A photo collage of pictures created on August 01, 2020 shows the logo of the social media video sharing app Tiktok displayed on a tablet screen in Paris, and US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC, on July 30, 2020. JIM WATSON, Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP
As tensions soar between Chinese and US, world’s two biggest economies, video app TikTok on Monday said it has filed a lawsuit to challenge the crackdown on the popular Chinese-owned platform.
Accusing it of being a national threat, the Donald Trump-led American government had said it will ban Tik Tok.
On August 6, President Trump signed an executive order giving Americans 45 days to stop doing business with TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance — effectively setting a deadline for a potential pressured sale of the app to a US company.
In a blog post, the company stated that: “Today we are filing a complaint in federal court challenging the Administration’s efforts to ban TikTok in the US” .
The elected Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Prof. Folashade Ogunsola. She is the Provost, College of Medicine and current Deputy Vice Chancellor, Development Services.
The Senate of University of Lagos Monday voted Prof. Folashade Ogunsola of the College of Medicine and current Deputy Vice Chancellor, Development Services, as the new Acting Vice Chancellor of the university.
The now-dissolved university’s Governing Council led by Wale Babalakin had sacked the former Vice Chancellor, Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, in a controversial circumstance.
The situation degenerated until President Muhammadu Buhari, who is also a Visitor to the university, intervened and constituted a seven-man visitation panel to resolve the lingering crisis.
The President also tasked the university’s Senate to immediately appoint an Acting Vice Chancellor, a development which indicated that the Acting Vice Chancellor, Theophilus Soyombo, appointed by Babalakin-led Governing Council was null and void.
File photo: African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwunmi Adesina.
Incumbent President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, is set to be re-elected for the second term in office as the multilateral development institution, for the first time in the history, holds its Annual Meetings virtually to comply with the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic-related social-distancing guidelines.
Adesina is running as the sole candidate for a new five-year term.
The bank’s Governors’ Dialogue and the election of the president would be top of the agenda of the upcoming meetings scheduled to take place from August 26 to 27.
File photo: Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari meets African Development Bank’s (AfDB) President, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina
This year, which marks the 55th meeting of the bank’s Board of Governors and the 46th Annual Meeting of the African Development Fund, has the significance of being an election year for the bank’s president.
During the meetings, bank’s governors are expected to receive updates on a range of developments since the previous Annual Meetings held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea in June 2019.
This would include the bank’s seventh General Capital increase, which the Board of Governors approved in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire on October 31, 2019, and which increased the bank’s capital base by a historic $115 billion to $208 billion.
The governors would vote on August 27 to re-elect Adesina as the eighth president of the bank being a sole candidate.
Adesina, the first Nigerian to hold the post, was elected for a five-year term on May 28, 2015, by the bank’s Board of Governors during that year’s Annual Meetings held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
The bank’s governors are typically the finance and economy ministers or Central Bank Governors of the 54 African regional member countries and 27 non-regional member countries.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the continent’s shores in early March, over 1,000,000 confirmed cases of the virus have been recorded in Africa. The pandemic has hit the region’s economies hard in the wake of falling commodity prices and containment measures by governments that have led to country lockdowns.
For several months, the bank has been extending support to regional member countries in cushioning their economies, health systems, and citizens’ livelihoods from parallel health and economic impacts from COVID-19.
In April 2020, the bank established a COVID-19 Response Facility of up to $10 billion to extend flexible support to African sovereign and non-sovereign operations. As of August 20, $2.29 billion in CRF funding had been approved for bank’s member countries.
A further $1.186 billion has been disbursed to bank’s member countries, with approvals ongoing.
In March, the bank also raised a record $3 billion with a COVID-19 social bond floated on London Stock Exchange.
The institution reached some major milestones during the trying times of lockdown with both Fitch and Standard & Poor credit rating agencies reaffirming the bank’s AAA rating with a stable outlook.
