Welcome to Truth's Platform

Dangote Celebrates 59th Birthday, Commissions $1 Billion Cement Plant in Edo The Dangote Group owned by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote on Sunday began construction of a $1 billion cement factory in Okpella, Edo state. It was a double ceremony as the billionaire businessman was also born on Sunday, April 10th. According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the six million metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa) Okpella plant and the upcoming six mmtpa plant in Itori, Ogun State will increase the company’s local production capacity to 41 mmtpa annually. The project which will be completed within 26 months will create 6,000 direct jobs and 45,000 indirect jobs in the community. Speaking at the ceremony, Dangote said that the project will meet local demands for cement, as well as surplus for export and foreign exchange generation. He also urged other investors to look at other investment opportunities in Nigeria, saying the Federal government have created investor friendly polic...

Financing our future Mrs. Kemi Adeosun Writing this, my third article on the economy, I’m keenly aware that the question Nigerians want answered is: what is government doing to address our economic challenges? The first thing to state is that there are no quick fixes, but our strategy is clear and the expected outcomes are pretty compelling. Our immediate economic imperative is to provide a Keynesian stimulus to reflate the economy. The 2016 focus is underpinned by a desire to radically reposition Nigeria’s economy. This administration believes very strongly that the previous direction was far from optimal. We are pursuing a fresh direction consistent with our belief in building a resilient economy. The strategy itself is worth reiterating. The 2016 Budget is being debt funded and the borrowings are targeted at the financing of capital projects to address the infrastructure deficit, create jobs and build the platform for optimisation of the non-oil economy that wil...

Danjuma named in PanamaPapers scandal Theophilus Danjuma A former Minister of Defence, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (retd.), has been named among prominent Nigerians that operated foreign accounts and had foreign companies while holding public office. German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung , had on Sunday released the Panama Papers, the biggest leak in the history of data journalism, publishing online 11.5 million documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which showed how prominent people including Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, a former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, ex-Senate President, David Mark and others criminally hid money using anonymous shell corporations across the world. The Panamanian law firm, regarded as one of the world’s most secretive companies, according to the documents, has helped clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax. According to documents sighted by online medium, Premium Times , Danjuma is a ...

Court orders EFCC to release Jonathan’s cousin Former President Goodluck Jonathan A Federal Capital Territory High Court in Maitama, Abuja, on Thursday ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission  to release a cousin of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Mr. Azibaola Robert, on bail. ‎Justice Olasunbo Goodluk, ruling on Robert’s ex parte application ordered that the bail should be guaranteed by two sureties. Each sureties must be a serving or retired Director in any of the Federal Government’s ministries or parastatal and must be resident within Abuja. The applicant is also to deposit his passport to the Chief Registrar of this court. The EFCC had on March 23, arrested Robert over alleged diversion of $40m through a firm, One-Plus Holdings, which a sister company of Kakatar Construction and Engineering Company Limited, through allegedly phone‎y contract of securing oil pipelines. He was said to have received the money f...

Oil firms not paying accurate dues to NDDC – Semenitari Semenitari Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, on Thursday, told the joint National Assembly Committee on Niger Delta that all the oil firms operating in the oil-rich region were not fully complying with the law in their remittances to the commission. The NDDC Act  mandates the oil firms to pay three percent of their annual budget to the commission which is expected to utilise same to carry out its mandate in the region. But Semenitari, lamented before the Senate and House of Representatives’ joint committees at an interactive session that the oil firms were just remitting whatever they like to the commission from inception. She stated that the NDDC did not have access to the annual budgets of the firms and therefore urged the National Assembly to assist the commission, to get the fiscal document from the firms so that the agency would be ab...

Fuel scarcity: No respite in Lagos, others Fuel scarcity in Lagos Marketers of petroleum products said on Wednesday that consumers might not enjoy much relief from the current fuel scarcity until next week due to inadequate supply of petrol. Though a vessel, which carried about 27 million metric tonnes of petrol, berthed at the Petroleum Wharf, Apapa, Lagos on Wednesday, and the discharge of its content is expected to start today (Thursday), marketers said supply had not kept up with demand. One of the two vessels that came in between Monday and Tuesday was said to have started discharging, with loading by Mobil, Forte Oil, Nipco Plc and others. Our correspondents gathered over 8,000 tickets had been issued to marketers to load Premium Motor Spirit at depots in Apapa, as the scarcity of the product persisted at many filling stations on Wednesday. A source, who is an official of an independent marketing firm, said, “We need a minimum of 250 trucks lo...

