Africa
Sports minister hails NFF president on FIFA election
Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, has congratulated NFF president, Amaju Pinnick, on his election into the FIFA council. Dare said this in a statement by his Special Adviser (Media), John Joshua-Akanji, on Friday in Abuja. Pinnick was elected into the FIFA council on Friday at the CAF 43rd general meeting in Rabat, Morocco, winning by 43 votes to his opponent’s eight votes. Dare described the victory as an opportunity for Nigeria and indeed Africa to contribute to the administration of world football. The minister charged Pinnick to use his position to reposition Nigerian and African football. “This is an opportunity to use your new position to make Nigerian, African and World football great again and make it better than you met it. “This is the reward of hard work and...
Court refuses to unblock Shell’s bank accounts
Getty Images Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo of the Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday declined to vacate an interim injunction directing 20 banks to block Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) and its subsidiaries’ bank accounts. The court also insisted that two of the banks’ secretaries and chief financial officers accused of disobeying the order made on January 25, 2021 must appear before it on March 29, 2021. The affected banks and their officials are: Citi Bank Ltd, its Company Secretary Sola Fagbure and Chief Financial Officer, Sharaf Mohammed; United Bank For Africa (UBA) Plc, its Company Secretary Bill Andrew Odum and Chief Financial Officer, Ebenezer Kolawole. The judge threatened to issue a warrant of arrest against them if they failed to appear before her on the ...
Highlander Adventure treks: 15 unique trails to explore
The collection of Highlander Adventure treks has been expanded for 2021. We take a look at the exciting new trails on offer In 2020, I joined my first Highlander Adventure trek in Croatia and was thoroughly won over by the semi-solo style of trekking. This year, I was pleased to see the collection expand from five treks to 15 and am planning (hoping?) to join two more – in Spain and North Macedonia. Below, I take a look at every trek on this year’s calendar, from the original Highlander Velebit in Croatia to the new trails currently being mapped in the Middle East and North Africa. What is the Highlander Adventure? The Highlander Adventure is a collection of organised five-day treks through some of Europe’s premier hiking regions, home to magnificent expanses of wilderness. Initi...
Zimbabwe authorises Sputnik V, Sinovac vaccines for emergency use
Zimbabwe has authorised the emergency use of four Covid-19 vaccines, including Russia’s Sputnik V and China’s Sinovac, the minister of information said on Tuesday. The southern African nation last month rolled out its Covid-19 vaccination programme after receiving a donation of 200 000 doses of shots from China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm). Last week, India announced that Zimbabwe had become the first African country to authorise the use of its Covaxin vaccine. The Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe has authorised the use of Sinopharm and Sinovac shots from China, Russia’s Sputnik V and India’s Covaxin, the information minister Monica Mutsvangwa said in a post-Cabinet briefing. “All Covid-19 approved vaccines will be procured through the National Vaccine Procurement Fund ...
AfDB approves $1.3 million grant for female financial inclusion research in Africa
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved two grants worth $1.3 million for research aimed at increasing women’s access to a range of digital financial services on the continent. In a statement on Monday, AfDB said the grants will be disbursed by Africa digital financial inclusion facility (ADFI), a blended finance vehicle supported by the bank. The grants will be disbursed to two fintech firms, Pula Advisors Kenya and M-KOPA Kenya. AfDB said Pula Advisors will use the $1 million for research of social and economic factors that impact women farmers’ access to microinsurance in Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia while M-KOPA will use the $300,000 funding for research involving 500 women and men in Kenya’s Kisumu, Eldoret and Machakos counties. It said findings from the research will inform th...
Ivory Coast names interim prime minister
Patrick Achi, secretary general to the presidency of the Ivory Coast, was appointed Monday interim prime minister while the country’s premier, Hamed Bakayoko, is in Europe receiving medical treatment, the president’s office said. “State minister Patrick Achi will take over the functions of prime minister and head of government in an interim capacity,” the presidency said in a statement. Tene Birahima Ouattara, presidential affairs minister and the younger brother of President Alassane Ouattara, was appointed interim defence minister, also replacing Bakayoko in that position. Bakayoko, 56, travelled to France on February 18 for health reasons and has just been transferred to a hospital in Germany, a source close to the presidency told AFP, without specifying exactly when. The nature of Baka...
