FEATURES

FEATURES

The Central Bank of Nigeria has revealed that businesses in Nigeria believe the naira will depreciate this month and the first three months of 2025.
 
This was contained in CBN's Business Expectation Survey Report for November 2024.
 
 
The apex bank noted that firms’ outlook on the volume of business activities, financial conditions, access to credit, volume of total orders and average capacity utilisation, were pessimistic.
 
It stated: “The overall confidence index (CI) on the macroeconomy indicated that businesses were optimistic in November 2024.
 
“Businesses expect the Naira to depreciate in the current month, next month and next 3 months but appreciate in the next 6 months.
 
“The optimism on business outlook in the current month is driven by the opinion of respondents from all the sectors.
 
“The Construction Sector expressed optimism on own operations in the review month.
 
“The outlook of respondents on the volume of business activities, the volume of total order, financial conditions, and access to credit were negative in the review month. volume of business activity respondents expressed optimism on volume of business activity for the next month and subsequent periods under review.”
 
The report also showed that businesses hope to employ more workers in the month of December 2024 with the Agriculture sector having the highest prospect for expansion.
 
Meanwhile, the CBN in its latest Consumer Expectation Survey Report said that consumers were pessimistic about the macro economy in November.
 
According to the CBN report, households projected a rise in the cost of transportation, rent, car/vehicle, house purchase, and medical expenses this month.
 
The report showed that 61.1 per cent and 57.6 per cent of respondents perceived that prices of non-durable and durable household items, though high, will keep declining this month and next month respectively.

The talent manager and mother of Wizkid’s children, Jada Pollock, has shared her thoughts on the challenges of being labelled a “baby mama.”

In a recent interview with BET UK, she expressed her frustration about being defined solely by her relationship with Wizkid instead of being acknowledged for her own professional achievements.

Jada recounted a particular moment when she released a statement celebrating the growth of Afrobeat following Wizkid’s Grammy win.

Unfortunately, blogs chose to label her statement with “Wizkid’s baby mama,” which she felt diminished her entrepreneurial efforts and dedication. In her words:

“When Wizkid won a Grammy, I wrote a statement about how far Afrobeat has come. They published the statement, and the caption was “Wizkid baby mama.”

The narrative does not recognise that you’re an entrepreneur and a hardworking businesswoman. I’m not only a mother but also a manager, and I’ve helped build a legacy.”

Wizkid and Jada, who began dating in 2014, had their first child together, Zion, in 2017. In 2022, they welcomed another boy, AJ

Legendary Yoruba actor, Yinka Quadri has spoken on his rumoured death and the impact it had on his family.

Rumours claiming Quadri had passed away went viral in June, causing concern among his fans and family members.

The actor took to his social media pages to debunk the rumour and confirm that he was “alive and well”.

In a recent interview on Oyinmomo TV, the 65-year-old expressed disappointment with the individuals who spread the false news.

Quadri revealed that his children, who were overseas at the time, became worried when they heard about the rumoured death.

He said they started calling him frequently to confirm the news, which caused unnecessary “stress and anxiety” for the family. Yinka Quadri wrote:

“If it happened to someone who just came into the industry, the person will likely experience a setback. Or the person would leave the industry. But because this profession is inborn. That is not the first time. We have heard so many things in the past.

“Is it not because of social media that it is now being escalated? When I saw it I said ‘Weldone, you content creators’. Although when I saw it it was not as if I was happy. Just like the words of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu saying he stays off social media.

“No one would be happy whenever people spread rumours about them. Most especially, rumoured death. You will recall that I said I will not curse the person, but I leave him or her to God’s judgment.

“If the person thinks it is by spoiling another person’s name or causing sadness in another person’s family is an opportunity to attain success… because it got to a stage that it started to pain me.

“Despite the fact that my children are overseas and we have constant communication weekly or every three days, when they informed them they were like ‘I still spoke to Daddy last week’. Then they start calling.

“It got to a stage where everybody became troubled. They now started calling in the morning, put a call through in the afternoon, and call again in the evening to confirm.

“And I now said, the person that did this will get the right reward from God. Because it is not something good. My head does not pray for the person. Why should you wish me death? I wanted to keep quiet. Some people even thought I created the story myself. I asked if they thought I was looking for fame or name.”

 

Speaking on the sidelines of the pre-premiere dinner of Funke Akindele’s movie, ‘Everybody Loves Jenifa’, Mama G said she did odd jobs to cater for her family before fortune smiled on her.

Patience Ozokwor revealed that among the odd jobs she did was work as mortician, and went on to praise Funke Akindele as a workaholic like herself. She said:

 

“Funke Akindele is a very strong woman. I love strong women. I am a strong woman. I am talking about the things that I do at home. I am a very strong woman, I went through thick and thin to become who I am today.

