The Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons of Equatorial Guinea (http://MMIE.gob.gq) announces that it has submitted its interest to join the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 2017. H.E. Gabriel Mbaga Obiang, Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons, travelled to Vienna on January 20 to meet with OPEC officials and present the Government of Equatorial Guinea’s offer to become the 14th member of the cartel. With 32.5 million barrels per day of output projected this year, OPEC is the world’s largest organization of oil producers. The Minister’s trip to Vienna follows the Fourth Africa-Arab Summit, which hosted last November several OPEC members in Malabo, under the patronage of H.E. President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
“For decades, Equatorial Guinea has achieved a sterling track record as a dependable supplier of petroleum to consumers in all corners of the world. We firmly believe that Equatorial Guinea’s interests are fully aligned with those of OPEC in serving the best interests of the industry, Africa and the global economy,” said H.E. the Minister.
On December 10, 2016, Equatorial Guinea agreed to join 10 other non-OPEC countries to reduce 558,000 barrels per day of total oil production in 2017. Equatorial Guinea’s share of the cut is 12,000 barrels per day. Even through a two-year sustained slump in oil prices, Equatorial Guinea has maintained liquid output levels at a competitive level.
“There is a consensus amongst producers that an oversupply of oil has been dragging down the price of the barrel,” the Minister said. “Equatorial Guinea is doing its part to ensure stability in the market and that the industry continues to invest in exploring and developing our resources.”
Equatorial Guinea is the third largest oil and gas producer in sub-Saharan Africa. Its $10.6 billion of annual oil and gas exports account for 95 percent of the country’s total exports, with shipments sold every day to China, India, Japan, Korea and many other countries. The country has remained committed to investing in the entire energy supply chain through landmark projects such as the Bioko Oil Terminal, the Fortuna Floating Liquefied Natural Gas project, the Riaba Fertilizers plant, compressed natural gas and LNG. Equatorial Guinea is currently hosting its latest oil and gas licensing round, EG Ronda, putting on offer all of open acreage not currently operated or under direct negotiation. Equatorial Guinea has made 114 oil and gas discoveries to date with a drilling success rate of 42 percent.
Goodluck Jonathan writes Donald Trump
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has written an open letter to the President-Elect of the United States Of America, Donald Trump, ahead of his inauguration as the 45th US President today. He implored the real estate mogul to ensure his administration works with Africa. Read full letter below
Dear Donald J. Trump, By the grace of God, President of the United States of America. As the United States of America opens a new chapter today, many around the world, myself inclusive, are optimistic that the success you have achieved in your career as one of the world’s foremost entrepreneurs will be translated to your life as a public servant and custodian of the trust of the American people. For over four decades, you have consistently created wealth and opportunities for yourself, your family, your country and its citizens. The city of New York, host to the United Nations Headquarters, thus the world’s most prominent city, bears the hallmark of your signature through your real estate developments. You have also left your footprints in politics, media, education, sports, entertainment and the arts. From this backdrop, I am very hopeful that the United States of America and indeed the rest of the world will be witnessing great, worthy and positive frontiers under the Trump Presidency. I congratulate you, the 45th President of the United States, as you begin your tenure today. I pray that God will bless your tenure and enable you actualize your vision and commitment to building a better and more secured America and the world. Let me seize this opportunity to express my hope and desire that your administration will work with Africa to help her people realize their achievable great future and harness the God given potential domiciled in the land and people of Africa from Cairo to Cape Town. May God bless the United States of America. May God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria and may God bless the world.
Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan GCFR Chairman of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation.
Bukola Saraki launches 'Made In Nigeria' Competition
If you are team ‘Made In Nigeria’ or ‘Buy Nigerian’, then this information should interest you.
Senate President, Bukola Saraki has unveiled a contest to promote Made in Nigeria products. Aimed at showcasing the process and raw materials used in producing such locally made goods, the contest will last for 3 months and participants are enjoined to use the hashtag #MadeInNigeria in their submitted videos for the competition.
