Electron Native

  Nigeria’s telecommunications industry witnessed a major milestone as T2, one of the nation’s leading telecoms operators, signed a landmark strategic partnership with Huawei , a global leader in Information and Communications Technology (ICT). The agreement, sealed at a high-level signing ceremony in Lagos, is designed to modernise T2’s core network infrastructure, positioning the company as a trailblazer in delivering next-generation services. T2, Huawei Sign Partnership For Network Upgrade The event brought together senior executives from both companies to mark the start of what has been described as a transformational journey. Representing T2 were its Chief Executive Officer, Obafemi Banigbe; Chief Operating Officer, John Vasikaran; Chief Technical & Information Officer, Ayodeji Adedeji; Vice President of Corporate Services, Ifeloju Alakija; and Vice President of Brands and Communication, Seni Ogunkola. On Huawei’s side, the deal was formalised by Jiang Junyong, CEO of Hu...

  Nigeria’s diversification plan may still be on track. The nations mines ministry says 50 mines would be operational by 2023.   COVID-19 brought home the reality that oil alone can’t be trusted to earn Africa enough revenue to cater for her citizens. The recent low oil price is a clear evidence of this. The fall in all price resulted in an increase in the price of gold.   Nigeria’s Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite said, the pandemic has slowed things down, but we can catch up”. The nation has a projection of earning 3% from the both processing and available raw minerals.   An example is barite, which used for drilling oil and gas. And the market for it primarily is in Africa, where more exploration for black gold are being carried out.   The minister expects more artisanal miners to benefit from the new plan. This is possible when they form cooperative societies and sell the ores, mostly gold to government buying centres instead of ...

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari comments on the #ENDSARS protests spreading across the nation. He assures of his administration’s commitment to reforming the SARS unit across Nigeria. The President, made the comments in a series of tweets on Friday night, said he had met with the Inspector General of Police, Adamu Mohammed, who he said has briefed him on moves to reform the unit. He urged Nigerians to be patient and calm as they freely exercise their right to protest peacefully. Buhari tweeted: “I met again with the IGP tonight. Our determination to reform the police should never be in doubt. “I am being briefed regularly on the reform efforts ongoing to end police brutality and unethical conduct, and ensure that the Police are fully accountable to the people. “The IG already has my firm instructions to conclusively address the concerns of Nigerians regarding these excesses, & ensure erring personnel are brought to justice. “I appeal for patience & calm, even as Nig...

Foreign investors in Nigeria have being assured that their investments are safe. The Governor gave this assurance, Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele. Central Bank of Nigeria Source : Wikipedia According to the punch The assurance is part of a statement from the CBN on Sunday. Emefiele assured investors interested in repatriating their funds from the country of the safety of their money, despite the drop in the revenue from crude oil. He noted that the CBN had put in place measures to ensure an orderly transfer of funds for those that might be interested in doing so. He said, “The foreign exchange available would be devoted to strategic importation or service obligations that are the priority. “The CBN, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, is committed to galvanising the manufacturing sector in a bid to reset the economy.” Recalling a similar situation that occurred in 2015 over declining revenue, Emefiele said that the...

Nigerians will be buying fuel at cheaper rates, again. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation or NNPC has announced a 17.94 per cent reduction in the ‘ex-depot’ price of petrol. Petrol Pump Nozzle Source : Punch Newspapers Nigeria The price was reduced from N113.28k per litre petrol was sold to marketers in the previous month to about N108.00K per litre. The new ex-depot price is coming almost a week into the new month, following the promise last month by the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, that a new pricing template for petroleum products would be released every first of a new month. Ex-depot price is the ceiling price at which petroleum products depot owners or terminal operators are expected to sell to marketers. The marketers, through their various filling stations, then sell to the end users. With the reduction of the ex-depot price, a new retail price of petrol is expected to be announced by the appropriate agency, PPPRA. The Petroleum Prod...

Nigeria’s Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba, says that the nation’s economy will get N2 Trillion stimulus in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the fall in oil prices.   Prince Clem Agba Source : Sahel Standard He has also disclosed that the government will explore ways of supporting the airlines in the country, saying that the aviation sector loses N21 billion monthly due to the present pandemic. Speaking at a webinar, Agba adds that the Economic Sustainability Committee had outlined five broad policy objectives with which to deal with the problems. According to him, “Of the $2.5 billion facilities from the World Bank, about $1 billion of it will be going to the States as loans. These are concessionary loans. Mr. President has already approved N850 billion loan from domestic capital market. “He has also approved $150 million to be taken from the Sovereign Wealth Account in support of Federation Account Allocation Commi...

