<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/107189168-1675640539119-gettyimages-1243796602-AVaishnav_Skyline_view_in_Mumbai_1.webp" alt="" class="wp-image-422930" width="840" height="472" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/107189168-1675640539119-gettyimages-1243796602-AVaishnav_Skyline_view_in_Mumbai_1.webp 630w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/107189168-1675640539119-gettyimages-1243796602-AVaishnav_Skyline_view_in_Mumbai_1-300x169.webp 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/107189168-1675640539119-gettyimages-1243796602-AVaishnav_Skyline_view_in_Mumbai_1-160x90.webp 160w" sizes="(max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">MUMBAI, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA &#8211; 2022/10/06: People are seen taking photos of the City of Mumbai skyline. (Photo by Ashish Vaishnav/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



Stocks in the Asia-Pacific mostly fell on Monday as a stronger-than-expected&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/03/jobs-report-january-2023-.html">jobs report</a>&nbsp;from the U.S. worrying investors the Federal Reserve has room for more interest rate hikes, as it continued its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/01/fed-rate-decision-february-2023-quarter-point-hike.html">efforts</a>&nbsp;to control inflation.



Hong Kong’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/.HSI/">Hang Seng index</a>&nbsp;fell 2.2% as property and technology stocks led losses. The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/.SZI/">Shenzhen Component</a>&nbsp;shed 1.25% and the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/.SSEC/">Shanghai Composite</a>&nbsp;also lost 0.9%.



In South Korea, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/.KS11/">Kospi</a>&nbsp;in South Korea fell 1.7% to 2,438.19 and the Kosdaq lost 0.71% to 761.33. The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/.AXJO/">S&amp;P/ASX 200</a>&nbsp;fell 0.25% to 7,539.00. Japan’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/.N225/">Nikkei 225</a>&nbsp;bucked the trend and gained 0.67% to 2,7693.65 and the Topix rose 0.45% to 1,979.22.



The Nifty 50 in India shed 0.64% and the S&amp;P Sensex fell 0.66% as stocks of Adani Group mostly fell as allegations of stock manipulation and accounting fraud raised by Hindenburg raises concerns of spillover effects on wider Indian markets and Wall Street lenders.



The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/gautam-s-adani/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bloomberg Billionaires Index</a>&nbsp;showed founder and chairman Gautam Adani’s net worth further on Friday, as his net worth fell by more than 51.1%, or $61.6 billion, year-to-date.



<figure class="wp-block-table"><table><thead><tr><th>TICKER&nbsp;</th><th>COMPANY&nbsp;</th><th>NAME&nbsp;</th><th>PRICE&nbsp;</th><th>CHANGE&nbsp;</th><th>%CHANGE&nbsp;</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/.N225">.N225</a></td><td>Nikkei 225 Index</td><td>*NIKKEI</td><td>27693.65</td><td>184.19</td><td>0.67</td></tr><tr><td><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/.HSI">.HSI</a></td><td>Hang Seng Index</td><td>*HSI</td><td>21196.65</td><td>-463.82</td><td>-2.14</td></tr><tr><td><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/.AXJO">.AXJO</a></td><td>S&amp;P/ASX 200</td><td>*ASX 200</td><td>7539</td><td>-19.1</td><td>-0.25</td></tr><tr><td><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/.SSEC">.SSEC</a></td><td>Shanghai</td><td>*SHANGHAI</td><td>3236.63</td><td>-26.77</td><td>-0.82</td></tr><tr><td><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/.KS11">.KS11</a></td><td>KOSPI Index</td><td>*KOSPI</td><td>2438.19</td><td>-42.21</td><td>-1.7</td></tr><tr><td><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/.FTFCNBCA">.FTFCNBCA</a></td><td>CNBC 100 ASIA IDX</td><td>*CNBC 100</td><td>8540.12</td><td>-215.59</td><td>-2.46</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>



Stocks on Wall Street fell on Friday, after the jobs report, and the 10-year Treasury yield&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/03/us-treasury-yields-investors-await-key-labor-market-data.html">topped 3.5% after jumping more than 12 basis points</a>&nbsp;following the report.



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/AAPL/">Apple</a>&nbsp;shares&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/02/stock-futures-fall-after-earnings-reports-from-apple-alphabet-disappoint-investors.html">jumped 2.4%</a>&nbsp;as the company reported a drop in sales in largest quarterly revenue decline since 2016,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/02/alphabet-googl-earnings-q4-2022.html">Google-parent Alphabet</a>&nbsp;fell 2.8% following disappointing results. Amazon’s stock also declined 8.4% in its worst day since April after its earnings<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/02/amazon-amzn-earnings-q4-2022.html">&nbsp;report</a>.



— CNBC’s Sarah Min, Jesse Pound, Jeff Cox contributed to this report

107189168-1675640539119-gettyimages-1243796602-AVaishnav_Skyline_view_in_Mumbai_1

Asia markets mostly fall as U.S. jobs report show room for more hikes; Adani saga continues

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/thumbnail_world-map-with-focus-federal-republic-nigeria-with-capital-city-abuja-820x615.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-420179" width="648" height="486" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/thumbnail_world-map-with-focus-federal-republic-nigeria-with-capital-city-abuja-820x615.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/thumbnail_world-map-with-focus-federal-republic-nigeria-with-capital-city-abuja-300x225.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/thumbnail_world-map-with-focus-federal-republic-nigeria-with-capital-city-abuja-120x90.jpg 120w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/thumbnail_world-map-with-focus-federal-republic-nigeria-with-capital-city-abuja-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/thumbnail_world-map-with-focus-federal-republic-nigeria-with-capital-city-abuja.jpg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px" /><figcaption>Map of Nigeria Source: freepik.com</figcaption></figure>



Japan&#8217;s Daikin Industries Ltd&nbsp;6367.T&nbsp;will begin assembling air conditioners in Nigeria as it renews a push into Africa that had been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, a regional head said on Thursday.



