The Nigerian government says it has come up with a way to deal with the oil crisis facing the country.It is one of the world's largest oil producers, but it lacks the capacity to refine crude oil into fuel. Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege reports from Kaduna, on a plan to revamp outdated refineries.
Friday, May 13, 2016
Video - Nigeria to invest in oil refineries
The Nigerian government says it has come up with a way to deal with the oil crisis facing the country.It is one of the world's largest oil producers, but it lacks the capacity to refine crude oil into fuel. Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege reports from Kaduna, on a plan to revamp outdated refineries.
Video - Nigeria features highly at World Economic Forum in Africa
Nigeria featured highly at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Kigali, Rwanda, and the focus has been on boosting growth. From an average yearly growth of around 7% over the last decade, the collapse of oil prices and a fixed currency peg has seen growth fall to around 3% in 2015, and the IMF is forecasting GDP growth of just 2.3% in 2016. Ramah Nyang spoke to Standard Chartered's Head of Africa Research, Razia Khan, about the policies Nigeria needs to re-start growth.
Why Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is excited about Nigeria
You know you're doing something right when Mark Zuckerberg namechecks you.
That's exactly what happened to Jobberman founders Opeyemi Awoyemi, Olalekan Olude and Ayodeji Adewunmi on May 10 when the Facebook founder used the three men as an example of innovation in Nigeria.
Awoyemi, Elude and Adewunmi founded the job site in their dorm room at Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria in 2009.
Their mission was to build the largest catalog of jobs in Nigeria. Today, 5,000 job applications go through the site every day.
"In our six years of working on Jobberman, we've seen that beyond the problem of unemployment, there is a problem of unemployability as well," Opeyemi Awoyemi told CNN.
"That has clearly influenced our mission. We expend most of our resources on job matching via our online platforms, we are also exploring partnerships with government and philanthropic organizations to power career advice centers in cities and universities in Nigeria."
Despite the success of the site, a name-check from an international tech leader can't hurt.
"Zuckerberg just made us the poster-children for Nigeria's burgeoning internet technology space," said Awoyemi.
In the first year, Jobberman became one of the most visited websites in the country, and operations were moved to Lagos -- closer to the business and big employers the team wanted to target.
Free Basics launches in Nigeria
When Zuckerberg mentioned Jobberman, he was making an announcement about a new partnership with Airtel Africa called Internet.org Free Basics in Nigeria, which will allow Nigerians access to news, health information and other services without having to pay for data on their mobile devices.
"Free Basics is now live in more than 40 countries, and half of those are in Africa," Zuckerberg explained in a Facebook post.
"Over the next few months, we'll be doing even more to connect developers with people who can use their apps -- and partner with local companies to bring internet to people across Africa who don't have access to mobile networks."
How to be the next Jobberman
Zuckerberg finished his announcement with a telling statement: "I'm excited to see what Nigerians build next!"
Awoyemi has an idea of what that might be.
"I think the next big thing from Nigeria will solve a key global challenge in one of power, clean water, health, inclusion or agricultural linkages.
"My advice to anyone trying to build an online business is to understand that you cannot separate 'online' from 'offline'.
"The majority of Africans are still very much offline and have not harnessed the internet's full potential.
"As such the internet is what enables you to scale and grow very quickly, but the offline connection still needs to be harnessed to move people online.
"My bet is Facebook understands this fact very clearly as well."
That's exactly what happened to Jobberman founders Opeyemi Awoyemi, Olalekan Olude and Ayodeji Adewunmi on May 10 when the Facebook founder used the three men as an example of innovation in Nigeria.
Awoyemi, Elude and Adewunmi founded the job site in their dorm room at Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria in 2009.
Their mission was to build the largest catalog of jobs in Nigeria. Today, 5,000 job applications go through the site every day.
"In our six years of working on Jobberman, we've seen that beyond the problem of unemployment, there is a problem of unemployability as well," Opeyemi Awoyemi told CNN.
"That has clearly influenced our mission. We expend most of our resources on job matching via our online platforms, we are also exploring partnerships with government and philanthropic organizations to power career advice centers in cities and universities in Nigeria."
Despite the success of the site, a name-check from an international tech leader can't hurt.
"Zuckerberg just made us the poster-children for Nigeria's burgeoning internet technology space," said Awoyemi.
