🇲🇺 Why did Covid billions sit in a bank paying four times the going rate?

Why did Covid billions sit in a bank paying four times the going rate?

Rs 3 billion of public money meant for Covid-19 recovery projects was parked at Silver Bank, and PM Ramgoolam told Parliament the deposit earned a rate roughly four times higher than other banks were offering. His point was not the generosity. It was the question nobody asked.

The money went in across three deposits in 2022: Rs 500 million in April, another Rs 500 million in August, then Rs 2 billion in September. PM Ramgoolam said former finance minister Renganaden Padayachy signed off on the Rs 3 billion as a fixed deposit at Silver Bank despite known problems with how the bank was being run.

The Covid-19 Projects Development Fund has since pulled out Rs 2.5 billion, including Rs 500 million in early 2023 to pay contractors on the social housing project. Rs 500 million is still sitting there. The deposit could be withdrawn in full at any time, penalty-free, with a week's notice, which makes the choice of bank the part PM Ramgoolam wants examined.

An above-market rate on public cash usually means someone needed the deposit more than the depositor needed the return.

Your loan just got pricier as banks push lending rates to 8.05%

New interest rates took effect this month after the Bank of Mauritius lifted its Repo rate, the benchmark that sets the cost of borrowing across the economy, from 4.5% to 4.75%. Commercial banks have moved their Prime Lending Rates to between 6.9% and 8.05%, with MauBank at the top of that range.

Savers get a smaller consolation: yields rise up to 3.35%. The Consumers' Eye Association, a watchdog group, calls the gap between borrower and saver rates unfair and wants the central bank to narrow it. For the 261,000-odd people repaying home or study loans, the monthly bill just climbed.

Salines man confesses to fatal stabbing of his partner

Prageena Jootun, 23, was found dead at her home on rue Ruthworth in Les Salines on Friday. Her partner, Mavin Changia, 29, confessed to the killing under questioning by detectives from the Port Louis South CID.

Investigators say the stabbing followed a morning argument at the couple's home. Forensic officers combed the scene before the body was removed. Changia has been handed to the Major Crime Investigation Team, which is now leading the case.

Firefighters say their allowances have gone unpaid for months

Some firefighters have not seen their standard allowance in over five months, and Sunday allowance payments have stopped entirely since February, according to Ashraf Buxoo of the Government Services Employees Association. He wants the arrears cleared before the financial year closes.

Six women plant 3,000 mangroves to shield the lagoons

A team of six women has planted 3,000 mangroves between Case-Noyale and Le Morne. The idea is to treat the coast as working infrastructure that buffers the lagoons, not just a postcard view.

Shorts

Phone-at-the-wheel fines get tougher June 10 – Drivers caught holding a phone face stiffer penalties from June 10.

Mauritius confirms a second local Mpox case – A second locally transmitted Mpox case has now been recorded on the island.

Row over a late presidential-election tweak – Opposition figures are furious over a last-minute electoral-college amendment slipped into the constitution bill.

Tornado Squad busts a Vallée-Pitot arms ring – Two men were arrested with batons and airsoft pistols in Port Louis.

Ebola fears bring 21-day quarantine rules – Travellers from three African countries now face a 21-day quarantine on arrival.

Rs 71 billion

Mauritius spent that much importing energy last year, up 4% from a year earlier, with transport alone burning more than half the total.

16.8%

Morocco posted the fastest growth in dollar millionaires anywhere in Africa last year, the standout in a continent-wide rise of 4.1%.

$3.5 million

Mali's junta is offering this bounty, two billion CFA francs, for the capture of jihadist leader Iyad Ag Ghaly, one of the Sahel's most wanted.

Dangote's refinery blows past its own capacity

Nigeria's Dangote Refinery processed 700,000 barrels of crude a day during testing, beating its official 650,000-barrel rating. It is Africa's largest refinery and a bet to cut the continent's reliance on imported fuel.

For a region that ships out crude and ships back refined product at a markup, hitting that throughput matters well beyond Nigeria.

Nigerians march over mass school abductions

Protesters filled the Nigerian capital demanding the release of students kidnapped from three schools in Oyo State.

Somalia's ex-president alleges intimidation

Sharif Sheikh Ahmed accused the government of intimidation after two days of clashes between state and opposition forces.

US House defies Trump with a billion for Ukraine

The US House passed legislation sending over $1 billion in aid to Ukraine along with fresh sanctions on Russia, another open break with President Trump's foreign policy on the war.

It signals that even with Trump in the White House, the chamber is willing to set its own line on Ukraine, and to dare him to veto the money.

Zverev is one win from a first Grand Slam

Alexander Zverev beat Jakub Mensik to reach the French Open final, leaving him a single match from his first major title.

Xi heads to North Korea, his first trip since 2019

Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit North Korea on June 8 and 9, his first journey to the isolated state in years and his first abroad this year.

The masked devils who dance to lose on purpose

In Tarmas, Venezuela, children making their First Communion walked alongside masked Dancing Devils, a centuries-old Corpus Christi rite.

The whole point is the devils dancing in submission to faith, good winning over evil, staged in the street every year.

🙏 Merci, à demain! 👋

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