Ecobank Nigeria Extends Remittance Services To Business Accounts Holders
Ecobank Nigeria has extended its innovative remittance services to its business account holders. This implies that Business Account holders can now receive funds sent through Ecobank Rapidtransfer or any of its Remittance franchise partners through the Business to Business (B2B), Business to Customer (B2C) and Customers to Business (C2B) transaction types directly into their business accounts. The bank is also working to enlist other International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) for a more robust remittance offering.
Disclosing this in Lagos, Head of Consumer Banking Korede Demola – Adeniyi, said the launch of the service affords business owners in Nigeria to receive monies sent by both individuals and corporate organizations anywhere in the world instantly to their Ecobank domiciliary accounts, stating that the bank has put in place seamless account opening procedures for those who do not have domiciliary accounts for them to enjoy the service. She maintained that the development is in line with the bank’s strategy to provide accessible remittance services to Nigerians, listing the various channels which these remittances can be accessed as Rapidtransfer app, Ecobank Mobile App, Ecobank Online, and any of the bank branches.
“For us as a bank, we are excited about these and other future collaborations as our contributions to drive remittance inflows into the country, promotes trade and foreign direct investments, create businesses, spur entrepreneurship, and generally develop the Nigerian economy. Some of the benefits for business account holders includes no limits to how much they can receive, no hidden charges and there is also the opportunity to invest the funds received in foreign currency at a competitive rate.” “The Rapidtransfer is our proprietary product. It is licensed by the nation’s apex bank; Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as an international money transfer product and it is also licensed in Europe. Diaspora remittances can be sent from anywhere in the world using the Rapidtransfer app – available for download in the Google play and iOS stores.”
ZENITH BANK RANKED NUMBER ONE TIER-1 BANK IN NIGERIA FOR THE THIRTEENTH YEAR IN A ROW IN THE 2022 TOP 1000 WORLD BANKS RANKING
Zenith Bank Plc has been ranked as the Number One Bank in Nigeria by Tier-1 Capital in the 2022 Top 1000 World Banks Ranking published by The Banker Magazine. For the thirteenth consecutive year, the Bank retained its position as the number one Tier-1 bank in Nigeria with a Tier-1 Capital of $2.75 billion, emerging as the 460th Bank globally.
The ranking, which was published in the July 2022 edition of The Banker Magazine of the Financial Times Group, United Kingdom, was based on the 2021 year-end Tier-1 capital of banks globally. Zenith Bank’s financial performance for the year was underpinned by double-digit growth of 10% in gross earnings, with an improved market share in both retail and corporate sectors despite a very challenging macroeconomic environment aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Commenting on the 2022 Top 1000 World Banks Ranking, the Group Managing Director/CEO of Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu, said: “This ranking is a testament to our resilience and doggedness as an institution despite economic headwinds and a persistent challenging macroeconomic environment. Indeed, being ranked as the Number One Bank in Nigeria by Tier-1 Capital for the thirteenth year in a row underscores our commitment to sustaining the superior performance we are renowned for and creating value for our highly esteemed customers.” He expressed his appreciation to the Founder and Chairman of Zenith Bank Plc, Jim Ovia, CON, for his guidance and for laying the foundation and building the structures of an enduring and very successful institution; the Board for the outstanding leadership they provide; the staff, whose drive and commitment sustains the exceptional performance; and the Bank’s customers for their unflinching loyalty to the Zenith brand.
Tier 1 Capital describes capital adequacy, which is the core measure of a bank’s financial strength from a regulator’s point of view. According to the ranking, Tier 1 Capital, as defined by the latest Bank for International Settlements (BIS) guidelines, includes loss-absorbing capital, i.e. common stock, disclosed reserves, retained earnings and minority interests in the equity of subsidiaries that are less than wholly owned.
Zenith Bank’s track record of excellent performance has continued to earn the brand numerous awards, with this latest accolade coming on the heels of several recognitions, including being recognised as the Best Bank in Nigeria for three consecutive years from 2020 to 2022, in the Global Finance World’s Best Banks Awards; Best Commercial Bank, Nigeria 2021 and 2022 in the World Finance Banking Awards; Best Corporate Governance Bank, Nigeria in the World Finance Corporate Governance Awards 2022; Best in Corporate Governance ‘Financial Services’ Africa, for three consecutive years from 2020 to 2022, by the Ethical Boardroom; Best Commercial Bank, Nigeria and Best Innovation In Retail Banking, Nigeria in the International Banker 2022 Banking Awards; and Bank of the Year (Nigeria) in The Banker’s Bank of the Year Awards 2020. Also, the Bank emerged as the Most Valuable Banking Brand in Nigeria in the Banker Magazine Top 500 Banking Brands 2020 and 2021, and the Retail Bank of the year at the BusinessDay Banks and Other Financial Institutions (BOFI) Awards 2020 and 2021.
