General

Ambode Under Fire over Report on Secrecy in Govt. Spending

Published

8 years ago

15/10/2017

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 how these monies are spent! Absolute nonsense!” a commenter said on Twitter.

Below is the report by Premium Times.

There were smiles on the faces of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode and the two men who sat on both sides inside the Lagos House, Ikeja, as cameras’ clicked while the governor signed the Lagos State government’s N813 billion Appropriation Bill for 2017 into Law.

Flanked by Akinyemi Ashade, the Commissioner for Finance, and Rotimi Olowo, the Chairman House Committee on Appropriation, Mr Ambode said his administration was committed to prudent financial management and would ensure proper fiscal discipline in the implementation of the Appropriation Law.

The budget, the biggest ever by the Lagos State government since its creation, was made up of N507.816 billion earmarked for capital expenditure and N305.182 billion set aside for recurrent expenditure, an aggregate ration of 62:38.

But a breakdown of the budget figures has been kept away from the cameras as well as the public, a marked departure from previous years where even a summary of expenditures and earnings were uploaded on the government’s official website.

“They (Lagos State government) are very tricky about it,” Stanley Achonu, Operations Lead at BudgIT, a civic organisation that helps Nigerians better understand government’s annual budgets.

“What they publish is the summary of the budget, you know, what went to what ministry, it doesn’t include details of the budget.”

For the 2017 fiscal year, both the summary and the detailed breakdown – which had never been publicly disclosed – of the budget is missing on the budget website of the Lagos State government.

Months of efforts to get a clarification from Steve Ayorinde, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, yielded no results as he neither answered phone calls nor replied text messages.

A silent government

While providing a sectoral breakdown of the state’s 2017 budget last January, Mr Ashade said roads and infrastructure would get N141.692 billion, almost 20 percent of the total budget.

Between February and July, Governor Ambode commissioned over a dozen infrastructural projects, including the Abule Egba and Ajah Fly Overs; the Aboru-Abesan Link Bridge; and the Ojodu Berger Pedestrian Bridge, Lay By, Slip Road and Segregated Bus Park.

Others include the Omotayo Banwo/Kola Iyamolere Street in Ogudu, Kosofe local council; the Admiralty/Freedom Road in Lekki; the pedestrian bridge in Ojota; and a walkway in Jakande, Lekki.

In August, PREMIUM TIMES submitted two requests to the Lagos State government – an official letter requesting information and a Freedom of Information request – seeking the cost of some of these projects, including that of the 20 patrol vehicles procured for the Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos State Police Command.

Although the state government acknowledged receipt of the two letters, there have been no responses two months after.

A similar FOI request months earlier asking for the cost of some projects undertaken by the state’s water corporation was also acknowledged but the information was not provided.

A Subnational Transparency Report published this year by BudgIT listed Lagos State among 16 states in Nigeria without a detailed public budget.

Sectoral allocations in the budget of Lagos State

On March 27, the state government held a “world press conference” where it rolled out activities lined up for the last 50 days of the Lagos@50 celebration – musical concerts, boat regatta, jazz and film festivals, comedy show and the governor’s banquet among dozens of other events – to commemorate the state’s 50th anniversary.

The state government did not also respond to PREMIUM TIMES enquiries about how much was spent on the year-long event.

But in an interview with Punch newspapers last May, Mr Ayorinde, responding to a question on how much the Lagos@50 celebration cost the state government said they received “more than N1 billion” in support from “sponsors.”

“Before the sponsors came, what Lagos did was to give seed money so that things could move. But from sponsors alone, we have raised more than N1bn which is not just going into celebration,” Mr Ayorinde said.

He did not provide details as to how much was the ‘seed money,’ who the sponsors were, and how the funds were disbursed.

Lanre Arogundade, Chairman of the International Press Centre, said the lack of access to public information in Lagos State is a concern for citizens and called for the issue to address urgently.

“Lagos is supposed to be the centre of excellence in everything but when the budget is not easily accessible, that’s worrisome,” Mr Arogundade said.

“We can only talk of high rate of transparency when FOI requests are responded to, when information are made readily available.”