Photos: Presidency receives Budget details from National Assembly Chief of Staff to President Buhari, Abba Kyari, this morning, received the 2016 budget from Senior Special Assistant to President on National Assembly matters, Senator Eta Enang and Hon. Kawu Ismaila in Statehouse, Abuja. The National Assembly members yesterday promised to send the details of the budget today. President Buhari is expected to scrutinize the budget now and then sign it into law. Another photo after the cut.

Values that define successful entrepreneurs When people recount the achievement of successful entrepreneurs, they forget that they had also failed in so many things before and it took a long time and discipline for them to attain success. Many successful entrepreneurs have failed in the past. Steve Jobs was fired from Apple Computers before he became its co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer in 1997. Jobs is widely recognised as a pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s, along with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Walt Disney, whose company was valued at $88.18bn in 2015, was reportedly fired by a newspaper editor for not having good ideas and no imagination.  Therefore, experts advise entrepreneurs to be persistent and build essential traits that would help them succeed in the respective ventures. According to business experts, a powerful sense of passion and interest in the business will drive excellent performance. In additi...

Filling station chief, accountant held for hoarding petrol •NSCDC to sanction erring filling stations THE law yesterday caught up with two top officials of Oando Filling Station at Berger in Ojodu, Lagos for allegedly hoarding of petrol. Rapid Response Squad (RRS) operatives arrested the manager, Rasaki Fakayode, and the accountant, Ibrahim Adewale, for selling fuel to only those with jerry cans, mostly black markets, at N180 per litre. An aggrieved motorist said he had been in the queue since 4am, hoping to get fuel at the station. He said that the station was selling only in jerry cans, adding that 25 litres went for N7, 000. “They are saboteurs to the development of this country. Imagine, this is my third time of queuing up for fuel but every time I come here, they never attended to those of us who came with our cars including commercial drivers. They only sell fuel into jerry cans,” he said. Following motorists’ complaints, an RRS team led by Commander Tunji Dis...

Electricity tariff: NLC to declare national warning strike The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) says it will declare a one-day national warning strike over the refusal of the Federal Government to reduce the electricity tariff. NLC President Ayuba Wabba said this while addressing newsmen during the Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting of the congress on Wednesday in Abuja. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that on Jan. 29, the NLC led the picketing of electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) nationwide, the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, and the National Assembly. The action, aimed at getting the Federal govern to reverse the 45 per cent tariff hike did not yield the desired result. Wabba insisted that the tariff increase was “illegal, unfair, unjustifiable and an exploitation of the already exploited Nigerians. “The privatisation of the power sector was done in bad faith and it has become obvious that the investors did not have the capacit...

W’Bank, FG to remove solid mineral sector’s obstacles The Federal Government on Tuesday said it had entered into a partnership with the World Bank Group to address the challenges facing the solid minerals sector in the country. The Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, stated this during a meeting between the representatives of the Federal Government, World Bank and investors in the sector. Some of the challenges currently facing the sector are limited infrastructure, insufficient geological data, limited cooperative federalism and low productivity. Others are illegal artisanal mining, weak institutional capacity, insufficient funding and weak ease of doing business. The minister said the need to remove the impediments became imperative as the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari was planning to use the sector to diversify the economy away from oil. Fayemi said since he assumed office last year, officials of the ministry had bee...

Mansion in the village I was in my village recently, and as it is my custom, I take a stroll around as I walk back down memory lane – reliving good memories, meeting old faces and observing new developments. One of mum’s pet questions was when I plan to build a house in the village. I have seen cases of people with notices to quit from their landlord giving them sleepless nights while they own a house in the village or a building under construction. I know some who died in the city as tenants, never living in the dream home they sunk their life savings into in the village. Owning a home of your own is a deeply emotional issue, and having one where you come from more so, as it is akin to having your roots in the ground. In many cultures, you cannot claim you are from a village until you can point to your house if you are an adult male or your father’s house if you are a child. There is nothing wrong with having a house in your village, if you can ...

Benefits of Nigeria’s uranium resources A vital aspect of the change needed to move Nigeria forward is the diversification of its resources. Far too much attention has been paid to oil while many more resources remain untapped; uranium is one of them. Nigeria is endowed with strategic reserves of the mineral which can boost the contributions of the solid minerals subsector to the economy.  Occurrences of uranium have been discovered in North-eastern states of Bauchi, Adamawa and Taraba; as well as in Plateau, Kano and Cross River States. Uranium accounts for an estimated 12 per cent of the electricity generated from nuclear reactors globally. Uranium is a far cheaper, environmentally friendly and more efficient source of electricity than fossil fuels. Countries like Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Hungary, Japan, South Korea, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine source at least 30 per cent of their electricity requ...

