General News
GTBank, LASG Collaborate On Sports Development
The Lagos State government has granted GTBank the sponsorship rights of the annual Principals Cup, a foremost sporting competition among secondary schools in the state.
GTBank last year entered into a strategic collaboration with Lagos State government in the area of sports development.
The competition introduced by the government as far back as 1940 for three years ending 2012 serves as a platform to foster camaraderie as well as identify local football talents at grassroots level while encouraging them to stay at school.
The final match stages of this year’s event come up in different venues in Lagos. The semi finals for both male and female teams will be played at Campos Stadium on Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th of March respectively while the finals and closing matches would be played in April at Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere.
Speaking at a media parley recently, Femi Adeniran, head, Media and Corporate Communication of the bank, gave reasons behind its huge investment in the laudable competition. The bank among other reasons said sports is a good platform through which academic excellence could be achieved among students. In addition through the programme it aims at creating local football stars who will be the country’s ambassadors to the international community, further enhance its business relationship with its host community, Lagos State, by partnering with them in their efforts at revamping the sporting event as a social and economic development tool, and to create role models for society through discovery, career development with its attendant empowerment of local football talents which abound in the country.
He explained that the sponsorship deals come in three parts which includes the establishment of heritage sites, Tournament Ambassadorial Programme (TAP), and Players development Programme (PDP).
Schools with long standing participation and pedigree in the competition have entered the honours list of Heritage Sites. For this year, St. Gregory’s College, Ikoyi; Birch Freeman College; Eko Boys High School as well as Anwaru Islam College made the list. They will be honoured at a ceremonial unveiling of the Heritage Site Pylon by the schools alumni and the GTbank executives at a future date yet to be announced. The occasion will also be spiced up with a novelty match among the schools.
The TAP is a mentorship programme developed by the bank to impact on students in the public secondary schools through capacity building. It involves motivational talks and interactive sessions by renowned professional in different fields of endeavour to challenge them to aspire to achieve excellence in the chosen career as well as become accountable. Unlike the TAP which has to do with the intellectual development, PDP is a special career development initiative designed to train and showcase young football talents to the national and international community.
Giving a progress report on the event so far, Adeniran said a total of 449 matches including 413 zonal preliminaries, 1 district finals and 24 state quarter/finals have been played by the 313 schools earmarked to participate in the tournament at inception on November 30, 2009.
52 of the participating schools have had their sporting infrastructures upgraded. The bank made a donation of balls, nets, corner flags, lining of pitches, weeding, and construction of pitch panels and upgrading of goal posts. A special tournament website has also been created.
Meanwhile the bank has assured that by the end of the sponsorship deal, it would have been able to embark on a complete overhaul of the sporting facilities in these schools.
General News
Dangote Plans to Donate One-Third of Wealth to Charity as Legacy

Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, plans to dedicate one-third of his wealth to charity as part of his succession plan, Halima Dangote, his daughter, has revealed.

