Hosting the Olympics during the current state of coronavirus infections in Japan was “not normal”, Japan’s most senior medical adviser has said in one of the strongest warnings yet about risks from the troubled Games. Doctors have said the Olympics, due to start on July 23 after a postponement from last year, would strain a healthcare system already seeing record numbers in critical conditions. Japan has reported more than 750,000 cases of the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, including 13,170 deaths as of June 2. Only 2.7 percent of Japan’s population has been fully vaccinated, and the…
Author: Temitope N.
The Dangote Cement Plc has announced that it has deeply invested in enlightening consumers on the different applications and the best optimal use of the product in furtherance to the measures put in place for more supply of cement to the market. The Group Sales Marketing Director, Dangote Cement, Rabiu Umar, stated this at an interactive session with ‘Building and Industry Professionals’ in Kano at the weekend. He said prices of Dangote cement have not increased at factory level, but the forces of demand and supply are driving the prices up. Umar assured Nigerians that appropriate measures have been…
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has moved to explain its recent bid to acquire 20 percent stake in the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery in Lagos, citing the need to ensure energy security for the country. The corporation in a statement its Group General Manager Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Kennie Obateru, stated that the move was in line with Federal Government’s policy. According to NNPC, the move was in “with a Federal Government policy directive which stipulates the mandatory participation of the Corporation in any privately-owned refinery that exceeds 50,000 barrels per day capacity in keeping with…
The governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, has said Nigeria’s economy is in stagflation, describing the GDP growth numbers as weak. Despite the improved gross domestic product, GDP, report released by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, for the first quarter 2021, Q1’21. In economics, stagflation or recession-inflation is a situation in which the inflation rate is high, the economic growth rate slows, and unemployment remains steadily high. It presents a dilemma for economic policy, since actions intended to lower inflation may stagnate growth while exacerbating unemployment. It was against this backdrop that the CBN’s Monetary Policy Committee,…
The consumer price index, which measures the rate of change in the price of goods and services, dropped to 18.12 percent in April from 18.17 in March. The last time it dropped was in 2019 when it slowed from 11.08 percent in July to 11.02 in August. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced this on Monday in its April consumer price index/inflation report. The food inflation also reduced to 22.75 percent in April from 22.95 in March. “The urban inflation rate increased by 18.68 percent (year-on-year) in April 2021, down by 0.61 the rate recorded in March 2021(1.60), while…
World Health Organisation Director-General, Dr. Tedos Ghebreyesus, says smokers have up to a 50 per cent higher risk of developing severe diseases and death from COVID-19. Ghebreyesus said this in a message to commemorate World No Tobacco Day, globally marked on May 31 annually, to highlight the health risks associated with tobacco use and advocate effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption. According to him, quitting is best thing smokers can do to lower their risk from coronavirus as well as the risk of developing cancers, heart disease and respiratory illnesses. “We urge all countries to play their part by joining…
The Chief Executive Officer of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Mr. Emeka Okonkwo, has disclosed that the bank released N350 million to the fight against the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria in 2020. This, he added was in line with the bank’s sustainability finance policy that aimed to uphold the tenets of the Social Development Goals (SDGs) and the Nigerian Sustainability Banking Principles (NSBPs). Okonkwo made this disclosure recently when he presented the bank’s 2020 Citizenship Sustainability and Innovation (CSI) report that gave detailed account of Union Bank’s continued efforts towards creating a more sustainable future by further embedding responsible…
The Chairman, Courteville Business Solutions Plc, Afam Edozie has said an increase in electricity tariff, inflation rate, fluctuating price of crude oil and increase in the price of Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) are downsides that indicate 2021 may be difficult for Nigerians with pressured disposable incomes. He stated this at the 16th yearly general meeting of the company in Lagos. Edozie who was represented by the Deputy Managing Director of the company, Wale Sonaike, said though Covid-19 pandemic continues to remain with the country, with the experience garnered last year, 2021 will not be as devastating as 2020. Despite…
The World Health Organization (WHO), Pharm Access Foundation, and other health sector stakeholders have joined voices to solicit for increased funding and financial risk protection for the health sector in Nigeria. The call was made at the ‘Fourth Annual Legislative Summit on Health’ held in Abuja recently with legislators, government officeholders and health organizations, both international and national, in attendance. The call comes on the backdrop that the health sector is not free from finance-related limitations bogging other sectors in the country. One of the aims of the annual legislative network summit is to propose the enactment of laws that…
Abdulrazzaq Abdulmajeed Alaro For Nigeria to reach its full potential, economic expert in Islamic finance has called for the nation to embrace its principles, as well as explore and exploit its many advantages for individual and national benefits. Rather than being a mere conduit for funds transfer between depositors and borrowers of funds, the model seeks to create partnership between the two units with an arrangement for the two to share in the profit and loss of the real economic activity. Speaking at the 196th inaugural lecture of University of Ilorin, Professor Abdulrazzaq Abdulmajeed Alaro of Department of Islamic Law…