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Sunday, 14 April 2024 04:49

The much anticipated Iranian attack on Israel happened last night. Here’s what we know so far

Iran launched a swarm of explosive drones and fired missiles at Israel late on Saturday in its first-ever direct attack on Israeli territory, risking a major escalation as the United States pledged "ironclad" backing for Israel. Sirens wailed and Reuters journalists in Israel said they heard distant heavy thuds and bangs from what local media called aerial interceptions of explosive drones. Authorities said a 7-year-old girl was critically injured. Israel's military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Iran launched dozens of ground-to-ground missiles at Israel, most of which were intercepted outside Israeli borders. They included more than 10 cruise missiles, he said.…

Sunday, 14 April 2024 04:48

Nigeria pioneers roll out of new meningitis vaccine, WHO says

Nigeria has become the first country in the world to roll out the "revolutionary" new Men5CV vaccine against meningitis, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. Nigeria is one of the hotspots of the deadly disease in Africa. Last year, a 50% rise in annual cases was reported across 26 African countries regarded as meningitis hyperendemic countries, according to the WHO. “Nigeria's rollout brings us one step closer to our goal to eliminate meningitis by 2030," Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO Director General, was quoted as saying in a statement. Between last October and mid-March this year, 1,742 cases were suspected in the…

Saturday, 13 April 2024 04:56

Buyers shun Nigerian oil, ‘with more than half of scheduled cargoes unsold’

Nigeria’s crude for May loading has been very slow to find buyers so far, with more than half of the scheduled cargoes yet clear. More than 30 of the nation’s cargoes are still looking for buyers, according to traders specializing in West African crudes. A total of at least 53 are scheduled to load from Nigeria next month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Most of the consignments are one million barrels. The country’s crude cargoes can be openly traded into either Asia, Europe or even the US, making the pace of sales a closely watched market detail. Demand for…

Saturday, 13 April 2024 04:55

Nigerian military clamps down on oil thieves, bandits in week-long operation

Nigeria's military said on Friday it had inflicted heavy losses on Islamist militant groups in the north and oil thieves in the south, arresting hundreds, seizing weapons and rescuing kidnap victims in a week-long operation. Defence spokesperson Edward Buba said in a statement that troops had killed or wounded 188 militants and arrested 330 suspects across different locations in the country. Security forces also arrested 36 suspected oil thieves in the Niger delta region and freed 133 kidnap victims, seizing around 270 weapons and more than 5,000 rounds of ammunition during the entire operation. "The armed forces are working decisively…

Saturday, 13 April 2024 04:54

Power generation drops 32 percent despite tariff hike

Amidst ongoing dust raised by the new electricity tariff at the backdrop of inadequate power supply, electricity generation nosedived to 2,775 megawatts, MW, yesterday, a 32.3 per cent decline from 4,099.87MW recorded last week. This was contained in the data released by the Nigeria Electricity System Operator, NESO, a semi-autonomous unit of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN. Findings by Vanguard indicated that there has been no improvement in the power value chain despite the recent review of Band A power consumers’ billing as there is yet inadequate supply of gas to the thermal stations, including the poor state of…

Saturday, 13 April 2024 04:47

N15.6trn Coastal Highway contract ill-advised, shady, wasteful - Afenifere

PRESS RELEASE Despite Afenifere's March 2nd 2024 initial public demand for transparency of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway contract awarded to Chagoury’s Hitech Construction Company, and ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar further probing last week, the government has failed to answer the calls for transparency, and continues the nearly twenty years wastage on the Lagos-Epe corridor. Afenifere demands more clarity on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway Contract, especially the Lekki-Epe corridor that has been a source of controversy since 2008, when it was awarded as Private Public Partnership contract to Craneburg Construction of 29 Bourdillion Avenue, President Bola Tinubu's neighbours with obscure directors,…

Friday, 12 April 2024 04:52

DisCos pocket new tariff rate for Band A customers while apologizing several times for failure to meet 20hrs supply

One week after the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) increased electricity tariff for Band A customers to N225 per kilowatt hour from N68, electricity distribution companies are finding it hard to sustain the 20-24 hour supply to their customers on the band. It would be recalled that NERC had on April 3 increased the tariff for electricity customers that enjoyed a minimum of 20 hours electricity supply daily with the aim of attracting investment into the sector and freeing the government from the continuous payment of subsidy for rich customers. But it was observed that one week after the increase,…

