European Stocks Fall Sharply to 2-Month Low

By Aduragbemi Omiyale President Bola Tinubu has said the 2024 budget presented to the joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday was designed to achieve macroeconomic stability, a better investment environment, greater access to social security, poverty reduction and enhanced human capital development. According to him, if these goals are achieved, the standard of living of Nigerians will improve and the citizens will enjoy the dividends of democracy. While presenting the 2024 Appropriation Bills to the parliament yesterday, the President said this was why he christened the budget proposal as the Budget of Renewed Hope. Mr Tinubu told the

By Adedapo Adesanya The House of Representatives has pledged to stop international oil companies (IOCs) operating in the Niger Delta from divestment of their offshore assets without being accountable to the environment. The Chairman of the House of Reps Committee on Host Communities, Mr Dumnamene Dekor, said this during a technical session on the implementation of the Host Communities Development Trusts (HCDT), organised by Spaces for Change (S4C) with support from Ford Foundation. Mr Dekor raised the alarm that since the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act in 2021, host communities have not experienced any positive change, rather have remained

By Adedapo Adesanya  Angola, one of Africa’s top crude oil producers and a key member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has officially rejected the proposed production quota for the year 2024 and may even exit the group. This was signalled by Mr Diamantino Pedro Azevedo, Angola’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, confirming the nation’s decision and indicating a divergence from OPEC’s suggested allocations for both member and non-member countries. The announcement was made during the 26th OPEC+ Meeting on Thursday, where the organisation proposed 1.11 million barrels of crude oil per day production quota for

By Adedapo Adesanya The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) on Thursday asked Nigeria to produce about 1.5 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2024, lower than the 1.78 million barrels per day benchmark it proposed in the 2024 Appropriation Bill presented to the National Assembly on Wednesday for passage. The output ceiling was around 1.8 million barrels per day before it was cut down to 1.5 million barrels yesterday at the group’s virtual meeting, a huge blow to Nigeria’s revenue target for the fiscal year. OPEC had tasked three consultancies – IHS, Rystad

By Dipo Olowookere The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has admitted failing to reduce the number of unbanked people in the country as it had projected, but emphasised that it would continue to deepen financial inclusion in rural areas, which mainly don’t have access to banking services. The apex bank, which is in the forefront of financial inclusion in the country, said much more is needed to be done to achieve the 2020 target of reducing the number of unbanked Nigerians to 20 percent. The Director of Banking & Payment Systems at the CBN, Mr Dipo Fatokun, said at the

By Dipo Olowookere One of the compelling aspirations of the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the last two years has been to ramp up the numbers for financial inclusion in the country. To this end, Nigeria’s apex bank, alongside other regulators in the financial services sector, including the National Pension Commission (PENCOM), has vigorously pursued the agenda of financial inclusion through various initiatives with a clear intent to bring millions of Nigerians, especially those in the informal sector and the unbanked, into the banked population. This ambition, which is not restricted to banking alone, cuts

By Ncebakazi Manzi The rise of Afrobeats over the past decade or so has been nothing short of remarkable. From the streets of Nigeria and Ghana, it has become a global phenomenon, with some of the world’s biggest artists collaborating with Afrobeats icons and emerging artists alike. In a sign of how rapid the ascent of Afrobeats has been, Spotify recently held events in Nigeria celebrating 13 billion streams of the genre. The growth of Afrobeats is unlikely to slow down anytime soon either, especially as streaming continues to grow across Africa. According to research firm Statista, the continent’s streaming

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Publishers of books living in Canada, who have waited for the birth of a revenue-sharing platform, Kobo Plus, in the North American nation, now have something to cheer about. The founder of the company, Rakuten Kobo, has decided to expand to the country with the launch of Kobo Canada. Canada is Kobo’s strongest performing territory, where it has the most reach. So, opening up Kobo Plus Canada provides a huge opportunity for authors. Recall that in 2017, Rakuten Kobo rolled out Kobo Plus, a revenue-sharing model for authors distributing ebooks, to the Netherlands and Belgium. Kobo Plus

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, has come under sharp criticisms over a report by an online newspaper, Premium Times, alleging that his administration has not been transparent with taxes of residents. Those who reacted to the piece said they find it hard to believe that the state government force residents of the state to pay their taxes and threaten to punish them if they fail to comply, but government do not see mandatory to explain how the funds were used. “In Nigeria, govt compels you to pay up ur taxes, yet cannot be transparent as to

Kester Kenn Klomegah Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, has said that Russia would sign bilateral agreements with a number of African countries and issue a joint declaration that would lay down a comprehensive strategic roadmap for future Russia-African relations. He further reiterated that all these would take place within the framework of the two-day summit under the co-chairmanship of the Presidents of Russia and Egypt, since this year Egypt is heading the African Union. Over 40 heads of state and government, heads of eight regional and subregional organisations in Africa and the president of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) have

By Dipo Olowookere Kwara State Governor, Mr Abdulfatah Ahmed, has approved the promotion of 1,323 civil servants in the state workforce. The Chairman, Civil Service Commission, Mr Ibrahim Adelodun Salman, who made the made the announcement in Ilorin, disclosed that 1,400 individuals sat for promotion exam June this year. He added that only 1,323 were able to scale through the examination and interview conducted for the civil servants this year August. Mr Adelodun further explained that the promotion spread across all the grade levels, right from level 07 to grade level 17. The commission boss who said the promotion would

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) has warned the general public about a fake competition trending online which claims to celebrate its so-called Anniversary Event. This was disclosed by Mr Garba Muhammad, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, in a statement, explaining that the NNPC has nothing to do with the purported anniversary event contest. Mr Muhammad, who advised members of the public to decline any participation in the survey, described it as a scam. “In the purported contest, unsuspecting participants are encouraged to carry out a survey by filling a questionnaire on their