Group Protests Detention of Woman, 9-Month Old Son by Police

By Bliss Okperan The Tincan Island Port (TCIP) Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has created a mobile application to automate its bond and license unit, Transire. At the unveiling of the app on Thursday, the Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Dera Nnadi, said the need to automate the Bond and License Unit had become imperative for administrative and procedural ease of doing business in the command. Speaking at a sensitization program on the automation process, Mr Nnadi informed participants that the application was developed by Superintendent of Customs Samuel Bello, to reduce the volumes of documents being deployed in

By Adedapo Adesanya The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked the Senate to reject the planned N15 billion for the construction of the vice president’s residence new building contained in the FCT 2023 supplementary budget. The call was contained in a letter addressed to the Senate President, Mr Godswill Akpabio. In the letter, dated December 2 and signed by SERAP’s deputy director, Mr Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation urged Mr Akpabio to use his leadership position “to promptly reject the plan by the Minister of the FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike to spend N15 billion for the construction of a

By Adedapo Adesanya The President of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Professor Benedict Oramah, has been recognised with the Forbes Africa magazine 2023 Person of The Year award. At a well-attended award ceremony in Cairo, which also included the unveiling of the cover for Forbes Africa’s December 2023/January 2024 edition featuring Mr Oramah as cover personality, Mr Rakesh Wahi, Forbes Africa Founder and Publisher, and Ms Roberta Naicker, Managing Director, said that the award recognised the stellar accomplishments of leading Africans contributing to the development of the continent. “With a career spanning three decades at Afreximbank, Prof. Benedict Oramah is

By Modupe Gbadeyanka An initiative aimed to promote the diversity of the African continent and showcase its rich cultural heritage to the rest of the world has been launched by YouTube. The social campaign, The Voices of Africa, will be used to celebrate the continent’s unique and traditional expressions through a select group of African creators. They will create and share videos on their YouTube Channels of their unique cultural heritage stories about their local traditions and practices, conversations with friends and family, and with people in their local communities. Some of the creators who are part of the campaign

By Modupe Gbadeyanka As the general elections draw closer, investors in the Nigerian stock market have been advised to “trade cautiously” so as not to get their fingers burnt. Next Saturday, Nigerians will head to the polls to elect who will lead them for another four years. Also on that day, precisely February 16, 2019, they will elect representatives into the National Assembly, which comprises the Senate and the House of Representatives. The two main contenders for the seat of President of Nigeria are Mr Muhammadu Buhari, who is seeking a second term in office under the ruling All Progressives

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Women operating tech-related businesses have been urged to enter for a special training and mentoring programme organised by Venture Capital for Africa (VC4A). The programme, She Leads Africa (SLA) Accelerator, since inception, has trained over 30 entrepreneurs and given out over N15 million in funding. Some of the judges, mentors and advisors who have participated in the Program include Aliko Dangote (Chairman of Dangote Group), Mo Abudu (Founder of Ebony Life TV) and Ben White (Founder of Venture Capital for Africa). SLA Accelerator is a 3-month program designed to identify, support and fund the next generation of

By Aduragbemi Omiyale Shareholders of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc will receive N1.50 per share as an interim dividend for the first half of 2023, the board of the organisation has confirmed. The cash reward was announced by the board after the release of the company’s financial statements for the period ended June 30, 2023. The initial months of 2023 were dominated by significant incidents like the general elections and cash scarcity, which temporarily impacted business activities. However, the tide turned in the second quarter as business activities gained momentum. The Stanbic IBTC Bank Purchasing Manager Index (PMI) rebounded, surpassing the

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The buzz created a few days ago by the Hilda Baci Cook-a-thon may be going down gradually, the chef benefitted from the media hype and attention she attracted during the period. Hilda Baci, born Hilda Bassey Effiong, attempted to ink her name in the highly prestigious Guinness World Records by becoming the world’s longest-cooking champion. Though she broke the record of over 85 hours when she cooked for 100 hours, her feat is yet to be officially acknowledged. This could take more than a month to be ratified. A leading Media Intelligence Consultancy, P+ Measurement Services, conducted

By Dipo Olowookere The proposed voluntary winding up of RAK Unity Petroleum Company Plc has been approved by shareholders of the organisation. The authorisation for the folding up of the company was given at its 18th Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on Friday, June 4, 2021, at the Shell Hall, Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos. A notice from the energy firm said that the shareholders were unanimous in approving the proposal put forward by the board of the company at the gathering. It was also agreed at the meeting that Mrs Chinwe Chiwete of the law firm of EPIC Legal, which

By Uzoma Dozie Thanks to changing lifestyles and the ubiquity of mobile phones, the number of people across Nigeria using mobile banking is rising exponentially. This is creating the opportunity to turn my vision of a cardless Nigeria into a reality. By 2020 there will be 200 million smartphone connections in Africa (Guardian). In Nigeria, there are more mobile phone lines than adults, 16 smartphones are sold every minute and 24% of people already have access to mobile broadband (GSMA). Mobile technology, mobile payments, and therefore cardless payments are already becoming a way of life for millions of people. Digital

A report by Baker McKenzie tagged New Dynamics: Shifting Patterns in Africa’s Infrastructure Funding has shown the state of the African infrastructure market and how the major global players’ approach to infrastructure lending on the continent is changing. The study, which analysed new data from IJ Global, indicated that there has been a decline in the value of infrastructure lending in the region, which is known for its resilience and it is expected that as economies recover, new types of financing will be unlocked. The data The report’s data shows that multilateral and bilateral lending into Africa has declined –

By Adedapo Adesanya The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) shrank for the first time in 2022 after it recorded a 0.21 per cent depreciation on the back of bearish price movement from Nipco Plc on Thursday, January 6. NIPCO Plc closed the day as the single price mover with its value depreciating by N7 or 11.1 per cent to trade at N63.00 per share compared with the previous closing price of N70.00 per share. This loss inflicted by NIPCO weakened the total value of the unlisted securities market in Nigeria by N1.31 billion to wrap the session at N631.72 billion in contrast