Chams Appoints Former UBA MD/CEO to Board

By Modupe Gbadeyanka About 170 of the 200 graduate trainees of Flutterwave (85 per cent) have been absorbed into the organisation as full-time employees after the completion of their programme. The leading payments technology firm in August 2022 launched its Graduate Trainee (GT) scheme to nurture young talents seeking clear career growth opportunities in technology. Some days ago, a graduation ceremony was held in Lagos to celebrate the end of the rigorous 12-month-long paid traineeship scheme. The participants were put through technical and soft skills and practical experiences. “We are excited that our aim of giving 200 extremely bright young

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), as part of efforts to reposition the agency for greater operational efficiency, has approved the redeployment of comptrollers at various commands across the country. The acting Comptroller General of Customs, Mr Bashir Adeniyi, on Wednesday, explained that the redeployment of the customs comptrollers was in response to the statutory retirement of some management members of the service. In a statement signed by the National Public Relations Officer, Mr Abdullahi Maiwada, Mr Adeniyi approved key appointments and redeployment within the service to ensure operational efficiency. “Consequently, comptrollers Florence Nanu Ogar-Modey and Queen Ogbudu

By Olukayode Kolawole Hotel grading and classification are both determining the standard of hotel offering that is available at a destination of choice and the ability to purchase hotel accommodation that meets that expectation on time. It is a vital requirement for both the business and the leisure tourists. The focus of grading and classifying hotels is to inform consumers on how to recognize quality, differentiate all levels of facilities and services, and offers greater information and transparency to the consumers. Amongst other things, it is beneficial to the tourists, the hotels and the tourism industry. Let’s take a look

By Adedapo Adesanya   In line with President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s Ease of Doing Business Policy, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has reiterated the agency’s commitment to the optimal operation of the country’s Eastern ports. This was disclosed by the Managing Director of the NPA, Ms Hadiza Bala Usman, while hosting members of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc committee on Ports and Habours at the Marina, Lagos head office of the NPA on Tuesday. The Ad-hoc committee was on a fact-finding mission to understand the reasons why the Eastern Ports across the nation were not functioning as optimally as the

By Adedapo Adesanya The Bank of Industry (BOI) has revealed that it distributed not less than N26 billion in loans to female entrepreneurs in the country in 18 months as part of its efforts to reduce the gender entrepreneurship inequality gap in Nigeria. Managing Director of BOI, Mr Olukayode Pitan, said at a recent event organized by the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Nigeria (CIBN) in Lagos that this was a significant move because gender inclusiveness was necessary to pivot growth in the country. During his presentation at the event themed Entrepreneurship for Inclusive Growth: Opportunities and Sustainability Strategies, Mr

By Investors Hub European stocks are turning in a lackluster on Tuesday as investors digest mixed earnings reports and looked ahead to Powell?s Congressional testimony. While the U.K.?s FTSE 100 Index is just below the unchanged line, the French CAC 40 Index is down by 0.2 percent and the German DAX Index is down by 0.5 percent. Sky Plc shares have soared in London after Comcast (CMCSA) announced a superior cash proposal to acquire the British broadcaster. Homebuilder Persimmon has also jumped after reporting a 25 percent increase in 2017 pre-tax profits and boosting its interim dividend. Provident Financial has

By Adedapo Adesanya The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange recorded the third straight session of gains on Thursday, April 8, appreciating further by 0.56 per cent. During the trading day, the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) achieved its highest level since the beginning of trading this year with a growth of 4.22 basis points to settle at 753.79 points in contrast to 749.57 points it finished at the previous session. The highest level the benchmark index of the unlisted securities market in Nigeria has recorded so far in 2021 was on January 7. Business Post reports that the day’s gain

**Invests $3b on Plants, Grinding Terminals By Dipo Olowookere Group Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Cement, Mr Joe Makoju has revealed that the company has invested a whopping $3B to build manufacturing plants and import/grinding terminals across Africa. The company’s operations, according to Mr Makoju are in Cameroon (1.5Mta clinker grinding), Congo (1.5Mta), Ghana (1.5Mta import), Ethiopia (2.5Mta), Senegal (1.5Mta), Sierra Leone (0.7Mta import), South Africa (2.8Mta), Tanzania (3.0Mta), Zambia (1.5Mta). For the second quarter under review, Mr Makoju also revealed that while total Nigeria sales volume went up by 13.9 percent to 7.8Mt, Pan-African volume reduced by 3.9 percent,

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Fitch Ratings has revised the Outlook on Nigeria’s Long-Term Foreign and Local Currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) to Negative from Stable and affirmed the IDRs at ‘B+’. The issue ratings on Nigeria’s senior unsecured foreign currency bonds have also been affirmed at ‘B+’. Also, the Country Ceiling has been affirmed at ‘B+’ and the Short-Term Foreign and Local Currency IDRs have been affirmed at ‘B’. The revision of the Outlook on Nigeria’s Long-Term IDRs reflects that Tight FX liquidity and low oil production contributed to Nigeria’s first recession since 1994. The economy contracted through the first three

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The management of Novartis has announced a five-year commitment to the fight against malaria in conjunction with the 7th Multilateral Initiative on Malaria Conference and the Malaria Summit of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. Further, the company has released new African research on progress and remaining challenges toward the 2030 malaria elimination targets, together with Elimination 8 and the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust program. Over the next five years, as part of its commitment, Novartis will invest more than $100 million to advance research and development of next-generation treatments to combat emerging resistance to artemisinin and other currently