Flutterwave received one of Nigeria’s most coveted payments licenses from its central bank, signaling its status as a valuable player in the financial services sector despite recent challenges with regulators in other countries.
In Nigeria, the switching and processing license gives a company the ability to complete transactions between financial services companies. Until now, Flutterwave had two lower-tier payments and money transfer licenses but relied on other companies to process and settle payments for its clients.
Flutterwave now expects to be less dependent on other parties for the payments it processes, promising faster payments and new products that it has been “quietly building.”
Interswitch (the Visa-backed company regarded as Nigeria’s payments switching pioneer), eTranzact, Unified Payments, Appzone, TeamApt and a few others have the switching license.
What does this mean for Flutterwave? Since its founding in 2016, over $16 billion worth of transactions have passed through the company’s web and mobile app channels across 34 countries in Africa and one million businesses, according to the company. It has expanded its services over time from just payments into other verticals including online stores, credit, and legal incorporation for businesses.
With the new license coming ahead of plans for a Nasdaq IPO, Flutterwave enters into the most tightly regulated sector of the payments ecosystem, one that underpins confidence in trade and commerce in the country. Among other possibilities, Flutterwave could start switching ATM transactions if it can provide the round-the-clock uptime guarantee and expensive cloud security that banks would demand.
The license will not make Flutterwave almighty just yet.
Nigeria’s payment permits are delineated to prevent any one company from being involved in too many events at the same time. In the case of the switching license, Flutterwave may not be permitted to issue payment cards, per the CBN’s guidelines (pdf). Also, the company will not easily dislodge the 20-year-old Interswitch and other incumbents already in the payments switching control room.
“Switching and processing is the toughest area in the financial space, with slim margins, heavy infrastructure costs, and very harsh regulator oversight. It will be tough for them the first two years,” one senior bank staff said. Still, he expects Flutterwave’s presence to help drive down transaction costs and increase competition. “That in itself is a good thing.”
Joseph Michael Yobo (born 6 September 1980) is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as a centre back. He was the captain of the Nigerian national team until his international football retirement in June 2014, and was Nigeria's record appearance holder. In February 2020, he was appointed assistant coach of the Super Eagles by the Nigeria Football Federation.
Injustice in OAU MAINTENANCE HOSTEL. PLEASE LIKE AND RETWEET.
Hello everyone. My name is Aisha and I’m a tired student of Obafemi Awolowo University. I’m here to talk about the injustice that is going on in my hostel, Maintenance. It seems to me like everyone has embraced this wickedness and forgotten what it means to speak up. I don’t really use Twitter, but I am tired, that’s why I’m here.
We haven’t had electricity since second week in April. This is a hostel where the least amount paid per room is 250k. The prices range from 250 thousand to 700 thousand and more! So how is it that our transformer spoilt five months ago and nothing has been done about it. How?? It’s so unfair. Many people ask me why I’m still around and if it’s
it’s so hard why don’t I just go home, and that is the wrong question to ask.
Some of us have to be in Ife for many reasons. I’m here because of work. I have a friend who literally has a business in her room, how can she leave? I know someone who had to move out of her room, even after she had just renewed her rent because she couldn’t cope. It’s pure wickedness on the part of landlords of this overtly expensive hostel. We’ve had to fetch water and carry heavy buckets every single day. We’ve had to look for places to charge every single day, in the process discomforting other innocent people. I am a remote worker who ALWAYS needs electricity, that’s why I settled for maintenance in the first place.
The worst part is, ASUU strike started AFTER we had already paid our rents, so the landlords don’t have any excuse. They have the money to do this thing. They’re just disinterested because it’s a female hostel and we are known to always be the silent ones. Right? Lol. I’m sure if they have loved ones here, the story might be different. I’m sure if school was in session, they would have done something about it. Now we know that these people don’t even care about us, and they never have. They are hypocrites! The sad part of this thing is, when any one of us defaults on paying our rent (even just by a week), they’re quick to pounce on us and send us packing. Now it’s time for them to do their jobs and they’ve done nothing for FIVE WHOLE MONTHS. How do these people sleep at night? Please and please, who ever is reading is, help retweet to pass awareness about this situation. Many of us are tired and we do not know what to do anymore. It’s been too long.
The Plateau State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC has apologized to the family of Mrs. Joy Owolabi, the woman who was assaulted by a staff of the Corps in Jos, and assured them that the matter would not be swept under the carpet as decisive action will be taken against the culprit.
Recall that Mrs. Owolabi was assaulted in her shop last Friday by the said personnel and she sustained injuries on both eyes and other parts of her body. The incident generated a backlash but, in a reaction, the Command commenced an investigation to fish out the culprit with the view to punishing him.
The Command in a statement issued on Monday by its Public Relations Officer, PRO DSC Madaki Longbit noted, “The attention of Plateau State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has been drawn to a publication in the media about an unfortunate and regrettable incident of assault on one Mrs. Joy Owolabi, a shop owner around the Nanmwa Junction of Abattoir in Jos…
“Worried by this unfortunate incident, the State Commandant, Alexander Barunde, who described the incident as barbaric, unfortunate, regrettable and uncivilized has since directed a full investigation into the matter to ascertain the real identity of the suspect. The State Commandant assures the public that he would invoke the internal disciplinary mechanism of the Corps to deal with the officer involved in this barbaric act against a harmless and helpless woman.
