C.B.N Approves N132 billion For Women Entrepreneurs.

Women In Biz

The Central Bank of Nigeria disclosed that N132 billion have been approved for women entrepreneurs. The CBN Branch Controller in Bauchi State, Malam Musa Muhammad, who stated this this in Bauchi on Thursday, said that the fund earmarked was part of the N220 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund.

Muhammad stated this during a sensitisation workshop for state governments, financial institutions and the organised private sector on MSMED Fund.
He explained that the amount, which represented 60 per cent of the total fund, was earmarked for women considering the peculiar challenges they facing in accessing financial services.
“The Revised Micro finance Policy, Regulatory and Supervisory Framework in section 4.2(IV), provides that women’s access to financial services should increase by 15 per cent annually in order to eliminate gender disparity.
“In order to achieve this, 60 per cent of the fund has been earmarked for providing financial services to women,” he said.
The controller said that the MSMEDF, which was launched in August 2013, had broad objective of channeling long-term, low-interest funds to the MSME sector of the economy through participating financial institutions. He said that the specific objective was to reach over two million MSMEs over a 10-year period in which 60 per cent was targeted at women entrepreneurs.
“The CBN believes that developing the MSMEs is the key to economic advancement and wealth creation.
“To ensure sustainable economic development programmes, policies and guidelines must be designed such that all factors and peculiar needs and requirements of stakeholders are noted and addressed,” he said.
He said that the sensitisation workshop had become necessary having recognised the importance of state governments as stakeholders in the administration of the fund due to their closeness to the grassroots.
Muhammad further explained that the fund covers social development with 10 per cent and commercial development with 90 per cent.
He said that all state governments including the FCT will access a maximum of N2 billion each for the maximum of three years per circle at 9 per cent interest rate.
According to him, the target groups include farmers, artisans, self help groups, cottage industries, financial cooperatives and traders.

Group begs Jonathan "Declare now!"

President Goodluck Jonathan

Less than 24 hours after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) released the timetable for the 2015 general polls, a non-governmental organisation in Abuja, the Citizens Network for Peace and Development (CNDP) has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to declare his candidacy forthwith.

The group advised others nursing the ambition of contesting the 2015 Presidency on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to drop such ‘inordinate ambition’, describing Jonathan as, “the only candidate worth voting for in these trying times.”

The CNDP further described Jonathan as a patriot at heart and a nationalist whose loyalty to Nigeria was without question.
It stated that its stand was not based on sentiments but on realities on ground, adding that President Jonathan inherited colossal liabilities from past administrations including corruption, militancy and “wanton killings in the North.”
Addressing a press conference in Abuja yesterday, CNDP Director General, Preye Dressman, noted that Jonathan had raised the bar in good governance and had, so far, “been able to exhibit rare political will and courage in his drive to transform Nigeria for the better.
“Citizens Network will, in the days ahead, be at the vanguard for calls and activities geared towards ensuring that President Jonathan runs again. Any party or individual who has contrary reasons as to why President Jonathan should not contest for the office of president in 2015 should step forward and engage us in an open debate.
“While on the subject, we call on members of the PDP to sheathe their swords. Given that the party exists as a big family, we advise those nursing inordinate ambitions at the expense of the party’s unity to have a rethink and put their weight behind the only candidate worth voting for in these trying times.”
But the Katsina State Governor, Ibrahim Shema has said declaration for the race was at the discretion of President Jonathan, stressing that the latter should not be stampeded into the race.
Speaking with newsmen in Katsina, Governor Shema expressed concern over what he called open campaigns for political offices which he described as distractions to the incumbents.
“When there is time for election, the human temperature goes up. The president has not declared that he would run, but there have been speculations. The time is not ripe for campaigns but Nigerians are already running around, creating distractions. Maybe it is because our democracy is young, but it is good to learn. The president will come out and make declaration at the right time,” he said.

Defection: PDP secures order against 5 govs

A Federal High yesterday directed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to serve hearing notices on Governors Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Chibuike Amaechi (Rivers), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano) and Abdulfatai Ahmed (Kwara) by substituted means, in the suit challenging their defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Justice Gabriel Kolawole further ordered that the hearing notices should be pasted on the national secretariat of the APC in Abuja and should be published in two national dailies.

The order was granted by the court at the instance of the PDP, following the absence of the governors or their representatives in court yesterday.