Bamikole Omishore, special assistant on New Media to the Senate President said in that the contest will identify the good products that could be matched with investors and relevant government agencies adding that such agencies or investors would drive the products to the extent that they compete favorably with any similar product being imported.
“Today, as promised, we kick-start the soft launch of the #MadeInNigeria Challenge.This campaign is organized to showcase everyday products that are used by Nigerians and produced by Nigerians locally that serve as an alternative to imported products.
“The next few weeks, we hope to identify products and ideas that can be matched with investors and government agencies. To wrap up the Challenge, in March, we will be inviting some of the finalists to a Made In Nigeria Roundtable at the Senate.
“This roundtable will allow us – legislators, government agencies, business owners, and everyday Nigerian consumers to review and update the report of the National Assembly Business Environment Roundtable (NASSBER), which was held in 2016 to improve the ease of doing business in the country,” he said.
Saraki maintained that the roundtable would also be used to get feedback on the amendment to the Public Procurement Act passed by the Senate in 2016. The amended Act mandates government agencies to give preference to local manufacturers in the procurement of goods and services. The team believes that from feedback received from Nigerians, people want to see improved ease of doing business, access to funding, effective oversight on agencies to make sure they are actually giving preference to Made In Nigeria and most importantly to make sure clear guidelines that are accessible online are set by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON), National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Nigerian Export Promotion Council, etc.
Kindly share this information with those who can benefit from this.
Report: Despite IT Boom, over 90% of Africa Has No Internet Access
The Internet is one of the most important enablers of social development and education. While Internet services have been quite phenomenal in the rest of the world, access to the Internet remains very low in Africa, especially in the rural communities. According to the Internet World Stats for Africa 2016 (http://APO.af/AvhzA), only 9.3% of people across the African continent are Internet users.
“A few years ago anyone who could not read and write was considered illiterate, but today this concept goes further, encompassing people who do not know how to use information and communication technologies. Health organizations and schools in Africa often face a unique set of obstacles, including a lack of access to much-needed health education and counselling platforms. The Community Tablet was created to help solve these problems”, says Dayn Amade.
In today’s digital world, bringing Internet access to rural communities is a tremendous step in the right direction of social development and education. Mozambican technology start-up company Kamaleon (http://Kamaleon.co.mz) has developed an innovative and engaging way of promoting digital literacy through a shared platform called the “Community Tablet” (“Tablet Comunitário”). The Community Tablet is a solar powered mobile computer with touch screen displays and virtual keyboards built in on a trailer to provide Internet access to remote areas. In order to facilitate interaction with the virtual world, Kamaleon also offers training on how to use the Internet and its features to members of the community and the local workforce.
Launched in November 2016 in Mozambique, the Community Tablet ultimately aims to promote digital inclusion and a knowledge based society in Africa. Beginning in Mozambique with an astounding 24 million people with no Internet connection, the Community Tablet will be used to support campaigns on various Health and Education initiatives in partnership with governmental and private organisations. Spreading up-to-date messages and interactive lessons that showcase symptoms, prevention and treatment options – replacing the need for leaflet distributions to convey life saving information. Kamaleon is on a mission to close the digital divide and empower more people in Africa to engage in the digital economy and its educational benefits.
“I believe technology and digital literacy can contribute to greater effectiveness of civic education campaigns in various communities”, says Dayn Amade.
New UK Visa Application Process For Nigerians
Joe Abuku, spokesperson of the British High Commission revealed today that the UK Embassy in Nigeria has adopted a new visa application process. He said visa staff now only need electronic versions of support documents and the new method will take effect from December 5.
Applicants of UK visas in Lagos, Victoria Island and Ikeja, would bring their benefits from digital improvements to the UK visa application process. “TLSContact (responsible for UK Visa Application Centres in Nigeria) will scan your supporting documents whilst you’re at the visa application centre, and then return your original documents to you,” a statement released today said.
“They will then send these (electronic) documents to UKVI, with your passport and application form, and visa officers will consider your application in the usual way.”