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reports that 40%  of people in Nigeria live in poverty, figures published on Monday highlighting the low levels of wealth in a country that is Africa’s biggest economy.   Source : International Centre For Investigative Reporting The Statistics office a report about poverty and inequality from September 2018 to October 2019, said 40% of people in the continent’s most populous country lived below its poverty line of 137,430 naira or $381.75 per year. It said that represents 82.9 million people. Nigeria is a top oil exporter in Africa, which has helped to create wealth related to crude sales that account for more than half of government revenue. But a failure to diversify the economy and build much needed transport and power infrastructure has stunted growth and the spread of wealth beyond the rich elite. Rapid population growth outstrips economic growth, which stands at around 2%. The United Nations estimates that Nigeria...

Nigeria’s inflation rate has increased for the third consecutive month. With a 0.25% rise, it moved from 11.85% in October to 11.85% in November 2019 according to the National Bureau of Statistics. “The urban inflation rate increased by 12.47 percent (year-on-year) in November 2019 from 12.20 percent recorded in October 2019, while the rural inflation rate increased by 11.30 percent in November 2019 from 11.07 percent in October 2019,” the report reads. Food Items Source: The Market Food Shop Meanwhile, the composite food index rose by 14.48 per cent in November 2019 compared to 14.09 per cent in October 2019. This current rise in the food index is due to the increases in the prices of everyday foods such as bread, cereals, oils and fats, meat, potatoes, yam including other tubers like cassava and fish. When compared to October 2019, the food sub-index increased by 1.25 per cent in November 2019, down 0.08 per cent points from 1.33 percent recorde...

DO YOU KNOW THAT.... 1. The River Niger Bridge at Onitsha was constructed between 1964 and 1965 by Dumez, a French construction company, and cost £5 million. Nigeria Source: AfDB 2. Patience Jonathan is one of Nigeria’s most-educated First Ladies, with an NCE, a B.Ed, and Msc from University of Port-Harcourt. 3. The highest peak in Nigeria is located in Taraba and is called Chappal Waddi which means “The Mountain of Death”. 4. There are 196 countries in the world and at least one Igbo person from Nigeria lives in every one of them. 5. The Pidgin word ‘Sabi’ came from ‘Saber’, Portuguese and Spanish for ‘to know’. Both country’s ships traded slaves from the Bight of Benin. 6. Katsina College (now Barewa College in Zaria) has produced 5 Nigerian Presidents/Heads of State since it was founded in 1921 in Katsina. 7. Ojukwu taught Murtala Mohammed and Ben Adekunle at Regular Officers Special Training School, Ghana. Both ‘fought’ their teacher during the civil war 8. At...

The Nigerian government is seeking $62 billion from oil companies. This is an old regulations that allow the government to revisit revenue-sharing deals on petroleum sales if crude prices exceed $20 a barrel, according to the attorney general Abubakar Malami. A law dating back to the 1990s that governs oil production sharing contracts allows the government to review revenue sharing once the oil price rises above $20 per barrel. Malami, adds that Nigeria had been “short-changed” under the law and is pursuing a case for recovery if it is established that the oil companies had under-paid the government. Earlier this year, industry and government sources told Reuters that Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, Exxon Mobil and Eni, were each asked to pay the central government between $2.5 billion and $5 billion. The oil companies were not immediately available for comment. President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday presented a record 10.33 trillion naira ($33.8 billion) budget for 20...

The Italian energy group Eni is heaving a sigh of relief. According to Eni, the U.S. Justice Department has closed its investigations into alleged corruption by its subsidiary in Nigeria and Algeria. In a related development, Eni is currently on trial in Milan on graft allegations revolving round the acquisition of a giant Nigerian oilfield in 2011.   Shell and Eni Source : businessday.ng In that case Eni and peer Royal Dutch Shell are accused of buying the OPL 245 offshore field for about 1.3 billion U.S. dollar in a deal that spawned one of the industry’s largest graft scandals. Milan prosecutors allege that about 1.1 billion U.S. dollar of the total was siphoned off to pay politicians, businessmen and middlemen. Eni and Shell have denied any wrongdoing. “Today’s decision by the DOJ confirms the findings of independent advisors, who conducted investigations into the claims... which also found no illegal activity,” Eni ...