APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The postponement of the governorship and State Assemblies elections earlier scheduled for Saturday to March 18 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) dominates the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.
The Punch reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission has postponed governorship and state assemblies elections earlier scheduled for Saturday to March 18.
The commission took the decision at its management meeting in Abuja, which was convened on Wednesday after the Court of Appeal gave it the go-ahead to reconfigure Bimodal Voter Accreditation machines.
The meeting, which started at 7 pm and ended at 10 pm, was presided over by its National Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
In a statement by its National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye on Wednesday night, INEC said it could not go ahead with the governorship poll as earlier scheduled because it needed time to reconfigure BIVAS machines, which were used for the presidential election on February 25.
The Court of Appeal had earlier on Wednesday granted permission to INEC to reconfigure BIVAS used for the presidential election.
The appellate court panel held that allowing the objections of the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, would amount to “tying the hands of the respondent, INEC.”
In the wake of the declaration of the All Progressives Congress candidate, Bola Tinubu as the president-elect, Obi had approached the appellate court where he secured an order restraining the commission from reconfiguring the BVAS used for the election.
“We take judicial notice that similar applications to access electoral materials for the purpose of instituting petitions were made by other applicants.
“The respondents are hereby reminded, in case of any misapprehension by any of them, that the court did not, in any of those orders granted, authorize the applicants therein, the permission to electronically open the applicant’s database.”
Before the court gave INEC the go-ahead on BVAS reconfiguration the commission had yet to start the distribution of election materials in many states.
The commission had told the court on Tuesday that reconfiguration of BVAS would take two or three days.
The newspaper says that the Telecommunication company, MTN Nigeria, has completed the allotment of over 3.9 million incentive shares to 120,359 qualified shareholders.
According to a corporate notice signed by the Company Secretary, Ufo Ukpanat, on Wednesday, the incentive offer became effective on January 31, 2023.
The notice revealed that the offer was made in December 2021 but completed on January 31, 2022, the date on which the Securities & Exchange Commission cleared the offer allotment.
The offer included an incentive of one ordinary share for every 20 ordinary shares purchased.
The shareholders who qualified for the incentive shares are those who purchased and were allotted at least 20 ordinary shares in the offer; held some or all the shares allotted at the offer as of the qualification date, 31 January 2023 but subject to holding at least 20 ordinary shares; and those whose names appeared in the register of members at the qualification date.
Consequently, 120,359 investors, representing 94.77 percent of those who participated in the offer qualified to receive the incentive shares totaling 3,977,418 ordinary shares of MTN Nigeria.
The Guardian reports that a train has collided with a Lagos State Government staff bus in the Shogunle area of Oshodi in Lagos.
The incident took place on Thursday morning.
An eyewitness said the bus was attempting to cross the rail track when an oncoming train rammed into it.
The train reportedly dragged the bus from Shogunle to the PWD area of Ikeja.
Several passengers were said to be injured in the accident.
Our correspondent gathered that the bus was conveying staff of the Lagos state government.
The newspaper says that about 97 percent of organizations in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and other parts of the region are expected to have a tech skills challenge in 2023.
According to SAP Africa, which disclosed this in its ‘Africa’s Tech Skills Scarcity Revealed’ report released and discussed during a webinar, yesterday, adding that 93 percent of firms surveyed in Africa said the need for tech skills has increased in the past 12 months.
Managing Director at SAP Africa, Cathy Smith, said there is an urgent need to invest in skills development and training to ensure Africa can capitalize on its youth dividend.
Smith said: “More than half of the world’s population growth between now and 2050 will take place in Africa, where 1.3 billion people are expected to be born by mid-century. With the correct investment in skills development, Africa’s economy could transition away from its reliance on natural resources to build the world’s future tech workforce, bringing untold economic and social benefits to the continent and its citizens.
However, as our research reveals, African organizations still face some difficulties with attracting, retaining and upskilling suitably skilled tech workers.”
The report found that a lack of skills is having a negative effect on the continent’s digital transformation efforts.
According to it, four in five organizations surveyed reported some negative effects from a lack of tech skills, with 41 percent reporting that employees are leaving due to the pressures they experience as a result of understaffing. Other consequences include not being able to meet client needs (reported by 46 percent), reduced capacity for innovation (53 percent), and losing customers to competitors (60 percent).
SAP said nearly all organizations expected to experience a tech skills-related challenge in 2023. It said more than two-thirds (69 percent) also said they expect to experience a skills gap in the year ahead.
According to the data, the top skills challenge for African organizations is attracting skilled new recruits, although in South Africa the retention of skilled employees narrowly edged out attracting skills as the top challenge.
In response to the ongoing tech skills challenges, SAP observed that organizations are taking bold steps to ensure they have access to the correct tech skills.
It disclosed that 41 percent said that upskilling of existing employees would be a top priority in 2023, while 40 percent said the same about reskilling employees.
GIK/APA