This newsletter is TIRED. But who isn’t? eh?
This newsletter is sad about DMX.
We want to remind you to Stretch. Your back will thank you for it 😘
Alright, let’s get into it!
Another Nigerian govt vs tech thing
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) declared on Thursday that Nigeria-registered online investment platforms that allow Nigerians to invest directly in foreign stock markets are breaking the law;
Any confirmed Capital Market Operators working with these platforms will have their licences revoked.
CMOs act as middlemen between platforms and users, so the investment platforms are basically stranded until they find a solution.
Also announced: BVN verification is now limited to services licensed by the CBN-- banks, mostly-- and those who have a permit can’t extend to other businesses.
The issue here is that most fintech startups have built their customer onboarding and identity risk management processes around BVN. So, now what?
While the government is obsessing over tech money, they’re still not paying public sector doctors.
Back up. Doctors are still on strike?
Since the 1st of April, Nigerian doctors in federal hospitals have been on an indefinite strike over salaries at least a year in arrears.
Speaking to African News, Dotun Osikoy of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) summarised their irritation: “They don’t pay us but prefer to go abroad for treatment”.
The Federal Government urged the NARD to call off the strike, claiming that their demands are being transparently implemented.
But words ≠ action (case in point: EndSars).
Also on strike: Lecturers, Staff in Taraba who say they’re owed salaries of over 3 years, and many more! Public sector workers said:
“no pay, no work.”
Your weekly kidnapping update
No joke. Kidnapping has become a lucrative business in Nigeria, apparently. Last week, over 10 kidnap incidents were reported in Nigerian newspapers.
The facts are not cute.
Our Unemployment and underemployment rates are presently estimated at 33% and 22.8% (National Bureau of Statistics, via Proshare);
The price of electricity—and everything else—has gone up.
Survival has become by any means necessary.
And with the government perpetually choosing to pay ransoms and “pardon” “bandits”, kidnapping has become a career path.
Foreigners are getting kidnapped; families are getting abducted, people are strolling in and out of jail as they please. Eish
Insurgency; It’s a climate emergency
A combination of rainfall extremes intensified by climate change, decreasing water supply, scarcity of land for livelihood has forced mass internal migration.
Overpopulation and our tribalistic tendencies triggered interstate insurgency.
It’s a mess. Even messier is the Governor of Zamfara State, Bello Mohammed Matawalle, stating blankly that if other state governments don’t intervene to stop attacks on Northerners, they might soon be forced to retaliate.
To address this issue properly, we’d need to manage the economic implications of environmental disasters
“The federal and state governments also need to pay attention to issues raised by the most affected communities and work to build trust with them”, our close and personal politics nerd, Dami Adebayo, told us
COVID-19 update
964k people have gotten the first dose of the vaccine
India donated 3.94 million doses of AstraZeneca to Nigeria
AstraZeneca new updates
Things we didn’t get into:
Fill your kegs! FG defers oil subsidy removal for six months.
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