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Tag: overseas

  • Why I relocated overseas, by actor Femi Ogedengbe

    Why I relocated overseas, by actor Femi Ogedengbe

    Nollywood actor Femi Ogedengbe, has revealed that he relocated overseas because of the hard times in the country.

    “I have relocated to the U.S. I got there in January, 2016, and my family joined me in July, 2017,” the actor who presently works as a security guard in the US told a blog.

    “I relocated because I just couldn’t cope with the way my life was going for me in terms of poverty. I saw myself as one of the very great actors in Nollywood. In 2005, I discovered that the Nollywood industry, where I belong, was becoming more and more a tribalistic industry because a few financiers who were throwing in money for productions dictated who appear in the movies.

    “So, more and more, we discovered that those of us, talking about Emeka and others,  were not getting the jobs we should get based on merit, I had to move over to the Yoruba genre and even  at that, I discovered that the Yoruba genre was more like a help- me-I-help you outfit that couldn’t pay my bills, I just couldn’t cope. I bless God for a good wife, everything got messed up, I was practically begging to feed. I looked into it, I have been travelling out of the country since 2007, I told my wife that we have to make a sacrifice.

    “I need to move out the country and seek a greener pasture and as God would have it, the plans worked out.”

  • NDDC scholars overseas cry for help

    Sir: I humbly plead for your assistance in helping to draw the attention of NDDC Management lead by Mr Nsima Ekere to pay our school fees and upkeep.

    It’s been over one year since we set out for studies on foreign soils sponsored by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). According to the award letter, the scholarship amounts to $30,000 dollars per year. This amount is to cover tuition and upkeep.

    But up till now, many of us have not been paid (either tuition or upkeep). Some people (PhD students) who started in 2015 are owed close to two years fees and upkeep. We are really suffering; most schools have shut us out of their facilities. Landlords have chased us out of accommodation; even feeding is very difficult.

    Most of us are from very poor families; we had to borrow money to travel hoping to pay back whenever NDDC pays.

    We have tried every means to contact the NDDC office, yet no response. The most worrisome thing is that no one is saying anything about the payment and it seems it may never come.

    We have done everything to draw the attention of NDDC Managing Director. This includes emails, using social media, text messages and phone calls. But each time, Mr Ekere comes out to address the press saying he has ordered payment or with one excuse or other.

    During the last press briefing by the NDDC MD, he used the excuse of some of us changing schools. This is a very flimsy excuse because none of us changed schools without due approval letter from NDDC management. The change of school itself is often necessitated by the fact that the NDDC scholarship funds of $30,000.00 (which is often paid as £19,200.00) is often inadequate to pay schools fees in high ranking UK universities (with school fees above £25,000.00). Thus we had to change schools to universities with lower fees (based on advice from NDDC). Currently, there is no UK university with fees less than £10,000.00 for Nigerian students. So the £19,200.00 often paid by NDDC is hardly adequate for fees and upkeep.

    It is important to note that all change in schools is always duly approved by NDDC management with a duly signed letter to that effect. So this cannot be used as an excuse.

    We are suffering. The hardship experienced out here (in a country where the colour of your skin and the very fact that you are a Nigerian is a disadvantage) cannot be properly explained.

    I humbly plead for help in drawing the attention of the NDDC management and even the federal government to come to our help.

     

    • Ime Ben,

    Glasgow, United Kingdom.

  • Nigeria loses over N300bn annually to overseas training

    Nigeria loses over N300bn annually to overseas training

    Nigeria is losing over $1billion (about N300bn) in foreign exchange to overseas training annually, the Director-General, Centre for Management Development (CMD), Dr Kabir Kabo Usman has said.

    The CMD is the nation’s foremost human resources management outfits created by the federal government under Act No 51 of 1976.

    Usman who spoke in an interview with our correspondent in Abuja at the weekend disclosed that the federal government spends millions of dollars on training and capacity building of her personnel in various foreign countries on a yearly basis.