“He condemned the act and wondered why an officer of the Command would condescend to the point of inflicting bodily harm on a woman under any circumstances.”
The statement added, “Barunde affirmed the Corps’ commitment to the protection of lives and property of the citizens, stating that this is just an isolated case of an overzealous officer and the matter would be pursued to a logical conclusion and the concerned officer brought to book.”
While apologizing to the family of the woman concerned, he assured that “the matter would not be swept under the carpet but decisive action will be taken against the culprit as soon as the outcome of the investigation is made available,” and warned that he will not condone any indiscipline from any officers of the Command as he charged them to remain civil in approach while carrying out their lawful duties.
He cautioned his personnel to be professional and to respect the fundamental human rights of the citizens because “henceforth, any report of human right abuse by any civilian will attract very stringent punishment.”
Flutterwave, on its own, was recently valued at US$3 billion. We will create an enabling environment for our startups to thrive. Beyond creating access to easy funding,
We will enforce the legal framework protecting foreign investors and their indigenous partners. This is the only way to improve our business environment and tamper capital flight.
We will stop borrowing for consumption. All loans must be invested in regenerative projects. Inflation is a factor of spending on goods and services outstripping production. Since we have not resolved the minimum wage issue,
We will not use wage and price controls to fight inflation. Rather, we will pursue a contractionary monetary policy. We will mop up excess liquidity by reducing the money supply within an economy.
The truth is that for long market forces have not determined the exchange rate of the Naira. The two tier foreign exchange regime is a fluke. It has to end. Let the exchange rate be determined by the forces of demand and supply. It is that simple.
Government must continue to collaborate with the organized private sector in this regard. Creating the enabling environment for raising employment must start with expanding the SMEs cluster via unfettered access to funding. -PO
The Federal Government has suspended its proposed excise duty on telecommunication services.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami announced this on Monday during the inaugural meeting of the Presidential Committee on Excise Duty for the Digital Economy Sector in Abuja.
The minister said that the telecommunications sector is already overwhelmed by excessive and multiple taxation.
He said he is against the implementation of the tax which will increase the cost of telecommunication services.
The Federal Government had through the Budget Office of the Federation revealed that it will commence the implementation of ts proposed excise duties on telecommunication services and beverages in 2023.
The Security situation is worsening in Zugu community of Bukkuyum Local Govt in Zamfara State. For about 3 months now, the entire Kyaram and Adabka wards had been under persistent attacks by Bandits who operates almost day and night as they kill, maim and abduct innocent people.
Just two days ago on Friday the 2nd of Sep, 2022, Bandits in large numbers armed with deadly weapons abducted 44 muslim worshippers at a jumu'at mosque in Zugu community of Bukkuyum local govt of Zamfara who converged in the mosque to observe their obligatory Friday prayer.
The victims were reported to have been abducted when the suspected armed bandits in a large number conveying heavy and dangerous weapons stormed the Jumu'at mosque and asked the victims to move along with them to an undisclosed destination.
Below are some of the tragic incidences reported within three months as reported by the Special Adviser to the Zamfara State Governor Hon. Yusuf Zugu
1. Abduction of 44 people and injuring one other during Friday prayer in Zugu town.
2. Setting ablaze Police station and Police patrol vehicle in Zugu town.
3. Setting ablaze a number residential buildings, shops and food stores.
4. Killing of thirteen (13) people and abduction of many others in Zugu town.
5. Two (2) persons killed and Fifteen others kidnapped in Gadar Zaima community on market day.
6. Persistent activities of armed bandits (kidnappings and killings) forced inhabitants of Taka-Lafiya and Kairu communities to fled their homes to safer places.
7. Over twenty (20) people killed in the communities of Balhi, Wawan Iccen Salihu and Wawan Iccen Ibra.
8. People in the affected communities do not have access to their farmlands and many more incidences.
It is against this backdrop that the citizens and people of that community wishes to report to the Federal Government and security agents and request the followings:
1. There is no presence of any conventional security personnel (military or paramilitary) in the area unless members of the recently constituted State Govt's CPG, hence the need to deploy troops such as military, police and special anti terrorists squad to mitigate the menace.
2. There is need to deploy and stationed military personnel permanently at Zugu town been it headquarters of the ward to serve the town and neighbouring communities.
3. Btw Zugu town & Gadar Zaima there exists a route where bandits crosses 2 their popular enclave Gando forest where they took their victims, hence d need to deploy troops &attach dem wit members of CPG &ensure vehicular &foot patrol 2 avert tendencies of attacks on d communities
5. Need to intensify patrol in all the affected axis to guarantee farmers access to their farmlands and markets.
6. Need for Federal and State Governments to provide relief materials to the affected communities.
7. Need for security operatives to take the fight to the bandit's enclaves and hideouts.
8. Need to support community protection volunteers with some incentives and lawful weapons to assist conventional security agents.
The Zamfara State Govt and the federal govt as well as the security agencies need to change the approach in confronting the menace because people are living in an utterly wretched condition and abject fear as the bandits continued to lunch persistent attacks on them.
