Mega Praise Concert: Imo offers prayers for Nigeria

ITRealms:

The Imo State capital, Owerri is set for an all-night mega praise and worship concert scheduled for today, Thursday January 5, reports ITRealms.

Performances, ITRealms gathered would see a host of headline gospel artistes as well as prayers and exhortations offered up for Nigeria and the host state for a more rewarding 2017.

The event, ITRealms also report, is hosted by the office of the Wife of the Executive Governor, Her Excellency Nkechi Rochas Okorocha, in partnership with the entertainment division of Yudala, Nigeria’s fastest growing and pioneer composite e-commerce outfit.

With the theme: Starting the Year with Jesus Christ, the event is expected to attract an estimated 110,000 strong audience including the entire Christian community, First Ladies from other states, First Class Chiefs and traditional rulers from Imo State as well as several dignitaries to the Heroes’ Square, Owerri for a night of undiluted praise, worship and supplications to usher in the New Year.

Already, excitement is at an all-time high in Owerri for the concert which will witness performances from some of Nigeria’s finest Gospel Ministers including Chioma Jesus, Frank Edwards, Steve Crown, Chinyere Udoma, Able Cee, Uche Agu and comedy skits from Aboki4Christ, among others.

Top on the agenda for the all-night concert will be a feast of prayers and supplications led by anointed men of God representing the various Christian denominations in Imo State. These will focus on intercessions to God for a prosperous, peaceful and more rewarding year for all citizens of Imo State in 2017. 

In addition, prayers will be offered for peace and unity in Nigeria as well as God’s divine intervention in the myriad of challenges faced by the country including the prevailing economic recession and the militancy/restiveness in parts of the country which poses a threat to the continued unity of the Nigerian State.

Going by the array of Gospel Ministers and the expected out-pouring of praise, prayers and worship at the event, many attendees are in for a glorious time of healing, liberation and a chance to start the New Year with a renewed personal relationship with God.

Uju N. Dominic/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Glo recommits to Lagos’s growth @One Lagos Fiesta

ITRealms:

Leading telecom operator, Globacom, has restated its support for the government of Lagos State in its efforts to boost the profile of the state and improve the quality of life of its residents, reports ITRealms.

Speaking in the early hours of Sunday at the Grand Finale of One Lagos Fiesta (OLF), an end-of-the-year initiative of the Lagos State Government introduced last year, Globacom’s Coordinator, Business Enterprise Group, Mr. Folu Aderibigbe, said the company is committed to the growth and development of the state, just as it is committed to supporting the growth and passion of its customers.

He said the company was delighted to be the exclusive telecom partner of the innovative initiative for the second year running, adding that “Globacom is a brand that promotes the active lifestyle of fun and excitement.”

Mr. Aderibigbe pledged that Globacom would always do its best to support endeavours that are aimed at enriching the lives of the people, adding that the company would also continue to invest in building the best telecommunications network in the country.

The Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, in his own speech expressed optimism that 2017, which marks the 50th anniversary of the state will present limitless opportunities and true happiness for all Lagos residents.

He said: “Our vision remains the same: to create a smart mega city where business and creative opportunities abound; where physical and social amenities are world-class; and where lives and property are safe and secured.”

The colourful grand finale held at the expansive Bar Beach, Victoria Island, Lagos featured the climax of the talent hunt show christened ‘Lagos Has Got Talent’ in which youths across five major divisions of the state competed in the areas of dance, rap, comedy and drama.

In the end, Master Ogunlaja Ahmed a.k.a Mr. Dollar from Epe Division emerged the overall winner, while Blessing Akiote (Agege) and Flexible Twist emerged second and third, respectively.

They went home with fantastic prizes from the State Government. The winners also received gifts from Globacom.

The 2016 One Lagos Fiesta also featured exciting performances from a broad range of artistes including ‘African Rapper Number One’ and Globacom Ambassador, MI, Juju Maestro, King Sunny Ade, street music mega star, Olamide, Mavin Music Diva, Tiwa Savage, ‘Orente’ crooner, Adekunle Gold, and dentist-turned song writer and singer, Dr. SID among numerous others.

Hundreds of revelers danced their way into the New Year as sprightly fire-crackers lit up the sky at midnight, sending reverberations of excitement around Victoria Island and beyond. Wild celebrations continued well into the early hours of Sunday.

