Video - Nigeria's Buhari says border closure failed to restrict illegal weapons

Last month, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari surprised many when he said an 18-month border closure to restrict illegal weapons had failed. The land border had been shut since 2019 - but Buhari said illicit arms have continued to flow into the country - raising numerous conflicts. Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris reports from Seme - a town on the border between Nigeria and Benin.

3 Nigerians selected for Netflix Development Lab to engender more local African content

 Three Nigerians have been selected among the twelve (12) African candidates chosen to participate in the 3-month Netflix Episodic Lab (EPL) and Development Executive Traineeship (DET) launched by the Realness Institute.

2 Nigerians were selected to participate in the Episodic Lab where they will develop their story concepts alongside expert story consultants and creative producers. They are Ayoade Adeyanju with Agent 419 and Kehinde Joseph with Osupa.

Other participants include Andile Ngcizela with Drummies (South Africa); Dominique Jossie with Fafi (South Africa); Kudakwashe Maradzika with Bad Influencer (Zimbabwe/South Africa) and Mary Waireri with Sheitain (Kenya/United Kingdom).

Netflix’s Episodic Lab and Development Executive Traineeship are part of efforts by the global streaming giant and the Realness Institute to produce more original local content from creative writers in Africa.

For the DET, Ololade Okedare is the only Nigerian selected to participate in the program where they will accompany the incubation of the six potential Netflix African Original Series.

Anneke Villet, Antionette Engel and Thandeka Zwane (South Africa), Damaris Irungu Ochieng’ (Kenya) and Lara Sousa (Mozambique) make up the other five DET participants.

The Episodic Lab will take place remotely till 5 September 2021, where selected participants will receive about $2,000 monthly stipend so that they can focus entirely on their development. At the end of the lab, each writer will have an opportunity to pitch their incubated concept to Netflix to have their series further developed for production.

Meet the Nigerian writers taking part in the Netflix Episodic Lab.

Ayoade Adeyanju

Ayoade has aggregated over 10 years of career experience creating content spanning various local and international TV shows, including MNet’s Tinsel and EbonyLife’s Ojo’s in ‘d House. He created African Magic’s Hustle and was the story editor for African Magic’s Battleground. He developed content for the critically acclaimed, award-winning show, MTV Shuga.

Kehinde Joseph

Kehinde Joseph has worked for 9 years as a radio presenter on Eko FM in Lagos. He’s the sole Nollywood screenwriter with 3 movies that’s grossed over 100 million at the box office.

By Gbemileke Babatunde

Technext

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MTN warns of service disruption in Nigeria due to rising insecurity

ABUJA, June 15 (Reuters) - MTN's (MTNN.LG) service in Nigeria could be disrupted as a result of rising insecurity in different parts of the country, the local unit of South Africa's telecoms group (MTNJ.J) said on Tuesday.

MTN Nigeria (MTNN.LG) is the first company to acknowledge a possible disruption to its services due to insecurity in Africa's most populous nation.

Nigeria faces increased insecurity across the country -- ranging from mass abductions at schools, kidnappings for ransom, armed conflict between herdsmen and farmers, armed robberies and various insurgencies -- a drag on growth and job creation.

"Sadly, we must inform you that with the rising insecurity in different parts of Nigeria, service delivery to your organization may be impacted in the coming days," MTN wrote in a message to customers seen by Reuters.

"This means that in some cases, our technical support team may not be able to get to your site and achieve optimum turnaround time in fault management as quickly as possible."

Nigeria is MTN's most lucrative market out of the 22 countries the company operates in across Africa, Asia and the Middle East but it is also one of the most problematic.

MTN runs Nigeria's largest mobile phone network which generates around a third of the company's revenue.

Growth in Nigeria resumed in the fourth quarter after a COVID-19 induced recession but it lags the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, with food inflation, heightened insecurity and stalled reforms slowing the economy and increasing poverty, the World Bank said.