To avoid delays in the visa application centre, the Commission requested applicants to ensure they complied with requirement to provide all documents in A4 size, while any other documents smaller or larger than A4 should be photocopied onto A4 sized paper.
While advising all customers to remove any clips or pins from documents before submitting their application, the Commission warned that any torn, crumpled or heavily creased documents, which is difficult to photocopy, should be photocopied onto A4 sized paper before submitted, as they can’t be scanned in this condition.
DStv slashes subscription across Africa, plans increase in Nigeria
Multichoice limited, owners of DStv and GoTV, is set to reduce the monthly DStv subscription fees between 11 percent and 21 per cent from November 1, 2016 in several African countries, excluding Nigeria.
According to findings, DStv would also add several exciting channels to the lower-tiered bouquets in the black nations to boost the content offering for cheaper packages and add content value. The countries that would benefit from the offer are Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Botswana, neglecting Nigeria, its biggest market.
There are chances that the company may soon increase the subscription fee in Nigeria.
Some of the new channels the subscribers in these countries would view are a sister channel to the Telenovela, Eva+; pop-up M-Net channels, M-Net Movies, BlockParty and Harry Potter among others.
Some of the subscribers said in separate interviews, disclosed that they would stop their subscriptions if the company embarked on what they described as ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’. For instance, Engr. Toba Biobaku, one of the numerous subscribers of DStv, alleged the company is allergic to providing good services for Nigerians at affordable prices.
To the manager of one of the construction company in the country, the company has passion for fleecing Nigerians without value for their money. Despite the current economic recession, he stated that several Nigerians still renew their subscription and the reward they could get from Multichoice is to use their monies to reward subscribers in other African nations.
“When Multichoice bowed to pressures made by consumers and the Consumers Protection Council recently when it introduced a customer care toll free lines easily, I knew it that the company has hidden agenda. The most painful part of it is that most of us are being cheated without compensation as it failed to clear the E-16 code from our television sets for a week. When the error was erased later, my subscription was not extended,” he lamented.
Another subscriber that is perturbed about the plan of the operator of the pay TV service is the Managing Director of Jumobite Fashion. The premium subscriber of DStv threatened to lead a peaceful protest to the Tiamiyu Savage street, Victoria Island, Lagos headquarters of the company along with some of her friends, who are also premium subscribers.
For her, the tariff of the bouquet is too expensive compared to what other subscribers in Kenya, Zimbabwe and Botswana pay. According to her, asking Nigerians viewers to pay more for few channels and asking their counterparts in those countries to pay less for more is absurd and a way of saying Nigerians are gullible.
There are indications that hundreds of thousands of the subscribers of the pay TV firm might not renew their monthly subscription if the company embark on the fee slashed. Findings revealed that the company makes an average of about N8 billion from over 4 million patrons every month in Nigeria and about N80 billion as turnover per year.
A top source close to the management of Multichoice Nigeria, who claimed anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said that the company decided to slashed fees in the countries after it observed that about 40 per cent of its subscribers had refused to renew their subscriptions due to economic recession that bites harder their compared to Nigeria, which has been recently rated the biggest economy in the continent.
“The stiff DStv price hikes put subscribers under pressure in those countries and we have lost about 300,000 subscribers in the countries in one year as people could no longer afford the service or no longer saw it as valuable enough. When reviewing our packages and prices in each country, we take into account local dynamics such as inflation, content costs, foreign exchange rates, local taxes and overheads required for each business.
“To compensate our Nigerian viewers, we will introduce more amazing channels to the existing entertaining programmes. We have also embark on an aggressive marketing and follow up innovation to ensure most of our subscribers do not abandon their bouquets. We call subscribers a few days to the expiration of their subscriptions to remind them about the reasons they should not miss out of the global village,” she revealed.
But in a quick response, a business lawyer, Bar. Seun Adewole, stated that while most Nigerians suffered in silence, foreign companies like Multichoice ripped them off their hard earned money. Aside from the fact that he also believe it is wrong for an international company to set double standards for its patrons, he said that subscribers should fight for their rights using legal means by questioning the decisions of the firm, sending complaints to regulatory agencies like the Consumers’ Protection Council and the Federal Ministry of Communication and Technology.
