Author: Kelvin Funkeye

Kenya appointed Trade and Development Bank and Standard Bank Group Ltd. to arrange syndicated loans of $1 billion. “We have that mandate alongside Standard Bank,” Admassu Tadesse, the president and chief executive of TDB, as the lender is known, said Thursday by phone from the East African nation’s capital, Nairobi. The bank plans to raise the financing by April, he said without giving further details of the loan. There will be three tranches — a…

 A court in the Ukrainian capital Kiev has found former President Viktor Yanukovych guilty of treason. Yanukovych fled Ukraine in 2014 as tensions in Kiev flared up following a deadly police crackdown on protesters calling for the president to follow through with an association agreement with the European Union. Yanukovych, who eventually surfaced in Russia and was tried in absentia, faced charges of treason, along with complicity in a war against Ukraine and premeditated actions…

In continuation of its desire to empower and promote the spirit of entrepreneurship among young people in Nigeria, Facebook announced that it is launching a new incubation programme in partnership with its satellite hubs to help local start-ups and upcoming entrepreneurs realise their business goals. Participating hubs in the 8-week program include Colab, Roar Nigeria, nHub, Ken Saro Wiwa Innovation Hub, Ventures Platform, Di-Hub, Start Innovation Hub, and NG_Hub. Officially launching on February 4, the…

Popular U.S. singer, Chris Brown, who was arrested in Paris on Monday with two other persons on allegations of rape, has been released from police custody. The police are still investigating the case, the French prosecutor’s office added. Recall that Brown alongside his bodyguard and a friend were detained after a 24-year-old woman alleged she was raped at the singer’s suite at the Mandarin Oriental hotel on the night of Jan. 15. The woman said she…

Togo has elected its first female head of the National Assembly, following parliamentary elections that saw the ruling party maintain its majority. Yawa Djigbodi Tsegan, from President Faure Gnassingbe’s Union for the Republic party, was chosen on Wednesday in a vote by her fellow lawmakers. The 47-year-old Tsegan, a tax inspector who previously held the position of parliamentary administrator, won 88 nominations from the 89 members of parliament who voted, an AFP reporter said. She…

A man has divorced his wife and he explained to BBC Hausa that he did so because she insists on voting for Buhari in the coming presidential election. Abdullahi Yada’u, a resident of Kanam Local Government Area of Plateau State, told BBC Hausa Service on Thursday that he divorced his wife, Hafsat Suleiman, because she insisted on voting for Mr Buhari. He tried convincing his wife not to vote for the incumbent president and when…

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has on Thursday, barred the Danladi Umar-led Code of Conduct Tribunal from trying the Chief Justice of Nigeria, NJC, Walter Onnoghen. A three-man panel of the court granted the interim order pending ruling on the Onnoghen’s application for stay of proceedings. The appellate court stopped the CCT from proceeding with hearing in the false assets declaration.

The withdrawal of Oby Ezekwesili, presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) for the 2019 presidential race has been rejected by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). According to INEC, there is is an electoral act which stipulates that a candidate would only withdraw from the race no less that 45 days to the date of elections, Th Sun reports. The candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) announced her…