A Tunisian court sentenced four people to death and two to life in prison on charges stemming from the murder of a left-wing politician, a public prosecutor said Wednesday. Chokri Belaid, …
Nigeria’s central bank implemented a significant increase in its monetary policy rate, raising it by 200 basis points to 24.75% from the previous 22.75%, according to Governor Olayemi Cardoso on Tuesday. …
Parents of more than 130 Nigerian schoolchildren who were rescued after more than two weeks in captivity said they saw them on Wednesday and that they couldn’t hold back tears of …
Pledges of financial resources like the $100 billion made in 2009 are yet to be fulfilled, which means African nations must be ready to finance and manage their own survival against …
Pledges of financial resources like the $100 billion made in 2009 are yet to be fulfilled, which means African nations must be ready to finance and manage their own survival against a climate change doomsday.
Ibrahima Cheikh Diong, Director-General of the African Risk Capacity Group, a specialized agency of the African Union, shed some light on the self-sustaining options available for African countries, considering how slow Africa’s development partners have been in delivering on their commitments to combating climate change effects.
Saving beer from climate change
Every single beer on the African market today contains hops. While Hops is one of the four main ingredients in beer, global warming poses a serious threat. To curb the challenges created by temperature fluctuations, a computer engineer has turned to green agriculture for solutions.
Crippling cost of transporting goods across Nigeria
Nigeria may be Africa’s biggest economy but years of insecurity and reliance on road transport are fuelling the high costs of transporting goods. Transporters say it is cheaper to ship goods from as far as the United States than to move them inside the borders of the vast country. We have more in this report.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Sunday ordered state energy firm Sonatrach to halt gas exports to Spain through a pipeline that traverses Morocco due to tensions with Rabat. Algeria, Africa’s biggest …
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Sunday ordered state energy firm Sonatrach to halt gas exports to Spain through a pipeline that traverses Morocco due to tensions with Rabat.
Algeria, Africa’s biggest natural gas exporter, has been using the Gaz-Maghreb-Europe (GME) pipeline since 1996 to deliver several billion cubic metres (bcm) per year to Spain and Portugal.
But the GME contract is due to expire at midnight Sunday, just over two months after Algiers severed diplomatic ties with Rabat over “hostile actions” — accusations Morocco has dismissed.
Tebboune “ordered the cessation of trade ties between Sonatrach and the Moroccan National Office for Electricity and Potable Water (ONEE), and the non-renewal of the contract, which expires at midnight Sunday,” a statement from the presidency said.
The move would not have a significant impact, ONEE said in a statement on Sunday night.
“In anticipation of this decision, the necessary measures have been taken to ensure the continuity of the country’s electricity supply,” it said.
Tebboune took the decision after consultations with the prime minister and the ministers of energy and foreign affairs “in light of the hostile behaviour of the (Moroccan) kingdom which undermines national unity”, it said.
Algerian and Spanish officials Wednesday said Algiers would, from now on, deliver its natural gas to Spain exclusively through an undersea pipeline to avoid Morocco.
But experts have said the alternative undersea line, known as Medgaz, has a smaller capacity than the GME, amid growing concern in Spain of gas shortages and soaring energy prices across Europe.
Spain’s Ecological Transition Minister Teresa Ribera sought to sound reassuring during a meeting in Algiers earlier this week, speaking of “arrangements taken to continue to assure, in the best way, deliveries of gas through Medgaz according to a well determined schedule”.
Medgaz can carry eight bcm a year, with planned work to increase its capacity to reach 10.5 bcm.
Algeria has also proposed increasing deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by sea.
The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL Plc) has completed training and mentorship programmes for additional 780 farmers and other agricultural value chain actors across the country in …
The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL Plc) has completed training and mentorship programmes for additional 780 farmers and other agricultural value chain actors across the country in its ongoing efforts to improve the yield, capacity and general productivity of Nigerian farmers.