By Chijioke Ohuocha

Reuters

Nigerian growth lags Africa, poverty rising, says World Bank

ABUJA, June 15 (Reuters) - Nigerian economic growth has resumed after the COVID shock but is lagging the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, with food inflation, heightened insecurity and stalled reforms slowing growth and increasing poverty, the World Bank said on Tuesday.

Presenting its six-monthly update on development in Africa's most populous country, the organisation gave a GDP growth forecast for Nigeria of 1.9% in 2021 and 2.1% in 2022, compared with 3.4% this year and 4.0% next year for sub-Saharan Africa.

Lead economist for Nigeria Marco Hernandez said inflation, especially in food prices, was exacerbating poverty and food insecurity. Food accounted for almost 70% of Nigeria's total increase in inflation over the past year.

He said the COVID-induced crisis was expected to push over 11 million Nigerians into poverty by 2022, taking the total number of people classified as poor in the country to over 100 million. The total population is estimated at 200 million.

The World Bank expects the Nigerian inflation rate in 2021 to be 16.5%. The forecast for sub-Saharan Africa, excluding Nigeria, is 5.9%.

Hernandez said increased insecurity across the nation -- ranging from mass abductions at schools, kidnappings for ransom, armed conflict between herdsmen and farmers, armed robberies and various insurgencies -- was a drag on growth and job creation.

He said it was critical for the government to maintain reform momentum, but that some important reforms had stalled.

He cited petrol subsidies, which have recently returned after the government had established a market-based pricing mechanism, and electricity tariff reform, an area where planned adjustments to bring prices in line with costs have been paused.

Hernandez said Nigeria had the largest number of people without access to electricity in the world, and that electricity subsidies benefited mainly richer households. Only 22% of the poorest households have access to electricity, while 82% of the richest are able to access power.

Reuters

Surging inflation in Nigeria fuels crime wave, says World Bank

Surging inflation is undermining the recovery of Africa’s biggest economy, pushing 7 million Nigerians into poverty and encouraging criminality as rising prices deplete already meager incomes, according to the World Bank.

In its Nigeria Development Update report, the Washington-based lender projects economic growth of 1.8% this year, compared with a previous estimate of 1.2%. But it warned that without deep reforms, the economy will continue to grow slower than the pace of population expansion of about 2.6% a year.

That, coupled with rising unemployment and inflation, is leading more Nigerians into criminal enterprises to make up for lost earnings in the continent’s top oil producer. A surge in insecurity over the past two years has further slowed economic activity and left more people unemployed, fueling a vicious cycle of violence and criminality, the lender said.

“While you have many people going into the informal sector and hustling, criminal activity has become one of the options to get by,” the World Bank’s country director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, said in an interview. “In the context of rising inflation, that means a further deterioration of the purchasing power and livelihood of many Nigerians.”

Chaudhuri reiterated that the government must develop a sustainable economic-recovery plan before the bank can release a $1.5 billion loan initially discussed more than a year ago.

While inflation eased slightly for the second straight month to 17.9% in May, it remains at near four-year highs with food-price growth at more than 20% year-on-year. The World Bank sees inflation at an average of 16.5% this year and remaining above the 9% top of the target band until at least 2023.
 

Little Credibility

The World Bank challenged the central bank’s position that high inflation stems primarily from supply constraints, citing tight exchange-rate controls and expansive monetary policy as key drivers of price growth.

“Policy decisions related to exchange rate, trade and monetary and fiscal factors are driving inflation, especially during 2021, more so than exogenous factors related to conflict and weather shocks,” said Marco Hernandez, the World Bank’s chief economist for the country.

The lack of a credible monetary anchor is keeping inflation elevated, with the central bank trying to achieve too many goals, such as controlling price increases, promoting economic growth and keeping a stable exchange rate, according to the report.

Although the central bank took the right step in unifying the official exchange rate with one used by investors and exporters, the exchange rate is not yet reflective of market forces, the World Bank said.

The central bank should aim for greater flexibility by reestablishing a dollar interbank market, effectively allowing banks to trade currency on their own behalf to increase liquidity and move toward a single rate, the bank said.

By Alonso Soto

Al Jazeera