Jennifer* has spent the last few weeks on the pavements of Vienna City, a hub in Kumasi, Ghana's second-largest city, which has a bustling nightlife.
She arrived in Ghana in May, having left a crowded hostel room in Lagos, Nigeria, hoping to secure work in sales or as a waitress and send her income to her mother in central Nigeria's Ondo State.
But after a one-day bus trip from Lagos to Accra, her dreams crumbled as she reached the green hills of Kumasi.
"Please, get me out of here, this life is devastating," she said.
"They put me immediately on the street, forcing me to prostitute from 8pm till morning, every day,'' she said in a bar on Harper Road, where Rihanna's songs crackled through an old sound system as other Nigerian women outside dressed in revealing clothes waited for clients.
"Each night, I receive up to eight clients, and end up having $20 to $25 in my hands,'' she said.
Most of her money goes back into the "system" - to a "madam", a Nigerian woman, and middlemen such as hotel managers.
Women and girls like Jennifer, with some as young as 14, are victims of a trafficking network that benefits several people from Nigeria to Ghana.
The old district of Dichemso, the heart of the business, lies on the opposite side of Kumasi's city centre.
"Dichemso is where Kumasi's sex industry is flourishing, thanks to different guesthouses and hotels, such as the Plaza," said Bright Owusu, an independent researcher who has spent the last three years meeting Nigerian women forced into prostitution in the city.
Twenty Nigerian women live at one of these guesthouses, which is controlled by a few men at the entrance.
Locked in her room, 26-year-old Blessing* shared her experience.
"I am the oldest of five sisters and brothers: when our parents died, I knew I had to take care of them,'' she said.
Local middlemen convinced her to leave Lokoja, in central Nigeria, to Ghana.
In Kumasi, "they introduced me to a woman, who brought me to a fetish priest and told me I owed her 8,000 cedis [about $1,500] for my transportation: I had to prostitute to pay that sum back".
In some African countries, a "fetish priest" serves as a mediator between the spirit and the living.
Blessing refused, and ran away.
Soon after, she received death threats in messages to her phone. "The madam said the priest would throw a curse against me, but I didn't want any debt,'' she said.
After working for four months at a local market, for barely $30 a month, Blessing ultimately turned to prostitution as the only way to pay college fees for her younger sisters.
"I don't like it here, but I have to resist,'' she said.
In one year in Dichemso, she said she has met dozens of women with similar experiences.
"Every day, Nigerian girls enter Ghana, undergo voodoo rituals and are put into prostitution, and nobody seems to care," she said.
"Through rituals, madams make sure that you'll pay back a debt," said Blessing.
Debts vary between $1,000 and $2,000, while prices "are as low as 5 cedis [$1] for a short [sexual encounter] - less than 10 minutes with the client - and up to 30 cedis for half an hour or more", she added.
Owusu, the researcher, explained: "Some of these women know they'll be coming for prostitution, but they don't know that once here, they'll lose control over their life."
Voodoo rituals play a central role.
"They are the most powerful bond, one that has a strong psychological impact," he said.
Victoria Klimova, a project coordinator at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Ghana, said that national authorities do not have complete information on sex trafficking.
However, according to Al Jazeera's interviews and research, it is estimated that there are at least hundreds of Nigerian women working as prostitutes in Ghana.
Late last year, IOM launched a programme aimed at creating comprehensive data on sex trafficking and labour exploitation in Ghana, and to support the government's 2017 strategy to combat the problem.
According to the US Department of State, a trafficking investigation which opened last year has seen just three people convicted.
Out of 49 women identified as potential victims of sex trafficking, 46 were Nigerian, and 22 were underage.
The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), a state agency, in part supported this investigation.
Alberta Ampofo leads its anti-smuggling operation, which is propped up with European Union funds.
She said some "rescued women" are living at Ghana's first shelter for trafficking victims, which opened in February.
"They should cooperate in investigations, before being returned to their families," she said.
"Victims of sex trafficking are in all corners of Ghana and much has yet to be done, but there's more awareness among the population and authorities, and that's a good start."
But Ampofo said that GIS is not prosecuting fetish priests.
