First Independent Mena Newspaper
Nigeria’s government has announced it will only grant new mining licenses to companies committed to process extracted minerals locally, signaling a major shift from the West African country’s long-standing policy of exporting raw materials. Under new guidelines being developed by Nigeria’s government, the new mining licenses will only be granted to those firms that present […]
Nigerian army has, over the past two days, successfully rescued more than 150 “unharmed” pupils and teachers who were abducted by gunmen from a school in the country’s northeast earlier this month. The kidnapping in Kaduna state on 7 March, one of the biggest such attacks in years, has prompted a national outcry over security. […]
Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu banned his ministers from traveling abroad on public money for three months to cut costs and travel expenses. The measure followed scant criticism on social media of his government after sending a delegation of 400 people to COP28 on public money. With 15 trips since he took power, Tinubu’s trips cost […]
The number of Chinese workers across Africa has plummeted to its lowest level in more than a decade, according to data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics, with experts saying the continent is unlikely to see the high numbers of the past even though postponed China-run projects are now being restarted. After decades when Africa […]
Armed gangs in Nigeria’s northwest have reportedly kidnapped at least 100 people in a new attack, which comes only days after gunmen seized nearly 300 students and staff from a school. The gunmen attacked two communities in Kaduna state over the weekend, residents and state officials told the media. They seized at least 100 people […]
The expectation for an ECOWAS single currency to be launched by 2027 is no longer realistic, according to the director-general of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), Olorunsola Olowofeso, who imputed the delay to the inability of all the WAMZ member states to meet all the required criteria. “The quest for a single currency by […]
Nigeria said it had secured 1.3 billion dollars needed to build a rail connection with neighboring Niger, a landlocked country. The news was announced by Nigeria’s transport minister Ahmed Alkali who said the China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) would provide 85 percent of the money while the Nigerian government would provide 15 percent. The […]
Gunmen kidnapped 15 more students from an Islamic school in northwestern Nigeria, which comes following the abduction of more than 280 children by gunmen in the same region last week. The gunmen broke into the premises of the Islamic seminary in the village of Gidan Bakuso in Sokoto state on Saturday (9 March), snatching 15 […]
Nigeria will apply for membership of the BRICS in the next two years and it intends to join the group with or without pressure from the West, the country’s foreign minister Yusuf Tuggar has said. During a recent three-day working visit to Russia, where he held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, Tuggar re-iterated […]
As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins on Monday or Tuesday (11-12 March), depending on the sighting of the new moon, Muslims in parts of Africa are bracing themselves for more subdued celebrations amid soaring food prices and continuing violence in Sudan, Gaza and elsewhere in the continent. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the […]