RwandAir, NAS to Give Passengers Premier Lounge Services

By Aduragbemi Omiyale A small aircraft crashed near the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja, Lagos. The yet-to-be-identified helicopter, which is said to belong to a private owner, reportedly crashed in the Oba Akran area of Lagos State on Tuesday afternoon. According to reports reaching this newspaper, the pilots survived the air disaster. Two pilots were said to be flying the chopper when it burst into flames after it fell into a private property in the area. At the time of filing this report, we are yet to confirm what was responsible for the ill-fated helicopter crash. However, some

By Bliss Okperan The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Management, Mr Festus Keyamo, has expressed displeasure over the inability of foreign airlines to take their funds away from Nigeria to their home countries. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), as of June 2023, the total amount of foreign airlines’ trapped funds in Nigeria has risen to $812.2 million. Airline operators have been unable to repatriate their money because of the foreign exchange (forex) issues Nigeria is experiencing due to a decline in FX earnings. Speaking at the 7th Aviation Africa Summit in Abuja on Wednesday, the Minister said

By Adedapo Adesanya The federal government, through the Ministry of Aviation, has assured airline operators that it would liaise with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the allocation of foreign exchange (forex) to them at a single-digit interest rate as low as 1.5 per cent. However, the central government said it would soon begin to compel domestic airlines to compensate passengers for incessant delays and cancellations of flights. The Minister of Aviation, Mr Festus Keyamo, while speaking on flight disruption challenges during a meeting with the officials of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) in Abuja, said efforts would be

By Adedapo Adesanya The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has set a September 2021 deadline for insurance companies across the country to complete their recapitalization process. The commission made this known in circular numbered; NAICOM/DPR/CIR/25-04/2020, dated Wednesday, June 3, 2020, and sent to all insurance and reinsurance companies. In the notice signed by its Director, Policy and Regulation, Mr Pius Agboola, entitled Segmentation of Minimum Paid-Up Share Capital Requirement for Insurance and Reinsurance Companies in Nigeria, NAICOM noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the previous deadline of December 2020. As a result, there have been a review of the recapitalisation

By Adedapo Adesanya As the December 12 general election in the United Kingdom move closer, the Pound Sterling continues to dominate as evident on Friday, December 6 when the Naira depreciated further to trade at N468/£1 at the parallel segment of the foreign exchange market. This would be the third consecutive day that the Nigerian currency would depreciate against its British counterpart at the black market. On Wednesday (December 4), it exchanged at N466/£1. The next day, Thursday (December 5), it weakened to N467/£1 before closing the week on Friday at N468/£1. Business Post reports that on Thursday, the Pound

By Adedapo Adesanya The Lagos State Government has entered into an agreement with a private firm known as LEDCo Limited to enhance the state’s Smart LED Lightning project. The Commissioner for Energy & Mineral Resources, Mr Olalere Odusote, noted that the project is designed to leverage private sector partnerships to accelerate infrastructure interventions in Making Lagos State a 21st Century Economy. In a statement, he explained that this is another giant step in actualising the vision for a Greater Lagos by replacing all streetlights in the metropolis with smart LED lighting as part of the Streetlight Retrofit Project and in

By Dipo Olowookere Tech giant, Microsoft, on Thursday promised to deliver the complete, intelligent Microsoft Cloud for the first time from datacentres located in Africa, an investment it described as a major milestone in the company’s mission to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more, and a recognition of the enormous opportunity for digital transformation in Africa. Expanding on existing investments, Microsoft says it will deliver cloud services, including Microsoft Azure, Office 365, and Dynamics 365, from datacentres located in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa with initial availability anticipated in 2018. The new cloud

By Dipo Olowookere Nigerians have been enjoined to channel their intellectual capacity into productive ventures like writing of books, in order to create wealth and for posterity. Minister of Education, Mr Adamu Adamu, made this known in Abuja recently at the presentation of a book “Journalism and Business: My Newspaper Odyssey” written by an economist-turned journalist, Malam Isiaq Ajibola. Adamu noted that if more Nigerians could convert their dreams, visions and experiences into commercial products like books, such intellectual works will further develop the minds of people, just as the sales will generate wealth for the authors. The Minister recalled

By Investors Hub European stocks have moved mostly higher on the day as investors digest the European Central Bank?s monetary policy announcement. While the French CAC 40 Index has climbed by 0.7 percent, German DAX Index is up by 0.4 percent and the U.K.?s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.3 percent. On the data front, German consumer price inflation climbed 2.2 percent year-on-year in May, faster than the 1.6 percent increase in April but in line with the estimate published on May 30th, final data from Destatis showed. French consumer price inflation accelerated as initially estimated in May, while

By Adedapo Adesanya The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has invited the top three 2023 presidential candidates; Mr Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party, and Mr Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to speak on their economic plans for Nigeria. The LCCI Director-General, Dr Chinyere Almona, confirmed this in a statement on Wednesday in Lagos, saying that the event would be part of the 2022 edition of LCCI’s Private Sector Economic Forum for the 2023 presidential election. She said that LCCI was a non-partisan private sector operator

By Dipo Olowookere The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has restated its commitment to partnerships with international institutions for sea time training of Nigerians under the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP). Director General of NIMASA, Mr Dakuku Peterside, said this during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the agency and the Maritime Academy of India in Lagos for on-board sea time training of some graduates of the programme. Mr Peterside disclosed that the agreement between both parties covers the training of 60 cadets in three batches of 20 each. “This MOU will help reduce the amount