Banks now owe telecommunication firms N200bn for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data services.

Telecom operators disclosed this on Thursday at the Nigerian Communications Commission industry interactive session with the new Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the commission, Aminu Maida.

The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, on behalf of telcos, stressed that the debt will not be forgiven.

ALTON Chairman, Gbenga Adebayo in his goodwill address to the EVC said, “The banks owe us money. The debt is now over N200bn. It won’t go away, no one will forget the debt if the money is not paid.”

He highlighted that the debt is negatively impacting the financial technology economy. He continued, “If that problem is not solved, it will continue to haunt progress in the sector. I ask you today to please look at this issue on the debt owed to us by the banks. There is no discussion about forgiving the debt, payment needs to be made.”

Adebayo further clarified that while telcos and banks are still engaged in ongoing discussions concerning the matter, it is slow-paced and may not have the required effect when done.

Adebayo’s new revelation indicates that USSD debt has jumped by about 66.67 per cent from the N120bn it was earlier in the year. Since 2019, banks and telcos have been at loggerheads over the repayment of USSD debt. As of 2020, the debt was N17bn, but since then its resolution has been besieged by many twists.

Earlier in the year, telcos issued disconnection notices to banks after getting approval from the NCC to stop banks from accessing USSD services. Later the NCC through the immediate past EVC of NCC, Umar Danbatta, noted that banks had agreed to pay telcos following the actions of regulators and stakeholders.

Industry insiders, however, said that conversations pertaining to repayment plans were still ongoing. In October, telcos threatened to seek redress in court since there was no resolution in sight. At the time, Adebayo, declared, “I think is just best to withdraw the services. On this issue of USSD debt, if parties have to go to court to get a final resolution, so be it.

“This is because every effort that is being made by everyone, where we move one step forward, several steps backward, is not going to work.”

USSD is crucial to improving financial inclusion in the country because of the high population of feature phones in the country. The continued quagmire surrounding the payment for this service will threaten digital financial inclusion, the NCC once stated.

Meanwhile, Adebayo also revealed that telcos now pay 52 different taxes and levies, making them one of the most taxed in the country. He highlighted that these taxes are impacting how they operate and impeding growth in the sub-sector.

Prior to now, telcos paid a little over 41 different taxes. He said, “Today we checked the number of taxes and levies that we face across the country, it is now 52. We are one of the highly taxed sectors of the economy. And it is not just these taxes that are the issue; it is the behaviour of public actors when collecting them. These things have a ripple effect on the things that we want to do. Quality of service and co are all interlinked here too.”

While charging the telcos on Thursday, Maida, declared that quality of service and quality of experience must improve in the sector. He noted that telecoms consumers must begin to enjoy the services they pay for.

He tasked telcos to be more innovative despite the challenges in their operating environment and hinted that the commission was in talks with Original Equipment Manufacturers to boost job creation in the country.

Punch

Hamas tunnel found at Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, says Israel; UN aid halted

Israeli soldiers found a tunnel shaft used by Hamas militants at Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, the army said, while the U.N. voiced concern no aid would be delivered to Palestinians on Friday via the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

The army released a video it said showed a tunnel entrance in an outdoor area of Al Shifa, Gaza's biggest hospital.

The video, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed a deep hole in the ground, littered with and surrounded by concrete and wood rubble and sand. It appeared the area had been excavated; a bulldozer appeared in the background.

The army said its troops also found a vehicle in the hospital containing a large number of weapons.

Hamas said in a statement late on Thursday that claims by the Pentagon and U.S. State Department that the group uses Al Shifa for military purposes "is a repetition of a blatantly false narrative, demonstrated by the weak and ridiculous performances of the occupation army spokesman."

The United States is confident in an assessment from its own intelligence agencies on Hamas activities in Al Shifa hospital and will neither share nor elaborate on it, White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday.

The two telecoms companies in Gaza said all energy sources supplying the network had run out and therefore all services in the territory were down. Israel refuses fuel imports, saying Hamas could use them for military purposes.

With communications out and in the absence of fuel, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said it was impossible to coordinate humanitarian aid truck convoys.

"If the fuel does not come in, people will start to die because of the lack of fuel. Exactly as from when, I don’t know. But it will be sooner rather than later," said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.

As of late Thursday night, there was no further word from the companies, Paltel and Jawwal, whose internet, mobile phone and landline networks remained inoperable.

Palestinian civilians have borne the brunt of Israel's weeks-long military campaign in retaliation for an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that Israel says killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

Gaza health authorities deemed reliable by the United Nations say at least 11,500 people have been confirmed killed in an Israeli bombardment and ground invasion - more than 4,700 of them children.

The Israeli military's chief of staff said Israel was close to destroying Hamas' military system in the northern Gaza Strip and there were signs the army was taking its campaign to other parts of the enclave of 2.3 million people.

Israel distributed pamphlets telling civilians to leave four towns in southern Gaza, areas Gazans had been previously told would be safe.

GAZA HOSPITALS AT CRUX OF GLOBAL DEBATE

Israeli officials said Hamas held some of the 240 hostages taken by gunmen on Oct. 7 in the hospital complex. The body of a woman hostage was recovered by troops in a building near Al Shifa on Thursday, the army said.

