Business

Rishi Sunak to announce £500m ‘plan for jobs’ extension

Rishi Sunak will announce a £500m extension to his “plan for jobs” on Monday as the government tries to avoid a surge in unemployment after the furlough scheme came to an end.

The chancellor will use his speech at the Conservative party conference in Manchester to promise extra support in finding a job for the over-50s and workers coming off furlough. Sunak is expected to claim he is “doubling down” on his 2020 promise to do “whatever it takes” to support people through the crisis.

However, the government is pressing ahead with its decision to remove the £20-a-week uplift to universal credit despite warnings from charities and campaigners that it will increase poverty.

Measures included in the new package will include prioritising those coming off furlough for one-to-one support from jobcentres and extending until 31 January the £3,000 incentive for employers to take on apprentices.

The furlough scheme, which supported a cumulative 11.6m jobs during the crisis, came to an end on 30 September. Unions and business groups urged the chancellor not to scrap it, and the jobs package appears to be an attempt to cushion the impact.

A £500m hardship scheme announced last week to be administered by local councils to ease the impact of the cost-of-living crisis was branded a “sticking plaster” by charities and the Labour party.

With a tough spending review coming up on 27 October, Sunak is expected to highlight the government’s plans for investing in infrastructure and skills.

“We are going to make this country not just a scientific superpower, not just the best place in the world to do business, I believe we’re going to make the UK the most exciting place on the planet,” he will say.

The chancellor used his conference speech last year, when the event was held virtually, to say the Tories have a “sacred duty” to repair the public finances.

The shadow work and pensions secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, said: “The government’s struggling plan for jobs has failed to hit its original targets; it is not creating the number of jobs needed and has failed to address the supply chain crisis Britain is experiencing.”

Meanwhile the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, suggested the UK could pursue a more interventionist foreign policy, during her first conference speech on Sunday. She cited a desire to sign more deals akin to the Aukus defence pact with Australia and the US, referencing Japan as an ally where the UK was seeking more military access and operational support.

Truss said the UK should be an active member of the “network of liberty” pursuing global democratic values. “The democratic world order faces a stark choice. Either we retreat and retrench in the face of malign actors or we club together and advance the cause of freedom,” she said.

She said the west must “win this battle for economic influence” in developing nations from a “position of strength”.

In a nod to Conservative backbenchers who have rebelled against the government in order to promote a hardline approach towards China, Truss said trade with the superpower was important but added that the UK would be “tough on those who don’t share our values and don’t play by the rules”.

She said the UK would “reach out to more countries who haven’t historically been aligned to Britain and encourage a freer, more prosperous world”.

Business

NCAA sanctions Kenya Airways over passenger complaints

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has sanctioned Kenya Airways for several consumer-related violations involving three passengers, including one Gloria Omisore.

This is contained in a statement on Friday by Michael Achimugu, Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection.

Achimugu stated the NCAA issued a sanction letter on Wednesday to Kenya Airways regarding the passengers’ complaints

“The infractions include failure to provide care, lack of transparency in carriage terms, poor communication with the Authority, and mishandling refunds and baggage.

“In accordance with the NCAA Regulations 2023, Kenya Airways must pay fines and compensate each affected passenger with 1,000 special drawing rights.

“The airline has seven days to comply. Failure to do so will result in more severe penalties,” Achimugu said

Business

Nigeria repays $3.4 billion COVID-19 funding – IMF

Nigeria has repaid $3.4 billion in emergency funding it received from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help the country cope with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic five years ago, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Thursday.

IMF resident representative to Nigeria Christian Ebeke said in a statement that, as of April 30, the country had “fully repaid the financial support” it received under the Fund’s Rapid Financing Instrument, a facility that provides urgent balance of payments funding to member nations.

“Nigeria is expected to honour some additional payments in the form of Special Drawing Rights charges of about US$30 million annually,” Ebeke added.

The most recent data from the Debt Management Office shows that Nigeria last year spent $4.66 billion to service its foreign debt, of which $1.63 billion was to the IMF. (PL/REUTERS)

Business

IMPI rejects IMF, World Bank’s 3% economic growth forecast for Nigeria

The Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI) has questioned the rationale by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for downgrading its economic growth projection for Nigeria in 2025 from 3.2 percent to 3.0 percent on the back of the global oil slump.

