Accelerex Establishes N20bn ($48mm) Bond Programme; Successfully Issues First Tranche of N2.3bn ($5.5mm)

Accelerex Establishes N20bn ($48mm) Bond Programme; Successfully Issues First Tranche of N2.3bn ($5.5mm)

Accelerex Holdings (www.GlobalAccelerex.com), Mauritius (the “Company”) today announced that its Nigerian subsidiary, Global Accelerex Limited, has registered a N20bn bond program, and successfully issued a 5-year senior unsecured bond of N2.3bn via a special purpose vehicle (Accelerex Funding SPV PLC). FBN Quest Limited, Renaissance Securities Limited, Greenwich Merchant Bank Limited and Nova Bank Limited acted as Arrangers. The Bond is rated BBB+ (Stable Outlook) by Global Credit Ratings (GCR) and Bbb+ (Stable Outlook) by Agusto & Co. and is listed on the FMDQ Exchange.

 

The issuance attracted participation from a broad array of institutional investors, including local pension funds, insurance companies and asset managers. The relative strong demand despite the very difficult economic and operating environment confirms the market’s confidence in the Company’s creditworthiness, long term resilience, and significant growth potential.

We are very happy with the result of this bond issuance as it confirms the market’s interest in advancing digital payments and financial inclusion across Nigeria

The bond issuance, coming after Accelerex’s successful private equity round in 2020, provides its Nigerian subsidiary with critical long term and local currency capital to fund expansion and support its mission of accelerating the financial inclusion of businesses and individuals across Africa. Accelerex is only the 2nd ever Nigerian fintech or payments company to successfully place a long-term, investment grade, unsecured bond in the Nigerian capital market. Proceeds from the issuance will be used to finance expansion of distribution channels and general working capital.

Mr. Olukayode Ariyo, Managing Director of Global Accelerex Limited, stated that, “We are very happy with the result of this bond issuance as it confirms the market’s interest in advancing digital payments and financial inclusion across Nigeria. It is an attestation of the confidence reposed in us, despite the difficult market environment. We thank our bondholders for their belief in our Company. We will press forward with our mission of simplifying everyday life for Africans through accessible, convenient and affordable digital payments and financial services.”

Mr. Paul Kokoricha, Director at Accelerex Holdings, and Chief Investment Officer at Africa Capital Alliance (ACA) said: “The medium-term bond issuance significantly strengthens the balance sheet and liquidity of Accelerex’s Nigerian operations and provides it with much needed local currency funding and duration to support its expansion plans. As equity investors in Accelerex, we are very excited that Nigerian debt investors were supportive of the deal, thereby providing useful financial leverage and local currency diversification to the Company’s balance sheet. With its strengthened balance sheet, Accelerex and its management team can confidently continue their quest to expand access to Nigeria’s financially under-served population”.

Accelerex is renowned for its excellent customer service and commitment to payment solutions that evolve with the needs of the customer. Since it began operations in 2013, Accelerex has grown into a formidable player in the fintech industry and has established itself as the preferred physical payments partner to all merchant acquiring banks in Nigeria. The Company has over 150,000 merchant and agent endpoints across Africa and has consistently ranked as a top 3 provider of payment channel services (by value of transactions processed) in Nigeria since 2018. It currently operates in Nigeria, Ghana and East Africa, with plans to expand to other parts of the continent in the future. In May 2022, Accelerex was recognized by Financial Times as one of the fastest growing companies in Africa.

Six youth technology innovators in Africa’s agriculture and food sectors win cash prizes in Pitch AgriHack 2022

Six youth technology innovators in Africa’s agriculture and food sectors win cash prizes in Pitch AgriHack 2022

African agritech innovators from all four corners of the continent claimed victory in the 8th edition of Pitch AgriHack. The 2022 competition saw a 30% increase in completed applications with entries rolling in from 37 African countries. Representing Egypt and Tunisia in the north, Zimbabwe in the south, Ghana and Nigeria in the west, and Kenya in the east, six youth-led agribusinesses have been awarded their share of US$45,000 to invest in the growth of their ventures.

