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Sports

Lionel Messi tops Forbes’ highest-paid football players 2020 list.

Barcelona taliman, Lionel Messi has topped this year’s football rich list, according to Forbes. 
The Argentine who wanted to leave Barcelona this summer will get $92 million for the remaining year of his contract. His total yearly earnings for 2020 including endorsements has been put at $126 million.  Juventus forward Cristinao Ronaldo comes second on $117 million while Paris Saint-Germain’s Brazilian forward Neymar and teammate Kylian Mbappe, come third and fourth with  their earnings put at $96 million and $42 million respectively.
Barcelona icon Lionel Messi tops Forbes' high-paid footballers of 2020 list
Liverpool’s Egyptian forward Mo Salah is on the fifth spot at $37 million, Paul Pogba sixth at $34 million. Also included in the top ten list are Barcelona forward Antoine Griezmann ($33m), Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale ($29m), Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski ($28m) and Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea ($27m).
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 Lifestyle

Modern children and where to find them: 79% of Nigerian parents do not track their children’s location.

Parents have always managed to set geographical boundaries – where their children could go and where they could not – back in time. Nowadays there is another opportunity to monitor the child’s whereabouts – to track the location of them using special software. Yet, according to Kaspersky’s special survey for parents, not many parents in Nigeria realise this.

According to the “Responsible Digital Parenting” survey*, 79% of Nigerian parents do not track the location of their child. The reasons for this vary: 54% have never thought of tracking the location, while 28% do not know how to do it. There is an option to have the software, which lets parents locate their children on a map and set a safe area for them to stay in, installed on their children’s devices. However, 38% of parents in Nigeria claim they do not have it installed on any of their devices.

“Modern times offer a wide range of tools which can help in preventing accidents in real or digital life. It is crucial to know how to use them, what their benefits are, and, actually, use them. Tracking your child’s location can definitely save you a lot of trouble – its advantages lie also in the fact that it allows to control not only digital, but also real life of the child,” commented Andrey Sidenko, Head of Child Safety at Kaspersky Network.

To secure and protect your child both in digital and in real life, Kaspersky strongly recommends following this advice:

  1. Learn more on the topic of children’s cybersecurity: explore modern trends, apps, the way of behaviour that has to be adopted in order to safeguard against dangers (for instance, the basic security rules while on the Internet); update your network security knowledge periodically, use the Kaspersky blog to do this.
  2. Communicate with your child and define the borders which are not meant to be crossed: discuss with them safe locations both real and webpages.
  3. Install a reliable security solution such as  to monitor your child’s activity successfully.

Reference:

* The “Responsible Digital Parenting” survey was implemented in conjunction with Toluna research agency in the end of 2019 – beginning of 2020. 5000 respondents from META region and Baltic states participated in the survey.

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 Business, Features

Digital finance, a lifeline during COVID-19 crisis, can deliver long-term financing of the Sustainable Development Goals

The unprecedented social and economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on the role of digital finance in providing relief for millions around the world, supporting businesses and protecting jobs and livelihoods.

While the pandemic demonstrates the immediate benefits of digital finance, the disruptive potential of digitalization in transforming finance is immense. Mobile payment technologies have transformed mobile phones into financial tools for more than a billion people. Digital is supporting big data and artificial intelligence in advancing cryptocurrencies and crypto-assets, peer-to-peer lending, crowdfunding platforms, and online marketplaces. Banks have invested over US$1 trillion in developing, integrating and acquiring emerging technologies. In 2018, ‘fintech’ investment reached US$120 billion, one third of global venture capital funding.

Today a new report, “People’s Money: Harnessing Digitalization to Finance a Sustainable Future”, by the UN Secretary-General’s Task Force on Digital Finance sets out an ambitious, practical Action Agenda. Centrally, it spells out how digital finance can be harnessed in ways that empower citizens as tax-payers and investors in envisaging a digital transformation at scale that better aligns people’s money with their needs, collectively expressed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The report highlights how billions of people around the world are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic using digital tools to work, spend and socialize. It argues there is an historic opportunity to harness digitalization in placing citizens, the ultimate owners of the world’s financial resources, in control of finance to ensure that it meets their needs, today and in the future.

