By Emmanuel Mogbede

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC)has approved the formation and composition of a National Peace and Reconciliation Committees for each geo-political zone.

This, according to a statement by Malam Lanre Issa-Onilu, the partys National Publicity Secretary, on Monday in Abuja, is in recognition of the need to address the post-primary elections disputes in the party.

Issa-Onilu said that the partys National Chairman, Mr Adams Oshiomhole, would inaugurate the committees on Wednesday.

The full composition of the committee for each zone:

NORTH-WEST

SOUTH-EAST

SOUTH-WEST

NORTH-CENTRAL

SOUTH-SOUTH

NORTH-EAST

Source: NAN

The Oba Adesoji Aderemi Way built by Osun government and named after the first governor of Western region, was on Monday commissioned.

Governor Rauf Aregbesola of the state of Osun commissioned the road situated along Ring Road in Osogbo

The commissioning attracted many dignitaries, including Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; the eldest son of the first Governor Western Region of Nigeria, Prince Ishola Aderonmu Adesoji and the the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi.

Also at the ceremony was the eldest child of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief (Mrs) Tola Oyediran; Deputy governor Titi Laoye-Tomori; Governor-elect, Mr. Gboyega Oyetola; his deputy, Mr. Benedict Gboyega Alabi.

Oba Sir Titus Martins Adesoji Tadeniawo Aderemi I, alias Adesoji Aderemi, KCMG, was a Nigerian political figure and Yoruba traditional ruler as the Ooni of Ife from 1930 until 1980. He served as the governor of Western Region, Nigeria between 1960 and 1962.

Source: NAN

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday formally inaugurated the Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba, urging Deltas Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa to effectively utilise the facility.

This is even as he endorsed the Gov. Okowa for a second term in office, saying who was a good product to the people of Delta

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Obasanjo who was in the state on a two-day visit also inaugurated other road projects in Agbor in the state.

The former President, while noting that the stadium might not mean much to the ordinary man, said the gains of the project could however not be over-emphasised.

No one can have a sound mind and sound body without exercising. The stadium is a veritable source of money for the state and the people of Asaba and environs, he said.

Obasanjo added that the essence of the structure would be defeated if the state government failed to through it train the young people by catching them young.

The thinking of the people is `what are you doing with the stadium? and, to the ordinary man, the importance is not appreciated.

But the importance is in having a sound mind in a sound body. I have always played squash rackets and I have a squash court in my house to keep fit and it is very important that you exercise.

In todays world there is virtually nothing from which you cannot make money. Sports tourism will make the economy of the state strong and the people of Asaba will grow their economy.

We must not just have the stadium, we must utilise the facility to bring up the young ones by catching them young.

You must recruit those that would be trained and build a hostel where they stay to be trained and if you do this the state will develop.

Sixteen years ago, I came here to lay the foundation of this stadium and today I am here to inaugurate it. I hope to come back to see the hostel you have built to train the youths, he said.

While commissioning the road project, Obasanjo also endorsed Okowa for second term, describing him as a good product.

As an elder statesman, whatever I see and heard, my mouth will talk about; where I come from, we are always looking for good things and when we have good things, we hold on to it.

When you have good leaders, hold on to them; this governor (Ifeanyi Okowa) from what I have seen and from what I have heard, he is a good product and when you have a good product, you dont throw it away,

I know that this governor is a good governor, I will hold on to him because he has started well and we must give him the opportunity to consolidate on his good works, he said.

Earlier, Okowa had said the stadium was at a 20 per cent completion stage when he came into office as governor.

He added that he had then decided to take up the task of completing the project.

Now, the stadium has hosted an international athletics competition which had in attendance athletes from about 52 African countries in August, and it has also hosted the 2018 Aiteo Cup final match between Rangers International FC of Enugu and Kano Pillars FC.

During these events, the states economy blossomed as hotels in the state capital were fully booked and other economic activities thrived. But some persons have asked that `Of what importance is the stadium?

We are ready to host a friendly match between the Super Eagles and the Cranes of Uganda on Tuesday.

But beyond this, the fact is that we are trying to grow our economy, and when we hosted the athletics championships and the Aiteo Cup final, economic activities in Asaba increased.

Now, we have gotten the Asaba Airport runway right and just few days ago a flight took off from the airport to South Africa and returned and we plan to concession the airport for effective management as cargo airport by December, Okowa said.

Source: NAN

China has launched a new space environment research satellite and four nanosatellites on a Long March-2D carrier rocket which has successfully entered their pre-set orbit.

The rocket was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China, said on Tuesday.

According to the centre, the satellites have successfully entered their pre-set orbit after launch on November 20, 2018.

Shiyan-6 will be used for conducting space environment exploration experiments.

