International Energy Insurance just swapped out its CEO, Olasupo Sogelola, after he managed to get the company back on track and relisted on the Nigerian Exchange. The insurance outfit tapped Joyce Odiachi as acting boss while they hunt for someone permanent to run things.
Odiachi has been grinding in the insurance game for over twenty years, doing risk management and compliance work at different companies. International Energy Insurance is gearing up to raise around 22 billion naira to beef up its capital base under its parent company, Norrenberger Financial Group. The firm also cleared out a loan from Daewoo which had been sitting on their books for a while.
The pension agency boss, Tolulope Odunaiya, called an emergency sit-down with union leaders after some group of retirees threatened to stage a protest where they would strip naked to make their point. She laid out what the directorate already delivered, like the 32000 naira minimum wage bump and getting 45 billion naira allocated for backpay.
Odunaiya said the 25000 naira relief payment everyone keeps asking about falls under the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry and not her department but confirmed they are checking on it. Union heads from NUP and FEPPPAN said they want nothing to do with the planned demonstration and pushed members to work through official channels instead of wilding out in the streets.
A bunch of retired government workers are hitting up Nigeria's pension agency because their payments keep getting messed up or never show up at all. One guy named Alfred said someone started yanking nine thousand naira out of his monthly check back in September and left him with barely enough to survive. Another dude called Ukpong got verified way back in 2017 and still has not seen a single pension payment despite sending all the paperwork the agency asked for.
The pension agency keeps telling everyone to email their verification slips to the complaints address but people are saying they already tried that route multiple times with zero results. Some retirees are missing gratuity payments from the nineties while others got their...
Aviation minister Festus Keyamo said the government might chase down Dana Air assets to get money back to passengers and travel agents who got screwed over when the airline stopped flying. He told the Civil Aviation Authority to investigate why refunds are still stuck and made it clear that safety concerns killed the airline's operations after one of their planes had an incident at Lagos airport.
Keyamo wants the NCAA to check out what property Dana has left and basically sell everything off to pay people back. He also said that if anyone connected to Dana tries starting another airline or getting into the aviation business, they need to settle their debts first before getting approved for anything. The NCAA boss, Chris Najomo...
The Central Bank kept interest rates stuck at 27 percent after their committee wrapped up meetings in Abuja with Governor Olayemi Cardoso saying they want to lock in gains from bringing down inflation and keeping the financial system stable. All twelve members voted to hold the rate while tweaking other banking requirements like cash reserves and liquidity ratios.
Cardoso pointed out that inflation has been dropping for seven straight months and the country has around ten months of import cover sitting in reserves right behind $46.7 billion in external holdings. He said the naira is way more stable with exchange rate spreads falling from 60 percent down to about 2 percent since reforms kicked in. Foreign investors are coming back...
Nigeria's aviation agency just permitted four airports to keep flights running until 10 pm after everyone kept complaining that only Abuja and Lagos could handle late operations. Yola, Owerri, Ilorin and Enugu got the green light because they have the right gear to support evening traffic according to NAMA's director general, Ahmed Farouk.
AirPeace also scored temporary approval to fly routes into Anambra and Asaba. The agency rolled out free route airspace to cut fuel costs and carbon emissions while helping air traffic controllers manage their workload better.
President Bola Tinubu approved special money for NAMA to upgrade equipment instead of waiting for regular budget allocations. Aviation minister Festus Keyamo said the funding...
Tax reform boss Taiwo Oyedele went on WhatsApp, telling people to chill because the new rules dropping next year will actually cut what most Nigerians pay instead of jacking it up like everyone on social media keeps saying. He said the bottom 98 percent of earners will either pay way less or nothing at all while food gets cheaper since VAT disappears from groceries, schools and hospitals. Small businesses get hit with zero corporate tax and dodge VAT completely while bigger companies catch lower rates and get credits back on their expenses.
Oyedele called out the flood of fake claims saying the government wants to raid bank accounts or tax gifts and remittances. He brought up some guy who skipped buying bank shares thinking capital...
China just told Nigeria it will help them digitize their ports after the transport vice minister met with Marine and Blue Economy Minister Adegboyega Oyetola in London. Li Yang said his government runs 52 automated ports and has the tech to move Nigeria off manual systems into something that actually works efficiently.
The Chinese side offered to send smart port gear, digital customs setups and advanced cargo handling tech while throwing in maritime scholarships for young Nigerians. They also backed Nigeria for the upcoming International Maritime Organisation Council election and floated a draft MoU to lock in more cooperation between the countries.
Oyetola asked for help fighting illegal fishing with satellite tracking and building...
Lagos State planning officials said they want to fix the massive backlog of building approvals by going digital and getting their departments to actually work together. Deputy Governor Kadri Obafemi Hamzat told everyone at a retreat in Epe that land use planning matters for keeping the city safe and livable, while pushing for all government databases to link up so permits move faster.
Physical Planning Commissioner Oluyinka Olumide called the approval deficit a public safety crisis that needs fixing right away. Former commissioners like Toyin Ayinde and Idris Salako showed up to the event and added perspective on how to keep policies consistent over time.
The main moves coming out of the retreat are launching an electronic permit...