Similarly, Zenith Bank was honoured as Bank of the Decade (People’s Choice) at the ThisDay Awards 2020 and emerged winner in four categories at the Sustainability, Enterprise, and Responsibility (SERAS) Awards 2021, carting home the awards for “Best Company in Reporting and Transparency”, “Best Company in Infrastructure Development”, “Best Company in Gender Equality and Women Empowerment”, and the coveted “Most Responsible Organisation in Africa.
Sensational singer and songwriter Hice King is gradually putting his feet down in the Nigerian music industry, born Okon Samuel Monday, in Uyo LGA of Akwa-Ibom State, he sojourn to Lagos began when he lost his late grandparents who trained him since he was a baby in a little farming village in Cross-Rivers State.
According to the budding music star his relocation to Lagos was not as smooth as he had expected, in his words “When I moved to Lagos I was only able to work for 7 months and since then it has been very difficult to get another job, it was very tough as accommodation and feeding were just by the grace of God.
“I was sleeping from one church member’s house to another and whenever that is not possible I will sleep either in an uncompleted building or under bridge, friends and families could not help as it was generally tough, it got to an extent that I begin to lose hope in myself. It was all that I am facing that gave me the inspiration behind the song ‘Child of Nobody’ which is to explain the kind of hardship I had faced and ones that I am still facing”. He explained.
The new song is an easy sing along song which talks about the hardship on day to of every young men aspiring to make ends meet, it is full of positive talks and thought. it is currently available on all music streaming sites and app and the last check shows that the stream for it is gradually climbing up.
Premier League side, Arsenal in the early hours of Sunday defeated thier opponent, Chelsea 4-0 in a pre-season friendly in Florida, Unites States of America.
Gabriel Jesus, who only joined Arsenal from Manchester City earlier this month, continued his impressive pre-season form with another goal during the encounter.
Jesus took his goal tally to four goals in three games for his new club in a clinical win for the Gunners in front of 63,811 fans at Orlando’s Camping World Stadium.
It was another encouraging performance for Mikel Arteta’s side, who took control of the game with two first-half goals after dominating the opening 45 minutes.
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel could not hide his anger during a lacklustre first-half display from his team, who were repeatedly exposed by Arsenal’s nimble counter-attacking.
The Blues had one promising attack after five minutes when new signing Raheem Sterling played Timo Werner into space, but French defender William Saliba snuffed out the danger with a solid covering tackle.
Arsenal should have opened the scoring moments later, when Gabriel Martinelli burst clear on the counter.
The Brazilian passed to Bukayo Saka but the English international’s shot was saved by Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.
The Arsenal pressure finally told in the 15th minute with a goal that came after Chelsea’s Nathaniel Chalobah surrendered possession with a misplaced pass that went straight to Granit Xhaka.
The Swiss international played a superb first time ball into Jesus who coolly chipped over the advancing Mendy to make it 1-0.
Martin Odegaard made it 2-0 to the Gunners in the 36th minute with another well-worked move.
Martinelli’s pass found the Norwegian playmaker in space inside the Chelsea area, and the attacking midfielder turned smoothly and tucked a low finish past Mendy.
Chelsea’s best chance of a lacklustre half came in stoppage time when Mason Mount curled a shot from the edge of the area which beat Aaron Ramsdale but crashed back off a post.
Arsenal extended their lead midway through the second half when Saka buried a rebound from close range after Mendy parried Xhaka’s long-range strike.
Arsenal continued to create chances but had to wait until injury time for their fourth goal when Albert Sambi Lokonga headed past Mendy after a superb cross from the right by Portuguese international Cedric.
A new video released by terrorists that kidnapped the victims of the Kaduna – Abuja train attack has shown how the abducted victims were been assaulted and flogged amidst tears and agony.
The victims were seen in the video begging their oppressors as they were indiscriminately whipped by unmasked and masked men, who surrounded them.
The video also showed the women watching in agony.
Addressing the federal government, a representative of the terrorists threatened to enslave and sell some of the victims if their demands are not.
“This is our message to the government of Nigeria and just as you have seen these people here, by God’s grace, you will see your leaders; your senators and governors will come before us.
“These ones you are seeing here, we will keep some as our slaves and sell them off just as our Imam told you in the past.
