The decision by Nigeria’s central bank to raise the policy rate affected the local manufacturing industry. Manufacturers said expensive credit will weaken the sector and impede economic growth. Annual inflation in the West African country is at over 30 percent, levels last seen in 1996.
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Nigeria's federal government says it's doing everything it can to protect communities amid a recent surge in school kidnappings for ransom.
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kidnappers say they will kill all 287 school if $622,000 ransom not paid
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Netflix prices are going up in Nigeria. Starting today, the premium plan with 4K + HDR and downloads on six devices jumps to ₦5000. The standard plan also sees a bump, going from ₦3600 to ₦4000. While the basic plan stays put at ₦2,900, the price for the mobile plan has also been increased.
Since October last year, Netflix has been revising its subscription prices globally. The streaming platform also ended its free plan in Kenya which ran for two years.
"As we invest in and improve Netflix, we’ll occasionally ask our members to pay a little extra to reflect those improvements, which in turn helps drive the positive flywheel of additional investment to further improve and grow our service," the company said.
Since 2016, Netflix says it has invested about $175 million in film content production in sub-Saharan Africa, creating over 10,000 jobs within this period. Netflix holds the number two spot among streaming platforms in Africa, with an estimated 1.8 million subscribers by the end of November 2023; that's about 33.5% of the market share.
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Gunmen kidnapped at least 15 students from a school in Nigeria's northwestern Sokoto state in a dawn raid on Saturday.
The kidnapping came days after some 300 students were abducted by a gang in northern Kaduna state.
The gunmen forced their way into the school premises in the Sokoto village of Gidan Bakuso and started firing shots sporadically, waking and causing panic among the students, who ran for cover, said school owner Liman Abubakar Bakuso.
"They succeeded in abducting 15 of my students, the oldest being 20 and 15, but all the others are below 13," Bakuso told the Reuters news agency, adding that a woman had also been kidnapped.
"We are in a state of panic and have been praying hard for their safe release.”
Police in the state have not yet publicly commented, the news agency reported.
Kidnappings at schools in Nigeria were first carried out by jihadist group Boko Haram, which seized more than 200 students from a girls' school in Chibok in Borno state a decade ago, causing global outrage.
But the tactic has since been adopted by criminal gangs without any ideological affiliation seeking ransom payments, authorities say.
Nigeria's security forces are stretched fighting an Islamist insurgency in the northeast, leaving vast swathes of land unpoliced and armed gangs to roam freely.
In Kaduna, the state governor told the BBC at least 28 of the schoolchildren kidnapped earlier this week had managed to escape their captors.
Until Thursday's abduction in Kaduna, Nigeria had witnessed a lull in mass kidnappings from schools since July 2021 when some 150 students were seized by armed men.
By Josh Salisbury, Yahoo News
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Nigeria's information minister called on activists to drop plans for a protest in the commercial capital Lagos over the reopening of the site where demonstrators against police brutality were shot last year, saying it risked being "hijacked by hoodlums".
Protesters were shot on Oct. 20 by people witnesses said were soldiers at the toll gate in the affluent Lekki district of Lagos. Rights group Amnesty International said soldiers and police killed at least 12 protesters in Lekki and another district. The military and police have denied involvement.
Nationwide protests against police brutality were largely peaceful until the Oct. 20 shooting, which spawned some of the worst civil unrest since the 1999 return to civilian rule in Africa's most populous country.
A judicial commission in Lagos is looking into the allegations that the army and police opened fire on protesters on Oct. 20. Social media campaigners said a demonstration would be held at the toll gate on Saturday in protest at its reopening before the commission had completed its investigation.
In response, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said the planned rally could turn violent because of "hoodlums".
"We therefore strongly warn those who are planning to re-occupy Lekki Toll Gate on Saturday to desist," Mohammed told a news conference on Thursday in the capital Abuja.
"While peaceful protests are the constitutional rights of Nigerians, violent protests are not. At this time, the chances that any peaceful protest will be hijacked are very high."
Violence would not be tolerated, he said, adding: "The security agents are ready for any eventuality."
The unrest in October led to the deaths of six soldiers, 37 policemen and 57 civilians, as well as the destruction of 269 private and public properties, Mohammed said.
