Business
IMF Predicts Global Economic Recovery
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kaho has said that the global economy has made remarkable progress and now stands at the cusp of recovery. However, he warned that it still remains highly vulnerable to shocks and policy missteps. In a speech delivered at the Annual Conference of the Confederation of British Industries (CBI) in London, Mr Strauss-Kaho said policy makers stand at a critical juncture where the sustainability of the global recovery will depend on the decisions they make in the months to come.
“Today the storm has passed. T he worst has been averted. And yet the economy remains very much in holding pattern-stable, and getting better, but still highly vulnerable”, Mr Strauss-Kaho said. For policymakers “the challenges are great” during the crisis, everyone was united by a common purpose. Going forward, this might dissolve. So the road ahead will be less clear cut. We will need some debt maneuvering, and perhaps some out-of-the-box thinking. We will certainly need continued collabora tion”, he added.
Mr Strauss-Kaho said policy makers will face four main challenges, which include existing from accommodative policies, adapting to increasing capital flow to emerging market, developing a new global grown modes, and designing and implementing financial sector reforms.
On exit strategies, Mr Strauss-Kaho stressed the importance of waiting for a sustained recovery in private demand, as well as clear indications of financial stability before accommodative measures are withdrawn. “It is too early for a general exit. We recommend erring on the side of caution, as exiting too late”, he said. Plans for fiscal consolidation should be the top priority, especially in advanced economies. And monetary policy can afford to stay accommodative for some time, given little sign of inflation on the horizone.
A related challenge to exit strategies is managing capital flows to emerging markets. “In many countries appreciation should be the key policy response other tools include lower interest rates, reserves accumulation, tighter fiscal policy, and financial sector prudential measures. Capital controls can be part of the package of measures”, he said in his speech. “But we should recognize that all tools have their limitations.
we should be pragmatic”, he added.
Moving to the challenge of creating a new global growth model, Mr Strauss-Kaho said the old paradigm of growth generation based on household in the US was dead. “If we are to have sustained global growth, somebody else needs to step into the breach. The leading candidates are the surplus countries. And we can see some shifts in the right direction. China and other emerging Asian economies are shifting from exports to domestic demand. But they have some way to go.
Mr Strauss-Kaho underscored the importance of forging ahead with a number of reforms to make the financial sector a more stable place. He stressed the challenge posed to policy makers by increased risk taking in the financial sector while financial institutions are still in poor shape while regulators seek to impose tough new standards that may jeopardize recovery.
“How do we square the circle? One possible answer is to reduce regulatory uncertainty. It is throwing up some perverse incentive and might be encouraging a risk taking culture”, he said. Also on addressing risk management in the financial sector, he added t hat it was essential to break the link between risky behaviour and compensation. “In this cont- ext we have been asked by the G-20 to look into financial sector taxes. There are a number of ways to think about this and we will look at it from various angles and consider all proposals he said.
Two universities in the Niger Delta zone (University of Port Harcourt and University of Benin) have emerged winners of the South-South region in the Nigerian Engineering Olympiad (NEO) competition.
The NEO competition which took place at the Nigerian Content Tower(NCT), headquarters of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board(NCDMB) in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State is a nationwide engineering, innovation and entrepreneurship competition launched in 2025 by a non-profit organization, ‘Enactus Nigeria’, in partnership with NCDMB, Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited, First Exploration & Petroleum Development Company and the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE).
The two Universities teams represented differently by ‘Inovation team PROTRONICS’ and ‘Innovation team VHORDE’, won their counterparts from the Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE), Effurun, Delta State, and the University of Uyo, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, in the competition showcasing hardware and software prototypes developed to serve as innovative solutions to real-world challenges with specific reference to Nigeria and Africa.
From UNIPORT’s ‘team PROTRONICS’ was an innovation called ‘KEYTRIC’ which the competitors presented as a ‘SMART POWER CONTROL’ that makes electricity usage effortless and automating with the use of an intelligent locking systems.
Team PROTRONICS highlighted high electricity bills, electricity fire risk and expensive smart home and gaps in existing solutions, including costly installation, lack of integration between security and energy, and dependence on the Internet as the reason for their innovative invention.
“Our innovative solution is a smart energy door lock that switches off a user’s electricity supply when they lock to leave the house.
“Our solution saves money on electricity bill, reduces the risk of electric fire accident, and is affordable to everyone”, the Uniport’s team said.
On the other hand, Team VHORDE of the University of Benin presented what it terms Intelligent Real-time Interface(IRIS) which enables visually impaired individuals to gain sight.
They pointed out that there are 4.5 million visually impaired Nigerians who are in some way incapacitated and unable to live life to the fullest.
The students displayed an IRIS pack, consisting sensors, wearable glasses, microphone, camera and Haptic feedback.
On how the IRIS works, the UNIBEN students said the smart glasses, which consist, a camera, depth sensor, and edge Artificial Intelligence(AI) processor, enables a visually impaired person to see and understand the world in real time.
“There’s an AI Compute Unit to be worn at the waist, which runs Convolutional neutral network (CNN) object detection, face recognition, and voice processing on-device”, the team said.
In a section on Business Model and Revenue Streams, the University of Benin competitors indicated production-scale pricing for IRIS Standard as N699,000 one-time purchase.
According to the team, the IRIS standard has the following functions, real-time object and scene identification, familiar face recognition, obstacle and hazard detection (haptic wristbands), natural voice interaction, Edge AI – fully offline core functions, and OTA software updates via Wi-Fi.
