
Nigeria: Gov Makinde approves $6mln for renovation of Oyo schools
Governor Seyi Makinde-led Oyo State Executive Council has approved N9.97 billion for the immediate construction and rehabilitation of schools across the State.
This is aimed at providing a more conducive environment for students and teachers alike to foster educational development in the State.
The Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Prince Dotun Oyelade, was quoted in a statement as disclosing that the contract would cover perimeter fencing, construction of toilet facilities, drilling of solar boreholes, installation of solar lights, and procurement of furniture.
It was added that the intervention involves 50 Contractors at a cost of ₦9,974,332.00.
The Council also approved the second phase upgrade of the Samuel Ladoke Akintola Airport.
According to the Council, Governor Seyi Makinde has determined that the stipulated standard of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is conformed with.
The second phase upgrade will cost ₦7,008,688.00
Governor Seyi Makinde had said at the flag-off of the airport last year that the State will not compromise the upgrade of the Samuel Ladoke Akintola Airport to International status and that all due diligence will be followed in this regard.
Several Aviation Experts from the Federal Airports Authority Of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigerian Air Force, are members of the Airport Upgrade Committee.
According to the Commissioner for Information, compensation of ₦2,399,428.00 (Two billion, three hundred and ninety-nine million, four hundred and twenty-eight thousand naira) has also been approved by the Council for the 32.2km Southeast segment of the Senator Rashidi Ladoja Circular road project.
The Council also took a decision on the Sustainable Action for Economic Recovery (SAfER) phase two.
The Council recalled that after the successful implementation of the first phase, which included intervention in transportation, food relief packages, food security, health insurance, and Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), it has therefore approved phase two of SAfER, which will concentrate on the continued subsidy on transportation and healthcare, the cost of which is ₦2,000,588.00 (Two billion, five hundred and eighty-eight thousand naira).
The Commissioner said that the Governor expressed his delight at the concept and the implementation of the first phase because the template of SAfER in Oyo State is not only more sustainable but more helpful to the masses in a time of need.
The Council also approved the scope of work on the Asphaltic improvement of some roads in Ibadan metropolis at a cost of ₦1,700,000.00 (One billion, seven hundred million naira).
The roads include the NNPC/General Gas road, Anglican Church road off Kolapo Ishola junction, and some others.
Syndigate.info).
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Arabian Post
34 minutes ago
- Arabian Post
India's Industrial Output Sinks Even As GDP Grows
By Nantoo Banerjee India's economic growth figures seem to be getting increasingly delinked with domestic manufacturing, industrial output, and job generation. The manufacturing sector had a very little contribution to the country's 6.5 percent GDP growth during the last financial year, the slowest in four years. Despite a good monsoon last year, the country's agriculture sector growth rate in the second quarter (October-March) was 3.5 percent. The industrial growth rate for 2024-25 is estimated to be only four percent, also marking the lowest in the last four years. In April, the country's industrial output slowed to an eight-month low at 2.7 percent as per the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO). What is pushing the country's GDP growth? Obviously, the less reliable estimates of the country's vast services sector backed substantially by imports. Ironically, India's total imports in the last fiscal had grown by 6.85 percent, a little above the country's GDP growth rate. This may give a somewhat wrong impression that the GDP growth is linked with the import growth. Uncontrolled imports, mainly from China, are dampening India's domestic production initiative and new job generation agenda. China's imports from India are rapidly shrinking. In the last fiscal, India's imports from China grossed over $113 billion, a $11.5 percent rise over the previous fiscal. The top imported products from China included electrical and electronic equipment, machinery, organic chemicals, and plastics, most of which should have been manufactured in India. This increase contributed to a widening trade deficit for India. In contrast, India's merchandise exports to China collapsed to only $14.25 billion from $16.66 billion, last year. Export-led China does not seem to like to import anything from India. No one in the government appears to be concerned about the country's massive import growth year after year, especially from China. Imports are mostly at the cost of domestic production and local jobs. A country does not import merchandise alone. It also imports labour that goes into the manufacturing of imported products. China continued to be India's top import source, by far the biggest from any single country. In the last fiscal, India's total imports are estimated to have grown to US$ 915.19 billion. This growth