Video - Nigeria to receive $75m to reduce child birth mortality

The United Nation's population agency is giving $75m to boost reproductive health services in Nigeria. Some of the funds will be used to improve access to family planning to help reduce the high number of deaths during pregnancy and childbirth.

Teenage girl attempts suicide bomb attack in Kano, Nigeria

A teenager blew herself up near a mosque on Monday night in an apparent suicide attack attempt in Kano, Nigeria's second-largest city, police said.

Police spokesman Magaji Majiya said the girl's target was likely the Umar Ibn Al-Khattab mosque and that she was the only casualty.

The attempted attack bore the hallmarks of the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, that was behind a wave of violence last week that killed 200 people. On Sunday, at least 44 people died in two attacks in the central city of Jos.

Kano has not been attacked since February this year when two suicide bombers struck a bus station killing at least 10 people.

On Monday in Kano, two witnesses said they saw the girl crossing a road before they heard a loud bang.

Boko Haram has been waging an insurgency since 2009 to establish a state in Nigeria's northeast adhering to strict sharia law. Boko Haram took over large swathes of territory last year but have since been repelled from most parts by Nigerian forces with the help of Chad, Niger and Cameroon.


Reuters

Another Bitcoin service BitX launches in Nigeria

BitX has launched services in Nigeria, a move that will enable local users to access the company's bitcoin wallet, exchange and API services.

The announcement comes roughly six months after the emerging markets-focused bitcoin services provider launched in Indonesia. Both countries had been on BitX's list of planned markets since April 2014.

BitX CEO Marcus Swanepoel expressed his optimism that Nigeria would soon become one of the company's leading markets due to its "fast-growing" and "highly entrepreneurial economy".

Swanepoel said:

"We’ve been inundated with requests for bitcoin products and services from consumers, developers and Nigerian businesses. The business aspect is particularly interesting and we’re currently working with a number of these businesses to bring some exciting new products to the market."

Nigeria notably became the largest economy in Africa in April 2013, surpassing South Africa with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $509.9bn compared to South Africa's $350.6bn. However, with a population of 170 million (compared to South Africa's 52.98 million), economists have argued the country's economy is still underperforming.

One factor that may hold back the utility of bitcoin, though, is the relative lack of smartphone penetration, which mobile operator interest group the GSM Association estimates at just 10-15% of mobile subscribers.

The announcement will nonetheless find BitX joining ICE3x as the latest exchange to try and galvanize bitcoin user interest in the Nigerian market.

ICE3x launched its services in January and now offers an order-book exchange that allows Nigerian naira to be exchanged for digital currencies such as bitcoin and litecoin.


Coindesk


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Bitcoin exchange market coming to Nigeria

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Video - Council want former Finance Minister Okonjo Iweala investigated

A war of words is currently brewing in Nigeria between the new government of President Muhammadu Buhari and the country's former Finance Minister, and it's all about money from the the excess crude account.

Nigeria Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi sacked

The former Nigeria international, who coached his country to victory in the African Cup of Nations in 2013 and into the last 16 of the World Cup in Brazil last year before losing to France, has been replaced by Shuaibu Amodu, who was appointed Nigeria's technical director last week.

The statement issued by the NFF said it had reviewed Keshi's "actions and inactions" and found he lacked "the required commitment to achieve the federation's objectives as set out in the coach's employment contract."

It added it had "decided to exercise its option to summarily terminate the employment contract of Mr. Stephen Keshi with the federation with immediate effect".

An NFF disciplinary committee headed by Chris Green has been investigating allegations that Keshi applied to coach Ivory Coast while under contract with Nigeria.

Keshi, 53, took over the national side in 2011 and led them to a long-awaited third African title two years later.

The charismatic coach then quit the day after their 1-0 victory over Burkina Faso in the final, only to change his mind a day later.

The same thing happened after the World Cup last year when he quit and was then reinstated before threatening to leave again last October after a poor run of results as they failed to qualify for this year's African Cup of Nations.

Keshi is the only African coach to qualify two African teams for the World Cup finals -- Togo in 2006, as well as Nigeria. He played 64 times for his country and spent the peak years of his playing career in Belgium in the 1980s and 1990s.

Times Live