Data made available by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that Nigeria's public debt portfolio increased by N1.23 trillion between December 2019 and March 2020 to stand at N28.63 trillion. According to the bureau, the debt portfolio comprised of debts owed by the federal and state governments and represents a 4.48 percent increase from N27.40 trillion in the fourth quarter [...]
Tag "nigeria"
ON THE GO
The federal government has launched RNASwift, a diagnostic kit, for the identification of the causal agent of COVID-19. At a press conference on Tuesday, Alex Akpa, director-general of National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), the agency that developed the kit, said the RNASwift test kit is an indigenous diagnostic test kit designed, developed and validated in Nigeria for the identification of the [...]
Geoffrey Onyeama, minister of foreign affairs, says the federal government is considering a review of embassy operations across the world. Speaking as a special guest at a NAN Forum in Abuja, Onyeama stated that the review had become necessary as a result of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy. According to him, resources for funding the embassies have not [...]
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria's candidate for the World Trade Organisation director-general election, says she is in need of volunteers for her campaign. In an interview with Arise TV, Okonjo-Iweala said some of her friends have been helping with media work pro-bono. If elected, Okonjo-Iweala would be the first African to occupy the position. "So far things are going well and I’m grateful for the [...]
Olisa Agbakoba, former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), has suggested that the federal government merge the Nigeria Customs Service and the Nigerian Immigration Service to strengthen the country's trade policy. In an article titled 'Avoiding or mitigating recession in post-COVID Nigeria', Agbakoba suggested that the National Customs and Border Enforcement Services should be established to replace both agencies. He said [...]
Zenith Bank Plc has been ranked the number one bank in Nigeria by tier-1 capital in the 2020 Top 1000 world banks ranking published by The Banker Magazine. In a statement on Thursday signed by Ayoola Kusimo, of its corporate communications department, the bank said it moved from 415th position in 2019 to 386 in 2020. It said it also retained its position [...]
"UN and NGOs as well as government institutions had planned to step up their assistance in 2020. UN and partner NGOs needed $834 million to provide urgent aid to 5.9 million people. "We are half-way through the year and so far only 15% of the funding has been received. Now with the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on the economy and [...]
Zainab Ahmed, the minister of finance, budget and national planning, says the COVID-19 pandemic is projected to have affected 21 million jobs in the country. The minister was speaking at a webinar organised by the Nigeria Fiscal Policy Roundtable of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG). She was represented at the webinar by Sarah Alade, special adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on [...]
I was in Victoria Falls, a city in Zimbabwe, for a UNECA conference. During my cab ride into town from the airport, the driver (I don’t quite remember his name now) at my prompting started a conversation around the economy of Zimbabwe under President Emmerson Mnanagawa, better known as “ Crocodile.” He was eager to discuss the politics and economies [...]
The European Union Commission has excluded Nigeria from the list of countries whose nationals will be allowed in the region when the borders are open from July 1. The European countries had shut their borders when the COVID-19 pandemic spread into the region. With the easing of lockdown restrictions, the EU had released a draft list of 54 countries that will be [...]
The federal government says more than one million applications have been received on the N-Power portal since it opened on Friday night. This was disclosed in a statement signed by Rhoda Iliya, the deputy director information, ministry of humanitarian affairs disaster management and social development, on Sunday. The Batch C application commenced at 11:45pm on June 26, 2020, and closes on June [...]
In May 2020, Multichoice, the owners of DStv and GOtv, disclosed that rates would go up in Nigeria. This immediately led to a social media outrage, with many calling it insensitive "during a pandemic". In Multichoice's defence, John Ugbe, chief executive officer of Multichoice, said the company did not increase subscription rates, stating it was only an adjustment to reflect the [...]
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says Godwin Emefiele, its governor, and his team will not be distracted from their efforts to steer the Nigerian economy away from the looming recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Isaac Okorafor (pictured), CBN director of the corporate communications, on Wednesday, said the apex bank has "uncovered sinister plans by some persons to discredit the institution [...]
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised its projection for Nigeria's gross domestic product (GDP) projection downwards to a negative 5.4 percent. This is worse than the -3.4 percent contraction published in the April World Economic Outlook report. In the World Economic Outlook update released on Tuesday, the Bretton Wood institution projected that the global economy will suffer a deeper contraction of [...]
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has unveiled a new polymerase chain reaction (PCR) machine to boost COVID-19 testing in the country. The machine was unveiled at the Central Public Health Laboratory (CPHL), a campus of the NCDC National Reference Laboratory in Lagos, on Sunday. The PCR machine was procured using part of the £661,000 UKAid funding the British government donated [...]
The police have rescued Irene Panas, a 40-year-old Filipino woman, from a Nigerian man who lured her into the country and held her captive. In a statement on Monday, the police said the woman was rescued six months after she arrived in Nigeria from her home country "in an apparent but unsuccessful search for love". Frank Mba, force public relations officer, said the [...]
Advertisement