&#8220;We are very soon going to have a factory in Nigeria,&#8221; Kanwal Jeet Jawa, the head of Daikin&#8217;s operations in India and East Africa, told Reuters.



Rather than building a plant, Daikin is using space in a facility provided by a local distributor in the West African nation, he said.



In East African countries, including Tanzania and Kenya, Daikin is aiming to become the leading seller of air conditioners, chillers and other cooling equipment by 2025.



The company is looking to replicate its success in India, where it has beaten the likes of South Korea&#8217;s LG Electronics Inc&nbsp;066570.KS&nbsp;to take top market share amid rapid market expansion driven by the country&#8217;s economic growth, Jawa said.



Daikin&#8217;s production capacity in India is set to almost double in 2023 with the opening of a new factory, allowing it to ship equipment to Africa that is more affordable and better suited to local conditions than air conditioners the Japanese company makes elsewhere, Jawa said.



&#8220;For East Africa, we will continue to supply finished products produced in India,&#8221; a Daikin spokesperson said.

thumbnail_world-map-with-focus-federal-republic-nigeria-with-capital-city-abuja

Japan’s Daikin to build air conditioners in Nigeria in renewed push

By Julia Payne



LONDON, Sept 29 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Nigeria has failed to capitalise on an oil price boom that has helped cushion other exporters from the impact of inflation, with millions more Nigerians now facing poverty.



Data from Nigeria&#8217;s state oil company NNPC shows that it did not contribute anything to state coffers in the first eight months of 2022, despite crude prices averaging $94 a barrel so far this year, a rise of 42% from last year.



At the heart of Nigeria&#8217;s problem is that despite being Africa&#8217;s biggest oil and gas producer, the country depends almost entirely on imports to cover its gasoline needs.



It then subsidises the cost to consumers, which has created a disparity between the price at the pump and what people pay to fill their tanks in neighbouring countries, such as Benin.



This has led to widespread smuggling, which has in turn driven up the amount of costly gasoline Nigeria imports and wiped out the gains that it should have made from crude exports because it ends up buying far more than it needs.



&#8220;Hundreds of thousands of people (in Benin) organize their survival around this traffic,&#8221; Boris Houenou, a Beninois economist said of the smuggling of Nigerian gasoline.



&#8220;A litre of Nigerian petrol worth $0.45 (per litre) can be passed to Benin for $0.70,&#8221; he added.



Estimates of the amount of gasoline smuggled abroad vary, with some independent researchers putting it at around 15 million litres a day, while NNPC&#8217;s own assessment is 42 million.



Nigerian National Petroleum Co (NNPC) said this month that gasoline smuggling was distorting supplies, adding that it was working to crack down on it.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N30633R&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The NNPC&#8217;s federal account allocation (FAAC) shows it remitted just over $3 billion from oil and gas sales to Nigeria&#8217;s federal account in 2020, falling to about $1.4 billion in 2021 and dropping to zero in 2022.



Nigerian oil production has fallen to 1-1.2 million bpd from pre-pandemic levels of 1.8 million bpd after decades of under-investment in upstream assets, while pipeline theft is at its highest level in years, at an estimated at 200,000 barrels per day (bpd).&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2WW3WT&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a><a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N30G0SQ&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Gasoline imports, meanwhile, have ballooned to more than double Nigeria&#8217;s estimated needs this year, Reuters calculations based on the FAAC data indicate.



&#8220;We&#8217;ve moved from 30 million litres a day to 90 million during this administration without anything to show that consumption has actually increased,&#8221; said Cheta Nwanze, lead partner at Lagos-based risk consultancy SBM Intelligence.



NNPC recorded gasoline deliveries of 90 million litres a day in March and 83 million in April, Reuters calculations showed. In the same months last year, imports were 64 and 63 million litres respectively, well above national demand.



Nigeria&#8217;s reliance on imported oil products looks set to continue, two industry sources with knowledge of the matter said, with a new refinery near Lagos unlikely to come online until the end of 2023 and a revamp of the 210,000 barrel-per-day Port Harcourt facility expected to take several years.



NNPC and Nigeria&#8217;s finance ministry did not respond to multiple Reuters requests for comment.



&#8216;CURIOUS CASE&#8217;



Although the Nigerian government announced plans to remove the gasoline subsidy last year, it then backtracked in July, citing concerns over potential social unrest.



The World Bank estimates inflationary pressures will tip 7 million more Nigerians into poverty this year, bringing the total to 45% of the population of 200 million.



&#8220;Despite the better-than-expected performance of the services and agriculture sectors and higher oil prices &#8230; Nigeria is experiencing a curious case of lower fiscal revenues,&#8221; Marco Hernandez, World Bank Lead Economist for Nigeria, said in a June development Report.



&#8220;This is limiting the government&#8217;s ability to expand basic services, support the economic recovery, and protect the poor during this difficult time,&#8221; Hernandez added in the report.



Nigeria&#8217;s Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed has repeatedly warned about the high cost of gasoline subsidies, saying the bill could reach $16.2 billion in 2023.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N2UI5G7&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a><a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2Z223X&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



And the World Bank estimated that foregone oil revenues would total 5 trillion naira ($12.04 billion) this year due to the subsidy, equivalent to 30% of Nigeria&#8217;s entire budget.



In 2020, NNPC retained 4% of oil and gas sales to cover gasoline subsidies. This rose to 45% last year and in 2022 it has reached 83% of sales.



