The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has held a six-month review meeting with the Start Them Early Programme (STEP) team in Kenya. The meeting was chaired by a Senior Programme Specialist at IDRC, Jemimah Njuki, and the Director-General of IITA, Dr Nteranya Sanginga. The meeting was attended by the STEP-Kenya team: Paul Woomer, Welissa Mulei, Maryfaith Simiyu, and Lorraine Mutinda as well as the staff of IDRC Kenya who is interested in the youth-led project last February 13. The STEP-Kenya team also represented the interests of the project teams in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria. STEP-Kenya presented a progress report of…
Author: Akanimo Sampson
Barbados has become the latest Caribbean country to launch an online investment guide, iGuide. This is coming as it is preparing to host the 15th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) quadrennial conference in October. Last February 14, it unveiled the one-stop repository that provides foreign investors with up-to-date information on opportunities and conditions for doing business in the country. The site, www.theiguides.org/barbados, offers a comprehensive overview of business and labour legislation and various taxes including corporation, property and value-added tax. It provides current information such as legislation, steps and costs of starting a business on the island, investment…
Strong pointers have started to emerge that the United Kingdom (UK) might suffer a huge trade drawback in Europe in its post-exit trade. A new study by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) says Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) could cause major fractures in post-exit trade relations between the UK and the European Union (EU), knocking up to $32 billion, or 14 percent, off of UK exports to the EU. NTMs are policy measures other than ordinary customs tariffs that can potentially have an economic effect on international trade in goods, changing quantities traded, or prices, or both. They…
Italian oil major, Agip, is currently under intense pressure in Bayelsa State, to halt oil spills caused by leaks on its pipeline at Taylor Creek. The foremost environmental rights group, Environmental Rights Action (ERA) has joined community groups in pressing the oil company to remediate the despoiled environment. ERA which also doubles as Nigeria’s wing of a global federation, Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), says site visits to the impacted area by its field monitors in October 2019 showed that the leak was as a result of vandalism which occurred around September 2019.Head of ERA’s Field Operations, Alagoa Morris,…
South Africa, the hitherto biggest economy in Africa, has entered its second recession in two years. The situation has helped in giving Nigeria a lift in the economy of the continent. In the fourth quarter of last year, South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product nose-dived by 1.4 percent following a revised 0.8 percent contraction in the third quarter. These facts are from Statistics South Africa. Interestingly, Nigeria’s GDP shut up by 2.55 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019, obviously its highest quarterly growth since the recession of 2016. When compared to a growth rate of 1.91 percent in 2018, Nigeria’s…
Courts in Cross River State are shut down over non-confirmation of Justice Akon Ikpeme, as the Chief Judge of the state. The state House of Assembly has rejected her nomination. In a voice vote, the lawmakers declined her confirmation after rejecting two parallel reports presented by a divided Committee on Judiciary which was set up to screen Ikpeme. In one of the reports, Committee Chairman, Efah Esua, accepted her nomination as substantive Chief Judge and recommended that the House gives a go-ahead. But in a parallel report, Godwin Akwaji, representing Obudu State Constituency alongside five others recommended that Justice Ikpeme…
The N500 million compensation plan Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State approved for the state’s proposed cargo airport in Obudu is currently drawing blood in the area. Already, one person has been killed, several others injured and over six houses razed as Igwo community in Obudu Local Government Area of the state erupted in violence over the N500 million. The amount is compensation for the 1,500 hectares of land acquired by the state government for the construction of the airport in Obudu. Governor Ayade’s approval came after the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) had charged the…
From this coming December 6-10, government leaders, global CEOs and other investment stakeholders will be stepping up efforts to promote investment for sustainable development at the 7th biennial United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Forum (WIF). It will also be the first-ever Asian E-Commerce Week to be held in Abu Dhabi. The WIF is the largest global platform for high-level dialogue and action on investment and development. This year’s edition will seek to accelerate actions to align international investment with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi and the Under-Secretary of the Ministry of…
The nonpayment of the severance package of some 70 members of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) is causing unease at Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN). Mobil Producing is a subsidiary of the American oil giant, ExxonMobil. The grumbling ex-senior oil workers say the oil company has been foot-dragging on their entitlements 10 years after they were offloaded from the employ of Mobil. They said that they were disengaged in 2009 before the expiration of their employment contacts at the Qua Iboe Oil Export Terminal operated by Mobil and were denied their entitlement of N600 million. They say…
Frequent change of the management of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is not helping the Federal Government to achieve anything, so says Akwa Ibom Leaders Vanguard. ‘’NDDC Interim Management Committee seldom achieves anything’’, Spokesman for the group Senator Anietie Okon, said this while answering questions from newsmen in Uyo.Okon says a forensic audit of NDDC should not be carried out without a properly constituted board of the development agency, observing that until the result of the probe is out, no development can go on in the Niger Delta. “We decry the misuse of our sons to perpetuate confusion at…
