NIGERIA: Dangote begins training of block makers, bricklayers

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Dangote Cement PLC has commenced training of  people in block industries business including bricklayers across the country so that they can mould quality products and thus stop building collapses.

“Sofar I have covered 15 states carrying out pratical training to block makers. Am still going to cover more  states before the end of this year. Out target is to reach 8,835 block makers this year,” said  Johnson Olaniyi, Regional Manager Marketing Services.

Briefing journalists  during a collaborative meeting with Block and Concrete Makers Association in Lagos State, he said that beyond giving these artisans tools for working like shovels, wheel-barrows ,rainboots and other equipment, the company  hascommenced training and re training them on the right usage of Dangote cement.

“Everyday we move closer to the end users, we have trained personnel who move from one location to the others; we want people to mold not just block but the right block with the right usage of Dangite cement. Dangote is concerened about building collapses here and there. We have depots and trained staff that  move from one location to the other to ensure that they are giving the right training.”

Responding, Segun Banjoko, Chairman Block and Concrete Makers, lauded the company for the initiative. He said that the essence of the meeting was collaboration between the cement manufactures  and his association for frutiful relatuionship.

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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NIGERIA: More facilities for tertiary institutions under way – Amosun

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Ogun State Government has reiterated its commitment to within the next two years provide additional infrastructure in all its tertiary institutions in order to make learning more conducive to students.

The State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Barrister Yusuph Olaniyonu who stated this while featuring on a live Television programme in Abeokuta titled ‘New Dawn’ said the initiative will be Public Private Partnership (PPP) driven.

The Commissioner who spoke on: ‘Update of infrastructural development in Ogun State’ noted that the idea was to ensure conducive environment is created in and outside the campuses.

He said reduction in school fees and provision of mass transits buses to the tertiary institutions are part of steps taken by the government to make live bearable for both students and their parents.

On the proposed model school, the Commissioner who assured that admission will take effect from September said the process of admitting students into the schools would be made flexible.

Part of activities to be enjoyed by students, according to him are, hostel facilities, mass transit buses, technical workshops, a multipurpose hall, standard football pitch and laboratories amongst others.

In addition, he said students, will be admitted to the school, irrespective of their religion or political affiliation.

“What the present administration led by Senator Ibikunle Amosun is doing is to ensure that sound and qualitative education is given to every qualified citizens of the State, irrespective of their political leaning or religious belief” olaniyonu said

He then admonished citizens of the State to ensure prompt payment of taxies and other levies for government to attain it aims and objectives in the education sector.

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Peru cardinal makes predictions on new pope

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A Peruvian cardinal predicted Wednesday that Benedict XVI’s successor as pope will be elected before Easter Week.

“The election will be, with certainty, before Holy Week, and that’s the way I think it will be,” said Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani in a telephone interview from Rome with Peruvian radio station RPP.

“The coordination meetings have not begun and no decision has yet been made on when the conclave will be held, but I clearly expect that before Holy Week we will have among us a new holy father,” he said.

Easter Week runs from March 25-31.

Cipriani, 69, is one of 116 cardinals who will elect a new pope to succeed Benedict, whose last day as pope is Thursday.

Benedict stunned the world by announcing he was resigning, the first pope to do so since the Middle Ages.

Cipriani acknowledged that the Catholic church was at “an important moment” in its history, and faced many problems.

“Obviously we will take advantage of these days to get to know better the church’s situation, and especially that of Rome, to try to find the best solution,” he said

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Mobile makers see bonanza in Africa

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Africa’s mobile phone market, the fastest-growing in the world, is the last frontier for the industry with the promise of unlocked riches luring global interest including from Chinese handset makers.

But there are two significant challenges in Africa, according to industry leaders and analysts at the world’s biggest mobile fair in Barcelona, Spain: lowering prices for handsets and services and boosting a patchy network.

The use of mobiles is exploding among the one billion people in Africa, where landline networks are poorly developed. Many people rely on the devices for financial transactions — Africa is a leader in the use of “mobile money” — or to link to the Internet.