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

ITU opens more documents with new ‘Access to Information’ policy

ITRealms:

The governing council of the International Telecommunications Union (​​ITU) has approved that more information and documents and documents held, managed, or generated by ITU, to be openly available online, reports ITRealms.

​Head, Corporate Communications, at ITU, Mr. Paul Conneally, confirmed this to ITRealms, saying that the Union started the New Year by launching a new access to information policy, thus committing to make more information and documents openly available online.

This decision, he said, was made by ITU's governing Council in 2016, which aims at bringing public access to information for ITU's main conferences and meetings in line with other international organisations like the World Bank, UNDP, and UNESCO.

“The decision will enhance transparency to ITU's decision-making processes,” he said.

He quoted ITU Secretary-General, Houlin Zhao, as saying that the ITU Council decision provides more information and insight into ITU's working methods and decision-making procedures to the general public and promotes greater transparency and accountability.

"One of the powers of ICTs is their ability to make organizations more trustworthy. ITU aims to lead by example" he said.

Zhao also said that as of 1 January 2017, input documents, summaries of decisions, reports and other output documents would be available to the public through ITU's website.

This process, he said, will be a standard feature of ITU's main conferences and meetings in the coming years, including ITU Council Working Groups, ITU Advisory Groups Meetings, the upcoming World Telecommunication Development Conference 2017 and the ITU principle governing body, the quadrennial Plenipotentiary Conference, the next one of which is scheduled for the last quarter in 2018.

Nenye Dom/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

The death of Nigeria's civil society

Commentary@ITRealms 

Time was when the Nigerian civil society flourished with inspiring agility and genuine enthusiasm for public good. That was the period the group seized the national turf with commanding decisiveness, and galvanized the Nigerian people towards seeing themselves as the ultimate sovereign who must take charge of their destiny by deciding the type of country they wanted. One recalls with nostalgia those memorable days that are now locked in the deep, dark recesses of the past.

Anyone who is conversant with the historic role of the country’s pressure groups would very easily recall the vibrant activities of the civil society from the middle of the 1980s to the time the Fourth Republic was inaugurated in1999. That period would aptly pass for the golden era of Nigeria’s civil society. But for the steely resilience and compelling combat posturing of that group in the heady days of military dictatorship, one scenario would have been the reality: either of two military dictators would have simply changed from military uniform into civilian attire and, with telling impudence, presented himself to the world as a product of democracy. But it never happened, thanks to that virile, vigilant and well-appreciated civil society of yore.

With a cadre boasting accomplished professionals from every known field of human endeavour, it was able to organize itself into a formidable pro-democracy group that mobilized Nigerians from all walks of life for the showdown that eventually forced the soldiers to succumb to the popular demand for a government freely chosen by the people.

Personalities who formed the vanguard of that epic struggle are too numerous to mention but one could readily recall front liners who pounded the streets, filled the highways and packed the halls, parks and squares with fiery speeches denouncing military dictatorship and calling for a democratically elected civil government. They include Wole Soyinka, Alao Aka-Bashorun, Gani Fawehinmi, Beko Ransome-Kuti, Olisa Agbakoba, Femi Falana, Baba Omojola, Comrade Ola Oni, Ayo Obe, Dr. Segun Osoba, Idowu Awopetu, Clement Nwankwo, Frank Kokori, Chidi Odinkalu, Abdul Oroh and Richard Akinnola to mention just a few. For emphasis, it must be stated that this list is by no means exhaustive as a handful of activist students also played crucial role in the struggle.

At regular intervals, members of this civil society underlined its resolve with robust confrontation with the military forces, the police and some of the conniving individuals and groups in the society. One witnessed and indeed covered one of such confrontations at the conference hall of the old secretariat of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Yaba, Lagos, in the early 90s. That sombre evening the pro-democracy group had converged for a sensitization meeting with the public and had lined up some of the persons mentioned above as speakers.

Then, just suddenly, MKO Abiola (God bless his soul), who had by then assumed notoriety as a long-standing cheerleader of the military usurpers, breezed into the hall to the consternation of the entire gathering. As expected when he got the microphone, Abiola wasted no time launching into a spirited apologia for a wayward military regime. But between him and Gani, the match-up was complete. The hall exploded with fireworks to the delight of the audience as the feisty legal colossus and the dogged business mogul went eyeball to eyeball in a tense standoff between autocracy and freedom. It was a terrific evening of mind-blowing encounter. Trust Gani to always prevail in such situations.  

