BUGI CITY

Popular Tommy Strawn in the '90s television series "Martin"died at 52 as a result of aneurysm an excessive localized swelling of the wall of an artery. TMZ broke the story. He passed away on Wednesday, October 12, 2016, was on life support at an Atlanta hospital after suffering a ruptured aneurysm on Sunday.  

Celebs to social media sending their condolences to his families and friends

Jihadist group Boko Haram has freed 21 of more than 200 girls it kidnapped in April 2014 in the northern Nigerian town of Chibok, after mediation by Switzerland and the International Red Cross, officials said on Thursday.Nigeria's government said, in the first mass release of any of the more than 200 girls and women kidnapped from their school two years ago.

The 21 were freed before dawn in the northeastern Nigerian town of Banki, near the border with Cameroon, a source close to the negotiations said on condition of Some of the 21 freed girls appear Thursday in Banki, Nigeria, in a photo obtained exclusively by CNN.
Some of the 21 freed girls appear Thursday in Banki, Nigeria, in a photo obtained exclusively by CNN.
They are said to have been among the 276 girls and women, ages 16 to 18, that Boko Haram militants herded from bed in the middle of the night at a boarding school in Chibok in April 2014 -- a kidnapping that spurred global outrage.
A child born to one of the girls and believed by medical personnel to be about 20 months old also was released, according to the Nigerian president's office.
As many as 57 girls escaped almost immediately in 2014, and one was found this spring. Just under 200 remain unaccounted for after their release.

The aggressive manner in which Alhaji Aliko Dangote is investing in local rice production and the effort of government in enhancing the domestic production of rice, Nigeria may soon return to the international market as a net-exporter of rice. Years ago, Nigeria was among the top rice producers until an aversion for home-grown rice sets in. This has turned Nigeria to the second largest importer of rice in the world, buying at least five million metric tons per year from exporting countries like China and Thailand. Yet Nigeria’s fertile land and rich agro-climatic conditions could easily produce rice to feed the entire country and generate surplus for the region Rice remains an integral part of the average Nigerian’s diet. As such, there is no surprise that the country import is heavy on this food crop. The FGN’s estimates show demand at 6.3 million metric tons per year (mmt/y) while domestic supply is estimated at 2.3 mmt. According to the FGN’s Agriculture Promotion Policy, rice import still exceed $1 billion per annum. It was gathered that the CBN’s policy, which focused on limiting the importation of 41 items (rice inclusive) led to a 300,000 metric ton decline in rice import in first quarter, 2016.
 The inclusion of rice on the list of 41 items excluded from accessing foreign exchange (FOREX) from the official window as well as the general issues with sourcing of FOREX has led to a drop in rice supply to the domestic market and a spike in prices. Considering that the FGN’s set minimum wage currently stands at N18,000 per month, a bag of rice currently priced at between N18,000 to N19,000 per bag is almost not affordable to the average household. Despite the ban on rice imports through land borders, there has been increased smuggling.

The Nigeria Customs Service has recorded a pick-up in seizures since January 2016. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) has expressed its commitment to improving rice productivity. Local rice production has been projected to hit 2.7 mmt in 2017. On the public- private partnership sphere, Dangote inaugurated its 8,000-hectare rice out-growers’ scheme in Hadejia, Jigawa state early this year, when he distributed rice seedlings to farmers. The scheme is said to help reduce the level of Nigeria’s imports and potentially provide direct and indirect jobs to about 10, 000 Nigerians.

 Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) also recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) to invest $1 billion on establishment of fully integrated rice production and processing operations across Nigeria. Farmlands in Edo, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kwara, and Niger states totalling 150,000 hectares have been penciled down for the commercial production of rice paddy. Rice is one of the viable investments in agriculture, as a high yield crop, the return on investment for rice farming is high and it takes just four months to plant and harvest rice. Starting with 20,000 hectares of rice cultivation under scheme known as outgrowers, to be expanded to cover 800, 000 hectares over the next three years, the president of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote said time is now to turn to agriculture to save the nation’s economy. The business mogul commenced the scheme with the distribution of treated rice seedling for planting to some 5,000 farmers expected to participate in the scheme. He explained, “We are committed to the development of outgrower scheme by providing local, value added products and services that meet the basic needs of the populace. To this end, the Dangote Rice Farm, will run an initial pilot in Hago-Fadama, Kafin Hausa and Auyo areas which would see Dangote Rice developing small hold farmers by providing quality inputs, certified seeds, fertilizers, agro-chemicals and petrol improved agricultural practices and technology to increase yield and produce quality rice paddy which would also be bought back from them by Dangote Rice Limited.

The Outgrower programme in Jigawa state is expected to create more than 10,000 direct and indirect jobs to the host communities.” Aside the outgrowers aspect of the investment, he explained, Dangote Rice is planning to plant approximately 150,000ha of long grain white rice and produce near one million tons of high quality par boiled white rice for sale into the Nigerian market. “Our internal policy within Dangote Rice is to procure 30 per cent of our rice production from local farmers who will be developed into outgrower groups. These outgrowers will be simultaneously developed alongside our commercial farming operations.” he said.

 The business mogul justified his investment in rice cultivation pointing out that the situation the country has found itself needs a reversal, saying “Nigeria spends nearly $1.8 billion per annum importing approximately 3.2 million MT of rice to feed its population. These are dollars that could be used on more impactful social development interventions if they were not needed for food imports.” During the rice seedling distribution by the company, the minister of state for Agriculture, Senator Heneiken Lokpobiri lauded the initiative of Dangote, saying intervention in the government efforts at providing food security for the citizenry, creating jobs and reducing dependency on food importation are being boosted. While expressing the government readiness to provide all the needed support to make the Dangote Rice Outgrowers Scheme a success, the minister said the government is putting in place a strategy that will make farmers have greater access to farm implements to help them produce with ease.

