Etisalat Nigeria, has disapproved flaming claims that it filled multiple suits against the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and MTN Nigeria on acquisition of Visafone Communications.
“Our attention has been drawn to misleading insinuations making the rounds in the media that Etisalat Nigeria has filed multiple suits against the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and MTN Nigeria.
The insinuations have arisen largely from a press statement reportedly issued by MTN Nigeria and published by some print media organisations and online media platforms under the headline “MTN confirms legal fireworks with Etisalat over Visafone.”
“Etisalat Nigeria is compelled to set the facts straight on the intent and status of the legal action it instituted against the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and MTN Nigeria in July 2015 due to the misrepresentation of facts about the case as contained in some print and online media reports of Wednesday, February 9, 2016.”
The Federal Government has said that it is setting up technology to monitor movement in and outside the various border areas of the country, to reduce the Nigeria’s exposure to insecurity.
The Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, made this known in Ogun State on Thursday after inspecting facilities at a private training centre in Remo North Local Government Area of the state.
He said that the development was to ensure the safety and security of the country through the 5,000 km radius border areas with sister African countries.
According to Dambazu,“Certainly, one thing I am very sure of is the fact that we will apply technology in order to monitor the extensive borders and also in order to check unnecessary caution into the country particularly, those who come in here with bad intentions (such as) smuggling small arms, light weapons, smuggling in drugs and engaging in human trafficking and all the cross-border illegalities.
“I want to tell you that these are priority for the Ministry of Interior because most of the internal security problems that we are having have to do with the accessibility and availability of weapons.
“Of drugs, we will check that at the source (and) if we do that, I am sure 50% or more of the internal security challenges will be solved.”he said.
The Nigerian naira has fallen to a record low of 325 to the dollar at the parallel market on Thursday.
According to reports, the local currency had closed at 318 against the green back on Wednesday, after hitting 313.5 and 310 on Tuesday and Monday, respectively. The Central Bank of Nigeria has left the official exchange rate unchanged at N197 to the dollar on its official interbank window.
The Acting President, Association of Bureau De Change Operators, Aminu Gwadabe, said, ”We see the naira falling further in coming days if the central bank fails to lift the dollar restriction.”
President Muhammadu Buhari is burdened that further depreciation will affect poor Nigerians, but the CBN’s refusal to revise the pegged exchange rate has widened a chasm between official rate and the parallel market.
The Managing Director, Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, complained that its high time the CBN came up with a forex policy that would address the forex crisis confronting the nation.
“Nigerians are perplexed at the endless slide of their currency, which is now trading at N325/$, the lowest point ever.
“This is happening even when the oil price is up at $31pb. The debate as whether to devalue the naira is not the real issue. The discourse should be whether we need an exchange rate policy or not. The absence of a policy is a recipe for economic anarchy and a race to the bottom.”
The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, has confirmed that nearly 23,000 ghost workers have been uncovered by a panel probing multiple salary payments in the federal civil service.
Speaking at a budget defense session in the Senate, the Finance Minister said that those people involved in the fraud would soon be handed over to Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
She explained that the panel was able to uncover the ghost workers because of the introduction of the bank verification number (BVN).
She further said a meeting will be held on Monday with the unions to agree on the best approach to clean them off from the system.
According to her, “The process will be that we will suspend that person from the payroll pending the investigation (and) we will try as far as possible to complete the investigation in 30 days so that we don’t catch out innocent people.
“We really need to clean our payroll off (because) as we speak now, we have about 23,000 that we need to investigate.
“Banks have colluded with people to pack our payroll and not only are we going to stop those payments but we are actually going to go and recover our money. ”she said.
The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun has pledged her determination to streamline government procurement processes to generate more savings from elimination of wastages and excess capacity and duplication to boost the economy. She said that there is need for government to indulge its large purchasing power in getting favourable negotiation from suppliers to ensure transparency through the introduction of price guidelines.
According to her, government would save N4.14 billion on travels on a yearly basis. She added that government is committed to achieving a proper over heading spending profile in the bid to enhance cost efficiency and maximum value of procurement.
Adeosun, who was represented by the Head, Efficiency Unit, Federal Ministry of Finance, Patience Oniha, explained that if procurement processes are streamlined, government would generate savings from elimination of wastages and excess capacity and duplication.
“We have some professionals working with us. We have people that will support, provide data to ensure that they conform to the guidelines, even in operations.”
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) will no longer issue foreign exchange for the payment of school fees and medical bills.
These items constitute 15% of foreign currency demands in the country.
The development was made known by the Director, Banking Supervision of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mrs Tokunbo Martins, who spoke at the end of the Bankers Committee meeting, in Abuja, yesterday.
