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Osinbajo to Launch Dukia-Heritage Bank Gold, Precious Metals Buying Centres

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Dukia Gold Heritage Bank

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

On Tuesday, June 9, 2020, Nigeria’s Vice President, Mr Yemi Osinbajo, will officially launch the commencement of the Dukia Gold & Precious Metals Raw Materials Buying Program of the country’s first gold and precious metals refining company.

Mr Osinbajo will be joined for the historic event by the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr Olamilekan Adegbite.

The official launch will also witness the birth of Dukia–Heritage Bank Gold & Precious Metal Buying Centres, a project in partnership with Heritage Bank Plc for the sourcing and aggregation of gold and other precious metals.

The launch which will be declared open by the Governor of Ekiti State, Mr Kayode Fayemi, who doubles as chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF).

To grace the occasion are other state governors, Ministers, Head of Parastatals, Private sector participants, mining stakeholders and local implementation partners.

In a statement by the organizers of the event, the theme of the seminar will be The Future of Gold and Precious Metals in Africa and the virtual launch of the Commencement of Operations of the Dukia Gold & Precious Metal Refining Company Limited, the Precious Metals Raw Materials Buying Program and the Dukia–Heritage Bank Plc buying Centres and the proprietary Dukia Trading Platform. The launch ceremony will be online via the Zoom – Meet and Chat’ platform, starting at 9.00am on Tuesday June 9, 2020.

According to the Managing Director of Dukia Gold and Precious Metals Refining Co. Ltd, Ms Bose Owolabi, the Lead seminar paper will be delivered by Mr Ibrahim Sagna, Director & Global Head, Advisory and Capital Markets, Afrexim Bank, while other key speakers include Mr Ifie Sekibo, Managing Director, Heritage Bank Plc; Mr. Akin Akeredolu-Ale, Managing Director, Lagos Commodities & Futures Exchange (LCFE); Humphrey Oriakhi, Managing Director, PAC Capital and Mr. Femi Williams, Managing Director, New Waves Ecosystems Limited.

According to her, “Nigeria’s enormous deposits of Gold & Precious Metals have largely remained untapped for various reasons which include the scale of capital investment required to activate required infrastructures, inattention to required policy frameworks, the distractions of fossil fuels’ dependencies. The Federal Ministry of Mines & Steel Development has over the years sought to make the sector attractive to investors with some success and that is why Dukia Gold which is conceptually wholly Nigerian, driven by informed commitment and competence, leveraging on sterling local and global partnering across the spectrum of expertise required to bring it to life sustainably and successfully, going forward”.

“Dukia Gold & Precious Metals Refining Company Limited is at the heart of the delivery of the Dukia Gold Project. It is primed to fulfil a substantial gap in Infrastructure required to achieve the full value chain of operations, i.e. from Mines and Recyclable Gold to Mint and from Mint to Market and it comprises solutions geared towards facilitating and stimulating necessary developments in and of the Gold & Precious Metals’ subsector of the Solid Minerals sector of the Nigerian economy,” she stated.

She went further, “Dukia Gold Project addresses and delivers critical solutions which ensure full Beneficiation of Precious Metals, including the refining of Precious Metals in Nigeria to the highest international standards in such a way that Nigerians and Nigeria can begin to trade and receive fair pricing and value for Precious Metals produced in Nigeria.”

Dukia Gold Project will help to curtail exploitation of local miners by illegal traders who smuggle precious metals out of Nigeria with negligible gain to these local miners and with no returns to the national economy”.

She explained further that when the company kicks off officially, it will focus on adding value to the gold business in Nigeria and West Africa.

Her words, “Dukia Gold and Precious Metal Refining Company Limited sets out to be foremost indigenous Gold & Other Precious Metals Refining & Trading Company.

“It is commencing its nationwide purchasing of gold and precious metals after the launch of designated Heritage Bank Gold and Precious Metals Buying Centres, focusing on adding value to the gold and precious metals industry in Nigeria and West Africa and on delivering a major source of alternative foreign exchange revenues.

“When it becomes fully operational, the refinery will be the first of its kind in West Africa and it will be open for opportunities for artisan miners, gold & precious metals owners and allied enterprises to obtain appropriate financial value for their products among other benefits”.

