Oil is trading higher Monday touching its highest price point since 2018 ahead of an OPEC+ meeting at which the alliance is forecast to announce supply increases that won’t be enough to keep pace with the global demand recovery.
Futures in New York traded near $74 a barrel after rising 1% on Friday. The alliance, which gathers Thursday, will boost output by 550,000 barrels a day in August, according to a Bloomberg survey. However, that’s barely a quarter of the global deficit that OPEC+ itself anticipates during that month.
U.S. forces conducted air strikes on Sunday against Iranian-backed militia groups blamed for drone attacks on American facilities in Iraq, the Defense Department said. The attacks may make it more difficult to revive a nuclear deal that would pave the way for a resumption of Iranian crude exports.
Oil is up more than 50% this year as a rapid rebound from Covid-19 in major energy markets such as the U.S., Europe and China has led to increased mobility and greater consumption of transport fuels. The recovery has also drained bloated stockpiles, and the International Energy Agency has urged OPEC+ to return more supply to keep markets balanced
The minister of state for petroleum resources, Timipre Sylva, has described the country’s gas expansion programme as a highway to economic prosperity and development.
Sylva said this when he featured on News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum, the flagship interview programme of the NAN, to highlight the achievements recorded in the oil and gas sector since he assumed office about two years ago.
He noted that the Federal Government embraced the gas expansion programme having realised that the country had abundant gas resources and that there was a need to focus on it as a bridge to renewable fuels.
According to Sylva, the Federal Government is now paying greater attention to gas development because it provides a bigger linkage to the economy than crude oil.
The minister noted that employment generation from gas alone is immeasurable going by the number of people that would be affected in the value chain.
The number of Nigerians with access to high-speed internet slowed down last May as users face an economic downturn amid the covid pandemic.
The tepid rate at which infrastructure is being rolled out coupled with the 4-month ban on new SIM registrations are some of the reasons. At this pace, it means Nigeria is drifting far from the 2023 target to achieve 90 percent broadband penetration
Broadband penetration refers to the amount of the Internet access market that high speed or broadband Internet has captured in Nigeria
Data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) showed that the 39 percent is a 14 months drop as the last time the market was at that low was in March 2020. It also represents about a 1 percent loss from the previous month.
Broadband penetration in Nigeria has been in a freefall since November 2020, despite optimism by the minister of communications and Digital Economy, Ali Isa Pantami that the industry is doing well. But with broadband at 39.5 percent Nigeria is now over 50 percent adrift of a recent penetration target announced by the minister.
Earlier in June, Pantami had said the target is to grow broadband penetration to 90 percent in terms of population and 70 percent rate in terms of the total landmass in the next two years. The minister’s confidence came from a peak of 45 percent achieved in December 2020, the same month the ministry declared a ban on SIM card sales and registration in an effort to ensure that more Nigerians got their National Identification Number (NIN) within a two weeks deadline.
The plan failed, the deadline was extended four times before the government realised it would not make any meaningful progress in shutting down telcos major source of revenue. But by April when the ban on SIM registration was lifted the telecom industry had lost over 15 million subscribers and continued to lose a month after.
Amid economic headwinds, notably Covid-19 pandemic, the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) showed resilience in 2020, growing its total assets by 17 percent to N85.4 billion, up from the 2019 balance of ₦72.9 billion.
The company raised its capital adequacy ratio from 70 percent in 2019 to 80 percent in 2020, according to its 2020 financials released at the 7th Annual General Meeting in Lagos. The 80 percent ratio is far greater than the regulatory requirement of 10 percent.
The company’s total expenses decreased by ₦0.44 billion from ₦2.32 billion in 2019 to ₦1.88 billion in 2020.
Kehinde Ogundimu, the CEO, noted at the AGM that their performance, for understandable reasons, was affected greatly by external events of the year under review. “Despite the challenges of the year, we saw a strong underlying performance across risk management and refinancing while addressing economic issues,” he noted.
He disclosed that the company was able to flat-line profits by cutting down on expenses for a decent financial outcome during the year.
Ogundimu added that the company had a positive variance on expenses which decreased by ₦0.44 billion from ₦2.32 billion in 2019 to ₦1.88 billion in 2020. But their gross earnings decreased by 4.6 percent from N9.62 billion in 2019 to N9.18 in 2020.
The CEO explained that this was due to a significant drop in the yield on investment, adding that net interest income also decreased N0.49 billion from N5.41 billion in 2019 to N4.92 billion in 2020, representing 9.1 percent decrease.
The increase in the company’s total assets, he explained, was buoyed by its series 3 bond issuance in November 2020. The N10 billion bond was part of the company’s efforts to boost liquidity in the mortgage industry and improve access to affordable homeownership.