In July, the Social Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) in conjunction with BudgIT wrote to the state’s procurement agency over the unavailability of public procurement journal to the public.

In a correspondence seen by PREMIUM TIMES, the agency said the governor had just inaugurated its governing board and had just requested to set a threshold for what it would consider as “major contracts.”

It further stated that the agency was working towards a holistic upgrade of its website in order to make it more interactive and advanced in line with international best practices.

“Upon completion of the said upgrade which we hope will be accommodated in the 2018 budget, the agency website will be better positioned to supply adequate responses to enquiries from stakeholders,” the agency stated in its response dated 11th July 2017.

Adetokunbo Mumuni, Executive Director at SERAP, said while his organisation had not had a “serious interaction” with the present government, it had had little success with Mr Ambode’s predecessor, Babatunde Fashola.

In December 2013, SERAP wrote to the Lagos State government requesting information and documents on spendings in public schools, following a $90 million World Bank loan, between 2009 and 2013.

The government did not respond.

In suit FHC/L/CS/57/2014 filed before a Lagos Division of the Federal High Court, SERAP urged the court to declare that by virtue of the provisions of Section 4(a) of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011, the governor is under a binding obligation to provide it with the information requested.

In its counter affidavit, the Lagos State government, represented by then Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Ade Ipaye, argued that the Freedom of Information Act was a federal legislation and, as a result, not binding on states.

“The public records of Lagos State government are generated and kept by various ministries, departments, agencies and personnel of the state government in execution of their functions and responsibility in the service of the state,” Mr Ipaye, who is now Chief of Staff to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, said.

“Such state government agencies and personnel are statutorily created or regulated by laws of the state House of Assembly and the handling of public of public records has serious security implications which are routinely handled by rules established by the state government.”

The court ruled in favour of Lagos State government.

“We’d sought information about the state of primary schools and what they have done; they refused, they insisted that the FOI must be domesticated,” Mr. Mumuni told PREMIUM TIMES.

“We reacted that that shouldn’t be and gave reasons why it shouldn’t be domesticated before such information is made available to us.

“We went to court but we lost. We are still appealing the case.”

In 2014, another division of the federal high court, in Enugu, ruled that the Freedom of Information Act is applicable in all states of the federation.

Hitting a brick wall

This year, Mr Arogundade’s IPC – in collaboration with BudgIT – sought to get a copy of the 2017 Lagos State government budget.

They hit a brick wall.

“I think it’s something worrisome and the issue needs to be taken up… because more can still be done by the government,” Mr Arogundade said.

Last February, a PREMIUM TIMES reporter seeking the Lagos State government’s response to claims by traders at the rebuilt Tejuosho Market in Yaba, was given the run-around by government officials.

First, the market officials directed the reporter to the Public Relations Officer at the state’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry at the Alausa secretariat, where an official redirected him to Lagos State Market Board.

At the Lagos State Market Board at the Old Secretariat in Ikeja GRA, a senior government official who declined to respond to questions directed the reporter back to Alausa, to the LGA Unit of state’s Ministry of Local Government Affairs, where he was referred to the Public Relations Officer.

Bisi Olufuwa, the ministry’s PRO, said she would direct the questions to her boss, the permanent secretary of the ministry.

“I am just seeing this (and you, too) for the first time and I promise to fix a session where you will meet my boss and discuss these issues,” said Ms Olufuwa.

The session was never fixed.

General

Mastering SEO: Proven Methods to Grow Your Online Presence

Published

2 days ago

12/03/2026

Dipo Olowookere

Search Engine Optimization isn’t what it used to be.

Gone are the days of stuffing keywords, buying random backlinks, and expecting overnight rankings. Today, SEO is a sophisticated blend of technical precision, content authority, brand positioning, and strategic digital PR.

At RiseGrower.com, we’re launching with one mission:

To help brands grow through ethical, scalable, authority-driven SEO.

This isn’t just another SEO agency. This is the next evolution of ranking strategy.

🌍 SEO in 2026: What Has Changed?

Search engines—especially Google—have become dramatically smarter.

