The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has granted approval to Mobile Network Operators comprising MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile, to disconnect the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) codes of nine commercial banks from their networks.
USSD Codes: NCC Approves 9 Banks’ Disconnection
Economists Increase Inflation Forecasts Due to Trump’s Economic Policies
The Wall Street Journal reports Trump’s Return Nudges Economists’ Inflation Outlook Higher Economists are starting to model the effects of President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to raise tariffs, cut taxes and restrict immigration. The upshot: Inflation and interest rates are likely to be higher for at least the next two years than forecasters anticipated before the election. “Risks to inflation and interest rates are to the upside with a Trump administration,” said Augustine Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group. In the latest Journal survey, economists also raised their inflation
Pi Network, which we have covered before hereand here, is one of the most popular players in the crypto industry. Launched in 2018, the network has accumulated over 50 million users, while the Pi Browser has had over 100 million downloads.
Pi Network aims to become the biggest and most useful cryptocurrency project in the industry by making it easy for people to mine the token. Anyone with a smartphone can receive an invite and become a pioneer.
Pi’s network has been in development for the past few years, with many pioneers mining and accumulating millions of coins.
Pi Network is preparing for the mainnet launch
Ahmad Farroukh has reportedly left his position as CEO of Nigerian telecommunications company Globacom just one month after his appointment in October 2024. According to TechCabal, his sudden departure appears to be linked to challenges within the company’s organisational structure.
Moving forward, Globacom faces two critical challenges: finding a new CEO capable of navigating Nigeria’s competitive telecommunications market and reforming its internal structure to attract and retain top industry talent.
Globacom CEO, Ahmad Farroukh resigns after one month in office
NNPC raises petrol price to N990 in Abuja
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, through its retail outlets, has increased the price of petrol from N965 to N990 per litre in the Federal Capital Territory.
Tribune Online reports that the increase is not unconnected with the rise in crude oil prices in the international market.
Court sacks Ogun monarch, Macgregor
28th January 2025
Alexander Macgregor
The Ogun State High Court in Abeokuta on Tuesday reversed Alexander Macgregor’s installation as the Olu of Ilawo , declaring the process illegal.
Justice Olatokunbo Majekodunmi ruled that Macgregor must stop posing as the Olu of Orile Ilawo, Abeokuta, pending the determination of the suit against the processes that led to his nomination.
The court’s decision was in response to a suit filed by Ogunsanya- Ariku Royal Family of Ilawo, who had prayed to the court to stop the installation and declare Macgregor’s claim to the throne invalid.
Delivering the ruling, the judge condemned the government’s action in installing Macgregor despite pending court cases, describing it as an act of impunity and disregard for the court.
Court sacks Ogun monarch, Macgregor
DeepSeek was the most downloaded free app on Apple's US App Store over the weekend. By Monday, the new AI chatbot had triggered a massive sell-off of major tech stocks which were in freefall as fears mounted over America's leadership in the sector.
Shares of AI chip designer and recent Wall Street darling Nvidia, for example, had plunged by 17% by the time US markets closed on Monday. Or to put it in even starker terms, it lost nearly $600bn in market value which, according to Bloomberg, is the biggest drop in the history of the US stock market.
China's DeepSeek AI shakes industry and dents America's swagger
In February 2016, High-Flyer was co-founded by AI enthusiast Liang Wenfeng, who had been trading since the 2007–2008 financial crisis while attending Zhejiang University.[15] By 2019, he established High-Flyer as a hedge fund focused on developing and using AI trading algorithms. By 2021, High-Flyer exclusively used AI in trading.[16] DeepSeek has made its generative artificial intelligence chatbot open source, meaning its code is freely available for use, modification, and viewing. This includes permission to access and utilize the source code, as well as design documents, for building purposes.[13]
DEEP SEEK
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has officially approved the release of the Nigerian Foreign Exchange (FX) Code, a move aimed at fostering ethical conduct and transparency within the nation’s foreign exchange market.
In a statement on the apex bank’s website, it disclosed that the Code, which will serve as a vital guideline for the banking industry, is designed to ensure that authorised dealers uphold the highest standards of professionalism and integrity when conducting FX transactions.
