Business

MTN Nigeria Profit Shrinks To ₦144.24 Billion

MTN Nigeria Profit Shrinks To ₦144.24 Billion

MTN Nigeria’s profit dropped by 3.3 per cent, recording ₦144.24bn profit after tax in the nine-month period ended September 30, the company’s unaudited financial report released on Wednesday has shown.

Read Also: MTN Launches 5G Network

MTN said its operations were impacted by the devaluation of naira, saying availability of foreign exchange remained a challenge and revealed plans to reduce exposure to foreign currency.

The mobile network operator generated N654.52bn in voice revenue, including interconnect and roaming voice, in the nine-month period, indicating 4.2 per cent growth from the corresponding period in 2019.

Data revenue also grew by 57 per …

UK Reopens Visa Centres In Nigeria

UK Reopens Visa Centres In Nigeria

The United Kingdom has reopened its visa centres across Nigeria, after announcing their closures on the 21st of October 2020, due to the #EndSARS protest that engulfed the nation.

Read Also: UK High Commission Reopens Visa Application Centers In Nigeria

A statement released on Monday, said: “Our TLS contact Visa Application Centres are now open in Nigeria. Following the recent closures, we are working hard to process all outstanding applications.

We thank you for your continued patience and understanding”.

Please note Thursday 29th October is a public holiday in Nigeria and our Visa Application Centres will be closed.

AFRICA DAILY

Breaking - Okonjo-Iweala Finally Emerges WTO DG

Breaking: Okonjo-Iweala Finally Emerges WTO DG

Former Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has emerged as the Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

According to a breaking news on Wednesday afternoon, Okonjo-Iweala defeated her only challenger, South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee, by a wide margin.

Read Also: President Buhari, Okonjo Iweala Meet In State House

Her emergence is expected to be announced formally by the WTO later on Wednesday.

 

AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK

Niger, Benin, Togo Pay Nigeria N2.04bn Electricity Bill

Niger, Benin, Togo Pay Nigeria N2.04bn Electricity Bill

International customers – Niger, Benin, Togo – who purchase power from Nigeria remitted a total of N2.04bn in the first quarter of this year as their outstanding electricity bill to the Market Operator of the sector in Nigeria.

Read Also: FG To Use VAT Proceeds To Subsidise Electricity Tariff For 3 Months

But special customers, Ajaokuta Steel Co. Ltd and its environs, did not make any pa

yment in respect of the N0.27bn and N0.05bn invoices issued them by the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc and the MO respectively, during the period of review.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission disclosed …

UK Unemployment Hits 5.0% On COVID-19 Fallout

Spain Unemployment Hit 16.26% Amid COVID-19 Fallout

Spain’s unemployment rate jumped to 16.26 percent in the third quarter as the country’s tourism-dependent economy was ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic, official data showed Tuesday.

The reading for the July-September period compares with a jobless rate of 15.3 percent for April to June in the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy, national statistics office INE said in a statement.

There were an additional 355,000 people out of work in Spain in the third quarter, still an improvement over the second quarter when over a million jobs were lost, mainly in the tourism sector.

The number of total unemployed stood at 3.7 million …

COVID-19 - Okonjo-Iweala Gets WHO’s Appointment

WTO: France, Germany, 104 Other Countries Back Okonjo-Iweala

The 27 European Union member states have backed Nigeria’s former finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in her bid to become the first African and first female director-general of the World Trade Organisation.

The EU member states are France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden.

The latest support for Okonjo-Iweala’s candidacy brings the number of countries officially endorsing her to 106 out of the 164 states that comprise the WTO.

Read Also: Okonjo-Iweala Breaks Silence On #EndSARS Protests

The 55-member …

‘Oil Industry Still Suffering Significant Damage from Covid-19’

Nigeria’s wholly indigenous oil company, Oando Energy Resources, has said the oil industry will continue to suffer the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic despite the measures put in place by oil companies and governments globally.

The company noted that the phenomenon has also brought about the need to embrace renewables as the future of energy, arguing that the cost and processes in the development of renewable energy was far less than that of fossil fuels.

Chief Operating Officer, of the company, Dr. Alex Irune, who spoke during a podcast with African Business, stressed that Covid-19 had substantially changed the way

NCC Grants MTN, 9mobile Right To Trial Of National Roaming Services

NCC Grants MTN, 9mobile Right To Trial Of National Roaming Services

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has granted two mobile network operators, MTN and 9mobile, approval to carry out trial on national roaming services.

Read Also: NCC Declares Kano Hotbed Of Unregistered SIMs

Roaming service enables a mobile subscriber to automatically make and receive voice calls, send and receive data, or access other services when travelling outside the coverage of a particular network geographical area by utilising the network coverage of other networks.

National roaming services means that subscribers in Nigeria can seamlessly make calls in areas of the country their network operators do not cover because such networks have entered …

NYSC Pleads With Governors To Provide Land For Agro-Business

NYSC Pleads With Governors To Provide Land For Agro-Business

The management of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has pleaded with the 36 state governors to make land available to corps members to embark on Agro-business as part of the efforts towards achieving food security in Nigeria.

Read Also: Nigerian Govt Re-Opens NYSC Orientation Camps

Director-General of the scheme, Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim, made the appeal when the Executive Secretary of National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), Prince Paul Ikonne, paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja.

The DG also disclosed that the NYSC introduced Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Programme into its Orientation Course content in 2012 as …

Arik Air Announces Plans To Resume Operations

Arik Air Announces Plans To Resume Operations

The management of Arik Air has announced the resumption of flight operations in and out of Lagos from October 24.

This is following the easing of the curfew imposed by the Lagos State Government.

Arik had on Oct. 20 announced the cancellation of all flights across the country after the Lagos State government imposed a 24 hours curfew on the state.

Read Also: Salary Arrears: Aviation Workers Ground Arik Air

Mr Adebanji Ola, the Communications Manager of Arik Air, announced this in a statement in Lagos on Friday.

Ola said that the flights across the country will operate as scheduled …

Dangote Demands Total Ban On Tomato Importation

Dangote Demands Total Ban On Tomato Importation

The Managing Director, Dangote Tomato Processing plant in Kadawa, Kano State, Abdulkarim Kaita, has called on the Federal government to put a total ban on the importation of tomato paste into the country.

Read Also: Dangote Refinery, Others Threaten Existing Plants – OPEC

He made the call while flagging off the distribution of tomato seedlings to 5,000 farmers under the Anchor Borrowers programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria on Thursday at Kadawa village in Kura Local Government Area.

“We are appealing to the Federal Government to put a total ban on the importation of tomato like what it did …

Jumia Nigeria Shuts Site To Mourn Victims Of Protests In Nigeria

Jumia Nigeria Shuts Site To Mourn Victims Of Protests In Nigeria

One of Africa’s e-commerce platforms, Jumia in the early house of Thursday October 22nd 2020, shut down its website to customers and sellers to mourn victims of protests against police brutality in Nigeria.

In a statement displayed on the site after the shutdown, the company appealed to its stakeholders to join in the show of solidarity to mourn the victims.

The company also wish that Nigeria emerge from this as a stronger nation bound in peace and unity.

The statement reads: ‘With sadness and heavy hearts, it is our