The Nation Newspaper

Tag: opens

  • Enterprise Challenge opens for entries

    The British Council, Virgin Atlantic Airways and Zenith Bank are organising an online competition tagged ‘Enterprise Challenge’ is open for entries.This year’s competition is open to Nigerians within the 18 to 35 age bracket.

    It is an online competition which seeks to giveyoung, brilliant entrepreneurial minds the opportunity to further develop their skills in this area and bring their innovative ideas to the fore for possible future development.

    Interested participants can check out the competition rules and regulations and criteria for qualification will be available on the British Council, Nigeria’s corporate website from May 31, 2015; enquiries can be sent to eduk.enquiries@ng.britishcouncil.org.

    Last year, a total of 10 finalists (Nigerians based in the United Kingdom and at home) battled for the top two spots and Eseoghene Ise Odiete and Nasir Yammama emerged winners of the competition. They have since had the opportunity to meet with and be mentored by one the UK’s foremost entrepreneurs and Chairman of the Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson.

    Eseoghene Odiete is an award winning young female fashion entrepreneur and the brain behind Hesey Designs, (an African inspired accessories label).

    Nasir Yammama just concluded his postgraduate studies in creative technology at Middlesex University in London and he is currently developing an agricultural themed mobile application which he hopes to launch before the end of the year.

    Other prizes won by the top two include, a five day entrepreneurship foundation course at the Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship in South Africa and a business support grant of N1,500,000.00 for each individual. The grant will be used to either support an already existing business or develop a business idea.

  • Derby County 1-2 Reading: Aiyegbeni opens goals account

    Derby County 1-2 Reading: Aiyegbeni opens goals account

    Nigerian forward, Aiyegbeni Yakubu was in fine form for his Championship side Reading at the weekend as he inspired them past Derby County and into the last eight of the FA Cup.

    Yakubu started the game on the bench but proved the match winner when he came off the bench to poke home the winner on 81 minutes.

    The home side suffered a setback in the first half when former Aston Villa defender Stephen Warnock sent off after he received a second yellow card on 39 minutes but The Royals failed to capitalize as it ended goalless.

    However, the second half proved a different ball game as three goals were recorded. Hal Robson-Kanu scored seven minutes after the restart as he curled his effort beyond Kelle Roos in goal for The Rams but 10-man Derby gave themselves a fighting chance when former Tottenham forward Darren Bent levelled the score.

    The stage was set for the Nigerian as manager Steve Clarke threw the Yak on and he produced the goal that gave Reading a deserved win and passage into the last eight of the FA Cup.

  • Dover opens in Ikeja

    Dover opens in Ikeja

    Dover Hotels Limited has opened another 80-room hotel in Ikeja. The property is situated on Aromire Street near Awolowo Roundabout. The hotel’s opening is coming at the right time as the world marks Valentine’s Day. According to the hotel’s chairman, Mr. Jackson Agbai Abbah, the opening is aimed at bringing the Dover experience to Mainland Lagos. The new hotel is the second Dover Hotel. The first is in Lekki Phase 1.

    The Dover Hotel has three conference halls that can seat 500 to 600, 20-50 and 50-70 people. Each hall comes with complimentary projector and other conference accessories. It also has five categories of rooms: Superior Standard, Executive Standard, Superior Suite, Executive Suite and Presidential suite..

    On the new hotel, Agbai spoke on the reason the group decided to open a property in Mainland Lagos. He said: “We believe that by the time you get to the point where you are able to make money, and you are able to afford this kind of a place, or you are in a company that can afford to put you in a place like this, you are in your late 30s, 40s and above. The implication is that people are becoming more health conscious, and, therefore, at that stage, what people do is that they eat twice a day. Our investigations show that for most people, the most critical meal for them is the breakfast and the dinner. So, we said if that is the case, we offer you free breakfast. Because of our location, we realize that a lot of people who lodge in hotels, don’t eat in hotels. The reason is mainly because they feel hotel meals are expensive. So, they go outside. Then in a situation where you go outside, you could be knocked down by a vehicle or attacked, just because you want to go and find food where it is cheaper. So, is it not better to eat here? We are here for the long haul, make little profit. Your core business as a hotel is to sell your rooms; we felt that we can give people incentives in the cost of our rooms by giving them breakfast and dinner. So once you get in here, you have no reason to go outside, except to go and do your business and come back. So, you take breakfast in the morning, come and in the evening, take your dinner and sleep.”

