N120bn USSD debt slowing financial inclusion, says NCC The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta, has said the banks’ N120bn Unstructured Supplementary Service Data debt owed telecommunication firms is slowing down financial inclusion. He noted that without the service, digital financial inclusion, which he pegged at 60 to 70 per cent, in the country would not be where it was currently. He said, “The merit of the service is that without it, there will be no digital financial inclusion and the penetration would be nowhere where it is now.  The digital financial inclusion index or penetration is currently about 70 per cent because it is telco driven. And as such, there shouldn’t be any problem paying for the service. “No service is free. Pay the telcos, that is all we ask. Okay, and as we are saying now, pay them for the debt, the accumulated debt, and then pay them for the service they are rendering as we speak.” Danbat...

It’s difficult to overturn presidential election result in Nigeria – Adegboruwa In this interview with Solomon Odeniyi, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN speaks on the decision of the presidential tribunal justices on the transmission of results among other issues. What do you make of the judgments of the tribunal of the petitions seeking to remove the president? I think that the issues decided by the justices have fairly been foretold by the apex court on the issues of nomination, the validity of nomination, and the issue of the status of the Federal Capital Territory among others.  These are matters that within the legal profession we knew were already decided in a way that the justices came down yesterday. To a large extent, the judgment of the presidential election petition court was not surprising to us who have been watching the proceedings. Does it mean you agree with all the declarations of the justices? My concern is the decision of the justices concerning the conduc...

Man stabs friend to death over food A man identified simply as John has lost his life after his friend, Akinola Adeleye, allegedly stabbed him to death over an argument on who to pay for a plate of food. The incident happened in the Ifako Ijaiye Local Government Area of Lagos State. It was gathered that the two men had a misunderstanding over who should pay for the plate of meal Akinola had eaten and in the course of the argument that degenerated into a fight, Akinola stabbed John to death with a knife. PUNCH Metro learnt from some residents in the area that the sad event happened two weeks ago on Idiagbon Street adjacent to the local government headquarters. It was further gathered that the victim had been squatting in the house of the suspect when they had the fallout over who would pay for a plate of food. A resident in the area, Ugochukwu, narrating what happened to our correspondent on Wednesday, said, “It happened that Akinola went and ate a plate of food in their...

The Federal Government has ordered power distribution companies to deploy customer engagement platforms within the next three months, beginning from September 1, 2023. The directive meant the Discos must install the facilities before January 2024. It gave the order through the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, and explained that the directive became vital due to the failure of Discos in resolving the complaints of power users. The directive was contained in a document from NERC, with order number: NERC/2023/006, obtained by The PUNCH in Abuja on Thursday, and titled, ‘Order on deployment of customer engagement platforms’. In the document, the government said, “This order shall take effect from September 1, 2023 and shall remain in force until amended or revoked by subsequent orders issued by the NERC.” Providing a background on the order, the commission stated that it had conducted town hall meetings, public consultations and reviewed reports of complaints fr...

  The All Progressives Congress on Thursday slammed the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, for criticising the verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal which upheld President Bola Tinubu’s election and the electoral process. This happened as Atiku and Obi attacked the Independent National Electoral Commission over its conduct of the polls. The five-member tribunal had nullified the petitions of Atiku and Obi in the 12-hour judgment delivered on Wednesday. However, speaking on the development during a press conference at the PDP national secretariat in Abuja, Atiku said his belief that the PEPC’s judgment left a lot to be desired convinced him to direct his legal team to approach the Supreme Court for redress. He stated, “I take great pains to tell you that the decision of the court of first instance on this matter utterly falls far short of expectation. I am therefore here to tell you that, though th...