The term nanosatellite refers to a small artificial satellite, weighing between one kg and 10 kg.

Among the four nanosatellites, Tianping-1A and Tianping-1B will be used for equipment calibration on ground control stations, while Jiading-1 is the first satellite of the Xiangyun satellite constellation in low earth orbit.

A software-defined satellite, developed by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, will be used for conducting experiments on open-source satellite software research and development on Android platforms.

Compared to traditional satellites, a software-defined satellite is more flexible and reconfigurable.

A report says it enables its operator to capture diverse markets with its ability to change things like frequency band and coverage areas on demand.

It is the 292th mission of the Long March carrier rocket series. (Xinhua/NAN)

Source: NAN

The level of transparency in military spending in sub-Saharan Africa is greater than previously thought.

A new report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) carried out the survey between 2012 and 2017.

At least 45 of the 47 states surveyed published at least one official budget document in a timely manner online.

Contrary to common belief, countries in sub-Saharan Africa show a high degree of transparency in how they spend money on their military, says Dr Nan Tian, Researcher in the SIPRI Arms Transfers and Military Expenditure Programme.

Citizens everywhere should know where and how public money is spent. It is encouraging that national reporting in sub-Saharan Africa has improved.

No transparency in Equatorial Guinea and Eritrea; fall in Botswana

While SIPRIs study shows that there is generally a high degree of transparency in the military sector in sub-Saharan Africa, Equatorial Guinea and Eritrea have not published any official information on military spending since 2009 and 2003 respectively, and Botswana was one of very few states to show a deterioration in transparency.

Recently in Botswana, official budgetary reports have become increasingly difficult to obtain, there is a lack of a national defence policy and almost no government information or dialogue exists on issues such as arms procurement.

While these issues are worrying, the main cause for concern is the decreased public engagement on military-related matters, says Dr Tian.

Botswana had the third highest percentage increase in military spending between 2014 and 2017. Military spending grew by 60 per cent (or $182 million) in that period as part of several military procurement programmes involving France and Switzerland.

This military spending increase has occurred despite the fact that Botswana is located in one of the least conflict-prone areas of Africa and is one of the few states in sub-Saharan Africa to have never been involved in an armed conflict, says Dr Tian.

The Central African Republic (CAR) is one of the stand-out cases with substantial improvements in military sector transparency.

There is evidence of improved oversight and accountability in budget reporting, such as implementing an official budget formulation process and publishing budget execution reports both quarterly and biannually.

Although improvements are still needed in the areas of accessibility and disaggregation, military sector transparency has increased substantially.

The publication of accessible spending information is a major step towards greater transparency and accountability in the military sector, says Tian.

Unlike Europe and South America, there are currently no regional reporting mechanisms in place in sub-Saharan Africa for exchanging information on military expenditure between states.

The UN Report on Military Expenditures is the only international reporting system to which states in sub-Saharan Africa have agreed to participate.

In the period 200817, only five states in sub-Saharan Africa reported at least once, and no reports were submitted during the years 201517.

It is clear from SIPRIs study that the lack of UN reporting is not due to a lack of information.

Rather, the challenge is to encourage countries to submit data to the UN, says Pieter Wezeman, Senior Researcher with the SIPRI Arms Transfers and Military Expenditure Programme.

Government transparency at the international level is key to reinforcing trust and encouraging dialogue between countries, says Ambassador Jan Eliasson, Chair of the SIPRI Governing Board and former UN Deputy Secretary-General.

Therefore, UN member states need to work together on implementing and improving reporting, he says.

Source: NAN

Information and culture minister Lai Mohammed has paid condolence visit to the families of the Kwara All Progressives Congress (APC) members who died in a road crash between Omu-Aran and Oro on Sunday.

According to Mr. Segun Adeyemi, the Special Assistant to the minister, Mohammed was accompanied by Kwara APC Chairman Bashir Bolarinwa, House of Representatives Member-elect Tunji Olawuyi, Kwara South Senatorial candidate Lola Ashiru and other state party Officials.

They visited the families of the five deceased members in Arandun, Agbonda, Omu-Aran, Oko and Odo Owa, all in theEkiti/Irepodun/Isin/Oke-Ero Federal Constituency, where the APC won a landmark victory at the polls on Saturday.

The minister and his entourage also visited two others who are in hospitals in Omu-Aran to wish them speedy recovery.

At Agbonda, the Minister and his entourage attended the funeral service for one of the five deceased, Chief Ayobami Adekeye, an official of the party in Ajase Ward 2.

While visiting the homes of the deceased, the Minister commiserated with their families, hailed the members for their supreme sacrifice for the emancipation of the people of Kwara.