“Just like the Chibok girls that were sold off, we will equally sell these ones as slaves. If you don’t adhere to our demands, we will kill the ones we need to kill and sell the remaining. By God’s grace, El-Rufai, Buhari, we will bring you here”.
Pleading to the government, one of the victims called on the international community and the United Nations to intervene and facilitate their release.
He stressed that the captors were not willing to be lenient any further and as such, the government should meet the demands of terrorists in exchange for their freedom.
On March 28, terrorists abducted at least 63 passengers from an inbound Kaduna – Abuja train.
They revealed that the abduction was not financially motivated, but for the release of some of their commanders incarcerated in various facilities of the government.
However, reports have shown otherwise as 13 victims who were earlier released on different occasions were said to have paid huge ransoms for their freedom.
THE WHISTLER had authoritatively gathered that the terrorists have demanded N100m each for the release of the victims.
The last released seven had paid no less than N800m.
Manchester United manager, Erik ten Hag says he will focus on the players he has in the club for now rather than lose sleep over the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ten Hag says he will continue pre-season with the available players as nothing has changed about the situation of Ronaldo.
Naija News understands Ronaldo is yet to turn up for pre-season training after he asked to leave the club.
But with just about two weeks to the start of a new season, the United manager says his focus is on players available at his disposal and whenever Ronaldo returns, they can look at how to integrate him.
“It is the same as last week,” Ten Hag responded when asked about the situation with Ronaldo.
“But concerning is maybe not the right word. I focus on the players who are there, they are doing really well, they are in good shape.
“I prefer to focus on that and develop that. I cannot wait for him to come in, then we will integrate him,” he added.
Naija News reports Manchester United will play their first game of the 2022/2023 campaign at home to Brighton.
The United Nations, UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, has ordered for the immediate release of of the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
The UN indicted both Nigeria and Kenya Governments for the arrest and extraordinary rendition, torture and continued detention of Nnamdi Kanu without due process.
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has replied Omoyole Sowore who is also contesting for the country’s top job in 2023 saying the African Action Congress presidential candidate does not understand how the Nigerian power sector works.
Atiku reacted in an interview on Arise Tv monitored by THE WHISTLER.
Atiku had on Wednesday, July 20, 2022 criticised the country’s energy crisis particularly, the collapse of the national grid for the sixth time in 2022.
He had tweeted, “I am reliably informed that there was a total National Grid Collapse at precisely 12:23pm today. This is one collapse too many. It is the 6th time this is happening this year alone.”
Sowere however accused the presidential candidate of spending $16bn to procure darkness for Nigerians.
“The National Electrical grid collapse started when you and Obasanjo invested $16bn to procure darkness for Nigeria, the @MBuhari regime came to gazette grid collapse as a law. Alhaji @atiku, don’t pretend that you care about the National Grid!” Sowore had replied.
Industry data from the Federal Ministry of Power in Abuja showed that power generation on the grid had reached a peak of 4,091.6MW on Tuesday, July 19, 2022.
It plunged to 3,921.8MW on Wednesday morning and later crashed to about 50MW leading to the collapse of the National grid.
But Atiku admitted that transmission was at 4,000MW before the government started investing $16bn in the power generation project. He blamed the failure to improve power supply on the distribution companies (DisCos).
“He is opponent what do you expect him to say? He has all along lived outside this country, he doesn’t even know the policy we implemented and even the policy initiative. When we came in, the total generation was about 4000MW, we initiated the building of nine additional power stations.
“By the time those nine were finished, the capacity had gone up from four to about 13,000MW, but unfortunately, there was no corresponding increase as far as the transmission lines are concerned,” the former VP said.
He argued that when the transmission cannot evacuate the generation, “there is no way they will not collapse, so they kept on collapsing.”
The PDP flag bearer explained that the “nine additional power stations were completed by (Goodluck) Jonathan. Umaru (Musa Yar’Adua) was on it, he died and Jonathan continued and he completed them.”
“He (Sowore) doesn’t even know. What does Sowore know about this country? Nothing.”
Atiku also said during their tenure which ended 2007, he advised President Olusegun Obasanjo on the decentralization of power generation and transmission.
Atiku also revealed that his foreign exchange policy will be different from what is currently obtainable under the President Buhari administration.
Naira has depreciated to N635 per dollar at the parallel market, while the official Central Bank rate is N415.9 to the dollar.
The PDP candidate said the best possible option is to converge the parallel market rate and the official rate, a move he believes would solve the forex crisis.
