Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun (photo), has announced that the $300million dollars Diaspora bond approved by the National Assembly would be released in March this year. The Minister revealed this while hosting the Senior Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, in Abuja on Tuesday. “The Diaspora bond which the National Assembly has approved is...

The President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari (photo), on Tuesday announced the release of $55.5 million to all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for women’s healthcare project. Buhari, who declared this during the inauguration of the Primary Health Care Centre for Universal Health Coverage in Nigeria at Kuchigoro, in Abuja, said that each of the 36 states and FCT would...

With the alarming rate of attacks on gas pipelines by militants in Niger Delta, the Federal Government of Nigeria on Tuesday ordered the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to search for alternative energy sources, with the aim of resolving the problems of irregular power supply in the country. According to the Group General Manager, Renewable Energy Division of...

Unemployment and underemployment have been on the rise in Nigeria, a country of 189, 559, 502 people as of January 1, 2017. The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in the third quarter of 2016, puts the unemployment rate at 108.03 million from the 106.69 million in Q2 2016. With about half of the population made up of youth, unemployment rate has reached 45%. Nearly one in two graduates is...

Italian lawyers have claimed that Nigeria's former president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (photo), and Diezani Alison-Madueke, the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, received $466 million bribe, as part of a $1.3 billion contract involving Eni and Shell. Daily Nation revealed that court documents filed late last month in Milan outlined a case against 11 people, including Eni, Shell...

The Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode (photo), has signed the state’s 2017 Budget into law, with the assurance of ensuring fiscal discipline in its implementation. Speaking while signing the budget at the Lagos House, Ikeja, Ambode said that the state government will continue to build an all-inclusive economy all through the year. According to Vanguard news, the governor on November...

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola (photo), has restated the need for the electricity distribution companies (DisCos) in Nigeria to intensify efforts at providing a better service to their customers this year. According to the Minister, operators are to sacrifice more than they have already done in order to improve services, as customers are the essence of their being...

As part of the agricultural programme for 2017, the Presidential Amnesty Programme Office has announced plans to create 10, 000 farms with an estimated annual total revenue generation capacity of N58 billion (almost $185million). According to Paul Boroh (photo, left), the Coordinator of the programme and Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta affairs, if 10, 000 ex-agitators are...

In Cote d’Ivoire, hundreds of trucks loaded with cocoa which is to be exported are blocked at the Abidjan port, AFP reveals. There are 700 trucks overall blocked here at the port of Abidjan, said Moussa Koné, head of the National Syndicate of Producers for Progress. In San Pédro, second port of the country, trucks loaded with cocoa have been parked for days, he added. According to various...

In Madagascar, free land transfer to inheritors after death which came into force in January 2016, has been extended to June 2017. This was announced by the nation’s president at the wish announcement ceremony on Jan 6, 2017, at Iavoloha. The measure was part of the president’s electoral pledges. It aims to facilitate land-related procedures for inheritors. However, though it is effective,...