Latest news with #Oyedele
Daily Mirror
19 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mirror
Man Utd to earn 'substantial' windfall for player sold less than 12 months ago
Manchester United's Profit and Sustainability concerns are set to be eased with one of their former academy players expected to be on the move this summer, just a year ater leaving the Red Devils Manchester United are set to earn a substantial transfer windfall thanks to former star Maxi Oyedele. The United academy graduate left the Red Devils a year ago for Legia Warsaw, having never played a senior game at Old Trafford. But he has starred in Poland, making 24 appearances in all competitions as Legia won the Polish Cup. That was their first major trophy since 2023, with Oyedele playing all 90 minutes of the final. Though he only joined last summer and has two years to run on his contract, the midfielder is attracting strong interest. Werder Bremen, PSV Eindhoven, Anderlecht, Club Brugge and a number of Championship sides are understood to be monitoring the 20-year-old. There is a release clause in his contract that means he is available for a tick over £5million this summer. There is a growing expectation at Legia that he will be departing the club after just one season. If he does indeed move on, it would bank United a healthy sum, which will go a way towards easing their concerns with the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability rules. The Red Devils are hoping to be busy this summer and any fee received will be greatly appreciated. In a surprise move given he left just 12 months ago, United will benefit substantially from Oyedele's potential transfer. When they sold him last summer, United inserted various clauses into the deal. While they only sold him for a small fee, one of the clauses they inserted was a substantial sell-on clause to ensure future profit. That sell-on clause means that United are entitled to 40 per cent of any fee Legia receive for the midfielder. If he is sold for his release clause, it would see United bank just over £2m. That money would likely go straight into easing their PSR concerns, with a buy-back option also included in the original deal. A departure for Oyedele would come as somewhat of a surprise given his short time in Poland. Speaking in April, the youngster insisted he was happy with life in the capital city. 'It's just funny for my mum because she left Poland to come to England and make a life; I left England to go to Poland to start my journey,' Oyedele told The Guardian. 'Legia was the biggest opportunity. "I don't even think I realised how big of an opportunity it was when I heard about it. I felt like this was the opportunity to play in Europe, the biggest team in Poland. It's my nationality, so it's close to the national team. "It's always a risk to leave it, but it just seemed like the best choice. I couldn't afford to waste another year playing academy football. I could have stayed in England and continued my journey and who knows what would have happened." Join our new MAN UTD WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Manchester United content from Mirror Football. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Zawya
29-04-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Nigeria: ‘Tax reform bills will lower materials' costs in construction sector'
CHAIRMAN of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, has said that the recently signed tax reform bills included provisions that would lower the cost of building materials and stimulate investment in the construction sector. He stated this at a Building and Construction Industry Forum held in Abuja, themed: 'Nigeria's Tax Reforms and the Building and Construction Industry: Implications and Opportunities,' pointing out that the Federal Government is set to introduce tax incentives aimed at reducing the burden on real estate developers and building material suppliers. He added that the tax incentives were meant to improve access to affordable housing across Nigeria. Oyedele explained that the tax reform bills included 'provisions that would lower the cost of building materials and stimulate investment in the construction sector. 'It will reduce the tax burden, whether you're buying, building, or selling real estate,' he said. According to him, the essence was to make life better for everyone and to boost economic activities in the building and construction sector, and by extension, the entire economy. He emphasized the government's commitment to creating more accessible mortgage options for Nigerians across all income levels and called for greater collaboration among industry stakeholders to address persistent issues such as multiple taxation. Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Mr Ahmed Dangiwa, who was represented by Director of Public Building, Mr Temitope Gbemi, highlighted the potential of the tax reforms to integrate the informal economy into the formal construction sector. He encouraged builders and developers to incorporate capital gains into project planning for better cost documentation and tax planning. Chairman of the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON), Dr Samson Opaluwa, expressed optimism that the reforms would enhance revenue generation within the sector. He underscored the need for inclusive discussions given the industry's composition. He noted that the industry is largely driven by SMEs, which produce about 60 to 70 percent of the country's housing stock. However, he pointed out that limited access to finance remained a significant challenge. Executive Director of the Housing Development Advocacy Network (HDAN), Mr Festus Adebayo, urged the government to provide incentives to developers interested in social housing. He criticized the high costs, multiple charges, and bureaucratic hurdles that make affordable housing a distant reality. Copyright © 2022 Nigerian Tribune Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
Zawya
