The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has issued 77.1 million unique National Identification Numbers (NIN) in the country.

This new milestone was attained on March 21. It comes as the deadline for the verification and linking of NIN to Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards ends today.

While Nigerians await the next direction on the NIN-SIM exercise from the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, the verification exercise, which started in December 2020 has had the deadline shifted eight times.

As at the end of 2021, the number of Nigerians without NIN, going by NIMC statistics, was 134.4 million, while issued NINs stood at 70 million. But from January to March, 7.7 million more NINs were issued. By implication, it means some 126.7 million Nigerians are still without NIN.

 males were allocated 43.3 million, while the female folks have 33.7 million.

Geographical registrations showed that Lagos leads with 8.89 million, while Kano has 6.3 million. Kaduna has 4.5 million, Ogun (3.14 million), Oyo (3.13 million), FCT (2.88 million), Rivers (2.35 million), Katsina (2.34 million), Delta (2.12 million) and Borno (1.99 million).

The 10 leading states from the bottom are Kebbi (1.6 million), Sokoto (1.57 million), Osun (1.56 million), Gombe (1.5 million), Kogi (1.4 million) and Kwara (1.41 million). Others are Abia (1.4 million), Akwa Ibom (1.36 million), Imo (1.31 million) and Enugu (1.26 million).

North West leads with the regional distribution with 19.5 million, followed by South West with 19.3 million. North Central has 13 million; North East has 9.5 million while South-South and South East residents were 8.9 million and 6.58 million respectively.

NIMC, which recently opened its third NIN diaspora enrolment centre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, puts the diaspora issuance at 118,529, with a gender ratio of 65,533:52,996 in favour of men.

Statistics South Africa has revealed Unemployment in South Africa grew by 0.4 of a percentage point to reach 35.3% in the final quarter (Q4) of 2021.

Releasing the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) statistics on Tuesday, Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke said Q4 of 2021 showed that the number of employed persons increased by 262 000 to 14.5 million.

However, the number of unemployed persons also increased by 278 000 to 7.9 million, compared to the 3rd quarter of 2021.

“While the number of not economically active population decreased by 397 000 to 17.4 million during this quarter. The number of discouraged work-seekers decreased by 56 000 (1.4%) and the number of people who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement decreased by 341 000 (2.4%) between the two quarters,” said the statistics agency during a press briefing at the Isibalo House in Pretoria.

Stats SA said the changes in the labour market resulted in the official unemployment rate increasing by 0.4 of a percentage point from 34.9% in Q3.

“The unemployment rate according to the expanded definition of unemployment decreased by 0.4 of a percentage point to 46.2 % in quarter 4 2021 compared to quarter 3 2021,” Maluleke said.

The agency said while the number of not economically active population decreased by 397 000 to 17.4 million during this quarter.

The 2021 Q4 report also reveals that the number of people who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement decreased by 341 000 (2.4%) between the two quarters.

Tanzania is stepping up efforts to join the club of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exporters, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine spurs Europe to look for new energy sources. Tanzania says investments in its first LNG project could reach $40 billion.

The Tanzanian government said it planned to conclude talks in June with a group of foreign oil and gas companies led by Norway’s Equinor on developing a liquefied natural gas terminal.

Tanzania has an estimated 17 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves, which puts it in position to benefit from Europe’s rush to diversify its energy sources.

Analysts say the sale of LNG on the international market would generate huge revenues for the nation. Walter Nguma is an independent economic analyst.

He said, many Tanzanians will be employed and the country will increase government revenues through foreign income. In the project, the country would also have enough gas energy for its own needs. When you look, he says, the world is expected to use LNG in cars by 2030 to preserve the environment, so this is a potentially big project.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Tanzanian President Samia Hassan said embracing the private sector is her major priority. She said that it’s only the private sector that can bring foreign direct investment and create jobs.

Hassan has expressed her commitment to fast track the development of natural gas resources for the benefit of the nation.

However, James Tumaini, a Dar es Salaam resident and project manager from Mzumbe University, said the LNG market is extremely competitive, which might make it hard for Tanzania to penetrate it.

He said, the government should ensure a friendly environment in implementing this project. Since there are other countries with the same product, competition is high, so the government should stand firm on this, he said.