The Task Force identifies five catalytic opportunities for harnessing digitalization in aligning financing with the SDGs. Together they cover much of global finance:

  • Aligning the vast pools flowing through global capital markets with the SDGs.
  • Increasing the effectiveness and accountability of public finance that makes up a major part of the global economy.
  • Channeling digitally-aggregated domestic savings into long-term development finance.
  • Informing citizens how to link their consumer spending with the SDGs.
  • Accelerating the lifeblood financing for the employment and income-generating world of small and medium-sized businesses.

The Task Force’s Action Agenda is a call to action to businesses, policy-makers and those governing finance to do what it takes to deliver on these opportunities. It spells out not only the ‘what’ but also the ‘how’: investments, new capabilities and governance innovations can get the job done.

The Task Force concludes that harnessing digitalization for the good is a choice, not an inevitability driven by technology. Its Action Agenda points to actions needed to overcome digital risks that, unmitigated, could deepen exclusion, discrimination and inequalities, and separate finance further from the needs of an inclusive, sustainable development.

Leadership Quotes

UN Secretary-General, António Guterres said: “Digital technologies, which are revolutionizing financial markets, can be a game-changer in meeting our shared objectives. The Task Force on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals provides leadership to harness the digital revolution.”

Maria Ramos, Co-Chair of the UN Secretary-General’s Task Force on Digital Finance said: “We have an historic opportunity to accelerate and expand the transformative impact of digitalization. In particular, digital finance, which in this crisis became the lifeline for millions across the world, extends the boundaries of financial inclusion by empowering citizens as savers, investors, borrowers, lenders and tax-payers in a way that gives them choice and power over their money.”

Achim Steiner, Administrator of UNDP and Co-Chair of the UN Secretary-General’s Task Force on Digital Finance said: “Digital finance’s dramatic potential for transformative impact is being revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital transfers enable governments to get support to people in need, crowdfunding platforms have mobilized funds for medical supplies and emergency relief, and algorithmic lending means small businesses have quicker access to funds. The speed of the recent spread of these technologies is astonishing, but progress is not automatic. For digitalization to be a true force for delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals, technological advances must combine with sound policy that empowers citizens and enables our financial system to meet the urgent investment challenges that must be overcome to build forward better.”

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 Sports

“Yaya Toure deserves one too”. Fans react as Man City announces plan to honour David Silva with a statue.

Football fans have expressed their disappointment at Manchester City, following the club’s announcement to commission a statue at the Etihad in honour of David Silva, saying Yaya Toure deserved it better. The Spanish professional footballer Manchester City will get a statue at the Etihad in honor of his 10-year career at the club.

The playmaker will also have a training pitch at the City Football Academy dedicated to him, as well as a mosaic celebrating his role in the famous 6-1 win over Manchester United in 2011.

Club Chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak remarked, “David Silva is a transformational player. A quiet leader who has acted quietly and deliberately and inspired everyone around him. From the youngest academy player to his senior team-mates over the past 10 years”. Also, “He has put a stamp on the team, on this club, its history and even the Premier League as a whole. In doing so, he has been instrumental to the beautiful football philosophy you see today. He was the start of it. As with Vincent before him. David’s statue will act as a lasting reminder of the wonderful moments that he gave us. Not only as an incredible footballer but as an inspiring ambassador. Who represented this football club with great dignity at all times”.

The 34-year-old joined City from Valencia in 2010,won four Premier League titles, two FA Cups and five League Cups in his 436 appearances for the club. The statue will be unveiled next year.

Below are some of reactions from fans.

 

 

 

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Corona Virus pandemic
 Opinion

COVID-19: The Decline of Global Remittances Puts Rural Families at Risk | By: Pedro de Vasconcelos

The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the loss of millions of jobs in the developed and developing world. Migrant workers are among the most directly affected. They work in economic sectors adversely impacted by the economic slowdown such as construction, the hospitality industry, tourism, food, agribusinesses, transport and domestic work. This loss of income has ripple effects across the world, putting millions of poor rural families at risk.

