May 10 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;South Africa&#8217;s government is still analysing details of a $8.5 billion financing package offered by rich Western nations last year to help the country shift away from coal, environment minister Barbara Creecy said on Tuesday.



The United States, Britain, France, Germany and the European Union pledged the funding during the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, last November. South Africa is the world&#8217;s 12th biggest emitter of climate-warming gases and a major coal producer and user.



Pressed by lawmakers over delays in obtaining the funding during a virtual parliamentary briefing, Creecy said South Africa, which has set up a task team to advise President Cyril Ramaphosa and his cabinet on the offer, was still looking at the terms.



&#8220;I think that the issue of speed is important, but the issue of the nuances and the quality of the decision is also important,&#8221; Creecy said.



&#8220;I am not negative about the opportunities that this money presents, but I am realistic that we have to look at it properly and we shouldn&#8217;t rush when looking at it properly. There is a lot of scepticism out there that it&#8217;s only loan financing, that it&#8217;s going to worsen our sovereign debt situation.&#8221;



South Africa&#8217;s chief negotiator at COP26, Maesela Kekana, told the same briefing that negotiations were still being held with the Western nations.



Creecy said South Africa was also considering the impact of the shift from coal on unemployment and poverty.



About 93,000 people were employed in South Africa&#8217;s coal mines in 2021, according to industry body the Minerals Council.



&#8220;We&#8217;ve got to ensure that by introducing green technology into the economy, we&#8217;re not just changing technology, we&#8217;re also dealing with some of the abiding constraints of inequality, unemployment and poverty that confront our economy,&#8221; Creecy said.



(Reporting by Nelson BanyaEditing by Alexander Winning, William Maclean)

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S.Africa says still interrogating $8.5 bln climate deal with rich nations

May 9 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The International Monetary Fund&#8217;s executive board on Monday approved a three-year, $456 million extended credit facility arrangement for Mozambique, with about $91 million available for immediate disbursement, the Fund said.



The facility is the southeast African nation&#8217;s first program since the global lender suspended support six years ago.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2VV4W0&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The IMF said the three-year arrangement will help support economic recovery and policies to reduce public debt and financing vulnerabilities, while creating space for public investments in human capital, climate adaptation and infrastructure.



The Fund said the program will support a reform agenda centered on establishing a sovereign wealth fund to manage the country&#8217;s liquefied natural gas wealth, mobilizing tax revenue and strengthening public finances.



&#8220;Mozambique has managed the COVID pandemic relatively well, maintaining macroeconomic stability and reform momentum even as the country has weathered a series of shocks, culminating with the effects of the war in Ukraine,&#8221; IMF&nbsp;Deputy&nbsp;Managing&nbsp;Director Bo Li said in a statement. &#8220;With policy space now limited, sustaining the economic recovery underway and tackling debt vulnerabilities are priorities.&#8221;



(Reporting by Rami Ayyub and David Lawder; Editing by Sandra Maler and Christopher Cushing)

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IMF board approves $456 mln program for Mozambique

NEW YORK, May 9 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Economic growth in emerging markets is set to slow &#8220;sharply&#8221; this quarter weighed by China, Russia and the spread of tighter monetary conditions, JPMorgan analysts said on Monday.



&#8220;China’s adherence to its zero-COVID policy, Russia&#8217;s recession and tightening global financial conditions are set to pull EM growth sharply lower this quarter,&#8221; wrote Luis Oganes, head of currencies, commodities and EM research, and Jonny Goulden, head of EM local markets and sovereign debt strategy at JPMorgan.



Emerging market currencies are likely to underperform as U.S. dollar strength continues and there is risk to EM economic growth, they said.



The dollar on Monday hit a 20-year high against a basket of developed market currencies&nbsp;=USD&nbsp;and an index of EM currencies&nbsp;.MIEM00000CUS&nbsp;touched its lowest since November 2020.



On local market debt the U.S. bank retains an underweight as inflation in the region is revised higher, as are expectations for higher rates as central banks continue to focus on inflation.



They remain neutral on foreign debt with a market weight on the EMBI global diversified index &#8220;as EM sovereigns remain at the mercy of rates but cushioned by a combination of front-loaded pain and cleaner technicals.&#8221;



On EM corporate credit, they keep a market weight on the CEMBI as &#8220;the uncertain market environment and macro risks are mitigated by strong standalone fundamentals and supportive technicals.&#8221;



(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

(Photo: Flickr/QuoteInspector.com)

EM economic growth to slow sharply this quarter -JPMorgan

ABUJA, May 9 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;A Nigerian federal high court rejected the central bank governor&#8217;s request to restrain the electoral commission (INEC) and the attorney general from blocking his bid to run for president next year while in office, a court ruling showed on Monday.



Governor Godwin Emefiele may seek the ruling party ticket for the presidential race next year. Critics called on him to resign following reports of his political ambitions.



INEC and the attorney general could force him to resign if he decides to participate in the presidential primaries. The judge ruled that no decision could be made without all parties present.



&#8220;They are to appear in court on May 12 and show cause on why the (Emefiele&#8217;s) request should not be granted,&#8221; Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed said.



(Reporting by Camillus Eboh, writing by Julia Payne, editing by Chris Reese)

Nigeria MPC cuts down MPR from 12.5 % to 11.5% (Full Speech)

Nigerian court rejects central bank governor’s restraint order on electoral commission￼

Mozambique records first COVID-19 death

CAPE TOWN, May 9 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Angola&#8217;s state-run diamond miner Endiama could face a hit to its operations as Western sanctions on Russia could delay supplies of parts and machinery, according to a government brochure released on Monday.



