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African press review 30 October 2018

Nigeria summons all 36 state governors to Abuja for an emergency meeting on the minimum wage crisis. Zimbabwe's gold industry is on the verge of collapse. Kenya's one million primary school leavers sit their final exams.

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Nigeria's 36 state governors have been summoned to Abuja for an emergency meeting today to discuss the minimum wage crisis, the daily paper Punch reports.

Both the finance and labour ministers will attend, it says.

Nigerian trade unions have called for a nationwide strike unless a deal is reached on an acceptable minimum wage.

The unions are asking for 30,000 naira, the equivalent of 73 euros per month.

Glitter getting thin for Zimbabwe gold sector

The Zimbabwean gold industry is in trouble.

According to a report in this morning's South African financial paper BusinessDay, Zimbabwe's gold producers may have to suspend operations because a foreign-exchange shortage has left them with insufficient funds to cover production costs.

Curbing output would deprive the country of a key source of export earnings as Finance Mminister Mthuli Ncube tries to stabilise an economy wrecked under former leader Robert Mugabe.

Producers are allowed to retain only 30 percent of the proceeds of gold sales, which is not enough to cover the cost of mining the metal, according to the Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines.

Zimbabwe is projected to produce 30 tonnes of gold in 2018, up from 24.8 tonnes last year. The metal is Zimbabwe’s second-biggest export, after tobacco.

Traditional healers helping spread of Ebola in DRC

Children in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are dying from Ebola at an unprecedented rate due largely to poor sanitary practices at clinics run by traditional healers, according to the health ministry in Kinshasa.

The impact on children has been felt acutely in the city of Beni, which has emerged as the outbreak’s new epicentre.

Of 120 confirmed Ebola cases in Beni, at least 30 are under 10-years-old and 27 of the children have died, according to health ministry data.

Many youngsters affected by an unrelated malaria outbreak near Beni are thought to have contracted Ebola at clinics run by traditional healers, who have also treated Ebola patients.

The rate of new cases in eastern DRC has accelerated in recent weeks. An emergency World Health Organisation committee said earlier this month that the outbreak was likely to worsen significantly unless the response was stepped up.

The health ministry reported nine new confirmed cases at the weekend   seven in Beni and two in the city of Butembo   the biggest one-day day jump since the outbreak was declared in August.

The haemorrhagic fever has already killed 168 people and infected another 98 in North Kivu and Ituri provinces.

Crucial primary school exams kick off in Kenya

Good luck to the one million Kenyans who start the Certificate of Primary Education examinations this morning.

The Nairobi-based Daily Nation says security has been tightened across the country to avoid any tampering with exam materials.

A special thought for Veronica Kaleso who will sit her mathematics, English language and composition papers at Unoa Primary School.

Veronica is the mother of 10 children and grandmother of 24, is homeschooled, and hopes to proceed to secondary education next year. She is 68-years-old.

 Egypt's taxi-scrapping scheme slashes CO2 emissions

Scrapping old taxis has helped Egypt reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 310,000 tonnes.

This is according to a World Bank report picked up by the Cairo-based daily newspaper the Egypt Independent.

Since 2013, the Egyptian government has scrapped 45,000 taxis, some of them on the road for 40 years, giving the drivers new cars in exchange.

It is hoped that the scheme will lead to a further 40,000-tonne decrease of carbon dioxide emissions by the end of this year.

Cairo is the source of 40 percent of the total pollution emitted by transportation in Egypt.

Sudan and Norway strike new oil deal

Sudan and Norway have agreed to cooperate in the oil sector.

According to the Sudan Tribune, Khartoum's Oil and Gas Minister Abdul-Rahman Othman yesterday held talks with the Norwegian ambassador to Sudan, Bard Hopland, specifically to discuss ways to enhance technical cooperation in the oil and gas industry.

The meeting covered training, legal and institutional reform, resource management, safety, health and the protection of the environment.

Norway has promised to increase its investment in the Sudanese oil sector.

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