      

Most remarkable in that civil society was the solid involvement of the Nigerian Bar Association, then led by the inimitable Aka-Bashorun, who has been described as the greatest and most effective president of NBA in living memory. Aka, as colleagues knew him, was elected to the presidency of the NBA at a time the ruling military junta led by General Ibrahim Babangida seemed to have neutralized all forms of opposition to its dictatorship. Aka’s two year stint (1987-1989) at the helm of affairs rebuilt the foundation of that body and re-energized it as an active agent of public scrutiny to the applause of a vast majority of Nigerians.

He it was who evinced rare clairvoyance by deciphering at the very early stage of the junta’s eight-year fruitless transition to democracy that Babangida was not interested in handing over to anybody but to himself. In that strangulating atmosphere of unrestrained repression and persecution of voices of dissent, Aka was the one who mustered the nerve to coin the term “hidden agenda” and slammed it on IBB with reference to his merry-go-round transition programme. For his audacity he was labeled a “radical” by the military, while his multitude of admirers hailed him as “The Lion of the Bar.”

That era contrasts sharply with the state of today’s civil society. The activism of the NBA that ought to be one of the arrowheads of this critical segment of the society has progressively declined since Aka’s exit. Today the NBA tramples on the soul of the masses as it exists only as the legal department of the neo-colonial oppressors, romancing corruption by defending high-profile thieves and politically exposed politicians, and displaying horrific apathy as all kinds of impunities are visited on the land on a daily basis from all arms of government and beyond. An NBA that exists only for the rich. Surely by now, Aka and Gani must be turning in their graves.

Outside the NBA, it is no less disheartening and shameful. All shades of Non-Governmental Organizations parading under the rubric of civil society are set up to be hired by anyone who can pay the price. They will rent the crowd and kit them up with all kinds of paraphernalia to protest on your behalf. And only those who have looted this country blind have been able to continually engage their services.

Although there are genuine CSOs out there, one can hardly see the wood for the trees anymore. It is therefore not a surprise that Professor Itse Sagay, Chair of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), recently publicly lamented the death of civil society in Nigeria – a painful fact long acknowledged by honest observers of unfolding events in the country.     

*Godwin Onyeacholem is a journalist and could be reached on gonyeacholem@gmail.com; Follow him on Twitter @GOnyeacholem

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Buhari's 2017 new year message, harps on security

For the records@ITRealms:

My dear Compatriots,

I am happy to welcome you to the beginning of a New Year in our beloved country Nigeria.

I felicitate with you today at a time when our nation is witnessing a new and impressive turnaround in our security and socio-economic situation.

I know you will join me to, once again, congratulate the heroic and gallant efforts of our military and other security agencies on their remarkable successes to rid the nation of terrorism.

Following the successful capture of Sambisa Forest, spearheaded by troops of Operation Lafiya Dole, we have entered a new phase in our battle against our common enemy, Boko Haram.

When we see our beloved 21 Chibok girls reuniting with their families and community for Christmas, it gives us the hope that those who are still in captivity will one day return to the loving arms of family, friends and well-wishers.

I urge all Nigerians to be on the alert and watch out for strange figures settling in their communities, and report to the nearest security agencies, as our armed forces intensify the pursuit of fleeing terrorists from the captured Sambisa Forest.

Misguided elements who decided to take up arms against constituted authorities must be brought to face the full weight of the law.

The support of all Nigerians to security agencies to enable them successfully execute their mandate is crucial in our bid to effectively secure our country.

Seeing the joyful return of thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to Damasak town in Borno State, following the reopening of Maiduguri/Gubio/Damasak road in Northern Borno on December 25, 2016, reassured us that the voluntary return of IDPs in other parts of the country is imminent.

The Federal Government will spare no effort in seeing to the resettlement and rehabilitation of the unfortunate victims of terrorism and insurgency. I urge state governments, privileged Nigerians, donor agencies and countries to redouble their contributions towards this goal.

Government is aware of some mistakes and wrongdoings in handling the affairs of IDPs. We are taking measures to correct those mistakes and punish the culprits.

