Africa’s public transportation sector is gradually evolving with the emergence of new technology-driven modes of transportation. To speed up the pace of this evolution, Toronto-headquartered shared mobility startup, Plentywaka, which provides hassle-free shared rides on-demand, announced that it has fully acquired Stabus, one of Ghana’s leading mobility startups. This is a step to further Plentywaka’s ambition of building the largest shared mobility platform on the African continent, starting with West Africa. Stabus was launched in 2019 by its Co-Founder, Isidore Kpotufe who shared that the startup has moved over 100,000 people in Accra, the capital city of Ghana. Their services…
Author: Temitope N.
Iran says it is ready to ship more fuel to Lebanon if needed, a day after the leader of Lebanon’s Iran-aligned Hezbollah group said more vessels carrying Iranian fuel would sail soon to help ease the country’s energy crisis. Hezbollah’s foes in Lebanon have warned of dire consequences from the purchase, saying it risked sanctions being imposed on a country whose economy has been in meltdown for nearly two years. “We sell our oil and its products based on our own decisions and the needs of our friend. Iran is ready to send fuel again to Lebanon if needed,” Iran’s…
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has intercepted 2,504.8 kilograms of diverse illicit drugs from multiple suspects in five different states. The NDLEA spokesperson, Mr Femi Babafemi, said this in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday in Abuja. Babafemi noted that it was in a string of operations in Edo, Ondo, Kaduna, Kano and Kogi states, in the past week, that the drugs were seized. According to him, in Kogi, 60-year-old Mrs Comfort Uzor was arrested with 62.1kg cannabis on Tuesday, Aug. 17 in Lokoja, where one Dayyabu Usman was also caught with 8kg…
The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) says the implementation of Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) does not mean automatic increase in the pump price of petrol in the country. The Executive Secretary of the Agency, Mr Abdulkadir Saidu, disclosed this in a statement in Abuja on Sunday. “There is no gainsaying that the PIA signals the implementation of full deregulation of the downstream sector. “However, it remains worthy of note that the PIA does not automatically translate to any immediate increase in the price of PMS. “ The current price will remain until a negotiation with organised labour, which will…
Following its recent name change from Total to TotalEnergies, the company has unveiled the new names of its Nigerian-registered Upstream Companies. TotalEnergies made the disclosure at a virtual media parley recently. It was also an opportunity to shed light on its trailblazing role in earning carbon credits in Nigeria while reiterating its long-term commitment to the country. In a presentation delivered by the Deputy Managing Director, Deepwater District, Victor Bandele, the Company explained that Total E&P Nigeria Limited would now be known as TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited and Total Upstream Nigeria Limited has become TotalEnergies Upstream Nigeria Limited. Bandele noted…
The shameless culture of open defecation in Lagos and Ogun communities is brewing a serious public health crisis, according to health experts. LARA ADEJORO who visited the communities report that residents are at risk of cholera, typhoid and other infection outbreaks: For regular commuters journeying from Ogun to Lagos State through the ever-busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, seeing persons engaging in open defecation on that popular route has become almost a normal occurrence. Daily, many persons are sighted on this route, sneaking out under the cover of darkness; some hide behind shrubs and bushes at dawn; others squat under bridges – they…
The risks to South Africa’s economic growth outlook are skewed more to the downside, according to economists polled by Reuters who cited disruptions from new coronavirus variants and extended softer commodity prices as potential challenges. Forecasts collected in the past week suggested economic growth would slow next year to a median 2.4% from 4.3% this year, much the same as last month’s forecast. But a firm majority of economists – six of eight – who answered an extra question said their GDP forecast risks were skewed more to the downside in their medium-term outlook. This quarter the economy was expected…
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has signed the Petroleum Industry Bill 2021 into law. Under the DSDP scheme, which was introduced by the NNPC in 2016, selected companies are allocated crude supplies in exchange for the delivery of an equal value of petrol and other refined products to the corporation. Several stakeholders, including fuel marketers, the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria and oil unions, had expressed their opposition to the provision that limited imports to only refiners. Our correspondent gathered that the provision was altered during the harmonisation of the PIB passed by the Senate and House of…
Total fintech investment reached $98bn from 2,456 deals in the first half of 2021, according to KPMG. The company, in its ‘Pulse of Fintech H1’21’ report, said this was more than the $87bn raised in H2 2020. The report said, “A wealth of dry powder, COVID-related digital acceleration, an increasingly diverse range of fintech hubs and subsectors, and robust activity in almost all regions of the world contributed to the strong start to 2021. “Global VC investment reached over $52bn in H1 2021 — very close to the annual record of $54bn seen in 2018. The largest VC rounds of…
The Federal Government has said the establishment of a national carrier will enable Nigeria to benefit from the opportunities associated with the Single African Air Transport Market. SAATM is an initiative of the African Union to create a single unified air transport market in Africa to advance the liberalisation of civil aviation in Africa and act as a catalyst to the continent’s economic integration agenda. Twenty-three African countries, including Nigeria, adopted SAATM in 2015 to implement the Yamoussoukro Decision, which was created to lift restrictions in open skies among African countries. The Ministry of Aviation, in its recent roadmap status,…
