Burundi’s main beer brewer firm, Brarudi, majority owned by Heineken NV, said on Wednesday its sales of beer and soft drinks rose 21 per cent in 2010. The company said volumes sold increased to 1.99 million hectolitres from 1.64 million in 2009, lifted by increased spending by more prosperous coffee farmers and higher demand during the country’s elections. The company…
The Nigerian Stock Exchange recorded a total loss of N260 billion on equities at the close of trading activities in February, after recording significant gains of N662 billion in the preceding month. The market value of the 217 listed equities, which opened the month at N8.575 trillion, closed on the last trading day in February at N8.315 trillion, reflecting a…
Splitting the atom was a major technological feat for humankind. Releasing energy from it for electricity production was yet another major step towards supporting the unfolding path of civilisation. The worst memories of the deliberate unleashing of the power of a nuclear device remain the exploding of atomic bombs over Japanese towns of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, towards the…
16 March 2011 Ghana's Serbian coach Goran Stevanovic faces a tough test as he prepares the Black Stars for a Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Congo on March 27, and a friendly against England. The coach, appointed in January, has already guided them to a 4-1 win over Togo in a friendly match played in Belgium last month. Ghana…
17 March 2011 Once upon a time the king of assists, Ajani Ibrahim is now a scorer of goals and he loves his new status. Last season, this out-and-out right winger netted a mere three goals as Enyimba won their sixth league title, and by the halfway mark of this term, he has more than tripled his goals account to…
17 March 2011 The UEFA Europa League round of 16 second leg fixtures take place this evening, with some of the biggest names in competition looking to turn around first leg deficits in an effort to reach the quarterfinals. English duo Liverpool and Manchester City are both at home and looking to overturn first leg defeats away to Braga (0-1)…
The Ondo State governor, Olusegun Mimiko, on Tuesday called for adequate funding of the nation’s universities to attain scientific and technological breakthrough, adding that the productivity of any university should not be based on its size but on its impact on the economic, scientific, and industrial breakthrough of the nation. The governor, who made the submission while playing host to…
As the 2011 elections draws nearer, 1 Goal, a global advocacy group canvassing support for increased access to education, has called on Nigerian politicians to pay closer attention to the education sector. Speaking at an interactive session with journalists on Tuesday in Abuja, Wale Samuel, the Policy Advisor for Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CASEFA), the group…
I recently had lunch with one of my very good friends and her sprightly white-haired father who is in his seventies. We had arranged to catch up over lunch on a weekday and I was surprised to learn that her father, who still worked in the office with her, would come along as he did several times a week. In…
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Nigeria’s inflation rate stood at 11.1 per cent year-on-year in February 2011. This is lower than 12.1 per cent recorded in the previous month in the new Composite Consumer Price Index (CPI) series released by the nation’s bureau of statistics. The monthly change of the CPI was 0.96 per cent improvement when compared with January 2011. The percentage change in…
FirstRand, South Africa’s No. 2 banking group, is in advanced talks with Nigeria’s Sterling Bank over making a strategic investment in the lender, banking sources familiar with the deal said. Managing director, Sizwe Nxasana, who took over the reins of FirstRand over a year ago, told Reuters last year the South African bank was looking to invest “meaningful amounts of…
Demand for foreign exchange is gradually edging up, as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) offered $1.3 billion so far this month at the official Wholesale Dutch Auction System (WDAS) window. Even though there are five more auctions for the month of March, the amount so far traded exceeds the average traded figure since the beginning of the year. A…