Blog

It’s a new era of improved governance at the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) of Nigeria, as the Federal Government’s agency moved to its permanent headquarters in Lagos.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Tuesday, commissioned the eight-storey FRC building located on Allen Avenue in Ikeja, ending the agency’s over four decades of operating from rented offices.

Inaugurating the building, Sanwo-Olu said the development represented a new strength for the institution whose mandates directly impact investors’ confidence and economic prospects of the country.

The Governor said that leading operation from its permanent base would not only boost the regulatory agency’s efficiency and oversight of the environment it regulates, he added that the development would foster greater public trust in its ability to fulfil its responsibilities.

Sanwo-Olu said: “We gather today to commission FRC Building, thereby celebrating the strengthening of an institution whose work has direct implications for the confidence, investment and economic opportunities that Nigeria can generate.

“Businesses need confidence in the rules under which they operate. Shareholders need assurance that their interests are protected. The public needs to know that the institutions responsible for safeguarding the integrity of our economic system are doing their work effectively.

“This is where the Financial Reporting Council plays such an important role. By promoting credible financial reporting, sound corporate governance and greater transparency, the Council helps to reduce uncertainty in the marketplace. This makes investment easier, leading to significant socio-economic consequences.”

Siting the Council’s headquarters in Lagos, Sanwo-Olu said, underscored the State’s pivotal position as Africa’s most important business destination, noting that most of the businesses and enterprises being regulated by FRC have their bases in Lagos.

The Governor said the regulatory agency’s operations in Lagos would improve the economic value of various services in the financial regulation sector, stressing that there would be higher demand for professionals in legal assistance, accounting, consulting technology, hospitality and transportation services.

“Our regulatory institutions must evolve

alongside the economy. We therefore expect this new headquarters to provide the platform for the FRC to improve its efficiency, deepen engagement with businesses and professional bodies, strengthen regulatory capacity, and respond more effectively to emerging challenges,” Sanwo-Olu said.

FRC Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Rabiu Olowo, said the agency having a permanent workstation would not only enhance transparency and accountability in reporting finances across economic sectors, he said the feat was a step forward in making the regulator globally competitive.

He said the agency’s leadership would ensure the physical infrastructure matched the standards of operations in line with the mandates of the institution.

SIGNED

GBOYEGA AKOSILE

SPECIAL ADVISER – MEDIA AND PUBLICITY

Ooni of Ife receives rollout at Palace as CREDICORP expands credit-backed asset ownership across Nigeria

The Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation (CREDICORP) has extended its nationwide rollout of 10,000 credit-backed, locally assembled vehicles to Ile-Ife, Osun State, advancing its drive to put productive assets within reach of working Nigerians through affordable consumer credit.

The rollout, held at the historic Ooni of Ife Palace in the presence of His Imperial Majesty, the Ooni of Ife, marks another major step in CREDICORP’s expanding national mobility programme, taking credit-backed vehicle ownership deeper into communities across Nigeria.

Having advanced through North Central and now the South West — including Ijebu-Ode and Ile-Ife — the rollout proceeds next to Adamawa and Borno in the North East, before moving into the South East, as CREDICORP progressively delivers the national programme across the country.

The mobility rollout is part of CREDICORP’s broader effort to make consumer credit an everyday tool for Nigerians to own useful and productive assets, improve their livelihoods and live better lives today. Across its programmes, more than 301,000 Nigerians nationwide have now accessed CREDICORP-supported consumer credit spanning mobility, digital devices, home improvement, life essentials and other productive assets.

The vehicle rollout is being delivered under CREDICORP’s S.C.A.L.E. initiative — Securing Consumer Access for Local Enterprises — which connects the purchasing power created by consumer credit with Nigerian production and enterprise. By financing locally assembled vehicles and other Nigerian-made goods, CREDICORP seeks to achieve two objectives at once: improving the lives and earning capacity of consumers while creating sustained demand for local manufacturers, assemblers and businesses.