29-04-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Nigeria: Experts suggest solutions to housing loans default by pensioners
Affordable housing advocates have suggested way out of housing loans default by the retired civil servants. Why some called on the government to convert the housing loans default by the pensioners to grants, others urged the authority to rework the mortgages of the affected by removing all interest charges, and grant waivers on a percentage of the outstanding. The advice followed the announcement by the Federal Government that it will begin seizure of properties from retired civil servants who defaulted on housing loan repayments in a move aimed at enforcing accountability and recovering public funds. The Federal Government Staff Housing Loans Board (FGSHLB) revealed this development recently through its Head of Information and Public Relations, Mrs. NgoziO biechina, in Abuja. According to the Executive Secretary of the Board, Mrs. Salamatu Ahmed, the decision followed a directive issued by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, which emphasized the importance of obtaining a Certificate of Non-Indebtedness as a mandatory requirement for retirement from the public service. 'The Federal Government will commence the seizure of mortgaged properties belonging to retiring federal public servants who have failed to fully repay housing loans obtained from the board,' Ahmed stated. She stressed that the FGSHLB retains the legal authority to repossess such properties based on the terms of the loan agreements, in accordance with Public Service Rule 021002 (p). The rule mandates all retiring public servants to present proof of full loan repayment before exit from service. The board is currently compiling a list of retirees with outstanding housing loan debts, which will be forwarded to relevant government agencies for enforcement and recovery actions. Ahmed also warned that this policy is not limited to newly retiring officials but also applies to those who have already exited public service but remain indebted. Affected individuals are advised to urgently regularize their loan status and obtain the necessary clearance certificates to avoid asset forfeiture. Reacting to the government's position on the platform of Housing Development Advocacy Network (HDAN), Lagos-based estate surveyor and valuer, Mr Olufemi Oyedele, advised the authority to convert the loans to grants. He said, 'That retired civil servants cannot pay their housing loans is a default in 'government efficiency'. It is sacrosanct that the people in a country should be housed.' According to him, getting loan to build a basic house should be a sieve as everybody should have one either with loan or as a gift. Oyedele said, 'The loans should be converted to grants. Every man has a right to decent living, including housing rights, according to Chapter 4 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Anything short of writing off the loan is wickedness and executive rascality!' Executive Director, HDAN Mr Festus Adebayo, corroborated Oyedele, saying:' I support the motion that the housing loan should be converted to grants.' Another expert, Adewunmi Okupe, an architect, pointed out that loans default usually happens when the mortgage is not affordable. From inception, he said the authority knew that the deductions from pensioners' salaries could not effectively pay the mortgage. 'Those who took mortgage are expecting some magic from somewhere to help them out,' he said. He took another dimension to the issue, saying some of the affected civil servants took loans and built houses that are beyond their income. 'Civil servants build duplexes, block of four flats, and so on at costs that their salaries cannot afford,' he said He advised that it's high time people got a design and build at costs that are affordable by respective income levels 'Let us design and build at costs that are affordable by respective income levels so that we can stop this national embarrassment,' he said On the way out, Okupe suggested to the government to rework the mortgages of the pensioners affected by removing all interest charges, and granting waivers on a percentage of outstanding in such a way that one-third of their monthly pension can effectively be used to offset the outstanding. Another expert who identified himself simply as 'Evocati' blamed the FGSHLB for the defaults. He said, 'The fault rests squarely on the FGSHLB who created the loans to spill into retirement for the civil servants.' Loans, especially mortgage, he said, were booked based on current verifiable income, and not on wishful thinking or hope of some future windfall. According to him, the agency should have limited each civil servants loan to what he can repay with 1/3 of his salary within the period left in service regardless of the magic being expected to happen. If this method had been followed, he said the mess would have been avoided. 'I support the recommendation for the re-working of the mortgage and some concessions from the government to enable the pensioners to pay conveniently,' he said. Oyedele gave two reasons why mortgage can't work in Nigeria: high rate of employment and high rate of corruption. 'Mortgage is not a practice where so called primary mortgage institutions get grant or allocation at lower rate from government and give it out to the privilege few at higher rate than procured. Mortgage housing fund accessed from a pool of fund from people who are willing to procure house and have contributed into the pool. The attraction is a guarantee of getting loan as a contributor and not the interest rate on their deposit which is usually lower than the average interest of the capital markets of the nation,' he said. Oyedele suggested three factors that are needed to make mortgage system work in Nigeria: Reduction in corruption, increments in minimum wage, and application for rule of law. According to him, there would be a need to reduce corruption across board, especially at the highest level of administration. 