Dortmund Hit with Injury Woes ahead of Monaco Clash

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Borussia Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel has serious personnel problems to resolve as they prepare to host free-scoring Monaco in today’s UEFA Champions League quarter-final first leg. The other game of the night is between Juventus and Barcelona.

“It’s complicated. There are a lot of things we have to deal with,” said Tuchel ahead of the clash at Dortmund’s imposing Signal Iduna Park.

The Dortmund boss has a mounting injury list and is rushing to get the likes of Japan midfielder Shinji Kagawa, winger Andre Schuerrle, midfielder Julian Weigl and defender Lukasz Piszczek fit.

The quartet all sat out Dortmund’s 4-1 thumping at Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
“There will be players coming back, we don’t know in what condition they will be in, but we need them with strength, form and energy,” added Tuchel.
At least chief playmaker Marco Reus returned to training on Sunday after a month sidelined by a hamstring injury and could be an option.

Even an appearance off the bench would boost the hosts’ chances in what is likely to be a high-tempo clash between two teams who like to attack.
Monaco fully deserve their last-eight berth having seen off Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City with a stunning 3-1 second-leg win at home to progress on away goals after losing 5-3 in England.

The French league leaders — who score on average nearly three goals a game in Ligue 1 — have problems of their own with right-back Djibril Sidibe set to miss out after being hospitalised with an appendicitis over the weekend.

Highly rated defensive midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko is suspended, meaning Joao Moutinho should start in central midfield.
Despite their injury woes Dortmund are confident of beating Monaco over two legs to reach the Champions League semi-finals for the first time in four years, when they lost the 2013 final to Bayern Munich in London.

Dortmund have lost just one of their last 12 home games in Europe and Signal Iduna Park will be rocking.
“We’re in the quarter-finals but we know we’re facing a very difficult opponent,” said Dortmund captain Marcel Schmelzer.
“Even if we beat Monaco we still can’t speak about winning the Champions League because there will be other strong teams still in the competition.”

Dortmund top-scorer Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who has hit seven Champions League goals this season in a haul of 32 in all competitions, will be looking to remind Monaco what they missed out on.
The French side allowed the Gabon striker to slip through their grasp during a loan spell in 2010/11.

Monaco are enjoying a stellar season and their free-flowing attack has so far netted more than 130 goals in all competitions.
The only blip was their 4-1 mauling by Paris Saint-Germain in the French League Cup final at the start of April.

Monaco squeezed past Angers on Saturday with a 1-0 win as Radamel Falcao scored his 25th goal of the season.
He is set to partner rising star Kylian Mbappe, 18, up front.
Monaco coach Leonardo Jardim is concerned about the short turnaround in a busy — and pivotal — month for his exciting, young side.

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Ghana Economy intimidating Nigeria Economy

Ghana is performing better than Nigeria when it comes to using Point of Sale (PoS) channel for payments during transactions, a report has revealed.

According to Indexmundi, Ghana ranks second in Africa regarding PoS adoption as reflected by the proportion of transactions made via PoS machines while Nigeria ranks seventh. Paxnigerian.com, which quoted the report, noted that while 80 per cent of all transactions in Ghana are via PoS, only 21 per cent of total transactions in Nigeria are via PoS.

“South Africa is leading in Africa with 91 per cent followed by Ghana 80 per cent while Tunisia is third with 79 per cent. Other countries ahead of Nigeria are Egypt, Morocco and Kenya in that order,” it added

According to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the PoS density per 100,000 people in Nigeria is 13, while India’s is 67; Uganda, 453; Namibia, 338. The target for Nigeria, according to the bank, is to meet Brazil’s PoS deployment rate of 2,247 per 100,000 people by 2020.

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German Multinational Injects N7bn into Nigerian Economy

Gboyega Akinsanmi

German multinational, Beiersdorf Global, has said that it has invested N7 billion in the domestic economy of Nigeria in the last 18 months despite heinous economic crisis and intractable security challenges the country has been contending with recently.

Also, the global skin-care giant has disclosed that over 150 jobs have directly been created while more than 1,000 indirect jobs had been created indirectly with the injection of N7 billion into the Nigerian economy.

An Executive Board member for Americas, Russia, India, Middle East & Africa, Mr. Stefan De Loecker, disclosed this at the unveiling of the firm’s Nigerian office and production centre in Alausa, Lagos recently.

De Loecker unveiled the company’s Nigerian office alongside Country Manager of Beiersdorf Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Harrison, and Executive Secretary of Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, Ms. Yewande Sadiku, among others.
After the inauguration, De Loecker disclosed that Beiersdorf “has invested N7 billion in Nigeria. We have also created over 150 direct employment placements. We are going to create more jobs in the future”.