"How can a priest know that a Nigerian lady is a victim of trafficking, if the madam simply presents her as an employee?"
However, this is not the case of Nana Badu, a renowned prophetess in Kumasi.
In a small room in her house, there are wooden statues of oracles, bowls and bottles.
Her oracles, she said, "can give strength, bring children, make business flourish or protect from enemies".
She added that madams "come for protection so that the police won't stop their girls at the border, since I have a medicine that prevents police from seeing you".
To "help" trafficked women pay back their debts, she claimed that she is able to foster "bonds" between sex workers and employers.
"If a woman tries to escape, the oracle will put the police on her back, to arrest her,'' said Badu.
Finally, when the debt is repaid, the madam returns with the sex worker and Badu reverses a ritual to release the victim.
None of the five women Al Jazeera interviewed in Kumasi, who hailed from different Nigerian states, was aware of a 2018 edict that dissolved all these oaths, led by the influential Oba, or traditional chief, of Benin City - one of the main origins of Nigerian women trafficked to Europe.
"Traditional priests feel they are somehow untouchable here, even by authorities,'' said Owusu.
Still, their services appear to play a key role in a system that exposes Nigerian women in Ghana to daily risks, as tragically confirmed in May with the murder of a 25-year-old woman known as Nina.
"I remember her receiving a call from a client and smiling," said Blessing, who knew Nina well.
Days later, the woman's body was found outside of Kumasi. Two men were arrested for the murder.
"We collected money for the burial and called her parents back in Nigeria," said Blessing. "They had no idea of what their daughter was going through here."
By Giacomo Zandonini
Al Jazeera
Related story: Video - Nigeria locking up survivors of human trafficking
Thursday, September 5, 2019
Global reputation of Nigeria dented by FBI fraud bust
The FBI's dramatic arrest and indictment of 80 mostly Nigerian cybercriminals in California last week made headlines globally. Closer to home, it has prompted concerns among Nigerians who are worried about the impact the busts will have on how the world views them and their country.
Previously, Nigerian criminality existed in the popular imagination somewhere between mildly serious and an internet joke.
Now, with the FBI's takedown of an intercontinental Nigerian criminal network responsible for millions of dollars in annual losses, some think that the country and its citizens risk facing an unprecedented international backlash.
A new era of travel restrictions?
Unsurprisingly, ease of travel is at the top of the list of concerns raised.
Nigeria is one of the world's most prolific exporters of skilled migrant labor with one of the world's least powerful passports, giving holders ready access to just 52 countries. Fresh visa restrictions are the last thing educated Nigerians need.
At 35%, Nigeria already has the world's highest UK visa refusal rate. It also ranks highly in US visa refusals with a 57% refusal rate.
After indefinitely suspending interview waivers for visa renewals earlier this year, the US Embassy in Nigeria no longer gives visa interview appointments according to local reports. The embassy's Public Affairs section has denied blocking interview appointments but has provided no further comment on the issue.
Many believe that the headlines and pictures showing the arrest of several hitherto shadowy Nigerian cybercriminals will significantly worsen the situation.
They fear that the indictment and prosecution of an organized Nigerian-American crime syndicate will give President Donald Trump scarcely-needed motivation to impose a Yemen-style US travel restriction on Nigerian citizens.
It will be recalled that shortly after taking office, Trump imposed total visa bans on seven countries in Africa and the Middle East including Yemen, Sudan, Syria, and Somalia. Some Nigerians who are American residents even fear becoming collateral damage within a new narrative of "Nigerian crime gangs."
This fear is driven in part by the experience of some innocent Hispanic teenagers who found themselves embroiled in deportation proceedings after being wrongly accused of being members of the fearsome international gang MS-13.
A sophisticated operation
Some also believe that the indictments present a risk that existing negative Nigerian stereotypes may now transcend education and income barriers.
The FBI has opened a wider window on Nigeria's internet crime problem to the world, depicting a sophisticated operation involving people with professional web development experience and organizational process knowledge.
These are not the crude "Nigerian Princes" of the popular imagination, sitting inside crowded Lagos cybercafes sending out poorly written emails. They are highly educated and well-traveled individuals, one of whom has appeared on a Forbes 30-Under-30 list.
