Farmers have been urged to increase their efforts at making the cocoa crop as popular as other crops like cassava so that many people, especially able-bodied youths in the country can join the leagues cocoa farmer millionaires.

Kraft is under pressure to make a formal takeover bid for Cadbury by November after the UK’s Takeover Panel gave it less than six weeks to put an offer on the table or walk away.

George Alli represents Otukpo/Akpa State Constituency at the Benue State House of Assembly. He is the House Committee Chairman on Commerce and Industry. In this interview with Vanguard in Makurdi, he laments the poor industrial base of Benue State suggesting that the state government privatize its ailing industries in the face of dwindling resources at its disposal; Hon Ali also spoke on other issues.
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THE Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry(LCCI) recently, in Abuja, urged the Federal Government to tackle the lingering power generation, supply and distribution nightmare which has bedevilled the growth and development of the economy.

The Managing Director/CEO, GTB, Mr. Tayo Aderinokun, has won the 2009 African Banker of the Year Awards at the African Business Awards held at the World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings in Istanbul, Turkey, which is aimed at identifying and rewarding the leading banks and bankers so a to build a strong and vibrant African banking industry.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group Chief Economist, Louis Kasekende, has said that the continent’s economic outlook is improving just as the countries of the western Hemisphere and Asia are showing signs of economic recovery. Mr. Kasekende expressed optimism as to the continent’s economic prospects while speaking in an interview with the AfDB Web team ahead of the institution’s African Economic Conference (AEC) which is an annual event that brings together researchers and policy-makers for them to share perspectives on economic and development challenges facing the continent.

Farmers have been urged to increase their efforts at making the cocoa crop as popular as other crops like cassava so that many people, especially able-bodied youths in the country can join the leagues cocoa farmer millionaires.

The declining fortune of the naira in the interbank foreign exchange market worsened yesterday as it depreciated by 260 kobo against the dollar.

PRESIDENT Umaru Yar’Adua said yesterday that there was the need for Nigerians to be patriotic in consuming made in Nigeria goods if the country must attain the expected industrial base, just as it stressed that our industries have closed down because of lack of patronage.

ADOPTED Strategies to curb the activities of smuggling and their barons have yielded positive result in Enugu, as the Federal Operations Unit, Zone “C” of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) impounded a train of six-cabin load of contraband items worth over N100 million, on transit along the west-eastern route.The train was apprehended by a crack team on a tip off as it was entering the Enugu railway 2.

A group under the aegis of Nigerian Maritime Watch (NMW) has described the alleged death of 43 cadets in the Maritime Academy of Nigeria,Oron as untrue and a deliberate misinformation of the public.

THE Federal Government has commenced moves to construct 11 river ports and 21 jetties across the country with a view to boosting the economic activities of states where these ports are located.

African Circle Limited, a marine waste management firm has completed work on its plant and commenced test- running of the project situated at the Niger-Dock end of the Tin-Can Island port

Barely a month after resuming duty as the Customs Area Controller of the Ogun State Command, Controller Ahmed Mohammed Jamo has announced a seizure of nine prohibited items with a Duty Paid Value of N41.365,940.00. Also, all the vehicles used to convey the smuggled goods were impounded and parked at headquarters.

THE Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has entered into partnership with the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and the University of Ife to establish climate observatory centres.