Western nations have unleashed crippling economic sanctions against Russia after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in late February.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2X1018&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Endiama, which holds the exclusive concession for diamond mining rights in Angola, has already flagged an almost one-third reduction in diamond output to 10.05 million carats this year, from a forecast 13.8 million carats.



The company expects revenue of around $1.42 billion from the sale of its diamonds this year.



&#8220;One of the great challenges for 2022 will certainly be to maintain the sustainability of the mines while the war between Russia and Ukraine lasts,&#8221; said the government publication, which was made available at the Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town.



&#8220;Since the sanctions that the United States and Western countries have imposed on Russia may affect some national mining companies, delaying the supply of some machinery, parts and spares,&#8221; it said.



Endiama has signed contracts with Rio Tinto&nbsp;RIO.L&nbsp;to explore its Chiri mine in the Angolan province of Lunda-Norte, while another project, Luaxe, was also expected to begin pilot production, it added, without providing a timeline.



Last month, diamond miner De Beers signed two mineral investment contracts with the Angolan government, the Anglo American&nbsp;AAL.L&nbsp;subsidiary said ahead of a return to the country it left in 2012.&nbsp;nL2N2WI0II



(Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by Susan Fenton)

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Angola’s Endiama says sanctions against Russia could hurt its diamond operations

By Felix Onuah



ABUJA, May 6 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Nigerian central bank governor Godwin Emefiele will seek the ruling All Progressives Party (APC) ticket to run for president next February, a ruling party spokesperson said on Friday.



President Muhammadu Buhari will step down after serving two four-year terms following a February 2023 ballot. His ruling APC has set its primaries to decide on their presidential candidate for May 30-31.



Emefiele will go head-to-head with current Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and former Lagos state governor Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who are frontrunners in the race to be the next candidate to head Africa&#8217;s top economy.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2W90ZF&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



&#8220;I can confirm that central bank governor bought the APC presidential form today,&#8221; the APC spokesperson said, referring to forms to contest for the party&#8217;s nomination.



A central bank spokesperson did not return calls on whether Emefiele would stay on as central bank governor.



Political parties in Nigeria should pick presidential candidates by June 3, according to the electoral commission, while official campaigning will begin in September.



Emefiele is serving a second term at the central bank where he has pursued dovish policies on interest rates, introduced currency controls and launched a company to help build infrastructure in Nigeria, Africa&#8217;s most populous nation.



The ex-Zenith Bank&nbsp;ZENITHB.LG&nbsp;chief executive has tried to avoid a large currency devaluation that is frustrating foreign investors stuck in Nigeria at the height of a recession triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.



Political power in Nigeria tends to shift between the oil-rich, largely Christian south and the poorer, mostly Muslim north. Buhari is from northern Katsina state and APC&#8217;s next candidate is expected to come from the south.



Some questioned whether Emefiele will be able to remain at the helm of the central bank while pursuing his political ambitions which would require a strong coalition of supporters with deep pockets to take on opponents.



&#8220;Is his position as central bank governor still tenable?,&#8221; one economist, who is a consultant to the central bank and declined to be named.



News of Emefiele&#8217;s presidential bid sent the naira close to a record low of 591 per dollar on the black market&nbsp;NGNP=, against a range of 413 to 417 naira on the official market&nbsp;NGN=&nbsp;where it has traded this year.



(Reporting by Felix OnuahWriting by Chijioke OhuochaEditing by James Macharia Chege and Raissa Kasolowsky)

Nigeria MPC: CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele retains MPR at 13.5% (full speech)

Nigeria’s central bank governor to seek ruling party ticket to run for president

<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>WTO seeks deal after 18-month deadlock</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>China voices an objection to proposal</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Chief hopes for deal by June ministerial</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Recasts, adds China comment, bullets</li></ul>



By Emma Farge



GENEVA, May 6 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The first World Trade Organization meeting to discuss a draft agreement to temporarily waive intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines went &#8220;very well&#8221;, its chair said on Friday, although some members voiced reservations.



The WTO&#8217;s 164 members on Friday discussed the &#8220;outcome document&#8221; that stems from months of negotiations between the main parties &#8211; the United States, the European Union, India and South Africa &#8211; in an effort to break an 18-month deadlock over the issue.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2WV1EH&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



&#8220;It went very well and here&#8217;s why I say that. No member rejected the outcome as completely unacceptable,&#8221; Ambassador Lansana Gberie from Sierra Leone, who chairs the council tasked with finding an agreement on the waiver, told Reuters after the closed-door meeting.



&#8220;Most said this could be developed into a negotiating text and that&#8217;s the trajectory we have to follow.&#8221;



However, two Geneva trade sources said after the meeting that some delegations had said the proposal fell short since it was too narrowly focused on vaccines, echoing criticism from some civil society groups.



And while China voiced broad support for the document it also raised an objection to some of the wording that appeared to exclude it from the waiver on the basis of its global share of vaccine exports, the two sources said.



China&#8217;s statement sent by its WTO mission in Geneva called the wording &#8220;an unreasonable and arbitrary criterion&#8221;.



The waiver idea, proposed by India and South Africa in October 2020, is supported by the majority of members of the global trade body.



But some wealthy countries including Britain and Switzerland have in the past raised objections on grounds that it could harm pharmaceutical research.



WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who has been involved in brokering the talks and wants a deal by the June ministerial conference, says an agreement would be &#8220;hugely important&#8221;.



The new draft deal, which has unresolved areas, must pass by consensus and any member of the organisation has the right to a veto.



One delegate described Friday&#8217;s meeting as the moment the deal would &#8220;float or sink&#8221;.



Privately, some delegates have said a lack of public support for the deal by the main negotiating parties has sapped confidence among other members.



