Thursday, August 25, 2016

Nigerian banks are being barred from forex trading

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has suspended nine banks in the country from the inter-bank foreign exchange market due to a failure to remit government income to the government’s coffers, according to reports. The affected banks collectively failed to remit a total of $2.3 billion in deposits belonging to the national oil and gas firms.

Over the past year, under president Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, Nigeria’s apex bank has taken a tougher stance on having banks remit government revenue, imposing strict deadlines and a new remitting system. While government agencies and ministries previously maintained multiple accounts at local banks, president Buhari instituted a Treasury Single Account (TSA) to ensure that all government funds were pooled. This was to instill more accountability in monitoring government revenue and to eliminate opacity in government.

In addition to the ban, the affected banks may also be fined. But the banks have blamed the inability to remit the funds on the scarcity of dollars in Nigeria for most of the past year. That scarcity has remained despite a recent full currency float. In a bid to avoid a sharp currency slide following the drop in oil prices and its revenues, the government chose to adopt a fixed exchange rate but with the problem of the supply of foreign exchange unsolved, increased demand drove up the the value of the currency on the parallel market. Despite calls for devaluation, the central bank, towing the official position of the presidency, maintained the policy. Rather than result in growth, as promised, the policy scared off investors, resulted in major fuel shortages and adversely impacted the economy. The full float has not assuaged the situation either as it is yet to result in tangible growth and inflow of investment.

Given the situation, Mike Omeife, spokesman of Diamond Bank, one of those affected, told Bloomberg “banks expected the CBN would have allowed them to pay in naira instead of dollars”. The ban is expected to be lifted after the government’s funds are remitted but until then, the banks will not be able to operate the inter-bank market. Late on Wednesday CBN said United Bank of Africa had refunded money owed to the treasury account and would be readmitted to the forex trading market the next day (Aug. 25).

95% of medical laboratories in Nigeria operated by quacks

The Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria, MLSCN, has said that about 95 per cent of the medical laboratories in some hospitals in Nigeria, as well as private medical laboratories that are scattered throughout Nigeria are manned by quacks and unqualified medical laboratory scientists.

This was disclosed by the Acting Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria, Mr. Tosan Erhabor at the 18th Annual Conference and Annual General Meeting, AGM, of the Guild of Medical Laboratory Directors of Nigeria, GMLDN, held at Emmaus House, Awka, Anambra State ,yesterday. He said: “MLSCN was determined to engender confidence in laboratory results, and is therefore, seeking the co-operation of GMLDN in its efforts to rid the medical laboratory science profession of quackery and illegal practice. 

Advocacy meetings had been mounted across the country. “The Council EQA programme first set of samples from participatory laboratories has been received and analyzed, medical laboratories that were yet to key into the scheme to do so. 

The management and stakeholders have completed the protocol for assessment of laboratories as a way of objective assessment geared towards global best practices”. He described the theme of the conference “Medical Laboratory Automation in a Challenging Economy”, as apt given the “technical recession” the nation’s economy is experiencing presently, adding that medical laboratory automation is the use of clinical laboratory instruments to assay large numbers of samples with minimal human intervention”. 

He said that the major obstacle to the implementation of automation in medical laboratories had been its high cost which has prevented laboratory scientists in a challenged economy like ours to adopt, but nevertheless, advocated the use of simple and low cost automated devices like robotic arms or 3D printers which he said can also perform tasks done by large automations, adding that “in a challenging economy like ours, bench top automation is recommended”. “It consists of machines of reduced size compared to large automation units found in resource –rich laboratories. 

Bench top automation is often flexible and can deal with many different tasks. It is an attractive solution for many laboratories bearing in mind that majority of laboratories in a challenging economy do not need employment of full scale automation”, he said. National President of GMLDN Dr Fabian Chukwuezi in his speech said “GMLDN was faced by many challenges that were borne by principal officers with their own personal resources leading to some leaving the stage, but the present National Executive Committee has been consistent and have continued to contribute to series of achievements, especially to the call by the National assembly for public opinion on various challenging health issues”. 

Chairman Anambra State, branch of GMLDN, Dr. Uche Ngenegbo said the state government has now moved to ensure that all the laboratories in the states hospitals are certified.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Video - Plans underway to ramp up power generation in Nigeria




Nigeria's Electricity Transmission Company says it is planning to invest up to 7.5 billion dollars to revamp its ailing power sector. The five year plan aims at increasing Nigeria's power generation capacity to 11,500 megawatts from 5,500 megawatts.

Video - Nigerian army claims it has killed hundreds of militants




The army's claiming massive gains against Boko Haram militants. It says airstrikes killed hundreds of militants, and that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has likely been wounded. That's according to the airforce chief of staff. The strikes took place in Sambisa forest, where Boko Haram has been holed up. The army has in the past claimed its killed Shekau, but he's known for his videos refuting those claims.

Nigerian Roye Okupe creating an African comic-book universe

Roye Okupe didn’t read comic books growing up in Lagos, Nigeria. Comic book shops weren’t around. Instead, Okupe was introduced to superheroes through Saturday morning cartoons such as “Transformers” and “X-Men.”