He promised that the party would not abandon their dependants.

Source: NAN

Kenya has set up a committee to discuss with China on the possibility of easing the East African nations entry into worlds flower market.

Last week, Kenya and China formed a technical work group that will oversee the withdrawal of the four per cent duty on most Kenyan exports to China.

If successful, this will allow flower growers to tap into the growing Chinese market and boost the earnings of the sector, as part of the countrys effort to diversify its markets.

We are going to have the first meeting next January with China and we hope to have completed negotiations by the end of February.

Our target is to do away with this four per cent tariff to make our products competitive, Kenyas Trade Cabinet Sectary Peter Munya said.

In July 2010, China removed tariffs charged on 60 per cent of the goods that it imports from Kenya and 32 other developing countries but retained the levy on cut flowers.

Beijing and Nairobi also signed a memorandum of understating to drive exports of over 40 per cent of Kenyas fresh produce to the Chinese market that has over 1.3 billion consumers.

Currently, Kenyas cut flowers are sold to a single economic bloc, the European Union, exposing export trade to vulnerabilities.

Most Kenyan flower reach China via the Netherlands-based international flower auction.

However, Kenya enjoys a duty and quota-free export arrangement in the EU market, and also has a duty-free flower arrangement with Japan.

In the region, it is only Ethiopia that enjoys a duty- free flower arrangement with China.

This agreement will facilitate export of agricultural products from Kenya to China.

We would love to see more of Kenyas products on our shelves, Guo Ce, the economic and commercial counsellor at the Chinese embassy in Kenya, said.

For Kenyan growers who earned $822.5 million last year this new development is a boon.

I havent seen the actual documents signed but we are interested in expanding our footprints in China.

Currently our flowers are being charged higher taxes in China, which makes them uncompetitive. We hope that the government will negotiate favourable trade protocols and agreements with China, Clement Tulezi, the chief executive officer of the Kenya Flower Council, said.

Bobby Kamani, the managing director of Primarosa Flowers Ltd said the government talks with China were welcome development, especially for the flowers sector, given the potential it has.

We were in China with government officials and we saw the interest. It was an eye opener for us at the expo because Kenyan growers had an unexpected reception in the Chinese market.

We got contacts of flower suppliers who have traditional dealt with Ecuador and Colombia and having an African connection further opens up our access, Mr Kamani said.

He added that Primarosa has turned around its business model and now does more than 70 per cent of its sales to individual buyers with 30 per cent sales in auctions, a model he believes the Chinese market will sustain.

Some Chinese flower importers have been forced to use a single import and centralised distribution system to lower costs as it allows them to import multiple batches of products at a single time and redistribute them in warehouses scattered across China, which also reduces their tax obligations.

The opening up of the Chinese market now offers bigger opportunities for Kenyan flower farmers and also Chinese importers, who have over the years developed strong interest in the produce.

Chinas Jiuye Supply Chain in Guangzhou has emerged as one of the leading contact firms that Kenyan flower exporters are using.

We chose to introduce flowers from Kenya to China because of the vast number of varieties they grow, including some that you cannot find in other regions.

We were also impressed by the length of the flowers vase life, said Qi Bo, the director of Jiuye supply chain department, adding that with a 25 per cent annual increase in demand for the Kenyan flowers should see them double imports from Nairobi to five million stems by the end of this year.

Logistics is, however, still a challenge since only Kenya Airways through its code share with China Southern Airlines flies directly to Guangzhou.

The other options are Ethiopian Airlines flights from Addis to Shanghai, with a two hour transit time, while the Gulf carriers are costly because of connections.

Source:

Source: NAN

Egypt and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) are going to hold the first round of negotiations on trade agreement in mid- January in Cairo.

They had signed a framework document for negotiations on the free trade agreement.

The document was signed by Egypts Minister of Trade and Industry Amr Nassar and Minister for Trade of the Eurasian Economic Commission Veronika Nikishina.

The Egyptian minister noted that this agreement came as a result of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisis visit to Russia in October, where he agreed with Chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission Tigran Sargsyan on speeding up the negotiations related to the free trade between both sides.

According to Nassar, both sides agreed to hold a joint business forum during the first half of 2019 to boost the economic and trade partnership between businessmen of both sides and stressed on the necessity to complete a free trade agreement between Egypt and the Unions countries in 2019.

Nassar said that the document targets to generate continued talks and negotiations about the bilateral economic and international cooperation between both sides and to enhance the economic and trade relationship as well as the liberalization of trade between them through the establishment of a long-term and stable institutional legal framework.

He explained that agreement will contribute to the enhancement and development of the joint relations between Egypt and the Eurasian countries, including Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.

