Analysis
Statistical analysis: Finding a better shot-stopper for Everton
Carlo Ancelotti’s Everton have been absolutely resurgent this season. At the time of writing, they are placed in the Europa League spots with a game or two in hand relative to the teams above them in the table. Their summer signings including the likes of James Rodríguez, Allan and Abdoulaye Doucouré have been firing on all cylinders, while old faces such as Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison and Lucas Digne have been exceptional as well. Protecting their own net, though, has been a bit of a challenge for the Toffees. No other Premier League side has played fewer games than Everton at the time of writing, yet they only have the eighth-best record in the league when it comes to goals conceded. While their defence has not been particularly solid (they are at the very centre of the ...
Mexico’s richest man Carlos Slim hospitalized with coronavirus
Mexican businessman Carlos Slim, one of the world’s richest men, remains hospitalized with COVID-19, spokesman Arturo Elias said on Wednesday. The 80-year-old telecoms magnate has been receiving treatment at the National Institute of Nutrition, a public health center in Mexico City, since his son confirmed on Monday that he had tested positive. “He’s in [the hospital] for analysis and monitoring, but he’s doing very, very well,” Elias said. Slim is Mexico’s wealthiest man. His family controls America Movil, the largest Mexican telecommunications provider, whose operations includes mobile and fixed-line voice services, wireless, internet and fixed-data services. Get more stories like this on Twitter You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what ...
Analysis: Thomas Tuchel is the perfect manager for Chelsea … for now
Frank Lampard said his farewells at Chelsea yesterday, and now his replacement has already been selected – Thomas Tuchel. The German tactician began his coaching career with Augsburg’s reserves in 2007 after impressing with the youth sides, moving on to then-newly-promoted Mainz in two years’ time. After spending five years at the club, he replaced ex-Mainz man Jürgen Klopp at Borussia Dortmund (whom he had also succeeded at Mainz), where he spent another two years. His most recent destination was in France, as he spent over two years at the helm of Paris Saint-Germain, leaving with the highest win percentage in Ligue 1 history (75.6%). Now that Tuchel has joined Chelsea, let’s take a look at the impact he might have at the club, and explore a few systems he might use with the Blues. ...
#EndSARS: It’ll take long to rebuild destroyed property – Governor Sanwo-Olu
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, said, yesterday, that it would take the state time to rebuild the properties destroyed during the EndSARS protests. This came on a day the Lagos State government disclosed that the 2021 budget of N1.164 trillion would be funded from a revenue estimate of N971.028 billion in the fiscal year, with a target on the expansion of tax nets. Governor Sanwo-Olu stated this while briefing State House correspondents, after meeting behind closed doors with President Muhammadu Buhari, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. He said the meeting dwelt more on the second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic, security situation and the impact of the #EndSARS protests in the state. On rebuilding Lagos after the EndSARS protests, he said: “It is also some of the things I dis...
Court orders Governor Obaseki to open defence in ‘certificate forgery’ case
The All Progressives Congress, APC, on Monday, closed the forgery case it instituted against Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, after it called a total of six witnesses and tendered 17 Exhibits. Lead counsel to the APC, Chief Akin Olujimi, SAN, announced decision of the party to rest its case, shortly after the court discharged the sixth witness, PW-6, Dr. Mikano Asekome, who is an Associate Professor in Banking and Finance Department at Benson Idahosa University, Benin city, Edo state. The PW-6 told the court that he was on December 23, 2020, summoned to appear as witness in the matter. The witness went ahead and tendered in evidence, the original copy of his certificate in Agricultural-Economics, which the University of Ibadan awarded to him on July 31, 1978. Under cross-examination, ...
Nigerian government borrows over N2 trillion from bond investors in 2020
Leveraging on excess liquidity that persisted in the banking system and the near zero yields on treasury bills (TBs), the Federal Government, through the Debt Management Office (DMO), raised N2.1 trillion from investors in its monthly bond issuance programme in 2020. This represents 33 percent, year-on-year, (y/y) increase when compared with the N1.58 trillion raised by the DMO in 2019. The N2.1 trillion raised in 2020 also represents 31 percent more than the N1.6 trillion funding target for the DMO under the Revised 2020 Budget. Meanwhile, the monthly bond auctions conducted by the DMO in 2020 recorded 275 percent oversubscription, reflecting scramble for the high yielding FGN bonds by investors. Newsmen report on monthly bond auction results show that the DMO offered N1.825 trillion wort...
