Special Reports

Saturday, 02 March 2024 04:44

Naira devaluation touted to attract foreign investments does the exact opposite as multinationals leave - Bloomberg

As Nigeria’s vice president cut the ribbon on Procter & Gamble Co.’s diaper production line in 2017, the $300 million facility near Lagos was hailed as a symbol of the country’s economic ambitions. In December, P&G said it was leaving the West African state. The US consumer goods giant is not alone. In recent months at least three other global conglomerates have announced they are exiting Africa’s most populous nation, and second biggest economy. Among them GSK Plc, Bayer AG and Sanofi SA. Last year Unilever Plc cut some of the products it was manufacturing in the country. Nestle SA…

Tuesday, 27 February 2024 04:48

Standard Chartered Bank’s Naira trading gives glimpse of how banks make a killing in Nigeria’s FX market. This is what happened

Standard Chartered Plc had a wild 2023 with Nigeria’s volatile currency as the African nation struggled with foreign-exchange rules to attract investment from overseas and boost the supply of dollars. The London-based lender, in its corporate filings last week, said it made almost $120 million in a single day on June 1, in anticipation of new policies including an impending naira devaluation. By November, its position whipsawed as it made around $40 million only to lose more than $20 million later after the government announced a crackdown on the black market, where the US dollar at one point commanded a…

Saturday, 24 February 2024 04:27

Men and women's brains do work differently, scientists discover for first time

The brains of men and women operate differently, scientists have shown for the first time in a breakthrough that shows sex does matter in how people think and behave. ‌The issue of whether male and female brains are distinct has proven controversial, with some academics arguing it is society – rather than biology – that shapes divergence. ‌There has never been any definitive proof of difference in activity in the brains of men and women, but Stanford University has shown that it is possible to tell the sexes apart based on activity in “hotspot” areas. ‌They include the “default mode…

Thursday, 22 February 2024 05:06

Hardship spreads as Nigeria’s economy suffers from currency crisis, soaring inflation - CNBC

With inflation nearing 30% and its currency hitting an all-time low, Nigeria is facing one of its worst economic crises in years. The latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday showed that the headline consumer price index (CPI) rose to 29.9% year-on-year in January, its highest level since 1996. The surging cost of living and economic hardship sparked protests across the country over the weekend. With annual inflation nearing 30% and a currency in freefall, Nigeria is facing one of its worst economic crises in years, provoking nationwide outrage and protests. The Nigerian naira hit a new…

Thursday, 15 February 2024 04:52

Cooking gas, diesel prices rise, as power generation dips - Report

Nigeria’s households and businesses are going through very difficult times as a result of the continued escalation of cooking gas, diesel and other resources. This becomes unbearable as their incomes have not experienced any meaningful increase in the past few years, which also recorded a significant drop in the value of the Naira, currently going for N1,515/$ at the official market. A market survey by Energy Vanguard, weekend, indicated that the price of cooking gas (12.5kg) that was N11, 250 in December 2023, has risen to N15, 000, indicating an increase of 33.3 per cent. Similarly, the price of diesel…

Sunday, 11 February 2024 04:55

Cry of hunger grows louder nationwide as rice approaches N80,000 per bag, beans N65,000

This is not the best of times for Nigerian families, who have had to adopt bizarre cost-cutting measures to cope with the recent hardship occasioned by the dramatic hike in the prices of goods and services. Several of them lamented that their income could no longer take care of their daily needs, adding that the prices of staples had almost tripled in the market. Rice, which is arguably one of the commonest consumed staples in the country, has risen to N77,000 per bag. In December, the National Bureau of Statistics stated that the country’s inflation rate hit a 27-year high…

Wednesday, 07 February 2024 04:49

Housing shortfalls worsen, rents spike as costs of building materials, labour soar 200% - Report

Like every other sector, the building and construction industry may be witnessing one of its worst moments, as exchange rate, building materials, and labour prices have triggered an increase in construction costs by 200 per cent in the last two years. Nigeria’s inflation rate as of December 2023 climbed to 28.9 per cent. The recent upsurge in inflation is primarily linked to the effects of petrol subsidy removal and the devaluation of the official exchange rate, both exerting substantial impacts on consumer prices. The exchange rate crisis has worsened the woes of the building sector. The direct effect of exchange…

Sunday, 04 February 2024 04:42

‘My life will be short. So on the days I can, I really live’: Dying people explain what really matters