In the first year, Jobberman became one of the most visited websites in the country, and operations were moved to Lagos -- closer to the business and big employers the team wanted to target.
Free Basics launches in Nigeria
When Zuckerberg mentioned Jobberman, he was making an announcement about a new partnership with Airtel Africa called Internet.org Free Basics in Nigeria, which will allow Nigerians access to news, health information and other services without having to pay for data on their mobile devices.
"Free Basics is now live in more than 40 countries, and half of those are in Africa," Zuckerberg explained in a Facebook post.
"Over the next few months, we'll be doing even more to connect developers with people who can use their apps -- and partner with local companies to bring internet to people across Africa who don't have access to mobile networks."
How to be the next Jobberman
Zuckerberg finished his announcement with a telling statement: "I'm excited to see what Nigerians build next!"
Awoyemi has an idea of what that might be.
"I think the next big thing from Nigeria will solve a key global challenge in one of power, clean water, health, inclusion or agricultural linkages.
"My advice to anyone trying to build an online business is to understand that you cannot separate 'online' from 'offline'.
"The majority of Africans are still very much offline and have not harnessed the internet's full potential.
"As such the internet is what enables you to scale and grow very quickly, but the offline connection still needs to be harnessed to move people online.
"My bet is Facebook understands this fact very clearly as well."
Related stories: Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg impressed with Nigeria's jobberman
Summit in London agrees on plan to return stolen loot to Nigeria
Yesterday’s anti-corruption summit in London agreed to a plan to speed up international efforts on asset recovery.
The Global Forum for Asset Recovery will bring together governments and law enforcement agencies to discuss returning assets to Nigeria, Ukraine, Sri Lanka and Tunisia.
The meeting will be held in the United States (US) next year, co-hosted with the United Kingdom (UK), and supported by the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank, the BBC reported.
British Prime Minister David Cameron hosted the summit hailed as the first of its kind, bringing together governments, business and civil society.
The controversy over Cameron’s description of Nigeria and Afghanistan as “fantastically corrupt”, almost overshadowed the summit but did not prevent the presidents of the two countries from attending.
President Muhammadu Buhari made no reference to the comments although at a pre summit session, he said he does not need an apology from Cameron but a return of Nigeria’s stolen asset locked in British banks.
Buhari said the international community must come up with ways of getting rid of safe havens and ensuring a better return of assets.
“When it comes to tackling corruption the international community has looked the other way for far too long,” he said.
There has been concern recently that the UK, particularly London, had become a place where rich foreigners could buy properties but hide their ownership.
Mr Cameron said that should stop and foreign firms that own property in the UK must declare their assets in a public register.
Downing Street said Mr Cameron’s plans for a register of foreign companies owning UK property would include those who already owned property in the UK as well as those seeking to buy.
It said the register would mean “corrupt individuals and countries will no longer be able to move, launder and hide illicit funds through London’s property market, and will not benefit from our public funds”.
It said foreign companies owned about 100,000 properties in England and Wales and that more than 44,000 of these were in London.
Five other countries including France, the Netherlands, Nigeria and Afghanistan have also pledged to launch public registers of true company ownership. Australia, New Zealand, Jordan, Indonesia, Ireland and Georgia announced initial steps towards similar arrangements.
World leaders and politicians, including the president of Colombia attended the summit, as well as organisations such as the World Bank, OECD and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
But critics say the UK’s overseas territories and Crown dependencies also need to be more transparent.
Tax havens with UK links, including Bermuda and the Cayman Islands were represented, but the British Virgin Islands was not at the summit. Neither was FIFA, football’s governing body, which is at the centre of a large bribery scandal.
The British Virgin Islands has not yet signed up to the automatic sharing of it register, but the Prime Minister defended Britain’s overseas territories saying they had come a long way.
Alan Bell, the chief minister of the Isle of Man, which is a Crown dependency, said progress could not be made unless the US did more and tackled its own tax havens such as the state of Delaware.
Mr Kerry said this month President Obama’s administration had announced a set of financial regulations designed to force companies to disclose more information about their owners.
There are also plans for a new anti-corruption co-ordination centre in London and a wider corporate offence for executives who fail to prevent fraud or money laundering inside their companies.