    He further said: “ Why we are distinct is that we pride ourselves on saying we provide you with comfort the way you will feel, if you were in your house. Usually there is this aura of being in a hotel place. You go into a hotel and feel oh, it is a hotel. What we try to do in Dover is that when you get into a Dover property, you feel that you are in your house. In the home what happens? People are very caring, your children, your relations, they greet you. They are concerned about you, your feelings and what you are doing. That is exactly what we try to offer and what we have been offering in the past 10 years. You enter into our property, you feel very welcome, you feel you are in your own house. Right from the reception, the way they treat you, within two to three hours of being in Dover, everybody knows your name. This is unlike in most other hotels where they just see you as a number. The moment you pay, they give you the key, they forget about you. In Dover, what we have ensured in the last 10 years is that when you get into Dover, you are in your home, people know you and they are concerned about you. Whatever challenges you have, we take as our own challenge.

    “We feel that Dover has a very strong base in terms of the food that we offer to our clients. We pride ourselves on saying we have the best kitchen in Nigeria. We might not be expensive, but we have taken out time to train our chefs and if you ask around, they will tell you that we have the best food to offer anywhere in Nigeria. “

    “So, we felt that we needed to offer the same thing to Mainland Lagos. In Island, people come from all over just to come and taste our food and have the Dover experience. So, we felt it was right we get to the Mainland; we felt that it was right we get to Mainland Lagos. We felt also that the best proposition was to be somewhere near the airport where we are less than five minutes from the local airport.

  • Ebimobowei opens Ahly goals account

    Ebimobowei opens Ahly goals account

    Nigerianstriker Peter Ebimobowei has opened his goals’ account with Al Ahly in the Egyptian league as he scored in a 3-1 win at El Shorta.

    Al Ahly are third on the league table with 36 points from 19 games.

    The former Bayelsa United striker opened scoring in the 40th minute to end the first stanza 1-0 in favour of the Egyptian giants.

    He lasted for 70 minutes when he was replaced with Emad Meteb.

    Nana Bako equalised for the host in the 60th minute, but two goals from Waleed Soliman in the last 10 minutes (80th and 89th minutes) of the game sealed Al Ahly’s victory.

  • Naira opens year with two per cent slide

    Naira opens year with two per cent slide

    The naira opened 1.9 per cent down on its 2014 close at 185 to the dollar, Thomson Reuters data showed. The naira has been sliding in recent months following continued fall in Brent crude oil prices and also decline in foreign exchange (forex) reserves.

    In the last one year, currencies of other oil exporters also suffered, with the Norwegian krone slumping 19 per cent and the dollar of Canada slipping 8.6 per cent.

    The naira has been devalued by over 35 per cent in the last 13 years.  The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2001 cut its value by 27 per cent, followed by the eight per cent slash in the last monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting.

    To stop the naira from further slide, the MPC had at the November 25 meeting, moved the midpoint of the official window of the forex market from N155/dollar to N168/dollar. It also widened the band around the midpoint by 200 basis points from plus or minus three per cent to plus or minus five per cent.

    The Committee also increased the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), the base lending rate, by 100 basis points from 12 to 13 per cent while the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) on private sector deposits also rose by 500 basis points from 15 per cent to 20 per cent. It also retained public sector CRR at its current level of 75 per cent. The CRR is a portion of banks’ deposits kept with the CBN.

    In a country stricken by 8.1 per cent inflation, one of the world’s worst; and declining forex reserves, now at $35 billion from about $42 billion a year ago, the last devaluation was the last straw that broke the camel’s back.

    Many analysts see the naira’s fair value at N200 to a dollar. That confirmed the widely held view that it had indeed fallen from its Olympian heights both at the interbank market (official rates) and at the black market.