Aliko Dangote
Halima, a trustee of the Aliko Dangote Foundation, disclosed this in an interview with Bloomberg published on Tuesday, saying the billionaire had secured the support of his family to commit 33 per cent of his estate to philanthropy.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Dangote’s net worth is estimated at $35.1 billion, meaning one-third of his current wealth would be worth about $11.7 billion if his fortune remains at that level.
Halima explained that her father views philanthropy as a key part of his legacy and has incorporated it into the family’s long-term succession plans.
She said Dangote had structured his estate to ensure that charitable giving continues across generations, particularly in areas such as healthcare and education.
“He sort of put all the structure in place whereby we focus a lot on health and education. He actually donated 25 per cent to the foundation. If you look at it, it is what we call in Sharia Code in Islam; it means he has donated 33 per cent of his whole inheritance to his foundation,” she said.
Halima added that Dangote believes giving back is central to the success of his businesses and the family’s values.
She said the billionaire asked her, her two sisters, and his mother to sign the agreement allowing 33 per cent of his inheritance to be dedicated to humanitarian causes.
The planned donation builds on Dangote’s longstanding philanthropic activities through the Aliko Dangote Foundation, which was established in 1994.
According to Halima, the foundation received an endowment of $1.25 billion about a decade ago and has since received an additional $700 million in funding.
She said about 70 per cent of the foundation’s spending goes to programmes in Nigeria, while 20 per cent supports projects across Africa, with the remaining funds directed to initiatives in other parts of the world.
The foundation’s interventions focus on healthcare, education, nutrition, and humanitarian support, including partnerships that contributed to the eradication of wild poliovirus in Africa.
Dangote’s planned charitable commitment adds to increasing global attention on billionaire philanthropy.
Although the proposed 33 per cent allocation is below the 50 per cent commitment associated with the Giving Pledge, it would rank among the largest philanthropic commitments announced by an African billionaire.
Earlier this year, Dangote was named among the world’s most influential philanthropists by TIME magazine’s inaugural TIME100 Philanthropy list, recognising the impact of the Aliko Dangote Foundation, which reportedly spends more than ₦50 billion annually on programmes across Africa.
General News
Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission Seeks Collaboration on Power Plants

Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC), has said that there are plans for Nigeria to begin to generate electricity from nuclear sources.

Mr Anthony Godwin Ekedegwa, chief executive, NAEC stated this when he recently visited Mr Umar Yusuf Girei, acting managing director, National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA),in Abuja.
He was at NIWA’s office to solicit the support of NIWA in achieving the numerous advantages of using nuclear energy technology in the country.
According to him, the partnership of critical stakeholders in Nigeria will position the country well in developing and maintaining its nuclear power plant.
The NAEC chief said Nigeria intends to begin the generation of electricity from nuclear sources instead of fossil-based power plants and hydro-based power plants, stressing that for Nigeria to develop, there is a need for the country to diversify its energy needs.
In his remarks, Mr Girei assured NAEC of his agency’s readiness to collaborate on the advancement of a nuclear power plant in Nigeria.
He promised the full support of NAEC for the success of a nuclear power plant in the country, saying that as the organisation saddled with the responsibility of regulating and developing Nigeria Inland Waterways, his entity is strategically positioned to play a critical role in the federal government’s quest for sustainable energy through the new technology.
General News
Pan-Africanism: Why Integration is Non-Negotiable for Africa’s Future

In a powerful call for continental solidarity, Ralph Mupita, Group CEO of MTN, has asserted that the future of the African continent depends on the dismantling of xenophobic barriers.

Speaking at the Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation (KMF) Winter Seminar, Mupita framed migration as a fundamental characteristic of the African identity, urging South Africa and other nations to embrace integration over exclusion.
He emphasised that the survival of African enterprises depends on a borderless approach to trade and talent. “The digital economy we’re fast moving to knows no borders.” Mupita declared, noting that the mindset of exclusion is an outdated relic that hinders the continent’s ability to compete globally.
He argued that for Africa to leverage the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the psychological barriers of xenophobia must be eradicated.
Providing a stark financial justification for this stance, Mupita highlighted MTN’s own operational reality as a blueprint for Pan-African success. “We earn about 80 to 82% of our earnings from outside South Africa,” he revealed, illustrating that the prosperity of South African-born entities is inextricably linked to their success across the rest of the continent. This figure underscores the interdependence of African economies and the danger of isolationist policies.
Mupita’s stance was strong advocating for unity: “The future of Africa will not be determined by the borders that separate us, but by the economic opportunities that connect us. Governments must set predictable policy and regulations.
Businesses will follow and allocate resources and capital. Together, we can build a continent where opportunity is more evenly shared and prosperity is more widely created.”
Analysts observing the seminar noted that Mupita’s remarks come at a critical juncture where economic volatility often fuels nationalist rhetoric. By tying the fight against xenophobia to the balance sheet, MTN is positioning Pan-Africanism beyond the moral imperative to its function as a business necessity. The CEO stressed that “Migration is part of who we are,” suggesting that the movement of people is the primary engine for the movement of capital and innovation.
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