Mr Cameron said they were looking for greater transparency and were introducing a code of conduct for professionals such as accountants, solicitors and estate agents who enabled corruption, either knowingly or unknowingly.
He wanted to see how assets could be recovered, with legislation being introduced in 21 new countries.
The Global Forum for Asset Recovery will bring together governments and law enforcement agencies to discuss returning assets to Nigeria, Ukraine, Sri Lanka and Tunisia.
The meeting will be held in the United States (US) next year, co-hosted with the United Kingdom (UK), and supported by the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank, the BBC reported.
British Prime Minister David Cameron hosted the summit hailed as the first of its kind, bringing together governments, business and civil society.
The controversy over Cameron’s description of Nigeria and Afghanistan as “fantastically corrupt”, almost overshadowed the summit but did not prevent the presidents of the two countries from attending.
President Muhammadu Buhari made no reference to the comments although at a pre summit session, he said he does not need an apology from Cameron but a return of Nigeria’s stolen asset locked in British banks.
Buhari said the international community must come up with ways of getting rid of safe havens and ensuring a better return of assets.
“When it comes to tackling corruption the international community has looked the other way for far too long,” he said.
There has been concern recently that the UK, particularly London, had become a place where rich foreigners could buy properties but hide their ownership.
Mr Cameron said that should stop and foreign firms that own property in the UK must declare their assets in a public register.
Downing Street said Mr Cameron’s plans for a register of foreign companies owning UK property would include those who already owned property in the UK as well as those seeking to buy.
It said the register would mean “corrupt individuals and countries will no longer be able to move, launder and hide illicit funds through London’s property market, and will not benefit from our public funds”.
It said foreign companies owned about 100,000 properties in England and Wales and that more than 44,000 of these were in London.
Five other countries including France, the Netherlands, Nigeria and Afghanistan have also pledged to launch public registers of true company ownership. Australia, New Zealand, Jordan, Indonesia, Ireland and Georgia announced initial steps towards similar arrangements.
World leaders and politicians, including the president of Colombia attended the summit, as well as organisations such as the World Bank, OECD and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
But critics say the UK’s overseas territories and Crown dependencies also need to be more transparent.
Tax havens with UK links, including Bermuda and the Cayman Islands were represented, but the British Virgin Islands was not at the summit. Neither was FIFA, football’s governing body, which is at the centre of a large bribery scandal.
The British Virgin Islands has not yet signed up to the automatic sharing of it register, but the Prime Minister defended Britain’s overseas territories saying they had come a long way.
Alan Bell, the chief minister of the Isle of Man, which is a Crown dependency, said progress could not be made unless the US did more and tackled its own tax havens such as the state of Delaware.
Mr Kerry said this month President Obama’s administration had announced a set of financial regulations designed to force companies to disclose more information about their owners.
There are also plans for a new anti-corruption co-ordination centre in London and a wider corporate offence for executives who fail to prevent fraud or money laundering inside their companies.
Mr Cameron said they were looking for greater transparency and were introducing a code of conduct for professionals such as accountants, solicitors and estate agents who enabled corruption, either knowingly or unknowingly.
He wanted to see how assets could be recovered, with legislation being introduced in 21 new countries.
Video - Caucasian British actress becomes Nollywood star
A British former air hostess has become a star of Nigeria's 'Nollywood' film industry after mastering pidgin English. Claire Edun, from Winchester, Hampshire, became interested in the language - a version of English spoken in West Africa - after visiting the country through work. Her almost-flawless use of the dialect led to her being scouted by one of Nigeria's top directors and she has now become a hit in the country's flourishing film industry. The 31-year-old's new movie has become such a success that she is now famous with cinema-goers in the African state and has been nicknamed Oyinbo Princess - meaning 'White Princess'.
She admits that tredding the red carpets of Lagos is a million miles from the village pantos and school plays which she first acted in, but she has grown a love for Nigeria, which she now considers a home from home.
She told MailOnline: 'It's very weird. I still have to pinch myself sometimes and remind myself that this is actually happening.
'When I am in Nigeria, people often recognise me and stop me for selfies. Even in London the other day, I was stopped by a Nigerian in Woolwich and asked for a photo.
'One of my first memories of acting was of me on a stage in a panto in a community hall in Titchfield, a small village in Hampshire, so I've come a long way since that.'
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