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NECA decries increase in Nigeria’s unemployment rate
Dr Timothy Olawale, Director-General, Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) has expressed concern of the association, at the growing unemployment rate, as released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Olawale told newsmen on Wednesday, in Lagos, that the recently released data by the NBS was worrisome. NAN also reports that a recently released Labour force report, published by the NBS shows that Nigeria’s unemployment rate as of the end of 2020, rose to 33.3 per cent from 27.1 per cent recorded as of Q2 2020. The report indicated that about 23,187,389 (23.2 million) Nigerians remained unemployed. “While the figure shows that the unemployment crisis is worsening at an alarming rate, it is also instructive to note that the socio-economic factors that increased the figure t...
WTO chief warns against Nigeria’s continued reliance on oil & gas
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of World Trade Organisation (WTO), has warned of Nigeria’s continued reliance on crude oil and gas as the major source of revenue to the government. Okonjo-Iweala sounded the warning on Wednesday in Abuja at a meeting with Women Entrepreneurs in Nigeria held at the headquarters of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC). She urged the government to transit from oil and gas based economy to other non-oil sectors. She pointed out that unless Nigeria diversifies her economy, it would be left behind by other countries. She said, “I have kept on harping that Nigeria should transit from oil and gas based economy to producing in other non-oil sector. “This is because of the climate change. Fossil fuels which are oil and gas, that Nigeria depends on, ...
2023: PDP panel throws presidential tickets open
File Photo Amidst thinking from many stakeholders that North-East and South-East geo-political zones that have had the shortest stints at the Presidency, should be given special consideration, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) panel has thrown open the 2023 presidential ticket. The governor of Bauchi state and Chairman, PDP 2019 election review committee, Bala Mohammed, gave this recommendation on Wednesday while submitting the report of the committee to the party leadership. The Governor said: “In line with certain unwritten conventions of the nation’s history, many people think that, for fairness and equity, the North East and South East geo-political zones that have had the shortest stints at the Presidency, should be given special consideration, in choosing the presidential flagbearer...
Paradigm Agrees to Sell Music Division to Wasserman
Gores added: “We are huge fans of Casey Wasserman and the company he’s built, and I am very pleased that he and his team will be at the helm of this important business line. It’s both thrilling and bittersweet to reach this agreement, transition to a new era for Paradigm, and initiate a stabilizing solution during a global pandemic that has created an existential crisis for our industry.” The Beverly Hills-based Paradigm’s roster includes Ed Sheeran, Billie Eilish, Coldplay, Kacey Musgraves, Imagine Dragons and many other top-selling artists. The firm, run by chairman Gores, has built up its music division through years of acquiring boutique talent and management companies, including Monterey Peninsula Artists, Little Big Man, Third Coast Artists Agency, AM Only, Windish Agencies and...
FRSC: One woman killed, 17 others injured in Bauchi auto-crash
One woman was confirmed dead and 17 others were injured, in a road crash that occurred along Bauchi-Gombe road, on Wednesday, according to the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC). Yusuf Abdullahi, the Sector Commander, of the FRSC in Bauchi state, told newsmen, in Bauchi that the accident occurred in Dungulbi village, in Bauchi Local Government, when two vehicles collided with each other, as a result of wrongful overtaking. Abdullahi explained that a total of 18 people were involved in the accident between a Toyota Hummer bus with plate number FG25C04 and a commercial Ford vehicle, with a plate number KTG 808 TT. “The total number of people involved in this accident is 18, 11 males, five females, one male child and one female child, while the dead passenger is a female. “The probable cause of...
Court dismisses appeal filed by Imo government on seizure of Senator Okorocha’s properties
Rochas Foundation A three-man panel of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, Wednesday, dismissed the appeal filed by the Attorney General of Imo State and forty others challenging the ruling of an Owerri Federal High Court, which granted Senator Rochas Okorocha the leave to amend processes filed before the Court. Presiding Judge in the Suit with Suit No:CA/ABJ/CV/942/2020, Justice Dattijo Yahaya, dismissed the appeal, following a notice of discontinuance dated and filed on March 16 by the Attorney General of Imo State, Cyprain Akaolisa, on behalf of the appellants. Counsel to Senator Rochas Okorocha, Oba Maduabuchi, opposed the withdrawal of the appeal on the ground that the appellants want to deceive the Court by pretending to discontinue the appeal and go back to Imo State and complete what the...