Friday, 12 April 2024 04:51

Nigeria’s oil production has been falling from January through March, OPEC reports

Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) says Nigeria’s average daily crude oil production dropped to 1.23 million barrels per day (bpd) in March 2024. OPEC disclosed this in its monthly oil market report released on Thursday. The oil alliance said the production data was based on direct communication with Nigerian authorities. OPEC receives data on crude oil production from two sources: direct communication — which is from members of the group; as well as secondary communication, such as energy intelligence platforms. The oil cartel said the current output figure represents a 6.88 percent decrease from the 1.32 million bpd recorded…

Friday, 12 April 2024 04:50

Oil prices head back up on Middle East tensions

Oil prices rose in early trade on Friday on heightened tensions in the Middle East, where Iran has promised to retaliate for a suspected Israeli air strike on its embassy in Syria, which could risk disruptions to supply from the oil producing region. Brent crude futures climbed 34 cents, or 0.38%, to $90.08 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 44 cents, or 0.51%, to $85.45, at 0033 GMT. The gains erased some losses from the previous session, which was dominated by worries about stubborn U.S. inflation that dampened hopes for an interest rate cut as early…

Friday, 12 April 2024 04:49

Russian military instructors, equipment arrive Niger Republic

A Russian military cargo plane has brought a team of instructors and various equipment to assist the Nigerien army with counter-terrorism training, according to the West African nation’s media reports. The Russian instructors arrived in the country on Wednesday night, public broadcaster Radio Television du Niger (RTN) reported late Thursday, airing footage of a military plane unloading cargo. “We are here to train the Nigerien army... to develop military cooperation between Russia and Niger,” said a man in camouflage interviewed by RTN. “We have a lot of experience in fighting terrorism. And we are here to share this experience with…

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Thursday, 11 April 2024 04:50

Doing business in Nigeria costs 5 times more than in USA - World Bank

As a result of insecurity, higher transportation costs, poor topography and bad roads, the cost of trade in Nigeria is four to five times higher than what is obtained in the United States, the World Bank has revealed. In its latest Africa Pulse released, the global bank said market distortions across Africa result in high price differentials in imported food and non-food products, indicating a lack of integration across African markets. “Similarly, access to product markets is constrained, which prevents firms and farms from scaling up production. In particular, the lack of connectivity and market integration means that markets are…

Thursday, 11 April 2024 04:47

NAFDAC recalls J&J children's cough syrup over toxic substance

Nigeria's health regulator is recalling a batch of Johnson & Johnson children's cough syrup after finding an unacceptably high level of a potentially fatal toxic substance, it said on Wednesday. Laboratory tests on Benylin Paediatric showed a high level of diethylene glycol, which has been linked to the deaths of dozens of children in Gambia, Uzbekistan and Cameroon since 2022 in one of the world's worst waves of poisoning from oral medication. The syrup is used to treat cough and congestion-related symptoms, hay fever and other allergic reactions in children aged two to 12, Nigeria's National Agency for Food and…

Wednesday, 10 April 2024 04:49

FG grants additional day for Eid -El-Fitr public holiday

Federal Government has extended the public holiday for this year’s Eid -El-Fitr celebration to cover Thursday. It has earlier declared Tuesday and Wednesday as public holiday for the celebration, but added Thursday, making it three days declared for the end of Ramadan celebration. The latest announcement was contained in a press statement signed by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Interior, Aishetu Gogo Ndayako on Tuesday. The statement read. “The Federal Government has approved Thursday 11th April, 2024 as an additional public holiday to celebrate this year’s Eid -El-Fitr. Thisday

Tuesday, 09 April 2024 05:03

CBN bars banks from using FX-denominated collateral for naira loans

Central Bank of Nigeria has barred commercial lenders from accepting foreign currency-denominated collateral to grant naira loans, a move that could protect the banking system against a strengthening of the local currency, it said on Monday. The regulator said in a circular that the practice it had observed of bank customers using foreign currency as collateral for naira loans was "prohibited". The CBN on Monday said it approved Eurobonds issued by the government or letters of credit issued by an offshore bank as eligible foreign currency collateral. It told lenders to wind down all loans currently secured with dollar-denominated collateral…

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