The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Dubai

  • Dubai , IATA partner Akwaaba 2015

    The International Air Transport Association (IATA), in line with their objective to improving connectivity in Africa, will be partnering Akwaaba to organize the Aviation Day. The Aviation Day will hold on November 22 from 10am.

    In addition, the leading wedding destination for Nigerians, Dubai, has chosen to further re-enforce its dominance by partnering the Wedding Expo at Akwaaba. The wedding and spa day, which is on  November 22, will open the third day exhibition.

    Over the last 10 years, visitor attendance rate has grown at an average rate of 15.25% with visitors and exhibitors from over 20 countries of the world excluding 2014 (due to the Ebola effect).

    To increase the number of quality audience for exhibitors and increase visitors experience, AFTM will be launching the maiden edition of the Wedding and Spa Show which will have about 50  wedding planners in attendance with  a live band, fashion show and lots of giveaways to be won, including all-expense paid vacations to exotic destinations and hotel stays. The event comes up on November 22.

    Adefunke Adeyemi, IATA Regional Head for Member (Airline) and External Relations for Africa and the Middle East will be sharing a recent study and 12 nations report which shows how full air connectivity across those 12 countries would generate an additional $1.3bn in GDP, over 155,000 new jobs and numerous other socio-economic benefits at the Aviation Day.

    The event will also feature other guest presentations, attendance is by registration. The event is open to all travel trade professionals.

    The Gambia, the smiling coast of Africa, will be showcasing its tourism bounties on the 23rd at The Gambia Day as well as market roots festival and wedding destinations at Akwaaba.

    African tourism is set to renew its passion for West-Africa @ Akwaaba. South Africa is the leading African destination for West-Africans and the African powerhouse is not slacking its drive to be the premium destination in the world.

    Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’ leading Airline  with the largest fleet of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, will be showcasing their new destinations at Akwaaba. Routes include Japan, Korea, Philippines, Ireland, Los Angeles (USA), Cape Town (South-Africa), Gaborone (Botswana), Goma (Congo) and Yaoundé (Cameroun) ET now flies to 53 African destinations.

  • Cussons Baby takes winner, family to Dubai

    Cussons Baby takes winner, family to Dubai

    Following a seven-day trip to Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE’s) commercial city by Morireoluwa Davids and her family for winning the second edition of Cussons Baby Moment, the Brand Manager Cussons Baby, Oluwaseun Ayeni, has said the brand has fulfilled its promise to the winner and is ready to offer more to its customers.

    Describing her experience as interesting, the winner’s mother, Funmilayo David, urged mothers to participate with in the Cussons Baby Moment contest, saying it is life-transforming.

    She said: “It was fun-filled and interesting. We went to Dubai Mall, which is the biggest mall in the world and afterwards to see the dancing fountain, behind it was the tallest building in the world (Burj Khalifa). It was awesome and beautiful.

    “The whole trip has been eventful filled with sweet memories. We are saying thank you to Cussons Baby for this opportunity to explore Dubai, which I heard was a beautiful city and I have confirmed it is really beautiful.

    “It was a fun experience and the family had so much to look forward to anytime around.”

    On the objectives of the competition, Ayeni said it is about rewarding the customers and giving parents the opportunity to showcase their beautiful babies.

    She said: “It is all about giving families an opportunity to showcase their beautiful bundles of joy for a chance to go on an all-expense paid trip. It is also about providing a platform to communicate one on one with our consumers and the opportunity to meet new consumers.

    “We are almost done with preparations for season 3. As such, parents should keep taking pictures and recording videos of their cute babies and they shouldn’t forget to keep visiting the Cussons Baby Facebook page for more information.”

  • Dubai to introduce new court for tourists

    Dubai has announced that it will establish a new court to deal with cases, involving tourists who have committed petty offences.

    New tourists’ court will begin operations later this year, according to officials speaking at the launch of Dubai Courts annual report.

    Mohammad Abdul Rahman, a director of Dubai Courts, said the new tourists’ court will handle petty crimes which are common occurrences in the city.

    “Tourists come to Dubai every day and sometimes they are involved in minor problems, such as consuming alcohol, drink-driving or bouncing cheques,” he said.

    “We don’t want to make them stay on because of that. So we will have a specialised court for tourists facing minor cases. This will speed up the procedure.”

    The misdemeanours’ court will similarly speed up the process for residents in the emirate.

    The three Primary, Appeal and Cassation courts in Dubai recorded a combined number of 118,077 cases in 2014, an increase of 14 per cent over 103,847 cases in 2013.

    The number of civil cases registered in the Dubai Courts rose 13 per cent and the number of criminal cases registered in the Dubai Courts increased 15 per cent.