The increasing fuel subsidy is taking away money from capital expenditure and is a &#8220;major drainer to overall government revenues and fiscal position,&#8221; Nigeria&#8217;s finance ministry said in its latest budget projection in August.



&#8220;The subsidy on Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) supply has had significant adverse impact on government revenues,&#8221; it added.



Nwanze of SBM Intelligence said: &#8220;The subsidy is a complete waste at this point, but it&#8217;s politically explosive.&#8221;



Nigeria holds presidential elections in February against a backdrop of price rises as a result of the Ukraine crisis and post-pandemic supply chain bottlenecks.



As well as the higher cost of gasoline purchases, a more costly swap contract has also come at a bad time.



Until the end of last year, NNPC covered domestic gasoline needs via Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) contracts.



Now NNPC is also buying ad hoc cargoes and through a Crude Oil Refining and Direct Partnership Agreement (CORDPA), which involves paying higher premiums and a trader waiting longer to receive its crude delivery as payment.



In May, for example, the DSDP premium was around $10 per tonne of gasoline, while the premium paid under a CORDPA was $22, according to NNPC&#8217;s spreadsheets. Rates vary seasonally and for most of the year these levels had been $35 to about $50 a tonne. NNPC paid up $80 and $100 for some ad hoc cargoes.



And although gasoline is subsidised, the amount ordinary Nigerians pay at the pump remains higher than the set price.



In its FAAC reports for 2021 and 2022, NNPC set its subsidised price at 124 naira ($0.30) per litre, but the average pump price is closer to 200 naira per litre across many states.



&#8220;We should be reaping a bumper harvest but alas we are not,&#8221; lamented one Nigerian official.

Africas Richest Man Builds Nigerias $15 Billion Oil Refinery

ANALYSIS- Nigeria squanders oil price bonanza as gasoline subsidies soar￼

By Victoria Waldersee and Emma-Victoria Farr







FRANKFURT, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Porsche AG made its debut on the stock market on Thursday, with a price tag of about 75 billion euros ($72.45 billion) after Volkswagen priced shares at the top end of the range, braving turbulent market conditions.







<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="820" height="536" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Porsche-Emblem_Max-Pixel-820x536.jpg" alt="Porsche Logo" class="wp-image-420162" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Porsche-Emblem_Max-Pixel-820x536.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Porsche-Emblem_Max-Pixel-300x196.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Porsche-Emblem_Max-Pixel-138x90.jpg 138w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Porsche-Emblem_Max-Pixel-768x502.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Porsche-Emblem_Max-Pixel.jpg 960w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Porsche </figcaption></figure>



The bumper flotation, expected to generate around 19.5 billion euros ($19.0 billion), comes as instability in European markets has deterred other share sales by carmakers, including in luxury brands.



The sale values Porsche AG close to the market capitalisation of its parent Volkswagen, which is worth around 84 billion euros, and puts it ahead of rivals like Ferrari .



Books closed on Wednesday on what is one of Europe’s biggest IPOs and the second largest in Germany since Deutsche Telekom made its debut in 1996, at the top end of the 76.50-82.50 euro range it announced earlier this month.



Shares opened at 84.00 euros apiece and traded at 82.88 euros by 0733 GMT.



Shares in Porsche SE fell 5.7% in early Frankfurt trade. Shares in Volkswagen were down 4.9% in early Frankfurt trade.



Companies in continental Europe have raised the smallest amount this year since the 2009 global financial crisis at $44 billion, of which only $4.5 billion comes from IPOs, based on Refinitiv data.



Volkswagen has said the market’s volatility was precisely why fund managers with money to invest were sorely in need of a stable and attractive stock like Porsche AG.



“Porsche was and is the pearl in the Volkswagen Group,” Chris-Oliver Schickentanz, chief investment officer at fund manager Capitell, said.



“The IPO has now made it very, very transparent what value the market brings to Porsche. That, of course, also has a positive effect on Volkswagen shareholders.”



Faced with tens of billions of costs for a radical shift towards electric mobility and software, Volkswagen executives had long mulled listing Porsche, a move executives hoped would both raise much-needed funds and lift Volkswagen’s own value.



The Porsche and Piech families, in turn, will solidify their control over the carmaker with 25%, plus one ordinary share – carrying voting rights – in Porsche AG, effectively giving them a blocking minority in the namesake brand.



Up to 113,875,000 preferred shares, carrying no voting rights, will be sold to investors over the course of the initial public offering. ($1 = 1.0352 euros)



(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee and Emma-Victoria Farr; writing by Victoria Waldersee and Matthias Williams; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Richard Pullin and Jane Merriman)

Porsche Emblem Luxury Logo Design Vehicle Auto

PORSCHE DEBUTS WITH $72 BLN PRICE TAG IN BUMPER IPO

(Photo: Flickr/QuoteInspector.com)

European stocks fall as Bank of England boost fades; Stoxx 600 down 1.7%￼

May 27 (Reuters) The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is looking into Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk&#8217;s disclosure of his stake in Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) in early April, according to a letter the agency sent to him in April.



In the letter, now made public by the SEC, the regulator asks Musk why it appears he did not file required paperwork within 10 days of the acquisition, and to provide more information on his public statements on the platform regarding whether Twitter adheres to free speech principles.



Specifically, the SEC asked Musk to explain why he opted to ultimately file a &#8220;13G&#8221; disclosure form, which is meant for investors who plan to hold their shares passively instead of a &#8220;13D&#8221; form, which is for activist investors who intend influence management and policies of the company.



Spokespeople for the SEC and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.