When the implication of this sinks in, the rest of the world may well stop segmenting Nigerians and simply lose trust in them collectively.
Outside of Nigeria, the "Nigerian" identity risks becoming subsumed by the "criminal country" single narrative that once prevented Italian immigrants in the US from moving up the social ladder.
Unlike the early 20th century Italians, Nigerians have very little with which to counterbalance negative global narratives.
Italy was a global hub for art, tourism, history, religion, and food. Nigeria is a barely functional African state that struggles to fund its budget and police its borders. Adding a mafia-lite dimension to Nigeria's already poor global image risks turning Nigerians into international pariahs, which is bad news for a country that is highly dependent on remittances.
In 2018, Nigeria received over $25 billion in remittances, a figure which exceeded the country's federal budget of $23.7 billion for that year. In the context of Nigeria's dwindling oil receipts and 70% debt service-to-revenue ratio, the picture becomes even bleaker.
A full fledged-pariah state?
As the world tackles the threat of a terrifying new Nigerian bogeyman, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will come under pressure to demonstrate enforcement of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations.
Predictably, the remittance sector will come under even stricter international scrutiny than at present, even though Nigeria's internet fraudsters mostly moved on years ago.
The indicted cybercriminals typically moved the stolen funds through the Nigerian banking system, instead of parallel systems like bitcoin and gift cards (which are themselves popular with other Nigerian internet scammers). This will likely attract the attention of the US Department of Justice.
At risk of removal from the SWIFT network, which connects banks across borders and effectively underpins international trade, Nigerian authorities will almost certainly do whatever they can to restore some semblance of global confidence in their KYC and AML enforcement.
On the whole, individual Nigerian citizens and organizations may well suffer localized backlash due to last week's indictments, but the Nigerian state itself is unlikely to suffer much. This is because unlike the North Korean regime, Nigeria's government neither plays an active role in cybercrime nor is it openly hostile to the international community.
The EFCC has already started collaborating with the FBI to arrest indicted suspects in Abuja with extradition to the US in view.
Going forward, the Nigerian government is best served playing a compliant and competent role in the prosecution of this case. Ultimately, that could be the difference between becoming a full-fledged pariah state and merely remaining a poorly-regarded one.
The state will always be fine, but the citizens? Not so much.
By David Hundeyin
CNN
Related story: FBI charges 80 people connected to Nigerian romance scams
Previously, Nigerian criminality existed in the popular imagination somewhere between mildly serious and an internet joke.
Now, with the FBI's takedown of an intercontinental Nigerian criminal network responsible for millions of dollars in annual losses, some think that the country and its citizens risk facing an unprecedented international backlash.
A new era of travel restrictions?
Unsurprisingly, ease of travel is at the top of the list of concerns raised.
Nigeria is one of the world's most prolific exporters of skilled migrant labor with one of the world's least powerful passports, giving holders ready access to just 52 countries. Fresh visa restrictions are the last thing educated Nigerians need.
At 35%, Nigeria already has the world's highest UK visa refusal rate. It also ranks highly in US visa refusals with a 57% refusal rate.
After indefinitely suspending interview waivers for visa renewals earlier this year, the US Embassy in Nigeria no longer gives visa interview appointments according to local reports. The embassy's Public Affairs section has denied blocking interview appointments but has provided no further comment on the issue.
Many believe that the headlines and pictures showing the arrest of several hitherto shadowy Nigerian cybercriminals will significantly worsen the situation.
They fear that the indictment and prosecution of an organized Nigerian-American crime syndicate will give President Donald Trump scarcely-needed motivation to impose a Yemen-style US travel restriction on Nigerian citizens.
It will be recalled that shortly after taking office, Trump imposed total visa bans on seven countries in Africa and the Middle East including Yemen, Sudan, Syria, and Somalia. Some Nigerians who are American residents even fear becoming collateral damage within a new narrative of "Nigerian crime gangs."
This fear is driven in part by the experience of some innocent Hispanic teenagers who found themselves embroiled in deportation proceedings after being wrongly accused of being members of the fearsome international gang MS-13.
A sophisticated operation
Some also believe that the indictments present a risk that existing negative Nigerian stereotypes may now transcend education and income barriers.
