CRYPTO MARKET
|
|
|
|---|---|---|
|
Bitcoin |
$22,628 |
– 1.87% |
|
Ether |
$1,545 |
– 5.58% |
|
BNB |
$299 |
– 6.75% |
|
Solana |
$22.87 |
– 8.21% |
|
|
Source:
|
|
* Data as of 04:50 AM WAT, Janaury 25, 2023.
NIGERIA GENERATES $22 BILLION IN TAXES
How did Nigeria do in the taxes department last year?
The West African country’s tax agency, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), released the report of its performance in 2022, and it looks like the FIRS performed better last year than it did in 2021.
What does the report say?
The report shows that the FIRS collected a total of ₦10.1 trillion ($22 billion) in oil and non-oil revenues—more than the ₦6.405 trillion ($11.1 billion) it collected in 2021. In fact, this is the first time the service hit the ₦10 trillion mark.
The non-oil revenue accounted for more than half—59%—of the tax revenue in that year.
The non-oil revenues include Companies’ Income Tax which was ₦2.83 trillion ($6.22 billion); Value Added Tax which turned out to be ₦2.51 trillion ($5.51 billion); and Earmarked Taxes which summed up to ₦353.69 billion ($77.7 million).
Executive chairman of the FIRS, Muhammad Nami, said the agency was able to surpass its goals because of collaboration with stakeholders, effective taxpayers’ education, and improved tax morale.
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CAPE TOWN TO PAY RESIDENTS FOR THEIR POWER
Excess power isn’t always a bad thing, it seems.
Cape Town’s residents and businesses will soon be able to feed excess electrical power from their own generators into their power system in exchange for cash.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) has approved a rate of 78.98c/kWh for the city to pay power sellers. Cape Town is also offering an additional 25c/kWh incentive tariff.
Before now, power sellers had their municipal bills credited for excess power, instead of actual cash payments.
ICYMI: South Africa has been experiencing power blackouts as Eskom, which supplies the bulk of the country’s electricity, has been struggling to keep the lights on and has been implementing load-shedding over the years.
Cape Town got a National Treasury exemption from the government to implement this cash-incentivised power procurement plan to curb blackouts.
The payment system for the programme will roll out to commercial customers before June, while households that have city-approved generation systems and capacity will get theirs before the year ends.
What are the city-approved generation systems?
To sell excess power to their town, Capetonners need to have a power generator like a solar system and an Advanced Metering Infrastructure metre installed by the city. The metre will tell how much energy is consumed and generated by your system.
KENYAN HIGH COURT OKAYS TRANSFER FEES BETWEEN M-PESA AND BANKS
Kenyans are not happy about this one.
The two-year run of free transfers between M-Pesa and commercial banks has now come to an end, and a recent ruling that suspended the charges has been overturned.
Interestingly, the banks didn’t even care about this ruling. They had continued charging without the backing of the court. But now that the Kenyan High Court has okayed the transfer fees, Kenyans only have one option: pay charges on transfers they thought might forever be free.
Background: In 2020, the pandemic year that caused the historic decline of cash use, Kenya’s central bank (CBK) came up with the idea of free transfers between commercial banks and users of Safaricom’s M-Pesa, the country’s leading mobile money operator. The idea sailed, and Kenyans embraced digital payments more. It was free, after all.
But as the pandemic gradually faded, Safaricom and the banks went back to the CBK, asking for approval to re-introduce the transfer charges. The CBK finally agreed in December last year but stipulated a reduction in the fees: 61% reduction for transfers from bank accounts to mobile money wallets. And a 47% reduction on charges from mobile money accounts to banks.
Kenyans said no, and they brought in the law
The charges were kick-started this month but were again suspended when a Kenyan court received a lawsuit against Safaricom and the CBK. The suit was filed by Moses Wafula, a Nairobi resident who maintained that such charges were to be paid for by Safaricom’s primary clients such as banks, utilities, and government agencies—not regular customers.
The CBK opposed this, arguing that the regulator and the banks were yet to be made a party to the case, and the suspension should only come after all parties have tabled their positions on the matter. The judge then directed all parties to file a response by February 6, 2023.
For now though, the charges don’t seem to be going anywhere.
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EVENT: STATE OF TECH IN AFRICA Q4 2022
Join us on January 27, on a special edition of TechCabal Live. We’ll be launching “The State of Tech report”. The State of Tech Report is our flagship report that analyses quarterly data on acquisitions, expansions, product launches, and funding in Africa’s tech ecosystem.
This edition looks at 2022 in retrospect and contains interesting patterns and trends to look out for this year. At the event, we will discuss actionable insights and findings from the report with you and share our perspectives on the outlook of Africa’s tech landscape.
Written by – Timi Odueso, Ngozi Chukwu & Caleb Nnamani
Edited by – Kelechi Njoku
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