Outside experts had previously said Musk&#8217;s late filing, and that he may have used improper paperwork, could attract the attention of the SEC, which has sparred with Musk in the past.



The SEC&#8217;s letter is dated the same day Musk disclosed a 9.2% stake in Twitter. The billionaire, who has since offered to the Twitter private for $44 billion, has been sued by investors claiming he manipulated the company&#8217;s stock price downward.



The Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) chief executive officer has landed in trouble with the SEC before, when the agency sued him in 2018 after he tweeted he had &#8220;funding secured&#8221; to potentially take the electric car company private at $420 per share. In reality, a buyout was not close.



Reporting by Nivedita Balu and Sweta Singh in Bengaluru, Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Pete Schroeder in Washington Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Mark Potter

Elon Musk

U.S. SEC looking into Musk’s Twitter stake purchase

LONDON/NEW YORK, May 27 (Reuters)



The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has received $40 billion in pledges for its new Resilience and Sustainability Trust to address challenges such as climate change, IMF head Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday, close to their target set last month.



Building resilience to the effects of climate change will cost trillions of dollars over the next decade, she said in a pre-recorded speech broadcast to the Ibrahim Governance Forum, an Africa-focused conference.



Climate investment globally needs to increase by up to six times from the roughly $640 billion spent in 2020, to keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report said in April.



&#8220;The devastating effects of climate change are robbing Africa of lives and livelihoods,&#8221; Georgieva told the conference, which was scheduled to mark six months until the COP27 climate conference in Cairo.



The IMF launched the new financing facility for low and middle-income countries in April, with the goal of raising at least $45 billion.



Its finance director had said it would need to receive &#8220;a substantial fraction&#8221; of the total before starting operations of the new trust by the time of the meetings of the IMF and World Bank in October.



Georgieva said at the conference that many African countries were dealing with droughts that were increasing food and political insecurity.



&#8220;Now the surge in food, fuel and fertiliser prices have dramatically raised import costs, all in the context of already high sovereign debt and limited fiscal capacity,&#8221; Georgieva said.



&#8220;African countries cannot face these overlapping crises &#8211; climate, food, pandemic &#8211; alone,&#8221; she said, adding that IMF lending to African countries in the last year was 13 times the annual average.



Reporting by Rachel Savage and Rodrigo Campos; Editing by John Stonestreet and Edmund Blair

IMF story

IMF secures $40 billion so far for new sustainability trust

WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The United States issued an advisory on Monday warning U.S. companies of growing reputational risks of doing business with state-owned enterprises and military-controlled firms in Sudan.



&#8220;These risks arise from, among other things, recent actions undertaken by Sudan&#8217;s Sovereign Council and security forces under the military&#8217;s command, including and especially serious human rights abuse against protesters,&#8221; State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.



The African country has been racked by protests since a military coup in October, and lawyers say dozens of political prisoners remain in detention.



&#8220;Businesses and individuals operating in Sudan should undertake increased due diligence related to human rights issues and be aware of the potential reputational risks of conducting business activities and/or transactions with SOEs and military-controlled companies,&#8221; Price said.



The advisory was issued by the U.S. departments of State, Treasury, Commerce and Labor, he said.



(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Tim Ahmann, Bernard Orr)

32608304695_0cbfb49814_b

U.S. warns companies of ‘reputational risks’ of doing business in Sudan

Biased cultural norms, limited technology access, and biased teaching and learning materials perpetuate the STEM education imbalance between boys and girls.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ghana_00693-1-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-417156" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ghana_00693-1-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ghana_00693-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ghana_00693-1-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ghana_00693-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ghana_00693-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ghana_00693-1-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /></figure>



Ensuring that girls receive a quality education is the most powerful investment we can make in our collective future. Educated women are more likely to marry at a later age, have fewer children, earn higher incomes and build better lives for themselves and their families. The World Bank has even said that without improvements in gender equality, <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/nasikiliza/how-empowering-women-can-help-end-poverty-africa">we will not reduce poverty</a> in Africa.



Addressing the under-representation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses is a central part of improving girls&#8217; education in Africa. The choice could not be more clear: if Africa does not make significant progress in getting more girls in the sciences, its progress towards sustainable development will be compromised.



However, in many countries across the continent, <a href="https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/2022-04/Girls%27%20education%20and%20empowerment.pdf">social norms and traditions prevent</a> girls from pursuing educational opportunities. In Sudan, for instance, many families with children see girls’ priority as domestic chores over schoolwork. Evidence shows that African girls who spend 28 hours per week on household duties and caregiving attend school 25% less than those with just 10 hours of weekly domestic chores. In a continent where girls are far more often pressured to work in the home than boys are, it results in major gender disparities in learning.



Some will argue that technology could be the solution, providing digital access to learning that girls might not otherwise have. However, gender norms already limit girls’ access to technology, and have had a disproportionate<a href="https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/sub-saharan_africa_education_series_21_july_r.pdf"> impact on their learning opportunities during the Covid-19 lockdowns</a>.



In Ethiopia, parents are more likely to deny girls access to mobile phones as they want to protect them from<a href="https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/2022-04/Girls%27%20education%20and%20empowerment.pdf"> exposure to unsafe content</a>. One <a href="https://www.girlsandmobile.org/">study</a> found that for boys, cost is the biggest barrier to mobile phone access, while for girls, social norms are the main constraint; a large majority of boys do not have to seek permission to use technology while nearly half of girls do.



Globally, the<a href="https://www.girlsandmobile.org/"> disparity between boys and girls</a> is so great that boys are 50% more likely to own a mobile phone than girls and more than half of girls have to borrow a mobile phone if they want access, compared with only 28% of boys.