“I used to go to the morgue to dress dead bodies so my children could go to school and eat. I did a lot of things to make my family what they are today.

“You know they say no problem is accepted in his town but in my own place, they appreciate me a lot because they saw me through all these things.

“That’s the way I see Funke. When I see her, I look at myself. She’s a replica of who I am.”

Former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has said he would meet the bail conditions of human rights lawyer, Dele Farotimi.

Farotimi, in his alleged defamation case against Afe Babalola, was granted bail by Ekiti Magistrate Court on Friday.

The bail conditions include ₦30 million bond, 2 sureties (one shall be a house owner), submit his passport and shall not grant any media interview.

Peter Obi‘s decision to meet Farotimi’s bail condition was communicated by former spokesman of his presidential campaign organization, in 2023, Tanko Yunusa.

Yunusa disclosed this in a brief statement on his X handle, on Friday.

According to him, the former governor of Anambra State wanted the allegation against the former member of his campaign organization to be resolved in the best interest of all concerned.

I consulted His Excellency, Peter Obi, as the leader of the Obidient Movement. As a respecter of rule of law, due process, and order he offered to take Dele Farontimi on the bail conditions.

“He thanked our courts and all concerned on this matter. His concern is that situation be resolved to the best interest of all concerned as well as our legal system.

“He extended his sincere appreciation to all concerned,” Obi’s aide stated.

Nigeria’s Supreme Court and 14 other government agencies have failed the 2024 Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard (EICS), an annual assessment by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

The ICPC unveiled the report on Thursday at its headquarters in Abuja, stating that none of the 330 Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) assessed achieved full compliance with established standards.

 

The Supreme Court, alongside the other non-compliant MDAs, scored zero per cent on the compliance scorecard, highlighting systemic failures in critical areas such as whistleblower policies, strategic planning, and financial accountability.

“These agencies failed due to systemic issues, including the absence of whistleblower policies, inadequate strategic plans, and ineffective stock verification systems,” the ICPC stated.

The report also noted that many of the MDAs failed to produce financial reports or conduct audits, further eroding public trust in their operations.

The EICS evaluated MDAs based on five key indicators:

– Management Culture and Structure (MCS)

– Governance and Executive Management

– Financial Management Systems (FMS)

– Finance, Revenue, and Audit Processes

– Administrative Systems (AS), which includes ethics education and whistleblowing mechanisms.

The 15 institutions with 0.00 score include: Supreme Court of Nigeria, Nigeria Press Council (NPC), Legal Aid Council (LAC), National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Council of Nigerian Mining Engineers and Geoscientists (COMEG), and Institute of Chartered Chemists of Nigeria (ICCON).

The rest are Federal Teaching Hospital (FTH), Gombe; National Obstetrics Fistula Centre, Ningi, Bauchi State; Institute of Archaeology and Museum Studies, Jos; Federal University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State; Federal College of Forestry Mechanization (FCFM), Mando, Kaduna State; Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State; and Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun State, and University of Ibadan, Oyo State.

Controversial human rights lawyer, Dele Farotimi has been granted ₦30 million bail by a Magistrate court in Ekiti State.

Ado Ekiti Magistrate Court granted bail to Dele Farotimi on the following conditions:

 

1. ₦30 million bond

2. Two sureties (one of whom must be a property owner), submission of his passport, and

3. A prohibition on granting media interviews.

Dele Farotimi’s bail was also confirmed by human rights activist and former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, on his X handle on Friday.

Recall that a petition filed by a prominent lawyer and Senior Advocate in Nigeria, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), prompted Farotimi’s arrest.

He was remanded in prison custody on December 7, 2024, after being arrested on 16 counts of criminal defamation, following the publication of his book, Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System.

House of Representatives member for Kaduna North Constituency, Mohammed Bello El-Rufai, has called for the scrapping of some yearly expenses of ministries, departments and agencies.

Bello El-Rufai noted that ministries, departments and agencies cannot include vehicles and furniture every year in their budgets.

He stated this during the debate on the 2025 budget on Wednesday. He explained that some items ministries, departments and agencies included in the 2024 budgets in their recurrent expenditure should not be allowed in the 2025 budget.

Sir, the recurrent issue is in every budget, even a young person like myself, we budget for vehicles every year, we budget for utensils every year. So what I would like us to do, sir, to open more revenues or block loopholes is to look at all these ministries that are bringing their budgets.

“If they bought vehicles last year, please, they should just relax now. Vehicles do not expire. These are the little things, Mr. Speaker, that if, unless we start looking at them, the loopholes we talk about will not come out. I want to thank the leadership for sessions like this and other experienced members. It’s a learning opportunity, but on this, the Orasanye report, sir, should be implemented. It is key. That is one,” he said.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker further demanded financial discipline from leaders just as Nigerians are encouraged to endure the current hardship in the country.

