of
incentives, on a massive scale. This has brought business on board.

 

To criticism around the world that it is diverting investment from Europe
and Asia to the US, deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo says the US
wants the rest of the world to follow suit, and praises Canada which has
just announced similar extraordinary incentives for electric car makers.

 

He acknowledges there are "Made in America" clauses but says they represent
a "small element" of the support package.

 

The EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis points out that EU nations
would not have dreamt of excluding US-made Tesla from their electric car
subsidies.

 

"Many EU member states also have subsidy schemes for electric vehicles, but
they are non-discriminatory. What the US is doing... discriminating against
other producers, is also making it... more inefficient in terms of green
transition, because the best technology will not always be available".

 

One European leader told me the US had said the targeting of European
industry was all a "giant accident", and was not meant "aggressively".

 

In the US, insiders said the IRA had been created by Biden's environment
team rather than his trade team, who just assumed there was already a
relevant trade deal in place with the EU. There was not.

 

The policy aim was to ensure that EU producers were given the same
allowances as other allies such as Canada. If there were subsidy wars,
however, the big EU nations would be able to compete, and side line the
smaller ones, creating significant pressures on the European single market.

 

So where does this all leave the UK? Not formally involved in the US-EU
talks.

 

Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch had "compared notes" with
Dombrovskis. There could be a minerals agreement to help UK car exporters
benefit from the US car incentives.

 

The official line articulated by both the Chancellor and the Energy
Secretary is that the US is playing catch up with Europe and the UK on
climate change, and that the UK uses double the proportion of renewables as
the US.

 

But the language used by government appears to be evolving. Just last month
cabinet ministers described US plans as "protectionist" and "dangerous", and
insisted the UK would not go "toe to toe" with the US.

 

But manufacturers have been spelling out the consequences of standing on the
side lines in public, and even more so in private. Now there is some talk of
focusing on target sectors, even the return of "industrial strategy" two
years after the phrase was banished by Kwasi Kwarteng.

 

The government's self-imposed fiscal rule to aim for reducing national debt,
limits room for manoeuvre and spending power.

 

Labour has embraced the language of a British "Inflation Reduction Act" but
as yet has not committed significant new money to such plans.

 

Would the Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves want to announce a loosening of
the purse strings that risked acceptance of a rising national debt in the
economy? In the US, President Biden is facing pressure to cut from
Congressional Republicans threatening debt limit legislation.

 

Britain's post-Brexit economic strategy has been to focus on areas of
strength that might benefit from faster, more effective or lighter
regulation outside the EU - life sciences, the city and AI.

 

But John Neil and others fear the UK is being squeezed between the US & EU
in this new world, especially in industries which had been promised
"levelling up".

 

The chancellor has said he awaits the EU response to the US push. This may
reflect a calculation that the EU might not respond quite as hard as
expected, given some splits.

 

But this is the crux of the dilemma. The US is engaged in a massive atypical
economic intervention designed to change the map of global production,
address left behind areas and the net zero challenge as well as reducing
reliance on China. It is here to stay and other blocs, especially the EU,
will respond and are already fast-tracking some subsidies.

 

So, the question is should the UK follow suit, and can it afford to follow
suit? There are fears in industry the scale of the intervention elsewhere
means that it is already too late.-bbc

 

 

 

 

US company refuses to recall 67m airbag inflators after regulator's request

A company that supplies airbag parts to about one-quarter of US vehicles has
rejected a request to recall its defective product.

 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said ARC
Automotive's airbag inflators had ruptured and caused injury on several
occasions due to a safety defect.

 

It urged the parts maker to immediately withdraw 67 million of its
inflators.

 

ARC replied that the agency's findings did not support a large-scale recall.

 

Concerns over airbag inflators that explode and hurl shrapnel at passengers
have long plagued the auto industry.

 

ARC's products are used by several top automakers, including BMW, General
Motors, Hyundai and Kia.

 

GM on Friday agreed to recall almost one million vehicles. The driver of a
GM-made SUV sustained facial injuries from a ruptured air bag this March.

 

That incident is one of nine, dating back to 2009, that was cited by the
NHTSA in a letter to the parts supplier that presented the findings of an
eight-year investigation.

 

"An air bag inflator that ruptures when deploying in a vehicle is plainly
defective," wrote Stephen Ridella, director of the NHTSA office of defects
investigation.

 

Recommending an immediate recall for safety reasons, he warned the defect
had created "an unreasonable risk of death and injury" to front-seat
passengers.