There is also significant disparity in how girls and boys are treated in the classroom itself, especially in STEM subjects. Teachers often demonstrate the same gender biases as parents, sub-consciously encouraging boys ahead of girls by calling on them first or more often to answer science-related questions. Teaching materials and textbook examples further deepen the divide with more references to boys and male success than that of women and girls.



Data from the OECD reveals a strong correlation between 15-year-old boys&#8217; self-confidence in STEM subjects and their higher performance versus girls’. Yet boys&#8217; brains are no more effective at STEM problem-solving than girls&#8217;, and there are<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29484644/"> negligible gender differences in children’s maths skills</a>. What evidence does show, however, is that girls&#8217; self-perception, due to community pressures and biases, are the primary reason for girls succeeding less in many countries in STEM studies and careers.



The most immediate way to nurture their confidence in the sciences is to increase girls’ exposure to high-quality, inclusive science instruction in schools. Girls’ familiarity with STEM is a key part of building their self-confidence in it.



That’s why the British Council is tackling some of these issues in a drive to increase and sustain access, interest, participation and performance of girls in these subjects at all levels:



<ul><li>Making Coding Fun for Girls After-school coding clubs #LearningToCode are being piloted in Kenya and South Africa to give girls exposure and access to technology and build their confidence through fun activities in a creative and safe environment.</li><li>Training Teachers on Gender Inclusion Through teacher training across many African countries, in conjunction with ministries of education and teacher training colleges, we are skilling-up teachers to be more gender inclusive in the classroom and making them aware of biases and how they can affect girls.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Digital Skills in the Classroom We work with the Wikimedia Foundation in Ghana on our Skills for Success programme which is focused on building teacher training colleges capacity to skill-up teachers in digital technology so they can bring that to the kids in their classrooms. This is particularly important for girls who are less likely to get exposure to technology at home.</li><li>School Leadership Training We work with school leaders across Africa to teach more inclusive styles of school management, promoting reflective learning.</li></ul>



These are just some examples of the systems changes that can be achieved. We encourage aid agencies, ministries of education and other partners to consider the wide-reaching benefits of creating societies in which&nbsp;girls can achieve their potential in STEM.



The British Council welcomes the opportunity to co-create impactful, needs based education programmes in partnership with like-minded organisations.







Andrew Zerzan is the Deputy Regional Director and Director of Education, Arts &amp; Civil Society for British Council in Sub Saharan Africa.



Andrew is an international programme leader, passionate about finding solutions to complex social and cultural challenges. He has more than 15 years’ experience in international programme strategy, partnership development and project management.



Andrew joined the Council in 2014 and has held several roles including, Global Director of Education, Global Head of Business Delivery, and Director of Risk and Security.



Prior to joining British Council, Andrew worked with several organisations including the World Bank, Gates Foundation and Reed Elsevier plc. In 2004 he launched a start-up education business, pioneering a high-tech approach to learning and connecting people from different cultures and geographies.



Andrew was commended by the City of London for innovative risk management in the Risk Management Awards of 2014.



Andrew has experience of living and working in Europe, Africa and Asia, and is currently based in Nairobi with his family and dog. Andrew has weathered the pandemic appreciating the ingenuity of African youth to thrive regardless of the challenges they face.

Ghana_00693_British Council

Closing the gender gap in African STEM education

WASHINGTON/MUMBAI, May 17 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Nofe Isah, a 25-year old based in Nigeria, has been investing in crypto since January. Last week, she lost all of her $5,000 in savings as cryptocurrency luna went into free fall.



Isah, a recently unemployed administrative officer, vowed she would never invest in crypto again.



&#8220;I can&#8217;t believe I fell for crypto,&#8221; she told Reuters by phone. &#8220;I&#8217;m just trying not to get myself depressed. Crypto has taken my money, fine. It shouldn&#8217;t take my head.”



The crypto market, known for its wild price swings, slumped last week as investors yanked money from riskier assets amid worries over soaring inflation and rising interest rates.



Bitcoin, the world&#8217;s largest cryptocurrency, fell as low as $25,401 on Thursday, its lowest since Dec. 2020. It hit a record high of $69,000 in November.



Small tokens were hit too, with ether, the second-largest token, dropping more than 15% to its lowest since June. Luna &#8211; a digital coin widely hyped on social media and backed by institutional crypto investors &#8211; shed nearly all of its value.



Small traders such as Isah have flocked to cryptocurrencies in the hope of quick returns, despite warnings from regulators that the emerging assets can be high risk.



Platforms such as Robinhood, which has 23 million customers across a variety of assets, have helped spur retail investing, including in crypto. Around a quarter of Robinhood&#8217;s transaction-based revenues came from cryptocurrencies in the first quarter of this year, Robinhood said in its latest earnings statement.



Overall user numbers at crypto platforms have ballooned. Binance, the world&#8217;s biggest crypto exchange, had some 118 million clients last month, up from 43.4 million in the first quarter of last year.



But after last week&#8217;s turmoil, online forums were awash with tales of woe, as retail investors expressed anguish about their losses.



&#8220;I&#8217;m 49, big mortgage, 3 kids etc. My retirement party is on ice for the foreseeable future!&#8221;, a user with the handle Boring-Fun-3646 said on Reddit.



Another user with the handle AdventurousAdagio830 posted on Reddit: &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t seem real that I lost $180,000.&#8221;



&#8216;DEATH SPIRAL&#8217;



Emblematic of crypto risks was the collapse last week of terraUSD, a stablecoin designed to keep a constant value via a complex algorithm that involved luna.