The second and most important thing to me, since I was a, well, I’m still a young man, since I was a boy, budgets every year come with new computers, new furniture. These things don’t expire, sir. We should cut them out totally. We can’t be asking Nigerians, we can’t have a tax reform bill that could shape the fiscal shape of this country. Well, as leaders, we are not cutting anything.

“So I urge the chairman, I’m honored, sir, that I chair a committee that has CBN, but my budget is not on here. But committee chairmen that are more experienced than myself should look into this. Nigerians are tired of every agency buying fork and knife every year,” he added.

A ₦9.36 billion budget has been made for domestic and international travel and refreshments for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima for the upcoming year.

Naija News reports that this information is detailed in the 2025 Appropriation Bill released by the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning.

On Wednesday, the president presented a budget proposal amounting to ₦49.7 trillion to a joint session of the National Assembly.

The fiscal document is titled: ‘Restoration Budget, Securing Peace and Building Prosperity.’

As per the budget proposal, President Tinubu is set to spend ₦7.44 billion on travel and refreshments, while Vice President Shettima will allocate ₦1.9 billion for similar expenses.

In 2025, the president’s international travel is expected to cost ₦6.14 billion, with local trips amounting to ₦873.9 million.

Additionally, ₦431.6 million has been designated for the president’s refreshments, meals, and catering supplies.

For the vice president, international travel expenses are projected at ₦1.31 billion, with local travel costing ₦417.5 million.

The budget for refreshments, meals, and catering supplies for the vice president is set at ₦186.02 million.

In the first quarter of 2024, President Tinubu, Vice President Shettima, and First Lady Remi Tinubu incurred travel expenses totalling no less than ₦5.24 billion for both local and international trips, as revealed by an analysis conducted using GovSpend, a civic technology platform that monitors and analyzes federal government expenditures.

Budget For Presidency On Cars, Fuel, Honorarium, SAs Office

Meanwhile, the Office of the President has put forward a budget of ₦4,760,035,960 for vehicles, which includes ₦3,661,566,123 allocated for the acquisition of operational vehicles for the State House and ₦1 billion designated for the replacement of Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs).

Additionally, ₦255,728,214 has been allocated for the purchase of cars, with ₦127,864,107 specifically reserved for the procurement of SUVs for both the president and vice president and another ₦127,864,107 set aside for operational vehicles within the Presidential Conference Car Unit (CCU) fleet.

Furthermore, a total of ₦5,938,883,548 has been proposed for honorarium, the construction of an office complex for Special Advisers and Senior Special Assistants, and fuel for generators.

The budget outlines that ₦2,118,521,128 is designated for sitting allowances/honorarium, ₦1,989,579,359 for fuel, and ₦1,830,783,061 for the construction of the office complex for Special Advisers and Senior Special Assistants.

The Chairman, Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Taiwo Oyedele, has lamented that some Nigerians lay curses on him and his family because of the tax reform bills.

He, however, stated that he was not deterred by the backlash, adding that as someone rendering public service he did not expect praises from people all the time.

The controversial tax reform bills have generated heated debates across the country, with the majority of the push backs coming from the North.

 

Speaking during an event for the presentation of the report of a technical committee set up by the League of Northern Democrats (LND) to review the controversial tax reform bills on Thursday in Abuja, Oyedele stated that the content of the bills was not influenced by a higher power but rather the outcome of debates by the committee.

According to him, “Even on social media, you need to see the number of people cursing me and my family. I don’t take it personally. I just go through and say is there any useful comment that we can work on? We pick it and we work on it. It’s public service. You’re not meant to be appreciated and praised every time. It doesn’t happen anywhere in the world.

Public service is public service. You are accountable to the people and you must take that very seriously. So our approach to this is that some Nigerians were asked to do this for our country and I had the privilege of leading that team and we did our best but we’re not in any way suggesting that our best is the best for Nigeria.

“You cannot have more than 200 million people and you then assume that about 100 people are the smartest. You know that that would be arrogance at a different level. So this engagement helped us to even improve the quality of what we have done.

“I’ve said this in a number of fora and I’ll say it again. There’s not a single person in the world, not World Bank, not IMF, not United Nations, not Mr President, not any governor, not any minister, past or present, not president, past or present, no one dictated anything to us. Every single thing you see in all those bills were the outcome of debates by the committee that is representative nationally.

“We have people from all the geo-political zones. We have more than 20 government institutions. We have all manner of engagement, including with people with disability. But we know that engagements will never end. In fact, if the bills are passed, it doesn’t mean that we should stop engaging. We should continue.

 

“So, I’m eagerly looking forward to the outcome of this event today and I can give you one assurance. Every single point you send to us will be carefully considered and we’ll get back to you with our own explanations. So once we have superior reasoning and superior arguments, we bow to it very quickly because we have no agenda other than the agenda for Nigeria.”