Total number of issued Bank Verification Numbers rose to 57.96 million as of July 3, 2023, according to data obtained from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc.

This was as the Central Bank of Nigeria planned to close bank accounts without BVNs. According to the NIBSS, the increasing incidents of compromise on conventional security systems (password and PIN), had increased the demand for greater security for access to sensitive or personal information in the banking system.

It stated that in recent times, biometric technologies have been used to analyse human characteristics as an enhanced form of authentication for real-time security processes.

It stated that BVN gave a unique identity that could be verified across the Nigerian banking industry (not peculiar to one bank), and ensured that customers bank accounts were protected from unauthorised access.

It said, “It will address issues of identity theft, thus reducing exposure to fraud. The BVN will enhance the banking industry’s chances of being able to fish out blacklisted customers.”

It noted that the BVN is an acceptable means of identification across all Nigerian Banks. Since launching in 2014, 57.96 million Nigerians have now got BVNs.

According to the apex bank, BVN is part of its overall strategy of ensuring the effectiveness of the Know Your Customer principles, and the promotion of a safe, reliable, and efficient payments system.

As of December 26, 2021, there were 51.7 million BVNs.  Recently, the CBN, through its Director, Risk Management Department, and Chief Risk Officer, Blaise Ijebor, noted that the CBN was working to remove accounts not linked to BVNs from the financial system.

According to him, this was to clean up the sector and reduce the growing incidence of fraud.

A recent report by FITC revealed that bank customers in Nigeria lost N472m to fraud in the first quarter of 2023. It noted that there was a total of 12,553 cases of fraud recorded within the three months.

Recently, the CBN said that it had placed 6,047 BVNs of bank customers under a watch list for fraudulent transactions. It stated that the number of BVN-linked accounts was 130.57 million out of 148.46 million active accounts.

It disclosed this in the CBN Financial Stability June 2022 report published in December 2022. It said, “The number of accounts linked with BVNs was 130,569,656 out of 148,462,947 active customer accounts, while the numbers of watch-listed BVNs associated with fraud and deceased persons were 6,047 and 11,871, respectively.”

Punch

Elon Musk on Wednesday launched his own artificial intelligence company, xAI, as he seeks to compete with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT -- a program he accuses of being politically biased and irresponsible.

The xAI website said the Tesla tycoon would run the company separately from his other companies but that the technology developed would benefit those businesses, including Twitter.

"The goal of xAI is to understand the true nature of the universe," the website said.

Musk on Twitter added that the new company's aim was to "understand reality" and answer life's biggest questions.

The startup is staffed by former researchers from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Tesla and the University of Toronto.

The team is to be advised by Dan Hendrycks, who currently leads the Center for AI Safety, a San Francisco-based organization that warns against developing AI too quickly.

Hendrycks also initiated the open letter to global leaders in June that warned AI was a risk to human existence on par with pandemics and nuclear war.

Musk has repeatedly warned about the dangers of AI, having called it "our biggest existential threat," and saying that moving too fast was like "summoning the demon."

He has claimed to have cofounded OpenAI in 2015 because he regarded the dash by Google to make advances in artificial intelligence as reckless.

He left OpenAI in 2018 to focus on Tesla and later said he was also uncomfortable with the profit-driven direction the company was taking under the stewardship of CEO Sam Altman.

Musk also argues that OpenAI's large language models -- on which ChatGPT depends on for content, as is the case with other AI programs -- are overly politically correct.

Musk in April shared details of his plans for a new AI tool called "TruthGPT" in an interview with Fox News, the conservative broadcaster.

In the interview he said his new AI company would come very late after OpenAI and Google DeepMind, both of which have made great strides in recent years.

"I think I will create a third option, although it's starting very late in the game. Can it be done? I don't know, we'll see," he said.

The launch of an AI company on the scale of OpenAI or Google DeepMind would come at an enormous expense, especially in regards to the necessary semiconductors, known as GPUs, which are mainly built by California company Nvidia.

Tuko

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

NATO allies offer Ukraine security assurances as Biden hits out at 'craven' Putin

President Joe Biden accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of having a "craven lust for land and power" at the end of a NATO summit on Wednesday where Ukraine won new security assurances from the U.S. and its allies for its defence against Moscow.

