Author: Chronicle Editor

South Korea’s Samsung Electronics plans to double the annual revenue contribution from its African markets to 20 per cent of the firm’s global total in the next five years, the head of its business on the continent said on Monday. Sung Yoon said the electronics giant, which accounts for over half of the mobile handsets and televisions sold in African nations like Kenya, would set up shops and other retail channels in more African countries and cut product delivery times. “We think Africa is extremely important for the future,” he told Reuters after a news conference in Nairobi. Demand for…

Cyrille Regis, the former West Brom and England forward, has died aged 59. He scored 112 goals in 297 appearances for the Baggies before joining Coventry City for £250,000 in 1984. He was a pioneer for black footballers in the game when he played alongside Laurie Cunningham and Brendon Batson at The Hawthorns. His widow, Julia, described him on Monday as “a beautiful man and a wonderful husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle.” Regis, who was appointed an MBE in 2008, returned to West Brom as a coach before becoming a football agent. In a tribute posted on West Brom’s…

Stoke City have appointed former Aston Villa and Norwich boss Paul Lambert as manager. The 48-year-old Scot has signed a two-and-a-half-year contract after Mark Hughes was dismissed this month. Stoke are 18th in the Premier League table, a point away from safety, and were knocked out of the FA Cup by League Two side Coventry City. Lambert will watch Monday’s match at Manchester United (20:00 GMT) from the stands and will take over on Tuesday. His first match in charge will be Saturday’s home game against fellow strugglers Huddersfield. Lambert has been out of work since leaving Wolves at the…

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has cancelled a tender it issued last week to buy up to 1.55 million tonnes of gasoline from January to April, sources said on Monday. The company was seeking 42 cargoes of gasoline, each 37,000 tonnes, on top of the volumes the Nigerian oil company is taking via ongoing crude-for-product swap contracts. Sources said it cancelled the tender after gasoline prices spiked on the news that it was looking to purchase the relatively substantial volume of fuel But Nigeria, in the midst of fuel queues, is still likely to increase gasoline imports in coming…

The Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, has condemned payment of N40 million cash to former Heads of States of Nigeria. MURIC director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, said the group strongly denounces this decision. “It is heartless, anti-people and capitalist-driven. The Nigerian system makes the rich richer and the poor poorer,” he said in a statement. It would be recalled that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, on 11 January, revealed that the government paid N40 million to each former president. He said cash was opted for instead of buying vehicles as prescribed by law. He added that…

Boko Haram released a video on Monday purportedly showing some of the remaining girls who were kidnapped from the northeast Nigerian town of Chibok in 2014. Of the some 270 girls who were originally abducted from their school, about 60 escaped soon afterwards and others have since been released after mediation. Around 100 are still believed to be in captivity. A group of about 12 girls, some of whom are carrying babies, are seen in the 21-minute video. “We are the Chibok girls. We are the ones you are crying about for us to come back. By the grace of…

Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court in Lagos has nullified the appointment of Boye Olusanya as Managing Director of 9Mobile as well as that of the interim board. Justice Buba gave the judgement following an application by Spectrum Wireless Communication Limited, which invested $35million in 2009 in Emerging Markets Telecommunications Service (EMTS)/Etisalat, the fourth largest telecommunications service operator in Nigeria. The judge ruled: “An order is hereby granted discharging the ex-parte order made by this court in this suit in favour of the respondent on the 3rd day of July 2017. “The order made pursuant to motion ex-parte…

Donald Trump insists he is “not a racist” despite reports of his derogatory comments about immigrants from Haiti and Africa. Questioned by a reporter in Florida following reports that he had said Haiti and Africa were “shithole countries”, the US President said: “No. I’m not a racist. I’m the least racist person you will ever interview.” The President also denied making the comments attributed to him in a closed-door meeting of lawmakers discussing immigration, but did not go into specifics about what he did or did not say. “Did you see what various senators in the room said about my…

After seven years of legal battle, a Lagos High Court, Igbosere has awarded the sum of $10 million against South African retail giant, Shoprite Checkers (PTY) Limited and its business partner, Retail Supermarkets Nigeria Limited for a breach of contract entered with a Nigerian firm, AIC Limited in 1998. In a landmark judgment delivered by Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo on November 30, 2017, but exclusively obtained yesterday, the court held that the defendants were in breach of the agreement when they (Shoprite and Supermarkets) went secretly behind AIC Limited promoted by Chief Harry Akande to establish Shoprite outlet in one of…

The price of brent crude oil rose to 70 dollars a barrel on Monday, supported by ongoing output cuts led by OPEC and Russia, and ignoring a rise in U.S. and Canadian drilling activity that points to higher future output in North America. Brent sweet crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at 70 dollars per barrel at 0558 GMT, up 13 cents from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at 64.53 dollars a barrel, up 23 cents. Both benchmarks last week reached levels not seen since December 2014, with Brent touching 70.05…