When the coins came under heavy selling pressure, the system broke down. TerraUSD &#8211; designed to keep a value of $1 &#8211; traded around 9 cents on Tuesday while luna plunged to near-zero, based on CoinGecko data.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2X20JL&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Tejan Shrivastava, a 31-year old graphic designer from Mumbai, who has been investing in cryptocurrencies for the last year, had his $250 investment wiped out by luna&#8217;s collapse.



&#8220;It was stuck in a death spiral. All the money was gone in 15 minutes,&#8221; he told Reuters.



&#8220;I don&#8217;t even know if I&#8217;ll invest in crypto in the future. I have a crypto portfolio, but I am planning to liquidate it once it reaches break even.&#8221;



Luna&#8217;s fall wiped out most of its market value which had been above $40 billion as recently as early April, CoinGecko data shows.



Retail investors&#8217; online frustration even spilled over into the real world.



Seoul police last week said they were seeking a suspect after an unidentified individual rang the doorbell of the apartment of Do Kwon, the founder of terraUSD, and ran away.



Police would investigate whether the suspect had invested in cryptocurrencies, a Seoul police officer told Reuters.



PATCHY REGULATION



Through its 13-year life, the crypto sector has been peppered by vertiginous climbs and sudden free falls. In November, for instance, bitcoin slumped by a fifth in just under two weeks after touching a record $69,000. Six months earlier, it had tumbled by almost 40% in just nine days.



Yet crypto&#8217;s latest crash &#8211; which pushed the sector&#8217;s combined value to $1.2 trillion, less than half of where it was last November &#8211; led to the crushing of luna, which on May 1 was the eighth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation.



Cryptocurrencies are subject to patchy regulation across the world, with traders of bitcoin and the panapoly of smaller tokens typically unprotected against price slumps.



But it is difficult to gauge the scale of retail investors&#8217; pain from the crypto plunge and the repercussions on future appetite given the opaque nature of the market.



In Britain more than 4% of adults &#8211; some 2.3 million people &#8211; own cryptocurrencies, data published last year by the UK financial watchdog showed.



Britain&#8217;s watchdog said understanding of crypto was falling compared with a year earlier, &#8220;suggesting that some crypto users may not fully understand what they are buying&#8221;.



Still, some small investors are keeping the faith.



Eloisa Marchesoni, based near Tulum in Mexico and investing with a crypto syndicate, said she would not give up.



&#8220;I am looking to buy the dip &#8211; we are all waiting for bitcoin to go down to $22,000, which is not something too probable but not something that&#8217;s &#8216;not probable at all&#8217;.&#8221;



Marchesoni is also hedging her crypto bets with physical assets &#8212; &#8220;cars because you can lease them, watches, real estate&#8221;.



Bitcoin&nbsp;BTC=BTSP&nbsp;was hovering around $30,000 on Tuesday, having lost more than 20% so far this month.



Regulators remain on alert. The British government said last month it will regulate stablecoins.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2W23WH&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is toughening its stance. Gary Gensler, SEC chair, said this week investors in cryptocurrencies needed more protections.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2X81YX&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



(Additional reporting by Alun John in Hong Kong and Soo-hyang Choi in Seoul; Writing by Carolyn Cohn, Elizabeth Howcroft and Tom Wilson in London. Editing by Jane Merriman)

106911087-16263029762021-07-12t182451z_1049474836_rc26jo9ua1af_rtrmadp_0_fintech-crypto-flows

Small players lose faith in crypto after sell-off￼

<ul><li>Food makes up 40% of CPI baskets in low income countries</li></ul>



<ul><li>UN food price index hits record in February, March</li></ul>



<ul><li>More governments opt to introduce support measures</li></ul>



<ul><li>Risk of social unrest is on the rise over food, fuel price rises</li></ul>



By Karin Strohecker, Ezgi Erkoyun and Sarah El Safty



LONDON/ISTANBUL/CAIRO, May 17 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Like for millions of people in developing&nbsp;and emerging market&nbsp;countries around the world, shopping for staple foods has turned from a necessity into a luxury for Selcuk Gemici.



The 49-year-old, who works in an auto repair shop in Turkey&#8217;s largest city Istanbul and lives with his wife and two children in his father&#8217;s house, says fresh produce is often out of reach with his family living on pasta, bulgur and beans.



&#8220;Everything became so expensive, we cannot buy and eat what we want &#8211; we only buy what we can afford now,&#8221; said Gemici. &#8220;My children are not properly nourished.&#8221;



Global food prices have climbed for two years, fuelled by COVID-19 disruptions and weather woes. Supply shocks to grains and oils from Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine saw them hit an all-time record in February, and again in March.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2WY26Q&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Inflation rates have soared, with energy price rises adding to pressure. Turkey or Argentina with annual inflation of 70% and around 60% might be outliers, but readings are into double-digits in countries from Brazil to Hungary. It makes U.S. inflation at 8.3% look modest in comparison.



Rising food prices are a hot topic in emerging market, raising the risk of civil unrest with echoes of the Arab spring and putting policy makers in a bind between stepping in with fiscal support to ease the pain on their population or preserve government finances.



Food is the single largest category in inflation baskets &#8211; the selection of goods used to calculate the cost of living &#8211; in many developing nations, accounting for around half in countries like India or Pakistan and on average for some 40% in low-income countries, International Monetary Fund data shows.



Food producers have become more protective: India on the weekend announcing a ban on wheat exports while Indonesia halted exports of palm oil to control soaring prices at home in late April.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2X80FF&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a><a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2X30P4&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



And with the war in Ukraine not only disrupting food but also fertilizer supplies, food inflation could be more longer-lasting, Marcelo Carvalho, head of global emerging markets research at BNP Paribas told Reuters.