So when he set out to create his own Nigerian superhero, he thought animation was the way to go. That idea led Okupe on a journey that culminated in him debuting a new universe of African superheroes. Just not in the way he originally planned.

Okupe, now 31, arrived in the United States in 2002, attending George Washington University and earning a bachelors and master’s degree in computer science in 2007 and 2009. In between those degrees he took a class in animation at the Art Institute of Washington. After college, while working as a web developer for International Software Systems in Greenbelt, Maryland, Okupe was able to put together an eight-minute animated trailer featuring his first superhero creation, Wale Williams, a young, 20-something Nigerian who suits up in high tech armor to become the African superhero E.X.O. (Endogenic Xoskeletal Ordinance).

Okupe shopped his trailer to distributors, television networks and investors for a year and got nowhere. One movie producer even told him that E.X.O. looked interesting, but he should think about changing the race of the character.

“That was a down period for me. I really had to dig into believing in myself that I could actually get this done,” Okupe told The Washington Post’s Comic Riffs. “Hearing that from someone who was in the [entertainment] industry, I almost took it for the gospel. But if you have a dream, it’s your responsibility to make it happen and then people will join the bandwagon once you start to get some recognition.”

Okupe decided to take inspiration from another superhero medium: live-action movies. He was impressed with Marvel’s ability to satisfy both hardcore fans and the general public alike with its movies. But Okupe concentrated on the format so many movie superheroes originally came from: comic books.

Comics were much more affordable to produce. Okupe had never written a comic before, so he ruled out trying to take his ideas to mainstream comic companies. And when he didn’t hear back from “lower-tier” publishers, he decided to produce E.X.O. independently.

So in the summer of 2014, he cashed out his 401k, resigned from his job and founded YouNeek Studios, the company which he would use to debut his first comic book, “E.X.O. The Legend of Wale Williams.”

“It’s a very big change and a particularly scary one,” Okupe said of the moment he quit his job. “But I knew that to make the impact that I want to make in the comic book industry, I couldn’t do it with a nine to five.

“I was working as web developer and making good money. But this has always been a dream of mine and I always tell people if you have a dream, no one’s going to make it happen for you.”

Okupe recruited four artists in Nigeria to help him produce his first E.X.O. comic. Ayodele Elegba would edit his writing. Sunkanmi Akinboye would be his interior pages artist. Raphael Kazeem worked on coloring and Godwin Akpan did cover art. Not counting the two times a year he returns home to Nigeria, Okupe does all his communicating with his art team from his apartment in Rockville, Maryland. It was important for him to have a team that could capture the cultural essence of his homeland, as E.X.O.’s fictional city of Lagoon City takes inspiration from Lagos.

“[The artists] are there on a day to day basis. They can feel the vibe,” Okupe said. “I wanted people that were close to home but I also really wanted to prove that Nigerian/African artists as a whole can do stuff that’s comparable to what you would see in Marvel or DC and I think I’ve been able to accomplish that.”

Marvel of course, is home to perhaps the most famous African superhero of all, The Black Panther, who is a king ruling over a fictional African paradise (Wakanda). Okupe’s tales are also fictional but he aims for a more authentic African feel. The book’s characters use Nigerian colloquialisms (translated in captions), traditional clothing and the country’s monuments.

“The country of Nigeria and the continent as a whole, you always see war, famine, terrorism — we touch on those points,” Okupe said. “But I try to pump up as much positivity as I can, because I feel that’s lacking when it comes to Nigeria and Africa as a whole in the mainstream.”

The first E.X.O. comic debuted on Aug. 31, 2015, and a second will arrive Wednesday. Instead of publishing monthly like many comics, YouNeek Studios produces chapters as graphic novels, a format Okupe hopes gives potential new readers an easy jumping-on point without having to worry about catching up on back issues. In the future, Okupe hopes YouNeek Studios will publish two graphic novels a year.

Okupe worked with printing company Print Ninja to get his comics printed and into select comic book shops, but they can also be purchased digitally via the YouNeek Studios website, ComiXology, Amazon and Apple Books.

Okupe used personal savings and family support to fund YouNeek Studios. Two successful kickstarter campaigns, which Okupe promoted via blogs and social media, helped cover the cost of printing. He puts “every dime” he makes from the comics back into YouNeek Studios and supports himself via freelance web design work.

“I haven’t been kicked out of my apartment yet,” Okupe joked. “So I guess I’m doing something right.”

Okupe is now ready to focus on expanding his YouNeek universe with new characters, including Fury, a female character introduced in the E.X.O. books, Malika, a warrior queen based in pre-colonial Africa, and Windmaker, a hero who the ability to control the wind.

Creating superheroes is a thrill, but Okupe is most proud of the self-built, diverse fanbase that he hopes will stick around for more adventures.

“I’m having people in South America buy my books. People in Europe and Asia buy my books,” Okupe said. “So it’s not just African or African-Americans, it’s pretty much anybody who is interested in a great story.”