Nigerians have been hit by a double whammy of chronic fuel shortages and a hike in prices by the state-owned oil company.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which imports the country’s fuel and distributes it to private sellers, blamed its debts and rising global prices for its difficulty in getting fuel.

Many people have been left stranded with long queues at petrol stations nationwide. Commuters in Lagos have been lining up at bus stations, but there very few buses operating.

Others told the BBC they have been forced to trek long distances as public transport prices have doubled along some routes.

On Tuesday, the NNPC said it was putting up the petrol price from 617 naira ($0.40, £0.30) to 897 naira a litre.

Its petrol stations have the cheapest fuel on sale in the country – but at the vast majority of other private garages the pump price is much higher.

When the NNPC puts up the price, so do private sellers and in some states, like Oyo, Kano and Kaduna, petrol is now selling for as much as 1,200 naira a litre.

Many garages around the country have shut because they have run out of fuel, others have closed to adjust their prices.

In the capital, Abuja, most are open but all have long queues as desperate drivers wait their turn – some slept in their cars overnight.

Fuel stations are not rationing supply, so there is a danger their wait will be futile.

A motorcycle rider in Kano, the main trading hub of northern Nigeria, said it was frustrating: “Most of the fuel stations here in Kano are closed because they want to adjust their pumps to the new price.

“I was able to get fuel at 950 naira at a particular station, but other places have already started selling at 1,200 per litre,” Aminu Danyaro told the BBC.

Black-market traders, who buy fuel from petrol stations and sell it by the roadside from jerrycans at inflated prices, are doing a brisk trade in Kano, where there is significantly less traffic than usual.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) – the country’s main trade union body – says it feels “betrayed”, explaining that the reason it accepted the new minimum monthly wage of 70,000 naira ($44, £34) in July was because there was an agreement with the government that petrol price would not be increased.

When President Bola Tinubu came to power last year, he shocked Nigerians on his first day by removing a subsidy that kept the price of fuel low.

This – amongst other policies – has led to the worst economic crisis in a generation and cost-of-living protests, dubbed “10 days of rage”, were held countrywide last month.

Nigerians are now pinning their hopes on the new privately owned Dangote Petroleum Refinery, which has been built by one of Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote.

On Monday, it was announced with great fanfare that the refinery had just started producing petrol – a milestone in Nigeria which despite being Africa’s largest producer of crude oil imports all its refined fuel.

But it is not clear how long Nigerians will have to wait to see ready availability of petrol or a drop in prices.

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L’article Gridlock in Nigeria amid fuel shortages and price hikes est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

UK and other non-EU investors will lose voting rights when new Brexit trading rules come into force on 1 January.

By law, airlines operating flights in the EU must be owned by citizens of the EU or other affiliated countries.

Ryanair said it was banning its UK shareholders from attending or taking part in its general meetings.

Wizz Air said that if it did not take action, about 80% of its shares would be held by non-EU nationals. It said about 60% of its shareholder base would be sent restricted share notices.

Ryanair said in a statement to the London stock exchange: “These resolutions will remain in place until the board of the company determines that the ownership and control of the company is no longer such that there is any risk to the airline licences.”

The airline said it will not require British citizens to sell their shares, but will ban them from showing up to, speaking at or voting at shareholder meetings.

Another airline, easyJet, has already said it will restrict voting rights for some shareholders to ensure EU citizens own 50% of the company.

A spokesperson for Airlines UK, the trade body for UK-registered airlines, said it was still “working through some of the wider detail” of the Brexit deal.

However, the spokesperson added: “The headline position is that all air travel between the UK and EU – which represents the vast majority of flying by UK carriers – is safeguarded from 1 January, which is good news for holidaymakers, our inbound tourism industry and UK business.”

World Opinions News – bbc.com

L’article Ryanair and Wizz Air deny votes to UK investors after EU exit est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

It said Amazon had used data on third-party sellers that use its marketplace to boost sales of its own-label goods.

The Commission also launched a fresh probe into the possible preferential treatment of sellers that use the tech giant’s logistics services.

Amazon rejected the charges, saying no firm “cared more” for small businesses.

It faces a potential fine as high as 10% of its global turnover if it is found guilty of breaching competition law – about £15bn ($19bn).

In a statement, the EU’s Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said it was vital that platforms with “market power” did not “distort competition”.

“Data on the activity of third party sellers should not be used to the benefit of Amazon when it acts as a competitor to these sellers,” she added.

“With e-commerce booming, and Amazon being the leading e-commerce platform, a fair and undistorted access to consumers online is important for all sellers.”

The European Commission has been investigating Amazon since July last year, following complaints from traders.

It says the tech giant accesses sensitive data from small and medium-sized companies that use its platform, such as sales figures, page visits or shipping information.

It then uses this to help with sales of its own-label products, or in choosing suppliers, the Commission says.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Ms Vestager said: “We do not take issue with the success of Amazon or its size.”

Margrethe Vestager is the European Union’s competition commissioner

In a statement Amazon insisted that – far from being anti-competitive – its private-label products were good for customers and offered more choice.

“Amazon represents less than 1% of the global retail market, and there are larger retailers in every country in which we operate,” it said.

“No company cares more about small businesses or has done more to support them over the past two decades than Amazon.”

It also pointed out that there are more than 150,000 European businesses selling through its online marketplace.

The charges come as the coronavirus crisis has driven huge sales for the retailer, as people increasingly turn to online shopping.

In August, boss Jeff Bezos became the richest man in the world with a fortune of more than $200bn after the firm’s share price rocketed in the early months of the pandemic.

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L’article Amazon charged with abusing EU competition rules est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

The worry is that citizens are putting off parenthood as they struggle with financial stress and job layoffs.

Details of the amount that could be paid have yet to be released. It is in addition to several hefty baby bonuses offered by the government.

Singapore has one of the lowest birth rates in the world, which it has struggled to boost for decades.

It is in stark contrast to some of its neighbours such as Indonesia and the Philippines, which are facing the prospect of a massive spike in pregnancies from their coronavirus lockdowns.

“We have received feedback that Covid-19 has caused some aspiring parents to postpone their parenthood plans,” Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said on Monday.

Mr Heng said more details about amounts and how they will be paid would be announced at a later date.

Singapore’s current baby bonus system provides eligible parents up to S$10,000 ($7,330, £5,644) in benefits.

Singapore’s fertility rate touched an eight-year low in 2018, according to government data, at a rate of 1.14 births per woman.

Many Asian countries face a similar issue of falling fertility rates, which could worsen during the pandemic downturn.

Earlier this year, China’s birth rate fell to its lowest since the formation of the People’s Republic of China 70 years ago. This came despite the easing of the much criticised one-child policy.

Baby boom

But some of Singapore’s neighbours face the opposite problem.

In the Philippines, unintended pregnancies are forecast to spike by almost half to 2.6 million if Covid 19-induced movement restrictions remain until year-end, according to the United Nations Population Fund.

“These numbers are an epidemic in itself,” Aimee Santos, a spokesperson for UN agency in the Philippines, said last month.

The Philippines has the second-highest population in South East Asia at 108.4 million. It has one of the region’s worst virus outbreaks with more than 307,000 infections.

“These issues of women and children have largely remained invisible during the pandemic. It’s time to put them front and centre,” Senator Risa Hontiveros, head of the chamber’s committee on women, said last month.

She has backed calls for more female officials in the nation’s task force against the coronavirus outbreak.

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L’article Singapore offers ‘pandemic baby bonus’ to boost births est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.