The United States, United Kingdom, and Canada have issued security alerts to their citizens in Nigeria, warning of potential violence during the planned nationwide protests. The development comes from a planned nationwide protest against hunger and hardship slated to take off from August 1, 2024. In separate travel advisories, the three countries cautioned their citizens to avoid areas where confrontations between security agencies and protesters might occur. The alert highlighted the potential ...
Jul 29, 2024•1 min
Egyptian fintech giant MNT-Halan, the country’s only private unicorn, has raised another $157.5 million in a new funding round. MNT-Halan, The microfinance lending and payment company runs a hybrid business model. It targets customers lacking access to credit and financial services, and serves as a distribution medium for merchants selling fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs). The company acquired Advans Group in Pakistan, instantly topping its user base by 62,000, and obtaining a microfinance ban...
Jul 24, 2024•2 min
United States President Joe Biden has heeded calls to withdraw his re-election bid, thrusting this year’s already high-wire race for the White House into an uncertain territory. The announcement by the sitting president in US history came amid mounting pressure from his fellow Democrats, with more than 30 Congress members publicly pushing for his exit. Biden, says he will remain in his role as president and commander-in-chief until his term ends in January 2025 and will address the nation this w...
Jul 22, 2024•1 min
Zambia's President Hakinde Hichilema has fired the entire board of the country's corruption-busting body after they were accused of corruption, which they deny. The head of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Thom Shamakamba, resigned from his post and the country's solicitor-general - Marshal Muchende - were accused of taking kickbacks which they strongly deny the allegations. The whistleblower, O’Brien Kaaba - who was once a board member of the ACC says the same "immunity deals" under the fo...
Jul 22, 2024•1 min
The Federal Government will spend an average of N36bn to convert 30,000 petrol or diesel-powered vehicles to start running on Compressed Natural Gas in the next 90 days. The government says it had acquired 30,000 CNG conversion kits for distribution free of charge nationwide within the period. The Project Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative, Michael Oluwagbemi, says President Bola Tinubu is taking steps to ensure transporters use CNG to repl...
Jul 22, 2024•1 min
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu wrote to the senate to demand a 50% tax on foreign exchange gains made by banks. The federal government and the National Insurance Commission are developing a bill that demands new information requirements from e-commerce platforms In a new bid to regulate and protect trading on Nigerian e-commerce platforms. The proposed bill requires e-commerce platforms like Jumia and Konga to provide crucial information about themselves, including their legal names, addre...
Jul 22, 2024•59 sec
The House of Representatives has expressed readiness to investigate allegations that products being produced at the Dangote Refinery are inferior to imported ones, and will also test the refinery’s products as part of its investigation. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, had expressed concern over the controversy surrounding the quality of imported refined products into Nigeria and stated that the Green Chamber would establish a committee to investigate the matt...
Jul 22, 2024•59 sec
Finland’s parliament has passed a controversial bill granting border guards the power to block asylum seekers crossing from Russia. Finland has accused neighbouring Russia of weaponising migration by encouraging many people from countries such as Syria and Somalia to cross the border, an assertion the Kremlin has denied. Helsinki has accused Moscow of promoting the crossings in retaliation for Finland joining NATO, which backs Ukraine against Russia’s invasion. The right-wing government of Prime...
Jul 15, 2024•1 min
Telecommunications giant AT&T reports that data of nearly all customers was downloaded to a third-party platform in a security breach. The breach took place largely over five months in 2022. It hit customers of AT&T’s mobile customers, customers of mobile virtual network operators using AT&T’s wireless network, as well as its landline customers who interacted with those cellular numbers. AT&T says the data does not contain the content of calls or texts, personal information such ...
Jul 15, 2024•1 min
Kenya’s police chief has resigned after criticism of officers’ conduct during recent antigovernment demonstrations in which dozens of protesters were killed. The presidency says that President William Ruto has accepted the resignation of Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome, who has served in the role since November 2022. Deputy Inspector-General Douglas Kanja has been appointed acting police chief with immediate effect. The announcement came a day after Ruto sacked nearly his entire cabinet...