WTO chief: ‘Safe Schools Initiative’ to stop abduction of students
The Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Wednesday expressed hope that the ‘Safe Schools Initiative’ will help stop the incessant abduction of students across Nigeria. Nigerian women on Wednesday came out en masse to welcome Okonjo-Iweala in her first homecoming since she became the director-general of WTO, during a visit to the Ministry of Women Affairs in Abuja. Addressing the crowd which included Senators and members of the National Assembly, former Ministers, wives of former governors, women in the Armed Forces, women societies, female political aspirants, Civil Society Organisations, as well as students, Okonjo-Iweala expressed deep concern about the incessant abduction of girls and boys in schools. The WTO boss who noted that it is shamef...
Police nab two Bayelsa university students with gun
The Bayelsa State Police Command has arrested two students of the state-owned Niger Delta University (NDU) for unlawful possession of a revolver pistol and cultism. A statement on Wednesday by the Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Asinim Butswat, identified the two NDU undergraduates as Joshua Daniel and Kevin Are. While Daniel is a 300-level student of the Department of Economics, Are is a 200-level student of the Mechanical Engineering Department. Butswat said the suspects were picked up with their gun on Tuesday at the jetty in the university town of Amassoma, Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state. According to him, the two of them confessed to be members of the Vikings Confraternity, a secret cult. He said they would be arraigned in court when investigation was concluded. ...
U.S. solar power expected to quadruple by 2030
The industry also saw fourth quarter installations jump 32 percent year-over-year, even with a massive backlog of projects awaiting interconnection, and as utility-scale projects rushed to meet an anticipated decline in the Investment Tax Credit rate, the report said. The two-year extension of the ITC, which was signed into law in the final days of 2020, has increased the five-year outlook for solar deployment by 17 percent, according to the report. The solar industry has grown quickly over the past several years, even expanding while Trump administration enacted trade tariffs and lease rate hikes and criticized the technology as expensive. President Joe Biden, meanwhile, entered the White House with plans to put the country on a path toward eliminating greenhouse gases from the power grid...
DOE’s first task for loan guarantees: Calming industry nerves
“I think my responsibility here is to prove to all stakeholders, including Congress, that we can put the money out the door and use the funds they entrust us with,” Shah told POLITICO. Loan guarantees enable the department to back companies seeking to deploy new technologies that are not yet established, like advanced geothermal, advanced battery storage, and, at least in the U.S., offshore wind. Companies use that stamp of approval from the government to attract funding in the capital markets. While Congress is laboring to put together a multitrillion-dollar infrastructure bill, DOE can start pumping dollars into the clean energy economy immediately, if it can generate excitement in the business community. But following a wave of approvals in 2010 and 2011 under the Obama administra...
EPA finalizes rule curbing interstate pollution from 12 states
Details: The rule, which updates ozone requirements under the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule and is largely in line with the Trump administration’s proposal, will require power plants in the 12 states to optimize their use of already-installed pollution controls for 2021. Plants may also have to install or upgrade their NOx combustion controls for the 2022 season. The rule lists emissions budgets for those states through 2024, with figures tweaked slightly from last year’s proposal. The 12 states facing additional requirements because of their contribution to downwind states’ air quality problems are Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. (Some states, like New York and New Jersey, are both upw...
Fed sees U.S. economic growth surging to 6.5 percent this year
“The economic fallout has been real and widespread, but with the benefit of perspective, we can say that some of the very worst economic outcomes have been avoided by swift and forceful action — from Congress, from across the government, and in cities and towns across the country,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference after the announcement. All of this is welcome news for President Joe Biden, who signed a $1.9 trillion economic-relief package last week as part of his push to help the economy fully recover from the deep, pandemic-induced slump. Critics of the spending package have warned that it could overheat the economy and spark inflation. But despite the surge in growth, the Fed isn’t in any hurry to raise borrowing costs, projecting no interest rate increases through 202...
