February 2021

28 February 2021
ThisDay
Non-state actors possess 6.145m small arms nationwide
The number of small arms in the hands of civilian non-state actors nationwide is estimated at 6,145,000, a new report by SBM Intelligence and Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) has revealed…

State govts now doubt FG’s capacity to provide security
Nigeria’s sub-national governments have lost confidence in the capacity of the federal government to provide security amid rising cases of mass atrocities that claimed 4,558 lives nationwide in 2020, Global Rights, an international human rights organisation based in Washington D.C., has said…

Vanguard
720 kidnapped in two months, ₦10bn ransom paid
No fewer than 720 persons have been kidnapped across Nigeria since the beginning of 2021, research commissioned by Sunday Vanguard revealed…

27 February 2021
AFP
By targeting schools, Nigerian kidnappers put country at risk
Jihadists in northeastern Nigeria have long outraged the world with mass abductions of schoolchildren but now armed gangs in search of income are using the same tactic in other parts of the country, sparking warnings that no school is safe…

BusinessDay
Here’s experts’ view on why bandits now target Nigerian schools
In less than three months, armed bandits have attacked three boarding schools in Nigeria’s northern region and in the process abducted over 600 students

Premium Times
Niger Govt revises number of rescued Kagara schoolboys, silent on ransom
The Niger State government has announced the release of 38 people abducted from the Government Science College, Kagara in Rafi local government area of the state…

The Sun Nigeria
Stiffer sanctions for possession of illegal arms
The call by the Senate for stiffer punishment for anyone found with illegal firearms has come at the right time when there is worsening insecurity in the country. The Senate President Ahmad Lawan made the recommendation in his contribution to a debate on a Bill entitled: “The Firearms Act CAP F28 LFN 2004 (Amendment) Bill, 2021” sponsored by Senator Uba Sani (Kaduna Central)…

VOA
Inside a Nigerian bandit camp
In Nigeria, Friday’s predawn abduction of 317 female students from a government school in Zamfara state was the latest in a surge of kidnappings in the country’s north…

26 February 2021
Premium Times
How bandits terrorised Kagara for years before students abduction
Ahmad Abubakar narrowly escaped being killed on his farm in Madaka, near Kagara, in 2020. The retired secondary school teacher resides in Kagara, the headquarters of Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State, where 42 persons, including 27 schoolboys, were abducted from Government Science College on February 17…

Reuters
Gunmen kidnap 300 schoolgirls in increasingly lawless northwest Nigeria
An operation to rescue more than 300 girls kidnapped in Nigeria had failed to pinpoint their location by late on Friday, almost 24 hours after gunmen seized them in a raid on their school…

The Cable
Nigeria’s number of IDPs rivals that of countries at war
A new report by SBM Intelligence, Nigeria’s geopolitical intelligence platform, says the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Nigeria is almost the same with countries that are officially at war…

Washington Post
Nigeria confronts second mass kidnapping of schoolchildren in nine days after 317 girls vanish
Gunmen raided a boarding school in northwestern Nigeria early Friday and kidnapped more than 300 girls, marking the third mass abduction of children since December in Africa’s most populous nation…

25 February 2021
BusinessDay
Violence costs Nigeria $1.3trn in 13 years
Containing violence is costly, and for Nigeria, it has come at a bill of $1.34 trillion within 13 years – from 2007 to 2019…

24 February 2021
Guardian Nigeria
How ammunition proliferation fuels insecurity in Nigeria
The Nigerian government can be very touchy when it comes to the performance of the country’s economy. In its effort to project an image of Nigeria as the leading heavyweight on the continent, despite its huge and growing insecurity problems, the Nigerian government is not taking any negative statements about its economic growth lying down…

Nairametrics
More Nigerians don’t trust government, fear losing jobs more than COVID-19 – Report
A recent survey has revealed that only 24% of Nigerians have trust in the government which is one of the lowest rates in the world. The report also stated that Nigerians have more fear of job losses than Covid-19…

23 February 2021
Arise TV
Is local gun manufacturing adding to Nigeria’s insecurity issues?
Ikemesit Effiong, Head of Research at SBM Intelligence, spoke to the Global Business Report about weapons proliferation in Nigeria…

BusinessDay
Struggling job-creating sectors show unemployment woes may persist
Nigeria may be out of recession for the second time within five years, but sectors of the economy collectively responsible for the bulk of job creation are delivering less growth than previous years…

22 February 2021
Premium Times
COVID-19: Data reveals low testing figures in Kogi, Cross River, others
The latest data from Nigeria’s infectious disease agency, NCDC, has further exposed the inadequate testing for COVID-19 in Kogi and many other states, a situation health experts believe is causing an underestimation of the true extent of the spread of the disease in the country…

19 February 2021
BusinessDay
Nigeria sees surprise exit from recession in Q4
In what came as a surprise yesterday, Nigeria’s economy exited recession, beating analysts’ expectations as well as projections from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, all of which pointed towards an exit at the end of 2021…

Humangle
How terrorists are gaining grounds in Northcentral Nigeria
On Feb. 14, the convoy of Ibrahim Balarabe Kagara, Niger State’s Chief of Staff, was attacked by terrorists. Although they failed to capture the CoS, 22 passengers were abducted on one of the Niger State Transportation Authority (NSTA) buses on the road at the time…

