Stock Watch

Twitter users vote for Elon Musk’s resignation as CEO

Abubakar Yunus Abuja

Majority of the Twitter users who participated in a poll put up by Elon Musk have voted for his ouster as CEO of the micro-blogging platform.

Musk, the billionaire founder Tesla Inc, on Sunday launched a poll to determine whether he should remain as CEO.

Based on the result of the poll which ended on Monday, 57.5 percent of the 17.5 million users who partook asked for his exit.

Musk had earlier pledged to abide by the poll’s results when it ends.

“Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll” he asked Twitter users when he put up the poll.

After what has been described as a controversial acquisition deal, Musk agreed to buy Twitter for $44 billion in April 2022, thereby becoming CEO of the microblogging platform.

According to the deal, investors received $54.20 for each Twitter share they own, the company said in a statement.

Twitter also became a privately held company upon the completion of the transaction.

Musk, following his ascension as the company’s head, implemented many radical policies beginning with the sack of Twitter’s three top executives — less than a day after completing the acquisition of the platform.

Following that, the billionaire went on a massive global layoff spree which affected Twitter’s newly created Africa headquarters, cutting the jobs of 3,700 workers.

Musk further switched gears by introducing a verification policy which compels users to pay at least $8 to get the blue badge.

Although the billionaire said he acquired the social media platform to promote free speech, Musk has come under intense criticism since he took over the company.

Nigeria generated N625bn from VAT in Q3 2022 - Says NBS

Abubakar Yunus Abuja

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says the country generated N625.39 billion as value-added tax (VAT) in the third quarter of 2022.

VAT is a consumption tax that is administered by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). Revenue generated from VAT is usually disbursed to the three tiers of government through the federation accounts allocation committee (FAAC).

The NBS said this in its latest sectoral distribution of VAT for Q3 2022, released on Monday.

The figure represents an increase of 4.21 percent from the N600.15 billion generated in Q2 2022.

According to the report, local VAT payments amounted to N367.93 billion in Q3 2022.

“On the aggregate, valueadded tax (VAT) for Q3 2022 was reported at N625.39 billion, showing a growth rate of 4.21 percent on a quarter-on-quarter basis from N600.15 billion in Q2 2022,” the report reads.

“Local payments recorded were N367.93 billion, foreign VAT payments were N121.85 billion, while import VAT contributed N135.61 billion in Q3 2022.

“On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the arts, entertainment, and recreation supply activities recorded the highest growth rate with 61.09 percent, followed by activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies with 44.47.”

The NBS report also shows that activities of households as employers, undifferentiated goods- and services-producing activities of households for own use had the lowest growth rate with -56.37 percent, followed by water supply, sewerage, waste management, and remediation activities with -32.02 percent.

“In terms of sectoral contributions, the top three largest shares in Q3 2022 were manufacturing with 31.08 percent, information and communication with 18.52 percent, and mining and quarrying with 10.95 percent,” NBS said.

“Conversely, activities of households as employers, undifferentiated goods- and services-producing activities of households for own use recorded the least share with 0.01 percent, followed by activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies with 0.06 percent, and water supply, sewerage, waste management, and remediation activities with 0.08 percent.”

Meanwhile, on a year-onyear basis, VAT collections in Q3 2022 increased by 24.95 percent from Q3 2021.

Ghana suspends payments on, commercial term loans

The Ghanaian government says it has suspended all debt service payments under “certain categories of its external debt”.

The country’s ministry of finance announced this in a statement on Monday.

It said the suspension will include eurobonds, commercial term loans and most of its bilateral debt, pending future agreements with all relevant creditors.

The government explained that the measures were necessary to prevent a further deterioration in the economic, financial, and social situation in the West African nation.

Ghana, had on December 5, launched a domestic debt exchange programme to restore public debt sustainability.

But the ministry said given the magnitude of the economic and social crisis that Ghana is confronted with, the domestic debt operation would not be enough to close the large financing gaps that the country faces over the coming years.

According to the statement, the government’s debt sustainability analysis (DSA) has demonstrated that its public debt, both external and domestic, is unsustainable.

“As it stands, our financial resources, including the Bank of Ghana’s international reserves, are limited and need to be preserved at this critical juncture,” the statement reads in part.

“That is why we are announcing today a suspension of all debt service payments under certain categories of our external debt, pending an orderly restructuring of the affected obligations.

“This suspension will include the payments on: our eurobonds; our commercial term loans; and on most of our bilateral debt. This suspension will not include the payments of our multilateral debt, new debts (whether multilateral or otherwise) contracted after 19th December 2022 or debts related to certain short term trade facilities.

“We are also evaluating certain specific debts related to projects with the highest socioeconomic impact for Ghana which may have to be excluded. This suspension is an interim emergency measure pending future agreements with all relevant creditors.”

The Ghanaian government further expressed its readiness to engage in discussions with all of its external creditors to make Ghana’s debt sustainable through a fair, transparent and comprehensive debt restructuring exercise in line with international best practices.

It said the finance ministry would hold an investor presentation at a date to be announced at a later stage.

On Tuesday, the IMF said it had reached a staff-level agreement with Ghana on a $3 billion bailout package to tackle its economic difficulties.

One of the grounds on which Ghana got the facility from the IMF is a “comprehensive debt restructuring”.