Daily Watch – FG will be Eurobond-shy in 2023, Osun suspends mining licenses

The Labour Party (LP) says it has postponed its presidential campaign rallies for Ekiti and Ondo states. The party announced the postponement of the presidential campaign rallies in a post on its official Twitter handle. According to the post, the rallies were suspended due to “unavoidable and unusual circumstances”. The campaign rallies were initially fixed for December 15 and 16 in Ekiti and Ondo states, respectively. The LP apologised to its supporters over the development and said new dates for the campaign rallies would be announced. Due to some unavoidable and unusual circumstances beyond our control, our earlier scheduled Presidential Campaign Rally in Ekiti & Ondo for 15th and 16th December 2023 are hereby postponed. New date will be announced. We regret the inconveniences caused by this,” the post reads.

Nigeria has no plans to issue Eurobonds in 2023 unless market conditions improve as bond prices are too high for African countries, Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed said on Wednesday. Africa’s biggest economy has been raising debt to fund infrastructure and boost a fragile economy battling high inflation. It sold $1.25 billion in Eurobonds this year, marking its eighth outing on international debt markets. Ahmed said Nigeria would focus on concessionary loans from the World Bank, Islamic Development Bank, African Development Bank and others for external loans, Ahmed said in Abuja after a cabinet meeting. “Our external borrowing sources are very much open at multilateral institutions … and our focus is on those loans unless we have no option because loan processes are very long,” she said. “The prices of bonds are too high now in most African countries. No one is going near there now. We hope 2023 will bring about some improvement,” she said.

Osun Governor Ademola Adeleke has ordered the immediate suspension of all mining activities by firms operating on the state’s mining licences. Olawale Rasheed, the spokesperson to the governor announced the development in a statement on Wednesday. Rasheed said the affected operators are to report to the state’s assets recovery committee with copies of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with the state. “The suspension of the operators is to remain in force until the conclusion of the ongoing review of the MOU between the state as the owner of the licences and the operators,” the statement said. The Cable reports Osun has 100 mineral titles, six of which belong to the state government. On Monday, while inaugurating a committee to monitor and regulate mining activities in the state, Adeleke decried the death of residents from the adverse effects of illegal mining activities.

Ghana’s annual consumer inflation accelerated to a new 21-year high of 50.3% in November, up from 40.4% the previous month, driven by utilities, food and fuel, data showed on Wednesday. The spike comes a day after Ghana secured a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund for a $3 billion, three-year support package. Ghana approached the IMF in July to ask for financial help after soaring prices and economic hardship spurred street protests. The West African gold, oil and cocoa producer is battling its worst economic crisis in a generation. The cedi is down around 40% against the dollar this year. It traded at all-time lows in November, before rallying in anticipation of the IMF deal. Government spending cuts and several central bank interest rate hikes have so far failed to tame inflation. The government has started restructuring its domestic debt and is discussing a strategy for external debt restructuring, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said on Tuesday. Food inflation stood at 47.9%. IMF board approval of the proposed three-year loan is expected “early next year”, according to Ofori-Atta.