 

The winners had a chance to present their businesses to delegates at the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) where they participated in Africa’s biggest agribusiness match-making platform, the AGRF Agribusiness Dealroom (https://bit.ly/3eJahk2). Over 800 companies, 15 government delegations and 150 public and private investors convened at the Dealroom to generate exciting new opportunities. “Pitch AgriHack is about creating impact through investment in the young agritech entrepreneurs of Africa.” said Mumbi Maina, Agribusiness Dealroom Lead at AGRA. “Beyond the prize money, we seek to catalyse relationships between our finalists and future collaborators and investors. These are the relationships that will revolutionise the food system.”

Competing in three open competition categories – Early-stage, Mature- or Growth-stage, and Women-led – the Pitch AgriHack winners and runners-up were allocated cash prizes of $10,000 and $5,000 respectively. A fourth invite-only category known as the AYuTe Africa Challenge (https://bit.ly/3DfWcoH), an initiative of Heifer International, will award grants up to US$1.5 million later this year to scalable ventures that are already generating measurable impact for Africa’s smallholder farmers.

In 2022, the AYuTe Africa Challenge is expanding its role as an African agritech accelerator. New national competitions in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Uganda are offering young innovators a chance to secure the funding and visibility to scale their ideas and ambitions.

For the second year running, Heifer International, the AGRF, and Generation Africa worked together to realize this popular technology competition. “We at Heifer International believe that youth and innovation are the driving force toward transforming the food and farming sector in Africa,” said Adesuwa Ifedi, Senior Vice President for Africa Programs at Heifer International. “Leveraging technology, youth have the potential to unlock economic growth, create job opportunities for millions and empower smallholder farmers into self-reliance. We are excited for the future of Africa’s agriculture and the role innovators like these play in shaping it”.

Automated crop disease detectors, agri-fintech solutions for smallholder farmers, digitizing of community seed banks, and market linkages combined with climate-smart training and satellite yield mapping are only a few of the ideas that came out of this year’s Pitch AgriHack competition. These African agritech innovators are building more comprehensive solutions to solve problems for smallholder farmers.

The Pitch AgriHack 2022 Winners are:

Early-Stage Winners:

Winner: Imen Hbiri of RoboCare in Tunisia.

Robocare’s patented multispectral disease detector is minimizing pesticides and boosting efficiency by helping greenhouse farmers in Tunisia catch and treat infections long before human eyes can even see it https://www.RoboCare.tn/

Runner-up: Donald Mudenge of Mbeu Yedu in Zimbabwe.

Mbeu Yedu understands that seeds are currency. Their platform digitizes Community Seed Banks to give smallholder farmers access to greater seed-varieties, accurate planting information, agri-fintech products, value-added services, and buyers https://MbeuYedu.com/

Mature and Growth-Stage Winners:

Pitch AgriHack is about creating impact through investment in the young agritech entrepreneurs of Africa

Winner: Hamis El Gabry of Mozare3 in Egypt.

Mozare3 is an agri-fintech company that connects small farmers in Egypt to the agriculture supply chain. Their model combines contract farming, agronomic support, financing and market access to increase yields and income https://www.Mozare3.net/

Runner-up: Allan Coredo of FarmIT in Kenya.

FarmIT innovatively combines crop mapping and market linkages to help Kenya’s vegetable farmers. They use satellite imaging, analytics, and AI to provide simplified agronomic advice, and link farmers confidently with big buyers with accurate yields predictions https://Farmit.co.ke/

Women-led Agribusiness Winners:

Winner: Esther Kimani of Farmer LifeLine Technologies in Kenya.

Farmer LifeLine helps Kenyan farmers to get ahead of pests and pathogens with a proprietary disease detection device that leverages solar-powered cameras, Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, and Machine Learning. http://www.FarmerLifeLine.co.ke

Runner-up: Anaporka Adazabra of Farmio in Ghana.