The bond, raised from the Debt Capital Markets, was coordinated by DLM Capital Group, and was oversubscribed by a record 328 percent, according to the management of the refinance company.
The November 2020 bond issuance came under the company’s ₦440 billion Medium Term Note Programme and followed its 2018 ₦11 billion Series 2 Bond and ₦8 billionn Series 1 issued in 2015.
Oil is trading higher Monday touching its highest price point since 2018 ahead of an OPEC+ meeting at which the alliance is forecast to announce supply increases that won’t be enough to keep pace with the global demand recovery.
Futures in New York traded near $74 a barrel after rising 1% on Friday. The alliance, which gathers Thursday, will boost output by 550,000 barrels a day in August, according to a Bloomberg survey. However, that’s barely a quarter of the global deficit that OPEC+ itself anticipates during that month.
U.S. forces conducted air strikes on Sunday against Iranian-backed militia groups blamed for drone attacks on American facilities in Iraq, the Defense Department said. The attacks may make it more difficult to revive a nuclear deal that would pave the way for a resumption of Iranian crude exports.
Oil is up more than 50% this year as a rapid rebound from Covid-19 in major energy markets such as the U.S., Europe and China has led to increased mobility and greater consumption of transport fuels. The recovery has also drained bloated stockpiles, and the International Energy Agency has urged OPEC+ to return more supply to keep markets balanced
The Group Managing Director/CEO of Access Bank Plc Herbert Wigwe has been recognised as the African Banker of the Year at the 2021 edition of the African Banker Awards.
A winner of one of the most prized categories at the Awards ceremony for the second consecutive year, Wigwe was recognised for his stellar leadership in the market expansion of Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest bank despite the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Awards ceremony held virtually during the Annual meetings of the African Development Bank.
Over the last 12 months, Access Bank has established a presence in South Africa following its acquisition of Grobank. Accepting the award, Wigwe said Access Bank is focused on promoting corporate discipline, adding that the Bank wants to be in key markets on the continent, building a payment gateway and providing trade finance support. “We want to be seen as the best bank supporting the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement (AfCFTA). In terms of diaspora remittances, we are present in key areas in the continent,” he said.
The African Banker Awards have become the most respected and recognised industry event celebrating African banking achievements. The organisers this year, put emphasis on recognising and rewarding institutions that contributed to the real economy which has suffered from the impact of Covid-19 as well as contributed to women empowerment on the continent.
The United States has carried out another round of air raids against Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq and Syria, in response to drone attacks against us personnel and facilities in Iraq. reports say the militias is threatening a retaliation.
In a statement on Sunday, the us military said it targeted operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one location in Iraq.
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least five fighters were killed and several others wounded.
The attacks came at the direction of US President Joe Biden, the second time he has ordered retaliatory attacks against Iran-backed militia since taking office five months ago. Biden last ordered limited bombing against a target in Syria in February, that time in response to rocket attacks in Iraq.
John Kirby, spokesman for the Pentagon, said in a statement that “The United States took necessary, appropriate, and deliberate action designed to limit the risk of escalation – but also to send a clear and unambiguous deterrent message.”
Kirby disclosed that the targets were selected because “these facilities are utilized by Iran-backed militias that are engaged in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks against US personnel and facilities in Iraq”.
The Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada military factions were among the “several Iran-backed militia groups” that had used the targeted facilities, Kirby added.
Armed groups aligned with Iran in a statement named four members of the Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada faction they said were killed in the attack on the Syria-Iraq border. They vowed to retaliate.
“We will remain the shield defending our beloved nation, and we are fully ready … to respond and take revenge,” it said.
Since the start of the year there have been more than 40 attacks against US interests in Iraq, where 2,500 American troops are deployed as part of an international coalition to fight the armed group ISIL (ISIS). The vast majority have been bombs against logistics convoys, while 14 were rocket attacks.
Around this time last year, Uche Eke was strongly contemplating quitting gymnastics. Prolonged lockdown, heightened uncertainty and an Olympic dream deferred, he found himself trapped in limbo.
By his own admission, Eke “can’t sit still” so the strict home confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic was messing with his mind. Looking back now, he is grateful he snapped out of that thought of giving up before it could consume him. “The thought of giving up really pissed me off so I started thinking about how to bounce back,” he says.
FIRST The 23-year-old is set to become the first gymnast to represent Nigeria at an Olympic Games and he is raring to go with the aim of distinguishing himself among the world’s best.
It has been exactly a month since Eke made history at the African Championships in Egypt, where he put in a strong performance to claim the all-around bronze medal that earned him a continental quota spot at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
BACK TO WORK After about a week of basking in the euphoria of his unprecedented achievement, including a quick trip to his fatherland Nigeria where he paid a visit to the country’s Sports Minister Sunday Dare and hung out with some celebrities, Eke is back in the gym in the United States polishing his routines for the biggest stage of his career as an artistic gymnast.