Mrs. Martins, while the decision is a painful sacrifice which Nigerians have to bear in the short term, it will have a long term benefit for Nigerians and the economy as the banks have resolved that most of the foreign exchange demands would now be granted to develop the real sector.
Also, in his remarks, the Managing Director of Access Bank, Mr Herbert Nwigwe, explained that the banks have decided to channel such forex to the real sector because those demands tend to crowd out demands to import raw materials and to support industries.
The bank chiefs also said that there is a deliberate effort to increase the rate of financial inclusion which has risen from 30 per cent to 40 per cent in recent times and now it is at 66 per cent. However, they said that their target is to get to 69 per cent before December 2016. This, they said, is by creating agency banking in the north east and introducing policies which will make accounts opening a lot more easier.
Other bank chief executives present on the occasion include, Managing Director of Diamond Bank of Nigeria, Mr Uzoma Dozie; Managing Director of Standard Chartered, Mrs Bola Adesola as well as Director, Corporate Communication of CBN, Mr Ibrahim Muazu.
The House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, has rejected the request by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to spend N130million in carrying out security audit of all airports in the country. It was dismissed during the budget defence of agencies under the aviation sector.
The committee was also displeased at the NCAA’s tradition of spending 98 per cent of its budgetary allocation on recurrent expenditure, with two per cent set aside for capital projects.
Rep. Nkeirukà Onyejeocha (Abia-PDP), the Chairman of the Committee, recalled querying the same items put at N135million in 2015 budget, based on reasons bothering on redundancy of most airports in the country.
They frowned at the unspent N16 billion accumulated security levy, lying idle at NCAA.
Onyejeocha, however, instructed NCAA to re-adjust some of the sub-heads in the budget and get back as soon as possible for final legislative work
Mr Mukhtar Usman, the Director General of NCAA, informed the lawmakers that the agency strictly operated within its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and gets no funding from the Federal Government.
The International finance Corporation (IFC) a member of the World Bank Group and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has announced that they are carving out strategy to increase investments in the nation’s health sector to end over $ 1 billion Nigerians spend on medical tourism.
According to the IFC Country Director, Eme Essien Lore, there is a need to support the private sector in Nigeria so that they can provide affordable and accessible medical services. She said that the country will need innovative approaches like public private partnerships (PPPs), among others to mobilise private capital for public healthcare.
She said that there are considerable opportunities to assist the private sector in playing a viable role in providing affordable healthcare across the country.
Lore said, “IFC is committed to help increase affordable quality healthcare services by financing and facilitating financing for integrated networks. This will support the development of critical healthcare infrastructure and attract private capital into the sector.”
“We are working with NSIA to boost investment in the healthcare sector and bridge the gap in under supply of quality healthcare in Nigeria.”
The Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, has stated that the possible outbreak of Zika virus in Nigeria is at its minimal, saying that there is no cause for alarm. He added that the current out break of Lassa fever in the country in under control.
“It is important that I inform the nation that this current outbreak of Lassa Fever is under control as evident by decline in new suspected cases, new laboratory confirmed cases and newly reported cases by week.
“You will all recall that on January 8, 2016, I briefed the nation on the current outbreak of Lassa fever that started in December 2015 and which has now affected 20 states of the federation. As of today, Nigeria has recorded 176 cases with 108 deaths, giving a case fatality rate of 61.4 per cent.
“Despite this achievement ,however, you will all agree with me that it will be too dangerous for us as a nation to go complacent at this stage.
“Although two African countries have reported Zika infection in the recent outbreak and in the past many others, causal relationship between Zika virus infection, birth defect and neurological syndromes have not been established in this continent.
“Nigerian scientist working in Western Nigeria in 1954 discovered Zika Virus in Nigeria. Further studies in the years 1975 to 1979 show that 40 per cent of Nigerian adults and 25 percent of Nigerian children have antibodies to Zika Virus, meaning they are protected against this virus.” Adewole said.
The U.S. Embassy in Nigeria has condemned the suicide attack on the Internally Displaced Persons in Dikwa town, Borno state which has left over 51 persons dead and scores injured.
A statement from the Public Affairs section in the Information Office of the Embassy at the Federal Capital Territory says the United States remains committed to assisting the Internally Displaced Populations in the North-east through humanitarian relief efforts.
While extending the United States deepest condolences to the families of the victims, the statement says the U.S will also continue to support the Nigerian government in its fight against terrorism.
On Wednesday about 51 people died in a suicide bomb attack in Dikwa, a local council in Borno State.Seventy-eight injured persons have also been evacuated to Maiduguri, the capital city for treatment, villagers say.