With their Smart Greenhouse package, Farmio guarantees a 120% increase in productivity for Ghana’s farmers. Their SuperApp connects growers with investors, buyers, consumers, agri-experts, and service providers. http://www.Farmiogh.com

The achievements of the Pitch AgriHack winners were recognised at a Winners Showcase and Innovators Discussion Panel at the AGRF Summit. “Africa’s youth are bursting with ideas. They are hustling hard to turn dreams of stability and prosperity into a reality for themselves and their communities. For many of them it feels like the chance they need is just beyond reach. All they need is a friend to help them take a step towards self-sufficiency,” said Amanda Namayi, GoGettaz Lead at Generation Africa during the event.

“Our goal is to catalyse impact,” said Dickson Naftali, Head of Generation Africa at the Pitch AgriHack Winners Showcase and Innovators Panel at the AGRF Summit. “All of the people on stage today are making the business of farming easier, more productive, and more predictable for smallholder farmers. They are the front line in our food systems revolution.”

Of the businesses applying for Pitch AgriHack, 20% are mature- or growth-stage businesses and almost 80% are early-stage startups. This is partly due to the youth demographic of the competition. Looking, however, at other research sources, as discussed in the 2022 Generation Africa Call to Action (https://bit.ly/3BvNDVt) released prior to the AGRF Summit, it is evident that there is a need for more financing and investment options for early-stage startups in Africa’s agriculture space. Many of the agritech innovators who reached the Pitch AgriHack finals have identified this problem and have financing options built into their offerings.

From the various Generation Africa programs, it is evident that Africa’s biggest economy, Nigeria, also has the largest number of activated youths pursuing opportunities in the agriculture sector. Forty-four percent (44%) of the entries for Pitch AgriHack come from Nigerian entrepreneurs. Other top countries applying for the competition were Africa’s tech-trendsetter Kenya, followed by Uganda, Ghana, and Rwanda.

Pitch AgriHack was fortunate to welcome back three veteran judges from the previous panel:

 

They were joined by new additions:

GOVERNING COUNCIL OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION SEEKS SUPPORT FROM FMOJ

GOVERNING COUNCIL OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION SEEKS SUPPORT FROM FMOJ
The Governing Council of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has sought support from the Federal Ministry of Justice (FMOJ) to strengthen the partnership between them.
This was made known during the courtesy visit of the council to the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, (HAGF) Abubakar Malami, SAN on Monday, 12th September, 2022 in Abuja.
In his response, HAGF said that the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari has recorded tremendous success associated with the human rights in Nigeria and abroad.
Malami stated, “looking at it from the legislative perspective, a piece of legislation that give birth to NHRC indeed a legislative approach by the government, but having a place not only a legislative but institutional framework”.
“If you are equally looking at it from the perspectives of the enactment that already targeted at supporting the human right posture of the government, i think we have done wonderfully well among the antecedent establishing a commitment to human right ” he informed.
He explained that the importation by way of law and legislation of the protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights has further consolidated by way of establishing deliberate legislature.
“On this note, let’s restrict our commitment to support having a place of FEC memo as it is relates to national action plan, a memo that relates to national policy for the protection of civilian from harm during conflict and indeed look into a possibility of arising there from prerequisite declaration pursuant of article 34 (6)” he advised.
“I request that you package necessary process working with the office of HAGF and other agencies and perhaps ministry of humanitarian affairs and disaster management to see what action plan you can put across. This is because of their recent presentation associated with the human rights as it relates to national action plan “he further advised
He implored the commission to cover the field by way of doing the needful locally before perhaps migrating to international commitment with particular regards to adoption of certain protocols and conventions.
The solicitor general of the federation and permanent secretary, Beatrice Jedy-Agba in her welcome address, appreciated the NHRC on its effort towards protection and promotion of human right in the nation. She urged them not to relent in making the masses feel its impact.
Earlier, the chairperson, Governing Council of National Human Rights Commission, Dr. Salamatu Sulaiman, in her remarks said, the cordial relationship between the ministry and NHRC propelled them to seek for strengthened partnership so as to ensure sustenance of the fruitful partnership.
Dr. Salamatu Sulaiman, disclosing the objectives of the visit said the commission sought the collaboration for the presentation for Federal Executive Commission (FEC) approval of the National Action Plan (NAP) for promotion and protection of human rights, also the support for the presentation and FEC approval of national policy for the protection of civilians from harm during conflict.
She further revealed that, “the federal government is taking the following steps; making the requisite declaration pursuant to article 34 (6) of the protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. She explained that this will create direct access to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights by individuals and non-governmental organisations (NGOS).
“This singular move will widen the scope of access to protection of human rights in the continent and Nigeria inclusive, ratifying the protocol to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the rights of older persons in Africa and signing ratifying the protocol to African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the right of persons with disabilities in Africa”.
She stated that the collaboration and support for signing in to law of the amendment of the NHRC act when presented to the president for assent. The amendment act seeks to provide for resourcing the human rights funds under the act through minimal contribution from stakeholders and companies, to ease the government of the burden of solely funding human rights promotion and protection in the country.
The commission appreciated the HAGF for the use his good office to facilitate issues concerning the commission.

