GLOBAL youth unemployment including Nigerians between aged 15 and 24, the International Labour Organisation, ILO, has said, is now over 75 million.

Minister and Deputy Chairman, National Planning Commission, Dr Shamsuddeen Usman, said yesterday that the African countries are endowed with knowledge, the technology and the means to end hunger and food insecurity and therefore must stop begging for food.

Improved palm tree seedlings will be introduced to replace the wild varieties under the palm oil value chain programme of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA). Dr Dickson Okolo, the team leader and Deputy Director in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, disclosed this in Abuja.

THE African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has boosted exponentially the United States’ trade with sub-Saharan Africa and remains the “centerpiece” of U.S. economic engagement with the region, according to Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Johnnie Carson.

The International Cocoa Coordination Organisation (ICCO) has urged Nigerian manufacturers to explore the potentialities of cocoa so as to produce more cocoa-based goods.

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Prof Gabriel Olawoyin, yesterday, said that the gains in the use of arbitration were far more than that of litigation in the resolution of business disputes.

Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) Plc has recorded a total income of N857 million in its first quarter financial performance ended March 31, 2012, representing a growth of 64 per cent from N664 million recorded in the corresponding period of 2011.

The Chief Executive Officer of Fiki Marine, a subsidiary of Fiki Bal International , Mr. Taofiki Balogun, has berated the rate at which Chinese are coming to the Nigerian waters to fish at the expense of Nigerians, urging Nigerian government to explore its potential to the fullest for the benefit of the economy and its citizenry.

Dr Awoteinm George, the chairman of Fisheries Society of Nigeria (FISON), Rivers chapter, has decried the low level of fish production in the country.

A financial expert and investment analyst, Mr Bismark Rewane, has expressed optimism that the current rally in the equity segment of the stock market will be sustained. Bismark who made the assertion in his bi-monthly review of the economy, said that strong macroeconomic fundamentals and attractive valuations favour the surge.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has published the first all-Africa report on household spending patterns across the continent.

Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Dr Samuel Ortom, has said the Federal Government will soon release N5.6m counterpart funding to boost cocoa production in the country. Ortom gave the assurance when a delegation from the International Cocoa Coordination Organisation (ICCO), led by Dr Koname Lucien, its Regional Director, paid him a visit in Abuja on Tuesday.

Labour leaders have questioned the rationale behind the Federal Government’s plan to borrow $7. 9 billion when its key officials maintained that Nigeria was not broke. In separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, the labour leaders urged government to block all leakages to ensure that the loan was judiciously used.

AFTER five years of waiting game, federal government has finally given the management of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, consent to commence the disbursement of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund, CVFF.