Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Nigeria wants to ban fish imports


The Minister of Agriculture in Nigeria has proposed a ban on the import of fish and sea food. The government wants to boost local industry, but a ban will not be easy to enforce.

Monday, September 16, 2013

Nigeria barred from US visa lottery

Nigeria and some other countries will no longer be eligible to participate in the America Diversity Visa lottery programme.

Information from the United States Department of State sighted on Sunday said Nigerians and citizens from few other countries were not eligible for DV-2015

The department said Nigeria was excluded since over 50,000 Nigerians had immigrated into the United States in the last five years.

The department listed other countries not eligible as Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador and Haiti.

Others are India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam

However, many African countries would continue to enjoy the programme.

Some of them are Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia and Ghana.

Others are Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles and Sierra Leone.

Diversity visas are said to be distributed among six geographic regions, while no single country could receive more than seven per cent of the available space in any year.

Already, advertsiements for the 2015 US DV lottery have started with several businesses inviting Nigerians to apply for the program.

Applications for the 2015 US DV lottery is expected to take off from October 1, 2013.

In 2012, 14,769, 658 persons were said to have qualified worldwide for the US DV lottery among the 19, 672, 269 which applied.

PUNCH

Friday, September 13, 2013

Video - Shell negotiating compensation for oil spills in Nigeria


Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell may have to pay millions of dollars in compensation for some of the worst oil spills in Nigeria's history. A pipeline owned by the company burst twice in 2008, causing massive damage.

Monday, September 9, 2013

Video - Reforms boost Nigeria's cement industry



Economic reforms helped large scale industries get off the ground in Nigeria, like cement, creating much needed employment. Government used to spend more than a billion dollars a year importing it, but that has changed in the space of few years.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Video - Nigeria's growing aviation industry


More than 10 million people travel through Nigeria's 22 airports every year, and that number is set to increase rapidly in the coming years.The country is working on a major overhaul of its airports in order to deal with the increased traffic, and is getting some help from foreign investors to be able to follow through.China has given Nigeria a huge loan to build new international terminals, and there is training and investment going on in virtually every area of the aviation sector.