Five things to know to start your Tuesday

Chapo was declared Mozambique’s president-elect by the court

It’s now official: Mozambique has a new president-elect, Daniel Chapo, from the party currently in power. The top electoral court made this official on Monday, even though there has been much dispute about whether the October 9 election was fair. These fights have turned violent, causing deaths and hurting the country’s economy.

Judge Lúcia Ribeiro, who leads Mozambique’s Constitutional Council (their highest court for election matters), said Chapo won 65% of all votes. This is less than what was first announced in October when election officials said he got 71%.

The main opposition candidate, Venâncio Mondlane, received 24% of the votes. He’s very unhappy with this result and claims the election was rigged. Before the court made its decision, he warned there would be trouble if they approved what he believed was a dishonest election. Since October, his supporters have been protesting in the streets, and sadly, these protests have turned deadly.

The Port Harcourt refinery partially resumed petrol loading

The Port Harcourt Refinery has started sending out petrol again after being shut down for a week.

The refinery had suddenly stopped loading petrol two weeks ago without explaining why, leaving many fuel sellers stuck waiting. When a reporter visited last Thursday, the usually busy loading area was completely empty, with no work happening at all.

Olufemi Soneye, who speaks for Nigeria’s National Petroleum Company (NNPC), had said they were getting ready to start loading operations again.

After a news report by The Punch raised questions about the shutdown, work finally started up again on Monday. However, it was a slow start – only 11 lorries were loaded with petrol that day.

Read Also: Port-Harcourt Refinery fully operational, NNPC claims
South Korea’s opposition party wants to impeach the Acting President

South Korea’s opposition party (called the Democratic Party) plans to try to remove Prime Minister Han Duck-soo from his position. Han is currently serving as Acting President.

The opposition party’s leader, Park Chan-dae, announced this during a live broadcast on Tuesday. They’re upset because Han won’t approve special investigations they want to conduct. These investigations would look into claims that President Yoon Suk Yeol tried to overthrow the government, as well as various accusations against the President’s wife, Kim Keon Hee.

Since 14th December, Prime Minister Han has been running the country as Acting President because of Yoon’s impeachment. South Korea’s highest court is now deciding whether Yoon should permanently lose his job as president.

FG gave an ultimatum to banks to clear their USSD debt

Nigeria’s banking regulator (Central Bank of Nigeria) and communications regulator (Nigerian Communications Commission) have given a final order about a long-running money dispute. The dispute is about a N250 billion debt that banks owe to telcos for providing USSD services (the special codes you dial for banking).

Both regulators released this order together on 20th December 2024. Oladimeji Taiwo from the Central Bank and Chizua Whyte from the Communications Commission signed the order.

The order says banks must pay 60% of all money they owed before February 2022 (when they started using a new payment system called API), and this will count as paying off the whole debt. Banks need to agree on how they’ll pay – either all at once or bit by bit – by 2nd January 2025, and must finish paying by 2nd July 2025.

For any debts that came after February 2022, banks have to pay 85% of what they owe by 31st December 2024. Going forward, they must also pay 85% of any new bills within one month of receiving them.

China will spend more and spend faster in 2025

China’s government has confirmed it plans to spend more public money next year, focusing especially on getting people to buy more things. This comes as China prepares for possible economic challenges when new US tariffs (extra charges on Chinese goods) come into effect.

This announcement came on Tuesday after the Finance Ministry held a two-day meeting about how to manage the country’s money in 2025. The Ministry said it will “expand the magnitude of fiscal spending and accelerate the spending pace”, which basically means they’ll spend more money and spend it faster.

The government will allow itself to borrow more money by raising its budget deficit and selling more government bonds. The Finance Ministry also promised to step up support for a consumer product trade-in program and to increase government investment in the economy.