LAGOS DECEMBER 17TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Saudi Arabia reduced its budget plan for 2021 by 7 percent from this year’s in response to the economic fallout of the pandemic, which pushed oil prices to multi-year lows. Reuters reported that Riyadh will spend some $264 billion next year, or 990 billion riyals, as it battles a substantial deficit resulting…
LAGOS DECEMBER 16TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Saudi Arabia sought to deploy a ten-man security team with diplomatic immunity to Norway in an attempt to target a critic of Mohammad bin Salman, the Kingdom’s Crown Prince, according to Norwegian media reports. Dagbladet, one of Norway’s largest newspapers, reported that Saudi Arabia requested in the summer of 2018 that all…
LAGOS JULY 1ST (NEWSRANGERS) – Saudis braced Wednesday for a tripling in value added tax, another unpopular austerity measure after the twin shocks of coronavirus and an oil price slump triggered the kingdom’s worst economic decline in decades. Retailers in the country reported a sharp uptick in sales this week of everything from gold and…
LAGOS JUNE 23RD (NEWSRANGERS)-Saudi Arabia has barred Muslims around the world from traveling to the kingdom to compete the Hajj pilgrimage this year, a decision that will see it lose billions in revenue. “It has been decided that Hajj for this year will be held whereby a very limited number of pilgrims from various nationalities…
LAGOS JUNE 6TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, has said that he is not bothered about being re-elected in 2023. In a chat with journalists in Lafia, the state capital, to mark his first anniversary in office, the governor said he was grateful to God for giving him a four-year mandate; a period he deems…
LAGOS MAY 27TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Saudi Arabia said it will end its nationwide coronavirus curfew from June 21, except in the holy city of Mecca, the interior ministry said Tuesday, after more than two months of stringent curbs. Prayers will also be allowed to resume in all mosques outside Mecca from May 31, the ministry said in…
LAGOS MAY 13TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Saudi Arabia will enforce a countrywide 24-hour curfew during the five-day Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday later this month to help stem the spread of the coronavirus, the interior ministry said on Tuesday. The curfew will apply from May 23-May 27 following the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. Until then, commercial…
LAGOS MAY 12TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Saudi Arabia’s finance minister on Monday said the kingdom will triple its Value Added Tax and halt monthly handout payments to citizens in new austerity measures amid record low oil prices and a coronavirus-led economic slump. The measures, which could stir public resentment with the cost of living rising, come as the…