    The CMD boss, who lamented the extent of capital flight as a result of this development, blamed it on what he described as ‘financial indiscipline’ among certain administrators in the government circle who are insensitive to the danger this act poses to economic development, especially, at a time when everyone is calling on the government to revive the nation’s ailing economy.

    The CMD, he stressed, feels concerned that Nigeria had annually been wasting more than $1billion on overseas training that is obtainable in the country while a fraction of such training expenditure for government officials can easily generate 100, 000 new jobs at home

    “We had about 500, 000 Nigerians going for one type of overseas training or the other annually; even if we only spent about ten thousand dollars on each one of only 100, 000 of them, we are talking about $1billion.

    “If you convert that to Naira even at a lower rate of N300 to a dollar, it tells you that we were spending at least N300 billion.

    “If we have only one per cent of the local content of training being domesticated, we will save at least one billion naira and you can imagine the kind of jobs, about 100, 000 jobs that we can create in this country,” he asserted.

    Thankfully, the Kano-based technocrat said the CMD have equipped its staff to the extent that they can deliver most of these capacity-building trainings people go for abroad.

    “We have sharpened the skills and competencies of our staff by exposing them to various international trainings. What is left is for us to cascade what we have acquired to the grassroots for higher productivity. In the same vein, in 2015 alone, CMD trained over 2000 personnel from both the public and private sectors on capacity-building programmes,” Usman stressed.

  • Bankers’ Committee mulls forex for fees, overseas medicals

    Bankers’ Committee mulls forex for fees, overseas medicals

    • CBN: 57m Nigerians access financial services

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and deposit money banks are working out strategies to minimise foreign exchange (forex) demand for school fees and medical expenses abroad. The measure is intended to prevent crowding out demands for forex by the real sector.

    The Managing Director, Access Bank Herbert Wigwe, told reporters at the end of the Bankers’ Committee meeting in Abuja yesterday,  that the banks did not agree on any final position, “but that we should not allow this demand to crowd” out real sector investment because in any event, the money that you use to pay these school fees is from industry that is working locally.

    “We should revisit the educational system and make sure our children go to school locally. Why can’t we revisit the health care system to make sure it works better? he queried, saying, “why must we spend so much money on children’s school fees overseas or medical tourism?

    The idea which is still on the drawing board he said “is not that you can’t do it, the point is that you cannot access it from the CBN’s limited resources; we did not reach any formal conclusion on it, but that is the general direction that we are headed.”

    According to Wigwe, “we have increased demands for invisibles which typically represent demands for children school fees, medicals and all of that moving on the CBN foreign exchange. The problem with that is that it tends to crowd out the critical foreign exchange that should be used in the real sector for manufacturing to support industries to encourage employment. There were questions as to how far we are going to allow this to go on. Shouldn’t we redirect these resources towards the real sector?. We focused on the real sector in this case with respect to support most of the manufacturing concerns particularly those that utilise local raw materials for production. At this stage of our economy, we need to look at how to stimulate production so that we will be able to provide goods and services to people at minimal cost”.

    Also speaking, the Managing Director, Standard Chartered Bank, Mrs Bola Adesola said “a bit more looking at the numbers and data will happen before the CBN ultimately comes to a decision.

    The Bankers Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday  said 57 million Nigerians, which represents 66 per cent of the population, now have access to financial services.

    The Director, Banking Supervision Department, CBN, Mrs Tokunbo Martins, made this known when she briefed newsmen at the end of the committee’s meeting in Abuja.

    She was accompanied by the Managing Director, Access Bank Plc, Mr Herbert Wigwe; the Managing Director,Standard Chartered Bank, Mrs Bola Adesola; and the Managing Director Diamond Bank Plc, Mr Uzoma Dozie.

    “One of the major issues we discussed is the issue of financial inclusion. It is very important for 170 million Nigerians to have some form of access to financial services and so I am happy to report that there has been substantial improvement.