(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Edmund Blair)

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WTO meeting on COVID vaccine rights waiver went ‘very well’ -chair

KEY POINTS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>The euro zone faces concurrent economic shocks from the war in Ukraine and a surge in food and energy prices exacerbated by the conflict, along with a supply shock from China’s zero-Covid policy.</li><li>Stefan Hartung, CEO of German engineering and technology giant Bosch, told CNBC that the company sees “a big recession in the making.”</li></ul>



LONDON — The CEOs of several European blue chip companies have told CNBC that they see a significant recession coming down the pike in Europe.



The continent is particularly vulnerable to the fallout from the Russia-Ukraine war,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/28/europe-faces-recession-if-putin-fully-shuts-off-the-gas-taps.html">associated economic sanctions and energy supply concerns</a>, and economists have been downgrading growth forecasts for the euro zone in recent weeks.



The euro zone faces concurrent economic shocks from the war in Ukraine and a surge in food and energy prices exacerbated by the conflict, along with a supply shock arising from China’s zero-Covid policy. That has prompted concerns about “stagflation” — an environment of low economic growth and high inflation — and eventual recession.



“For sure, we see a big recession in the making, but that’s exactly what we see — it’s in the making. There is still an overhanging demand because of the Covid crisis we just are about to leave,” said Stefan Hartung, CEO of German engineering and technology giant&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/BOSCHLTD-IN" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bosch</a>.



“It’s still there and you see it heavily hitting us in China, but you see that in a lot of areas in the world, the demand of consumers has already even been increased in some areas.”



In particular, Hartung noted lingering consumer demand for household appliances, power tools and vehicles, but suggested this would dissipate.



“That means for a certain amount of time, this demand will still be there, even while we see the interest increase and we see the pricing increase, but at some point in time, it won’t be just a supply crisis, it will also be a demand crisis, and then for sure, we are in a deep recession,” he added.



Inflation in the euro zone hit a record high of 7.5% in March. So far, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/european-central-bank/">European Central Bank</a>&nbsp;has remained more dovish than its peers, such as the Bank of England and the U.S. Federal Reserve, both of which have begun hiking interest rates in a bid to rein in inflation.



However, the ECB now expects to conclude net asset purchases under its APP (asset purchase program) in the third quarter, after which it will have room to begin monetary tightening, depending on the economic outlook.



Berenberg Chief Economist Holger Schmieding said in a note Friday that near-term risks to economic growth are tilted to the downside in Europe.



“Worsening Chinese lockdowns and cautious consumer spending in reaction to high energy and food prices could easily cause a temporary contraction in Eurozone GDP in Q2,” Schmieding said.



“An immediate embargo on gas imports from Russia (highly unlikely) could turn that into a more serious recession. If the Fed gets it badly wrong and catapults the U.S. straight from boom to bust (unlikely but not fully impossible), such a recession could last well into next year.”



Yet Schmieding suggested that the euro zone is likely to enter recession only “if worse came to worst,” and that it isn’t a base expectation.



Mark Branson, president of German financial regulator BaFin, said any military escalation in Ukraine or further energy supply disruption could pose serious risks to growth in Europe’s largest economy, with industrial sectors particularly vulnerable.



“We’re already seeing that growth is down to around zero in many jurisdictions, including here, and it’s vulnerable. It’s also vulnerable from the ongoing Covid-related shocks,” he said.



“We’ve got inflation that’s going to need to be tackled, and it’s going to need to be tackled now, so that’s a cocktail which is difficult for the economy.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-challenging-business-environment">‘Challenging business environment’</h3>



Slawomir Krupa, deputy CEO at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/GLE-FR" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Societe Generale</a>, told CNBC on Thursday that the French lender is monitoring the macroeconomic picture closely.



“It’s obviously a fundamental piece of news for the macroeconomic context and the triggered inflation feedback loop between the energy shock – which was already going on before the war in Ukraine – you have the inflation expectation rising and the risk of a final, fundamental impact on the macroeconomy into a recession,” he said, adding that this would potentially affect “the entire system, and (SocGen) as well.”



Ola Kallenius, CEO of <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/MBG-DE" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mercedes-Benz</a>, also told CNBC last week that the situation in China and the Ukraine war are making for a “challenging business environment” for the German luxury automaker in three distinct ways.



“On the one hand, we have the ongoing shortages mainly associated with semiconductors. On top of that, there are now new lockdowns in China, our biggest market, which will affect us in China but also can affect supply chains across the world, and in addition to that, of course, the Ukraine war, so the business environment is challenging,” he explained.



His comments were echoed by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/VOW3-DE" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Volkswagen</a>&nbsp;CEO Herbert Diess, who told CNBC on Thursday that the company also faced a “challenging environment” from Covid, the chip shortage and the war in Ukraine in the first quarter.



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/MAERSK.B-DK" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Maersk</a>&nbsp;CEO Soren Skou said Thursday that the world’s largest shipping company is also keeping an eye on recession risks, particularly in the United States, but does not expect those to come to the fore until late 2022 or early 2023.

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‘We see a big recession in the making’: Top CEOs are fearing the worst in Europe

KEY POINTS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>The Oscar-winning actor, producer and screenwriter co-founded nonprofit Water.org in 2009 with former civil and environmental engineer-turned-global water and sanitation expert, Gary White.</li><li>Together they have already helped more than 43 million people access safe water and sanitation through WaterCredit, an affordable financing program which empowers those in need to help themselves through small loans.</li></ul>



Hollywood superstar Matt Damon told CNBC that a visit to rural Zambia in 2006 first opened his eyes to the impact of a global water crisis that nobody was talking about.



