Daily Watch – Foreign suppliers reject LCs, B’Faso coup attempt thwarted
28th September 2023

No fewer than six people have been killed and four others injured after bandits attacked Takanai community in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area (LGA) of Kaduna State. The president of Atyap Community Development Association, Sam Achi, said that the attack occurred a few metres away from a military checkpoint and close to Ungwan Juju. He said the bandits invaded the community and immediately opened fire on two houses, during which they killed six people and injured four others. In Kwara, two persons were reportedly killed while three others sustained varying degrees of gunshot injury when a gang of gunmen stormed the Alalubosa community in the Oko Olowo area of Asa LGA.
Several Nigerian businesses that rely on imports have been cut off by their foreign suppliers who are rejecting Letters of Credit (LC) and refusing to deliver goods without payment as foreign currency shortages worsen in Africa’s biggest economy, BusinessDay reports. Foreign suppliers are now demanding cash transfers into escrow accounts in place of LCs as faith in the Nigerian banking system wanes owing to the dollar shortage. Also, at least 3,567 jobs were lost in the manufacturing sector in the first half of 2023 according to figures from the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN). According to the report, employment generation in the manufacturing sector declined to 6,428 in the first half of 2023. This was a 32.8 percent reduction in employment generation capacity when compared with 9,559 jobs generated in the first half of 2022.
The Ghanaian Government secured GH₵3.9 billion from bondholders who participated in the just-ended reopened Domestic Debt Exchange Programme. However, in a span of two years, Ghana has lost a whopping $6.3 billion worth of its Gross International Reserves (GIR), according to the Bank of Ghana’s Summary of Economic and Financial Data report. Details of the report indicate that Ghana had about $11.4 billion (an all-time high) in GIR as of August 2021. This has depleted to just $5.09 billion as of August 2023, representing about a 55.4 percent depletion rate in two years. In a related development, figures from the Bank of Ghana reveal that the non-performing loans in Ghana’s banking sector have surged to 20 percent of all loans, hitting a peak not witnessed in half a decade, and there’s no indication of the ratio slowing down.
Burkina Faso’s military junta on Wednesday said a coup attempt had been thwarted the previous day by security and intelligence services, without providing specifics on what had happened. It did not identify anyone but said some arrests have been made and searches continued for others. “Investigations will help unmask the instigators of this plot,” it said. The junta on Monday suspended French news magazine Jeune Afrique for publishing “untruthful” articles that reported tension and discontent within Burkina Faso’s armed forces. On Tuesday, thousands of pro-junta demonstrators took to the streets of the capital Ouagadougou and elsewhere to show their support, citing rumours of a brewing mutiny against the authorities.