Regional Head of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, IBEDC, in Ilorin, Kwara State, Engr Toyin Akinyosoye, says the new electricity billing tariff (225/KWh) for customers in Band A is beyond what any power distribution company, Disco, can modify.

This is coming amid criticism of the new increased tariff despite poor power supply to customers across the country.

Receiving the state Commissioner for Energy, Engr Abdulazeez Kola Abdulganiy, in his office in Ilorin, the IBEDC’s regional head, appealed to customers to accept the new development in good faith.

Toyin further disclosed that “the new electricity tariff will take effect immediately for customers on prepaid meters, while customers on postpaid meters will take effect in the next billing cycle.

“Allocation of power supply is currently limited due to network issues.

“Many feeders have been downgraded because they have low power supply. I can assure all customers that when power allocation increases, they will be upgraded.”

Earlier, the state commissioner for energy, had again called on the IBEDC to charge customers, and government-owned facilities, including hospitals, reasonable electricity bills.

He said the state government, on its part, had always complemented the IBEDC services by paying the electricity bills of all government’s facilities promptly, constructing feeder lines and providing various communities with transformers and other electrical materials to enhance their access to regular electricity.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFFC, said it has redoubled its investigation into the culpability of bank Chief Executive Officers, CEOs, in the mismanagement of COVID-19 funds and World Bank loans.

This is contained in a statement by its spokesman, Dele Oyewale, on Sunday in Abuja.

The statement said that also under probe is the alleged mismanagement of recovered Abacha loot given to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development for disbursement to beneficiaries of the Federal Government support-for-the-poor programme.

The EFCC also announced that it had recovered N32.7 billion and $445,000 so far from top officials of the ministry under its searchlight, adding that the abuse of naira has become a priority investigation of the agency.

Shedding light on the probe of malfeasance in the Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development ministry, the agency said: “At the outset of investigations, past and suspended officials of the Humanitarian Ministry were invited by the commission and investigations into the alleged fraud involving them have yielded the recovery of N32.7billion and $445,000 so far.

“Discreet investigations by the EFCC have opened other fraudulent dealings involving Covid -19 funds, the World Bank loan, Abacha recovered loot released to the Ministry by the Federal Government to execute its poverty alleviation mandate.”

African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the prime minister of the Bahamas signed the Afreximbank Annual Meetings Host Country Agreement on Thursday.

The signing ceremony was held during a media briefing on Thursday in the Bahamas.

The 31st AAM2024 will be hosted in Nassau, Bahamas, from June 12 to 15, 2024.

The country’s prime minister, Philip Davis, said the signing ceremony boosted the Bahamas, Africa, and the Caribbean (AfriCarabian) visions.

“It is with immense pride that we officially sign the agreement for the Bahamas to host the AAM in June. Our ancestral history is marked by strength in the face of adversity, duty and creativity amid scarcity and the pursuit of self-determination.

“Our dreams, hopes and aspirations are encapsulated in this moment as we look forward to a future where Africa and the Caribbean stand shoulder to shoulder not just in solidarity but for economic collaboration for mutual prosperity,” said Mr Davis.

Mr Davis said the AAM2024 meeting in the Bahamas was a symbol of what Africa and the Caribbean could accomplish through duty and collaboration.

“In today’s world, amid economic and environmental challenges, instead of building more walls, we choose to build bridges of trade, innovation, financial integration and most importantly, bridges connecting our people and culture,” the Bahamas leader explained.

He said the Bahamas’ commitment to the mission was underscored by the preparations underway to ensure the AGM would be a forum for dialogue, impact deliberations, and collaborations.

Mr Davis said that in November 2022, the Bahamas and other Caribbean countries signed an agreement with AFreximbank to forge a future that would advance the African and Caribbean people and their economies.

The prime minister said Afreximbank’s commitment to expanding operations in the Caribbean was seen in its establishment of the Caribbean Africa Bank, adding that it was an example of the potential for development in the region.

Afreximbank’s president, Benedict Oramah, said signing the agreement would solidify the partnership between the bank and the Caribbean.

Mr Oramah said the partnership would form a platform for global Africa to take its destiny into its own hands. He said he was grateful to the prime minister, the government and the people of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas for the honour of agreeing to host the AAM2024.

