THE Zamfara State government has supported 300 point-of-sale (PoS) operators with N70 million to fast-track implementation of the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the state.
The Commissioner for Commerce and Industries in the state, Yazeed Danfulani, disclosed this on March 8 while distributing the PoS machines to 300 youths and women.
Danfulani said the gesture was part of Governor Bello Matawalle’s empowerment and wealth creation programmes, adding that the PoS business would boost the cashless policy and make beneficiaries self-reliant.
”Each of the beneficiaries will receive a PoS machine, mobile shop, a set of plastic chairs and tables to attend to customers.
”Each beneficiary will equally receive N50,000 seed capital to start the PoS transaction,” he said, adding that about N70 million had been earmarked for the programme.
According to him, the PoS business would boost the state economy and revenue base, as well as enhance wealth creation in the society.
He said the government had set up a monitoring mechanism to ensure prudent use of the machines and other items given to the beneficiaries.
The Commissioner urged the beneficiaries to ensure effective utilisation of the items and set up their businesses to enable them become self-reliant.
NIGERIAN businesses have been hit by glitches occasioned by weak banking applications, as business transactions online suffer setbacks in the light of the currency redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The CBN had last October announced it would be redesigning the N200, N500 and N1,000 notes. The new notes were introduced into the system on December 15, 2022, with the CBN initially setting January 31, 2023 as the deadline, as legal tender, for the old notes being rested.
One of the reasons the CBN gave for its naira redesign decision was its resolve to strengthen Nigeria’s cashless economy.
But the policy has brought so much agony to individuals, families and businesses as the new notes have remained scarce. The CBN has not helped matters with its decision somersaults on the swap of the old with the new.
What is certain is that the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, is bent on forcing the cashless policy down Nigerians’ throat, as the apex bank has ensured scarcity of cash. Even currently raging is the CBN snub of the Supreme Court judgment that directed it to allow the spend of both the old and new notes till December 31, 2023. Emefiele has so far refrained from publicly issuing a statement effecting a compliance with the court’s order.
As the people compellingly engage in the cashless policy using alternative methods of payment, especially the point-of-sale transactions and online transfers, businesses have been lamenting the many hitches they pointed out are hindering progress in the process.
Some business operators our correspondent spoke with said fund transfers sometimes took a minimum of three days before hitting the backend of the other bank, thereby causing transaction difficulties and trust breaches between business owners and their clients.
“I sell foodstuffs of all kinds, ranging from crayfish, bitterleaf and ogbono to Maggi and dried fish. Most of my customers are restaurant managers. We have been having issues with transfers since the Central Bank of Nigeria’s enforcement of the currency redesign policy. Many of them are complaining seriously about this problem,” Memunat Ruqayat, a bulk foodstuff trader at Suleija market, told TheICIR.
Ruqayat lamented that such transfer glitches had led to loss of her prominent business partners.
“Mama Ekene my grade one customer has not been coming to the market for sometime now. I spoke with her on phone and she complained of the stress of the cashless policy, worsened by weak banking app,” she added.
Another retailstore business owner at Dei-Dei, an outskirt of the Federal Capital Territory, Kaburi Mohammed, told TheICIR that the delay in business transfers had created problems for his businesses.
Transfer glitches drag businesses
Muhammed said, “Many of my customers would show you their debit alerts when they had sent transfers for their purchases. However, it could take, at least, four days for a transfer to hit your own bank’s backend.”
He stressed the importance of banks updating their digital security backend to aid migration to the cashless policy as desired by the CBN.
A dealer in phone accessories at the Kubwa Central Market in Abuja, Afam Udechukwu, told The ICIR that no one was collecting the old notes in the market, which is forcing both traders and their customers to resort to online transactions.
“No, I don’t collect them (old naira notes). Businesses are still rejecting them. In the whole of the Central Market Kubwa here, no one transacts with the old notes,” Udechukwu said.
The ICIR confirmed his claim during an on-the-spot observation at the market.
A development economist, Kevin Emmanuel, did not, in an interview with The ICIR, see any sense in the naira redesign policy.
Emmanuel: Emefiele is punishing us for a crime of a few Nigerians
“For me, Governor Emefiele has resulted to punishing all of us for the crime of a few. We will not see the effects now till inflation and recession numbers begin to come out in the third quarter of the year,” Emmanuel said.
The Executive Director of the Centre for Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Muda Yusuf, told The ICIR that the claim by the CBN that the economy had too much cash outside the banking system had no basis in economic theory, neither can it be supported by empirical evidence. The reason Emefiele gave, Yusuf said, was not a good one for punishing businesses.