 

The company wrote back on Thursday that it "strongly disagrees" with the
NHTSA's findings.

 

"ARC takes any potential issue with its products very seriously," said Steve
Gold, ARC's vice-president of product integrity.

 

But, he said, investigators had failed to identify any "systemic or
prevalent defect" in the inflators, instead relying on incidents that
resulted from "random "one-off" manufacturing anomalies" that have already
been addressed.

 

The stand-off is likely to tee up a legal battle if the two parties cannot
reach an agreement.

 

The spat is reminiscent of the years-long recall of more than 100 million
defective inflators sold by Takata Corporation.

 

The sprawling recall was the largest in the history of the US auto industry
and ultimately led the Japanese parts maker to file for bankruptcy-bbc

 

 

 

Nigeria Loses U.S.$420 Million Annually Due to Onions Scarcity

Every year, onions, one of the cooking condiments for many households in
Nigeria, have been facing price instability and availability, especially
during off-season production circle. Experts have attributed this to the
absence of storage facilities.

 

The demand for onions continues to increase due to its importance as
vegetable and spice. Apart from being used as seasoning in food preparation,
onions, according to health experts, have significant health benefits,
including reducing the risk of cancer, managing blood sugar levels and
boosting immunity.

 

Statistics have shown that Nigeria is the third largest producer of onions
in Africa, after Egypt and Tanzania. Similarly, according to the Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Nigeria is the seventh largest producer in
the world, accounting for about 10 per cent of global production. As such,
onion farming is a profitable agribusiness in Nigeria, contributing
significantly to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country.

 

 

The national president of the National Onion Producers, Processors and
Marketers Association of Nigeria (NOPPMAN), Alhaji Aliyu Maitasamu Isah,
said Nigeria could generate as much as $420 million annually from
exportation of onions if there was value addition.

 

According to the FAO, Nigeria produced about 1.4 million metric tonnes of
onions in 2019, making it the second largest producer in Africa after Egypt
for that year.

 

The onion farming industry in Nigeria thus has a vast potential for
exportation, particularly to the European Union and the United States. This
is in addition to local consumption through supply from the North to other
parts of the country.

 

 

However, despite all these potentials associated with onion farming,
processing and marketing industry, the value chain is experiencing a regular
challenge every year, top of which is poor storage facilities, which creates
scarcity and price hike that further affects the general public and render
stakeholders hopeless. This includes farmers who invest heavily to farm the
produce but most times end up running at a loss.

 

Although the scarcity of the produce during off-season usually leads to
price hike, giving opportunities for higher profits, it also drops at a time
farmers are harvesting, thereby leaving them with struggles to recover their
capital without thinking of profit.

 

"To some extent, instead of counting profit or getting back our capital, we
end up running at a loss, especially smallholder farmers. We sell our
produce immediately after harvest, so they buy at a cheaper rate. This year,
I sold a sack (100kg) of onions at N4,000, the worst I have ever witnessed.
Now that it is about to go higher, we don't have it because we lack storage
facilities. When we keep them at home or in our stores, it will rot," one of
the farmers in Kura in Kano State, Iliyasu Muhammad, said.

 

 

During a visit to Karfi Yan Albasa market, which is said to be the major
onion market in not only Kano, but the entire country, marketers lamented
over the fluctuating price of the produce, saying it had forced them to
incur losses every year. They said the lack of improved and modern storage
facilities, cost of transportation and cost of farm inputs had been the
biggest challenges they faced in the business.

 

Speaking to Daily Trust on Sunday, one of the major dealers who has spent
over two decades in the business, Muntari Isa Gamadan, said it was a large
industry that accommodates thousands of people, including the elderly, youth
and women. He said that in their market alone, over 5,000 people earned a
living on a daily basis.

 

He explained that the price of the commodity was determined by availability.
He further said the lowest amount of a sack of onions was N4,000 but at its
peak when the price goes up, it usually rises to up N75,000.

 

"Now is the season of onions. Last month, it was N6,000, but now, we are
selling between N8,000 and N10,000 per sack.

 

"Presently, we are in harvest period, not only in Kano. As a result of the
number of goods that are coming from different places, we are now having
them in bulk, as you can see yourself. We are loading some from the farm,
bagging them and reloading for transportation to the South.

 

"In the South, the market will receive the goods, but because they are too
much there and still have more here, the price will crash as it is now. That
is why the market is not moving," he explained.