    “You know a couple of years back, the number of Nigerians financially included was at 40 per cent but currently we have 66 per cent of Nigerians financially included which is about 57 million Nigerians.

    “The target that we are working on is 68.5 per cent by the end of December 2016 and so if that target is achieved, I think we would have gone a long way in alleviating the sufferings if Nigerians ,” she said.

  • 50 get overseas scholarship

    50 get overseas scholarship

    Fifty of the 500 graduates who applied for an overseas scholarship scheme sponsored by a lawmaker Hon. Ossy Prestige have been selected.

    One of the criteria required that the candidates must be resident in the Aba North and South constituencies which Prestige represents at the House of Representatives.

    The gesture is organised by the lawmaker’s Youth Empowerment Scholarship Scheme.

    The successful candidates from various universities and polytechnics in Nigeria will study for their Master’s degree in any European universities of their choice free of charge.

    Mr. George Ezeikpe, the Director General, Ossy Prestige Foundation, said the lawmaker will also fund  their feeding, accommodation and tuition.

    Ezeikpe stressed that the 50 students were chosen by merit.

    Addressing the successful candidates, Hon. Prestige congratulated the candidates, warning against truancy or absconding from the programme.

    He said that  sending them abroad for studies was to acquire and transfer the knowledge to their host communities and state except those that their host countries may wish to offer employment after graduation.

    Prestige was optimistic that by the end of his first  four years at the National Assembly, he would have sponsored over 200 graduates.

    “I want to say congratulations to all of you. If you remember the day you were taking the exams, I was there briefly to encourage everybody to work hard because what we are doing is something that has to do with the ability of you to prove yourself. It is a very simply thing for me to sit in the comfort of my parlour to write names of those to send overseas for their degree programmes. I am sure that out of 55 or more of you here, I may not be able to know up to three persons among you, which means that it is truly by merit. There was no influence from anywhere and I never influenced anything because I wanted the best to emerge.

    “I had over 1000 phone calls from friends and relatives, even associates on one choice or the other, but I said NO, that it was going to be purely on merit. And why I want it to be on merit is that I want to encourage those who are actually working hard; those who knows the importance of education but doesn’t have the means from their various families to better their education.

    “I am sure that, there is no relation of mine that I can’t take care of, but there are some who have this certificate but do not have anyone that would train them further in their education because there is no means.

    “So, I want you to see yourself as very lucky to have come through this very particular process. It is not all about going to the overseas to study. If God has given you this opportunity, you should use it very well and make the best out of it. We want to develop people and it is based on one of the promises I have made during my campaign that, one key area I will do my best is on human capital development.”

     

  • Obama plans tax on US firms overseas to fix roads

    UNITED States President Barack Obama plans to close a tax loophole that allows US firms to avoid paying taxes on overseas profits, the White House says.

    His 2016 budget would impose a one-off 14per cent tax on US profits stashed overseas, as well as a 19per cent tax on any future profits as they are earned.

    The $238billion (£158billion) raised would be used to fund road projects in the US.

    But analysts say it is unlikely the Republican-controlled Congress will approve the proposals.

    Mr Obama told broadcaster NBC that despite several years of economic improvement, wages and incomes for middle class families were “just now ticking up”.

    “They haven’t been keeping pace over the last 30 years compared to, you know, corporate profits and what’s happening to folks in the very top,” he said.

    Printed copies of U.S. President Barack Obama’s proposed 2016 budget that will be handed out on Capitol Hill in Washington, 2 February 2015.

    Research firm Audit Analytics calculated last April that US firms in total had $2.1trillion-worth of profits stashed abroad.

    It found US conglomerate General Electric had the most profit stored overseas at $110billion. Tech giants Microsoft and Apple and drugs companies Pfizer and Merck all featured in the top five.

    No tax is currently due on foreign profits as long as they are not brought into the US.

    As a result some companies put their earnings in low tax jurisdictions and simply leave them there.

