Author: Ogochukwu Ndubuisi

DSS Arraigns El-Rufai Feb. 25 on Alleged Cybercrime, Breach of National Security The Department of State Services (DSS) will on Feb 25, arraign former Gov. Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State on alleged cybercrime and breach of national security. Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court (FHC) fixed the date after the Chief Judge, Justice John Tsoho, assigned the case to her. The DSS, on Monday, filed a three-count criminal charge against El-Rufai following his alleged involvement in wiretapping the telephone lines of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Ngpfvuhu Ribadu. The charge, instituted by the Nigerian secret police, is…

AfDB Approves $200m Loan to Boost Nigeria’s Agricultural Productivity The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group has approved a 200 million dollars loan to scale up priority agricultural investments in Nigeria. The AfDB said this in a statementbon its website. It said the financing would support the second phase of the Federal Government’s National Agricultural Growth Scheme–Agro-Pocket (NAGS-AP). According to the statement, this aims at boosting productivity, strengthening value chains and accelerating climate-smart, data-driven farming. “The approval follows earlier financing under the Bank Group’s African Emergency Food Production Facility and will contribute to implementing five programmes under…

The Minister of State for Finance, Doris Anite-Uzoka, on Thursday announced plans to begin payments for the 2024 and 2025 capital budgets to ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs).

The naira exchange rate dropped further at the Apex Bank’s official FX window due to increasing demand for foreign payments by eligible market participants.

ICPC Detains El-Rufai After Release From EFCC’s Custody The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has taken into custody the former governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, over corruption allegations levelled against him. The former governor was arrested by the ICPC on Wednesday night shortly after he was released from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) custody. ICPC Spokesperson, John Odey, confirmed in a statement that the commission on Wednesday night took the former governor into custody for questioning over some allegations. ”Malam Nasiru El-Rufai is in the custody of the commission in connection with…

FAAN Bans Cash Transactions for Revenue Payments Effective Feb. 28 The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has banned cash transactions for all services nationwide effective Feb. 28. This is contained in a statement signed by the Director of Public Relations and Consumer Protection at FAAN, Mr Henry Agbebire on Thursday in Lagos. FAAN said that the reaffirmation became necessary after executives of the various aviation unions visited the FAAN management to sougth clarification on the cessation of cash transactions at airports on Wednesday. The unions represented were the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE); Air Transport Services Senior…

Tinubu Orders NNPC to Remit Oil Income to Fed. Acct. Directly President Bola Tinubu has ordered the immediate suspension of management and frontier exploration fees previously deducted by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.), in a sweeping move aimed at restoring transparency and boosting oil revenues due to the Federation. The directive, contained in a new Executive Order signed last week, was disclosed on Wednesday in a statement issued by the Federal Ministry of Finance. According to the ministry, the order seeks to realign oil and gas revenue administration with constitutional provisions and halt practices that have weakened…

NGX lists Dangote Cement Commercial Paper Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) has recorded its first commercial paper listing with the admission of Dangote Cement Plc’s Series 1 and Series 2 commercial papers under its N500 billion Commercial Paper Issuance Programme. This was contained in a statement issued by NGX on Wednesday in Lagos. The two series, with a combined value of N119.87 billion, were admitted for trading on NGX on Feb. 18, following the Exchange’s introduction of the commercial paper listing framework in 2025. Dangote Cement’s N19.95 billion Series 1 commercial paper carries a tenor of 181 days and matures on…

NCC Seeks Stakeholders’ Inputs on National Telecoms Policy Review The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has called on interested industry stakeholders to make written submissions to the Commission on the ongoing review of the National Telecommunications Policy (NTP) 2000, whose consultation paper has been published on the Commission’s website. The Commission has set Friday, March 20, 2026, as the deadline for all submissions from stakeholders to be addressed to the Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of the Commission or sent to the dedicated email: stakeholders@ncc.gov.ng. The consultation process, which is in exercise of the Commission’s functions under the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA), 2003…

Namibia Keeps Repo Rate Unchanged at 6.5% The Bank of Namibia on Wednesday decided to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.50 per cent, citing the need to safeguard the one-to-one peg between the Namibia dollar and the South African rand. Speaking at the first monetary policy announcement for the year, Governor of the central bank Ebson Uanguta said the policy stance was taken to ensure orderly capital flows and maintain the currency peg arrangement while supporting domestic economic activity. He added that commercial banks are accordingly expected to maintain the prime lending rate at 10.00 per cent. Overall growth…