The LNG project will be Tanzania’s biggest project, and the earliest the country will be able to ship the gas is 2030, if there are no further delays.

Tanzania’s government has scrapped 42 out of 47 levies that were being charged from coffee growers in Kagera region as part of continued efforts to improve the cash crop productivity.

The move that has retained only five levies out of 47 will now lower the charges per kilogram from 830/- to 267/-.

The decision was announced by Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa on Tuesday following a report from a special team that he formed to assess modality and management of Kagera Co-operative Union (KCU).

The Premier was chairing an extraordinary meeting for coffee growers held in Karagwe district in Kagera region.

He also instructed leaders of the cooperative unions to properly supervise their cooperatives with a high level of integrity for the benefit of farmers.

“Leaders of cooperative unions should also stop borrowing money from financial institutions and spend it on buying coffee from farmers,” said Majaliwa.

The Premier also instructed that from now onwards, coffee will be sold through auctions that will be done through Agriculture Marketing Cooperative Societies (AMCOS).

For his part, Minister for Agriculture, Hussein Bashe said there are some cooperative unions that have been imposing charges that have been reducing farmers’ earnings.

He said that’s why the government has decided to cut the levies from 47 to 42 as part of its efforts to improve the livelihoods of coffee growers.

The Minister also called for cooperative unions to ensure farmers are being paid immediately after selling their coffee.

Bashe instructed the Director General of Tanzania Coffee Board to distribute coffee seedlings to improve productivity that will also help increase their income.

Nigeria’s House of Representatives Ad hoc committee investigating unclaimed funds in commercial banks has said it uncovered N300 billion unclaimed funds in some commercial banks.

The committee disclosed this on Wednesday when some banks appeared before it in Abuja Nigeria’s capital.

The committee, chaired by Uyime Idem (PDP, Akwa-Ibom), was mandated to investigate the status of “the suspicious unclaimed funds trapped in commercial banks, including the advance payments for government contracts”.

In addition, the committee is to investigate an alleged infraction by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Idem said the committee has so far discovered N300 billion and is upbeat about discovering more than N1.3trillion.

“So far, we have discovered about N300 billion. I am sure that by the time we are done with this assignment, we might exceed the target given to us by the leadership of the House,” he said.

Idem had said Citi Bank is owing the federal government about N99 billion, with the breakdown as follow; $287 million (when converted to naira) and N72 million.

According to him, the N99 billion was extracted from the document submitted by the bank to the committee.

According to him, the N99 billion was extracted from the document submitted by the bank to the committee.

However, bank’s representative disagreed with the figure bandied by the lawmakers.

Citi Bank’s Executive-Director, Operations and Technology, Ngozi Omoke-Eyi, said the bank has only seven accounts, adding that the account with the highest amount has N203,000 in that account.

“The highest balance here is 203,000 dollars. The rest are naira and very small. In fact, I even made an error, it is in Naira. There are five of them without link to BVN.”

Afolabi Olamilekan (APC, Osun), a member of the committee, accused the bank of committing criminal act by changing the document submitted to the committee. He, therefore, moved a motion for Omoke-Eyi to be put under oath.

“We need to put them on oath. What they are doing is criminal. What they are doing is criminal. They are trying to give us a figure that is different from the one they gave us,” Olamilekan said.

Explaining how the committee arrived at N99 billion, Idem said the committee computed the balances in all accounts without link to the BVN.

“We looked at customers in your bank, based on the document you provided. We sat down and computed the balances of the accounts that are not linked to BVN. That is how we arrived at this N99 billion. This document came from you,” Idem stated.

Nigeria’s second biggest cement manufacturer on Wednesday, posted a one-quarter rise in profit after tax for 2021, with increased sales from its Nigerian operation stoking the growth, the audited financial statements of .

BUA Cement’s Revenue for the period enlarged 23 per cent to N257.3 billion from a year earlier, 99.1 per cent of that coming from its home market Nigeria, where it upped capacity by 3 million metric tonnes per annum through its Sokoto plant this January.

Pre-tax came to N102.9 billion, 30.4 per cent higher when set beside the figure for the preceding year, while net profit advanced by 24.5 per cent to N90.1 billion. That helped earnings per share up from N2.14 to N2.66.