In this New Year, I want to reassure all Nigerians that our defence and security forces are more than ever before ready to perform their constitutional role of protecting lives and property in the country; and we will surely overcome all other forms of security challenges.

The lingering security issues in several states will be frontally addressed. These ugly crises cannot be allowed to fester as they strain the unifying bonds of brotherhood and neighbourliness. Some sections of the press and some politicians should avoid provocative and inflammatory statements, while the government is painstakingly trying to find solutions to our challenges.

I want to remind you on the first day of this New Year of an African proverb that says “it is easy to break a broomstick but not a bunch”. Nigeria is a bunch and is more than equal to troublemakers.

I have interacted with a broad spectrum of Nigerians, the old and the young, and they have told me unequivocally that they believe in the unity and stability of Nigeria.

The year 2017 provides an opportunity for us to build on those aspects of our national life that unite us. We are courageous, hardworking, hospitable, steadfast and resilient people, even in the face of difficulties.

These are the attributes that define us and have for years confounded the pessimists who do not believe in our continued existence as a united and indivisible nation. We are a remarkable nation that has succeeded in harnessing our multiple diversities for national development. We must continue to support and tolerate one another and live together as one.

We will continue to pursue peace initiatives in the Niger Delta as I again, call on our brothers in that region who have taken to violent disruptions of economic infrastructure to come to the negotiating table.

As for our brothers and sisters of the Shia Community, we urge them, too, to embrace peace. They must accept the laws of the country they live in. They cannot be islands by themselves. At the same time, the law enforcement agencies must treat them humanely and according to the rule of law.

On our part, in the past 20 months since our inauguration on May 29, 2015, we have focused our energies to turn around the economy, create jobs, fight corruption, and transform agriculture to replace oil and gas as a major revenue earner for the nation. I am encouraged that we are getting things right.

The agricultural revolution has begun. Farmers in different parts of the country are experiencing bumper harvests; states are getting into strategic partnership towards attaining self-sufficiency in rice, and the era of over-dependence on oil for foreign exchange revenues is gradually waning. I am optimistic that the CHANGE we all yearned for in voting this administration to power in 2015 will manifest more and be sustained in different sectors, particularly agriculture, in 2017.

As you may be aware, our economic recovery and growth plan in 2017 is anchored on optimizing the use of local content and empowering local businesses.

In pursuit of this administration’s philosophy, we will continue to appeal that we buy "Made In Nigeria" goods. Like I said during the 2017 Budget presentation to the National Assembly, farmers, small and medium-sized manufacturers, agro-allied businesses, dressmakers, entertainers and technology start-ups, will remain the true drivers of our economic future. They are the engine of our economic recovery and their needs underpin our Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.

On job creation, this administration will sustain existing programmes aimed at lifting a vast number of our youth out of poverty, while at the same time creating the opportunities for people to fend for themselves.

Our determination to wrestle corruption to the ground remains unshaken. This fight, which will be guided by respect for the rule of law and due process, will not spare anybody or organ of government. It is a collective undertaking and resolve that must be seen to its logical conclusion in spite of certain distractions. The fate of our country lies partly in the success of this campaign. It will be unthinkable on my part to allow the boat of this crucial campaign promise capsize mid-stream.

I thank you for the public support for our administration’s efforts to transform Nigeria. I assure you again that the current pains are temporary and will ease when the economic seeds in gestation begin to bloom to fruition. I urge you to continue to support this administration in its effort to transform Nigeria for the good of all.

I wish you a Happy New Year, 2017.

MUHAMMADU BUHARI
President, Federal Republic of Nigeria.

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

A nation united by corruption

Commentary@ITRealms:

One of the highlights of the year that has just ended was the release from a British jail of one of Nigeria's most notorious politically exposed persons (PEPs), James Onanefe Ibori. Ibori's rap sheet is as long as the 338km East-West Road in Nigeria's Niger Delta region, but the reason for his latest freedom was the conviction and sentencing—13 years in prison—by a Southwark Crown Court in April 2012 after he pleaded guilty to a 10-count charge of money laundering, corruption and conspiracy to defraud.

