SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
Try "researchers"
Home Blog Page 2140

Lagos Chamber of Commerce Projects more Investments in Real Estate Sector

Hauwa Abubakar Anaja
-
0

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry has expressed optimism that the construction and real estate sector would respond positively to a rise in investment from people wishing to store value through the sector.

The chamber disclosed this in a statement signed by its Director-General, Dr Chinyere Almona.

 She noted that the last quarter of 2022 may have witnessed huge investment in this sector that would transmit into real growth in the first quarter of 2023.

 Also Almona added that the coming onstream of Ajaokuta Steel Company would support solid growth in the construction sector.

“The recently approved access to pension funds for mortgage policies can have a positive effect on the real estate sector as more people are able to afford a mortgage to purchase houses. Some of these innovative financing options may support robust growth in connected sectors.

“This, again, calls for best practice regulation by the government to create an enabling environment where private sector operations can thrive. The windfall from the electioneering campaigns by some actors may also find their way into the real estate sector,” the statement observed.

 The chamber projected that the sector can contribute a higher rate than the 5.2 percent added to the country’s Gross Domestic Product in Q3 2022.

PR/Punch/Hauwa Abu

Air Crash: Nepal observes day of mourning

Nnenna Okoronkwo
-
0

Nepal, the Himalayan nation, observes a day of mourning after the deadliest plane crash in 30 years occurred.

Meanwhile, rescuers have resumed searching for four people still missing after recovering 68 bodies out of the 72 people on board the ATR 72 aircraft operated by Yeti Airlines that crashed in the tourist city of Pokhara minutes before landing on Sunday in clear weather.

The plane, on a scheduled 27-minute flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara, gateway to the scenic Annapurna mountain range, was carrying 57 Nepalis, five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans, and one person each from Argentina, Ireland, Australia, and France. Rescuers were battling cloudy weather and poor visibility as they scoured the 300-meter (1,000-foot) deep river gorge for passengers who were unaccounted for over 24 hours after the crash.

READ ALSO: 68 bodies found from air crash in Nepal 

Debris from the airliner was strewn across the crash site, including the mangled remains of passenger seats and the plane’s white-colored fuselage. Soldiers used ropes and stretchers to retrieve bodies from the ravine late into the night, with recovery efforts resuming on Monday.

“We have collected 68 bodies so far. We are searching for four more bodies. We should continue until we get the bodies,” a senior local official at AFP.

“We pray for a miracle. But the hope of finding anyone alive is nil,” he said.

Authorities said bodies would be handed over to families after identification and examination. The cause of the crash was not yet known. Still, a social media video verified by AFP and The Associated Press news agencies showed the twin-propeller aircraft banking suddenly and sharply to the left as it approached Pokhara airport. A loud explosion followed.

At least one witness reported hearing cries for help from within the fiery wreck, said the AP report. Resident Bishnu Tiwari, who rushed to the crash site near the Seti River to help search for bodies, said thick smoke and a raging fire hampered the rescue efforts.

“The flames were so hot that we couldn’t go near the wreckage. I heard a man crying for help, but because of the flames and smoke we couldn’t help him,” Tiwari said.

Searchers found the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the flight. The data on the recorders may help investigators determine what caused the aircraft to crash. Both recorders were in good shape and would be sent for analysis based on the manufacturer’s recommendation, Teknath Sitaula, an official at the Kathmandu airport, told Reuters.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal rushed to the airport after the crash on Sunday. He also announced the setting up a panel to investigate the disaster and suggest measures to avoid such incidents in the future.

“Our first thoughts are with all the individuals affected by this,” the plane’s France-based manufacturer ATR said in a statement on Sunday. “ATR specialists are fully engaged to support both the investigation and the customer.”

Nearly 350 people have died since 2000 in the plane or helicopter crashes in Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest, where sudden weather changes can make for hazardous conditions. According to the Flight Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety database, there have been 42 fatal plane crashes in Nepal since 1946. Sunday’s crash is Nepal’s deadliest since 1992 when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it plowed into a hill as it tried to land in Kathmandu.

The European Union has banned airlines from Nepal from flying into the 27-nation bloc since 2013, citing weak safety standards, according to the AP report. In 2017, the International Civil Aviation Organisation noted improvements in Nepal’s aviation sector, but the EU continues to demand administrative reforms.

