The African Union has approved a USD$681.5 million budget for 2019 during its extraordinary summit in Addis Ababa, which began Wednesday. The details include $273.3 million for financing the peacekeeping budget, with another $249.8 million to the AU program budget and $158.5 million for the operational budget. There are now…
A budget crisis in Namibia has forced the suspension of all international travel for ministers and elected officials through the end of February. It’s the latest announcement from President Hage Geingob as the southwestern African nation tightens up on government spending. “This directive is specifically in the interest of curtailing…
Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed has said the government will crack down on anti-austerity protesters after their peaceful marches spiraled into violence in a number of the North African nation’s cities. “We are in a democracy, and those who want to protest can do it during the day, not at…
Donald Yamamoto, the acting assistant secretary for African affairs at the United States Department of State, testified before a U.S. congressional committee on Wednesday in defense of a USD$5.2 billion foreign assistance budget request for FY2018. Yamamoto, in a position that President Donald Trump’s administration has yet to formally fill,…
American officials on Tuesday released a much-awaited $37.6 billion combined budget request for the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), one that cuts more than $17 billion from the “leaner” government’s diplomatic and foreign aid programs. “This budget request supports the President’s ‘America First’ vision…
United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday that African nations will continue to receive attention and support from the U.S., particularly in the fight against terrorism. “The continent of Africa is so important,” Tillerson said in remarks to state department employees. “From a national security view, we cannot…
Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, says Africa faces a triangle of disaster because of youth unemployment, poverty, and environmental and climate impacts. “Everywhere you find this triangle of disaster you always find terrorists,” Adesina said in a Financial Times interview published Monday. The article focused on how…
Tunisian lawyers plan a general strike in all courts on Wednesday to protest new tax laws they say unfairly target their profession, as part of the wider 2017 austerity measures planned by the Tunisian government. A statement issued Tuesday by Ameur Mehrezi, head of the National Bar Association of Tunisia, said the…
Algerian teachers and medical workers are threatening strikes as the country’s economic woes linger amid low oil prices, and the government proposes tax hikes and salary freezes to stretch the budget. The three-year economic plan released last month also considers reduced food subsidies, with increases in bread and milk prices. Algerian…
On December 22 2015, the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari presented his inaugural N6.08 trillion budget proposal to the joint session of the Nigerian National Assembly. For an administration which ascended to presidency on the change mantra, Nigerians were not surprised at the modestly reflationary budget geared towards the spluttering domestic…
Erukilede Julius is a legal practitioner, entrepreneur and energy professional.