Also, the special adviser to Dangote on Rice and Coordinator of the Outgrowers Scheme, Mr. Lulu Carlos explained that 6.1 mmt of rice is consumed annually but not more than 2.6 million metric tons are produced locally leaving the rest to importation. Lulu said, “We are happy to start today the partnership with the first Outgrowers bloc of 200 hectares, shared among eight communities.” He pointed out that the same project was applied by Brazil, which transformed the country from a net importer of rice in the year 2000 to a net exporter in the year of 2009, saying “This was achieved through a big outgrower scheme in the rice region, which, today involves thousands of independent farmers responsible for 80 per cent of the 12 million tons locally produced rice and a small number of large commercial farms supplying the remaining 20 per cent.” Jigawa State governor, Alhaji Badaru Muhammed Abubakar thanked the Dangote Rice Limited for choosing Jigawa as the pilot state for the project. He pledged the readiness of his administration to provide all necessary support to the project. With the federal government rice production scheme, stakeholders have expressed hope that the scheme will stop the massive importation of rice in Nigeria, in the next three years.

 Apart from large entities like Dangote, there has been increased participation by small holder rice farmers. However, access to credit still remains a challenge. There are other areas within the rice value chain which are largely untapped, they include processing, storage, packaging and distribution. Insufficient supply chain integration was highlighted as a core issue within the rice segment by the federal government. While the supply deficit is huge, closing the gap could be accelerated through increased private sector participation. However the onus is on the government to create an enabling environment. Excluding the job creation potential, this would also ease pressure on the country’s import bill.
Source naija247news.

Penthauze Rapper, Phyno has release a new hit song called pino pino 

For hours on Friday night, the political world waited for the rarest of expressions from Donald J. Trump — a heartfelt apology. What viewers got was anything but.

 During a 90-second videotaped appearance, Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, offered a strikingly brief articulation of regret for a decade-old audiotape in which he boasted about grabbing women’s genitals and said he could have his way with women because of his fame. 

But his real message, which appeared early Saturday, was one of defiance. He described the controversy that upended the Republican Party for most of Friday as a mere “distraction,” and said that his vulgar remarks captured on the tape were nothing compared with the way Bill and Hillary Clinton had mistreated women.  

If anything, Mr. Trump’s videotaped statement was a truncated version of a speech that he had given countless times. And it did not reflect the several hours of conference calls and strategy meetings among his top aides, who were at first stunned and then nearly paralyzed by the revelation of the tape, which they worried would be fatal to his White House hopes.

 “That took 10 hours?” an incredulous Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist, asked on CNN immediately after the statement. Hillary Clinton has an 83% chance of winning the presidency. Clinton Trump 2016 Election Forecast » Updated Sun., Oct. 9 at 7:19 PM ET With his brow furrowed and his face a tight scowl, Mr. Trump sat hunched in a chair inside Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, with the glittering nighttime New York City skyline behind him.

 “I’ve never said I’m a perfect person, nor pretended to be someone that I’m not,” said Mr. Trump, a 70-year-old real estate developer and former reality television star. Then came the apologetic part. “I’ve said and done things I regret, and the words released today on this more-than-a-decade-old video are one of them,

” Mr. Trump said of the hot-mike recording of him bragging to Billy Bush, then the host of NBC’s “Access Hollywood,” about his groping and uninvited kissing of women. See video
Source NYtimes

Participants in the ongoing federal government Youth Entrepreneur Support Programme (YES-P) in collaboration with Bank of Industry (BoI) have cried out for a more feasible loan conditions in order to be able to access the 5 million naira loan en marked for the funding of their business ideas. 

According to some participants interviewed by our correspondents, after going through a three months rigorous online training and another one week intensive in-class training, the Bank of Industry has presented difficult loan conditions which will effectively make it difficult to get the loan. The YES-P participants according to the loan terms will have to relinquish two certificates including their degree certificates all through the loan term as a collateral security. Another huddle is the provision of a loan guarantor who will have to declare their net worth to the bank including bank statement. The categories of individuals who can sign as guarantor are senior civil servants, doctors, lawyers, professionals. According to participants, getting these individuals to sign a loan of 5 million naira in this time of recession is an almost impossible task.

 The loan also comes with a 9% interest rate that must be paid within a term of five years. Most of the would be beneficiary of the scheme are already pulling out as a result of their inability to provide loan guarantors, according to a source in the bank, very few participants, less than 5% have been able to meet the loan conditions. Some of the participants also complained that the bank will mainly support their business through direct purchase of equipment and other capital assets while releasing only a maximum of 50% of the fund as working capital.

According to sources, this arrangement only favors agriculture but disadvantage for those investing in ICT, intellectual properties and those whose business is offering of services. The YES Programme is an initiative of the federal government and the Bank of Industry to tackling unemployment in the country which is expected to generate 36,000 jobs for the nation. The YES Programme is also part of the federal government’s drive and wealth creation programme which is aimed at addressing the malaise of youth unemployment.

 The programme is targeted at young aspiring entrepreneurs within the age range of 18-35 years, who have a minimum educational qualification of Ordinary National Diploma (OND) or its equivalents. Considering the hurdles standing in the way of these entrepreneurs, it is highly unlikely that the objective of this programme will be accomplished except the federal government steps in and help advice the bank of industry to soften the loan conditions.

YBNL rapper Olamide releases a new song titled 'Orobo'.