Electricity tariff in Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River and Rivers states will be going up from April 1. To this end, the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Plc (PHED) is hosting public consultation for the proposed tariff review. According to the PHED, the coming tariff review was directed by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). PHED’s Corporate Communications Manager, John Onyi, made the development public in a statement. The consultation flagged-off with Calabar on Saturday. Uyo will have its turn on March 6, Port Harcourt on March 12, and Yenagoa on March 20. Onyi explains that a Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO),…
The exclusion of Akwa Ibom State, one of Nigeria’s major oil states from the N45 billion Special Projects undertaken by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) every month has drawn the ire of the elders of the state. They, therefore, want the national oil corporation to urgently explain its criteria on the choice of locations and distribution of projects that make it difficult for Akwa Ibom to benefit. The elders are also wondering why the state has not been considered fit for the location of any NNPC subsidiary. “Akwa Ibom needs to assume its rightful place in NNPC appointments, employments, PTDF…
The seeming grave rights abuses of Godswill Akpabio when he dominated the affairs of Akwa Ibom State as governor from 2007 to 2015 are currently after him. The United States is awash with a flurry petition accusing Akpabio the incumbent Niger Delta Affairs Minister of corruption, murder and human right abuses. As a result, the minister’s visa application has been turned down because President Donald Trump administration owns petitions filed against him for a series of murders, corruption and right abuses when he was governor. US embassy officials in Abuja told Akpabio that his visa was rejected because of his…
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State says his administration has developed a strong security architecture that is attracting foreign and local investors to the state. Speaking on Friday when he granted audience to the Norwegian Ambassador to Nigeria, Jens-Peter Kjemprud at the Government House Port Harcourt, Governor Wike informed that more investments are being made to further improve security in the State. He said: “We have improved security in the state and that has given confidence to investors. We are further developing the security architecture for better security of lives and property.” Governor Wike said that with improved security, most…
The Federal Government has warned that insurgents in the North-East are plotting to spark a religious war in Nigeria. Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, says the insurgents’ latest strategy is meant to trigger a religious war and throw the country into chaos. Speaking in a media briefing in Abuja on Thursday, he pointed out that Islamic terrorists are targeting Christians and Christian communities in Nigeria. His position tends to contradict President Muhammadu Buhari’s assertion in an op-ed article published three weeks ago in a United States-based magazine, Christianity Today. He tributes the Michika Local Government Area Chairman of the Christian…
Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) are now to fund foreign training for repentant Boko Haram fighters. This is contained in a bill proposing the establishment of National Agency for the Education, Rehabilitation, De-radicalisation and Integration of Repentant Insurgents in Nigeria. Funding will also come from donations, grants, annual subventions from the government and counterpart funding from the six North-East states of Borno, Bauchi, Yobe, Adamawa, Taraba and Gombe. The bill, known officially known as A Bill for the Establishment of the National Agency for the Education, Rehabilitation, De-radicalisation and Integration of Repentant Insurgents in Nigeria…
The Catholic Church has continued to show serious signs that it has no confidence in the Federal Government under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari. On Wednesday, its bishops gave Abuja a thumb down, saying the government has not shown willingness to end the spate of killings by the Boko Haram insurgents and herdsmen in the country. The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) in a statement by its President, Augustine Akubeze, and Secretary, Camillus Umoh, says the failure of Abuja to arrest the criminals showed its insincerity and lack of commitment to protecting lives and property in the country. The…
With the oil region, the Niger Delta and the theatre of war on terror, the North-East already with their development commission, some other regional power blocs have started battling for theirs. It seems the other regions are seeing in such commissions a huge gold mine. For instance, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is awash with corruption scandals than development initiatives. The obviously displeased President Muhammadu Buhari has since ordered a forensic audit of the interventionist agency which has been described as a den of thieves by the Niger Delta Affairs Minister, Godswill Akpabio. In spite of the putrefying stench…
A seeming deft political move by the ousted Imo State Governor, Emeka Ihedioha, to take over two oil wells from Rivers State, has suffered a fatal blow in a Federal High Court, Abuja. Like it did to Bayelsa State on the ownership of Soku oil wells worth over N720 billion, Rivers wrestled Ihedioha in a legal tussle. Ihedioha who was sacked by the Supreme Court as Imo governor had while still on the saddle, written to President Muhammadu Buhari, demanding revenue from the Federal Account in respect of Mbede and Akiri oil wells. Irked, the Nyesom Wike administration went to…
As locusts continue their invasion throughout East Africa, the cost of action has already doubled, to $138 million. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says the cost shot up as more details emerge about the scale of need in affected areas. On January 20, FAO, a United Nations agency, called for $76 million to help combat this pest crisis. But the resources to control the outbreak have been too slow in coming. According to FAO, East Africa is facing a major hunger threat in the form of desert locusts, pointing out that the region is equally beset by climate- and conflict-related…
