Author: New Daily Prime

The World Bank has called for urgent, people-centred action to address the intertwined challenges of poverty and climate change. The institution stressed the need for countries to prioritise investments in resilience, adaptation, and low-emission development to mitigate the impacts of these crises. This recommendation was outlined in the bank’s latest report, People in a Changing Climate: From Vulnerability to Action, released on Wednesday, December 18. The report summarises the findings from the first three years of Country Climate and Development Reports (CCDRs), focusing on the importance of placing people at the heart of climate policy. The World Bank’s findings cover…

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday concluded its case against Oluwole Olutimehin, who is facing trial for allegedly embezzling N13.29 million from Sterling Bank Plc. Olutimehin is standing trial before Justice Rahman Oshodi at the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja. He is charged with one count of fraudulent conversion of the sum of N13.29 million, an offence allegedly committed on or about September 15, 2021. The case was initially heard before Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo, who retired in 2023, prompting the reassignment of the matter to Justice Oshodi. Olutimehin is accused of converting the funds belonging…

Seeks payment of withheld salaries, deductions By Alade Adisa The Congress of University Academics, CONUA, has said dispirited, hungry and financially challenged workers cannot perform to the highest level and has therefore appealed to President Bola Tinubu to order the payment of their three and a half months withheld salaries, as well as four months of third party deductions that have not been remitted to the appropriate quarters. The congress, in a press release by Dr Folasade Hunsu, the Chairperson, CONUA Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, and who is also the Southwest Zonal Coordinator, said members have been exposed to untold…

By Alade Adisa With emergence of Ademola Lookman as the 2024 Confederation of African Football, CAF, Player of the Year, POTY, Nigeria has emerged the country with the highest number of winners of the coveted award. The annual award was started in 1992 and Nigerian players have won it seven times. Also, Nigeria is the only country to win the CAF POTY Award in two consecutive years on three occasions, with different players. The list of Nigerian winners are: Rashidi Yekini 1993, Emmanuel Amuneke 1994, Kanu Nwakwo 1996 &1999, Victor Ikpeba 1997, Victor Osimhen 2023 and Ademola Lookman 2024. READ…

By Alade Adisa New graduates of the University of Lagos, UNILAG, are to pay higher fees to be members of the Alumni Association of the university. The alumni fee is part of the regime of fees fresh graduates will pay before convocation. The 55th convocation ceremony of the university is scheduled for January next year. The alumni registration fees for graduates of various programmes are as follows: First degree and diploma programmes graduate will now pay N5,000 each from the previous N2,000. READ ALSO: Sanwo-Olu sues EFCC over arrest threats Postgraduate programmes graduates to pay N7,500 instead of the former…

Sanwo-Olu needs extra N560m monthly to meet workers’ demand By Alade Adisa The ongoing industrial action by workers at the Lagos State University, LASU, Ojo, may not end soon, as the state government requires additional N560 million monthly to meet the demand by the workers for enhanced salaries. Investigation by New Daily Prime showed that the state government is in dilemma of how to meet the additional expenditure without asking the management of the school to raise fees or levies. Also, the state government, which is thinking of turning the College of Medicine of the university in Ikeja to a…

By Alade Adisa The National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, NAPPS, is now factionalised, as the issue of who controls resources at its disposal has led to members pitching tents with different leaders. NAPPS, which has over 40,000 members across the country, is also divided over allegation of sit-tight syndrome levelled against some leaders. New Daily Prime learned that a group, led by Mijinyawa Said and Samira Jibril is alleging that the tenure of Chief Yomi Otubela as the National President has ended and that a new set of leaders has been elected. However, Otubela is claiming that he…

Nigeria, alongside several African nations, is moving forward with plans to establish a continental credit rating agency aimed at counterbalancing the perceived bias of Western credit rating agencies towards the continent. The announcement was made on Tuesday, December 17, during the launch of the Debt Management Forum for Africa and the inaugural Policy Dialogue on Making Debt Work for Africa: Policies, Practices and Options, organised by the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Abuja. Currently, the world’s top three credit rating agencies—S&P Global Ratings, Fitch Ratings, and Moody’s—dominate the global ratings landscape. However, African leaders argue that these agencies often reflect…

In a significant development for Nigeria’s tax revenue, foreign companies operating in the country, including tech giants such as Google, Netflix, and Facebook, have remitted a total of N3.85 trillion in taxes to the Federal Government in the first nine months of 2024. This represents an impressive 68.12 per cent increase from the N2.29 trillion collected in the same period in 2023. The revenue, which includes Company Income Tax (CIT) and Value Added Tax (VAT), was revealed in a report issued by the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday. According to the data, tax collections surged steadily throughout the year.…

Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, has revealed that MTN Nigeria is the largest contributor to the nation’s Value Added Tax (VAT) pool, paying over N200 billion every month. This makes the telecommunications giant the single biggest contributor to the country’s VAT revenue, with a significant gap between it and the second-largest contributor. Oyedele shared this information during a recent appearance as a panellist on Channels Television’s Town Hall on Tax Reforms. He also took the opportunity to highlight disparities in the current VAT distribution system and discussed ongoing reforms designed to address these…