ONE WORD

A friend sent me a rather frightful note last week in which he warned that I should not drive my vehicle with expired documents within the Ikeja environs, especially the Alausa secretariat, the seat of Lagos state government.  He said that Big Brother is in town. He is currently resident in the secretariat armed to the teeth with mounted cameras to capture plate numbers of vehicles plying the area. Through some technological contrivance he can detect expired vehicle papers. No matter how fast you drive, warns my friend, the camera will pick your plate number. And if by chance you have defaulted in any way, you would get an alert on your phone and be sent a fee to pay for defaulting. Instantly the note catapulted me to George Orwell’s socialist Europe which he captured in his dystopian novel, 1984. In the novel, one of the most memorable in its genre, Winston Smith, the fictional character – victim of the viciousness of state – was confronted at every turn by an all-pervasive, all i

From 1,707 deals, global financial technology (FinTech) companies raised about $39.57 billion from investors globally in 2018, 120 per cent higher than 2017.The surge in funding was due in large part to 52 mega-rounds, or investments larger than $100 million, which were worth $24.88 billion combined. According to New York-based, CB Insights, in a report titled: ‘2019 Fintech Trends to Watch’, a $14 billion investment in Ant Financial, the payment affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., accounted for 35 per cent of total fintech funding alone in 2018. CB Insights, a tech market intelligence platform that analyzes millions of data points on venture capital, startups, patents, partnerships, said Fintech is happening on global scale with deals outside of core markets (U.S., UK, and China) accounting for 39 per cent of deals. It noted that Fintech deal hubs are starting to emerge globally. The count of unique fintech startups raising funding topped a yearl

By John Egbokhan Flying Eagles’ quest to become the first African team to qualify for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland has been put on the ice following a barren draw with South Africa  yesterday at the Stade General Seyni Kountche in Niamey. Flying Eagles Amajita as the South African youth team are called, claimed their second point at the CAF U20 Africa Cup of Nations while the Flying Eagles have four points after two matches played at the tournament. The South Africans were bidding for their first win of the competition but fell short of their target but would be nonetheless pleased to scrape a point against the tournament favourites and record African champions. Amajita struggled to get the ball off Nigeria early on, but they did manage to carve out a chance, which Siphesihle Mkhize failed to capitalise on. Flying Eagles, coached by former Enyimba gaffer, Paul Aigbogun, were in control for most of the first half, however they were unable to trouble Khulekani

Malami lawyers have been paid a dubious $15 million Oladipo Okpeseyi and Temitope Adebayo, two Nigerian lawyers hired for the return of $321 million Abacha loot from Switzerland, have been secretly paid their controversial fees, TheCable can report. Although they were initially to be paid $17 million, it was cut by $2 million and paid following pressure from a very popular Lagos-based pastor who is a political associate of President Muhammadu Buhari. Adebayo, one of the beneficiaries, confirmed the payment in a telephone interview with TheCable. Hassan Dodo, director of information at the ministry of finance, and Ahmed Idris, accountant-general of the federation, did not pick calls and were yet to respond to messages from TheCable seeking further information on this development. Presidency sources told TheCable that the pastor mounted enormous pressure on the president, claiming that the lawyers had spent “a lot of money” in trying to get the Swiss authorities to return th

[FILES] Nigerian Stock Exchange Sustained bargain-hunting in some highly capitalised stocks pushed the market capitalisation further by N11 billion at the end of yesterday’s transactions on the equities sector of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). Specifically, the All-Share Index (ASI) was up by 28.52 absolute points, representing an increase of 0.09 per cent, to close at 30,773.57 points. Similarly, market capitalisation increased by N11 billion to close at N11.476 trillion.The improved performance was impacted by gains recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Beta Glass, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Nascon Allied Industries, Guaranty Trust Bank and Oando. Analysts at Afrinvest Limited expected bargain hunting to further persist, saying: “We do not rule out the possibility of sell-offs in subsequent trading sessions as we approach the general elections.” Also, APT Securities and Funds Limited attributed the recurrent uptrend to investors’ positive sent

The National Universities Commission (NUC), has given provisional approval to four new private universities to commence academic programmes.  Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, Executive Secretary, NUC at the presentation of the licences to the universities in Abuja on Tuesday, said the four universities had been under scrutiny since 2006. The universities are: Greenfield University, Kaduna State, Dominion University, Ibadan, Trinity University, Laloko, Ogun, and Westland University, Iwo, Osun.  With the approval, Nigeria now has 79 private universities, and a total of 173 universities, private and public. Rasheed underscored the need to increase the number of universities in the country, taking into consideration the country’s 200 million population.  He added that with the country’s population, only about two million students can access university education.  “Only less than 6 per cent students’ enrolment is in private universities. We hope the NUC work closely with you to ensure we in

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) said on Tuesday that it is confident emergency host country Egypt will be “ready” to stage this year’s Africa Cup of Nations despite limited preparation time. CAF has been inspecting various infrastructure and facilities across the country. Egypt was awarded the hosting rights in January, following the decision to strip Cameroon of the finals due to delays in preparation. “Egypt will be ready,” CAF communications director Nathalie Rabe told AFP at Alexandria Stadium. “We have plans for renovations, but in any case, the infrastructure is there.” It will be the fourth time that Egypt has hosted the tournament, while Cameroon will hold the 2021 event instead. A CAF delegation has visited stadiums in Cairo, Suez, Ismailia, Port Said and Alexandria, with organisers yet to decide on the host stadia. “All the infrastructures we visited are good. We have a choice,” said CAF competition director Samson Adamu. Rabe also played down a