Of course, it wasn't Ibori's release that dominated the news, as newsy as his expected release was. Rather, it was his triumphant return to the warm embrace of his kinsmen, supporters and well-wishers. James Onanefe Ibori or James Onanefe Ochuko Ibori, depending on if you are appearing before the Supreme Court of Nigeria, is an enigma. 

He was governor of Delta State from 1999-2007. He and his bosom friend, Bukola Saraki, Nigeria's current senate president, bankrolled the political machine that led to the emergence of Umaru Musa Yar'Adua as president in 2007. And if not for providence—the death of Yar'Adua in May 2010—Ibori, who up until then was the de facto vice president of Nigeria, would have succeeded Yar'Adua.

Yar'Adua died and Nigeria dodged a bullet or so we thought! Ibori was subsequently jailed in 2012, two years after he was arrested—and extradited to the UK—by the Interpol in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, where he was hiding after fleeing Nigeria. Even in prison, he maintained his godfather role and from the public admission of one of his surrogates played a key role not only in the emergence of high-ranking public officers in Delta State but the leadership of the National Assembly. For the trajectory of the Ibori saga and persona, readers will find this piece, "The welcome party for Ibori" by Simon Kolawole, instructive.

Depending on where you come from, perhaps your political affiliation and how much you benefitted from the Ibori heist in Delta State, either directly or through a third party or even tangentially as a hanger-on, the celebratory Mass held in honour of Ibori's release from prison, though detestable, was quite understandable. After all, there is an Ibori in many of us. There are countless Iboris in the National Assembly, criminals making laws and posing as "distinguished senators" and "honourable members". 

There are Ibori's in various government houses across the country; scoundrels posing as executive governors. There are Iboris in the Army, Air Force, Navy, Customs, Immigration, Prisons, Police, our universities and sundry public institutions where those who have been kept in charge of what Peter Ekeh in his seminal essay, "Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: A Theoretical Statement", referred to as "civic public" conveniently and unconscionably steal from it and divert their loot to the "primordial public".

That is the sorry state of Nigeria. And it explains the Ibori conundrum. According to Ekeh, "A good citizen of the primordial public gives out and asks for nothing in return; a lucky citizen of the civic public gains from the civic public but enjoys escaping giving anything in return whenever he can. But such a lucky man would not be a good man were he to channel all his lucky gains to his private purse. He will only continue to be a good man if he channels part of the largesse from the civic public to the primordial public. That is the logic of the dialectics. The unwritten law of the dialectics is that it is legitimate to rob the civic public in order to strengthen the primordial public."

So, just as it is often the case where one person's freedom fighter is another person's militant, as a people, Nigerians seem not to be in agreement on what constitutes corruption or who a corrupt person is. What one Nigerian sees as corruption, another sees it as "blessing from God", their own opportunity or "turn to eat". The national cake is there for the taking. The state has abdicated its responsibilities—roads, water, school, health, sanitation, etc—and instinctively we have learned to "manage" by helping ourselves to as much as the national pottage, in the "civic public", as we can lay our hands on.

Take the ongoing spat between the current Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, and his predecessor, Solomon Arase, who has been accused of making away with over 20 police vehicles when he retired in June 2016. Arase didn't deny carting away police vehicles. He is just piqued that when it was his "turn to eat", the police authorities suddenly became amnesic. To show his righteous anger on an issue that has caused public discomfiture, Mr. Arase's reminded the all-righteous police authorities that there is nothing new in Inspectors General of Police making away with enough vehicles to open a car shop when they retire.

“I expect that former occupants of the office of the Inspector-General of Police should not be demeaned. This explains why Force Order 295 was emplaced by the force management under my leadership as acknowledged in your letter in reference," Arase wrote to his predecessor in his defence. "In spite of the emplacement of this order and despite the fact that my two immediate predecessors left office with 13 and nine vehicles of different makes and models respectively, I never pressurized either of them to return any of such vehicles neither did I engage in any act that was capable of bringing them to ridicule as being done to me of late by a force I dedicated my life to serving up to the highest level."

Clearly, pubic office in Nigeria is simply a sinecure and you would be eternally excoriated by your kinsmen and associates for not taking advantage of a life-changing opportunity.  As someone once reminded me, public office in Nigeria is like climbing a mighty tree with lots of fruit. Once you climb, you are required to get as much as you can because you may not have a second chance. So, we are all, ceaselessly, engaged in the race of getting a nibble at the cake. To appreciate the Ibori phenomenon, you must understand Nigeria. Here, the best private schools, including universities, are owned by those whose responsibility has included how to make our public schools functional. It is the same story for the health, transport, and indeed, every sector of the Nigerian society. 