 

Speaking on the number of trailers that go to the South and other parts of
the state and the North, one of the leaders in the market, Alhaji Abdulhamid
Umar Karfi, said that in a day they used to load at least 15 trailers,
amounting to millions of naira, for onward transportation to the South. And
each of the trailers carries 400 pieces of 50kg sacks.

 

This, he said, was aside the small trucks and trailers transporting the
commodity to neighbouring markets within Kano and other states in the North.

 

"During this period, in a single day we can take onions of at least N60
million to the South. That is if a sack is sold at N10,000. A trailer
carries 400 sacks," he added.

 

Lamenting on the challenges they are facing, the market leader, who is also
one of the biggest onion farmers in the state, said the instability in the
price is the most worrying part of the business, as in a day, they can lose
over 50 per cent if the goods are too much. He added that when the goods are
scarce they go higher and they get very few to sell.

 

He said the situation was attributed to lack of modern storage facilities
within the markets and farms in the state, lamenting that it has forced
farmers and marketers to sell their onions at any price.

 

He said a store where 50 bags of grains would be stored could not store 10
sacks of onion. And it cannot stay for more than three months without
rotting. "That is why it needs a place where there is ventilation," he said.

 

He also said they were ready to accept any policy from the federal
government that would help in boosting both farming and marketing of onions,
adding that modern storage facility is the most efficient intervention they
need.

 

Adopt locally improved storage - Expert

 

Speaking on the possible ways out of the problem, the Director of the
Agricultural Extension Department of the Kano State Agricultural and Rural
Development Authority (KNARDA), Gambo Isa Garko, said the best way was to
adopt a storage process that would make onions survive all-year-round.

 

"The crop is largely farmed during the rainy season, but that is not as
strong as dry season onions. This is because of much water. So, even in
storage, the rainy one will not last as long as that of dry season," he
explained.

 

According to him, research shows that in every 100 onions stored, 30 are
always found rotten, leaving the owner with 70 pieces, a situation that
reduces his profit or even capital."

 

Garko advised that farmers and marketers should adopt a locally improved
storage that would allow the commodity stay up to five months.

 

"This is by constructing a bed in the store so that onions will not be on
the ground directly. It will be receiving ventilation from the top and
ground.

 

"Government should also strive to provide improved storage for onions.
However, it has started in Danbatta, where there is a storage facility
called Artificial Onion Storage Crate Store by the APPEALS programme. But
the best way is to adopt a system where government will buy from farmers and
store until it goes year round," he added.

 

He also said there was the need for farmers to embrace new varieties that
are resistant to excess water and can avert anything that may lead to rot
easily. He advised them to seek advice at every stage of their farming
process.

 

Processing plant births in Sokoto

 

The first onion and garlic flakes processing plant has been commissioned in
Sokoto State.

 

Speaking at the ceremony, the national president, National Onion Producers,
Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria (NOPPMAN), Aliyu Isa
Maitasamu, said the plant would reduce N300 billion post-harvest losses to
the barest minimum.

 

He said Nigeria produced two million metric tonnes of onions worth N700
billion, but about 40 per cent of them, amounting to N300billion, perished
due to lack of modern storage facilities and processing plants.

 

Maitasamu added that Sokoto alone produced 800,000 metric tonnes.

 

"We thank Onion and Garlic Processing Partnership Limited (O&G company) for
coming to our rescue by establishing this processing plant," he said.

 

Commissioning the plant, the director-general of the Raw Materials Research
and Development, Professor Hussaini Ibrahim, described the project as an
important milestone for the manufacturing industry in the country.

 

He said the plant was designed and fabricated by Nigerian engineers
following the call by the council to reduce the perennial post-harvest
wastages associated with onions and garlic.

 

"The council, in collaboration with Afri-Generoc Synergy Farms, Chimbilco
Technical and Sokoto Investment and Property Company, had worked assiduously
to achieve objective of processing onions and garlic into flakes on
industrial scale following successful research and development by the
council's in-house research team," he said.

 

Represented by one of the directors of the council, Ibrahim commended the
partners and investors who made the project a reality.

 

The Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar, who was represented by the
district head of Sokoto North, Alhaji Malami Sheikh, disclosed that the
sultanate council was working with the Central Bank of Nigeria to provide
loans to farmers and entrepreneurs in the state.

 

The chairman of the company, Dr Saleh Ibrahim, said the idea was conceived
by the educated elite to rescue onion and garlic farmers from perennial
post-harvest losses. He said processed onion and garlic flakes would soon
flood the markets.

