Tyremaker Bridgestone Announces Exit from Russia

By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh South Africa hosts the 15th BRICS summit in Johannesburg. Russian President Vladimir Putin is participating, not in person, but this time only online. Historically, he has, a number of times, paid official working visits to South Africa. During these past two decades, he has held high-level talks, at different times, with Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa. Russia and South Africa have unlimited opportunities to develop mutually beneficial economic partnerships. For instance, in early September 2006, Vladimir Putin and Thabo Mbeki discussed the outlook for improving bilateral economic ties with representatives of the two countries’

By Adedapo Adesanya The African Union (AU) has suspended Gabon’s participation in all of its activities following Wednesday’s military takeover. The decision followed a meeting on Thursday of the bloc’s Peace and Security Council. The military in Gabon on Wednesday (August 29) seized power and placed President Ali Bongo, 64, under house arrest. The AU said it strongly condemns the junta, which is the ninth on the continent in the last three years. After the takeover, the Gabonese junta said it would phase in what it is calling transitional institutions after the removal of President Bongo, who had held onto

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 Kestér Kenn Klomegâh The historic gathering on Climate Change inside Africa clearly portrays efforts at spearheading towards finding sustainable solutions to existing challenges. But African leaders are still standing at a crossroads as they try hard to balance their geopolitical positions, this time with raising the needed funds for controlling the effects of climate change in Africa. The majority of these African leaders consistently barked at Westerners and Europeans for their excessive control, and frequent interference in their internal affairs and shouted over aspects of democracy, human rights and hegemony, and yet looked forward to their invaluable investment in

By Dipo Olowookere In the month of February 2017, a total of 714,700 internet subscribers exited MTN Nigeria, data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) reveals. A month earlier, MTN had a total of 31,015,405 internet subscribers on its network, but it declined to 30,300,705 in the month under review. This is the highest number of internet subscribers lost by a network in February 2017. Data from the telecoms regulator in Nigeria revealed that telecommunications networks lost a total of 1,275,573 internet users in February. The report showed that internet users on both Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) and

By Adedapo Adesanya Four years after its formation, Kora, the company building Africa’s high-fidelity payment infrastructure, has announced the launch of its office in the United Kingdom as it evolves its pan-African payment infrastructure. Kora partnered with the Government of Birmingham to power this expansion via the West Midlands Growth Company, an organisation responsible for driving regional investment promotion and economic development for the West Midlands and the UK. Located at the heart of the UK’s fastest-growing region in terms of technology, Birmingham was chosen as Kora’s first UK office because of its solid infrastructure and ease of access to

By Adedapo Adesanya The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange registered a 0.09 per cent drop on Wednesday, July 19, with the market capitalisation losing N940 million to wrap the day at N1.079 trillion, in contrast to the previous day’s N1.080 trillion, as the NASD Unlisted Securities Index (NSI) went down by 0.68 points to settle at 780.09 points compared with Tuesday’s 780.77 points. During the midweek trading day, the value of transactions slumped by 74.8 per cent as investors traded shares worth N2.3 million compared with the preceding day’s N9.2 million. Equally, the volume of securities bought and sold by

By Dipo Olowookere A GE company, Baker Hughes, has signed an agreement for the provision of Asset Performance Management (APM) software and services for LNG trains and related Balance of Plant (BoP) by Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG). NLNG shareholders are Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (49%), Shell Gas B.V. (25.6%), Total Gaz Electricite Holdings France (15%), and Eni International (N.A). NVSL (10.4%). This deal marks the first APM solution sold and executed both in the LNG market and in Sub-Saharan Africa by BHGE. BHGE was asked by NLNG to develop a solution to enhance the performance of LNG trains at its

By Adedapo Adesanya President Muhammadu Buhari has charged Nigerians to resist attempts by politicians to disrupt the 2023 general elections. The President, in his new year message, also urged the citizens to play their part in ensuring that this year’s polls are free, fair, and credible. “We must also resist every attempt to be used by politicians to create unrest in any form to disrupt the elections. We, as a government, will ensure such activities are met with the full force of the law,” the President said in a statement issued by his media aide, Mr Garba Shehu. “We as

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The global mentorship program of Nexford University called Global Grid has been launched in Nigeria with the aim to connect learners to promising careers through mentorship. Serving as mentors for the scheme are Dr Ola Brown of Flying Doctors Healthcare Investment Company, Dr Modupe Adefeso-Olateju of The Education Partnership Centre, Yemi Faseun of YF Talent Partners, and Gbenga Totoyi of Alan & Grant. According to the Washington D.C.-based next-generation university platform, Global Grid enables talents from across the world to prepare for remote jobs as it increases awareness around the millions of jobs that are moving online,

By Adedapo Adesanya The president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Mr Akinwumi Adesina, has tasked President Bola Tinubu to reduce the high cost of governance and ensure fiscal stability. He made the disclosure during his speech at the Inauguration Lecture for the New President of Nigeria on May 27, 2023, in Abuja, noting that, “The starting point must be macroeconomic and fiscal stability. Unless the economy is revived and fiscal challenges addressed boldly, resources to develop will not be there.” He noted that Nigeria currently faces huge fiscal deficits, estimated at 6 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product