It is as if Nigerians, wherever we find ourselves in the "civic public", are in a race for a medal on how best to pillage the country. The "Villa Repair Heist", as someone has described it, provides a fitting example of this brazen larceny that is called public service in Nigeria. The 2016 budget for repairs and rehabilitation of Nigeria's Presidential Villa, Aso Rock, was N642.5 million.

By 2017, the budget had shot up to N5.6 billion. "Was the Villa hit by a bomb or earthquake unbeknownst to us citizens?" "Was there a war akin to Aleppo in the place?" one commentator asked. No, there wasn't. It is simply "their time to eat." In the same budget, there is a provision of N2.3billion for the Defence Headquarters to clear backlog of electricity bills that is budgeted for every year.  

In July 2012, I was part of an audience at Chatham House, London, where an ex-governor of Niger State and Chair of the Northern States Governors Forum, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, was guest speaker. Dr. Aliyu spoke on "Nigeria’s Unity and Regional Socio-Political Groups: Influence and Impact of the Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF)." He noted that "corruption was the single unifying factor of the elite in Nigeria and that the way to deal with it was to reduce the focus on the centre." Aliyu is right in many ways. But it is not just the elite. It is about Nigeria. 

Today, if someone is robbed, we no longer get jolted. The refrain will be, "Thank God he is alive." "We praise God the robbers took his possession and spared his life." "God bless those robbers." It is the same response you get when kidnappers strike. We no longer bother to interrogate armed robbery, kidnapping and other vices that have become part of our national ethos.

The celebration of Ibori's return from prison, therefore, provides an opportunity to interrogate what Nigeria means to us as Nigerians. The problem is not really with Ibori or those who have elected to celebrate him. The problem is with Nigeria, a place where allegiance is to the "primordial public", where rulers live in mansions and religious centres luxuriate in splendor while public schools and hospitals wallow is squalor. 

*Chido Onumah is the author of We Are All Biafrans Contact him on conumah@hotmail.com; Follow him on Twitter: @conumah

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Access Bank asserts industry leadership with ‘Bank of the Year’ award

ITRealms:

Access Bank has asserted its leadership of the Nigerian banking industry with the recent recognition as the ‘Bank of the Year’ at the 17th annual Bank of the Year awards black-tie dinner in London, reports ITRealms.

The award, ITRealms gathered corroborates other nine international honors earned by the Bank over the past 10 months for operational excellence, responsible business practices and innovation.

Presenting the award, Michael Buerk, BBC News journalist, noted that the award is unarguably one of the most coveted prizes in the banking sector globally, stressing that in spite of the challenging operating environment and rapid changes in the industry, Access Bank has remained a formidable institution. 

“Specifically, the Bank has been a purveyor of innovation in the Nigerian banking space and consistently outperformed industry forecast.  It is firmly believed that its operational model, risk management and governance framework, which enable sustained superlative financial performance need commendation” he said.

ITRealms also gathered that this view is consistent with Analysts’ opinion on the Bank in the past one year, but its Group Managing Director, Herbert Wigwe who received the award for the Bank said, “While innovation, excellent risk and corporate governance framework might be the advantage we have over our competitors, the Bank is propelled by a vision of becoming the world’s most respected African Bank, and this requires us to do things differently to standout. He thanked the bank’s stakeholders for their support and assured them of improved performance in the years ahead”.

Over the years, he said, Access Bank has established a reputation as one of the most formidable financial institutions in Nigeria. This is unconnected with its impressive growth trajectory and contributions to the development of the Nigerian economy through empowerment initiatives and practical SME schemes.  As an acclaimed innovative industry pioneer, the Bank has remained the choice of international financial organizations and multilateral agencies seeking partnership in Nigeria.

For some of its pioneering initiatives and outstanding performance, the bank has earned a number of recognitions in the past months. The recognitions include the ‘Karlsrushe Outstanding Business Sustainability Award’, ‘ BusinessDay Banking Award – CEO of the Year’, ‘BusinessDay Banking Award – Best Bank of the Year’, ‘EMEA Finance Best Bank in Nigeria Award’, ‘EMEA Finance Corporate Responsibility Award (Pan-African)’, ‘EMEA Finance CEO of the Year (Pan-African’ and World Finance Most Sustainable Bank of the Year Award’.