Modern ranking systems analyze:

Topical authority
Content depth and expertise
User engagement signals
Link quality (not quantity)
Brand credibility
Search intent satisfaction

SEO today is no longer about “gaming the algorithm.” It’s about becoming the most trusted answer in your industry.

That’s where RiseGrower comes in.

🚀 What RiseGrower.com Is Built For

We specialize in performance-focused SEO strategies designed to:

Increase organic traffic
Improve high-intent keyword rankings
Strengthen domain authority
Build sustainable backlink profiles
Turn search visibility into revenue

Our approach combines:

Advanced technical SEO audits
Strategic content architecture
Authority guest posting campaigns
White-hat link acquisition
On-page optimization
Data-driven reporting

We don’t chase vanity metrics. We build growth systems.

🧠 Our Philosophy: Authority Wins

Search engines reward expertise and trust.

That’s why our strategy centers around three pillars:

1️⃣ Topical Authority

We help brands dominate entire keyword clusters—not just single keywords.

2️⃣ Editorial Authority

Through high-quality guest posting on real industry publications, we build contextual backlinks that move rankings safely and effectively.

3️⃣ Technical Excellence

From crawl optimization to structured data, we ensure search engines fully understand and prioritize your content.

🔥 Why Most SEO Strategies Fail

Many businesses struggle with SEO because:

They focus only on backlinks without strategy
They publish content without search intent research
They ignore technical site health
They chase short-term wins instead of long-term growth

SEO is not a trick.

It’s a system.

RiseGrower builds systems.

📊 Our Approach Is Data-Driven

Every campaign starts with:

Competitive analysis
Keyword gap research
Link profile audit
SERP intent mapping

We analyze what’s ranking—and why.

Then we engineer a strategy that outperforms it.

🏢 Who We Work With

RiseGrower is built for ambitious brands:

SaaS companies
eCommerce brands
Agencies
Startups
Enterprise businesses
Niche industry leaders

If your goal is sustainable organic growth, you’re in the right place.

⚖️ White-Hat SEO Only

We believe in:

Real editorial placements
Ethical outreach
Genuine authority building
Search engine compliance

We do not use:

Private Blog Networks (PBNs)
Spammy link schemes
Automated backlink tools
Manipulative ranking shortcuts

Long-term growth requires integrity.

📈 The Rise of Performance-Based SEO

The future of SEO isn’t “deliverables.”

It’s measurable outcomes.

At RiseGrower, we align our strategy with:

Ranking milestones
Traffic growth targets
Lead generation goals
Revenue impact

Because rankings are only valuable if they drive business growth.

🌟 What Makes RiseGrower Different?

We blend:

SEO strategy
Digital PR
Authority guest posting
Content intelligence
Conversion-focused thinking

We don’t just improve rankings.

We build market leaders.

🔮 The Future of Search

AI-generated content is flooding the internet. Competition is rising daily.

Search engines will increasingly reward:

Authentic expertise
Brand mentions
Trusted backlinks
Valuable long-form content
Real-world credibility

The brands that invest in authority now will dominate tomorrow.

RiseGrower was created for that future.

🚀 Launching Soon

RiseGrower.com is preparing to launch with a clear promise:

Growth through strategic SEO authority.

If you’re ready to:

Outrank competitors
Scale organic traffic
Build long-term visibility
Turn search into revenue

We’re ready to grow with you.

General

Globy Platform: B2B Marketplace and Its Logistics Calculator

Published

2 days ago

12/03/2026

Dipo Olowookere

Wholesale marketplaces were created so that business owners could find profitable offers and make deals on B2B platforms worldwide. In addition to buyers and sellers, there are traders, distributors, logisticians, and other professionals on such platforms. Let’s take a closer look at these professions. Traders purchase goods in order to resell them at a higher price; speculation is allowed on B2B marketplaces and is a legal instrument. Distributors are the official representatives of the manufacturer, meaning you can purchase original products at the lowest price. Most often, goods are purchased in China and then transported by sea to European countries or North America. We suggest you try the Globy Platform, where the most reputable Asian distributors are registered. Logisticians can also register on Globy. They provide services for the transportation of goods by sea. The following are the advantages of Globy, which are mentioned most often:

quick registration on the portal;
website with simple navigation and management;
excellent choice of reliable suppliers;
most relevant products in the catalog;
free registration;
no commission.

