NAIJAFEED

Thursday, February 2, 2023

Female bouncers in Nigeria challenging stereotypes

This Nigerian all-female security crew, known as the Dragon Squad, is breaking stereotypes in a male-dominated industry.

Al Jazeera

Police chief killed, including 7 others killed in Nigeria

Gunmen in central Nigeria have killed eight people, including a divisional police chief, in the latest violence before the February 25 presidential and parliamentary elections, police and a security source said on Wednesday.

Insecurity is a big issue for voters in a country where armed gangs terrorise people in villages and on highways, and carry out kidnappings for ransom, especially in the north.

Police in Benue state responded to a distress call after gunmen blocked the Markurdi-Naka road, forcing travellers to flee, state police spokesperson Catherine Sewuese Anene said.

The divisional police officer for Naka town, Mamud Abubakar, led a team of officers that engaged the armed gang in a gunfight, Anene said in a statement.

“However, the DPO (divisional police officer) who led the team sustained gunshot injuries and was rushed to General Hospital Naka where he was eventually confirmed dead,” she said.

A police source said two other police officers were shot and killed during the fight with the armed gang.

When the gunmen retreated, they killed two children and three women in a nearby village, said the source, who declined to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Al Jazeera

Nigeria disagrees with credit downgrade

Nigeria's finance minister said on Thursday she disagreed with what she called a "surprise" downgrade of the country's credit rating by Moody's, insisting the government was already addressing the agency's concerns.

Moody's downgraded the West African oil producer last week to Caa1 from B3, saying the government's fiscal and debt position was expected to keep deteriorating, an announcement that sent Nigeria's dollar-bond and currency forwards tumbling.

"Moody's downgrade came as a surprise to us because we had presented all the work that we have been doing to stablise the economy," the minister, Zainab Ahmed, told reporters in Abuja.

"But these are external rating agencies that don't have the full understanding of what is happening in our domestic environment."

She said she expected S&P's rating, due on Friday, would be more positive.

"S&P's assessment is not the same as Moody's. They have come out with a much better assessment," she said.

Nigeria has faced oil production shortages due to crude theft in recent years, though production has started to recover.

It has also suffered chronic dollar shortages coupled with high debt service which has eaten into government revenues.

Moody's cited these factors as reasons for its downgrade.

By Felix Onuah, Reuters

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Video - Nigerian banks face a shortage of new naira notes

Frustration is growing among millions of Nigerians who have queued at automated teller machines to collect new naira notes. The Central Bank of Nigeria extended the deadline to swap the old naira notes by an extra ten days, to February 10. But no one is confident that banks will have enough of the new notes by then.

CGTN

Cash Withdrawals from Government Accounts to be banned in Nigeria

Nigeria becomes first country in Africa to have Starlink

The Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, SpaceX, on Monday announced that it has commenced the operation of Starlink services in Nigeria, the first African country to receive such.

Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX launched in 2019. It provides satellite internet access coverage to about 46 countries, which is also targeting the global mobile phone service after 2023.

“Starlink is now available in Nigeria – the first African country to receive service!” a tweet posted on the official page of the satellite firm read.

SpaceX is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in California.

It was founded by Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of Tesla and the micro-blogging site Twitter, with the aim of reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars.

Although Starlink’s internet services have been said to be accessible from any part of the country, bridging the existing internet connectivity gap across rural communities in Nigeria where other network operators could not deploy their services, analysts say that the high cost of Starlink may prevent many Nigerians from accessing this service.

Last week, Nigeria’s Communications Minister, Isa Pantami, while presenting the scorecard of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in the ICT sector, hinted that the country achieved a 100 per cent broadband coverage following the licensing and operation of SpaceX’s Starlink.

“Based on the National Broadband Plan, we were to have 90% broadband coverage by December 2025. However, we recently gave a licence to Starlink to provide services and this has given us 100% coverage, about 3 years ahead of schedule,” the minister said.

By Abdulkareem Mojeed, Premium Times

Nigeria Becoming Destination for Africa’s Promising Tech Startups