According to NIRSAL’s spokesperson, Anne Ihugba, the programmes, which held in the six geo-political zones, were a continuation of efforts targeted at achieving a key component of NIRSAL PLc’s mandate: de-risking of the agricultural value chain in order to encourage more investment in agribusiness by the financial sector.
‘The series of training sessions under the NIRSAL Strategic Business Support Services (SBSS) is part of NIRSAL Plc’s Technical Assistance pillar aimed at building the capacity of value chain actors for improved production, handling, processing and marketing of agricultural commodities.
‘The sessions focused on ten Commodities of Interest (COI) that have ecological and economic advantages in each region. The commodities include Rice, Ginger, Maize, Fresh Fruit & Vegetables (FFV), Cassava, Beans, Aquaculture, Oil Palm, Livestock and Cotton.
‘During the NIRSAL SBSS sessions, farmers as well as input suppliers, processors, transporters, exporters, and traders of agricultural products were trained on modern, business-oriented pre-upstream, upstream, midstream and downstream operations with a view to achieving the micro & macroeconomic effects of farmer income enhancement and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increase
The NIRSAL SBSS programme identified farmers and value chain actors most in need of training, assessed value chain gaps, designed intervention approaches and implemented same; the main approach being a four-week long mentorship programme comprising in-class and field sessions”, she explained.
She added that the choice of the selected commodities was informed by the NIRSAL Agricultural Commodity Ecological Area (ACEA) map which it developed and obtained validation for from relevant research institutes. NIRSAL Plc believes that ACEA-compliant agricultural investments hold the highest chances for success in terms of production and sale.
‘Accordingly, in the North-Central, the Benue State SBSS focused on Rice, Ginger and Maize, which are NIRSAL COIs that possess the highest factor productivity in the state.
‘In the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the SBSS trained operators in the FFV Value Chain. The rationale for selecting FFV is hinged on the FCT’s urban consumer market. The training sessions took place in Kuje, Nyanya, Mararaba, Apo, Lugbe, the Municipal, Gwagwalada, Dei-Dei, and Abaji.
‘In the South-South, the Rivers State SBSS focused on FFVs as well, in addition to Aquaculture. Stakeholders were trained in Rumuola, Wenpey, Aluu, Enekah, Elekahia, Eleme, Mgbuoba, Elelenwo, Igwuruta, Eliozu, and Rumuodomaya.
‘In the South-East, the focus was on the Rice and Cassava Value Chains. Rice, a commodity produced in every Nigerian state, was also under focus in the Rivers State SBSS exercise.
‘Typical of states with large urban areas and high volumes of rainfall, another FFVs state is Lagos. Stakeholders were met in the Kosofe – Ikorodu, Iyana – Iba, and the Lekki – Ajah axes. In Ekiti State, across Ado-Ekiti, Orin Ekiti, Ijero, and Ogbese, Maize, Fish, Rice, and Oil Palm stakeholders, respectively, were met,’ Ihugba added.
The nationwide SBSS exercise continued in the North-East with Adamawa and Taraba States for Integrated Livestock and Beans Value Chain actors, respectively.
The exercise culminated in Kaduna and Katsina States, both with comparative advantage in the production of high-quality, in-demand Ginger and Cotton, respectively. Value chain actors received training on the production and packaging, as well as on the servicing of not only the domestic market but also on ways to take advantage of an export market with huge economic potentials for Nigeria.
Since its inception, NIRSAL Plc has provided training on Good Agronomic Practices to over 700,000 farmers and trained over 2,600 mid-management and Agric desk officers of commercial banks.
West African bloc ECOWAS said it will meet Thursday to discuss possible steps after Guinea’s president was ousted in coup earlier this month, Ghana’s foreign minister said. On Wednesday, the army …
West African bloc ECOWAS said it will meet Thursday to discuss possible steps after Guinea’s president was ousted in coup earlier this month, Ghana’s foreign minister said.
