French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday called for a global moratorium on debt payments by African countries to help them cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Macron told Radio France Internationale (RFI) that he hoped a virtual meeting later on Wednesday of finance ministers from the G20 group of countries could agree the moratorium.
It should involve all major Western powers – China, Russia, and the Gulf states, as well as multilateral lenders, Macron said.
The French president said that developed countries had all responded to the crisis with massive monetary and budgetary action but Africa’s large debts as well as credit flight made such moves harder in the continent.
“Every year a third of Africa’s commercial exports go to service its debt. It’s crazy!” he argued.
Macron said he favoured a large-scale cancellation of African countries’ debts but the African Union considered that a moratorium was more likely to be fine agreement in the short term.
Macron said there was no guarantee that African countries would continue to be spared the worst of the pandemic but Europe would be better placed to help if its peak in Africa came after European countries had got over the worst of it.
France hoped to be able to produce medical equipment for African countries as well as for its own uses, but African leaders should try and delay the epidemic on their soil with measures such as lockdowns, he suggested.
Nigerians in the Diaspora Organisation (NIDO), Singapore Chapter, said on Wednesday that no Nigerian in that country had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Vice President of the organisation Dr. Jonathan Obaje disclosed this in a phone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Obaje was speaking against the backdrop of how Nigerians abroad were coping under the preasure of global lockdown since the outbreak of the virus in China.
“So far, no Nigerian in Singapore has tested positive for the coronavirus.
“We keep in touch with each other through NIDO Singapore social media groups.
“Certainly, the lockdown has created opportunities and challenges.
“Nobody ever imagined that Singapore’s fast-paced, 24-hour bustling city, airport, and seaports could ever slow down for few hours, ever.
“It is almost unbelievable that we could have four weeks of paid leave to stay at home with family.
“Also, to do those things we have always wanted to do, but had no time to do, such as call friends, read books, watch programmes, and so on, it is unbelievable,” he said.
He added that “although too much of anything is bad” when people did not plan for it, engagement in useful ventures “is key to avoiding boredom”.
According to him, Nigerians in Singapore have taken advantage of the situation to learn something new to improve their wellbeing and better their lives in spite of the economic challenges.
“The more you open up yourself to learning, the more your chances of coping well with this ‘new life’,” he added. (NAN)
The U.S. has repatriated another 300 million dollars stolen from the corruption-stained Malaysian state development fund known as 1MDB, authorities said on Wednesday.
In total, 620 million dollars has been returned to Malaysia, money the U.S. Justice Department said was laundered through financial institutions in the U.S., Switzerland, Singapore, and Luxembourg.
The money is part of the 4.5 billion dollars that the department has described as “allegedly misappropriated by high-level officials of 1MDB and their associates.”
Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, who was stopped by police from fleeing the country after losing the 2018 elections, is embroiled in the scandal.
Najib, who was president of 1MDB’s advisory board during his tenure as prime minister, was accused of stealing more than 700 million dollars from the fund.
Najib said the money was a donation from Saudi Arabia, which Low Taek Jho, a self-styled financier better-known as Jho Low, helped arrange.
Najib’s corruption trials are on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic and ensuing lockdown in place in Malaysia.
Current Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said on Wednesday that that Low had struck a deal with authorities in the U.S., where he has faced criminal charges.
“Fugitive Jho Low had reached a settlement with the Department of Justice pertaining to numerous forfeiture claims filed … against assets he had purchased using 1MDB monies,” the prime minister said.
The Malaysian Finance Ministry said the assets included a stake in a hotel, a yacht, and money used to produce the film “The Wolf of Wall Street,” which was made by a production company co-founded by Najib’s stepson. (dpa/NAN)
THE global economy will contract by three percent this year as countries around the world shrink at the fastest pace in decades, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said.
The IMF described the global decline as the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
It said the pandemic had plunged the world into a “crisis like no other”.
The fund added that a prolonged outbreak would test the ability of governments and central banks to control the crisis.
Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s chief economist, said the crisis could knock $9 trillion (£7.2 trillion) off global GDP over the next two years.
While the Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook praised the “swift and sizeable” response in countries like the UK, Germany, Japan and the US, it said no country would escape the downturn.
It expects global growth to rebound to 5.8% next year if the pandemic fades in the second half of 2020.
Ms Gopinath said today’s “Great Lockdown” presented a “grim reality” for policymakers, who faced “severe uncertainty about the duration and intensity of the shock”.
“A partial recovery is projected for 2021,” said Ms Gopinath. “But the level of GDP will remain below the pre-virus trend, with considerable uncertainty about the strength of the rebound.
“Much worse growth outcomes are possible and maybe even likely.”
The IMF predicts the UK economy will shrink by 6.5% in 2020, compared with the IMF’s January forecast for 1.4% GDP growth.
A decline of this magnitude would be bigger than the 4.2% drop in output seen in the wake of the financial crisis.
It would also represent the biggest annual fall since 1921, according to reconstructed Bank of England data dating back to the 18th century.
However, this is half the annual rate expected by the OBR, which expects GDP to drop by 35% in the three months to June.
The UK’s furlough scheme, which is designed to keep workers in a job amid the government lockdown, is expected to limit the rise in unemployment to 4.8% in 2020, from 3.8% last year.
UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak has pledged billions of pounds in wage subsidies and loan guarantees to help workers and businesses through the shutdown.
Sub-Saharan Africa’s project
Sub-Saharan gross domestic product is expected to contract 1.6 per cent this year, compared with 3.1 per cent growth in 2019, as the coronavirus pandemic wrecks the region’s economies, the International Monetary Fund said.
Various African governments have imposed lockdowns and curfews to curb the spread of the coronavirus. However, the restrictions are putting pressure on most economies, some of which were already in recession.
The IMF said in its World Economic Outlook that GDP was projected to fall sharply in South Africa, the continent’s most advanced economy.
FORMER President Barack Obama on Tuesday offered his formal endorsement of former Vice President Joe Biden, injecting himself squarely in the presidential race for the first time.
He urged Democrats across the party’s ideological spectrum to rally behind Biden and form a unified front to defeat President Donald Trump and win back the White House.
Obama, in a lengthy videotaped on Monday and posted yesterday, hailed Biden’s character and resilience, touting him as the right kind of candidate to lead the country through a crisis like the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
He also highlighted the stakes of the 2020 election by arguing Trump and Republicans in the Senate are solely interested in power, not making progress for Americans.
“If there’s one thing we’ve learned as a country from moments of great crisis, it’s that the spirit of looking out for one another can’t be restricted to our homes, or our workplaces, or our neighbourhoods, or our houses of worship,” Obama said in the over 11-minute endorsement video. “It also has to be reflected in our national government.”
“The kind of leadership that’s guided by knowledge and experience, honesty and humility, empathy and grace – that kind of leadership doesn’t just belong in our state capitols and mayors offices. It belongs in the White House.
“And that’s why I’m so proud to endorse Joe Biden for President of the United States,” he added.
The endorsement of Biden marked the public re-emergence of Obama into the political arena.
The former president kept a low public profile throughout much of the Democratic nomination fight, but he was active behind the scenes.
Biden thanked Obama for the endorsement yestersday shortly after the video was posted.
“Barack — this endorsement means the world to Jill and me,” he wrote. “We’re going to build on the progress we made together, and there’s no one I’d rather have standing by my side.”
Obama also spoke directly to progressives, praising the spirit of their movement before outlining why he believed they should embrace Biden’s candidacy. The former president also offered full-throated praise of Bernie Sanders and noted what his candidacy has meant for the pursuit of liberal ideals.
“Bernie’s an American original – a man who has devoted his life to giving voice to working people’s hopes, dreams and frustrations. He and I haven’t always agreed on everything, but we’ve always shared a conviction that we have to make America a fairer, more just, more equitable society,” Obama said.
