Access Bank Plc and Standard Chartered Bank have agreed to buy Standard Chartered’s stakes in its subsidiaries in Angola, Cameroon, The Gambia, and Sierra Leone, as well as its consumer, private, and commercial banking operations in Tanzania. Each transaction remained subject to the approval of the different local regulators as well as the Nigerian banking authority. A statement said the announcement was made on Friday at Standard Chartered’s Headquarters in London, in the presence of senior representatives from both banks, and signed by, the Regional Chief Executive Officer, Africa & Middle East, Standard Chartered, Sunil Kaushal, and the Group…
Author: meridianspy
APC Chieftain to FG: Create Jobs with $800m, N500bn Subsidy Palliative Haruna Gololo, an All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain in Bauchi state, says President Bola Tinubu should create jobs instead of giving out cash to citizens to cushion the impacts of the removal of the petrol subsidy. The president had asked the national assembly to approve a $800 million loan to ameliorate the hardship induced by the removal of subsidy on petrol. Tinubu said 12 million households would receive N8,000 monthly from the loan that is being sourced from the World Bank. Also, another N500 billion has been appropriated by…
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced an increase in visa application fee paid by immigrants. The announcement came after a speech regarding an increase in public sector wages. Sunak confirmed that part of the funding for the wage increase will be raised from the foreign migrants who come to the United Kingdom to live and work, the British media said. He also said the surcharge paid for the state-funded national health service (NHS) by visa applicants by immigrants will “increase significantly”. The PM, had said a few weeks earlier, at the United States embassy that he would be…
The governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah, claims that the sit-in enforced by a faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra in the South-East costs the state more than N10 billion every Monday. The governor made the announcement on Thursday in Enugu during a meeting with the Presidents-General (PGs) of the state’s autonomous communities. He said the financial loss is recorded due to economic activities that are prevented from happening every Monday due to the illegal sit-at-home order. “It’s important for us to understand the connection between poverty and this so-called sit-at-home. Each Monday that we sit at home, we…
Reprieve for Emefiele as Court Nullifies Arrest, Detentio The Federal High Court, Abuja on Friday nullified the arrest and detention of the suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele. The declaration was made by Justice Bello Kawu while ruling on an application brought before the court by Emefiele. The court therefore ordered the Department of State Services (DSS) to immediately release the embattled former CBN governor Justice Kawu stated that his continued detention was a violation of the subsisting judgment and orders of another court judge, Justice M. A. Hassan. Emefiele had, through his counsel,…
I The Federal Government stated on Thursday that 11 power distribution firms in Nigeria have requested for a review of their various energy tariffs in order to accommodate changes in the country’s macroeconomic fundamentals. The Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission announced this in a notification. It was also noted that the Discos’ grounds for the rate review were based on aspects influencing the quality of service, operations, and viability of the companies. In the notice, obtained by our correspondent in Abuja, the NERC stated the application for rate review by the power firms was in line with the rules contained in…
The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory has dismissed the case against the former governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. In his judgement, Justice Yusuf Halilu branded the EFCC’s claims of fraud and abuse of authority against Okorocha as an abuse of judicial process, citing the anti-graft agency’s filing of a similar case against the defendant in the Federal High Court.
Ex militant leaders in the Niger Delta have expressed worries with the Niger Delta Development Commission ‘s 1000 job hope initiative programme, urging President Bola Tinubu to halt it. President Abuja chapter of Urhobo Youth council and ex militant leader General Peter Aghogho in a statement to Vanguard said the programme could end up as another drain on the resources of the commission. He said at the moment there was no board with state representatives for the commission, adding that with the current status it would be difficult for citizens to participate in the programme . “Presently, the…
…NLC, TUC kick, Experts, stakeholders lampoon palliatives plans, suggest alternatives The Senate has approved President Bola Tinubu’s request for $800 million borrowing from the World Bank. The president’s request was in a letter read by Godswill Akpabio, Senate President, at the plenary on Thursday. Tinubu, in the letter, explained that the loan would be used to scale up the national social safety net programme. Attached with the request was a decision by the Federal Government to transfer the sum of N8,000 monthly to 12 million poor and low-income households for six months. He said the money would…
You may have seen it. The list, of course. Those who think that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not moving fast enough to appoint ministers have offered to help. They have composed their own ministerial list for him and shared it on social media. It’s trending now. Just one look at it, however, and you would know that it’s an improbable list, even for a Banana republic. It didn’t make sense. Going by the list, not a few commentators are already relishing the prospects of Adams Oshiomhole as Minister of Works; Nasir el-Rufai as Minister of Interior; and Nyesom…
Phrank Shaibu, Special Assistant on Public Communications to the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has condemned President Bola Tinubu’s plan to distribute N8,000 to 12 million homes for six months as a flagrant attempt to steal public funds. Tinubu’s plan to spend $800 million on palliatives under an opaque arrangement, Shaibu said in a statement on Thursday, was reminiscent of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s conditional cash transfer and COVID-19 intervention initiative, which saw politicians keep food and provisions in their homes while the poor went hungry. He said Buhari’s interventionist programmes only ended up making Nigerians poorer…
The kick-off of the new eight-club African Football League has been confirmed for Oct. 20 by FIFA president Gianni Infantino. He made the announcement at the General Assembly of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in Abidjan on Thursday. The competition has been drastically scaled down from the original proposal of 24 clubs as CAF announced a 15.7 million dollars loss for the 2022/2023 financial year. “It will have eight great teams, which will be followed in the future with a bigger version,” Infantino told delegates. “We have to invest in African club football as well as national team…