Researchers who were using a national business plan competition in Nigeria to test if selecting winners and offering them $50,000 cash could encourage their firms to grow have returned a positive verdict. Results showed that the programme was very successful, and that it spurred job creation more cost-effectively than large-scale government efforts in the United States. It also appears that the growth was primarily due to the capital injection, rather than being a winner of the competition or having participated in the business training component. Policymakers in countries dominated by small and medium-sized firms are facing challenges in spurring them…
Author: Akanimo Sampson
Professor Amina Abubakar Bashir was born on June 8, 1960 in Potiskum, but grew up in Maiduguri, Borno State capital. She hails from Daya, in Fika Local Government Area of Yobe State. Her father, a pharmacist, is the first Fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria from Yobe State. He is the Madaki of Fika Emirate Council, second in the hierarchy of the emirate. Amina obtained her first degree in English Language from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria in 1982, her MEd in Curriculum Studies from University of Maiduguri (UniMaid) in 1986 , and her PhD in English Language from ABU, Zaria in…
Nepalese trail and sky runner, Mira Rai, has been appointed a Mountain Partnership Goodwill Ambassador. The appointment came as people across the world celebrated International Mountain Day at the weekend. Mountain Partnership is a United Nations voluntary alliance dedicated to improving the lives of mountain peoples and protecting mountain environments, with a secretariat hosted at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Former National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, Rai describes herself as a “daughter of the mountains”. Her native country, Nepal, has the world’s highest mountains, and its Himalayan region is home to many indigenous communities and rich biodiversity. “Pollution, climate change…
Without the doubt, there is a huge disconnect between the decision-makers and the poor in most countries of Africa, Nigeria inclusive, on poverty-eradication/alleviation programmes that work for the poor. Sadly, from the shocking data tumbling out of the inner recesses of Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), a civic group, the bulk of the money pumped into such programmes has been largely wasted. IPA’s theory of change is addressing two problems the group sees in the world. According to it, ‘’there is limited evidence on what works to help the poor, and that the evidence that does exist is often unused…
A political risk consultancy, Menas Associates in its latest intelligence report on Libya declares that the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) will struggle to progress. ‘’Despite the United Nations Support Mission in Libya’s (UNSMIL) sense of urgency and its planning of more virtual sessions, there is little to suggest that a real breakthrough is likely on an acceptable mechanism for selecting the heads of the new executive authorities’’, Menas said in Libya Focus, its monthly intelligence report on Libya. According to the intelligence report, frustrations will grow over the lack of progress on the political front. ‘’This is likely to increase the…
Former President Goodluck Jonathan is currently under intense heat to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and enter the 2023 presidential race. While the Jonathan media handlers have been busy claiming that the ex-president is more interested in running his Foundation, Menas Associates in Nigeria Politics & Security, its weekly intelligence report on Nigeria says ‘’Jonathan is not disinterested in the 2023 presidential election’’. According to the report, ‘’on December 5, he declined to rule himself out of the race following rumours that he is under pressure to take part. He deflected the question by saying it is too early to say…
A global group, Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) says it is generating rigorous evidence, advising governments, and bringing together partners across the research-to-policy sector to rapidly provide decision-makers with rigorous data and evidence to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. IPA is however, concerned with creating high quality evidence, and helping turn that evidence into better programmes and policies for the poor. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, IPA launched Research for Effective COVID-19 Responses, or RECOVR. It is acknowledging the Global Poverty Research Lab (GPRL) for their support and the Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale (Y-RISE) for their partnership in…
There is currently widespread uncertainty and speculation about the health of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune of Algeria, and whether he will be capable of leading the country. President Tebboune is expected imminently to return from Germany, after being airlifted to a specialist hospital following complications caused by COVID-19. Excerpt from Algeria Politics & Security, a weekly intelligence report on Algeria by Menas Associates says the Presidency has maintained a complete silence over his medical condition. ‘’There is inevitable speculation about whether Article 102 of the Constitution might be applied to remove him from office, or whether he might even decide to step…
Recently, the US Defence Department’s Inspector General for Counterterrorism Operations in Africa issued a report which concludes that the UAE helped finance the Russian mercenaries operating in Libya under the auspices of the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group. For a political risk consultancy, Menas Associates, the US Department of State has characterised Wagner as a ‘’surrogate for the Russian ministry of defence’’. The report is the first official public assessment of an arrangement by which the UAE allegedly sought to obfuscate its role in the Libyan conflict. Experts and observers have long speculated on a Russia-Emirati connection in Libya but Abu Dhabi has denied…
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Nigeria’s oil and gas capital, has given reason why President Muhammadu Buhari has to honour the invitation of the House of Representatives, and also hit real hard on his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Wike who was speaking on a live television programme in Port Harcourt, the state capital on Friday, says for the Buhari administration to end the spate of violent crime in the country, there must be creation of employment opportunities for youths and drastic change to operational system of policing in Nigeria. The obviously angry Governor Wike is insisting that…