According to the minister, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Mohammed Bello, the FCTA is putting everything in place to ensure that the Abuja rail system is operational in the last quarter of 2017. He revealed this during a visit by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kechichwu.
Bello said the last quarter of 2017 is the new target date envisaged by the FCT Administration, that when the Abuja rail comes on board, it would revolutionize the transportation system as motorists will be attracted to board the trains, adding that it will go a long way to creating employment for some resident in FCT.
He also called on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to build Mega Filling Stations in the six area councils of the FCT, instead of only one earmarked for each Senatorial districts in the 36 states of the federation, stressing that a large population of the territory resides in the area councils and satellite towns.
The Minister of State and Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr. Emmanuel Kachikwu, said the corporation was planning to construct additional Mega Filling Stations in all the Senatorial Districts of the country in partnership with the states of the federation which is three per state. Whereas, 15 state governors already showed their interest in the project by providing plots of land.
Total is the fifth largest publicly-traded integrated oil and gas company in the world, with 100,000 employees in more than 130 countries worldwide. Our size and performance rank us as one of the top five global oil companies. “We are among the majors that invest the most in exploration. More importantly, our teams are highly motivated. They have a real pioneering spirit we must keep cultivating!”.
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Implementation and project management of stations turnkey solarization projects for 200 stations.
Identify and analyze new project opportunities.
Collaborate with the Sales team (GTEs) to maximize lead generation efforts and strategies.
Takes responsibility for Project controlling.
Develop and initiate strategic input to the business and support ongoing business initiatives
Responsible for the management of customer service, relationships and contracts.
Maintain a good knowledge of the solar market, competitor’s activities and report best practices.
Manage all solar O&M activities in designated project portfolio to maximize system performance
Manage multiple solar sites and contractors.
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First degree in Electrical Engineering.
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JAGAL Group is a leading Nigerian conglomerate with operations in the Oil & Gas, Construction and Manufacturing industries. The company has been growing successfully over the past 40 years, and has become a valuable and respected contributor to the development of the country’s economy.
Jagal offers diverse career opportunities across all its business activities. The Group’s broad range of industries and services offer rewarding prospects for various professional backgrounds and can satisfy ambitions for a successful future career.
We are recruiting to fill the following vacant positions.
Dressmeoutlet.com is Nigeria’s foremost e-tailor for high-quality Dresses and crowning accessories- Stilettos, Sandals, Satchels, Clutches, Jewelry, Gadgets and Health & Beauty Products. With over 1,000 products to shop from, we retail various sophisticated styles from premium designers globally.
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The NewsDirect Global Concept, publisher of Nigerian NewsDirect Newspaper was registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission on Aug 16, 2009. The company commenced weekly publication at the Corporate Head Office located at 34 Matanmi Aromobi Street, Blessing Estate, Gasline Sango, Ogun State on November 29, 2010.The vision of the newspaper is to be “the best promoter of truth”. and the mission is to provide “accurate news from source”.
We are recruiting to fill the following vacant positions below:
State-owned oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation,NNPC, on Wednesday, February 10, announced that the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, KRPC, in Kaduna State has resumed production, supplying 3.2 million litres of premium motor spirit (petrol) to the Nigerian market.
The KRPC, alongside the two other refineries in the country, Warri and Port Harcourt, has been moribund for years, going through a seemingly endless “turn-around maintenance” that allegedly served as a cash cow for corrupt government officials and contractors while the majority of Nigerians were left at the mercy of fuel importers and marketers.
The NNPC declared on its website that the Kaduna Refinery commenced production over the weekend with an initial PMS yield of about 1.5 million litres, which has been raised to 3.2 million litres for the domestic market.
“The injection of this volume into the system will significantly impact ongoing special intervention efforts designed to bring relief to motorists across the country,” the Corporation stated.
The Executive Director of the Farmers Online Market, FOM, Stephen Maduko, in a statement, revealed that about 30 million farmers were being targeted by the Federal government through its renewed e-wallet scheme.
Maduko said the launching of a new e-wallet scheme for Nigerian farmers by the Federal Government over the weekend, with 14 million farmers already captured in the digital archives of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is laudable.
The FOM Boss, who expressed appreciation to the Federal Government for its support, decried what he called the absence of market and storage facilities for the locally produced farm produce.
He reiterated the capacity of the farmers online market to produce jobs and business opportunities for women and youths, thereby making them self employed and self-sustaining, and also creating jobs and wealth for all categories of unemployed people.
