Daily Watch – NLC to picket CBN offices, Ethiopia removes TPLF from terrorist list 

Nigeria’s Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) shared ₦722.677 billion in February among the federal, state and local governments, according to a communiqué issued at the end of its meeting for March 2023. “The ₦722.677 billion total distributable revenue comprised distributable statutory revenue of ₦366.800 billion, distributable Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue of ₦224.232 billion, Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) of ₦11.645 billion and ₦120.000 billion Augmentation from Forex Equalisation Account,” FAAC said. According to the statement, in the month, total deductions for the cost of collection was ₦27.449 billion and total deductions for transfers, savings, recoveries and refunds were ₦109.909 billion. “From the total distributable revenue of ₦722.677 billion; the Federal Government received ₦269.063 billion, the State Governments received ₦236.464 billion and the Local Government Councils received ₦173.936 billion,” the statement stated.

On Wednesday, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) directed its affiliate unions to mobilise for the picketing of all the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) offices, including its Abuja headquarters from next week over the current cash crunch. The NLC also directed workers to stay at home and join the picketing exercise. NLC President Joe Ajaero said during a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, that the exercise would be “total and till further notice.” The labour leader said the directive became imperative following the expiration of a one-week ultimatum given to the banking regulator to make cash available to Nigerians.

Rating agency Fitch on Wednesday upgraded Ghana’s long-term local-currency issuer default rating to “CCC” from “restricted default,” after the country started settling payments on outstanding local bonds following a domestic debt restructuring. The upgrade, according to the agency’s classification, denotes a very high level of default risk relative to other issuers or obligations. The country has already restructured its domestic debt, which will lower its interest payments by 10 percent of the government’s expected revenues or 1.6 percent of GDP in 2023, and 6 percent of revenues or 0.9 percent of GDP in 2024, Fitch said. Despite this immediate relief, the restructuring has increased Ghana’s debt-to-GDP ratio by 0.6 percentage points, and the ratio is still above 100 percent after the process. Fitch said it did not expect Ghana to get “financing assurances” — commitments from its external bilateral creditors to restructure the country’s debts — before the end of June. 

Ethiopia’s parliament on Wednesday removed the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a party of the rebel authorities in the northern region, from its list of terrorist entities. “The House adopted the decision to remove the terrorist designation of the TPLF by a majority vote,” the House of People’s Representatives said on its Facebook account. “During the debates, it became clear that removing the terrorist classification from the TPLF was essential for the implementation of the peace agreement reached in Pretoria between the Federal Government and the TPLF,” the lower house said. It did not specify the number of votes in favour but noted that 61 MPs voted against and five abstained. The lifting of the TPLF’s terrorist designation paves the way for the establishment of an interim administration in Tigray, headed by the TPLF.