Author: Drum Africa News

Organized labour has threatened to embark on nationwide strike if the government fails to transmit minimum wage to the national assembly. Labour leaders have again threatened to embark on an indefinite nationwide strike if the Federal Government fails to transmit the new minimum wage structure to the National Assembly on or before December 31, 2018, The leaders who met in Lagos on Thursday said they will not be part of the planned High-Powered Technical Committee as announced by President Muhammadu Buhari during the 2019 budget presentation. They insisted that all discussions have ended on the new minimum wage as…

Benjamin Kalu esq., the front-line APC candidate for House of Representatives, Bende Federal Constituency is currently in Germany to visit Dr. Orji Kalu, his close ally and political leader, in the hospital where the former Governor returned to for medical check-up. Recall that Dr Orji Kalu underwent a major surgery in Germany shortly after the election primaries, during which time Benjamin Kalu Esq. was on holidays with his family in Sydney Australia to rest after the primaries. Drum Africa News’ German correspondent, Paul Werz, contacted BenKalu as he is popularly called, to secure an interview. WERZ: You are the…

The Group Managing Director (GMD) of Access Bank Plc, Herbert Wigwe, has disclosed that Diamond Bank is determined to write off its non-performing loans before the merger is finalised. Wigwe disclosed this on Thursday while speaking in an interview, adding that the action is necessary to protect the health of the new entity. “We are fully cognizant of all of those things, and one of the things we are doing is that Diamond Bank is determined to write off all of those loans before the date of the legal merger,” he said in an interview on Arise TV. “They…

President Muhammadu Buhari has called on the Police and other security agents to ensure that the 2019 elections do not witness snatching of ballot boxes and other crimes associated with elections. He made the call yesterday at Wudil, Kano, while delivering an address at the graduation ceremony of 600 Assistant Superintendent of Police cadets from the Police Academy, who concluded the 2017, 602 courses. He called on the new officers to live up to expectations by putting to practice what they learned at the training. According to the President, “I urge you to be worthy of your studies in…

Abubakar Bukola Saraki, Nigeria’s Senate president says the 2019 budget presented by President Buhari to the National Assembly lacks hope. Saraki said the figures in the budget underlined the hopelessness of the document. He was speaking during an event where the main opposition candidate, Atiku Abubakar was meeting with civil society groups. The budget is the fourth Buhari has presented to parliament since taking office in 2015 but, unlike the others, did not set record high levels of spending as the government seeks to lower debt. “Yesterday, we all read the 2019 budget, that is a Budget that has…

Sunday Owo, a 19-year-old teenager was today arrested with fresh human parts at a healing home in Awka, Anambra State on Wednesday 19th December 2018. Owo was caught with fresh male genital, human fingers and a bottle filled with the blood of a child. The suspect told journalists that he hailed from Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi state and was directed by one Blessing to procure the human parts and bring to a natural healing home in Awka for money ritual. He confessed that he paid Blessing, who was at-large as at press time, the sum of N50,000…

Data made available by the National Bureau of Statistics have shown that the number of unemployed Nigerians has risen to 20.9 million from 17.6 million. The report, which was released on Wednesday 19th December, 2018 contained the employment trends from Q4 2017 to Q3 2018. According to the report, the working-age population (people between 15 – 64 years) increased from 111.1 million to 115.5 million. “The total number of people in employment (i.e with jobs) increased from 68.4 million in Q3 2015 to 68.72 million in Q3 2016, to 69.09 million in Q3 2017 and 69.54 million in Q3…

President Muhammadu Buhari has urged the Academic Staff Union of Nigeria Universities (ASUU) to call off the strike action embarked upon by its members in the overall interest of the nation. The president said this in Ndufu-Alike, Abakaliki, during the third convocation of the Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ebonyi State. Speaking on behalf of Buhari, the Deputy Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, Mr. Victor Onuoha, quoted the president as saying that the Federal Government had provided the requisite environment for teaching and learning in Nigerian universities. “Consequently, I urge ASUU to suspend its ongoing industrial action in the overall…

Do you own a business or want to start one? Good news! You can access loans up to N10million @ 5% per annum from the CBN through it’s Agric, small and medium enterprise scheme (AGSMEIS) designed to help SMEs in the following sectors: 1. Agric businesses – production, input supply, storage, processing, logistics and marketing 2. Education 3. Health 4. Services – hospitality, restaurants, catering services, etc 5. ICT 6.Manufacturing/Production 7. Mining 8. Creative industry – fashion, design, crafts, entertainment, etc 9. Petrochemicals To qualify to access this fund, you need to have been trained by an Enterprise Development Institute.…

According to a new study from human rights watchdog, Amnesty International, women suffer a lot of abuse on Twitter, making it a toxic place for them. About 7 percent of the tweets prominent women in government and journalism receive were found to be abusive or problematic. Women of colour were 34 percent more likely to be targets than white women. After an analysis that eventually included almost 15 million tweets, Amnesty International released the findings and in its report, described Twitter as a “toxic place for women.” The organization, which is perhaps best known for its efforts to free…