The FBI has opened a wider window on Nigeria's internet crime problem to the world, depicting a sophisticated operation involving people with professional web development experience and organizational process knowledge.
These are not the crude "Nigerian Princes" of the popular imagination, sitting inside crowded Lagos cybercafes sending out poorly written emails. They are highly educated and well-traveled individuals, one of whom has appeared on a Forbes 30-Under-30 list.
When the implication of this sinks in, the rest of the world may well stop segmenting Nigerians and simply lose trust in them collectively.
Outside of Nigeria, the "Nigerian" identity risks becoming subsumed by the "criminal country" single narrative that once prevented Italian immigrants in the US from moving up the social ladder.
Unlike the early 20th century Italians, Nigerians have very little with which to counterbalance negative global narratives.
Italy was a global hub for art, tourism, history, religion, and food. Nigeria is a barely functional African state that struggles to fund its budget and police its borders. Adding a mafia-lite dimension to Nigeria's already poor global image risks turning Nigerians into international pariahs, which is bad news for a country that is highly dependent on remittances.
In 2018, Nigeria received over $25 billion in remittances, a figure which exceeded the country's federal budget of $23.7 billion for that year. In the context of Nigeria's dwindling oil receipts and 70% debt service-to-revenue ratio, the picture becomes even bleaker.
A full fledged-pariah state?
As the world tackles the threat of a terrifying new Nigerian bogeyman, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will come under pressure to demonstrate enforcement of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations.
Predictably, the remittance sector will come under even stricter international scrutiny than at present, even though Nigeria's internet fraudsters mostly moved on years ago.
The indicted cybercriminals typically moved the stolen funds through the Nigerian banking system, instead of parallel systems like bitcoin and gift cards (which are themselves popular with other Nigerian internet scammers). This will likely attract the attention of the US Department of Justice.
At risk of removal from the SWIFT network, which connects banks across borders and effectively underpins international trade, Nigerian authorities will almost certainly do whatever they can to restore some semblance of global confidence in their KYC and AML enforcement.
On the whole, individual Nigerian citizens and organizations may well suffer localized backlash due to last week's indictments, but the Nigerian state itself is unlikely to suffer much. This is because unlike the North Korean regime, Nigeria's government neither plays an active role in cybercrime nor is it openly hostile to the international community.
The EFCC has already started collaborating with the FBI to arrest indicted suspects in Abuja with extradition to the US in view.
Going forward, the Nigerian government is best served playing a compliant and competent role in the prosecution of this case. Ultimately, that could be the difference between becoming a full-fledged pariah state and merely remaining a poorly-regarded one.
The state will always be fine, but the citizens? Not so much.
By David Hundeyin
CNN
Related story: FBI charges 80 people connected to Nigerian romance scams
Nigeria withdraws from summit in South Africa after deadly riots
Nigeria has pulled out of an African economic summit in South Africa, intensifying a diplomatic row after a series of deadly attacks on foreigners, including Nigerians, in South African cities.
The withdrawal of Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo from the World Economic Forum (WEF) gathering in Cape Town cast a cloud over initiatives to boost intra-African trade. He was scheduled to address a panel on universal energy access on Thursday.
The rioting has killed at least five people in Johannesburg and Pretoria in recent days.
On Wednesday, South African companies MTN and Shoprite closed stores in Nigeria after retaliatory attacks on their businesses.
"I lost millions of naira," said Jadesola, a boutique owner at Surulere mall that also houses a Shoprite outlet in the commercial capital, Lagos. "Everything I have is invested there. All my sweat."
With tears in her eyes, she asked Al Jazeera to only publish her first name for security reasons.
The political repercussions of the violence also continued to unfold.
"Clearly with this climate, he [Osinbajo] and Mr President have agreed that he should not go [to WEF]," Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama told a news briefing.
Summit organisers confirmed Osinbajo would not attend the three-day summit, which started on Wednesday.
Nigeria also recalled its high commissioner to South Africa, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported, citing a presidential source.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, on a charm offensive to attract $100bn of new investment, tried to limit fallout from the violence, which has rekindled memories of previous deadly attacks on foreigners that also led to reprisals on South African businesses abroad.