Speaking at the rollout, Engr. Uzoma Nwagba, Managing Director/CEO of CREDICORP, said the Ile-Ife activation represents one part of a much larger national undertaking.

“What Nigerians are seeing in Ile-Ife today is one stop in a much bigger journey. We are taking consumer credit across the country and putting productive assets into the hands of hardworking people who can use them to earn, grow and live better now.

“When a Nigerian can acquire a vehicle today and pay responsibly over time, we have not only financed an asset. We have expanded that person’s economic possibilities while creating demand for something assembled here in Nigeria. Multiply that across thousands of people, communities and industries, and consumer credit becomes a powerful engine for both better lives and national economic growth.”

The presence of the Ooni of Ife at the rollout in his Palace gave particular significance to the occasion. Ile-Ife, widely regarded as the cradle of Yoruba civilisation, combines immense cultural heritage with a long tradition of commerce and enterprise. Bringing CREDICORP’s expanding national credit programme into the city reflects the Corporation’s determination to ensure that access to formal consumer credit reaches Nigerians in communities across every part of the country.

The Ile-Ife activation continues the momentum of CREDICORP’s mobility interventions, which include programmes supporting commercial transport operators as well as the 10,000 Women in Mobility Programme, designed to expand vehicle ownership and economic opportunity for Nigerian women.

CREDICORP works through licensed financial institutions and an expanding ecosystem of manufacturers, vendors and community partners to deliver its programmes. For the Ile-Ife rollout, Gamma Mobility supported beneficiary profiling and onboarding, Simba TVS supplied the locally assembled three-wheelers, and Accion Microfinance Bank supported the credit administration process.

Through S.C.A.L.E. and its wider consumer credit programmes, CREDICORP continues to build a national marketplace in which responsible credit gives Nigerians the purchasing power to own more, earn more and live better now, while that purchasing power increasingly supports Nigerian industry and jobs.

For more information, visit: www.credicorp.ng

By Emmanuel Ado

There is an Igbo African proverb that says, “A tree cannot make a forest.” At its core, the saying encourages people to work together as a team in pursuit of a shared communal goal. Yet this timeless wisdom does not write off the fact that extraordinary individuals, with conviction and drive, can become the spark that makes a great difference. Throughout history, remarkable leaders like Governor Dauda Lawal, with vision, courage, and determination, have emerged and inspired others to make a fundamental difference. So, while a single tree may literally not make a forest, it can indeed make a forest.

Nowhere is this truth more vividly demonstrated than on the football pitch, where exceptional individuals like Lionel Messi have continued to make unimaginable impacts. It is a statement of fact that Lionel Messi plays with ten teammates, a coach and substitutes, yet he has carried his club and country and single-handedly turned around the course of several matches. Messi possesses the rare ability to turn seemingly certain defeats into victories. Governor Dauda Lawal is, in several respects, like Messi. He did not inherit an easy assignment, but through sheer determination and vision, he has made the huge difference that only an exceptional leader can make. The story of Zamfara State under Lawal is the story of a determined leader providing the direction and confidence needed to change the ugly narrative of the state.

Governor Lawal has turned around Zamfara State because of the strength of his character, education, exposure and, most importantly, his vision. He inherited a state in 2023 that needed a leader who was prepared to challenge the status quo and fundamentally change the way government business was conducted—and he has risen to that challenge.

Zamfara State was facing serious challenges insecurity, institutional weaknesses and a development deficit all of which demanded decisive and purposeful leadership. Like the gamji tree after which he is named deeply rooted, strong and capable of enduring the harshest conditions Lawal has confronted these challenges head-on and, in the process, inspired the people to believe that renewal is possible. In that sense, he is a tree that has made a forest, and the driving force behind the New Zamfara State.

There is no doubt that Governor Lawal came well prepared for the rescue mission and his anger about the condition of his dear state was evident. To understand the significance of what is unfolding in Zamfara State today, this point is important. It raises an interesting question: the place of anger in governance? Can righteous anger, disciplined by vision and determination, be sufficient to push a leader to deliver? In Zamfara State, Lawal’s exploits suggest that it can. Much of the transformation now taking shape has certainly been driven by anger and a stubborn resolve that the state must at all cost work. Let us examine the condition of the state before Governor Lawal assumed office.