&#8220;This is here to stay,&#8221; said Carvalho. &#8220;Food is very salient &#8211; when there is a change in food prices, the perception about inflation is magnified &#8211; that feeds into inflation expectations that are more easily unanchored.&#8221;



HOT SPOT



For Um Ibrahim, a 60-year-old widow and street vendor selling headscarves in front of a mosque in the middle-class district of Madinet Nasr in Egypt&#8217;s capital Cairo, feeding her four children has become much harder.



&#8220;All prices rose &#8211; clothes, vegetables, poultry, eggs &#8211; what am I going do?&#8221; she asked, laying out her ware on a cloth.



Egypt, one of the world&#8217;s biggest wheat importers, has seen inflation soar more than 13% in April, and is expected to hike interest rates again at a meeting this week after it devalued the currency by 14% in mid-March.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2VR0S1&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Emerging market policy makers, having jacked up interest rates by hundreds of basis points cumulatively since 2020 to curb price pressures and ensure a bond premium to rising U.S. yields for investors, have to perform a balancing act between taming inflation and keeping fragile growth alive at a time of rising global interest rates.



Emerging economies may expand just 4.6% this year, the World Bank forecasts, compared with an earlier 6.3% prediction.



Polina Kurdyavko, head of EM debt at BlueBay Asset Management, says governments have three options: Provide bigger subsidies to consumers or bite the bullet that is to let prices rise and face inflation and social unrest, or do something in between.



&#8220;There are no easy solutions,&#8221; Kurdyavko said.



A raft of countries have introduced measures: Turkey has raised the minimum wage by 50% in December to address a currency crash and inflation spike.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N2T14KZ&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>&nbsp;Chile will up minimum pay this year as well.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL3N2WO37U&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



South Africa&#8217;s government is debating whether to increase a social relief grant launched in 2020 and make the scheme permanent.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2VC5HD&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Economists fear emerging economies are facing a fresh wave of unrest on the back of the latest increases in food prices. North Africa, where food inflation was a contributor to the Arab Spring revolts a decade ago, looked particularly vulnerable, said Beata Javorcic, chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.



&#8220;The irony of this war is that while everybody expected Russia to have a crisis, it is actually North African countries that are closer to having an emergency situation due to high food prices,&#8221; she said.



But pain is expected to stretch further: Three quarters of nations expected to be at high-risk or extreme risk of civil unrest by the fourth quarter of 2022 were middle-income countries, risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft said last week.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2X276O&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Appeasing inflation pressures through spending will come at a fiscal cost that could spell trouble further down the line, said BNP&#8217;s Carvalho.



&#8220;In emerging markets, fiscal sins are forgiven but not forgotten,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Over the last couple of years, everybody felt like they have a blank cheque &#8230; in part because rates were so low. Now that interest rates are rising, it gets a bit trickier.&#8221;



(Reporting by Karin Strohecker; Additional reporting by Jorgelina do Rosario; Editing by David Evans)

the-food market-3147758_1920

Food inflation pain puts emerging markets between rock and hard place

LONDON, May 11 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Rising fuel and food prices look set to stoke an &#8220;inevitable&#8221; rise in civil unrest, with developing middle-income countries such as Brazil or Egypt particularly at risk, a report by a risk consultancy said.



Three quarters of nations expected to be at high-risk or extreme risk of civil unrest by the fourth quarter of 2022 were middle-income countries, as defined by the World Bank, Verisk Maplecroft said in an update to its political risk monitor.



&#8220;Unlike low-income countries, they were rich enough to offer social protection during the pandemic, but now struggle to maintain high social spending that is vital to the living standards of large sections of their populations,&#8221;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.maplecroft.com/insights/analysis/cost-of-living-crisis-inflames-civil-unrest-risks-in-emerging-markets" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the report found</a>.



Argentina, Tunisia, Pakistan and Philippines were also among the countries to watch in the next six months, the authors said, pointing to their high dependency on food and energy imports.



Russia&#8217;s war in Ukraine has accelerated a rise in food prices, which hit an all-time record in February and again in March. Energy prices also rose sharply.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2X12RV&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>O/R



&#8220;With no resolution of the conflict in sight, the global cost of living crisis will continue deep into 2023,&#8221; the report said.



Lebanon, Senegal, Kenya and Bangladesh face similar pressures.



The report pointed to Sri Lanka and Kazakhstan as examples of middle income countries that have already suffered unrest this year. The former saw rising food and fuel prices contribute to escalating tensions, while an attempt to cut fuel subsidies sparked protests in Kazakhstan.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AS0N2VC00E&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Civil unrest could hamper a potential economic recovery but also deter investors focused on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, it said.



&#8220;Some countries risk falling into a vicious cycle, whereby worsening governance and social indicators make them ESG investment pariahs, impeding the inflows needed to improve economic performance and address societal needs.&#8221;



The report found that more than 50% of the almost 200 countries covered by the index have experienced an increase in civil unrest since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.



(Reporting by Jorgelina do Rosario; Editing by Karin Strohecker and Richard Pullin)

RWANDA, KIGALI: A big market in the capital offers everything: food, clothes, kitchen equipment, herbal medicine.

Soaring food, fuel ramp up social unrest risk for emerging markets -report￼

<ul><li>Largest private bank to begin stake sale next week</li></ul>



<ul><li>Government pushing broad privatisation strategy</li></ul>



By Miguel Gomes



LUANDA, May 10 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Next month&#8217;s debut initial public offering (IPO) on Angola&#8217;s BODIVA stock exchange is expected to unlock a wave of new listings, its chief executive said, as the Southern African oil producer forges ahead with a far-reaching privatisation drive.



