With the new eased COVID-19 restrictions announced last Sunday, cafes, restaurants and bars are looking forward to having more customers.
“So far… only private gatherings of up to four people have been allowed… but starting July first, people can meet in groups of up to six people.”
And, this will be raised to eight people eventually… after a two-week trial period in the Greater Seoul area.
“Due to current limits on private gatherings, there were a lot of difficulties running a business. But with the revised restrictions, we are hoping that this will help. I think our customers can eat with more freedom.”
Under the new social distancing guidelines next month, the current five-tier scheme will be switched to a four-tier scheme.
The capital will start under the new level two social distancing… meaning groups of 8 can meet, and restaurants, coffee shops, and bars can stay open until midnight.
This means bars in the Greater Seoul area will be able to operate for two hours longer… which gives this bar owner a busier schedule.
“Two more hours of being open means more time to have customers. Sales nearly doubled when previous changes were made from 9 PM to 10 PM. We are expecting to see as high sales as it used to be before pandemic.”
He added that he will prepare more chairs for customers to sit for next month.
However, the health authorities are still on alert… urging the public to keep wearing masks at indoor facilities even under social distancing level o
Once again, investors and the federal capital territory administration (FCTA) Abuja are back to the table following approval for resumption of the ambitious Land Swap Initiative by the federal executive council (FEC) early last week.
The Abuja Land Swap initiated by the Bala Mohammed administration was valued then at N1 trillion. It is the short form of the ‘FCT Land Infrastructure Swap Initiative’ designed to address the infrastructure deficit in the FCT.
In simple terms, the initiative means engaging the private sector to provide infrastructure in exchange for land. The aim, essentially, is to open up new districts in the FCT by constructing and completing access roads to those districts.
Apart from freeing government land for economic activities such as real estate and industrial development, the initiative also solves one of the major problems of urban or city development which is the provision of a good network of roads and associated infrastructure.
It is also an answer to real estate sector development in Nigeria where investors and property developers estimate the cost of infrastructure at 30 percent of total construction cost.
The implication is that the initiative will not only increase housing stock, but also reduce house price, and ultimately bridge the housing demand-supply gap in the country put variously at 17, 20 and 22 million units, depending on who one is speaking to.
Dubai’s Emirates airline said passenger flights to and from Nigeria (Lagos and Abuja) are suspended with effect from June 21 until further notice.
Customers travelling to and from Lagos and Abuja will not be accepted for travel, and those who have been to – or connected through – Nigeria in the last 14 days will not be permitted to board from any other point to the UAE.
Emirates’ also said that flights from South Africa will remain suspended until July 6, in line with government directives that restrict the entry of travellers originating from South Africa, into the UAE.
Daily passenger flights to Johannesburg will operate as EK763, but outbound passenger services on EK 764 remain suspended. Customers who have been to or connected through South Africa in the last 14 days will not be permitted on any Emirates flights bound for Dubai.
The airline had on Saturday announced that it would be resuming flight operations in Nigeria from June 23rd.
Hollywood star Angelina Jolie criticized the international community’s response to militant violence in the Sahel as she visited Malian refugees at a camp in Burkina Faso. Nneka Chile has more. Hollywood actor Angelina Jolie was in Burkina Faso on Sunday (June 20).
As a special envoy for the U.N.’s refugee agency, Jolie was visiting the Goudoubou camp.
It’s a home for those who fled violence in neighboring Mali.
“I am honored, and I am grateful to be among you and I bow my head in respect for your courage and for your strength.”
The Sahel region has suffered escalating violent attacks by militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State.
Thousands have been killed and millions displaced.
Jolie criticized the international community’s response.
“So it is to that we are at a breaking point, we are broken, the way the international community try to address this conflict and insecurity is broken, it is erratic, it is unequal, it is built on inherited privilege, it is subject to the whim of political leaders and it is geared towards the interests of powerful countries, including my own, at the expense of others.”
The refugees in Goudoubou, who escaped insecurity in Mali, have found similar circumstances in Burkina Faso.
Earlier this month 132 residents of a village near the border with Niger were killed by insurgents.
Ouanka Cisse fled Mali in 2012 and now lives in the camp with his 26 family members.
“Since I arrived in Burkina Faso, I’m afraid even in Goudebou. We don’t sleep at night, it’s really hard. Burkina as well as Mali is unstable.”
The United States, the European Union and Britain imposed sweeping sanctions on Belarusian entities and officials on Monday and called on Minsk “to end its repressive practices against its own people”.
The allies together with Canada also told the administration of President Alexander Lukashenko to cooperate with investigations into the forced landing of a Ryanair jet there in May and the arrest of a reporter and his girlfriend on board.