A fast and accurate way of overcoming estate planning challenges

A fast and accurate way of overcoming estate planning challenges

 

 

We are regularly reminded of the importance of having a properly drafted will to ensure that our loved ones are well cared for when we are no longer there. However, the sad reality is that the majority of South Africans die without a will or a well-structured and recorded estate plan. The plethora of documents and information needed to set up a will and to wind up an estate, particularly if it is a complex estate, can be quite daunting and overwhelming for some.

 

Sameer Kumandan, Managing Director at SearchWorks, South Africa’s most innovative data aggregation platform, says they can improve accuracy with the drafting of a will and help to find the required documents and information needed for the execution of the will. “Estate planners or administrators have access to 160 different search types, covering more than 20 data suppliers to find, verify and pre-populate the information of their client to draw up a will or an estate plan.”

 

Assets and liabilities

Some clients are not always aware of all their assets and liabilities in their personal capacity or in their company. This may cover anything from the deed of transfer for property; registration papers for motor vehicles; firearm licences, share certificates, bank account details, to foreign assets or hire purchase agreements.

 

It becomes particularly challenging when there is no will, or when it was not kept up to date with new assets such as property or vehicles, accounts or policies. “The estate planner or administrator will need confirmation of the identification number for Fica purposes, confirmation of all open bank accounts and insurance policies, confirmation whether the testator is a director of a company and to see what vehicles he owns, as well as official confirmation of the surviving spouse’s details,” he says.

 

Kumandan says SearchWorks assists with the verification of identification numbers, as well as providing the full details of an individual or company, including properties owned, directorships and any adverse information.

 

This enables the estate planner, broker, executor or attorney involved in the drafting of the will or the winding up of the estate to proceed without unnecessary delays.

“They do not have to wait for the client or the remaining family members to send the information. It also eliminates the chances of  some assets being left out of the will.”

 

Given the current delays at the Master of the High Court’s offices SearchWorks impacts positively on turnaround times and the confirmation of all the information.

 

Finding and verifying

With SearchWorks executors receive confirmation of death,  assets, policies and accounts in one platform. This certainly assist with the turnaround times of closing down the accounts and transferring the assets. “We are able to obtain details of an individual or company provided by Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC). We can also request a copy of various CIPC documents of a juristic entity,” Kumandan adds.

 

The various property searches allows users of SearchWorks’ online data aggregation platform to determine the value, owner information as well as Surveyor-General diagrams, which is the registerable document prepared by the land surveyor. This contains all the property and land information. On top of this SearchWorks can assist when copies of court documents pertaining to an individual or a company are required.

 

The use of trusts

Many high-net-worth individuals make use of trusts to house assets and to ensure that minor children are cared for through a testamentary trust. “We can verify the existence of a trust as well as obtain trust information, including associated trustees and property details. There is simply no reason why the trauma of losing a loved one should be prolonged because of delays or the inability to find the relevant documents,” Kumandan notes.

