You can't win as a new venture founder working alone. You need to have business relationships with team members, investors, customers and myriad other support people. That doesn't mean you have to be a social butterfly to succeed or introverts need not apply.

It does mean that you need to look, listen and participate in the business world around you and network through all available channels, like business-oriented social networks online (LinkedIn), local business organizations (Chamber of Commerce) and events or conferences in your school or industry.

I hope all this seems obvious to you, but I still get a good number of notes from "technologists" who have been busy inventing things all their life but can't find a partner to start their first business and others trying to find an executive, an investor or a lawyer.

What these people need is more relationships, not more experts, more blogs or more books. So I thought I would drop back to some essentials in building and nurturing business relationships (most of these apply to personal relationships as well):

1. Build your network

These are people of all levels who have been there and done that, meaning people who know something that you need to know.

See this article from a while back, "Why Professional Networking Is the Missing Piece to Your Success," on how and where to get started. You don't need a thousand friends, but a few real ones can make all the difference.

2. Give and you will receive

Relationships need to be two-way, and can't be just all about you. If you are active in helping others with what you know, they will be much more open to helping you when you need it. The more you give, the more you get in return, both literally and figuratively.

3. Work on your elevator pitch

This is a concise, well-practiced description of your idea or your business, delivered with conviction to start a relationship in the time it takes to ride up an elevator. It should end by asking for something, to start the relationship.

4. Don't skip all business social settings

Face time is critical, even with the current rage on social networks, phone texting, and email. Studies show that as much as 50 to 90% of communication is body language. That's usually the important relationship part.

5. Nominate someone as your mentor

Build a two-way relationship with several people who can help you, and then kick it up a notch with one or more, by asking them to be your mentor. Most entrepreneurs love to help others and will be honoured to help you.

6. Cultivate existing allies

These are people who already know and believe in you, but may not be able to help you directly in your new endeavours. But don't forget that each of these allies also has their own network, which can be an extension of yours, if you treat them well.

7. Nurture existing relationships

We all know someone who claims to be a "close friend," but never initiates anything. They never call, they never write and wait for you to make the first move. If you don't follow up on a regular basis with someone, there is no relationship, only a former acquaintance.

On the positive side, many attributes of an introvert lead to better business decisions, such as thinking before speaking, building deep relationships and researching problems more thoroughly.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, is currently the most famous introvert entrepreneur, so don't let anyone tell you it can't be done.

One of Mark's secrets seems to have been to surround himself with extroverts like COO Sheryl Sandberg and people who have a complementary energy.

But working alone doesn't get you very far. It takes a team to win in the game of business, so take a look around you to see how you are doing so far.

Inc

Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB), says he would restore peace in the south-east in two minutes if released from detention.

The IPOB leader said nobody in the south-east can counter his orders concerning the security situation in the region.

Kanu spoke on Tuesday after he was denied bail by Binta Nyako, presiding judge of the federal high court, Abuja.

He said violence has persisted in the region because he is being held in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS).

“Anybody committing crime cannot go free. I swear, anybody committing crime in the east cannot go free,” he said.

“They are doing it because I am in the DSS (custody). If I were to be outside, nobody could try this. I suspect that some people in government are complicit. They are making money with insecurity.

“They know if Nnamdi Kanu is outside, in two minutes this nonsense will stop. Who is the bagger or idiot that will speak when I am talking?

“That I would give an order in the east… who is the idiot that I would give an order that would counter it? Nobody can. I am Nnamdi Kanu. Rubbish!

“Anybody involved in any form of violence in the east in the name of IPOB is a goner and they know it. Let me come out of this mess, only two minutes… there will be peace in the east.”

The court ordered an accelerated hearing of the seven-count terrorism charge preferred against Kanu on Tuesday.

The Cable

Residents of Okuama community in the Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State where 16 military personnel were killed have opened up on the alleged reprisal.

It would be recalled that troops attached to 181 Amphibious Batallion, Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta were killed while on peace mission.

Trouble started when the troops responded to a distress call after the communal crisis between the Okuoma and Okoloba communities both in the South South State.

There were reports that the military went on a reprisal attack after the incident.

But reacting, Director, Defence Media Operations, Edward Buba, said the armed forces being a disciplined force complies with its rules of engagement, laws of armed conflict and respect for human rights.

Buba, a Major-General, said the military would not be led by emotions, but by the rule of law even in the face of provocation, adding that the incident would not demoralise or deter gallant troops from carrying out their constitutional duties as expected.

