Governor Buni empowers more SMEs
Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe has launched a second phase of an empowerment programme for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the state.
He said the programmes, combined with the previous skills acquisition and empowerment projects, were part of the recovery plan for sustainable means of livelihood.
“In this event, we would witness the distribution of complete GSM handset repair sets and laptops, fish and poultry production, small-scale rice milling, personal beauty and hygiene materials, among others,” Buni said.
He added that the target beneficiaries were the mobile phone and allied products traders and other youth across the state.
“Our commitment to poverty alleviation, job and wealth creation, and speeding up our recovery process to uplift the lives of our people, remain sacrosanct and unshakeable,” Buni said.
The governor enjoined the beneficiaries to avoid reselling and to ensure optimum utilization of the items.
“I enjoin beneficiaries of these and other empowerment programmes to ensure the judicious use of the packages for self-improvement.
“By doing so, the government would be encouraged to reach out to more people for us to collectively fight poverty,” he added. (NAN)
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INEC assures Obi, Labour Party of security of data captured by BVAS
Tanimu Inuwa, lead counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), gave assurances that data captured by the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used for the February 25 presidential election wouldn’t be lost.
Inuwa gave the assurances on Tuesday at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, assuring Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, over concerns of loss of data as the commission seeks to reconfigure the BVAS for the March 11 governorship election.
Obi, lead counsel, Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, had earlier approached the court to enable its team to extract data stored in the BVAS, “which represent the actual results from polling units.”
Election: Abia women, youths protest, demand cancellation of NASS polls results
A number of angry Bende women and youths staged a protest on Tuesday, demanding the cancellation of the results of the February 25 presidential and national assembly elections in the Bende Federal Constituency of Abia.
Reports say that the protesters blocked the busy Uzuakoli/Akara Road, causing heavy traffic gridlock.
The angry protesters displayed placards carrying different inscriptions condemning the outcome of the February 25 presidential and national assembly elections and demanding their cancellation.
According to them, the results from the polling units showed that Peter Obi and Frank Chinasa of the Labour Party (LP) won the presidential and House of Representatives elections.
Chinechetam Mbah, the spokesperson for the protesters, said that LP received the majority of the votes cast in the area.
Mbah, however, expressed shock that the number of votes allotted to the party by INEC was far above the original scores.
“We voted massively for LP in Bende; unfortunately, the result announced by INEC did not in any way reflect the huge votes the party got from here.
“This is really painful, to say the least. We demand an explanation from INEC,” she said.
Afeximbank announces registration for 2023 certificate of trade finance in Africa
Amadou Sall, Media Contact of the Afreximbank Academy (AFRACAD), announced on Tuesday in Abuja that the academy has opened its portal for the registration of the 2023 cohort of the Certificate of Trade Finance in Africa (COTFIA).
In a statement made available to the press, Sall said that COTFIA was developed in partnership with Factors Chain International (FCI) and the American University in Cairo (AUC).
According to Sall, the programme is open to all banking professionals and interested practitioners in the area of trade finance.
“COTFIA is AFRACAD’s flagship programme, designed to support the implementation of one of Afreximbank’s strategic priorities.
“This includes improving trade-related skills and addressing trade capacity gaps to facilitate a more conducive trading environment, enabling Africa to compete globally.”
White House backs Senate bill to boost US ability to ban TikTok
The White House backed legislation introduced on Tuesday by a dozen senators to give the administration new powers to ban Chinese-owned video app TikTok and other foreign-based technologies if they pose national security threats.
The endorsement boosts efforts by a number of lawmakers to ban the popular app, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance and used by more than 100 million Americans.
The bill would give the Commerce Department the ability impose restrictions up to and including banning TikTok and other technologies that pose national security risks, said Democratic Senator Mark Warner, who chairs the Intelligence Committee. It would also apply to foreign technologies from China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba, he said. (Reuters)
