Politics and society

Zimbabwe’s central bank has lifted the suspension on bank lending services that was meant to stop the slide of the local currency, the BBC reported. Authorities have gradually walked back from the proposal. Inflation has surged to over 96% in the country, as the government blames currency speculators who it …

Uganda’s Health Minister, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng authorized private hospitals to charge 20,000 shillings (€6) to people wishing to be vaccinated against Covid-19 as an overhead for vaccines. While announcing collaboration with private health facilities in Kampala, Dr Aceng said the government is now allowing all private facilities to start …

Zimbabwean government on Saturday ordered banks to stop lending with immediate effect in a move Harare said was designed to stop speculation against the Zimbabwean dollar and was part of a raft of measures to arrest its rapid devaluation on the black market, Reuters reported. The southern African country reintroduced …

South Africa’s Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, has called for a scrap metal export ban amid vandalism of public infrastructure. According to the Minister, this measure would ensure that there would be no external market for the stolen metal to be sold as scrap metal. “There is absolutely no …

At least 600,000 children in Ethiopia are out of school, the result of a severe drought that is forcing many families to move to other parts of the country. According to Gianfranco Rotigliano, the UNICEF representative in the country, these children no longer go to school because teachers have also …

Senegalese President Macky Sall announced the regulation of social networks in the country, calling them “a real cancer of modern societies”. “No organised society can accept what is happening here today. We are going to put an end to it, one way or another,” local media quoted him as saying. …

Authorities in the Chinese city of Beijing have closed most schools following the detection of new cases of covid-19 which continues to wreak havoc in the country. After Shanghai, Beijing, the Chinese capital, which is on high alert against the “Omicron” variant. Since the beginning of the week, 22 million …

In an interview with the BBC, Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo justified the e-levy bill passed by parliament by saying it was aimed at taxing the industry and not the poor. Parliament in Ghana on March 29, 2022, approved the e-levy bill, after the minority staged a walkout. President Akufo-Addo said …

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced the lifting of COVID restrictions, imposed since the beginning of the pandemic. In a televised address, the president said the national state of disaster would end at midnight on Monday. “Masks will still be required indoors for another month,” he said. He said …

Several towns in Kenya are suffering from fuel shortages and some petrol stations in the capital, Nairobi, are turning away motorists after running out of fuel, local media reported. Reports say the crisis may have been triggered by reduced imports by big oil marketing companies – who are wary that …