    Less than 24 hours after CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele announced the devaluation, the price of household goods, including bread, wheat, fish and rice, among others, shot up by 40 per cent or more. The services industry was also affected.

    Emefiele said the CBN under his leadership remains committed to safeguarding the value of the naira. For instance, the lender had last month, banned the sale of forex by banks to importers without requisite shipping documents.

    It also directed that only imports, which are backed with evidence of shipment and other relevant documents, will qualify for purchase of forex. Only such transactions will be eligible for forex purchase via the RDAS or the interbank window, it said.

    The apex bank also said henceforth, all importations involving electronics, finished products, information technology, generators, telecommunication equipment and invisible transactions would be funded from the interbank foreign exchange market only.

    The policy, the CBN said, was to maintain the existing stability in foreign exchange market and strengthen the various policy measures, already initiated, including the regulation of the Bureau De Change (BDCs) that cut dollar supply to operators from $50,000 to $15,000 weekly. These measures, Emefiele admitted, would help conserve the foreign exchange and support the naira.

    The former Executive Director, Keystone Bank Plc, Richard Obire, said the common man does not understand devaluation, but knows when his purchasing power has reduced. He explained that when a currency is devalued, consumers’ ability to demand and buy products would be drastically reduced. “It also means that people’s ability to spend on discretionary products will decline, as they focus on essential goods like food and shelter,” he said.

    Obire said such a policy usually leads to salary delays in private and public sectors, as cash crunch set in, adding that the common man would be adversely affected. “Vital liquidity in pocket of people is crucial. The common man is already feeling pangs of hunger and with the devaluation, a bad situation can only get worse,” he said.

    He said middle class earnings will also be affected. “The middle class send their children abroad for schooling. They are also the ones that feed the common man. They will now spend more money sending their children to school, and may have little left for the common man. The common man has very little flexibility for maneuvering at this time. He is at the receiving end,” he said.

  • Babangida’s name opens doors, says VC

    Babangida’s name opens doors, says VC

    The Vice Chancellor of Niger State-owned Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State (IBBUL), Prof Ibrahim Kolo, has said the name of the former military President Gen. Ibrahim Babangida has open doors and paved the way for him and the institution.

    The university administrator spoke yesterday in Minna, the state capital, when he led the IBBUL management to the 73rd birthday of the former military leader at his Hilltop residence.

    Kolo said the government’s naming of the institution after the former military leader had brought several fortunes to the university from within and outside the country.

    He said: “Your Excellency, we, at IBBUL, are proud to be associated with you. Your name has opened doors and paved the way for this young state-owned institution and for me as the vice chancellor. Many people within and outside the country are always ready to assist the university whenever they hear your name.

    “The naming of the institution after you is of great blessing to us. It has tremendously been beneficial to the university and we are grateful for this honour. Your name has indeed earned the institution recognition at many fora.”

    The vice chancellor decorated Gen. Babangida with the institution’s Grand Honorary Fellowship Award for his contribution to the university.

  • Finding Fela opens in US

    Finding Fela opens in US

    Finding Fela, a documentary on the late Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, opened penultimate Friday at a New York Theatre, United States. The 119-minute documentary was produced and directed by Alex Gibney.

    The small gesture was not the late Fela Kuti’s style. With his band the Africa 70, this Afrobeat pioneer rolled out monster-size grooves, chugging along with soulful beats, keyboards and horns. His lyrics, partly in pidgin, spoke out against military dictatorship; at home, he declared his Lagos house to be an independent territory. As for marriage, he embraced polygamy, in the cultlike double digits.

    With the perilously stuffed documentary Finding Fela, the director, Alex Gibney, tries to reckon with this audacious child of the Nigerian elite who courted execution with his brickbats, and megalomania with his extravagance. And Mr Gibney gives his rise-and-fall treatment an extra critical filter through a “making of” look at the recent Broadway musical Fela! Accordingly, through interviews and lively clips about Fela’s musical and political evolution in the 1960s and ’70s, “Fela!” director, Bill T. Jones, portrays the man, who died in 1997. Mr Jones is both razor-sharp and candid about his mixed feelings, and he’s part of a robust core of commentators, including the biographer Michael Veal, the former New York Times correspondent John Darnton and the former Black Panther Sandra Izsadore, a formative influence on Fela.

