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China Ups Credit Support For Small Businesses Amid Pandemic

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6 years ago

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The Chinese banking sector, has beefed up financial support for small businesses to withstand the COVID-19 outbreak.
According to the China Banking Association, as of Tuesday noon, China’s city commercial banks and private banks have offered credit support of 298.3 billion yuan (42.8 billion U.S. dollars).
The association said that all 134 city commercial banks and 18 private banks nationwide had unveiled detailed measures of financial services to help enterprises resume production and fight against the epidemic.
“The credit support has been mainly used to finance micro, small and medium-sized firms that are greatly affected by the epidemic, as many banks issued special financial bonds for small and micro-sized enterprises.
“To help small and medium-sized enterprises, the country’s central bank has increased the re-lending and re-discount quota by 500 billion yuan, with the bulk channelled to small and medium-sized banks to increase their credit support to smaller businesses,” the association said.
Meanwhile the Central Bank of China says it will accelerate reforms of the bond market to better support the real economy.
According to the bank, bond financing of private enterprises will be strengthened with a better policy environment.
“The central bank will continue to support commercial banks and other financial institutions in issuing capital bonds, improve the capital adequacy of the banking industry and boost their capacity to provide credit, in a bid to facilitate the financial institutions to serve the real economy.
“The central bank will strengthen monitoring and early warnings of default risks, improve the bond default disposal mechanism, and enrich market-oriented default disposal methods,’’ it said.
It noted that at the end of January, China’s total outstanding bonds reached 100.4 trillion yuan (about 14.43 trillion U.S. dollars), ranking second in the world in terms of market size.
It said: “in 2019, the net financing of corporate sector bonds accounted for nearly 13 per cent of the total scale of social financing, becoming the second-largest channel for enterprises to obtain funds besides loans.
“The yield on 10-year treasury bonds was 2.61 per cent on Tuesday, down 52 basis points from the end of last year, which can help drive the financing costs of enterprises to further decline.’’

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Kenyan Runners Dominate Berlin Marathons

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2 days ago

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September 22, 2025

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Kenya made it a clean sweep at the Berlin Marathon with Sabastian Sawe winning the men’s race and Rosemary Wanjiru triumphing in the women’s.

Sawe finished in two hours, two minutes and 16 seconds to make it three wins in his first three marathons.

The 30-year-old, who was victorious at this year’s London Marathon, set a sizzling pace as he left the field behind and ran much of the race surrounded only by his pacesetters.

Japan’s Akasaki Akira came second after a powerful latter half of the race, finishing almost four minutes behind Sawe, while Ethiopia’s Chimdessa Debele followed in third.

“I did my best and I am happy for this performance,” said Sawe.

“I am so happy for this year. I felt well but you cannot change the weather. Next year will be better.”

Sawe had Kelvin Kiptum’s 2023 world record of 2:00:35 in his sights when he reached halfway in 1:00:12, but faded towards the end.

In the women’s race, Wanjiru sped away from the lead pack after 25 kilometers before finishing in 2:21:05.

Ethiopia’s Dera Dida followed three seconds behind Wanjiru, with Azmera Gebru, also of Ethiopia, coming third in 2:21:29.

Wanjiru’s time was 12 minutes slower than compatriot Ruth Chepng’etich’s world record of 2:09:56, which she set in Chicago in 2024.

 

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NIS Ends Decentralised Passport Production After 62 Years

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September 22, 2025

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The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has officially ended passport production at multiple centres, transitioning to a single, centralised system for the first time in 62 years.
Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, made the disclosure during an inspection of the Nigeria’s new Centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at the NIS Headquarters in Abuja, last Thursday.
He stated that since the establishment of NIS in 1963, Nigeria had never operated a central passport production centre, until now, marking a major reform milestone.
“The project is 100 per cent ready. Nigeria can now be more productive and efficient in delivering passport services,” Tunji-Ojo said.
He explained that old machines could only produce 250 to 300 passports daily, but the new system had a capacity of 4,500 to 5,000 passports every day.
“With this, NIS can now meet daily demands within just four to five hours of operation,” he added, describing it as a game-changer for passport processing in Nigeria.
“We promised two-week delivery, and we’re now pushing for one week.
“Automation and optimisation are crucial for keeping this promise to Nigerians,” the minister said.
He noted that centralisation, in line with global standards, would improve uniformity and enhance the overall integrity of Nigerian travel documents worldwide.
Tunji-Ojo described the development as a step toward bringing services closer to Nigerians while driving a culture of efficiency and total passport system reform.
According to him, the centralised production system aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s reform agenda, boosting NIS capacity and changing the narrative for improved service delivery.
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FG To Roll Out Digital Public Infrastructure, Data Exchange, Next Year 

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2 days ago

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September 22, 2025

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The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has announced plans to roll out Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and the Nigerian Data Exchange (NGDX) platforms across key sectors of the economy, starting in early 2026.
Director of E-Government and Digital Economy at NITDA, Dr. Salisu Kaka, made the disclosure in Abuja during a stakeholder review session of the DPI and NGDX drafts at the Digital Public Infrastructure Live Event.
The forum, themed “Advancing Nigeria’s Digital Public Infrastructure through Standards, Data Exchange and e-Government Transformation,” brought together regulators, state governments, and private sector stakeholders to harmonise inputs for building inclusive, secure, and interoperable systems for governance and service delivery.
According to Kaka, Nigeria already has several foundational elements in place, including national identity systems and digital payment platforms.
What remains is the establishment of the data exchange framework, which he said would be finalised by the end of 2025.
“Before the end of this year and by next year we will be fully ready with the foundational element, and we start dropping the use cases across sectors,” Kaka explained.
He stressed that the federal government recognises the autonomy of states urging them to align with national standards.
“If the states can model and reflect what happens at the national level, then we can have a 360-degree view of the whole data exchange across the country and drive all-of-government processes,” he added.
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