Members of the world's most powerful military bloc offered the prospect of long-term protection a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy decried as "absurd" a refusal to offer an invitation or timetable for Ukraine's entry into NATO.

Ukraine has been pushing for rapid membership while fighting a Russian invasion unleashed in February 2022 that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions.

Instead, a declaration by the G7 group of the world's most industrialised countries launched a framework for bilateral negotiations to provide military and financial support, intelligence sharing and a promise of immediate steps if Russia should attack again.

"Our support will last long into the future. It's a powerful statement of our commitment to Ukraine," Biden said alongside Zelenskiy and leaders of the G7, which is made up of the U.S., Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

Speaking in Vilnius, Lithuania, at the end of the two-day meeting on Russia's doorstep, Biden said Putin had badly underestimated the resolve of the U.S.-led military alliance.

"NATO is stronger, more energized and yes, more united than ever in its history. Indeed, more vital to our shared future. It didn't happen by accident. It wasn't inevitable," Biden said.

"When Putin, and his craven lust for land and power, unleashed his brutal war on Ukraine, he was betting NATO would break apart ... But he thought wrong."

Swallowing his disappointment over the lack of a membership timetable, Zelenskiy hailed NATO's "practical and unprecedented support for Ukraine" and said that at the summit Ukraine had obtained "unambiguous clarity that Ukraine will be in NATO".

He tweeted: "I believe we will be in NATO once the security situation stabilises. Put simply, when the war is over, Ukraine will be invited into NATO and Ukraine will clearly become a member of the Alliance. I felt no thoughts of any other sort."

At a meeting with Zelenskiy, Biden promised him the U.S. was doing everything it could to meet Ukraine's needs and acknowledged Zelenskiy's frustration about the scale and speed of support.

"Your resilience and your resolve has been a model for the whole world to see," Biden said. "I look forward to the day when we're having the meeting celebrating your official, official membership in NATO."

"The bad news for you is, we're not going anywhere. You're stuck with us," Biden joked, prompting laughter from Zelenskiy.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan had said Biden would discuss the issue of long-range missiles with Zelenskiy when they met.

Speaking to reporters later, Biden said: "One thing Zelenskiy understands now is that whether or not he's in NATO now is not relevant" as long as he has the commitments that have been made at the summit. "He's not concerned about that now."

Zelenskiy told Biden he wanted to thank "all Americans" for the billions of dollars in aid his country had received.

British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said he had told Ukraine that its international allies were "not Amazon" and Kyiv needed to show gratitude for weapons donations to persuade Western politicians to give more.

Zelenskiy said: "We were always grateful to the UK, prime ministers and the minister of defence because the people are always supporting us."

Britain, France, Germany and the U.S. have been negotiating with Kyiv for weeks over a broad international framework of support, encompassing modern advanced military equipment such as fighter jets, training, intelligence-sharing and cyberdefence.

In return Ukraine would pledge better governance, including through judicial and economic reforms and enhanced transparency.

The first sitting of a new NATO-Ukraine Council was also held on Wednesday, a format designed to tighten cooperation between Kyiv and the 31-nation alliance.

'POTENTIALLY VERY DANGEROUS'

NATO is built around mutual security guarantees whereby an attack on one is an attack on all, and it has carefully avoided extending any firm military commitments to Ukraine, worried it would risk taking it closer to a full-on war with Russia.

Ukraine has been wary of any less-binding security "assurances", given Russia's invasion already trampled the so-called Budapest Memorandum under which international powers committed to keeping the country safe in exchange for Kyiv giving up its Soviet-era nuclear arms.

Speaking earlier alongside Zelenskiy, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine was closer to the alliance than ever before, and brushed aside new warnings from Russia about the consequences of supporting Ukraine.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the security arrangements for Ukraine were not designed to be a substitute for full NATO membership and said the commitments at the summit marked a high point for the West's support for Kyiv.

Russia, which says NATO's eastward expansion is an existential threat to its own security, swiftly lashed out.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was "potentially very dangerous" for the West to give Ukraine security guarantees.

The Russian foreign ministry said the summit showed that NATO was reverting to "Cold War schemes" and added that it would respond "in a timely and appropriate manner, using all means and methods at our disposal."

