African leaders have gathered in Beijing for the belt and road forum for international cooperation.

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African leaders have gathered in Beijing for the belt and road forum for international cooperation.

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•  Africa leaders gather in Beijing for Belt and Road Initiative – Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima, Kenya’s President Ruto, Dennis N’guesso of the Congo, and Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed are some of the African leaders that have arrived in Beijing for the two-day belt and road forum for international cooperation starting today. This marks the 10^th anniversary of the initiative that promotes global integration and trade through the building of ports, roads, and power plants by Chinese companies all over the world. The greatest beneficiaries have been Africa and Latin America. Nigeria is one of the beneficiaries of the BRI, with signature projects that include the Lekki Deep Sea Port that became operational in April 2023 poised to handle 1.2 million containers when it becomes fully operational, the Lagos light rail, the Lagos – Ibadan standard gauge rail services, and the 387 klm Kano – Maradi railways.

•  Nigeria’s central government proposing a N26 Trillion budget for 2024 – The federal government of Nigeria, after cabinet meeting yesterday says it will propose an expenditure of N26 trillion (US $37 billion) to the National Assembly for 2024. The estimates are based on an oil price of US $74 per barrel, and an exchange rate of N700 to the US $. Oil output is expected to average 1.72 million barrels per day, growth at 3.76% and inflation is expected to fall to 21%. The budget estimate is 23% greater than that of 2023 but considerably lower in US $ terms. The government has not provided the breakdown of the estimates, but it says the projections are based on the assumptions of key economic shifts in the new year, and it has complied with the medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) and fiscal strategy paper (FSP). On the face of it, the metrics look very optimistic, especially oil output and growth. Meanwhile, inflation for September rose to 26.72%, up from 25.8% in August, the highest level of inflation in two decades, an affirmation of Nigeria’s worst cost of living crisis in more than two decades.

•  Liberia and the world waits – Six days after election in the 5 million populated West African country, the Liberian president George Weah and the leading opposition contender Joseph Boakai are nearly tied at 43.8% and 43.54%, respectively on results announced so far. The electoral commission have 15 days after election to conclude their results. If no candidate reaches a 50% threshold, there will have to be a rerun, a repeat of the same scenario in 2017. The rerun will hold November 7. The 78-year-old Boakai of the Unity Party was Vice President to former president Ellen Sirleaf while 57 year old George Weah, once one of the world’s best footballer of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC). Liberia has been battling rising food and fuel prices while corruption is not abating. The last 20 years has seen major economic shocks starting with the civil war that ended in 2003, the Ebola epidemic of 2014 – 2016, Covid – 19 pandemic in 2020 – 2021 and now the ramifications of the Russia / Ukraine war.

•  England stands in the way of South Africa for Rugby World Cup final – After beating the host France to reach the semifinal of the 2023 Rugby World Cup, South Africa will have to beat another European country to reach the final of the competition. South Africa will play England on Saturday. South Africa have won three Rugby World Cup finals in 1995 on home soil, 2007 in France and 2019 in Japan and won in every world cup final they played. England beat Fiji to reach semifinal. They were champions in 2003 but were beating by South Africa in 2007 and 2019 finals. The semifinal is a repeat of the 2019 final. England has lost four out of five times to the Springboks in Rugby World Cup.

Global

• Two weeks after, US still has no Speaker – Two weeks after Kevin McCarthy was removed as Speaker of the House of Representatives in the US, the Republicans have not been able to reach an agreement / consensus on who becomes the next Speaker. The latest candidate is House Republican Jim Jordan, the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee who will need 217 votes to become speaker. The House is expected to vote later today. While without a substantive Speaker, legislative business in the House has been paralysed for two weeks. Outstanding issues of legislation include the funding the government to avoid a shut down in about four weeks and any potential aid to Israel following the attack on the country.

• Donald Tusk set to be Poland’s next leader – Donald Tusk, former European council president and Polish opposition leader is on course to be next Polish leader despite coming second in the elections held on Sunday. He is the leader of the Civic Coalition vying to wrestle power from the ruling conservative nationalist party. Unsurprisingly, he ran on the commitment to restoring ties with Europe that has faltered lately on the back of human rights and rule of law issues. The Sunday election was the first major election since 1989 election that removed communist authorities. It is still a long way, though. The ruling conservative will be given the first opportunity to form a government but the expected result of the election shows no pathway to effectively and successfully doing that.

•  Marked shifts to humanitarian concerns in Israel’s fight against Hamas – Over a week now that Israel started retaliation strikes in Gaza and preparing a ground invasion of the city, global concerns have started to shift towards the growing and excruciating humanitarian crisis in the strip. It is estimated that about 500,000 people have been internally displaced, including women, children, and the elderly. The blockage of water, food, and fuel remain. There is also no movement on securing the release of the hostages held by Hamas. The situation in the Gaza – Egypt border remain unclear following uncertainties about the ceasefire preconditions for aid to come in. Meanwhile, clean water, food, fuel, and medical supplies are short in Gaza. President Joe Biden of the US will visit Israel on Wednesday. So far, more than 1400 and 2800 people have been killed in Israel and Palestine, respectively.