Author: tech

At least one person has died and several others were injured in a series of tornadoes that have torn through the US state of Oklahoma. The worst damage was caused by a twister near the town of Shawnee, 35 miles (55km) from Oklahoma City, local media report. A mobile home park near Shawnee is said to have been razed. Tornadoes, hail and high winds also hit Iowa and Kansas, part of a storm system stretching from Texas to Minnesota. The National Weather Service (NWS) warned of a dangerous tornado approaching the city of Wichita, Kansas. It had earlier issued urgent…

Police say they were overwhelmed by the large crowd when a stampede killed four people at a church in Ghana’s capital, Accra, on Sunday. Thousands of people flocked to the evangelical church for “holy water”, which they believed had healing powers, leading to the crush. “All of us were caught by surprise. No-one knew the crowd will be so huge,” said\ police spokesman Freeman Tetteh. The church is run by prominent Nigerian preacher TB Joshua. He is one of the wealthiest and most popular evangelical clerics in Africa and his Synagogue Church of All Nations claims it can perform miracles,…

The Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, has said his administration’s efforts towards creating the enabling environment for investment has started paying off and investors have started seeing the state as an investment haven. Governor Uduaghan, while commissioning the NEPAL Tank Farm and Private Jetty at Oghara at the weekend, said: “Delta State is now recognised as destination for investors and it shows that what we are doing is being recognised. “Government will always ensure that there is adequate infrastructure to encourage investment in the state.” Dr. Uduaghan said his administration will no longer condone any unhealthy youth activity in…

Nigeria’s Super Eagles will host the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire between 6th and 7th July in the first of a two-leg qualifying fixture for next year’s African Nations Championship, the Confederation of African Football has decided. In a letter to the Nigeria Football Federation, CAF also stated that the return leg, billed for the Ivorian capital, Abidjan, will come up between 27th and 28th July. The first leg of this qualifying fixture was earlier billed for between 21st and 23rd June with the return leg in Abidjan to take lace between 6th and 7th July. However, Nigeria’s triumph at the…

CAF appoints Maigari, others into committees President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Aminu Maigari and some members of the NFF Executive Committee have been appointed into standing committees of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for the period, 2013-2015. In the list of standing committees published on the CAF Media Channel, Maigari, under whose leadership Nigeria football has soared to new heights in the past 17 months, will work in the Organizing Committee for the Orange Africa Cup of Nations. The committee is headed by CAF President Issa Hayatou. Maigari’s immediate predecessor at the Glass House, Sani Lulu Abdullahi…

The 12,800-strong UN stabilization force which is to replace the African-led Support Mission in Mali (AFISMA) should be commanded by a West African, in recognition of the region’s track record, a sub-committee of the ECOWAS Committee of Chiefs of Defence Staff (CCDS) has proposed. The estimated 6,000 AFISMA force is scheduled to transform into the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) by July 2013 under the UN Security Council Resolution 2100 of 25th April 2013. After a two-day meeting in Abidjan on the modalities for the transformation, the seven-member CCDS sub-committee noted that the region’s armed forces have…

Nigerian government has pledged more financial aid to war-torn Mali to help rebuild the country after months of conflict. This is even as it disclosed that over USD$45 million has so far been spent in humanitarian assistance, rehabilitation and maintenance of military operations to restore peace in the country. Vice President Namadi Sambo, made the pledge in Brussels at the International Donors Conference on the Development of Mali organized by the European Union and the Mali’s transitional government. Representing President Goodluck Jonathan at the event, Sambo stated that Nigeria has remained committed to the restoration of peace and order in…

In a comprehensive report released recently by Renaissance Capital, a leading investment advisory firm, Guaranty Trust Bank plc was adjudged the bank that created the highest value for investors in 2012 out of the three Tier 1 banks considered. The other banks evaluated in the analysis include First bank of Nigeria and Zenith Bank. After a review of the 2012 financial results of these tier 1 banks, the analysts commented that GTBank outperformed its peers delivering Return on Equity (RoE) of 34% against Zenith Bank’s 24% and First Bank’s 18%. GTBank’s superior returns were said to have been driven by…

By: Prompt News The federal government is not comfortable with the huge debt profile of the country which has reached an alarming rate at over N6 trillion. According to the Minister of State for Finance, Yerima Ngama, of serious concern to the government was the high cost of servicing the domestic debt which constitutes the chunk of the entire debt portfolio. Yerima told correspondents on Wednesday at the weekly post-Cabinet briefing that a medium-term debt management strategy jointly developed by Debt Management Office (DMO), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and with inputs from the National Bureau of Statistics, the…