Author: straightnewsng.com

By Akanimo Sampson After years of violence, Iraq is laying the foundations for e-commerce as she rebuilds her infrastructure, government officials said during a high-level dialogue on e-commerce and the digital economy in the dying days of July in Baghdad. The event kick started week-long consultations that are part of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) assessment of the country’s readiness to engage in e-commerce, the first such exercise in a non-least developed country. Nearly 100 people drawn from Iraq’s public and private sectors exchanged views on how to overcome the challenges that hinder e-commerce in the…

Tunisia’s Esperance were declared winners of the African Champions League by CAF on Wednesday following a long legal battle after Wydad Casablanca stormed off in protest during the second leg of the final in May. Wydad “is considered to have lost the game”, African football’s governing body said in a statement. The Moroccan side walked off an hour into the return leg in Tunis after a VAR malfunction meant a disallowed equaliser could not be reviewed. “The decision means Esperance are champions,” a CAF source told AFP under the condition of anonymity. Wydad were issued a fine of $20,000 for…

The Court of Appeal, Abuja division, on Wednesday, restored the certificate of return issued to Chike Okafor of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Okafor, a member representing Ehimembano/Ihiteuboma/Obowo Federal constituency of Imo state in the House of Representatives. In a unanimous judgment, the appellant court set aside the April 29 order made by Justice Bello Kawu of an FCT High court, Kubuwa. Kawu had directed INEC to issue a certificate of return to Emeka Nwajiuba as a member representing the federal constituency. Nwajiuba who was appointed as a Minister by President Muhammadu Buhari…

Akwa Ibom Governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel has assured the visiting Fifa delegation of the state’s readiness to host the 2020 Women under-20 World Cup tournament. Emmanuel gave the assurance when the Fifa delegation paid him a courtesy call at Government House, Uyo on Wednesday. He pleaded that Akwa Ibom be given the right to host both the opening and the closing ceremonies of the Mundial. The governor noted that the choice of Uyo as one of the stadia earmarked to host the Mundial is a mark of appreciation for the State’s contributions towards the development of football in Nigeria. He…

An agricultural programme, under the Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme Phase 1, ATASP-1, has achieved 209, 464 metric tonnes of food worth N36.2 billion in four years. National Programme Coordinator of ATASP-1, Ibrahim Arabi, who stated this at a media conference on the impact made in the agricultural sector, said the programme, which commenced in February 2015 and subsequently launched in March 2015, was funded by the African Development Bank, AfDB, in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to the tune of $174.85 million, including grant facility. He stated further that the programme was for 5…

By Akanimo Sampson Former Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) cum Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, and the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Local Content, Legor Idagbo, are currently at logger heads over the 2023 zoning deal in Cross River State. Ndoma-Egba is locked in a backstage political battle with stakeholders in the state to jettison the formula of rotating the governorship of the state. The governorship of the state is rotating on Senatorial District basis. Former Governor Donald Duke (1999-2007) of Cross River South flagged off the power rotation deal, followed by Liyel Imoke from…

By Akanimo Sampson In the last week of July in Ethiopia, 353 million trees were planted in one day in a seeming patriotic response to their Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed’s call to break the Guinness World Record in a nationwide reforestation initiative. The feat came as Hijrah Talk, a talk show using digital platforms to challenge misconceptions around migration, was launched on July 29 by IOM’s Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Its production aims to spread fact-based dialogue around migration across 22 Arab countries and throughout the Mediterranean region.  The format consists mainly of…

By Akanimo Sampson While East Coast ports are currently taking a larger share of the import container trade, the Inter-modal Association of North America (IANA) has said that the volume of business in the trans-Pacific trade lane has remained weak due to the US-China trade war. IANA’s estimates of inter-modal container activity underscore the deepening of the freight recession that railroads and trucking companies saw in the 2019 second quarter as container volumes fell 3.8 percent from the year earlier period to 4.56 million, compared to a 1.5 percent drop in container volumes during the second quarter, IANA said. While…

By Akanimo Sampson At the no-nonsense rate the Benue State Government is going in arresting cattle, enormous public funds would be required in building prisons for the valued Fulani animal. The arrested cattle and their convicted nomadic herders need to enjoy the same prison space. After all, both jointly committed the crime. For a better understanding of this theme, the Encyclopedia Britannica defines prison as “An institution for the confinement of persons who have been remanded (held) in custody by a judicial authority or who have been deprived of their liberty following conviction for a crime. A person found guilty…

The wealthiest 500 people on earth lost 2.1% of their collective net worth on Monday as US stocks plunged in their biggest drop this year. Twenty-one members of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index lost $1 billion or more as investors reacted to stepped-up tensions between the US and China. Amazon.com Inc. founder,  Jeff Bezos declined the most, shedding $3.4 billion as shares of the online retailer tumbled. But he’s still the richest person on the planet with $110 billion. The loss is an abrupt reversal for the world’s richest, who up until today had experienced steady gains. Other forces have also…