Customers of money deposit banks have continued to rue their experience with regards to the safety of their deposits which have gone missing under questionable circumstances in recent times. Jill Okeke examines the issues
The numbers of bank customers who have lost their hard-earned savings have been on the increase no thanks to bank frauds linked to the nefarious activities of some unscrupulous staff working in connivance with some syndicate outside.
A horse of recall
It may be recalled that The Nation ran an exclusive story detailing the harrowing experiences of some victims who had their bank account compromised and subsequently lost large sums of money along the line.
In the report tagged: ‘Customer’s unending nightmare retrieving missing money from banks,’ independent checks by our correspondent revealed that it was an uphill task for customers to get adequately recompensed after experiencing some infractions arising from mistakes and blunders committed by banks’ staff.
Sharing his experience, one of the victims, Mr. Osita Chiagba said, “Up till today, Access Bank that promised to indemnify me is yet to do so even more than one month after.”
However do you blame the banks when even the government regulators that are supposed to be on their trail are not? Getting the Consumer Protection Department [CPD] of the Central Bank of Nigeria to react to the imbroglio between the aggrieved bank consumers [/b]and the said banks proved impossible. What actually miffed me was the response I got from a colleague in another Media house and a top officer in another Government Agency. Both [b]advised not to contact the CPD as they will hardly respond. Both proved right.
However, ignoring their counsel, I sent an email to CPD on July 22nd, among the questions raised in the email, was “In matters like this, what will they advise consumers to do?” I got a computerised general response that did not address any of the issues raised in the email I sent to them. So if a body like CPD did not show concern towards aggrieved consumers who else would.
According to their official website, “If after lodging your complaint, your bank fails to engage you and resolve the complaint within two weeks as provided for in the ATM help desk circular, you have the right to escalate your complaint to CPD of the CBN”.
CBN’s position
According to the Central Bank of Nigeria report of 2021, four banks recorded a whopping 447,405 unresolved complaints, within a period of one year, spanning January 1 to December 2020.
These banks include Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, United Bank for Africa and Access Bank respectively.
A breakdown of how the banks individually wronged their customers shows that Zenith Bank had 166,314 complaints that remained unresolved as of December 2021. This figure is almost double the amount recorded in 2020 (83,899); while GTB recorded 673.7m complaints attached to claims of N3.09bn.
While about 672.1m complaints were successfully addressed, with unresolved complaints standing at 1,605 owing to carried-over cases.
In addition, the bank noted that the sum of N365.5m was refunded to customers during the year.
UBA disclosed in its annual report for 2021 that it received a total of 464,391 complaints in 2021, with 461,162 resolved, 3,370 remain pending while 38 escalated to the CBN for intervention.
During the period in review, Access Bank received a total of 2.2million customer complaints. The bank said that 2.1million was resolved but pending complaints carried over from the previous year, brought unresolved complaints at the end of 2021 to 306,116 unresolved complaints out of 2.2m complaints received within the year.
The reports also revealed that the number of unresolved complaints carried forward by the banks in 2021 grew by 172,399 from 305,791 recorded in December 2020.
As of today we do not know to what level the unresolved consumer complaints have reached as the cases are endless because investigations indicate that culpable bank staff are handled with kid gloves by the bank in order not to create a bad image and scare customers from the bank.
Many bank customers have sad tales to tell. The stories are endless. The last two months have been some of the most difficult period in the life of Mrs. Lola Adekanmi, a 52-year-old low-level civil servant based in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Apart from almost developing high blood pressure as a result of a phony transaction made on her bank account, she has lost considerable weight in the process of doing all she could to survive and recover the money.
A widow with five mouths to feed, the distressed woman, who hails from Ilesa, Osun State, has had it rough since the death of her husband and best friend of over 25 years in 2015.
The distraught woman who has had to toil relentlessly to meet the family’s growing list of basic needs, seeing N71,000, all her savings, vanish suddenly from her bank account on that fateful evening was like the world coming to an end.
“I couldn’t sleep that night. I read the message over and over again, thinking it was an error that would be reversed, because till date, it’s been from one story to another.”
She recalled that she was at a branch of the bank in Abeokuta earlier in the day to complain that she was no longer receiving message alerts on the transactions on her account. “A young man attended to me and he gave me a form to fill,” the 52-year-old said.
“On the form, I was to enter my account number, phone number, email and other information. Of course, I supplied all the information, but then how did N71,000 develop wings and fly out of my bank account that same day. I hadn’t been to the bank for a long time before that day. You know what I think? Somebody in the bank knows about it and they are trying to cover it up.”
The visibly enraged widow told our correspondent, “Some of the officials of the bank tried to persuade me to calm down and they promised that it would be sorted out. I told them I suspected that one of their staff members knew about it. They denied it. But when they asked me the name of the person and I described him, would you believe that they looked at themselves and chuckled.
“For days and weeks, they tossed me up and down a number of times but when I was no longer taking it easy with them and I resorted into shouting and even threatening to go to the press, a lady who had promised to look into it confided in me that the guy who attended to me had been fired because there were similar complaints from other customers that he attended to and they had been able to see that he was complicit in the different cases. But the person assured me that the bank would refund me even though it might take some time.
