Browsing: Viewpoint

Women make up more than 50% of Africa’s population and 80% of them reside in rural areas. Over 60% are employed in rural areas in the agriculture sector. Given the limited capacity of other sectors to absorb the growing labour force, agriculture will remain important for employment and livelihoods for the foreseeable future for young people in both farming and related activities.

In addition to state creation, IBB established important institutions like the Federal Road Safety Corps, State Security Service (SSS), National Intelligence Agency (NIA), and Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA). These agencies played critical roles in maintaining national security and intelligence gathering during his tenure.

Just recently, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) disbursed $40-million Intra-African Investment Facility to Fidelity Bank Nigeria Plc to support the bank’s acquisition and recapitalisation of Union Bank UK as part of its international expansion programme. Provided in two tranches of $20 million each, the first tranche of the facility enabled Fidelity to part-refinance the acquisition of 100 percent equity stake in Union Bank UK, while the second tranche was used to support its recapitalisation via the injection of additional equity into the acquired bank, as approved by the United Kingdom’s regulator.

Rakiya’s professional journey spans over 25 years across the financial, telecommunications, and technology sectors. Before her promotion to IT Director at the CBN, where she spearheaded and implemented the Industry Security Operation Centre (NFICERT) and Africa’s first Digital Currency, Rakiya had headed the System Services and Information Security Management (CISO) Division of the bank, where she modernised the IT infrastructure and introduced innovative solutions like video conferencing. She had developed and implemented robust information security strategies, maintaining ISO 27001 certification and ensuring zero major security incidents.

With good leaders, the North can harness its agricultural potentials, leverage on its population size, standardize its international markets and tap its mineral wealth to grow rapidly. Northern Nigeria has over 37 million hectares of arable land, but Thailand – with 17 million hectares – records nearly three times the entire Nigerian rice production.