“Sending complaints to the National Assembly had proven to be a waste of time and resources. Similar issues had been discussed on the floor of the assembly but none had yielded any desired result as it appears that gifts exchange hands after a lot of noise had been made by the lawmakers. For instance, the house of representative had debate on the pay as you view initiative for years and nothing has been done to it and I am not surprised that the company had excluded Nigerians from the beneficiaries of the price slash,” he stated.
“We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead.” | Full Text of Hillary Clinton's concession speech
A day after losing the 2016 Presidential Election to rival Donald Trump, Democratic Party’s nominee for President of the United States, Hilary Clinton gave a powerful and moving concession speech to the nation. She thanked and urged her supporters to accept the results and give the new President a chance. Read below.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Very rowdy group. Thank you, my friends. Thank you. Thank you, thank you so very much for being here. I love you all, too. Last night, I congratulated Donald Trump and offered to work with him on behalf of our country. I hope that he will be a successful president for all Americans. This is not the outcome we wanted or we worked so hard for and I’m sorry that we did not win this election for the values we share and the vision we hold for our country.
But I feel pride and gratitude for this wonderful campaign that we built together, this vast, diverse, creative, unruly, energized campaign. You represent the best of America and being your candidate has been one of the greatest honors of my life. I know how disappointed you feel, because I feel it, too. And so do tens of millions of Americans who invested their hopes and dreams in this effort.
This is painful and it will be for a long time, but I want you to remember this. Our campaign was never about one person or even one election. It was about the country we love and about building an America that’s hopeful, inclusive and big-hearted. We have seen that our nation is more deeply divided than we thought, but I still believe in America and I always will. If you do, then we must accept this result and then look to the future. Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead. Our constitutional democracy enshrines the peaceful transfer of power and we don’t just respect that, we cherish it. It also enshrines other things. The rule of law, the principle that we are all equal in rights and dignity, freedom of worship and expression. We respect and cherish these values, too, and we must defend them.
And let me add, our constitutional democracy demands our participation, not just every four years, but all the time. So let’s do all we can to keep advancing the causes and values we all hold dear. Making our economy work for everyone, not just those at the top, protecting our country and protecting our planet, and breaking down all the barriers that hold any American back from achieving their dreams.
We have spent a year and a half bringing together millions of people from every corner of our country to say with one voice that we believe that the American dream is big enough for everyone, for people of all races and religions, for men and women, for immigrants, for LGBT people and for people with disabilities. For everyone.
So now, our responsibility as citizens is to keep doing our part to build that better, stronger, fairer America we seek, and I know you will. I am so grateful to stand with all of you. I want to thank Tim kaine and Anne holden for being our partners on this journey. It has been a joy getting to know them better and it gives me great hope and comfort to know that Tim will remain on the front lines of our democracy representing Virginia in the senate. To Barack and Michelle Obama, our country owes you an enormous debt of gratitude.
We thank you for your graceful, determined leadership that has meant so much to so many Americans and people across the world. And to bill and Chelsea, Marc, Charlotte, Aden, our brothers and our entire family, my love for you means more than I can ever express. You crisscrossed this country on our behalf and lifted me up when I needed it most, even 4 month old Aden who traveled with his mom. I will always be grateful to the creative, talented, dedicated men and women at our headquarters in Brooklyn and across our country.
You poured your hearts into this campaign. For some of you who are veterans, it was a campaign after you had done other campaigns. Some of you, it was your first campaign. I want each of you to know that you were the best campaign anybody could have ever expected or wanted. And to the millions of volunteers, community leaders, activists and union organizers who knocked on doors, talked to neighbors, posted on Facebook, even in secret private Facebook sites, I want everybody coming out from behind that and make sure your voices are heard going forward.
