December 2023

31 December 2023
Nigerian Tribune
2023: Year of intense political storms
Today marks the end of the year 2023. To many observers, the year will go down as one of the most challenging and turbulent years in Nigerian democratic history due to the legion of political and socio-economic issues that almost sank the country over the past 12 months…

Pamfleti
From artificial intelligence to the price of coffee, what is expected to happen in 2024
Here’s a selection of important issues worth paying attention to in 2024, from coups to superhero movies. Some are just fun while others are potentially world changing…

29 December 2023
Al Jazeera
Economic downturn punctures joy of festive season in Nigeria
Chinenye Ikechukwu’s Decembers are usually dotted with concerts, parties, and restaurant and beach outings with friends. But this year, the 27-year-old resident of Yaba in Lagos has stayed mostly at home due to the economic downturn plaguing Africa’s largest economy…

Nairametrics
Rising cost of living pushes Nigerians to borrow ₦740 billion from banks in nine months
The rising cost of living has pushed Nigerians to borrow about ₦740 billion from banks between January and September this year. An analysis of the quarterly economic reports of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) shows that consumer credit rose from ₦2.31 trillion by the end of the fourth quarter of 2022 to ₦3.05 trillion by the end of the third quarter of 2023…

National Economy
Nigeria’s Pension Fund Assets Surge To ₦17.658trn
In a recent report by the National Pension Commission (PenCom), Nigeria’s pension fund assets have witnessed a substantial rise, reaching a remarkable ₦17.658 trillion as of October 31, 2023…

Semafor
African geopolitics and economy in 2023
Youth unemployment is a common challenge in almost every African country we cover. We looked at how this is being tackled, particularly by the growing middle class…

28 December 2023
Legit NG
Year in Review: Naira Scarcity And Other 10 Events That Made Life Difficult for Nigerians in 2023
For many Nigerians, this outgoing year (2023) will be remembered as a time marked by enduring challenges beyond their control. It is also a year that was welcomed with cash scarcity and ended with the same problem…

ThisDay
Reflecting on the Nigerian Health Sector in 2023
As the year 2023 draws to a close, many significant health interventions and events have taken place throughout the year that shaped the Nigerian health sector and may extend its impact on the sector to the New Year, as the country builds back better and looks to strengthen its health systems in preparation for future public health emergencies…

Voice of Nigeria
Consumer Loans Jump To Highest In Four-Years On Rising Inflation
The demand for bank loans by consumers in Nigeria has risen to the highest in nearly four years as rising inflationary pressures squeezed incomes, reports said…

27 December 2023
Al Jazeera
Political crisis in Nigerian oil capital sparks fears of more economic woes
On October 30, oil-rich Rivers State, Nigeria’s oil capital, became the latest hub of political drama in the country following the state parliament’s attempted impeachment of Siminalayi Fubara, who had been governor for only five months…

Leadership
More Consumers Turn To Bank Loans To Survive Rising Inflation
More consumers in Nigeria are turning to bank loans to survive the impact of the persistent rise in inflationary pressure on the prices of goods and services in the country…

26 December 2023
The Evangelist
A ‘sad’ year
From Ukraine to Nigeria, and from Nicaragua to the Holy Land, 2023 was full of tragic situations that deeply affected the church and faithful. OSV News revisited four places clinging to hope that the new year will bring an improvement in the lives of people living in societies torn by conflict and persecution…

24 December 2023
Financial Times
‘A fiction’: the fall of a fintech star accused of ‘massive fraud’
On a day in May this year, the head offices of Tingo Group in Lagos had none of the markers of a global multimillion-dollar technology company. Occupying two floors in a high-rise building in the city’s old commercial district, there was broken furniture, fewer than 20 staff and none of the buzz of an operation with millions of customers…

21 December 2023
BBC Pidgin
Rate of kidnapping for Abuja-Lokoja road put fear for travellers body
Plenty tori of kidnapping along Abuja-Lokoja expressway don put many travellers for fear, especially as pipo don begin dey travel for Christmas holidays…

19 December 2023
BusinessDay
Inflation to top 18-year high, piles more pressure on CBN
Nigeria’s inflation rate is on course to rise to its highest in more than 18 years in December, dampening Christmas spending for cash-strapped consumers…

Nigerian News Direct
The need for improved intelligence gathering to prevent kidnappings in Abuja
The recent abduction of over 23 residents in Dei-Dei town, situated off the Kubwa-Zuba Road in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), is a stark reminder of the escalating wave of mass kidnappings in Abuja…