Whenever he is having a rough practice he reminds himself of how far he has come from when he first learnt to do a backflip at age three and why he has to “keep pushing”.
NEW GOAL “I’m on a new goal now,” Eke tells AIPS. I’m thinking about competing at the Olympics. I’m motivated and ready to go. There are some routines I want to do and I have to push and fight to get to that level to do it and the progress I’m making right now is really good.
“My goal is to compete those routines and hit them to my best ability and if I do it how I want and dream it to be, then I’ll be able to make top eight, which is making the final. That’s my goal. Overall, no matter what happens, I want to be at least top 25 in the world,” he adds.
WORLD STAGE Eke’s first appearance on the world stage was at the 49th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany in 2019, where he competed in only three events and got his best rank of 102nd in pommel horse: “I don’t like how that competition went at all,” he reveals, with his sights now firmly fixed on raising the bar in Tokyo.
“Having that feeling, after competing, that I gave all I had performing the best routine I can to the best of my ability, that’s what I’m hoping to do at the Olympics.
“I’m not nervous. I’m excited to just lay it all out, swing as hard as I can, as cautiously and as freely. I have support from Nigeria now, people watching and wanting me to do well, and that’s what I thrive upon.”
DEBUT FOR NIGERIA Born on August 12 in Maryland, USA to a Nigerian father and American mother, Eke began representing his father’s homeland in August 2017 and in five years has become the country’s most decorated gymnast.
In his debut competition wearing the green and white colours, Eke won a gold medal in South Africa, then two years later in Rabat, Morocco, he secured Nigeria’s first African Games gold medal in gymnastics.
TICKET TO TOKYO However, his recent competition in Cairo is, of course, his most memorable. “I pinched myself, ‘am I dreaming?’ I really did it!’” Eke recalls the moment he booked his ticket to Tokyo. “Then I quickly re-watched the video that I made right before, like in the bathroom, saying, ‘this is the day to see if I’m an Olympian or not’.
“I always do like these quick video snippets of just me in a bathroom mirror saying, let’s watch this after and see if I’m happy or sad. So I watched that and I was happy. It was like literally 20 seconds, and then people came up to me and started jumping. I was just super excited.”
FAMILY SUPPORT His father waved at him from the stands and congratulated him verbally a few hours later, after Eke had fulfilled his doping control obligation. “He’s not the type to like scream, my mum probably would have jumped on me or something. But I saw the happiness in his face.”
Then the first video Eke saw on social media after his achievement was from his older brother Daniel. “He was like: ‘That’s my brother. He just made it to the Olympics. We’re going to Tokyo!’” Eke says, adding that Daniel “always believed in me even when I had my doubts”.
Daniel, who had to give up on pursuing a professional career in American football, is one of the reasons the pandemic failed in its attempt to halt Eke’s gymnastics ambitions. “When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, my family from New Orleans came to stay with us in Maryland for several months. Due to the ensuing resource constraints, my brother had to quit football so that I could continue competing in gymnastics. He knew how important the sport was to me, but when he retired from football, he told me I could never quit,” Eke writes on his official website.
The delayed Tokyo 2020 Games is poised to be different from every other Olympics before it, as a result of countless coronavirus restrictions, but Eke wished at least one member of his family could share the spotlight with him in Tokyo.
APPARATUS Among the six men’s artistic gymnastic events; floor, pommel horse, vault, rings, parallel bars and horizontal bar, Eke’s favourites are pommel horse and horizontal bar. “Those are the ones I feel like I have the best chances for individual event finals,” he says.
Eke’s gold medal in Morocco was won in the pommel horse event and he could have secured another gold on horizontal bar if not for the mistake he made. “So I’m just making sure I don’t do that same mistake ever again,” he says.
The parallel bars apparatus is also Eke’s strong point. He won a bronze medal in the event at the African Games in 2019. However, he is also training hard for the other three events so he could also take a shot at reaching the men’s individual all-around final. The men’s qualification at Tokyo 2020 is scheduled for July 24, a day after the opening ceremony, at the Ariake Gymnastic Centre.
AN OLYMPIC MEDAL When asked what winning a medal at the Games would mean for him, Eke replies: “I’m speechless. I imagine it, you know. It would be like ‘wow! I put my whole life towards this and I did it. If I get a gold medal I’m coming straight back to Nigeria with it, and I’ll say we are building a gym now.
Eke has repeatedly pledged his commitment to the development of gymnastics in Nigeria and he hopes that having proven himself to the point of being among the best on the continent, he can be an inspiration to the country’s younger generation of gymnasts while also attracting investments to the sport. “I want to get into branding, I want to find some sponsorships. I want to help excel gymnastics not just for myself but for everyone,” he says.