CBN approves release of FX Code to promote ethical conduct in Nigeria’s foreign exchange market
Nigerian politicians in office to kill, steal, remain in power -Amaechi
A former Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, has declared that Nigerian politicians are in power to steal, kill, and retain power.
Amaechi made this remark at the National Conference on Strengthening Democracy in Nigeria held earlier this week, aimed at discussing pathways to good governance and political integrity in Nigeria.
The Dangote Refinery is an oil refinery owned by Dangote Group that was inaugurated on 22 May 2023[1] in Lekki, Nigeria. When fully operational, it is expected to have the capacity to process about 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day, making it the largest single-train refinery in the world. The investment is over US$19 billion.
Dangote Refinery
As of September 2021, in addition to Nigeria, Access Bank plc has subsidiaries in Mozambique, Zambia, Congo, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and in the United Kingdom.[3] Access Bank Group also maintains representative offices in China, India, Lebanon and United Arab Emirates.
Access Bank plc
Outlook.com, formerly Hotmail, is a free personal email service offered by Microsoft. This includes a webmail interface featuring mail, calendaring, contacts, and tasks services. Outlook can also be accessed via email clients using the IMAP or POP protocols.
Outlook is offered with any Microsoft account, using @outlook.com, @hotmail.com and @msn.com domains;[a] various other domains, including @live.com, @passport.com and @windowslive.com, are maintained but no longer offered now
Dangote refinery announces reduction in petrol price
“As part of Dangote Refinery’s unwavering commitment to transparency and fairness, this price revision reflects the ongoing fluctuations in global crude oil markets, as highlighted in the refinery’s statement on 19th January, when a modest increase was implemented due to the previously rising international crude oil prices,” he said.
B. F. Skinner
Biography
Skinner was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, to Grace and William Skinner, the latter of whom was a lawyer. Skinner became an atheist after a Christian teacher tried to assuage his fear of the hell that his grandmother described.[14] His brother Edward, two and a half years younger, died at age 16 of a cerebral hemorrhage.[15]
Overview of Bitcoin
Bitcoin is the first and best-known cryptocurrency and has served as a blueprint for creating thousands of other digital currencies collectively known as altcoins. At its core, Bitcoin runs on blockchain technology, a transparent and tamper-proof ledger that records every transaction made with the cryptocurrency across a distributed network of computers.
BITCOIN PRICE
The exchange rate between the naira and dollar dropped to about N1,745/$1 on the parallel market on Wednesday, The PUNCH reports.
This is a sharp reversal from the N1,600 levels recorded at the end of last week.
While some P2P exchanges quoted N1,715/$, some International Money Transfer Operators checked quoted N1,745/$.
Stock trading apps like Bamboo and Trove are quoted for N1,730/$ and N1,736/$, respectively.
Naira falls to N1,745/$ on parallel market
A major cash crunch occurred in February 2023 when the Nigerian government used a currency note changeover—delivering too few of the new notes into circulation—to attempt to force citizens to use a newly-created government-sponsored central bank digital currency. This led to extensive street protests
Nigerian naira
Forbes (/fɔːrbz/) is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917 and owned by Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014.[3][4] Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes.[5] The company is based in Jersey City, New Jersey. Sherry Phillips was slated to become the new CEO at Forbes on January 1, 2025.
Forbes
Babylon was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about 85 kilometres (55 miles) south of modern day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-speaking region of Babylonia. Its rulers established two important empires in antiquity, the 19th–16th century BC Old Babylonian Empire, and the 7th–6th century BC Neo-Babylonian Empire. Babylon was also used as a regional capital of other empires, such as the Achaemenid Empire. Babylon was one of the most important urban centres of the ancient Near East, until its decline during the Hellenistic period. Nearby ancient sites are Kish, Borsippa, Dilbat, and Kutha
Babylon
Data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange Limited revealed that the naira, which opened at N1,496.50/$1, closed at N1,498.95 per dollar, marking a 0.22 percent depreciation compared to N1,495.60 closed on Monday at the NFEM. The data was computed based on FMDQ Exchange FX Closing Rate Methodology using data from Bloomberg BMatch.
