Author: damazah@gmail.com

Shola Akande If Bloomberg’s reporting proves correct, OPay could ring a bell in New York before the end of the year. The payments company, built on Nigerian consumers, Nigerian agents and Nigerian transactions, has reportedly engaged Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan for a potential United States listing targeting a valuation of around $4 billion. That would be good news. It would be a powerful validation of what many of us have argued for years: Nigeria can produce businesses capable of competing for global capital at the highest level. Nobody should begrudge OPay the deep capital pools, analyst coverage and international…

Katsina State Deputy Governor Faruk Jobe has said about 26 of the state’s 34 local government areas were experiencing persistent attacks when the Dikko Radda administration assumed office in 2023. Mr Jobe spoke on Thursday while representing the governor at the Second Quarter 2026 North-west Zonal Conference of State Directors of Security at the State Security Service (SSS) headquarters in Katsina. The conference, themed “Unite Against Terror,” brought together SSS directors and other security officials from across the North-west to discuss terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and other security threats affecting the region, Channels Television reported. Mr Jobe said the 26 local…

Japan’s Meteorological Agency said the most recent deluge was brought by warm, humid air flowing into the country’s east that combined with cold air above to make atmospheric conditions extremely unstable.The rains are expected to last through late on Friday.”This case was an extremely unusual situation, even by Japan’s historical weather standards,” Chiba Governor Toshihito Kumagai told reporters on Friday morning.”I have responded to many disasters in the past, but I have never experienced a case like this.”Chiba, which sits right next to Tokyo, has logged more than 100mm of rain per hour since Thursday afternoon, authorities say.This is about…

A Pikachu Character poses at the Pokemon stand during the Brand Licensing Europe at ExCel on October 04, 2023 in London, England. John Keeble | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesNintendo shares closed 7% higher in Japan on Friday after it revealed sales of “Pokémon Pokopia” surpassed 5 million units on its flagship Switch 2 console.The milestone was hit just over four months after it launched on March 5, Nintendo said on Thursday. This would make it the second-best-selling game on the Switch 2, ahead of “Donkey Kong Bananza” and behind “Mario Kart World.”First announced in September last year, the…

Amazon has acquired a massive off-grid power plant being built in Texas for one of its data centers that could be one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the US.But size isn’t the only reason its climate toll will be so high. The plant will rely on a much less efficient set of gas turbines than regular power plants use; these kinds of turbines are also increasingly being put to use at other data center projects around the US. That could have big implications for the environmental impact of artificial intelligence—and the future of the US grid.Amazon’s…

David-Chyddy Eleke, in this piece, looks at Governor Chukwuma of Anambra State, his style of politics and how his people see him as he clocked 66 recently. On February 25, 2021 while still contesting to be governor of Anambra State for his first term, Professor Chukwuma Soludo assembled journalists at his campaign headquarters along Enugu-Onitsha Expressway in Awka, almost opposite the former Anambra State Government House, where he spoke about his vision for the state. What particularly stuck for this reporter was when the former Central Bank Governor after espousing on his agenda for Anambra people stated that: “For me,…

Osun has 2,339,233 registered voters, out of which 1,906,3,90, who collected the Permanent Voters Card (PVC) are eligible to vote in Saturday’s governorship election. But the size of the register alone does not show where the election could be decided. The more revealing question is where those voters are concentrated, how many are likely to turn up and what margins the candidates can build in those areas. INEC’s figures show that Osogbo has the largest electorate in the state, with 167,704 registered voters, representing 7.17 per cent of the total register. Ife East follows with 128,515 voters, or 5.50 per…

Team-mates and friends from GB’s gymnastics squad reveal their unfiltered truths, as they take on BBC Sport’s ‘Honesty Cards’, ahead of the 2026 European Gymnastics Championships in Croatia. Watch the 2026 European Gymnastics Championships on BBC iPlayerAvailable to UK users only

Ally Pankiw certainly won’t be working on HBO‘s upcoming Harry Potter series. The Black Mirror director shared an Instagram post that appears to show an SMS exchange with her agent in which she emphatically turns down an opportunity to board the series. “I have an instinct on the answer but I feel compelled to ask,” writes the agent. “Harry Potter? Hard no?” Pankiw responds, “Absolutely fucking not! lol… (But thank you for asking)”, before the agent writes, “Of course :)… I assumed as much… (And agree).” The Canadian director, who also has credits for the likes of The Great, shared…

From a historic former stable in the heart of London to a new-build ‘barn’ surrounded by open countryside Continue reading…