The bank is particularly excited about its emergence at the ‘2016 Bank of the Year’ because the award is renowned as a valuable reward for banking excellence, and recognition for achievements of outstanding individuals and exceptional institutions in the global banking landscape.

The Banker Awards is an annual event of the Banker Magazine, a publication of the Financial Times of London and world’s leading monthly journal of records for the global banking industry, with expertise in publishing developments in the African banking industry and beyond for more than 90 years.

Oyi Midele/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Pix 1: L-R: Editor, The Banker Magazine, Michael Buerk; Group Managing Director/CEO, Access Bank Plc, Herbert Wigwe with the plaque for the  Bank of the Year Award which the Bank won at The Banker Awards 2016 by The Banker Magazine in London

2 L-R : Dapo Olagunju, Group Treasurer;  Rooselvelt Ogbonna, Executive Director- Commercial Banking Division; Group Managing Director/CEO, Herbert Wigwe; Chief Financial Officer, Seyi Kumapayi at The Banker Awards 2016 where Access Bank won “Bank of the Year’’ Award.

Mobile app for EnvironNews debuts

Mobile app for EnvironNews debuts: NaijaAgroNet : Foremost online environment and development magazine,  EnviroNews Nigeria , has launched an Android version of its mobil...

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

Akeem Oyetunji buries mother in Ibadan

ITRealms:

Madam Sariyu Oyetunji, the mother of the Publisher of Prompt News Online newspaper, Mr Akeem Oyetunji, is dead, reports ITRealms.

A statement endorsed by her first son, Mr Akeem Oyetunji, said Madam Sariyu, 72, died at about 11.00 am Thursday morning, at her residence in Ologuneru, Ibadan, Oyo State.

Madam Oyetunji, a devout Muslim, he said died after a brief illness.

She was also buried at 4.00pm Thursday afternoon, according to Islamic rites.

Madam Oyetunji is survived by two sons, three daughters and grand children.

May her gentle soul rest in perfect peace. Alahumo amin.

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Anambra partners Etisalat on ‘Adopt-a-School’

ITRealms:

The Anambra State government has partnered Etisalat Nigeria as the state, has adopted Oraukwu Community Secondary School in Idemili-North Local Government Area of Anambra State, South -East Nigeria under its Corporate Social Responsibility-based Adopt-a-School initiative, reports ITRealms.

The Etisalat Adopt-a-School initiative avails pupils and students in government-owned primary and secondary schools access to qualitative education with access to a range of modern education facilities.

Speaking on the new development, Director, Regulatory and Corporate Social Responsibility, Etisalat Nigeria, Ikenna Ikeme, said the telecoms firm is glad to add a new school to the growing list of schools under its Adopt-a-School Programme, just as he commended the education authorities in the state for choosing to partner with the company for the development of the younger generation through access to qualitative education.  

Ikeme also added that the initiative is borne out of the company’s commitment to leverage the potentials of quality education to drive the sustainable development programme of the nation. “In Etisalat, we recognize the fact that education is the bedrock of any meaningful development; that is why we have made education one of our three CSR platforms.”

“The initiative is aimed at providing an environment conducive for learning which will bring out the best in our pupils. We are committed to driving sustainable development and one of the key platforms on which that can be achieved is education. Like our other adopted schools, we will implement key components that will ensure sustainable impact on the quality of education in Oraukwu Community Secondary School,” he said.

Under the Adopt-a-School initiative, Etisalat has renovated class rooms and toilets, provided clean water, internet facilities, furniture, laboratory equipment and many more to the three existing adopted schools namely Government Girls’ College Dala, Kano State, Edward Blyden Memorial Primary Schooland Akande Dahunsi Memorial Junior and Senior School, Ikoyi, Lagos State.

In a related development, the telecommunications company has concluded the 2016 Merit Awards Scholarship Scheme with the presentation of Scholarship certificates to students in four Universities across the country. The beneficiary universities include Modibbo Adamawa University of Technology, Niger Delta University, Bayelsa State, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu and Uthman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto.

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!