Naira closes flat across FX market as CBN extends dollar access to BDCs
Last week, the Berachain Foundation was formally announced, serving as one of the final steps in the launch sequence for the BERA token.
The BERA token distribution includes an airdrop of 15.75% to Berachain community members, applications, liquidity providers and more as recognition of their contributions to an incredibly robust pre-launch ecosystem, and their role in helping to make the fake chain real.
This post serves to provide a breakdown of the eligibility criteria for receiving an airdrop, and a walkthrough of the claims process for different portions of the airdrop.
Berachain Airdrop Overview
United Bank for Africa
United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) is a multinational pan-African financial services group headquartered in Lagos Island, Lagos and known as Africa’s Global Bank. It has subsidiaries in 20 African countries and offices in London, Paris and New York.[3] In December 2021, UBA received its banking license to commence operations in the UAE.[4] It is listed as commercial bank by the Central Bank of Nigeria.[5] The shares of stock of the group are listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, where they trade under the symbol: UBA.[6] The Group Chairman of the bank is Tony Elumelu and the GMD/CEO is Oliver Alawuba.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited is a state-owned oil company in Nigeria. Still a fully-owned government company, it was transformed from a corporation into a limited liability company in July 2022.[1] NNPC Limited is the only entity licensed to operate in the country's petroleum industry. It partners with foreign oil companies to explore Nigeria's fossil fuel resources. The NNPC, with an asset of $153B (USD), is the largest national oil company in Africa. The company boasts of extensive infrastructure and investment in the downstream, midstream and upstream of the Nigerian petroleum industry.
NNPC Limited
CBN orders Nigerian Banks to cut insider loans within six months
Nigeria’s banking regulator has issued a sweeping directive mandating commercial banks to comply with stricter insider lending limits or risk regulatory sanctions.
In a letter to banks, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) set a 180-day deadline for financial institutions to regularize all insider-related credit facilities that exceed the statutory limits prescribed under the Banking and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020.
The move is part of broader efforts to rein in governance lapses and curb excessive exposure to politically connected or influential insiders, a long-standing issue in Nigeria’s financial sector.
PwC
PwC firms are in 149 countries, with 370,000 people.[3] As of 2019, 26% of the workforce was based in the Americas, 26% in Asia, 32% in Western Europe, and 5% in Middle East and Africa.[7] The company's global revenues were US$50.3 billion in FY 2022, of which $18.0 billion was generated by its Assurance practice, $11.6 billion by its Tax and Legal practice and $20.7 billion by its Advisory practice.
Edukoya, which raised Africa’s largest pre-seed funding of $3.5 million in 2021, cited market readiness, widespread connectivity issues, and limited access to devices as key challenges. It also highlighted the lack of disposable income and broader macroeconomic conditions, which made mass-market adoption difficult.
"Edukoya encountered significant market readiness challenges in scaling our synchronous learning model," the email read.
The company concluded that it was ahead of its time and decided to wind down operations, returning capital to investors.
Edukoya shuts down, to return investment after three years in Nigeria's edtech space
A black market[a] is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services whose production and distribution are prohibited or restricted by law, non-compliance with the rule constitutes a black-market trade since the transaction itself is illegal. Such transactions include the illegal drug trade,[clarification needed] prostitution (where prohibited), illegal currency transactions, and human trafficking
Black market
Lyon[c] (Franco-Provençal: Liyon) is the second-largest city in France by urban area and the third largest by city limits.[14] It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, 391 km (243 mi) southeast of Paris, 278 km (173 mi) north of Marseille, 113 km (70 mi) southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, 58 km (36 mi) northeast of Saint-Étienne.
Lyon
A cryptocurrency bubble is a phenomenon where the market increasingly considers the going price of cryptocurrency assets to be inflated against their hypothetical value. The history of cryptocurrency has been marked by several speculative bubbles on a boom to bust cycle.
Cryptocurrency bubble