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has explained why the Green Chamber is giving an unusual speedy action to the 2020 Finance Bill President Muhammadu Buhari transmitted to the National Assembly on December 1. Gbajabiamila who was speaking at a one-day public hearing organised by the House Committee on Finance on the bill in Abuja on Friday, said funding the 2021 budget to support economic recovery and address other challenges, was the reason the House is giving immediate attention to the bill. “The Finance Bill which we have gathered here to consider and to contribute to, will determine…
Mulikat Adeola-Akande is one of the prominent figures featured in a Compendium celebrating Nigeria’s builders at 60. It is a special publication by Sprezzatura Publishing which aims at educating Nigerians about the rich and diverse cultures and experiences of various Nigerians who have contributed to the growth, stability, peace, and development of the country and who were coincidentally born the same year the country attained independence. However, political developments in Lagos, the commercial engine room of Nigeria, had a lot to do with shaping her later political activism. As a young law graduate, she was keenly monitoring political events. At…
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Economist, Ian Richards, has explained how Benin became the fastest place to start a mobile phone business in the world. He said until recently, Benin was best known for its cotton exports and its vibrant clothing designs. Since this year it is also the fastest place in the world to start a company. By providing a full online service, the government helped entrepreneurs create businesses and jobs during the pandemic. A third of Benin’s new entrepreneurs are women. Earlier this year Sandra Idossou, a Beninese entrepreneur who had earlier run a media business,…
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has warned that failure to realise human rights in countries of the world multiplies on a global scale. Spurred by the UN Secretary-General’s call to action for human rights, UNFPA says for it that means preventing and eliminating discrimination in all ‘’our work, providing quality services that meet international human rights standards, and holding ourselves accountable at all times’’. The UN ninth Secretary-General who took office on January 1, 2017, António Guterres, issued “A Call to Action for Human Rights” reaffirming “that a culture of human rights must permeate everything we do”. UNFPA Executive Director,…
The precarious situation of many refugees and migrants from Venezuela and affected host communities is reaching alarming levels, as national and local capacities have been dangerously strained due to the continued impact of COVID-19. The pandemic is threatening the overall social fabric in the 17 countries covered by the Regional Refugee and Migrant Response Plan. Political, human rights and socio-economic developments in Venezuela led to the largest movement of refugees and migrants in the recent history of Latin America and the Caribbean. As of November 2020, around 5.4 million refugees and migrants from Venezuela were outside of their country of…
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is helping Mauritius to craft a five-year plan to drive the island country’s development trajectory in the challenging global environment shaped by the COVID-19 emergency. The island nation is seeking to overcome the challenges on its development path to sustain the spectacular economic growth it has achieved in recent years. The Industrial Policy and Strategic Plan for Mauritius was launched on December 4 at an event hosted by the country’s ministry of industrial development, small and medium enterprises, and cooperatives. The plan underscores the need for Mauritius to update its policy toolset for the…
A member of the World Bank Group, International Finance Corporation (IFC) is bracing to help Nigeria address its food waste challenges, support the country’s health sector, and reduce its energy consumption. IFC is however, the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. It works in more than 100 countries, using its capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in developing countries. In fiscal year 2020, IFC invested $22 billion in private companies and financial institutions in developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity.…
Perhaps, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) approved a six-month extension for the Mai Mala Buni Caretaker/Extraordinary National Convention Planning Committee in a bid to enable the party reinvent itself. APC prides itself as being committed to a Nigeria that achieves its full potential and promise. ‘’We work towards a nation that is economically and socially vibrant, peaceful, just and secure; a nation where the blight of corruption is no longer tolerated in our political, business or civic affairs; a nation that invests in improving the livelihoods of its people and the places where we…
Across the world, nearly 500 journalists have lost their lives to the rampaging COVID-19 pandemic. In May, when the pandemic was gaining strength and spreading worldwide, International Journalists’ Network took a look at the high toll on journalists in the crisis. Like health professionals, caregivers, and other essential workers, journalists face heightened risks as they pursue stories on the pandemic. The Network came across the Geneva-based Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), a nonprofit focused on press freedom and journalist safety, which was attempting to track confirmed COVID-19-related deaths among journalists globally. By May 5, the PEC had recorded 64 deaths in 24 countries…
The eighth edition of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) port management series spotlights the top work done by TrainForTrade (TFT) graduates from Ghana, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria and the Philippines. TFT was launched in 1989 to address trade-related human and institutional capacity needs of developing and transition countries. Its ultimate goal is to increase countries’ participation in international trade in an equitable and sustainable manner. UNCTAD’s mandate is to work for development-led globalisation, where the development paths are sustainable and inclusive. TFT programme contributes to this goal by disseminating international trade-related knowledge and developing skills and capacities. It…