“Africa is the last frontier of mobile telephony in the world,” said Manoj Kohli, chief executive of Indian group Barthi Airtel, which has a big presence in the continent.

“But it is tough to maintain a network,” he added.

According to global consultants PwC, the number of mobile telephone subscriptions in Africa exploded from 16 million in 2000 to 246 million in 2008 and more than 500 million now.

It expects there to be 600 million subscribers by 2016.

Many Africans have two SIM cards to profit from cheaper calls on each network, however, and industry analyst Wireless Intelligence estimates only a little over one third of the population actually had a mobile telephone in the second quarter of 2012.

Average revenue per consumer in Burundi, Rwanda or Egypt was about $5 (3.80 euros) a month, it said.

Price is a challenge for handset manufacturers, too.

Chinese manufacturer Huawei this month launched a sleek new smartphone adapted for Africa, the 4Afrika, running on Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system and with a four-inch screen.

Adapted for each market, the Nigerian version has a dictionary for the local Yoruba language and local news, along with an application related to the popular low-budget movie industry, called Nollywood.

It is expected to sell for less than $200, a Microsoft executive said, with the first devices being offered as early as this month in Angola, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa.

According to PwC, total investment in fixed and mobile networks in Africa should rise from $78.8 billion in 2008 to $145.9 billion by 2015.

Extending coverage to rural areas means bridging long distances but also requires energy, and the electrical grid is often unreliable or non existent, industry players said. Operators often resort to costly solutions such as solar panels or diesel generators.

Sifiso Dabengwa, chief executive of South African operator MTN, the leader on the continent, said the challenge was to provide a network from one end of the the chain to the other.

Fierce competition for African customers was hurting profits, he added.

“Five or six operators in a country makes it a difficult market for us,” he said, accusing some players of charging at below cost and urging consolidation in the sector.

Some operators, including Barthi Airtel’s Kohli, called for players to share infrastructure so as to ensure coverage of the continent and to have any chance of offering Africans third generation fast networks, let alone the superfast fourth-generation.

“We cannot duplicate networks. Only Americans and Europeans can do that, not Africans,” he warned.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Nigerian Breweries declares N55.6bn profit for 2012

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Nigerian Breweries Plc has declared a profit of N55.6 billion for the 2012 financial year. The unaudited and provisional result released, weekend, showed that the company made a turnover of N252.6 billion as against N211 billion declared for the previous year.

A statement by the board revealed that the company maintained its leadership position in the market in spite of the challenging operating environment in 2012.

Results from the company’s operating activities grew by 13.4 per cent while profit for the year was impacted by high financing costs arising from investments in plant expansion as well as working capital.

The statement signed by Mr Uaboi Agbebaku, Company Secretary and Legal Adviser, said the board had recommended the payment of a total dividend of N22,688,113,296, that is, N3.00 per ordinary share of 50 kobo each.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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AYC: Flying Eagles tackle Tunisia

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Nigeria’s national Under-20 football team, the Flying Eagles, will play against its Tunisia counterpart as well as Esperance football club of Tunis this week in continuation of its preparations for the 2013 African Youth Championship (AYC), to be played in Algeria 16-30 March.

The Flying Eagles, who are the African Champions, will take on Tunisia at the Esperance training ground in the capital city of Tunis Thursday, and will battle the club three days later at the same venue, the private Nation newspaper reported Monday.

More friendlies have been lined up for the Nigerian team before its departure for the tournament.

Last week, the Flying Eagles played two friendlies against their Egyptian counterparts in the capital city of Cairo, winning one (3-1) and drawing the other (0-0).

At the 2013 AYC, Nigeria is in group B with Mali, Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon.

Group A has host Algeria, Benin, Egypt and Ghana.

The semi-finalists at the tournament will represent Africa at the 2013 FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Turkey, from 21 June to 13 July.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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NIGERIA: 20 scholars write on Obasanjo legacy

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No fewer than 20 eminent scholars including former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Emeka Anyaoku, Bishop Mathew Kukah among others have teamed up to publish a book entitled “Olusegun Obasanjo: The Presidential Legacy 1999 till 2007”.