 

-Daily Trust.

 

 

 

Nigeria Not Seeking Another U.S.$800 Million World Bank Loan, FG Clarifies

Abuja — The federal government has clarified that it was not seeking another
$800 million loan from the World Bank to cushion the impact of the impending
removal of petroleum subsidy on vulnerable Nigerians.

 

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed who
gave the clarification in a statement yesterday, said her attention had been
drawn to reports suggesting that the federal government was seeking new
loans to cushion the effect of the pending fuel subsidy removal, describing
the news reports as incorrect.

 

Last Thursday's letter by President Muhammadu Buhari requesting "the Senate
to kindly approve an 'additional' loan facility to the tune of $8OO million
to be secured from the World Bank for the National Social Safety Net
Programme" had triggered outrage from many Nigerians who interpreted the
request to mean a fresh $800 million, different from the one that had been
reportedly secured by the administration.

 

 

The finance minister had at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC)
meeting on April 5, 2023, announced that Nigeria had already secured $800
million from the World Bank to help provide palliatives to about 50 million
poor Nigerians in the aftermath of fuel subsidy removal.

 

However, in a statement captioned "Nigeria Seeks No New World Bank
Loan-Ahmed," and issued by her Special Adviser, Media, and Communications,
Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi, the minister said the $800 million in question was
the same one secured from the World Bank recently."

 

According to the statement, "The news story is not correct. This is the same
loan that the Honourable Minister had explained on several occasions that
the $800 million facility the country recently got from the World Bank for
post-petrol subsidy removal palliative was awaiting parliamentary approval
for the federal government to commence disbursement.

 

"The government is therefore not seeking another loan for the pending fuel
subsidy removal. It is the same.

 

"It will be recalled that the facility would be deployed to provide succor
to 10 million households, who are expected to get N5,000 each for six
months.

 

"The minister had explained that the initial duration of the palliatives
meant to cushion the effects of the planned subsidy removal on vulnerable
Nigerians was for six months, but would be reviewed upon extensive
consultation with stakeholders."

 

The statement further quoted the minister as having recently explained that
"the $800 million has been negotiated and approved by the Federal Executive
Council (FEC) and we now have a request before the parliament for approval.
And once the parliament approves it, the next administration can decide on
the utilisation.

 

"We've also been doing preparatory work side by side along the approval
process. This includes expanding the committee to include members of the
transition team of the President-elect.

 

"The process will include the verification of the social register which will
be used for electronic transfers of the funds."

 

-This Day.

 

 

 

Africa: Social Media Mobile Phone Data in Disaster Management and the
Implications That It Has On Vulnerable Populations

This week sees the review of the United Nations Sendai Framework for
Disaster Risk Reduction. It will bring governments, partners and communities
together to reduce disaster risk and losses and to ensure a safer,
sustainable future.

 

Since its conception in 2015 there have been advancements in the
availability of tools such as the use of social media and mobile data which
will allow citizens to be at the forefront of disaster management
decision-making.

 

 

As social media has cemented its permanent spot in society, it is integral
that emergency management sees social media and mobile phone data as an
asset that can aid in all phases of the disaster cycle.

 

Currently, the annual number of people killed from natural disasters is
around 60,000 and that is expected to increasingly rise due to climate
change - in many cases these are the most vulnerable in society. To help
address this, there is a growing focus on a shift to a social perspective to
disaster management

 

The widespread adoption of mobile phones and social media platforms has made
it possible for people to share information about disasters in real-time,
which can help emergency responders to better understand the situation on
the ground and respond more effectively. There is a tendency for the public
to turn to social media to share information or seek information during a
disaster, including sharing posts, requesting help, and sharing the status
on critical infrastructure.

 

 

Social media can also be used to push out messages from emergency officials
to quickly communicate with a large audience and coordinate relief efforts.

 

There are some mobile applications that are used to identify areas of need
and direct resources. With the increasing use of social media, it is
important to consider the ethical and practical considerations on using
these tools, particularly for vulnerable populations. Access to social media
and mobile data is not universal, leaving out some of the most vulnerable
communities. There are also concerns about privacy and misinformation in a
time where communication channels are already strained.

 

Hurricane Dorian, South Carolina

 

First, we will look at an example of Hurricane Dorian and how it hit South
Carolina. Hurricane Dorrian was a very powerful category 5 hurricane which
had hit the Bahamas and was for them the most intense one on record. It also
went on to be the most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record with winds as
high as 185 mph. It impacted also on the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico
before landing in the United States.