The majority of migrant workers are from low and middle-income countries who need to support their families through the remittances they send home on a regular basis. It is estimated that the world’s 200 million migrant workers send money regularly to 800 million family members to help them access food, health and education. Therefore, one in nine people in the world are directly impacted by remittance flows.

In 2019, remittances to low and middle-income countries totalled US$554 billion, with about half reaching families living in small towns and rural villages. However as a result of COVID-19, these flows are projected to make their sharpest decline in history, falling by 20 per cent in 2020 to US$445 billion, as indicated by a recent World Bank (https://bit.ly/3hbFV6P) forecast.

Although in the past remittances have been relatively resilient to external shocks, COVID-19 is different. It impacts senders and recipients simultaneously. Families living in rural areas in developing countries have been severely affected by lockdowns and social distancing. Markets have closed and transport has been disrupted. Small-scale farmers have been unable to sell their produce or to buy inputs, such as seeds or fertilizer. Daily labourers, small businesses and informal workers, who are often women and young people, are among the worst affected.

The UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is tracking the impact of declining remittances on the ‘receiving end’ in developing countries, where typical remittances of $200 to $300 per month on average account for 60 per cent of household income. While the reduction in remittances will not fall evenly across countries and communities, the impact is likely be substantial in rural areas where remittances count the most.

Initial indications from countries that rely heavily on remittances are deeply concerning. Reports ranging from Senegal, Kenya, El Salvador and Nepal to the Philippines and Eastern Europe confirm not only the significant drop in remittances but also the return home of hundreds of thousands of jobless migrant workers to their strained households and communities in rural areas.

The sudden reduction or outright halt in remittance flows could also impact food production in the coming months with the planting season starting in different regions. In Mali, for example, many families in rural areas often cannot buy seeds and inputs for the next agricultural season without regular remittances.

Remittance families and food security: Opportunities for effective action

The economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic could push rural families even deeper into poverty and threaten global prosperity and stability. We need to act now to minimize the impact of the drop in remittances on the food security of rural families. If we take immediate action, we can provide rural people with the means to ensure a faster recovery. Several “win-win” opportunities present themselves:

  • Fast-track innovative business solutions that support remittance families in times of crisis, by promoting fee reductions and by developing products to enable migrant workers to transfer non-financial products through remittance service providers, such as food or medicine, directly to their families.
  • Identify and support income-generating opportunities for the “human capital” of returning workers. Migrants bring home experience, education and new skills. Migrants are risk takers, resilient and entrepreneurial. This crisis calls for creative ways to use their talents as part of the response back home.
  • Encourage financial inclusion among remittance families by promoting the creation and adoption of emergency savings products.
  • Promote the use of digital channels for sending and receiving remittances, and disseminate information about available remittance products and ways to obtain them. By expanding rural access to digital technology, remittances could support rural transformation, bringing new jobs and opportunities back home. Receiving remittances digitally could give rural dwellers access to savings, credit or insurance products can build much needed resilience at family level and benefit the communities around them.

To address a number of the challenges facing rural communities, IFAD is currently leading the UN-sponsored Remittances Community Task Force, a group of 35 stakeholders of different sectors, which will soon issue a series of comprehensive and integrated recommendations: A Blueprint for Action.

Taking the specific concrete actions outlined in the blueprint will improve legal and regulatory frameworks, facilitate private sector solutions and incorporate the active involvement of NGOs, particularly diaspora groups. This will empower remittance families, even during this unprecedented crisis, to maximize the potential development impact of remittances for themselves and the communities where they live, so that future generations might view migration as a choice rather than as a necessity.

Pedro de Vasconcelos is the head of the Financing Facility for Remittances at the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

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 Opinion

Opinion: Is the Niger Delta Still Part Of Nigeria?

The dance of the absurd taking place in the media space in recent times couldn’t have been had President Buhari not ordered for a Forensic Audit of the Books of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.

The National Assembly under Senator Ahmed Lawan and Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila seems to be unconcerned about the imminent dangers of a resurgence of youth restiveness in the oil and gas rich area of the country as some Lawmakers with obvious insidious interest have continued to challenge the authority of the President on the all-inclusive probe of the Commission which has been wobbling, twenty years after its creation. The excessive freedom enjoyed by those who have been publicly accused by the supervising Committee of the NDDC has been overstretched as the leadership of the 9th Assembly has either chosen to look the other way or become complicit in the macabre dance.