Mr Oramah said the bank was working with the Bahamas government to develop an Afro-Caribbean marketplace in the Bahamas. When completed, he said it would be a permanent marketplace that would house manufacturing warehouses and be a distribution and logistic hub for various tradable merchandise that Africa and the Caribbean produce.

Mr Oramah said at least 4,000 participants were expected at the AAM2024, adding that the opening ceremony, which heads of state and governments would attend, would be held on June 13.

Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu has claimed that the electricity tariffs that were recently increased, will reduce if the exchange rate falls below N1,000 to a dollar.

Adelabu made this comment when he appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday.

On April 3, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, announced the removal of subsidy on the electricity consumed by Band A customers.

Band A customers now pay N255/KWh, a hike from N68/kWh, while others maintain the old tariffs.

But Adelabu has now given conditions for a possible reduction.

“The tariff is flexible. I can tell you if the naira gains more and the exchange rate comes down below N1,000 to a dollar, it must positively affect the tariff; and the tariff, even for Band A, will come down below the N225/KWh that we are currently charging.

“There are variable factors that go into the composition of the tariff, and we are not closing our eyes to it,” Adelabu said.

The Presidency says the consistent appreciation of the Naira in the past weeks indicates that the incredible sacrifices of Nigerians have started paying off.

Aguri Ngelale, Special Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, disclosed this in a recent statement while reacting to the sustained appreciation of the Naira at the foreign exchange market.

The Presidency insisted that the multi-faceted approach put forward by Tinubu’s administration in defending the Naira against currency racketeers would be sustained.

He added that the government will work harder to ensure inflation is reduced.

“The President has been very consistent in his view that the labour pains felt by our people and the incredible sacrifices made by our people over the past ten months would be rewarded across the board.

“The President’s multi-faceted approach to ridding the nation’s foreign exchange market of malign actors and sharp practices have provided a platform for the sustainable strengthening of our national currency against all global currencies. This is what we are seeing.

“But there is still much work to be done, and this is not a time for celebration. It is a time for doubling down and working harder to ensure that inflation is sustainably brought down in short order and that consumer-protecting regulatory agencies step up enforcement to ensure that our people are not short-changed by enterprises that fail to reflect the prevailing exchange rates on the pricing of goods and services across the board,” he added.

The development comes as the Naira appreciated to N1230.61 per US dollar on Monday from N1,251.05 last week, according to FMDQ data.

Recall that the CBN distributed another $10,000 to each BDC at N1,101 per Dollar.

An executive from cryptocurrency firm Binance has pleaded not guilty to money laundering charges in a Nigerian court.

US citizen Tigran Gambaryan was arrested in February, along with his colleague Nadeem Anjarwalla, a British-Kenyan dual national.

Their detention came as Nigeria accused Binance of being behind the country’s economic turmoil.

Two weeks ago Mr Anjarwalla escaped from custody and his whereabouts are unknown.

On Monday, Mr Gambaryan rejected five counts of money laundering filed against him by Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

After the hearing, he was transferred to Kuje Correctional Centre, a prison in the capital, Abuja. The facility has in the past held inmates ranging from jihadists to politicians.

Mr Gambaryan and Mr Anjarwalla had previously been detained in an unknown location.

In a statement released after Monday’s hearing, Mr Gambaryan’s wife, Yuki, said: “I am beyond heartbroken that my innocent husband is being sent to a prison that houses known terrorists and murderers… it is beyond unacceptable that this is how they are treating a completely innocent man.

“The EFCC had accused Binance – understood to be one of the most popular cryptocurrency platforms in Nigeria – along with Mr Gambaryan and Mr Anjarwalla, of laundering $35.4m (£28m).

In February, Mr Gambarayan, who is in charge of financial crime compliance at Binance, and Mr Anjarwalla, who is Binance’s Africa Regional Manager, were detained after arriving in Nigeria for meetings to discuss the platform’s operations in the country.

Binance was later that week ordered to pay a fine of $10bn (£8bn).

The government accused it of currency speculation and fixing exchange rates, leading to the free-fall of the local currency, the naira.

The weakening of the naira, alongside food inflation and the soaring cost of living, has sparked an economic crisis in Nigeria.

Binance is not alone – Nigeria’s authorities have been clamping down on cryptocurrency platforms in general over allegations they are being used for money laundering and financing terrorism.