    The White House said its plans for an immediate 14per cent tax would raise $238billion, which would be used to fund a wider $478billion public works programme of road, bridge and public transport upgrades.

    “This transition tax would mean that companies have to pay US tax right now on the $2trillion they already have overseas, rather than being able to delay paying any US tax indefinitely,” a White House official said.

    The official said that after this one-off tax, the 19per cent permanent tax firms would have to pay on overseas profits “would level the playing field, and encourage firms to create jobs here at home.”

    Customers queue to wait for the opening of a new Apple Store in Chongqing municipality 31 January 2015 Apple would be among the American firms most affected by the tax rise

    The tax rate is far lower than the current US top corporate tax rate of 35per cent.

     

    Also expected in Mr Obama’s budget proposal is a tax cut on earned incomes, including tax credits for child care and “second earners”.

    Mr Obama will also seek to ease restrictions on military and domestic spending in place since a budget deal in 2011.

    Republicans in Congress have largely rejected many of Mr Obama’s proposals for increased domestic spending and tax rises on corporations but support increased military spending.Representative Paul Ryan, the Republican’s top budget official, accused Mr Obama of exploiting “envy economics” in his proposal.

    “This top down redistribution doesn’t work,” Mr Ryan told NBC.

  • NFF insists on Falcons’ overseas pros

    NFF insists on Falcons’ overseas pros

    The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will leave no stone unturned in trying to secure the release of several players of the Super Falcons ahead of the 2014 African Women’s Championships (AWC) in Namibia.

    The European clubs of several integral members of the Falcons – Perpetua Nkwocha, Esther Sunday, Onome Ebi and Desire Oparanozie – have expressed unwillingness to release the players on the grounds that the AWC is not on the FIFA calendar.

    The NFF has, however, expressed optimism that the foreign-based national senior team players would join the team’s camp soon ahead of the AWC in Namibia.

    The federation’s technical director, Emmanuel Ikpeme, disclosed that the football house is keen to see the players arrive at camp in time for early preparations.

    “The truth of the matter is that they will make it to the camp. We are in touch with them; they have some matches, you know their league is still going on,” Ikpeme told supersport.com.

    He added that the NFF is in constant contact with the players with a view to getting them cleared to join the Nigerian squad.

    “We are in contact with them and they have told us they will definitely come to be part of the squad.

    “Having said that, assuming that some of them cannot make it, we have good players who can take their positions,” he said.

    The last three months have seen Nigerian football hog the headlines for the wrong reasons with consistent crises at the NFF. Ikpeme, however, insists that the furore at the NFF has not affected the preparations of the Falcons for the AWC.

    “For now, I can’t really say but it is not ruled out; but the crisis in the NFF has affected so many things.

    “Initially, we had such plans and the plans are still there, but it is very difficult to say, because the bottom line of all these is funds. The FA is having serious challenge of funds now.

    “Of course I have confidence in the team because they have pedigree with regards to the AWC.

    “I am also happy with the fact that a few of them from the national under-20 team, the Falconets, have been added to this team and they are doing very well.

    “With the plans we have for them before the competition starts, I want to believe that they will be physically and mentally ready for the competition.

    “I made them to know that we are not just going to Namibia to participate.

    “They have to win that trophy although it is not their birth right, they have the capacity and competence to win that trophy,” Ikpeme said.

    The Super Falcons have been in camp since September 14 preparing for the AWC.

    Only one of the six overseas-based players invited for the AWC has arrived in camp.

    Nigeria are in Group A of the AWC alongside Zambia, the Ivory Coast and hosts Namibia.

    The top three sides at the 2014 AWC, which gets under way in October, will represent Africa at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada.

  • This boy needs N3.5m for surgery overseas

    It was not their plan to go begging when they got this precious gift from God about eight- month ago, but the family of Mr and Mrs Opeyemi Okunade of No 17, Eyinogbe Street, Owo, Ondo State is being forced to beg to save the life of their little boy, Darasimi who is down with a strange ailment.

