US president Joe Biden has signed about 17 executive orders reversing some of the controversial policies of his predecessor, Donald Trump. Biden made the promise to rescind the executive orders that effected the Muslim ban, US’ withdrawal from the Paris Accord and the World Health Organization (WHO), on his first day in office, during his campaign.

Just hours after he was sworn in, Biden embarked on sweeping action to reverse immigration bottlenecks created by the Republican-led past administration. Though immigration experts say it would take months or longer to totally eliminate the hurdles, Biden’s swift move has been widely commended as the right step in eradicating the divisive policies that characterized Trump’s era.

Nine of the executive orders signed at a ceremony at the White House are to undo the Trump’s earlier orders, while others are new, targeted at improving American immigration system, fighting COVID-19, ensuring gender and racial indiscrimination and providing assistance to those impacted by the pandemic.

Mask wearing.

The executive order makes the use of masks and physical distancing compulsory in federal buildings, on federal lands and by government contractors, and urges states and local governments to do the same. It is part of Biden’s planned 100 days challenge that requires use masks.

“It is required, as I said all the time, where I have the authority, to demand that masks be worn, that social distancing is maintained on federal property,” Biden said to reporters in the Oval Office.

WHO

The executive order reverses Trump’s earlier directive that severed United States’ relationship with WHO and halted her funding to the UN health body.

COVID-19 response

By this executive order, Jeff Zients was appointed the coordinator of COVID-19 Response who will report directly to the President daily on vaccine distribution, testing supplies, production and availability of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers and everything else related.

Nationwide moratorium

The moratorium orders are aimed at providing immediate financial aids to millions of Americans who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. It thus extends the existing nationwide moratorium on evictions and foreclosures until at least March 31.

Student loan

This extends the existing pause on student loan payments and interest for Americans with federal student loans until at least September 30.

Paris Accord

The executive order puts the United States back into the Paris Accord, a climate agreement reached by world leaders during Obama’s era to reduce global carbon emissions and clear path for green energy.

Keystone XL pipeline

This order stops companies from drilling oil and gas on federal lands, halting construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and directs agencies to review and reverse more than 100 Trump actions on the environment.

Racial equity

This order reverses Trump’s administration’s 1776 Commission, and calls on federal bureaucracies to review inequalities in the way government resources are allocated.

Gender equity

The executive order is aimed at preventing workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Census

This reverses Trump’s earlier order prohibiting undocumented immigrants from being counted during census. It thus requires non-citizens to be included in the Census and apportionment of congressional representatives.

DACA

This executive order ends Trump’s administration attempt to suspend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) a protection programme for undocumented people brought into the country as children. It will thus stop the ICE from carrying out the ‘separation of children from their parents’ policy issued by Trump.

By this order, Biden asks Congress to pass a law that will provide an eight-year path to citizenship for those protected by DACA.

Immigration

Biden signed executive that repealed Trump administration’s notorious visa ban on seven Muslim-majority countries and some African countries.

Border wall

Biden signed an order halting construction of the border wall by repealing the national emergency declaration used to fund it. Trump issued the order in 2018 to divert money other projects to fund the wall’s construction.

Deportation

This order extends deferrals of deportation and work authorizations for Liberians with a safe haven in the United States until June 30, 2022, a program that Trump repeatedly tried to end.

Ethics

Biden signed an executive order that obligates everyone working in his administration to sign an ethics pledge barring them from acting in personal interest and requiring them to uphold the independence of the Department of Justice.

Regulation

By this executive order, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director is required to repeal regulatory process under Trump and develop recommendations to modernize approval process.

Tekedia Institute welcomes the staff of GLOBAT WIDOWS FOUNDATION to our Institute. The foundation focuses on supporting widows. We also want to acknowledge the efforts of the patron BOMA FEMI JULIUS who has generously supported the foundation. Our institute is offering the staff partial scholarships to attend our Tekedia Mini-MBA program which begins next month.

We want to welcome all of them. Our desire is that by co-learning with us, they will become more efficient in supporting widows in communities.

Tekedia Institute offers an innovation management 12-week program, optimized for business execution and growth, with digital operational overlay. It runs 100% online. The theme is Innovation, Growth & Digital Execution – Techniques for Building Category-King Companies. All contents are self-paced, recorded and archived which means participants do not have to be at any scheduled time to consume contents.

Register here.

Tekedia Academic Programs

As I have noted here many times, the most innovative unit in Nigeria’s bureaucracy is the tax agency. I mean, give those men and women credit; they are innovating and moving really fast to hit revenue collection milestones. You are free to call them wizards of finding what belongs to the commonwealth!

