Chelsea cancel victory parade after Manchester bomb attac

Chelsea have cancelled a victory parade scheduled for Sunday in London in the light of Monday’s bomb attack in Manchester.

Antonio Conte’s side won the English Premier League title last Sunday and could claim the double by winning Saturday’s English FA Cup final match at Wembley.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that thousands of fans were expected to turn out for the parade.

“In light of these tragic events, we feel it is inappropriate to go ahead with the victory parade in London on Sunday,” the club said in a statement.

FEC Observes One Minute Silence in Honour of Onuekwusi

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) Wednesday observed a minute silence in honour of Channels Television State House Correspondent, Chukwuma Onuekwusi, who passed on Tuesday in an Abuja hospital.

Announcing Onuekwusi’s passage at the opening of the weekly FEC meeting, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo who presided over the meeting, described Onuekwusi as one of the members of State House family who passed on after a brief illness.

Further describing him as a very good, very articulate, patriotic and committed journalist, Osinbajo called for a minute silence in his honour and prayed that his family be comforted over his loss.

“Honourable ministers and members of the Federal Executive Council, yesterday, we got very sad news of the passing on of one of the members of of State House family. He is Chukwuma Onuekwusi of the Channels Television who passed on after a brief illness.

“I want us in recognition of the fact that we remember a very good, a very articulate and also a very patriotic and committed journalist, observe a minute silence in honour of this fine gentleman. We pray for the comfort of his family and all of those he left behind,” Osinbajo stated.

Coup: No plans to take over power from Buhari – Defence Headquarters

The Defence Headquarters has dismissed claims of coup by the military to usurp power from President Muhammadu Buhari.

Recall that there are rumours of a possible takeover of power by this Military. This was further fueled by a statement credited to the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai where he claimed some politicians were approaching soldiers to usurp power.

But in a press briefing by the Defence Information Office, the military said there was no course for any alarm.

It said, “Professionally, it is a command responsibility to caution officers and men on routine basis to conform to the ethics of the military in all ramifications, which includes; interactions and exchange of visits among others.

“This command responsibility is exercised right from the highest echelon such as the office of the Service Chiefs down to the lowest levels of command. Hence, the caution from the Army in this case.

“Secondly, administratively, officers and men are regularly cautioned to exercise command and control by Appropriate Superior Authorities through commanders at various levels. This is to prevent members of the armed forces from derailing from their core focus of total dedication to their oath of allegiance. Thus, it is a usual practice in military administration.

$50m World Bank loan: Bayelsa to create 7,000 temporary jobs

The Bayelsa government on Wednesday said it planned to create at least 7,000 temporary jobs from the implementation of projects funded from the $50m development facility from the World Bank.

The loan stock is part of World Bank’s intervention with $200m in four states in the Niger Delta region mainly Bayelsa, Edo, Rivers and Delta.

Addressing newsmen after a project tour of completed and ongoing interventions, Mr Ayens Adogu, Project Coordinator of State Expenditure For Results Bayelsa, said more than 3,000 jobs had so far been created in the first phase of the project.

He said that there were indications that the state would exceed the targetted 7,000 at the end of the second phase of the programme following the successes so far recorded in the first phase.

The youth, according to him, were engaged to provide labour for the concrete road projects for a period of one year and being paid a monthly stipend of N20,000 while a new set of youths are engaged at the end of the year to rotate the jobs among the unemployed.

Adogu said that the development of some micro-projects were implemented with direct labour approach, to engage unemployed youths who were trained in skills and entreprenHe said that part of the conditions of the temporary one-year jobs included a compulsory saving which could only be withdrawn at the end of the contract to assist as start-up capital at the end of the one-year contract.

He explained that SEEFOR project was a collaboration between the Bayelsa Government, World Bank and the European Union to fund quick impact development projects like concrete walkways, streets, market stalls, craft centres and health centres.

According to him, benefiting communities are selected based on needs and readiness of the communities to contribute 10 percent of the N10m set aside for each benefiting community.

Adogu said that some 108 micro public works projects had so far been completed in the first phase of the project while SEEFOR just advertised expression of interest for contractors for 136 new projects.

The Project Coordinator said that the projects had impacted positively on the lives of beneficiaries, especially in the rural communities by kick-starting economic activities in the processing of agricultural produce like cassava and fish.