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Moscow reacts to NATO summit

The North Atlantic alliance intends to use Ukraine as a proxy for endless war while expanding into the Arctic and Asia in pursuit of neocolonial objectives, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, after a NATO meeting wrapped up in neighboring Lithuania.

“The ‘collective West’ led by the US is not willing to accept the formation of a multipolar world and intends to defend its hegemony by all available means, including military ones,” the ministry said in a statement. 

What the West calls the “rules-based order” is nothing but a “license they granted themselves to violate international law,” and has nothing to do with the UN, which NATO frequently invokes, according to Moscow.

“NATO’s achievements are well known: the growing instability, destruction of countries, rampant terrorism, war crimes that are committed with impunity, the blood of civilians, including children, and the endless flow of refugees,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The bloc is now determined to “NATO-ize” Ukraine, treating the country as an expendable resource in a hybrid war against Russia, supplying Kiev with long-range weapons in order to prolong the conflict for as long as possible, the ministry added. Meanwhile, the US military-industrial complex is “happily rubbing its hands” at the prospect of selling its European allies replacements for weapons destroyed in Ukraine, at exorbitant prices.

The ministry stated that the Western alliance was working to “ensnare”Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Moldova, as well as looking to turn the Arctic into “a zone of confrontation,” and to expand beyond the North Atlantic to the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia-Pacific, in pursuit of a “global NATO.” 

“Washington and its allies are trying to impose their own rules and drain resources along their to proven neocolonial patterns,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The ministry said Russia will respond to threats “in a timely and appropriate manner, using all means and methods at our disposal,” the statement concluded.

The Russian government sent a comprehensive security proposal to the US and NATO in December 2021, asking the bloc to withdraw its troops from Eastern Europe and guarantee Ukraine’s neutrality. Both Washington and NATO rejected Moscow’s request in January 2022. Russia views the bloc’s eastward expansion as a threat and has cited its ties with Kiev as one of the root causes of the armed conflict with Ukraine.

** Wagner Group surrenders heavy weapons

The Wagner Group private military company has surrendered more than 2,000 pieces of military hardware to Russia’s military inventory, the country’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. The transfer process is going “according to plan” and is nearing completion.

The inventory includes hundreds of heavy weaponry pieces, including main battle tanks of various types, multiple rocket launcher systems, self-propelled and towed artillery, anti-aircraft systems, and other combat vehicles, the ministry said in a statement. The military also released a video, showing rows of tracked and wheeled combat vehicles, as well as other equipment kept at undisclosed locations.

Dozens of combat vehicles transferred by the PMC group “have never been used in a combat environment,” the military noted. The group also surrendered over 2,500 tons of assorted ammunition as well as around 20,000 firearms.

Reuters/RT

Number of displaced by Sudan war surpasses 3 million, International Organization for Migration

The number of people uprooted by a conflict between military factions in Sudan that erupted nearly three months ago has surpassed 3 million, according to estimates from the International Organization for Migration.

More than 2.4 million people have been displaced internally and more than 730,000 have crossed into neighbouring countries, data published late on Tuesday said.

Most have fled either from the capital Khartoum, the focus of the power struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that broke out on April 15, or from Darfur, where ethnically-targeted violence has surged.

U.N. officials have said Sudan could slide into civil war, as regional and international mediation efforts have failed.

"This war won't end shortly," said United Nations special envoy Volker Perthes, speaking in Belgium. Several ceasefire agreements have been violated and "have basically been used by the parties to reposition themselves," he said.

On Wednesday, residents reported the sound of fighter jets and artillery shelling in Omdurman and Bahri, parts of the wider capital.

Fighting has also been reported in recent days between the army and powerful SPLM rebel factions in South Kordofan State, and in Blue Nile State near the border with Ethiopia, triggering displacement from those regions as well.

The fighting has laid waste to large parts of the capital and led to waves of attacks in Darfur. Civilians have faced widespread looting, power cuts, food and water shortages, a collapse in health services and a spike in sexual violence.

The Sudanese government's Combating Violence against Women and Children unit said on Tuesday it had recorded nine new cases of sexual assault in Khartoum, bringing the total since mid-April to 51, adding that the real number of cases was likely much higher.

Most victims blamed RSF forces for the assaults, the unit, which is seen as impartial, said in a statement. The RSF has called on civilians to report violations and said members found to be involved in abuses will be held to account.

