Author: Olu Anisere

Reps to Intervene Over Electricity Bill Hike at University of Jos The House of Representatives has promised to intervene over the hike in electricity bill at the University of Jos which has placed the university under Band A. Rep. Abubakar Fulata, the Chairman, House Committee on University Education, said this in a statement on Wednesday after the committee`s oversight visit to the school. Fulata said such a hike was unacceptable, promising to work with other relevant House Committees, Ministries, Departments and Agencies and stakeholders to ensure the issue is addressed as soon as possible. Fulata stressed the need to ensure…

IBEDC Boosts Electricity Supply in Ogun The Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company Plc (IBEDC) says it has completed a significant enhancement of its electricity infrastructure serving the Sango/Ota axis of Ogun State. The Acting Managing Director of the company, Mr Francis Agoha, disclosed this in a statement made available to newsmen in Ota on Wednesday. Agoha said the upgrade aimed to substantially improve the power supply reliability for customers in the region. He said that the key improvements included the successful migration of the Sango 33 KV feeder to a more robust T3 100 MVA, 132 KV/33 KV transformer at the…

Nigeria Partners Chinese coy on Decarbonisation of Mining Practices – Envoy Chief Ajuri Ngelale, Special Presidential Envoy on Climate Action, says Nigeria is taking steps to decarbonise mining practices. He said, in a statement, that to actualise this, he held substantive discussions with the Executive Management of Sinoma International Engineering Company at their Beijing Headquarters on Tuesday. “Mr Yin Zhisong, the Board Chairman of the company and Mr Zhu Bing, the Company’s President, were in attendance at the meeting which, covered areas of mutual interest,” he said. Ngelale said Nigeria was moving swiftly to localise the expertise Sinoma had developed…

Senate Passes 2024 Appropriation Act Amendment Bill of N6.2trn The Senate on Tuesday at plenary, passed the 2024 Appropriation Act Amendment Bill of N6.2 trillion, presented for consideration by President Bola Tinubu on July 17. This, followed presentation and adoption of report of Committee on Appropriations on the bill by its Chairman Sen.Solomon Olamilekan (APC-Ogun). Olamilekan in his presentation said out of the N6.2 trillion,N3.2 trillion was for capital expenditure, while N3 trillion was for recurrent expenditure. He said the 2024 appropriation act amendment bill sought to make available, additional funds for the renewed hope Infrastructure development projects, to be…

Food Prices Rise in June- NBS The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), says prices of beans, tomatoes, irish potatoes, garri, yam and other food items witnessed significant price increases in June 2024. The NBS said this in its Selected Food Prices Watch report for June 2024 released in Abuja on Tuesday. The report said that the average price of 1kg of brown beans increased by 252.13 per cent from N651.12 recorded in June 2023 to N N2,292.76 in June 2024. “On a month-on-month basis, 1kg of brown beans increased by 14.11 per cent in June from the N2,009.23 recorded in…

$200m Fine on Meta, WhatsApp, Based on Discriminatory Practices — FCCPC The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) says the $200 million fine against Meta Platforms Inc. and WhatsApp LLC was based on discriminatory practices and sanctionable offences committed. The acting Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Dr Adamu Abdullahi, said in a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday, that the penalty was slammed on the companies after three years of intensive investigations. Abdullahi said the companies were found culpable of denying Nigerian data subjects the right to self determination, unauthorised transfer and sharing of personal data which was…

Senate Passes 2024 National Minimum Wage Amendment Bill The Senate on Tuesday at plenary, passed the 2024 National Minimum Wage Amendment Act Bill. This, followed presentation and adoption of a report on the bill,by leader of the Senate Sen.Opeyemi Bamidele (APC-Ekiti). The News Agency reports that the bill which was transmitted to Senate by President Bola Tinubu on July 23, was given accelerated consideration, resulting into its first and second reading in line with Senate rule 80. Opeyemi in his lead debate on the general principles of the bill said the bill sought to amend the national minimum wage act,…

Tinubu Seeks Senate Approval for National Minimum Wage Amendment Bill President Bola Tinubu has urged the Senate to approve the national minimum wage Act amendment bill 2024. Tinubu’s request is contained in a letter addressed to President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio and read at plenary on Tuesday. According to Tinubu , the bill is to prescribe the national minimum wage and also provide for legal framework for review of the national minimum wage and for other purposes. “While appreciating the senate’s expeditious consideration of this bill, please accept distinguish senate President and distinguished senators the highest consideration,” Tinubu said.…

Money Market Rates Crash as FAAC Credit Boosts Liquidity Pressure in the money market eased as inflows boosted the total balance in the financial system. Short-term benchmark interest rates declined as the financial system remained strong after the Federal Account Allocation Committee credit. Banks borrow from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) due to improved liquidity levels in the money market, driven by inflows from FAAC and FGN bond coupons. Data from the FMDQ platform showed that the open repo rate declined by 605 bps to 25.34%, while the overnight rate decreased by 621 bps to 25.81%. The Nigerian Interbank…

WTO: African Group Votes Okonjo-Iweala for 2nd term The African Group at the World Trade organisation (WTO) presented a proposal at its General Council (GC) to re-elect Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as director-general of the organisation. Adebayo Thomas, the Director, Press and Public Relations, Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, said this in a statement in Abuja. According to him, the proposal is for members to consider Okonjo-Iweala to run for another term as chief executive officer of the organisation. He said ithe proposal was to also enable the Chair, of the General Council (GC) to commence the process of the appointment…