Some decades ago in Enugu State, there was a family that fed its two children then, just fruits. The kids were quite healthy and intelligent. They had no experience of what swallow was like till they visited a school friend one day. They met them demolishing a mountain of eba with ogbono soup. That was their first time of witnessing such. Pointing at the food, the shocked children asked their friend, ‘’what is this?’’ The rest is history. Some years later, a similar scene played out in London. Bright Chimezie was busy leveling apu at the airport. A surprised oyibo woman called the police alleging, in Chimezie’s lyrics, the…
Northern Elders Forum (NEF) that is calling for President Muhammadu Buhari’s resignation for allegedly failing to combat increasing insecurity in the country is currently wooing Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State for a leadership role in a post-Buhari era. Northern elders, in a statement by their Director of Publicity and Advocacy, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, noted that life had lost its value under the present administration due to the absence of political will to fight the Boko Haram insurgency and other threats such as banditry, rustling and kidnapping. In Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital to meet with their kith and…
Nigeria, the hitherto giant of Africa under President Muhammadu Buhari’s watch, is now a country of particular concern for America. Washington has compounded the wobbling country’s many economic, political, and social woes by blacklisting it. Buhari’s Nigeria and nine others have been placed by America as Countries of Particular Concern, under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 as amended for engaging in or tolerating“systematic, ongoing, egregious violation of religious freedom”, US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said in a statement on Monday. A report last December by the United Kingdom-based Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust, said more than 1,000 Christians…
Organisers and activists of the second wave of EndSARS on Monday, snubbed threats by the Buhari administration and security agencies by organising fresh protests in parts of the country including Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city. Though the Nigeria Police is claiming that in Lagos, the commercial capital of the country, no EndSARS protest held at the Lekki tollgate on Monday after a viral video surfaced on social media, in the Orozo axis of Abuja, school children, traders and workers had to trek to their destinations as commercial motor cycle and tricycle operators withdrew their services as a result of the renewed…
In the pantheon of African spirituality, one does become knowledgeable of the great divinities. Those who know say one must be born to them, duly initiated and ordained by them, then, they will teach him/her their precepts. They say that is the way Vodun is done. One learns through one’s relationship with the spirits of whatever mysteries they choose to disclose. By all standards imaginable, James Obena Odok, a Permanent Secretary and a lawyer, must be an ordained child of the divine. In Boki, Cross River State how he survived an accident that claimed the life of his mother when…
President Donald Trump is not yet showing any sign of backing down in his fight over contested election results as he spoke at a rally in Peach State. As rally goers in Georgia chant “STOP THE STEAL!” President Trump responds: “Your governor could stop it very easily if he knew what the hell he was doing!” Peach State is however, where upcoming elections to the Senate will decide who gets a legislative majority in Washington. Trump has met his supporters in Valdosta, Georgia, in his first rally since election day, to support Republican senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in the upcoming January…
Over 105 stranded Ugandan women, including victims of sex trafficking, have successfully returned home from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). They were assisted by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). They were stranded due to COVID-19 pandemic. Thousands of Ugandan migrant workers are working in KSA and other parts of the Middle East, mainly as domestic workers and security guards. When COVID-19 started, many lost their jobs. They also faced stigma and xenophobia. Prior to the pandemic, most of the over 105 women who returned home safely had been sending money back home to support their families. The women…
Thirty-year-old Doaa Qashlan, a woman with physical disability, according to Human Rights Watch, a global rights group, uses her mobility scooter to get around the inaccessible streets of Gaza. “They’re my legs”, she says of her assistive devices. A few months ago, Doaa’s scooter was reportedly damaged. She has still not been able to fix it, she says, as many necessary parts can’t be found in Gaza and there’s a lack of expertise to repair damaged devices. In part this stems from sweeping Israeli restrictions on the movement of goods and people into and out of Gaza. Today, Doaa says,…
The assassination of a senior Iranian military researcher, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, is currently fueling a bad blood between Iran and Israel. Iranian officials believe that Fakhrizadeh’s assassination was masterminded by Israel. Iranian media reported that the remains of the weapon that killed him, which was recovered from the scene, indicated that it originated from the Israeli military. But, Israeli Intelligence Minister, Eli Cohen, is claiming that his government has no idea who killed Fakhrizadeh, adding that whoever did made the world a safer place because the Iranian physicist took “an active part in creating a nuclear weapon.” Iran has been busy…
Ahead of the next election cycle in 2023, a seeming dangerous crisis of confidence has started to emerge in Nigeria. There are worrisome pointers that favoured political parties can be declared election winners without fielding electoral candidates. Secondly, is like returning officers are now free to openly campaign for the anointed party. Nigeria’s electoral umpire, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declared the All Progressives Congress (APC), President Muhammadu Buhari’s party, winner of the December 5, Okigwe Senatorial District bye-election in Imo State. While it was not considered as a ‘serious’ matter, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) literally shocked Nigerians…