AfDB approves $1.3 million grants for women’s access to digital finance
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved two grants of $1.3 million for research aimed to increase African women’s access to a range of digital financial services, including loans and micro-insurance. According to a statement from the AfDB on Monday, the grants for $1 million and $300,000 respectively, will be disbursed through the Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI). ADFI is a pan-African initiative designed to accelerate digital financial inclusion throughout Africa. It is a blended finance facility of AfDB with two financial technology firms; Pula Advisors Kenya Ltd. and M-KOPA Kenya Ltd. Pula Advisors will use the $1 million for research of social, cultural and economic factors that impact women farmers’ access to micro-insurance in Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia. Mor...
ECOWAS suggests compensation for coronavirus vaccine adverse reactions
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Vaccine Taskforce has recommended compensation for citizens who suffer side effects or injury from the COVID-19 vaccination. Professor Stanley Okolo, the Director-General of the West African Health Organisation (WAHO), disclosed this at the 5th Regional Steering Committee meeting of the Regional Disease Surveillance Systems Enhancement (REDISSE) project on Saturday in Abuja. Okolo said that the recommendation was one of the resolutions adopted by the taskforce and presented to the ECOWAS Ministerial Coordinating Committee to encourage citizens to receive the vaccine. He explained during the REDISSE virtual meeting that the issue of indemnity was being taken up by the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, the global initiative aimed at equit...
Ex-President Jonathan enlists colleagues to mitigate electoral crises in West Africa
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has enlisted the support of other ex-presidents and Prime Ministers in West Africa to mitigate elections-related conflicts to promote peace in the region. Mrs Ann Iyonu, Executive Director, Goodluck Jonathan Foundation (GJF) announced this at a news conference in Yenagoa on Friday. Iyonu said that the former leaders’ group christened West African Elders Forum (WAEF) was inaugurated by Jonathan at a virtual meeting held on Thursday. She said that WAEF was an initiative of the GJF aimed at harnessing the goodwill, expertise and experiences of former leaders to promote peaceful elections and deepen democracy in West Africa. According to her, the forum comprises three former leaders of Nigeria, Ex-President Jonathan, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Retired Gen. A...
2,700 Akwa Ibom women benefit from federal government’s special grant
The minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, has advised Nigerian women not to regard the N20, 000 special grant given to the rural woman by the federal government as the fabled national cake. She has rather charged the beneficiaries to judiciously use the grant to improve their living standard by utilizing it as seed capital do boost their trades and businesses for greater income. Speaking through Bashir Nura Alkali, the permanent secretary of the ministry, at the flag off of the Grant for Rural Women Project and the symbolic disbursement of the grant to 2700 women of Akwa Ibom state, in Uyo, on Thursday, Farouq explained that the Grant for Rural Women Programme was introduced in 2020 to sustain the social inclusion agenda of Presid...
West African health ministers in joint fight against Ebola
Ministers of Health from Guinea – which is combating a new Ebola outbreak – and neighbouring countries have agreed on a unified front to combat the virus that re-emerged about three weeks ago. A UN statement on Wednesday said this was at a meeting held in Guinea’s capital, Conakry, on 2 March. Ministers and government representatives from Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Senegal and Sierra Leone attended the inter-ministerial meeting. “If in 2014 Guinea and the neighbouring countries were victims of Ebola, this time around Guinea and the region are resolutely facing up to Ebola,” said the Guinean Prime Minister, Dr. Ibrahima Kassory Fofana. The statement said the ministers agreed in a final declaration to set up a coordination mechanism, enhance cross-border collaboration, incl...
Tanzanian envoy denies President Magufuli in bad health
Tanzania’s President John Magufuli is in good health and working normally, one of his diplomats has told a broadcaster in Namibia, countering reports he had been flown to hospital in Kenya and then India in a critical condition with COVID-19. Magufuli, 61, who is Africa’s most prominent coronavirus sceptic, has not been seen in public since Feb. 27. Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu has cited medical and security sources for information that the president was flown to the private Nairobi Hospital in neighbouring Kenya and then on to India in a coma. But the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation quoted Tanzania’s ambassador in Windhoek, Modestus Kipilimba, as saying Magufuli was in good health and remained in Tanzania. “High Commissioner Kipilimba dismissed the reports, saying Magufuli is...