Opinion Nigeria
Beyond Visitation To Bombing Mishap’s Victims
The need for enhancing nations’ capacity in maintaining territorial integrity and national security necessitated researches that birthed modern technology that has made professionalism a second to none in the art of warfare…

Sahara Reporters
Tinubu Government’s Subsidy Removal, Naira Devaluation, Others Push Up Transport Fares By Almost 3 Times In 12 Months
Research done by SBM Intelligence has shown an almost 2.5x rise in transport fares by ‘danfo’ (yellow commercial buses) in Lagos, southwest Nigeria. An infographic done by the research firm zeroes in on the average daily roundtrip price between Ikeja and CMS for each month of 2023…

18 December 2023
Leadership
Mass Kidnappings In Abuja
In a chilling repetition of an alarming trend, the recent abduction of over 23 residents in Dei-Dei town, situated off the Kubwa-Zuba Road in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has reignited concerns about the escalating wave of mass kidnappings in Abuja…

17 December 2023
Punch
FG must rescue all kidnap victims
It has been over four months since gunmen kidnapped eight National Youth Service Corps members on a highway in Zamfara State. The corps members who were en route to Sokoto for their national assignment were abducted by heavily armed bandits, leaving their families distraught…

14 December 2023
Guardian Nigeria
End terrorism, bombing mishaps and avoidable carnage
That mistaken bombing of civilians at Tudun Biri village in Igabi Local Government Kaduna State by a military drone, on Sunday, December 3, 2023 is another painful reminder of the vulnerability of civilian lives in the ongoing war against terrorism in the country…

12 December 2023
The Africa Report
Nigeria needs lower import duties to tackle surging medicine prices, Remedial Health says
A brain drain among pharmacists has contributed to the spread of fake medicines across Nigeria. Lower import duties are part of the needed Nigerian response to limit the impact of surging medicine prices, Remedial Health CEO Samuel Okwuada tells The Africa Report…

BusinessDay
Firms’ salary bill rises 17% amid soaring inflation
Nigeria’s firms have seen their salary bills rise by 17.3 percent in one year as they scramble to retain staff amid soaring inflation, BusinessDay’s findings have revealed…

New York Times
Errant Airstrikes by Nigeria’s Military Have Killed Worshipers, Herders and Refugees
Last week in northern Nigeria, two drone strikes killed at least 85 people who had been out celebrating a Muslim holiday in a village. In June, dozens of herders and their cattle were hit from the sky, in the state next to the country’s capital…

ThisDay
X-raying the Chronicles of Nigerian Military Airstrike ‘Own Goals’
Picture this; there was a serious bandit attack in one of the communities in the North. For the survivors of the attack, they had taken solace that the military had been informed for them to take action. With that assurance, the next day when the survivors and their families sighted military fighter jets hovering above them in the sky, they began to cheer…

11 December 2023
AP Archive
Over 80 mistakenly killed in Nigerian army drone attack on religious gathering
At least 85 civilians were killed when an army drone attack erroneously targeted a religious gathering in northwest Nigeria, officials confirmed Tuesday, as the president ordered a probe into the latest in a series of such deadly mistakes in Nigeria’s conflict zones…

Business Hallmark
Service chiefs shock govt on persisting insecurity
The uptick in cases of kidnappings, banditry, ritual killings and sundry other criminal activity is a source of worry to many Nigerians. In the last two months, it is as if the country is under siege by bandits, kidnappers and Islamist insurgents in the Northeast, unknown gunmen and ritual killers, and no place is safe again…

10 December 2023
BusinessDay
Nigerian Military struggles to balance civilian protection with counterterrorism efforts
In an ongoing struggle to combat insecurity in the country, the Nigerian military has inflicted immense suffering on the very civilians it seeks to protect. The civilian population has paid a heavy price, particularly in the North West and North East regions, due to military errors…

Daily Post
Anger as military erroneously kill over 400 innocent Nigerians in six years
Last week’s erroneous bombing of a Kaduna community has brought to about 400, the number of Nigerians erroneously killed by security agencies while battling insurgents and bandits…

Nigerian Tribune
Kaduna village bombing, CBN’s fake naira notes alert, other top news
It was a tragic week in Nigeria following the devastating bomb attack that shook Tudun Biri village in Kaduna State, dominating the media space with news of the appalling incident…

ThisDay
Dousing Tension over Army’s Drone Strike
The urgency to deal a severe blow to terrorists and maintain the recent victories against bandits in Kaduna State led to a tragic incident where Nigerian Army troops mistakenly targeted and killed innocent villagers in a drone attack…

9 December 2023
Daily Trust
The Kaduna Disaster: Sacrificing The Poor
Earlier this week, my daughter was revising for her social studies exams. One of the topics was natural and man-made disasters. I listened to her as she read out aloud the definition and various examples of natural disasters- hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, wildfires, and drought..