On Wednesday, the army rulers held talks with the country’s civil society, a day after meeting with politicians and leaders of political parties.
ECOWAS already suspended Guinea last week after a special forces commander toppled 83-year-old president Alpha Conde, calling his ouster a “clear violation” of the group’s regional charter.
A delegation from the 15-member ECOWAS group was sent to Conakry to meet with coup leader Lieutenant-Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, visit Conde and demand a civilian-led transition.
Ghana Foreign Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, who led the mission, said Thursday’s extraordinary summit would review the delegation’s findings and decide next steps for Guinea’s return to constitutional rule.
“The summit will have a single agenda, where I will lay before the authority the report of the ECOWAS high-level mission to Guinea,” she told reporters on Wednesday.
Botchwey said Guinea’s coup leaders were likely still not in a position to give a timetable for a return to democratic rule.
“It is now up to the heads of state to take some serious decisions on Guinea, what they want to see in the next, whether it is one month, six months or 12 months, how they want to see the transition and for how long it should be,” she said.
Conde came under increasing pressure for what critics say was a slide into authoritarianism, with dozens of opposition activists arrested after a disputed election last year.
The coup in Guinea has sparked fears of democratic backsliding across West Africa and drawn parallels with Mali, which suffered two army uprisings since August last year.
ECOWAS imposed economic sanctions on Mali last year, but lifted them after Mali’s ruling military committed to restoring civilian rule.
Some economists and oil and gas experts have backed the Federal Executive Council’s (FEC) approval of the acquisition of 20 per cent minority stake by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) …
Some economists and oil and gas experts have backed the Federal Executive Council’s (FEC) approval of the acquisition of 20 per cent minority stake by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in the Dangote Petroleum and Petrochemical Refinery.
They made their views known in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Chief Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, had announced the approval after the virtual FEC meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, last week.
Sylva had said the acquisition was in the sum of $2.76 billion.
Reacting to the development, Prof. Chris Onalo, Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Institute of Credit Administration, said oil and gas remains the major source of revenue for the government which requires massive investment in the sector.
He added that the NNPC’S support to the refinery and others coming on stream soon would increase investors’ confidence in the sector thereby attracting the more investments.
Also, Mr Muda Yusuf, an economist and immediate-past Director General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), said the Dangote Refinery was of strategic national importance.
He stated: “My views have always been that even though this is a private sector project, it makes both commercial and nationalistic sense for NNPC to express interest in it.
“This project has a good prospect to put an end to fuel importation and the associated leakages of public funds while also preserving our foreign exchange reserves.
“The proposal by NNPC to take 20 per cent equity stake in the Dangote Refinery is a move in the right direction. The reality is that the Dangote refinery is a project of significant and strategic national importance, even though it is promoted by the private sector.
“Taking a stake in the project also makes a great deal of business sense, especially given how far the project execution has gone and our heavy dependence on importation of petroleum products.
“It also makes both commercial and nationalistic sense for NNPC to express an interest in a project that has a good prospect to put an end to fuel importation and the associated leakages of public funds.”
The LCCI DG further said that the model being proposed with the Dangote refinery was similar in a way to the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited’s model, which according to him, remains the best example of how government funds should be invested.
Similarly, Mr. Wilson Opuwei, Chief Executive Officer, Dateline Energy Services Limited, said the approval was a step in the right direction for the country.
He stated: “It makes sense for the NNPC to invest in ventures that will bring returns to the company. Every business need good investments and this is what the NNPC is doing with the Dangote Refinery.”
He said that the refinery will ensure energy security as the Refinery is capable of meeting Nigeria’s gasoline requirements while generating revenue in hard currency from export of diesel, jet fuel, polypropylene among many others.
Chief Operations Officer, Dangote Oil Refining Company, Mr Giuseppe Surace, told the marketers that the refinery has been designed to process a variety of light and medium grades of crude, including petrol and diesel as well as jet fuel and polypropylene.