Digitally transforming the enterprise

Digitally transforming the enterprise

Ask a variety of companies of different sizes in different sectors to define what digital transformation means for them and you will, in all likelihood, receive many divergent responses.

Customers and times are changing, and business must keep apace with those changes. Whilst it is an undeniable fact that in the post-covid world, companies have to embrace new ways of doing business, it is also true that many have not been successful in their migration from paper, bricks and mortar, face to face customer services and other ‘analogue’ functions and as a consequence are struggling to compete in today’s ‘brave new world’.

Digitisation of a company’s processes is not a single issue that can be addressed by an internal IT department that may itself have been left behind by the speed of the digital transformation that the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated. Digital migration requires a reinvention of the business and all its processes, both internal and external – from streamlining human resource procedures to financial structures and stakeholder and customer interaction points.

Key to the successful transformation of a company to more digital functionality is the capacity and training of staff, soliciting inputs to changes from all stakeholders and constantly benchmarking and reviewing new processes with other equivalent enterprises and global best practices.

The selection of a partner that is fully conversant in all the technical, legal and human implications of digitisation and that can take a holistic view of a business’s long-term needs is imperative in a company’s digital transformation journey. Working in the fintech space, e4 ensures that the digitisation of processes and procedures is seamless and efficient and meets the needs of the company and its customer.

Whatever your core business, even if it feels far from anything requiring digital capability, the fact is that it in all probability it does. Whether it is an online ecommerce site, streamlining of logistical operations, migration of customer service functions from call centre to one that is remote, and ‘bot’ operated, business needs to embrace change.

It is essential, when implementing digital transformation strategies, that at the centre of all companies’ functions is always the customer be it internal or external. Consumers are increasingly demanding low or no touch engagements and so those companies that are able to deliver outstanding user experiences on a variety of platforms will retain a competitive edge. Companies that are fast, agile and responsive will stay relevant and be preferred over competitors whose digitisation journey is slow and cumbersome.

Whilst some of this capability for digital transformation lies within companies’ IT departments, it is to specialised service providers that companies should look to be guided to create holistic digital migration processes which are ever evolving. It is not enough simply to transfer an analogue or manual process that was inefficient into an equally inefficient digital one. This is the time for businesses to totally rethink their overall functions, take the opportunity to overhaul old practices and replace them with digitised tools that deliver step change value. Organisations need to focus on the value derived from digital enablement,  not the technology that underpins this value creation.

Most financial services related enterprises have established digital transformation as a key strategic agenda item at least over the short to medium term. Whilst certain institutions continue to build these capabilities internally, many more have seen the advantage of partnering with specialists in the multiple areas encapsulated by fintech industry players.

What is certain is that digital is here to stay. It is fast paced and is driven by tech-enabled customers looking for tech-enabled solutions to suit their needs. Businesses need to be on board with digitisation and to look to the future if they plan to be around in the years to come.

By: Grant Phillips,

Group CEO of fintech specialist e4

LINX and NAPAfrica announce strategic collaboration

LINX and NAPAfrica announce strategic collaboration

 

 

The London Internet Exchange (LINX) has announced a strategic collaboration with African Internet Exchange Point, NAPAfrica.

 

Both Internet Exchanges are similarly run, not for profit, and put their membership community first. Located within Teraco data centre facilities in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, NAPAfrica’s founding goal is to help make internet access more universal and accessible across the African continent.

 

The partnership will mean networks currently connected and peering at NAPAfrica or LINX can access either of the exchanges via trusted and mutually available carriers.

 

Michele McCann, Head of Interconnection and Peering at Teraco, says: “Our founding goal at NAPAfrica is to help make internet access more pervasive for the African continent. We are excited to be collaborating with LINX to provide clients with a more direct and improved internet experience to any LINX location. The immediate benefit to carriers, cloud providers and content delivery networks, connected or peering at either NAPAfrica or LINX in London, is a more streamlined end-user experience.

 

“Our relationship with LINX is the first of what we anticipate will be many similar collaborative partnerships with internet exchanges seeking to provide a world-class internet experience for all users across the African continent,” she says.