Military equipment including Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades were also found in the building, it said.

Human Rights Watch said hospitals have special protections under international humanitarian law.

"Hospitals only lose those protections if it can be shown that harmful acts have been carried out from the premises," the watchdog's U.N. Director Louis Charbonneau said.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, on his first visit to Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, called on Israel to do more to protect civilians in Gaza.

"I understand your rage but let me ask you not to be consumed by rage," Borrell said. Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said Hamas was to blame not only for the Oct. 7 attack but also for the current plight of Palestinians in Gaza.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

US support for Ukraine is 'nearing inevitable end,' Medvedev says

Washington will soon stop providing support to Kiev, as it spends too much on it to little or no avail on the battlefield, the Russian Security Council’s Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev has said.

"US lawmakers are derailing the funding of Israeli and Ukrainian military spending for this year. The reasons are technical and… not quite technical," he wrote in his Telegram channel.

"While in Israel’s case the reason is obviously technical, for that country is more important to the US Congress than its own, everything is more complicated as far as the Ukrainian regime is concerned," Medvedev said, drawing attention to the fact that "the United States easily writes off its minions when they become useless."

Medvedev forecasts that this is exactly what will happen to Ukraine.

"The reason is not just the Republicans and Democrats are at odds on the eve of the US presidential election. They're just fed up: these minions devour mammoth funds, theft thrives and nothing has been achieved on the battlefield," he explained. "Also, the Israeli-Palestinian crisis has erupted. To put it in a nutshell, the support for this scoundrel on the loose is nearing its inevitable end," Medvedev concluded.

He acknowledged that Washington's support would not run dry overnight.

"More money will be squandered, there will follow more schizoid rhetoric about democracy, bombastic assurances of a coming victory, false promises of allied relations for all time, and so on and so forth. But the situation is clear: the moment when another US puppet will sink into oblivion is drawing near,'" he emphasized.

"The problem is that this Banderovite has not yet realized who he really is," Medvedev added.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian shelling kills two, wounds 12, in Ukraine's Kherson region

Russian shelling killed two people and injured at least 12 on Thursday in different areas of southern Ukraine's Kherson region, local officials said.

Regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said a 75-year-old woman had died in the evening in her apartment in Kherson, the region's largest town, as Russian forces shelled from the eastern bank of the Dnipro River that they largely occupy.

Eight people were injured, he wrote on Telegram.

Prokudin had earlier reported an afternoon attack in the village of Bilozerka on the Dnipro's west bank. The body of a man was found under rubble and a man and three women were being treated in hospital.

"A critical infrastructure object was also destroyed. Now Bilozerka and surrounding villages are without electricity," Prokudin said on Telegram.

A grocery store and houses were also damaged, he said. Images from the site shared by Prokudin showed a one-storey building with shattered windows and damage to the walls, as well as several cars covered with traces of shelling.

Reuters could not independently confirm the reports.

Russian troops abandoned Kherson and the western bank of the Dnipro River late last year, but now regularly shell those areas from positions on the eastern bank.

Ukrainian officials this week said their forces had crossed the river and were operating on the eastern bank.

“Every morning a lion wakes up, it knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve to death…It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle, you better be running.”

First attributed to Dan Montano in The Economist, but popularised by Thomas Friedman in The World is Flat.

If, 20 years ago, you asked me whether big technology (or big tech) companies were a threat to journalism, my answer would have been an emphatic yes. After all, these companies do our job without our job description. They also disrupt the media space while taking little responsibility for content.

Perhaps I should explain that there is a slight difference in form, but not always in substance, between big tech and big search engines.

While big tech could sometimes be a dominant player in information technology hardware, like Samsung, or in e-commerce, like Amazon, search engines are software monsters although both core hardware and software providers in this field have the capacity as we have seen, for forward or backward linkages. I will focus more on search engines, at least a few in the big league that have significantly disrupted our work, for good or ill.

I’m sure you know them – Google, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Yahoo, YouTube, Baidu and so on. Please don’t add MySpace to this list; it died before they could write our obituary.

The buzz-word these days, is “sustainability.” What does it mean? One of the most practical definitions I have seen is, “sustainability consists of fulfilling the needs of the current generation without compromising the needs of future generations.”

As to whether big tech poses an existential threat to the survival of the Nigerian media and the way out, if indeed such a threat exists, we shall see soon enough.

How media earns

Traditional media’s two basic sources of revenue are advertising and circulation or subscription sales. On the face of it, the fear of a journalistic doomsday appears justified in light of catastrophic declines in revenues from these two major sources of media income.

The relationship between big tech and traditional news media is already complex enough. But I can assure you that the impact of big tech on the media as we know it is just beginning. The Reuters Institute has already predicted this year to be the breakthrough year for artificial intelligence and its application for journalism.

The institute rightly said the arrival of ChatGPT has transformed the debate over whether AI is here to stay or not. In its journal, Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions 2023, the Institute said about ChatGPT, “Its speed and capabilities are awe-inspiring and frightening at the same time. While the underlying models have been around for some time, ChatGPT has turned these into an accessible prototype that gives a real sense of where AI may be heading. It can tell jokes (but has been trained not to tell racist or sexist ones), come up with plots for a film or book, write computer code.”

