Infrastructure
Uber ‘lays off’ 185 former Postmates workers
Uber has laid off about 185 Postmates workers, and plans to further integrate Postmates’ infrastructure within its Uber Eats segment, The New York Times reported. Uber acquired Postmates in July for $2.65 billion, following a failed attempt to buy rival food delivery service Grubhub. Meal delivery has been one bright spot for Uber amid the pandemic, as bookings in its Uber Eats division rose 135 percent year-over-year in the third quarter while its ride-hailing segment dropped 50 percent over the same time period. It’s consolidated other parts of the company in a bid to become profitable by the end of 2021, selling its autonomous vehicles segment to Aurora Innovation in December, the same month it sold its Uber Elevate flying taxi division to Joby Aviation. The latest cuts will see Postmat...
Nigeria to conduct 450 coronavirus tests per local council
The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 says the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) will carry out 450 COVID-19 tests in each local government area of the country. The PTF chairman, Mr Boss Mustapha, also Secretary to the Government of the Federation, made this known at the national briefing on COVID-19 on Monday in Abuja. Mustapha said the exercise would start with the states that were in the forefront of resourcing and infrastructure. According to him, the PTF has authorised the NCDC to immediately implement the 450 tests per local government plan nationwide. Mustapha said: “We are aware that states are not on the same pedestal in the area of testing, and we shall begin with the states that are in the forefront of resourcing and infrastructure.” On resumption of schools, Mus...
Dangote completes Nigeria’s longest concrete road
Makamba Online The Dangote Group has completed Nigeria’s longest rigid pavement located in Kogi State. It is the first of its kind, top engineers say. The 43KM Obajana-Kabba road constructed by Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), has been described by motorists as the country’s most strategic highway that is aiding travellers between the North and the South. Olatunbosun Kalejaiye, the Project Director, said he was excited that the Corporate Social Responsibility Project is being delivered for use by Nigerians, adding that while the rigid pavement has been completed, the company was dressing the shoulders. Site Engineer Samuel Obosi assured that the dual carriage way will be durable and less susceptible to potholes and repairs like asphalt road, adding that it would crash the rate of road acc...
Rivers governor threatens to shut jetty over criminal activities
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has threatened to shut down the Bonny-Bille-Nembe Jetty in Port Harcourt which conveys travelers to various riverine communities in the state if cases of criminality or physical violence in the area continued. The governor said the zeal to provide an enabling environment for sea travelers and boost the marine economy of the state spurred his administration to remodel the once dilapidated jetty first built in the 1950s. Wike stated this at the commissioning of the remodeled Bonny-Bille-Nembe Jetty by the Governor of Sokoto State, Rt. Hon Aminu Tambuwal on Saturday. The governor in a statement by his media aide, Kelvin Ebiri Wike, said he decided to remodel the once filthy and disused jetty because he firmly believes that the people of the state deserve t...
#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...
Nigerian government begs residents not to reject coronavirus vaccines
Federal authorities have appealed to Nigerians not to be hesitant to take the COVID-19 vaccine when it gets to Nigeria. Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, and head of Nigeria’s primary healthcare agency, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, made the appeal at the PTF briefing on Thursday in Abuja. Nigeria intends to get 42 million COVID-19 vaccines to cover one fifth of its population through the global COVAX scheme, the PTF had earlier announced. The initial vaccines would come as part of Nigeria’s plan to inoculate 40 percent of the population in 2021 and another 30 per cent in 2022, with 100,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine arriving by the end of January 2021. The COVAX scheme was set up to provide vaccines to poorer countries including Nigeria whose 200 million people and poor ...
World Bank predicts 4% global economic growth, 1.1% for Nigeria in 2021
ABS-CBN The World Bank says global economy is expected to grow by 4 per cent in 2021, assuming an initial COVID-19 vaccine rollout becomes widespread throughout the year. It said this in a statement issued in Washington D.C. on Tuesday at the presentation of the January 2021 Global Economic Prospects. It added that the said recovery would likely be subdued unless policy makers moved decisively to tame the pandemic and implement investment-enhancing reforms. The bank also said that growth in Sub-Saharan Africa was forecast to rebound moderately to 2.7 per cent in 2021, while Nigeria’s growth was expected to resume at 1.1 per cent. For the region, it said that while the recovery in private consumption and investment was forecast to be slower than previously envisioned, export growth was expe...
Bauchi government commences construction of N7.3 billion road projects
The Bauchi State Government on Tuesday commenced the construction of three strategic roads with the sum of N7.3 billion in the state. Newsmen report that the new roads include a 13.5 kilometres road from Warji in the state to Gwaram in Jigawa. Others are 11.6 kilometres road from Bogoro to Lusa and Malar communities as well as 11.2 kilometres road from Boi to Tapshin, communities in Bogoro LGA bothering Plateau State. Speaking during the event in Warji Local Government, Gov. Bala Mohammed, said the roads were carefully selected in order to deliver a well thought-out project to the teeming populace. He said the state had already made 30 per cent advance payment and the roads were to be completed within 24 months. “The roads where constructions are flagged off today were carefully selected i...
Kogi Assembly passes 2021 budget estimate of N130.54 billion into law
The Kogi House of Assembly on Tuesday passed the N130.54 billion Appropriation Bill tagged “Budget of Accelerated Recovery” into law. Newsmen report that the House considered the bill Clause-by-Clause at the “Committee of the Whole” of the House at plenary in Lokoja. Aderonke Aro (APC-Yagba West) and Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Budget Monitoring and Economic Planning, presented the committee’s report for consideration. Aro declared that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) with genuine reasons for adjustments in their allocations were taken care of during the defence of their respective budgets. In the budget presented to the House on Dec. 1, Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi had said that the budget was indicative of the assessment of the amount the state could generate on its ow...
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...
George Moghalu: Igbo presidency not by mouth
YouTube The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of National Inland Water Ways (NIWA), Chief George Moghalu has told the Igbo to widen their horizon to convince other ethnic nationalities, if a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction must be realized. The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant for Anambra 2021 election, Chief Moghalu said this during an interactive session with journalists in Nnewi on Saturday. He noted that the Igbo known for work hard should apply same and traverse the width and breadth of Nigeria to garner support for the 2023 presidency project and not to sit down at one place nursing self-pity. He declared that power could only be taken, not given. “Since it’s a democratic dispensation where number matters, there is need for Ndigbo to sit down an...
Yuletide: NSCDC chief orders deployment of personnel to flash points
SIGNAL The Commandant General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Abdullahi Gana Muhammadu, has ordered the deployment of personnel to all nooks and crannies of the country in order to maintain peace, order and effective security of lives, property before, during and after the yuletide season. This is done against the backdrop of various reports of kidnapping, bandit attacks, assassinations and other forms of criminal activities in recent times. In a statement issued yesterday, DCC Emmanuel Okeh, CDPRO, said Gana reiterated that the determination to make the yuletide season hitch free is upper-most in the scheme of things as lots of Nigerians will be traveling to different parts of the country to celebrate with family and friends hence, the need for citizens’ safety. H...