As well as money laundering charges, Binance and the two executives also face four counts of tax evasion, filed by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

After Mr Anjarwalla fled the country, Nigerian authorities said he had escaped with a “smuggled passport”, but a family source said he had left by “by lawful means”.

Nigeria said it was “working with Interpol for an international arrest warrant on the suspect”.

As of Monday, Mr Anjarwalla was not on Interpol’s red notice list for “internationally wanted fugitives”.

The naira gained at the official market as it traded at N1,255.07 to a dollar on Thursday.

Data from the official trading platform of the FMDQ revealed that the naira gained N7.78.

This represents a 0.62 per cent appreciation compared to Wednesday’s trading when it exchanged at N1,262.85 to a dollar.

However, the total turnover increased to $138.99 million on Thursday, up from $166.18 million recorded on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the naira traded between N1,294 and N1,200 against the dollar at the Investor’s and Exporters’ window.

The Nigeria Customs Service recorded a 5 per cent decline by posting 311,492 in the volume of Single Goods Declarations for imports in the first quarter of 2024 amid increased duties.

NCS disclosed this in its Q1 2024 report released on Wednesday.

The figure showed a 15,999 decline from the 327,492 recorded in Q1 2023.

The service blamed fluctuating import duties for the drop in SGDs.

Comptroller General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, said the country issued about 28 import rates in Q1 2024, which resulted in a drop in SGDs.

“In the First Quarter of 2024, NCS processed 311,492 Single Goods Declarations (SGDs) for imports, reflecting the volume of import transactions handled.

“This figure indicates a decrease compared to the total volume of 327,491 processed in 2023 and 403,233 SGDs in 2022”.

“In the last quarter, a total of 28 rates were directed by the CBN, ranging from NGN 951.94 per USD 1 in January 2024 to a peak of NGN 1,662.35 per USD 1 in February 2024”, Adeniyi added.

Meanwhile, NCS recorded a 122.35 per cent increase in revenue after it posted N1.3 trillion for Q1 2024.

Sell-offs in the shares of Tier-one banks have contributed to a 0.32 per cent decline in the Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) market indices.

Specifically, losses in the share prices of FBN Holdings, Access Corporation, Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), Zenith Bank and StanbicIBTC Bank, among others, dragged down the market performance.

Consequently, investors saw a decrease of N190 billion, or 0.32 per cent, with market capitalisation opening at N59.095 trillion and closing at N58.905 trillion.

The All-Share Index also dipped by 0.32 per cent to close at 104,181.32 points, compared to 104,518.14 points posted on Tuesday.

This led to a Year-To-Date (YTD) return of 39.33 per cent.

The market breadth ended negative, with 32 losers and 21 gainers.

On the losers’ table, International Energy Insurance and Caverton led by 10 per cent each, closing at N1.44 and N1.62 per share, respectively.

Thomaswy lost 9.63 per cent to close at N1.97, NEM Insurance dropped 9.60 per cent to close at N8.95, and Tantalizers fell 9.52 per cent to close at 38k per share.

On the other hand, UPL Ltd. led the gainers table by 9.84 per cent to close at N2.68, and SCOA Nigeria Plc gained 9.96 per cent to close at N2.15 per share.

Morison Industries Plc rose by 9.66 per cent to close at N1.93, Cutix Plc advanced by 9.62 per cent to close at N2.85 and Mutual Benefits Assurance appreciated by 9.38 per cent to close at 70k per share.

Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 39.04 per cent.

A total of 405.03 million shares valued at N8.91 billion were exchanged in 10,364 deals, compared to 545.49 million shares valued at N14.61 billion exchanged in 12,747 deals posted previously.

Access Corporation led the volume chart, with 50.00 million shares traded valued at N1.24 billion; UBA sold 49.01 million shares worth N1.37 billion.

Transcorp traded N45.95 million shares worth N612.80 million, Zenith sold 41.88 million shares worth N1.86 billion to lead the chart by value, and GTCO transacted 29.70 million shares valued at N1.57 billion.

Myanmar’s Department of Agriculture plans to expand coffee plantation to 300,000 acres nationwide within the next five years, starting in the 2023-2024 financial year.

The state-run media, the Global New Light of Myanmar, reported on Wednesday.

The report said Arabica coffee will be planted on 200,000 acres across four zones and Robusta coffee on 100,000 acres across three zones.

It cited U Myint Swe, director of the Coffee and Seasonal Crops Division of the Department of Agriculture.