Profit margin stood at 35 per cent, meaning the company made a profit of N35 for every N100 sales during the year. That compares with the 34.5 per cent for the year before.

On the expenditure side, operating costs, which imply the expenses incurred by the company in the everyday running of its business, jumped to N19.3 billion from N15.2 billion partly on account of surge in administrative expenses.

BUA Cement hopes to scale up its total capacity to 20 million mt come year end, the proposed delivery time for expansion projects in Edo and Adamawa states, where new plants of 3 million mt each are expected to be completed.

The cement-maker is controlled by Abdul Samad Rabiu, Africa’s fifth richest man by Forbes estimate, who holds 99.98 per cent of the company’s shares, according to the newly released earnings report posted on the Nigerian Exchange’s website.

The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) says embracing and adopting new technologies for milk and meat production will increase Nigeria’s GDP, while ending farmer- herdsmen clashes.

Farouk Rabi’u-Mudi, the President of AFAN, stated this on Tuesday in Abuja at the 1st edition of the National Symposium on livestock breed improvement and pasture development.

According to reports, Nigeria records two and a half litres per cow, while Denmark hits a total of 35 litres milk production per cow.

“That’s more than 20 times our normal production here in Nigeria, only 400 cows in Denmark is equivalent to 5,000 cows in Nigeria.

“I was in Denmark last year and I saw a good improvement on how we can improve our livestock, milk and beef production in Nigeria.

“Meanwhile, Denmark has been able to increase their GDP through livestock and milk production. It is a very simple technology which Nigeria can key into.

“We are already in partnership with them, open grazing is not ideal for milk production,” Rabi’u-Mudi said.

According to him, about 5,000 youths are going to be empowered through the system of cattle breeder.

“We are going to empower the women through some private sectors that are willing to fund the business.

“With this private sector, we are looking at sustainability because government policies change from time to time,” he added.

Akeem Ibilade, the Deputy Director, Department of Animal Husbandry, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, said that having partners that would help our livestock development in the country is a cheering development.

“If we are talking about Pasteur development, everyone will benefit. We expect it will reduce farmers/herdmen clash, because if the breeders have feed for their cattle, there will be no need roaming around the streets.

“This development will bring more milk and meat, we are planning on national livestock development plan to create more awareness in a few months, we have the media as partners too,” he said.

Also speaking, Nasmir Nakas, Founder Livestock Genetics, said that they are happy to be partnering with Nigeria on livestock development, stressing that a great future awaits Nigeria on livestock development.

The Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG) and International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to disseminate research solutions to boost agribusiness and food security.

The President of NABG, Emmanuel Ijewere, said the partnership was aimed at improving farmers’ productivity in the agricultural value chains.

Ijewere said that the inputs that IITA would provide would be made available to farmers as NABG would continue to take advice from IITA.

“The essence of the partnership is whatever is good should not be kept in the drawer or in secret, it must be brought out to people to improve their lives.

He said that NABG was sensitising farmers to the research solutions, technology and to also change farmers’ psyche.

He added that the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war was negatively impacting on food importation, particularly wheat.

“A lot has been done as if we were anticipating things like this. Ukraine and Russia’s war, the major effect they will have on wheat in Nigeria.

“As far as wheat is concerned, so much work has gone over the years that wheat we thought over 20 years ago cannot be grown in a tropical country, we now have tropical wheat and we now have organisations like Flour Mills already training farmers to do it,” he said.

He said that there was no need to panic as the country was not importing wheat from Ukraine.

“We already know where we import our wheat from in other parts of the world,” he said.

The Head of Station, IITA in Abuja, Prof. Lateef Sanni, said the partnership became imperative because of the current crisis in the world and global recession.

He said that Nigeria’s annual wheat demand of six million metric tonnes was being supported by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with 8,000 metric tonnes.

Sanni added that IITA over the years had developed modern technologies and practices that could be scaled up.

The Director, Development and Delivery, IITA, Dr Alfred Dixon, expressed confidence in NABG’s capacity to take the nation’s agribusiness to greater heights through the partnership.

“The MoU is to ensure we work with NABG to catalyse scaling of agricultural technologies in Nigeria such that Nigeria can yearly achieve agricultural transformation,” he said.