Winner of €20000 Henrike Grohs Art Award Emerges March 6

By Bliss Okperan The University of Osun State (UNIOSUN) has set a goal to achieve a spot in the 10 top universities in Nigeria by 2026. The Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Clement Adebooye, while speaking on Friday at the main campus of the university in Osogbo, said the management also intends to make the school one of the 25 best in Africa in three years’ time. According to him, the management has begun to implement the strategies designed to meet this target, including providing a peaceful academic environment for students and others. He expressed the commitment of the

By Aduragbemi Omiyale At least 63 students from Rivers State admitted to the Nigerian Law School have been awarded scholarships by the O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation. The beneficiaries were those chosen for this year’s edition of the gesture. They were given a grant of N120,000 and a brand-new laptop each at the 14th Law School Students Scholarship award ceremony held on Tuesday, July 25, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Since the foundation started offering scholarships to students of the state in 2009, not less than 868 persons have benefited. “The O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation firmly believes in the power of education and

By Adedapo Adesanya The World Bank has approved additional financing of $700 million for Nigeria to scale up the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) programme to improve secondary education opportunities among girls in targeted states. The additional financing, according to the global lender, will improve project activities from the current seven states to 11 additional states and increase the targeted beneficiaries to include out-of-school (OOS) girls, those who are married, and those who have disabilities. Nigeria has over 12 -15 million out-of-school children in the school-age group, reportedly one of the largest, with the majority of them

By Adedapo Adesanya The World Bank has expressed worry over the rising external borrowing costs of Nigeria and other African countries, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), noting that in the last 12 years, the region has used about 16.5 per cent of revenue to service debts as against 5 per cent in 2010. In a press release titled African Governments Urgently Need to Restore Macro-Economic Stability and Protect the Poor in a Context of Slow Growth, High Inflation, the global lender said, “Debt is projected to stay elevated at 58.6 per cent of GDP in 2022 in SSA. “African

By Modupe Gbadeyanka An appeal has been made to the Federal Government on the need to fast track the implementation of tax harmonisation policy. Head of Research at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Dr Vincent Nwani, informed the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the quick implementation of this process would enhance growth of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector. Also, Mr Nwani pointed out that harmonisation of tax policy would ameliorate negative economic challenges and expedite economic recovery from recession, lamenting that multiple taxes and levies imposed on the private sector had become a

By Adedapo Adesanya The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola, has notified members of the public of the existence of a fake Facebook account opened in his name and portfolio, warning them not to fall victim to the antics of the scammers behind it. The Minister, through his Special Adviser on Communication, Mr Hakeen Bello, in a statement, said that the fake account, which included the name and picture of the Minister, was opened by fraudsters. “The minister has, on several occasions in the past, disclaimed such fake accounts,” the statement said, and reiterated that Mr Fashola’s

By Dipo Olowookere Profit-taking in 26 stocks on Monday opened the doors of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited wide open to the bears, causing the domestic market to lose 0.06 per cent. All but one of the key sectors of the market closed bearish yesterday and this was the energy counter, which appreciated by 1.67 per cent, while the insurance, banking, consumer goods and industrial goods sectors declined by 1.44 per cent, 0.45 per cent, 0.23 per cent and 0.01 per cent respectively. Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) was reduced by 29.08 points to 45,928.27 points from 45,957.35 points, while

By Dipo Olowookere Fishermen in Lagos have appealed to the Federal Government to provide basic amenities that will improve their fishing occupation. They said the lack of these amenities have made their profession very frustrating, submitting that the fishing industry was capable of lifting the country out of recession. The fishermen, under the aegis of Lagos State Fishermen Cooperative Association in Ikorodu, pointed out that the provision of these amenities will also encourage youths to key into the economic diversification campaign of the FG using agriculture. The group, while swearing-in its newly elected executive body, said it was ready to

By Adedapo Adesanya The federal government has reiterated its commitment to bring women into the digital sector, which has reduced $1 trillion from the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of low- and middle-income countries. The Minister of Women Affairs, Ms Pauline Tallen, made this disclosure ahead of an event in commemoration of the 2023 International Women’s Day (IWD). The event, which will be marked on Wednesday, March 8, is themed DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality. According to her, bringing women and other marginalised groups into technology has greater potential for innovations that meet women’s needs and promote gender equality.

By Modupe Gbadeyanka An attempt is being made by a Nigerian gospel singer to break the Guinness World Record for ‘longest officially released song’. The gospel act trying this break this feat is Chika Nwaogu, who is better known as St. Chika. He wants to release a gospel song of 3 hours, 30 minutes, 50 seconds on iTunes, Amazon.com, Spotify and Google Play. If this is eventually down, Chika would displace current holder of the record, the PC III label Pipe Choir (USA), which released a song spanning 3 hours, 1 minute and 50 seconds on August 16, 2015. To