  • Taste of Dubai: UB40, Ali Campbell, others thrill BA’s VIPs

    Taste of Dubai: UB40, Ali Campbell, others thrill BA’s VIPs

    British Airways took its customer relations treat a notch higher recently, when VIP guests on the airline were treated to unique versions of UB40’s greatest hits, featuring Ali Campbell, Astro and Mickey Virtue who brought some reggae flavour to theTaste of Dubai Festival by performing an acoustic set in the British Airways VIP Lounge.

    BA is Taste of Dubai 2015’s official VIP Lounge and airline partner, and the talented trio performed some of the band’s best-loved tracks for special guests at Dubai’s Media City. The airline flew the artistes into put on the exclusive gig.

    Singer songwriter Ali – whose band sold more than 70million albums over the years – said he was thrilled to be invited to play and that the guys still get a huge thrill from performing.

    The 56-year-old said: “I’ve been doing this for like 30 years and I still get the same buzz – but I also still get really nervous. I find myself pacing up and down and I’ll be in the loo before the show! I can’t seem to get this Eric Clapton vibe where you just turn up and walk on!”

    Celebrities including chef Jean-Christophe Novelli have been enjoying British Airways’ generous hospitality in the sunshine at the Taste of Dubai 2015 alongside BA executives and corporate customers.

    The band recently released their own album, Silhouette, after the original UB40 line-up from the 1980s went its separate ways.

    UB40 flew all over the world performing their back catalogue of reggae-pop hits, which included more than 50 tracks which reached the UK Singles Charts.

    One of their most famous tracks is Red Red Wine – and Ali revealed the title has inspired a unique ‘Red Red Wineries’ tour, which will see the band performing huge gigs at vineyards across the world.

    Ali – who is currently on a world tour with the band – explained: “We’ve been talking about it for a few years now – it’ll be us touring the bigger vineyards playing shows. We’re going to start in Australia and New Zealand and if it goes well there, we’ll take it worldwide.

    “It could take us into vineyards in South America, Europe and South Africa – it could go everywhere really. It’ll just be a nice way of spending our time.”

    Ali – who is now a judge on New Zealand’s Got Talent – said the music industry has changed a lot since then and a band like his, growing up with very little money in Birmingham, might not have made it in today’s market.

    He laughed: “We certainly wouldn’t have made it through if we’d gone down The X Factor route!

    “Pop music kind of goes in 10 year cycles and Simon Cowell has dominated pop music all over the world really – but it’s kind of time for something else now.

    “Reggae is actually more influential now than it has ever been. If you listen to all the contemporary dance music all over the world – which we do when we travel – it’s all influenced by reggae. J-Lo recently had a No1 with a reggae vocal beat. It’s a massive influence now.”

  • Etisalat sends three to Dubai for engineering studies

    Etisalat sends three to Dubai for engineering studies

    Etisalat Nigeria said it is sponsoring the top three students from the first year of the Etisalat Telecommunications Engineering Programme (ETEP) at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria for intensive training at the Etisalat Academy, Dubai.

    Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility at Etisalat, Oyetola Oduyemi, said further training at the Etisalat Academy would reinforce the students’ practical knowledge of telecoms engineering and also provide them with a competitive edge.

    He said: “At Etisalat, we believe that the right education has the potential to impact every aspect of life, so education remains central to our CSR interventions; this is why we are sending the three best students from the Etisalat Telecommunications Engineering Programme class of 2014, to the Etisalat Academy in Dubai, to expand their horizons and give them further exposure to the cutting-edge technology driving the telecommunications industry.

    “As the programme continues, we plan to train between 15 and 20 students yearly to give Nigerians an opportunity to learn from the best in the field.  We will also develop local expertise to sustain the programme by sponsoring lecturers from ABU to study for a PhD in Telecommunications Engineering at the Plymouth University, United Kingdom (UK).”

    The Etisalat Telecommunications Engineering Programme, organised in conjunction with the University of Plymouth, UK and Huawei Technologies Limited, is the first programme offering an MSc in Telecommunications Engineering in West Africa.

  • World’s best teacher to get $1m in Dubai

    Teacher deemed as the best in the world will receive the sum of $1 million at the Global Education and Skills Forum on March 16 this year in Dubai.

    The forum holds a day before the 5th Annual Gulf Education Conference & Exhibition opens in the same city.

    The Global Teacher Prize, sponsored by the Varkey Foundation, is aimed at improving the status of teachers, recognising them, and celebrating their role in the society.

    The teacher that would emerge would have been adjudged to have been outstanding in opening pupils’ minds, contributing to their communities, and encouraging others to enter the profession.

    Fifty teachers that made the shortlist from 5,000 nominations from 127 countries will be pruned down to 10 by next month.  The 10 would attend the awards ceremony.