It added that the Department of Agriculture under the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation is helping farmers by sharing knowledge and providing coffee seedlings and tools.

The Federal Inland Revenue Service has tendered an apology to the Christian Association of Nigeria and Nigerians over an Easter message regarded as offensive.

A flier shared via its X account on Sunday reads, “Jesus paid your debts, not your taxes.”

However, reacting to the FIRS’s Easter post, CAN, the Christian body, demanded a public apology, noting that the message was offensive to the Christian faith.

The statement read, “Our attention has been drawn to a statement by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) about a flier posted on our social media platforms with the headline ‘Jesus paid your debts, not your taxes.’

“As a responsible government agency, we would like to say we did not put out the flier purposely to denigrate Jesus Christ or detract from the huge sacrifice He made for humanity. We are acutely aware that the essence of the Easter period is to celebrate this huge sacrifice.

“The message was our way of uniquely engaging taxpayers, to remind them of the need to prioritize payment of their taxes as a civic obligation.

This post also elicited reactions from Nigerians.Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Dare Adekambi, Special Adviser on Media to the FIRS Chairman, Zacch Adedeji said its intention was not to denigrate the message of Easter but to engage taxpayers and remind them of their civic duty.

The service rendered an “unreserved apology” to CAN and Nigerians, adding that the agency had no religion and had no intention to offend adherents of the Christian faith.

“Yes, we would say the message ruffled feathers in some circles. The unintended meaning/insinuation being read into the post was not what we were out to communicate as an agency.

“Good a thing, this much is acknowledged by CAN in its statement wherein it said, ‘We recognize that the intended message may have been to creatively engage taxpayers…’ We wish to offer our unreserved apologies for this misinterpretation.

“FIRS, as a responsible agency, has no religion and will not bring down any religion or offend the sensibilities of adherents of various faiths in the country.

“Our goal is to assess, collect, and account for revenue for the wellbeing of the Federation. It is an investment in the country’s progress when citizens pay taxes. Once again, we wish to apologize to CAN and Christians who felt offended by the unintended consequence of our message on Easter Sunday”.

Barring any change, the Abuja Federal High Court has scheduled the arraignment of two Binance executives, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla for Thursday.

Gambaryan and Anjarwalla will be charged before Justice Emeka Nwite on two separate charges.

The one filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, which bothers on money laundering, has five counts.

The other, by the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, has four counts, in which they were accused of sundry tax infractions.

Anjarwalla who escaped custody on March 22 will be arraigned before Justice Nwite in absentia.

The EFCC, in its charge filed on March 28, accused Binance executives of laundering about $35,400,000.

In count one of the charges, the defendants are alleged to have, between January 2023 and January 2024 in Abuja, carried out the specialised business of other financial institutions without a valid licence.

The EFCC said the act constitutes an offence contrary to Section 57(1) and (2) of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020 and was punishable under Section 57(5) of the same Act.

In the charge by the FIRS, marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/115/2024 filed on March 22, the defendants were alleged to have committed the offence on or about February 1 this year.

In count one, the defendants are accused of failing to register with the FIRS to pay all relevant taxes while carrying out and offering services to subscribers on their platform (Binance).

The FIRS said the act constitutes an offence punishable under Sections 8 and 29 of the Value Added Tax (VAT) Act of 1993 (as Amended), Section 40 of the FIRS Establishment Act, 2007 (as amended) and under provisions of Section 94 of the Companies Income Tax Act (as amended).

On March 18, Justice Nwite had ordered Binance to provide the EFCC with a comprehensive data or information of all those trading on its platform from Nigeria.

The judge granted the interim order in a ruling on an ex-parte motion filed by EFCC’s lawyer, Ekele Iheanacho.

The judge said the interim order was to enable the EFCC to investigate its claim that money laundering and terrorism financing activities were being allowed on Binance’s platform.

Google has agreed to delete billions of records and submit to some restrictions on its power to track users, under the terms of a proposed legal settlement.

The deal aims to resolve a class action lawsuit brought in the US in 2020, which had accused the tech giant of invading people’s privacy by collecting user data even when they were browsing in “private mode”.The suit had sought $5bn in damages.

Google is supporting the deal, though it disputes the claims. It has already made changes in response to the lawsuit.The data deletion will also apply outside of the United States.