In case you missed it, AI even mocked our industry in the report by summarising the challenges facing local news media in 50 words!  Here’s the Q&A:

“NI: Can you summarise the challenges facing local media in 50 words.

ChatGPT: The challenges facing local media include the decline of print media and advertising revenues, competition from online news sources, and the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on local businesses, which are the major sources of advertising revenue. These challenges have made it difficult for local news outlets to sustain their operations and continue to provide important coverage and information to their communities.”

More news outlets, including News24 of South Africa, are training their systems with the voices of their popular anchors with astonishing accuracy.

Big Tech: Archenemy, Frenemy, or Friend?

Big tech may be playing more actively in our industry than us, taking an increasing share of our money and maybe our jobs without being responsible – both in proprietorship and accountability – for the information it disseminates. It has exploited its unmatched reach, ability to use algorithms to tailor content to suit consumers, and real-time engagement advantage to retain consumers. But as they say, there are two sides to a coin.

Positive Impact:

1. Increased Exposure:

• Big tech platforms provide news media companies with a vast audience. Articles and videos can be shared and spread rapidly on these platforms, leading to increased visibility and traffic for news outlets.

2. New Revenue Streams:

• Some tech platforms have revenue-sharing agreements with news media companies. For example, YouTube shares ad revenue with news organisations that post videos on its platform, once you reach a certain threshold.

3. Better Analytics:

• Tech platforms provide news media companies with sophisticated analytic tools that allow them to better understand their audiences and tailor content to user preferences.

4. Engagement Opportunities:

• Social media platforms allow news outlets to interact with their audience in a way that wasn’t possible before. They can receive immediate feedback, address concerns, and build communities around their content.

Negative Impact:

1. Ad Revenue Competition:

• Big tech companies have diverted advertising revenues away from traditional media outlets. They offer targeted advertising based on vast amounts of data, which is often more appealing to advertisers. I was scandalised during the recent general elections in Nigeria that folks who had built their careers in the mainstream and whom we were banking on left us high and dry, with the excuse that their principals wanted minimum use of legacy media platforms! But I understood, even if I did so with a heavy heart! Why? A BBC online report www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zd9bd6f/revision/7 said, “Politicians are investing heavily in the use of websites, blogs, podcasts and social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter as a way of reaching voters.”

“During the 2019 election campaign,” the BBC report continued, “the Conservatives spent one million pounds on Facebook alone, at a point, running 2,500 adverts.”

Let’s look at some more numbers: Google earned about $3bn from sales to China-based advertisers in 2018; Google UK earned £3.34bn in 18 months ending December 2021 as total revenue in the UK market; in 2022 Google’s share of UK digital advert market was 38 percent of all adverts valued at £5.72bn.

If the UK media is complaining, I’ll advise they should not do so as loudly as us. Why?  I’m sure most of you already know that on revenue from traffic, for example, while you can get as much as $2 in CPM from traffic from the UK or the US, the best you can hope to get from local traffic, that is, traffic from Nigeria regardless of the size, is probably 80cents per 1000! Sure, this example is related to revenue from traffic; but the ratio, even for advertising is not significantly different.

2. Spread of Misinformation:

• The ease of sharing on social media platforms can contribute to the spread of misinformation. This not only misleads the public but also undermines trust in news media.

3. Algorithmic Control:

• The algorithms used by tech platforms control what content is seen and what is buried. This can lead to a loss of control for news media over how and to whom their content is distributed. In an article by Kanchan Srivastava, published on February 27, 2023, entitled, “Surviving the algorithm: News publishers walk the tightrope as Google ‘updates’ hit hard,” the author quoted a respondent as saying, “Google has released major algo updates in 2022, which impacted search traffic across publishers.” Publishers didn’t find two major updates last year by the big tech funny at all.

4. Dependency:

• News media companies may become dependent on these platforms for traffic and revenue, which can be risky given the changing algorithms and policies.

5. Potential for Censorship:

• Big tech companies have the power to censor or prioritise certain types of news content based on their own policies or external pressures, which can impact the democratic discourse.

6. Data Privacy Concerns:

• There are concerns about how big tech companies handle user data, and these concerns extend to the partnerships between tech platforms and news media companies.

7. Dilution of Brand Identity:

• Being lumped together with a multitude of other content producers on a single platform can dilute a news outlet’s brand identity.

    8. Room for redress

    • Complaints about discriminatory business or editorial practices from Nigeria and a number other developing countries are hardly treated with seriousness

All About Algorithm, the Devil?

Not all the challenges summarised by AI were brought upon the traditional media by big tech. Nor are we here solely because of Google’s malicious fiddling with its algo. We in the traditional media space share in the blame for what took our industry from distress to life support.

I will tweak HBS Clayton Christensen a bit by saying for a long time, we were innovating our products in response to technological shifts, with very little attention to our business models, or if you’ll pardon my drift, what E. Jerome McCarthy described in his book, Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach,as the 7Ps of marketing – Product, Promotion, Price, Place, People, Process and Physical Evidence.

Nothing depicts this more tellingly than media organisations’ need to reconsider obsolete editorial culture and imbibe new ones, especially in the areas of collaboration, audience-centered production, and creating an audience community.

