Obi Kingz Blog

The president has made several efforts to curb corruption in the country, but due to some fault of his own making, not a lot has changed since 2015. President Muhammadu Buhari's anti-corruption efforts have not yielded significant results after four years [@ObiKingzBlog] ...

Atiku Abubakar The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, last night said he would consider granting amnesty to corrupt persons willing to surrender their loot. Atiku said this while appearing with his running mate, Mr. Peter Obi, at a live town hall programme hosted by ace journalist, Kadaria Ahmed. He said he would consider drawing a line during which corrupt former public officials would be allowed to return their loot without prosecution. According to him, after then, strong policies would be put in place to prevent and fight corruption. Atiku, according to Premium Times, said it would be more prudent to allow looters return their assets to Nigeria tax-free and invest them in order to boost the country’s economy. The host, Kadaria Ahmed, suggested that Atiku’s proposal could be morally problematic, especially since he has faced corruption allegations since leaving office as Nigeria’s vice president...

Yinka-Odumakin Berates Tinubu for backing Awo’s ‘enemy’ The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, said wednesday that it has rejected President Muhammadu Buhari/Yemi Osinbajo’s presidential aspiration, and the political activities of the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu, ahead of the general election. Reacting to a purported endorsement of President Buhari’s re-election bid in Ibadan, Oyo State, by a group led by Ayo Fasanmi, under the guise of Afenifere, the National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, said the highest Yoruba umbrella body is not supporting the APC candidate due to his actions against the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The body also dissociated itself from Tinubu and Osinbajo, stating that “the godfather of this fake group is of course Bola Tinubu, who was made governor by Afenifere in 1999, when the real man was not known.” According to Afenifere, “mainstream Yo...

Notore Chemical Industries Plc Wednesday announced its unaudited results for the first quarter(Q1) ended December 31, 2018, showing resilience and improved performance. Although revenue fell largely due to plant downtime caused by maintenance programme, operating profit increased significantly. Specifically, Notore posted a revenue of N4.32 billion Q1 ended December 2018, which is for 2019 financial year, compared with N5.99 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2018 financial year. Notore recorded an operating profit of N2.99 billion in Q1 2019, showing a jump of 412 per cent over its Q1 2018 operating profit of N0.58 billion. However, the net finance cost of N3.09 billion in Q1 of 2019, made Notore to end the period with a loss of N93 million, which market operators said is a significant improvement compared to the loss of N1.958 billion recorded in the corresponding period of the previous year. According to the company, th...

Benedict-Peters The founder of the Aiteo Group, Benedict Peters has been awarded the ‘African Icon of the Year’ at the Foreign Investment Network (FIN) and Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources Honorary Patrons Dinner and Awards Night held in Abuja recently. The award was an acknowledgement of Peters’ significant contribution to oil and gas development in Africa, his visionary leadership, distinguished service and transformational disruption of a sector dominated by international oil companies. A statement explained that the Aiteo Group’s 20-year evolution through Africa’s oil and gas sector has been exemplary as well as revolutionary – going from a downstream start-up to becoming a leading integrated energy conglomerate with strategic investments in hydrocarbon (or commodities) exploration and production. Speaking at the award ceremony, the Chief Executive Officer of Foreign Investment Network, Michael Dragoyevich said: “Mr Peters has earned a u...

Chairman of the Nosak Group, Dr. Toni Ogunbor The Chairman of the Nosak Group, Dr. Toni Ogunbor, has called on the federal government to checkmate the increase in smuggling activities in the country. The menace, according to him has continued to result to huge loss of revenue for the government and lack of accountability in the Customs thereby serving as damage to the economy. He said this during an annual retreat for senior management of the Nosak Group, an indigenous Nigerian industrial conglomerate in Lagos recently. The event was to review 2018 and to chart objectives for 2019 leveraging on the Group’s comparative advantage. The theme of the retreat, according to a statement, was: “Strengthen the chain through the customer.” Ogunbor explained: “Government should put in competent hands who will ensure the right things are done to oversee the border. A secured border will help to put an end to or ameliorate the current unholy price war experience...

Peter Amangbo Zenith Bank Plc is increasing its focus on consumer lending as lower oil prices weigh on the economy, hurting its business customers. The Lagos-based bank is expecting to expand retail loans as a percentage of total credit to about four per cent this year from less than one per cent in 2018, its Chief Executive Officer, Peter Amangbo said in interview with Bloomberg at the bank’s headquarters. It will achieve this by making a bigger push into personal loans, car financing and mortgages, he said. “There is a lot we’re doing on revenue,” Amangbo said. “We expect our retail franchise to grow. Our electronic business, our digital banking is growing.” Zenith is making the shift as a 30 per cent drop in oil prices since October hinders the nation’s main export and foreign-currency earner, damping demand for funding. Nigerian banks are increasingly tapping into digital technology to reach the 50 million unbanked people in a nation of 200 ...