 

Al Jazeera/S.O

 

DRC: Bomb blast kills 10 in church attack

Hauwa Mustapha
-
0

Ten people were killed and 39 wounded Sunday in a bomb attack on a church in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo claimed by militants.

Congolese military spokesman Antony Mualushayi said the “terrorist act” happened in a Pentecostal church in North Kivu province’s Kasindi, a town on the border with Uganda.

The explosion killed at least 10 people and wounded 39, he added, revising up an initial death toll of five. Both tolls were provisional, the spokesman said.

But the spokesman for Uganda’s military operation in the DRC, Bilal Katamba, said on Sunday evening that 16 people had been killed in the blast, and 20 wounded.

“The attackers used an IED to carry out the attack and we suspect ADF is behind the attack,” he added.

The DRC’s communications ministry said on social media that the attack was apparently carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) which the militants group claims as its affiliate in central Africa.

The ADF is one of the deadliest of the more than 120 armed groups in eastern DRC, many of them the legacy of regional wars that flared at the turn of the century in the vast impoverished nation.

It has been accused of slaughtering thousands of Congolese civilians and carrying out bomb attacks in Uganda.

ADF operatives have also planted bombs in towns in North Kivu in the past.

On Sunday evening, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack and said “nearly 20” people had been killed, according to the specialised monitoring group Site intelligence group.

Army spokesman Mualushayi said a Kenyan suspect was arrested after the attack.

A deacon at the evangelical church in Kasindi, Esdras Kambale Mupanya, said worshippers had gathered for a baptism ceremony before the bomb detonated.

“Several among us died on the spot, others had their feet cut in two,” the 42-year-old said. “God saved me and I came out in good health with my choir members. Today was not the day I should die.”

Fellow survivor Jean-Paul Syauswa said the explosion happened just after a group of people had been baptised, while a blind pastor was commenting on Bible verses.

“The bomb threw me at least 100 metres (yards) away,” he said.

Kiza Kivua, a 50-year-old farmer who lost his brother in the attack, said he was having trouble coming to terms with the loss of a “loved one who went to church to pray”.

He added that he thought the government was neglecting its citizens.

“How can such a situation happen when Kasindi is full of soldiers?” Kivua said.

The DRC’s presidency condemned the bombing, as did the United Nations peacekeeping mission which described it as a “cowardly and despicable attack”.

In 2021, the United States labelled the ADF a “foreign terrorist organisation” with links to the militants group. The militia is active mainly in North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri province.

The same year, a joint Congolese-Ugandan military operation began targeting the ADF inside the DRC.

But the attacks have continued.

A report by independent experts for the UN Security Council, released in December, said the ADF had “continued its geographic expansion” despite the Congolese-Ugandan military operation, killing at least 370 civilians since April 2022.

It also warned that the ADF was changing tactics, opting for “more visible and more lethal” bomb attacks in urban areas.

In April last year, for example, a woman detonated a suicide vest in a bar in North Kivu’s capital Goma, according to the independent UN experts. Six people died in the attack and 16 more were wounded.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi placed North Kivu and Ituri under a so-called state of siege in 2021 in a bid to stem the violence, with military officials replacing civilian administrators.

The measure has largely failed to stop attacks against civilians.

africanews

‘No room for migrants’- New York Mayor

Nnenna Okoronkwo
-
0

The mayor of New York, Eric Adams, travelled to the Mexican border City of El Paso on Sunday and declared that “there is no room in New York for busloads of migrants being sent to America’s most populous city.”

Eric Adams, a Democrat, was also critical of the administration of Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden, saying, “now is the time for the national government to do its job” about the immigrant crisis in America’s southern border.

READ ALSO: Biden visits U.S-Mexico Border

The visit of a New York mayor to a southern border city about immigrants is unprecedented. Republican-run states have shipped busloads of migrants north to New York and other cities. That has exacerbated a housing crisis in New York and a worsening homeless crisis in the city.

Adams’s trip to El Paso comes after he said the migrant influx into New York could cost the city as much as $2 billion when the town is already facing a significant budget shortfall.

In recent months the Republican governors of Florida and Texas have sent thousands of migrants seeking sanctuary in the U.S. to cities run by Democratic politicians, including New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.

 

Reuters/S.O

Global Economic Outlook may reduce by 7% -IMF

Hauwa Abubakar Anaja
-
0

Global Economic Outlook could reduce by 7% if global economies opt for severe fragmentation after decades of increasing integration, the International Monetary Fund has said.

