Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Nigeria affected by Trump sweeping tariffs

The United States President, Donald Trump, Wednesday enacted sweeping new tariffs in a move that could escalate trade tensions globally at what he tagged “liberation day”.

Trump said the U.S. will implement “reciprocal tariffs” on all countries of “approximately half” of what they charge us.

Among the countries slammed with reciprocal tariff is Nigeria. Under the tariff plan, Nigerian exports will be charged 14 per cent tariff as against the 27 per cent charged by the Federal Government.

Last year, Nigeria exported goods worth N931 billion to the United States, with crude oil forming the bulk of the goods. It, however, imported N1.05 trillion worth of goods from the U.S. in the same period.

Bringing out a chart to show the audience, he showed that China “charges” the U.S. a tariff of 67%, so the United States will charge China a 34% tariff.

The chart also showed that the United States will charge the European Union a 20% tariff, Vietnam a 46% tariff, Taiwan 32%, Japan 24%, India 26%, South Korea 25%, Thailand 36%, Cambodia 49% and more.

Trump concluded his “make America wealthy again” event in the White House Rose Garden by signing two executive orders. The first closes “the de minimus loophole” on China, which has allowed the country to export cheap goods to the United States without paying taxes and import duties.

The second implements the president’s “reciprocal tariffs”, which the president explained includes a 25% tariff on all imported cars and 10% to 49% tariffs on all goods imported from abroad.

Trump said the tariffs he announced would generate “$6 trillion in investments” but experts explain that tariffs are actually paid for by American businesses and consumers. That would make it the largest “tax hike” in U.S. history.

The European Union, which is facing 20% tariffs on all exports to the U.S., will not react until today when the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will make a statement.

By Dennis Erezi, The Guardian

Video - Unilever Nigeria reports 79 percent profit surge in 2024



The company says growth in its food and personal care segments helped fuel the profits. However, Unilever remains cautious about macroeconomic risks, citing volatile oil prices, forex shortages, and unfavorable fiscal policies.

AZN secures exclusive rights to stream Nigeria’s Dambe sport

African Warriors Fighting Championship (AWFC) has secured an exclusive partnership with DAZN, the London-based sports streaming service, to bring Dambe, Nigeria’s centuries-old form of boxing, to a global audience. Through this collaboration, DAZN becomes the official global streaming partner for the Dambe World Series, a five-event tournament where Nigeria’s top fighters take on international contenders.

It marks a major step in the globalisation of Dambe, a combat sport with roots in West African warrior traditions. While Dambe has already gained traction online—attracting over 15 million YouTube views via AWFC’s broadcasts—DAZN’s global reach could elevate its profile much like UFC did for mixed martial arts. In 2023, AWFC teamed up with Stake, the online casino known for sponsoring global sports like football and Formula One, marking Dambe’s first international partnership.

“Dambe is a sport with deep cultural roots and immense athletic appeal,” said Maxwell Kalu, founder of AWFC. “Partnering with DAZN allows us to introduce it to a global fanbase. We are confident that 2025 will be the year Dambe captures the attention of fans worldwide.”

Founded in 2018, AWFC promotes and organises professional Dambe events to develop the sport’s global presence. Its 2024 “King of Dambe” tournament featured the sport’s first European competitor. The upcoming Dambe World Series, which kicks off in June 2025, will build on this momentum.

This partnership could also be a turning point for Dambe’s commercial viability. Beyond streaming, AWFC aims to attract sponsorship deals, merchandising opportunities, and a broader international fanbase. If successful, Dambe could follow in the footsteps of other combat sports, evolving from a regional tradition into a globally recognised competition with mainstream appeal.

“Audience attention for global combat sports has seen a huge rise,” said Kalu. “It speaks to consumer trends where people prefer to watch bite-sized content. In terms of challenges for Dambe, it’s just raising awareness. Dambe is a sport that had a vibrant ecosystem before anybody discovered it, but it was very much a quiet sport. We are raising the production standards where necessary.”

AWFC stages fights across Nigeria through a network of partner arenas, drawing paying spectators from various parts of the country. The matches are also streamed online, attracting viewers from the US and Brazil—two regions with dedicated Dambe followings, according to Kalu.

DAZN, often referred to as the “Netflix of Sport,” boasts 20 million paying subscribers across 200+ countries and holds streaming rights to major sports, including boxing, football, and the NFL. It flows well, but it could be slightly smoother. In 2023, the company reported $2.8 billion in revenue, with backing from investors, including billionaire Sir Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries.

By securing exclusive broadcasting rights to Dambe’s biggest events, DAZN is betting on the sport’s crossover appeal. For AWFC, the deal provides a crucial platform to showcase the best of Nigerian combat sports on the world stage.