“The Dukia Gold Project is manifestly a game-changing proposition, an articulate catalyst for the development of the Nigerian Mining Industry.

“The buying programme has commenced and the Buying Centres will be open to the public on August 1, 2020 while phased implementation of the Refinery has also commenced with essential equipment on order from pre-qualified world-leading manufacturers with full implementation to be achieved within 24 months”.

Dukia Gold is being financed by a blend of Equity and Loans from Financial Institutions led by Heritage Bank Plc, supported by PAC Capital as Financial Advisers and Fund Arrangers in due course by the Afrexim Bank.

Modupe Gbadeyanka is a fast-rising journalist with Business Post Nigeria. Her passion for journalism is amazing. She is willing to learn more with a view to becoming one of the best pen-pushers in Nigeria. Her role models are the duo of CNN's Richard Quest and Christiane Amanpour.

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Xenophobia: FG Evacuates More Nigerians as South Africa Protests Loom

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nigerians in south africa

By Adedapo Adesanya

The federal government has announced that another batch of Nigerians will be evacuated from South Africa on Tuesday as part of ongoing efforts to safeguard citizens ahead of planned anti-immigrant protests in the country.

Anti-immigrant groups in South Africa have set a June 30 deadline for immigrants to leave the country, planning widespread demonstrations on that date and threatening a national shutdown if the country’s government does not take significant action on immigration.

According to the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Kimiebi Ebienfa, an Air Peace aircraft departed Nigeria on Monday and is expected to return to Lagos on Tuesday morning with another group of Nigerians who opted for voluntary evacuation.

The latest operation comes as anti-immigration groups prepare to stage demonstrations from June 30. The government has continued its evacuation programme for Nigerians who have indicated a willingness to return home.

Providing details of the latest flight, Mr Ebienfa said, “Nigeria will resume the evacuation of our nationals from South Africa today.

“Air Peace aircraft will depart Nigeria today, Monday, June 29, 2026, at 3:00 pm and is expected to arrive in South Africa at approximately 9:00 pm local time.

“The return flight is scheduled to depart South Africa at 12:00 midnight and is expected to arrive at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, on Tuesday morning.”

He added that 271 Nigerians are expected to arrive on the evacuation flight.

President Tinubu approved the voluntary evacuation programme earlier this month to enable Nigerians willing to leave South Africa to return home safely.

Earlier in June, the federal government disclosed that five Air Peace evacuation flights had been approved after more than 500 Nigerians were screened for repatriation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the flights were intended to ensure that all registered Nigerians who wished to return would be evacuated safely.

Before the latest operation, 328 Nigerians had already been repatriated in two batches. The first flight, which landed on June 11, brought back 262 returnees, while a second batch of 66 arrived in Lagos on June 25.

The evacuation exercise is being coordinated by the Federal Government in partnership with Air Peace and other relevant agencies.

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Why Ad Platform Policy Changes Are a Hidden Risk in Every Outsourced Paid Media Relationship

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white label ppc management

The rules governing digital advertising landscapes are never set in stone. Major platforms like Google, Meta, and TikTok frequently update their privacy frameworks, compliance requirements, and algorithmic bidding logic without giving agencies much time to prepare. When a marketing team decides to delegate its active campaigns to an external production partner, these sudden policy shifts can introduce a major element of vulnerability into the relationship. Integrating a professional white label ppc management structure allows your business to scale production and tap into high-level optimization talent without building a massive internal department. However, if your fulfillment partner is not built to monitor, interpret, and rapidly deploy adjustments in response to changing platform guidelines, your clients risk facing sudden account suspensions or massive spikes in customer acquisition costs.

Decoupling Technical Adaptability from Account Ownership

When an advertising platform changes its rules, the changes need to be made away in the live ad accounts. This is so the ads do not stop working. Sometimes there is a problem when one team thinks another team is taking care of making sure the ads follow the rules. The team that is supposed to make sure everything is working thinks the other team is doing this job. This can cause problems like missing information and ads that do not work. To keep your clients happy, you need a plan that says who is in charge of checking for rule changes, who updates the ad information, and who updates the ad text rules when the advertising platform changes its rules. You need to know who does what so everything runs smoothly. Advertising platforms and ad accounts are important for your clients.