The former president also offered some of his most direct criticism yet of his successor without calling Trump out by name.
“One thing everybody has learned by now is that the Republicans occupying the White House and running the U.S. Senate are not interested in progress,” Obama says. “They’re interested in power.”
THE Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) said on Tuesday that it would collaborate with Diaspora groups and missions abroad to evacuate many citizens back home.
Chairman/CEO of NIDCOM Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa spoke in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja yesterday.
Mrs. Dabiri-Erewa said that the evacuees would comprise people who travelled out on business trips and others who went abroad on courses and for other programmes, among other things.
She disclosed that the commission had received more than 2,000 responses from Nigerian missions in nearly 75 countries across the world.
“NIDCOM is working with Diaspora groups and missions, and the exercise is being coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and I am consulting with the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 to fast-track the evacuation.
“People that will be evacuated are mainly Nigerians who travelled for one reason or the other and got caught up in the closure of airspace and borders. Some are not really Nigerians living abroad.
“Yes, we have Nigerians registering to come back home.
“The deadline for those willing to return to Nigeria will be the responsibility of the Minister of Foreign Affairs,” she said.
She added that the evacuees would come largely, from the UK, U.S., China, and the United Arab Emirates.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama has explained that poor communication between the Chinese authorities and African consulates in Guangzhou, China, was responsible for the tensions that arose over alleged maltreatment of Nigerians.
Onyeama stated this while briefing reporters in Abuja in company of the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria Dr. Zhou Pingjian.
The minister, who spoke first, said the narratives of discriminatory treatment against Africans resident in Guangzhou were untrue.
He said the lack of communication made a lot of Nigerians and Africans to misunderstand what was happening in China.
The minister said if there was effective communication, African consulates would have assisted the Chinese authorities in the action it was taking.
Onyeama, who made reference to a video in both Igbo and English languages which explained that the situation was not quite what was seen in the earlier viral video, which only portrayed maltreatment of Nigerians in China, explained that the Chinese authorities were trying to contain some Africans, including a Nigerian restaurant owner, who came into China and tested positive for the virus.
“And so, automatically demanded and insisted that they all be quarantined, with nobody allowed to come out in 14 days and if anybody came out from that quarantine, that they should not be allowed in if it was a hotel, back into that hotel or that residence.
“So, they put in very, very strict measure to try to contain this outbreak which to them at that time, clearly seemed to have been within that community. And so, they put in place, these very strict measures.
“Now, it was misinterpreted it appeared, by some of the Nigerians and Africans who could not understand why it seemed to be selective and targeting only themselves,” Onyeama said.
He added that after seeing the new video which had a different narrative, he immediately alerted the Nigerian Embassy and officials in Guangzhou at the consulate, particularly the acting consul-general.
He added that the consulate confirmed that that narrative was true, that the Chinese authorities were trying to quarantine a set of Africans who came into China and tested positive.
“But what our officials in China made clear was that the communication could and should have been better.
“If the authorities in Guangzhou had informed the African Consulates in Guangzhou that this was the situation and this were the measures they were putting in place, it could have become a joint effort.
“That mutual suspicion would not be there. That was not done and it led to counter-narrative and it exacerbated the situation,” he said.
Onyeama, however, noted that both the Nigerian and Chinese authorities were working closely to resolve the issue.
On his part, the Chinese Ambassador, who accepted his country’s blame of not properly communicating with their Nigerian counterpart, said the measure became necessary as a result of the vulnerability of Nigerians and other Africans.
Pingjian said the same logic that led to Nigeria government placing lockdown on Abuja, Lagos and Ogun applied to the situation in Guangzhou.
He said since February 17, the policy of fighting the disease in Guangzhou changed ten times, explaining that China is experiencing a new wave of imported Covis-19 outbreak in recent time.
The Chinese envoy said the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China took note of the seriousness which the minister and the Nigerian government placed on the issues raised by Nigerians in China.