 

However, the losses could reach 8-12% in some countries, if technology is also decoupled, the IMF said in a new staff report.

 

The IMF said even limited fragmentation could shave 0.2% off of global GDP, but said more work was needed to assess the estimated costs to the international monetary system and the global financial safety net (GFSN).

 

The note, released late Sunday, noted that the global flows of goods and capital had leveled off after the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, and a surge in trade restrictions seen in subsequent years.

 

“The COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have further tested international relations and increased skepticism about the benefits of globalisation,” the staff report said.

 

 

 

 

Reuters/Hauwa Abu

Former Afghan MP shot dead

Nnenna Okoronkwo
-
0

Afghan Police confirmed that a former Afghan MP, Mursal Nabizada, 32, and her bodyguard were shot dead at her home in the capital Kabul.

Nabizada was one of the few female M.Ps who stayed in Kabul after the Taliban seized power in August 2021. In the attack on Sunday, her brother and a second security guard were also wounded.

“Fearless champion for Afghanistan who turned down a chance to leave the country,” words from Nabizada’s former colleagues. Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, they have removed women from nearly all areas of public life.

READ ALSO: Women Aid Group: U.S. urges U.N. to call Taliban authorities to order

Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said security forces had started a serious investigation into the incident. Former lawmaker Mariam Solaimankhil noted in a Twitter post that;

 

Ms Nabizada, from the eastern province of Nangarhar, was elected as a member of parliament from Kabul in 2018 and stayed in power until the Taliban takeover. She was a member of the parliamentary defence commission and worked at the Institute for Human Resources Development and Research.

Hannah Neumann, a member of the European Parliament, said: “I am sad and angry and want the world to know!” in response to the killing. “She was killed in darkness, but the Taliban built their system of gender apartheid in full daylight.”

Abdullah Abdullah, a former top official in Afghanistan’s former Western-backed government, said Ms Nabizada’s death saddened him and hoped the perpetrators would be punished. He described her as a “representative and servant of the people.” After the US-led invasion two decades ago, many women who had prominent professional jobs in Afghanistan fled the country after the Taliban returned to power.

 

BBC/S.O

Egypt, China discuss tourism cooperation in Cairo

Hauwa Mustapha
-
0

China chief diplomat was in Cairo Sunday for talks with Egyptian and Arab League officials, marking his last stop in a multi-leg trip to Africa that aims to consolidate Beijing’s footprint across the resource-rich continent.

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry.

As well as meeting separately with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit.

In a joint news conference, Shoukry said the talks addressed Sino-Egyptian relations and increasing Chinese tourism to the Middle Eastern country, which has for years struggled to revive its vital tourism sector.

Both ministers said they also discussed regional issues including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Tensions have risen after the return to office last month of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is heading Israel’s most right-wing and religiously conservative government.

He also called for “maintaining the status quo” at Jerusalem’s most important holy site, after an ultranationalist Israeli Cabinet minister visited it earlier this year.

That visit drew fierce condemnation from across the Muslim world and a strong rebuke from the United States.

In his meeting with el-Sissi, the Chinese foreign minister said Beijing would continue to develop its investment in Egypt’s infrastructure projects including those with links to China’s Belt and Road initiative.

China has invested billions of dollars in Egyptian state-led projects such as the Suez Canal Economic Zone and the new administrative capital, which is being built east of Cairo. Qin arrived in Cairo Saturday afternoon.

His weeklong trip included Ethiopia, where the African Union headquarters is located, as well as Gabon, Angola and Benin. It was Qin’s first overseas trip since his appointment in December.

For more than three decades, China’s foreign ministers have started their terms by visiting Africa, whose growing population as a continent rivals China’s.

Beijing has invested heavily in infrastructure in African countries, including roads, energy infrastructure, telecommunications, railways, and hospitals.

The Chinese financial groups and funds also gave out $160 billion (USD) in loans to Africa between 2000 and 2020, according to the Chinese Loans to Africa Database.

Amide the coronavirus pandemic, China raced to provide vaccines to Africa, which received only 1% of global COVID-19 vaccine supplies.