The Oscar-winning actor, producer and screenwriter co-founded nonprofit Water.org in 2009 with former civil and environmental engineer-turned-global water and sanitation expert, Gary White.



Together they have already helped more than&nbsp;<a href="https://water.org/our-impact/all-stories/story-watercredit/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">43 million people access safe water</a>&nbsp;and sanitation through&nbsp;<a href="https://water.org/solutions/watercredit/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WaterCredit</a>, an affordable financing program which empowers those in need to help themselves through small loans.



Damon was speaking in early April following the release of their new book, “The Worth of Water: Our Story of Chasing Solutions to the World’s Greatest Challenge.” The globally acclaimed star of the “Jason Bourne” blockbuster movie franchise told CNBC he first understood the enormity of the crisis on the visit which was&nbsp;<a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2006/05/178212-actor-matt-damon-visits-un-anti-poverty-project-advocacy-tour-zambia" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">arranged by advocacy organization DATA (Debt AIDS Trade Africa)</a>, co-founded by U2 frontman Bono.



“I found myself &#8230; waking up at 35 years old with this bizarre platform and really wanted to do something positive with it and was really on that trip trying to investigate all these issues of extreme poverty and to try to understand how I could be useful,” he said.



“And this was just an issue that was so enormous and underpinning everything, and yet nobody was talking about it, and that really kind of sparked my interest at first.”



A 14-year-old local girl took Damon on her daily mile-long walk after school to collect clean water pumped from a well. As they walked and talked, she told him through an interpreter that when she was older, she was going to the Zambian capital Lusaka to become a nurse.



“And I just really connected to this kid because she reminded me of how I felt when I was 14 and Ben Affleck and I were going to go to the big city of New York, and we were going to be actors, and, you know that feeling that all 14-year-old’s should have, that the world is kind of their oyster,” Damon said.



He told the latest episode of CNBC’s “Sustainable Future” that the Zambia trip made him realize that the water crisis was not only responsible for the “senseless” deaths of millions of children who don’t have access to clean water, but it was also stopping millions more from realizing their full potential.



“Had it not been for somebody having the foresight to sink a borewell near this girl’s house, she wouldn’t be in school, she would be spending her entire day collecting water for her family,” he said.



“So that really got me, that kind of really landed with me and, you know, the enormity of this issue and how deeply it affects so many people, beyond the sickness and death.”



According to the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef),&nbsp;<a href="https://washdata.org/sites/default/files/2021-07/jmp-2021-wash-households.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">one in 10 people in the world lack access to safe water</a>, with one in four lacking access to a toilet.&nbsp;



Internationally recognized water and sanitation expert and CEO of Water.org, White, told CNBC the Covid-19 pandemic had been a challenging time for the organization, with donations going down.



He said it also “drove home” the disparity between those with and without water around the world.



“This crisis .. with Covid, started with us being told to wash our hands with soap and water and to do that frequently and vigorously and to stay at home,” he said.



“And what I knew was the people that we were helping needed us more than ever, because one, they didn’t have access to water to wash their hands, they didn’t have access to soap, they couldn’t choose to stay home, they had to go out and find water. You know, every morning when you wake up, nothing else matters until you find water. It’s that simple.”

shutterstock_318371045

How a trip to rural Zambia, backed by U2 singer Bono, led Matt Damon to campaign for clean water

JOHANNESBURG, May 5 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Angola is expecting to record its lowest rate of inflation in 18 months when April data is released, the oil-producing Southern African country&#8217;s central bank governor said on Thursday, while economic growth was estimated at over 2% in the first quarter.



While price pressures are rising sharply worldwide driven by spikes in food and energy prices, Jose De Lima Massano told a Reuters on-line event that inflation had been falling since the start of this year. He said he expected inflation and the GDP growth rate trends to continue throughout the year.



Angola has suffered from double digit inflation since mid-2015, with the headline number coming in at 27% year-on-year in March.



Analysts have warned that rising global food prices are a concern for consumers&#8217; pockets, given Angola&#8217;s dependence on imported food, but also point to the strength of the kwanza currency which could give some reprieve.



Under President João Lourenço, who took office in 2017, the former socialist state is implementing a broad strategy to modernise its economy that includes widespread privatisation of state-owned assets.



BAI, Angola&#8217;s largest private bank, plans to list a 10% stake currently held by state oil company Sonangol via an initial public offering (IPO) on the country&#8217;s BODIVA stock exchange in June.



&#8220;Our expectation is that at least another two banks will do it in a very short period of time and then we will see other sectors are going to come,&#8221; De Lima Massano said, adding that one bank was likely to list this year.



&#8220;We are very happy with this development. This is a very good sign on how good the banking sector in Angola is,&#8221; he added.



Sonangol, diamond miner Endiama and airline TAAG are also slated for partial privatisation, though the process for selling those stakes is expected to take longer.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N2U43AC&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Asked whether the government planned to request from China an extension to a debt moratorium, the governor said this was the decision of the finance ministry, adding though that he was not anticipating any changes to the current arrangements.



&#8220;My perception is there is room just to get back to normality,&#8221; he said.



Africa&#8217;s second-largest oil exporter and the continent&#8217;s biggest recipient of Chinese lending over the past two decades had previously sought payment relief from Beijing.



It announced in early 2021 that it had secured a three-year reprieve from Chinese lenders, to whom Angola owed more than $20 billion at the time.



(Reporting by Joe Bavier and Karin Strohecker; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

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Angola expects April inflation to be lowest in 18 months

LONDON, May 5 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Britain&#8217;s National Crime Agency (NCA) has recovered more than $23 million stolen from Nigeria by the country&#8217;s late military dictator Sani Abacha, it said on Thursday, the latest in a series of similar recoveries around the world.



