In fulfilment of its commitment to airlift pilgrims from Nigeria directly to Medina, Med-View Airline is set to airlift 5,303 of this year’s 15,000 pilgrims directly to the holy land for the 2014 Hajj exercise. Muneer Bankole, managing director, Med-View Airline, who disclosed this to journalists in Lagos, said the pilgrims would be lifted through four airports with the Boeing 767-300ER aircraft.
Updated 4 Years ago

To date the real meat and potatoes of the cloud – the transformational cost and performance benefits it brings to businesses – has been somewhat obscured by the technology debate. This is only natural. The cloud is new and it is innovative, so it is not surprising that the industry has focused on defining exactly what it is. As a consequence, the very thing that makes the cloud exciting – how it can dramatically improve business efficiency and productivity – has been shrouded in a fog of acronyms (ITaaS, DBaaS, SaaS, and so on), as well as debates over which ‘flavour’ of cloud is best: public, private or hybrid. This technology-centric view of the cloud brings unnecessary confusion and complexity to something that should in fact be simple.
Updated 4 Years ago

Some of the world’s biggest investors in leveraged-buyout funds are themselves using unprecedented levels of debt to boost returns. “Leverage is a double-edged sword,” said Oliver Gottschalg, a professor at French business school HEC Paris. “It can boost the performance on the upside and rapidly eat into capital on the downside. The more leverage you apply, the more extreme the outcome will be for the investor.”
Updated 4 Years ago

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State yesterday asked the new Chairman of the state Election Petition Tribunal, Justice Sulaiman Ambrusa, to excuse himself from the sitting, saying that the party lacked confidence in him. Justice Ambrusa had come to the state following the removal of Justice Bako because of the petition written against him by some people in the state. At the sitting of the panel yesterday, the leading counsel of the APC, Mr. Kunle Adegoke, informed the tribunal that he had written a petition to the National Judicial Council (NJC) to remove Justice Ambrusa.
Updated 4 Years ago

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and close associate of the former Head of State General Muhammadu Buhari, Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, has declared that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, is not qualified to contest the presidential election in 2015 on the platform of the party. Obono-Obla, a radical lawyer and anti-corruption crusader, stated this against the backdrop of speculations making the rounds in the country that Tambuwal intends to contest the next presidential election on the APC platform.
Updated 4 Years ago

As part of preparations for the 2015 general election, the national leadership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will today inaugurate its zonal integration committees across the six geo-political zones at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja According to the party, the committees comprising prominent party members, “are poised to fully reconcile and integrate old members back to the party and swell the support base of the party ahead of 2015 general election.”
Updated 4 Years ago

Barely four months after he assumed office as the head of Italy’s biggest listed company, the Chief Executive Officer of Eni, Mr.Claudio Descalzi, has been placed under investigation by Italian prosecutors over alleged corruption relating to the $1.3 billion Malabu Oil deal on Nigeria’s Oil Prospecting Lease (OPL) 245. The prosecutors in Milan had started a probe earlier this year but have now widened the net to include Descalzi, in a case relating to the acquisition of Nigeria’s OPL 245 offshore oil block in 2011.
Updated 4 Years ago

A section of the Nigerian public are taking to social media to vent their anger at the government for harbouring plans to jettison the consumption of hides and skins, popularly called ‘kpomo’, which has become a delicacy in the country’s cuisine, in favour of the growth of its leather industry. Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture, Dr Akinwumi Adesina had recently recommended ban on sale and consumption of hides and skins in the country to boost it’s leather industry, much to the ire of many of its citizens, who are making their grievances held.
Updated 4 Years ago

News from the Zambian Mines, Energy and Water Development Ministry suggests that Zambia and Saudi Arabia have kicked off a potential government-to-government deal that will enable the latter to supply the former with significant quantities of petroleum on a long term basis. This was revealed by Mr Christopher Yaluma, Minister of Mines, Energy & Water in an interview. According to Mr Yaluma, a delegation had been to Saudi Arabia on two occasions to discuss the deal. Both trips were successful, but details on the quantities and intervals between supplies would only be released once the deal was formalized.
Updated 4 Years ago

About 60 financial institutions in Africa have signed up to The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT)’s Sanctions Screening services in a bid to ensure financial crime compliance and meet international standards. “Sanctions compliance is expensive and complex, and the penalties for non-compliance can be very severe,” says Hugo Smit, Head of Africa South, SWIFT. But the organisation’s Sanctions Screening is easy to implement and cost-effective, making it the ideal service for financial institutions globally.
Updated 4 Years ago