Nigeria is planning to deduct 5% VAT for every online transaction via bank cards from next year. The burgeoning digital economy includes e-commerce where Jumia and Konga are playing. We also have the tech space withFlutterwave, Cowrywise, Piggybank, and others. Tunde Fowler, Chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), confirmed this in an exclusive interview with Premium Times Newspaper. Fowler said the country is currently working on a solution for taxing the digital economy. “We will address the issue of the digitalised economy very soon. There is no global solution to a digitalised economy. “Different countries have taken different solutions to address the problem. Nigeria has not taken a position yet. But, we are meeting to see if we can come up with a global

Amnesty International Nigeria says three members of Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) have allegedly died in police custody. The IMN members said to have died were reportedly arrested on July 22 during a protest. Members of IMN also known as Shi’ites have been demanding for the release of Ibraheem el-Zakzaky, their leader, through protest marches which are usually met with “brutality” from security agencies. In a statement on Monday, Osai Ojigho, director of Amnesty International Nigeria, said the IMN members died after they were denied medical attention at a Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) detention facility in Abuja. She added that there should be a probe into the incident. Ojigho said there are also 15 IMN members who have “various life-threatening gunshot wounds to their

The last batch of Kano state pilgrims for 2019 hajj yesterday arrived the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Medina, Saudi Arabia, barely seven days to the closure of all entry boarders. No fewer than 330 pilgrims left of the total 3,170 contingents from the state departed Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport Kano (MAKIA) on Boeing 737 Max airline, signal early completion of departure operations. Briefing journalists in Medina, Saudi Arabia, executive secretary, Kano State Pilgrims Welfare Board, Alhaji Mohammad Abba Danbatta expressed satisfaction that 2019 departure exercise was 100 per cent completed early enough. Alhaji Abba revealed that the board successfully completed the movement of over 3,000 pilgrims, including officials of the board and government delegation in five flights airlift on scheduled. According to

President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo has said that over one million Nigerians of Igbo extraction live in Ghana, and that the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation was working to ensure unity among them. Nwodo, who spoke at Abagana, Njikoka local government area of Anambra State, during this year’s celebration of the new yam festival, said he just returned from Ghana where he took steps towards resolving disunity among Igbo living in that country. He said part of the measure to unite the people was the recent dissolution of the executive of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in the country to forestall a tussle. The Ohanaeze leader said his leadership also dissolved the executive of the London chapter of the Igbo socio-cultural organisation. “I just returned from

Experts have canvassed the deployment of blockchain technology to advance transactions, the profession and boost transparency between practitioners and clients. According to them, the use of the technology would go a long in mitigating severe lack of transparency, closeness of the sector to certain people, high taxes/investment fees, lack of liquidity in the industry, delays in transaction speed and issues of pricing commitments. Blockchain technology is a time-stamped series of immutable record of data that is managed by a cluster of computers not owned by any single entity. Each of these blocks of data are secured and bound to each other using cryptographic principles or chain. The decentralised-record-keeping technology, which is designed to instill trust in the authenticity of digital transactions, could be

Rihanna has condemned Donald Trump’s response to the deadly shootings that rocked the US over the weekend. At least nine people were killed after a gunman opened fire in Ohio, mere hours after a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas that killed at least 20 people, by a suspected white supremacist. Trump condemned the shootings, he tweeted, "God bless the people of El Paso, Texas. God bless the people of Dayton, Ohio." This, just days after yet another terrorist attack in California, where a terrorist was able to LEGALLY purchase an assault rifle (AK-47) in Vegas, then drive hours to a food festival in Cali leaving 6 more people dead including a young infant baby boy! Imagine a world where it’s

Unwilling to tolerate the guts of the protesters, security operatives, on the orders of the government, took over major roads and convergence points in Lagos, Ogun and Abuja, teargasing and arresting all those calling for a revolution. Nigerians have lashed out at the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari for trying to use extreme force to silence members of the RevolutionNow movement, who poured out onto the streets in different parts of the country on Monday to march against his government. The protesters, largely made up of young people, displayed banners and placards of all kinds with many of those calling on the government of Buhari to fix the country or step down. But unwilling to tolerate the guts of the protesters, security operatives,

Access Bank Plc is offering collateral-free financing support targeting 30, 000 Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) this year alone. With a historic credit innovation that is already changing MSMEs’ lending story, Nigeria’s largest retail bank says all that MSME customer needs to access credit is just to keep a good credit record, be able to keep sales record and be assisted with managerial support services from the bank. “We don’t make impossible demands on the customer. We won’t ask you for a leg and an arm. Once you keep good credit record and sales record, that is your guaranty to get a loan,” says Access Bank’s Head of Emerging Businesses, Mrs. Ayodele Olojede. In a chat with financial journalists in Lagos, Olojede

China may have just fired the opening shot of a currency war with the United States. For the first time in more than a decade, Beijing let the yuan weaken past the symbolically important level of 7 to the dollar on Monday. The Chinese central bank said the move mostly reflected market concern about "trade protectionism and new tariffs on China." President Donald Trump escalated the trade war last week by announcing that the United States would tax just about every Chinese export starting in September. But by allowing the yuan to move lower, Beijing is sending an unmistakable signal: It is prepared to deploy its currency a weapon in the trade war with Washington. "The fact that they have now stopped defending 7

Police fired tear gas at protesters in Nantes on Saturday as skirmishes broke out on the fringes of a demonstration and tributes to a young concert-goer who disappeared and drowned in the western French city.The body of 24-year-old Steve Canico was found in the Loire river on Tuesday, 38 days after a run-in between police and late-night revellers by the riverbank in Nantes.Tributes to Canico earlier in the day coincided with calls for a broader march to denounce police brutality, attended by several hundred people.A small group of protesters, some wearing bandanas on their faces and masks, used chairs to erect barricades in a square and set fire to a pile of debris as they squared up to police, French