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Associated Press
4 days ago
- Associated Press
Boat capsizes in Nigeria's Niger state and at least 25 people feared dead, authorities say
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A boat transporting passengers to a market in north-central Nigeria capsized, killing at least 25 people, authorities said Sunday. The accident happened Saturday near Gumu village in the Shiroro area of Niger state, Ibrahim Hussaini, an official with the National Emergency Management Agency, told The Associated Press. Hussaini said search and rescue efforts were underway, but are limited because armed gangs mostly control the area. He added that the number of casualties may rise. 'Very few people can go to the scene because of banditry in that area,' he told the AP. Armed groups, commonly referred to as bandits, have stepped up attacks in recent months in the north-central region, complicating rescue efforts. The accident is the latest in a series of deadly boat accidents on Nigerian waterways, where accidents are common in remote communities, especially during the rainy season, due to overloaded and poorly maintained vessels. In September last year, a boat carrying mostly farmers capsized on a river in the northwestern state of Zamfara, drowning at least 40 people. At least 326 people died in boat accidents in Nigeria in 2024, according to a count by TheCable, a local media outlet. Analysts say many boats operate without life jackets and blame weak enforcement by regulatory authorities.
Reuters
23-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Nigeria's Senate approves President Tinubu's $21 billion external borrowing plan
ABUJA, July 23 (Reuters) - Nigeria's Senate has approved President Bola Tinubu's plan for more than $21 billion in foreign borrowing to plug shortfalls in the 2025 budget, a senior lawmaker said late on Tuesday. Tinubu asked parliament to approve the borrowing in May. "With this approval we now have all revenue sources, including loans, in place to fully fund the budget," Solomon Adeola, Senate chair on appropriations, told reporters.
Reuters
21-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Nigeria's economy expanded 3.13% y/y in first quarter
ABUJA, July 21 (Reuters) - Nigeria's economy expanded by 3.13% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025, the statistics office said on Monday, following the rebasing of its gross domestic product to better align with the current economic landscape. The economy grew to 372.822 trillion naira ($243.7 billion) after rebasing, Statistician-general Adeyemi Adeniran, told a news conference in the capital. The GDP growth at 3.13% in the first quarter, compared with 2.27% in the same quarter last year, was lower than a Reuters poll of analysts who had expected growth to expand by 4.9%. "Following the benchmarking of the estimates, the performance of the GDP in Q1 of 2025 was driven mainly by the service sector, which recorded a growth rate of 4.33% and contributed 57.15% to the aggregate GDP," Adeniran said. Oil production during the quarter was at 1.6 million barrels per day, compared with 1.57 million bpd in same quarter last year. Adeniran said the rebasing GDP reflected changes in the country's economy over time. "This rebasing exercise... not only involves the change in the base year, which moved from 2010 to 2019 but also includes methodological updates," he added. Several economic sectors, including marine, fishing shipping and ports, arts, culture, tourism, and e-commerce, have grown significantly since the last GDP rebasing in 2014, warranting their inclusion, the stats office had said. The 2014 rebasing had positioned Nigeria as Africa's largest economy, surpassing South Africa, but the country has since lost ground due to naira devaluations under President Bola Tinubu's administration. Tinubu's lightning reform push in the first weeks of his administration sparked hope that he could finally unleash the full potential of Africa's sluggish economic giant. But two years on, the key planks of his economic overhaul - devaluing the naira and scrapping subsidies - have triggered the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation and are yet to deliver faster growth.
Arab News
13-07-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Nigeria's former president Buhari dead at 82
ABUJA: Former Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari — who led his country first as a junta strongman and later as an elected democrat — died Sunday at the age of 82, an aide said. Buhari governed Nigeria with a strong hand as a military ruler in the 1980s before reinventing himself as a 'converted democrat,' serving two terms from 2015 to 2023. 'The family of the former president has announced the passing on of the former president, Muhammadu Buhari, this afternoon in a clinic in London,' Garba Shehu, who served as Buhari's spokesman during his presidency, said in a post on social media. Current President Bola Tinubu said in a statement that he had spoken with Buhari's widow and ordered Vice President Kashim Shettima to go to England to accompany Buhari's body back to Nigeria. The rake-thin 82-year-old Muslim from Nigeria's far north made history as the first opposition candidate to defeat an incumbent leader at the ballot box in 2015. His election victory in a country where re-election for the incumbent had been taken for granted was seen as a rare opportunity for Nigeria to change course. But his time at the helm failed to halt the country's long-standing issues of graft and insecurity, while the oil giant was further dogged by economic woes.