 

 

A number of US states Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, and
Virginia prepared for its arrival by declaring a state of emergency.

 

The South Carolina Emergency Management utilized their Twitter and Facebook
to spread messaging both before the hurricane and during it about weather
and related updates. This worked well because news outlets knew which social
media messaging to follow, and they knew the credibility of that
information.

 

Where South Carolina Emergency Management ran into some issues was when it
came to private citizens also utilizing social media tools such as twitter
who would then tweet at the emergency managers calling for help.

 

The local first responders didn't know who had received that information and
if telecommunications had already received a call, creating a sense of
confusion. Additionally, South Carolina Emergency Management didn't have the
capacity to help with the influx of volume that they had through this new
social media messaging capabilities.

 

There is an interesting opportunity here for improved Disaster Response
because of three factors.

 

Firstly, there are new ways of collecting data. Data mining techniques have
been revolutionizing every sector of society, and Emergency Management is
not an exception to this. We live in an age of big data and there's an
opportunity for transformative change in disaster management because better
decisions can be made due to this influx of data.

 

As a society, we are transitioning from an era of data scarcity to an era of
data abundance, and you can even see this in lower- and middle-income
countries where we're now able to gather data in areas that were otherwise
relatively data scarce. This is coupled with climate change which is
increasing both the frequency and intensity of natural disasters.

 

Currently, the annual number of people killed from natural disasters is
around 60,000 and that is expected to increasingly rise due to climate
change - in many cases these are the most vulnerable in society. To help
address this, there is a growing focus on a shift to a social perspective to
disaster management. This can be best expressed as how and with which tools
do we support the most vulnerable when a disaster occurs.

 

There are three types of data relevant to the discussion.

 

The first type of data is directed data and that's operator focused data
capturing technology on a person or place. When you think of directed data,
you are likely to think of traditional surveillance data cameras and remote
sensing.

 

Automated data is collectively or possibly collected through the normal
operations of a system. You can think of mobile phone use like call records,
web searches and credit card use.

 

Lastly you have volunteered data, and that's data that's actively or
passively produced by citizens. That is looking at crowdsourcing data and
social media data which are very rich because it can tell you a lot of
information beyond just an individual level.

 

Looking at a couple different uses of social media and mobile phone data in
disasters.

 

During Hurricane Harvey (2017), a picture of many elderly individuals in a
flooded nursing home was tweeted by a man named Timothy McIntosh that lived
in Florida. This is the first time that we're able to see social media being
used due to an overrun 9-1-1 system. Citizens turned to Twitter to reach out
for help because they couldn't get in contact with traditional
telecommunications.

 

This picture was tweeted and then after about 2,000 likes and many retweets,
Emergency Management officials began evacuating these 18 people in this
nursing home, and after every 30 minutes the emergency officials were
tweeting at Timothy McIntosh or privately messaging him letting him know
about the status updates with this nursing home. However, there is concern
of who's using Twitter to reach out in emergencies. In some studies, there
is concern that the Twitter users are typically white male, more educated
and living in urban areas.

 

This began a broader conversation of who's getting left out through using
this means of emergency response messaging.

 

A different approach - SMS data

 

Looking at open-source two-way SMS data and there's two different platforms
that will be discussed.

 

Frontline SMS is interesting because you don't need a lot to get started.
All one needs is power, the internet, a computer that can be used for a hub,
a SIM card and then free software and it's able to turn a laptop into a
central communication hub to facilitate messaging. This relies on a text
messaging service which is useful because it is easier and more accessible.

 

In a pilot, Frontline SMS partnered with Strengthening Participatory
Organizations in Pakistan following monsoon flooding. They use Frontline to
both receive and send messages about complaints or requests for help.

 

They were also able to receive responses and requests for help. To enable
this to be a proactive effort, volunteers had to go out before the disaster
to the communities and explain how they wanted them to use this number to
text.

 

What they would receive was information from the individuals including their
names, contact information and their addresses so when these individuals
message this number it would pop up information about them and better help
the response when they would send responders out to those areas. The
messages were converted from Arabic into a numbering system, so it was
easier to categorize.

 

RapidPro SMS is another program that was developed by the UN Childrens Fund
(UNICEF). It was originally used for faster delivery of blood sample
testing, but it's turned into flexible and customizable software that can be
used, with the most common application being in education systems.