“Even when I reminded them that they could track the person with the name and account details of the person whom the money was sent to, they simply said I shouldn’t worry, that the bank would sort it out.”
Disturbing as Adekanmi’s ordeal is, it is not peculiar by any means – she is in fact on a growing list of bank customers who have lost huge sums in mysterious ways to bank staff who connive with fraudsters to dupe people of their savings.
In some cases, customers are unable to get any sort of explanation or help from the bank, because most of the banks would rather cover up to protect their image, and in rare cases, they refund the ‘troublesome’ customer who could complicate things for them by running to the press or the social media.
While Adekanmi had been at the mercy of the bank, living in the hope of being refunded someday, in a painful narrative, a fraud victim, Chris Izuegbu, said he got a phone call through an unidentified number and the female voice told him she was Chinyere, his account officer.
He said: “Although I had no account officer because I opened the account on my own, a lady bank staff assisted me in filling the forms and guiding me on what to do. I really appreciated the lady. So, when the so-called Chinyere introduced herself as my account officer, I said, probably, the lady that assisted me assumed herself as my account officer.
The lady on the phone told me that there were some questions I needed to answer. She mentioned my name, account number and my BVN and asked whether she was right, I told her she was right and she quickly told me my date of birth and it was exactly my date of birth. After answering her questions, she now told me to send some numbers on the back of my ATM card, which I did and, in about five minutes’ time, I started receiving withdrawal alerts on my phone. I was hearing noise of withdrawal, and I started calling the number of the woman who claimed to be my account officer, but a man picked the call and told me to call back later. When I told him that the call was urgent and tried to explain to him how over N600,000 had disappeared from my account, he cut the call.
When I tried to call back, the line was busy for over 30 minutes. I had to run to the bank. When I asked for Chinyere, they told me that there was no such person in the bank. When I explained to the bank staff what transpired, they blamed me for revealing my ATM PIN to the scammers. I reported the matter to the police, but the bank is still hiding the identities of those behind the scam.
“The questions that I am asking are: how did the scammers know my email, name, date of birth and so many things about me, if there were no insiders from the bank? Second, if there was no connivance from the bank, why did the bank make things so difficult for the police to track the scammers? They asked for many things such as court papers before they could track the scammers. I am sure and I will swear to it that bank staffers are conniving with fraudsters to steal our money from our accounts.”
To buttress this claim, in an audio message that went viral in the social media recently, a victim whose money was stolen by scammers, was heard conversing with the fraudster who told him that he only took N250,000 from the account. The fraudster was boasting that if he had wanted to remove more than that he could have done so with ease.
It could be recalled that the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation [NDIC] had once blown the lid off the internal abuse and fraudulent practices by some members of staff of commercial banks. It said then that the number of fraud cases that resulted from internal collaboration by bank staff increased from 231 to a total of 320 within one year alone.
The Corporation’s then Head of Communications and Public Affairs, Mr. Mohammed Ibrahim said in a statement that the report of the off-site supervision of Deposit Money Banks showed that the cases of fraud and forgery being perpetrated by bank staff were rising. He said the report relied on the 286 responses received from 26 banks.
He pointed out that the amount involved in the fraudulent activities documented increased from N8.68bn in 2016 to N12.01bn in 2017, representing a 38 per cent increase.
According to him, apart from internet/online banking and ATM card related fraud types, which constituted about 92.68 per cent of all the reported (26,182) cases, other reported crimes perpetrated by these fraudulent bank staff were fraudulent transfers/withdrawals, cash suppression, unauthorised credits, fraudulent conversion of cheques, diversion of customer deposits, diversion of bank charges and presentation of forged or stolen cheques.
In the release, the corporation also chided the banks for not rendering a proper account of the fraud, forgery and similar cases involving members of their staff who were dismissed or whose appointments were terminated on account of fraud. It said specifically that banks were hiding the fraud cases involving their staff.
The statement added, “The 22 licensed commercial Banks and four merchant banks rendered 286 Returns on Dismissed/Terminated staff as a result of fraud and forgeries during the year under review. Out of the 26,182 fraud cases reported by the 26 licensed banks, 320 cases were attributable to internal collaboration by bank staff.
To show that fraudulent practices by bank staff didn’t start today, the then Managing Director of NDIC, Umaru Ibrahim, said in 2016 that banks exposed themselves to fraud and forgery when they assigned sensitive roles to casual workers, who, according to him, are about 25 per cent of the banking workforce.
Apart from casual workers, he identified other factors breeding corruption in the banks to include poor corporate governance and lack of effective sanction of offenders, among others.
The NDIC had expressed worry over the rising trend of fraudulent practices by bank staff, especially in the online banking and ATM card related channels, saying it remained a serious cause for concern.
It is therefore worthy of note that this disturbing trend, which is wrecking the joy and happiness of many customers, is on a steady increase. This is because the reported cases of fraud keep escalating.
Investigations show that most banks do not reveal the identity of their staff involved in such fraudulent practices; neither do they openly accept that their staff was complicit, even in obvious cases. Rather, they quietly discipline (sometimes dismiss) the staff members while they absolve themselves of any blame. And in certain instances when they see that the customer is making too much noise about it, they tend to refund the customer.