 

LINX has provided interconnection services for networks for over 25 years, with more than 850 networks connected to their London platforms alone. The partnership with NAPAfrica will make reaching London and peering at LINX more of a reality for African networks.

 

Nurani Nimpuno, Head of Global Engagement for LINX, says: “We have always worked closely with our friends at NAPAfrica, sharing technical knowledge and insights. Announcing a more strategic partnership will open doors and optimal routes to Europe for the African networks who may not have been able to reach us before.”

 

Peering has been the telecommunications community’s primary data transfer method for years. By peering, networks benefit from low latency, a more direct and controlled route for their data. A single connection into an Internet Exchange Point (IXP) can mean multiple peering opportunities with global networks. Many networks peer at multiple IXPs to keep their traffic local for end users in the geographical area.

Aregbesola Inspects ongoing 3000 capacity Karshi Custodian Centre, Expresses Satisfaction

Aregbesola Inspects ongoing 3000 capacity Karshi Custodian Centre, Expresses Satisfaction

 

Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, this morning expressed satisfaction at the level of work done at the project site of the 3,000 capacity Maximum Custodian centre in Karshi, Abuja.

The Minister expressed his satisfaction while fielding questions from journalists at the project site today. He said “When compare with the amount released so far and what was on ground, the contractors have done well”

When asked on when the project would be completed, the Minister said releases from budget usually cannot be relied upon for the completion of the project. He added that special intervention would be sought to complete the project.
Aregbesola, assured that similar projects that are almost completed and ready for commissioning at the end of this year by the President includes that of Kano, Rivers and others.

He, however, said the project consists of special facilities for difficult inmates as well as facilities for inmates with lesser crimes for both male and female.

Aregbesola said the approval of the project was granted in 2017 by President Muhammad Buhari’s Administration.

Afonja Fatai Ajibola
DD (Press)

NCC, Civil Defence Corps align to Tackle Telecoms Crimes

NCC, Civil Defence Corps align to Tackle Telecoms Crimes

 

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has teamed with the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to tackle some of the criminal activities bedeviling the telecom industry, such as telecom equipment vandalism and fraudulent registration of Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards among others.

Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, who addressed a gathering of senior management staff of NSCDC in the South West Zone, at an exclusive workshop organised by the Commission, hailed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) sealed between the agency and the Commission, for which the gathering was to explore how the Corps will deploy enabling laws, subsidiary legislations, and extant guidelines to arrest any form of criminality in the sector.

Danbatta, who was represented at the workshop by the Director, Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement at the Commission, Ephraim Nwokonneya, said, over the years, the NCC has been working with relevant law enforcement agencies, and in particular the NSCDC, towards protecting telecom sector from all kinds of criminal behaviour.

“Through despicable activities that are criminal and totally at variance with national security concerns of government, the deviant elements in our midst have been acting to undermine efforts put in place to consolidate the gains of the sector,” the EVC said.

Danbatta declared that “These criminal activities include theft and vandalism of telecommunications infrastructure, the illegal use of fraudulently-registered Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards, operating without license, illegal call masking, and so on.”

He said while the NSCDC officers have been of tremendous assistance, the objective of the workshop was to constantly engage and update them on new trends and existing regulations, requiring concerted efforts for their implementation towards enhancing sanity in the telecom sector.

Danbatta said the NSCDC and other agencies have done very well with the assistance of their personnel in carrying out raid exercises and mopping up fraudulently-registered SIM cards found in circulation, as well as in raising the banner of awareness on the need to protect critical national telecom infrastructure.

Some of the topical issues discussed at the workshop covered the activities of the Commission as presented by the relevant departments in the context of laws and other regulations, and in relation to the roles of NSCDC, as depicted in the presentation made by the NCC’s Head of Enforcement, Salisu Abdu, during the workshop.

