Category: Environment/Agric

How Fire gutted $1bn World Trade Centre Skyscraper Abuja + PICTURES

Aliyu Aliyu

  Fire on Monday gutted the 24-storey skyscraper of the World Trade Centre in Nigeria, located in the country’s Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan had in September 2011 launched the project said to cost over $1 billion with an estimated completion date initially slated for 2013. An eyewitness account showed that the fire started from the top of the 24-storey skyscraper which dots the skyline of Central Business District, Abuja. Smoke, as at the time of this report, was seeing billowing from the pinnacle of the…

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Ruins, death, rescues as three-storey building collapses in Lagos + PICTURES

Damilola Olonade

  Six adults have, so far, being rescued in a three-storey building-collpase in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, which killed a male underage. The incident was said to have occurred about 3:00 am at 20, Freeman Street, Lagos Island. Platforms Africa reports that emergency responders have since arrived on the scene and are helping with rescue and recovery efforts.

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South Africa prepares 1.5m gravesites as COVID-19 cases, deaths surge

Tim Bauer

  South African official has said a single province in the country is preparing 1.5 million gravesites as COVID-19 cases and deaths surged in late Nelson Mandela’s country. A report by The Associated Press reads that just a day after confirmed virus cases across Africa surpassed the half-million milestone the total was over 522,000 and climbing, with more than 12,000 deaths. “With testing levels low, the real numbers are unknown,” the report read. South Africa has the most confirmed cases with over 224,000, and for the first time Gauteng province…

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AfDB crisis: 15 ex-African leaders send strong signal to US, back Adesina

Tim Bauer

  Fifteen concerned African leaders, mainly former presidents across the continent, have sent a strong signal to the United States (U.S) against its call for an independent probe of the President, African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina. They unanimously called on all the shareholders of the Bank including the US to respect its rules, procedures and governance structures. In a joint statement issued Friday, they also warned against distracting the AfDB President, Dr. Adesina. Adesina, who is bidding for a second five-year term as president of the bank, had been under…

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How AfDB carved in for US pressure, began independent probe of Adesina

Fateemah Olonade

  The board of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has agreed for an independent investigation of Akinwumi Adesina, its president. This comes after Steven Mnuchin, US treasury secretary, rejected the investigation and report of the bank’s ethics board which absolved Adesina of allegations of favouritism. Bloomberg reports that the board agreed to an in’dependent probe after “several foreign governments backed Mnuchin’s criticism of a bank-led examination into the allegations”. Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland were reported to be among the countries that wrote to the AfDB board backing Mnuchin. The…

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Why US demanded independent probe of AfDB President, Adesina

Tim Bauer

  America’s Treasury Secretary expresses “deep reservations” about internal inquiry clearing Nigeria’s ex-Minister Tim Bauer More facts have emerged on the actual reason the United Staes (U.S.) Department of the Treasury called on the African Development Bank (AfDB) to carry out an independent probe into alleged ethics breaches by its president, Akinwumi Adesina. The US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in a letter obtained by AFP on Monday, expressed “deep reservations” about the outcome of an internal inquiry clearing Adesina, and urged the appointment of an independent outside investigator. The internal…

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AfDB: Food scarcity, extreme hunger imminent in Africa

Francis Gyamfi

  This is how it will affect you! Francis Gyamfi ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast Extreme hunger could kill far much more than COVID-19 in Africa if lockdowns persist without clearing the “choke-points” in the food supply chain to the vulnerable. The top economists at the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) who said this at a two-day webinar hosted by the Africa Development Institute, charged that countries in Africa must now, more than ever, develop and implement policies to enhance capacity to compete in the agriculture sector, processing, trade and industry. Noting that…

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