Ramaphosa said on Wednesday that South Africans should never take justice into their own hands against people from other countries.
"We need to quell those incidents of unrest," Ramaphosa said. "South Africa must be a country where everyone feels safe," he said, also condemning the recent incidents in which women had been killed.
Meanwhile, Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Malawi's Peter Mutharika also pulled out of the Cape Town conference, but their governments did not give an official reason for their no-show.
WEF spokesman Oliver Cann said Kagame and Mutharika had informed conference organisers by Saturday - before the attacks had started - that they could not attend.
South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation, commenting before Nigeria announced Osinbajo's withdrawal, said the attendance was "satisfactory".
'Cyclical tension'
Police in South Africa have yet to pinpoint what triggered the violence, which began on Sunday when protesters armed with makeshift weapons roamed the streets of Pretoria's business district, pelting shops with rocks and petrol bombs, and running off with goods.
Police have made almost 300 arrests, while people across the continent have protested and voiced their anger on social media.
Al Jazeera's Haru Mutasa, reporting from downtown Johannesburg, said: "Some shops and businesses haven't opened for days. The owners are afraid there could be more violence and looting."
Somadoda Fikeni, a policy and political analyst at the University of South Africa, said the unrest had multiple causes.
"The issue of foreign nationals, blaming them for many things which are not going well in the country and also the law enforcement and the economic conditions in the country, all of these combined, if not managed well, then create this cyclical tension between foreign nationals and locals, especially those who are in the margins because the middle class and those who are in the upper class, you hardly ever hear of such tension getting into this level," he told Al Jazeera from Pretoria.
Retaliatory attacks
In Nigeria, police said security had been strengthened around South African businesses after apparent reprisal attacks in several cities against stores operated by the supermarket chain Shoprite, MTN and other firms.
The Nigerian division of South African telecom operator MTN said on Wednesday it would shut all stores and service centres in the country until further notice after its facilities in three cities were attacked.
"The safety and security of our customers, staff and partners is our primary concern," MTN Nigeria said in a statement. "MTN condemns any acts of violence, prejudice and xenophobia."
Nigeria is MTN's biggest market, with 58 million users in 2018, and accounts for a third of the South African group's core profit.
At a Shoprite supermarket on the outskirts of the Nigerian capital, Abuja, hundreds of protesters tried to break into the premises, throwing stones, setting fire to tyres and nearly overwhelming police protecting the site.
Retaliatory attacks also took in the university town of Ibadan and the city of Uyo on Tuesday evening, Nigeria's government said in a statement.
Nigerian Foreign Minister Onyeama on Wednesday implored people to stop attacking these businesses.
"These businesses, Shoprite, MTN and others, yes, they are South African," he said at a press briefing.
"But these are subsidiaries in Nigeria owned by Nigerians. So, as attacks are made against Shoprite and other such institutions, it is actually the property owned by Nigerians within Nigeria and the people working there are Nigerians."
In recent years, attacks against foreign-owned businesses in South Africa have become a regular occurrence as frustration has increased over mounting unemployment, currently at a decade-high of around 29 percent.
Some 60 people were killed in attacks directed at foreigners in 2008 and at least seven more in 2015.
Meanwhile, tensions have also wafted into the entertainment industry as some of the top celebrities in the two countries exchanged angry patriotic tirades.
Nigeria's Tiwa Savage, one of the continent's best-known superstars, pulled out of performing at the DSTV Delicious Festival later this month in South Africa, while calling for peace and describing the attacks as "the barbaric butchering of my people".
South African rapper Casper Nyovest also called for peace in the country saying he was "embarrassed" by what was now a "recurring issue".
Al Jazeera
Related stories: MTN Nigeria shuts stores due to Anti-South African attacks
South African businesses targeted in Nigeria in retaliation
The withdrawal of Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo from the World Economic Forum (WEF) gathering in Cape Town cast a cloud over initiatives to boost intra-African trade. He was scheduled to address a panel on universal energy access on Thursday.
The rioting has killed at least five people in Johannesburg and Pretoria in recent days.
On Wednesday, South African companies MTN and Shoprite closed stores in Nigeria after retaliatory attacks on their businesses.