    Among the 50 are six African teachers namely: Jacque Kahura (Bofa Primary School, Kilifi, Kenya); Andrews Nchessie (Kasungu Demonstration School & Kasungu Teacher Training College in Kasungu, Malawi); Souad Belcaid (American School of Tangier, Tangier, Morocco); Malima Chisumo (Nsumba Secondary School, Mwanza, Tanzania); Ronald Ddungu (Gayaza High School, Kampala, Uganda); and Rafieferana Faly (Madagascar).

    Winner of the prize could also enjoy support from organisations to implement projects they submitted in the course of their application.

    The prize, according to Sunny Varkey, founder of the Varkey GEMS Foundation, said he nursed the hope that the teaching profession would be well respected through the award.

    “We introduced the prize this year in order to return teachers to their rightful position as one of the most respected professions in society.  The prize is not only about money; it’s also about unearthing thousands of stories of inspiration as the many applications prove,” he said.

    Meanwhile at the two-day Gulf Conference and Exhibition opening a day after the teachers’ prize, educationists and participants would benefit from exchanging ideas about education programmes, curriculum development, blended learning, internationalisation, and research going on in various parts of the world.

    The conference would also facilitate partnerships and students’ recruitment between international institutions, schools and universities and Ministries of Education within the MENA (Middle East and African region) and Asian regions.

    The conference is being supported by Sultan Abu-Orabi, Secretary General of the Association of the Arab Universities; Prof Tawfiq Al Khoja, Director General Executive Board, Health Ministers Council for Cooperation Council, and Mr. David Lock, Director of International Projects, Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.

    Awards to be presented at the conference include: The Most Effective International Partnership (Education/Education); The Most Effective Partnership(Educational/Commercial); The Most Outstanding Entrepreneurial Project; The Most Innovative Advance in Teaching Employability Skills; The Most Effective Scheme in Motivating Academic Staff to Engage with the Employability Agenda; Innovation in Education for the Special Needs Sector and Lifetime Achievement Award.

  • Dubai World gets majority creditor backing for $15b debt deal

    Dubai World gets majority creditor backing for $15b debt deal

    State-owned conglomerate Dubai World edged closer to a second major restructuring in four years on Monday after announcing it had reached agreement with a “substantial majority” of creditors to back its $14.6 billion debt deal.

    However, despite having enough backing to effectively prevent challenges to its new deal, a relatively untested court process to impose it will mean formal completion is still months away.

    Dubai’s economy has rebounded strongly from a local property crash which triggered a wave of debt restructurings at state-owned entities at the turn of the decade — most notably Dubai World’s request for a debt standstill on $25 billion of obligations in 2009 that resulted in a global markets sell-off.

    It has been in talks with lenders for months to secure a renegotiation of terms of the debt deal it signed in 2011 which followed the 2009 standstill request, given the size of the $10.3 billion 2018 repayment and the slow pace of asset sales.

    An agreement would alleviate worries over Dubai’s largest debt hangover and may also lift the upcoming results of local banks. A number, including Emirates NBD ENBD.DU, have said they are studying whether to reverse provisions held against their share of the debt.

    On Monday, Dubai World said it had made a “voluntary arrangement notification” under Decree 57 legislation to amend its existing debt deal, the first formal notification from the conglomerate that support from creditors for a new deal had passed the 67 percent mark — the level needed to authorize a change of restructuring terms.

    Decree 57 was brought in by the Dubai government to administer the conglomerate’s previous restructuring in the absence of effective insolvency law in the United Arab Emirates.

    The process will begin with a procedural court hearing on Tuesday, which may set a date for a directional hearing at which Dubai World and its creditors will put their cases before a three-member judicial panel at the court in Dubai’s financial free zone.It will be the biggest test of the legislation. While the tribunal played only a supporting role in the 2011 debt deal, it handled the $2.2 billion restructuring of one of Dubai World’s subsidiaries, Drydocks World, a year later.

    That restructuring process took five months from first court date to final agreement, and a legal source estimated Dubai World’s process would take around six months, depending on the progress of talks with creditors.

    “The renegotiation of an already rescheduled facility is a clear reminder to all of the scale of the challenge facing Dubai World,” said Doug Bitcon, head of fixed income funds at Rasmala Investment Bank.

    He added the restructuring reflected improved fiscal planning from Dubai World, which would hopefully benefit all parties as assets were sold.

    For creditors not yet signed up to the restructuring deal, Decree 57 prevents them from launching court action against Dubai World.

    Decree 57 also allows for Dubai World to impose the new deal on creditors even if they are against it — a technical process known as a cramdown. A clause requiring any ruling to be “fair” and “unprejudicial” to creditors in the eyes of the judges would be the likely basis of any challenge brought by dissenters, the legal source added.