Azuka Azinge The acting Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Azuka Azinge, Wednesday commended the National Assembly on the passage of the Companies and Allied Matters Bill by a concurrence. She said the move represented, “One of the biggest piece of legislative review in the history of the National Assembly.” According to her, the legislation will ensure the ease of starting and growing businesses in the country, facilitate appropriate regulation for MSMEs; enhance transparency and shareholder engagement as well as align regulatory framework with international best practice for competitiveness. In a statement by CAC’s spokesman, Godfrey Ike, Azinge said the bill would further make Nigeria an investment destination of choice within the context of a global economy. The legislation, among other things, seeks to repeal the extant statute (the Companies and Allied Matters Act, Cap C20, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004) and enact a...

Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has concluded plans to collaborate with the Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna, and other tertiary institutions on research into emerging technologies in the telecommunications sector. The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta made the disclosure in Minna, Niger State, during a recent conference with academia, industry and other stakeholders in the North-central region. Danbatta, who was represented by the Director of Spectrum Administration at NCC, Austin Nwaulune, described the academia as a very important stakeholder in research and development. “For growth to happen you need research into emerging issues and emerging technologies and that is why we are partnering academic institutions, which are the homes of research and development. “The universities are institutions of research, that is their core area. So partnering t...

Afe Babalol Legal luminary and founder, Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD), Chief Afe Babalola, has expressed his excitement for winning the 2018 Obafemi Awolowo Leadership Prize award. The front line lawyer was named the winner of the prize by the chairman of the selection committee and former Secretary-General, Commonwealth of Nation, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, at the unveiling of the new look Tribune, held at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Ikeja, Lagos, on Tuesday. His emergence as the latest winner of the prestigious award came four years after former South-African President, Mr Thabo Mbeki, won the award in 2014. Earlier in 2012, Nobel Prize winner, Professor Wole Soyinka, had won the award, with Chief Afe Babalola emerging as the third distinguished personality to win the award in 2018. Speaking on Wednesday with the Nigerian Tribune on this feat, Chief Afe Babalola said “when I heard the news, I was very happy. It was a minister who called ...

Garba Shehu The Presidency wednesday gave reasons why President Muhammadu Buhari did not seek support for the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates during the party’s rally held in Owerri, Imo State, on Tuesday. It said the President addressed a mixed crowd of voters across political parties, who were united in endorsing his re-election, despite having their local candidates for other positions. The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, while speaking to journalists, explained that in such a mixed crowd, the President could not speak of support for the APC candidates alone but must talk about all the parties. Shehu noted that this did not mean that the President did not want the APC candidates to win elections in Imo State, saying that Buhari was solidly behind his party’s candidates. “The massive crowd that gathered to welcome President Buhari in Imo State was made up of not only supporters of ...

The recent launch of the federal government’s Strategic Revenue Growth Initiatives (SRGIs) has re-invited attention to a major inhibitor of the country’s development: low revenue generation capabilities. At the launch of the SGRIs in Abuja last week, the Finance Minister, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, said though the country is widely lauded as having the largest economy on the continent, it remains a challenge to translate her wealth into revenues. The minister admitted the situation had hobbled previous administrations and imposes enormous constraints on the present one. “We have therefore faced difficulty in mobilising domestic funds necessary for human capital development and infrastructure that are both drivers of sustainable economic growth. Our current revenue to GDP ratio of about seven per cent is unsatisfactory and we are keen on exerting all efforts in turning this around,” she said. This indicates that in the current fiscal climate and re...

Muhammadu Buhari Following his refusal to heed calls for the reversal of the alleged unconstitutional suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, a socio-cultural group, Middle Belt Forum (MBF), yesterday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to resign his position as president. The group, in conjunction with other groups notably Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Afenifere and Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) had last weekend called on President Buhari to reverse the “unconstitutional and illegal removal of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), His Lordship, Honourable Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onoghen, and called for the immediate reversal of the suspension”. In a statement issued in Abuja, the MBF, which represents 14 states of the Middle Belt region of the country, had, following the president’s constitutional breach, demanded his immediate resignation. “We the peoples of the Middle Belt region, as true Nigerians, believe in the Constitu...

Sanwo-Olu The Chairman of the Arewa Community in Lagos, Alhaji Mohammed Dandamma Yabo, has assured the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, and his deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, of the group’s support in the forthcoming elections in the state. He gave the assurance yesterday during a joint rally organised by the Sanwo Eko Support Group and Arewa Community at the National Stadium in Lagos. Speaking during the event, Yabo said the APC had been a government of positive change, adding that “Our rally is to show support for the incoming Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his deputy. “We have market leaders here present. We implore the Arewa people to vote for the APC candidates at all levels. We will give at least three million votes of Arewa youths. In his address, Sanwo-Olu lauded the Arewa support for APC at all time. He said: “I want to thank all the leaders of Arewa and to say we are all together ir...

Rotimi Amaechi The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has reiterated the federal government’s commitment to promote blue economy for safe and sustainable use of the continent’s vast sea and ocean resources. The minister disclosed this in a statement issued yesterday by the Head of Press, Ministry of Transportation, Mr. Muhammad Idris. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the blue economy is the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihood and jobs and ocean ecosystem health. The blue economy encompasses many activities, including renewable energy, fisheries, marine transport, waste management, climate change and tourism. The statement quoted the minister as saying that maritime has a key role to play in the alleviation of poverty and wealth creation, as it constitutes an integral source of income to the economy. He said the maritime sector has generated employment for many in the developing ...