Meanwhile, on why banks do not admit when their staff members are involved in fraudulent practices, some sources in some commercial banks told our correspondent that such issues were usually covered up to avoid bad publicity.
“You know it is a competitive market and no bank wants to be seen as having bad employees,” said a management staff in a foremost commercial bank. “By the time there are reports from time to time on catching fraudsters in your bank, it’s not good for you. Some customers tend to feel their money is no longer safe with you, and before you know it, they close their accounts. That is why we make it an internal issue.”
One other worrying side of these bank staff-assisted frauds is that even when customers lodge their complaints and there are traces of where the money is fraudulently transferred to, banks where the transactions originated from are usually unwilling to take it up the case.
The case of 33-year-old Kazeem Oluyode is quite instructive and very painful too. He said N55,000 was transferred from his account and when he complained, the bank initially declined to help, claiming it wasn’t their fault. But due to the intervention of a senior staff member, the matter was now receiving attention.
Omo. When you reason about Nigerian police you begin to ask yourself “are these not humans”? Why don’t they hear word FGS. Don’t be surprised even these ones on this video will go out nd do whatever they like in the street after this warning frm their Oga.
This video was sent by my cousin in Bingham university... This is what they go through as freshers in the university... Bullying... This student should be found and duly prosecuted.. How can a fellow student do this to another... Kindly retweet and tag necessary authorities.
About Bingham University Bingham University located in Karu, 25 kilometres from the Federal Capital city of Nigeria Abuja, was established in 2005 by the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) as a Conventional University. It is one of the six private universities in the north and the only one established by a Christian organisation.
Eze Okwuchukwu Divine, a Nigerian lawyer, has announced on Twitter that a good Samaritan named Anthony Damilare found and kept her file containing €3,000.
Divine said the file also contained $200, a law school certificate, a Madonna University certificate, and WAEC and International English Language Testing System (IELTS) results, among others.
Damilare owns a restaurant at the Lagos airport car park, where Divine left her file after having a meal.
“Thought I lost it at the Muritala Muhammed Airport terminal or inflight to Istanbul, tried everything and I just asked my brother to go check there yesterday. Behold, she brought it out with everything intact,” said Divine.
“She’s at the airport car park in Lagos. She didn’t even want anything in return.”
When contacted by FIJ, Damilare said that when she found the file, she believed it was for a customer.
“I have cameras in my shop, and I have warned all my workers that if they find any missing item in the restaurant, they should keep it, and later on, the owner of the item will come for it,” she said.
“I’ve made all my staff understand that I don’t tolerate nonsense in my restaurant, and I don’t believe in taking what doesn’t belong to me. I am contented, and I give God the glory.”
Damilare said as a restaurant owner, she was used to people leaving their things in her restaurant. She said people had forgotten their phones and money countless times.
I’ve been seeing presumably-educated folks believing and sharing this on Social Media. If you went to school, and have believed/shared this, you need to return your certificate and get a refund, & also write a letter of apology.
Entire 2022 budget of Jigawa is N177.795B
One of the purposes of an education is to make you able to think independently.
When you Google and read the accompanying story, you’ll see where it says 5,740 beneficiaries each received N4,000 monthly for 8 months.
We shared N192.96 billion to pregnant women, lactating mothers over 7 months in Jigawa: Official
The Jigawa State government says it spent N192.96 billion to implement its Maternal and Child Cash Transfer (MCCT) programme between November 2021 and June 2022.
Ibrahim Rabakaya, executive secretary, Jigawa State Rehabilitation Board, disclosed this during a three-day validation of Kaduna state’s Graduation Youth-Focused Social Protection programme on Wednesday in Kano.
Mr Rabakaya said the programme was introduced in 2021 based on the successes of the cash transfer programme that was implemented in the state by a Non-Governmental Organisation, Action Against Hunger (AAH).
He explained that the MCCT, which was implemented under the Child Development Grant programme, provided the needed evidence about the effectiveness of cash transfer in addressing poverty and vulnerability.
Mr Rabakaya said the intervention targeted 5,740 beneficiaries – pregnant women and lactating mothers, for conditional cash transfer across the 287 political wards in the state.
He added that 20 beneficiaries were selected from each of the 287 political wards to address stunting among children under five.
According to Mr Rabakaya, every 5,740 beneficiaries received 32,000, N4,000 monthly from November 2021 to June 2022, amounting to N183.68 billion.
He added that N4 million was expended as extra charges, N688.8 million on bank charges, and N4.59 million on automated teller machines cards.
“However, 172 beneficiaries had issues with their Bank Verification Number, and their payment was not successful, but they will receive payment as soon as the issue is resolved,” he said.
He identified other components of the programme as social behavioural change communication; Infant and young child feeding promotion at health facilities; and maternal, infant, and young child nutrition.
He added there was also the sensitisation of religious, traditional and community leaders on moringa planting and utilisation.
Mr Rabakaya said the NGO supported the state in the drafting and subsequent signing of a memorandum of understanding with Fidelity Bank who made payments on behalf of the government.
The Kaduna state graduation youth-focused social protection programme was designed to tackle youth unemployment.