By Emmanuel Nwosu, techcabal

Freed Binance exec Tigran Gambaryan says he ‘almost died twice’ in Nigeria

“It was supposed to be a two-day trip.”

It wasn’t.

On Tuesday, Tigran Gambaryan, a onetime federal agent and the head of Binance’s financial crimes unit, shared an account of his eight-month ordeal in Nigeria’s legal system.

Locked up on charges he engaged in money laundering, Gambaryan suffered from malaria, pneumonia, and a herniated disc in his back. At one point he was so ill he collapsed in a courtroom in Abuja, the African nation’s capital.

“I almost died twice,” he told his audience at Chainalysis’ Links 2025 conference in New York.


Humour and stoicism

Now, almost six months after his release, Gambaryan recounted the Kafkaesque nightmare with a mix of humour and stoicism.

Just two days after arriving in Abuja last February to talk to Nigerian officials about allegations Binance was operating in the nation illegally, Gambaryan and his colleague, Nadeem Anjarwalla, were detained in a government “guest house.”

There was barbed wire all around the residence, except at the five-foot fence in the front, which led onto a city street.

“It was kind of a ridiculous situation,” he said. “It would have been as easy as just hopping a fence and getting an Uber.

“They had military guards that were stationed at the front of the gate, but they were always asleep,” he continued to laughs from the audience.

As it happened, Anjarwalla didn’t stay long.

‘I thought he was just having another panic attack.’— Tigran Gambaryan, Binance

On March 22, 2024, Anjarwalla, a British lawyer who was Binance’s regional manager based in Nairobi, asked his guards to allow him to attend a prayer service at a mosque in observance of Ramadan.

In Gambaryan’s telling, Anjarwalla returned from the mosque and said he’d go upstairs to sleep.


Dark house

Gambaryan spent the day on the phone with US officials. At night, he decided to check on his colleague.

The house was dark, Gambaryan recalled, because the staff were embezzling money meant to pay for the electricity.

In Anjarwalla’s upstairs bedroom, Gambaryan found one of his colleague’s feet poking out from under the bedsheets.

“He had a panic attack earlier in the month, so I thought he was just having another panic attack, and that’s why he had the blankets over him,” Gambaryan said.

He tugged on the blanket, only to find pillows and a water bottle stuffed in Anjarwalla’s sock. His colleague had made a dummy of himself.

While Anjarwalla had surrendered his Kenyan passport, he apparently kept his British passport hidden from Nigerian authorities. This is what he used to make his getaway. He made his way to the airport, where he boarded a flight for Kenya before the cops could catch up with him.

“I would have appreciated a heads up,” Gambaryan joked.

While Nigeria arranged an interpol Red Notice for Anjarwalla — which is still in effect — Gambaryan was left to bear the brunt of Nigerian authorities’ wrath.


A pawn

From the outset, it seemed clear that Gambaryan was a pawn in a larger conflict between Binance and the Nigerian central bank, as well as authorities in the nation’s anti-corruption and economic ministries.

They blamed the world’s largest crypto exchange for destabilising its fiat currency, the naira, which lost more than 90% of its value in early 2024.

‘Anybody who knows me or my prior job knows how ridiculous that is.’— Tigran Gambaryan, Binance

Last week, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, the government’s Minister of Information, told DL News that investigators had also found evidence Binance was laundering illicit crypto transactions for terrorists and kidnappers.

“We stumbled on evidence linking the operations of Binance and these criminal elements ― terrorists and their like,” the minister said in an exclusive interview.

In his talk, Gambaryan, 40, described how he used to be an agent with the Internal Revenue Service and then put his skills to use at Binance by helping foreign governments contend with crypto fraud.

To be charged with being complicit in the very crimes he’d spent his career exposing was shocking, he said.

“Anybody who knows me or my prior job knows how ridiculous that is,” he said, “or where my residence is — I never earned any money in Nigeria.”

Charged in connection with an alleged $35 million money laundering scheme, Gambaryan was transferred to Kuje Prison, a facility that also housed terrorists and violent convicts. He was jailed in an underground cell.

“Imagine the worst place possible,” Gambaryan said. “No running water, no air conditioning, no showers.”


US lawmakers visit

He contracted malaria and developed double pneumonia. He spent so much time laid out on a metal bed frame, he developed debilitating back pain.

After appearing in court in a wheelchair, Nigerian authorities instructed guards to make sure he made his next appearance on his own two feet.

He said authorities barred his lawyers from helping him get to the courtroom.

“If you watch the video, I try to reach out to one of the guards,” Gambaryan recounted. “He pulled his arm away because they were instructed not to help me out.”

“By them trying to make it seem like I’m doing okay, they actually made the situation worse.”

After media accounts reported on Gambaryan’s alarming condition — DL News broke the news of Gambaryan’s and Anjarwalla’s detainment and covered the case in detail — US lawmakers took notice.