#SeeWhatFuelScarcityHasCaused: Over One Hour Spent Inside A Bank That Has No Fuel,No Light,Generator Not Working This fuel scarcity is now affecting banks, a victim shares this video on IG saying that he/she spent ove One hour inside a bank without light,Generator not working,no fuel and no breeze in the bank. We never voted for this,all we voted for is Change not suffering…

  PMB Working Hard To Relaunch Nigeria’s Image – NIPR PMB Working Hard To Relaunch Nigeria’s Image – NIPR The chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), capital city chapter, Tayo Hastrup, has called on Nigerians to support President Muhammadu Buhari, who he said, is working hard to relaunch Nigeria’s image all over the world. Hastrup who spoke with journalists in Abuja stressed the need for national integrity adding that Nigerians must support the country in every way, have deep trust and confidence in each other and be part of project Nigeria. Speaking on the sidelines of the official launching of the chapter’s maiden magazine, Hastrup maintained that “If we can’t have a national conference, what the present government is doing will be a direction for NIPR and indeed all Nigerians to support.” He added that “Image laundering and policy is very important, but the president is ...

US, Nigeria Strengthen Relations On Security, Economy, Good Governance   The governments of United States and Nigeria have reiterated the  need to strenghten security cooperation, economy, and development in  both countries. It would be recalled that during President Muhammadu Buhari’s July  20-22, 2015 visit to Washington, Buhari and US Secretary of State,  John Kerry underscored the need to strengthen and revitalise the Bi-National Commission (BNC) to advance both nations overall relationship and spur joint action on key issues. In a joint communiqué made available to LEADERSHIP Friday it noted that the BNC’s discussion on security cooperation was co-chaired by Minister of Defence of Nigeria, Mansur Dan-Ali and Deputy Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. The BNC agreed to take further actions to advance US-Nigeria security cooperation to promote peace and security in ...

N116b contracts probe: Fed Govt may blacklist 115 indicted firms Dasuki-Sambo The Federal Government may blacklist some of the 115 companies implicated in the  N116b “curious” contracts in the Office of the National Security Adviser(ONSA) during the tenure of ex-NSA Sambo Dasuki. Also, some of the companies may be handed over to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) for prosecution for not paying taxes to the Federal Government. But one of the companies, Image Merchants, which had been covertly managing the media  for security agencies since 2013, faulted the report of the AVM JON Ode’s panel. It asked President Muhammadu Buhari to be wary of those whose stock in trade is to blackmail and destroy others apparently as a way and means of venting their anger over their past frustration. Some of the indicted firms may be blacklisted unless they refund some funds ...

$180m Halliburton probe: EFCC boss, AGF in U.S. EFCC Two Federal Government officials have gone to the United States for talks on President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption war. Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Justice Minister Abubakar Malami and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chair Ibrahim Magu are in the United States, barely two weeks after a similar trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where about $200b looted funds are believed to have been stashed away by former public officers. On the agenda are likely to be the extent of the war against graft,  how to repatriate looted funds, the fate of fleeing former public officers, the $180million Halliburton bribery scandal and the $2billion Malabu Oil deal. The AGF and the EFCC are to participate in the US-Nigeria Bi-National Commission meeting. According to sources, the EFCC chairman has been in the US in the last five days to meet with various departmen...

Dollar Vs Naira Negotiation U.S to engage Fed Govt on foreign exchange flexibility The United States (U.S) has said it would this week, engage the Federal Government in talks to adopt a more flexible foreign exchange (forex) rate to boost growth and investment. Its Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told an audience at the U.S. Institute of Peace that Nigeria should ensure that the value of the naira versus the U.S. dollar was “more realistic.” “While most people complain about the possibility of  a devaluation, people are already operating on a devalued currency, and the only people who are not, are people who are doing it officially. “Our recommendation is, and we will have discussions about it … that they should look at the exchange rate and try to make the exchange rate more realistic to what the value of the naira is to the dollar,”Thomas-Greenfield was quoted to have said by Reuters. She spoke before...

Devalue the Naira - Emeka Anyaoku  The diplomat said Buhari should seek the advise of economists on how best to go about solving Nigeria’s current economic challenge. Former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku has asked President Buhari not to devalue the Naira. Anyaoku said Buhari should seek the advise of economists on how best to go about solving Nigeria’s current economic challenge. He said “A case has not been convincingly made that the devaluation of our naira in our present circumstance will truly serve Nigeria’s national interest. “President Muhammadu Buhari should, in my view, stick to his anti-devaluation position but he should also urgently appoint a team of knowledgeable expert economists to advise him on how to approach Nigeria’s current economic crisis” . Anyaoku said this at an event where he chaired the presentation of the memoir of Ambassador Olu Sanusi. He also said ”the parliamentary system that Nigeria’s nationalists designed did ...