Musings From Abroad

US Treasury Secretary, Yellen vows support for Morocco’s earthquake recovery

Published

7 months ago

October 10, 2023

Following its decision to host the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meeting, the United States Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen on Tuesday said her government and the multilateral bodies would support Morocco’s earthquake rebuilding efforts.

The meeting will be held between October 9 and 15 in Marrakech, just 45 miles (72 km) from the site of the 6.8-magnitude earthquake on September 8 that killed about 3,000 people mostly in the hard-to-reach villages of the High Atlas mountains.

Yellen told reporters in Marrakech, “We stand ready to help in any way that is helpful as you go about the rebuilding process.”

She said that support for Morocco would be discussed during the IMF and World Bank meetings in Marrakech, but she did not specify what assistance would be provided.

“In the midst of all that Morocco has suffered, it really is a testament to the resilience of this community that you’re able to host a gathering as large as the international meetings of the IMF and World Bank taking place here this week,” Yellen said.

Yellen visited the Bin Youssef High School in Marrakech which welcomed students from the quake-damaged schools in the affected villages. The importance of education in Morocco, she said, was demonstrated by the “incredibly impressive” effort.

The suffering of Morocco would be on the minds of meeting attendees, “as we discuss the work of international institutions to stand ready to help Morocco and other countries that can be affected by such severe shocks,” added Yellen, who controls the predominate U.S. shareholding in both institutions.

In late September, the IMF approved a programme that was unrelated to the earthquake tragedy, a $1.3 billion loan to Morocco from its new Resilience and Sustainability Trust to assist it in coping with climate disasters and resilience. Additionally, Morocco has access to a $5 billion IMF flexible credit line.

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Musings From Abroad

Nigeria loses $9.2 billion to foreign shipowners

Published

32 seconds ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A group of maritime experts has revealed that Nigeria loses $9.2bn a year to foreign shipping lines that carry goods that the country’s fleet should be carrying.

Hassan Bello, who used to be the Chairman of the National Fleet Implementation Committee, said at the inauguration of the new leaders of the Shipowners Association of Nigeria in Lagos on Friday that the national fleet should be a private-sector project.

“$9.2bn lost annually to foreigners. This is trade that goes to foreign-owned shipping companies or carriers. You could imagine what that could do to our economy if we had a national fleet. The national fleet should be an initiative of the private sector but the government should encourage it,” Bello said.

Bello, who used to be the executive secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council, said that all the money that was meant to come from Nigeria now goes to foreigners, giving them jobs. He said again how important it was for indigenous people to be able to trade with other countries.

“You know the significance of having indigenous participation in international trade. 90 per cent of international trade is done through the sea, carried by ships from one country to another.

“And we have been missing in action, that’s the whole problem. We need to be elusive, unequivocal, and deliberate in our efforts. And that is why it is important for this association. We will see it as one of the efforts to take us out of the dungeons,” he asserted.

A person who used to be the executive secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council complained that Nigeria’s economy was based on exporting only one good, which was crude oil.

“We have to own and operate indigenous tonnage, purely private sector driven by providing incentives that are the function of a government, friendly operating climate, like tax holidays, and a wide range of very important incentives, which other countries have used. We have no time to do that. We are talking about tax holidays. We are talking about fiscal policies, legal, and the policy changes,” he stated.

Also, Dr. McGeorge Onyung, who was President of the SOAN right before he left, was upset that Nigeria wasn’t taking advantage of the $14tn ocean economy. Onyung, who is also the Managing Director of Jevkon Oil & Gas, said that when Nigeria brought materials and equipment from China for the Lagos-Calabar train line project, it made Chinese shipowners rich instead of keeping the freight money in Nigeria.

“The economy of this country would not improve if we don’t diversify into the ocean economy. The fact is very clear that without shipping, there is no shopping. If you don’t remember anything today, please remember that without shipping, there is no shopping.

“Now, we are building a railway from Lagos to Calabar. I don’t know how much that will cost. I don’t know how long it will take. But all the wagons and the rails must come from China, wherever, by sea. And it should be ships that should bring them in. So, we should start making the money before the railway is constructed,” he averred.

Musings From Abroad

World Bank stops tourism fund to Tanzania’s Ruaha park. Here’s why

Published

4 days ago

April 24, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A spokesperson for the World Bank said on Wednesday that the lender had stopped all new payments from a $150 million fund meant to expand a national park in southern Tanzania.

The suspension is linked to reports of extrajudicial killings and rights abuses, with claims that guards recently killed people and forced people to leave their homes last year.

The World Bank’s independent complaints system says that two anonymous complainants have said that rangers from Ruaha National Park killed local villagers without a court order, forced them to disappear, evicted them, tortured them, and took their cattle.

“The World Bank is deeply concerned about the allegations of abuse and injustice related to the… project in Tanzania,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “We have therefore decided to suspend further disbursement of funds with immediate effect.”

Mobhare Martini, a spokeswoman for the government, said the claims were not true but that the government was looking into them “to see if there was any misconduct from any staff so that it can take the right action.” He said the last instalment of the loan that had been put on hold was $25 million.

Human rights activists have spoken out against several government plans in Tanzania to increase tourism. This is especially true in the north of the country, where thousands of Maasai have been forced to leave their traditional homes.

The Oakland Institute, a think tank in California, released a report last year accusing Ruaha park rangers of sexual assault. The report also said that local communities across Tanzania were paying the price for saving the environment to bring in tourists.

The park is 81 miles (130 km) west of Iringa. A 45,000-square-kilometer (17,000-square-mile). In the past, the park was famous for having a lot of elephants. 34,000 of them lived in the Ruaha-Rungwa environment in 2009, but that number dropped to 15,836, give or take 4,759, in 2015. Six lions and 74 vultures were found also dead in February 2018 with wide allegations that the animals were poisoned by communal further fueling clashes between locals and authorities.

Wildlife tourism is one of Tanzania’s biggest economic sources, the government is keen on expanding the sector and claims it has provided fair compensation to people evicted from their homes and disturbed by the wild.