Author: Vardiafrica

A storm is brewing for cryptocurrency giant Binance as two separate charges have been filed against the company and its executives at the Abuja Federal High Court. The arraignment is scheduled for Thursday, April 4th,2024 The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is accusing Binance executives Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla of money laundering to the tune of $35.4 million. This five-count charge alleges that the company operated without a valid license, a violation of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020. Meanwhile, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has filed a separate four-count charge against Binance. This…

The Federal Government has again said security agencies will go after individuals with fake university certificates in the country. Education Minister Tahir Mamman spoke during the maiden quarterly citizens and stakeholders’ engagement in Nigeria’s education sector in Abuja on Tuesday. The minister assured Nigerians that there would transformation in the education sector with the unveiling of 13 pillars roadmap. He said for proper planning to be done in the sector, particularly from a basic level, it has become imperative to build a reliable and authentic database that would promote skills acquisition and development and reduce to the nearest minimum, the…

President Bola Tinubu and other African leaders witnessed the swearing-in of Bassirou Faye as Senegal’s fifth president. Faye was sworn in on Tuesday at an exhibition centre in Diamniadio near Dakar, the capital of Senegal. The inauguration ceremony was attended by many African leaders, including Nana Akufo-Addo, president of Ghana and Sierra Leone’s President, Julius Maada Bio, among others. On March 24, Senegal held its presidential election after numerous postponements Faye defeated Amadou Ba, Senegal’s former prime minister, and won 54 percent of the votes cast. Faye was released from detention alongside Ousmane Sanko, his political mentor, 10 days before…

Bassirou Diomaye Faye, a left-wing pan-Africanist, was sworn in Tuesday as Senegal’s youngest president after sweeping to a first-round victory on a pledge of radical reform 10 days after he was released from prison. The 44-year-old has never before held an elected office but several African leaders attended the ceremony in the new town of Diamniadio, near the capital Dakar. “Before God and the Senegalese nation, I swear to faithfully fulfil the office of President of the Republic of Senegal,” Faye said before the gathered officials. He also vowed to “scrupulously observe the provisions of the Constitution and the laws”…

President Bola Tinubu has approved the Federal Capital Territory’s over N1.1trn statutory budget for the 2024 fiscal year. The FCT minister, Nyesom Wike, disclosed this during an ongoing media chat at his office in Abuja on Tuesday. He expressed delight over the assent by the president, and explained that the budget will impact on infrastructure development, healthcare facilities, as well as rehabilitation of schools in the FCT, amongst others. The development comes on the heels of the FCT appropriation bill passing the second reading at the Senate last month. A breakdown analysis of the N1.1trn budget, indicated that N280bn was…

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have introduced a “third gender” option on citizenship forms to collect data of immigrants with greater accuracy, as some of them do not identify as a male or female. Initially, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) forms and associated documents have only offered male and female options, which has “created significant barriers” for people who do not identify with either of the two genders. In an official statement issued on Monday, the USCIS said, “We have revised Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, to provide a third gender option, ‘X’, defined as ‘Another Gender Identity’.” “We…

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was sworn in Tuesday before parliament for his third term in office as leader of the Arab world’s most populous country. In power for the past decade, Sisi is set to remain president until 2030, after winning a December election with 89.6 percent of the vote against three relative unknowns. The six-year term is set to be the 69-year-old’s last, unless he again ushers through a constitutional amendment prolonging his tenure. The oath also marked the inauguration of Egypt’s New Administrative Capital, located in the desert east of Cairo, local media reported. Sisi rose to…

The nine students who were abducted while travelling along the East-West road in Ughelli, Delta State, on Friday night, March 29, have regained their freedom. The students were said to have been returning from their school in Calabar Cross River State on Friday night when they they were abducted from the minibus they were travelling in. The driver of the bus escaped unhurt. In an update shared in his X handle, the spokesperson of the command, SP Bright Edafe, said all nine students have regained their freedom. He however did not mention if any ransom was paid

The Nigerian Army has reported a “minor explosion” within its Ikeja cantonment, Lagos State on Monday. A statement by the Director Army Public Relations, Major General, Onyema Nwachukwu, said the incident which occurred on a farmland near the Mammy Market, within the cantonment had been put under control. “This is to notify the general public that today Monday 1 April 2024, a minor explosion occurred within the Nigerian Army (NA) Cantonment in Ikeja, Lagos. The incident occurred on a farmland near the Mammy Market within the Cantonment,” the statement said in part. According to the statement, the explosion was suspected…

The Federal Government, on Monday, announced a new price of natural gas for power generation companies. An agency of the Federal Government, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), unveiled the new domestic base price and wholesale prices of natural gas for 2024, jacking it up to $2.42 per metric million British thermal units, from the previous rate of $2.18mmbtu Announced and signed by the Chief Executive, NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, it also pegged the cost of commercial gas at $2.92mmbtu, up from the previous cost of $2.5mmbtu. Ahmed said the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 assented to by President…