IK, Linda Ikeji, others make MIPAD honourees list

In line with the United Nations’ International Decade for People of African Descent, the Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD), on Sunday, March 25, unveiled its global list of honorees tagged; “MIPAD 100 under 40” in Lagos.
Held at Eko Hotel and Suites, the aim, according to the management of MIPAD, a civil society initiative, is to celebrate high achievers of African descent.
General Manager of MIPAD, Grace Singh said that the project is in support of the United Nations resolution 68/237 which declared the years 2015 to 2024 as the International Decade for People of African Descent.
“What MIPAD does is that it identifies and ranks high achievers of African descent in Africa and in the Diaspora, people that have made outstanding achievements. We look for people that are outstanding in the society be it in politics in government or in the private sector. What we are trying to do is to create a global network of people that have done great things. They can come together exchange ideas and think of how to move the continent forward. We will be doing it twice a year. We have a lot of people of African descent who do not know what is going on in the continent,” she said.
Delivering a keynote address, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora Abike Dabiri, said that the MIPAD initiative is important in order to tell the stories of Africa by Africans themselves.
Dabiri noted that Africans in the Diaspora can help change the narratives about Africa and called on skilled professionals to play major roles in developing the continent.
Also speaking, Folusho Philips, chairman, Philips Consulting, commended MIPAD for the initiative.
Among the honouress were TV personality, IK Osakioduwa, super blogger, Linda Ikeji, Co-founder of Red Media, Debola Williams, Mark Okoye, commissioner for Economic Planning & Budget Development, Anambra State, Nigeria, Wael Ghonim, political activist, Egypt, Boglo Kenewendo, economist/consultant/member of parliament, Botswana, Aurthur Kalala Katalayi, advisor/ambassador/businessman from Democratic Republic of Congo, and a host of others.

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CBN warns bank CEOs over forex

•CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele

Bank chiefs caught frustrating efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at getting more dollars to end-users risk severe punishment, the apex bank warned yesterday.

The warning came on the backdrop of reports that lenders are setting difficult hurdles for foreign exchange (forex) end-users wanting to make purchases for Business Travel Allowances, Personal Travel Allowances, tuition payment abroad and medical bills.

More than $2 billion has been injected by the CBN into the retail end of the forex market to meet demands by genuine users. The regulator deployed examiners and ‘mystery’ shoppers to the banks to monitor compliance with the intervention funds’ disbursement guidelines and possible abuse by the lenders.

CBN spokesman, Isaac Okorafor confirmed that the regulator had received complaints from customers over frustrations which they were meant to go through in getting foreign exchange for invisible items.

He therefore warned commercial banks and other dealers to desist from sabotaging the efforts aimed at making life easier for foreign exchange end-users.

He urged the general public to report to it any bank that fails to meet customers’ needs after due documentation and reiterated the regulator’s determination to deal with any official or institution found to be sabotaging the operations of foreign exchange market in whatever guise.

Yesterday’s warning came after a similar threat was made to banks mid-February, in which the CBN also threatened the bank officials with heavy sanctions.

The statement reads: “Any bank that fails to comply with the rules of this and other extant forex guidelines shall be sanctioned, which will affect the executive and other officers of the bank,” CBN Director, Financial Markets Department, Alvan Ikoku said in circular to all banks.

The apex bank explained that the forward sale by banks to their customers shall be for mature or past due obligations and should not exceed 60 days.

It said the special intervention will be via a “wholesale bid” whereby commercial lenders will apply for a particular dollar amount as opposed to submitting individual customer demand. The lenders will then allocate the dollar to their customers, the CBN said in a mail to commercial banks, asking them to maintain the bid spread of 50 Kobo.

“Successful banks shall send their returns to Financial Markets Department, 24 hours after the release of the intervention results. After release of the results, banks shall sell forwards to match the forward purchases from the CBN,” it said.

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Presidency insists Buhari’s anti-graft battle will go on Share 0

Senators, others face legal tussle over Magu

Nothing will stop President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration’s war against corruption, the Presidency said yesterday.

It said that not even the strong resistance being put up by the opposition and its calculated actions to thwart the efforts at sanitising the system would force the government to give up on the crusade.

In a statement by the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the Presidency recalled that Nigerians gave their votes in 2015 to Buhari because of his commitment to rooting out corruption as one of the cardinal policies of his election campaign.

He said: “Let me say one thing. Those whose illicit ways of accumulating money have been stopped will criticise this government, but all that will not derail the unfaltering commitment of the President, Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to the war against corruption.