Former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela wrote the forward of the book which had 20 well researched chapters.

The management of Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) disclosed this in Abeokuta, while announcing the activities scheduled for the five-day event and celebration of the 76th birthday of the former president and his legacy in Africa.

Addressing a press conference , the leader of the Obasanjo Legacy Book Projecst, Professor Oladipo Akinkugbe and Alhaji Ahmed Joda, said the book is “a quasi – historical efforts, richly illustrated and constitutes a dispassionate appraisal” of the former president’s eight year tenure at the helms of affairs of Nigeria.

Akinkugbe explained that the book would afford many critics of the Obasanjo administration the opportunity to frankly assess his leadership and stewardship as in gold or in garbage.

“The complexity of the character, as well as those factors that formed the fulcrum for policy formulations of Obasanjo’s administration between 1999 till 2007 will  be unveiled in a book that will be launched and presented to the public on March 5th, 2013.”

He further stated that though many publications exist around Obasanjo, the book was well researched and was forwarded by the former president of South Africa, Dr. Nelson Mandela.

“It quintessentially blazes an untrodden path in the political history of an African nation through that period.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Pope bids farewell to huge crowds

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Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday admitted “stormy waters” during his papacy as he gave an emotional farewell in St Peter’s Square before tens of thousands of pilgrims on the eve of his momentous resignation.

A smiling Benedict looked relaxed as his white “popemobile” bore him through the famous plaza where more than 150,000 people had gathered under a bright, cloudless sky for his historic sendoff.

A woman clutching a rosary wiped away tears as the octogenarian Benedict passed. One of the hundreds of cardinals and bishops in their red and purple-sashed robes could also be seen tearing up.

Some in the throng held up huge banners with messages such as “Benedict, we’ll miss you!” and “The pope is the heart of this city!” or waved the Vatican’s yellow and white flag at the pontiff’s last public event.

A hush fell over the sea of pilgrims as the pope began speaking.

Benedict drew an analogy between his reign and a miracle recounted in the Bible when Jesus Christ calmed the waters as he was sailing on a fishing boat with his disciples including St Peter — who is believed by Christians to be the first pope.

“The Lord gave us days of sun and of light breeze, days in which the fishing was good. There were also moments when there were stormy waters and headwinds… as if God was sleeping,” the pope said in an apparent reference to the multiple scandals that have plagued his reign.

“But I always knew that God was in that boat and I always knew that the boat of the Church is not mine, is not ours, but is his and he will not let it sink,” the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics told the cheering crowd.

“I never felt alone,” he said.

Benedict also said his decision to resign — which makes him the first pope to do so since the Middle Ages — had not been an easy one but had been taken for the good of the Church.

“I took this step in full awareness of its gravity and novelty but with profound serenity of spirit,” he said, adding: “I will continue to accompany the Church with prayer and reflection.”

The frail 85-year-old stunned the world with his abrupt decision to end an eight-year reign dogged by scandal and Vatican infighting, declaring he was too weak to keep up with the modern world.

The scourge of paedophile priests and cover-ups by their superiors cast a dark shadow over Benedict’s papacy, combined with a longstanding money-laundering scandal at the Vatican bank, which exposed infighting among Benedict’s closest allies.

What observers said may have been the last straw was the scandal that came to be known as “Vatileaks”, in which his trusted butler leaked secret papal memos revealing intrigues between rival groups of cardinals.

But Wednesday’s crowds did not dwell on the scandals.

“I have come in gratitude for everything he has done these past eight years,” said Father Giulio, a 67-year-old priest from the Abruzzo region.

“Resigning is a powerful message for every Christian. He resigned without bitterness but instead in sweetness and serenity,” he said.

Giuseppe Fan, a Vietnamese seminarian, stood on tiptoe on the steps of one of the square’s fountains for a better view.