was driven by higher merchandise imports, which reached US$ 720.24 billion, a significant increase compared to the US$ 678.21 billion in the previous fiscal. No department in the government is willing to take the responsibility of the low and slow domestic industrial production and sinking job growth rates since the present BJP-led national government has been in operation. The government has been acting more like a dream merchant often seen busy in forecasting and focussing on India's long-term economic prospects. The so-called 'Make-in-India' initiative made little success in the absence of the import-happy government's liberal investment policy, especially in manufacturing, that could strongly induce foreign industrial investors rush to India as they did in Communist China for several years. Foreign investors are not interested in the political colour of a government. In the first three months of 2025, the foreign direct investment (FDI) in China was as much as US$36.9 billion. Consider this against the FDI inflow of a mere $0.4 billion into India during the whole of 2024-25. It was $10.1 billion, a year ago. This is probably the worst performance in the country's annual FDI inflow records while the government keeps talking about India emerging as a global manufacturing hub. India's own industrial entrepreneurs are investing little in the country. Instead, they are indulging in investing abroad. During the last financial year, India's net outward FDI (OFDI) grew 75 percent year on year to $29.2 billion. Singapore, the US, UAE, Mauritius and the Netherlands together accounted for more than half of the rise in OFDI. The country's Index of Industrial Production (IIP) expanded by only four percent for the 2024-25 fiscal. This growth is lower than the 5.5 percent recorded in March 2024. The manufacturing sector experienced a further slowdown, with growth at 4.5 percent for the year, down from 12.3 percent in 2023-24. The IIP grew by only three percent in March 2025. The industrial output grew by four percent during the April-October period of the last financial year. The share of manufacturing in India's GDP continues to be as low as 12 percent. According to Visual Capitalist, the share of manufacturing in China's GDP is projected to be around 29 percent of global manufacturing output in 2025. This amplifies the significant dominance of China in global manufacturing, potentially matching or exceeding the combined share of the US and its allies. Specifically, China is projected to have a manufacturing output of $4.8 trillion, accounting for 29 percent of the global value. Less than two months ago, India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the country plans to raise the share of its manufacturing sector from 12 percent to 23 percent over the next two decades, aiming to create jobs and drive economic growth. While speaking at the Hoover Institution at California's Stanford University, the finance minister said India is focussing on 14 identified sunrise sectors like semiconductors, renewable energy components, medical devices, batteries and labour-intensive industries, including leather and textile, to enhance the share of manufacturing in GDP. However, of these industries, semiconductors may only appear to be a sunrise industry in India. Incidentally, the present form of the global semiconductor industry is almost 70-year-old. The first commercially available microprocessor, Intel 4004, was released in 1971. India is expected to launch its first locally produced semiconductor chip, under foreign equity and technical control, by the end of the current year. India is a major importer of semiconductors. Its local end-use market is projected to double from $54 billion in 2025 to $108 billion by 2030. Lately, the government's highly liberal investment incentives are expected to bring foreign companies to help push up domestic semiconductors production. Until recently, the government appeared to be rather casual about strengthening the country's industrial and manufacturing bases. Even in 2014-15, when the Narendra Modi-led government came to power at the centre (May 26, 2014), India's manufacturing sector contributed 16.3 percent to the country's GDP. While the government's much-touted 'Make-in-India' policy was launched in September 2014, hoping to fast-forward its share, the manufacturing sector's contribution to GDP has subsequently declined mainly due to the lack of a strong commitment to the programme and uncontrolled import growth over the years. That may explain why the country's annual GDP growth rate has generally failed to reflect on its growth of the manufacturing sector and employment. (IPA Service)


Arabian Post
4 hours ago
- Arabian Post
Afreximbank downgrade dispute raises questions on loan categorisation
