The 2020-2021 Fiscal Year budget, Facebook Fact-checking in Burundi and more
The Briefing Issue #77, Tuesday, April 21, 2020
This is the online version of RegionWeek for decision-makers and young professionals, a newsletter about depth and context to Burundi and East Africa stories— written by me, Fabrice Iranzi. You can sign up for your own subscription to get concise information about game-changing events and insights straight to your inbox:
Dear RegionWeek Reader,
This Tuesday in Bujumbura the first 4 patients of COVID 19 were discharged, a week after they tested negative. They have been authorized to return to their respective families. Burundi reports 5 new coronavirus cases all had contact with previous cases the total of active cases is now 6.
The Source du Nil hotel, which has accommodated passengers of flights from European Countries to Burundi, will now be used to quarantine the persons who had been in contact with positive cases of COVID19. According to the Burundi Minister of Health "It is not easy for all households to find an isolation room".
1578.03 billion BIF: the General Budget for 2020-2021 Fiscal Year
The National Assembly met this Tuesday to analyze the bill establishing the General Budget of the State of the Republic of Burundi, the Fiscal year 2020-2021. The Minister of Finance Dr. Domitien Ndihokubwayo was the guest of the Assembly. The Budget of the state of Burundi went from 1516.4 billion BIF for the Fiscal Year 2019-2020 to 1578.03 billion BIF in the draft budget for 2020-2021, a 3.9%. increase.
According to the Burundi Minister of Finance for this fiscal year, the policy of prioritization and prudence in the execution of the state budget will be maintained by properly controlling and managing any activity or event involving public expenditure within the personalized administrations of the state.
After analyzing the bill establishing the General Budget for the 2020-2021 fiscal year, 105 Member of Parliament adopted it unanimously.
Burundi joins facebook’s Fact-checking program
In partnership with PesaCheck, Facebook announced the extension of its third-party fact-checking program to three additional countries, namely Ethiopia, Burundi, and Mali, which join the 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa where the program is active.
This is part of Facebook's ongoing work to help assess the accuracy and quality of the information found on the platform while reducing the spread of false information.
In Ethiopia, Burundi and Mali, the articles, as well as the photos and videos, will be verified by PesaCheck, an organization certified by the international network IFCN (International Fact-Checking Network).
Once Pesa Check has verified the facts of an article, the verification work will be posted in the Related Articles section, immediately below the relevant article in the newsfeed. Page administrators and Facebook users will also receive a notification if they try to share an article or have already shared an article in the past that has been classified as fake, allowing everyone to decide what to do.
Pesa Check is a fact-checking initiative to verify the financial and other statistical numbers quoted by public figures across East Africa.
Thanks for reading!
Fabrice Iranzi,
Editor, RegionWeek.com
If you wish to support this Newsletter we created a $5/Month subscription plan, you can join our Premium community of supporters by clicking here
IN THE REGION
Rwanda is testing a locally made ventilator to use in the treatment of New Coronavirus patients which was developed by a team of engineers at the Integrated Polytechnic Regional Centre (IPRC).
Eng. Diogène Mulindahabi, the Principal of IPRC Kigali said there a number of health professionals who are involved in the process, pointing out that IPRC Kigali is working to finalize the first “Made in Rwanda” ventilator.
With the shortage of ventilators worldwide, Rwandan engineers are hoping to be manufacturing one respirator every 8 days. (KT PRESS).
Tanzania's Health ministry has announced that inter-denominational prayers will be held on Wednesday, April 22 at Karimjee grounds in Dar es Salaam starting at 9 am.
Masses have been urged to attend and pray to God to keep coronavirus out of Tanzania. The biggest East African nation is one of the few countries that have ignored calls to impose social distancing measures, saw its cases spike by 84 new cases to 254 yesterday, April 20, 2020.
Magufuli has brushed off his critics and insists coronavirus can be defeated with the blood of Jesus. He also called on all Moslems to throng their Mosques and pray to God to kick the 'satanic' coronavirus out of Tanzania. (Observer)
RegionWeek is a Burundi-based media for a new generation of achievers in Africa, a platform devoted to chronicling the journey to Freedom and Empowerment.