ENGIE Acquires Ampair, Thermaire Investments

By Adedapo Adesanya The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) have signed an agreement for a dual currency line of credit comprising $50 million and €50 million to support local agricultural businesses in West Africa. The credit lines are expected to strengthen food security, economic growth, and employment generation. The President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of EBID, Mr George Agyekum Donkor and Mr Solomon Quaynor, AfDB Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure, and industrialisation, formalised the agreement during a signing ceremony at the bank’s headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nobel Committee has awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize to jailed Iranian activist, Ms Narges Mohammadi, for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all. In a statement announced on Friday, Ms Mohammadi was recognised for her brave struggle which has seen her arrested 13 times, convicted five times, and sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes. As of the moment of her recognition for the prize, Ms Mohammadi is still in prison after her role in the largest

By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh Russian language study is hitting magnificent roadblocks in Africa. For several years after the Soviet collapse, Moscow has been stepping up efforts to strengthen Russian language study and its culture across Africa. But there have been few tangible results largely due to low motivation towards the language, its usefulness is blurry compared to other foreign languages including French, English language and now Chinese. In the previous years, there has been an increasing concern about Russia’s extremely low presence in Africa. Russia’s initial interest was to become part of Europe and construct business ties from Lisbon to

By Professor Maurice Okoli Amid heightened criticisms and intense debates over several significant global issues including new financial architecture, economic diversification, growing debts and reforms, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, on October 15 wrapped up their week-long annual meetings held under the theme “Global Action, Global Impact” in Marrakesh, Morocco in North Africa. With the rapid geopolitical changes, it featured prominently finance ministers and central bank governors from 190 countries in desperate search of comprehensive mechanisms and suitable approaches to address the prevailing economic crisis across the globe. The coordinated annual meetings also reviewed its scope

By Adedapo Adesanya In its proposition to play a significant role in the insurance industry retail space, Universal Insurance Plc has keyed into the Passengers Manifest Scheme (PAMS) project of the Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), becoming the official underwriter of the initiative. This partnership means that Universal Insurance will be the official insurer of all the passengers and drivers under the scheme. The PAMS initiative was designed to ensure that passengers travelling by road across the country have their names authenticated in the union’s digital manifest and are covered with genuine insurance policy. In event of any

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Leading food company, Promasidor Nigeria Limited (PNL), has secured a N5.6 billion credit from the Bank of Industry (BoI) to support its aggressive expansion programmes. PNL Finance Director, Mr Per Kristensen, said the facility would be used for additional machinery, factory expansion and value chain development, which would create jobs for Nigerians and increase the company’s capacity to support the country’s economy. Disclosing this in Lagos, Mr Kristensen said repayment of the loan was structured over a seven-year tenure, including a 12-month moratorium. He added that the facility was a vote of confidence on the company’s untainted

By Dipo Olowookere Leading GSM service provider in Nigeria, MTN Group, is yet to formally file an application for its planned listing of $500 million (N153 billion) worth of its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) this year. According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the NSE, the two major regulatory agencies in the nation’s capital market, are yet to receive formal application from the telco giant. MTN Group, which was initially fined N1.04 trillion for failing to disconnect unregistered subscribers on its network, later had the fine reduced to

By Nneka Okumazie The worth of any language is also the amount of original knowledge in that language that is of importance and great interest to others, requiring them to seek translations from that language. Communication is an important use of language, but it is basic in terms of what a language is worth. English was not worth as much as it is now centuries ago when knowledge was spread across many other languages, mostly European. Those who spoke English sought translations to English; others had to learn those languages to access the knowledge in them. There are many countries

By Adedapo Adesanya The newly released figures by Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) contained in the Foreign Trade and Goods report indicated that Nigeria recorded more of in exports than imports in the second quarter of 2019 than it did in the first quarter of the year. The report showed that in the second quarter of 2019, the value of Nigeria’s total trade stood at N8.603 trillion with exports taking 53.4 percent equivalent to N4.596 trillion while imports comprised 46.6 percent valued at N4.007 trillion. This also spelt that the value of total trade in Q2 2019 was higher by

By Damilola Faustino It is very difficult to get original gadgets in Nigeria notwithstanding whether it is registered by the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON). A smartphone and power bank are not exempted from the counterfeit problem as both online and offline platforms are replete with them. With the Nigerians barely enjoying 24 hours power, the need for it to charge your smartphone is important. Do not make the mistake of buying a fake power bank. These tips will help select an original power bank. Capacity Power banks with more capacity tend to be more useful. A power bank’s capacity is measured in

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The embargo earlier placed in the trading in the shares of Conoil Plc, an energy firm on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), has been removed. On Tuesday, the NSE announced the suspension of the company from its trading platform alongside 10 others as a result of their failure to release their financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2018 and the first quarter of 2019. Nearly 48 hours after the suspension, Conoil released the results and declared the payment of N2 to its shareholders for last fiscal year. In a notice to on Friday, 05 July

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) Plc has announced increasing its monthly international spend limit on its Naira MasterCard. In an email notice to its customers on Tuesday morning, the financial institution disclosed that it was raising the limit from $100 to $1000 monthly. “We write to inform you of the monthly spending limits currently applicable when using your GTBank Naira MasterCard for International payments,” the lender said in the email notice obtained by Business Post. In the electronic mail, the bank said the transaction applies to POS and Online channels. It was reliably gathered that the upward review