Abacha ruled Africa&#8217;s most populous nation and top oil exporter from 1993 until his death in 1998, a period during which he stole up to $5 billion of public money, according to Transparency International. He was never charged.



The money recovered in Britain forms part of a larger pool of funds identified by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as having been misappropriated by Abacha and his associates, the NCA said in a statement.



&#8220;The NCA is committed to ensuring that the UK is not a safe haven for criminals to launder their proceeds of crime, and civil recovery of assets is a powerful weapon in this fight,&#8221; said Billy Beattie, Asset Denial Senior Manager at the NCA.



Police say about 100 billion pounds ($123 billion) of dirty cash moves through or into Britain every year, buying everything from luxury homes to whole companies.



Leaked troves of financial documents such as the Panama, Paradise and Pandora Papers have documented London&#8217;s role as a global money-laundering hub.



The $23 million were recovered after seven years of litigation and international negotiation pursued by the NCA, at the request of the DOJ, the statement said. The funds will be transferred to the DOJ.



An NCA spokesperson did not immediately respond to a query about whether the funds would ultimately return to Nigeria. In the past, countries including the United States and Switzerland have repatriated Abacha loot there.



(Reporting by Estelle ShirbonEditing by Mark Potter)

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UK recovers $23 mln in loot linked to late Nigerian dictator Abacha￼

By Rachel Savage



LONDON, May 4 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Inflation in South Africa is set to rise to 8% this year, overshooting the central bank&#8217;s target amid the global impact of the Ukraine conflict and rising U.S. interest rates, credit rating agency Moody&#8217;s forecast in a report on Wednesday.



Moody&#8217;s said inflation was set to be higher than the South African Reserve Bank&#8217;s 3-6% target range this year, before falling in 2023 and 2024, with the central bank likely to continue to tighten monetary policy after it raised interest rates in March.<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2VR4YO&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



South Africa&#8217;s finances were already under strain before the COVID-19 pandemic and worsened during&nbsp;successive waves of the virus, but have improved thanks to bumper prices for the country&#8217;s&nbsp;mineral&nbsp;commodity exports. But South Africa&#8217;s finance minister warned last month that the negative impact of high energy prices could outweigh this.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2WK4WG&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Moody&#8217;s cited risks to the country&#8217;s economy from&nbsp;highly indebted&nbsp;state-owned companies&nbsp;such as power utility Eskom, a rigid labour market and high social spending.



&#8220;The electricity sector poses the greatest risks to economic growth prospects, with generation capacity already insufficient to cover the economy&#8217;s needs,&#8221; Moody&#8217;s said in the report.



Power outages implemented by state-owned Eskom have constrained economic growth in Africa&#8217;s most industrialised country for more than a decade.



Moody&#8217;s upgraded South Africa&#8217;s outlook from &#8220;negative&#8221; to &#8220;stable&#8221; in April, keeping the government&#8217;s Ba2 rating and stating high commodity prices and fiscal consolidation would help to stabilise debt at around 80% of GDP in the&nbsp;medium term.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL3N2VZ3E2&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



(Reporting by Rachel Savage. Editing by Jane Merriman)

Zimbabwe tightens coronavirus lockdown in capital Harare as cases hit 203

Zimbabwe govt expects 43% decline in maize harvest this year￼

OPEC+ likely to agree 432,000 bpd increase in June



OPEC says Chinese lockdowns hitting demand



Formal talks start at 1100 GMT



Updates with analyst



By Maha El Dahan, Ahmad Ghaddar and Alex Lawler



LONDON, May 5 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;OPEC+ is likely stick to its plan for modest oil output increases on Thursday, arguing that the producer group cannot be blamed for global supply disruptions and saying China&#8217;s coronavirus lockdowns threaten the outlook for demand.



Five OPEC+ delegates said the group was set to agree to increase its June output target by 432,000 barrels per day, in line with its existing plan to unwind output curbs made during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.



The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, which together make up OPEC+, hold formal ministerial talks at 1130 GMT after a meeting of the advisory Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee.



The meeting comes against a backdrop of surging oil prices, which hit their highest since 2008 at more than $139 a barrel in March after Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine exacerbated supply concerns that were already fuelling a price rally.



&#8220;I do not think a new decision will be made,&#8221; one of the delegates said. Another said it was &#8220;highly expected&#8221; that the meeting would be short and stick to the plan.



The OPEC+ meeting comes a day after the European Union proposed a phased embargo on Russian oil in its toughest measures yet over the war in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a &#8220;special military operation&#8221;.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2WW23E&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The embargo will likely force Russia to reroute flows to Asia and cut production steeply, while the EU will compete for the remaining available supply &#8211; both factors likely to support elevated crude prices.



&#8220;OPEC+ continues to view this as a problem of the West’s own making and not a fundamental supply issue that it should respond to,&#8221; said Callum Macpherson from Investec.



He said only Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had capacity to lift supply significantly, adding: &#8220;If they were to do so, the ensuing falling out with Russia could bring an end to OPEC+.&#8221;



OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said on Wednesday it was not possible for other producers to replace Russian exports of more than 7 million bpd. &#8220;The spare capacity just does not exist,&#8221; he said.



The Brent crude oil benchmark rose on Thursday to trade above $111.&nbsp;O/R



The United States has repeatedly asked OPEC to raise production, but the Saudi-led organisation has resisted the calls amid strained relations with Washington.



The West&#8217;s energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency, agreed last month to release record volumes of oil stocks to help to cool prices and offset supply disruptions from Russia.



(Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar, Alex Lawler, Maha El Dahan and Rowena Edwards; Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by David Goodman and Edmund Blair)

Silhouette of oil pump jack on rig

OPEC+ set to stick to modest oil output rise amid price rally

ABUJA, May 4 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Nigeria expects to become an African hub for transshipment with a new deep seaport set to open in the commercial capital of Lagos before the end of this year, its managing director said on Wednesday.



Du Ruogang, managing director of Lekki Deep Sea Port &#8212; owned 75% by China Harbour Engineering Company and Tolaram group with the balance between Lagos state government and the Nigerian Port Authority, said the port has reached 89% completion.



The multi-billion dollar deep seaport which has been under development for more than a decade and is situated on the edge of Lagos is part of new infrastructure that Nigeria hopes it can use to boost trade.



The new port with 18,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit capacity, has more than four times the capacity that can be handled by existing ports in the country.



&#8220;With this port, Nigeria will become a transshipment hub,&#8221; Information Minister Lai Mohammed said during a site tour.



Mohammed said Nigeria wanted to use the port investment to regain maritime business lost to ports in Togo, Ivory Coast and Ghana, adding that the new facility will give the country an edge on African trade.



African countries launched a continental free trade area, aiming to bring 1.3 billion people together in a $3.4 trillion economic bloc that supporters say will boost intra-African trade, living standards and encourage development.



Ruogang said a second phase of the port development will commence within the next seven years.



(Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Sandra Maler)

107038803-1648636321753-GettyImages-51887083

Nigeria’s new seaport aims to become African shipment hub￼

<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49668784568_cc4a0dd9f1_b.jpg" alt="White House Press Briefing | Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director … | Flickr" width="840" height="560"/><figcaption>Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House Coronavirus Taskforce, addresses his remarks at a coronavirus update briefing, March 2020,| Via Flckr</figcaption></figure>



The world is on high alert due to the new omicron Covid strain — but delta is still responsible for most of the current infections globally, the World Health Organization pointed out on Monday.



“Over 99% of cases around the world are due to the delta variant and more deaths are occurring in the unvaccinated,” WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan told CNBC’s “<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/asia-squawk-box/">Squawk Box Asia</a>” on Monday. “I think that’s our priority while we wait to find out more about [the omicron] variant.”



Last week, the global health agency recognized the omicron variant, first referred to as lineage B.1.1.529, as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/26/who-labels-newly-identified-covid-strain-as-omicron-says-its-a-variant-of-concern.html">a variant of concern</a>. That means it could be more contagious, more virulent or more skilled at evading public health measures, vaccines and therapeutics. The strain was first identified by South African scientists.



Delta, on the other hand, was first detected in India.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-are-health-experts-worried"><a></a>Why are health experts worried?</h2>



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/26/covid-variant-emerges-in-south-africa-heres-what-we-know-so-far.html">Health experts are concerned</a>&nbsp;about the omicron variant’s transmissibility given its unusual constellation of mutations and profile that differs from previous variants of concern.It’s really important that everybody out there who’s still unvaccinated, or has received only one dose, must get a full course of vaccination.Soumya SwaminathanCHIEF SCIENTIST, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION



“The profile of the mutations strongly suggest that it’s going to have an advantage in transmissibility and that it might evade immune protection that you would get, for example, from a monoclonal antibody or from the convalescent serum after a person’s been infected, and possibly even against some of the vaccine-induced antibodies,” U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/news/meet-press-november-28-2021-n1284846" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday</a>.



“So it’s not necessarily that that’s going to happen, but it’s a strong indication that we really need to be prepared for that,” Fauci added.



WHO’s Swaminathan told CNBC that scientists need time to conduct experiments and collect data that would help them answer some of the fundamental questions surrounding the new variant.



“What we would like to know is, is this variant more transmissible, even more than delta? We would like to know if there is a different clinical pattern, is it less severe, more severe when it causes disease?” she said, adding, “And thirdly, and very importantly, is this variant able to evade immune responses either after natural infection or after vaccines.”



She also called on countries where the omicron variant has been detected to share their clinical data and genomic sequence data through WHO’s platforms for scientists to study.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>How fast is the variant spreading?</h2>



The omicron variant has now been detected in multiple places, including the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/27/the-world-is-on-alert-as-the-uk-reports-cases-of-omicron-covid-variant.html">United Kingdom</a>, Israel, Belgium,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/suspected-omicron-case-found-germany-regional-minister-2021-11-27/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Germany</a>, Italy, Hong Kong,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/28/netherlands-australia-find-omicron-variant-cases-as-travel-restrictions-spread.html">the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia</a>. Many countries have stepped up restrictions on travel from southern Africa to try and contain the spread of the new strain.



Covid vaccine makers&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/PFE" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pfizer</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/BNTX" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BioNTech</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/MRNA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Moderna</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/JNJ" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Johnson &amp; Johnson</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/AZN-GB" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AstraZeneca</a>&nbsp;said&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/26/pfizer-biontech-investigating-new-covid-variant-jj-testing-vaccine-against-it.html">they are investigating and testing the omicron variant</a>.



WHO’s Swaminathan said that for the moment, it should be assumed that the existing vaccines will provide some protection, if not full protection against the new strain.



“It’s really important that everybody out there who’s still unvaccinated, or who has received only one dose, must get a full course of vaccination,” she said.



“I think we still have a huge number of people around the world who haven’t had their first course of vaccines and we also know that at the moment, it’s the delta variant that’s the major cause of the pandemic around the world,” Swaminathan added.



