Local contractors in the country have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene and see to the payment of contracts they executed in various Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) of government. The contractors under the auspices of Local Contractors of Nigeria (LCN) made the appeal in Abuja on Tuesday during a press briefing. Publicity Secretary of the group Mr Dandy Rowland who addressed the press on behalf of the chairman said that over 5,000 contractors...
Conventional wisdom is that Africa’s rising middle class is the engine for economic and social development, that its trajectory has been positive, and that the COVID-19 pandemic has seriously compromised the success of the middle class. However, on a continent of 1.3 billion people resident in more than fifty countries, this trope, much of it based on feel-good anecdotes, may obscure more than it illuminates. What is Africa’s middle class, how large was it before COVID-19, and was...
In 2018, Harrison Obiefule decided to switch careers from broadcasting to digital marketing, following his friend’s advice. That move turned out to be one of his best decisions. Less than two years in, Harrison has scaled up considerably in the industry and has begun to make a name for himself. He talks about his career transition, life as a digital communications strategist, working from home during a pandemic, and more on this week’s How I...
Fidelity Bank Plc. on Sunday announced the appointment of Mr Mustafa Chike-Obi as the Chairman of the bank. Chike-Obi, who is currently Executive Vice Chairman at Alpha African Advisory, has over 40 years of experience in investment banking and the financial services sector. In a statement in Lagos, Fidelity Bank said that Chike-Obi’s appointment followed the retirement of Mr. Ernest Ebi as its Chairman, Board of Directors. It noted that Ebi and Mr. Seni Adetu, who had...
The Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, has said the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the drop in the oil price at the international market has made it inevitable for Nigeria to keep borrowing from external bodies. The minister adds that Nigeria has been grappling with low revenue before the global health and economic challenges, saying that the challenges has put the country in a difficult situation. She says it...
The Lagos State Commissioner for Finance, Dr Rabiu Olowo, has advocated for the payment of higher taxes in Nigeria as oil has proven unreliable. Mr Olowo stated this at an online symposium organised by the Centre for Business Taxation, Oxford University, adding that economic crisis in the wake of the pandemic has made optimising taxation imperative. “Nigeria’s current tax to GDP ratio of between four to seven per cent is very far from satisfactory. This...
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq, says no fewer than 109,823 beneficiaries of the N-Power Programme are now business owners. Farouq, in a statement on Saturday in Abuja by her Special Assistant on Strategic Communication, Mrs. Halima Oyelade, said the beneficiaries of Batch A and B of N-Power have established businesses in their communities. “Statistics like this give me joy and once again, I want to say...
The Commissioner for Finance in Lagos, Rabiu Olowo, has been urged by the House of Assembly to recover 20 years stamp duty remittance estimated at N4.7 trillion from the federal government. Making a presentation on the recovery to the House Committee on Finance, Professor Kola Adekoya, Rector and Project Consultant of School of Banking Honours, disclosed that Lagos, at a time, was granted N50 commission on every stamp duty transaction from N1000 upward. Prof. Adekoya...
Goods worth millions of Naira have been destroyed by fire which wreaked havoc on over 100 shops in the popular Marian market in Calabar on Friday. The fire, which started from one of the shops in the fruit section, spread to other shops and destroyed goods worth millions of Naira including vital properties. An eye witness, Mr Ojah Ojah, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the scene of the event, said...
Ariaria International market and others big markets in Aba, Abia, on Friday resumed business operations that would see the traders do business for five days in a week. The resumption started on Friday following Abia government’s announcement on Thursday that the markets would now open from 7 am until 5 pm Mondays through Fridays. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that since Abia announced initial lockdown directives to check Coronavirus spread on March 24,...