Philippa Kelly ‘I don’t sweat the small stuff any more’ Mari Isdale, 40, Greater Manchester, England In 2015, Isdale, then 31, was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer and given 18 months to live. Despite a period of remission and 170 rounds of chemotherapy, the disease has since spread to her lymph nodes. I always thought, “I’ll get my career sorted, then we’ll get married, have children, go travelling.” And then cancer happened. You grieve for your future self. Your imagined children and your career. If I died tomorrow, what I’d be saying on my deathbed is I regret not…

Tuesday, 30 January 2024 04:53

2,423 persons killed, 1,872 others abducted since Tinubu became president - Report

Civil society groups, under the aegis of the Civil Society Joint Action Group, said 17,469 Nigerians were abducted under the Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Tinubu administrations from 2019 to date. Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Monday, the Civil Society Joint Action Group, revealed that 2,423 persons had been killed, while 1,872 others had been abducted since the inauguration of President Tinubu. Speaking on behalf of the group, the Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, said insecurity had persisted over the last three administrations, with 24,816 Nigerians killed and 15,597 persons abducted…

Monday, 22 January 2024 04:48

Red Sea crisis: What it takes to reroute the world's biggest cargo ships on a 4,000 mile detour

The Red Sea, a vital shipping lane, is under attack – what are the alternatives? You can see exactly where the drone attack hit. Just look for the grisly black scorch marks staining the ship's white paint. On 17 January, the MV Genco Picardy, a US-owned bulk carrier, became the latest victim of Houthi rebel assaults on commercial ships sailing through the Red Sea. One of the world's busiest shipping lanes is now, surely, the most dangerous. Since November, Yemen's Houthi rebel group has targeted vessels passing through the strait of Bab al-Mandab, a 20 mile (32km) wide channel that…

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Sunday, 21 January 2024 04:47

As kidnappings increase nationwide, communities devise measures to avoid attacks. Here’s what people are doing across the country

Many citizens are taking to self-help to combat the recent spike in kidnapping and killings across the country, especially in the urban centres. Some residents of the Federal Capital Territory as well as Taraba, Kaduna, Borno, Katsina and Plateau states, who spoke to our correspondents, said they were making life-changing adjustments, including forming neighbourhood guards and vigilantes, to be able to resist the criminals who had shattered their peace and caused them unprecedented loss. In the FCT alone, over 200 violent attacks have been recorded across the six area councils since President Bola Tinubu assumed office on May 29, 2023.…

Saturday, 20 January 2024 04:58

Insecurity can be ended in 6 months if Tinubu wishes to do so - Retired Generals

•Regret that no President has been decisive with military and consequences of their failure since 1999•Want definitive order to security chiefs•Say current strategies weak, already known to terrorists, bandits Following the spate of killings and kidnappings across the country, Saturday Vanguard got some retired generals of the Nigerian military to bare their minds on the unending menace and what should be done to tackle the scourge. The retired Generals and their equivalent in the Navy and Airforce agreed to speak only on conditions of anonymity. we obliged them. One retired Airforce Generals said: “One of the reasons insecurity is not…

Wednesday, 17 January 2024 04:30

Are fingerprints unique? Not really, AI-based study says

“Do you think that every fingerprint is actually unique?” It’s a question that a professor asked Gabe Guo during a casual chat while he was stuck at home during the Covid-19 lockdowns, waiting to start his freshman year at Columbia University. “Little did I know that conversation would set the stage for the focus of my life for the next three years,” Guo said. Guo, now an undergraduate senior in Columbia’s department of computer science, led a team that did a study on the subject, with the professor, Wenyao Xu of the University of Buffalo, as one of his coauthors.…

Friday, 12 January 2024 04:58

Growing cocoa in this Nigerian forest is illegal. Farmers do it nonetheless, govt looks the other way, foreign companies knowingly buy it: This is how it all goes

Men in dusty workwear trudge through a thicket, making their way up a hill where sprawling plantations lay tucked in a Nigerian rainforest whose trees have been hacked away to make room for cocoa bound for places like Europe and the U.S. Kehinde Kumayon and his assistant clear low bushes that compete for sunlight with their cocoa trees, which have replaced the lush and dense natural foliage. The farmers swing their machetes, careful to avoid the ripening yellow pods containing beans that will help create chocolate, the treat shoppers are snapping up for Christmas. Over the course of two visits…

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