“The government of Bayelsa is using the World Bank credit to reflate the economy of the state and boost economic activities to improve the living standards of the people.

“The impact of the project has touched the state’s economy; for instance, the payment of over 3,000 hitherto unemployed youths involves 10 banks and not to mention the award of small contracts for the over 108 micro public works projects across the state.

He said that the $50m development facility had a 40-year tenor and 10-year moratorium at concessionary interest in entreurship, to enable them to seek self-employment at the end of the temporary jobs.

NUJ vows to resist any attempt to truncate Nigerian democracy

The Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, said it will use every available means to resist any attempt to truncate democracy in Nigeria.

The union said that democracy had come to stay in Nigeria and would use all legitimate means available to members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm to defend the democratic structure in the country.

The National President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Comrade Abdulwaheed Odusile, made the declaration in Kaduna, Wednesday at the NUJ national colloquium on elections, corruption and roadmap to 2019 organized by the Kaduna council in collaboration with the Pax-community Partnership Projects, PCPP.

Comrade Odusile who stated this as part of his contribution to the theme of the colloquium, “2015 polls: Reminiscence, Lessons, Challenges and Projections‎” said the colloquium is coming at the right time, in x-raying the 2015 elections to serve as a guide to 2019 elections.

He called on relevant authorities to thoroughly investigate those behind the plans to truncate democracy and punish ‎those that may be found guilty to serve as deterrent to others that may contemplate such in the future.

“The NUJ will resist any attempt to change the present democratic government, we will not allow any attempt to truncate democracy in Nigeria because democracy has come to stay ‎in Nigeria,” he reiterated.

50,000 migrants landed in Italy this year

(ANSA) Rome, May 24 - Some 50,000 migrants have landed in Italy in the first months of this year, most from Syria, Eritrea, Nigeria and Somalia, the head of the department for civil liberties and immigration, Gerarda Pantalone, told the parliamentary anti-mafia commission Wednesday.

Nigeria's Delta Could Produce 2.2 Million Barrels Per Day By End Of June

The worst disruptions in Nigeria's oil-producing Delta region are over, and production could reach 2.2 million barrels per day (MMbbl/d) by the end of June, the CEO of Nigeria's Oando said on May 24.

Oando CEO Pade Durotoye told the Africa Independents Forum in London that the long-closed Forcados oil field could be back to capacity by the end of June, enabling a return to nearly full production from what is typically Africa's largest oil exporter.

"We think that the worst is behind us," Durotoye said. "Before the end of June, we will have Forcados back, which would take us comfortably back to 2.2 million bpd."

Attacks in the Niger Delta had pushed production to just over 1 MMbbl/d at certain points in 2016, which was the lowest in decades, but attacks have abated since the start of 2017.

The first Foracdos cargo from the main Trans Forcados export line loaded during the week of May 15, although operator Royal Dutch Shell Plc (NYSE: RDS.A) has said force majeure remains in place.

Durotoye said "bold actions" by the government to address security in the area had helped, and that if it continued, Oando could boost output from 50 Mbbl/d to 150 Mbbl/d within 12-18 months.

Still, Durotoye said concerns over more violence was leading investors to view the region with a lot of caution.

"Capital is still going to be constrained," he said.

Durotoye also said Nigeria's long-delayed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which governs everything from the operations of state oil company NNPC to fiscal terms on oil exploration projects, was moving at a more assured pace.

"We expect approval sometime in the second half of the year," Durotoye said.

Uncertainty over fiscal terms has held back upstream investment, especially in capital-intensive deepwater offshore. Durotoye said that PIB approval would "put some concerns to bed."

Nigeria will be out of recession by September, Godwin Emefiele assures

Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), says he remains confident that the economy will be out of recession by the end of the third quarter of 2017.

Emefiele said in Abuja on Tuesday, the CBN will not dictate where the much-needed foreign exchange convergence will be, but hopes the rate will head southwards rather than on the high side.

“My view is that with all the positive signs we see: inflation tending downwards, GDP improving to the extent that negative growth rate has decelerated quite significantly, in fact we have seen foreign exchange going to the real sector and industrial capacities are beginning to improve,” Emefiele  said.

“We’ve seen positive signs in various economic sectors, I am very confident that at the end of the third quarter, we will be out of this (recession), and I still hold that position.

“We would prefer a convergence that will significantly be going southwards, than a convergence that will go northwards. The fact that we have seen a convergence in the southward direction gives us a lot of hope that things are working in the right direction.”