    The new plan involves repaying early an existing $2.92 billion maturity due in September 2015, Dubai World said.

    The company will also extend a 2018 repayment to 2022, with higher pricing, an amortizing structure and more collateral backing the loan, confirming a September Reuters story.

  • Wiko takes partners to Dubai ahead of launch

    Ahead of its formal launch, Wiko Mobile has taken 12 channel partners on an excursion to Dubai to interact with other partners across the globe as it rolls out across the world. The channel partners met with their counterparts from Kenya, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia.

    Its Country Sales Manager Nigeria, Mr. John Peters, said the Dubai excursion enabled channel partners from the country to interact with other Wiko associates around the world so as to understand the Wiko brand culture, brand vision and brand attributes.  The channel partners were drawn from key markets across the country, underlining the vision of the brand to take a significant share of the phone market from onset.

    Peters said:“Wiko took 12 channel partners from Nigeria to a pre-launch function in Dubai along with their counterparts from across the globe. This was to explain to them Wiko’s value proposition, product proposition and also show them the road map.

    “This is to enable them grasp the concept of how Wiko intends to operate in all the countries they will be launching their product. Countries such as Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Kenya and Nigeria have been pencilled down by the firm for launch. So all representatives from these countries were brought to Dubai so they could get full details of what Wiko is all about.”

    He said it was important that Nigerian channel partners, “understand the Wiko story and know what specifically Wiko intends to do in each market. So market-wise, coverage-wise and channel-wise all these were explained to them at that meet in Dubai.”

    Wiko Mobile will launch later this month at the Eko Hotel & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos  with the introduction of 10 products from the over 20 products in its stable. Wiko offers a value proposition of stylish yet affordable products across the spectrum from low-end to high-end.

     

  • Dubai deals may be billions, says Dangote

    Dubai deals may be billions, says Dangote

    Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, said further deals with the Investment Corporation of Dubai may run into billions of dollars after the Emirati holding company invested $300 million in his cement business last month.

    “We have also agreed to invest in other other ventures in oil and agriculture,” Dangote said yesterday in an interview at a conference in Dubai. “They already have a seat on our Board. This could run into billions of dollars. There are a lot of opportunities that we are looking at with ICD.”

    ICD is exploring opportunities to work with the Nigerian billionaire after taking an unspecified holding in Dangote Cement Plc (DANGCEM) last month, its first major Africa investment, ICD Chief Executive Officer Mohammed Al Shaibani also said today in Dubai. The company is diversifying its investments, which include Emirates airline and Emaar Properties PJSC.

    Dangote, whose cement and commodities businesses built him a $23.1 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg billionaires index, partnered with the private-equity firms Blackstone Group LP (BX) and Carlyle Group LP (CG) in August for Africa investments. He plans to spend about $3 billion to boost production of sugar and rice at his companies, he said today.

    Dangote’s cement business, the biggest producer in Africa, has the capacity to produce 29 million tons in Nigeria and plans to expand in 13 other countries on the continent.

    The billionaire is bidding for gas assets in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, to help stem continuing disruptions to his cement plants in the West African nation. He’s also building a $9 billion oil refinery and petrochemical complex in Nigeria’s southwest that is scheduled to be completed in 2016.

    “We are looking forward to doing more with Mr. Dangote, and we have some things that we are exploring at the moment,” ICD’s Al Shaibani said. “Having the right partner, especially in Africa, is the key thing.”

  • Dubai club interested in Obinna

    Dubai club interested in Obinna

    According to leaks gathered by SL10.ng, a United Arab Emirates Arabian Gulf League side have set the ball rolling in their bid to sign Nigeria international Victor Obinna.

    In order not to spoil ongoing negotiations, the identity of the interested suitor has not been disclosed.

    But this website can report with certainty that the club is based in Dubai, meaning one of these teams, Al Ahli, Al Nasr, Al Shabab and Al Wasl might be his destination.

    The Gulf League outfit are in the market for a winger before the close of the United Arab Emirates transfer window on Thursday, October 2, and the number one priority of the power brokers is Victor Obinna.

    And they have decided to make a serious monetary offer to stop the 27 -year-old from dragging his heels on the transfer.

    Over the summer,Victor Obinna was linked with possible moves to Palermo, Atalanta, Parma, Fenerbahce and Kayseri Erciyesspor, but his transfer situation did not change when European teams concluded business on September 1.

    Lokomotiv Moscow have made it clear that the versatile player is not in their plans this season, and failed to register him for the Russian Premier League.

    The former Chievo Verona and Inter Milan attacker struggled to get playing opportunities at the Muscovites in the last two seasons.