8 December 2023
BusinessDay
Drug prices face increased pressure as imports surge 68%
Drug prices are facing increased pressure due to a surge in imports, with the value of medicines imported into Nigeria rising by 68 per cent to ₦81.8 billion between July and September 2023, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)…

Inflation pushes companies’ salary costs to 13-year high
Salaries and wages in Africa’s biggest economy rose to the highest in 13 years for the first six months of 2023, on the back of rising inflationary pressures. According to the latest Nigerian Gross Domestic Product Report (Expenditure and Income Approach) report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), compensation of employees rose by 17.3 percent to ₦13.21 trillion in the first six months from ₦11.26 in the same period of 2022…

Guardian Nigeria
Kaduna Bombing: Tudun Biri rebuilding begins in 3 weeks, says Governor Sani
The governor of Kaduna State, Uba Sani, has announced that the rebuilding of Tudun Biri village, destroyed by a military airstrike on Sunday, will commence within the next three weeks. The air strike, intended to target terrorists, accidentally hit a religious gathering on Sunday and killed at least 85 civilians, leaving many injured…

Legal Spotlight
How Nigerian military missed terrorists’ hideouts and bombed innocent villagers
How did the Nigerian military miss all the criminal and terrorists hideouts including those that brazenly collect taxes from citizens across states in northern Nigeria to bomb hapless Nigerians in their homes? The villagers even allege that the bombing occurred twice…

Nairametrics
Drug imports in Nigeria rise by 68% by Q3 2023 over weak naira, GSK exit
Medications worth ₦81.81 billion were imported into Nigeria from July to September 2023. This is an increase of 68% from the ₦48.74 billion imported drugs in the same quarter of 2022. It is also an increase of 27% from the ₦64.38 billion recorded in Q2 2023. The figure is contained in an analysis of the foreign trade reports of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)…

7 December 2023
ICIR Nigeria
Accidental airstrikes: Nigerian military kill over 130 civilians in 2023
More than 130 civilians have been killed in accidental airstrikes by the Nigerian military in 2023. These fatalities were recorded during two separate airstrikes that occurred in different parts of the country. At least 85 unarmed civilians were killed recently in an attack by the military on Tundun Biri village, Kaduna state. The villagers had been celebrating the Maulud Nabiyy (the birth of Prophet Muhammad) in the late hours of Sunday, December 3, when they were bombed…

6 December 2023
The Washington Post
‘Bombing mishap’ by Nigeria military kills 85 civilians
A drone strike by Nigeria’s military killed scores of civilians celebrating a religious festival Sunday in the deadliest single incident on a growing list of such mistakes. Nigeria’s Emergency Management Agency put the death toll at 85 civilians in the village in Tudun Biri in Kaduna State following what President Bola Ahmed Tinubu described as a “bombing mishap.”…

5 December 2023
The Africa Report
Forex crisis sees drug prices hit the roof
The prices of antibiotics increased by nearly 500% across Nigeria between 2019 and 2023, as drug manufacturers continue to battle foreign exchange challenges and rising production costs…

Associated Press
At least 85 killed by Nigerian army drone attack, raising questions about mistakes
At least 85 civilians were killed when an army drone attack erroneously targeted a religious gathering in northwest Nigeria, officials confirmed Tuesday, as the president ordered an investigation into the latest in a series of such deadly mistakes in Nigeria’s conflict zones…

BBC
Nigeria airstrike ‘mistakenly’ kills worshippers at religious festival
At least 85 civilians were killed in Kaduna state, north-west Nigeria, in an air strike during a Muslim religious celebration on Sunday, the local emergency management authority said. The civilians were killed in a “bombing mishap”, President Bola Tinubu said without giving a death toll…

BusinessDay
Antibiotics record 1390% price jump as drugmakers walk away
The prices of antibiotics have skyrocketed to unprecedented levels, leaving patients reeling as major drugmakers abandon the production of these essential medications in Nigeria. Between 2019 and 2023, a pack of 500-milligram Ampiclox capsules recorded the highest jump, with the cost price increasing by 1,390 percent and the selling price increasing by 1,100 percent, shows a new report released by SBM Intelligence, a research consulting and data analytics firm…

Guardian Nigeria
Kano, Sokoto, others spend ₦53.2b on scholarships abroad
As Nigeria struggles to meet the goal four of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and tackle the increasing menace of out-of-school children, some states have continued to expend millions of naira on overseas training for some of their students…

