Akwa Pluz

The Senate on Thursday passed the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Bill, 2017, the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) reports. The bill was passed following the adoption of a report of the Senate Committee on Trade and Investment on the Bill. Presenting the report, Chairman of the committee, Sen. Fatima Raji-Rasaki, said the bill would help to develop businesses in Nigeria. She said that when assented to, the bill would promote fair, efficient and competitive markets in the country. “This bill seeks to facilitate access by all citizens to safe products and secure the protection of rights for all consumers in Nigeria,” she said. In his remarks, the Deputy President of the Senate, Mr Ike Ekweremadu, who presided at the plenary, thanked the lawmakers for ensuring the passage of the bill. Ekweremadu said that the bill would assist in the ease of doing business in the country. He said that Nigeria appeared to have been found wanting in the area of business, adding that

Zenith Bank Plc has raised $2.1 billion through Eurobond 2022 issue. It was more than 300 per cent oversubscribed. The $500 million five-year senior unsecured benchmark bond (144A/REGS) was issued by the Tier-1 lender on the Irish Stock Exchange. The bank’s Eurobond issue recorded success on three counts: pricing, subscription level and global appeal. Details of the issue show that the subscription level makes the issue highest by any non-sovereign and non-supranational company in sub-Saharan Africa. The issue, the lender said, is in addition to the existing $500 million which matures in April, 2019. The bond was issued at par with both coupon rate and yield to maturity rate priced at 7.375 per cent, representing 50 basis points better than the sovereign of 7.875 per cent. The rating of both the sovereign and Zenith Bank is B+ with the bond issue also rated B/B+. Financial pundits said the 300 per cent oversubscription indicates a huge endorsement of the Zenith brand as a re

•‘Second term call hasty’ Nobel Laureate Prof Wole Soyinka has added his voice to the on-going agitations for restructuring of the country, saying that Nigeria is over-centralised. The eminent writer also gave his backing to the clamour for the decetralisation of the police. “My own position is that people shouldn’t allow themselves be put up by those who try to cheat on the expression, ‘restructuring.’ It doesn’t matter by what name you call it. We all know that this nation was deconstructed and what we live in right now, as a nation, is not allowing structuring that expresses the true will of Nigerians,” he said. Soyinka spoke yesterday in Lagos, when he announced the 10 Nigerian writers, who would be leaving for Lebanon in a cultural exchange programme, The Sail Project, between The Wole Soyinka Foundation and Cedar Institute, University of Lebanon. According to him, every Nigerian knows what restructuring is all about, whether it is called reconfiguring, return to 

Samuel Collins, the 31-year-old man shot dead by unknown gunmen on Saturday in Yenagoa, is not a corps member, an official of the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) in Bayelsa, has said. Mr Mathew Ngobua, Head, Public Relations Unit, NYSC office Yenagoa, made the clarification on Monday in Yenagoa in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). He said that checks conducted at NYSC database revealed that the name of the victim was not in the record. He described reports that the victim was a corps member as “misleading,’’ adding that the security of corps members was top priority of the management of the NYSC in Bayelsa. NAN reports that Collins was until his death, a contract security guard. He was shot by unknown gunmen and dispossessed of his mobile phone, money and other valuables in Kpansia suburb of Yenagoa. The Police Public Relations Officer at the Bayelsa Command, Mr Asinim Butswat, had confirmed the incident to NAN on Sunday in Yenagoa. Butswat also

The Managing Director of Clearline Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO), Dr. Isaac Akintunji, has reiterated the need for best practices in corporate governance in the health sector, particularly among the Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs). This, according to him, will instill public confidence in the health insurance scheme and engender growth in the industry. Akintunji, who disclosed this to  The Nation,  said it was imperative for corporate organisations to ensure strict adherence to best practices and ethical standards, adding that  organisations needed to put sound management structures in place and promote business integrity. Akintunji, a life member of the Institute of Directors, together with two Executive Directors of Clearline HMO, Dr Babatunde Ladele and Mr Oladapo Kolawole,  urged emphasis on business integrity and enduring values. Dr. Akintunji and Dr. Ladele are medical professionals, while Rev. Kolawole is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountan

We all want to live long enough in sound health (body and mind) to see our dreams come true, and have the agility enough to enjoy it. However, in recent times, there have been significant occurrences and humongous cases of individuals (especially those in their early 30s to late 50s) coming down with the unforgiving disease called cancer – in this case,  Lung Cancer . Many a time, we work our bodies so hard that we pay little or no attention to the slight indicators and signals that it communicates to us on a daily basis. We sometimes dig our graves with our teeth by consuming all-sort of solid (food), liquids (drinks), and gas (smokes) in the name of enjoyment and having too much money. I do not care how intelligent, talented, or hardworking you are, you definitely need your body to carry “you” into the future you so much dream and work towards. In setting the tone for this article, the writer bears in mind our sundry cultural beliefs and nuances; most of which are mere con

  Former Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy has signed for Ligue 1 side Lorient five days after being cleared of rape. The left-back, 29, whose City contract expired in the summer, has signed a two-year deal with the French club. He was  cleared of raping a woman  and attempting to rape another at Chester Crown Court on Friday. That followed a trial in January when Mendy was  cleared of six counts of rape  and one of sexual assault. Mendy became the  world’s most expensive defender  when City paid Monaco £52m to sign the France defender in 2017. City’s director of football Txiki Begiristain described him as “one of the world’s best full-backs” when the highly rated defender signed. He won the Premier League in his first season with City before being part of the France squad that claimed the 2018 World Cup in Russia. However, he last played competitive football in August 2021, appearing for City at Tottenham Hotspur. Mendy was arrested later that month and remanded in custody for f

At least 38 universities across the country have increased their tuition fees due to poor funding by federal and state governments. The Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Ibadan Chapter, Dr. Deji Omole, stated this in a statement in Abuja on Monday. The statement which assessed the two years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, lamented that the government had made Nigerians poorer. Omole said the public education was not taken seriously because “children of the rich and those in high offices” do not attend school in Nigeria. “The latest increment might be attributed to poor funding by the federal and state governments as ASUU poorly rated the President Muhammadu Buhari in the area of funding of university education,” the statement said. ASUU also noted that it would be difficult for any Nigeria university to compete globally due to inadequate budgetary allocation to the educational sector. Findings revealed that student

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Tuesday made fresh appointments and deployments of top executive officers across the value chain of its operations. A statement in Abuja by Mr Ndu Ughamadu, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, reported the NNPC Group Managing Director, Dr Maikanti Baru, as saying that the new appointments would help position the Corporation for challenges ahead and fill the gaps created by statutory staff retirements. Ughamadu said 55 top management staff were affected in the exercise. “Under the new arrangement, Roland Ewubare, formerly Managing Director of the Integrated Data Services Limited, IDSL, moves to the National Petroleum Investment Management Services, NAPIMS, as the new Group General Manager while Diepriye Tariah, former Group General Manager and Senior Technical Assistant to Baru, takes over from Ewubare. “Malami Shehu, Executive Director Operations of the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, KRPC, w

• NPDC eyes 500,000bpd oil production Oil prices hit a more than two-year high yesterday after major producers said the global market was on its way toward rebalancing, while Turkey threatened to cut oil flows from Iraq’s Kurdistan region toward its ports. The November Brent crude futures contract was up $1.51, or 2.5 per cent, at $58.37 a barrel, its highest since July, 2015. United States (U.S.) West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery rose $1.02, or two percent, to $51.68 a barrel, close to highs last seen in May. “It’s all driven by the idea  that the production cut is starting to work and the rebalance is underway,” said Gene McGillian, director of market research at Tradition Energy in New York. Even as both contracts rallied, concerns about U.S. production growth weighed on WTI, widening the spread between the two, he said. The discount of the WTI to Brent futures widened to $6.61, the widest since August 2015. The Organisation of the Pe