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  The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has directed its members in the southeast zone to revert to the old price of N170 and N175 per litre. Mr. Chinedu Anyaso, Chairman of IPMAN Enugu Community Depot in charge of Anambra, Ebonyi, and Enugu States, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Awka on Friday. NAN reports that marketers in the zone adjusted their rates to between N210 and N212 on Friday which consequently threw customers into panic. The NAN correspondent who monitored the situation in Awka observed that most fuel stations were deserted, while long queues surfaced at NNPC mega station, which was yet to hike the price of petrol. Mr Victor Emeka, one of the marketers, said the downstream market was in confusion due to disagreeing with directives from NNPC and PPRA. According to Emeka, PPRA said we should sell at N212 while NNPC is saying it has not increased price, but the increase has been effected at the depots....

Dr Adesina reiterated again that Africa remains a good fertile ground for investment, largely dependent on how well it can boost its healthcare sector. Africa as a continent has remained a fertile ground for investment but depends very much on its ability to boost its healthcare sector. This disclosure was made by Akinwumi A. Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) during the Africa Investment organized by the UK Department for International Trade themed, “Building back better – utilizing UK private sector strengths and values, and business-to-business opportunities working with UK government and others going forward” According to Dr. Adesina, “Africa still possessed the same fundamentals that had driven the continent’s phenomenal growth over the past decade” “The fundamentals in those phenomenal growth rates in Africa are still there…Africa still leads in terms of ease of doing business…It’s very exciting, the digital explosion that you see in Africa today” Mrs W...

Details have emerged on how two former senior public officers returned about N8billion to the coffers of the Federal Government to avoid being prosecuted. A former Accountant-General of the Federation (AG-F), Jonah Ogunniyi Otunla, and an ex-Comptroller-General of Customs, Abdullahi Inde Dikko, refunded N6.3 billion and N1.9 billion respectively. Otunla was the AG-F between 2011 and 2015 while Dikko was the Customs’ Comptroller General between 2009 and 2015. While Otunla returned N6,392,000,000.00; Dikko returned N1,596,000,000.00 (naira equivalent of $8million, computed at N197 to a United States dollar the prevailing exchange rate at the time). Details of the deals leading to the refunds are contained in documents Otunla and Dikko filed in court to back up the suits they instituted against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC). In the suits, they queried the decision of the anti-graft age...

  Daystar Power is a solar power startup business that is based in Lagos, Nigeria. It's a startup providing solar power solutions to businesses in Lagos and its environ. The tech startup has gotten $38-million in a Series B Investment.  The investment was led by the Investment Fund for Developing Countries  ( Investeringsfonden for Udviklingslande  (IFU) and the Danish Development Finance Institution (DFI). Additional investors included STOA, a French impact infrastructure fund, Proparco, and several other investors.  The solar power-focused startup aimed to use the funding to grow its operations in Nigeria and Ghana, with an objective to expand to other countries such as Senegal, Togo, and Côte d’Ivoire in the nearest future.  Additionally, the funding will help Daystar Power to increase its installed capacity to over 100 megawatts, catering to clients in various sectors such as financial services, agriculture, manufacturing, and more....

  The Finance Act 2020 recently signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, imposes N50 levy on electronic transfer of money deposited in any bank or financial institution on any account on sums of N10, 000 or more. The revenue, according to the Act, is to be shared based on derivation 15% to FG & FCT and 85% to states. The new law which introduces over 80 amendments to 14 different laws and takes effect from 1st January 2021, however, cancels out stamp duty charge on electric transfers. The Act, among other provisions, notably exempted workers who earn N30,000 minimum wage or less from personal income tax and excempted commercial airline ticket from value added tax (VAT) These are some of the key highlights of the Act as identified by the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC). The notable changes introduced by the Act, as identified by the firm include: “Compensation for loss of office up to N10m exempted from capital gains tax. Tax due on excess above N10m is to be deducted by the ...