However, speaking with DRTV in Warri, two Okuama residents accused the military of carrying out mass killing.

The residents, who pleaded anonymity, said the soldiers had visited their community for a peacekeeping mission and were received in the town hall.

According to the residents, it was all fine until they asked to take the community chiefs away.

They said the soldiers reacted violently when the community insisted they leave without their chiefs.

On of the residents said: “On the 14th of March, we were at home when some military officials came to our community. We welcomed them and they said that they wanted to walk around the community. They walked around the community and said that they wanted to have a peace talk at the town hall.

“They went to the town hall. The military men were entertained and welcomed. They (the soldiers) asked for the community chairman and community leaders. They sat with them and had a talk. After that, they asked the chairman and some community leaders to follow them.

“We said that they had had the peace talk with the leaders already so they should leave, but the soldiers insisted they had to take them away. The people said no. From there, the army turned the whole story into violence. Right there, in the community town hall, the soldiers started shooting our people, killed many of the young people. People started running; some were killed instantly. Nobody expected any shooting.

“The army went and came back with more reinforcement. About twenty more people were killed immediately.”

Another source said: “The army – they just changed all of a sudden and opened fire on us. Women and children died. We cannot find some of our children and our parents.

“They (the soldiers) killed over 20 of our fellow residents. Some of our buildings were razed. Many residents have fled and there are even dead bodies in the bush where we have been hiding. We want the government to come to our rescue.”

Daily Trust

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has lifted its restrictions on the importation of milk and dairy products.

On February 11, 2020, the CBN added milk and dairy products to the list of items not eligible for forex.

However, in a notice to customers, Zenith Bank said the regulator had provided an update on eligible items for foreign exchange in a notice to commercial banks on March 12.

“Please be informed that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), through its circular Ref No. TED/FEM/PUB/FPC/001/010, dated March 12, 2024, has provided an update on eligible items for foreign exchange (Non-Valid for FX),” the statement reads.

“In light of the foregoing, please note that the restriction on foreign exchange for the importation of dairy products and its derivatives to all entities except selected companies has been lifted.”

Zenith Bank said any entity that meets the “necessary extant regulation requirements is allowed to source for FX at the Nigeria Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) for the transactions”.

On October 12, 2023, the apex bank announced the lifting of the ban on 43 items previously restricted from accessing forex.

“Importers of all the 43 items previously restricted by the 2015 Circular referenced TED/FEM/FPC/GEN/01/010 and its addendums are now allowed to purchase foreign exchange in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market,” the apex bank had said.

“The CBN is committed to accelerating efforts to clear the FX backlog with existing participants and will continue dialogue with stakeholders to address the issue.”

Some of the affected items include rice, cement, margarine, palm kernel, palm oil products, vegetable oils, meat and processed meat products, vegetables and processed vegetable products, poultry, tomatoes/tomato paste, soap, cosmetics, and head pans.

The Cable

Netanyahu spurns Biden plea to call off Rafah assault in Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spurned a plea from Joe Biden to call off a planned ground assault of Rafah, the last refuge in Gaza for more than a million displaced people, where Israel believes Hamas militants are holed up.

Netanyahu told lawmakers on Tuesday he had made it "supremely clear" to the U.S. president "that we are determined to complete the elimination of these battalions in Rafah, and there's no way to do that except by going in on the ground".

The two leaders spoke by phone on Monday. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Washington believed that storming Rafah would be a "mistake" and that Israel could achieve its military aims by other means.

U.S. and Israeli officials will likely meet early next week in Washington to discuss Israel's military operation in Rafah, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday, citing deep concern about reports of imminent famine in Gaza.

Jean-Pierre said Biden had asked Netanyahu to send a senior team of military, intelligence and humanitarian officials to Washington for comprehensive discussions in the coming days.

Washington has launched a new diplomatic push for a ceasefire in the nearly six-month-old war to free hostages and bring in food aid to ward off famine in the Palestinian enclave.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a trip to the Middle East in which he would meet senior leaders of Egypt and Saudi Arabia to "discuss the right architecture for a lasting peace". Unusually, Blinken made no mention of a stop in Israel itself, and the Israeli foreign ministry said it had received no notification to prepare for one.

Late on Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike on a major roundabout killed 30 people from groups that local clans had formed to secure the entry of aid trucks into Gaza City, Hamas media said. Hamas denounced the strike on groups protecting aid trucks as an effort to "spread chaos and security anarchy."