He said the refinery was billed to produce up to 50 million litres of petrol and 15 million litres of diesel a day, roughly 10.4 million tonnes of the product, 4.6 million tonnes of diesel, and 4 million tonnes of jet fuel yearly.
According to him, this is in addition to having a fertiliser plant, which would utilise the refinery by-products as raw materials.
He disclosed that the refinery which has recorded 90 per cent completion, was expected to address the challenge of petroleum product importation in Nigeria and other African countries.
Although there could still be some nostalgic feelings in certain quarters about Nigeria”s failings in the journey to optimising its economic and industrial potential as a leading crude oil producer in the …
Although there could still be some nostalgic feelings in certain quarters about Nigeria”s failings in the journey to optimising its economic and industrial potential as a leading crude oil producer in the world, no one can really discountenance the genuine efforts by some government agencies to enlist it in the league of countries smarting in global competitiveness.
With growth prospects and natural resources unrivaled by most countries at independence in 1960, expectations of Nigeria emerging a global economic powerhouse in the mould of the Asian Tigers was so overwhelming that no one doubted the probability of the country becoming a black superpower.
But all those dreams were shatered very early in history when massive importation of manufactured goods and high level official corruption became the order of the day, leaving the lofty dreams of greatness to become a mirage as successive administrations failed to pursue set developments targets amid rising official corruption.
As an economy entangled in the paradox of “Dutch Disease”, a shorthand way for describing a situation that pervades a nation when the burst of good news or developments like fresh hydrocarbon finds, harms its broader economic objective, things began to fall apart.
It began with an avalanche of foreign capital inflow targeting to exploit the newfound resource that later left the people without a strategic vision for sustainable development of the economy.
For Nigeria, this paradox of Dutch Disease lived with the people for many years from the commercial discovery of oil in the Niger Delta.
With massive global investment coming into the secor in the sector, Nigerian government and its private sectors operators neglected agriculture and other activities in the real sector and left the economy vulnerable and largely dependent on imported goods and services.
It was therefore not surprising that the nation’s financial sector regulators began thinking out of the box to create policies to rescue the economy from self destruction through its overwhelming dependency on imported goods.
From available information, the decision of the CBN in June of 2015, to restrict foreign currency access to companies for the import 41 categories of items to stop a slide of the naira was a deliberate effort to strengthen the Small and Medium Enterprises sector by empowering them to takeover the production of goods and services under the 41 items listed as not valid for foreign exchange.
The ban was part of a long-term plan by President Muhammadu Buhari to encourage local manufacturing, amid risk of pushing the economy into recession after growth declined in the second quarter of that year as foreign reserve will now be utilised strictly for diversification of the economy, rather than encouraging more dependence on foreign food import bills.
Following the implemention of the policy in 2015, Nigeria’s total import according to reports by the National Bureau of Statistics began declining with the value of imported products dropping to $52.33 billion, from the $61.54 billion spent on imports in 2014.
Also in 2016, Nigerians imported foreign goods worth $35.24 billion into the country, representing a decline of 32.7 per cent from the total amount imported in 2015 ($52.33 billion).
Simultanously, CBN’s investment in domestic rice production ballooned local production through the Anchor Borrower Scheme amid criticism for not taking the low capacity of local farmers into consideration.
Not withstanding these distractions, the apex bank’s policies in these direction created ample opportunities for most SMEs to expand their capacities in the realisation that they remain the engine room of developing economies.
In 2015, Nigeria spent nearly $2.9billion (£2.4bn) and by 2017 that had risen to $4.1billion, According to the NBS.
Nigeria’s total import as at the end of 4th Quarter of 2015 was N1,576.4 billion, coRefined Petroleum – $10 billion, Wheat – $1.6 billion, Non-fillet Frozen Fish – $641 million, Rubber Tires – $393 million, Raw Sugar – $384 million.
