Author: Vardiafrica

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…

Google on Wednesday announced the launch of Gemini 2.0, its most advanced artificial intelligence model to date, as the world’s tech giants race to take the lead in the fast developing technology. CEO Sundar Pichai said the new model would mark what the company calls “a new agentic era” in AI development, with AI models designed to understand and make decisions about the world around you. “Gemini 2.0 is about making information much more useful,” Pichai said in the announcement, emphasizing the model’s enhanced ability to understand context, think multiple steps ahead and take supervised actions on behalf of users.…

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has denied issuing a directive that gas supply to power generating companies (GenCos) be halted. In a statement on Wednesday, the authority also denied instructing wholesale gas suppliers to stop further supply of gas to companies due to failure in payment obligations. The NMDPRA described reports stating that it has directed the stoppage of gas supply to GenCos over N2trn debt as “false and completely unfounded”. “It has absolutely no bearing on the information shared at a recent stakeholders’ engagement held in Lagos between the Authority, the OPTS, IPPG and other…

Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative, PCNGI, and the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, to facilitate the implementation of the CNG policy in the Niger Delta region. The NDDC Managing Director, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, who spoke during a courtesy visit by a delegation from the PCNGI, led by the Programme Director, Engr. Michael Oluwagbemi, at the NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt, stated that the CNG initiative was critical for the country. Ogbuku observed that the Presidential CNG Initiative was a component of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration’s intervention, which was directed at providing succour…

FIFA on Wednesday confirmed that Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup, underlining the Gulf kingdom’s growing influence in world sport despite criticism of the country’s human rights record. At the same time, a virtual Congress of world football’s governing body confirmed that Morocco, Spain and Portugal will be joint hosts of the 2030 World Cup, in which three games will also be played in South America. The Saudi bid was waved through by acclamation during the meeting of FIFA’s 211 national member associations, with no rivals standing in its way. “It is a proud day, a day of celebration, a day that we invite the entire world to Saudi Arabia,”…

Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, on Wednesday declared the seat of Senator Monday Okpebholo, representing Edo Central Senatorial district, vacant. This comes as Senator Okpebholo bids farewell to the 10th Senate, following his election as Governor of Edo State. Akpabio also asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct elections as soon as possible to fill the vacant seat. This move is aimed at ensuring that the people of Edo Central Senatorial district continue to have representation in the Senate. Senate President Godswill Akpabio made the declarations after a valedictory session for Okpebholo organised by the Senate. Akpabio urged Okpbeholo…

The national grid has collapsed for the 12th time in 2024. A tweet via the official handle of Nigeria’s National Grid confirmed that the grid collapsed at about 2:09 pm on Wednesday. “The major grid setback has occurred and the restoration is to commence,” the handler wrote. The development was also confirmed in a statement by Jos Disco to its customers. The utility company, however, said the grid collapsed around 1: 33 PM today, leading to the loss of power supply to its feeders. “We hope to restore normal power supply to our esteemed customers as soon as the grid…

An Allied Air Cargo aircraft on Wednesday suffered a tyre burst causing it to skid the Runway 22 at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja on Wednesday. The plane with registration number 5N-JRT had five passengers on board, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said in a statement. FAAN spokesperson, Obiageli Orah, said the passengers were rescued and taken to the hospital for medical attention. She explained that the airport has temporarily shut down the runway following the incident. The incident was said to have caused significant disruptions, with several departures delayed as authorities work to clear the affected…

The wife of the President, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has called for a united action to end tuberculosis (TB) in Nigeria and contribute to the global fight to eradicate the disease. She lamented that about 10.8 million people developed TB in 2023, with 1.6 million people losing their lives, adding that 12 per cent of the global burden affected the most vulnerable, including children and young adolescents. Meanwhile, the Nigerian private sector has indicated its willingness to contribute about $25 million towards the TB response. Speaking at the opening of the 2024 National TB Conference, with the theme, ‘Public-Private Partnership and…