ALL THE RELEVANT NEWS: FRIDAY

15 Oct ALL THE RELEVANT NEWS: FRIDAY

Highlights

🌍Stories from the Villa:
President Buhari has asked insurance firms to honour the claims of their customers promptly. He spoke on Thursday in Abuja during his conferment ceremony as the grand patron of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN)
* He has directed all agencies of government to give priority to indigenous professionals for planning, design and execution of national projects.
* Approved the appointment of 139 persons into boards of 12 agencies under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI).
*Approved the renewal of appointment of Colonel MD Dikio (Rtd) as Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme for one-year tenure.
*VP Osinbajo, in Ekiti, advised that states in Nigeria “must think like sovereign nations” to improve the livelihood of their residents.

🌍CBN Governor, Emefiele said in Washington DC yesterday that once the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Plant commence operations around July next year, the country would be in a position to save 40 per cent of the FX it spends on fuel and be in a better position to float the Naira.

🌍COVID-19 Update: FG has clarified its position on COVID-19 vaccination of civil servants; saying taking the vaccine is a choice and not a compulsory exercise, even though it is expected that every Nigerian should get vaccinated against the virus.
* Thursday Caseload: With 251 new cases reported in 14 states, and 6 deaths, Nigeria now has a total of 208630 confirmed cases, 196326 recoveries and 2767 deaths.
* The United States has donated 3,577,860 doses of Pfizer vaccine for the public health and benefit of the Nigerian people through COVAX. The U.S. Mission in Nigeria said the shipment brings the total number of U.S.-bilaterally donated doses to Nigeria to over 7.5 million.

🌍Oil Monitor: Prices climbed on Friday, heading for gains of more than 2% for the week, on increasing signs of robust demand and tighter supplies over the next few months as rocketing gas and coal prices stoke a switch to oil products. Brent crude futures rose 62 cents, or 0.7%, to $84.62 a barrel at 0622 GMT, after picking up 82 cents in the previous session.

🌍EVC Umar Danbatta has said Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) readiness to begin full deployment and implementation in the country is at 97 percent.

🌍The value of the naira fell further by 1.68 per cent against the dollar at the official market on Thursday; at the parallel market, the dollar sold for N570, according to some operators in the black market.
* CBN says that through three commercial banks it has financed railway infrastructure in Lagos to the tune of N60 billion. The banks are Access Bank Plc, Sterling Bank Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc.

🌍CDS Lucky Irabor, has confirmed the killing of Leader of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), Abu Musab Al-Barnawi; as more Boko Haram fighters surrender.

🌍FG to make a holistic review of the remittances of NIMASA to the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, with a view to solving the issues surrounding the releases.

🌍Leaders of the PDP in the north have endorsed a former Senate President, Iyorchia Ayu, as their consensus candidate for the party’s national chairman in the forthcoming national convention.

🌍Supreme Court affirms Soludo as APGA’s Guber candidate

# More details in quickread.ng.