Since the decision by the President to look into the way billions of Naira have been frittered away through the Commission, the discordant tunes from a few, powerful Lawmakers from the Niger Delta region has become worrisome that the reading public is now suspicious of their involvement in the pathological sleaze that has characterized the Commission while leaving the region underdeveloped and gasping for air, in a manner akin to the African-American, George Floyd who died while begging to breathe.

It is worrisome that in spite of the fact that the National Assembly is led by the ruling party, APC, yet, the synergy expected between the Executive and the Legislature is far from being in existence as it concerns the Niger Delta region, which has consistently sustained the economy since 1956, when oil was discovered in commercial quantities.

Is it not beyond surprising and an effrontery for a group of Lawmakers to challenge the decision of the President in approving an intervention for the people of the region for the purpose of the pandemic? The impudence displayed by these Lawmakers who definitely have something sinister to frustrate the efforts of the Interim Management Committee, IMC, of the Commission and the supervising Minister, Senator Godswill Akpabio is a pointer that all is not well, particularly, when the supposed leader of the recalcitrant Lawmakers is from the opposition party, PDP. Could it be that the Senate President has conceded his powers to his Deputy, who recently, walked into the Headquarters of the EFCC with a letter written by the Clerk of the Senate, albeit on his instruction and requested for the probe and arrest of Buhari’s Minister, even when other Senators were kept in the dark of such an offensive? With the denial of Omo-Agege of his involvement in the scandal, will the Senate President set up a Committee to investigate him alongside the Clerk or simply sack the latter? That is up to him to stand for the truth or let his exalted office be ridiculed by his Deputy and his quest for power!

The desperation to have Akpabio removed and the Pondei-led IMC sacked is purely an effort to ensure that Buhari leaves no legacies in the Niger Delta region. The cry over the mismanagement of funds at the NDDC has been on, over time and was enunciated by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, sometime in 2019 at Delta State. There was a follow up visit to the President by the Governors of the States under the NDDC which compelled the President to give Akpabio the mandate to appoint Forensic Auditors to look into the books, with an Interim Management Committee to oversee the running of the Commission while the audit lasts.

Sadly, those who seem to have been squandering the funds meant to build high grade Schools, Hospitals, Roads and Bridges amongst other infrastructures, are desperate to have Akpabio’s head on the slaughter slab, as millions of Naira have been deployed to different youth groups and a section of the media to further plant negative stories in other to discredit those saddled with this responsibility.

More worrisome is the involvement of high profile and principal officers at the National Assembly in this distracting dance, that one begins to wonder if truly they mean well for the region. What really do they intend to achieve in ensuring that Buhari does not add a stone to projects in the Niger Delta. Is there a fifth columnist working against the President but are pretending to be partners in progress with him?

The effort made by the NDDC to source for international grant of $126 million from the International Fund for  Agricultural Development, IFAD, has been aborted at the point of delivery by this same Lawmakers who wickedly slashed the budgetary provision for the counterpart funding from N1.3 billion to a paltry N100 million in the 2019 Budget of the NDDC! Funds from IFAD meant to massively engage in Agriculture in the region was wished away with the stroke of the pen. Not done with the plot to keep the region perpetually underdeveloped and totally dependent on crumbs from. Federal Allocation, these agents of darkness ensured that the budget of N10 billion for the construction of three Specialist Hospitals in the region was slashed to another paltry N100m! Yet, they prefer that billions of Naira are allocated for non-existent Training programs, Desilting of the Waterways and Medical Tourism overseas that yield nothing.

The 2020 Budget which has since been submitted in 2019 is yet to be attended to. Those who have gathered irrespective of party affiliations, to keep the region in agony at the risk of illegal activities of oil bunkering, environmental degradation and deprivation, and massive pollution of the air and water resulting in the cancerous black smooth and death of aquatic life are not done with their offensive as they question the rationale behind the payment of contractors owed by successive Boards of the Commission.

