SHORTLY after President Muhammadu Buhari returned from the Seventh Tokyo International Conference for African Development, TICAD7, our land borders with Benin, Niger and Cameroon were closed on August 20, 2019.

TOWARDS the end of the October 2019 deadline for all Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, of the Federal Government to ensure their staff were enrolled in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari, the battle line is drawn between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.

THE Creative Industry Financing Initiative, CIFI, of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has in collaboration with the Bankers’ Committee been working to improve access to long-term low-cost financing to entrepreneurs and investors in the Nigerian Creative and Information Technology sub-sector. Being part of efforts to boost job creation in Nigeria, especially among the youths, it is both timely and a step in the right direction.

ONE of the long-identified reasons our annual budgets are unable to improve our capital development at both the Federal and states levels over the years is inadequate funding. The annual budgets allocate roughly 70 per cent to recurrent expenditures while capital needs take about 30 per cent, most of which are not faithfully funded.

We note, with cautious delight, the general improvements in the anti-graft war of the Muhammadu Buhari administration, especially at this outset of his second term. There has been a general scaling-down of the blame game and greater inclusion in the anti-graft war as opposed to the perceived one-sidedness it was accused of during the highly politicised atmosphere of the first tenure.