According to NAN, Nigeria hit big numbers on tax collection: “The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) says it collected N4.9 trillion as tax revenue in the 2020 fiscal year”. Abdullahi Ahmad, FIRS’ director of communications, made this known in a statement. With that, FIRS hit 98% of its  N5.1 trillion target, very commendable even with the paralysis from covid-19. More so, the non-oil tax collection was 9% better than 2019 numbers. How you wish, we can execute on growth policies with the same precision, and boost economic growth, and accelerate purchasing power of the citizens. Give it to the FIRS, anything they are doing is working!

Meanwhile, the federal government of Nigeria raised N2.36 trillion from the fixed income segment of the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 2020. That was the largest by any entity as the nation hit the market to source capital to fund infrastructure projects and finance fiscal deficits, NAN reports.

The Chief Executive Officer of NSE, Oscar Onyema, said this at the 2020 market recap/2021 outlook event on Tuesday in Lagos.

Mr Onyema said the government accounted for about 92 per cent of total bond issuances on the NSE in a bid to finance fiscal and infrastructure deficits.

He said corporate organisations also leveraged the low yield environment to fund their expansion programmes and to pursue debt refinancing, raising a total of N192 billion in 2020.

Mr Onyema said capital raising activities in the fixed income market increased significantly in 2020.

Possibly, from this money, the government will pay N5,000 monthly to  one million households, over 6 months. That is where I have issues: they are yet to reach my village since 1999 with these free money. I mean, no one from my village has ever collected these freebies. It would be nice to know how these households are selected. Sure – no one desires such money, but yet the distribution should be transparent.

Following the successful activation of the Economic Sustainability Plan’s (ESP) Cash Transfer scheme aimed at delivering financial support to at least 1 million urban-based households using technology, the Buhari administration’s vision of reducing extreme poverty by lifting at least 20 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next two years is now within reach, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

More so, the President of the nation has also challenged FIRS to ensure that foreign companies operating in Nigeria pay their fair share of tax. 

“It is not enough that our citizens and local businesses pay their fair share of taxes. Equally, foreign businesses must also not be allowed to continue to exploit our markets and economy without paying appropriate taxes. Accordingly, the FIRS has my mandate to speedily put all measures in place to fully implement programmes to stamp out Base Erosion and Profit Shifting in all their ramifications and generally automate its tax processes.

“In line with this, I have directed all government agencies and business enterprises to grant FIRS access to their systems for seamless connection. FIRS must ensure that its deployment of technology for automation is done in line with international best practices. In particular, FIRS can borrow a leaf from other countries which have successfully automated their tax processes.’’

Nigeria needs all the money it can get as it would soon need to pay for Covid-19 vaccines: “Nigeria and other African countries will have to pay between $3 and $10 per COVID-19 vaccine dose to access 270 million shots secured by the African Union. This is according to a proposal on the plan prepared by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Reuters reported Wednesday.”

Besides Covid-19 vaccines, Nigeria plans to extend teachers’ retirement age. If that becomes law, the retirement age of teachers will move from 60 to 65 years, even as service years move from 35 to 40 years, notes Premium Times. That is a huge cost element as Nigeria plans to keep the experienced teachers, usually more expensive, over replacing them early, with new hires at entry levels.

A few days ago, I wrote that Amazon was partnering with Airtel to offer affordable streaming services in India: “If you look at it, the competition has shifted from pure contents to distribution. In the pure analog world, ‘content is king’, but in the digital space, besides the content, you need superb distribution as digital makes everyone local and global at the same time, shaping the order of competition. Why? In a world of unbounded supply, made possible by the web, people want the least friction for whatever you want them to use…anyone who can figure out distribution in SVOD will win a big part of the opportunity in Africa.”

Interestingly, Showmax, a business of MultiChoice, is responding immediately by blunting that potential Amazon Prime threat in the making. The company is teaming up with MTN Nigeria to “launch a special data deal for mobile subscribers. ..A Showmax Mobile subscription gives access to the full Showmax catalogue on a data-enabled mobile device” at a very competitive rate. Simply, Showmax will pay for the data costs to MTN, and with that, it is reducing the distribution frictions for users.

“Mobile streaming is an important consideration throughout Africa,” says Yolisa Phahle, CEO for General Entertainment and Connected Video at MultiChoice Group, “which is why Showmax offers mobile-only versions of Showmax subscriptions. We’re proud to have an extensive collection of the continent’s most-loved original African content to share with MTN’s customers and to introduce them to the world of streaming on Showmax.”

As I have written, to win the 21st century digital business, you must work to fix distribution costs since to a large extent, winning demand is more strategic than supply. In the SVOD (stream video on demand), a big part of the cost remains the broadband cost, and if you can reduce that for users, you will unlock more scaling. Of course, you must calibrate to ensure that you also capture value while helping the users.

The Amazon’s Playbook with Telcos; MultiChoice (DStv, Showmax) on Alert