 

However, there is broad applicability for disaster response. Rapid Pro SMS
was used for early flood warning systems to send audio messages in Cambodia.
They decided to use audio messages because of literacy challenges in the
area. The program currently covers over 200,000 households.

 

Crowdsourcing Data

 

These are two different projects that are interrelated. The first one is
Mission 4636 which is a number that people could use where they would report
something that they saw requiring urgent attention. It was used during a
2010 earthquake in Haiti. People would text this number, and that
information would then be translated, categorized, and geo-located. Then you
could extract this missing person information, so responders knew where to
respond.

 

 

However, an issue that they had with it was that it was a one-way system.
People would say that they needed help, but there was no way of knowing when
this aid would actually come or how the message was being received. If the
responders needed more information, they couldn't text back that number and
get that extra information they needed.

 

The Ushahidi project originally began because of violent incidents following
a Kenyan presidential election, but now it's been applied to natural
disaster responses. Volunteers will put SMS data, emails and web-based
submissions onto a map for the general public to actually see what incidents
are happening in their area and they can click there for more information.
It would be used to coordinate with responders to go to those specific
areas.

 

Which subsequently ran into a problem with citizens sending the information,
it would be translated and posted in English. The populations that they were
trying to serve didn't speak English, so there was a big gap in who could
actually use it, and the people that were sending out the messages couldn't
even understand their own messages they put onto this platform.

 

The Ushahidi map can also scrub Facebook and Twitter, so they could
automatically put tweets and Facebook posts onto the map to see those, as
well. They realized that there were five key traits that made this platform
possible.

 

The technology was simple.

It was accessible in areas that had low connectivity.

It was accessible by many different platforms so that you could use your
phone or your laptop.

There's an emphasis on the verification of information.

The mixed funding sources also helped it be successful.

There are many implications that these different platforms have for
vulnerable populations. First, it is foundational to understand the US
Federal Emergency Management Agency - FEMA's definition of vulnerable
populations because there's so many different definitions. FEMA defines
vulnerable populations as:

 

"a population whose members may have additional needs before, during, and
after an incident in functional areas including, but not limited to,
maintaining independence, communication, transportation, supervision and
medical care. Individuals in need of additional response assistance include
those who have disabilities who are from diverse cultures who had limited
English proficiency, who are non-English speaking and who are transportation
disadvantaged."

 

This is a very broad definition, but it is a useful one to use here because
all of these populations that are listed would be affected by the use of the
different platforms noted here.

 

Also, in the USA there's also the Americans with Disabilities (ADA) toolkit
which can be helpful in accessibility during disaster management.

 

Chapter seven of their toolkit is about emergencies and disasters, and under
that there's a requirement that officials make notification systems
accessible to people with disabilities. There is an opportunity to
incorporate these platforms of open communication, not just notification
systems to be under that guidance.

 

Problems with Social Media and Disaster Management for Vulnerable
Communities

 

The lack of trust that exists in some of these populations that are
considered vulnerable is very important to understand. There are historical
incidents where their trust has been violated. A lot of vulnerable
populations do have a lack of trust in emergency officials, and that could
be exacerbated by using social media without their involvement and
consultation in its approach and implementation. This is because there's a
lot of misinformation on these platforms.

 

There's also the question of who is using these platforms and who has
access, which leads to literacy and access challenges which could also lead
to an underrepresentation of vulnerable communities in emergency
communications.

 

Through a study, researchers looked at who actually tweets in disasters
scenarios, and it showed that it works for the people that are physically
vulnerable (people in the physical path of the disaster), but not
necessarily good for the socially vulnerable. By using these different
platforms and methods of using data in your response, it could create a
widening gap in care.

 

A few takeaways

 

If you're going to use social media, understand that Twitter and any social
media isn't a neutral platform, and it doesn't represent the whole
population. Public education needs to be used before a disaster on a sunny
day to teach people how you want them to interact with the platform or
different tools that you're trying to use.

 

Address the issue of "does the Disaster Management Team have the capacity
and staff capable to handle the information coming in?".

 

If you're getting this max influx of messaging that you can't handle, you
will then violate that trust of your vulnerable communities. This is really
delicate in this field of work.

 

Lastly, you can't just rely on any of any of the things that I've explained.
You can't rely on it because if there's an electricity grid outage, all of
them are dependent on that. If the electricity grid is taken down and you
were only relying on these tools, then you would be creating a larger
vulnerability for yourself.

-IPS.

 

 

 

Nigeria: Sharia Law Won't Be Incorporated Into Traffic Regulations - FRSC

Abuja — The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has said that Sharia law will
not be introduced in the enforcement of traffic regulations.

