Power Africa Unveils Gas Roadmap to 2030

By Adedapo Adesanya India on Wednesday became the first nation to land a spacecraft near the Moon’s south pole and the fourth country – after Russia, the United States, and China – to land on the moon. This has been regarded as a historic triumph for the world’s second most populous nation and its ambitious, cut-price space programme. The unmanned Chandrayaan-3, which means Mooncraft in Sanskrit, touched down at 6:04 pm India time (1:34 pm Nigerian time). Its landing comes days after a Russian probe crashed in the same region and four years since the previous Indian attempt failed at

By Adedapo Adesanya Gabon has become the latest African country to experience a military takeover as military officers appeared on television on Wednesday night, announcing they were putting an end to the current regime and cancelling an election that saw President Ali Bongo Ondimba win another extension to his rule. Mr Bongo’s whereabouts are unknown, according to reports as of press time. While announcing the cancellation of the vote results, one of the officers said “all the institutions of the republic” had been dissolved. The address was read by an officer flanked by a group of a dozen army colonels,

By Adedapo Adesanya Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin, told the BRICS summit participants in South Africa on Thursday that Moscow intends to deepen ties with African countries for food and fuel supply. Speaking in a video link address, Mr Putin said Russia was interested in developing “multi-faceted ties” with Africa, which has been roiled by fuel and food price rises resulting from the conflict in Ukraine. This is coming after the country exited the Black Sea grain deal in July. This move has seen grain prices soar, hitting many African countries very hard. Russia and Ukraine are among the world’s

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Corporate finance expert, Mr Ibikunle Ibiyinka Oriola, has been appointed as the Group Finance Director of UAC of Nigeria Plc. Mr Oriola is an Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) qualified accountant with a BSc degree in Finance from the University of Lagos and also an ICAN merit award winner. The board of the company said it expects him to deploy his rich experience to the development and implementation of appropriate finance strategies to uplift productivity and business performance across the UAC group. Mr Oriola is a seasoned professional with 17 years’ experience gained from diverse

By Modupe Gbadeyanka A total of N420 million was shared in October among the Federal, States and Local Governments of the federation. This information was disclosed by the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, on Wednesday in Abuja. According to the Minister, the same amount was shared in September. Mrs Adeosun disclosed further that N6.3 billion was refunded to the federal government by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, while the net statutory allocation is N197 billion and Value Added Tax is N69.6 billion, an increase of N5.35 billion from the previous month. The Minister noted that there was exchange gain of

By Adedapo Adesanya Nigeria is working on a strategy to integrate other infectious diseases into the genomic surveillance in the country. This follows the advantage that genomic sequencing technology enhanced the fight against COVID-19 globally. The strategy is intended to improve preparedness and reinforce health security in Nigeria. These efforts align with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Global genomic surveillance strategy for pathogens with pandemic and epidemic potential 2022–2032 that provides the procedure to strengthen and scale up genomic surveillance worldwide. Contributing to the plan, the Ministry of Health, with support from WHO, recently conducted a situation analysis of COVID-19

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The Lagos State government has reopened the famous Third Mainland Bridge, which is one of the three bridges that connect the mainland part of the metropolis with the island. The longest bridge in the country was temporarily closed on Thursday for an investigative maintenance test, but was reopened on Sunday evening after completion of the test. It was gathered that the test was to determine which parts of the bridge needed urgent attention. Information reaching Business Post showed that details of the examination would be sent to Italy for analysis, while possible repairs might be done by

Composite materials made from agricultural waste could be used to produce sustainable, lightweight and low-cost applications in the automotive and marine industries. A team of researchers, led by the University of Portsmouth, have developed a bio-composite material using date palm fibre biomass (biomass is a term that includes waste material from plants, food waste and sewage) that can be used in non-structural parts, such as car bumpers and door linings. The team also involved researchers from the University of Cambridge, INRA (Institut national de la recherche agronomique, a French public research institute dedicated to agricultural science) and University of Britanny,

By Dipo Olowookere Investors at the Nigerian stock market on Monday were N436 billion richer as a result of the good performance put up by some large-cap stocks at the market. During the trading session, large-cap counters like Nestle Nigeria, Dangote Cement and others lifted the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) by 3.88 percent to reduce the year-to-date loss by 16.41 percent. Specifically, the All-Share Index (ASI) appreciated by 1193.37 points to finish at 31,967.01 points, while the market capitalisation went up by N436 billion to settle at N11.677 trillion. At the market on Christmas eve, the volume of shares exchanged

By Dipo Olowookere The managements of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) have agreed to maintain their existing business relationship so as to increase the country’s crude oil reserves. The decision to sustain the ties between both organisations was taken on Tuesday at the NNPC Towers, Abuja, when Mr Peter Costello, who is the Vice-President of Shell Nigeria and Gabon, led a delegation of his company’s management team to the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr Mele Kyari, to congratulate him on his recent appointment to the position by President Muhammadu Buhari. Also

By FBNQuest Research The FGN has this week named 27 industries as eligible for pioneer status incentives. Their principal benefit is exemption from companies’ income tax for three years, with a possible extension for one or two years. Monitoring of the scheme is to be the responsibility of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council, which will maintain a list of qualifying companies on its website. The FGN is also developing its plans for six special economic zones (SEZs), one for each geopolitical zone. The two initiatives are driven by the FGN’s determination to attract investment. Nigeria has some catching up to