24-7newsallround

Angry former militant leaders and ex-warlords from the nine states of the Niger Delta, have warned some officials of the Federal Ministry of Justice to stop sabotaging the Presidential Amnesty Office over the probe of the looted N60 billion Amnesty Training Centre in Bayelsa State. The ex-militant leaders also threatened that if the alleged sabotage of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, from filling proper defence against the N3.8 billion suit plus damages filed by the accused 15 companies involved in the 2019 looting of amnesty training centre, was not stopped, they would declare them “persona non grata across the nine states in Niger Delta and order citizen arrest in the region.” The ex-militant leaders, under the aegis of the Reintegrated Ex-Militants Forum, REF, in a statement by its National Coordinator, former ‘General’ Tony Ebikalaide, claimed that alerts had been issued to all militant camps to be on the lookout across the entire Niger Delta to ensure a cit

The groundswell of agitation for the inauguration of the substantive board of NDDC in compliance with the law, has continued to rise with the demand from a Labour group, the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE) to President Muhammadu Buhari to inaugurate the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) The appeal was contained in a statement issued by the General Secretary of AUPCTRE, Comrade Sikiru Wahid, on Sunday, August 14, 2022. The labour union said the call has become imperative to save the commission from destruction. There has been unending calls by authentic stakeholders who have consistently demanded that the NDDC Act should be complied with in the governance of the Commission noting that it is illegal to have contraptions of interim management committees / sole administrator to administer the NDDC and arbitrarily utilise the monthly sums due to the Commission.  AUPCTRE in the st

Iran denied any link to the stabbing of Salman Rushdie and cast the blame on the author and his supporters for the attack that left him with life-changing injuries. "Regarding the attack on Salman Rushdie, we do not consider anyone other than [Rushdie] and his supporters worth of blame and even condemnation," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a televised news conference Monday, marking the country's first public reaction to the incident. "We have not seen anything else about the individual that carried out this act other than what we've seen from American media. We categorically and seriously deny any connection of the assailant with Iran," Kanaani said, according to Iranian state media.  Rushdie, an acclaimed Indian-born British author, has received death threats for decades after Iran issued a fatwa, or religious decree, calling for his killing following the 1988 release of his book "The Satanic Verses." He spe

Artificial intelligence (AI) and related technologies have the potential to inspire growth and solve problems in Africa, yet Africa still struggles to get itself into the conversation.  This is concerning because AI relies on data, and when the appropriate social, cultural, and political contexts are not provided, it can entrench existing inequalities, prejudices, and injustices. For example, a paper written by computer scientists, Timnit Gebru and Joy Buolamwini showed how facial recognition software was less accurate when identifying women and people of colour compared to white men. According to Tortoise Intelligence, globally, AI companies attracted $77.5 billion investment last year, a 115% increase from the $36 billion recorded in the year before that. This represents the growing interest in AI from investors and governments, which can be traced from COVID-19, the report noted. But, in Africa, a large part of the ecosystem’s investments is concentrated in very few star

Float co-founders, Jesse Ghansah (CEO) and Barima Effah Adjei (CPO). Image source: Float Float, a Ghanaian cash flow and spend management platform, has completed a full acquisition of Accounteer, a Nigerian subscription-based cloud-based accounting service that combines bookkeeping, tax prep, and financial advisory services all in one platform for African businesses, for an undisclosed amount.    This deal is coming 8 months after Float closed its $17 million equity and debt seed funding, one of Africa’s biggest seed rounds. According to Jesse Ghansah, who co-founded Float with Barima Effah Adjei in 2021, the conversation that led to the acquisition started in 2021, and it took close to 10 months before the deal was finally closed.  Ghansah and Adjei founded Swipe in 2020 to provide invoicing services to businesses. But in June 2021, the company rebranded to Float to extend credit to businesses against their receivables. That is, it gives loans to companies that are expect

                              Charles Onu Source: TechCabal When life gives you lemons, you can do whatever you want with them. Problems, on the other hand, require solutions that come from deep thinking and, sometimes, experience. For Canada-based Charles Onu, the problems he experienced in Nigeria formed the womb that would later produce Ubenwa, his innovative healthtech startup that leverages advanced technology to preserve the lives of newborns. In most parts of the world, immediately after a child is born, it undergoes a test called APGAR scoring. This test is a non-invasive examination of the baby that helps to identify whether the child has a medical condition to be treated. At that stage of the baby’s life, though, almost every illness can fall under the life-threatening category, which is why early diagnoses are imperative.  Regrettably, APGAR scoring is a lagging indicator ( a method that diagnoses some medical conditions after they’ve progressed to an extent). It