EPO READY TO PARTNER WITH STAKEHOLDERS TO TACKLE THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHALLENGES IN THE COUNTRY

EPO READY TO PARTNER WITH STAKEHOLDERS TO TACKLE THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHALLENGES IN THE COUNTRY

 

 

 

The Director, Overseeing the Office of Permanent Secretary Ecological Project Office (EPO), Dr Famous Eseduwo has stated that the Ecological Project Office is ready to collaborate with Stakeholders who are willing to partner with the Office on Environmental and Ecological issues facing the country.

Dr Famous made this known during the familiarization visit of the Geological Unit of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) at the EPO Conference Room, today, Thursday, 8th September, 2022

He reiterated that the Ecological Project Office as a special intervention office on ecological challenges does not have budgetary allocation but operates with the Federal Government’s 1% share alongside four other related agencies which include: NEMA, Great Green Wall, North East Development Commission and the Nigeria Agriculture and Land Development Agency (NALDA).

He urged the team from NEMA to assist in educating the public on EPO mandate, stating that there is no sludge fund in the Office as it is often misconstrued by some Nigerians.

The Director, Pollution Control EPO, Mr. Clinton Igwe, observed that the Federal Ministry of Environment charged with policy formulation on Environment could be best positioned to play the coordination role in bringing all relevant agencies together to produce the National Policy on the flooding, erosion, earthquakes and earth tremors. He added that this would fast track NEMA’s current drive for an enduring solution to the environmental challenges in the country.

Speaking on behalf of the Director-General of NEMA, the Deputy Director, Research and Forecasting, Mr. Abdullahi Adamu Usur, thanked the Director, Overseeing the Office of the Permanent Secretary, EPO for obliging the request, stating that the visit is aimed at seeking ways of strengthening ties, learn and identify areas of collaboration with EPO.

Mr Abdullahi Usur also attested to the enormous interventions by EPO on ecological projects office and for its collaborative efforts with sister agencies.

The Principal Planning Officer and the technical officer of the Geological unit of NEMA, Mr Awwal Sadiq, stressed on the need to have a united front with relevant agencies in order to build an enduring solution on the myriad of Environment and Ecological challenges in the country which is also a global threat.

Present at the event also were: Director II., Drought Decertification and Coastal Zone Management, Engr Tony Iwere, Director II, Pollution Control Department, Mrs Esther Kolade; Director, Procurement, Mohammed Abdullahi; and other management staff of EPO.

Obegolu, Amala (SIO)

ANGLICAN PRIEST RESIGNS, FLOATS A MOVEMENT IN SUPPORT OF POLYGAMY

ANGLICAN PRIEST RESIGNS, FLOATS A MOVEMENT IN SUPPORT OF POLYGAMY

 

Nnewi Anglican Priest, Rev. Ogbuchukwu Makuo Lotanna, has resigned as a priest of Nnewi Diocese, Anambra State to float a movement in support of polygamy.

The new movement is called the Gideonite Temple while the followers are the Gideonites.

Lotanna, who hails from Mbanagu Otolo, Nnewi claimed that the mandate he received from God to float a movement that encourages polygamy is geared towards reducing the rate of sexual sins.

According to him, it is obvious that the church especially the Anglican Church has been teaching against the concept of polygamy, but the Lord had opened his eyes to the reality that polygamy is not a sin.

He revealed that what God hates is divorce of any type, sleeping with another man’s wife and sleeping with someone you are not married to, insisting that God desires men to even marry more than one wife, instead of going for someone’s wife or ladies they are not married to.

The priest who is also a legal practitioner said that the church has hidden this information from members for a long time and it is high time people are told the truth.

Barr. Makuo encouraged men to marry their side chicks to escape hellfire, maintaining that the only wrong with polygamy is to stay in a Church that says no to it and practice it, because two cannot walk unless they agree.

Lotanna was ordained an Anglican Priest on Dec. 22, 2019, at Cathedral Church of St. Mary’s Uruagu, Nnewi. He is married to Chinyere Abigail, who hails from Umuogbu Village Achara in Awka North council of the state.

As at the time of writing, there is no official reaction from the Anglican Diocese of Nnewi towards this development.

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