Five things to know to start your Monday – Businessday

2 dead, 23 rescued as 3-storey building collapses in Lagos

The National Emergency Management Agency has confirmed the recovery of two dead bodies and rescue of 23 persons from Ebute Metta three-storey building collapse.

The Zonal Coordinator Southwest, NEMA, Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos.

Farinloye said the recovered bodies were those of a mother and her child, while the rescued persons included seven children and 16 adults.

Nine of those rescued alive have been treated and discharged.

They returned to the scene, but have been taken away for proper custody while psycho-social and post trauma counselling are being arranged for them by the Nigerian Red Cross, Farinloye said.

NAN reports that a three-Storey building collapsed at 24 Ibadan Str, Herbert Macaulay Way, Onyigbo on Sunday at about 10.56p.m.

However, rescue operations were still ongoing at the site.

UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres has highlighted the impact of the Ukraine war on Africa, saying the crisis is aggravating a triple food, energy and financial crisis across the continent.

The UN correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Guterres began a Ramadan solidarity visit to three West African countries, Nigeria, Senegal and Niger on Saturday.

He is expected to be in Nigeria on Tuesday.

While in Dakar, the capital of Senegal on his first visit to the continent, Guterres said: when discussing the socio-economic situation, it is impossible not to mention the war in Ukraine and its impact on Africa.

The UN chief made the remarks after meeting President Macky Sall of Senegal, who said that the war in Ukraine was a human tragedy which could have a dramatic impact on economies, in particular, those of developing countries.

The conflict in Ukraine is driving up global food and fuel prices; senior UN officials are concerned that rising costs will push more people into hunger.

It could also lead to political instability and social unrest in some parts of Africa, where food prices have increased by a third since 2021.

Before the Russian invasion began in February, the combination of climate change, conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic was already impacting the socio-economic situation in Africa, especially in the Sahel region which includes Senegal.

Guterres and Sall had toured a new hi-tech vaccine production facility, currently being built by the Institut Pasteur in Dakar.

When completed, it will be able to produce a range of vaccines, including Pfizer-BioNTech, one of the most widely used immunisations against COVID-19.

It will also be able to manufacture experimental vaccines against malaria and tuberculosis.

At the end of World Immunisation Week, Guterres said it was necessary to build true vaccine equity across the world adding that it was unacceptable that close to 80 per cent of Africans were not vaccinated against COVID-19; a situation he called a moral failure.

Sall had called for pharmaceutical sovereignty by supporting the emergence of an African pharmaceutical industry capable of meeting basic needs and coping with pandemics.

As part of the COVID-19 recovery plan, Senegal is strengthening its drugs manufacturing sector.

Its expected that the vaccination facility will produce at least 50 per cent of the countrys needs.

Guterres added that the worlds wealthiest countries and pharmaceutical companies should accelerate the donation of vaccines and invest in local production, of the type seen at Institut Pasteur facility.

Addressing reporters in Dakar, Guterres said we must ensure a steady flow of food and energy in open markets, removing all unnecessary export restrictions.

He added that countries must resist the temptation to hoard and instead release strategic stocks of energy.

The UN estimates that a quarter of a billion people could be pushed into extreme poverty in 2022, caused by the consequences of the conflict in Ukraine.

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As a way to provide relief against rising food prices and other commodities, the government of Kenya has raised workers minimum wages by 12 percent.

President Uhuru Kenyatta said this in his recent national broadcast to mark International Labour Day, promising that the increase in the minimum wages of workers by 12 percent would be effective. A raise he believes will be effective immediately and would help address the current pressure that the rise in food prices is having on workers incomes.

There is a compelling case to review the minimum wages so as to cushion our workers against further erosion of their purchasing power, while also guaranteeing the competitiveness of our economy, he said.

With most African countries struggling to cope with rising food and fuel prices, the government saw a need to help cushion the impact of rising inflation on the income of ordinary Kenyans. Inflation in Kenya is expected to rise much higher following the impact the Ukraine-Russia war is having on the global economy.

The government of Zimbabwe has announced that it will soon introduce a series of measures to stop the rapid devaluation of the local currency.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa this promise recently in a recent edition of the state-run Sunday Mail.

De-dollarization will be managed carefully to avert disruptions, the president said. This government is determined to continue with a tight fiscal policy to maintain the current surplus.

The countrys local currency currently trades at an official rate of Z$159.34 to the U.S. dollar. However, the gap widens at the parallel market where it exchanges for as much as Z$400 to the US dollar.

Mnangagwa said that his team of skilled professionals were working hard to analyse and review the impact of the volatility of the local currency following last weeks exchange rate turbulence.

Economies which earn far less than us by way of exports; import more than us; have larger a gross domestic product, requiring more imports; and with bigger populations are enjoying a more stable currency than we do, he said.

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Five things to know to start your Monday - Businessday