In January, shortly after the two sides announced plans to settle the case, the company updated its disclosures to make it clear that it still tracked user data even when users opted to search privately or using its “Incognito” setting.

That mode provides some increased privacy because it does not save the browsing activity to the machine being used.

That same month, the firm said it was starting to trial a feature that would automatically block third-party cookies, which help track user activity, for all Google Chrome users.

It had made that block automatic for Incognito users shortly after the lawsuit was filed in 2020 and has agreed to ensure that limit is in place for five years, according to the terms of the settlement deal, filed on Monday in federal court in San Francisco.

On Monday, Google also agreed to delete “hundreds of billions” of private browsing data records it had collected, the court filing said.

“We are pleased to settle this lawsuit, which we always believed was meritless,” Google spokesman Jorge Castaneda said in a statement, noting that the company would not be paying any damages.

“We are happy to delete old technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalization.

“Google is still facing lawsuits from individuals over privacy violations, which could lead to financial penalties.Lawyer David Boies of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, who represented users in the fight, called the deal an “historic step in requiring honesty and accountability from dominant technology companies”.

The lawsuit had claimed that despite its suggestions to the contrary, Google had tracked users’ activity even when they set the Google Chrome browser to “Incognito” mode and other browsers to “private mode”.

The legal battle revealed documents in which Google employees described Incognito as “effectively a lie” and “a confusing mess”, according to Monday’s court filing.

Last year, Judge Yvonne Rogers rejected Google’s bid to have the case dismissed, saying she could not agree that users consented to allowing Google to collect information on their browsing activity.

The deal will now go to the court for approval.

The settlement comes as big tech firms are facing increased scrutiny of their practices in the US and beyond.

In the US, Google and its parent company Alphabet are facing two separate monopoly cases brought by the federal government.

It has also recently settled a number of other suits.

It paid nearly $400m (£318m) in 2022 to settle claims brought by US states that it tracked the location of users who had opted out of location services on their devices.

In December 2023, it also agreed to a $700m (£557m) settlement to resolve a lawsuit brought by a group of US states that had accused it of quashing competition to its Play Store on Android devices.

There is panic in the Nigerian financial sector over massive job losses as banks battle to meet the recently announced minimum capital requirements by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The National President of the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions, Olusoji Oluwole, expressed these concerns during an interview with Channels Television on Monday.

He said the Association had already informed the CBN and the Ministry of Labour about the impact of the recapitalization exercise on workers in the sector.

“We are very aware of what happened in the past during such recapitalization programmes, the last being in 2005. We knew that some banks had to pull it through themselves, some through mergers, others through acquisition.

“It has an impact on the employment of workers; because of that experience, we have proactively acted by informing the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Ministry of Labour of the likelihood of the programme on our members.

“When things like this happen, there are bound to be jobs lost. We expect that there will be a lot of fairness in the actions of the banks and to ensure that our members are well protected and compensated”, he said.

The CBN raised the minimum capital requirements for commercial banks with international authorization, National Spread Regional, Merchant Banks, National Non-Interest Banks, and Regional Non-interest between 100 and 900 per cent last Thursday.

What the 2024 Recapitalization exercise means with the move, the CBN proposed to achieve the $1 trillion economy of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government.

Also, the bank said the exercise would engender the emergence of healthier banks with the capacity to underwrite larger levels of credit/loans.

The development came nearly 19 years after the apex bank had last conducted its recapitalization exercise in 2005 under former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Prof Charles Soludo as CBN governor.

According to reports, over 5,000 staff members of affected banks such as Oceanic bank, Fin Bank, Spring Bank, Union Bank, Intercontinental Bank, Stanbic IBTC, and others lost their jobs.

This is why the announcement of the 2024 recapitalization programme sent a shockwave across the country’s banking sector.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has increased the minimum capital requirement for commercial banks with national licences from N25 billion to N200 billion.

The CBN also increased the capital base of banks with regional licences from N15 billion to N50 billion and those with international licences from N100 billion to N500 billion.

According to a statement by the bank’s spokesman, Hakama Sidi-Ali, the new minimum capital for merchant banks will be N50 billion.

The statement also announced that the new requirements for non-interest banks with national and regional authorisations are N20 billion and N10 billion.

The increase in capital bases came days after the CBN’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting.

In the meeting, CBN governor Yemi Cardoso urged Nigerian banks to expedite action on recapitalising their capital base to strengthen the financial system.

