The Federal Government has expressed readiness to partner Magnus aircraft manufacturing firm in Hungary, to establish an assembling plant and manufacture light airplanes locally. Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, expressed the interest when he paid an inspection visit to the Magnus Aircraft Industry in Pogany, Hungary. Sirika said the goal is to assemble aircraft locally, from start to finish, and before the end of the Buhari administration. He said: “If we venture with them, we may start with assembling plants and later manufacturing.” He noted that the Magnus aircraft is an aeroplane that is good for military training, especially for…
Author: Temitope N.
Facebook has extended its marketplace initiatives to 37 countries and territories in sub-Saharan Africa. Already available in South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria, the new destinations are Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Eswatini, Equatorial Guinea among others. Marketplace is a convenient destination where people can discover, buy and sell items from others in their communities by tapping on the marketplace icon or visiting https://bit.ly/3Dn4Uz8 to browse and search for items. Commenting on the launch, Facebook Director of Public Policy Africa, Kojo Boakye, said: “Increasing the availability…
The Association of Chief Audit Executives of Banks in Nigeria (ACAEBIN) has reaffirmed its commitment to promoting professionalism of audit practice, ethical standards and interbank cooperation. Chairman of ACAEBIN, Yinka Tiamiyu, revealed this in Lagos, at the yearly capacity development programme for internal auditors in partnership with the Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC) titled, ‘Cybersecurity with special emphasis on cloud security, areas of vulnerability, challenges and assurance’. Tiamiyu said the programme was in fulfillment of ACAEBIN’s commitment towards ensuring that auditors get the right skill set to discharge their duties. He urged the participants to maximise the opportunity provided by…
Crown Interactive has offered grants of N400 million in product value to 20 medium-sized Nigerian manufacturers, distributors of fast-moving consumer goods and suppliers of raw materials. The solution, according to the firm, is designed to address common challenges relating to the manufacturing supply chain, including customer order, inventory and workflow management as well as provides a platform for electronic payments and inventory finance. The special offer presents the firm’s supply chain management solution to the selected firms and would be offered the CICOD Suite of business support systems (BSS) free for the first 12 months. Subsequently, it would be available…
With the operationalisation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Nigerian exporters have been implored to build capacity and be prepared to compete under the free trade area to avoid dumping of goods in the country. The Executive Director/CEO of Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) Olusegun Awolowo while receiving in his office, the Governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum, in Abuja, said: “We (Nigerians) must be ready with an army of exporters to compete with our goods under AfCFTA to avoid dumping of foreign goods in the country”. Speaking on Borno State, Awolowo reiterated the need to formalise trade…
Despite boasting of a 206 trillion standard cubic feet of gas reserves and topping major countries, Nigeria’s per capita consumption of gas is the lowest in the sub-Saharan African region, Ministers of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylvia has said. He stated this at the 2021 yearly sub-Saharan African Oil and Gas Conference tagged ”The future of Upstream and Deepwater Development, Advancing Digitisation and Gas Development Options in Sub-Saharan Africa” and organised by Energy & Corporate Africa. With the rapidly growing population of Nigeria, expected to outnumber that of the USA in about 20 years, Sylvia feared that the upsurge…
The Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) Limited has concluded plans to supply electricity for water supply in Kano from a 4, 000 megawatts stranded plant. Executive Director, Generation, Kassim Abdullahi, who disclosed this during the signing ceremony of the deal said 20 megawatts would be supplied to the state water board. Abdullahi disclosed that the company has a total installed capacity of about 4,000 Megawatts (MW) in its plants across the country with 700 megawatts on the National Grid running. According to him, NDPHC has 10 power generating companies and Aloaji Power Plant, which would supply power to Kano…
Lagos State government said over N2 billion has been paid as a premium for life and non-life insurance policies for its 73, 000 workers in the year. The Commissioner for Finance, Dr. Rabiu Olowo, who said this at a press briefing on the maiden ‘Lagos State Civil Service Insurance Week’, stated that the gesture is in line with the present administration’s commitment to ensuring adequate care for its workforce while serving and after retirement. The commissioner implored residents to appreciate insurance as the state government has continued to reap the benefits of massive investment in insurance. Olowo said an effort…
Experts have underscored the need for the government to work out modalities on how to accelerate investment in infrastructure through bonds and other activities that would stimulate long-term fundraising from the capital market. This, they said is to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country and boost job creation. Besides, they called for a concerted effort towards diversifying the country’s export base through the promotion of non-oil exports and expansion of government fiscal sources to boost the economy. Stakeholders who spoke during a panelist session at the just concluded Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) 2021 National Workshop held in…
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…
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…