The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on Monday visited the Ministry of Industries, Trade and Investment. During the visit, her second visit to the ministry after she became WTO DG discussed the importance of trade relationships in Nigeria and Africa with a focus on fisheries subsidies and local vaccine production in the country. According to her, fisheries subsidy is key to Nigeria. To ensure improved output, she said a revised draft agreement for new global rules aims to curb harmful fishing subsidies and curtail post-harvest losses. On vaccine production, the WTO boss is seeking more…
Author: Newsdesk
The All Progressives Congress (APC) will unveil Senator Kashim Shettima, the running mate to its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday. This is coming five days after the ruling party postponed the unveiling with no reason given for the shift in date. Shettima was meant to have been presented to party members at the APC national Secretariat on July 14, but an APC official told reporters the event has been moved forward. Tinubu had on July 10 announced the ex-governor and Senator representing Borno Central as his running mate in the 2023 general elections. Nine days after, the ruling party issued a…
The Tinubu Campaign Organisation (TCO), says choice of Sen. Kashim Shettima as Sen. Bola Tinubu, APC 2023 Presidential candidate’s running mate, is not to ignore religious concerns. Mr Bayo Onanuga Director, Media and Communication of the TCO, explained in a statement on Tuesday that the choice was also not to ignore ethnic sensitivities of Nigerians. He said the campaign organisation had followed the heated debate that the choice of Shettima as APC vice-presidential candidate had generated in the country because he shared same religious faith with Tinubu. “Religion or ethnicity was far from the calculations of the APC and its presidential candidate,…
The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) has withdrawn the accreditation of Abia state Polytechnic, Aba over no-payment of staff salaries and allowances for over 30 months. The Head, Media Department, NBTE, Fatima Abubakar said this in a statement issued in Kaduna on Tuesday. Abubakar said that the accreditation was withdrawn because the polytechnic had not shown any commitment to offset the arrears and ensure regular payment of salaries. She explained that regular payment of salary was one of a key component of the board’s normative instruments for quality assurance in the Polytechnics, Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions. She also…
The European Commission proposed 500 million euros ($511 million) fund on Tuesday to help member states restock their arsenal amid the Russian invasion. EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said “this is urgently needed, national stocks have been run down.” The commissioner said the fund aims to incentivise joint procurement among EU countries over the next two years while paving the way for long-term common defence spending in the European Union. EU member states vowed to step up defence investment after Russia attacked Ukraine in a major shift of European defence policy following years of budget cuts and hesitation to cooperate closer.…
AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s drug, Enhertu, has been approved by the European Union for treatment of adult patients with an aggressive form of breast cancer. AstraZeneca said on Tuesday that Enhertu coud be used as a monotherapy in cases with unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer. The treatment was jointly developed and commercialized by AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) gave its endorsement late in June. The EMA said Enhertu was effective at shrinking the tumour in patients with metastatic breast cancer or breast cancer that could not be removed by surgery. dpa
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has said that a total of 8.693 million Megawatts-hour (MWh) of electricity was generated in the third quarter of 2021. NERC made this known in its Third Quarter Report 2021 posted on its website on Tuesday. The regulatory agency said: ”the total quarterly generation in 2021/Q3 was 8.6million MWh. “This is a decrease of 211,903.73MWh (-2.38 per cent) compared to the total generation of 8,905,673.76MWh in 2021/Q2.” According to NERC, the total generation of Shiroro plant increased appreciably by 113,216MWh (+107.58 per cent) during the period under review. The commission, however said those of Egbin, Okpai and Geregu…
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) says 57.07 per cent of electricity consumers in the country were still on estimated billing as at September 2021. NERC made this known in its Third Quarter Report 2021 posted on its website on Tuesday. The document showed that only Ikeja, Benin, Enugu and Port Harcourt electricity Distribution Companies had metered over 50 per cent of their customers as at the period. The huge metering gap for end-use customers, according to NERC, remains a key challenge in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI). It added that a total of 288,431 meters were installed in 2021/Q3 as…
In spite of the supply chain disruptions and increased material costs plaguing production everywhere, Swedish vehicle maker Volvo reported a boost in second-quarter profits on Tuesday. The company reported “good momentum both in the sales of vehicles and in the service business,” in a statement accompanying the data release, which showed that profits rose to 13.7 billion Krona (or $1.3 billion dollars), up from 11.4 billion in the second quarter of 2021. That was on sales that rose 31 per cent to 118.9 billion Krona compared to the second quarter of 2021. Adjusted for currency fluctuation, that’s an increase of 20…
The Indonesian authorities are set to block social media applications and online sites including Google, Facebook, and WhatsApp. The country’s Ministry of Communications and Informatics said on Tuesday that if they failed to register, they would be blocked in several days. The digital giants were given time until Wednesday to complete the registration for licensing, otherwise, the ministry would name them illegal and unlawful in the country. “We have warned all local and foreign tech companies, including online services, sites, and application providers, many times that they have to register if they do not want to risk being blocked. “We have given them…