Jul 15, 2024•1 min
Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, feared and admired in equal measure, is seeking to extend his 24-year rule in an election analysts say he will win by a landslide. He has dominated every election since becoming president in 2000, with over 90% of the vote. In 2017 he won with a staggering 99%. President Kagame has been at the helm of Rwandan politics since his rebel forces took power at the end of the 1994 genocide which killed some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Mr Kagame has always f...
Jul 15, 2024•1 min
Dangote Group has announced that the group intends to list its multibillion-dollar companies – Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals and Dangote Fertiliser Limited, on the Nigerian Exchange Group in the first quarter of 2025. The move will allow Nigerians to participate in the ownership of these companies, for the benefit of all. Dangote says that this transformation was driven by the overarching goal of achieving self-sufficiency in key sectors and bolstering Nigeria’s economy. Dangot...
Jul 15, 2024•1 min
A Court of Appeal in the United Kingdom dismissed the Process & Industrial Development appeal on a previous judgment halting the enforcement of its $11 billion award against Nigeria. In a unanimous decision, the Lead Judge, Lord Justice Snowden, permitted P&ID to appeal the judgment but dismissed the appeal. The company argued that Nigeria funded its legal services by exchanging naira from its consolidated revenue fund. Snowden, the lead judge, accepted the arguments of Nigeria that sinc...
Jul 15, 2024•1 min
Aliko Dangote says the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited now owns a 7.2% stake in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, and not a 20% stake as initially announced before the facility's inauguration at the Lekki Free Trade Zone. Dangote says NNPC’s stake dropped to 7.2% over the company’s failure to pay the balance of their share, which was due in June. The NNPC had acquired a 20 per cent interest in the $20bn Dangote refinery for $2.76 billion. The NNPC confirmed the development in a stateme...
Jul 15, 2024•1 min
The director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala says Global trade is seeing increasing protectionism, some undermining of the WTO rules, and some of this is leading to fragmentation. She says Global trade is really part of the lifeblood for making countries resilient - and also for underpinning growth which is what they are concerned about. President Biden has increased import taxes on a range of other Chinese products that he said formed the industries of the ...
Jul 08, 2024•1 min
One of Hollywood's oldest companies, Paramount Global, has agreed to merge with independent film studio Skydance Media. Under the deal, Paramount's non-executive chair Shari Redstone will sell her family's controlling stake in the company in a complex transaction that will result in a new firm worth around $28bn. The merger would combine Paramount, home of classic films such as Chinatown and Breakfast at Tiffany's, with its financial partner on several recent big releases, including Top Gun: Mav...
Jul 08, 2024•1 min
Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge after the US found the company violated a deal meant to reform it after two fatal crashes by its 737 Max planes that killed 346 passengers and crew. The Department of Justice says the plane maker had also agreed to pay a criminal fine of $243.6m (£190m). However, the families of the people who died on the flights five years ago have criticised it as a "sweetheart deal" that would allow Boeing to avoid full responsibility for...
Jul 08, 2024•1 min
Niger's military leader, speaking alongside the junta chiefs from Mali and Burkina Faso, has said they are irrevocably turning their backs on the wider West African bloc, Ecowas. The three men are meeting together for the first time to cement an alliance created in the face of opposition from neighbouring countries. Soldiers took power in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023. Gen Abdourahmane Tchiani, says that in the place of Ecowas, the junta chiefs wanted to bui...
Jul 08, 2024•1 min
Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed the Rwanda deportation scheme is "dead and buried", on his first full day as prime minister. The Labour leader says he would end the gimmick of deporting migrants arriving in the UK illegally to Rwanda, which was established by the previous Conservative government. Labour campaigned on a manifesto pledge to scrap the scheme, which has already cost around £310m, promising a more effective approach to tackling illegal immigration to replace it. He argued the scheme h...
Jul 08, 2024•1 min
The Nigerian Government released ₦1.23tn to 17 ministries for the execution of capital projects in the third quarter of 2023. The Budget Implementation Report for Q3, 2023 released by the Budget Office on Sunday, was 75.4 per cent lower than the ₦5trn allocated for capital expenditure in the 2023 budget, resulting in a deficit of ₦3.8tn. The projects usually involve the construction, acquisition, or renovation of tangible assets such as buildings, roads, bridges, dams, schools, hospitals, and ot...