Aside from the 12 federal highways that are already up for concession, more roads under the control of the Federal Government are going to be managed by concessionaires, our correspondent has learnt. It was gathered that the proposed tolling of roads by the Federal Government would be on the 12 highways under the Highway Development and Management Initiative as well as on other dual carriageways and bridges. Responding to an enquiry by our correspondent, officials of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing explained that the 12 highways under the HDMI represented about 1,963km and less than 5.6 per cent…
According to its annual report, Polaris recorded a total of 134 cases of fraud in 2020 which comprise seven fraud categories, namely Automated Teller Machine fraud (43 cases), Internet bank fraud (three cases), mobile fraud (46), impersonation fraud (three cases), cheque theft (one case), outright theft (25 cases) and general fraud incidents (113). The report also revealed that ATM, Internet bank, mobile and impersonation fraud cases cost the bank N830.1m, N37.7m, N16.2m and N989,700 respectively. It said cheque theft led to a loss of N1m, while outright theft and general fraud incidents resulted N21.8m and N30.4m losses respectively. Zenith’s fraud…
Social Action has called on the Federal Government to release the long-awaited audit report of the Niger Delta Development Commission. The civil advocacy group said in a statement that the report from a forensic audit carried out on the operations of the NDDC after the an ad-hoc committee of the Senate inaugurated an investigation in October 2020 should be released to the public. According to the statement, the Minister for Niger Delta Affair, Mr Godswill Akpabio, said a week ago that the team of auditors charged with the audit had submitted the report to his office. Social Action said, “It…
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, on Friday, cautioned against any further legal challenge by Shell Petroleum Development Company over Oil Mining Lease 11, saying it is about time Nigeria derived the benefit of the oil block after over three decades. The NNPC announced that its subsidiary, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, had resumed operations on OML 11 after a court judgement in its favour. It said in a statement by its spokesperson, Garba-Deen Muhammad, that a recent Appeal Court judgement affirmed the oil firm’s operatorship of the OML 11. The statement said, “The Appeal Court sitting in Abuja on Monday upturned…
The Central Bank of Nigeria has warned microfinance banks against performing certain non-permissible activities, including wholesale backing and foreign exchange transactions. This was contained in a circular titled ‘Cessation of non-permissible activities by microfinance banks’ released on Friday by Ibrahim Tukur on behalf of CBN’s Financial Policy and Regulation Department. The circular read, “The Central Bank of Nigeria has observed the activities of some microfinance banks that have gone beyond the remit of their operating licence by engaging in non-permissible activities, especially wholesale backing, foreign exchange transactions and others. “Given the comparatively low capitalisation of MfBs, dealing in wholesale and/or…
Aviation unions have said the Federal Government would not succeed in its plan to concession Nigeria’s four major airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt. However, it was also learnt that the move to concession the facilities had created a division among airport workers, as those in private aviation companies were in support of concession, while their counterparts in the public service opposed the plan. On Tuesday, it was reported that the Federal Government had officially commenced the search for concessionaires to manage Nigeria’s four major airports. It made this public through the Federal Ministry of Aviation in its…
Equity investors in the Nigerian Exchange Limited gained N64.93bn on Thursday as the NGX All-Share Index rose by 0.32 per cent to 39,670.29 basis points, its highest since April 26, 2021. The market capitalisation of equities increased to N20.67tn on Thursday from N20.60tn the previous day. Trading volume jumped by 52.90 per cent from 132.01 million shares worth N2.67bn traded in 3,307 deals on Wednesday to 201.84 million shares valued at N1.68bn in 3,274 deals. By sector, the NGX Insurance and NGX Industrial indices increased by 0.77 per cent and 0.22 per cent respectively, while the Banking, Consumer Goods and…
President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that Nigeria lost an estimated $50 billion worth of investments in 10 years, due to the uncertainty of non-passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), lack of progress and stagnation in the petroleum industry. He said this in his remarks at a ceremony on the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), which preceded the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting. According to the president, the stagnation affected the growth of the economy and the lack of political will on the part of past administrations to actualise the needed transformation, also contributed to the loss of…
•Groups partner to bring regulators, operators together To create harmonious relationships in the financial technology space, there is a need for clarity of regulations from the regulators to the players in the sector, especially Fintechs. Clarity of regulations, according to experts in the space, would not only ensure stability, bridge knowledge gaps, but also help avoid unnecessary frictions among stakeholders. These were the views of experts, who spoke to journalists in Lagos, ahead of their planned efforts to bring financial regulators closer to operators in the Fintech space in Nigeria. Besides, these experts also highlighted the importance of financial and…
Without an active conversion industry for vehicles and other machinery, the core mandate of the Nigerian Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) might be frustrated, operators have warned. One of the downstream operators, Quest Oil & Engineering Services Limited, stated that many private sector investment seeking interest in the conversion of vehicles and other machinery would remain idle due to lack of vehicles that would utilise gas for the programme to succeed. The Group Chief Executive Officer, Quest Oil & Engineering Limited, Goke Dele, at a press briefing, said it was as a result of this that the company is keying into…