₦airaland Forum

Guinness Nigeria PLC has moved its corporate headquarters from Lagos, Nigeria to Ghana.

Sources familiar with the matter told Peoples Gazette that the brewery makers were only moving their headquarters from Lagos and not completely relocating from Nigeria.

The relocation comes amid harsh economic conditions stifling business operations in Nigeria. The nation has in the past weeks suffered telling fuel scarcity and perpetual blackout occasioned collapsed national grid.

Earlier in the week, diesel, which is used to power most industrial power generators sold as high as N540 per litre.

Nonetheless, the brewery company, in a statement reassured Nigerians of their commitment to keep investing in the country. They were however quiet about relocating their headquarters.

The company also denied being chased away by harsh business environment in Nigeria. But economists believe this was just to avoid riling up Nigerian authorities as the company still has its largest African market and investments in Nigeria.

Commencing operations in Nigeria in 1962, the brewery company has been coordinating it West African operations from its Ikeja headquarters until recently.

The development will place Guinness Nigeria in the league of other businesses like Unilever and Dunlop that have left Nigeria for Ghana.

GENES11S:
No it's your click-bait headline that is fake. I don't know what you get from misinformation.

Totilopussylick:
Fake news

LONDON, March 7 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson rejected calls on Monday for Britain to ease visa requirements for Ukrainian refugees fleeing conflict, saying Britain was a generous country but it needed to maintain checks on who was arriving.

The United Nations estimates that more than 1.5 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia started bombarding its neighbour, with hundreds of thousands pouring into Poland, Romania, Slovakia and elsewhere.

Responding to criticism Britain was not doing enough and was far behind its European neighbours in helping address the continent's biggest humanitarian crisis since World War Two, Johnson said:

"We are a very, very generous country. What we want though is control and we want to be able to check." he told reporters. "I think it's sensible given what's going on in Ukraine to make sure that we have some basic ability to check who is coming in."

The British government has been condemned by charities, opposition lawmakers and France after its insistence that refugees first acquire a visa meant some Ukrainians have been stuck in the French city of Calais, unable to enter Britain.

The European Union has agreed to grant temporary residency to Ukrainians fleeing the invasion and give them access to employment, social welfare and housing for up to three years.

Britain has announced visa schemes for those who have family in the country or a willing sponsor. Media reports at the weekend said Britain had only issued about 50 visas for Ukrainians so far, although Johnson disputed that figure.

The interior ministry later said that 300 visas had been issued under the scheme, and it was increasing staff to meet demand for appointments.

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said: "There should be a simple route to sanctuary for those that are fleeing for their lives."

"The Home office is in a complete mess about this, they keep changing the rules," he told the BBC.

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Britain was not doing nearly enough. It should let refugees in and deal with the paperwork later, she said.

"Having fleeing the terror in Ukraine, spending hours and hours and hours on arduous journeys, then having to jump through bureaucratic hoops is unconscionable," she told LBC radio.

Interior minister Priti Patel told the Sun newspaper she wanted to create a humanitarian route that would allow anyone from Ukraine to come to Britain. But Europe minister James Cleverly said he did not expect the existing requirements to change.

There are clouds of uncertainty hanging over the national convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) a few weeks to the much-postponed exercise following the failure of the party’s national leadership to write a fresh notification to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) within the 21-day legal window.

Already, the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) had equally reneged in its earlier released timetable and schedule of activities, failing to start the sale of nomination forms for zonal congresses fixed to hold between Monday, February 28 to Thursday, March 3, 2022.

The Caretaker Committee had written INEC in a letter signed by the Chairman and Secretary of Caretaker Committee, Governor Mai Mala Buni and Senator John James Akpanudoedehe respectively, to notify it of its arrangement to conduct zonal congresses on Saturday, March 26, 2022.

Although the ruling party made a U-turn to fix the convention for March 26, it did not open another correspondence with the commission to notify it of the change in the arrangement for the convention, 21 days to the scheduled date.

Speaking to Sunday Sun on telephone, a source at the Commission said that he cannot authenticate the receipt of any fresh correspondent from the ruling party, saying that the commission ought to have received the fresh letter by yesterday.

“I cannot confirm to you now whether APC has written to notify the Commission of the new date, but the party was supposed to do so by yesterday to meet up with the 21 days deadline. However, I want to also add that they still have a window of writing a reminder instead of a new letter,” he said.

