The Abuja-Kaduna and Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail operations resumed on Saturday following the suspension of strike by railway workers. The Managing Director of Nigerian Railways Corporation (NRC), Mr Fidet Okhiria disclosed this in a telephone interview. The NRC management and the union had directed workers to resume work with immediate effect in a joint communique suspending the strike on Friday night. The railway workers had on Thursday embarked on a three-day warning strike over staff welfare issues, thus paralysing rail transportation across the country.
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
The National Economic Council (NEC) says President Muhammadu Buhari has approved a fresh N656 billion Bridge Financing Facility to the 36 States. Hajiya Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, disclosed this on Thursday at a virtual NEC meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and anchored from the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The minister said that the support was to help state governments to meet their financial obligations, especially the previous budget support facility due for repayment. According to Ahmed, each state will receive N18.2 billion. Ahmed said that the bridge facility was being processed by the…
By Lizzy Carr, Bauchi Bauchi state governor, Bala Mohammed on Thursday, presented the 2022 proposed budget of N195,355,607,143.00 to the State House of Assembly. According to the budget, N84,375,180,518, representing 43% is earmarked for recurrent expenditure, to include personnel cost, N37,004,732,226 and N47,730,448,292 overhead cost. Capital expenditures is estimated at N110.620,425.00, representing 57%. Bala said that the budget would be financed from an estimated internally generated revenue of N24,494,940,255; statutory allocation of N66,938,107,748 and value added tax of N15,608,321,097. Tagged “Budget of Consolidation and Continuous Commitment”, Bala said the 2022 budget is 8.5% lower than that of 2021. “The reduction…
By Lizzy Carr, Bauchi Marie Stopes Nigeria Mission has put in place measures to improve access to family planning services in hard-to-reach communities of Bauchi state. It also held two-day meeting to develop 2022 work plan to fast-track accessibility of the services in those communities. The Northeast coordinator of Marie Stopes, Hussaina Maji said the objective of the meeting was to engage with local government maternal and child health coordinators in the process of identifying the hard-to-reach sites and outreach scheduling of family planning services for 2022. She added that the meeting will also afford participants and other key stakeholders…
Sokoto state governor, Aminu Tambuwal has confirmed that Monday bandit attacks on Kalmalo, Munwadata, Sarma, Runji and Masasa villages in Illela local government area of the state left 43 persons death. A statement by the governor’s spokesperson, Muhammad Bello issued on Thursday, said members of the executives and security council paid condolence visit to the people of Illela on Wednesday. ASHENEWS recalls that bandits attacked the villages last Sunday night near with 13 people losing their lives. “At the time of the governor’s visit on Wednesday, the death toll had risen to 43,” the statement revealed, adding that the village…
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) at the ongoing Intra-African Trade Fair in Durban, South Africa, signed a five-year agreement involving $1.04 billion with the African Export–Import Bank (Afreximbank). The trade financing agreement is meant for exporting crude oil which repayment process would by supply of crude oil to the bank to net off the loan. About 25,000bpd of crude oil produced by the NNPC would be used to net off the loan. During the signing ceremony Afreximbank President Benedict Oramah, stated that the deal would benefit Nigeria. Playing guest at BloombergTV, the group managing director of NNPC, Mele Kyari…
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has alerted the public of the existence of another hacking group orchestrating cyber-espionage in the African telecoms space. The NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Dr Ikechukwu Adinde made this known in a statement on Monday in Abuja. Adinde said that this was in keeping with NCC’s commitment to continuously keep stakeholders in the country’s telecoms sector informed, educated and protected. “An Iranian hacking group known as Lyceum (also known as Hexane, Siamesekitten, or Spirlin), has been reported to target telecoms. “It also targets Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFAs) in Africa.…
Yet, it is another chance to permit the esteemed readers of this Column express their views. As usual, there were varieties of views on almost every topic I presented in this Column. It is really difficult to share all the views but it is important to select few ones that critiqued my opinion to give the readers another perspective to the subject; pros, and cons of each topic. However, some of the views are edited for clarity and space limitation. Happy reading Afghanistan: Fall of the Giants and Accentuated Lessons Great discourse Prof! What lessons did we learn from the…
The first national deputy president, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, NACCIMA, Otunba Oye has urged institutions of higher learning to develop more entrepreneurship programmes by collaborating with industries so that youths can be gainfully employed in order to minimize tendencies toward crime. Oye stated this while delivering an address at the University/ Industry Forum of the Federal University of Technology Akure, FUTA, with the theme: The Future of Work: Implications for Industry and Higher Education as part of activities marking the 40th Anniversary of the institution on Thursday , November 12, 2021. Oye called for…
Sokoto state governor, Aminu Tambuwal on Monday, presented N188,429,495,847.63 as 2022 appropriation bill to the state House of Assembly. The budget is lower than the current 2021 budget of N205,016,512,295.41 by N16,587,016,447.78, representing 8.1%. In the appropriation bill tagged “Budget of Accomplishments and Sustainable Development”, education got the highest allocation of N37,006,032,670.92 (20%) followed by health which got N28,806,855,774.52 (15%) and agriculture, N22,551,438,538.42 (12%). According to the governor, the recurrent expenditure stands at N75,871,203,284.34 (40.3%) while capital expenditure stands at N112,558,292,563.29 (59.7%). The revenue projection is made up of N74,727,811,323.00 from federal allocation; internally generated revenue, N24,937,082,770.63; capital receipts from…