PositiveNaija, Author at PositiveNaija

BFPCL Secures $6 Billion Facility From BP Oil For Methanol Plant

Brass Fertilizer & Petrochemical Company Limited (BFPCL) has secured a $6 billion offshore facility from BP Oil International Limited, London for the take-off of its methanol plant in Bayelsa State.

According to the Company’s Vice Chairman, Chief Ben Okoye,

“Phase one of the project has commenced following the securing of $6 billion from BP Oil International Limited, London. We also secured 25 years 300millions of standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d) gas supply from Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC-JV).

The project is designed to be built in two phases and phase one which is expected to come on stream in 2020, will produce 1.66 million metric tonnes (MT) of methanol and 1.3 million metric tonnes of urea per annum. Phase one also includes a dedicated Export Jetty and a 300 mmscf/d gas processing plant. On completion, the project is expected to generate an annual turnover of $1.5 billion. The project is extremely strategic to the country’s agricultural and industrial sectors. It will contribute to the country’s self-sufficiency in fertilizer and methanol based industrial raw materials.”

On jobs creation, the project will employ 15,000 workers indirectly during construction and 5,000 permanent workers after the project is completed.”

2017 AUN #IAmABeliever Campaign

The American University of Nigeria (AUN ) with its Team comprising of Zamiyat Abubakar, Abdulmalik Aminu, Exploits Nicholas, Hafiz Michika, and Ahmed Mohammed; Yola, Adamawa State, has won the first Africa Regional Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Challenging Extremism Competition; #IAMABeliever Campaign.

The AUN beat 32 other universities in the continent to clinch the top prize during the competition, which was held in Accra, Ghana and received $5,000 prize money.

The University for Development Studies, Ghana (UDS), emerged first runner-up with $3,000 received, while the Tunis Business School, Tunisia (TBS), was the second runner-up with $1,000 received.

The Accra outing was the first Peer-to-Peer Challenging Extremism competition to be organized in Africa 17-years after the program kicked was initiated.

Facebook, Edventure Partners, and officials of the United States Department, co-sponsors of the competition, commended the AUN’s #IAmABeliever campaign.

Lagos State Pays 597 Million Naira To 148 Retirees

The Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode has continued the payment of retirees’ entitlements by paying the sum of 597 million Naira to another set of 148 retirees drawn from the Mainstream Civil Service, Local Governments and State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Teachers Establishments and Pensions Office (TEPO) and other parastatals of Government being accrued pension rights credited into their Retirement Savings Account.

The recent payment increased total payments by the Ambode-administration to 24.426 billion Naira as accrued pension rights to 5,668 retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme, since August, 2015.

Speaking at the presentation of Retirement Benefit Bond Certificates to the 35th batch of Contributory Pension Scheme retirees, today at NECA House, CBD, Ikeja, Lagos, the Director-General, Mrs. Folashade Onanuga reiterated the Governor’s desire to see retirees enjoy their lives out of office without stress.

While advising them to be extremely careful so as not to fall victims of scammers with their benefits, she informed them that the option for those that would prefer Life Annuity services is now available as against Programmed Withdrawal benefit that was only obtainable in the last two months.

Global Brands Awards 2016

First Bank of Nigeria Limited has won the “Best Banking Brand, Nigeria 2016” & “Best Banking Performer, Nigeria 2016” in the Global Brands Awards. The awards are instituted to identify and recognise the significance of exceptional service delivery and reward performance with the ultimate global recognition.

According to Global Brands Magazine, the awards reflect the countless hours of time and efforts spent by FirstBank employees in achieving the vision of the company and making its customers happy.

Group Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Mrs. Folake Ani-Mumuney, stated that;

“The awards are a testament to FirstBank’s unwavering commitment to put customers first and at the heart of our business in line with our ‘You First’ mantra. We will always deliver the ultimate ‘gold standard’ of value and excellence”. Our financial services knowledge and practices lead the market in ensuring that we understand our customers and surpass their expectations as we strive for a better way of delivering first-class service and experience.”

Global Brands award winners were chosen among large nominees evaluated by an external research team based on data collected from different sources including third party data providers and annual reports.

GTBank Wins 2017 Corporate Governance Awards

Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTBank), has been awarded ‘Best Corporate Governance, Africa’, in the Financial services category at the 2017 Corporate Governance Awards.

The event, organized by the Ethical Boardroom Magazine, recognizes outstanding companies who have exhibited exceptional leadership in the area of governance and professional ethics.

According to Mr. Segun Agbaje, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of GTbank;

“Our ardent commitment to global best practices and standards has seen us emerge the first Nigerian Bank to fully implement all ISO certifications namely; ISO/IEC 27001- for Information Security, ISO 20000 – for IT Service Management and ISO 22301 – for Business Continuity Management and PAS 99:2012 Integrated Management System certification by the British Standard Institute (BSI).

Presently, the Bank has the best credit rating assigned to any Nigerian Bank by both local and international rating agencies (B/stable by Standard & Poor’s and B+ by Fitch Rating), which further attest to our adherence to international best practices and standards.”

$25,000 Carnegie Grant & AMERG Laboratory Launched

Consistent with the aim of instituting a training the trainers research group at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, (FUTA), the Advanced Materials and Electrochemical Research Group (AMERG) laboratory has been set up by Dr. (Mrs) Oluwatoyin Olaseinde after winning a $25,000 grant of the Carnegie Corporation of New York through the African Materials Science and Engineering Network (AMSEN) under the auspices of Regional Initiatives in Science and Education (RISE).

Dr. (Mrs) Oluwatoyin Olaseinde is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering of FUTA, a Corrosion Engineer and RISE scholar who responded to the call for proposals to establish Research Groups among the five networks under RISE comprising FUTA; University of Nairobi, Kenya; University of Namibia, Windhoek; University of Botswana, Gaborone; and University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Her proposal scaled through and won the only one for AMSEN covering Nigeria and the other countries. In accordance with the aim, Olaseinde has set up the AMERG laboratory, which is located in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, FUTA.

Dr. (Mrs) Oluwatoyin Olaseinde, who emphasized the importance of collaboration in research, adequate supervision and mentorship, said she learnt and achieved a lot through collaborative effort while doing her PhD at Witwatersrand, South Africa.

Imelme Umana Is 2017 President of the Harvard Law Review

The esteemed Harvard Law Review has elected the first Black woman elected as president, Imelme Umana, Harvard Law student class of 2018.

According to the Harvard website, “She is also on the board of Harvard Model Congress Boston, the nation’s oldest government simulation conference run exclusively by undergraduates at Harvard College. During the school year, Imelme works as a Research Assistant at the Hiphop Archive at the Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. She also worked as the Harvard Summer in Washington student coordinator, organizing political events for Harvard interns in DC.”

The Harvard Law Review is a student-run organization whose main purpose is to publish a journal of legal scholarship. While the Review is formally independent of the Harvard Law School, student editors make all editorial and organizational decisions.

Umana is a doctorate candidate at Harvard Law School, and is most interested in the intersection between government and African American studies by exploring how stereotypes of Black women are reproduced and reinforced in American Political discourse.