In December 2019, African Development Fund Donors pledged $7.6 billion, the fifteenth such replenishment, to help Africa’s poorest countries.
Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi.
Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi, has tested positive to coronavirus.
This was disclosed in a statement by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso in a statement on Monday morning.
“Subsequent to close contact with persons feeling unwell and testing positive for the COVID-19 infection, the Honorable Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, has tested positive for the virus”.
Omotoso added that Abayomi became aware of his status following the required testing protocol of contact tracing procedures.
“However, he is doing well with no symptoms. Adhering to the protocol of the home based strategy in Lagos State, the Honorable Commissioner will be isolating in his home for the next 14 days but will continue to discharge his duties both as the Deputy Incident Commander of the Incident Command System for COVID-19 and most especially, as the Honorable Commissioner for Health.
“Our prayers are with him and his family during his period of isolation,” Omotoso stated.
Illustration: Photo of a man handling the Nigerian Naira.
A Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) data has revealed that the naira has fallen by 108 per cent against the West African CFA (popularly known as CFA).
As the West African CFA rallies to wipe out the hitherto wide trading gap between the two currencies, it gained 36 kobo from August 19, 2015 to close at 0.6888 CFA/N1 on the CBN rate last week. This translates to a 108-per cent loss for the struggling naira.
Exactly five years ago on August 21, 2015, the CFA, used by eight former West African colonies – Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo – exchanged for 33k.
Records show further that the naira, which performed better against the now-aggressive CFA in the first half of the decade reviewed, closed at approximately 29 kobo for one CFA on August 21, 2010.
Until 2013 when it started a gradual easing, it maintained its market dominance. It was not until 2015 when CFA began to take a spot as a competitive currency and started an aggressive rally that would remarkably close the previous wide differential between the two currencies. Between August 2015 and August 2016, the naira lost about 69 percent against CFA year-on-year.
The currency has recorded a similar leap in its value appreciation against the naira year-to-date, climbing from 0.5228/N1 it opened the year with to 0.6888 /N1 (translating to 32 percent) at the close of last week’s trading. The CFA, a currency that symbolises French economic imprint on the West Africa sub-region, gained 23 kobo over the naira within 12 months.
At the turn of this millennium, the CFA only traded for about 15 kobo. Currently being considred for a replacement with Eco, the proposed West Africa regional legal tender, not many Nigerians knew much about the CFA, not until the West Africa trade corridor opened for unprecedented smuggling.
CFA’s current resurgence is coming on the heels of the continued closure of the country’s border against neighbouring West African countries, especially the Republic of Benin, where Nigerians engage in unrestrained trade.
WHAT A WEAKENING exchange rate against CFA means for the economy of the eight neighbouring countries is that, it is cheaper for citizens to import their goods from Nigeria and it is more expensive for Nigerian traders to do business in those countries.
But while the cost of importing from those countries is on the increase with an average Nigerian household feeling the pains, the country does not seem to gain much in terms of export injections into Benin, Togo and others in the category.
The West Africa region, for instance, accounted for just 11.5 percent of the country’s total export value in 2019, which the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) put at N19.2 trillion. Nigeria was not also among Beninoise top 10 import sources last year. The only two of Africa’s countries that made the list dominated by Europe and Asia were Togo, its neighbour, and Morocco.
Benin, topmost Nigeria’s smuggling source, procured 13.6 percent and 11 percent of its last year imports from India and China respectively. Much of the imported goods were passed on to Nigeria through the porous borders – a trade practice many experts have blamed for the country’s troubled real sector.
THE Federal Government, last year, closed the country’s land borders against Benin, Chad and Niger as a major strategy to battle insecurity and dumping – twin challenges that have stunted growth in recent times.
One major factor that decides Nigeria’s food price inflation is unofficial trade between it and Benin.
Last year for example, the price of rice experienced a spark few weeks after the Federal Government announced the border closure. The price has thus increased by around 100 percent in the past year.