At the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, an Israeli airstrike targeting a residential building with three floors killed at least 15 people, with some believed to be trapped under its rubble, Palestinian health officials said.

The Israel Defence Forces did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the airstrikes.

In Rafah, dazed survivors walked through the ruins of a home on Tuesday morning, one of several buildings hit in overnight Israeli airstrikes that killed 14 people in the city, where more than half of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been pushed up against the southern border fence with Egypt.

At a nearby hospital morgue, relatives wailed beside corpses laid out on the cobbles. A woman peeled back a tiny bloodstained shroud to reveal the face of a small boy, rocking him back and forth in her arms.

"There’s U.S. support, European support and support of the whole world for Israel, they support them with weapons and planes," said one mourner, Ibrahim Hasouna. "They mock us and send four or five airdrops (of aid) just to save their faces."

The war was triggered when Hamas fighters crossed into Israel on a rampage on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Nearly 32,000 people have been confirmed killed in Israel's retaliatory onslaught, according to Palestinian health officials, with thousands more feared lost under the rubble.

The international hunger monitor IPC, relied on by the United Nations, said on Monday Gaza's food shortages had already far surpassed famine levels, and Gazans would soon be dying of hunger at famine-scale rates without a ceasefire.

Israel, which initially let in aid only via two checkpoints on Gaza's southern edge, denies blame for hunger in the enclave and says it is already opening new routes by land, sea and air.

It says the U.N. and other aid agencies should do more to bring in food and distribute it. The U.N. says that is impossible without better access and security, both of which it says are Israel's responsibility.

"The extent of Israel's continued restrictions on entry of aid into Gaza, together with the manner in which it continues to conduct hostilities, may amount to the use of starvation as a method of war, which is a war crime," said U.N. Human Rights Office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence.

PEACE TALKS RESUME IN QATAR

Ceasefire talks are resuming this week in Qatar after Israel rejected a Hamas counter-proposal last week. An Israeli delegation headed by the country's spy chief travelled to Qatar on Monday, although an Israeli official said Israel believed any agreement would take at least two weeks to nail down.

Both sides have been discussing a six-week truce during which about 40 Israeli hostages would be freed in return for hundreds of Palestinian detainees and aid would be rushed into the Gaza Strip.

But they have yet to narrow differences over what would follow the truce, with Israel saying it will negotiate only for a temporary pause in fighting, and Hamas saying it will not release hostages without a wider plan to end the war.

A Palestinian official close to the mediation talks told Reuters that the new round in Qatar was expected to be "very tough", accusing Israel of deliberate stalling.

Hamas said a senior police commander was killed in the Jabalia district of northern Gaza, along with his wife and children, in overnight airstrikes, the second senior police official killed in two days after another was killed in an Israeli raid on Gaza City's Al Shifa hospital.

A third police chief was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a car in central Gaza's Al-Nuseirat later on Tuesday, Hamas media reported. Five people in all were killed in the attack, including children, Palestinian health officials said.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine's survival in danger, Pentagon chief warns

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday warned that Ukraine's survival was in danger and sought to convince allies that the United States was committed to Kyiv, even as Washington has essentially run out of money to keep arming Ukrainian forces.

Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson is refusing to call a vote on a bill that would provide $60 billion more for Ukraine and the White House is scrambling to find ways to send assistance to Kyiv, which has been battling Russian forces for more than two years.

Austin is leading the monthly meeting known as the Ukraine defense contact group (UDCG), held at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, of about 50 allies that have supported Ukraine.

"Today, Ukraine's survival is in danger and America's security is at risk," Austin told a press conference after the meeting.

"I leave here today fully determined to keep U.S. security assistance and ammunition flowing. And that's a matter of survival and sovereignty for Ukraine and it's a matter of honor and security for America," he added.

Austin, who is traveling for the first time this year since prostate cancer treatment, did not say how Washington would support Ukraine without additional funding.

Officials say the lack of funding available is already having an impact on the ground in Ukraine, where Russian troops are advancing and Ukrainian forces are having to manage scarce resources.

"I think our allies are acutely aware of our funding situation and the Ukrainians more so than anyone because of the shortages that are resulting from us not being able to supply them," a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appealed to allies on Tuesday to supply more air defences, saying Russia had launched 130 missiles, more than 320 attack drones and almost 900 guided bombs in attacks this month alone.

