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NDLEA rues over shipment of illegal cargoes through Nigeria’s seaports
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has said some ships and their crew bring in illegal consignments from the port of origin into the country. NDLEA also hinted that the shipments are perfected by at the Nigerian end of the transaction by collaborators on arrival at the nation’s ports. Disclosing this in Lagos at the Joint Vessel Boarding Meeting held in Lagos, Assistant Area Commander, NDLEA, Mercy Thompson, noted that the recent drug seizure made at Tin-can Island Port by the Agency was also brought in the same way. She, therefore implored ship crew members to cooperate with representatives government agencies boarding vessels, while complaining that most times the ship captains and their crew refuse to come out to meet them while other times the crew are very uncooperative....
Senate president receives first dose of coronavirus vaccine, calls for more sensitisation
The President of the Senate, Dr Ahmad Lawan, took the lead at the National Assembly on Tuesday when he received the first jab of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine was administered on him in his fourth floor office by his personal physician, Dr Muhammad Usman, while the vaccination card was presented to him by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Health (Secondary and Tertiary), Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe. Speaking shortly after receiving the jab, Lawan called for more advocacy and sensitization on the vaccine, appealing to Nigerians to make themselves available for the vaccination. He congratulated the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 for working so hard to ensure that the vaccine is available for Nigerians. While urging the PTF to get more of the vaccine and variety of it in ...
NIRSAL partners NASENI to create 110,000 jobs in agric sector
The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL Plc) has entered into partnership with the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) with a view to creating over 110,000 jobs in the nation’s agricultural value chain. NIRSAL said in a statement in Abuja Friday that the move is in “continuation of its mandate of providing end-to-end solutions aimed at fixing breakages along the Agricultural Value Chains (AVC) in Nigeria”. According to the statement, NIRSAL has engaged NASENI as its technical collaborative partner for the conceptualization, design, development, deployment, implementation and execution of various schemes/projects under the NIRSAL-NASENI Comprehensive Tractor Recovery Scheme, the NIRSAL Climate-Smart Modular Geo-Coopera...
US state bans transgender athletes from women’s sports
Mississippi became the first US state on Thursday to ban transgender athletes from competing on girls or women’s sports teams, a move denounced as discriminatory by LGBTQ groups and likely to face legal challenges. Governor Tate Reeves said the “Mississippi Fairness Act” would “ensure young girls are not forced to compete against biological males.” The bill requires public schools in the conservative southern state to designate sports teams based on biological sex as for “Males,” “Females” or “Coed.” “Athletic teams or sports designated for ‘females,’ ‘women,’ or ‘girls,’ shall not be open to students of the male sex,” it states. Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a group which defends LGBTQ rights, described the bill as “discriminatory anti-transgender legislation” and said it would be challeng...
DMO: Nigerian roads financed with Sukuk not repaying debt as planned
File Photo The Debt Management Office (DMO) has decried the country’s debt service to revenue ratio, describing it as a major issue of concern. Patience Oniha, the Director-General of DMO, said this in Abuja on Thursday at the fifth Budget Seminar (webinar) organised by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The theme of the budget seminar was, “Financing Nigeria’s Budget and Infrastructure Deficit through the Capital Market.” Oniha stressed the need for infrastructure built with borrowed funds to generate revenue to service the debts. According to her, “We have done the Sukuk, for instance, but the government is the one servicing the debt of those Sukuk. “They (the debts) are not being serviced with revenue from those sources (infrastructure). “I think that when we are talking abou...
NCC boss: Over $70 billion spent on telecoms infrastructure in Nigeria
Vox Media Over $70 billion have been invested in telecommunications infrastructure deployment in Nigeria since the liberalisation of the industry in 2001. The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Prof Umar Garba Danbatta, who made this known said the amount represented a larger chunk of local and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) attracted into the sector within the period. Danbatta made the remarks on Thursday while delivering the Bullion Lecture 2021 Edition organised by the Centre for Financial Journalism (CFJ), Lagos. According to him, the investment in infrastructures has boosted the economy and provided more opportunities for more Nigerians have access to telecoms services. “Today, the number of active telephone lines being used by Nigerians has signi...