Interswitch, the first Nigerian fintech unicorn, on Thursday August 11 announced that it has now aggregated all its API products in one platform, at its <codecall africa> event held at Zone Tech Park, Lagos, Nigeria. This development will grant customers access to the company’s products with little or no customer support. The company said it wants to help developers and businesses maximise the array of benefits its several API products have to offer without friction. “Before now, developers had to contact us whenever they needed to integrate without an API,” Abdul-Hafiz Ibrahim, the company’s head of engineering for payment services said at the launch event. “You can now go on the platform to call whatever API you need without necessarily having to call anyone at Interswitch for support.” Interswitch, being one of the first set of financial technology companies in Nigeria that handled remittance, focused on building the foundational infrastructure other fintech compani

As a nutritional psychiatrist, I always make it a point to maintain a well-balanced diet. Much of that has to do with making sure I get all the right vitamins, especially because it’s essential to preventing cognitive decline. And given that the risk of neurological diseases increases as we get older, one question I often get from my patients is: “What is the best vitamin for protecting our aging brains?” Each of our microbiomes is like a thumbprint, so a truly effective eating plan is personalized to the unique needs of an individual. But the vitamin group I prioritize the most to keep my brain young and healthy are B vitamins. The brain benefits of B vitamins Depression, dementia and mental impairment are often associated with a deficiency of B vitamins, a study from the Wayne State University School of Medicine found. “A B12 vitamin deficiency as a cause of cognitive issues is more common than we think, especially among the elderly who live alone and don’t eat properly,”

  In 2017, by age 24, Rachel Richards had already worked as a financial advisor and then as a financial analyst at a manufacturing firm. After picking up her license, she began working as a Realtor. No matter what kind of work she was doing, one thing remained constant: People in her life were constantly looking to her for help with their finances. "I began to wonder, 'Why aren't they learning on their own? Why aren't they reading books, or listening to podcasts or looking on websites?'" says Richards, now 30. Then it dawned on her: Most of the financial books she'd come across were boring and esoteric, bordering on intimidating. And few were targeted toward young women. "So I thought to myself, 'How can I make this topic sassy and fun and simple?'" Richards began writing her first book, "Money Honey" in January 2017 and self-published on Amazon that September. By just about any measure, it was a massive success. In

Whether you’re planning for a swim, run or even a walk after a meal, the first thought that comes to mind might be how soon can I go Any factor disrupting your digestive process can lead to constipation, flatulence, diarrhea or heartburn, Healthline says.For human beings, digestion is one of the fundamental processes for survival and staying healthy. Without proper digestion, human bodies lack the necessary nutrition required to produce energy which helps us maintain vital bodily functions. The digestive system breaks nutrients from food into small parts for your body to absorb and use for energy, growth and cell repair, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.  How long does food poisoning last? :Here are the symptoms and how long to expect them to last. Does alcohol stay in your system? :For how long? That depends on several factors. How long does it take to digest food? According to Mayo Clinic, it may take between six and eigh

A common misconception about weight loss is that you can spot reduce fat loss—exercising to get rid of weight in a specific area. This has been disproven by many studies, although it is still given as weight loss advice. Instead of targeting a certain part of the body, weight loss occurs throughout your entire body. According to Mayo Clinic, it is healthy to lose about 1 to 2 lbs. a week, which would involve burning 500 to 1,000 calories more than you eat a day. A common misconception about weight loss is that you can spot reduce fat loss—exercising to get rid of weight in a specific area. This has been disproven by many studies, although it is still given as weight loss advice. Instead of targeting a certain part of the body, weight loss occurs throughout your entire body. According to Mayo Clinic, it is healthy to lose about 1 to 2 lbs. a week, which would involve burning 500 to 1,000 calories more than you eat a day. How many calories in a day?: The USDA's and around world guide

  Another batch of malicious apps filled with adware and malware has managed to slip past Google’s defenses and end up on the Play Store.In order to trick unsuspecting users into downloading them, these 36 malicious apps pose as image-editing tools, virtual keyboards, system optimizers, wallpaper changers and other useful tools.  While these apps promise to add new functionality to your Android smartphone, they actually push intrusive ads, subscribe users to premium services and steal social media accounts instead, according to BleepingComputer. The malicious apps were discovered by security researchers from the antivirus software maker Dr. Web who provided further insight on each of the individual apps in a new report.Although Google has removed most of these bad apps from the Play Store, you will still need to uninstall them manually if you have any of them on your Android devices.. Adware apps that keep running in the background In addition to just being anno

 1.Grammarly Grammarly Grammarly should be every writer’s best friend. Many people have heard of Grammarly, but few know that beyond spell-checking and clarity corrections, it also helps you avoid plagiarism and provide citation suggestions, saving you time. The extension goes with you to nearly all sites that have text fields and begins running as soon as you start typing.  Typos are a normal part of writing, and Grammarly not only reduces your typing time but improves your writing skills and saves you from worrying about plagiarism when you’re working on that important document. 2.Evernote Web Clipper Evernote Web Clipper If you’re a card-carrying member of the Hundred Tabs Open club who struggles to concentrate in the endless sea of distracting content, Evernote is here to help. With the Evernote Web Clipper extension, you can save links to a clipboard for later reading and reference. So, when you come across something interesting on the internet, all you have to do is click Evernot