AIR DEFENCE, UKRAINE'S PRIORITY

Speaking later in his nightly video address, Zelenskiy said air defence remained Ukraine's main concern and thanked participants for their efforts "so that this, our priority, is fulfilled in an appropriate manner".

Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, who attended the gathering, said on Telegram that participants "demonstrated their unity and resolve in helping Ukraine. Our forces are critically in need of ammunition. The ammo will be delivered!"

Last week, the Biden administration said it would send $300 million in military assistance to Ukraine, but added that it was an extraordinary move after unexpected savings from military contracts the Pentagon had made.

Officials have not ruled out that they could find additional savings, but they say that amount would not be enough to make up for the lack of Congressional action.

Experts say that Austin will face a skeptical audience in Europe.

"It's becoming harder and harder for U.S. leaders to travel to Europe, with the message that the United States is committed to Ukraine in the long-term," Rachel Rizzo, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Europe Center in Washington, said.

"The message of this long-term financial, military, economic commitment flies in the face of the reality of what's happening on Capitol Hill."

At a joint press conference in Berlin on Friday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk reaffirmed their support for Ukraine, whose ammunition-starved troops face their toughest battles since the early days of Russia's invasion two years ago.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius announced on Tuesday a 500 million euro ($543 million) aid package for Ukraine which includes 10,000 rounds of ammunition and said the United States was still a reliable partner.

"I have no doubt about the reliability of the Americans," Pistorius said. "There are particularities in the political systems, and we have to deal with that."

European support has become increasingly key with Biden unable to get a big Ukraine aid package through Congress, and much of his foreign policy energy is focused on the war in Gaza.

But U.S. officials say that the reality is that without the United States, European support for Ukraine will not be enough.

"There isn't a way that our allies can really combine forces to make up for the lack of U.S. support," the senior U.S. defense official said.

($1 = 0.9205 euros)

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

France preparing contingent of 2,000 troops to be sent to Ukraine — intelligence chief

The Russian side has information that France is preparing a military contingent of 2,000 troops to be sent to Ukraine, Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergey Naryshkin said.

"The current leadership of the country (France - TASS) does not care about the deaths of ordinary French people or about the concerns of the generals. According to information coming to the Russian SVR, a contingent to be sent to Ukraine is already being prepared. Initially, it will include around 2,000 troops," he said.

According to the Russian foreign intelligence chief, the French military "fears that such a large military unit cannot be transferred and stationed in Ukraine unnoticed."

"It will thus become a legitimate priority target for attacks by the Russian armed forces. This means that it will suffer the fate of all the French who have ever come to the Russian world with a sword," he stressed.

After a conference on Ukraine in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron did not unequivocally rule out potential sending Western land troops to the zone of the special military operation in Ukraine. He also vowed that Western states would "do what is needed" to prevent Russia’s victory in this conflict.

Reuters/Tass

  (Maestro with a Thousand Masks)  

                                    I

The last time we met
        Our laughter rang through the concert hall
The evening was young, with you readying up
        For a long expected show

Your crowd was large and young and old
        But their ageless longing
Rode the crest of the wind as you
        Swung and swayed in your purple moments

You sighted me from a distance
        Ploughed through the fold
To meet me in the threshold of
        Of a wide and busy door.

A warm embrace, then our customary question:
        “When shall we have the collabo?”*
A cryptic code over thirty years old
        Born when Songs of the Season

Made its first few outings
        On the tabloid platform
“A-niyee, those are good poems-
        We must aid their spread

With collaborative performance”. . . .
        The Generals’ iron grip undid our plan
But “collabo” survived with its conspiratorial abbreviation
        Now, alas, my Collabo Maestro has taken his last bow

                                    II

The Total Artist that you were/are
        That voice and the divinity of its honey
Its surprise-studded soprano
        Its clear command of reverence

The supple fluidity of your body
        When talkative drums sent
Your legs on errands and your hands
        Ruffled the rafters in their tender places

The smoothness of your motion
        The magic of your movement
When your maestro wonder burst the chart
        And Onilegogoro** roared into the clouds

That was when Highlife was high life
        And all Stars knew their niche
In the galaxy of celestial Lights
        Before the blinding blackout by Eating Chiefs

Then stage-centre
        In the measured melody of The Chattering
And the Song; Ovoramwe, regal victim
        Of imperial hubris; Elesin’s boundless bravura

And the deadly twilight of Kurumi’s*** uncanny courage….
        Light on, fade out, and black out
Your masks were many, the stage was your home
        The cyclorama loomed large behind your shadows