•Onyeama (left) and Pingjian after briefing reporters in Abuja…on Tuesday
Pingjian said the actions were not selective but preventive measures put in place to ensure clean bill of health for the people.
He added that China respected and admired the working cooperation between China and Nigeria, saying that China would never forget the invaluable support it received from Nigeria during the most challenging stage in the fight against COVID-19 in China.
“The minister, I should say, has said all that. We are totally on the same page,” Pingjian said.
Hard-hit Iran on Tuesday saw some progress in its fight against the coronavirus, with the daily death toll falling below 100 for the first time in weeks, Health Minister Saeid Namaki said.
“For the first time in the last four weeks, the number of victims was in the two digits today, in the last 24 hours, 98 people died of Covid-19.
“It is the first time since March 11 that fewer than 100 people have died in any single day.
“This is the result of people following restrictions on personal contact and of successful medical work.
Irish Police on Tuesday said they had questioned a suspect linked to a scam involving non-existent face masks valued at 15 million euros (or 16.4 million dollars) ordered by German state of North Rhine Westphalia.
The police said detectives interviewed the man and examined his electronic devices as part of an investigation into the scam by German, Irish and Dutch financial crime units.
The police added that he was linked to suspected laundering of 1.5 million euros related to the scam.
Earlier, prosecutors in the Southern German town of Traunstein said that the state of North Rhine Westphalia had contracted two unnamed distribution companies based in Hamburg and Zurich to source and deliver 10 million masks.
The prosecutors said that the companies made a down payment of around 2.4 million euros to a third-party delivery company for the masks.
According to them, when the masks failed to arrive, the Head of the German companies filed a complaint leading to the recovery of 15 million euros.
The Irish police said the German contractors had approached a Dutch supplier through an Irish intermediary. But the order was placed with a fraudulent Dutch entity that had cloned the website and email address of the supplier.
The police said that the German contractors paid 1.5 million euros to the Irish company for the first shipment of 7.7 million masks, and 880,000 euros to the fake Dutch company.
They added that another payment of 498,000 euros was intercepted having being transferred to a Nigerian bank account through Britain.
THE death toll in New York State has reached 10,056, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Monday.
It followed a one-day increase of 671, a decline off previous peaks and a sign that containment efforts were effective.
“I think you can say the worst is over,” Cuomo said, referring to the death toll. “We have control of the spread.”
Cuomo said the curve appears to have flattened, along with the slowing death rate. The infection numbers are now on a plateau in the state hardest hit by the pandemic.
Across the U.S., more than 22,000 people have died from complications related to the new coronavirus, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
The governor stressed the control over the spread was contingent on continued social distancing but the state could now begin to plot a path back to normalcy.
He, however, cautioned that this would take time and only come in stages.
Cuomo said he was working with the governors of neighbouring states to coordinate a plan for reopening businesses and schools, in order to best ensure containment.
He described reopening as a “delicate balance,” that will require intensive testing and monitoring to ensure there is not a resurgent outbreak.
But, an American top health official said the U.S. “could have saved lives” if it had introduced measures to stop Covid-19 earlier.
“If we had, right from the beginning, shut everything down, it may have been a little bit different,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN, but added that making that decision had been complicated.
The U.S. has recorded over 555,000 virus cases and 22,000 deaths so far.
President Donald Trump later signalled his disproval with the interview by sharing a tweet about firing Fauci.
Fauci has become the public face of the U.S. fight against the outbreak, appearing alongside Trump at the White House’s daily updates.
But the two have openly differed on several issues with Fauci pointing out in a recent CBS interview that he takes a scientific approach while Trump comes from a “hope, layperson standpoint”.
Trump retweeted a post on Sunday from former Republican congressional hopeful Deanna Lorraine.
“Fauci was telling people on February 29th that there was nothing to worry about and it posed no threat to the U.S. public at large,” it said. “Time to #FireFauci…”
The Trump administration has issued social distancing guidance that lasts until 30 April, but there are questions over when restrictions should be lifted.