However, taking crucial lessons from other emerging economies that built modern economies on the Small and Medium Enterprises sector, CBN in keeping with its mandate of maintaining price and exchange rate stability also intervened massively in agricultural sector by according due recognition to the SMEs and MSMEs sub-sectors through the provision of working capital and other forms of credit facilities to revitalise the operations of moribund entities and inject fresh capital into green field projects with expansive job creation capacity.
One can say without fear of contradiction that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as banker to the Federal Government and its chief Economic aggregator has in the last six years of Mr Godwin Emefiele, as Governor pursued policies targeted at lifting the SMEs sector to a place of prominence, where its contribution to the nation’s GDP can be substantially be enhanced.
Some of its policy packages for the sector include the rejuvenation of N220billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund, where 60 percent of its intervention fund was reserved for women entrepreneurs and the N1trillion funding programmes being implemented for the Real Sector Support Fund to boost local manufacturing, comprising 44 Greenfield and Brownfield projects for which over N93.2 billion had already been disbursed to deserving entities.
A cursory review of some of these initiatives reveals they were being implemented in a manner that prepares the economy to withstand the frequent global economic shocks and headwinds that often hobble Nigeria’s economy any time there crashes in commodity prices.
Many have often wondered how the Nigerian economy was able to survive difficult times like the global financial crises of the 2006-2008 which triggered commodity price crashes that plunged many nations into tumultuous recession. That also included the recent COVID-19 headwinds that almost crippled the global economy.
But some economic experts who spoke to Daily Sun, attributed these survival instincts to the promptness of the Emefiele led CBN intervention policies like the N50 billion SMEs Targeted Credit Facility meant to cushion the impact of the COVID-19 on the economy, stressing that the consequences of the pandemic could have been far worse without the interventions.
Available records show that as at end of June, 2020, the CBN had disbursed N49 billion to businesses and households. A break down of the Targeted Credit Facility showed that about 80,000 operators of micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs) and thousands of families across the country benefitted from the intervention fund.
He said the fund was meant to support the Federal Government’s efforts to stimulate economic activities as well as help the economy avert a looming recession.
“So far, out of the N50 billion targeted credit facility for households and small businesses, we have disbursed about N49 billion. We also have other intervention funds such as the N100 billion healthcare facility, currently bring disbursed as well,” said the CBN spokesman
The scheme being financed from the CBN’s N220 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMEDF) and had earmarked about N25 million for MSMEs with benefiting households being allocated up to N3 million each based on the activity, cashflow and industry/segment size of each beneficiary.
Speaking last month while delivering the 51st University of Lagos convocation lecture, Governor Emefiele,said the bank will increase its development finance imprint to further support start-ups and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
In the lecture themed, “National Development and Knowledge Economy in the Digital Age: Leapfrogging SMEs in the 21st Century”, the CBN boss observed that increased access to finance for start-ups and SMEs was essential for the nation’s economy to grow.
He advocated that special consideration be given to the strengthening of physical and ICT infrastructure, to enable SMEs perform more efficiently and become globally competitive.
“The potential of SMEs in enhancing economic growth is hampered by limited access to finance, inadequate infrastructure and poor digital penetration.
“I urge government and the private sector to provide more support in addressing the challenges of SMEs in the country.
“Specifically, as users of new technology, I advise that policies that would incentivise the adoption of innovations that will improve SMEs competitiveness and productivity should be made,” he said.
Emefiele also called for reforms to improve human capital development through skills enhancement and proper linkage of research to the SMEs.
On July 22, 2020, the Nigeria Youth Investment Fund scheme, a N75billion 3 year intervention program designed to cater for Youths owned investments and businesses was approved by the Federal Executive Council. The NYIF is a N75 billion Naira 3-years programme created to cater for Youth-owned investments and businesses.
Commenting on the impact of the CBN intervention funding in the economy, renowned Capital Market Professor and President of the Association of Capital Market Academics of Nigeria, Professor Uche Uwaleke, in his assessment of intervention programme of the CBN said “ I would say that these interventions the CBN came up with were responsible for the quick exit of the predicted and eventual fall into the 2020 recession brought on by the COVID-19 lockdown, global supply chain disruptions and crashed crude oil prices.
