General News
Victory as Shell Pays out £55m over Niger Delta Oil Spills

Oil giant Shell’s long-overdue compensation pay out to a community devastated by oil spills in the Niger Delta is an important victory for the victims of corporate negligence, said Amnesty International and the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development today.
Six years after two oil spills destroyed thousands of livelihoods in the Bodo area, legal action in the UK has driven Shell to make an out-of-court settlement of £55m to compensate the affected community.
The £55m will be split between £35m for 15,600 individuals and £20m for the community.
“While the pay-out is a long awaited victory for the thousands of people who lost their livelihoods in Bodo, it shouldn’t have taken six years to get anything close to fair compensation,” said Audrey Gaughran, Director of Global Issues at Amnesty International.
“In effect, Shell knew that Bodo was an accident waiting to happen. It took no effective action to stop it, then it made false claims about the amount of oil that had been spilt. If Shell had not been forced to disclose this information as part of the UK legal action, the people of Bodo would have been completely swindled.”
The wait has taken its toll on Bodo residents, many of whom had their fishing and farming livelihoods destroyed in the spill. Throughout this time they have had to live with the ongoing pollution and, without compensation, many have faced grinding poverty.
“The compensation is a step towards justice for the people of Bodo, but justice will be fully achieved when Shell properly cleans up the heavily polluted creeks and swamps so that those who rely on fishing and farming for their income can begin to rebuild their livelihoods,” said Styvn Obodoekwe, Director of Programmes of the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD).
“I am very happy that Shell has finally taken responsibility for its action,” said Pastor Christian Kpandei, a Bodo fish farmer, whose fish farm was destroyed by the oil spill. “I’d like to thank the lawyers for compelling Shell to make this unprecedented move.”
Shell has always accepted that the two 2008 Bodo oil spills were the fault of failures on the company’s pipeline at Bodo, but publically – and repeatedly – claimed that the volume of oil spilt was approximately 4,000 barrels for both spills combined, even though the spills went on for weeks.
In 2012 Amnesty International, using an independent assessment of video footage of the first oil spill, calculated that the total amount of oil split exceeded 100,000 barrels for this spill alone.
During the legal action in the UK, Shell had to finally admit that its figures were wrong and it had underestimated the amount of oil spilt in both of the Bodo cases. However Shell has still not confirmed how much oil was actually spilt.
During the legal process Shell was also forced to reveal that it had been aware, at least since 2002, that most of its oil pipelines were old, and some sections contained “major risk and hazard”. In a 2002 document Shell stated that outright replacement of pipelines was necessary because of extensive corrosion.
As far as Amnesty International and CEHRD are aware Shell took no action despite having this information years before the Bodo leaks. An internal Shell email from 2009 revealed that Shell knew it was exposed over spills in Ogoniland – where Bodo is situated; the email stated “the pipelines in Ogoniland have not been maintained properly or integrity assessed for over 15 years”.
Thousands more people remain at risk of future oil spills because of Shell’s failure to fix its ageing and dilapidated pipelines.
“Oil pollution in the Niger Delta is one of the biggest corporate scandals of our time. Shell needs to provide proper compensation, clear up the mess and make the pipelines safer, rather than fighting a slick PR campaign to dodge all responsibility,” said Audrey Gaughran.
It would be recalled that there were two oil spills occurred at Bodo in the Niger Delta in 2008, the first in August and the second in December.
Amnesty International and CEHRD have worked on the Bodo spills case since 2008, supporting the community to secure compensation and clean up.
In 2011, the people of Bodo, represented by UK law firm Leigh Day, began court proceedings in the UK against the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria.
General News
Fortune Global Shipping Aims to Transform Nigeria’s Business Landscape

Fortune Global Shipping and Logistics Limited is set to transform the business landscape of the logistics industry through services in oil and gas logistics, project cargo and lots more.
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company, Dr. Eric Opah, in a statement said the organisation is expanding into more regions across the globe with its latest addition of a corporate office in Benin Republic, while the Abuja and Lekki free trade zones which follow soon will be part of asset acquisition to serve the clients better.
In the statement tagged, “Plans for 2025: Global Business Expansion, Exciting Benefits for Customers Top the List,” Opah said he remains committed to upholding and promoting global standards and will stop at nothing in providing value added services to support clients and help them thrive this year.
He said: “The organisation is expanding into more regions across the globe with its latest addition of a corporate office in Benin Republic, while the Abuja and Lekki free trade zones which follow soon will be part of asset acquisition to serve the clients better.
“Much more, the number one Africa logistics partner has reiterated the commitment to provide innovative and ‘value-centric’ services in oil and gas logistics, project cargo and lots more.
“We remain committed to upholding and promoting global standards and will stop at nothing in providing value added services to support our clients and help them thrive this year.”
General News
Investing in Innovation Africa Shifts Focus to Growth-stage Startups in Response to US Aid “stop-work” Directive