To be able to compete favourably, media houses may have to take another look at the redundancy levels in-house. Reuters Institute predicted that more newspapers would stop daily print production due to rising print costs and the weakening of distribution networks. It also predicted a further spate of venerable titles switching to an online-only model. They are happening before our own eyes.

Let me be local. In LEADERSHIP the average production costs of our major consumables – newsprint, plates, ink, energy – have risen, with the most significant rise being in energy cost, which increased by 40 percent in one year, while our advert rates have remained largely constant.

Survival in the media industry used to depend on rivalry in the media; now it depends on collaboration. Recent collaborative works on the Pandora Papers, BureauLocal, and the #CoronaVirusFacts have shown that media organisations can work with colleagues across boundaries to share resources for the common good.

In 2020, Aliaa El-Shabassy, a teaching assistant at Cairo University, listed six reader needs outlined by the BBC for media organisations that want to stay ahead and compete with tech platforms. Why should other media companies listen to the BBC’s advice? Well, its global reach in 2020 was 468.2m people a week!

El-Shabassy wrote, “During Corona's peak when audiences needed a trustworthy source to rely on, BBC News scored the highest reach among other international media organisations. Moreover, according to the annual Global Audience Measure, a total of 151 million users per week are accessing BBC's news and entertainment content digitally.”

Six reader needs that any Media Practitioner must be aware of, according to the BBC are:

Update me – which means in the era of information overload, your audience should know in a new light what they already know about.  

Give me perspective – it is a newsroom's own goal to believe that perspective can only be shaped by the newsroom. Your audience can provide perspective.    

Educate me – everyone wants to learn about an exciting new thing. Once you provide diverse content with curiosity value, your audience will be eager to find more from you.

Keep me on trend – audiences want to be kept trending. Perhaps that was why the BBC reached a record number of people during Covid-19.

Amuse me – one of the reasons tech platforms prioritise user-generated content (remember Facebook’s pivot to video) over professionally produced content is that they have better entertainment value to attract adverts. The simple truth is that if you make your audience smile, they will most likely come back. It doesn’t always have to be serious! The more entertaining yet informative your content is, the more your institution is likely to grow.

Inspire me – inspiring stories attract younger audiences more than others and younger audiences source content through tech platforms more. Do the math!

Big Stick for Big Tech

Yet, big tech can’t get off lightly. In 2021, and despite heavy criticism, the Australian government pioneered a new media bargaining code that compels tech platforms to negotiate payment to local news media outlets for using their content.

Initially criticised as a form of subsidy from big tech to big media, significantly because of the role played by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, the law has been hugely successful. Both big and small media outlets have benefitted from the law while the country’s journalism practice has also been revitalised, leading to the creation of new journalism jobs.

In an article published in 2022 by Brookings, Courtney Radsch, Fellow, Institute for Technology, Law and Policy, UCLA, wrote that Australia’s big tech regulatory efforts were developed around three thrusts: taxation, competition/antitrust, and intellectual property.

The bargaining code therefore allows publishers to collectively bargain without violating antitrust laws; requires tech platforms to negotiate with publishers for the use of news snippets; also requires them to pay licensing fees to publishers; and taxes digital advertising and uses the revenue to subsidise news outlets.    

The EU, US and India have since adopted their own media bargaining code and the idea of compelling big tech to pay for news they don’t produce but use and sell is gaining momentum, has been gaining global support since Australia took the bull by the horns.

I’m aware that the Newspaper Proprietor’s Association of Nigeria (NPAN) set up a committee in July to examine the possibility of collective bargaining with big tech.

Staying in business

Understanding that consumers hold all – or most – of the aces, is the first step towards sustainability. For perspective, a paper entitled, “The Newspaper: Emerging Trends, Opportunities, and Strategies for Survival and Sustainability,” by Frank Aigbogun presented at a retreat for NPAN on July 18, 2023, said between 2010 and 2015, audience time spent spend on online media consumption soared to 150%. In that time, audience time spent on television decreased to -8%; radio, -15%; magazine, -23%; and newspaper, -31%.

The reality of digital media is that evolution has brought about new competition and fresh opportunities. Solutions journalism, citizens journalism, and a deeper interface between journalism and technology are the order of the day. There was a time when we consumed music via turntables, stereos with records, and then cassettes and then compact discs. Album sales are no longer used to measure the success of a body of work.

Now it is streaming, the playground of big tech companies such as Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, TIDAL, Pandora, etc. If technology did not pose an existential threat to the music industry, I do not think big tech would end journalism.

Reuters Institute said, “Better data connections have opened up possibilities beyond just text and pictures and smartphone adoption has accelerated the use of visual journalism, vertical video, and podcasts.”

Good content should not be free. What technology is doing, therefore, is to offer traditional media the opportunity to reach more people and make a profit.

Through the use of content and tech-led innovation, a growing list of brands are expanding into broadcast and streaming TV to grow and engage their audiences, and bring in new revenue streams. This involves the use of new formats, new technology, and new products to broaden and retain the audience base.

In addition, feedback tools, such as engagement matrices, are being used to “galvanise the industry on loyalty” (according to the Financial Times, which now uses the RFV – Recency, Frequency, and Volume of reading its digital content).

Traditional media organisations in Nigeria also need to rethink their business models, from content to distribution and personnel costs. One of the ways some media organisations are going about change in business model is by targeting niche markets, while others invest in research, education and learning.