Dr. Alex Izinyon (SAN), who appeared for the PDP with Damian Dodo (SAN), Omoruyi Omonuwa (SAN) and Dr. Fabian Ajogwu (SAN), had informed the court of the absence of the respondents in court, even after hearing notices had been served on them since December 16, 2013.

He, accordingly, applied that fresh hearing notices be issued and posted on the national secretariat of their party and the same be published in two national newspapers.

Justice Kolawole, who granted the application, adjourned the case to February 6 for hearing of the substantive suit.

In the suit, PDP wants the court to sack the five governors, who defected to the APC.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was listed as a defendant alongside the governors in the suit filed on behalf of the PDP by Izinyon.

PDP argued that the governors should be sacked from office on the grounds that, because of their defection, they had forfeited their offices, which, as a result, had reverted to the party.

In the event that the five governors are sacked from office, PDP wants the court to order the deputy governor or speaker of the state House of Assembly of each of the affected states, or any officer next in rank, who is still its member, to assume the office of governor.

PDP was also asking the court for several reliefs, among which was a declaration that by the combined provisions of sections 177 (c), 221 and 222 (c) of the 1999 Constitution, the five governors, who were elected on its platform, could not continue to enjoy the mandate given to it (PDP) by the people/electorate of the concerned states, as they (governors) had defected to another political party.

The court was also urged to make a declaration that in the absence of any division in the PDP, the five governors had vacated or forfeited their seats upon their defection to the APC.

Also, the court was asked to make a declaration that, by the combined provisions of sections 87 of the Electoral Act 2011 (as amended), and sections 177 (c), 221 and 222 (c) of the 1999 Constitution, the offices of the defected governors had reverted to the PDP.

In the same vein, the court was asked to make a declaration that, by the combined provisions of sections 177 (c), 221 and 222 (c) of the 1999 Constitution, upon the defection of the five governors, the mandate should be reverted to the deputy governors or speakers of the state Houses of Assembly of the respective states or any officer next in rank who is still a member of the PDP.

SUN

"Rivers State Is Broke," insist PDP

 

Gov. Amaechi

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Rivers State Chapter says available evidence show the state government can no longer meet its responsibilities because it is broke despite the contrary view of Gov. Amaechi's Information and Communications Commissioner, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari.

The Party wonders how the Commissioner would deny this glaring fact in the face of the failure and collapse of almost all the social and public agencies in the state.

Describing the Commissioner's brazen denial as laughable, the PDP among others wants Mrs. Semenitari to explain why the state government still owes officers and men of the State Transport Management Agency (TIMARIV) for about six months, the newly recruited 13 thousand teachers are also owed six months' salary, roads and other infrastructural projects abandoned, and the delay in the release of the N300m Christmas bonus meant for the civil servants in the state.

The PDP also demands explanation from the Information Commissioner to justify the reason for the denial of funds for full implementation of the 2013 budget by the various Ministries if the state was not broke, insisting that the revelation that the Rivers Students aboard on the RSSDA sponsorship are stranded and at the verge of being thrown out by their universities is a confirmation that the states treasury is empty.

The Party still wonders in disbelief why officials of the Rivers State government would continue to deny facts that are available at the door post of the people, saying a responsible government should be courageous enough to tell its citizens the truth at least on the affairs of the State.

If the state is not broke, let the pensioners receive their full gratuities rather than the piece meals, a style of payment which has never happened in Rivers State except now that the state is in financial distress.

Similarly, the PDP says it is not satisfied with the information surrounding the movement of 320 indigenes of Gombe State into Rivers State at a time when the state is on edge due to the activities of the Save Rivers Movement, an Amaechi funded political machine.

The Party notes that the coming into the state of 17 bus load of people at same time from the North East Nigeria, a hotbed of the dreaded Boko Haram, is suspicious. “Is it to further orchestrate that Mbu Joseph Mbu is not doing his work as they want him or to call dog a bad name in order to hang it?

The Party calls on Rivers people to be alert as this latest development portends great danger, as it is a sign of invasion of the state, emphasizing that the situation in Gombe does not warrant such mass movement of 320 so called traders at a go to another state.

The PDP also appeals to the Save Rivers Movement to save the state and the innocent children and stop creating problems and enriching themselves.