 

In a statement issued yesterday by the Corps Spokesperson, Bisi Kazeem, the
FRSC also disclosed that its sector commander for Bauchi State, Yusuf
Abdullahi has been recalled to Abuja.

 

Abdullahi had on Thursday called for the application of Sharia law to
prosecute traffic offenders to stem road crashes in the country.

 

However, the corps explained that it is neither a religious nor sectional
organisation, but a federal Government agency established with a mandate
that is guided by the provisions of an establishment Act.

 

 

The Corps Marshal, Dauda Biu, has recalled with immediate effect, the Sector
Commander to the National Headquarters Abuja, for necessary administrative
action for breaching the FRSC regulations and the Standard Operating
Procedures.

 

Kazeem said, "It is key to inform the general public that the FRSC is a
government agency with statutory responsibilities for road safety
administration in Nigeria and sensitive to the country's multi-religious as
well as heterogeneous ethnic composition.

 

"The corps was founded through Decree No. 45, as amended by Decree 35 of
1992 referred to in the statute books as the FRSC Act cap 141 Laws of the
Federation of Nigeria. The Act was passed by the National Assembly as FRSC
(Establishment) Act 2007.

 

"By this very fact, it is important to posit that the Corps is neither a
religious nor sectional organisation, but a federal government agency
established with a mandate that is guided by the provisions of an
establishment Act; and not a Sharia, Mosaic, customary, canon or any other
law whatsoever that contradicts the provisions of its establishment Act, or
the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

 

"Our lead agency role is shielded in our strict compliance with established
regulations duly passed by the National Assembly. As such, the public is
humbly called to disregard the entire content of the opinion as published
because it is outrightly baseless, unfounded, and does not apply to our
operations and service to the Nigerian people."

 

-This Day.

 

 

 

Nigeria: Don Tasks Farmers on Mushroom Cultivation to Boost Agro-Revenue

A university lecturer, Prof. Sami Ayodele, has called for more awareness on
the cultivation of mushroom following its inherent revenue generation
potential.

 

Ayodele, a Professor of Botanical Science at the National Open University
(NOUN), made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
in Lagos.

 

According to him, mushroom is one of the most neglected produces in
agriculture, especially in Nigeria.

 

He said that farmers focus mainly on cultivation of common crops such as
rice, beans, yam and cassava, among others.

 

 

Ayodele urged farmers to diversify into mushroom cultivation to boost
revenue cultivation.

 

"We should not just concentrate on cocoa, cassava, yam and the rest;
mushroom cultivation should be given priority.

 

"There are other crops just like mushrooms that have been neglected that can
earn Nigeria a lot of money.

 

"If the mushroom sector is well-developed, it can earn Nigeria a lot of
foreign exchange," he said.

 

Ayodele added that some Asian countries rely on this neglected
agro-commodity for consumption and export to earn revenue for the country.

 

He said that Nigerian farmers should take a cue from Asian countries and
cultivate more mushrooms which could increase the nation's Gross Domestic
Product to trillion annually if the sector was well developed.

 

"China, Russia and even some other parts of the United States of America
embark on mushroom cultivation which earn them a lot of foreign exchange
apart from local consumption," he said.

 

Ayodele also reiterated the need for nutritional and health benefits of
mushroom, stressing that there was the need for increase in mushroom
cultivation in the country.

 

He also called for more awareness on mushroom cultivation in order to
popularise its cultivation and consumption among Nigerians.

 

The don said that mushroom could be used for management of chronic diseases
such as cancer and HIV, among others.

 

"The protein content in mushrooms can be compared to that of beef and fish
which is very expensive for the less privileged people to buy.

 

"Mushrooms are very affordable and everybody can also embark on its
cultivation because it is not hard to cultivate.

 

"You can even cultivate mushrooms in the comfort of your home if you know
how do to it," Ayodele said. (NAN)

 

-Daily Trust.

 

 

 

Nigeria: Fresh U.S.$800 Millio Loan - Why Nigeria Needs Lame Duck
Legislation

With just about two weeks left to the end of his second and final term in
office, President Muhammadu Buhari last Wednesday sent a letter to the
Senate requesting approval for a fresh or "additional" $800 million facility
from the World Bank. Were Nigerians not already too numbed to be
scandalized, such a request should cause outrage among the citizenry. But
more importantly, the report highlights, once again, why Nigeria needs
legislation that will bar the federal and state executives from taking
certain kinds of decisions, once a new president or governor has been
elected.

