Nearly half of Africa’s population is experiencing worse governance – Report

Nearly half of Africa’s citizens live in a country where governance has worsened over the past decade, as deteriorating security erodes progress, according to a new report.
The annual Ibrahim Index of African Governance report found that despite positive progress in 33 countries, overall governance was worse in 2023 in 21 countries, accounting for just under half of Africa’s population, compared with 2014.
For several countries, including densely populated Nigeria and Uganda, the deterioration in overall governance had worsened over the second part of the decade, according to the report released by Sudanese-British billionaire businessman Mo Ibrahim’s foundation.

Ukrainian prosecutor general resigns amid scandal over draft exemptions

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin has announced his resignation amid a scandal involving dozens of officials alleged to have abused their position to receive disability status and avoid military service.

In early October, it emerged that dozens of public prosecutors in the western region of Khmelnytskyi had falsely been awarded disability permits and were receiving special pensions.

Kostin said on Tuesday he was taking responsibility for the scandal and announced his resignation. He called the situation around the false disability diagnoses “clearly amoral”.

FG bans cooking gas export over rising prices

The Federal Government has stopped the export of locally produced Liquefied Petroleum Gas, also known as cooking gas, to prioritise domestic supply.

The measure announced by the Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, on Tuesday, will begin November 1, 2024, and is to tackle the high gas price in Nigeria.

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This was contained in a statement by the spokesman of minister, Louis Ibah, in Abuja.

Ibah said the decision was reached after the minister convened a high-level meeting in Abuja with stakeholders to address the skyrocketing price and its attendant hardship on Nigerians.

Nigeria still borrowing amid high debt costs – IMF

Nigeria is still very active in the global debt market, despite its huge backlogs and high debt costs.

This was mentioned during a press conference on the global financial stability report at the IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Washington DC, by the IMF’s Financial Counsellor and Director of Monetary and Capital Markets, Tobias Adrian.

He said, “Frontier markets, including Nigeria, have been active in the debt market this year, and though access to financing is still more expensive than before, the overall issuance levels have been encouraging.”

However, the IMF expressed support for Nigeria’s recent monetary policy measures, particularly the Central Bank of Nigeria’s interest rate hikes and foreign exchange reforms, which have been designed to stabilise the economy.

Scientists say climate change worsened rains in flood-hit African regions

Devastating rains that triggered deadly floods in Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan in recent months were worsened by human-caused climate change, a team of international scientists said on Wednesday.
Global warming made the seasonal downpours this year about 5-20% more intense across the Niger and Lake Chad basins, said World Weather Attribution (WWA), a group of scientists studying the link between climate change and extreme weather.
It also said such intense rainfall could occur annually if warming continues.
“Spells of heavy summer rainfall have become the new normal in Sudan, Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad,” said Izidine Pinto, Researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, in a WWA statement.
This year’s floods killed around 1,500 people and displaced over 1 million more in West and Central Africa, according to the U.N. aid agency OCHA.

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