Of those leaving Sudan, the majority have fled north to Egypt or west to Chad, with large numbers also crossing into South Sudan and Ethiopia.

After sharing power with civilians following the overthrow of Omar al-Bashir in a popular uprising four years ago, the army and the RSF took full control in a coup in 2021 then came to blows amid disputes over a planned transition towards elections.

FAILED MEDIATIONS

International efforts to broker an end to the fighting have shown little sign of progress, including talks led by Saudi Arabia and the United States in Jeddah that were adjourned last month, and an African-led meeting in Addis Ababa this week.

A summit of Sudan's neighbours will be held in Cairo on Thursday.

Perthes, speaking to reporters in Brussels, said he was concerned that the warring factions were able to resupply from outside the country. He said regional countries should tell the combatants to end the war, and should not resupply them.

Britain on Wednesday announced sanctions on six companies linked to the two forces it said were fuelling the conflict by providing funding and arms, expanding on a previous action by the United States.

Reuters

Failing your way to success has become the rallying cry for early-stage entrepreneurs worldwide. Partly because failure is ever present and often more likely than success, and partly due to the change in how startup businesses are formed. But do you need to fail at all?

Tom Eisenmann’s book, The Fail-Safe Startup, builds on this theme and gives precious lessons to entrepreneurs from the failed attempts of several early-stage ventures. 

The book sets out to understand the knotty problem of why startups fail. Great question. The author conducted good-quality research on the subject, drawing on dozens of interviews as well as many Harvard Business School (HBS) case studies on startups. 

I mention this because many business books today written by self-proclaimed experts – usually some entrepreneur or business executive trying to reinvent themselves after early business success and suck at the teat of the international lecture circuit – lack the rigour of proper research. Not this book.

That said, this book’s one failing is that it draws on cases and data from a particular subset of humanity – HBS alumni who have raised venture capital funding. Probably a group about as small as those who have gone into space, so the lessons drawn from these cases may not apply to the rest of us mere mortals.

Context is also an issue. These are startups in the US in a well-functioning and buoyant capital market with sophisticated consumers with disposable income.

I don’t mean to suggest that the African context is devoid of these market features, just that our lived reality is slightly different from that of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The book is organised around three sections – launching, scaling and failing. Based on his research, Eisenmann has identified common themes within the businesses he examined that mark the moments or actions that have led to startup failure.

The principles he identifies seem to result from carefully examining the fabric of failure. 

So often, as he says, in the post-mortem of a failed business, we say, “oh, the business ran out of money; this is a little like the patient died because she lost too much blood.” What he wanted to know was why that occurred.

A launch failure such as the theme “good ideas, bad bedfellows” illustrates how no matter how great the idea and the research, if the team does not work well together, then the business may well be doomed. 

Success, it seems, is about fit – between the founders, their partners and stakeholders, and skill – ensuring that there is industry knowledge and entrepreneurial skill in the founding team.

The scaling section has a chapter called “Moonshots and Miracles”, which focuses on the case of Israeli electric car startup Better Place. By the time the dust had settled on the story, the company had burned through almost US$1 billion.

There was little to show for that massive investment apart from a handful of electric car owners in Israel and a network of beautifully designed but under-utilised charging stations.

The founding team has a moonshot idea that is a serious long shot needing massive effort and investment, but if it pays off could alter the course of humanity. According to Eisenmann, these moonshots need a set of cascading miracles – a set of events that must unfold in sequence for the venture to succeed. 

To make this even more challenging, the founder of a company seeking a moonshot is very often monomaniacal – someone with a fervent belief in her audacious vision and a relentless drive to bring it to life.

These people can be the greatest asset to an early-stage business, but the greatest liability as the business grows. These individuals are often narcissists – according to an HBR article on the topic, the startup world has plenty of examples, including Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs. [Let’s not forget Elon Musk - Ed]

The final section on failing is a road map for how to fail with some degree of grace, but I thought that the chapter “Bounding Back” was compelling. Eisenmann explains how failed founders go through a process of recovery, reflection and re-entry into the workplace or startup businesses.

Again, drawing on interviews and research with the founders whose stories were told in the book, he tells some harrowing tales of the emotional stress of failure and the long road to recovery. Nikki Durkin, the founder of a failed venture 99dresses, seems to sum it up rather well:

“My first instinct was to apologise – to my co-founder, to my team, my investors and to the loyal community we’d built. I felt shame, embarrassment – like a shepherd who’s led her sheep off a cliff when it was my responsibility to keep them safe. 