Stakeholders at Onne Port in Rivers State, say it is far easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for businesses to operate at the port. They are blaming it all on lack of scanners at the port which they say, is negatively affecting Nigeria’s economy. According to them, that is largely responsible for the slowdown of business at the port.They made this known at a meeting with the Comptroller, Customs Area11 Command, Aliyu Galadima Saidu, last week.Generally, the stakeholders comprise the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents, (ANLCA) National Association of Government-Approved Freight Forwarders…
Peace judges in Peru’s Amazon region have joined the International Labour Organisation’s efforts to eradicate forced labour in the area.For decades, illegal logging has affected the region. It has not only had a devastating impact on the landscape and environment but has also blighted the lives of whole generations of mainly indigenous communities who have found themselves trapped in forced labour.Many of the loggers are recruited by labour intermediaries who trick them into debt bondage by offering wage advances, food and timber exchanges. Before long, the workers become ensnared in a cycle of debt and servitude that is passed on…
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State says the security challenges be-devilling Nigeria cannot be wished away so easily without a re-jig of the country’s twisted federalism. According to him, allowing real federalism is the only way to put Nigeria on the path of accelerated development. Sanwo-Olu says decentralization of some Exclusive functions of the Federal Government, including the provision of security, will provide instant answers to the current agitations threatening the unity of the country. ‘’The emergence of beggar-states as the major constituents of Nigeria’s federation will not take the country to the future it desires in a world that…
Kolo Creek communities in Bayelsa State have cried out for urgent help, claiming that they are suffering from the harmful effects of oil pollution. They are accordingly appealing to their state government and the Niger Delta Joint Task Force to save them from continued harm. Fourteen communities in the area have been receiving crude as a fallout of activities of illegal artisanal refiners with the worst polluted being Otuasega, Imiringi, Yiba-ama, and Ibelebiri. They are lamenting that the illegal oil refining camps had impacted the Kolo Creek, which is their only source of drinking water. Some community leaders in a…
A constitutional lawyer, Kayode Ajulo, wants the Senate Constitution Review Committee to review all aspects of Nigeria’s federal system by consensus. In a statement issued on Monday, Ajulo says a general consensus is crucial for the social harmony, political stability and general well-being of the country. Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, on February 6, inaugurated a 56-member constitution review panel. Heading the panel is Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege. It consists of all the eight principal officers, a senator from each of the 36 states and two members from each of the six geo-political zones. According to Ajulo, ‘’the contents of…
Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Qu Dongyu, says biodiversity is the basis of food diversity. According to him, ‘’biodiversity is fundamental for ecosystems, and for human beings’’, noting that the enormous challenge awaiting feeding more than nine billion people in 2050 in ways that assure healthy diets and avoid overexploitation of natural resources. ‘’Everything we eat is produced in ways that imply some transformation of the environment, which means we must have careful discussions of the type and scale of transformations we are prepared to accept.’’ Dongyu was speaking on Monday in opening remarks to negotiators at…
In a five-month period of 2018 alone, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement Army in Opposition (SPLM-IO), reportedly kidnapped over 887 civilians in a series of attacks. Human Rights Watch, a global rights group says many abductees, including boys under 15, are forced to be fighters. Women and girls are raped and abused. In a seeming significant development earlier this month, South Sudan’s rebel movement released 78 women and 50 children who had been held captive for months. Those freed were among the thousands of people who have been abducted over the years by the Sudan armed group. The rights group Researcher, Africa Division, Nyagoah Tut Pur, reports that…
193 concerned Nigerians, among them, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), have dragged the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, and all members of the House to a Federal High Court in Abuja over an alleged move by the federal lawmakers to spend N5.04 billion on 400 exotic cars. The plaintiffs are praying the court to restrain and stop them from spending the huge amount on cars. They also want the court to stop the National Assembly Service Commission from releasing any public funds to the House of Representatives to buy 400 Toyota Camry 2020 model cars…
Naval assets of the European Union (EU) will be patrolling no closer than 100 kilometres (60 miles) off the eastern coast of Libya, where women, men, and children trying to flee Libya depart on overcrowded, unseaworthy boats. The decision formally ends the already moribund Operation Sophia, the anti-smuggling mission set up in 2015 but left without any ships in the water since March 2019. It had failed principally because the previous Italian government had refused to allow people to disembark. Operation Sophia however, rescued more than 50,000 people at sea. ‘’Ironically, the operation was undone by its success’’, says Human Rights Watch Associate…
From Tuesday through Friday (February 25-28), the International Labour Organisation (ILO) will be holding a meeting of government, employer, and trade union experts to assess standards needed to ensure decent work in global supply chains. Arriving at this point was not easy. The decision to hold this meeting was taken after much discussion in 2016 at the International Labour Conference, an annual summit of labour ministers. This is coming as workers around the world are facing risks, sometimes lethal, in the workplace. For instance, there have been fires in Indian factories, accidents in Zimbabwe gold mines, infertility from chemical exposure…