In June, two members of Congress visited Gambaryan in prison and were dismayed by his deteriorating health.


Pressed for action

That same month, Yuki Gambaryan, Tigran’s wife, told DL News that she had expected more from Washington.

“I am shocked at how long it took for us to get to this point,” she told DL News in an exclusive video interview.

“It feels like the US government just got to the starting line now, which should have happened a long time ago.”

By September, the Biden administration had begun leaning on Abuja to release Gambaryan. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, then the US ambassador to the United Nations, buttonholed a senior Nigerian official that month in New York and pressed him for action.

The next month, Nigerian prosecutors dropped the charges and released Gambaryan. He was on a plane home that night.

Asked to reflect on the implications of his ordeal, Gambaryan said Tuesday that Nigeria had turned down a potential revenue source — its growing crypto industry — for a scored-earth campaign that had diminished the country in foreign investors’ eyes.


$81 billion bill

Indeed, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, was once a vibrant crypto market. Now stablecoin use has plunged 38% in the last year as the government cracks down on the industry.

“They’re stuck with it now. It’s almost like they have to continue with this,” Gambaryan said.

“Nobody’s gonna go back and do any business there. The last time they gave guarantees, look what happened.”

As for Binance, it is still confronting three separate legal actions in Nigeria, including the tax ministry’s demand it pay a staggering $81 billion penaltyl for lost economic activity.

The exchange has pleaded not guilty in the matters as trials loom.


Ex-Shell chief now heads Nigeria’s NNPC

President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday sacked the board of the state-oil firm, NNPC, including its Group Chief Executive Officer (GCED), Mele Kyari and board chairperson Pius Akinyelure.

The president also approved Bayo Bashir Ojulari as the new GCEO of the NNPC.

Mr Ojulari is an energy expert who describes himself as “a business leader with a proven track record in the global energy sector.”

According to his LinkedIn profile, he worked full-time at global oil giant, Shell, for over 24 years, rising to become the Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo) in November 2015, a position he held until July 2021.

His LinkedIn profile shows that he first joined Shell in November 1991 as an Associate Production Technologist at Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), after he left Elf Petroleum Nigeria as a Fields and Process Engineer. He worked at Elf as a fresh graduate from September 1989 to October 1991.

Mr Ojulari joined Elf after graduating from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he studied Mechanical Engineering between 1985 and 1989.

After joining Shell in 1991, he rose to become a member of the Integrated Studies Team at Shell headquarters in the Netherlands in June 1994, a position he held till October 1995.


Between April 1997 and November 1999, he was the Head Planning Economics and Budgeting at SPDC Nigeria, from where he rose to become the Asset Leader and Head Production Technologist at Shell in Oman from December 1999 to September 2003.

He became the Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Planner at Shell headquarters in October 2003 and held the position till December 2004.

From January 2005 to October 2008, he was the Manager, Corporate Planning and Strategy at SPDC Nigeria during which time he also briefly held the position of Asset Production Technologist from November 2006 to March 2007.

At Shell, he remained in Nigeria from then on, becoming the Manager, Asset Development (Onshore and Shallow Water) SPDC Nigeria from October 2008 to October 2010.

From January 2010 to October 2015, he was the Development Director at SPDC Nigeria, after which he rose to become the Managing Director of SNEPCo from November 2015 to July 2021 when he left the company.

He established the BAT Advisory and Energy Company Nigeria Ltd in September 2021 and served as its board chairman. One of the main tasks of the company was to provide consultancy services to firms in the oil and gas/energy sector.

He was appointed the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Renaissance Africa Energy Company in January 2024, a position he held until his new appointment as NNPC chief. He only announced his appointment at Renaissance Africa on LinkedIn about a week ago, saying, “It’s been a while since I started my role at Renaissance Africa Energy Company as a Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Office, but I wanted to share this update with everyone.”

He joined Renaissance at a time when the company was concluding its purchase of a Shell asset in Nigeria.

“Renaissance now controls SPDC’s 30% stake in the SPDC JV, an unincorporated joint venture with the government-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (55%), Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Ltd (10%) and Agip Energy and Natural Resources (Nigeria) Limited (5%),” Shell announced.

Mr Ojulari will now head the NNPC, Nigeria’s main oil and gas firm, which has been dogged with allegations of corruption and inefficiency for decades. He also joins the NNPC at a time when his former firm, Shell, announced its divestment from some of its Nigerian operations, especially onshore operations in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

The oil and gas expert will now be expected to bring his experience into running the NNPC.

“President Tinubu also handed out an immediate action plan to the new board: to conduct a strategic portfolio review of NNPC-operated and Joint Venture Assets to ensure alignment with value maximisation objectives,” presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga wrote in a Wednesday statement announcing the new appointments.

By Idris Akinbajo, Premium Times