Other ideas you may find useful in turning an existential threat to an opportunity for sustainable growth, are:

● Diversify: Think about Julius Berger now into massive production and export of cashew nuts! Think about games, films, books, special events & publications, etc

● Preserve your candle: Don’t give content free and still not collect and deploy customer data. Know your audiences and cultivate them

● Re-purpose content

● Review your systems and processes regularly and take tough decisions

● Be ethical

● Invest in talent

Keep running!

Let me return to the first sentence of this presentation. Yes, big tech poses a threat because of the opaque relationship it has with traditional media. However, is this threat going to pull the plug on journalism? I’ll say no. I’ll be the first to admit that the prevailing mood in the media industry is one of uncertainty.

To be certain, nothing will bring back the days when advertisement and circulation were enough to successfully run a media organisation. Also, because the media is a kind of cultural sector that does not necessarily respond to the principles of demand and supply, media organisations that fail to swim with the tide will continue to struggle or pack up altogether. If we invest in what feels relevant and useful to consumers, then we have nothing to worry about because technology will help us know exactly how to adapt and reach our target audience.

What we should worry about instead is how to retain the ethics of our practice in the face of robotic and artificial media which might just overpower the audiences we share.

Remember: whether you’re a lion or a gazelle, you better be running!

** Ishiekwene is the Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP. This is a slightly modified version of the paper he presented at the 19th All Nigeria Editors Conference (ANEC) at the Akwa Ibom Hotel & Gold Resort, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, on Wednesday, November 15, 2023

On the second floor of the Latyfah hair salon in Dakar, brushes, hairdryers and scissors were in constant motion. Sitting amidst bags full of wigs, owner Awa Ndao checked the finishing touches before handing over the precious locks to the delivery men, while glancing at the video surveillance screens set up in the middle of the room. In recent weeks, the store has been undergoing security upgrades, after thieves recently tried to gain entry in the middle of the night. "Burglars took about 30 wigs, computers and perfumes three years ago. More than 20 million CFA francs [€30,500] were taken," explained the company manager.

"We only use quality natural human hair, which is very expensive," explained Ndao, who has been in the business for over 30 years. Nicknamed the "queen of small heads" for her famous short styles, the hairdresser sells wigs that cost from 75,000 (€100) to several hundred thousand CFA francs, depending on the cut, density, texture, length and material of the hair.

She has a flourishing business as wigs resist the "nappy" trend – a contraction of "natural" and "happy" – which aims to rehabilitate natural African hair. As the holiday season approaches, orders from Senegalese women explode, and these "locks of gold" equally attract increasing numbers of thieves. The wigs are often resold on the black market, or on social media, at a much more affordable price than their initial value. On the street, thieves sometimes prefer them to telephones or handbags.

'Customers can keep them for up to 10 years'

In Dakar, women are no longer safe from having their wigs snatched. Nogaye Sidy Fall, 42, had this bitter experience in September 2022. She was shopping in the popular Colobane market, on the eve of the start of the new school year. "Suddenly I felt my wig was gone. It was made of natural hair, and I had paid nearly 300,000 CFA francs [€400] for it," she said.

She had bought it a week earlier but hadn't dared tell her husband the price. So she preferred to tell him that it was made of synthetic hair – which is much more affordable – and that there was no point in going to the police with a complaint. "I don't have the luxury of buying such valuable wigs every year," explained the mother of one. In her cupboards, she keeps two other quality hairpieces worth 150,000 and 200,000 CFA.

Adji (who prefers to remain anonymous) had her wig ripped off her head by teenagers on scooters as she got off the bus on her way to work. It was a bobbed curly haircut she'd just treated herself to. "I'll have to wait a long time before I can afford a new one of the same quality," she said, sadly. It's all the more ironic as she works at Enera Beauty, one of the capital's most renowned hair salons for its natural hair wigs.

"We import human hair from Vietnam at 200,000 CFA a kilo, and it's treated without chemicals," explained business owner Arène Khouma, who opened her salon in Dakar's Ouest Foire neighborhood in 2017. Each month, she imports between 5 and 10 kilograms of hair – 30 kilograms in the holiday months. At Enera Beauty, wigs cost 165,000 to 400,000 CFA francs. "Customers can keep them for 10 years with the right care," she explained. "We don't do mass production, we customize all our products because every customer has a different head. That explains the price."

Difficult-to-solve cases

Most salons import their wigs from China or India, where the locks are collected in temples when worshippers shave their heads as religious offerings. These countries have become the world's biggest suppliers of human hair with 2,383 tonnes exported in 2022, an increase of 66% between 2018 and 2022. In Senegal, the value of imports of "feathers, artificial flowers and hair" rose from 145 million to 286 million CFA francs between 2017 and 2021, according to the Agence Nationale de la Statistique et de la Démographie (National Agency for Statistics and Demographics, ANSD).

The Senegalese police are now dealing with multiple cases of hair theft. In September, following a complaint from a victim who had recognized on TikTok the wig plucked from her head a few days earlier, the thieves were arrested. They were in possession of 91 second-hand wigs and were sentenced to three months in prison, with 21 months suspended.

