ALL THE RELEVANT NEWS: FRIDAY

09 Dec ALL THE RELEVANT NEWS: FRIDAY

🌍After a meeting with President Buhari on Thursday the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele said its new policy that significantly limits the withdrawal of money by individuals and organisations from banks will proceed amidst calls for the move to be reversed.

🌍Oil prices were stable on Friday but both benchmarks were headed for a weekly loss on worries over weak economic outlooks in China, Europe and the United States weighing on oil demand. Brent crude futures were at $76.16 a barrel, up 1 cent, at 0919 GMT

🌍Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed said on Thursday that criteria for disbursement of N500billion Development Fund across the six geo – political zones will be reviewed for evenness. The chief executive officers of the affected banks like the Development Bank of Nigeria and the Bank of Industry among others had told the panel that they adhered strictly to the criteria set up by their regulators and not geopolitical considerations in giving out loans.

🌍The Nigerian government says 11 companies, including three from Russia, have indicated interest to take over Ajaokuta Steel Company on a concession basis.

🌍US President, Joe Biden, has invited 49 African heads including President Muhammadu Buhari, to Washington D.C. for a three-day US-Africa Leaders’ Summit to deepen US Partnerships with Nigeria and other African democracies between December 13-15, 2022.

🌍After a stakeholders meeting, the Department of State Services has given Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and other stakeholders in the downstream sector 48 hours to end the lingering fuel scarcity across the country.

🌍The Nigerian military on Thursday said although it is facing constant pressure to compromise the 2023 elections, Nigerians can be rest assured that it would remain neutral.
FG has declared $1.3 billion Zungeru Power project 97 per cent complete. FG has announced that it will begin direct flight operations to the Republic of Seychelles soon.

🌍Security Stories: Two people have been killed after suspected herders invaded two farming communities in Eha-Amufu, Isi-Uzo Local Government Area of Enugu State.
* Operation Whirl Stroke (OPWS), the military operation in Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba states, rescued 21 persons from the hands of their abductors, who were identified as a local militia group.
* Soldiers attached to the Special Forces of the Nigerian Army, in a renewed offensive, killed nine bandits in their hideouts in the Giwa Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
* The kidnapped traditional ruler of Oso, Ajowa-Akoko, in Akoko North West Local Government Area of Ondo State, Clement Olukotun, has been freed after his family and other well-wishers paid N10 million as ransom to the kidnappers.

🌍Russia-Ukraine War: The Biden administration is weighing a Ukrainian request for cluster munitions — weapons banned by more than 100 countries, but that Russia continues to use in Ukraine to devastating effect — from the US stockpile.
*Russian President Putin has warned of a protracted war in Ukraine, but said there was no need for another draft yet.
* Ukrainian forces shelled the Russian city of Belgorod, near Ukraine’s border, on Thursday, the region’s governor claimed.
* Russia said it shot down a drone over the occupied Crimean Peninsula on Thursday, as the Kremlin warned of the risk of “terrorist attacks.”
* Pope Francis broke down and cried as he mentioned the suffering of Ukrainians during a traditional prayer in central Rome.
Russian forces attacked settlements in eastern Ukraine from the ground and air, officials said, in support of the Kremlin’s apparently scaled-back ambition of only securing the bulk of Ukrainian lands it has claimed in the war.