“I logically knew that I shouldn’t feel these things, but emotions aren’t always logical. In fact, I didn’t really know what I should be feeling. I’d been working on this company ever since I finished high school, so 99dresses was all I have ever known. It was a huge part of my identity – I was the 99dresses girl. Who was I without this startup? I had no idea.”

The reader gets closure as Eisenmann details what happened to each entrepreneur after their venture failed. Rest assured, they are all fine and well, and conquering the world in their unique way.

I think this book enters the realm of essential startup books along with The Lean Startup and Business Model generation. I’ll be wrapping mine in plastic and keeping it under lock and key – until I get myself to Harvard one day and have it signed by the maestro himself.

Jonathan Marks is an associate professor at Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) and founder of Rocket School. In addition to reviewing books for Inc.Africa and doing his day job, Marks is on a personal mission to review 52 other non-fiction books in 2022. 

Inc

The annual United Nations designation is not only a chance to recognize "the dreams of all 8 billion of us on our planet," as UN Secretary-General António Guterres put it in a blog post on Tuesday, it's also a chance to take stock at just how rapidly the world around us is shifting.

In just the past 12 months, the world's population topped 8 billion people for the first time and India overtook China as the most populous country in the world. But even as the global population hits new milestones, one of the buzziest discussions is around the "Great People Shortage," as writers here at Insider have termed it. According to projections, China, Japan, Germany, and even the US are facing the possibility of population decline by 2100 — which could come with some serious economic challenges.

In contrast to the countries facing down the possibility of an aging, shrinking populace, there are other parts of the world that are set to take the baton of population growth in the coming decades. Perhaps the most notable of these rapid-risers is Nigeria.

As recently as 1982, Nigeria had a population of fewer than 80 million people and was outside the world's 10 most populous countries. In the 41 years since, Nigeria's population has nearly tripled to 225 million, moving up to sixth on the list. And that is not expected to slow down.

According to the most recent UN projections, Nigeria will nearly double its population again by 2050 to an estimated 377 million. In the process, the country will leap-frog Pakistan and Indonesia and end up in a virtual tie with the US as the third most populous country in the world. That's incredible for a country that is just a bit bigger than the area of Texas.

Nigeria's stunning growth is also indicative of the growth of the African continent. According to the UN estimates, five of the eight countries that are expected to make up half of the world's population growth over the next 27 years are in Africa. In an interview with Africa News, Tighisti Amare, Deputy Director of the Africa Programme Chatham House in London, pointed out that Africa is the fastest-growing continent and the youngest, noting that 70% of the population is under 30.

"The population growth is, of course, partly explained by improvement in level and access to public health," Amare said. "That has led to decrease in child mortality. And that by itself is good news. And the other good news is that also by having a young population, most African nations do not have the burden of a large elderly population that relies on taxes and pensions, which can be a strain on the economy as well."

She also noted that because of such a young population, countries like Nigeria are producing more workers in the tech industry increasing the possibility that the solutions for issues that impact Africa, such as climate change, are developed domestically. 

While there are plenty of positives, there are also plenty of development issues that come with such a rapidly expanding population. Michael Herrmann, an economic adviser with United Nations Population Fund, told Africa News that without proper planning it can difficult to care for, educate, and employ a population growing that fast.

"They have decided to meet the needs of people in terms of education, of health care, housing, food, water, energy, security," Hermann said. "They want to create full employment for the people, and a growing population can raise the stakes in these efforts. It makes it harder to achieve these objectives, to achieve social progress, and also it might come with growing pressures on the environment."

Regardless of how Nigeria and other fast growing African nations handle their explosive growth, World Population Day gives us a chance to reflect on the dramatic human shifts that will reshape our globe in the decades to come.

Business Insider

President Bola Tinubu has hired 20 new aides, about three weeks after he made the last set of major appointments.

The new appointments include those of senior special assistants (SSAs), personal assistants (PAs), personal physician, and photographers.

Among the new appointees, according to the list seen by PREMIUM TIMES, are veteran journalist, Tunde Rahman, who has been designated SSA (Media); Abdulaziz Abdulaziz (SSA Print Media); and Ibrahim Masari (SSA Political).