"I lost millions of naira," said Jadesola, a boutique owner at Surulere mall that also houses a Shoprite outlet in the commercial capital, Lagos. "Everything I have is invested there. All my sweat."
With tears in her eyes, she asked Al Jazeera to only publish her first name for security reasons.
The political repercussions of the violence also continued to unfold.
"Clearly with this climate, he [Osinbajo] and Mr President have agreed that he should not go [to WEF]," Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama told a news briefing.
Summit organisers confirmed Osinbajo would not attend the three-day summit, which started on Wednesday.
Nigeria also recalled its high commissioner to South Africa, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported, citing a presidential source.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, on a charm offensive to attract $100bn of new investment, tried to limit fallout from the violence, which has rekindled memories of previous deadly attacks on foreigners that also led to reprisals on South African businesses abroad.
Ramaphosa said on Wednesday that South Africans should never take justice into their own hands against people from other countries.
"We need to quell those incidents of unrest," Ramaphosa said. "South Africa must be a country where everyone feels safe," he said, also condemning the recent incidents in which women had been killed.
Meanwhile, Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Malawi's Peter Mutharika also pulled out of the Cape Town conference, but their governments did not give an official reason for their no-show.
WEF spokesman Oliver Cann said Kagame and Mutharika had informed conference organisers by Saturday - before the attacks had started - that they could not attend.
South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation, commenting before Nigeria announced Osinbajo's withdrawal, said the attendance was "satisfactory".
'Cyclical tension'
Police in South Africa have yet to pinpoint what triggered the violence, which began on Sunday when protesters armed with makeshift weapons roamed the streets of Pretoria's business district, pelting shops with rocks and petrol bombs, and running off with goods.
Police have made almost 300 arrests, while people across the continent have protested and voiced their anger on social media.
Al Jazeera's Haru Mutasa, reporting from downtown Johannesburg, said: "Some shops and businesses haven't opened for days. The owners are afraid there could be more violence and looting."
Somadoda Fikeni, a policy and political analyst at the University of South Africa, said the unrest had multiple causes.
"The issue of foreign nationals, blaming them for many things which are not going well in the country and also the law enforcement and the economic conditions in the country, all of these combined, if not managed well, then create this cyclical tension between foreign nationals and locals, especially those who are in the margins because the middle class and those who are in the upper class, you hardly ever hear of such tension getting into this level," he told Al Jazeera from Pretoria.
Retaliatory attacks
In Nigeria, police said security had been strengthened around South African businesses after apparent reprisal attacks in several cities against stores operated by the supermarket chain Shoprite, MTN and other firms.
The Nigerian division of South African telecom operator MTN said on Wednesday it would shut all stores and service centres in the country until further notice after its facilities in three cities were attacked.
"The safety and security of our customers, staff and partners is our primary concern," MTN Nigeria said in a statement. "MTN condemns any acts of violence, prejudice and xenophobia."
Nigeria is MTN's biggest market, with 58 million users in 2018, and accounts for a third of the South African group's core profit.
At a Shoprite supermarket on the outskirts of the Nigerian capital, Abuja, hundreds of protesters tried to break into the premises, throwing stones, setting fire to tyres and nearly overwhelming police protecting the site.
Retaliatory attacks also took in the university town of Ibadan and the city of Uyo on Tuesday evening, Nigeria's government said in a statement.
Nigerian Foreign Minister Onyeama on Wednesday implored people to stop attacking these businesses.
"These businesses, Shoprite, MTN and others, yes, they are South African," he said at a press briefing.
"But these are subsidiaries in Nigeria owned by Nigerians. So, as attacks are made against Shoprite and other such institutions, it is actually the property owned by Nigerians within Nigeria and the people working there are Nigerians."
In recent years, attacks against foreign-owned businesses in South Africa have become a regular occurrence as frustration has increased over mounting unemployment, currently at a decade-high of around 29 percent.
Some 60 people were killed in attacks directed at foreigners in 2008 and at least seven more in 2015.
Meanwhile, tensions have also wafted into the entertainment industry as some of the top celebrities in the two countries exchanged angry patriotic tirades.