To everyone who sent in contributions as small as $5 and kept us going, thank you. Thank you from all of us. And to the young people in particular, I hope you will hear this. I have, as Tim said, spent my entire adult life fighting for what I believe in. I have had successes and I have had setbacks. Sometimes really painful ones. Many of you are at the beginning of your professional public and political careers. You will have successes and setbacks, too. This loss hurts but please never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it.
It is. It is worth it. And so we need―we need you to keep up these fights now and for the rest of your lives, and to all the women and especially the young women who put their faith in this campaign and in me, I want you to know that nothing has made me prouder than to be your champion.
Now, I know we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but some day, someone will, and hopefully sooner than we might think right now. And to all the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams.
Finally―finally, I am so grateful for our country and for all it has given to me. I count my blessings every single day that I am an American, and I still believe as deeply as I ever have that if we stand together and work together with respect for our differences, strength in our convictions and love for this nation, our best days are still ahead of us. Because, you know, I believe we are stronger together, and we will go forward together. And you should never, ever regret fighting for that. You know, scripture tells us, let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. So, my friends, let us have faith in each other. Let us not grow weary. Let us not lose heart, for there are more seasons to come, and there is more work to do. I am incredibly honored and grateful to have had this chance to represent all of you in this consequential election. May god bless you, and may god bless the United States of America!
"We owe Hillary a major debt of gratitude" Full Text Of Donald Trump’s Victory Speech
The newly-elected President of The United States Of America, Donald Trump has thanked his supporters for their contributions in the hard-fought victory in the just concluded US elections. Read his speech below
Thank you. Thank you very much, everyone. Sorry to keep you waiting. Complicated business, complicated. Thank you very much. I’ve just received a call from secretary Clinton. She congratulated us. It’s about us. On our victory, and I congratulated her and her family on a very, very hard-fought campaign. I mean she fought very hard. Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time, and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country. I mean that very sincerely. Now it is time for America to bind the wounds of division, have to get together, to all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation I say it is time for us to come together as one united people.
It is time. I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all of Americans, and this is so important to me. For those who have chosen not to support me in the past, of which there were a few people, I’m reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so that we can work together and unify our great country. As I’ve said from the beginning, ours was not a campaign but rather an incredible and great movement, made up of millions of hard-working men and women who love their country and want a better, brighter future for themselves and for their family. It is a movement comprised of Americans from all races, religions, backgrounds and beliefs, who want and expect our government to serve the people, and serve the people it will.
Working together we will begin the urgent task of rebuilding our nation and renewing the American dream. I’ve spent my entire life in business, looking at the untapped potential in projects and in people all over the world. That is now what I want to do for our country. Tremendous potential. I’ve gotten to know our country so well. Tremendous potential. It is going to be a beautiful thing. Every single American will have the opportunity to realize his or her fullest potential. The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals. We’re going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none, and we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it. We will also finally take care of our great veterans who have been so loyal, and I’ve gotten to know so many over this 18-month journey.
The time I’ve spent with them during this campaign has been among my greatest honors. Our veterans are incredible people. We will embark upon a project of national growth and renewal. I will harness the creative talents of our people and we will call upon the best and brightest to leverage their tremendous talent for the benefit of all. It is going to happen. We have a great economic plan. We will double our growth and have the strongest economy anywhere in the world. At the same time we will get along with all other nations, willing to get along with us. We will be. We will have great relationships. We expect to have great, great relationships. No dream is too big, no challenge is too great. Nothing we want for our future is beyond our reach.
America will no longer settle for anything less than the best.
We must reclaim our country’s destiny and dream big and bold and daring. We have to do that. We’re going to dream of things for our country, and beautiful things and successful things once again. I want to tell the world community that while we will always put America’s interests first, we will deal fairly with everyone, with everyone. All people and all other nations. We will seek common ground, not hostility, partnership, not conflict. And now I would like to take this moment to thank some of the people who really helped me with this, what they are calling tonight a very, very historic victory. First I want to thank my parents, who I know are looking down on me right now. Great people. I’ve learned so much from them. They were wonderful in every regard. I are truly great parents. I also want to thank my sisters, Marianne and Elizabeth who are here with us tonight. Where are they? They’re here someplace. They’re very shy actually. And my brother Robert, my great friend. Where is Robert? Where is Robert? My brother Robert, and they should be on this stage but that’s okay. They’re great. And also my late brother Fred, great guy. Fantastic guy. Fantastic family. I was very lucky . Great brothers, sisters, great, unbelievable parents.
To Melania and Don and Ivanka and Eric and Tiffany and Barron, I love you and I thank you, and especially for putting up with all of those hours. This was tough. This was tough. This political stuff is nasty and it is tough. So I want to thank my family very much. Really fantastic. Thank you all. Thank you all. Lara, unbelievable job. Unbelievable. Vanessa, thank you. Thank you very much. What a great group. You’ve all given me such incredible support, and I will tell you that we have a large group of people. You know, they kept saying we have a small staff. Not so small. Look at all of the people that we have. Look at all of these people. And Kellyanne and Chris and Rudy and Steve and David. We have got tremendously talented people up here, and I want to tell you it’s been very, very special. I want to give a very special thanks to our former mayor, Rudy Giuliani. He’s unbelievable. Unbelievable. He traveled with us and he went through meetings, and Rudy never changes. Where is Rudy. Where is he? [Chanting “Rudy”] Gov. Chris Christie, folks, was unbelievable. Thank you, Chris. The first man, first senator, first major, major politician — let me tell you, he is highly respected in Washington because he is as smart as you get, senator Jeff sessions. Where is Jeff? A great man. Another great man, very tough competitor. He was not easy. He was not easy. Who is that? Is that the mayor that showed up? Is that Rudy? Up here. Really a friend to me, but I’ll tell you, I got to know him as a competitor because he was one of the folks that was negotiating to go against those Democrats, Dr. Ben Carson. Where’s been? Where is Ben? By the way, Mike Huckabee is here someplace, and he is fantastic. Mike and his familiar bring Sarah, thank you very much. Gen. Mike Flynn. Where is Mike? And Gen. Kellogg. We have over 200 generals and admirals that have endorsed our campaign and there are special people. We have 22 congressional medal of honor people. A very special person who, believe me, I read reports that I wasn’t getting along with him. I never had a bad second with him. He’s an unbelievable star. He is — that’s right, how did you possibly guess? Let me tell you about Reince. I’ve said Reince. I know it. I know it. Look at all of those people over there. I know it, Reince is a superstar. I said, they can’t call you a superstar, Reince, unless we win it. Like secretariat. He would not have that bust at the track at Belmont. Reince is really a star and he is the hardest working guy and in a certain way I did this. Reince, come up here. Get over here, Reince. Boy, oh, boy, oh, boy. It’s about time you did this right. My god. Nah, come here. Say something. [Reince Priebus: Ladies and gentlemen, the next president of the united States, Donald Trump! Thank you. It’s been an honor. God bless. Thank God.] Amazing guy.
Our partnership with the RNC was so important to the success and what we’ve done, so I also have to say, I’ve gotten to know some incredible people. The Secret Service people. They’re tough and they’re smart and they’re sharp and I don’t want to mess around with them, I can tell ya. And when I want to go and wave to a big group of people and they rip me down and put me back down in the seat, but they are fantastic people so I want to thank the Secret Service. And law enforcement in New York City, they’re here tonight. These are spectacular people, sometimes under appreciated unfortunately, we we appreciate them. So it’s been what they call an historic event, but to be really historic, we have to do a great job and I promise you that I will not let you down. We will do a great job. We will do a great job. I look very much forward to being your president and hopefully at the end of two years or three years or four years or maybe even eight years you will say so many of you worked so hard for us, with you you will say that — you will say that that was something that you were — really were very proud to do and I can — thank you very much. And I can only say that while the campaign is over, our work on this movement is now really just beginning. We’re going to get to work immediately for the American people and we’re going to be doing a job that hopefully you will be so proud of your president. You will be so proud. Again, it’s my honor. It’s an amazing evening. It’s been an amazing two-year period and I love this country. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you to Mike Pence.”
CBN, Heritage Bank, NYSC disburse N774M to 310 YIEDP Beneficiaries
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Heritage Bank Plc, Nigeria’s most innovative banking services provider and The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) have disbursed a whooping sum of N774million to 310 beneficiaries under the Youth Innovative Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YIEDP).
Speaking at the flag-off ceremony for the disbursement of funds to young entrepreneurs under the YIEDP, on Thursday, the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, commended Heritage Bank for its painstaking effort to buy into the vision of job creation and piloting the programme to a successful stage.
The governor, who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Corporate Services, Alhaji Suleiman Barau, said the CBN in partnership with Heritage Bank and NYSC instituted the programme to reduce the alarming rate of unemployment affecting over 16 million unemployed youths in Nigeria, adding that the access to credit via this platform would be a powerful instrument to grow businesses and the economy.
He noted that the YIEDP was part of the plan by the CBN and the Federal Government to create over one million direct jobs by 2020.
Emefiele, who affirmed that the programme would have a multiplier effect on job creation and economy, urged all the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the fund.
He added that the YIEDP has the potential of becoming the stimulus for job and wealth creation, growth and economic development through improved access to finance for young entrepreneurs.
He also assured the business community that the CBN would continue to provide enabling environment, devise ways and means to grow the real sector towards a self-reliant economy.
Speaking in the same vein, Managing Director, Heritage Bank Plc, Mr. Ifie Sekibo, stated that the beneficiaries would get the fund as soon as certain concerns raised by the beneficiaries regarding the conditions for the loans are addressed.
According to Sekibo, who was represented by Group Executive Director, Lagos /South-West Corporate and Banking of Heritage Bank, Mrs. Mary Akpobome, a proper process of disbursement would be done to the benefit and happiness of all parties.
He said, “They will get the money as soon as all those issues they raised are addressed. The money is available. They have been disbursed. CBN has disbursed to the bans. It is now about sorting out whatever the challenges are, and then the funds are now made available.” Read more
Femi Fani-Kayode issues statement on the detention of his wife and 8 month-old son
Former Minister of Aviation, Femi fani Kayode has reacted strongly to the detention of his wife and 8 month-old son by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) today. Below is his post.
This govt is sick and cowardly and so are the EFCC. If you have a problem with me face me and leave my family alone.
My wife travelled to Ado Ekiti to see my friend and brother Governor Fayose and his family.
They were on their way out of town when they went to Access Bank in Ado Ekiti to get some money.
When they got there my 8 month old son Aragorn and wife Precious Chikwendu were illegally detained, brutalised and put under arrest on the orders of the EFCC at a bank in Ado Ekiti today.
She has never had any business with me, she has never been formally invited by the EFCC or asked any questions about her transactions and neither have they written to her on any issue even though they are always sending letters to my house and sending people there.
If Buhari wants to deal with me why doesnt he face me like a man obstead of trying to harm and hurt my 8 month old son and wife.
Had it not been for the intervention of Governor Ayo Fayose they would have been taken them away and subjected them to all manner of harm and indignities simply because she is married to me.
This was an account that has 200,000 naira in it and that has never had more than 500,000.
She has operated it since 2005 and she stopped using it in 2013. The account has no connection with me and I did not know it existed till today.
In an attempt to starve and harass me and my family all my accounts and wifes accounts have been frozen.
Now they are resorting to arresting peoples wives and children for no just cause.
I thank God for Gov. Fayose and the people of Ado Ekiti who stormed the bank and freed my wife from this illegal detention and attempt to kidnap them.
Had it not been for the governors intervention and prescence the bank would have been burnt down by the crowd. My family have since left Ekiti state.
This is Buhari’s Nigeria and we will resist his wickedness and tyranny.
We intend to sue the bank and to sue the EFCC for this illegal and wicked action. They have no right to do this.
If they want to see my wife all they need to do is to invite her. We have nothing to fear. They do not need to be so primitive and barbaric to people.