The apex bank has consistently supported various ailing sectors of the economy, especially the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) via intervention programmes, to realise its economic sustainability and diversification goal. Although the current administration have not yet gotten everything right, the way and manner of response by the CBN has been commendable.”
According to university don, “If you look at what happened last year when the COVID-19 pandemic happened, the CBN gave a one-year extension of a moratorium on principal repayments for its intervention facilities.”
Others laudable strategies it had so far adopted to maintain economic resilience include strengthening of the Loan to Deposit Ratio policy, which has resulted in a significant rise in loans provided by financial institutions to banking customers.
He recalled that Loans given to the private sector have risen by over 21 percent in the past year, even as the CBN engaged in other development financing activities to address the credit needs of sectors critical to improving livelihoods, reducing poverty, and promoting inclusive growth.
“I believe that the overall objective of these interventions is to promote financial inclusion in the country, tackle unemployment, insecurity and other social challenges.” Uwaleke said.
For her part, Lagos Chairman, Nigeria Association of Small Scale Industries NASSI, Gertrude Akhimien, admits that CBN initiative has been helpful, despite challenges facing its implementation.
“I believe that the overall objective of these interventions is to promote financial inclusion in the country, tackle unemployment, insecurity and other social challenges. “The idea of providing funding to SMEs to carry out their businesses had been lacking for years, as conventional banks seem not willing to provide them loans without collaterals and other requirements. So the CBN intervention funding has become a game changer “ she argued
“At the start it was easy but with time, some bottlenecks set it. For the past two years now and with the setting in of the COVID -19, there has been some inexplicable delays in releasing funds for SMEs that applied.”
There is a back log of SMEs still awaiting funds to be realised to them and do the CBN needs to review the process of accessing these funds so that overall objective would be achieved. As for the idea as demonstrated concept of intervention funding, it is an excellent one. I commend the CBN governor for this beautiful initiative.” This is something that we recommended about years ago, but it has not been implemented.
The NASSI boss said the Emefiele led apex bank was doing a good job, but advised that the implementation of it’s policies needs to be fast tracked for better results. According to her, frequent reviews of its policies will enable it to identify areas of problems regarding access to these fund even as noted that the percentage of impact is still pretty low, hence the need for a review. “Look at the system, implementation process and see where they can be corrected, i believe the impact will be higher,” she concluded.
Also commenting, Mr Chidi Ajaegbu, CEO, Heritage Capital Markets Ltd called for a verification of those getting the intervention funding, arguing that setting up an independent body or credible third party certification or validation of this interventions would go a long way to correcting some of the wrong perceptions some people are having about the funding programmes.
Report has it that a group of Zambian women and children filed a suit against Anglo American Plc in South Africa, alleging the company caused widespread lead poisoning from a mine …
Report has it that a group of Zambian women and children filed a suit against Anglo American Plc in South Africa, alleging the company caused widespread lead poisoning from a mine it operated until 1974 in the northern city of Kabwe.
The case, which is demanding compensation and a clean-up of the area, was filed in a Johannesburg court on Wednesday by 13 plaintiffs on behalf of an estimated 100,000 people, according to law firms Leigh Day and Mbuyisa Moleele. The firms plan to apply for a class-action suit. Anglo American will “defend its position,” the company said.
“Generations of children have been poisoned by the operations of the Kabwe mine, originally known as Broken Hill, which caused widespread contamination of the soil, dust, water and vegetation,” the firms said in a statement. “The main sources of this poisonous lead were from the smelter, ore processing and tailings dumps.”
The group lawsuit is the latest over Anglo American’s decades of mining in southern Africa. In 2018, it and five other companies paid about $390m to settle a class action by former gold miners suffering from the respiratory disease silicosis.
