Press focuses on central bank’s tackling of scarcity of banknotes, others

APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The report that the Central Bank of Nigeria on Thursday began the disbursement of old naira notes to Deposit Money Banks as government authorities stepped up efforts to end the biting currency scarcity that has inflicted pain on millions of bank customers nationwide is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Friday.
The Punch reports that the Central Bank of Nigeria on Thursday began the disbursement of old naira notes to Deposit Money Banks as government authorities stepped up efforts to end the biting currency scarcity that has inflicted pain on millions of bank customers nationwide.
The central bank had directed DMBs to pick old N1,000, N500 and N200 notes at its offices across the country for onward disbursements to customers, following a meeting between the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, and bank chief executive officers on Wednesday.
Findings by our correspondents on Thursday revealed that commercial banks got old naira notes from CBN offices across the country.
Multiple bank sources including CEOs and top executives confirmed to The PUNCH that the apex bank released old notes to banks.
“I can confirm to you that we received old notes from the CBN today, we also received a memo from the central bank to this effect,” the CEO of a commercial bank told The PUNCH on condition of anonymity.
Also, a general manager at a tier-2 bank told one of our correspondents that the lender got some old notes from the central bank on Thursday.
“The CBN has started giving us old notes. However, it will take some time for the currency to circulate,” a top official of a mid-size bank confirmed to one of our correspondents on Thursday.
The newspaper says that the former Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, is at risk of being sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in line with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 of the United Kingdom after a London court found him and his wife, Beatrice, guilty of organ trafficking.
Following the guilty verdicts by Mr Justice Johnson, Ekweremadu and his wife were remanded in custody and await sentencing on May 5.
According to The Mirror, the duo faced the accusations along side a medical doctor, Obinna Obeta, and their daughter, Sonia, who was cleared of charges after the jury deliberated for nearly 14 hours.
The Ekweremadus were arrested and had been in the custody of UK authorities after they received complaints from the young man about their alleged plans to harvest his organ.
According to Daily Mail, the young man, a trader from Lagos, was to be rewarded for donating a kidney to Sonia in an £80,000 private procedure at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
The PUNCH reports that the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 frowns on human trafficking under which organ harvesting falls.
According to the human trafficking offence in Section 2 Subsection 1 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, a person commits an offence if the person arranges or facilitates the travel of another person (“V”) with a view to V being exploited.
Subsection 2 states that it is irrelevant whether V consents to the travel (whether V is an adult or a child).
The Guardian reports that the military high command, yesterday, confirmed intensifying the war against oil theft and other criminal activities in the Niger Delta region, as troops of the Joint Task Force (JTF), Operation DELTA SAFE and other operations in the region have denied oil thieves the total sum of N277,357,800.
This followed the discovery and destruction of 107 illegal refining sites, 140 storage tanks, 58 reservoirs, 151 ovens, 68 dugout pits and 22 wooden boats during patrols, raids and clearance operations conducted at the creeks, waterways, high sea, towns and cities of Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, Cross River and Akwa Ibom states in the past two weeks.
Director, Defence Media Operations (DMO), Major General Musa Danmadami, who made the disclosure in Abuja, said during the operations, troops also recovered 561,200 litres of crude oil, 119,000 litres of Automotive Gas Oil, one fibre boat, five pumping machines, two outboard engines, 10 new Geepee tanks, one tricycle and six vehicles, while nine suspected criminals were apprehended.
The DMO briefed the media on operational activities of the Armed Forces and other security agencies conducted in addressing the various security challenges across the country from March 9 to March 23, 2023.
Danmadami also disclosed that during the period, 42 Boko Haram/Islamic States of West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists and their collaborators, bandits and other criminal elements were neutralised, while 85 others were arrested.
In addition, he said 48 AK47 rifles and sum of N4,247,740 were recovered from the criminal elements from different parts of the country, just as 130 abducted civilians and kidnapped victims were rescued.
Highlighting the major operations conducted across the six geo-political zones within the weeks, the DMO said troops in the North East zone recovered 16 AK47 rifles, 1 x 60mm mortar bomb, 10 Dane guns, 12 dummy rifles, one pump action gun, one PKT gun, 280 rounds of 7.62mm special, 118 rounds of 7.62 x 50mm NATO, 13 rounds of 5.56mm ammo, 10 rounds of 7.62 x 54mm NATO ammo, one round of 12.7mm NATO, 17 AK47 magazines, one firing pin, one mechanic tools box, two knives, six motorcycles, 24 mobile phones, 41 livestock, assorted food items, one vehicle, four Sim cards and other sundry items, as well as a cash sum of N2,234,820.
Danmadami continued: “Troops neutralised 13 Boko Haram/Islamic State of West Africa Province terrorists, arrested six logistics suppliers and rescued 119 abducted civilians, while a total of 1,506 terrorists and members of their families, comprising 154 adult males, 514 adult females and 838 children, surrendered to own troops at different locations within the theatre of operation.”
The newspaper says that the Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Michael Freeman on March 14, paid a working visit to the Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Arc. Sonny S.T. Echono at the Fund’s Headquarters in Abuja.
The visit was the beginning of a collaborative efforts between Nigeria and Israel towards deepening partnership in innovation, entrepreneurship and production.
The objective of the collaboration was to harness Nigeria’s huge potentials for its technological development.
Recall that the partnership between Nigeria and Israel was among the many laudable initiatives embarked upon the Arc. Echono since he assumed the leadership of the fund. Several other innovative moves aimed at boosting research and development, ensuring that the nation graduate employable youths as well as encouraging reading culture in the nation’s tertiary institutions have been initiated by the E.S.
He believed that for there to be transformation in the education sector, it was imperative to focus on the quality of graduates being churned out by tertiary educational institutions. To address the gap issue, the E.S had pledged to forge a sustainable partnership between the academia and the industry as a way to provide permanent solution to the skill gap in the country.
Since then, the hardworking E.S has not relented on his drive as he engages in one technological or innovative partnership or the other.
Speaking during the visit, Israeli Ambassador, Mr. Freeman expressed his country’s desire to work with Nigeria in the areas of technology and entrepreneurship development. He went on to describe Nigeria as a country of huge potentials due to its teeming youth population.
Emphasizing that Israel is a leading country in technology and innovation, Ambassador Freeman disclosed that 45 per cent of Israel’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP) comes from innovation and entrepreneurship start-ups.
This development, according to the Ambassador was because the country’s major economic sectors are involved in high technology and industrial manufacturing.
GIK/APA