African Union's African Peer Review Mechanism has challenged Fitch Ratings' downgrade of the African Export‑Import Bank, arguing the move rests on a misinterpretation of its sovereign loan portfolio. On 4 June, Fitch lowered Afreximbank's long‑term foreign‑currency issuer rating from BBB to BBB‑—a notch above junk—with a negative outlook. The agency attributed the downgrade to elevated credit risk, citing an estimated non‑performing loan ratio of 7.1 %, primarily due to sovereign exposures to Ghana, South Sudan and Zambia classified as NPLs. The APRM asserts that Fitch's classification is flawed and inconsistent with Afreximbank's own disclosure of an NPL ratio of 2.44 % as of end‑March. The AU‑established body emphasises the bank's status as a multilateral lender created under a 1993 treaty, which binds member governments—including Ghana and Zambia—as signatories, shareholders and founding members. APRM contends such loans are grounded in intergovernmental cooperation rather than standard commercial terms, so treating them as NPLs misrepresents their nature. Fitch defended its methodology, stating that its supranational rating decisions adhere to globally consistent and publicly available criteria, and highlighting that their analysis clearly identified rating drivers and sensitivities. The agency maintains sovereign exposures showing delayed repayments meet its threshold for classification as non‑performing, irrespective of legal structures or treaties. In that sense, the downgrade aligns with accepted analytical standards. ADVERTISEMENT APRM's critique zeroes in on that threshold. It argues that sovereign repayment negotiations are routine diplomatic engagements, not signs of default. It remains concerned that Fitch's decision conflates financial dialogue with credit impairment. The body has formally called on Fitch, Afreximbank and other African institutions to convene technical consultations and reassess the rating, emphasising the importance of contextually intelligent credit assessments. Beyond the immediate dispute, this episode resonates with a broader continental debate over the relevance and fairness of global credit‑rating frameworks applied to African multilaterals. Africa's longstanding concerns that Western rating methodologies fail to grasp local realities and may unfairly inflate borrowing costs have sparked momentum for alternative mechanisms. Among these, an Africa‑led credit‑rating agency is under development, envisaged to begin operations by September 2025, aimed at providing sovereign ratings that reflect regional economic and institutional contexts. Central to the debate is Afreximbank's evolving lending strategy. Under outgoing president Benedict Okey Oramah, the Cairo‑based lender has aggressively expanded its footprint, increasingly financing private sector projects across the continent and taking calculated sovereign exposure. Supporting growth in under‑served markets like Zimbabwe and Nigeria, the bank grew its asset base from around US$7 billion in 2015 to approximately US$40 billion in 2024, with deposits rising to US$37 billion. That growth has attracted scrutiny. Fitch has highlighted what it sees as elevated concentration of corporate and sovereign risk, pointing to an NPL ratio that exceeds its internal threshold. Observers note that up to 92 % of Afreximbank's lending is directed at commercial businesses, and certain sovereign loans carry interest rates as high as 6.875 % over benchmark rates—much higher than traditional development finance institutions. Proponents of the APRM's position, including lead credit‑ratings expert Misheck Mutize, argue that supplementary indicators such as capital adequacy, collateral density and profitability should carry mitigating weight. Mutize points to a strong equity ratio of 19 %, risk‑weighted capital at 21 %, internal capital generation through profits, and loan collateral cover for 84 % of the portfolio. These factors, he suggests, are downplayed in the rating downgrade despite being explicitly acknowledged in Fitch's own analytic framework. He warns that over‑reliance on contested NPL figures can breach the methodology's balance principles. ADVERTISEMENT Not everyone supports APRM's framing. Analysts note that countries like Zambia officially halted repayments to Afreximbank in 2021, and South Sudan failed to honour its obligations, prompting legal recourse in London. Zambia's treasury has openly stated its debt will be restructured. Against this backdrop, Fitch's interpretation that certain sovereign debt has become non‑performing appears defensible under global standards. This dispute underscores a tension: Afreximbank's assertive growth strategy has boosted its developmental reach and institutional clout, yet it must reconcile that dynamism with risk and transparency expectations imposed by global credit agencies. With Oramah set to step down later this month, the new president will face a pivotal choice: maintain aggressive expansion as the bank charts an independent path, or recalibrate operations to conform more closely with multilateral development bank norms—a course change that could preserve borrowing benefits but limit growth prerogatives. Beyond institutional implications, the outcome has broader financial consequences. A downgrade to BBB‑ tightens Afreximbank's borrowing costs, heightens the risk premium for countries swayed by its lending, and complicates its mission to finance intra‑continental trade. That may squeeze African exporters and traders relying on the bank's funding. Policy stakeholders are paying attention. The APRM's call for dialogue and transparency signals a pushback against the perceived hold of Western agencies over African financial destiny. Meanwhile, the African Development Bank is developing a Continental Financial Stability Mechanism that may borrow under a regional rating—another step towards financial sovereignty.