Others are Adekunle Tinubu – Personal Physician; Damilotun Aderemi – Senior Special Assistant (Private Secretary); Toyin Subair – Senior Special Assistant (Domestic); O’tega Ogra – Senior Special Assistant (Digital/New Media); Demola Oshodi – Senior Special Assistant (Protocol); Tope Ajayi – Senior Special Assistant (Media & Public

Affairs); Yetunde Sekoni – Senior Special Assistant; Motunrayo Jinadu – Senior Special Assistant; Segun Dada – Special Assistant (Social Media); and Paul Adekanye – Special Assistant (Logistics).

Also on the list are Friday Soton – Special Assistant (Housekeeping); Shitta-Bey Akande – Special Assistant (Catering); Nosa Asemota – Special Assistant (Visual Communication) Personal Photographer;

Kamal Yusuf – Personal Assistant (Special Duties); Wale Fadairo – Personal Assistant (General Duties); Sunday Moses – Personal Assistant (Videography); and Taiwo Okanlawon – Personal Assistant (State Photographer).

This newspaper learnt that Tinubu has issued some of the new aides appointment letters.

From the list, 14 (70 percent) of the new appointees are Yoruba, mainly from the Southwest. Other appointments so far made by Tinubu have followed this pattern.

PT/NewsScroll

Wale Adeniyi, acting comptroller-general of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), says not all borders in the country have been reopened. 

He made the clarification on Tuesday while speaking to state house correspondents after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Villa.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari had, in August 2019, shut all land borders in the country as part of efforts to curtail smuggling and boost local production of rice. 

On December 6, 2020, Buhari ordered the immediate reopening of four land borders. 

Speaking on the issue, Adeniyi said while selected strategic borders were reopened in 2022, a review is currently underway to assess the objectives of the closure. 

“Well, it is not true that all Nigerian borders have been opened. The status quo ante still exists in the borders. If you remember that the borders were completely shut down in 2018 up until 2022 when some selected strategic borders were reopened, that is still the situation as we speak,” he said. 

“And this was why we had an ad hoc arrangement of a special unit coordinated by the office of the NSA (national security adviser) to enforce that border closure. But as we speak, about five of them have been reopened. 

“Four were initially reopened and two more were opened after that. And that is still the situation. There are ongoing processes to review this situation against the objective of the border closure itself. 

“And the processes are not yet completed. And of course, when the borders are reopened, it’s not going to be subject of rumour in any way.”

The acting comptroller-general said there are plans to visit the Republic of Benin to engage with the country’s customs administration as part of efforts to enhance border security and regional integration.

“The aim of the visit is to foster collaboration, address border security concerns, facilitate importation across the border, and explore technological solutions to complex border challenges,” he added.

‘ERADICATION OF FUEL SMUGGLING MIGHT TAKE TIME’

Addressing the issue of fuel smuggling despite the removal of the petrol subsidy, Adeniyi acknowledged that complete eradication may take time. 

He said some border areas have reported seizures of fuel, adding that the rate of smuggling has considerably reduced. 

He expressed hope that ongoing policies being implemented by the current administration would “completely” eliminate fuel smuggling across borders.

“Well, sometimes we just want to assume that because of the subsidy, the problem will evaporate one day. So the sense I was trying to create was that it might take some time before the issue of smuggling of fuel across the border will completely dissipate,” he said. 

“So in some border areas, we had reports of seizures of fuel and that is what we heard. So it was the assumption generally, that because the fuel is now sold at N500 per litre it will be a disincentive for smuggling. 

“But contrary to that, we have seen that they are smuggling it across the borders. The rate at which this is being smuggled has reduced considerably. 

“And it is our hope that by the time we mix some of these other policies that government is working on, it will completely eliminate the problems of smuggling of fuel across borders.”

The Cable

The Spanish coastguard rescued two Nigerian migrants who stowed away on the rudder of a ship that arrived in the Canary Islands from Togo, a coastguard spokesperson and the police said on Tuesday.

After being rescued on Monday night in the port of Las Palmas, the migrants were taken to a hospital. They were later released and were transferred back to the ship, which has to return them to their port of origin, the port police tweeted.