“Once the claim is received, the company will review the claims made by the firm and will take all necessary steps to vigorously defend its position,” Anglo said in an emailed response to questions. Anglo was never the majority owner of the Kabwe mine, it said, without giving more precise detail.
Anglo held an interest in the mine, at one stage the world’s biggest lead operation, from 1925 to 1974, when it was nationalized by the government. While the operation about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of the Zambian capital, Lusaka, was eventually shut in 1994, output during Anglo’s ownership accounted for about two-thirds of the lead that now contaminates the area, the law firms said.
Anglo was the parent company and the head office of the Anglo Group that operated, managed and advised the mine, the legal firms said in the court filing. Anglo knew, or ought reasonably to have known of the risks of lead pollution from the mine and the measures that were required to prevent and address this pollution.
Lead poisoning can cause health problems ranging from learning difficulties to infertility, brain damage and, in some cases, death. In a 2019 report, Human Rights Watch said that a third of the population of Kabwe, or more than 76,000 people, live in lead-contaminated areas.
“It is the worst place I’ve seen and that is in terms of the sheer size and the number of people affected,” said Jack Caravanos, a professor at New York University, who studies lead and other toxic waste. “In terms of the number of people affected, Kabwe is the most dangerous place on the planet” in regards to lead pollution, he said.
The lawsuit was filed in South Africa because at the time of the mine’s operation Anglo was headquartered in Johannesburg. The company is now based in London. Africanewsguru update.
The Federal Government has launched new details on the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) guide scheme being rolled out beneath the National Economic Sustainability Programme.According to estimates provided, the sum of N50 billion will be used to grant payroll support
The Federal Government has launched new details on the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) guide scheme being rolled out beneath the National Economic Sustainability Programme.According to estimates provided, the sum of N50 billion will be used to grant payroll support, N200 billion for loans to artisans, and N10 billion help to personal transport organizations and workersThe committee will discover eligible SMEs and screening and verification for this fund will be based on corporation registration, and tax registration. The implementation committee will approve disbursements via microfinance banks and fin-tech credit score providers.
MSMEs that are unregistered will obtain support to complete registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), and all members will be predicted to make repayments primarily based on signed agreements. The government disclosed in a tweet on the official handle of the government,informing that the support scheme will include a Guaranteed Off-take Scheme for priority products, and an MSMEs Survival Fund.
The Federal Govt is rolling out, under the National Economic Support Plan that the support schemes for MSMEs nationwide, including a Guaranteed Offtake Scheme (guaranteeing off-take of priority products); and an MSMEs Survival Fund that will make payroll support available to save jobs and sustain local production.
The first track is a Guaranteed Off-take Scheme which will ensure continued local production and safeguard 100,000 existing small businesses to save 300,000 jobs.Priority products include processed foods, personal protective equipment, hand sanitizers, face-masks, face-shield, shoe-covers and pharmaceuticals.
The implementation committee is chaired by Ambassador Mariam Katagum, the Minister of State for Industry Trade and Investment, will collaborate with private sector MSME associations to verify and screen applications from bidding MSMEs, define quantity and price of products required, and also get participants to join in the procurements.With a budget of N15 billion, the SME survival fund is expected to sustain 500,000 jobs in 50,000 SMEs.
Major sectors to benefit from the SME survival fund include hotels, restaurants, creative industries, road transport, tourism, private schools and export-related businesses.The Bank of Industry will also be part of to coordinate the implementation of the scheme.
The scheme will last 3 months with Ambassador Mariam Katagum as Chairman, while Ibukun Awosika, Founder of The Chair Centre Limited (TCCL), and First Bank Nigeria will serve as the Vice Chairman.
