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2021: Banks to walk a tightrope amid low revenue environment
Nigeria’s deposit money banks (DMBs) must brace up for the challenge of 2021 that might tax their resolve to remain in business. Reason: the industry is faced with a tougher operating environment that could threaten the operators’ ability to meet their stakeholders’ needs and expectations yet perform meaningful corporate social responsibility roles. Their valuable customers such as high net-worth individuals, corporate bodies and other institutions are equally challenged. In his book, Business Stripped Bare, celebrated iconic entrepreneur and founder of the Virgin Group, Richard Branson, says, “without trustworthy banks, there can be no business, no employment, no money. According to Branson, “People have got to be able to go to bed at night secure in the knowledge that the money they depo...
Nigerian government lists conditions for states to access coronavirus vaccines
The Federal Government has listed conditions for states to meet before the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine being expected wt the end of January would be released to them. The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), during a webinar tagged “Sensitisation Meeting with Media Gatekeepers on COVID-19 Vaccine Introduction”, at the weekend, said no vaccine will be release to states until facilities such as cold chains are in place. According to Director, Logistics and Health Commodities, NHPCDA, Kubura Daradara, the vaccine must be administered within five days of receipt for it to remain potent, and only the states that show commitment would receive the doses when available. She added that the 100,000 doses would be administered to 50,000 people, because each person has to take a secon...
Ex-Governor Ngilari: PDP is dead, will be buried in 2023
Former Adamawa Governor Bala James Ngilari, said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has no future in Nigeria because it is a dying party. Ngilari said this at the state All Progressives Congress (APC) stakeholders meeting on Saturday in Yola. The former governor who defected to APC in 2020, was the PDP’s Adamawa North Senatorial Candidate at the 2019 general election. ” One of the reasons why I dumped PDP for APC is that PDP is a dying party. In fact, PDP is dead and it will be buried in 2023. ” Secondly, I don’t see PDP as an alternative for the future of Nigeria, because the contradictions in the party will make its members go to the graveyard and we will help them bury themselves. ” And the reason why I identified myself with APC is because of its laudable objectives that will take us t...
Reddit bans Donald Trump forum for inciting violence
Reddit has banned r/donaldtrump for encouraging and glorifying violence after Wednesday’s mob attack on the US Capitol. Axios reporter Sara Fischer first reported the news, noting that the unofficial pro-Trump forum had been given multiple warnings. A Reddit splash page says the subreddit was “banned due to a violation of Reddit’s rules against inciting violence.” “Reddit’s site-wide policies prohibit content that promotes hate, or encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence against groups of people or individuals. In accordance with this, we have been proactively reaching out to moderators to remind them of our policies and to offer support or resources as needed,” a Reddit spokesperson tells The Verge. “We have also taken action to ban the community r/donaldtrump given repeated...
PDP sets agenda for Lagos governor in 2021
The Lagos State Chapter of Peoples Democratic Party has advised Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu to strive hard to provide satisfactory dividends of democracy to residents of the state in 2021. The state PDP Publicity Secretary, Taofik Gani, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos, while assessing Sanwo-Olu’s performance in 2020. “As a constructive opposition party, the year 2020 was not satisfactory in terms of dividends of democracy to Lagos residents. “Most of the local council chairmen performed below average, Sanwo-Olu should look into that because the chairmen are putting too much pain on the people due to their abdication of duties. “We are indeed very anxious to take over government as an opposition party in Lagos,” Gani said. According to him, the party shared wi...
Nigeria: 1,375 irregular migrants arrested during border closure
The Federal Government said on Monday that no fewer than 1,375 irregular migrants were arrested while the border drill code-named, ”Exercise Swift Response,” lasted. Newsmen report that the border drill held between Aug. 20, 2019 and Dec. 17, 2020. Speaking at a new year media briefing in Lagos on Monday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the border drill was a huge success. The minister said the seizures so far during the period included 157,511 – 50kg bags of parboiled foreign rice, 10,447 bags of NPK fertiliser used for making explosives and 18,630 jerry cans of vegetable oil. The total monetary value of the seized items, according to him, is about ₦12.362 billion. Newsmen recall that ”Exercise Swift Response” was launched as part of efforts to secure th...
National park trains 1,200 officers on combat readiness
Dr. Ibrahim Goni, the Conservator-General of the National Park Service, says the agency has trained 1,200 officers on basic combat readiness paramilitary by the Nigeria Army. Goni, who disclosed this at a news conference on Tuesday in Abuja, said that the training was to help the officers and men to meet the current and future conservation requirements. “Training and re-training of officers is key to achieving success in the implementation of the service mandate. “Therefore, manpower development as a human capital function is responsible for developing the skills, knowledge and competence of the service,” he said. Goni said that the agency would focus more on manpower development to help the officers and men achieve the mandate of the service. He said that in spite of its limited resources...
Lai Mohammed: My only regret as minister
Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said his only regret as a minister is that some Nigerians have failed to appreciate that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is doing so much with little resources. Mr Mohammed stated this at a Special Forum of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja. He said with dwindling resources, no government in the history of Nigeria has implemented programmes alleviating poverty among women and vulnerable groups as well as created jobs for the youth as the Buhari administration had done. The minister said his regret was that some Nigerians have failed to appreciate the efforts of the government but keep celebrating negative developments. “My regret in this government is that Nigerians have failed to appreciate that the ...
National Assembly raises 2021 budget by N580 billion, approves N13.588 trillion
The two chambers of the National Assembly yesterday passed the 2021 Appropriation Bill, increasing the budget size from N13.08 trillion presented to them by President Muhamnadu Buhari 11 weeks ago to N13.588 trillion. The passage of the 2021 budget followed consideration and adoption of harmonised reports separately submitted to them by their Committees on Appropriation. The two chambers increased the 2021 budget by about N580 billion and pegged daily crude oil production at 1.86 million barrels per day, while oil benchmark price was fixed at $40 per barrel. They approved N379 to dollar as the official exchange rate while GDP growth rate was pegged at 3 per cent. Highlights of the report approved by the Senate showed aggregate expenditure to be N13,588,027,886,175, statutory transfer of N4...
NIMC insists on deadline for linking of NIN to mobile numbers
File Photo Despite criticisms from many Nigerians of the two-week ultimatum for the registration and linking of National Identity Number (NIN) to mobile numbers, the federal government has insisted on the deadline. The director-general of the National Identity Management Commission, (NIMC), Aliyu Abubakar, in an interview with newsmen on Friday said there was no extension for the announced deadline. “Right now, the way it is, there is no extension. We should not be complaining, rather we should see how it can be done,” he said. “It is until after 10 to 12 days then we will see how far it has gone before we beg the government for anything.” When the agency issued a two-week ultimatum for the enrolment, Nigerians took to social media platforms to kick against such a deadline. “In the whole o...
IFDC, EBID sign pact to boost agriculture in West Africa
The International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) for the improvement of soil health and plant nutrition in West Africa. The agreement will engender multifaceted programmes aimed at promoting growth and development of the agricultural sector in the West Africa sub region. Though West Africa accounts for two per cent of global fertilizer consumption, fertilizer application rates in the region are still low due to logistical challenges, including reliance on imports that may or may not be appropriate for the various soils in the region. IFDC is an independent non-profit organization, operating in 17 countries in Asia and Africa, which combines science-backed innovations, an enabling...
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 ...