Managing the Financial Fallouts of Compliance Delays

The real-world financial cost of failing to adapt to sudden policy changes can ruin an agency’s reputation and cause high client turnover. If an automated ad platform updates its rules for a specific industry—such as healthcare, real estate, or finance—and your campaign structure fails to adjust within the grace period, entire accounts can be paused overnight. While your backend team works to fix the errors, your client loses valuable inbound leads while their fixed overhead costs remain. Agencies must make sure their fulfillment partners don’t just focus on basic optimization but also maintain a proactive stance toward platform compliance to prevent budget waste and operational downtime.

Maintaining Strategic Alignment Through Platform Shifts

Relying on a partner to manage the daily execution of your paid media means you must remain highly aligned on how macro-level platform changes alter your broader strategy. When networks restrict traditional targeting methods, your backend white label ppc management team must quickly pivot to alternative solutions, such as first-party data loops or contextual targeting systems. If your vendor operates on autopilot without adjusting to these shifts, your campaigns will slowly lose efficiency as the old targeting methods become obsolete. Regular strategy sessions are essential to confirm that your optimization partners are actively adjusting their setups to remain effective beneath the latest network rules.

Building a Resilient Operations Partnership

To do well with ad networks, you need to work together with your partners and be able to change quickly. You also need to be open with each other. Ad agencies can not just set up their paid media. Forget about it. They need to keep an eye on it and make changes when needed. If you work closely with the company that provides your white-label service, you can protect your business from losing money. You should expect this company to tell you about changes to the network rules and to take action. The best partnerships are the ones where people work together all the time and make changes fast. This helps your clients make money consistently from their investments even when the rules of the ad networks change. Modern ad networks are always changing, so you need to be able to change with them to do well. Modern ad networks require a lot of work to navigate successfully.

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Atiku Accuses Tinubu of Plot to Turn Nigeria into One-Party State

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By Adedapo Adesanya

Former Vice President and the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mr Atiku Abubakar, has alleged that President Bola Tinubu is determined to turn Nigeria into a de facto one-party state, condemning attempts to frustrate the registration of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).

Mr Atiku’s reaction followed a ruling by the Federal High Court in Lokoja, Kogi State, which set aside its December 10, 2025, judgment directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to register the NDC as a political party.

The presiding judge, Isah Dashen, ruled that the Peace Movement Party (PMP) should have been joined in the suit because its interests were affected by the case.

Responding to the judgment in a statement issued by the Atiku Media Office, the former Vice President said he was not surprised by what he described as a disturbing development, warning that it could have grave consequences if what he called a plot to weaken opposition parties in favour of Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid succeeds.

According to Mr Atiku, the participation of citizens in free, fair and credible elections is the foundation of democracy, and any attempt to deny Nigerians that freedom of choice could trigger “chaos and anarchy.”

“Nigerians are now seeing the true colours of President Tinubu, who pretends to be a democrat, but his body language and the sinister activities of his agents contradict his mouthed commitment to free and fair elections,” he said.

He urged President Tinubu to emulate the late President Muhammadu Buhari, noting that despite being a retired military officer turned politician, he never deregistered any opposition party. He also cited former President Goodluck Jonathan, whom he said upheld the principle that political ambition should never be worth the blood of any citizen.

“If you’re truly popular and your policies have positively bettered the lives of the citizens, you shouldn’t be afraid of a free and fair competition,” he explained.

“Tinubu cannot be a champion of democracy under military dictatorship and now become the worst enemy of everything that democracy stands for.”

“You can’t attempt to rule the people against their will and still pretend that you’re committed to free and fair elections in 2027,” Mr Atiku stated.

The former Vice President also urged members of the judiciary to resist political interference, warning judges against allowing themselves to be used by politicians seeking to undermine Nigeria’s democracy.

“Governments will come and go. Hence, the judiciary must guard its integrity as the last hope of the masses. Don’t allow unscrupulous politicians to stain your reputation for their own short-term gain at the expense of justice. The judiciary is the last hope of the people. Let’s avoid anything that is capable of ruining the credibility and reputation of our courts, not for a messy pot of pottage or love of lucre.

“There are great judges in Nigeria, but the unchecked excesses of some who allow themselves to become judicial swords in the hands of politicians are capable of damaging the larger image of the judiciary,” he added.

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