Daily Watch – Senate plugs ₦23tn Ways and Means to national debt, German troops leave Mali

The Senate has approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s request to restructure the ₦22.7 trillion loans borrowed by the Federal Government from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through Ways and Means advances. In December 2022, the President sent a letter to the National Assembly seeking approval to convert the advances to 40-year bonds that will be sold to investors at 9 percent interest with a three-year moratorium. Senate Leader Ibrahim Gobir said that part of the money was given as loans to states. Gobir said the restructuring was approved “because the advances were made to ensure that the government does not shut down.” Other recommendations were that if there is a need to exceed the legal 5 percent threshold of the prior year’s revenue, recourse must be made to the National Assembly for approval.

The Federal High Court Abuja has granted leave to the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) to serve a writ of summons on Meta Platforms Incorporated, owners of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The court granted the application in ARCON’s ₦30 billion suit pending against the company. In October 2022, ARCON sued Meta and its agent, AT3 Resources Limited for showing unapproved advertisements to the Nigerian audience. The regulatory body said the continued exposure of the “unvetted” adverts has led to a “loss of revenue to the federal government” and is seeking an injunction restraining the defendants, their privies, agents, servants and associates from publishing any advertising or marketing communications materials without recourse to ARCON in line with the country’s advertising law.

The Ghana Statistical Service’s annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey has revealed that two out of three unemployed Ghanaians are females. In all, over 1.7 million Ghanaians are unemployed and multidimensionally poor, with some unable to find jobs and food. Government statistician, Prof Samuel Kobina Annim, who revealed the findings of the survey, said the outcome should help policymakers make informed decisions to address the problem. He said nearly 160,000 persons consistently remained unemployed in the first three quarters of 2022.

German troops have started to withdraw from Mali as Berlin aims to wind up by May next year, a mission that has been hampered by disputes with the Bamako ruling military junta and the Russian forces’ arrival. Berlin has deployed some 1,000 troops to Mali, most near Gao, where their main task is to gather reconnaissance for the UN peacekeeping mission—MINUSMA. The military has begun shipping the first components of 1,300 container loads of equipment, the German commander in Mali, Colonel Heiko Bohnsack, told Der Tagesspiegel. Berlin paved the way for a last one-year extension of the decade-old mission until May 2024, a decision that is still subject to approval by the lower house of parliament.