Emefiele said he, as a person, wants low interest rates for the economy,  but the economic aggregates available to the MPC does not allow for such at this time in Nigeria’s economic life.

“Even I, want a low interest rate but the economic aggregates that we see today, unfortunately, does not give room for us to begin to look at that direction of signalling a downward interest rate.

“You would have read World Bank and IMF reports,and what they have both insisted is that we should tighten further.

“But rather than tightening, what the monetary policy committee has decided to do is to hold and watch, given that we had embarked on a consistent policy tightening before we decided to adopt the hold strategy.”

The governor said the bank remains resolute on sustaining its current foreign exchange policy in the interest of the Nigerian economy.

“I have said it and I will repeat myself that the interventions will be more vigorous and intense, to underscore the fact that we are determined to ensure that the Nigerian economy recovers, by making sure that foreign exchange is being made available to all sectors of the Nigerian economy to conduct their businesses.”

Emefiele said in four weeks, about $1.1 billion has come into the Nigerian economy via the exporters forex window created about a month ago.

He said all these are signs that the policies of the bank were the right ones, bolstering the capital market and driving liquidity.

Andela, the Zuckerberg-backed developer startup, is opening in its third African country

Three years after opening up shop in Lagos, Andela, a startup that trains and pairs software developers with global tech firms, will be launching in Uganda—its third African country.

Andela says it considered every Anglophone country in Africa with a population of more than three million people and conducted test recruitment exercises in several of those countries. Eventually, the choice of Uganda was based on the country’s teeming youth, says Jeremy Johnson, Andela CEO.

“Uganda is the second youngest country in the world, with 70% of the people aged under 25,” Johnson tells Quartz. While conducting test recruitment, Johnson says Andela received 800 applications with the average age of applicants being 25. Already open in Lagos and Nairobi, Johnson says Andela has received applications from over a dozen countries across the continent. “Being able to accept applicants who are able to work in their home country is important to us,” he tells Quartz.

Founded in 2014 with corporate headquarters in New York, Andela trains software developers for six months and then deploys them to tech companies around the world that need their skills. It places a high premium on vetting and has received over 60,000 applications since launch but only 0.7% of those have been accepted. Johnson says the company will keep expanding and scaling up in countries where it already operates. In January, Andela moved to a new five-story office in Lagos as the company’s personnel had outgrown the old space.

By connecting African developers to global opportunities and new career paths, Andela and other developer training schools and programs could possibly play a role in solving the unemployment problem prevalent in many African countries. But Johnson says the company’s work will not be a quick fix. “I don’t think we can fundamentally solve the issue but I can think we can create an example that others can look to and say ‘this is possible’.”

Andela was backed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative which led a $24 million Series B round last June. Johnson says it’s growing at a rate of over 100% annually and hopes to continue expanding to a new country every year.

OPEC, non-OPEC members hold informal talks on new oil cuts

OPEC and non-OPEC ministers would meet on Wednesday for informal consultations in Vienna in a last-ditch bid to agree the duration of oil output cuts.

The ministers would also seek to clear a global stocks overhang that has pulled down the price of crude.

Top OPEC oil producer, Saudi Arabia, favours extending the output curbs by nine months rather than the initially planned six months, to speed up market rebalancing and prevent crude prices from sliding back below 50 dollars per barrel.

OPEC members Iraq and Algeria as well as top non-OPEC producer Russia also supported a nine-month extension but some Gulf OPEC members, including Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have pointed to a need for further analysis.

OPEC would meet formally in Vienna on Thursday to consider whether to prolong the deal reached in December in which OPEC and 11 non-members agreeded to cut output by about 1.8 million barrels per day in the first half of 2017.

A ministerial monitoring committee consisting of OPEC members Kuwait, Venezuela, Algeria and non-OPEC Russia and Oman meets in the Austrian capital to discuss the progress of cuts and their impact on global oil supply.

Saudi Arabia, which holds the current OPEC presidency, will also attend.

Several OPEC delegates said they expected the meetings on Wednesday and Thursday to be relatively painless, resulting in an output cut extension by nine months.

“I think the meeting will go smoothly,” an OPEC delegate said, referring to signs of consensus in the group, including Iran, which has fought Saudi Arabia in many recent OPEC meetings.

However, several delegates and ministers said they did not believe cuts could be extended to a full year.