Ope Banwo’s Naija Lives Matter Refocuses Priorities

By Precious Olisa Three Nigerian women entrepreneurs have been selected among 24 finalists for the 2023 African Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF) awards. The Nigerians are the CEO of Bridge Merchant Enterprise (Agri Entrepreneur Award), Ms Chinwendu Nweke; the CEO of Clean Technology Hub (Energy Entrepreneur Award), Ms Ifeoma Malo; and the co-founder/CEO of D-Olivette Global Enterprise, (Social Entrepreneur Award), Ms Damilola Aminat Adeyemi. Launched in 2017, the annual AWIEF Awards is an initiative to recognise, honour, and celebrate women entrepreneurs and business owners in Africa across various industry sectors for their achievements and contribution to the continent’s inclusive

By Adedapo Adesanya The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a suspect wanted for attempts to ship illicit drug consignments to the United Kingdom. This was made known in a statement signed by the NDLEA spokesman, Mr Femi Babafemi, on Sunday. He further disclosed arrests made by NDLEA operatives through interdiction operations that led to the seizure of four tons of illicit substances in the past week. According to the agency, the suspect, Mr Obiorah Chigozie, had been on its wanted list since September 15. This, he said, was when a consignment of 1.500kg skunk concealed in flour

By Bliss Okperan The Sokoto State Election Petition Tribunal will on Saturday, September 30, 2023, deliver a judgement on the petition filed by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the governorship election in the state, Mr Sa’idu Umar. Mr Umar challenged the victory of the Governor of Sokoto State, Mr Ahmed Aliyu, who contested the poll under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He said Mr Aliyu was not qualified to partake in the poll and also alleged electoral fraud during the March 18 governorship election. In a press release, the court stated that, “Take

By Dipo Olowookere The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), as at the close of business on Tuesday, October 8, 2019, has lost 14.70 percent of its value since the beginning of this year, Business Post is reporting. The local equity market has been facing very difficult challenges since the start of 2019 and predictions that things would get better after the general elections never came to pass. At today’s session, the market depreciated by 0.21 percent as President Muhammadu Buhari presented the 2020 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly. Business Post reports that the decline posted by the

By Dipo Olowookere This Future Market Insights report examines the flat panel display market for the period 2015–2020. The primary objective of the report is to offer updates on the advancements in FPDs that have given rise to FPDs adoption across globe. A Flat Panel Display is a very thin and light weight display screen used in laptops, monitors, televisions, smartphones, digital cameras and other portable devices. These displays are lighter and thinner than traditional CRT (cathode ray tubes). Flat panel size requirement varies as per the end device on which it is mounted. Flat panel displays mostly use LCD

By Modupe Gbadeyanka A system that will help to gather information regarding source/origin of animal, type of husbandry, and management system in place resulting in quality products for consumers and increased incomes of farmers has been launched in Ethiopia. The livestock traceability system was launched with the financial and technical support of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), through its Livestock Market Development activity, the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries. The system is called the Ethiopian Livestock Identification and Traceability System. The Livestock Identification and Traceability system tracks animals using tamper-proof plastic twin ear tags. The tags capture relevant

By Michelle Knowles, Oladapo Adeigbe Access to finance remains one of the single biggest constraints for small and medium-sized businesses on the African continent. Nevertheless, it is important to understand the exact nature of the financing challenges experienced in order to design the tools to build financing capacity in this key sector of the economy. When discussing SME financing, we tend to focus on early-stage and start-up financing. While this is certainly an important topic in the small business ecosystem, this may not necessarily be where financing efforts should be focused. Rather a concerted effort to improve the value proposition

By Adedapo Adesanya Following the January 15 signing of Phase One trade deal between the United States and China, the Asian giant has announced slashing tariffs on US imports worth $75 billion by 50 percent with effect from February 14. The Chinese Ministry of Finance disclosed on Wednesday in a statement that retaliatory tariffs on hundreds of goods from the US will be halved from 10 percent to 5 percent or from 5 percent to 2.5 percent The decision was carried out in reciprocation for the President Donald Trump administration’s plan, announced last month, to halve tariffs on about $112

By Adedapo Adesanya There was no trade at the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange on Wednesday as investors stayed away from the market. It was observed that during the midweek trading session, the ravaging coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic pushed investors away. This left the major performance indicators at their previous levels, with the market capitalisation at N508.84 billion and the unlisted securities index at 692.71 points. In a tweet sent from its official Twitter handle, @NASDNG, the bourse confirmed that, “The NASD OTC recorded no trades on its platform as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic continues to dampen trading activities

By Dipo Olowookere The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday announced retaining the key monetary rates at current level as some observers had anticipated. This announcement was made after the end of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held in Abuja, the first in 2018. Governor of the CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele, while addressing newsmen this afternoon, said the committee, after its deliberations, unanimously agreed to hold the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 14 percent. Speaking further, he said the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) is left at 22.5 percent, while the Liquidity Ratio is retained at 30 percent. Furthermore,

By Kester Kenn Klomegah In a new year message to leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS), President Vladimir Putin of Russia called for stronger unity among the group’s members. He also urged the BRICS leaders to strengthen political dialogue and forge a common approach to emerging challenging global problems, especially issues relating to economic stability and security. In his message to President of the Republic of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro, Putin stressed that the strategic partnership between Moscow and Brasilia in the outgoing year was quite successful. He expressed hope for continued constructive dialogue and joint activities