Author: Chronicle Editor

The Federal Government has taken another determined step in its bid to recover over N5 Trillion outstanding debts owed by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), with the formal inauguration of an inter-agency Committee to speedily resolve the challenges in recovering the debts. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, inaugurated the Committee on Monday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, tasking its members to turn the tide in what has been a rather difficult process where debtors have continued to default on their payment obligations. About 67 percent of the outstanding N5tn debt is said to be owed by just 20…

Gov. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti on Tuesday said that the workers in the state civil service were currently being owed  N57billion as arrears of unpaid salaries and emoluments. The governor said this at a meeting he had with the civil servants as well as a cross-section of labour leaders at the Government House, Ado Ekiti. He said that his administration was making frantic efforts to defray the backlogs which he said would be done in phases. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Fayemi claimed the trend was caused by irregular payments of salaries and pensions by the immediate…

Annual inflation in Nigeria stood at 11.02% in August, its lowest in almost four years, down from 11.08% in July, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday. Inflation has been falling steadily since May, boosting chances that the central bank could begin to loosen interest rates at its rate setting meeting next week. The price index, which peaked at 18.7 percent in January last year, has been in double digits for three years. The central bank in March cut its benchmark interest rate in a surprise move to 13.5% from 14% as part of an attempt to stimulate growth…

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and other stakeholders at a security forum on Monday stressed the need for Africa to carefully study global trends with a view to learning and positioning the region at an enviable height. They spoke in Abeokuta at the Second Intellectual Fiesta on Africa’s Development. The theme of the programme, which was organised by the Centre for Human Security and Dialogue, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), was  “Emerging Developments in Europe and North America: Lessons for Human Security in Africa.” Obasanjo, who was a special guest at the event, noted in his opening remarks that the world…

The Federal Government on Monday announced that the number of unregistered SIM cards in the country had dropped from 9.2 million to 2.4 million, just four days after it ordered the blocking of the defaulting mobile telephone lines. Minister of Communications, Dr Isah Ibrahim, gave the update on the status of the unregistered SIM cards during the inauguration of some new members of the governing board of the NCC in Abuja on Monday. Ibrahim had on Thursday directed NCC to compel telecoms service providers to immediately block the unregistered and partially-registered SIM cards. The directive said the mobile telephone lines…

Ms Maria Espinosa, the President of the 73rd UN General Assembly, on Monday handed over to Nigeria’s Prof Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, who will lead the 74th session of the assembly in the next one year. The ceremony, held inside the General Assembly Hall of the UN headquarters in New York, marked the end of the 73rd session. The 74th session will formally begin on Tuesday with the inauguration of Muhammad-Bande, who is the Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the UN. The handover ceremony was witnessed by top officials of the UN led by the Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres. Nigerian officials, including a…

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says that the greatest value for jobs and improved productivity lies in the agro-allied value chain. Osinbajo made the assertion while declaring open the 2019 Annual National Management Conference of the Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered) on Monday in Abuja. At the conference themed, “Managing the Challenges of Democracy” he said that the central question especially in the public sector was not the lack of talent or well researched policies but the weakness in implementation. The vice president said that the implementation of policies and programmes to address the challenges of poverty and wealth creation, jobs…

The Nigerian Ambassador to Burkina Faso, Ramatu Ahmed says no fewer than 10,000 Nigerian girls are forced into prostitution in Burkina Faso. Ahmed disclosed this in an Interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN)  in Ouagadougou on Monday. She said the victims of sex-trade were mainly underage girls kept in appalling conditions in Ouagadougou and in mining camps across the West African country. Ahmed who had been in Burkina Faso since August 2017,  said  that over 200 Nigerian girls had been voluntarily repatriated this year. According to the Ambassador, many of the girls who were promised jobs in the…

Nigeria Consul-General in Johannesburg, Godwin Adama, says 320 Nigerians have been registered to be evacuated from South Africa on Tuesday Sept. 17. Adama disclosed this in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, while giving update on plans to evacuate the second batch of Nigerians. The consul-general, who said that the flight would be leaving South Africa around 6 p.m on Tuesday, added that the number of Nigerians willing to come back home following the attacks had increased to over 1000. Recall that the first batch of 187 Nigerians willing to return were transported back…

The ECOWAS Parliament on Monday appealed to the Nigerian government to reopen its closed borders as it hampers on the implementation of free trade movement within the ECOWAS region. Speaker of the Parliament, Hon. Moustapha Cisse Lo, made the call in a statement at the opening of the 2nd Extra Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament in Monrovia, Liberia. He added that the border closure poses a threat to the implementation of the Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons at a time when Africa need to intensify efforts for effective abolition of barriers within the Community. Cisse Lo, however,…