Nevertheless, these cases are difficult to resolve. Despite the CCTV footage delivered to the police when he filed a complaint, Melchisedek Ibrahima, manager of the Perles Hair salon in Dakar's Ouakam neighborhood, has never been able to identify the thieves who targeted him. "On Sunday, July 24, 2022, at around 6 am, neighbors called me because the windows were broken. When I arrived, all the mannequins' heads in my store were naked, the stock had disappeared. We estimated the damage at 14 million CFA [€21,400]," said Ibrahima.

A year and a half later, the store's shelves, decorated with artificial flowers, were once again filled with wigs of all colors and lengths. "We had to start from scratch. But we've stepped up security by hiring a security company," continued the salon manager. "It's all worth it, because, as his colleague Khouma puts it, "a wig salon is now like a jewelry store."

Le Monde

Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) have suspended the nationwide strike they embarked on Tuesday. 

The suspension of the strike came after leaders of the two unions met with representatives of the federal government in a meeting on Wednesday at the office of the national security adviser (NSA).

At the end of the meeting, the labour unions agreed to consult with their members on the next step concerning the nationwide strike.

The federal government was represented at the meeting by Simon Lalong, minister of labour and employment; Nkeiruka Onyeajeocha, minister of state for labour and employment, and Nuhu Ribadu, the NSA.

The unions were represented by Festus Usifo, president of TUC;  Emmanuel Ugboaja, general secretary of NLC and other labour leaders.

Speaking to journalists at the end of the sitdown, the TUC president said they had a robust discussion with the federal government’s team.

The labour leaders said they received a commitment from the Ribadu-led meeting that those arrested for the physical assault on Ajaero would be prosecuted.

The nationwide strike is a protest against the alleged brutality of Joe Ajaero, president of NLC,  in Imo state.

Ajaero was reportedly picked up from the Imo council secretariat of the congress in Owerri by heavily armed police officers.

However, the Imo police command said Ajaero was not arrested but was taken into protective custody to avoid being lynched by a mob.

On November 5, the national industrial court in Owerri, the capital of Imo, issued an order restraining labour unions from embarking on a strike in the state.

Also, the federal government secured an order restraining the unions and their affiliates from embarking on the strike.

Despite the court orders, the labour unions stood their ground and proceeded with the strike.

Nuhu Ribadu, the NSA, had begged the unions to call off the strike, adding that the attackers of Ajaero, had been arrested.

The Cable

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate for October 2023 has increased to 27.33 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed.

The figure is 0.9 short of the 28.2 percent recorded 18 years ago, in August 2005.

The NBS in a report released on Wednesday said, on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.24 points points higher compared to the rate recorded in October 2022, which was (21.09 percent).

“The increase in the headline index for October 2023 was attributed to the increase in some items in the basket of goods and services at the divisional level.

“These increases were observed in Food and non-alcoholic Beverages (14.16%), Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & other Fuel (4.57%), Clothing & Footwear (2.09%), Transport (1.78%), Furnishings & Household Equipment and maintenance (1.37%), Education (1.08%) and Health (0.82%). Others are Miscellaneous Goods & Services (0.45%), Restaurants & Hotels (0.33%), Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco & Kola (0.30%), Recreation & Culture (0.19%) and Communication (0.19).”

Similarly, it said food sub-index for October 2023 increased to 31.52% on a year-on-year basis, which was 7.80% points higher compared to the rate recorded in October 2022 (23.72%).

It said the rise in food inflation was due to increases in prices of bread & cereals, oil & fat, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, fruit, meat, vegetables and milk, cheese, and eggs.

“However, on a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in October 2023 was 1.91%. This was 0.54% lower compared to the rate recorded in September 2023 (2.45%). The decline in food inflation was caused by a decrease in the average prices of Fruits, oil and fat, coffee, tea and cocoa, bread and cereals.”

Daily Trust

A former minister of finance, Onaolapo Soleye, is dead.

Soleye died on Wednesday at a private hospital in Abeokuta, the capital of his home Ogun state. He was aged 90.

He was the finance minister under the military regime of Muhammadu Buhari from 1984 to 1985.

He had earlier served as commissioner for works in Ogun State.

Soleye’s family, in a statement on Wednesday, said he passed away four days after celebrating his 90th birthday on Saturday.

‘With heavy hearts but with gratitude to God Almighty for a long, impactful and positively eventful life, the family announces the passing of Pa Onaolapo Soleye, the father of our late brother, Maj Gen OO Soleye (retd.). He turned 90 years only last Saturday’, the statement reads.

“Papa served the country and humanity in various capacities rising to the position of an Associate Professor in the University of Ibadan, Commissioner for Works in Ogun State and Minister of Finance of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, among others’.

“He was a true lover of God and humanity and this translated into his unwavering commitment to church activities as well as ready support and assistance to all who came across him, in any way that he could’, the family said.

“The loss of Soleye is surely not that of the Soleye family alone. It’s our father that has just passed and we must all prepare to be part of his rites of passage.

“Burial details will be announced by the family in due course. Until then, please pray for the repose of Papa’s soul and God’s comfort upon his family and other loved ones.”