The coordinated action reflected growing Western frustration over Belarus which plunged into crisis last year when street protests erupted over what demonstrators said was a rigged presidential election.
There was no immediate reaction from Lukashenko who has so far ridden out the storm with a crackdown, denied rigging the vote and accused the journalist Raman Pratasevich of plotting a revolution.
The veteran leader has increasingly turned to Russia for support.
The European Union said it was imposing travel bans and asset freezes on 78 officials and entities including the Belarusian defence and transport minister and its air force commander as well as judges and lawmakers.
The bloc said it was also drawing up economic sanctions that Austria said would “tighten the thumbscrews” on the Belarusian government.
The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement said it blacklisted 16 people and five entities in response to the Lukashenko government’s “escalating violence and repression,” including nthe forced landing of the flight.
The U.S. action targeted close associates of Lukashenko, the Treasury said, including his press secretary and the chairperson of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly, the Belarusian Parliament’s upper house.
Britain said it was adding several senior Belarusian officials and entities, including an exporter of oil products, to its sanctions list.
Belarusian opposition figure Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya welcomed the announcements. “The European Union decided they deserve these sanctions,” Tsikhanouskaya told reporters in Brussels. “I agree … We have to end the situation in our country, we don’t want it to become North Korea.”
Belarus sovereign dollar bonds tumbled on Monday in response to the announcements.
The benchmark 2030 bond slumped more than 3 cents – its biggest fall since the global market COVID rout in March last year – and the 2031 bond issued in June last year hit a record low, Tradeweb data showed.
EU states are also soon set to impose economic sanctions on Belarus’ financial, oil, tobacco and potash sectors, after a provisional deal was agreed on Friday.
The EU imported 1.2 billion euros’ ($1.5 billion) worth of chemicals including potash from Belarus last year, as well as more than 1 billion euros’ worth of crude oil and related products such as fuel and lubricants. Belarus also relies on loans from European commercial and development banks.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has advised candidates affected by the deletion of some computer-based test centres from the list of approved centres taking part in the ongoing unified tertiary matriculation examination, to print new slips containing the details of their rescheduled examinations.
A statement issued by JAMB and signed by the head of its public affairs and protocol unit, Fabian Benjamin, said the new slips have been made available on the examination body’s website since Sunday, June 20.
“Candidates, who were scheduled to take examination in delisted cantres can proceed to print their examination notification slips from Sunday, 20th, 2021 for their new schedule date and time,” the statement reads in part, adding that; “This applies only to centres delisted.”
Local media had reported the announcement of the deletion of 25 centres by JAMB due to what it described as their performance below the examination body’s “tolerable limit.”
JAMB, however, later said it regretted the inclusion of the centre at the Plateau State University, Bokkos, and said the affected centres were 24 and not the 25 as earlier claimed.
A statement announcing the body’s regret on the inclusion of the university’s centre was shared with journalists by Benjamin.
He wrote; “Correction with apology. The centres are actually 24 not 25. The inclusion of Plateau State University, Bokkos, is regrettable.”
The affected 24 centres are scattered across 11 states of the federation and the federal capital territory, FCT, Abuja.
In Lagos, the affected centres are Massino Computer CBT, Itoga, Badagry; IP Soft Technologies Ltd. Apapa, Lagos State; Institute of Criminal Justice and Criminology Administration, Festac Town; Sweet Valley Educational Services, Ikotun; Certified Institution of Shipping, Magbon, Badagry, and Al-Miyzan Schools CBT Centre, Ikotun.
The four affected centres in Kaduna State are; Bethel Baptist High School, Kujama; Zabib College, Unguwar Dosa; St. Albert Institute, Kafanchan, and Skolak Resources Ltd.
At the Federal Capital Territory, both the Government Secondary School, Garki, and GEF Systems Ltd located at the Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN), Dutse Junction, were listed.
The Federal Polytechnic, Ile-Oluji, and King Emmanuel College ICT Centre, Ore, are affected in Ondo State while only the St Augustine’s Academy, Langtang, is listedin Plateau State.
Others include Oduduwa University, Ipetumodu (Osun) Federal College on Education (Special), (Oyo); Aunty Alice Schools, Mararaba (Nasarawa); Harry Pass Polytechnic CBT Centre, Gboko, (Benue), and Izisco Obos Institute of Maritime Studies and Technology, Warri (Delta).
Meanwhile, the examination body has further announced that a total of 53 computer-based centres that are taking part in this year’s examination have been placed on a watch list.
The body said it would not hesitate to wield the big stick if the identified lapses should continue.
The affected centres include Ihechukwu Madubuike Institution of Technology, Abia State; Keme Gold Nigeria Limited, Akwa Ibom State; Bishop Evans Ibeagha Juniorate CBT Centre, Anambra State; Bauchi Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Bauchi State, among others.