“He is aware that this was one of the main reasons Nigerians, in their millions, put their trust in him; the main reason they voted him into power in 2015.

“To keep that trust of ordinary Nigerians who voted him into the office, he has vowed to give corruption a good fight. He will not let them down.”

The Presidential spokesman also admitted that so far, the battle to uproot corruption has not been easy as corruption has been fighting back.

“Corruption has been fighting back vehemently, finding accomplices in various forms and guises. Nevertheless, the Buhari administration will not relent,” Shehu said, adding that the days when corruption reigned indiscriminately were gone for good.

He said: “Nothing will return our country to those sad, old days of wanton thievery that have plunged us into the economic mess from which Nigeria is currently recovering. The war against corruption in Nigeria is one of those clashes between good and evil, where good is determined to triumph.”

He dismissed rumours that members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) were being spared, saying that all are equal before the law.

Highlighting the various measures introduced to promote transparency by the administration, Shehu disclosed that upon directives by the President, the National Hajj Commission audited accommodation agents in both Makkah and Madina in Saudi Arabia. More than $16.7 million will be saved by the paying pilgrims this year.

The statement reads: “Each Hajj pilgrim is being saved between 600 to 1,000 Saudi Riyals, which is about N60, 000-N100,000, from accommodation, money that had lined the pockets of agents in the past. This year, houses are being rented directly from owners.”

Shehu praised ordinary citizens for embracing the whistleblower policy by “taking extraordinary risks to expose corruption”.

On the rehabilitation of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja and the relocation of flight services to Kaduna for six weeks, the presidential aide said the government and people of Kaduna should think hard to devise ways by which the social and economic benefits brought to Kaduna in this period would not depart the city with the reopening of the Airport in Abuja.

He said: “The government of Nigeria has done a big thing for Kaduna. You must show appreciation of this by supporting the administration.”

On the cash releases for capital projects in excess of a record N1 trillion in last year’s budget, Shehu praised Works, Power & Housing Minister Babatunde Raji Fashola with the record of being the first-ever minister to ride on all the federal roads across the nation.

He listed the Mambila Power Project, the Lagos-Kano, Lagos-Calabar and Port Harcourt-Maiduguri railway modernisation and the new Presidential Initiative on Fertiliser (PIF) as other projects dear to the President’s heart.

According to him, the impact of the PIF was already being felt in the reduction by half in the price of fertiliser.

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JAMB: Parents, candidates call for more centres, extension of time for registration

Some parents and candidates for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in Abuja have called on JAMB to increase the time frame for registration as well as registration centres.

In separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday, they said considering the challenges faced so far, the number of centres and four week period for registration were not sufficient.

Mrs Vicky Anyembe, a parent who spoke with NAN at one of the accredited Computer Based Test (CBT) Centres said it took her child three days to register for the examination.

Aymembe said it took her child three days to register because of the slow internet at the centre.

“We have been leaving the house every day before 6 a.m to ensure we are among the first to register but no avail because the centre has been having poor internet.

“If you ask me, I will say we are not ready for this computerised process because people are suffering to register.

“Government should do something about it maybe create more centres to ease the process.

“Some of these children have to return to the bank because of one issue or the other and the bank is not close by; it is dangerous sending these children across the highway,’’ she said.

The parent also urged the government to take nearest of residents into consideration before picking centres, adding that whatever is needed for the registration to be successful should be within a given environment.

Mr Adams John, another parent, complained of overcrowding in the banks as a result of the limited number of banks within the area.

John said the process took his boys three days to complete their registration processes, and called on the government to device other means of making the process less burdensome.

“I suggest that we can go back to buying scratch cards so that the children can register at their own convenience within the given time frame by JAMB.

“Also the issue of limited banks has to be addressed if the authorities really want the candidates to register within the four weeks period; or there may be need to extend the time,’’ he said.

Master Sani Ismail, a candidate commended JAMB for the new innovations in the registration process.

Ismail, however, called for an extension of time for the registration.

“The process of registration is okay,   there has been an improvement but the problem we have is the time, it is too short.

“This is a nationwide examination; JAMB gave four weeks which is too short. I suggest that from next year they can make it two months so that people can register.’’

Ismail also appealed to JAMB to make the subject brochures available for students so they could cross check it before registering.

Another candidate, Miss Tope Adigun, said she had spent three days trying to register because of the slow internet at the centre.

Adigun called on the government to increase the registration centres, saying with the number of candidates we have this year and the challenge of poor internet it would not be sufficient.

“If we in the city are going through all this stress imagine what people in the villages will be going through,’’ she said.

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