Nigeria's Tiwa Savage, one of the continent's best-known superstars, pulled out of performing at the DSTV Delicious Festival later this month in South Africa, while calling for peace and describing the attacks as "the barbaric butchering of my people".
South African rapper Casper Nyovest also called for peace in the country saying he was "embarrassed" by what was now a "recurring issue".
Al Jazeera
Related stories: MTN Nigeria shuts stores due to Anti-South African attacks
South African businesses targeted in Nigeria in retaliation
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
MTN Nigeria shuts stores due to Anti-South African attacks
The Nigerian division of South African telecom operator MTN said on Wednesday it will shut all stores and service centres in the country until further notice after its facilities in three cities were attacked.
The facilities were attacked in retaliation after days of riots in South Africa chiefly targeting foreign-owned, including Nigerian, businesses.
“The safety and security of our customers, staff and partners is our primary concern,” MTN Nigeria said in a statement.
“MTN condemns any acts of violence, prejudice and xenophobia.”
The latest wave of unrest in South Africa has raised fears of a recurrence of violence in 2015 aimed at foreigners and in which at least seven people were killed. Before that, some 60 people were killed in a wave of unrest around the country in 2008.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said on Tuesday he was urgently sending a special envoy to meet with President Cyril Ramaphosa to secure the “safety of (Nigerian citizens’) lives and property”.
Police have yet to pinpoint what triggered the violence, which began on Sunday when protesters armed with makeshift weapons roamed the streets of Pretoria’s business district, pelting shops with rocks and petrol bombs and running off with goods.
Nigeria is MTN’s biggest market, with 58 million users in 2018 and accounts for a third of the South African group’s core profit.
Reuters
Related stories: South African businesses targeted in Nigeria in retaliation
President Buhari sends envoy to South Africa over violence against Nigerians
The facilities were attacked in retaliation after days of riots in South Africa chiefly targeting foreign-owned, including Nigerian, businesses.
“The safety and security of our customers, staff and partners is our primary concern,” MTN Nigeria said in a statement.
“MTN condemns any acts of violence, prejudice and xenophobia.”
The latest wave of unrest in South Africa has raised fears of a recurrence of violence in 2015 aimed at foreigners and in which at least seven people were killed. Before that, some 60 people were killed in a wave of unrest around the country in 2008.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said on Tuesday he was urgently sending a special envoy to meet with President Cyril Ramaphosa to secure the “safety of (Nigerian citizens’) lives and property”.
Police have yet to pinpoint what triggered the violence, which began on Sunday when protesters armed with makeshift weapons roamed the streets of Pretoria’s business district, pelting shops with rocks and petrol bombs and running off with goods.
Nigeria is MTN’s biggest market, with 58 million users in 2018 and accounts for a third of the South African group’s core profit.
Reuters
Related stories: South African businesses targeted in Nigeria in retaliation
President Buhari sends envoy to South Africa over violence against Nigerians
Economic growth in Nigeria slows down in second quarter
Year-on-year growth in Nigeria’s economy slowed to 1.94% in the three months to the end of June, the second quarter in a row of decline as the country struggles to shake off the effects of a recession it escaped two years ago.
Nigeria’s economy grew by 2.10% in the first quarter compared to the previous year, according to the statistics office on Tuesday.
Africa’s biggest economy has been held back by sluggish performance in the non-oil sector despite government efforts to boost those industries and wean Nigeria off the crude oil on which it depends. The central bank has forecast growth of 3% for 2019.
In the second quarter the non-oil sector grew 1.64% while the oil sector increased 5.15%, according to the statistics office.
Crude production dipped slightly to 1.98 million barrels per day from 1.99 million in the previous quarter.
EWN
Nigeria’s economy grew by 2.10% in the first quarter compared to the previous year, according to the statistics office on Tuesday.
Africa’s biggest economy has been held back by sluggish performance in the non-oil sector despite government efforts to boost those industries and wean Nigeria off the crude oil on which it depends. The central bank has forecast growth of 3% for 2019.
In the second quarter the non-oil sector grew 1.64% while the oil sector increased 5.15%, according to the statistics office.
Crude production dipped slightly to 1.98 million barrels per day from 1.99 million in the previous quarter.
EWN
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