South Africa’s rand firmed on Monday as a rally in the dollar stalled following a surprise hawkish shift from the U.S. Federal Reserve last week.
The rand lost more than 4% against the dollar last week as the Fed brought forward its projections for interest rate increases, prompting a sell-off in emerging market currencies.
At 1500 GMT, the rand traded at 14.2425 against the dollar, 0.89% firmer than its previous close as the dollar retreated from two-month highs.
“Markets likely overreacted somewhat to the FOMC members dot plot elevation last week, and it is quite possible the rand, and other EM currencies see some further strength in (third quarter) 2021, as the US certainly is not about to hike interest rates, or taper QE, yet,” Annabel Bishop, chief economist at Investec, said in a note.
“Indeed, EM portfolio assets still offer good returns, and as such will likely remain attractive.”
In the equities market, stocks fell as investors of market heavy-weight Naspers trimmed their positions after a rally in morning trade.
The broader Johannesburg All-Share index ended the day 0.11% weaker at 65,563 points while the Top-40 index fell 0.05%.
Consumer internet company Naspers hit a session high of 3,088 rand in early trade after posting strong full-year results, but closed 0.33% weaker at 3,040 rand.
“In the afternoon it (Naspers) had a bit of some profit taking. The share has been weak for a long time so I think folks wanting to get out are selling on the bounces,” BP Bernstein Portfolio Manager Gerhard Parkiin said.
Naspers’ European tech company Prosus however held on to its gains, with the Johannesburg-listed shares up 1.22% to 1,429 rand after saying its e-commerce business grew revenues and shrank trading losses for the year that ended March 31.
Government bonds weakened, with the yield on the 2030 bond up 12.5 basis point to 9.085%.
Three children have died following a school kidnapping of 94 students and eight staff in northwest Nigeria this week, the establishment’s principal said on Sunday.
The kidnapping for ransom is the latest in a series of such incidents in northern Nigeria, with a sharp rise in abductions since late 2020 as the government struggles to maintain law and order amid a flagging economy.
The two girls and a boy were found dead, two with gunshot wounds in their legs, said Mustapha Yusuf, principal of the federal government college in the remote town of Birnin Yauri in northwest Nigeria’s Kebbi state.
Nine abductees escaped or had been rescued but the kidnappers held the rest, with security forces wary of staging a rescue attempt for fear of harming the children, Yusuf said.
The kidnappers “have been taking cover under the students … They are in the bush,” he said, adding that bandits had used students’ phones to call parents and demand a 60 million naira ($146,341) ransom.
Former Nigeria national team coach Samson Siasia, who was banned from the game for life for match-fixing by world governing body FIFA, has had his sanction reduced to five years, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on Monday.
FIFA had said in 2019 that Siasia was “guilty of having accepted that he would receive bribes in relation to the manipulation of matches in violation of the FIFA Code of Ethics” and also fined 50,000 Swiss francs ($54,000).
However, CAS said the imposition of a life ban was “disproportionate for a first offence which was committed passively and which had not had an adverse or immediate effect on football stakeholders” while the fine was also set aside.
“The panel acknowledged the need for sanctions to be sufficiently high enough to eradicate bribery and especially match fixing in football,” the CAS said.
“However, the panel considered in the particular circumstances of this matter that it would be inappropriate and excessive to impose a financial sanction in addition to the five-year ban since the ban sanction already incorporated a financial punishment in eliminating football as a source of revenue for Mr Siasia.”
Siasia, 53, played as a striker for the Nigeria national team and later coached various national youth sides before a spell as senior coach in 2016.
Access Bank Plc has rewarded serving members of the Nigeria Youth Service Corps (NYSC) with over N15 million in its third edition of Access Bank Plc’s youth business challenge competition, Accesspreneur, which was held across five states of Nigeria recently.
The event, which held across five states, produced five top winners that won N1 million each while others were rewarded with consolation cash prizes totaling N10 million during the final business pitch.
The challenge took place simultaneously across five NYSC camps in Abuja, Osun, Enugu, Nassarawa and Rivers States.
Speaking on the initiative, Executive Director, Retail Banking, Access Bank Plc, Victor Etuokwu, said: “The challenge is aimed at promoting entrepreneurial aspirations among talented corp members.”
He added that so far, the competition has proven to have a great impact on youth empowerment in the country as more entries were received during the current challenge.
The pilot phase of the Accessprenuer challenge competition by Access Bank was in partnership with the NYSC Skills Acquisition & Entrepreneurship Development took place across three states (Ogun, Enugu and Abuja) in February this year.
The scheme was designed to train corps members on business plan writing, after which a competition will be held to select the top winners with bright and feasible business ideas within the mandatory 21-day Camp orientation exercise.
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