Investors persevered to react to better than anticipated half year, HI’20, corporate revenue as renewed pastime in Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTB), Stanbic IBTC and Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc enhance equities’ overall performance ultimate week.Consequently, traders gained N181.6 billion as the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, market capitalisation rose to N13.1trillion from N12.9 trillion at the starting of the week while Year-to-Date, YtD, loss moderated to -6.7 percent.In the equal vein, the NSE All Share Index, every other overall performance indicator, closed the week 1.4 percentage greater at 25,041.89 factors from 24,766.12 points.
However, reacting to the market fantastic development, analysts at Cordros Research said: “Our view continues to favour cautious trading as risks continue to be on the horizon due to a aggregate of the increasing wide variety of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria and vulnerable economic conditions. Thus, we continue to advise buyers to are seeking for buying and selling possibilities in only fundamentally justified stocks.”
In comparable manner, analysts at Afrinvest Research said: “. In the coming week, we assume a mixed overall performance as investors react to greater corporate salary releases. However, we expect to see some profit-taking activities given the bullish performance closing week.
Meanwhile, evaluation of buying and selling remaining week confirmed that pastime stage bolstered as common quantity and fee rose 51.5 percent and 21.4 percent to 213.0million gadgets and N2.2billion respectively supported via the three trading classes from last week.
Specifically, GTBank ( 8.2 percent), Stanbic ( 10.0 percent), Seplat ( 12.8 percent) and Zenith Bank (3.7 percent) were the major drivers of the average market’s gain. Performance across sectors used to be broadly high quality with the Banking (4.9 percent), Oil
The suspects — Bright Addae Addison, a 31-year-old banker of the National Investment Bank (NIB); Fuseini Abdullah, a 32-year-old Managing Director of Gumah Oil and Gas Limited, and Dennis Koranteng, a 46-year-old businessman
The suspects — Bright Addae Addison, a 31-year-old banker of the National Investment Bank (NIB); Fuseini Abdullah, a 32-year-old Managing Director of Gumah Oil and Gas Limited, and Dennis Koranteng, a 46-year-old businessman — are being held for alleged transfer of the amount into another location. Another suspect, identified only as Samuel Painstil, 24, is at massive and is being hunted for. The suspects have been said to have cloned a cheque book belonging to the ministry to withdraw the massive amount from the ministry’s account at NIB. They are in the custody of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) assisting in investigations. The Executive Director of EOCO, Frank Adu Poku, a retired Commissioner of Police, who proven the arrest , said on May 5, 2020 the unit received a criticism from the Ministry of Energy that anyone had tried to withdraw GH¢3.5 million from the ministry’s account.
“But according to the ministry’s complaint, no cheque had been issued to any individual or employer for any work done,” he said. The EOCO boss revealed that the stated cheque used to be an NIB financial institution cheque to be paid into Gumah Oil and Gas Limited account at Zenith Bank. “With the full cooperation of the two banks, EOCO traced and retrieved the cheque from Zenith Bank for investigations,” he added.
Further investigations showed that the signature on the stated cheque did now not correspond with the authorized signature from the ministry. “We again did signature verification from the police forensic specialists which result indicated that the signature was fake and that the cheque was cloned,” Mr. Adu-Poku pointed out. It has come up also that suspect Painstil (now on the run) went to deposit the cheque into the account of Gumah Oil and Gas Limited at Zenith Bank. Suspect Bright Addison, NIB worker in cost of the said account, was once to reveal and file to Dennis Koranteng when the cheque in the end goes through.
Later, a supply at EOCO said that when the suspects have been individually interrogated, Fuseini Abdulla said he received a call from any individual that the Ministry of Energy had issued a cheque for price of work carried out by means of Gumah Oil however due to the fact that they had additionally now not finished any work for the ministry, he requested that the cash be paid into his Gumah account. Bright Addison additionally allegedly told the safety officials that he used to be called with the aid of Dennis Koranteng to monitor and inform him when the cheque in the end goes through.
Dennis Koranteng, on the different hand, mentioned a Nigerian by title Liko as the man or woman who tasked him to pay the cheque into Gumah’s account. NIB has due to the fact terminated the appointment of suspect Addison.
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