In a video and photographs published on Twitter by Las Palmas maritime police, the two stowaways are shown hunkered on the rudder under the hull, just above the waterline of the MSC Marta.

The migrants are aged 19 and 22, a spokesperson for the Guardia Civil police said.

The container ship's last stop before reaching the Spanish archipelago off the African coast was Lome, Togo's capital, said the coastguard spokesperson without elaborating.

The ship left Lagos, in Nigeria, on July 2 and stopped on July 4 in Togo, according to local newspaper La Provincia, meaning the migrants were onboard at least seven days.

In a similar case in November last year, the Spanish coastguard rescuedthree African stowaways who had arrived in the Canary Islands after enduring 11 days on the rudder of a fuel tanker from Nigeria.

Under Spanish law, any stowaway who does not seek asylum must be returned by the operator of the ship to the port where the journey originated.

The Spanish-owned Canary Islands are a popular but dangerous gateway for African migrants attempting to reach Europe.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Military aid to Ukraine makes World War III more likely – ex-Russian president

The continuing Western military aid to Kiev only increases the risk of escalating the standoff with Russia, etching the world closer to a global war, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has warned after NATO members gathered for a summit in Vilnius, Lithuania on Tuesday. 

In a post on his Telegram channel, Medvedev blasted the new defense packages announced by Ukraine’s supporters. 

“The completely crazed West could not come up with anything else,”Medvedev, who is currently the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, wrote. “In fact, it is a dead end. World War III is getting closer.” He added that the aid decisions were “highly predictable, to the point of idiocy.”

“What does it all mean to us? Everything is obvious. The special military operation will be continued, with the goals remaining the same,”Medvedev wrote, referring to the military action launched by Russia in Ukraine in February 2022.

Medvedev’s comments came as experts on both sides have been voicing concerns that current tensions between Russia and the West can lead to a new global war and even trigger the use of nuclear weapons. 

Although Ukraine was denied an immediate NATO membership out of fear that it would spiral into an open war between Russia and the US-led alliance, Kiev’s major supporters pledged additional aid. 

Last week, US President Joe Biden authorized the transfer of cluster munitions to Ukraine, despite the White House having previously condemned the use of such weapons as war crimes. France plans to provide Kiev with SCALP long-range cruise missiles, while Germany pledged 25 additional Leopard 1 A5 main battle tanks and 40 Marder armored vehicles, as well as two US-made Patriot air defense batteries.

Russian officials have repeatedly warned that shipments of heavy weapons and other military aid to Ukraine make NATO members de facto direct participants in Moscow’s conflict with Kiev. Moscow also insisted that Western support would not change the course of the fighting and not derail the Russian forces from achieving their goals on the battlefield.

** Kiev lost over 26,000 during its so-called counter-offensive — Russian minister

Starting from June 4, the armed forces of Ukraine lost over 26,000 servicemen and more than 3,000 items of military hardware during their so-called counter-offensive, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has told reporters.

"The adversary’s losses beginning from June 4 have reached over 26,000 servicemen and 3,000 items of various pieces of armament," he said.

In his words, Russian troops destroyed 21 planes, five helicopters, 1,244 tanks and other armored vehicles, 17 German-made Leopard tanks, five AMX tanks produced by France and 12 US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles in the reported period.

Moreover, Russian forces eliminated 914 special automotive equipment, two air defense systems, 25 multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS), 403 field artillery cannons and mortars.

Russian air defense systems shot down 176 HIMARS rockets, 27 Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles and 483 drones of the Ukrainian armed forces.

Shoigu underscored the damage done to the Ukrainian artillery.

"Once again, I repeat, 403 [artillery] weapons [have been destroyed], including 43 US-made artillery pieces and 46 self-propelled artillery weapons from Poland, the United States and France," the minister emphasized.

He added that Russian troops continue to strike the enemy’s reserves and West-supplied military equipment with its high-precision weapons, thus reducing the offensive potential of the Ukrainian armed forces.

According to Shoigu, foreign intelligence services, primarily those of the United States and NATO, are closely following and analyzing Russia’s combat operations and note "the high efficacy of our defense lines and barrier minefields, [and the] professional work of army aviation and ground-attack aircraft who carry out pre-emptive strike at the adversary’s targets.".