'If a Senator on N15 million per month and N1.8 billion per annum procure a house of N2.2 billion after spendings a year in the Senate without loan and nobody is raising eyebrow, then mortgage cannot work. Mortgage shouldn't be the recourse of the poor and the less-influential in the society,' he said. He called for the need to increase minimum wage and reduce maximum wage to make mortgage work in Nigeria. He said, 'The disparity in salaries of workers in Nigeria is so high that some salaries earners can build their own houses without assistance or support while majority of Nigerians cannot. The strong do not see anything wrong in the system.' He also suggested that the rule of law must be adopted to make mortgage work. 'Without rule of law, no system can work in the nation,' Oyedele said. Okupe believed that mortgage can work with civil servants if the houses being mortgaged come at affordable prices with respect to their mortgage affordability since the repayment will be deducted from source. 'Repayment should be restructured to end before pension starts or a portion of the gratuity can be used to pay whatever balance is left,' he said. Copyright © 2022 Nigerian Tribune Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
The Guardian
09-04-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Maxi Oyedele: from Manchester United outcast to ‘dream' tie against Chelsea
Fourteen months ago, Maxi Oyedele was experiencing the lowest moment of a burgeoning career, being substituted after coming off the bench for a team destined for relegation from League Two. Now he is preparing for a European quarter-final with Legia Warsaw against one of the biggest clubs on the continent. Forest Green feels a world away. When any teenager is loaned by Manchester United to a lower-league club, the aim is for them to gain experience that can help them progress. In theory, this is done through positive performances and playing against senior professionals, allowing a youngster to learn the tricks of the trade. Sometimes, however, a setback is the best learning curve. It has helped the midfielder earn full international honours, the Conference League battle with Chelsea in Warsaw on Thursday and a Polish Cup final next month. 'I would put that down as one of my most valuable experiences, going to Forest Green and it not working out the way I wanted it to,' says Oyedele, who returned to United after four substitute appearances in League Two. 'The way I had to come back to the club and be back in the under-21 squad and be training in and out with the first team … that whole period was extremely, extremely tough. Whatever problems I face I know what it's like to be at the lowest point. It's only made me stronger.' A move to eastern Europe may not sound like an obvious move for someone who was brought up in Salford and joined United aged six, but Oyedele has a Polish mother and a Nigerian father. Oyedele regularly visited his mother's homeland as a child, learning the language to interact with his grandmother, and started representing Poland as a teenager. Legia came calling in the summer, offering a homecoming of sorts when it became clear he was not in Erik ten Hag's plans. 'It's just funny for my mum because she left Poland to come to England and make a life; I left England to go to Poland to start my journey,' says Oyedele. 'Legia was the biggest opportunity. I don't even think I realised how big of an opportunity it was when I heard about it. I felt like this was the opportunity to play in Europe, the biggest team in Poland. It's my nationality, so it's close to the national team. It's always a risk to leave it, but it just seemed like the best choice' The deal was completed in late August and within a couple of months Oyedele had ticked off a top-flight, European and full international debut. The central midfielder won two caps for Poland last year against Portugal, where he swapped shirts with his former club captain Bruno Fernandes, and Croatia. 'I always thought I would love to leave and start a new journey abroad,' he says. 'I couldn't afford to waste another year playing academy football. I could have stayed in England and continued my journey and who knows what would have happened. I might have not been anywhere near and now I'm about to play Chelsea.' A cacophony of noise and pyrotechnics will be used at Legia's stadium to create an intimidating atmosphere in the hope of putting Chelsea on the back foot in a tie they are heavy favourites to win. The eclectic nature of the Conference League means Legia, fifth in Poland's top division, have defeated the Welsh Premier league side Caernarfon and Real Betis on their way to this stage. 'I can't even begin to describe the Legia fans,' says Oyedele. 'It's one of the best things I've seen. I go to the stadium and I'm looking around thinking: 'Wow. It's unbelievable. I can't wait to play, in front of these fans. My debut, the fans were crazy. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion 'You just rise, it absolutely lifts you up. And then walking out they had the tifo and I was thinking: 'This is why I play football.' I've never seen anything like it for me' Legia went through three playoff rounds starting in July to reach the Conference League group stage. It has been a circuitous route to a first European quarter-final since a defeat by Panathinaikos in the Champions League 29 years ago. Anticipation has been building since they beat Molde in the last round. 'When I first joined, I watched us in the [Conference] League and thought I would love to play Chelsea,' Oyedele says. 'This was months ago, in August. For us to get to this point, to have the opportunity to play such a big game … it was this dream. This is everybody wanted and when the game finished [against Molde], we had done it. 'Now all that dream stuff is gone – it's reality. We know that it's Chelsea, so it's going to be tough, but it's a case of why not? I bet everybody thought we were going to lose to Real Betis and look what we did then.'
