Daily Watch – Cocobod raises $500M, Mozambique violence escalates

The Federal High Court, Abuja, has nullified section 2(10)(b) of the National Broadcasting Code (6th Edition, 2016), which required broadcasters to pay 2.5% of their gross annual income as an annual levy. In a suit by MultiChoice Nigeria Limited and Details Nigeria Limited (GOTv), Justice James Omotosho ruled that the levy must be based on net annual income instead. The court also barred the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) from demanding the plaintiffs’ VAT records, FIRS reports, bank statements,  audit adjustment journals, trial balances, and general ledgers for income computation, limiting the NBC to relying on annual audited accounts. Other financial records can only be accessed through agencies like the FIRS. 

The Federal Government has said at least two out of every three Nigerians are affected by one or more Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). The National Coordinator for NTDs, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Fatai Oyediran, disclosed this at the high-level advocacy meeting with commissioners of health from the 36 states and the FCT held in Abuja on Wednesday. Mr Oyediran said approximately 1.7 billion people are affected by NTDs globally. He noted that Nigeria accounts for about 50% of NTDs burden in Africa and 25% globally.  “These diseases are linked to poverty, unsafe water, poor sanitation, substandard housing, reservoirs for insects and other disease vectors, while the most vulnerable are children and women,” he said.

International buyers of Ghana’s cocoa have made over half a billion dollars in upfront payments to the state marketing board, Cocobod, to secure supplies and avoid further losses. Reuters has reported. This season, for the first time since 1992, Cocobod has not sought syndicated financing but is instead relying on the buyers themselves. However, traders are still owed up to 350,000 metric tons of cocoa from last season’s contracts, which Cocobod failed to deliver, resulting in losses of at least $1 billion on futures market hedges. While Cocobod disputes the 350,000-ton figure, it has acknowledged that some contracts were rolled over and promises to fulfil them this season. If these contracts remain undelivered, traders could lose another $2,500 per ton on their hedges. To meet these obligations, Cocobod is counting on a strong production rebound, though traders remain uncertain about its feasibility.

The governments of the United States, Britain, Canada, Norway, and Switzerland on Wednesday jointly condemned the escalating violence against civilians in Mozambique. Public outrage has surged after last month’s disputed election results, which sparked protests from opposition supporters, contesting what they say is a fraudulent victory by Frelimo, the party that has governed Mozambique since 1975. Footage obtained by Reuters showed an armoured vehicle ploughing through a crowd of protesters in the capital, Maputo, hitting a woman. In response to the incident, Mozambique’s army released a statement expressing deep regret over the accident, saying that the vehicle that was part of a properly marked convoy “accidentally ran over a citizen”. The embassies of the five countries have called for an investigation into the incident. Local monitoring group Plataforma Decide said last week at least 67 people were killed due to the unrest between mid-October and mid-November.