New York Times
Nigeria’s President Calls for Inquiry After Military Strike Kills at Least 85 Civilians
Idris Dahiru was hosting some guests at a religious celebration in his village in northern Nigeria on Sunday night, when a piercing sound streaked through the air, followed by an explosion and countless screams…

People’s Gazette
Inflation: New survey shows Beecham Ampiclox jumps from ₦750 to ₦9,000; Augmentin ₦4,000 to ₦26,000; paracetamol ₦40 to ₦150
Anew survey has revealed that the economic hardship assailing Nigerians under President Bola Tinubu has continued to cause incessant hikes in the prices of drugs for malaria and other common conditions. The survey conducted by SBM Intelligence, titled: ‘Paying The Price on Health’, compared the prices of pharmaceutical products back in 2019 with their prices as of November 20, 2023…

Punch
Timeline of accidental bombing by Nigerian military
Over the years, Nigeria has recorded several accidental strikes by the Nigerian Air Force, killing innocent citizens across the country. The PUNCH investigations revealed that over 425 persons including children and women had been killed by military accidental bombings between September 2017 and 2023…

Tinubu’s insensitive COP28 jamboree
For a country grappling with economic chaos, shabby infrastructure and mass poverty, President Bola Tinubu’s jumbo delegation to the Climate Change Conference in the United Arab Emirates is grossly insensitive…

RFI
Nigeria: après le bombardement «par erreur» d’un village, les autorités doivent rendre des comptes
Les autorités nigérianes, militaires et civiles, assurent que les enquêtes iront jusqu’au bout. Car dans le pays, la colère est grande. Ce mercredi, à Abuja, des manifestants marchent dans la capitale fédérale, ainsi qu’à Zaria, dans l’État de Kaduna où a eu lieu la frappe…

Techpoint Africa
Nigerian fintech startup Pivo shuts down 1 year after announcing a $2 million round
Two-year-old Nigerian fintech startup Pivo has shut down one year after raising $2 million in a seed round that had Y Combinator and VestedWorld participating. Founded by Nkiru Amadi-Emina (CEO) and Ijeoma Akwiwu (COO), Pivo was billed as a neobank for supply chain businesses in Africa…

4 December 2023
Nairametrics
Nigerians spend 275% more on buying paracetamol in four years
The selling price of Paracetamol, which is a popular painkiller in Nigeria, rose by 275% in four years. According to a new report by SB Morgen titled ‘Paying the price on health’, which was obtained by Nairametrics, the selling price of Paracetamol was ₦40 in 2019…

Premium Times
Antibiotics prices increase by over 1,000% in four years in Nigeria
Considering the economic realities in Nigeria, over-the-counter medications may soon be out of reach of people who cannot afford hospital facilities in Nigeria, a new report has said. The report by SB Morgen Intelligence, which is titled: “Paying the Price on Health,” analysed the impacts of the Nigerian economy and foreign exchange crisis on the prices of essential medicines in the country…

Why Nigeria’s insecurity is intractable
In their full complement, Service Chiefs spoke truth to power in response to a parliamentary inquest into the festering insecurity in the country. Led by the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, they took turns to address the issues that have bedevilled their operational efficiency and effectiveness…

3 December 2023
Sun Nigeria
Questions, concerns over 2024 budget
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Monday, November 27, approved a total expenditure of ₦27.5 trillion for 2024. Details of the appropriation was laid before the National Assembly on Wednesday, November 29, by President Bola Tinubu…

1 December 2023
The Cable
Tackling economic, security challenges in south-east through PISE-P project
For a while now, the south-east has been in terrible shape. The area that was the safest and most tranquil in the nation around two years ago is now plagued with insecurity. A large portion of the blame can be attributed to the void left by the almost total absence of patriotic and selfless political leadership…

Le Monde
Au Nigeria, le « jollof rice », plat national et thermomètre de l’inflation générale des prix
Au Nigeria, qui pourra se régaler d’un jollof rice à Noël ? La question a fleuri ces derniers jours sur les réseaux sociaux et dans certains médias du pays où l’on chérit ce plat de riz épicé cuit dans une sauce à la tomate et aux oignons, agrémenté de morceaux de viande ou de poisson. Le jollof rice est au Nigeria ce que le couscous est aux pays du Maghreb : un mets emblématique…

RFI
Nigeria: le président dévoile une proposition de budget pour 2024 très critiquée par l’opposition
Le président du Nigeria a présenté le 29 novembre 2023 sa proposition de budget pour l’année 2024 devant le Sénat et l’Assemblée nationale. Ce budget, chiffré à près de 32 milliards d’euros devrait être adopté sans encombre dans les prochaines semaines, mais il est très critiqué par l’opposition…