Investing in Innovation Africa (i3), a pan-African initiative for startups building the future of healthcare supply chains, has made a pivotal change to its third cohort selection to prioritize the immediate support for between five and seven growth-stage companies building the future of pharmacy care in Africa.
Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and sponsored by MSD, Cencora, Endless Foundation, HELP Logistics, Sanofi’s Global Health Unit and Chemonics, i3 is dedicated to facilitating the commercialization of promising early- and growth-stage companies.
Selected startups receive introductions to leading potential customers in industry, donor agencies and governments, grant funding, and tailored investment readiness support from leading accelerators Villgro Africa, IMPACT Lab, Startupbootcamp Afritech, and CcHUB.
This comes in response to the United States (US) State Department’s “stop-work” directive for foreign aid issued on January 25, which is anticipated to impact the distribution of essential medicine in Africa’s healthcare supply chains.
The order highlights and intensifies the need for locally-driven, market-creating approaches to health product distribution and service delivery across Africa.
General News
Fidelity Bank to Launch Dedicated SME Hub for Small Businesses and Creative Entrepreneurs

Fidelity Bank, a leading financial institution, has announced the imminent launch of its dedicated physical facility for Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SME) and entrepreneurs in the creative sector.

Mrs. Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, MD/CEO, Fidelity Bank Plc
Known as the Fidelity SME Hub, the multipurpose facility features training halls, meeting rooms, networking spaces, podcast rooms as well as music, photography and content production studios.
“For nearly four decades, Fidelity Bank has been at the forefront of supporting small businesses in achieving their potential and driving the nation’s economy. During this time, we have recognized that SMEs require more than just financial assistance. This realization has led to the implementation of various non-financial initiatives tailored to support this sector.
“The Fidelity SME Hub is our latest non-financial solution for SME growth. The facility is designed to foster innovation, collaboration, and capacity-building -vital elements necessary for strengthening Nigeria’s SME ecosystem and driving economic growth”, commented Dr Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Fidelity Bank Plc in a chat with journalists recently.
Located at the heart of Lagos, the Fidelity SME Hub will provide entrepreneurs with networking and stakeholder engagement initiatives as well as access to industry experts and mentors for hands-on guidance and business advice. A key feature of the facility is the Creativerse, a well-equipped space for entrepreneurs in the creative industry.
The bank has also announced the launch of dedicated courses to be hosted at the SME Hub in areas such as Financial Management & Investment Readiness, Digital Transformation & Technology Adoption, Marketing, Branding, and Business Growth Strategies. Furthermore, a fully-fledged creative academy will be established to cover courses on Music Production, the Business of Music, Website Design & Development, Mobile Videography, Disc Jockey and Photography. To see a comprehensive list of available courses or to apply, please visit https://www.fidelitybank.ng/smehub/.
Explaining further, Onyeali-Ikpe said, “Beyond empowering small businesses, the Fidelity SME Hub will also serve to bolster our non-oil exports drive as we empower SMEs to increase their contribution to Nigeria’s non-oil GDP thus supporting government’s economic diversification drive. Through our investment in Creativerse in particular, we anticipate that content creators will unlock new revenue streams in entertainment, digital media, and arts, an industry already contributing 2.3% to GDP.”
Ranked among the best banks in Nigeria, Fidelity Bank is a full-fledged customer commercial bank serving over 8.5 million customers through its 255 business offices in Nigeria and the United Kingdom, as well as through digital banking channels.
The bank has garnered multiple local and international awards, including the Export Finance Bank of the Year at the 2023 BusinessDay Banks and Other Financial Institutions (BAFI) Awards, Best Payment Solution Provider Nigeria 2023, and Best SME Bank Nigeria 2022 by the Global Banking and Finance Awards. It was also recognized as the Best Bank for SMEs in Nigeria by the Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2023 and the Best Domestic Private Bank in Nigeria by the Euromoney Global Private Banking Awards 2023.
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