Groupfarma to Boost Food Security in Nigeria

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 Crude oil prices fell on Thursday members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) agreed to voluntary output cuts for the first quarter of next year, falling short of market expectations. As a result, Brent crude futures lost 27 cents or 0.3 per cent to close at $82.83 per barrel, and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures went down by $1.90 or 2.4 per cent to $75.96 a barrel. On a monthly basis, Brent fell by 5.2 per cent while WTI was down by 6.2 per cent. Saudi Arabia, Russia

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 Tolu Oyekan Recent studies on Africa’s agriculture market projects an estimated growth to $1 trillion by 2030.  This shows that the continent’s agriculture industry has huge potentials.  Informed suggestions have been made on how the full gains of this fast-emerging market will be achieved; one of which is through digital agriculture. There is no doubt that modern farms and agricultural operations are carried out differently from how farming was done in the last 20 years. This is mainly a result of advancements in technology. Like almost all spheres of life, technological advancements have made an in-road into agriculture to

By Adedapo Adesanya Norwegian oil and gas exploration company, PetroNor E&P, has announced a binding agreement with New Age (African Global Energy) to acquire New Age’s interests in OML 113 in Nigeria which contains the Aje field. According to a statement released this week, the acquisition, the firm said, not only strengthens its position in OML 113 but also opens up exciting possibilities for future growth in the energy transition and strategic flexibility. PetroNor will pay New Age $6 million cash plus a deferred future gas production payment up to a maximum of $20 million to acquire New Age’s entities

By Dipo Olowookere The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has strongly condemned the forced returns of refugees from Cameroon into northeast Nigeria. On Tuesday, June 27, 2017, some 887 Nigerian refugees, most of them children, were repatriated in six trucks provided by the Nigerian military and Cameroonian police from the Kolofata border site. The refugees were rounded up at 7:30pm local time and forcibly removed to Banki in Nigeria in desperate conditions. A similar incident had happened earlier this year when over 2,600 refugees were forcefully returned to Nigeria against their will by the Cameroonian government. In a statement issued

By Adedapo Adesanya The World Health Organisation (WHO) has disclosed that Jigawa State recorded the second-highest takers of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines in Nigeria after Lagos State. In a press release, the world health body noted that Jigawa has the second-highest turnout for the vaccine. According to WHO, authorities in the North-Western state of the federation received 68,520 doses of the vaccine and 33,508 persons have been vaccinated by March 29. The state has recorded 518 of the 162,593 COVID-19 cases in Nigeria by the same date. “Only two weeks into the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines in Nigeria, Jigawa State

By Dipo Olowookere The first ever World Council of Churches (WCC) Eco-School on Water, Food and Climate Justice will be held from July 24 to August 3, 2017, in Malawi, Africa. Already, applications are now open with a deadline of May 31. The Eco-School, coordinated by the WCC Ecumenical Water Network and Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, will bring together about 20 young people ages 18-30 from Africa. Participants will explore the deep nexus between water, food and climate change, and how it impacts the livelihoods and very survival of so many people. Climate change directly impacts ecosystems, agriculture, fishing, food security

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Persons suspected to be terrorists on Monday attacked a train plying the Abuja-Kaduna route and allegedly kidnapped some of the passengers. It was gathered that the extremists were able to carry out the act after detonating bombs on the rail track, which forced the train to stop, allowing them to attack the passengers. However, the military responded to distress calls to them and took over control of the train, though a few of the passengers were already injured and others were taken away by the bandits. According to reports, the Abuja-Kaduna train attack occurred around Rijana and

By Agusto & Co Prior to the emergence of core payday lenders in the country, commercial banks dominated the financial services sector, providing loan facilities and savings to corporate clients and to a significantly lesser extent, retail customers. Retail financial services offered were primarily tailored to the upper tiers of the country’s income categories, focusing on high net worth individuals and high earning employees of prominent organisations in the country. Although alternative lenders such as community banks and credit unions existed, these organisations were often left to operate in the periphery due to the dominance of commercial (and merchant) banks.

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The sum of $61 million has been approved by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for an immediate disbursement to Chad. This followed the completion of the third and fourth reviews of Chad’s economic performance under the program supported by an Extended Credit Facility (ECF) 1 arrangement. Announcing the fund disbursement on Monday, the IMF Executive Board explained that the total disbursement to Chad under the ECF arrangement was now $135 million. The Board also said it approved the authorities’ request to waive the non-observance of the continuous performance criterion on the non-accumulation of new external payments arrears