    The behind-the-scenes component, juiced with razzle-dazzle excerpts from the

    “Fela!” production is sound, in theory. But, like many sequences, it’s not so tightly executed, and this strand tends to knock the documentary off balance.

    Mr Gibney’s approach has built-in limitations (and a milquetoast title: where’d Fela go, exactly?). But maybe it’s a tall order for any conventional documentary to get its arms around a man whose 30-minute-plus jams routinely broke free of their moorings.

  • U.S.–Africa Summit opens in Washington

    U.S.–Africa Summit opens in Washington

    The United States-Africa Leaders Summit opened yesterday in Washington, D.C. and will end tomorrow.

    Bringing together nearly 50 leaders from across Africa, it is being hailed by the White House as “the largest event any U.S. President has held with African heads of state and government”.

    Ben Rhodes, the White House Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications, spoke during a teleconference on the rationale for hosting the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit.

    He said: “We chose to do this summit to send a very clear signal that we are elevating our engagement with Africa. We see enormous opportunities in Africa as it continues to advance its economic development and continues to develop capabilities as African countries continue to develop their capabilities as security partners of the United States and as democratic partners of the United States.”

    The theme of the three-day summit is: Investing in the Next Generation.

    That future-oriented view reflects, said Rhodes, “our focus on African capacity-building and integrating Africa into the global economy and security order”.

    U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry convened yesterday the “Civil Society Forum” at the National Academy of Sciences to discuss the role of civil society in Africa.

    In his opening remarks, Kerry said the summit seeks to support the “empowerment of people, through their government, through their civil society” and noted that “we need to invest in relationships with not just those who are in charge today, but those who are pushing for change”.

    Lagos lawyer Mr. Femi Falana has urged African Heads of State and Governments to challenge the alleged manipulation of the continent’s economy by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank as a summit of the United States (U.S) and African leaders opened in Washington, DC, this week.

    American President Barack Obama is expected to host the summit, which focuses mainly on trade and investment in Africa. The theme of the summit is: Investing in the Next Generation. A number of signatures and side events have been organised to acknowledge the role of civil society, women and youth in the development of Africa.

    Forty African Heads of Governments are in Washington, DC for the summit.

    As part of the run-up to the summit, 15 civil society organisations (CSOs) from Africa, in an open letter on August 1 by Pamela Timburwa and addressed to the U.S. and Heads of African State and Governments, urged the leaders “to ensure that serious consideration is given and firm commitments are made to ensure an enabling environment for the participation of civil society, women and youth in Africa’s development”.

    The 15 CSOs include Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA), Human Rights Watch, International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Africa Regional Program, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Lawyers for Human Rights, Regional office; Liga Moçambicana dos Direitos Humanos (LDH), Mozambique, Liga Guineense dos Direitos Humanos (LGDH), Guinea Bissau.

    Others are: Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA); Southern African Litigation Centre (SALC), South Africa; Swaziland Coalition for Concerned Civic Organisations, Swaziland; Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA), Malawi; Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA), Mozambique; Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA), Regional office and Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), Zimbabwe.

    Reacting to the letter, which was copied to him by Ms Timburwa, the Lagos lawyer disagreed with the issues tabled by the civil societies before U.S. and Heads of African State and Governments.

    The activist said the letter was silent on the economic system in the 54 member-states in Africa.

    He said the African Union (AU) and the regional economic groupings had not addressed the empowerment of Africans, adding that without addressing unemployment, poverty and insecurity, majority of Africans cannot enjoy any human right.

    Falana said: “Africa must challenge the manipulation of the economy of the continent by the IMF and the World Banký. The lower interest rates in the West and the very high interest rates in Africa, being endorsed by the Bretton Wood institutions, should be seriously challenged. Instead of aid, the emphasis should be on trade. After hundreds of years of crude exploitation of her resources, Africa should no longer be a dumping ground. Having been on the receiving end, Africa should champion the struggle for a new world economic order based on justice and fair play.”

    The frontline lawyer noted that apart from condemning the level of corruption in Africa, the U.S government had not deemed it fit to ensure that the stolen wealth is repatriated.

