Image of Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite

The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite has disclosed that the Federal Government is planning to establish solid minerals processing hubs in the six geo-political zones of the country. The minister made this known while presenting a topic "Formalising Artisanal and small scale mining: The urgent need to formulate adequate policies" during the 2020 Nigeria Mining Week, saying the hubs would be situated close to locations of artisanal miners. Adegbite also explained that will consult with several artisanal miner groups in a bid to understand their needs as well as reach an agreement on the type of processing hub they would require.

Members of Aviation unions in Lagos have on Monday commenced strike, shutting down operations of Arik Air over alleged non-payment of staff salaries and other issues bothering condition of service since April. The unions comprising of the National Union of Air Transport Employees and Air Transport Senior Staff Services Association of Nigeria alleged that the non-payment of their salaries began following the airline's decision to place 90 percent of the staff on compulsory leave.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested former Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Babatunde Fowler over an alleged N5 billion fraud. According to reports, Fowler's arrest was in connection with the ongoing fraud case involving a tax consulting firm, Alpha Beta Consulting as well as the Lagos State Revenue Service (LIRS). He is also accused of poor governance structure, audit, diversion of funds, corruption awarding contracts to friends at FIRS. Details Later...

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has flagged and instructed commercial banks to place a Post-No-Debit (PND) on 38 company accounts over suspected forex infractions. According to The Cable, the 38 accounts affected belong to logistics companies, Bureau de Change companies, and betting companies. Among the affected companies include is Premier Lotto owned by Nigerian businessman, Adebutu Kessington, also known as 'Baba Ijebu', 3D Scanners Bureau De Change Limited, Blue Wall Nigeria Limited, JNFX International Limited, Northline Limited, SV Gaming Limited, R&S Lotto Limited.

Following a decline in oil demand and sales, multinational oil and gas corporation, Exxon Mobil has on Friday announced that it will be slashing its global workforce by fifteen percent, making it 14,000 jobs by the next 2 years, according to Nairametrics. In a statement, the American oil corporation says the job cuts are due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the oil and gas industry. The cuts include 1,900 at the Headquarters in Houston, Texas, U.S. Also, job slashes were announced in Europe and Australia as well as reductions of contractors.

AfDB: Akinwumi Adesina re-elected As President

Akinwumi Adesina has been re-elected as the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) after emerging victorious in an election which took place electronically on Thursday at the virtual annual general meeting of the bank. Adesina who will spend another five years managing and supervising the affairs of the bank was the sole candidate of the election. Ever since his first tenure, the number of shareholders AfDB rose to 81, consisting of 54 Africans, and others are from the Americas, Asia and Europe.

FG To Complete Lagos-Ibadan Rail Project By December/January 2020

The Federal government has promised to complete the Lagos-Ibadan rail project by December 2020 or latest January 2021. This was disclosed on Thursday by Rotimi Amaechi, the honorable minister of Transport during a program on Channels Television. Amaechi informed that he intends to meet with his Works counterpart, Babatunde Fashola, as well as the Lagos state government on how the rail project will be extended to the Apapa port.

The Federal Government on Thursday informed that it will enforce the principle of reciprocity in granting permission to airlines to resume operations into the country as it opens its airspace. This implies that only airlines from countries that allow flights from Nigeria will be allowed to fly into and out of Nigeria. It specifically stated that airlines from the European Union would not be allowed into Nigeria as the EU had recently banned flights and visitors from Nigeria.

Shell To Focus All Investments On Nigeria

Royal Dutch Shell has announced that it would focus its operations on Nigeria as it looks into developing its new project (Project Reshape) an to also reduce oil and gas production costs by 40%. The multinational oil and gas company revealed that it would direct the saved costs into more renewable energy investments. Project Reshape would be implemented in all three divisions of the company with the aim of saving $4 billion due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the industry.

The Federal Government has on Tuesday unveiled a Gas Transportation network code with a set of guidelines in a bid to transport gas across the country. This was disclosed in a statement via twitter by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, saying the government launched the network code in "a bid to deepen the embrace, acceptability, and utilization of Gas amongst Nigerians, the @NigeriaGov has unveiled a Gas Transportation Network Code, which essentially, is a set of rules and guidelines for gas transportation in the country."