The minister pointed out that Egypt is a major hub for the Unions exports to various African and Arab markets and other economic blocs,with which Egypt has free trade agreements.

The Eurasian countries also represent a distinct window for Egyptian exports in North and Central Asia as well as Europe.

Trade exchange between Egypt and Eurasian Union countries hit $6.78 billion in 2017, in which $6.24 billion represented Egypts imports and $544.7 million went for exports, according to the minister.

Nassar said that this agreement is expected to raise the trade volume between both sides to reach $15.7 billion, and to upgrade Egypts exports to the Unions countries to $1.9 billion.

The minister referred that the most important Egyptian exports to Eurasian countries are agricultural commodities, machinery, equipment and pharmaceutical products, while the main imports to Egypt include wheat, minerals, chemical products, plastic products, cars and tractors.

He reiterated the need to encourage the business community and industrial companies from the Eurasian countries to increase their investments in Egypt during the coming period, especially in light of the Egyptian governments adoption of a number of mega projects, including the New Administrative Capital project,the development project of the Suez Canal and the Russian industrial zone in Egypt.

Nassar also emphasized the importance of the role played by the private sector in enhancing trade and investment relations between Egypt and the unions countries.

For her part, Nikishina said that Egypt is one of the most important markets in the Middle East and Africa, and is a focal point for the transit of the products of the union countries to African countries.

She pointed out that the next phase will witness more cooperation between the two sides, especially after the signing of the Free Trade Agreement, which will make a quantum leap in the level of trade and economic relations Between Egypt and the Eurasian Union.

Source:

Source: NAN

The criminals terrorising citizens in North West have been disorganised and are on the run as operations to flush them out extends beyond Zamfara.

The Defence Headquarters reported on Tuesday that the criminals fell to the superior fire power of the joint security operation in the area.

Acting Director of Defence Information, Brig.-Gen. John Agim, stated this while briefing newsmen in Gasau on Tuesday.

He said that several enclaves of the bandits were being destroyed by constant air strikes, which had led to the death of some of the criminals and arrest of some as well as rescue of some victims.

Agim said that Operation Sharan Daji launched in Zamfara, had been expanded to cover the entire state and local government areas in neighbouring Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina and Kaduna states.

He also stated that under the trans-border joint security patrol with the Niger Republic, bandits were followed into the neighbouring country and either neutralized or arrested to help in investigation.

Although we lost one of our soldiers during encounter with the bandits in Zamfara recently where six others were wounded and receiving treatment, we have neutralized over 20 of the bandits and arrested 21 others.

The defence spokesman also said that 1,444 cows, 473 sheep, 11 camels, 14 donkeys, 56 rams and 293 goats were recovered from the bandits and handed to the state government to return to the rightful owners.

Similarly, he said that 24 AK 47 rifles, two pump action guns, 4,798 rounds of 7.6 mm ammunition, local bullet prove jackets, bows and arrows and local charms were also recovered while two kidnapped persons were rescued.

Agim urged members of the public to continue to give credible information to security agencies on suspected persons or movements. (NAN)

Source: NAN

Africa will become the worlds next big growth market, akin to the Asian boom, McKinsey, a management consulting firm said on Tuesday.

While other geographies are seeing incremental growth, global companies that get in early and join the African champions shaping the right strategies, can sustain double-digit profit growth over the next few decades, it noted.

The report drew the conclusions from a survey of 3,000 McKinsey client engagements, in-depth proprietary research and interviews with 40 of Africas most prominent business and development leaders.

The report, examining several examples of African businesses that have translated opportunities into enduring business value, revealed how companies can better understand the African market.

It also seized the opportunities for building profitable, sustainable businesses.

Africa has a fast-growing, rapidly urbanising population with big unmet needs.

It means that there is a trillion-dollar opportunity to industrialise Africa, to meet rising domestic demand and create a bridgehead in global export markets, the report said.

According to the report, there has been a big push by governments and the private sector to close infrastructure gaps.

The report pointed to continued resource abundance in agriculture, mining, and oil and gas, with innovation and investment in these sectors unlocking new production on the continent.

The rapid adoption of mobile and digital technologies could leapfrog Africa past many obstacles to growth.

With over 400 African companies earning annual revenues of 1 billion dollars or more, we can identify what works, the report said.

According to the report, the highly successful businesses are often African companies, but many are entrepreneurial firms with Western, Indian, or Chinese founders.

The report, however, pointed out that building a successful business in Africa requires a long-term approach.

The four essential practices are mapping an Africa strategy, innovating business models and building resilience for the long term and unleashing talent.

At the heart of these four imperatives is a commitment to doing well by doing good, said Acha Leke, senior partner and chairman of McKinseys Africa Office and co-author of the report.

Source: NAN