China also funded the construction of a new headquarters for the African Center for Disease Control in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.

africanews

Small Business: 250 Women in Abuja Receive Cash Grants

Hauwa Abubakar Anaja
-
0
Over 250 indigent women in Abuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC, have received cash grants of N10,000 to help boost their small and start up businesses in the community.
Presenting the grants to beneficiaries in Abuja, the Zonal Secretary, North Central, of the All Progressives Congress, Yakubu Muhammed Adamu, said the global economic crisis calls for more intervention for women, as they are more likely to transfer the benefits to their families.
Adamu who said the initiative was an annual project which began nine years ago, added that it has so far supported over a thousand women and widows in the community, while empowering them with capital and skills that can enable them become self reliant.
In her remarks, the FCT Minister of State Dr Ramatu Aliyu, commended Mr Adamu for the initiative to empower women whom she described as “critical to political success.”

Ivorian former minister calls for age limit for presidency

Hauwa Mustapha
-
0

Two of the three ‘elephants’ of Ivorian politics are in their 80s while one is in his 70s, something that Jean-Louis Billon Former Ivory Coast trade minister is now campaigning against.

Billion called for the return of the age limit of 75 years for presidential candidates during his appearance on a radio programme.

He is targeting the dinosaurs of Ivorian politics, Alassane Ouattara, Laurent Gbagbo but also the president of his own party Henri Konan Bédié, although none of the three men has officially applied for the election so far.

The former trade minister’s position resonates with the recent decision of the PDCI’s political bureau to designate Bédié, the 88-year-old former president as the sole candidate to lead the party.

This decision created a stir internally, with some seeing it as a future designation of Henri Konan Bédié as a presidential candidate.

On Saturday, Billion also announced his intention to be a candidate in Ivory Coast’s presidential election in 2025.

Although the election is two years away, permutations are already been made as to whom will succeed Alassane Ouatarra.

africanews

Kaduna Police Command neutralizes bandit, recovers ammunition

Aisha John-Mark
-
0

 

The Kaduna State Police Command has neutralized a bandit, arrested two suspects and also recovered a serviceable AK47 rifle loaded with four rounds of live ammunition.

This was disclosed in a statement signed by the state Police Public Relation Officer, PPRO, DSP Muhammad Jalinge and issued to newsmen in Kaduna.

It read that, “in furtherance of the Command ‘s unceasing and unrelenting onslaught against criminal elements, the operatives attached to Rigachikun Division received a distressed call that armed bandits had attacked a village and the personnel swiftly mobilized and thwarted the bandits attempt to kidnap residents.

“The operatives received a call that bandits had invaded the residence of one Umar Ibrahim at Amana Maimadachi village, upon receipt of the distress report, the operatives alongside other local security stakeholders swiftly mobilized and moved to the location where they engaged the bandits and thwarted their attempt to kidnap citizens.”

According to the statement, in the tactically executed operation, one of the armed bandits clad in military camouflage uniform was neutralized, while others escaped with serious gunshots injuries, while a serviceable AK47 rifle loaded with four rounds of live ammunition was recovered from the neutralized bandit.

Jalinge disclosed further that, in a related development, operatives of the Command attached to Saminaka Division acted on credible information and launched a successful operation at Warsa Piti Area of Saminaka, Lere LGA  where they arrested two bandits.

He said when a thorough search was conducted on them, a locally fabricated GPMG rifle with its six rounds of live ammunition and a dane gun were equally recovered.

“Upon preliminary investigation, the suspects confessed to the ownership of the weapons and are currently assisting the Police in investigation at the end of which they will be charged to court.”

He stated that the Commissioner of Police, Kaduna State Command, CP Yekini Ayoku psc(+), mni, while lauding the commitment of the operatives in these and other operations across the State, has ordered for rigorous patrol of the general area to arrest the fleeing wounded bandits and a thorough investigation of those arrested as well as checkmate their criminal activities.

He further assured members of the public of the Commands strong resolve to do everything necessary for continual improvement in public security while enjoining all and sundry to always avail the Police and other security agencies of their support and cooperation.

 

1...2,1392,1402,141...3,627Page 2,140 of 3,627

HEALTH

ENTERTAINMENT & TOURISM

WORLD

NEWS COMMENTARY

NEWS FEATURE

Voice Of Nigeria Mission is “Reflecting Nigerian and African perspectives in our broadcasts, winning and sustaining the attention, respect and goodwill of listeners worldwide, particularly Nigerians and Africans in the Diaspora … making Nigeria’s voice to be heard more positively in the shaping of our world.”

More from CN

Contact

© Voice of Nigeria Broadcasting Service