PT

Israel searches for traces of Hamas in raid of key Gaza hospital packed with patients

Israeli troops on Wednesday stormed into Gaza’s largest hospital, searching for traces of Hamas inside and beneath the facility, where newborns and hundreds of other patients have suffered for days without electricity and other basic necessities. The forces also pressed on with their wider ground offensive.

Details from the daylong raid remained sketchy, but officials from Israel and Gaza presented different accounts of what was happening at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City: The Israeli army released video showing soldiers carrying boxes labeled as “baby food” and “medical supplies,” while health officials talked of terrified staff and patients as troops moved through the buildings.

After encircling Shifa for days, Israel faced pressure to prove its claim that Hamas had turned the hospital into a command center and used patients, staff and civilians sheltering there to provide cover for its militants. The allegation is part of Israel’s broader accusation that Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields. Israel released video late Wednesday of weapons it said it found in one building, but so far its search showed no signs of tunnels or a sophisticated command center.

Hamas and Gaza health officials deny militants operate in Shifa — a hospital that employs some 1,500 people and has more than 500 beds, according to the Palestinian news agency. Palestinians and rights groups say Israel has recklessly endangered civilians as it seeks to eradicate Hamas.

As Israel tightens its hold on northern Gaza, leaders have talked of expanding the ground operation into the south to root out Hamas. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have already crowded into the territory’s south, where a worsening fuel shortage threatens to paralyze the delivery of humanitarian services and shut down mobile phone and internet service.

The war between Israel and Hamas erupted after the militant group killed some 1,200 people and seized around 240 captives in an Oct. 7 attack that shattered Israelis’ sense of security.

Israeli airstrikes have since killed more than 11,200 people, two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah, which coordinates with the ministry branch in Hamas-ruled Gaza. Another 2,700 have been reported missing, with most believed to be buried under the rubble. The ministry’s count does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths.

ISRAELI RAID INTO SHIFA

Israeli forces launched their raid into the large Shifa compound around 2 a.m. and remained on the grounds after nightfall Wednesday, with tanks stationed outside and snipers on nearby buildings, Munir al-Boursh, a senior official with Gaza’s Health Ministry inside the hospital, told The Associated Press. It was not possible to independently assess the situation inside.

Al-Boursh said that for hours, the troops ransacked the basement and other buildings, including those housing the emergency and surgery departments, and searched the grounds for tunnels. Troops questioned and face-screened patients, staff and people sheltering in the facility, he said, adding that he did not know if any were detained.

“Patients, women and children are terrified,” he told the AP by phone.

Neither the Palestinians nor the military reported any clashes inside the hospital. The military said its troops killed four militants outside the hospital at the start of the operation. Throughout days of fighting in the surrounding streets in previous days, there were no reports of militants firing from inside Shifa.

The Israeli military said it was carrying out a “precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the hospital,” and that its soldiers were accompanied by medical teams bringing in incubators and other supplies.

It added that forces were also searching for hostages. The plight of the captives, who include men, women and children, has galvanized Israeli support for the war. Families and supporters of the hostages are holding a protest march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The video released by the military from inside Shifa showed three duffel bags it said it found hidden around an MRI lab, each containing an assault rifle, grenades and Hamas uniforms, as well as a closet that contained a number of assault rifles without ammunition clips. A laptop was also discovered and taken for study. The AP could not independently verify the Israeli claims that the weapons were found inside the hospital.

“These weapons have absolutely no business being inside a hospital,” Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said in the video, adding that he believed the material was “just the top of the iceberg.” The military said the search was continuing, but it did not immediately show any sign of tunnels or an extensive military center.

The raid drew condemnation from the U.N., Jordan and the West Bank’s Palestinian Authority, which called it a violation of international law. Separately, the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution calling for “humanitarian pauses and corridors” throughout Gaza after four failed attempts to respond to the Israel-Hamas war.

In other developments, U.S. President Joe Biden said he believes the war will stop only when Hamas’ ability to kill and injure Israelis is degraded. He also said he urged Israel to exercise caution in its military operations at the hospital.

“I think it’s going to stop when Hamas no longer maintains the capacity to murder,” Biden said after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperative conference in California.

Biden said he discussed with Israelis their need to “be incredibly careful” as they worked to clear the hospital.

At one point, tens of thousands of Palestinians fleeing Israeli bombardment were sheltering at the hospital, but most left in recent days as the fighting drew closer. The fate of premature babies at the hospital has drawn particular concern.

The Health Ministry said 40 patients, including three babies, have died since Shifa’s emergency generator ran out of fuel Saturday.

There was no immediate word on the condition of another 36 babies the ministry said earlier were at risk of dying because there is no power for incubators.

Hours before Israel’s raid, the United States said its own intelligence indicated militants have used Shifa and other hospitals — and tunnels beneath them — to support military operations and hold hostages.

Under international humanitarian law, hospitals can lose their protected status if combatants use them for military purposes. But civilians must be given ample time to flee, and any attack must be proportional to the military objective — putting the burden on Israel to show it was a big enough military target to justify the siege against it.

A TRICKLE OF FUEL FOR AID WORKERS

Conditions in southern Gaza have been deteriorating as bombardment continues to level buildings. Residents say bread is scarce and supermarket shelves are bare. Families cook on wood fires for lack of fuel. Central electricity and running water have been out for weeks across Gaza.

