The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), the central bank, on Wednesday announced that it will offer a ransom in reward as part of ongoing efforts to crackdown hoarding, illicit transfer and transaction of foreign currency and gold.

The bounty follows the suspension of bank accounts belonging to 391 individuals who were allegedly involved in illegal foreign currency transfer activities.

Disclosing the new directive relating to the tips and rewards on illicit money and gold transfer and transaction, Mesfin Getachew, NBE’s legal services director, said the law will be transmitting 15 years of imprisonment against the guilty besides confiscating the foreign currency notes and relevant items.

According to the latest announcement, the bank will reward informants up to 15 percent of the foreign currency or an equivalent amount of gold value, which the police confiscated from the guilty with the help of the information obtained.

The informants can provide information related to illicit money transfers or transactions in person or through various mechanisms, Getachew said during a briefing Wednesday.

XINHUA

2 (JOHANNESBURG, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) — South Africa will send officials to New Zealand to solicit support for the country’s bid to host the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the South African Football Association (SAFA) said on Wednesday.

The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup draw will be held in Auckland on Saturday. The SAFA said they will send president Danny Jordaan to convince the world that the country has the infrastructure and capability to host the tournament.

‘We have the infrastructure, the stadiums, the hotels and the training venues, and what helps is that we have already hosted a World Cup of 32 teams in 2010. The infrastructure is in place and we have the capacity to deliver. The world knows our capacity, they have seen the stadiums and our infrastructure,’ said Jordaan.

The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) gave Jordan a letter of support to present as a supporting document.

‘This serves to confirm that SAFA is a member of SASCOC and is a member in good standing. We acknowledge that hosting of either continental or world tournaments in South Africa places the country at the highest level globally and adds value to our economy. SASCOC fully supports and appreciates such intentions with focus on addressing women development and growth,’ read the letter.

XINHUA

3 (UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was saddened to learn of the loss of dozens of lives and damage to infrastructure in Venezuela due to floods and landslides resulting from the heavy rainy season and the impact of tropical storms, said his spokesman on Wednesday.

The secretary-general extended his deepest condolences to the Venezuelan government and to the families affected by the floods and landslides impacting several towns across Venezuela, particularly in the northern state of Aragua, said Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman, in a statement.

The United Nations is providing support, in coordination with the national authorities’ emergency response, to address the needs of the most affected people, the statement said.

The secretary-general expressed his solidarity with the people of Venezuela and underscored that the United Nations stands ready to offer additional assistance in this challenging time, said the statement.

XINHUA

4 (New York, Oct 20, 2022 (AFP) – Tesla reported Wednesday another quarter of sparkling earnings growth, but shares fell amid questions over the resilience of electric vehicle demand, CEO Elon Musk’s embattled Twitter transaction and other issues.

The electric vehicle (EV) maker scored a more than doubling of profits in the third-quarter to $3.3 billion on increased auto deliveries

But shares retreated in after-hours trading after the company reported revenues of $21.5 billion, a 56 percent increase over the year-ago period, but about $500 million below analyst forecasts.

The company flagged battery supply chain bottlenecks as a constraint on EV growth and noted that logistics volatility was an ‘improving’ challenge.

‘Knock on wood, it looks like we’ll have an epic end-of-year,’ Musk said during an earnings call.

AFP

5 (PARIS, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) — France has invested 7.5 billion euros (about 7.3 billion U.S. dollars) on major projects since the country unveiled the France 2030 investment roadmap last year to support ecological and economic transitions.

The French government has scaled up financial support for 810 projects in the past year, including building a semiconductor factory, developing hydrogen technologies and manufacturing a quantum computer, it said in an assessment report on Wednesday.

The country also set up several investment funds to support the growth of innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the fields of ecological and energy transition.

Some 45 percent of SMEs are among the beneficiaries against 7 percent of large enterprises, said the government.

Announced by President Emmanuel Macron in October last year, the France 2030 plans to pour 54 billion euros (about 53 billion dollars) over the next ten years to support the country’s innovation and industrialization, and maintain its industrial capacities for strategic priorities.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency