News

Tuesday, 18 January 2022 06:29

Nigeria's inflation on the rise again after 8 months of decline

Nigeria's double-digit inflation climbed to 15.63% in December after eight straight months of decline as prices for food and non-food items rose, the statistics office said on Monday. Inflation, which has been in double digits since 2016, rose by 0.23 percentage points from 15.40% in November, it said. "The change must have been caused by the increase in the price of good and services as a result of the increase in demand during the festive season," said Simon Harry, head of the National Bureau of Statistics. Nigeria imports many key goods and services. A dollar shortage has prompted the government…

Tuesday, 18 January 2022 06:28

Osinbajo heads committee on Nigeria’s Blue Economy. Here’s what ‘Blue Economy’ means

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, inaugurated an Expanded Partnership Committee on Sustainable Blue Economy. The committee, chaired by Osinbajo, is composed of state governors, ministers, representatives of military and security agencies and members from the private sector. The committee’s terms of reference include providing an assessment of the current realities, opportunities and challenges for economic diversification and the growth of a sustainable blue economy in Nigeria. The committee will also identify and review relevant policies and institutional/capacity building mechanisms for blue economy development in Nigeria, among others. The blue economy is the sustainable use of…

Tuesday, 18 January 2022 06:26

US, UK provide different reasons for declining Kanu’s request as observers at trial

The United States and the British Government have turned down a request by the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, to send representatives to observe his trial holding at the Federal High Court, Abuja Division on January 18, 19, and 20. While the US said it was limiting its employees from attending public gatherings, the UK explained that it does not normally attend a court case involving a British national. The US Embassy and the British High Commission said these in separate responses to inquiries from The PUNCH on Friday. Kanu’s lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, had last Wednesday, written…

Tuesday, 18 January 2022 06:21

US airlines raise alarm on the dangers 5G poses to flight safety

Chief executive officers of major U.S. passenger and cargo carriers on Monday warned of an impending "catastrophic" aviation crisis in less than 36 hours, when AT&T and Verizon are set to deploy new 5G service. The airlines warned the new C-Band 5G service set to begin on Wednesday could render a significant number of widebody aircraft unusable, "could potentially strand tens of thousands of Americans overseas" and cause "chaos" for U.S. flights. "Unless our major hubs are cleared to fly, the vast majority of the traveling and shipping public will essentially be grounded," wrote the chief executives of American Airlines,…

Monday, 17 January 2022 06:20

2022 budget contains 460 duplicated projects, inflated contracts linked to Aso Rock, other ‘loopholes for fraud’ - BudgIT

BudgIT, a civic-tech non-profit organisation, says 460 projects amounting to N378.9 billion were duplicated in the 2022 budget. Iyanu Fatoba, communications associate at BudgIT, disclosed this in a statement. On December 31, 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the N17.13 trillion 2022 appropriation bill into law. The presidency had submitted a proposed fiscal budget of N16.391 trillion to the national assembly, but the lawmakers later raised it to N17.127 trillion — an increase of N735.8 billion. BudgIT said it uncovered the discrepancies after examining the 21,108 capital projects in the budget. “Our preliminary analysis of the 21,108 capital projects in the…

Monday, 17 January 2022 06:15

'Gates of Hell' may soon shut - Report

Turkmenistan's Darvaza gas crater is celebrated around the world as the closest thing on Earth to an honest-to-goodness portal to the Underworld. However, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has now ordered the closure of the site popularly known as the "Gates of Hell." The crater was formed in the early 1970s, when the ground collapsed during a Soviet gas drilling expedition, and it's been burning off natural gas ever since. In the world of international tourist attractions, if the Darvaza Crater is Hell, London's much-mocked Marble Arch Mound is a sort of underwhelming Purgatory. The $8 million lumpy hillock closed January 9,…

Monday, 17 January 2022 06:14

Overthrown Mali president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta is dead

Ousted President of Mali, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, has died aged 76, family and former colleagues say. Two years ago he suffered a minor stroke but the cause of his death on Sunday was not immediately clear. He died at 09:00 GMT at his home in the capital Bamako, a member of his family told AFP news agency. Keïta led Mali for seven years until 2020, when he was ousted in a coup after huge anti-government protests over his handling of jihadist unrest. An economic crisis and disputed elections also fuelled the demonstrations against his rule. Keïta was involved in politics…

Sunday, 16 January 2022 06:21

Wike accuses police, civil defence chiefs of operating illegal refineries in Rivers

Governor Nyesom Wike has accused a divisional police officer in Rivers State of operating an illegal refinery in the state. Wike said the officer heads the police division in Emohua Local Government Area of the state. He demanded his redeployment from Rivers State. “He must leave this state. I can’t be governor here and the security man owns an illegal refinery. No, it is not possible. The man has to go. Take him to wherever they allow bunkering,” Wike said on Friday in Government House, Port Harcourt in a meeting with local council chairmen and heads of security agencies in…

Saturday, 15 January 2022 06:03

You caught me: Pope congratulates reporter who saw him at record shop

Pope Francis has congratulated the reporter who caught him visiting old friends who run a Rome record shop this week, joking that it was his “bad luck” that the news got out. The visit on Tuesday night was to have remained secret but Javier Martinez-Brocal of the Rome Reports television news agency was in the area in central Rome by chance. He filmed it with his smart phone, posted it on Twitter, and it went viral. In a letter sent to Martinez-Brocal on Thursday, Francis, 85, congratulated him on his work and lamented his own misfortune. “You can’t deny that…

Saturday, 15 January 2022 06:02

No lights, no heat, no money - that's life in Ukraine during cyber warfare

Hackers who defaced and interrupted access to numerous Ukrainian government websites on Friday could be setting the stage for more serious cyberattacks that would disrupt the lives of ordinary Ukrainians, experts said. "As tensions grow, we can expect more aggressive cyber activity in Ukraine and potentially elsewhere," said John Hultquist, an intelligence analyst at U.S. cybersecurity company Mandiant, possibly including "destructive attacks that target critical infrastructure." "Organizations need to begin preparing," Hultquist added. Intrusions by hackers on hospitals, power utility companies, and the financial system were until recently rare. But organized cybercriminals, many of them living in Russia, have gone…

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Friday, 14 January 2022 04:42

Nigeria, DRC, Kenya, others reject over 100m Covid vaccine shots due to close expiry dates

Poorer nations last month rejected more than 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines distributed by the global programme COVAX, mainly due to their rapid expiry date, a UNICEF official said on Thursday. The big figure shows the difficulties of vaccinating the world despite growing supplies of shots, with COVAX getting closer to delivering 1 billion doses to a total of nearly 150 countries. "More than a 100 million have been rejected just in December alone," Etleva Kadilli, director of Supply Division at U.N. agency UNICEF told lawmakers at the European Parliament. The main reason for rejection was the delivery of…

Friday, 14 January 2022 04:40

How NAFDAC deploys technology to fight deluge of fake drugs - Report

Startups in Nigeria are helping fight counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs in Africa's most populous nation, where the prevalence rate of fake drugs is higher than the global average 10% and contributes to several deaths annually. The most counterfeited are drugs for anti-malaria, pain and antibiotics, according to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). To fight the flood of fake pills, the agency, in partnership with the startups has created stickers with unique codes that manufacturers and distributors can attach to boxes and sachets of pills. Consumers can then use apps on their phones to scan the…

Friday, 14 January 2022 04:38

5,000 shortlisted out of 1.5m applicants for civil defence job - Official

Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board has shortlisted 5,000 successful candidates for employment into the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps out of the 1,477,042 candidates that applied in the 2019 recruitment exercise. This represents less than 3.4 percent of all applicants. Secretary of the board, Aisha Rufai, who disclosed this at the Civil Defence headquarters in Abuja, on Thursday, directed all prospective applicants to check the application portal, http://cdfipb.careers from January 17, 2022. She, however, noted that the portal wouldn’t open to candidates who were not shortlisted, adding that the documentation exercise would commence from January 31.…

Friday, 14 January 2022 04:37

Immigration Service to issue passport in one week, says NIS boss

Comptroller of Immigration, Oyo State Command, Issa Alhassan Dansuleiman, has assured people living within the state that the standard Nigeria International Passport which is the major travel document will now be issued under one week. He gave the assurance while receiving the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) Oyo State Chapter, led by the Chairperson, Jadesola Ajibola, in his office. The Immigration boss maintained that except for unforeseen circumstances like NIN number not appearing on the portal, the state command will not delay passport issuance. According to him, when he came on board four months ago, the command had a…

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