                                    III

Music and purposive mischief
        Talent and its tempting torture
That impatience with settled laws
        Which painted Liberty in lurid letters

You argued with the clock
        Queried old songs with new stanzas
Tutored ancient drums with daring steps
        As if your leg was the chosen stick

On their patient membrane.
        You chanted folklore into folklaw
Pressed idle Memory into busy banter
        Converted sleepy legends into urgent summons

Your eyes always on the young
        Who pampered ignorance into trendy fancy
Torturing native names into meaningless appellations
        Swearing in the temples of foreign gods

Songtime
        Storyland
How so valiant your striving to mend the leak
        To call on our Past to address our Future

Farewell, Olujimi Omo Solanke
        Tell the Langbodo forebears**** over there
Our feet are set on the increasingly steep climb
        Our eyes on the prize still beyond our gaze

—————-

* Three times Jimi and I tried to meet and plan the collaboration, but our effort was thwarted each time by disruptions caused by the military juntas that had Nigeria in their stranglehold in that period.

** A chartbuster highlife record by Roy Chicago in the sixties. Jimi Solanke was reputed to have authored  the lyrics.

***  Reference to four important plays that had Jimi Solanke as main feature: “The Chattering and the Song”, a stupendously lyrical play by Femi Osofian; “Ovoramwen Nogbaisi” and “Kurumi”  by Ola Rotimi; “Death and the King’s Horseman” by Wole Soyinka.

**** Langbodo forebears: the late D.O. Fagunwa and Wale Ogunyemi: the former’s fiction gave us Oke Langbodo, while the latter used it as both trope and title for a pan-Nigerian, pan-African epic drama.

Niyi Osundare, one of Africa’s foremost poets and academics, is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of English, University of New Orleans. 

PT

A majority of people, 95%, intend to look for a new job this year, according to a January 2024 survey by jobsite Monster. And many anticipate it will be challenging. More than half, 68% say they think it will be difficult to find one given the state of the economy.

While finding work opportunities can be challenging, there are ways to conduct yourself that could make doing so even harder.

“There’s something called validation seeking behavior, aka desperation,” says Lindsay Mustain, a former Amazon recruiter and current CEO of career coaching company Talent Paradigm. She adds that “it’s that ‘pick me’ energy that actually repels the opportunity.”

Here’s how to avoid giving it off.

Don’t apply to a company over and over

First, avoid applying to jobs in the company over and over again, especially in a short period of time.

If Mustain sees that “you’ve applied 20 times in the last two years and we’ve never hired you once,” she says, that’s a red flag. She immediately thinks, “something’s wrong with that candidate for them to have not been hired by this point.”

Regardless of how much of a fit you might be for the job, a recruiter’s likely not going to take the time to investigate your candidacy further.

“This is how you can kind of get blacklisted,” she says. Try to limit your internal applications to a maximum of five roles that you closely align with in the company.

Don’t use LinkedIn’s ‘open to work’ banner

Another red flag for a recruiter: the “open to work” banner on LinkedIn.

Just by putting up that one signal on the site, “we already know that you need something,” says Mustain. It means that you might not be as picky when it comes to your job opportunities, that you might not be moving your career forward in a measured way that helps you build skills and get better.

“It reduces the appearance of being a high caliber candidate,” she says. Plus, it changes the dynamic in a conversation with a hiring manager. Now, they’re not trying to convince you of a great job opportunity because they want you at the company. Instead, you’re trying to convince them to consider you.

Nolan Church, CEO of talent marketplace Continuum and ex-Google recruiter, agrees. Using the banner “actually feels to a hiring manager like desperation,” he previously told CNBC Make It.

“It’s kind of like asking for a handout on the corner,” says Mustain.

Don’t show up ‘very wounded and hurt’ on social media

Finally, if you’re unemployed, don’t post your unemployment status on social media, especially if you’re inclined to do so from a place of hurt. Mustain gives the example of a post like the following:

“I just got laid off and I have two kids at home and I really need another job, like, as soon as possible. So if you could please introduce me to every person that you know that has a possible opening, I would be so grateful.”

Though sad and a cause for sympathy, people who post like statuses are “showing up very wounded and hurt,” she says. They’re “bleeding out on social media.” Ultimately, they’re showing a weakness in a similar way to people who include the “open to work” banner on their LinkedIn profiles. It’s clear they need something.