CBN: Naira to fall further in January
Barely five days to the end of the year 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria has disclosed that a survey carried out by its Statistics Department revealed that the naira is expected to depreciate further in January 2021. The report, titled, ‘December 2020 Business Expectations Survey Report’ added that there might also be a steady rise in interest rate from December till the next six months. The naira witnessed a sharp fall in recent weeks, reaching its lowest on November 30, 2020, when it exchanged for N500/$1. Since then, the dollar has been hovering between N460 and N470. As of Friday, however, one dollar exchanged for 465 in the parallel market. Also, the Nigerian economy had on November 21 slid into its second recession in five years when the economy shrank again in the third quarter. Th...
World Bank: Pandemic to push over 115 million people into extreme poverty
A report by the World Bank has noted that over the past 12 months, the Covid-19 pandemic has harmed the poor and vulnerable the most, and it is threatening to push millions more into poverty. This year, the World Bank said, after decades of steady progress in reducing the number of people living on less than $1.90/day, COVID-19 will usher in the first reversal in the fight against extreme poverty in a generation. The report said the latest analysis warns that COVID-19 has pushed an additional 88 million people into extreme poverty this year – and that figure is just a baseline. “In a worst-case scenario, the figure could be as high as 115 million. The World Bank Group forecasts that the largest share of the ‘new poor will be in South Asia, with Sub-Saharan Africa close behind. ddAccording ...
U.S. treasury, others under cyberattacks by hackers
The U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments, alongside other government agencies have been targeted by hackers, several media reports indicated on Sunday. National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot told dpa “the U.S. government is aware of these reports and we are taking all necessary steps to identify and address potential issues related to this situation.” The Department of Commerce confirmed to CNN that hackers had overcome protective measures in one of its offices. The Washington Post reported hackers with ties to Russian intelligence agency SVR were responsible for the attacks on the Treasury and Commerce departments as well as other U.S. agencies. It was unclear what information had been captured, according to the report, which also said the FBI had been brought in to investigate...
FDA: Independent committee recommends authorization of coronavirus vaccine
An independent committee of experts recommended Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration authorize the Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for people over the age of 16. Now, the FDA will decide whether to follow that recommendation. The agency could announce a decision within days. If they do authorize the vaccine, health care workers could begin receiving the shots almost immediately. The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) met all day to review data on the vaccine, discuss plans for distribution, and outline plans for continued research. FDA scientists published a report about the vaccine on Tuesday, which analyzed data from the pharmaceutical companies and found that the vaccine was safe and 95 percent at preventing symptomatic COVID-19. Data fro...
Coronavirus vaccine breakthrough raises hopes of rapid global rollout
A coronavirus vaccine developed by Britain’s University of Oxford and the pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca has shown successful results in early trials. If it is approved by regulators, the vaccine appears suitable for a fast rollout around the globe. Early analysis of trials involving 20,000 volunteers in Britain and Brazil show the vaccine is at least 62% effective after two doses. In volunteers given a different dosing regimen — a half dose, followed by a full dose — that figure rose to 90%. The average efficacy of the two dosing methods is 70%. None of those given the vaccine developed severe COVID-19 illness. Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, said the recent successful trials of three different vaccines by Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, represent a...
Nigerian National Assembly spends billions of naira on constitution review
The perennial constitution amendment exercise by the National Assembly is characterised by proposals that keep resurfacing despite gulping billions of naira yearly, an analysis has shown. The federal parliament had from the 5th to the current 9th National Assembly made several attempts to amend some provisions of the 1999 Constitution to no avail. At every session, the parliament officially spends N1 billion shared equally between the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are reports that the lawmakers spend more than what is appropriated for the exercise. While some amendments were successful, several others suffered serial failures but kept appearing in new proposals. Considering the huge spending, lawyers and civil society groups have pointed out that no significant amendments ...