 

President Buhari's letter seeking approval for the loan raises so many
difficult questions for the government at this point that is worth quoting
at length. As he told the Senate: "Please note that the Federal Executive
Council approved an additional loan facility to the tune of USD800 million
to be secured from the World Bank, for the National Social Safety Net
Programme and the need to request for your consideration and approval to
ensure early implementation.

 

 

"The Senate may wish to note that the programme is intended to expand
coverage of shock responsive safety net support among the poor and
vulnerable Nigerians. This will assist them in coping with the costs of
meeting basic needs. You may wish to note that, the Federal Government of
Nigeria under the conditional cash transfer window of the programme will
transfer the sum of N5,000 per month to 10.2 million poor and low-income
households for a period of six months, with a multiplier effect on about 60
million individuals. In order to guarantee the credibility of the process,
digital transfers will be made directly to beneficiaries' accounts and
mobile wallets.

 

 

"Given the above", the letter added, "I wish to invite the Senate to kindly
approve an additional loan facility to the tune of USD800 million to be
secured from the World Bank for the National Social Safety Net Programme".
The President then concluded by expressing hope that his request will
"receive expeditious consideration by the Senate."

 

We are deeply concerned not just by the letter and its contents, but also by
the lack of sufficient seriousness and accountability in the government that
the whole episode implies. First, why would a government elected on a
mandate of change eight years ago wait until its very last few days in
office to do anything to help 60 million Nigerians get out of poverty? If
the government genuinely meant to help stimulate economic growth in the
informal sector, and improve nutrition, health, and education to help "10.2
million poor and low-income households", that should have been the very
first item on the government's agenda from its first day in office.

 

 

By now, talk would be about the number of Nigerians pulled out of poverty by
this government since then, not the tens of millions still in it. We believe
it is a scandal, that the government knows there are up to 60 million "poor
and low income Nigerians" who need help with feeding, health and livelihoods
but did not do enough to help them over the past eight or four years.

 

But we are equally scandalized by the apparent lack of accountability and
transparency to the process. First, we are compelled to ask why expeditious
approval when the government's entire authority expires completely in less
than two weeks? Second, this government last mentioned safety net for the
poor in Nigeria only in the context of the $800 million loan it said, in
April, that it had secured from the World Bank to help cushion the effects a
then proposed withdrawal from fuel subsidy, a policy that had since been
dropped by the government itself. So, where is the $800m first received? Has
the government returned it to the World Bank or has it been disbursed to the
projected 10m poor households even though the policy has been suspended? And
how is this request related to the previous $800m that was in the news last
month?

 

These are all important questions of accountability and transparency, both
specifically for this policy, and more broadly for this outgoing government
as a whole. We, therefore, urge the Senate to not only withhold approval for
this loan, but to request additional information in the public interest.
Similarly, we urge the in-coming administration to issue caveat emptor on
the loan, should the Senate rubber stamp it. No administration has the right
to take such a massive decision on behalf of Nigerians yet unborn with less
than one month to go.

 

Finally, we call for a legislation that will prevent governors and
presidents from taking out loans, awarding contracts, or making payments to
officials beyond certain thresholds once the next governor or president has
been elected. Such law would make outgoing administrations more accountable
to the people, and prevent the reckless and potentially self-serving
spending spree embarked upon by governors and presidents few months to the
end of their administrations. A bill for such a law is what President Buhari
should have sent to the Senate last week, not yet another unexplained
request for billions in foreign loans.

 

-Daily Trust.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 


 


Invest Wisely!

Bulls n Bears 

 

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Skype:         Bulls.Bears 



 

 

 


 

INVESTORS DIARY 2023

 


Company

Event

Venue

Date & Time

 


 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


 

Africa Day

 

May 25

 


 

Heroes’ Day

 

Aug 14

 


 

Defence Forces Day

 

Aug 15

 


 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


Companies under Cautionary

 

 

 


CBZH

GetBucks

EcoCash

 


TSL

Econet

Turnall

 


First Capital Bank

ZBFH

Fidelity

 


Zimplow

FMHL

 

 


 

 

 

 


 <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 s 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 d from third parties.

 


 

 


(c) 2023 Web: <http://www.bullszimbabwe.com>  www.bullszimbabwe.com Email:
<mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> bulls at bullszimbabwe.com Tel: +263 4 2927658 Cell:
+263 77 344 1674

 


 

 

 

 

 

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