This according to the think tank is because the Nigerian economy has not, of late, been solely about oil especially with the substantial growth in the country’s non-oil export year-on-year as a result of ongoing economic diversification and the impact of government policies.

In a policy statement signed by its Chairman Dr Omoniyi Akinsiju, IMPI argued that it was more favourably disposed to the 7 percent growth forecast by Minister of Finance and Coordinating minister of the Economy Wale Edun.

It said, “In its economic outlook, the IMF downgraded Nigeria’s economic growth forecast for 2025 by 0.2 percentage points to 3.0 per cent, down from 3.2 per cent, while growth for 2026 was also revised downward by 0.3 percentage points to 2.7 per cent.

“The IMF justified this forecast by citing projected lower global oil prices as a significant risk to the country’s fiscal and external balances. We wonder how a single factor can be responsible for the projected massive decline in the size of an economy, moreso, when Nigeria is moving away from its dependency on crude oil earnings.

“However, the World Bank’s projection, on the other hand, offers a more optimistic view. In its report, the World Bank projected that Nigeria’s economy would grow by 3.6 per cent in 2025, building on an estimated 3.4 per cent expansion in 2024 and, thereafter, strengthening to 3.8 per cent by 2027.

“The bank credited the federal administration’s possible sustenance of economic reforms with the gradual stabilisation of the macroeconomic environment. Critical to the World Bank’s projection is the expected improvement in the performance of the non-oil sectors, mainly services such as financial services, telecommunications, and information technology, as well as easing inflationary pressures and improved business sentiment.”

IMPI also argued that it was not unusual for countries to pick holes in IMF’s projections while citing the examples of Mexico and Zambia where it was proved wrong.

“IMF’s GDP data discrepancies are not unique to Nigeria. At different times, its country members worldwide have had cause to dispute the body’s projections on various grounds. Mexico, for instance, has also disagreed with the IMF on its forecasts.

“In its World Economic Outlook, the IMF forecasted a 0.3 per cent contraction in Mexico’s economic growth for 2025, down from the Fund’s January forecast of a 1.4 per cent expansion, as U.S. tariffs bite into exports.

“In dismissing the IMF’s forecast, the Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum declared, “We do not know what it is based on. We disagree. We have our economic models, which the finance ministry has, that do not coincide with this projection.”

“She added that public investments would prevent the economy from contracting. She touted her government’s “Plan Mexico,” an effort to boost domestic industry amid tariffs U.S. President Donald Trump imposed on some imports from Mexico.

“From the foregoing, it is clear why Nigerians should not take the recent IMF’s negative economic projections very seriously. Experience has shown that several IMF projections on developing economies, such as ours, often prove inaccurate.

“In 2008, the IMF predicted that Zambia would be hit by the fall in copper prices during the financial crisis. The IMF was proven wrong as the Zambian economy survived the global downturn.

“We find comfort in the submission of the US Department of State, which described Nigeria as an economic miracle while commending the federal government’s ongoing reforms,”IMPI added.

On concerns by both the World Bank and IMF on poverty in Nigeria, the think tank posited that the incumbent federal administration is better placed than its predecessors to tackle the issue.

“We acknowledge the concerns the World Bank and the IMF raised about the limited impact of the policies on reducing poverty among everyday Nigerians.

“But the truth is that before 2023, the country had been a site for endemic poverty, with the number of people living in absolute poverty defined in terms of the minimal requirements necessary to afford minimal standards of food, clothing, healthcare and shelter, reaching a high of 99,284,512 people in 2010, about 60.9 per cent of the population at that time.

“In 2004, NBS estimated the poverty rate to be 54.7 per cent in 2004 and this was despite Nigeria experiencing economic growth, with crude oil prices ranging between $100 and $120 per barrel and a daily production of 2.3 million barrels.

“When the dynamics of the years, especially the oil boom era between 2010 and 2014, are compared to the evolving characters of the present-day economy, we see sufficient indicators of the impact on the average Nigerian in the near term.

“In other words, if there is ever a possibility of reducing the number of Nigerians living below the poverty line, it is under the current federal administration.

“For instance, the recently released Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) March 2025 economic report indicated continued expansion in economic activities across Nigeria. The composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), at 52.3 percentage points, indicates economic expansion for the third consecutive month in 2025,” it concluded.