Senate Tasks NDDC to Restore Power to Ondo South

By Adedapo Adesanya President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday departed Abuja for Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, to attend the COP28 Climate Summit which takes place from December 1 —2, 2023, with the theme Unite, Act, and Deliver. According to the presidential spokesman, Mr Ajuri Ngelale, the President will be using the platform to advocate for funding as well as technical support to tackle the array of climate problems facing the country. He said Mr Tinubu was “mindful of the severe impact of climate change on Nigeria, such as desertification, flooding, erosion, drought, and national security risks arising therefrom, will maximise

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 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 Twenty million Nigerians have been targeted to be brought under health insurance nationwide over the course of 10 years, says the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). At a ceremony to mark the kick-off of enrolment of beneficiaries in Jigawa State, the Executive Secretary of the NHIS, Mr Mohammed Sambo, noted that the Basic Health Care Provision Fund BHCPF was part of the overall effort to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030. The NHIS chief was quoted in a statement issued by Mr Emmanuel Ononokpono, the NHIS Head of Media and Public Relations, as saying that through

By Adedapo Adesanya The United Kingdom-Nigeria Tech Hub has partnered Ventures Platform and Startupbootcamp AfriTech to launch the iNOVO accelerator, which is seeking innovative ed-tech, agri-tech and e-health startups with disruptive solutions to challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. The fully digital programme will leverage Startupbootcamp’s methodology through a two-pronged approach of accelerating 10 early-stage startups in Nigeria that are solving challenges resulting from the pandemic, as well as granting 100 startups life-time learning access to its digital Accelerator Squared platform. The three-month programme will see 10 selected startups receive capacity building, lean startup training, mentorship, and support to rapidly

By Modupe Gbadeyanka A leading business learning company, African Management Institute (AMI), has appointed Mrs Asha Mweru Mbowa as the Managing Director of its newly launched AMI Enterprise, a new division dedicated to boosting workplace and professional skills for growth-stage and established companies. The Kenyan national was promoted to the new position from her role as AMI’s Director of Operations and Talent, where she oversaw a 118 per cent growth of AMI employees from 2020 to 2022. Her promotion continues the precedent set by AMI in which women represent over 60 per cent of all senior leadership positions at AMI.

By Adedapo Adesanya The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has written to the World Bank to suspend issuing loans to Nigeria’s 36 states over allegations of mismanaging public funds which may include loans obtained from the institution. In the letter dated November 25, 2023, the group specifically wants the bank’s President, Mr Ajay Banga, “to promptly, transparently and effectively conduct an investigation into the spending of loans and other facilities by the country’s 36 state governors and to suspend any loans and funding if there is relevant admissible evidence of mismanagement or diversion of public funds by any of

By Aduragbemi Omiyale Experts in the Nigerian financial markets have expressed optimism about the proposed NGX Technology Board’s positive impact on the capital market and the economy. The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited plans to establish this platform to attract the listing of technology companies, giving them an avenue to raise funds to expand their operations. On Thursday, October 6, 2022, the exchange held a seminar themed Enabling the Next Wave of Growth for Technology Companies in Africa. It was held to allow stakeholders to discuss ways to make things better for players in the sector. Speakers at the event included

By Modupe Gbadeyanka According to Reuters, Nigeria’s overnight lending rate more than doubled to 25 percent on Friday from 10.17 percent on Thursday after the central bank sold open market bills and debited commercial lenders for bond purchases. It was reported that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sold N178.44 billion ($586.01 million) in 321-day treasury bills at 18.6 percent and N19.14 billion of 174-day paper at 18 percent, draining cash from the money market and pushed up cost of borrowing among commercial lenders. It also debited commercial banks accounts for the purchases of N160 billion worth of long tenor

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The 2nd annual West Africa Energy Assembly held on January 17 and 18, 2017 at the Intercontinental Hotel, Lagos was no doubt an engaging event. During the summit, which focused on upstream opportunities, farm-in/farm-out, new bid rounds, latest developments in E&P and many more, experts in the energy sector converged to brainstorm on how best to move the industry forward. Some of the speakers at the occasion were Chiagozie Nwokonko, Partner, Streamsowers & Kohn; Jeff Corey, COO of Seven Energy; Abiodun Afolabi, and the Executive Director Corporate Affairs, Total E&P Nigeria limited. Other included Nyonga Fofang, Managing

By Ebitonye Akpodigha The use of scratch cards to register and check results of UTME by candidates would be scrapped, the Joint Admission and Matriculations Board (JAMB) has disclosed. According to JAMB’s Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, the board has come up with another means of carrying out these functions. Prof Oloyede revealed that from 2017, candidates would generate a PIN number for themselves from their phone or computers for the purpose of registering for the examination and checking their results. He said this move was to cancel the hoarding of the scratch cards by banks and vendors, only to sell