He said that by December 2022, total money supply was N52 trillion, with the cash component of the supply as N2.6 trillion, which was just five per cent. Similarly, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) was N202 trillion, which gave a cash to GDP ratio of 1.3 per cent.
Yusuf stressed that the Nigerian cash to GDP ratios remains one of the lowest around the world, which he said shows that the Nigerian economy is not really a cash-dominant economy.
Yusuf says businesses suffering from the policy
“Cashless transactions in 2022 were about N400 trillion in 2022, according to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS). The truth is that nothing is broken. And we don’t fix what is not broken. Of course, we can do better, but not by crudely mopping up of cash in the economy,” he said.
MEDIA organisation, Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), has demanded the sum of N200 million to be paid within seven days as compensation from Ademola Ayilara, owner of a real estate firm, Landwey Investment Limited, over the suspension of its website.
The demand was made in a letter by FIJ’s legal counsel, dated March 6, and addressed to Landwey and Ayilara. The letter stated that the real estate firm and its owner had published injurious falsehoods against the news outlet.
FIJ also demanded a public apology, written communication to its service provider Digital Ocean retracting the injurious claims and a written undertaking to desist from unlawful interference with operations of the media organisation.
“Please be informed that our Client shall, without further recourse to you, pursue an action for judicial relief in the terms stated above should you fail to settle the claims within 7 days of receipt of this letter,” parts of the letter read.
On Tuesday, February 28, FIJ stated that Ayilara provided fake information to the news outlet’s service provider Digital Ocean, which led to the suspension of its website.
According to the FIJ, Landwey’s action was in retaliation to an investigation published by the media outlet, revealing that the real estate organisation received the sum of N42 million from a client and failed to provide the property paid for, 21 months after.
Landwey had sent emissaries to the FIJ founder Fisayo Soyombo with an appeal to take down the story, which was declined. However, about 10 months after the investigation, Digital Ocean accused the FIJ of copyright infringements concerning the same story.
FIJ said it is in possession of evidence showing the email is the handiwork of an international PR firm employed by Ayilara “to cleanse his digital footprints of negative comments.”
In the letter sent to Landwey, counsel to the FIJ noted that Ayilara had admitted to contracting an international PR firm to manage its negative online footprints.
However, Landwey has denied responsibility for the website’s suspension.
THE Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Water Board has announced plans to cut off water supply across certain areas of the city for two days.
This was disclosed in a statement released by the Water Board management on Thursday, March 9.
The statement said the interruption was due to emergency maintenance that is to be carried out on trunk pipes.
“The Management of FCT Water Board wishes to inform the General Public particularly residents of Apo, Gudu, Durumi, Gaduwa Estate, Prince & Princess Estate, Games Village, Galadimawa, Utako, Jahi, Life Camp and parts of Gwarimpa, that there will be disruption of normal water supply from Thursday, 9th March to Friday 10th March 2023.
“This is to allow our Engineers carry out repair works on one of our trunk lines supplying the areas mentioned above. Normal water supply will be restored on Saturday 11th March 2023. The FCT Water Board apologises for any inconveniences during the duration of the repair works,” it read.
Residents were warned to make adequate reservations ahead of the disruption.
The board had carried out a similar 2-day maintenance exercise in January on the lower Usman Dam and warned residents in Maitama, Asokoro, Garki 1, Garki 2, Kubwa 1, Kubwa 2, Airport and Gwagwalada to make adequate preparations ahead.
PRESIDENT-Elect Bola Tinubu has commiserated with victims of the accident involving a train and a BRT bus in Lagos on Thursday, March 9.
In the early hours of Thursday, a BRT bus collided with a train resulting in the death of six persons while many sustained injuries.
In his condolence message to the victims’ families, Tinubu prayed for the repose of the souls of the deceased.
He promised to offer support to victims and monitor the emergency response efforts.
He said, “I offer my sincere condolences to the victims and families affected by the gory incident involving a train and a bus in the Ikeja area of Lagos State earlier today.
“I am praying for all, including those who died and sustained injuries in the tragic and unfortunate incident.
“My thoughts are with them and the Lagos State Government, even as I follow the emergency response efforts closely and offer support, where necessary, to ensure that survivors and others involved receive the best care.”
Similarly, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, sympathised with the victims of the Ikeja train accident and their families.
He urged the federal and state governments to focus on the development of the transportation sector.
Atiku also called for “enabling laws enhanced by the state government themselves with knowledge and the requisite expertise in the transportation sector”.
