The House of Representatives member representing Oluyole Federal constituency, Hon. Tolulope Akande-Sadipe has described the death of former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala, as a huge loss to the state and the party’s structure in Oyo.

Akande-Sadipe,who said this in a statement issued by her Media Aide, Olamilekan Olusada in Ibadan,added that Late Alao-Akala  was an elder statesman, whose wealth of experience would be missed by all in the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress.

She added:“On behalf of members of our great party in Oluyole Federal constituency, I condole with the late Chief Alao-Akala’s loved ones, family members and the people of Ogbomosho, on the passing on to the glory of our father. This is a big loss to our party.

The Iposu Chieftancy family in Epe area  of Lagos,has commended the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba for taking proactive measures in restoring the land at T-Junction in Epe to the rightful owner.

Mr Sharafadeen Iposu, the spokesperson of the Iposu family, applauded the IGP in a statement issued on behalf of the family on Thursday in Lagos.

The family expressed gratitude to the Inspector General of Police for his firmness, leadership quality and objectivity towards discharging his  duties diligently in upholding rule of law.

It will be recalled that the  family land at the T-Junction in Epe was erroneously locked up by the police on the misleading information of Oba Kamorudeen Animashaun to the Force C. I. D in Abuja.

Animashaun had told the police  that there would be breakdown of peace and order if the land was released to the rightful owner.

An  Epe High court had earlier ruled against Oba Animashaun’s  application for interlocotory injection to prevent lposu Chieftaincy family from entering their land pending the matter in court.

“We want to commend IGP  Usman Alkali Baba and his police management team for their sincerity efforts towards upholding the rule of law despite all challenges . We appeal to the IGP to sustain this operational strategies and fairness in discharging his  lawful duties. This is exemplary,” he said.

Nigeria’s growth is projected to strengthen to 2.5 per cent in 2022 and 2.8 per cent in 2023,says World Bank report

 At the presentation of its January 2022 Global Economic Prospects report,the bank said global growth is expected to decelerate markedly from 5.5 per cent in 2021 to 4.1 per cent in 2022 and 3.2 per cent in 2023 as pent-up demand dissipates and as fiscal and monetary support is unwound across the world.

The bank said  that a rise in inflation, debt and income inequality could endanger the recovery in emerging and developing economies, which Nigeria was a part of.

It added:“Activities in service sectors are expected to firm as well, particularly in telecommunications and financial services.However, the reversal of pandemic-induced income and employment losses is expected to be slow, this, along with high food prices, restrains a faster recovery in domestic demand.

“Activities in the non-oil economy will remain curbed by high levels of violence and social unrest as well as the threat of fresh COVID-19 flare-ups with remaining mobility restrictions being lifted guardedly because of low vaccination rates.”

According to the bank,rising government debt and debt service costs would continue to constrain policy space and curtail public spending, leaving gaps in essential public services and infrastructure as a major obstacle to stronger potential growth.

For Angola, it said that growth was projected to strengthen to three per cent on average in 2022-2023.

“Higher oil prices and the easing of OPEC production cuts will support a gradual recovery in oil investments and output, while non-oil sectors will benefit from increasing vaccination rates.”

The bank also said that growth in South Africa was forecast to revert to its pre-pandemic trend, with the economy projected to grow by 2.1 per cent in 2022 and 1.5 per cent in 2023.

Globally, it predicts that the rapid spread of the Omicron variant indicates that the pandemic will likely continue to disrupt economic activities in the near term.

It added that a notable deceleration in major economies, including the United States and China, would weigh on external demand in emerging and developing economies.

“At a time when governments in many developing economies lack the policy space to support activities if needed, new COVID-19 outbreaks, persistent supply-chain bottlenecks and inflationary pressures, and elevated financial vulnerabilities in large swaths of the world could increase the risk of a hard landing.

“The slowdown will coincide with a widening divergence in growth rates between advanced economies and emerging and developing economies.

“Growth in advanced economies is expected to decline from five per cent in 2021 to 3.8 per cent in 2022 and 2.3 per cent in 2023, a pace that, while moderating, will be sufficient to restore output and investment to their pre-pandemic trend in these economies.”

In emerging and developing economies, however, it said that growth was expected to drop from 6.3 per cent in 2021 to 4.6 per cent in 2022 and 4.4 per cent in 2023.

According to the Bretton Woods Institution, by 2023, all advanced economies will have achieved a full output recovery; yet output in emerging and developing economies will remain four per cent below its pre-pandemic trend.

