Subsidy Removal: Court Stops Proposed Nationwide Strike by NLC, TUC

By Adedapo Adesanya The President of Nigeria, Mr Bola Tinubu, has promised relief amid reforms that have increased hardships among Nigerians in his first Independence Day broadcast on Sunday. Nigeria is marking her 63rd Independence anniversary. Speaking during a brief broadcast, President Tinubu said his reforms, including fuel subsidy removal and unification of exchange rates, have come with some effects, which he admitted were painful but are needed. He announced that small businesses would get much support while an additional N25,000 would be given to low-income earners for six months to cushion the hardship. Mr also promised housecleaning at the

By Aduragbemi Omiyale An artificial intelligence-powered feature, Dream Screen for Shorts, designed to redefine how creators use YouTube, has been unveiled by the video streaming platform. The feature was introduced by the tech giant on Thursday alongside others at the Made On YouTube event. It was created to allow YouTube creators to reach more viewers. According to the firm, Dream Screen allows creators to add AI-generated video or image backgrounds to their Shorts simply by typing an idea into a prompt. With Dream Screen, creators will be able to generate new, fantastic settings for their Shorts that are only limited

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is set to embark on its planned strike as it said it does not have any agreement with the federal government to shelve the action. This came from its Head of Information and Public Affairs, Mr Benson Upah, who countered a statement by the Ministry of Labour and Employment. Mr Upah also said the NLC did not have any date for a meeting with the government that may lead to the suspension of the proposed strike. “We do not have any agreement with the government to suspend the planned strike action. Neither

By Adedapo Adesanya Nigeria’s former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, who faces bribery charges filed against her by the United Kingdom (UK) government, was on Monday granted bail in a London court. Reading his judgement, District Judge Michael Snow granted her bail in terms and conditions, including a curfew that ordered her to stay indoors between 11 pm and 6 am. He also ordered her to always wear an electronic tag and imposed a £70,000 surety to be paid before she could leave the court building on Monday. According to Reuters, the former minister, during her Monday appearance

By Aduragbemi Omiyale Nigeria’s economic growth slowed to 2.31 per cent in the first quarter of 2023 from the 3.52 per cent achieved in the fourth quarter of 2022 and 3.11 per cent reported in the first three months of last year. This revelation was made by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data released on Wednesday, May 24, 2023. The country’s economy was on its knees in the first three months of this year because of the preparations for the 2023 general elections and the cash crunch. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)

By Adedapo Adesanya The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, Mr Akinwumi Adesina, has appealed to the United States to back the institution’s $1.5 billion emergency food production plan which seeks to avert a looming food crisis in Africa caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Mr Adesina was part of a team that testified about global food insecurity and persisting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic before the US Senate subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs. Senators Chris Coons (Delaware), Lyndsey Graham (South Carolina), Dick Durbin (Illinois), Chris Van Hollen (Maryland) and Roy Blunt (Missouri) also participated

By Dipo Olowookere The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited succumbed to the authority of the bears on Tuesday by 0.20 per cent as a result of profit-taking, especially in the industrial goods stocks. Business Post reports that the industrial goods declined by 0.08 per cent due to selling pressure on Lafarge Africa, which said its performance in the first three months of this year was impacted negatively by the cash crunch and the general elections. This loss posted by the sector suppressed the gains recorded by the other key segments of the stock market, especially the banking arm, which grew by

By Adedapo Adesanya Oil edged lower on Wednesday as investors took profits from two straight days of gains amid supply tightness, causing Brent crude to lose 37 cents or 0.5 per cent to trade at $78.28 a barrel, and the US West Texas Intermediate crude to shed 23 cents or 0.3 per cent to sell at $72.97 per barrel. On the supply side, worries of tightness after an unexpected draw in US oil stockpiles and a halt to some Iraqi Kurdistan oil exports were partially offset by a smaller-than-expected output cut in Russia. About 450,000 barrels per day of crude

By Adedapo Adesanya The federal government has unveiled a N5 billion loan facility to the Bank of Agriculture (BoA) for livestock farmers across the country. This was announced by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar, who revealed that the loan facility would ensure more access at reasonable interest rates for farmers to expand their business and attract potential Investors into the Livestock Value Chain. Speaking during a media briefing at the Ministry’s Conference Room in Abuja recently, the Minister said that the present administration was committed to reforming the livestock sector with notable programmes like

By Adedapo Adesanya Facebook has unveiled a software based on machine learning which the company said is the first to be able to translate from any of 100 languages without relying on English. The open-source artificial intelligence software was created to help the massive social network deliver content better in 160 languages to its more than two billion users around the world. In a blog post, Facebook Research Assistant, Ms Angela Fan, noted that, “This milestone is a culmination of years of Facebook AI’s foundational work in machine translation.” She said the new model is more accurate than other systems

By Dipo Olowookere The fresh 5.1 billion shares of Jaiz Bank Plc sold to billionaire businessman, Mr Mohammed Indimi, have been listed on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited. The additional stocks were allowed to trade on the exchange on Monday, October 4, 2021, a notice from the NGX and sighted by Business Post stated. Jaiz Bank, an Islamic financial institution trading its equities on the stock exchange, sold a total of 5,076,923,077 ordinary shares of the company to Mr Indimi, an in-law to President Muhammadu Buhari. The shares were purchased by the business mogul, who owns Oriental Energy Resources, at

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Nigeria’s second non-interest financial institution, TAJBank, has been named the Best Islamic Bank for Marketing & Growth Strategy. The lender, which secured its operating license from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on July 12, 2019, won this accolade at the 2020 Global Islamic Finance Awards (GIFA). GIFA celebrates leading financial institutions within the global banking sector setting new industry standards and driving innovation in financial services within their various countries. TAJBank, widely regarded by industry watchers as a trailblazer, has maintained consistent growth since its inception into the market due to its various innovations in digital