The board member explained that the fund was basically invested in setting up a subsidiary of Beiersdorf Global in Alausa, Ikeja and constructing its production centre in Matori, Mushin.

He said Beiersdorf “has set its production centre in Nigeria already. The production site is ready. We have done test-running. Currently, we are importing our products. But by September, we will start production”.

“Beiersdorf Global has been in Nigeria for over 50 years as a brand. But we believe that the best way to serve our consumers is really to be in Nigeria. The market size of Nigeria is huge.

“Nigeria will become 14th largest market in the world by 2050. What we do now is commercialise the international range of Nigeria here in Nigeria. We can look at the right range or the right format. We can assure Nigeria of good quality,” the board member explained.

At the inauguration, Harrison said he was excited about the prospect the future holds for Beiersdorf Nigeria, thereby promising to delight its teeming customers with strong brand and product innovation.

The country manager said the investment emphasised how important the Nigerian market “is for Beiersdorf. The government has continuously supported us as part of the industrialisation initiative, and today we will like to express our gratitude to all those responsible”.

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Mr president's "Buhari" Absence in weekly FEC meeting attracts lots of questions - Osinbajo says

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo

• FG says president not ill, he’s attending to other issues
• Assures Nigerians meningitis outbreak under control
•  Directors nominated for CBN board

Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari’s conspicuous absence from Wednesday’s weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, caused a stir, reawakening speculations about his health and capacity to run the country.

Owing to the president’s absence, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo presided over the meeting.

Expectedly, his absence led to speculations among Nigerians, as many were of the view that the president, whose health has been fragile in recent months, may have suffered a relapse and had possibly been flown abroad for treatment.

But the Minister of Information, Mr. Lai Mohammed, while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, debunked such assumptions, explaining that the council was aware of the controversies generated by the president’s absence.

He dismissed the notion of a resurgence of the president’s illness, stressing that the president was neither ill, nor had he embarked on any trip outside the country.

According to him, the president only looked at the meeting’s agenda and opted to yield the floor to the vice-president to enable him attend to other issues.

Buttressing this, Mohammed said Buhari would be back on Thursday, arguing that the president’s absence for only one day did not imply that anything had gone wrong.

“Clearly, when we came in this morning, Mr. President was not in the chamber and the vice-president presided over the meeting.

“That has sparked a lot of controversies and agitation among the people. Mr. President is in town. Mr. President is attending to other issues.
“He looked at the light agenda and decided that the vice-president should preside. Mr. President is not ill. He’s not sick.

“It is not unusual for the president to ask the VP to preside. We know it is not unusual the interest that has been shown, given the fact that the president was away for awhile for treatment.
“So we are not surprised that people may be wondering, is he ill again? Tomorrow morning, he will be back in the office.

“It is not unusual, even if the president is hale and hearty, for the VP to preside over a council meeting even when the president is around,” Mohammed said.

Despite his absence, the president on Wednesday announced the appointments of five Non-Executive Directors for Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in accordance with Sections 6(1)(d) and 10(1) and (2) of the CBN (Establishment) Act.
A statement by the president’s chief spokesman, Mr. Femi Adesina, said Buhari had forwarded the list of the nominees to the Senate for confirmation.

The nominees are: Professor Ummu Ahmed Jalingo (North-east); Professor Justitia Odinakachukwu Nnabuko (South-east); Professor Mike I. Obadan (South-south); Dr. Abdu Abubakar (North-west) and Adeola Adetunji (South-west).

Also briefing journalists on Wednesday on the status of the meningitis outbreak ravaging some parts of the country, the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, said the disease was under control, adding that 420,000 victims of the disease had been vaccinated so far.

Ehanire, who said Zamfara State was the worst hit of all the 16 affected states accounting for 70 per cent of the victims of the disease, further disclosed that the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, visited the state on Monday and met with traditional rulers on how to jointly contain the disease.

He also disclosed that an additional 823,000 vaccines approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO), with a 10-year protection life span, would arrive the country from the United Kingdom at the weekend, adding that the vaccines would be moved to Sokoto.

He also disclosed that there are currently 4,637 cases of the disease, with 489 fatalities recorded and 207 confirmed through laboratory tests.

Ehanire added that the vaccines with the 10-year life span were of greater quality than the ones used in the past, which he said had a protective life span of two or three years.

In his briefing, the Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Jubril, said FEC approved a memo by the Ministry of Environment for the ratification of a convention on mercury which he said had been affecting the health of the people and causing illnesses such as respiratory diseases.

He also said mercury affects pregnant women and unborn children.
He said the memo was the offshoot of a meeting of 2,013 international organisations held in Japan comprising 40 countries, 18 of which were African nations.

He said with the approval of the memo by FEC on Wednesday, Nigeria was ready to join the international community.
The minister also said the roadmap on the clean-up of Ogoniland was being drawn up.

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