<a href="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&amp;amp;facet=none&amp;amp;pickerSort=asc&amp;amp;pickerMetric=location&amp;amp;Interval=7-day+rolling+average&amp;amp;Relative+to+Population=true&amp;amp;Align+outbreaks=false&amp;amp;country=~OWID_WRL&amp;amp;Metric=People+vaccinated+%28by+dose%29" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Information compiled by Our World In Data</a>&nbsp;showed around 43% of the world population has been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. But only a small percentage of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose.



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/27/vaccine-inequality-could-cost-the-global-economy-trillions-report.html">The WHO has repeatedly criticized global vaccine inequity</a>&nbsp;as most shots have been administered in affluent or middle-income countries, including booster doses.

49668784568_cc4a0dd9f1_b (1)

Delta variant is still the ‘major cause of the pandemic’ despite worries about omicron, WHO says

<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/2827/9621615627_5efc62b266_b.jpg" alt="Cycling in cocoa plantations in Côte d'Ivoire | Taken on 23 … | Flickr"/><figcaption><a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fjbdodane%2F9621615627&amp;psig=AOvVaw0Em7fG8Hyjsr5tQm16Fo_7&amp;ust=1637306560349000&amp;source=images&amp;cd=vfe&amp;ved=0CAkQjhxqFwoTCMDNjYaxofQCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAK">Cocoa plantation in Côte d&#8217;Ivoire |</a> Image via&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jbdodane/9621615627">Flickr</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/">License details</a> Copyright:&nbsp;jbdodane</figcaption></figure>



This cocoa-growing settlement was all but destroyed last year by Ivorian forest agents, leaving farmers to rake through their beans amid broken concrete and other remnants.



&#8220;They set the whole village on fire,&#8221; said Alexis Kouassi Akpoue, describing the day in January 2020 when the agents raided the settlement in Rapides Grah, a protected forest, where he had illicitly planted cocoa with thousands of other farmers. &#8220;The next morning at 5 o&#8217;clock they sent in the bulldozers.&#8221;



Yet when Reuters returned to the village a year later, business was again thriving. Farmers dried and bagged beans among the demolished buildings as buyers hunted for quality cocoa, much of it destined for use in chocolate bars and candies made in Europe.



The government of Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa-growing country, has been cracking down on cultivators after decades of intensive and often illicit farming decimated its tropical forests. Leading chocolate and cocoa companies are meanwhile monitoring their own supply chains for illicitly grown cocoa.



But the conservation efforts are falling short, European Union officials say.



That’s one reason the bloc’s executive arm, the European Commission, proposed legislation on Wednesday that would compel companies to find and fix environmental and human rights risks in their international supply chains &#8211; or face penalties. Companies would be restricted from sourcing beans grown on land deforested after a certain date, which is to be set by the law.



“Voluntary initiatives by companies to stop deforestation have largely failed,” said EU Parliament member Delara Burkhardt. Though not finalized, the legislation is expected to pass in some form as soon as 2023.



Chocolate and cocoa companies say they support the new regulations but dispute that their efforts have failed. They told Reuters their supply chain monitoring systems, including GPS mapping, satellite surveillance and third-party certification, give them assurance that the beans they source do not come from the Rapides Grah forest or other illegal farming operations.



However, the sector’s leading cocoa certification body has acknowledged that thousands of farms in protected areas received its stamp of approval in error.



In addition, purchasing documents and interviews with farmers and farmer cooperatives suggest that co-ops serving some of the chocolate industry’s biggest players &#8211; including Nestle , Mars Inc, Cargill Inc and Touton S.A. &#8211; source at least a portion of their beans from protected forests.



Reuters did not trace specific shipments of illicitly farmed cocoa to the companies. In separate statements, Cargill, Mars and Nestle said they had not knowingly purchased illegally grown cocoa. Touton did not respond to Reuters&#8217; requests for comment.



Tracing the origin of cocoa beans is extremely difficult, in part because co-ops regularly buy from growers who are not members. Ivory Coast’s Ministry of Water and Forests estimates 20% to 30% of the roughly 2 million tonnes of cocoa produced annually is grown illegally and that practically all those beans enter the global supply chain.



&#8220;We want that to stop,&#8221; said Water and Forests Minister Alain-Richard Donwahi.



The Ivorian government faults locals for the problem but contends multinational corporations continue to profit from deforestation and have a duty to help forests recover.



PROGRESS AND CHALLENGES



In 2017, Ivory Coast and neighboring Ghana, the world’s No. 2 cocoa producer, teamed up with dozens of companies under an initiative aimed at eliminating deforestation. A study by the University of Maryland found the two African countries reduced the rate of primary forest loss by over 50% in 2019 compared to the previous year.



Ivory Coast now aims to plant 3 billion trees on government-managed land over the next decade. Meanwhile, state forestry management company SODEFOR estimates some 1.3 million people are living illegally in protected forests, mostly farming cocoa.



Pilot-phase reforestation efforts, which include eliminating illegal settlements in the Rapides Grah forest, point to a tough road ahead for the government and farmers. Most growers are immigrants living below the United Nations poverty line of $1.90 a day.



Over the years, the 10,000 or so residents of Djigbadji &#8211; commonly known as Bandikro, or Bandit Town &#8211; chopped down the towering canopy. The 315,000-hectare forest is today covered in cocoa plantations, most of them illegal.



The proposed legislation by the EU Commission would prohibit companies that sell products in the EU from sourcing beans grown in officially protected forests like Rapides Grah, no matter when they were cleared.



Separately, under the Ivorian government&#8217;s plan to double the country’s forested area, farmers who help with reforestation can stay and maintain existing cocoa plantations for 10 to 15 years, until their trees die off.



&#8220;Listen, we have the national interest in mind,” Lt. Olivier Nogbo of SODEFOR, who is in charge of Rapides Grah’s northern half, told Reuters during an armed patrol last year, with his handful of agents dressed in camouflage and carrying AK47s.



