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Monday, 18 March 2024 04:27

FG in talks with World Bank for yet another $1bn loan for IDPs, others

Federal Government is in talks with the World Bank to complete the processes of obtaining over $1bn loans to address the challenges facing Internally Displaced Persons and their host communities, as well as bolster rural access and agricultural marketing in the country. The request is contained in World Bank documents titled, ‘Solutions for the Internally Displaced and Host Communities Project’ and ‘Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project – Scale Up.’ While the IDP loan is put at $500m, the rural access and agricultural marketing project loan is estimated at $550m. According to the documents provided on the bank’s website, the…

Sunday, 17 March 2024 05:00

Outrage as FG signs P&ID-type MOU with dormant UK company for railway construction

Some Nigerians have expressed displeasure over the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the ministry of transportation and MPH Rail Development Limited. The company, registered in the UK, is expected to manage the design, construction, commissioning, operation, and eventual transfer of the Port Harcourt-Enugu-Calabar-Abuja standard gauge rail line. “The Minister of Transportation, Said Alkali on behalf of @NigeriaGov has signed an MoU with Messrs MPH Rail Development (UK) Limited for the design, construction, operation & transfer of the Port Harcourt–Enugu –Calabar–Abuja SGR Line on a PPP basis,” the ministry wrote on its X page. The ministry said the…

Saturday, 16 March 2024 04:33

Internet outage in Nigeria, others risks leaving millions offline for weeks - Bloomberg

Disruption to internet services for millions of users in Africa could take weeks or even months to fix, following damage to undersea cables off the continent’s west coast. Eight West African countries were suffering a second day of major connectivity issues on Friday with users in South Africa also affected, after damage to four sub-sea cables. The cause of the cable cutting was still not known, though a shifting of the seabed was among the likely possibilities. “Repairs can take weeks to months, depending on where the damage is, what needs to be repaired, and local weather conditions,” said a…

Saturday, 16 March 2024 04:30

Nigeria’s inflation hits 28-year high, among Africa’s 10 worst - Report

Consumer prices remain high in Nigeria, as the February Consumer Price Index (CPI) reading otherwise known as inflation, released yesterday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicated that headline inflation scaled by 1.8 percentage points (ppts) to 31.7%, the highest level since April 1996. The inflation rate, which was a negative surprise to analysts, outpaced the Bloomberg consensus estimate of 31.3% and the 31.1% projection of analysts at CardinalStone Finance, a Lagos based investment house.The unabated inflation pressure indicates that Nigeria remains within the top 10 countries with the highest inflation reading in Africa. Most inflationary pressure in Nigeria…

Friday, 15 March 2024 04:47

Glo 1 survives as undersea cables serving MTN, others get damaged - causing downtime for banks in Nigeria

Banks in Nigeria have been affected by a damage to submarine cables, causing internet outages in parts of Africa. The submarine cable cuts, on Thursday, affected subsea cable providers and disrupted internet traffic in major parts of the continent. According to reports, the damage affected major undersea cables near Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire, affecting submarine communications cables, including West Africa Cable System (WACS), the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), MainOne, and SAT3. The issue is said to be causing downtime across West and South African countries, affecting telecommunications network as well as banks in Nigeria. In a notice to customers…

Friday, 15 March 2024 04:45

Makinde announces death of Olubadan of Ibadanland

Mohood Lekan Balogun, Alli Okunmade II, the Olubadan of Ibadanland, is dead. The monarch, who ascended the throne of his ancestors two years ago, died at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, on Thursday. Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo state who announced the king’s death in a statement Thursday night, described Balogun as an epitome of royal excellence and a great achiever, who made great marks on Ibadanland in just a little over two years of his reign. He expressed his condolences to the Olubadan-in-Council, the Oyo State Traditional Council and the people of Ibadanland and Oyo State,…

Thursday, 14 March 2024 04:52

Budget padding: ‘Personal interests’ projects worth N2trn inserted into 2024 budget by NASS members - BudgIT

BudgIT, a civic-tech non-profit organisation, says the national assembly inserted 7,447 constituency projects worth N2.24 trillion in the 2024 project. The organisation said most of the projects inserted into the budget by the national assembly have “no national significance but narrowed to personal interests”. BudgIT, on Wednesday, released a report on its findings of the allegation of budget padding by the national assembly made by Abdul Ningi, senator representing Bauchi central. BACKGROUND Last Saturday, Ningi stirred controversy when he alleged that the 2024 budget was padded by N3 trillion and that the country is operating two budgets concurrently. The Bauchi…