18 February 2021
Bloomberg
Africa’s largest economy unexpectedly exits recession
Nigeria’s economy unexpectedly came out of a recession in the fourth quarter as restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus were eased…

Guardian Nigeria
WTO: What Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s appointment means for global trade and Cheta Nwanze’s Views
Months after the Trump administration rejected her, former Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala received a unanimous backing to become the first woman and first African director-general of the World Trade Organization…

Sahara Reporters
301 persons killed in Niger State in one year by bandits, terrorists – Report
As insecurity worsens nationwide due to increased banditry, Niger State between January 2020 and February 2021 has lost 301 persons to bandits and terrorists’ attacks, a report by the SB Morgen Intelligence revealed…

17 February 2021
Financial Times
Nigeria infrastructure splurge to boost economy
Nigeria’s government is stepping up a drive to improve its decrepit infrastructure with a series of billion dollar projects as president Muhammadu Buhari seeks to pull Africa’s largest economy out of its worst recession in 40 years…

16 February 2021
BusinessDay
Nigeria in need of business-friendly polices as investment pledges dip to 3-year low
Investors’ appetite for Nigeria has continued to shrink in the last few years as crumbling infrastructure coupled with tough operating environment has forced investors to look elsewhere…

15 February 2021
BusinessDay
Nigeria needs ₦22.7trn to meet 15% revenue-to-GDP target
Nigeria is pushing an ambitious revenue target analysts say would require the government’s blood, sweat and tears if it must be achieved…

Quartz Africa
A UK education system appeals to corrupt Nigerians
West Africa’s political elites have long been enamored with the UK’s leading education system. In the process, it has become a significant mechanism for illicit money flows, a report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has found…

13 February 2021
BusinessDay
From #EndSARS to #LekkiTollGate: The rise of cryptocurrency in Nigeria
The EndSARS protests which erupted in October over police brutality was different from any other in Nigeria, largely because the movement had no central leadership, could fundraise bypassing even banks and could organise on social media with a savviness that eludes government officials…

11 February 2021
Bitcoin Magazine
Acknowledging BTC sovereignty, Nigeria becomes bellwether for hyperbitcoinization
Today, the Senate of Nigeria —which has similar legislative powers to the U.S. Senate — shared notes from its daily proceedings. Among the presentations of bills and reports was discussion of a recent reminder from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that financial institutions are prohibited from facilitating any accounts transacting with cryptocurrency exchanges…

The Cable
How safe is FCT? 27 kidnapped in 2021 already
At least 27 persons have reportedly been kidnapped in the federal capital territory (FCT) in just about six weeks in 2021…

10 February 2021
Sahara Reporters
Zamfara government has fulfilled only one of 10 promises to us, I won’t mention remaining 9 – Bandits’ leader
A leader of a gang of bandits operating along the Shinkafi-Sokoto axis in Zamfara State, Kachalla Turji, has said that the state government keeps lying to them and has fulfilled only one of 10 promises made to them…

9 February 2021
The Cable
Why Gumi’s peace deal with bandits may fail
A report by SBM Intelligence, Nigeria’s geopolitical intelligence platform, has given reasons the peace deal initiated by Ahmad Gumi, a prominent Islamic cleric, with bandits may not materialise…

5 February 2021
African Business Magazine
Nigeria reopens land borders to trade
In August 2019, the Nigerian government took border communities and West African trading partners by surprise by announcing the closure of land borders with several neighbouring states…

Bloomberg
Nigeria central bank orders cryptocurrency accounts to close
Nigeria’s central bank ordered deposit-taking banks and other financial institutions to immediately close accounts transacting in or operating cryptocurrency exchanges, saying such deals are “prohibited.”…

4 February 2021
BusinessDay
Nigeria drags as world speeds up Covid-19 vaccination
At a time the global community is speeding up vaccination against the deadly coronavirus, Nigeria seems to be dragging its feet as no single vaccination has been carried out in the country…

Guardian Nigeria
Are you for, or against, the COVID-19 vaccine?
As the world continues to confront the COVID-19 pandemic, the quest to find a preventive vaccine to avoid further spread of the virus has also intensified…

3 February 2021
BusinessDay
Nigeria’s growing debt fails to lift citizens
Working in his father’s farmland on a sunny Monday morning, Kwesi Owusi got a call from a friend who told him to rush down to the neighbouring town in Kumasi…

2 February 2021
BusinessDay
Nigeria’s fast-growing sectors of 2015 no longer firing
Nigeria’s fast-growing sectors in 2015 are almost unrecognisable today with some of them in a prolonged recession…

1 February 2021
BusinessDay
Nigeria has West Africa’s largest, worst road network – study
Nigeria has West Africa’s largest road network about 108,000km of surfaced roads of which 32,000km has been built and managed by the Federal Government, but also some of the worst, poorly maintained roads in the region, according to a study by SBM Intelligence…

Financial Times
How Lagos loses out in battle for investors
Lagos’ state governor was dismayed to read about a new hospital opening in Ghana’s capital Accra last year. The name was familiar: the investors had come to his city — Africa’s largest — first, but looked elsewhere when it could not deliver the tax holidays and visa-free entry they wanted…

The Africa Report
Elumelu bets local demand for oil bigger than green can supply
Tony Elumelu’s big bet on an oil block assumes that there will be a long enough window to monetise the asset, known as OML17. Given the dominance fossil fuels still retain for much of the emerging world it may well pay off, but operational issues linked to the block still remain…