“It&#8217;s not for 10,000 people that we&#8217;re going to allow the environment to be destroyed.&#8221;



SIGNS AMID THE RUBBLE



During an initial visit to Bandikro weeks after the January 2020 raid, Reuters scoured the remains of half a dozen demolished co-op purchasing outposts that store cocoa. It found remnants of a thriving buying hub as well as possible indications of who was purchasing the illicit beans.



At one bulldozed outpost, Reuters found a receipt book along with the sign that once hung above the door, both bearing the name of the farmer cooperative SCAES COOP-CA.



SCAES is part of the in-house sustainability programmes run by Cargill and Touton, two of the world’s largest agricultural commodities traders. The companies say the programmes aim to ensure their practices do not harm people or the planet. Cargill sells SCAES’ cocoa to Nestle, according to Nestle’s supply-chain disclosures on its website.



Jean-Robert Gnanago, a SCAES director and head office employee at the co-op’s headquarters in Meagui, told Reuters the co-op sold cocoa to various industry majors, including around 5,000 tonnes a year to Cargill, but denied it purchased beans inside Rapides Grah.



“If someone used our sign somewhere, that’s possible,” Gnanago said. “But we aren’t aware of it.”



In a statement, the chairman of SCAES&#8217;s board of directors, Souleymane Coulibaly, said the co-op does not buy cocoa from protected land and that it stopped sourcing from buyers who operate near high-risk areas in 2015. The statement added that the cocoa purchase receipts Reuters discovered in Bandikro predate SCAES’s move out of high-risk areas.



Cargill and Nestle did not directly address Reuters inquiries about the SCAES receipt book and sign.



Many co-ops that once operated inside Bandikro have since the January 2020 raid simply moved their purchasing outposts just outside the Rapides Grah boundary, Reuters found. But “eighty percent of the product comes from here,” said Bandikro village leader Francis Bogui, referring to the protected forest.



Bandikro’s traditional chief Phillipe Ipou Kouadio told Reuters early this year he had personally sold 120 tonnes of cocoa to a co-op called SOCAGNIPI between October 2020 and January. Several other Bandikro farmers also told Reuters they sold beans to SOCAGNIPI.



SOCAGNIPI is listed as a supplier by U.S. confectionary giant Mars, maker of M&amp;Ms and Snickers. The co-op participates in Mars’ in-house sustainability programme.



In its statement to Reuters, Mars did not address questions about SOCAGNIPI. Employees at SOCAGNIPI’S main office, in an Ivory Coast town called Gnipi 2, declined to speak to Reuters.



The co-ops named in this article were audited by independent third parties such as UTZ, a Dutch nonprofit that certifies sustainable agriculture. Auditors’ labels indicate a product has been certified as free from human rights and environmental abuses such as deforestation and child labor.



UTZ used a subcontractor called Bureau Veritas to audit SCAES in 2019. Later that year, UTZ reprimanded Bureau Veritas for poor performance. In a statement to Reuters, Rainforest Alliance, which merged with UTZ in 2018, said the reason for the reprimand is confidential.



Bureau Veritas could not be reached for comment.



After a 2019 review discovered that nearly 5,000 of its certified farms in Ivory Coast were on protected land, UTZ suspended the expansion of its certification programmes in Ghana and Ivory Coast, saying it wanted to focus on improving the quality of current certification.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-greater-assurance">‘GREATER ASSURANCE’</h2>



Mars, Nestle and Cargill said they use GPS technology to map farms belonging to cooperatives with which they partner, making sure their boundaries don’t overlap with protected areas. Cargill said it monitors those farms via satellites that alert it in real time to forest loss.



In separate statements, Cargill and Nestle said they source beans from SCAES COOP-CA and that the co-op participates in their in-house sustainability programmes. Cargill said audits of the co-op had not found evidence it buys from protected land.



Mars and Cargill both said they have yield estimates for farms belonging to co-ops in their sustainability programmes. If yields are high compared to estimates, this can result in supply-chain audits.



Cargill and Nestle said the co-ops with which they partner also tag and bar-code the sacks of beans they get from individual farmers.



This “gives us greater assurance that beans come from known and mapped farms,” Cargill said. (Reporting by Joe Bavier and Ange Aboa in Djigbadji, Ivory Coast, and Maytaal Angel in London.

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S.Africa says still interrogating $8.5 bln climate deal with rich nations

IMF board approves $456 mln program for Mozambique

EM economic growth to slow sharply this quarter -JPMorgan

Nigerian court rejects central bank governor’s restraint order on electoral commission￼

IMF board approves $456 mln program for Mozambique

Angola’s Endiama says sanctions against Russia could hurt its diamond operations

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WTO meeting on COVID vaccine rights waiver went ‘very well’ -chair

‘We see a big recession in the making’: Top CEOs are fearing the worst in Europe

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Angola expects April inflation to be lowest in 18 months

UK recovers $23 mln in loot linked to late Nigerian dictator Abacha￼

Zimbabwe govt expects 43% decline in maize harvest this year￼

OPEC+ set to stick to modest oil output rise amid price rally

Nigeria’s new seaport aims to become African shipment hub￼

Delta variant is still the ‘major cause of the pandemic’ despite worries about omicron, WHO says

In Ivory Coast, a battle to save cocoa-ravaged forests

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Nigerian court rejects central bank governor’s restraint order on electoral commission

UK recovers $23 mln in loot linked to late Nigerian dictator Abacha

Zimbabwe govt expects 43% decline in maize harvest this year

Nigeria’s new seaport aims to become African shipment hub