Another source, however, told our correspondent that the Caretaker Committee is not ready to conduct the convention, adding that the party’s leadership are pondering the option of combining the convention with the party’s primary, arguing that it will be very difficult to conduct the two exercises differently.

taxfine:
President Putin has warned those opposing Russia's actions in Ukraine "not to exacerbate the situation" by imposing more restrictions on his country.

The Russian president was speaking at a government meeting broadcast on the state-controlled Rossiya 24 news channel.

"We have no ill intentions against our neighbours," Putin claims.

And he says his government sees "no need" for its neighbours to take further action that will "make our relations worse".

"I think everyone must think about how to normalise relations, co-operate normally and develop relations normally," he adds.

It comes as foreign ministers from across the West gather in Brussels to consider how to maintain pressure on Russia.

Putin also repeats his previous claim that all action taken by the Russian military so far has been made "exclusively in response to some unfriendly actions against the Russian Federation".

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-60532634

CharleyBright:
Why
Foolish madman.
He thought the world would engage him in the brawl he was hoping for, but he got it all wrong.
There are things more powerful than guns and bullets.
Let him face the hit of economic sanctions.
Russian will be crippled soon under sanctions and when it becomes unbearable for Russian citizens, they will revolt and kick Putin out.

The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) is resuming work on the Assa North Gas Development Project in Imo State which was halted after gunmen killed six of its contractors in August last year.

BusinessDay gathered that the company has secured the assurance of the Imo state government and the relevant security agencies that its staff and contractors would not be subjected to attacks while working on the site.

“No project is worth the life of anyone,” said an official of Shell…. during a press briefing on with journalists in Lagos on Thursday.

Last August SPDC confirmed that unknown gunmen had attacked a convoy of buses taking staff of its contractor, Lee Engineering, to its Assa North Gas development project site in the Ohaji area of Imo State.

“We have since shut down the project site while the incident has been reported to the police for investigation. SPDC is working with the contractor and supporting the police through a thorough investigation of the incident and to prevent a recurrence,” it said in a statement.

Following the attacks, intense manhunt of the suspected assailants led to several arrests including that of a local criminal gang leader called Emperor.

The project could add a big boost to the domestic gas aspiration of the Federal Government for increased power generation and industrialisation

At peak production, the project is expected to produce 300 million standard cubic feet of gas per day and will be treated at SPDC JV’s Gas Processing Facility and distributed through the Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben pipeline network.

Shell took the final investment decision on the project in 2018.

SPDC is the operator of a Joint Venture involving the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which holds 55 percent; Shell 30 percent; Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited (TEPNG) 10 percent; and Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited (NAOC) 5 percent.

If activities of Hisbah cover non-Muslim residents in Kano, how do we juxtapose that with the constitutional provision that Nigeria is a secular state?
That one is constitutional provision and Hisbah is trying as much as possible to work within the context. The same constitution allows states and local governments to create some agencies to complement the efforts of the Nigeria Police Force, and other law enforcement agencies.

What are some of the acts that Hisbah considers to be offensive and go after people for?
Prostitution, sale and consumption of alcohol, acts of immorality, such as indecent dressing, particularly among females, whereby some of them dress in transparent clothes that expose their bodies, as well as conducts related to immorality.

One of the attributes of Hisbah is the destruction of beer consignments. For instance, sometime in 2020, Kano Hisbah destroyed 1,975,000 bottles of beer, valued at over N200m. Don’t you think this is counter-productive for the state’s economic prosperity?
Hisbah operates within the context of the laws governing its conduct and establishing the board. There are other sources (of revenue for state) than the sale and consumption of alcohol that can enhance the economic prosperity of the state.

But how do you react to those who say it is immoral for the Kano State Government, through Hisbah, to clamp down on beer sellers, while the state benefits from Value Added Tax on beer consumed in other states?
Well, I don’t know.

Many people were surprised recently when Hisbah announced a ban on use of mannequins for displaying clothes in boutiques. What is the rationale behind this ban?
Hisbah has always been sensitising, advising and campaigning among the users of mannequins in their shops, boutiques and large supermarkets, for them to appreciate the Islamic point of view on the use of mannequins, its advantage and the disadvantages.