Gulf Today
8 hours ago
- Gulf Today
Under Patel, FBI heightens focus on violent crime
When the FBI arrested an accused leader of the MS-13 gang, Kash Patel was there to announce the case, trumpeting it as a step toward returning 'our communities to safety.' Weeks later, when the Justice Department announced the seizure of $510 million in illegal narcotics bound for the US, the FBI director joined other law enforcement leaders in front of a Coast Guard ship in Florida and stacks of intercepted drugs to highlight the haul. His presence was meant to signal the premium the FBI is placing on combating violent crime, drug trafficking and illegal immigration, concerns that have leapfrogged up the agenda in what current and former law enforcement officials say amounts to a rethinking of priorities and mission at a time when the country is also confronting increasingly sophisticated national security threats from abroad. A revised FBI priority list on its website places "Crush Violent Crime" at the top, bringing the bureau into alignment with the vision of President Donald Trump, who has made a crackdown on illegal immigration, cartels and transnational gangs a cornerstone of his administration. Patel has said he wants to 'get back to the basics.' His deputy, Dan Bongino, says the FBI is returning to 'its roots.' Patel says the FBI remains focused on some of the same concerns, including China, that have dominated headlines in recent years, and the bureau said in a statement that its commitment to investigating international and domestic terrorism has not changed. That intensifying threat was laid bare over the past month by a spate of violent acts, most recently a Molotov cocktail attack on a Colorado crowd by an Egyptian man who authorities say overstayed his visa and yelled "Free Palestine." "The FBI continuously analyses the threat landscape and allocates resources and personnel in alignment with that analysis and the investigative needs of the Bureau," the FBI said in a statement. "We make adjustments and changes based on many factors and remain flexible as various needs arise." Signs of restructuring abound. The Justice Department has disbanded an FBI-led task force on foreign influence and the bureau has moved to dissolve a key public corruption squad in its Washington field office, people familiar with the matter have told The Associated Press. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has proposed steep budget cuts for the FBI, and there's been significant turnover in leadership ranks as some veteran agents with years of experience have been pushed from their positions. Some former officials are concerned the stepped-up focus on violent crime and immigration - areas already core to the mission of agencies including the Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement — risks deflecting attention from some of the complicated criminal and national security threats for which the bureau has long borne primary if not exclusive responsibility for investigating. "If you're looking down five feet in front of you, looking for gang members and I would say lower-level criminals, you're going to miss some of the more sophisticated strategic issues that may be already present or emerging," said Chris Piehota, who retired from the FBI in 2020 as an executive assistant director. Enforcement of immigration laws has long been the principal jurisdiction of immigration agents tasked with arresting people in the US illegally along with border agents who police points of entry. Since Trump's inauguration, the FBI has assumed greater responsibility for that work, saying it's made over 10,000 immigration-related arrests. Patel has highlighted the arrests on social media, doubling down on the administration's promise to prioritise immigration enforcement. Agents have been dispatched to visit migrant children who crossed the U.S-Mexico border without parents in what officials say is an effort to ensure their safety. Field offices have been directed to commit manpower to immigration enforcement. The Justice Department has instructed the FBI to review files for information about those illegally in the US and provide it to the Department of Homeland Security unless doing so would compromise an investigation. And photos on the FBI's Instagram account depict agents with covered faces and tactical gear alongside detained subjects, with a caption saying the FBI is "ramping up" efforts with immigration agents to locate "dangerous criminals." "We're giving you about five minutes to cooperate," Bongino said on Fox News about illegal immigrants. "If you're here illegally, five minutes, you're out." That's a rhetorical shift from prior leadership. Though Patel's direct predecessor, Christopher Wray, warned about the flow of fentanyl through the southern border and the possibility migrants determined to commit terrorism could illegally cross through, he did not characterise immigration enforcement as core to the FBI's mission. There's precedent for the FBI to rearrange priorities to meet evolving threats, though for the past two decades countering terrorism has remained a constant atop the agenda. Then-Director Robert Mueller transformed the FBI after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks into a national security, intelligence-gathering agency. Agents were reassigned from investigations into drugs, violent crime and white-collar fraud to fight terrorism. In a top 10 priority list from 2002, protecting the US from terrorism was first. Fighting violent crime was near the bottom, above only supporting law enforcement partners and technology upgrades. The FBI's new list of priorities places "Crush Violent Crime" as a top pillar alongside "Defend the Homeland," though FBI leaders have also sought to stress that counterterrorism remains the bureau's principal mandate. Wray often said he was hard-pressed to think of a time when the FBI was facing so many elevated threats at once. At the time of his departure last January, the FBI was grappling with elevated terrorism concerns; Iranian assassination plots on US soil; Chinese spying and hacking of Americans' cell phones; ransomware attacks against hospitals; and Russian influence operations aimed at sowing disinformation. Associated Press