Daily Watch – Kano youths target Buhari’s copter, Bank of Ghana hikes key rate

Some angry Kano youths on Monday attacked President Muhammadu Buhari’s chopper despite the heavy security presence mounted on the routes leading to project inauguration sites in the state. There was a fierce battle between the irate youths and security operatives, who kept on their toes to ensure sanity on the routes leading to the sites for the inauguration of the projects on Ahmadu Bello Way. On the way to commission the Galaxy Backbone Limited Project, the President’s convoy was attacked by youths who threw stones from a distance, to avoid being caught by heavily armed security operatives providing security for the President and his convoy. The Peoples Democratic Party condemned the attack on the president as sponsored by the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu.

The economic cost of Nigeria’s internet shutdown in 2022 was $82.7 million in 2022, according to the Top10VPN cost of internet shutdown report. This new figure indicates a 94 percent decline in 2021’s value of $1.45 billion.  The report stated that the social media shutdown by Nigeria also reduced to 287 hours last year from 5,040 hours in 2021. “Although the Nigerian government announced plans to restore Twitter access in October 2021, based on the condition that the social media platform would be used for “business and positive engagement”, the ban would not be lifted until the following January. The 222-day-long ban cost the Nigerian economy a total of $1.54 billion over the two calendar years,” the report stated. According to the report, the cost of government shutdown rose by 325 percent from $5.6 billion in 2021 to $23.79 billion in 2022.

Profits in Ghana’s banking industry declined by 18.9 percent in 2022, driven by the mark-to-market losses on investments, higher impairments on loans, and rising operating costs. This is compared to 12.3 percent annual growth recorded in 2021.  According to the Bank of Ghana, the banks’ profit-after-tax was ¢3.9 billion at the end of December 2022. But net interest income grew by 23 percent to ¢15.8 billion, higher than the growth of 14.5 percent in 2021. Net fees and commissions also went up by 27.4 percent to ¢3.7 billion, from the growth of 24.8 percent recorded in 2021. Accordingly, operating income increased by 30.9 percent, compared with 14.6 percent recorded a year earlier. The Bank of Ghana raised its Monetary Policy Rate by 100 basis points to 28 percent. Within a year, the rate has gone up by a staggering 13.5 percent. The central bank cited downside risks to inflation and exchange rate depreciation as the major reason for the hike. Already, average lending rates have shot up significantly to 35.58 percent in December 2022, from 33.87 percent recorded in November 2022. Lending rates have gone up by 15.42 percent since January 2022.

The International Monetary Fund and Cameroon have reached a staff-level agreement that will give the country access to around $74.6 million once the Board formally completes the review, the IMF said in a statement on Monday. The announcement followed an IMF mission to Cameroon earlier this month and virtual meetings to discuss progress made on reforms and policy priorities in the context of the third review of the program, supported by Extended Credit Facility and Extended Fund Facility arrangements. “The mission has reached staff-level agreement with the Cameroonian authorities on the economic and financial policies that could support the approval of the third review of the program,” IMF mission chief for Cameroon Cemile Sancak said in the statement. “Conclusion of the third review by the IMF Executive Board scheduled in early March 2023 would enable the disbursement of SDR 55.2 million (about US$74.6 million),” she added.