Some B2B platforms process payments, but Globy allows participants to make money payments outside the platform using one of the secure methods. In addition, Globy does not charge a commission when concluding a purchase deal. To start working on the platform, you need to register in accelerated mode or fill out a form with your company’s details. You can be sure that your banking details, personal, and contact information are protected. Third parties can only see the information that you leave open. When registering, do not forget to enter your company’s contact information (messenger, phone, email) so that new partners can contact you. You can pay attention to the fact that the Globy catalog contains items without specifying a price, but the product profile contains the vendor’s contacts. You can contact the seller to discuss the deal details, determining the price of the product.

Logistics Tool on Globy

There is often a situation when the supplier does not provide transportation services and the buyer has to search for a carrier on their own. In fact, this problem is solved simply. Globy has a special tool that helps you quickly find a charterer. You would open the freight calculator and fill in all the fields in the suggested form. You would specify the sending and destination port, and don’t forget to specify the dates and choose the container size. If you want to place containers in an optimal way, then use the load calculator, which is also available for free on the official website. You can use these tools only after registration. You can log in quickly if you have a Google account or a LinkedIn profile. After entering the data, the freight calculator will process your request and provide a list of prices. You can select a suitable line and contact the charterer to discuss the details of the contract. It is recommended to choose a sea delivery with a minimum number of intermediate stops, in which case the cargo will arrive at the destination port faster.

Receiving Cargo at the Destination Port

Buyers should remember that you can check the cargo when it arrives at the port. If the rules of transportation were violated, there was a long delay, or the goods were damaged, you can refuse the cargo, explaining the reason. You can discuss a price reduction with the supplier if the product has lost its proper appearance or the packaging is damaged. You can evaluate the cargo yourself or with the help of third-party experts. It is best to carefully check the documentation when receiving the goods at the port. All documents must be executed in accordance with international law. You can register on Globy today, find the goods you need, and use the logistics tools for free. More than fifty-five thousand users have already been registered on the platform, which indicates the high authority of Globy. If you have any questions, you can ask them in the Help Center on Globy website.

General

MSC, Nigerdock Seal 45-Year Port Concession Deal for Snake Island Terminal

Published

2 days ago

12/03/2026

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

Shipping giant, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), has signed a 45-year concession agreement with Nigerian maritime company, Nigerdock, to develop, operate ‌and maintain a new container terminal at Snake Island Port in Lagos.

A statement by MSC on Thursday noted that the new container terminal would be completed by 2028 with a 910-meter quay, six Ship-to-Shore (STS) cranes, two ship berths, three barge berths, and up to 18 meters of draft.

The dedicated MSC terminal would be part of the company’s announced $1 billion investment in infrastructure ⁠and logistics in Nigeria.

“We are thrilled to take this step forward in our partnership with MSC to develop a world-class container terminal within Snake Island Port.

“This gives the world’s leading shipping line a home in Nigeria and brings significant foreign direct investment into the country to accelerate growth in the maritime and logistics industry,” it said.

Global shipping companies are pushing to secure long-term footholds in emerging markets as supply chains are reconfigured worldwide.

MSC said the terminal, to be built by ITB Nigeria and DEME Group, is expected to be ‌ready ⁠by 2028.

It will occupy 30 hectares (74 acres) and feature a 910-metre (3,000 ft) quay capable of handling ship‑to‑shore cranes and mobile harbour cranes, serving both deep-sea vessels ⁠and barges.

MSC President, Mr Diego Aponte, said: “Completing this key phase in the development of Snake Island Container Terminal with Nigerdock and our trusted partners demonstrates MSC Group’s commitment to providing excellent service to our customers in Nigeria and throughout Africa.

“The new terminal will open up opportunities, enhance efficiency, and elevate Snake Island Port as a major global shipping centre.

“Together with our Group’s other long-term investments in Nigeria, it will generate many local jobs and significantly increase economic revenue and resilience.”

Snake Island Port is an 85-hectare facility operated ⁠by Nigerdock, a maritime and logistics company, and comprises three terminals serving the Lagos port complex.