A post like that “repels people because they’re not coming from a place of strength,” says Mustain.

Instead, if you’ve been laid off and want to signal to the world that you’re looking for new opportunities, try framing the situation as a new beginning or a chance for growth and sharing concrete examples of your past contributions and successes. You can also share what you’ve learned and how your experiences have equipped you for future challenges. All of this “demonstrates adaptability and a forward-looking mindset to potential employers,” she says.

Remember, “you don’t need any job,” says Mustain. “You want a good job.”

CNBC

Nigeria’s total imports grew to N35.9tn in 2023, from N25.5tn recorded in 2022, according to data by the National Bureau of Statistics.

A breakdown of the data showed that in the first and second quarters of 2023, total imports were N6.4tn. It increased to N9tn in the third quarter and again to N14tn in the fourth quarter.

By volume, manufactured imports topped the chart with imports worth N18.3tn. Agric imports N2.2tn while imports of raw materials totalled N3tn.

On the other hand, Nigeria was able to churn out exports worth N35.9tn. However much of these were under the category of crude oil which constituted N29tn while exports of other oil products were N3.5tn.

Agricultural exports were N1.2tn while manufactured goods exported outside Nigeria totalled N778bn.

This means that Nigeria recorded a balance of trade of –N1tn in the agricultural sector and a staggering –N17.5tn in the manufacturing sector.

Speaking with our correspondent, Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Muda Yusuf blamed naira depreciation for the significant increase in exports on a year-on-year basis.

He said, “I think it is because of the naira depreciation. If you are importing something that was $1m when the exchange rate was N450, now you are importing products worth $1m and the exchange rate is N1,500.

“That is three times already if you multiply it in naira. So, in dollar terms, it is possible that the import has even reduced. We have to consider that.”

According to NBS data, the total non-oil export of Nigeria in 2019 (the highest in recent times) was just about $9.13bn.

While presenting a paper at an event organised by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Director-General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Segun Ajayi-Kadir said Nigeria has not done well in global export trade as it ranked 52nd among nations.

He added that the country has also not done well domestically in terms of the share of non-oil and manufactured exports to total exports.

He listed factors militating against exports including the high cost of local and imported raw materials, insecurity across the country, including industrial areas, dearth of skilled manpower.

Others include high cost of transportation, forex instability and deterioration in exchange rate, inadequate access to funds/high-interest rates on commercial bank loans

He said, “However, the discovery of crude oil brought a shift that made the country majorly depend on the oil sector to the neglect of other sectors.

“This made the economy susceptible to fluctuations in revenue, occasioned by the usual instability associated with the prices of crude oil in the international market.”

In January, the Executive Director of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Nonye Ayeni, while addressing the media on the performance report of the non-oil export sector for 2023, said the value of Nigeria’s non-oil export revenue recorded a marginal decrease to $4.5bn.

The drop represents a $300m or 6.3 per cent decline from the $4.8bn revenue accrued to government coffers in 2022 and $500m less than the $5bn target set by the council for the year.

She said, “In 2022, there was a $4.8bn in terms of value. And in 2023, there was a marginal decline to $4.5bn. But we got an increase in the volume of exports. In 2023, we had 6.68, million metric tons of manufactured, semi-processed, solid minerals to agricultural commodities.”

Explaining reasons for the decline, Nonye blamed the weak poor exchange rate, the surge in informal trade, political instability in neighbouring countries and export rejection amongst others.

Punch

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered Binance Holdings Limited to release to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, a comprehensive detail of all persons from Nigeria trading on its platform.

Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange platform that lists more than 350 digital currencies, which serve as alternative form of payment, using encryption algorithms.

The government had earlier asked Binance for information on its top 100 users in the country, as well as all transaction history for the past six months.

Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Olayemi Cardoso, had on February 27, disclosed that about $26 billion passed through Binance from unidentified sources.

In an abrupt move on March 8, the crypto firm discontinued all transactions in naira on its exchange platform, following reports that the government demanded $10bn as retribution for profiting from “its illegal transactions” in Nigeria.

However, in an ex-parte motion it filed before the court, the EFCC said it would need detailed data of Binance users in the country to aid its ongoing investigation on issues relating to money laundering and terrorism financing.

The ex-parte motion, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/259/2024, was filed pursuant to Sections 6(b), (h), (I), 7(1), (a)(2), and 38 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Establishment Act, 2004 and Section 15 of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 (as amended) and the inherent powers of the court.

Vanguard