NPA investigates counterfeits e-call-ups
The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) says it is investigating cases of counterfeit of its call-ups in circulation. “We are currently investigating some cases where truck drivers were caught with counterfeited e-call up slip in order to by-pass security and officials saddled with the responsibility but we are on top of the situation. “We will beat them to their game. “This was the major factor responsible for the initial confusion on the major road within the first week of commencement of the e-call up system. “ We are determined to checkmate the illicit act,” NPA said on its official Twitter page on Wednesday. Get more stories like this on Twitter You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back pow...
Delta government heads to Supreme Court to reclaim £4.2 million James Ibori loot
The Delta State Government says it will challenge federal government’s plan to deploy the recently returned £4.2 million (around N2.2 billion) recovered from former governor, James Ibori, at the Supreme Court. The Commissioner for Information, Ehiedu Aniagwu, disclosed this on Tuesday while reacting to news of the repatriation of the funds, which the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), said would be used to complete the ongoing work on Second Niger Bridge, Abuja-Kano Road and the Lagos-Ibadan road. “We would try to get take advantage of the legal system to make the federal government correct the injustice they are about to visit on us as a state,” he said. “If they are quite sure that the funds they are about to repatriate left Delta State on ...
Kola Ologbondiyan: Our congresses showcase PDP’s readiness to end misrule in Nigeria
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has said the peace, harmony and unity of purpose that characterized the conduct of its zonal congresses in the North-East and South-East geo-political zones last recently Friday and Saturday, is an indication of its readiness to take over the leadership of the country. The national publicity secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, stated this yesterday in a chat with newsmen in Abuja. According to him, “the peaceful conduct of its zonal congresses shows the sharp contrast between the PDP and the All Progressives Congress, APC whose activities are always enmeshed in selfish contestations, lust for power, bloody clashes and overheating of our national polity.” The statement continued: “The harmony in the PDP as one indivisible family is a direct product ...
Nigerian Army appoints new GOCs, PSO, others
The Nigerian Army has announced the appointment of new General Officers Commanding, Principal Staff Officers, commandant of tri-service institution and army training centres, corps commanders, among other positions to man the various divisions, units and commands of the service. Director, Army Public Relations, Brigadier-General Mohammed Yerima, who made this known on Saturday, said the redeployment, approved by Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant-General Ibrahim Attahiru, is aimed at repositioning the service for optimal performance. He said all the postings and appointments takes effect from March 10, the COAS urged the new appointees to carry out their responsibilities in the most professional manner and with absolute loyalty to the Commander-in-Chief and in defence of the Constitution of th...
Energy firms’ bank debts rise to N5.94 trillion
The debts owed to Nigerian banks by oil and gas operators as well as power companies in the country rose to N5.94tn at the end of 2020 from N5.25tn in December 2019. The N5.94tn represents 29.16 per cent of the N20.37tn loans advanced to the private sector by the banks as of December, according to the sectoral analysis of banks’ credit by the Central Bank of Nigeria. Oil and gas firms, which received the biggest share of the credit from the banks, increased their debt by N600bn to N5.18tn in December 2020 from N4.58tn in December 2019. The debt owed by power firms to the banks rose to N763.22bn in December 2020 from N671.45bn in December 2019, the CBN data showed. Oil firms operating in the downstream, natural gas and crude oil refining subsectors owed N393tn as of December, up from N3.42t...
Okomu Oil Palm wants central bank to review anchor borrowers programme
Okomu Oil Palm Company Plc. wants a review of CBN’s Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) to accommodate more farmers and to shore up the nation’s foreign earnings from agriculture. The ABP is targeted at smallholder farmers engaged in the production of rice, maize, wheat and cash crops like oil palm, cocoa and rubber, among others. Speaking with newsmen on Monday in Benin, Okomu Oil’s Managing Director, Dr Graham Hefer, noted that cash crop farmers were yet to fully benefit from the programme. He said food crop farmers had an edge because they could cultivate, harvest, sell and repay their loans within the specified one year period. “It is easy for farmers engaged in annual crops to meet their targets. “This doesn’t happen with cash crops because in the first three years of oil palm production...
