The Bank of Industry, (BoI), has said that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria can overcome the challenge of lack of access to finance by employing appropriate strategies suitable to their peculiar characteristics. Disclosing this at the 2015 Annual General Meeting of the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), Executive Director, Small and Medium Enterprises, BOI, Mr. Waheed Olagunju, said SMEs are recognised as playing key roles in the economy of any society and Nigeria is not an exception.

The Senior Africa Investment Analyst, Mr. Jude Fejokwu has said that Board members of listed companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange , NSE that own or partly own stakes in brokerage firms and/or investment banks should be prevented from publicly disseminating equity research reports and related materials on the companies they are board members of using their in-house analysts.

The Nigerian Communications Commission has given Nigerian tennis a big shot in the arm with the announcement at the weekend of a team tennis championship that would offer a total prize money of N11 million with the winning team getting N5 million. The Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Mr Eugene Juwah, speaking at a media launch in Lagos said the sponsorship was the NCC’s “modest contribution to youth engagement in Nigeria.”

Experts have identified technology as one of the key component in the diversification of the Nigeria economy. They reached this consensus in Lagos at the Signal Alliance Customer Week Workshop organized in conjunction with Cisco.

According to Adeola, he got into natural medicine because of its huge potential for Nigeria. “I have been in this business for over a decade. I was seconded from Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency (NNMDA). I was in a collaborative venture with the agency and while there, they discovered the enormous potential in me and my ability for in-depth research into our traditional medicine because Nigerians as a people, only look forward but fail to look backward. You have to look at the past and move on in the present to project the future.

The investigation conducted by Vanguard on the activities of the agencies like the Lagos State Signage and Advertising Agency, LASAA, Ogun State Signage and Advertising Agency, OGSAA, Oyo State Signage and Advertising Agency, OYSAA, Ekiti State Signage and Advertising Agencies, EKSAA and the Kwara State Signage and Advertising Agency, KWSAA, showed a drastic reduction in their primary objective of environmental beautification.

IBADAN—Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has expressed disappointment over the failure of the federal government to release the promised N1.3 trillion NEEDS intervention fund.

The Debt Management Office (DMO) has recommended a maximum of USD12.4 billion total borrowing (domestic and external) for Federal Government in 2015. This would amount to N2.5 trillion addition to the existing N7.9 trillion outstanding debt as at end 2014, bringing the total indebtedness to about N10.4 trillion.

STEVEN GERRARD said he takes full responsibility for Liverpool’s loss to Manchester United after being sent off in just 41 seconds during Sunday’s English Premier League game against Manchester United.

OSOGBO—All Progressives Congress, APC, in Osun State has debunked the rumour making the rounds that the state governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, was planning a massive retrenchment of senior civil servants on grade level 12 and above, including other workers above the age of 50 from the state’s employment after the general elections.