BODIVA will begin accepting bids next week for 1.945 million shares &#8211; a 10% stake &#8211; being offered by BAI, Angola&#8217;s largest private bank. BAI&#8217;s listing is expected on June 9.



Under President Joao Lourenco, the OPEC member has embarked on an ambitious reform programme to modernise the economy and attract private investment.



The state plans to sell its stakes in firms including upstream oil company ACREP, Caixa de Angola bank, fuel retailer Sonangalp and television and telecommunications provider TVCabo Angola.



&#8220;All these companies revealed, publicly or privately, their ambition to list capital with BODIVA,&#8221; the exchange&#8217;s CEO Walter Pacheco told Reuters. &#8220;I think that the first IPO will be decisive to promote the market.&#8221;



BODIVA was founded in 2014. But with Angola&#8217;s economy largely dominated by state-owned companies &#8211; a legacy of its socialist past &#8211; the exchange has mainly served as a market for government bonds, trading debt of around $2 billion in 2020.



&#8220;The market did not advance earlier because it was necessary for the state to reduce its direct intervention in companies and in the economy,&#8221; Pacheco said.



The 10% of capital offered by BAI represents stakes currently held by state-owned oil and diamond companies Sonangol and Endiama.



Foreign investors will be allowed to purchase shares sold at between 17,200 and 20,640 kwanzas ($42.92 and $51.50) each, a prospectus published on the bank&#8217;s website showed.



The stake sale should raise 33 billion to 35 billion kwanzas ($82-87 million), Pacheco said.



Angola plans to privatise some 62 state assets this year, though the sale of a 30% stake in state oil company Sonangol, seen as the crown jewel of the privatisation push, could take another two years.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N2U43AC&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



&#8220;We know that the restructuring of Sonangol, because of its dimension and relevance for the country, is going to take some time,&#8221; Pacheco said.



BODIVA was prepared to work with Sonangol on privatisation, he said, but the extent of the exchange&#8217;s involvement was not yet clear.



&#8220;We don&#8217;t know if the country and our capital market are ready to negotiate this kind of asset. Maybe Sonangol will spread their capital in different jurisdictions, not only in Angola,&#8221; Pacheco said.



($1 = 400.7700 kwanzas)



(Writing by Joe BavierEditing by Mark Potter)

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BE2FA7DW6VJP3AYQ5S5CUCMQO4

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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/106970721-1636033270223-gettyimages-1232591117-AFP_98Y9XM.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-415885" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/106970721-1636033270223-gettyimages-1232591117-AFP_98Y9XM.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/106970721-1636033270223-gettyimages-1232591117-AFP_98Y9XM-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/106970721-1636033270223-gettyimages-1232591117-AFP_98Y9XM-160x90.jpeg 160w" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>A doctor monitors a Covid-19 patient in the Covid-19 intensive care unit of the community hospital in Germany on April 28, 2021.
RONNY HARTMANN | AFP | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>

106970721-1636033270223-gettyimages-1232591117-AFP_98Y9XM

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Why Diesel Is Driving Up The Cost Of Everything

<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/7289/15950562313_cdefc2f6ba_b.jpg" alt="40th Anniversary of the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front… | Flickr"/><figcaption> Image via: Flickr 40th Anniversary of the Tigrayan People&#8217;s Liberation Front</figcaption></figure>



The United Nations Security Council will privately discuss on Friday a decision by Ethiopia to expel seven senior U.N. officials, diplomats said, as malnutrition rates rise and famine looms in the country&#8217;s war-torn northern region of Tigray.



The United States, Britain, Ireland, Estonia, France and Norway, plan to raise the issue during a closed-door meeting of the 15-member body, but diplomats say any strong action is unlikely as Russia and China have long made clear they believe the conflict is an internal affair for Ethiopia.



The expulsions of the U.N. staff were announced by Ethiopia on Thursday, two days after U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths warned that a &#8220;de-facto&#8221; aid blockade had likely forced hundreds of thousands of people in Tigray into famine.



Ethiopia&#8217;s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to requests for comment on the expulsion of U.N. staff. Ethiopia has previously denied blocking food aid.



&#8220;As a major new military offensive looms, this seems like Ethiopia&#8217;s attempt to test if the international community is prepared to respond with more than words to an unfolding famine,&#8221; a senior Western official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.



War broke out 10 months ago between Ethiopia&#8217;s federal troops and forces loyal to the Tigray People&#8217;s Liberation Front (TPLF), which controls Tigray. Thousands have died and more than two million people have been forced to flee their homes.



The conflict&#8217;s spillover to neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions is fueling a rise displacement and people in need. In June, a U.N. assessment found that 400,000 people in Tigray were in famine-like conditions.



U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was shocked by Ethiopia&#8217;s move to expel U.N. officials and said on Thursday that the world body was engaging the government &#8220;in the expectation that the concerned U.N. staff will be allowed to continue their important work.&#8221;



The United States condemned the expulsions and warned that it would not hesitate to use sanctions against those who obstruct humanitarian efforts.



The United Nations stressed on Friday that it was critical that the aid operation continue in Tigray, where 5.2 million people need help.



Only about 11% of the trucks needed to bring life-saving food have entered Tigray since mid-July, U.N. humanitarian aid spokesman Jens Laerke said on Friday. He also said that 79% of pregnant and lactating women screened in Tigray last week were diagnosed with acute malnutrition.



&#8220;Until now there is no indication that it (Ethiopia&#8217;s decision) stops the operation,&#8221; he told reporters in Geneva.



U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said of the decision to expel U.N. staff: &#8220;The scale, seven people across three agencies, is extremely rare, if not unprecedented.&#8221;

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ANALYSIS- Nigeria squanders oil price bonanza as gasoline subsidies soar

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