Meanwhile, a circular signed by Haruna Mustafa, CBN’s director of the Financial Policy and Regulation Department, said all banks must meet the new minimum capital requirement within 24 months commencing April 1, 2024, and terminating March 31, 2026.

According to the circular, the recapitalisation will enhance banks’ resilience, solvency, and capacity to continue supporting the growth of the Nigerian economy.

CBN urged banks to consider injecting fresh equity capital through private placements, rights issues, and subscription offers to meet the new minimum capital requirements.

The regulatory bank suggested mergers and acquisitions and upgrades or downgrades of licence authorisation. It said the minimum capital will comprise paid-up capital and share premium only.

The circular explained that the new capital requirement should not be based on the shareholders’ fund and additional Tier 1 (AT1) capital “shall not be eligible” for meeting the new requirement.

It added, “Notwithstanding the capital increase, banks are to ensure strict compliance with the minimum capital adequacy ratio (CAR) requirement applicable to their licence authorisation.

“In line with extant regulations, banks that breach the CAR requirement shall be required to inject fresh capital to regularise their position.”

The minimum capital requirement for proposed banks should be paid-up capital, and the new minimum capital requirement should apply to all new applications for banking licences submitted after April 1, the CBN circular stated.

“The CBN will continue to process all pending applications for banking licences for which a capital deposit had been made and an Approval-in-Principle (AIP) had been granted.

“However, the promoters of such proposed banks will make up the difference between the capital deposited with the CBN and the new capital requirement not later than March 31, 2026,” the circular stressed.

It pointed out that all banks must submit an implementation plan no later than April 30, clearly indicating the chosen options for meeting the new capital requirement and various activities involved with their timelines.

The Federal Airport Authority in Nigeria, FAAN, has shut down the KFC outlet in Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos over discriminatory treatment meted out to a Passenger with Reduced Mobility.

The Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection of FAAN, Mrs Obiageli Orah, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.

Recall that Dabola Daniel took to his official X account to narrate how he was discriminated against at KYC at MMIA Lagos due to his disability.

Reacting to the development, FAAN said it decided to shut down the outlet after an investigation.

FAAN ordered KFC to apologise to the affected Passenger with Reduced Mobility.

“In line with Lagos State law on People with Special Needs, Part C, section 55 of General Provisions on Discrimination, which states that, ‘A person shall not deprive another person of access to any place, vehicle or facility that members of the public are entitled to enter or use based on the disability of that person’, the management of FAAN has closed the KFC facility at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos with effect from March 28, 2024.

“This is due to a social media report by a Passenger with Reduced Mobility, PRM, alleging discriminatory treatment he received at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

“The MD/CEO of FAAN, Mrs Olubunmi Kuku, intervened swiftly by deploying a management team comprising the Director, Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Mrs Obiageli Orah, the Regional Manager South-West, Mr Sunday Ayodele, Ag. General Manager Public Affairs, Mrs Ijeoma Nwosu-Igbo and the International Terminal Manager, Mr Kerri, to investigate the allegation.

“It is based on the findings of the team that FAAN has shut down the KFC facility at the MMA, where the incident occurred.

“The Authority has instructed that the KFC Management tender an unreserved apology, in writing, to the affected PRM and a non-discrimination policy statement be written and pasted conspicuously at the door post of their facility at MMIA before it resumes operation.”

US-based multinational technology corporation Google has blocked over 5.5 billion adverts and suspended 12.7 million others for violating its policies.

The search engine giant also said on Wednesday that it had removed adverts from over 2.1 billion pages.

“Billions of people worldwide rely on Google products to provide relevant and trustworthy information, including ads. That’s why thousands of people are working around the clock to safeguard the digital advertising ecosystem. Today, we are releasing our annual Ads Safety Report to share the progress we’ve made in enforcing our advertiser and publisher policies and to hold ourselves accountable in maintaining a healthy ad-supported internet,” it said.

In 2023, it said scams and fraud across all online platforms were on a steady rise.

“Bad actors constantly evolve tactics to manipulate digital advertising to scam people and legitimate businesses. To counter these ever-shifting threats, we quickly updated policies, deployed rapid-response enforcement teams and sharpened our detection techniques”, it added.

Millions of content creators across the globe, including Nigeria, rely on Google Ads to drive revenue.