  Nigeria's public debt hit a total of N32.2tn at the end of September, the Debt Management Office announced on Thursday. The figure implies that the nation’s debt profile rose by N1.19tn between the second and third quarter of 2020. According to a breakdown provided by the DMO on its website, the Federal Government’s total debt stood at N28tn as of September 2020 while the debt of the states and the Federal Capital Territory stood at N4.19tn. Further disaggregation of Nigeria’s public debt showed that the domestic debt is 20tn or 62.18 per cent of the total debt while foreign debt is 37.82 per cent.‌ In dollar terms, Nigeria’s total debt is $84.57bn. Your time is appreciated. What do you think about this article? Kindly pen down your thoughts in the comments section below. It will only make us better.  Do you have stories to share with us or you want to advertise your legitimate business, products or services ? You can reach us on  WhatsApp +2349097679797. You can al...

The President, on Wednesday, ordered the immediate reopening of four land borders hitherto closed. The Presidency made this known in a tweet today. “President Buhari has directed the immediate opening of four land borders: Seme, Illela, Maigatari, and Mfun,” @NGRPresident tweeted. Nigeria closed its borders in August 2019 to curtail illegal importation of drugs, small arms and agricultural products into country from neighbouring West African nations. The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, had last month hinted on the reopening of the nation’s borders.  Ahmed had said the presidential committee set up on the matter had completed its job and had recommended the reopening of the borders. The minister, on Wednesday, after a Federal Executive Council meeting, disclosed the reopening of Seme Border in Lagos State, Illela Border in Sokoto State, Maigatari Border in Jigawa State, and Mfun Border in Cross River State. According to her, she asserted that other b...

 . National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has proposed a seven-point agenda, which he said, would revive the country’s troubled economy and drastically reduce her dependence on Petro-Dollars. Tinubu explained that the development of a national infrastructure plan; the return of commodity exchange boards and the promotion of government-backed housing programmes were important measures that could help to reposition the national economy. The proposals are contained in a recent lecture the APC leader delivered in Lagos, where he said the decline in oil prices had revealed the travesty of the country’s extant economic model. He proposed a national industrial policy fostering the development of strategic industries, which he said, could create jobs as well as spur sustainable economic growth. He said: “We must realise that no populous nation has ever attained broadly-shared prosperity without first creating an industrial capacity that employs l...

  Niger State Governor, Abubakar Sani Bello has appealed for understanding of civil servants and political appointees over a reduction in their November salary, as a result of the shortfall from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FACC). In a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mary Noel Berje, Bello described the situation as unfortunate, especially now that the economy is hitting hard on people due to recession.  The governor added that the government’s decision is temporary, and hopefully soonest, the situation will improve. Bello, who attributed the shortfall to the present poor economy, pointed out that the situation is not peculiar to Niger State alone and promised that his administration will expedite action towards improving its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to complement whatever is coming from FACC.  He disclosed that he and his deputy are also affected by the salary cut. Nigerians must be ready for this type of adjustmen...

President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has warned that there could be anarchy if the Senate is scrapped as being clamoured by some Nigerians. The Senate President also faulted the argument of the Senate perceived jumbo pay being earned by the senators.  He said the annual budget of the National Assembly is less than one per cent of the nation’s 2021 budget.  Lawan stated this on Friday while declaring open, a retreat for top management staff of the National Assembly and National Assembly Service Commission in Abuja. He described the Senate as a leveler which ensured that all parts of the country are equally represented unlike the House of Representatives where states with higher populations produce the highest number of lawmakers. Conversely, when you compare Nigerian Senators and Representatives pay with other countries, you will be shocked to see the difference. Comparisons with USA, UK, Tanzania and Kenya are illustrated below.  The difference between when this researc...

Nigeria has slipped into its second recession under four years after the economy posted a second consecutive contraction in the third quarter of this year.  The Statistician General of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Yemi Kale, who disclosed this on his Twitter handle on Saturday, said Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) slowed by 3.6 percent in the three months to September. He wrote: “The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) slowed by 3.6 percent in the three months to September, relative to a shrinking of 6.1 percent seen in the quarter before.”  Nigeria recorded its first recession in 2016 shortly after President Buhari took over from former President Jonathan. Oil production, on which the Nigerian economy depended with more than 65 percent contribution to the government’s revenues and 95 percent to foreign exchange earnings, crashed to 1.67 million barrels per day from 1.81 million in the previous three months.  Also, Nigeria  scaled down oil production to m...