Author: Vardiafrica

The Council of Ministers of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Thursday held its 93rd ordinary session at the ECOWAS Commission headquarters in Abuja.The session chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar will focus on critical governance, economic policies and regional integration issues. In his opening address, the ECOWAS President, Omar Touray, commended President Bola Tinubu and the people of Nigeria for the support given to the regional bloc.He, however, noted that the gathering of the Council couldn’t be more timely considering the persistent challenges confronting the region.Touray also told the Council that 30…

CEO of Tesla and founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk has become the first person in history to amass a fortune of more than $400 billion. His net worth now stands at around $440 billion (£345 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, more than that of Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos combined. Mr Musk’s fortune has boomed in the weeks following Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election. A recent share sale at SpaceX played a key role in this milestone, contributing roughly $50 billion to Musk’s wealth and boosting SpaceX’s valuation to $350 billion, making it the world’s most valuable private company. This…

Dangote Refinery said on Wednesday it has made its first export of petrol to Cameroon, a milestone that could pave way for regional energy integration and help stabilise fuel prices across the region. The 650,000 barrel refinery built by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote in Lagos aims to compete with European refiners when operating at full capacity and is expected to change trading of refined products in the Atlantic basin. The company did not provide details of how much was exported. Cameroon’s energy firm Neptune Oil said in the statement that both companies were exploring new initiatives to establish a reliable…

London, UK – The Global Reputation Forum 2024 (GRF) successfully concluded its two-day event held from December 5-6, 2024, at the UK Houses of Parliament’s Portcullis House and the Financial Times headquarters. Under the theme “Leadership, Policy, and Governance in a Digital World,” the forum brought together high-profile leaders, policymakers, innovators, and industry experts to explore strategies for building and safeguarding reputations in a digitally interconnected world. Day 1 Highlights – December 5, 2024 The event was officially opened by Bell Ribeiro-Addy, UK Member of Parliament, who delivered a compelling Welcome Address, emphasizing the forum’s commitment to promoting thought leadership,…

Members of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) held an in-person meeting at the Forum’s Secretariat in Abuja on Wednesday night. Fifteen governors, mainly of the All Progressives Congress (APC), were present at the meeting as of the time of filing this report. Governor Alex Otti of Abia State elected on the platform of the Labour Party (LP) and his Anambra State counterpart, Chukwuma Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), were the only opposition governors in attendance. The agenda of the meeting was not made available to journalists as of press time but the governors have, for weeks, been…

The Minister of Education, Dr. Olatunji Alausa, says a National Policy on bullying will be developed to mitigate its tendencies, gradually creeping into schools across the country. Dr. Alausa who stated this in Abuja at a Press conference during a crucial meeting with principals of Unity schools, said the ministry of Justice would provide all the required legal template to achieve the policy in good time. In recent times, there have been recurring incidents of bullying in schools at every level of learning, which usually leaves victims traumatized emotionally and physically. To curb the trend, the Minister of Education, Dr.…

President Bola Tinubu says he will deploy wisdom and diplomacy in reintegrating Mali, Niger Republic, and Burkina Faso into the Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS). Tinubu, who is also the ECOWAS chairman, spoke when he hosted the visiting German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the State House on Wednesday, Bayo Onanuga, the presidential spokesperson, said in a statement. Receiving the German president, who is in Nigeria for a three-day state visit, Tinubu said the leadership of the three West African countries had been reluctant to bring out transition programmes to civilian rule with clear dates. However, the Nigerian leader…

Adebayo Adelabu, minister of power, says Nigeria is on track to add 150 megawatts (MW) of electricity to its national grid before the year ends. Adelabu spoke to journalists after a closed-door meeting with President Bola Tinubu and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, at the presidential villa in Abuja. The minister said the upgrade will be made possible following the successful completion of the pilot phase of the presidential power initiative (PPI). Adelabu said the initiative, which is being implemented in partnership with Siemens, intends to enhance Nigeria’s electricity supply through a series of strategic projects. “We believe that before the…

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier says he is satisfied with President Bola Tinubu’s handling of the exit of the Republic of Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Steinmeier, who is on a three-day state visit to Nigeria, spoke in Abuja on Wednesday when he was hosted by Tinubu in Aso Rock. The German president also expressed delight about Tinubu’s leadership of ECOWAS. In July, Mali, the Republic of Niger, and Burkina Faso announced that they had “irrevocably turned their backs” on ECOWAS. The three countries exited the regional organisation after ECOWAS imposed sanctions…

Meta said Wednesday that a technical issue is causing a widespread outage of its apps, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. “We’re aware that a technical issue is impacting some users’ ability to access our apps. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible and apologize for any inconvenience,” Meta Newsroom said on X Wednesday afternoon. WhatsApp and Instagram both confirmed outages via X, and many users are reporting they are unable to access Meta’s apps. On outage tracking site Downdetector, where users can report issues, Instagram had logged almost 70,000 reports by mid-afternoon Wednesday. Facebook had up to 105,000 outage…