Nigeria’s TETFUND delivers N683 billion (US $550 million) grant after increase in education tax

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Africa Headlines

Nigeria’s TETFUND delivers N683 billion (US $550 million) grant after increase in education tax – Nigeria’s tertiary education tax fund (TETFUND) is providing grant of about N687 billion to Nigerian universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education in its latest round of funding for 2024.  The amount is more than double the N302 billion released last year, following the increase in education tax from 2.5% to 3% in the 2023 Finance bill signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari. Universities will receive N1.9 billion, while polytechnics and colleges of education will receive N1.1 billion and N1.3 billion, respectively. Until 2021, the education tax was 2% of company’s income tax. 

The World Economic Forum opens today, with Kenya’s Ruto and Nigeria’s Shettima amongst Africa’s representatives – The annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos begins today in Davos, a town in Switzerland that receives the high and mighty ion government, business, and media every year. This year, President William Ruto of Kenya and Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima will lead the Africa delegation. The annual will run for one week and the theme for 2024 is “Rebuilding Trust”. The Forum seeks to “build trust” into the future, within societies, and among nations. The Forum is held in 2024 amidst ongoing geopolitical tensions around the Russia / Ukraine war, the Isreal / Palestinin crisis, tightened financial conditions, global inflationary pressures, and China’s weak demand.

Dangote Refinery begins production – The Dangote Refinery, the largest single train refinery in the world, with capacity to refine 650,000 barrels of crude oil, started production last weekend. The refinery has started with diesel and aviation fuel production, according to reports. The Dangote refinery is critical to Nigeria’s possibility of stopping the importation of fuel, conserving foreign exchange, and stabilising prices. The plant was commissioned in the twilight of President Buhari’s administration, but it has taken about 8 months after before production commences.

Global Headlines

The US 2024 election season starts today in Iowa – The Iowa caucus, the first place to start the US election season will hold later today. The focus is on the Republican primary as the Democrats will field President Biden for reelection in November general elections. Weekend, Republican candidates, including Nikki Haley, . made cases for their capabilities to defeat President Biden and return the conservatives to the White House. Despite increasingly favourable showing, endorsements, and frantic campaigns by his opponents, including Nikki Haley, former South Carolina Governor, Ron Desantis, Florida State Governor, and Vivek Ramaswamy, Donald Trump, former US president remains the dominant candidate. Some latest polls gives him as much as 69% amongst republicans.

100 days of war in Gaza – It is now 100 days that the Israeli war against Hamas in Gaza started. Last weekend marked 100 days since Hamas attacked Israel in a most horrific fashion and triggered a most devastating response against Hamas and Gaza by the Israelis. While Israelis gathered to mark 100 days of the October 7^th incursion into Israel and the 1200 people killed and the 130 still in captivity in Gaza, the Palestinians have experienced the most horrific bombing campaign in modern times. The unprecedented bombing campaign by Israel over Gaza is to destroy the capabilities of Hamas but has left over 25,000 people killed and destroyed the city. It is estimated that 85% of the people are displaced with the situations described by different international agencies as “intolerable and untenable”, and by the US as civilian casualties as “far too high”. 

Microsoft becomes the most valuable public company, surpassing Apple – After Friday trading and ahead of today’s trading on the US Nasdaq exchange, Microsoft overtook Apple to become the most valuable public company in the world with a valuation of US $2.89 trillion, compared to Apple’s valuation of US $2.87 trillion. Microsoft shares were up by 3% on Friday. This valuation is more than double the entire valuation of all Africa exchanges. Microsoft shares is up by more than US $1 trillion in the last one year on the back of generative artificial intelligence (AI). While this is the first time that Microsoft shares will leap above Apple in two years, analysts believe it may be more enduring this time. Microsoft has invested on generative AI heavily and it has started to show in its numbers while Apple currently has no product base for any upward momentum.

China’s exports fell for the first time in 7 years – China, the largest exporting nation had a fall in its exports for the first time in 7 years, following complex supply chain issues, slow global demand, protectionism, and unilateralism. The country’s exports fell by 4.6% to record US $3.3 trillion in 2023. The last time there was a decline was in 2016. Imports into China also fell by 5.5% to record US $2.5 trillion compared to 2022 figures. Combined with external demand, China is also facing deflation at home. Weak demand at home is proving very difficult to overcome by policy makers in the second largest economy in the world. In December 2023. Inflation fell year on year (y/y) for the third month, the largest run of decline since 2009. The outlook for 2024 is not better.