Nigerians Experience Blackout as National Grid Collapses

By Bliss Okperan A helicopter operated by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) on Friday crash-landed and exploded at the NAF Base, Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, confirmed the incident in a statement, noting that the NAF-35p had taken off on an operation against oil thieves in Rivers State before the unfortunate incident. He said five persons on board survived the air mishap with minor injuries. “A Nigerian Air Force (NAF) MI-35P helicopter crashed at Port Harcourt today, December 1, 2023. The unfortunate incident occurred at about 7.45 am shortly

By Adedapo Adesanya Nigeria has put the presidential aircraft, Falcon 900B, up for sale with the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) asking interested persons to submit their bids for the purchase of the aircraft. It was not disclosed how much the craft would be sold, according to a tweet on the official Nigerian Air Force page on X, formerly known as Twitter, where it said the aircraft was put up for sale following the federal government’s approval. “The Federal Government of Nigeria has approved the sale of Falcon 900B aircraft owned by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF),” NAF said in a

By Bliss Okperan The Nasarawa State House of Assembly has announced its election of Danladi Jatau, representing Kokona West Constituency, as the new Speaker. The state parliament also disclosed on Friday that it now has a new Deputy Speaker, who is Mohammed Oyanki, the lawmaker representing Doma North Constituency. The election of the two principal officers of the legislative arm of the state followed the sacking of its former Speaker, Mr Ibrahim Abdullahi, by the Appeal Court sitting in Abuja on Tuesday. While the new Speaker is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), his deputy is a member

By Modupe Gbadeyanka It is longer news that First Bank has the highest non-performing loans (NPL) ratio among its tier-one peers in the banking industry, above 20 percent, but the management of the company has assured that it would continue to work tirelessly to ensure that it is brought down to a single digit by the end of 2019 financial year. Speaking at the 7th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of FBN Holdings Plc in Lagos at the weekend, Chief Executive Officer of First Bank of Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of FBN Holdings Plc, Mr Adesola Adeduntan, informed shareholders that recovery

By Adedapo Adesanya Nigeria’s foremost non-interest bank, Jaiz Bank Plc, has received a $25 million shariah-compliant line of financing (LOF) from the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) to support small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria. The deal was signed by Mr Ayman Sejiny, the Chief Executive of the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector arm of IsDB Group, and Mr Hassan Usman, the Managing Director and Chief Executive of Jaiz Bank. According to the LOF agreement, this will be done to support the SMEs in Nigeria, including those adversely affected by the

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Some head teachers in public primary schools in Oyo State have been issued queries by the state government for denying pupils access to examination halls over the failure of their parents to pay some fees described as “illegal.” The Executive Chairman of the Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board, Mr Nureni Aderemi Adeniran, during a monitoring exercise in Ibadan, said it was wrong for the learners to be denied access to the ongoing Public Primary Schools Unified Examination over fees unrelated to the exam. It was gathered that some pupils could not write the exam because their

By Nneka Okumazie What if Justinian the Great did not just build the then Church of Hagia Sophia [532–37CE] in Constantinople, but instead drove massive evangelistic drive – through the East and beyond? What if the move was to ensure that translations of the Scriptures were further made available in many other places, with teachings and apostles of the time, re-emphasising the word across? There may have been some difference in how some history went if aggressive evangelism was prioritised. The past can be a window into the future, looking at emerging trends and possible parallels. Though Christianity was used

By Modupe Gbadeyanka International Centre for development oriented Research in Agriculture (ICRA) is seeking applications for Netherlands Fellowship Programmes (NFP) and Middle East and North Africa Scholarship Programme (MSP) Fellowship with an aim to help reduce the shortage of skilled workers or support democratic transition in specific countries. This is initiated and fully funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the budget for development cooperation. Business Post gathered that Nuffic offers two types of fellowships: Netherlands Fellowship Programmes (NFP), a scheme initiated and fully funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the budget for Development Cooperation.

By Dipo Olowookere The nine commercial banks barred from trading in the foreign exchange market by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have been re-admitted into the market. The CBN had placed a ban on nine banks operating in Nigeria last week for failing to remit about$ 2.3 billion funds of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the Treasury Single Account (TSA) of the federal government. But less than 24 hours later, one of the affected banks, UBA Plc, was reinstated after it sorted out its issue with the apex bank. Announcing the lifting of the embargo on Wednesday

By Adedapo Adesanya FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc is set to launch the country’s first expertise centre for dairy development. The initiative, Centre for Nigerian Dutch Dairy Development (CNDDD), will focus on improving dairy productivity and sustainability throughout the entire dairy value chain in Nigeria, based on Dutch expertise gained for more than a century. Speaking on this, Mr Ben Langat, Managing Director, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria PLC, explained that the new centre will foster cooperation among dairy stakeholders. In a statement issued in Lagos, Mr Langat said, “The Centre for Nigerian Dutch Dairy Development will engage and promote cooperation between the

By Adedapo Adesanya  The Naira depreciated against the US Dollar at the official window of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) also known as the interbank segment of the foreign exchange market on Tuesday, March 17, 2020. The value of the local currency was weakened by 5 Kobo or 0.02 percent against the American currency to N307/$1 from N306.95/$1 it traded on Monday. It marked the first time the rate would change since the crash of oil prices that sparked talks of a possible devaluation of the Nigerian Naira, which the apex bank quenched last week. However, at the parallel