It added that for many vulnerable economies, the setback was even larger as output of fragile and conflict-affected economies would be 7.5 per cent below its pre-pandemic trend, while output of small island states would be 8.5 per cent below.

For Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the bank said that growth reached an estimated 3.5 per cent in 2021, supported by a rebound in commodity prices and a gradual easing of social restrictions.

Nevertheless, recurrent virus flare-ups in several countries and low vaccination rates slowed the pace of the recovery.

It however, forecast that the region’s growth would firm to 3.7 per cent a year on average in 2022 20-23.

According to the report, slow progress with vaccinations is expected to underpin only a gradual recovery of domestic demand, with substantial downside risks clouding the outlook.

It said that the risks were tilted to the downside as the region’s low COVID-19 vaccination coverage rates markedly elevate the threat of renewed outbreaks as well as the spread of more transmissible or vaccine resistant variants of the virus.

“If the distribution of vaccines proceeds at the current low rate, the extended duration and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic could still delay recoveries in many countries across the region.

“Persistent vaccine supply and distribution challenges risk making COVID-19 a recurrent public health problem in the region.

“Another downside risk to the regional outlook is the possibility that the global recovery could moderate further than expected, leading to a significant reversal of the gains in commodity prices recorded in 2021 to the detriment of the region’s oil and metals producers.

“Persistence of pandemic-induced long term damage is a significant risk to the baseline growth forecast as well.

“Disproportionate losses to incomes, employment and human capital accumulation experienced by vulnerable groups of population, especially in low-income countries and countries in fragile and conflict-affected situations (FCS), could hinder poverty alleviation and lead to lasting increases in inequality across the region.”

World Bank Group President, Mr David Malpass, said that rising inequality and security challenges were particularly harmful for developing countries.

“Putting more countries on a favorable growth path requires concerted international action and a comprehensive set of national policy responses.”

Mari Pangestu, the bank’s Managing Director for Development Policy and Partnerships, said that the choices policymakers make in the next few years would decide the course of the next decade.

According to him, the immediate priority should be to ensure that vaccines are deployed more widely and equitably so the pandemic can be brought under control.

“However, tackling reversals in development progress such as rising inequality will require sustained support.

“In a time of high debt, global cooperation will be essential to help expand the financial resources of developing economies so they can achieve green, resilient and inclusive development.”

The emergence of new COVID-19 variant Omicron and its fast spread has made the global economic recovery increasingly uneven towards the tail end of 2021, due to which GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, has revised down the global economic growth forecast for 2022 from 4.6% in July to 4.5% in December 2021.

It forecasts the US real GDP growth to be 1.1% in Q1 2022 compared to 1.3% in Q4 2021. With challenges to supply chains and high infection rates, the UK’s real GDP growth is forecasted to slow down to 0.7% compared to 0.9% during the same period. On the other hand, with additional support from the government, Japan’s growth is expected to rise from 1.3% to 1.6%.

Gargi Rao, Economic Research Analyst at GlobalData, said the rapid spread of Omicron in more than 100 countries along with rising global inflation rates, energy crisis stemmed out of coal shortages, political tensions and slowdown in manufacturing output amid chips shortage remain the major downside risks to global growth in 2022.”

He added: “Despite the risks and the expected slowdown in economic growth, India and China are expected to drive the global growth in 2022. On the other hand, the Federal Reserve is expected to tighten monetary policy measures to tame high inflation levels may result in capital outflows from emerging nations.”

During December 2021, around 12,000 flights were cancelled globally owing to surge in Omicron variant cases and staffing issues. Tourism dependent economies are expected to face major headwinds to growth prospects in early 2022 with re-imposition of restrictions. However, the disruption will be short lived as travel plans are postponed. GlobalData travel and tourism database forecasts the number of air passengers globally for long haul and short haul to grow by 44% and 48%, respectively, in 2022.

The report said  the overall business outlook remains positive, but Omicron scare, and tight monetary policy might cloud investments. In addition, a premature withdrawal of policy support could undermine the global recovery and increase private and public sector vulnerabilities in early 2022.

It also said the pull back of public spending in 2022 in most of the countries might put brakes on economic activity.

Rao said: “The risk to global economic recovery in 2022 seem balanced. Globally, households have accumulated huge savings, which once invested will drive up economic activity. Moreover, countries like China and India are investing in green energy, which could attract more investments from the West. The approval of The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) deal is expected to bolster trade opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region. The need of the hour is to have clear supervision by fiscal and monetary authorities on their policy strategies, which will be crucial to maintain market confidence and public support.”