“Emergency and medical rescue services must also be enhanced to avoid casualties in such accidents. I urge the relevant authorities to swiftly investigate the cause of the accident and take appropriate measures to prevent similar incidents in the future,” he added.
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SENATOR-elect for Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ireti Kingibe, has promised to improve representation of women in governance.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja after receiving her Certificate of Return from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), she described the representation of Nigerian women in governance as “abysmally bad” and a “shame on the whole country”.
Kingibe who defeated 20 years serving lawmaker, Philip Aduda, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25 National Assembly election, observed that the political system in Nigeria frustrate women who desire to be involved in governance.
“A lot of women run for political offices but we get pushed out in so many levels. I won the election free and fair, yet a lot of efforts were put in place to put back the person the people rejected.
“As a nation we need to re-examine ourselves. What we are doing and where we are going because it is not about who you shove today but where we all end up as a nation in a few years” said Kingibe who won the election on the ticket of the Labour Party (LP).
Responding to how she would address the marginalisation of women in politics, Kingibe said she will mobilise women to occupy important positions at the LP’s congresses.
“If there are more women in the party, then it goes without saying that getting those councilors and chairmen will be much more easier than when it is only men. So that is where I am going to start.”
She added: “When the FCT Area Council elections come, I intend to get at least 25 women councilors out of 62 and that is the minimum I will settle for.
“I also look forward to getting more chairmen that are female. That is where we have to start. From the bottom. We have to grow more women.”
INEC issued Certificate of Return to Kingibe on March 7 after she polled 202,175 votes to defeat Aduda.
She is one of the three women who received the Certificate of Return out of the 98 senators-elect so far announced for the 10th Assembly by INEC.
Supplementary elections are yet to hold in certain areas of the country which will usher in 11 more senators into the Red Chamber.
THE Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Action Awards, organised by the UN SDG Action Campaign, is seeking entries for its contest.
The program will recognise individuals and organisations working to advance the global movement for Sustainable Development Goals.
The contest has three categories: Mobilise, Inspire and Connect.
For the Mobilise category, projects must turn apathy into action by mobilising hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of individuals to take action for the SDGs and also seek initiatives with high impact, typically involving collective and coordinated actions that mobilise people to Flip the Script and achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
For the Inspire category, entries must harness the power of creativity to inspire positive change and shift behavior for the SDGs and also seek initiatives and inspirational campaigns that Flip the Script to shift individual behaviour and/or public policies.
For the Connect category, projects must turn the division into unity by connecting diverse sectors and partners – from citizens to institutions – to accelerate progress on the SDGs.
Winners will be honored at the UN SDG Action Awards Ceremony, live-streamed globally.
Storytellers, visualizers, activists, and others can enter this competition.
The deadline for the submission of entries is April 30. Interested applicants can apply here.
A MAGISTRATE’S court has remanded a former deputy governor of Imo State, Gerald Irona, in prison custody.
Irona, the immediate past deputy governor of the state, was remanded on Thursday, March 9.
After hearing from the defence and prosecution attorneys, the presiding magistrate, C. N. Ezerioha, issued an order remanding Irona in the Owerri Correctional Center.
The charge over which the former deputy governor was arraigned before the magistrate’s court was not disclosed but it was gathered the judge ruled that the court lacks jurisdiction to hear the matter.
Reports say Irona was arrested at his Owerri residence by security operatives on Wednesday, March 8, and detained at the Imo State Police Command headquarters.
Security operatives from the Police Command arrested the former deputy governor at his house in Owerri.
According to sources, Irona was detained due to a court order secured by the state government.
In a chat with the ICIR, the Imo state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Henry Okoye said Irona was arrested and charged for making away with seven vehicles belonging to the State Government after he left office.
“He left with seven vehicles belonging to the government after his tenure. He refused to hand over the cars in his possession.
“Governor Uzodinma’s government told him to return them, but he refused.
“I don’t know of any other thing, but I am sure of the vehicles,” Okoye said.
Okoye said four of the vehicles have been recovered by the Police.
“We have recovered four of the vehicles from him. Nobody is above the law. Nobody is above the law. He doesn’t have immunity,” he added.
Irona was deputy governor to former Governor Emeka Ihedioha during his short tenure.
Possible works may include photography, filmmaking, cartography, journalism or digital media.
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National Geographic is also offering US$800,000 grants to three scientists doing research on animal behavior and cognition.
The researchers will receive storytelling assets and science communication training, media opportunities based on project discoveries and accomplishments, and more.
Project leaders in the areas of conservation, education, research, storytelling, and technology can apply for a grant.
The deadline for the submission of the application is April 12, 2023. Interested applicants can apply here.