“I love the pope,” he told AFP. “I’m sad that he’s leaving, but he has made a grand gesture of love for the Church.”

Benedict’s resignation is a break with Catholic tradition that has worried conservatives but kindled the hopes of Catholics around the world who want a successor who will breathe new life into the Church.

Sharon Clark, a tourist from the United States, told AFP: “I admire Benedict, but I hope the next pope will have the strength to unite the Church and help it grow again — and bring back a bit of morality.”

While most appeared to accept the pope’s imminent departure, at least one banner pleaded: “Benedict, change your mind!”

But Jan Graubner, archbishop of Olomouc, Czech Republic, said that while he was sad to see the pope leave, “gratitude outweighs sadness because I see that the Holy Father wants this. It’s his will.”

Benedict told English-speaking pilgrims he was “deeply grateful for the understanding, support and prayers of so many of you, not only here in Rome, but also throughout the world.”

Later Wednesday the pope followed up his farewell speech with what the Vatican said would be one of his last Tweets: “If only everyone could experience the joy of being Christian, being loved by God who gave his Son for us!” the pope wrote.

The Vatican has said Benedict will receive the title of “Roman pontiff emeritus” and can still be addressed as “Your Holiness” and wear the white papal cassock after he officially steps down at 1900 GMT on Thursday.

Rome has been gripped by speculation over who the leading candidates might be to replace him — the so-called “papabili” — as cardinals from around the world fly in ahead of the conclave to elect the next pope.

Rumours and counter-rumours in the Italian media suggest cloak-and-dagger lobbying, prompting the Vatican to condemn what it has called “unacceptable pressure” to influence the papal election.

Campaign groups have also lobbied the Vatican to exclude two cardinals accused of covering up child sex abuse from the upcoming election conclave.

A total of 115 “cardinal electors” are scheduled to take part in next month’s conclave to choose a successor to Benedict.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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El- Classico fallout: Is Messi still world best?

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Following the failing form of FC Barcelona and that of Lionel Messi in particular in recent matches, a football analyst put this question across and there were many reactions either for or against the subject matter.

Here are two opposing views. You can share your view as well.

Effa Collins: “If you guys like hearing the truth then lets speak reality, I am not a football lover neither fans a club nor a player but the fact remains that Christian Ronaldo is the best take it or leave it. Messi, is an indoor player who has played right from his childhood in just only one club, besides they do all the play and he is only there to score while Ronaldo has to struggled for his passing and scoring, he has proved beyond reasonable doubt that he is the best.”

Sowemimo Eagle Anuoluwapo: “In every game, you never except your team to win always. Messi’s got many haters on & off the pitch as a result of his great fortune, accolades, & the club he plays for. If Messi were to be marked out during AC Millan game due to their stern defensive play & Real Madrid’s similar pattern, should not be a factor to berate his ability compared with CR7. It’s so unfortunate that FCB has gotten a leaking defence, which on the contrary, would have made fans see the less(not worse) of CR7. FCB needs a psychological boost to be on top of their game again.”

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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NIGERIA: Accident claims 8 lives on Lagos-Ibadan expressway

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Eight persons, including a child, were killed on Sunday when a commercial bus and an articulated vehicle collided near the Redeemed Camp on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the FRSC said.

The Sagamu Unit Commander of FRSC, Mr Lasisi Ogundele, said that the bus was marked LAGOS GGE 540 XC while the articulated vehicle had the number YOBE XB 503 FKA.

“The Mitsubishi bus, coming from Abeokuta with nine passengers was on a very high speed when it collided with the trailer from the rear.

“We understand that the trailer stopped abruptly as it was trying to make a turning on the highway and the commercial bus coming from the rear just collided with it.

Ogundele said that dangerous driving and over speeding was evident on the part of the bus driver who was among the victims of the accident.

He said that bodies of the four males, three females and the child had been deposited at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH) mortuary.

The commander said that the only survivor of the incident was receiving treatment at the OOUTH emergency unit.

He advised motorists to observe all traffic rules and laws while on the highway.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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