    According to medical report, Darasimi is suffering from a cyanotic congenital heart defect via Echocardiography.

    The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti Dr Kolawole Ogundipe, through the Consultant Pediatrician Dr E.O Ogundare said the heart defect is Truncus Arteriosus type 1 which has led to the boy being in and out of the hospital.

    He said the defect requires surgical operation, but after consultations with Pediatric Cardiologists in the country, it was discovered that the surgery cannot be done in Nigeria.

    Based on this finding, the medical consultant said the baby boy will benefit from surgical correction in India where medical care is a bit cheaper.

    He said, after consulting with healthcare institutions in India, the hospital care/treatment of the patient and travel is estimated to cost about USD ($20,000).

    He therefore solicited financial assistance in helping the young boy out of his predicament in order to live a quality life and contribute his quota to nation’s development.

    Amid tears, the mother of the ailing little baby, Mrs Okunade Olukemi Faith who came to The Nation office in Akure said since the diagnosis was made by the doctors, her baby had not been enjoying good health, stressing that his health condition is deteriorating by the day.

    Her words: “My baby has been losing weight and has lapsed into unconscious state and breathing pattern has been getting worse on a daily basis.

    “Due to this problem, he has been on admission several times at Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (ESUTH) Ado-Ekiti where we have been spending everything we have on him.

    “However, the doctors said the heart problems could not be solved in Nigeria and that the baby might die soon, if nothing urgent is done at the right time”

    Mrs Okunade said after consultations by the doctors, they said the surgical operation could be done in India at Max Health Care Press Enclave Road, Saket, New Delhi-110017,  at the estimated cost of N3.4m which the couple could not afford.

    The father of the ailing Darasimi is a generator repairer who has no means of totally footing the bill.

    The family is therefore seeking assistance from their compatriots to help their son live. The Okunades could be contacted at their home, No 17, Eyinogbe Street, Owo, or through mobile telephone number 08065136262. Donations could also be made via Mrs Okunade Oluwakemi Faith bank account at First Bank, with account number 3060411449.

  • Kwankwaso to train more youths overseas

    Kano State Governor Musa Kwankwaso has said his administration would open up opportunities for the youths to realise their potential for the development of the state and Nigeria.

    The governor spoke yesterday in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE), when he visited Skyline University College, a private university.

    He hinted of the possibility of his administration sponsoring Kano youths to study at the university.

    Kwankwaso said his administration would collaborate with the institution to set up a campus in Kano or get the government’s support to attain its goals in education.

    The governor noted that investment in education is the key to making Kano a force to reckon with in Nigeria and beyond.

    The university’s Director Nitin Ahmad said he was impressed by the governor’s passion for education, adding that the sector is pivotal to the development of UAE and the world.

    Kwankwaso, who met with some Nigerian students in Dubai, also visited the management of Emirates Aviation College in Dubai to discuss how Kano youths could be trained there as pilots.

    The representative of the director of the college, Maha Hameid, explained that the institution runs various courses and welcomes youths especially those with background in Sciences, particularly Maths and Physics.

    Kwankwaso also visited Gulf Medical University, Ajman to discuss with its authorities ways of possible collaboration for the establishment of a campus of the university in Kano.

    The governor showed his hosts visual images of three hospitals in Kano namely, Giginyu General Hospital, Zoo road Pediatric Hospital and Pfizer Diagnostic Center, Kwanar Dawaki, which could be converted for the proposed university project.

    Receiving the governor, the Founder/President of Gulf Medical University, Mr. Thumbay Moideen said the visit showed Kwankwaso’s seriousness to work with the institution for the progress of his people.

    He promised that a team from the university will visit Kano in December for further talks.

    Kwankwaso was accompanied by Nigeria’s Ambassador to UAE, Alhaji Ibrahim Auwalu; former Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Alhaji Idi Faruk and Commissioners for Commerce and Women Affairs.