INEC sets up committees for national situation room, collation centre
Festus Okoye, the National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, said on Thursday in Abuja that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has established committees for the National Situation Room and Collation Centre for the 2023 general elections.
Okoye, who disclosed that the commission had deliberated on several issues, including the venue for the national situation room and the collation centre for the 2023 general elections.
The commissioner said that INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu would head the Collaboration Secretariat Committee as National Chairman, while the National Commissioner, May Agbamuche-Mbu, would chair the Situation Room Committee.
“As general elections approach, the commission establishes a national situation room and collation centre where the results of presidential elections are collated.
“Once again, the International Conference Center (ICC) in Abuja will serve as the venue for this important exercise,” he stated.
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Alarm over national debt unnecessary – DMO
Patience Oniha, the director general of the Debt Management Office (DMO), said on Thursday that the alarm created by the media around the country’s projected public debt is unnecessary.
Oniha was reacting to a report by a segment of the media that the next government, come May this year, would inherit a N77 trillion public debt.
She stated that Nigeria’s debt would only attain that level when the Ways and Means Advances from the CBN were securitized.
According to her, the securitization of the Ways and Means Advances will enable the DMO to include the debt in the public debt stock, thereby improving debt transparency.
Oniha had explained the projected debt stock using the actual public debt stock of N44 trillion as a basis.
She stated that the total debt stock included external and domestic debts of the Federal Government, the 36 state governments, and the FCT.
Kenya will not default on its debt payments — President Ruto
President William Ruto said on Thursday that Kenya will not default on its debt and plans to speed up its tax collection in the next two years.
After taking over the government in September, Ruto instituted a slew of cost-cutting measures to reduce expensive commercial borrowing in favour of cheaper sources, as suggested by the World Bank—a move many believe will help reduce debt servicing pressures.
“This country of ours will not default. I want to give you my assurance. Our country will not default on our obligations. We have applied the brakes on any more borrowing,” Ruto said in a recent interview with Kenyan media outfits.
He intimated that his government plans to collect an extra 1 trillion shillings ($8.11 billion) in taxes in the next 24 months. He added that plans to cut 300 billion shillings in borrowing in the current fiscal year, which runs until the end of June, would kick off in earnest.
New COVID variant creates concern — German health minister
The emergence of a new COVID-19 variant known as Omicron XBB.1.5 in China and the United States is causing widespread concern, according to Germany’s health minister.
The minister on Thursday expressed serious concern over the new COVID-19 subvariant, which is linked to growing hospitalisations in the northeastern United States, adding that Berlin was watching the situation closely.
Infectious disease experts have been increasingly worried about the highly contagious Omicron XBB.1.5, which made up more than 40 percent of U.S. cases, official data showed last week.
“Hopefully we get through the winter before such a variant can spread among us,” the minister, Karl Lauterbach, wrote on Twitter late on Wednesday.
“We are monitoring whether, and to what extent, XBB.1.5 occurs in Germany.”
Seven of the 10 U.S. states to see rising infections and hospitalisations are in the Northeast, in line with higher XBB cases, Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, told Reuters in a recent interview.
BP to invest $7bn in Gulf of Mexico business by 2025
In an effort to expand its business portfolio in the United States, British Petroleum has proposed to invest $7 billion in its Gulf of Mexico business by 2025. This is according to a new report published by the company.
Rigzone reported that the company had outlined in the report that the investment will help drive its transformation toward an integrated energy company by “increasing production of resilient hydrocarbons that are some of the lowest carbon barrels of oil compared to other oil producing regions.”
BP revealed in its report that in the past five years it had invested around $10 billion in the Gulf of Mexico, noting that the company is one of the largest oil producers in the region’s deepwater.
The report highlighted that BP’s strategy in the area is rooted in continued investment and exploration around four operated hubs: Atlantis, Mad Dog, Na Kika, and Thunder Horse.