SPONSORSHIP Tokyo 2020 will mark a new phase for Eke, who has largely depended on his parents’ finance to push his gymnastics career this far. As a student-athlete at the University of Michigan, Eke distinguished himself at both undergraduate and graduate levels. And this year he earned a Master of Science degree in information, with concentration in software engineering and programme management after maintaining a 4.0 GPA to add to his bachelor’s degree in computer science.
“I’m going to get a job and figure out how I’m going to fund myself, that’s where I’m at now. There’s no more support from school, it’s all me. And I’m not going to expect my parents to give me anything anymore.”
DOING THINGS While hoping that brands will see the value in him and his sport, Eke is not planning to just sit still and wait. “I’ll find another way,” he says. “I like doing activities. I tried modeling a little bit, they said I’m 5’10”, I’m too short. Nah, I’m going to find my way to model somehow still. I like doing all types of things. I like doing everything media related. It’s fun and what’s the point of life if you’re not having fun.”
In his free time, he enjoys skateboarding, socializing, and investing in crypto currencies.
FUTURE Eke is looking to participate in the 50th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships and then the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham before considering retirement, depending on his funding situation. Although some friends are urging him to also aim for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
In the meantime, his message for parents, especially, is to support their kids who want to do sport and take them seriously. Eke’s mum saw her four-year old land on his head severally while doing backflips and decided it was best put him in gymnastics “so that my energy could be released in a safer way,” Eke says on his website. Today, he is a history maker and role model.
Four-time Olympic gold medallist Serena Williams has confirmed she will not play in this summer’s delayed Tokyo Games.
The 39-year-old American, who made her Games debut at Sydney in 2000, made the announcement in her pre-Wimbledon media conference on Sunday.
“I’m actually not on the Olympic list – not that I’m aware of. If so, then I shouldn’t be on it,” she said.
Williams did not want to elaborate when asked more about the decision.
The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion had already indicated she did not want to travel to Tokyo because she could not take three-year-old daughter Olympia with her under Games restrictions.
“There’s a lot of reasons that I made my Olympic decision. I don’t feel like going into them today. Maybe another day. Sorry,” she said.
Williams won gold in the singles and women’s doubles at London 2012, with her two other medals coming in the doubles at Sydney 2000 and Beijing 2008.
She begins her bid for an eighth Wimbledon singles title and a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam singles title against Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus.
Copa America hosts Brazil saw their 10-game winning run come to an end as they drew 1-1 with Ecuador in Goiania.
The point took Ecuador into the quarter-finals, with holders Brazil having previously booked their place in the knockout stages.
Eder Militao headed Brazil into the lead from Everton Soares’ free-kick for his first international goal.
But Angel Mena rifled home from Enner Valencia’s flick-on to equalise and send Ecuador through.
Mena was a first-half replacement for injured Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo.
Ecuador had only needed to match Venezuela’s result against Peru – who had already qualified – in Sunday’s other game.
Andre Carrillo scored the only goal in that encounter as Peru won 1-0.
Both Brazil – who had won every game since November 2019 – and Ecuador must wait until Group A is over before discovering their quarter-final opponents. Only two of the 10 competing teams go out at the group stages.
On Monday in Group A (01:00 BST on Tuesday), Bolivia face Argentina and Uruguay play Paraguay.
Muhammad Ali’s grandson, Nico Ali Walsh, is to make his professional boxing debut on August 14 in a four-round middleweight fight.
The 20-year-old star, who is the son of Rasheda Ali Walsh, Ali’s daughter, has signed a multi-fight deal with Top Rank and his opponent has not yet been revealed.
Ali Walsh is taking on a huge legacy with many boxing fans believing his grandfather was the G.O.A.T.
“The Greatest” Ali, who died of septic shock in 2016, fought in 61 professional fights, winning 56 and losing five.
And while many would be scared to not live up to the fighter his grandad was, Ali Walsh says he is excited to get in the ring and show what he can do.
He said: “I’m doing what I love. Signing with Top Rank is a dream come true. I’m going to have fun on Aug. 14 and the next time I fight.
“Top Rank will give me the name, date and location, and I’ll have a great time. I am honoured to continue the fighting legacy that my grandfather started. It is a responsibility I don’t take lightly.”
The fighter isn’t inexperienced as he has had around 30 amateur bouts, making his debut as a child at the St. Baldrick’s Foundation.
“Top Rank will give me the name, date and location, and I’ll have a great time. I am honoured to continue the fighting legacy that my grandfather started. It is a responsibility I don’t take lightly.”
The fighter isn’t inexperienced as he has had around 30 amateur bouts, making his debut as a child at the St. Baldrick’s Foundation.
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