File photo: (L) Managing Director, Financial Derivatives Company, Bismarck Rewane; (R) Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the first time last week sold the pound above N500, as naira continues to battle major headwinds.
On Wednesday, the nation’s apex bank sold a pound for N501.98 and quoted N500.659 as its buying rate.
At the parallel market, the currency is going for as much as N600. With the official rate hitting and surpassing N500 before the naira gained a momentary respite on Thursday, a new yardstick may have been set at the foreign exchange market.
Since the beginning of the year, the naira has faced daunting challenges. The apex bank’s plan to converge the rates has faced serious scrutiny.
While speaking during a talk show on Nigeria Info radio in Lagos, The Managing Director of Financial Derivatives Company and a member of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Economic Advisory Council, Bismarck Rewane, said unification is a tough policy option the Central Bank would need to make, Echotitbits gathered.
Former Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamidi (L); Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai
A former Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, Sunday visited Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, saying the governor was the first person to show up whenever he was in need of friends and the whole world knows.
The former Emir, who made this known when he paid a courtesy call on the governor at Sir Kashim Ibrahim House on Sunday, explained that he has decided that El-Rufai would be the first person he would visit when he steps out of Lagos State.
Sanusi said he was in the Government House in Kaduna to thank El-Rufai for his friendship, his service to the state and the country at large.
The former monarch also expressed appreciation on his appointment as Chancellor of Kaduna State University (KASU) and Vice Chairman of Kaduna Invest Promotion Agency (KADIPA).
He added that Kaduna State has already overtaken other states as the leading destination for investments, saying “whatever we do will be simply supporting work that has already been done, and results that are already showing.”
Sanusi, who’s a former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), assured El-Rufai that he would continue to put in his best to support the governor’s efforts to develop the state and also make his contribution to Kaduna State University.
“I am always ready to offer advice and counsel and to receive same. As you know, I will be going to Oxford in October for a year, following your footsteps to publish a few books,’’ he said.
The ex-Emir also thanked the people of Kaduna for the warm reception that they extended to him.
‘’I was overwhelmed by the reception that I received. I did not expect the crowd that I got. The people of Kaduna walked from the Air Force base to Government House and they are still there waiting to escort me to my residence, and I am looking forward to a fruitful seven days in Kaduna, meeting friends and relatives, and also meeting officials (of Kaduna Investment Promotion Agency) as it is more or less a working visit,’’ he added.
Sanusi prayed God to uphold the governor, bring peace to the state and the country.
In his response, El-Rufai said he’s delighted to welcome him to Kaduna, adding that he’s deeply touched that Kaduna is the first place Sanusi decided to visit since his relocation to Lagos.
El-Rufai noted that Kaduna is lucky to have a person of Sanusi’s calibre on the board of its investment agency because of his wide global network, integrity and reputation.
Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has said all registered organisations, including religious bodies have been mandated to henceforth submit details of their finances to the agency.
Private individuals and the Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN) had recently described CAMA as satanic, tasking President Muhammadu Buhari to halt the implementation of what Christian leaders described as “obnoxious and ungodly law until religious institutions are exempted from it.”
CAMA was recently signed into law by the President, and the Federal Government had since included the law in the list of achievements by the Buhari Presidency in the last one year.
But, speaking on the raging controversy over CAMA over the weekend, CAC Registrar-General, Garba Abubakar, said he’s wondering why the act was being opposed by religious bodies, especially the churches.
According to him, “They (churches) must henceforth subject their finances and expenditures for proper auditing, and copies sent to us at the CAC.
“The new legal framework applies to all organisations registered with us; be it a religious organisation, non-governmental organisations or civil society organisations.
“Remember that they also have constitutions guiding them. The criteria to be a trustee of registered organisations are clearly spelt out in the laws establishing them.
“How is it that a registered member who qualifies to be a trustee in an organisation would not want government to know how the organisation is run? What are the responsibilities of the trustees?