The Police should properly investigate the 320 suspected invaders from Gombe State, because they are coming into the state at a time the Governor is about registering members for the All Progressives Congress (APC) and creation of additional Local Government Council for Non indigenes called Non-Indigenes Political Pressure Group (NIPPG).


Signed



Jerry Needam
SA, on Media to
State PDP Chairman
Tuesday January 28, 2014

AFRICA AND ONE VOICE - Commissioner Fatima Haram Acyl

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, January 28, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- The Commissioner for Trade and Industry of the African Union, Mrs. Fatima Haram Acyl, gave an assessment of the role of existing African Union trade and industry frame works for the economic integration of African countries, and underlined the need for African countries to speak with one voice. The Commissioner was speaking while addressing a press conference on 27 January 2014, at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She expressed concern that the inability of African countries to coordinate and adopt a coherent approach at international negotiations is obstructing their economic productivity. The Commissioner attributed the inability to agree on a coordinated economic effort to the unequal level of development amongst African countries.


Commissioner Acyl explained that dependency on commodity and unprocessed raw materials will not allow Africa to achieve its vision of an integrated, people centered, prosperous Africa. She underlined that, to realize this vision as part of Agenda 2063, there is a need for economic transformation of African countries and wealth creation for Africans. The Commissioner further explained that the road to realizing such objectives begins with implementing existing frameworks such as PIDA (Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa), CADDP (Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program), BIAT/CFTA (Continental Free Trade Area), AMV (African Mining Vision) and AIDA (Accelerated Industrial Development for Africa).


The Commissioner for Trade and Industry reported that, with regards to trade and industry, in particular with the BIAT/CFTA, AMV and AIDA frameworks, the Commission has taken initiatives to enhance the impact in these areas. She added that, in terms of the CFTA the Commission is in the process of setting up an African Trade Observatory to gather and analyze trade and industry statistics, a CFTA secretariat to work with member states and regional economic communities and prepare for the CFTA negotiations in 2015, and an African Business Council to integrate private sector stake holders within the decision making process of the commission.


The Commissioner also advised the need to focus on investing in African people and introducing initiatives to take advantage of Africa's increasing population. According to Commissioner Acyl, the suggestion comes in light of the expectation that 25 percent of the world youth under 30 years will be in Sub-Saharan Africa 10 years from now and considering the projection that Africa's population will increase from 15 percent of the world population in 2013 to 23 percent by 2050.

Yvonne Okoro Speaks up on her assets: ‘I got my big boobs from my mum’...

Nigerian born Ghanaian actress Yvonne Okoro says she got her big boobs from her mother.

The actress recently posted a picture of herself and her mum with the caption, ‘Now u kn where all those boobs come 4frm. Luvumummy’.

 

 

The ‘Contract’ star even joked about getting a bra for her unborn daughter, ‘bought my daughter a DD bra tho she’s nt born yet’.

In 2012, Okoro was at the receiving end of a public backlash when she surprised guests at the 2012 African Movie Academy Award wearing a cleavage revealing dress and later in an interview last year threatened to reveal more.

We don’t mind, now do we?

Nigerian Celebs may stop wearing Camo as The Nigerian Army Warns

The Nigerian Army has allegedly cautioned a number of Nigerian artistes who have worn at one point or the other, Nigerian Military camouflage clothes, asking them to abstain from its ‘use and abuse’.

A statement allegedly released by Nigerian Army and circulated this week states that the force is quite aware of Nigerian celebrities wearing the military gear in music videos, photo-shoots and concerts.

‘This is to inform the general public and most especially Nigerian celebrities to abstain from the use and abuse of the Nigerian Military camouflage. Several investigations were carried out and we noticed the camouflage is mostly being used by Nigerian celebrities in music videos, photo-shoots and concerts‘, the statement read.

The statement particularly calls out Nigerian rapper Jesse Jagz who’s well known for donning ‘camo’ clothes accusing him of smoking marijuana while putting on the gear.

‘In this same videos and photo sessions, Nigerian celebrities like ‘Jesse Jags’ smoke marijuana while putting on the Nigerian Military camouflage‘.

The NA also calls out the likes of Pop singers Iyanya, Wizkid, Davido, Tekno Miles and Chidinma explaining that the ‘military camouflage is not meant for the entertainment industry, It is strictly meant for military personnel’.

‘Henceforth, any civilian found GUILTY of putting on the camouflage irrespective of their social status will be dealt with severely‘, the NA warns.