After refusing to allow fuel into Gaza since the war’s start, saying it would be diverted to Hamas, Israeli defense officials early Wednesday let in some 24,000 liters (6,340 gallons).

The fuel will only be used for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, to continue bringing limited supplies of food and medicine from Egypt for the more than 600,000 people sheltering in U.N.-run schools and other facilities in the south.

The fuel cannot be used for hospitals or to desalinate water, said Thomas White, UNRWA’s director in Gaza. The amount is the equivalent of “only 9% of what we need daily to sustain lifesaving activities,” he said.

The Palestinian telecom company Paltel, meanwhile, said it was relying on batteries to keep Gaza’ mobile and internet network running, and that it expected services to halt later Wednesday. Gaza has experienced three previous mass communication outages since the ground invasion.

LOOKING SOUTH

Israeli troops have extended their control across northern Gaza. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday the ground operation will eventually “include both the north and south. We will strike Hamas wherever it is.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed the plans, saying Israel’s goal is “a complete victory over Hamas in the south and the return of our hostages.”

If Israeli troops move south, it is not clear where Gaza’s population can flee, as Egypt refuses to allow a mass transfer onto its soil.

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian group says more than 30,000 troops have died in Russia's invasion

A Ukrainian civic group said it has confirmed the deaths of nearly 25,000 Ukrainian soldiers since Russia's February 2022 invasion by using open sources, and puts the total toll at more than 30,000.

Kyiv treats its losses as a state secret and officials say disclosing the figure could harm its war effort. A report in August by the New York Times, citing anonymous U.S. officials, put the Ukrainian death toll at close to 70,000.

Writing in the Ukrainian journal Tyzhden, historian Yaroslav Tynchenko and volunteer Herman Shapovalenko said Shapovalenko's Book of Memory project had confirmed 24,500 combat and non-combat deaths using open sources.

The real figure was likely higher, they added, noting that many of the 15,000 troops listed as missing were likely dead.

Reuters could not independently verify the figures.

"Obviously, the 24,500 names are not the final number of dead (deceased), but by our assessment it is no less than 70%," the authors wrote. "That is, the real number of dead (deceased) in combat and non-combat situations is more than 30,000 people."

Applying a 1:3 ratio, the authors also estimated that up to 100,000 troops had been wounded.

A spokesman for Ukraine's defence ministry told Reuters he could not comment on the figures.

The Book of Memory project, which has tracked Ukraine's war dead since Russia's first invasion in 2014, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tynchenko, in a message through his employer, the National Military History Museum of Ukraine, declined to comment on the article.

The article, published late on Tuesday, comes as Ukraine increasingly faces the prospect of fighting a long war with Russia.

Ukraine's top general wrote in the Economist earlier this month that the conflict was becoming static and attritional. A Ukrainian counteroffensive launched in June has made only incremental gains in the south and east.

The authors of the Tyzhden article said it was crucial to balance various estimates reported in Western media, which they described as given to "manipulation", with verifiable data.

"Should we talk about this topic in Ukraine during the war? We believe so, but only in terms of concrete data and open and trustworthy sources," they wrote.

Russia has also not disclosed the number of its war dead.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

West sees Ukraine conflict lasting five more years – media

A growing number of Western leaders have reportedly conceded that the Russia-Ukraine conflict may drag on for another five years, stuck in a “stalemate” that neither side is capable of shattering.

The crisis has already strained the West’s military capacity amid struggles to produce enough artillery shells, the magazine said, and the Israel-Hamas war creates further stress. 

“As time goes on, there will be trade-offs as certain key systems are diverted to Israel,” Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, wrote last month. “A few systems that Ukraine needs for its counteroffensive may not be available in the numbers that Ukraine would like.”

Ukraine’s top general, Valery Zaluzhny, raised eyebrows when he told The Economist earlier this month that the conflict with Russia had reached a stalemate. Although officials in US President Joe Biden’s administration were troubled by Zaluzhny’s candor, they agreed with his assessment, the New York Times reported last week.

The Ukraine crisis has revealed how “meager” Western armories are, The Economist claimed. Even as the US ramps up its output of 155mm artillery shells, its production in 2025 will be lower than Russia’s in 2024, the magazine added. If the overlapping conflicts in Ukraine and Israel both drag on, Washington and its allies would be hard-pressed to cope with another crisis.

“If the war in Ukraine stays an open sore in Europe and the Middle East remains ablaze, the West will struggle gravely should another serious crisis erupt,” the outlet warned. “One risk is that adversaries simply capitalize on chaos elsewhere for their own ends. If America were bogged down in a Pacific war, for instance, Iran would surely feel more confident of getting away with a dash for nuclear weapons.”

The magazine called the situation a “new world disorder” and suggested that Russia and China see “opportunities” in the growing threats. “Even more worrying is the prospect of active collusion. European military planners give weight to the possibility that Russia might conduct menacing maneuvers during a crisis over Taiwan in order to divert American attention and tie down its allies, preventing them from lending a hand in Asia.”

Concentrations of crises have occurred in past eras, The Economist said, “but America and its allies cannot intervene as easily or cheaply as they once did.” That’s partly because the Ukraine crisis has “cemented” the partnership between Russia and China, and the two countries are working more closely together, according to the magazine.

Reuters/RT