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine, Russia report heavy fighting in east, south

Ukraine's military on Tuesday reported heavy fighting in the east and southeast, the main theatres of its drive to recapture land seized by Russian invaders, saying its forces had repelled dozens of enemy attacks.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who expressed a measure of frustrationwith NATO's failure to offer Ukraine a timeline for alliance membership, suggests that the early stages of a counter offensive in those two regions are going to plan.

But he also says he wishes the advances were faster.

Russian accounts from the front line also outlined clashes, including a successful defence of areas near the devastated city of Bakhmut, where Ukraine says its forces are recovering ground.

A spokesperson for Ukraine's General Staff, Andriy Kovaliov, said Ukrainian troops had beaten back a Russian advance backed by artillery strikes near two towns north of Bakhmut - captured by Russian mercenary forces in late May.

The fluid situation near Bakhmut has been the focus of much attention, with Ukraine noting gains on the city's southern fringe, particularly the strategic village of Klishchiivka.

Liberating the village, which lies on higher ground, would give Ukrainian forces operational advantage in potentially encircling Russian forces in Bakhmut, analysts say.

Ukraine said on Monday it controlled heights ringing the village, enabling it to fire on targets in Bakhmut itself.

The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces had repelled nine attempted Ukrainian advances in eastern Donetsk region, including one drive near Kliishchivka.

In the south, Ukraine says it has retaken a cluster of villages in the early stages of a drive towards the Sea of Azov - with the aim of severing Russia's land bridge linking eastern Ukraine to the Crimea peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.

Ukrainian General Oleksander Tarnavskyi, writing on Telegram, said battles were raging throughout the sector, with his forces repelling 27 enemy attacks. He estimated Russian losses over 24 hours at the equivalent of several hundred dead and wounded.

For all of Ukraine's gains in its counter offensive, Russian forces still hold vast tracts of land after more than 500 days of war - some estimates put it at 17% of Ukrainian territory.

Ukrainian military analyst Serhiy Hrabskyi said Ukraine's drive towards the coast was proceeding well, taking account of Russian defence preparations and extensive mining.

"We note that in a month and a half of offensive operations, we have brought in 25 percent of our resources," he wrote on the Espreso TV website. "By virtue of simple arithmetic, if we continue at this pace we are talking about four months.

** Russian ex-submarine officer on Ukraine blacklist gunned down

A Russian military officer who had commanded a submarine in the Black Sea and appeared on a Ukrainian blacklist of alleged war criminals has been shot dead by an unknown assassin while on his morning run.

Stanislav Rzhitsky, 42, was gunned down early on Monday in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar. His address, picture and personal details had appeared on the Ukrainian website Myrotvorets (Peacemaker), a vast unofficial database of people considered to be enemies of Ukraine.

On Tuesday the word "Liquidated", in red letters, had been superimposed on his photograph on the site.

Russia's state Investigative Committee said on Tuesday it had arrested a suspect in his early 60s who was found in possession of a pistol and silencer. It published a short video showing heavily armed security officers storming a house and detaining the man, who was wearing only boxer shorts.

Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency published details of the killing on its website, without claiming responsibility or saying how it obtained the information.

It said Rzhitsky died on the spot when seven shots were fired at him from a Makarov pistol as he was running in a deserted city park at around six in the morning.

Baza, a Russian Telegram channel with links to the security services, said the killer could have tracked Rzhitsky's movements on an app where he posted details of his regular jogging route in Krasnodar and how long he took to complete it.

Russian state media and war bloggers said Rzhitsky was deputy head of military mobilisation in the city and had previously commanded the "Krasnodar" submarine in the Black Sea.

A Telegram channel used by self-styled pro-Ukraine partisans who have claimed hundreds of sabotage attacks inside Russia said - without stating evidence - that Rzhitsky was suspected of involvement in a submarine-launched cruise missile strike in July 2022 that killed at least 23 people including a 4-year-old girl in the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia.

Baza quoted Rzhitsky's father as saying he had resigned from the military at the end of 2021 and been discharged, after a delay, the following August.

At least two other pro-war Russian figures in the Myrotvorets database have been assassinated inside Russia since Russian forces invaded Ukraine nearly 17 months ago. Bomb attacks killed journalist Darya Dugina last August and war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in April.

Russia has blamed Ukraine for the attacks. Kyiv has denied involvement, suggesting the attacks are the result of Russian infighting.