1.
Arik Air has been awarded the best airline in West Africa at the annual Akwaaba African Travel Market awards/dinner held at the Eko Hotels and Suites
, Lagos on Sunday
. The organisers of the award said the process leading to the choice of Arik Air as the best airline in West Africa was painstaking and the airline has become a pride to Nigerians.
2.
Etisalat Nigeria has announced the finalists for the 2014 Pan-African Prize for Innovation, which will shine the light on creativity in the African Broadband space. Memmcol Interactive media interface design and MAMALET emerged finalists for the Most Innovative Idea category, while Exam Mate and Akpos Jokes emerged finalists of Most Innovative Product/Service category of the prize.
3. According to the Federal Government, a Chinese firm,
Shandong Power Equipment Company Limited, is to construct a new power grid for Nigeria. The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday while signing a Memorandum of Understanding with SPECO for the construction of a new national grid system.
4. Federal Government has
released over 1 million cocoa seedlings to 400, 000 farmers of the cash crop across the cocoa geo-ecological zones in the country to boost the production and export of the commodity.
5. The Africa Finance Corporation,
AFC, has secured a $100 million (about N16 billion), long term loan facility from the United States of America’s (USA) development finance institution, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), and the global investment banking leader, J.P. Morgan to support infrastructural development in Nigeria and other countries in the African continent.
6. Major Nigerian helicopter services provider, Bristow Helicopters Nigeria Ltd, in line with its initiative to train and empower Nigerians and strengthen the capacity of the nation’s aviation industry, has
concluded arrangements to sponsor 20 cadet engineers to the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria (NCAT) for a 90-week training. The training will cost the company over N50 million. Bristow will be fully financially responsible for these students during their entire stay at the Nigerian College of Civil Aviation Technology (NCAT).
7. It has been disclosed that
35 young Nigerians have left Nigeria for South Korea to acquire skills in ship building. The youths, who are to be trained on various aspects of ship building, will spend between six to nine months in South Korea.
8.
The contributory pension scheme (CPS) has accumulated a large pool of investible funds of over N4.5 trillion pension assets as at June this year, the Director General, National Pension Commission (PenCom), Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu stated Thursday.
9.
Nigerian farmers have redeemed a total 1.37 million metric tonnes of fertiliser worth N151 billion ($915 million), the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has said. He also added that farmers received an additional 102,703 metric tonnes of improved rice seeds and 67,991 metric tons of improved maize seeds valued at N43 billion ($260 million).
10.
The Federal Government is intensifying the implementation of expansion projects for cocoa processing and manufacturing in order to claim a greater share of the annual $200 billion global market for finished goods made from cocoa.