  • Aregbesola opens 21 roads today

    Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola will inaugurate 21 roads in Osogbo, the state capital, today.

    They are: Station/Fagbewesa/Odi-Olowo Junction/Ebenezer road, 0.61km; Boorepo/Abaku/Elelede Junction road, 0.47km; Elelede Junction/Oluode Market/Gbemu Junction road, 1km; Gbodofon/Jaleyemi/Gbemu Junction/Isale Aro road, 1.79km; Ilobu/Adesina Crescent/GRA road, 1.35km; Oja Oba/Osun Grove Gate with road extension, 1.02km; Balogun Biiro/Oke Baale road, 0.85km; Alafia Street/Church Street/Awolowo Way, 0.79km; Coca-Cola/Alekuwodo/Capital Hotel road, 2.33km; and Oke Onitea/Anaye Market Junction road, 0.42km.

    Others are: Anaye Market/Bisi Bankole/Alafia Street road, 0.87km; Okefia/Alekuwodo/Olaiya Junction road, 3.83km; Tinumola Street (Opposite Capital Hotel, Wonderful road), 1.21km; Oroki Estate/Ilobu road, 0.85km; Odetoyinbo/Dupe Aina/Heritage Hotel road, 3.28km; Kola Balogun Junction/Fiwasaye Olohunosebi road, 0.83km; Osunbukola/Mercy Land/Ajani Street (Prime Petrol Station), 0.98km; John Mackay/Gbeja/Oke Baale road, 0.96km; Tanisi/Olorunosebi/Keji Adigun Street road, 1.18km; Adams Street- Mercy Land road, 0.67km and Steel Rolling Camp/Labels Filling Station road, 1.015km.

    In a statement yesterday, Commissioner for Information and Strategy Sunday Akere, said the roads would ease traffic, adding: “Unlike the past practice of inaugurating roads individually, the governor will drive through the 21 roads before settling down at the Lameco end of Oroki/Tinumola Estate road to do the official symbolic dedication. Lump commissioning is Aregbesola’s way of conserving resources while doing the needful.”

  • Haven Homes opens in Lekki

    For many who are familiar with the name, Haven Homes, it has become not just the foremost luxury home-builders in the country, but has given Nigerians the opportunity to realise their dreams of owning truly luxurious and magnificent homes, the types seen in foreign movies. The developers of life styles homes have spent many years following their passion to seek out unrivalled property designs and space functionality for all their units.

    Haven Homes’ expert-eye for perfect finishing has established itself to become the first choice in home acquisition in the country. Meticulous research into the needs of home owners and an entrepreneurial spirit has led the company to specialise in the highly profitable world of home acquisition.

    Most recently, the company’s flagship estate, Richmond Gate in Lekki, was fully sold-out on all the homes being built and the ones yet-to-be built have an unprecendented waiting list of subscribers awaiting allocation of their own prestigious units.

    Joining the Haven Homes waiting list attracts a fully refundable deposit of N2 million which can either be used to offset the purchase price of the unit allocated or can be refunded at any time before allocation. Such is the trust that potential buyers have developed over the years and has made Haven Homes reputation to soar amongst potential home buyers.

    Haven Homes has raised the bar higher by opening an ultra modern show home in Richmond Gate, Lekki, Lagos, where the members of the public will discover firsthand the numerous benefits of owning a Haven Home. The new ShowHome, exquisitely furnished by internationally renowned Interior Architects, Ledyvine, has opened for viewing recently.

    The event was graced by government officials, members of the public and celebrities. Note able individuals include 2 Face and Annie Idibia, who themselves are proud homeowners in the prestigious Haven Home estate. Doors were open by noon.

    Property investing with Haven Homes means more than just securing a property, they are about creating a trusted partnership that will bring its home owners continued prosperity.

    Haven Homes also has a relationship with its home owners that go beyond the handover of a set of keys, as a rule in Haven Homes, great attention is paid to the well being of the home owners even after they have acquired their units. The firm is always available to support and resolve any building related issues that occur after the customers move into their homes, for a period up to six months from the first day of occupation.