In an assessment of the prototypes and demonstrations made, one of the key judges of the competition, Engr. Dokubo Obongo, Manager, Institutional Strengthening, at the NCDMB, described all the presentations as “top-notch”.
He noted that there are solutions that are viable marketwise, relevant to the society and the challenges humans face, explaining that the Engineering Olympiad is a competition targeted at developing home-grown solutions from research and development from Nigerian universities.
“The idea is to see how we can proffer solutions to our own problems which means creating business opportunities”, he said.
Speaking for Enactus Nigeria, the group’s Country Director, Mr. Michael Ajayi, said the two top finalists from the six geopolitical zones would move to a boot camp for further preparation towards the main national championship, and that the best three teams would share N100 million.
He also disclosed that each of the 30 teams that displayed prototype technology in the regional competition would receive N3 million.
Team PROTRONICS of the University of Port Harcourt had as Team Lead Dr. Victor Jinn (Faculty Adviser), while the contestants were Chukwuma Sunday-Odu, Fubara David Otokini, and Ekemini Godwin Akpan, while Team VHORDE of the University of Benin had Anoint Oritsetimeyin Igorki, Oghosa Derick Osarobo, Uti Henry Eworitsewarami, Jada O. Godfrey-Ariavie, Richard O.Enegbuna, Momodu O. Olayemi, and Asemota G. Ayevbosa.
By: Ariwera Ibibo-Howells, Yenagoa
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has officially unveiled the Simplified Customs Advanced Declaration System (SCADS) at the international wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
The move is aimed at improving passenger clearance, compliance and customs operations.
This was contained in a statement by the NCS spokesperson, Abdullahi Maiwada, and made available to Newsmen in Abuja.
Maiwada explained that the platform, designed to simplify baggage declaration for inbound international passengers, aims to reduce manual bottlenecks, improve transparency in revenue assessment and enhance operational efficiency at Nigeria’s international airports.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Deputy Comptroller-General of Customs in charge of ICT/Modernisation, Oluyomi Adebakin, said the deployment of SCADS marked another major step in the service’s digital transformation agenda.
Adebakin said the initiative became necessary to address operational challenges encountered on the service’s previous passenger declaration platform earlier this year.
She explained that rather than allowing the setbacks to slow operations, the service chose to develop a stronger and more efficient alternative.
“When the earlier platform experienced operational challenges, we chose not to see it as a setback.
“We saw it as an opportunity to build something better, stronger and more efficient,” she said.
According to her, the newly introduced SCADS platform allows passengers to declare items before arrival, thereby reducing clearance time while improving compliance and operational integrity.
“For passengers, this system creates the opportunity for advance declaration before arrival. It means faster clearance, easier compliance and smoother movement through our airports,” she added.
Adebakin said that the system would eliminate subjective revenue assessment by ensuring that duties were being automatically generated based on declared items, their quantities and actual values.
“When we talk about revenue collection, it is not about collecting more or less. It is about collecting the right revenue. With this system, assessment will now be more objective, accurate and driven by data,” she said.
Earlier Comptroller Customs Area Controller, FCT Area Command, Victoria Alibo,described the selection of the command for the pilot phase as a vote of confidence in its operational capacity.
Alibo said the new platform integrates passenger baggage and e-commerce declarations into a single digital framework designed to support global Customs best practices.
“SCADS is designed to simplify declarations, reduce clearance time, eliminate manual bottlenecks and align our operations with international standards,” Alibo said.
She said that the pilot phase would run for five days, from May 18 to May 22, during which officers would evaluate the system in a live environment ahead of nationwide deployment.
The event was attended by senior Customs officers, officials of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, partner government agencies, technical teams, and other key stakeholders in Nigeria’s aviation and border management ecosystem.
By: CHINEDU WOSU
Olubiyo, said this in an interview with Newsmen to Monday in Abuja.
He said energy theft occurs at both the consumer and institutional levels across the electricity value chain from generation to transmission and distribution.
According to Olubiyo, at the consumer level electricity theft includes metre bypass, illegal connections and unauthorised access to power without proper billing.
According to him, some customers would dig underground cables directly to their homes or businesses without being metered, while others exploit estimated billing systems to consume electricity without payment.
“Whether through metre bypass or illegal connection, many customers are using electricity for free. That is energy theft,” he said.
He also alleged that institutional energy theft exists within the power sector, particularly through defective, obsolete, or wrongly installed metres used in monitoring electricity generation and distribution.
He said that wholesale metres installed at critical interfaces among generation companies (GenCos), transmission companies, and distribution companies (DisCos) were often out-dated or improperly configured.
He said those could lead to inaccurate readings and inflated subsidy claims.
“If 4,000 megawatts is generated and 7,000 megawatts is recorded, that is energy theft because the excess energy does not get to consumers,” he stated.
The expert further said some operators in the sector allegedly exploit maintenance and repair contracts through inflated contract sums and possible collaboration with vandals.
He also cited the deployment of secure pole-mounted metres in military barracks as an example of how technology can curb metre tampering and unauthorised access.
He, therefore said the sector had to urgently address infrastructure decay, weak regulation, poor investment, and corruption within the value chain.
Otherwise, according to him, Nigeria’s electricity industry will continue to face liquidity challenges, revenue losses and unstable power supply.
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