Five things to know to start your Tuesday

September 6, 2022 Mary

Nothing prevents Obi from receiving campaign donations from diaspora – Ananaba

Prof. Paul Chibuke Ananaba (SAN) has reacted to the controversy surrounding political parties receiving funds from the diaspora. He claimed that based on the provision of the law, nothing prevents a political party candidate, in this case, Peter Obi, from receiving donations from the diaspora.

He made this clarification on Monday on Arise TV based on a provision in a section of the law that prevents political parties from receiving donations from the diaspora.

Since the Labour Party and Peter Obi, its presidential candidate, have been making inroads outside the shores of the country, the party has been gathering support from its diaspora population who have shown readiness to donate to its course to claim the seat of power come 2023.

“Maybe because Peter Obi is in the Labour Party, that is why a lot of attention is being paid to it,” he said, reacting to information that the issue of donations from abroad became relevant because of the perceived threat of Peter Obi to the status quo.

“Our laws say nothing about the candidate,” he continued, a reassuring remark that appeared to help Obi’s candidacy. “If you look at section 152 of the electoral act, it does not define a political party to include its candidate in an election.”

“Now if you also look at the definition of a candidate, the candidate does not include a political party, and that is why in election petitions… the political party and the candidate are sued separately,” he noted.

He said the candidate is not caught up in this analysis he has made. He added that the provision in the constitution about receiving donations from the diaspora population does not preclude Obi from having funds but only the political party.

“And if a political party raises funds, it must within twenty-one days report back to INEC and turn the funds over to INEC,” he explained.

“It cannot retain the funds for more than twenty-one days, so I don’t think that the Labour Party has looked at that. If they have looked at that, they should practically warn themselves.” He advised

BPE to raise panel to help rescue dying govt-owned companies

The Federal Government said that it has commissioned a technical working committee to develop, review, and implement a roadmap aimed at reviving most ailing companies in Nigeria.

The Federal Government made this revelation on Monday through Alex Okoh, the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises. Okoh said that a technical working committee which will be classified into groups has been instituted and that they will carry out extensive reports on the housing, mines and steel, oil palm, and automobile sectors of the economy.

The DG said that the government’s objective is in line with the BPE objective of making it easy for companies to do business in the country, an objective which it sees as a key part of the Federal Government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.

In an event organised to drive this very important objective, Okoh noted that the FG objective was a “culmination of the efforts by various stakeholders which started in 2018 to revive non-performing privatised enterprises across the country”.

According to Okoh, the BPE discovered that 16 percent of companies were not performing as a result, which culminated in a stakeholders meeting of the dying enterprises in July 2018.

The DG believes that things will take a positive turn from now as all relevant government bodies will be focused on reviving these ailing industries, especially as the number of failed businesses continues to increase.

MTN cuts debt with early settlement of $300mn in euro bonds

In a statement made available on Monday, the South African telecommunication giant, with an asset worth more than $10 billion, has said that it has agreed to reduce its debt holding through an early settlement of $300 million in euro bonds with a 2024 maturity date.

The company said that this settlement is a part of efforts to reduce its non-rand debt faster.

“This brings MTN’s dollar-denominated debt down to 35% of total holding company debt on a H1 2022 pro forma basis,” the company said.

Tsholofelo Molefe, MTN Group finance chief, said the settlement would be funded from available cash balances.

CVS to buy Signify Health in $8 bn deal

In a deal that seems to be one of the biggest buyout deals in the healthcare sector, CVS Health Corp on Monday agreed to buy home healthcare services company Signify Health for about $8 billion in cash.

Experts regard this deal as not only one of the largest in the world but a move that will enable one of the largest U.S. healthcare companies to provide further care management to patients in their homes.

According to Reuters, healthcare companies like CVS have been expanding beyond managing health and pharmacy benefits with acquisitions of doctors’ groups and surgical centres in recent years.

“We’ve been very clear about what we were looking for in expanding our health services, either be it primary care, provider enablement or in the home, and Signify Health clearly checks off two boxes: into the home and provider enablement,” Karen Lynch, CVS CEO, said in an interview.

Signify Health brings CVS, which runs pharmacies, pharmacy benefits, and the Aetna insurance plans, a network of 10,000 clinicians who provide home-based assessments of patient health and social needs.

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2023 and said that it expects the acquisition to be “meaningfully” accretive to earnings.

CVS is expected to pay $30.50 per share for the company, or about $7.6 billion in equity as well as about $400 million in equity appreciation rights.

Liz Truss vows tax cuts after winning vote to be next British prime minister

Cutting taxes and implementing policies to deal with the energy and cost of living crisis stand out as focus areas for Liz Truss, the new Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Truss, who defeated former finance minister Rishi Sunak to become Conservative Party leader on Monday, promised to re-energize the economy.

“I will deliver a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy,” Truss said after the result was announced. “I will deliver on the energy crisis, dealing with people’s energy bills, but also dealing with the long-term issues we have on energy supply.”

Truss takes over as the country faces a crunch in household finances, industrial unrest, a recession, and war in Europe, where Britain has been a leading backer of Ukraine.

Most international media organisations believe that she has ruled out another national election before 2024, when she promised to deliver a great victory for her party.