Jul 08, 2024•1 min
The Director General National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Zubaida Umar has activated all Zonal, Territorial and Operation offices of the agency nationwide, to work with the States’ Emergency Management Agencies (SEMAs) within their area of responsibilities, to carry out rescue operations and conduct assessment of the situation. NEMA says it also operates a toll-free emergency contact line: 0800CALLNEMA (080022556362) in addition to all its social media platforms, through which feedback f...
Jul 08, 2024•1 min
The Lagos State Government has issued a 48-hour eviction notice to property owners who have built illegal structures and to settlers along the Gbagada-Bariga Channel. The Lagos State Commissioner of Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, says property owners who deliberately built structures that obstruct the free flow of water in the area will be removed. He says the operatives of the Lagos State Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources will remove those contravening structures ...
Jul 08, 2024•1 min
Kenya's High Court has approved the use of military force to restore order, following days of anti-tax protests that at some point overwhelmed police. More than 20 people have reportedly been killed in the nationwide protests that are largely led by young people opposed to government plans to increase taxes. Armoured military vehicles patrolled streets in the capital, Nairobi as police fired tear gas to disperse protesters, who had threatened to storm the presidential palace. A judge said that t...
Jul 01, 2024•1 min
South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has unveiled a new coalition government after his ruling African National Congress party lost its parliamentary majority in May's elections. He says the government of national unity is unprecedented in the history of democracy. The ANC will have 20 out of 32 cabinet posts, while the Democratic Alliance (DA) - until now the main opposition party - will hold six. Six other portfolios are shared amongst smaller parties. In the new cabinet, the ANC will keep ...
Jul 01, 2024•1 min
Toyota Nigeria Limited has announced plans to roll out three electric vehicles in the country in the next three years as part of its support for the government’s green deal initiative. Managing Director of TNL, Mr. Kunle Ade-Ojo says the end of this year, they will be introducing the first hybrid electric vehicle, the Toyota Cross, the RAV4 hybrid and late next year or early 2026 the Land Cruiser Prado hybrid. He also says TNL would be lending its big network of workshops to support the Federal ...
Jul 01, 2024•1 min
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission has removed five oil blocks from the ongoing licensing round due to legal disputes as investors begin registration for the 2024 Licensing Round. The five oil blocks are said to be under various litigation. The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission confirmed the development. The affected assets are PPL3008, PPL3009, PML51, PPL267, and PPL268. The five blocks were among the 12 initially announced by the NUPRC Chief Executive, Gbenga...
Jul 01, 2024•1 min
The Lagos State says it is receiving additional support from the World Health Organisation, as it now battles an outbreak of Cholera at the Kirikiri prison. The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi, says an outbreak of 25 cases of severe gastroenteritis caused by Cholera occurred at Kirikiri Medium Security Prison, adding that urgent medical and environmental intervention measures have been implemented with success. Abayomi revealed that although no new cholera-related dea...
Jul 01, 2024•1 min
President Bola Tinubu has condemned the suicide bomb blast in Borno State, describing it as a desperate act of terror. 18 people were killed when four suicide bombers set off improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Gwoza, the North-Eastern state. Presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, conveyed the President’s condolence message. President Tinubu describes the attacks as desperate acts of terror and a clear manifestation of the pressure mounted against terrorists and the success achieved in degrad...
Jul 01, 2024•1 min
The risk of soaring Chinese electric car prices in the EU could be easing after both sides agreed to negotiate a planned series of import taxes. Top officials from both regions spoke about the tariffs on a call and agreed to discuss them further, though frictions remain. The EU says Chinese EVs were unfairly subsidised by its government. In response, China accused the EU of protectionism and trade rule breaches. They said the two sides would continue to engage at all levels in the coming weeks. ...
Jun 24, 2024•59 sec
Kenya’s government has scrapped some proposed taxes in this year's controversial finance bill, including a 16% levy on bread, after a public outcry, The announcement by MPs came as police fired tear gas and used water cannons to try to disperse angry protesters in the capital, Nairobi. Dozens of people have been arrested, and lawyers earlier joined chanting crowds at the city's main police station to demand that detainees be freed. Kuria Kimani, chairman of the parliamentary finance committee, a...
Jun 24, 2024•1 min