Zawya
28-02-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Nigeria's Tax reform bills: No inheritance tax reintroduced — Oyedele
The Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, on Thursday assured Nigerians that inheritance tax would not be reintroduced in the new tax bills currently being considered by the National Assembly. Oyedele made this clarification while speaking at the public hearing on the four tax reform bills organized by the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, chaired by Hon. James Faleke. According to him, 'The section of the law being interpreted as introducing inheritance tax is Section 4, Subsection 3 of the Nigerian tax bill. This section refers to family income. 'If an individual owns a property and rents it out, they pay tax on the rent. Similarly, if a family owns a house and rents it out, should they not pay tax? If we exempt them, I guarantee you, all houses in Nigeria will suddenly become family houses, and nobody will pay tax. 'Income is different from inheritance. Inheritance pertains to assets, wealth, and cash. In accounting, income refers to external earnings—it comes from outside the family. This provision is not new; it has been in our tax laws since independence. 'As of today, this provision exists in the Personal Income Tax Act, Section 2, Subsection 5. 'If a family earns income, they can attribute it to the father or the son, who will then pay the tax. However, if the income cannot be attributed to any specific family member, the tax is imposed on the family as a whole. 'In fact, there is also a tax on villages and communities. For instance, if a community owns a town hall and rents it out, they are required to pay tax. This provision is not new, nor does it introduce an inheritance tax. 'If this provision were equivalent to an inheritance tax, there would have been no need for the military to introduce an actual inheritance tax in 1979. 'In 1996, the Capital Transfer Tax, which imposed inheritance tax, was repealed. Since then, we have not, in any way, directly or indirectly attempted to bring it back. Moreover, this is a state government matter, not a federal government initiative. Why would we want to do that?' Addressing allegations from some stakeholders in the free zones that 70% of investors had withdrawn their funds due to unfavorable policies, Oyedele dismissed the claim as false. According to him, 'There is what we call 'cash in circulation,' which refers to physical currency in people's pockets and wallets. In Nigeria, this amounts to about four trillion naira, it is meant to be outside the banking system for small transactions like paying for a molue or buying pure water. 'The total money supply in Nigeria exceeds 100 trillion naira, and it remains intact. Last year alone, the value of digital transactions was N1.08 quadrillion. So, nobody is withdrawing money to flee from Nigeria.' In his submission, the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Zach Adedeji, criticized investors who manufacture in free zones—which have a different tax system but attempt to sell their products in customs areas. He stated that no responsible government would allow such a practice. According to him, 'No responsible government will turn a blind eye and allow individuals who have either not read the law or have only read it halfway to initiate litigation or threaten to leave the country. What is their total investment compared to the damage they claim they can inflict? 'There is no law permitting free zone entities to sell to the customs territory while competing with businesses that pay taxes. That is the fastest way to create economic distortion, and that is not the government's intention.' The President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Francis Meshioye, commended the government for its boldness in introducing the bills but expressed concern over the lack of incentives for manufacturers producing for export. He also opposed the idea of allowing unrestricted sales into the Export Free Zones, stating that no other country in the world, except Nigeria, permits such a policy. He cited Ghana, which allows only 30% of sales into the local market. The association proposed that the law should cap the allowable percentage of goods sold into the free zone at 25%. Meshioye also praised the government for its plan to reduce corporate income tax as outlined in the bills, noting that globally, reducing corporate tax is a common strategy to boost production and economic growth.