The recent probe of N40 billion by the two Houses of the National Assembly is only a disguise of their real intents. Why is this probe more important to the supposed watchdogs of the Commission rather than allow for a thorough Forensic Audit? What is the real purpose of the Adhoc Committees of the two Houses in writing the Bureau of Public Procurement to deny the Forensic Auditors access to the nine states to verify the records of the Commission? This is not only suspicious but scandalous by those who claim to be in support of the Presidential Order of the Forensic Audit!

One begins to wonder who is actually ruling the country when a few Lawmakers have effortlessly challenged the powers of the President to seek to know what has been of the monies poured into the NDDC for over 19 years.

For the second highest ranking Senator who flaunts the title of “Leader of the South South” to resort to a petition against a Minister to the EFCC, in order to frustrate the President and leader of his political party, leaves much to be desired! It is clear that the 9th Assembly is not interested in the development of the Niger Delta region.

No wonder the same Lawmakers who claim to have an oversight function on the Niger Delta have failed to query the Presidential Infrastructural Development Fund, PIDF, on the deliberate neglect of the East-West Road which is one of the five critical projects under the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA. While they are at war with the managers of NDDC, they have left the people of the region to suffer as they navigate from one state to the other through the East-West Road. In spite of a Presidential approval of N100bn in 2018 for the completion of sections 1 to 4 of the road and a release of N19.5bn by the Minister for Finance, three years ago, for the payment of legacy debts, the PIDF under Mr Uche Orji has failed to pay the Contractors, thereby delaying their return to the site and allowing the road to deteriorate.

Without a recent intervention by the NDDC to repair the failed sections of the road, the people of the region would have completely been cut off from the West.

It is clear that there is an orchestrated plot to make sure that the APC controlled Federal Government fails in the Niger Delta region. And who are those responsible for this mess? Obviously, they are not far from us as the fate of the Niger Delta region now depends on them!

Obiaruko Ndukwe is the President, Citizens Quest for Truth Initiative

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 Entertainment

Simi and Adekunke Gold welcome their first child.

It’s a beautiful girl to the Kosokos.

Nigerian singers, Adekunle Gold and Simi have welcomed their first child; a baby girl named Adejare.

Adejare.
It’s like free-falling – this unending, soul snatching, infinite, mind-boggling love.
Deja, my baby girl, I got you. I promise. Now and forever. So help me God. ❤️ 5.30.2020

Congratulations to the new parents.

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 Sports

Brescia set to end Mario Balotelli’s contract.

Brescia are set to terminate Mario Balotelli’s contract following the striker’s failure to return to training ahead of Serie A’s restart this month.

The 29 year-old who, signed a three-year contract with the club last year was also involved in a row with the Brescia president, Massimo Cellino.

 

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 Sports

Cristiano Ronaldo is football’s first billionaire.

Forbes has named Portuguese football legend, Cristiano Ronaldo the first billionaire footballer. He’s only the third sportsperson to achieve the status after boxer Floyd Mayweather and golfer Tiger Woods. Ronaldo has also raked in around £36m-a-year in endorsements during his career, including lifetime partnerships with Nike.

The Juventus forward raked in £85million in the last year from his wages and endorsement deals. His Instagram earnings alone were put at £41.7m and he is the most-followed sports star on Facebook and Instagram.  Ronaldo took a £3.5m cut on his wages due to coronavirus, cutting his earnings down by 9%.

Also Read: Footballing world is joining the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

In March this year, as his contribution to the fight against coronavirus, he and his agent Jorge Mendes jointly donated life-saving equipment to Portuguese hospitals in Lisbon and Porto.

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 Sports

Premier League clubs to make 5 substitutions for the rest of the season.

Premier League clubs allowed to make five substitutions instead of the usual three for the rest of the 2019/20 season.

While each team can make five substitutions, each team will still only have three opportunities to make changes throughout the match in order to minimise disruption to the game.

A draft document containing biosecurity measures required for each match has been circulated. Premier League clubs will only be fined a maximum of £25,000 if they breach the competition’s new Covid-19 protocols.

The 20 clubs will be asked to voice any objections they have to relegation in the current season, ahead of a vote next week on how the league will be decided in the event of curtailment.

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