Justice Christy Dabup Discharges Former Governor Of Plateau State, Senator Jonah David Jang Of All Counts Of Dishonesty In Ongoing Judgment Over Alleged 6.3 Billion Naira Fraud.
Kashim Shettima Mustapha (born 2 September 1966) is a Nigerian banker and politician who has served as Senator for Borno Central since 2019. He previously served as the Governor of Borno State from 2011 to 2019. A member of the All Progressives Congress, he is the party's vice presidential nominee in the 2023 presidential election running alongside Bola Tinubu.
Kashim Shettima graduated from the University of Maiduguri and the University of Ibadan. After schooling, he entered business and banking, eventually rising to hold several high-ranking executive positions at banks. By the mid-2000s, Shettima was the manager of Zenith Bank's Maiduguri office before leaving the position to enter the state cabinet of Governor Ali Modu Sheriff in 2007. After four years in the cabinet, he was elected governor in 2011 and re-elected by a wider margin in 2015; his term in office was dominated by the deadly Boko Haram insurgency. Shettima was later elected to the senate. Despite being renominated for Senate in 2023, he withdrew from the nomination to become Tinubu's running mate.
Personal Life
Kashim Shettima was born in Maiduguri, Borno state, Nigeria to the family of Shettima Mustafa Kuttayibe, Borno State. He is married to Nana Shettima, and they have three children.
Political career
From 2007 to 2011, he served as Commissioner in 5 Ministries. In the January 2011 ANPP primaries, Engineer Modu Fannami Gubio was selected as candidate for the governorship. However, Gubio was later shot dead by gunmen, and Shettima was selected in a second primary in February 2011. In the 26 April 2011 elections, Shettima won with 531,147 votes while the People's Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Muhammed Goni, gained 450,140 votes.
Shettima emerged the 2014 Governor of the Year (Leadership, Governor of the Year, 2015, (Nigeria Union of Journalists, national body); Governor of the Year, 2015 (NewsWatchTimes n); Governor of the Year, 2015 (Vanguard newspapers); Governor of the Year, 2016 (Tell magazine; 2017 Zik Prize for Leadership; Kaduna NUJ Award for courage and exceptional leadership (2017), FCT NUJ Merit Award for exceptional Leadership.
In February, 2019 he became the winner of the Borno Central Senatorial District election, thereby replacing Senator Babakaka Bashir.
Happy birthday to an amazing leader and trailblazer, @KashimSM . Your mentorship of those who congregate under your wings is second to none. Your destinies on earth are still unraveling and may God preserve you to see all come true. Many, many happy returns, sir
When we discussed few weeks ago at Asiwaju's house, I realised that you are not just intelligent because I already know that but I discovered that your humility is rare and out of this world, you're a open man with clear conscience and integrity.
Abike Dabiri, CEO of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), said the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) would deny entry visas to Nigerians younger than the age of 40.
In a post made on Instagram on Friday morning, Dabiri said only those applying for family visas would not be affected by the new rule.
She referenced a warning she gave on August 4, when she said there were some Nigerians giving the country a bad name in the arab country.
Her post read, “Recall the recent warning issued a while ago.
“The UAE government has now introduced a new visa regime and has stopped issuing tourist visas to persons under the age of 40 years, except for those applying for family visas.
“However, to evade the new visa rules, some applicants request ‘family visas’.
“However, on arrival some travel alone and arrive without family, so they are turned back from the airport. Also, the UAE authorities demand return ticket, valid 6 month bank account statement and a valid residence address.
“There have been quite a number of Nigerian passengers turned back from the UAE airport in the last few weeks.”
In recent weeks, reports of civil unrest caused by Nigerians in Dubai have been rife, and a number of Nigerians have been deported. Some have lamented ill treatment by airport officials and detention at airports.
ABUJA, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Nigeria expects to produce 23 million metric tonnes of maize this year, a 12% rise from last year, thanks to cheaper credit from the central bank, which has helped blunt the high costs of fertiliser and diesel, the maize growers association said.
Maize, along with rice and wheat are the most consumed grains in Nigeria with manufacturers processing maize for cereals and livestock feed.
But some farmers in the so-called maize belt in northern Nigeria have been forced off their farms due to attacks by Islamist insurgents and gunmen who kidnap people for ransom.
Edwin Chigozie Uche, president of Maize Growers and Processors Association of Nigeria told Reuters that central bank funding had helped farmers raise output.
“A lot of funds have been advanced to farmers using the Anchor Borrowers Programme (loan) of the Central Bank of Nigeria,” he said.
“I can tell you it has helped to scale up production, to scale up output because virtually every component of the value chain is being addressed, mechanisation, quality inputs, extension service.”
The central bank is supporting farmers with cheap credit in a bid to reduce grain imports it says drain scarce foreign exchange.
Commercial banks are not keen to lend to farmers due to insecurity and a higher risk of default, Chigozie said.
The 23 million tonnes will fall short of Nigeria’s annual requirement of 30 million tonnes and the gap will be filled with imports, he added.
Production costs have increased for Nigerian farmers. A bag of fertiliser now costs up to 22,000 naira ($52) from 15,000 naira in 2021, said Chigozie.
“The cost of cultivating one hectare of maize farm has gone up by 43%,” he said.
To ensure security, farmers are grouping together to form armed patrol groups while the state governments have set up agro-rangers to provide security to farming communities, Chigozie added.
Emirates Airlines has announced the reinstatement of its flight operations to Lagos, starting September 11.
The airline said this in an email to customers yesterday.
The development comes almost a week after the federal government released the sum of $265 million to foreign airlines in the country to settle outstanding ticket sales.
“We are pleased to inform you that effective from 11th September 2022, we will reinstate operations of our flights
“Inbound flights from Dubai to Lagos (EK783) and outbound flights from Lagos to Dubai (EK784) will recommence from Sunday, 11th September 2022.
“Lagos flights after 30th September, 2022 will be advised in due course,” Emirates said.
The flag carrier of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) suspended flight operations to Nigeria on August 18.
The airline said the decision was due to its inability to repatriate its earnings in foreign exchange from Nigeria.
Axelle Mahieu, an educator who works as a care giver in Brussels, Belgium, was surfing through her Facebook page after returning from work one evening in November 2021 when she saw that someone had sent her a message.
The message was from Ume Ifechukwu Clinton, a 29-year-old Nigerian who introduced himself as “a friend of a friend”.
As they continued chatting in the following days, Ume also told Mahieu that he was an official of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Several months after, the Belgian now wishes she never responded to the Nigerian. Her reason? Ume ended up defrauding her of €45,000.
MAHIEU’S INITIAL ENCOUNTERS WITH UME
While speaking to FIJ, Mahieu said she had no inkling that Ume was not who he told her he was.
“I met Ume on Facebook after he told me we knew each other from another friend of his. We later became friends and he regularly chatted me up via Messenger. This was towards the end of last year,” she told FIJ.
“He would even make a video call to me at times, and I was beginning to believe we were close, as he would sometimes show me his mom. He would also send me his pictures, his international passport and other little information about him while we were chatting.
“He said he worked for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and even sent me a video of his EFCC badge. I thought it was all real.”
THE CRYPTOCURRENCY BUSINESS PITCH
After gaining Mahieu’s trust, Ume proposed a cryptocurrency and NFTs business to her, assuring her of huge profit and a secured capital. He also assured her that no loss would be incurred because he would use his office as an EFCC official to protect her investment.
“At a point, he suggested I invest in crypto, which I didn’t know much about, and told me he would help me with it. My first transaction with him started around December ending. I usually sent him the money through Binance,” Mahieu said.
“He kept advising me to keep investing, even when I had not seen my profits yet. Despite always saying a subsequent payment would be my last, he kept on coming back to ask me to send more money. He did this several times to me.”
YOU PROBABLY THINK I’M STUPID, RIGHT?
While recounting her experience to FIJ, the Belgian suddenly asked a rhetorical question with a sad smile on her face.
“You probably think I’m stupid, right?” She asked.
“I began to suspect something was fishy when I found out that his friend, our mutual friend on Facebook, uses an unreal picture. So, I became suspicious, and stopped sending him money. When I asked him for my money, he blocked me and deleted his Facebook profile. He also subsequently stopped responding to my chats on WhatsApp.
“Normally, I’m a clever person. Or, I thought I was. He would do a video chat and seem so real. He seemed very real.
“I’m still not good from this and I don’t think I can ever recover or trust anyone again. I am having so much problem from all this and it’s making me so stressed right now. I just need my money back. It’s all I have.”
CLINTON’S RESPONSE TO FIJ
When FIJ spoke with Ume, he denied ever receiving any money from Mahieu. While sounding cautious and overly defensive, he admitted knowing the Belgian. “Yes, I know Mahieu, but just on Facebook. Collect money? Me? How? Money for what? Abeg o, it’s not me o,” Ume said.
“My Facebook has been hacked for like two or three months. She didn’t send any money to me o. What are we doing that she would send money to me?”
When FIJ asked if he could assist with his Facebook name, he gave an angry response.
“Who are you? I don’t understand. Why are you asking these questions? Why are you even calling me? I don’t have time for all these. I’ve left the Facebook for you people. You people should not disturb me. I don’t have money to give anybody,” he said and hung the phone.
FIJ called Ume the second time to ask about his connection to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
He picked up and replied, “Which EFCC? Why will I work with the EFCC?”
UME CALLS BACK AFTER HANGING UP TWICE
After hanging up twice, Ume called back to say he was willing to have a conversation. He also said he was interested in knowing what FIJ had against him.
“I don’t know who put you guys up to this because this is not the first time. I misplaced my phone. No, it was stolen. My phone was hacked, including my bank account,” he said.
When the reporter questioned him about his identity card and passport, he exclaimed, “Jesus!”
“I don’t have any idea about any ID card. I don’t even know where the EFCC office is. Why would I have an EFCC ID card? Is that not a scam?” He asked.
When he was asked about who he thought had his passport and could be responsible for going the extra mile to frame him for a crime he claimed he did not commit, he said he had no idea.
“I don’t know what you are talking about. I’ve never had a detailed conversation with Mahieu,” he said.
When asked if he had a twin brother with the same name and face, Ume replied in the negative.
UME CLAIMS HIS FACEBOOK PAGE WAS HACKED
As the conversation continued, Ume claimed his Facebook page was hacked.
