Author: damazah@gmail.com

The Federal Government is expected to spend N358.32 billion on electricity subsidies in the first quarter of 2026, despite continued blackouts and operational difficulties across Nigeria’s power sector. The subsidy bill averaged more than N119 billion per month as the government maintained its freeze on end-user electricity tariffs. According to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in its First Quarter 2026 Report, the subsidy resulted from the Federal Government’s decision to keep electricity tariffs at the July 2024 rate rather than adopt cost-reflective pricing. The report showed that the tariff shortfall reached N126.48 billion in January, N116.34 billion in February…

Partnership launches with a laptop scholarship and will deliver financial education, Web3 training and career development programs. Busha, a pan-African financial services company, and Women in DeFi (WiD), a community dedicated to advancing women’s participation in blockchain and decentralized finance, have announced a strategic partnership to expand opportunities for women pursuing careers in technology, Web3, and digital finance across Africa. The partnership was officially unveiled at the Women in DeFi Summit 2026 in Lagos, where five young women received laptop scholarships to support their education, career development, and entrepreneurial ambitions. The scholarship marks the first initiative under the partnership, which…

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Babarinde said: “He has dined out on a career about taking back control, yet he won’t tell us, he won’t be straight with us about who controls him.”Under parliamentary rules, new MPs must declare financial interests and “registrable benefits” received in the 12 months before their election.The guidelines say purely personal gifts or benefits do not need to be registered.Farage is already facing a parliamentary probe over a £5m gift from a billionaire Reform UK donor which was not registered.He has argued that he did not need to declare the gift because he…

In the early hours of 11 July, the waning crescent moon will be gliding past the beautiful Pleiades star cluster, which is also known as M45 or the Seven Sisters.The chart shows the view looking east-north-east from London at 3am BST. By then, the sky will getting ready to start brightening for the coming day, so a clear, low horizon will be essential to see the pairing.The moon will be the easiest object to find: a thin crescent, just a few days old, with only 15% of its visible hemisphere illuminated. Its sunlit limb will be pointing down toward the…

Here’s who to add ahead of Week 16, including some pitching replacements

Dave Eggers, the author of more than a dozen novels as well as a steady stream of children’s and nonfiction books, grew up wanting to be an artist.As a child he took lessons with a Japanese watercolourist, studied painting at college, worked as a magazine cartoonist and illustrator, even curated a New York show entitled Lots of Things Like This featuring pieces by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Marcel Duchamp. He is soon to open a project in San Francisco that he has been hatching for a decade – Art + Water, an amalgam of art school, affordable studios, exhibition galleries and local gathering point.Cricket…

Chiemelie Ezeobi The Hydrographer of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer of the National Hydrographic Agency (NHA), Rear Admiral O.O. Fadahunsi, was on Friday, July 3, 2025, elected Vice Chairman of the Eastern Atlantic Hydrographic Commission (EAtHC) for the 2026–2028 term, during the ongoing EAtHC Conference in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The Eastern Atlantic Hydrographic Commission was established on November 26, 1984, following the signing of its statutes by the four International Hydrographic Organisation (IHO) member countries in the region at the time—France, Nigeria, Portugal and Spain. Since then, the Commission has expanded from its four founding members to 11 member…

The deputy spokesperson of the House of Representatives, Philip Agbese, has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to suspend the implementation of the federal government’s proposed reforms to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), warning that some of the planned changes could weaken the scheme’s founding objectives and diminish its strategic role in national security. Mr Agbese, who represents Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal Constituency of Benue State, made the appeal in a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja. The lawmaker argued that although reforms are necessary to keep the scheme relevant, they should not alter its fundamental purpose of promoting national unity, discipline…

Iyobosa Uwugiaren writes that The Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council affair has exposed something that many Nigerians have long suspected but could rarely demonstrate so blatantly: legislative oversight is increasingly becoming a constitutional ritual rather than a constitutional responsibility. There is a popular old saying that when something smells bad, you do not spray perfume over it; you find the source of the odour. Nigeria’s latest budget controversy surrounding the alleged Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) is producing an unmistakable political disgusting odour. The temptation is to look only toward the Presidency, where denials, counterclaims and allegations continue to…

By Mather Godwin Dangote Cement Plc has announced a 50 per cent increase in dividend payout to shareholders, raising the dividend from N30 per share to N45 per share, which translates to a total payout of approximately N753.8 billion, reaffirming the company’s position as one of the most rewarding investments on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX).  The increase follows the company’s outstanding 2025 financial performance and underscores its unwavering commitment to shareholder value creation. The dividend payout, which was approved by the shareholders at the Company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), represents the highest dividend payout in the history of Dangote Cement and…