“Exchange rate is CBN’s policy. I’m not expected to interfere in such, but what I expect to see is a convergence of the CBN exchange rate as well as the parallel market rate.
“I’m a market-oriented person. I believe in the forces of the market. This is what I expect the CBN to achieve- convergence of the exchange rate.”
The special adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina has denied being a card-carrying member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Adesina on Thursday submitted that APC is only his preferred party but he is not a member of the party, adding that he is a Buharist as well.
Naija News reports he made the stand known in an article released on Thursday in which he reacted to those calling him out after the APC lost the July 16 governorship election in his home state of Osun.
It will be recalled the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ademola Adeleke on Saturday, defeated the incumbent governor and candidate of the APC, Gboyega Oyetola.
This led many to start calling out APC stalwarts from the state including Adesina on how they couldn’t deliver their very own state.
However, Adesina on Thursday in an article titled ‘OSUN: BUHARI DOES IT AGAIN’ said though he would have preferred Oyetola as his preferred candidate to win the election, he is not a stakeholder in the Osun election as people painted it to be.
In his words, “I’m also a Buharist, a firm believer in the ideals of that honest man, the Mai Gaskiya from Daura, in Katsina State, though I am not a registered member of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“It was, therefore, laughable for some people to try and rope me into Osun State politics, as the gubernatorial election held last Saturday. First, they came up with the news that Femi Adesina had lost his ward to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Which Femi Adesina. Me? Or another one? Do you lose what you don’t participate in?”
He further clarified that contrary to insinuations that the PDP defeated the ruling party in his ward, the APC actually won in his ward.
“Out of curiosity, I checked. The APC had, indeed, won my ward, in the Post Office area of Ipetumodu by 176 to PDP’s 130 votes. But it didn’t matter. It just shows how heinous and petty some people can be,” he added.
On his membership of the APC, Adesina said while he is sympathetic to the party, he is not a registered member of the APC and those calling him out after the party’s loss in Saturday’s governorship election should be properly guided.
“My position is this. I work for an APC government, and it is my preferred party. But member? Not so. I have always rooted for good APC candidates and I would have loved if Governor Gboyega Oyetola had won in Osun last weekend,” he declared.
Adesina also added that he would most likely never be a member of the APC.
“Yes, APC is my preferred party, but I’m not a member, and won’t likely be, with my eyes set on farming and media work after leaving government service,” he added.
The Muhammadu Buhari-led government is set to spend the sum of N30.222 billion to rehabilitate the National Assembly Complex.
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Musa Bello, said this on Thursday during an oversight visit by the Senate Committee on FCT to various project sites being constructed by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCDA) in Abuja.
Bello said the cost approval of NASS complex rehabilitation by President Muhammadu Buhari was N37 billion which was included in the 2020 budget of the Federal Capital Development Administration.
He said the amount was downwardly reviewed to N9.25 billion in the revised 2020 budget to enable the FCDA to pay contractors, leaving a balance of N21.025 billion.
According to him, the total cost of rehabilitation work which stood at N30,229, 290,830.35 billion was not part of the National Assembly’s annual budget of N128 billion as insinuated in some quarters.
He also disclosed that the contract, which was awarded on 30th December 2021, has a completion period of two years.
He stated that the National Assembly Phase II, popularly known as “the White House” was realised from 1996 to 1999 by ITB Nigeria Ltd without any major rehabilitation works carried out on the building over the years.
Speaking on other projects embarked upon by the administration, the Minister said the Federal Secretariat complex and the construction of the Southern parkway from Christian Center to ring road had commenced.
He said other projects are rehabilitation of the expansion of Outer Southern Expressway, provision of engineering infrastructure for Wuye District, rehabilitation and expansion of Outer Southern Expressway Villa Roundabout and completion of B6, B12 and Circle Road in Central Area.
The Minister pointed out how the FCDA decided to prioritize key projects due to paucity of funds, but assured that all projects which were ongoing would be completed in record time.
Bello further indicated that the ministry is determined to ensure that a number of projects are completed before the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
On his part, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on FCT Senator Tolu Odebiyi (APC Ogun-East), who led the committee members, expressed happiness with the quality of the projects being constructed.
“We believe that in the twilight of this administration, in the next month, it is important we catalogue all the projects that are being done and prioritize the ones that must be completed before the end of this term.
“This is so that we can also make sure we provide the adequate funding and budget for it.
“Their budget is going to be forwarded to us very shortly and it is important we come and see the state of the work and the completion rate of the programme before we take them on,” he said.