“With a target of creating over 2 million jobs directly and over 20 million jobs indirectly, we urge the Federal Government through its ministries, departments and agencies in the 36 states and 774 local government councils, and all relevant stakeholders in the agricultural sector to support us and offer their services through the DOM,” he said.
In a bid to settle its squabble with by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, over violation of SIM Card registration directive, MTN, is to provide LinqUs Mobile ID Platform to its estimated 70 million subscribers.
The new service operated for MTN in SaaS mode by Gemalto Allynis Services would position MTN as the country’s foremost provider of secure digital identification and authentication platform.
It would also mark the first commercial rollout of SIM based services delivering convenient mobile authentication for all mobile users and offers users a universal digital ID combined with a mobile-based second factor authentication, for easy and secure web service access, payments and financial transactions validation.
With the service telecoms operators in Nigeria can adopt MTN Token services to strengthen protection of online services against identity theft and cybercrime and offer a convenient digital journey to its customers by removing complex registration and log-in processes.
I.T. Two very simple letters that in the wrong circumstances can strike fear into the heart of even the most level-headed entrepreneur. Networks, channels, and databases are not the reason that most people start up their own business. The flipside, of course, is that if handled well, IT can turn what is merely a good company into a truly great one.
Any entrepreneur will know that running a business from scratch takes time, effort, commitment and most of all, passion. Unfortunately, to stay grounded in reality, it also takes sound fundamentals, and a sturdy infrastructure. Today, IT is inevitably a big part of that. Not even the very smallest of businesses can get away without having some kind of technology to help them run.
The real trick is getting something in place that works reliably and efficiently and doesn’t cost a lot of time and money to install or maintain. Take for example cloud based services like Google for Work. Business these days is not only global, fast-paced and demanding, but employees now demand a lot more of the systems they use to do their jobs. The pace of technology innovation in the consumer world has had an impact on the business environment – employees want to use systems at work that replicate the experiences they have at home. A generation used to posting and sharing photos online, instant messaging with friends and interacting online for a good chunk of their spare time is having an impact on expectations in the workplace.
This is where the power of the Internet comes into play. The Internet provides the flexibility to create, share, access and collaborate with other people at work. Email, spreadsheets, calendars and presentations suddenly become accessible quickly and securely wherever you are. Not only that but the fact that everything is online means that multiple users can access and work on documents simultaneously and edit in real-time. In short, no more emailing backwards and forwards with attachments. This means a lot when you’re working at the kind of pace required as a start-up.
And then there is the issue of the bottom line cost of IT to a business. Again, once you’re hooked up to the web this is all but eradicated because it’s possible to effectively ‘rent’ these applications from a third party. Having your IT applications hosted over the Internet means no investment in hardware or software and no issues with upgrades or installing new features because that all happens automatically. It also means you can concentrate on your core business without needing to worry about the day-to-day issues of running an IT infrastructure. That’s why we developed a suite of communication and collaboration products especially for small businesses, which is web-based and free, or at a fixed cost depending on the support you want from us.
As your business evolves it’s important that your IT evolves along with it. The Internet is more than just a resource for finding information and start-ups are in an excellent position to harness its full potential – without an existing infrastructure to cater for you’re effectively working with a blank canvas. Used thoughtfully, your IT environment can provide you with an interesting competitive edge.
At the end of the day, for any start-up on the first rung of the business ladder putting a sound IT system in place should be a concern but never a worry.
Government increased spending and borrowing to fund almost half of it signals trouble for investors in the bonds of Africa’s biggest oil producer, Bloomberg reports.
Nigeria’s naira debt has lost 3.6 percent in dollar terms this year, the most after Russia, Colombia and Mexico’s local bonds among 31 emerging nations tracked by Bloomberg.
Average yields have jumped 119 basis points to 11.89 percent since the end of December. More losses may be in store, according to Barclays Plc.
President Muhammadu Buhari is attempting to counter an economic slowdown as crude prices plunged to 12-year lows by increasing government spending about 20 percent in 2016 to $31 billion.
His administration says it will partly plug the $15 billion deficit with 900 billion naira ($4.5 billion) of extra debt issuance on local markets, alongside $5 billion of external funding. What will make his task even harder is the absence of foreign investors, who fled Nigeria last year in anticipation of a currency devaluation they see as inevitable but which the government is avoiding.
“If you look at the larger fiscal gap and the planned increase in issuance, you’d expect some pressure on yields,” Ridle Markus, an Africa strategist at Barclays’ South African unit, said by phone from Johannesburg on Tuesday. “It will mostly be local investors that participate. I can’t see foreigners returning” without a devaluation, he said.