Thursday, 14 March 2024 04:51

Senate windfall: ‘I got N266m, not N500’, senator confesses

Senator representing Abia South, Enyinnaya Abaribe, has said contrary to the claim that some ranking senators received N500 million from the 2024 budget, he had only received N266 million. A federal lawmaker representing Cross River North, Jarigbe Agom-Jarigbe, had during plenary, on Tuesday, said that some senior senators had received N500 million each from the 2024 budget. The revelation came on the heel of an ongoing controversy over an allegation of budget padding made by Abdul Ningi in an interview with BBC Hausa. Ningi had earlier accused the Senate of padding the 2024 budget, saying the National Assembly added an…

Thursday, 14 March 2024 04:50

Foreign direct investments in Nigeria will shrink in 2024 due to ‘corruption, cronyism, rampant insecurity’, others – EIU

An international business research firm, the Economist Intelligence Unit, has declared that indigenous oil companies acquiring assets of divesting international oil companies will not be able to match their investing power. The EIU, in its latest Country Report on Nigeria, observed that the indigenous companies would not have the same financial power to invest as the multinationals, who had been the major drivers of the Nigerian oil industry since its inception. It feared that there might be a net withdrawal of foreign direct investment in 2024, as it happened in the previous year. “The wider business environment will remain highly…

Thursday, 14 March 2024 04:49

Tinubu lifts all sanctions against Niger

President Bola Tinubu has directed the opening of Nigeria’s land and air borders with the Republic of Niger. Presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday said the directive was in compliance with the decision of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Authority of Heads of State and Government at its extraordinary summit on February 24, 2024, in Abuja. The statement also directed the lifting of other sanctions against the country with immediate effect. At its extraordinary summit on February 24, 2024, in Abuja the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government had agreed…

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Wednesday, 13 March 2024 04:52

Two top Binance executives remain in detention in Nigeria. Here’s what we know so far about their case

Relatives of the two Binance executives detained in Nigeria amid a crackdown on the crypto exchange platform on Tuesday spoke about their expectations of a quick resolution with the Nigerian authorities. According to the families of the two executives, the officials are 39-year-old Tigran Gambaryan, an American and Binance’s head of financial crime compliance, and 37-year-old Nadeem Anjarwalla, a UK and Kenyan national who is Binance’s regional manager for Africa. This newspaper reported how the Nigerian government detained the two executives of the crypto exchange platform amid desperate efforts to stabilise the nation’s foreign exchange market. Federal government sources with…

Wednesday, 13 March 2024 04:51

‘Some senators got N500m each for constituency projects, I didn’t get’, senator says - causing uproar

There was a rowdy session in the senate on Tuesday when Jarigbe Jarigbe, a lawmaker, claimed that some “senior senators” got N500 million in the 2024 budget for constituency projects. Jarigbe made the claim while contributing to the motion moved by Solomon Adeola, senator representing Ogun west, on the allegation of budget padding. The Ogun west senator said his privilege was breached because he participated in the budgeting process. During the weekend, Abdul Ningi, senator representing Bauchi central, stirred a controversy when he alleged that the 2024 budget was padded with the sum of N3 trillion by the senate. Ningi…

Tuesday, 12 March 2024 04:32

Migrant health workers no longer allowed to bring family members into UK - Official

UK authorities have banned health workers from bringing dependants to the country. The UK Home Office made this known in a statement released on Monday. The statement said the new rules to cut net migration and tackle visa abuse “in force as part of the government’s plan to bring down unsustainable levels of legal migration”. In a tweet, the Home Office wrote, “From today, care workers entering the UK on Health and Care Worker visas can no longer bring dependants. This is part of our plan to deliver the biggest ever cut in migration.” While laying out implication of the…

Tuesday, 12 March 2024 04:30

Construction firm responds to NBA’s allegation of shoddy work in Oyo High Court building

RTD Thompson Ltd., an Abuja-based construction firm, has taken the Oyo State Chapter of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to task over misgivings the body expressed on the durability and quality of work on a ceremonial hall it is building for the state government at the state high court complex in Ibadan, the state capital. The body of lawyers had expressed doubts about the quality of job done on the structure in a memo to Governor Seyi Makinde complaining about hindrances to appointment of judges to redress the shortfall in the state's judiciary. In the letter dated January 30, 2024…

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