“This is like the third person calling me. I even put out a message via my brother’s Facebook that my account was hacked two weeks after I was hacked. The account was hacked around May/June,” he said.
When asked how he thought the Belgian could have been in possession of his ID cards and international passport, Ume said:
“I’ve had conversations with people because I was trying to travel out, and I sent my details to some people. The reason the passport photographs in the different means of identification were different was I’d tried to travel at different points in time,” he said.
Ume, who stalled when thinking of appropriate answers to give to questions, insisted he didn’t know anything about the allegation made by the Belgian.
In the end, he requested that he be sent the evidence the Belgian had via WhatsApp.
INTERNATIONAL PASSPORT ‘STOLEN AND LOST’
When the videos supplied by Mahieu were sent to Ume, he admitted that the international passport in one was his. He, however, said that it had been stolen.
“This is all crazy; I lost this passport in 2019. I have a new one with my NIN on it. That passport photograph was taken when I was in Lagos. Whoever is doing this knows me from five years ago. Look at the drawer; he also has my old passport or another fake passport,” Ume said.
Regarding how his personal details were known, he said he had misplaced his phone at different points in time and someone was blackmailing him.
“I have had different phones stolen at different times. But the most recent is in May. Because the idiot that stole my phone then was threatening to release my wife’s private pictures and kept on blackmailing me, I don’t have the number anymore,” he said.
“I am speaking to my lawyer friend. He wants to know who you guys are. I looked up your company and it seems legit. I am willing to work with you guys to end this, but the moment you ask for money, I will have to believe my friends who think you are in on the whole scam happening and want money.”
After the short conversation with Ume via Whatsapp, he blocked this reporter on WhatsApp.
FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS
FIJ found out that Ume has a brother named Donald Chisom Ume. Donald, 24, was sentenced to jail on August 17, 2019, for having sex with a 2-year-old baby in Ajao Estate, Lagos.
According to P.M. Express, Donald was sent to jail after he was caught defiling his neighbour’s two-year-old daughter.
FIJ also found out that Clinton indeed deleted his former Facebook profile. However, he operated a Twitter handle with the username @ClintDEsync. FIJ linked the handle to his his full name and account number.
A series of tweets of him donating and doing giveaways online were also found.
FIJ made a few screenshots of his tweets before he locked his Twitter account on suspicion that he had been found out.
All efforts to reach him have been futile since then, as he stopped entertaining calls.
The Nigerian Navy has said it was impossible to have up to 200,000 barrels of crude oil stolen and ferried through Nigeria’s waters. This is contrary to the position of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and other agencies under it which gave the figure at between 200,000 – 400,000 barrels per day, bpd.
The Ministry and other government-owned institutions have repeatedly screamed over the massive crude oil theft in the Nigeria’s territorial waters, adding that it culminated in huge revenue losses to the government.
But speaking in a television interview on Monday night, the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo, said it was practically impossible for such quantity of crude to be stolen daily, given the deployments of Navy Ships and other operational platforms spread across the nation’s maritime domain.
He stated: “As much as there is no perfect system, the phenomenon of oil theft and losses must be properly de-conflicted in order to profer lasting solutions to the malaise which is currently bedevilling our economic resources.
“We need to understand the differences between oil theft and of course, oil loss. While oil theft is siphoning oil from vandalised pipes into barges, oil losses occur when there is non-production, especially during shut-ins and force majeure as the federal government does not earn the desired revenue it should”.
Explaining further, the CNS said oil losses could be as a result of metering errors on the operating platforms, while the volume of crude oil shut-ins from non-production are often added to oil theft data instead of accounting for them as oil losses by the authorities.
“This should not be. Some sources also claim that about 200,000 – 400,000 barrels per day are being considered stolen. Most of these claims are definitely outrageous and they are unrealistic,” he insisted.
Buttressing the fact that it is practically impossible to steal such volume of oil without being detected, Admiral Gambo said, “Let us even briefly analyse this. For instance, 100,000 barrels of crude oil is equivalent to 15,800,000 litres of crude, which requires a five-ton barge making 3,160 trips per day to convey this product out of the creeks.
“How do you pass the estuaries with this? So, let’s assume now you even have many barges because of the time required to carry out this product. That means you entirely close the navigable waters heading out to sea, through the estuaries, to embark them or to transit them into a mother vessel that will eventually take them out of the country.
Of course, this is most unlikely considering the heightened presence of security agencies in the maritime environment as well as the launch of the subsisting operations by the Nigerian Navy, including, of course, the deployment of the maritime domain awareness facilities”.
Veteran actress, Joke Silva, on Monday, debunked rumours of the death of her husband and top actor, Olu Jacobs.
In a statement on her Instagram story on Monday, Silva said that her husband is alive and doing well.
She wrote, “Good day everyone, trust all is going well. The Jacobs Clan would love to inform you that Papa J (Olu Jacobs MFR), is alive and well; enjoying himself as always in the comfort of his home and loved ones.”
Silva also threatened legal action on the propagators of the fake news.
“To all those who have decided to ignore our last warning regarding fake news kindly prepare for legal action,” the actress added.
She is the second time the actress is debunking such rumours in months.
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