“What are the responsibilities of the governing council or the board? How do you manage the affairs of the organisation? How do you use or expend the income and properties of the organisation? How do you appoint members of the governing board? These are the issues the new CAMA has come to address.
File photo: Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu during a briefing on August 1, 2020 announced that places of worship will reopen from August 7.
The Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu-led Lagos State Government has listed some modalities, set of protocols and guidelines that must now be put in place and implemented by hospitality and tourism establishments for re-opening of business activities in the state.
Sanwo-Olu, in a statement by his Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Uzamat Akinbile-Yussuf, said the protocols and guidelines are meant to ensure the health and safety of all guests and staff in all the facilities involved.
“The new rules affect all accommodation establishments such as hotels, motels, apartments, suites, inns, guest houses and so on; tourism enterprises like event centres/entertainment places, and food establishments, like restaurants, eateries, fast food, lounge and bars, and cinemas,” the governor said.
The statement explained that the ministry arrived at the set of protocols for the practitioners after due consultations with relevant stakeholders in the hospitality and tourism sector and in recognition of the effects of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the industry.
While noting that, apart from the general safety protocols which include the compulsory use of face masks, regular hand washing, use of sanitisers, maintenance of social distancing, temperature check, encouragement of cashless transactions, disinfection of premises and buildings among others, Akinbile-Yussuf stated that owners of hospitality establishments are now required to offer 50 per cent of their space capacity to guests for now in order to maintain physical distancing, in addition to the separation of dining tables.
“For now, there will be no buffet serving arrangement. All guests (over 18 years old) must be made to sign a COVID-19 form at the reception that has the name, address and phone number of guests for easy contact tracing purpose,” the statement added.
For owners of food establishments such as restaurants, eateries, fast food, lounge and bar among others, the Sanwo-Olu administration said restaurants and eateries are mandated to indicate two metres spacing on the floor to guide their customers in physical distancing, adding that fast food outlets and eateries are also to maintain take-away services for now.
On the modalities for tourism enterprises such as event centres/entertainment places, the commissioner directed that they must hold a valid licence from Lagos State Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture prior to holding an event, in addition to an Event Safety Clearance from Lagos State Safety Commission before such event is held.
“Occupancy at any event, for now, must not exceed 50 per cent maximum capacity of the hall with a maximum duration of three hours for all social events.
“Event centres sitting arrangement must also comply with the two metre-physical spacing. All tables must be set at least five metres apart in order to maintain a safe distance and free movements,” Akinbile-Yusuf stated.
She warned against violation of the stated conditions by event centre owners and party planners, noting that the penalty for the infraction would attract a sum of N1 million.
While maintaining that owners of cinemas are to follow all guidelines stipulated for the hospitality sector and event centres as it relates to 50 per cent capacity, two-metre spacing and the signing of COVID-19 forms by customers above 18 years, the state government explained that the operation of all cinemas within the state must not exceed the hours stipulated by the government to ensure compliance with the 10pm to 4am curfew directive.
Nigeria's Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu.
Operatives of the Nigeria Police Force (Oyo State Police Command) have re-arrested the notorious murder suspect, Sunday Shodipe, who escaped from lawful custody on August 11.
The suspected serial killer was re-arrested on Sunday by police operatives at the Bodija area of Ibadan, Oyo State capital.
Suspected serial killer, Sunday Shodipe, rearrested on Sunday, August 23, 2020, by men of the Nigerian Police in Oyo State.
It would be recalled that the erstwhile fugitive is a prime suspect in multiple murder of innocent citizens at Akinyele Local Government Area, Moniya, Ibadan in Oyo State.
The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, commended Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Joe Nwachukwu Enwonwu, and his team for a job well done.
The police chief, in a statement by the Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, expressed his sincere appreciation to the citizens for their support and understanding while the manhunt for the re-arrested Shodipe lasted.
Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police has warned against any form of complacency on the part of the operatives of Oyo State Police Command, noting that all hands must be on deck to bring the case to a positive and successful closure.
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