For many years, Zamfara State had made headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Beyond the controversy that surrounded the introduction of the Sharia legal system, the state struggled with deep-rooted challenges in education, poor healthcare facilities and a dysfunctional public service. Schools suffered from inadequate infrastructure and had poor learning conditions, while repeated industrial actions reflected government’s failure to meet its obligations to teachers and other public servants.

The health sector was not just distressed, with inadequate and dilapidated facilities it also suffered from acute shortages of personnel. Then came the darker years of banditry, terrorism and kidnapping, which displaced several communities, and destroyed livelihoods.

The cumulative effect was devastating, as it shattered the people’s confidence in the capacity of government to secure their lives and property, provide essential services and infrastructure, deliver quality education and healthcare, and create the economic opportunities needed for them to live decent lives. Despite the enormity of these challenges, the people of Zamfara State refused to be overwhelmed.

The people of Zamfara State deserve credit for the transformation now taking place. They understood that the scale of the state’s problems required a leader prepared to confront the wreckage head-on, rather than turn it into a permanent alibi for poor performance. That understanding translated into unflinching support for Governor Lawal, whose emergence also broke a long-standing political pattern in the highly conservative state, which had historically voted in one direction. His victory was particularly significant because it came after years of political dominance by one party, interrupted only briefly in 2019 when the PDP returned to power following a crisis within the APC. Lawal’s victory, therefore, was more than an electoral upset; it represented the determination of the people to entrust their state to a leader they believed could change their fortunes.

It was against this difficult background that Governor Lawal administration began his rescue mission to rebuild Zamfara State from its very foundations. And he understood that it was a task that could not be accomplished through piecemeal interventions, but one that required a holistic approach that governance, security, infrastructure, education, healthcare and economic development are all interconnected.

That understanding shaped the administration’s approach to governance. Security, for instance, has not been treated simply as a matter of confronting terrorists, but as the necessary foundation upon which every other aspect of development must rest.

The establishment of the Community Protection Guards was conceived as a community-based security outfit, particularly for areas where conventional security forces face enormous challenges. Alongside this, the state government has continued to provide logistics and other forms of assistance to the security agencies in the war against the terrorists.

The objective is clear: the defeat of the terrorists. Governor Lawal has also been unequivocal that there will be no negotiation with them.
For the governor, victory over the bad guys is a displaced farmer returning to his farm. A child returning to school is a security victory. A market reopening after prolonged disruption is a security victory.

A community being able to conduct its social and religious activities without fear of attack is also a victory. In other words, the real test of improved security is not simply the number of successful operations conducted or the number of criminals neutralized, but on whether the ordinary people have reclaimed their lives.
And once people are able to move freely and live their normal lives, the question naturally becomes: what environment will they be returning to? This is where infrastructure becomes part of the larger rescue mission story. For years, poor roads and neglected urban infrastructure had told the story of a neglected state. The administration’s focus on road construction and rehabilitation is therefore an important part of its effort to reconnect communities and transform Zamfara State.

Before the coming of Governor Lawal, Gusau looked more like a glorified local government headquarters than the capital of a state. Today, that picture has changed. The administration’s road projects are well designed, with pedestrian walkways and provisions for internet connectivity. Good roads reduce travel time to schools and healthcare facilities, facilitate the movement of agricultural produce, and strengthen the connection between rural communities and urban centres.

Infrastructure is an enabler of economic activity and urban development. Governor Lawal, a man of taste, is leaving the state with roads and public buildings that are not only functional but visually appealing, and is gradually transforming Gusau into a capital city worthy of the state it represents.

Governor Lawal has extended the same logic to education, declaring a state of emergency in a sector that had been severely weakened by the the lack of investment, the high number of out-of-school children, lack of trained teachers, inadequate infrastructure, which accounts for the poor performance in national examinations and all made worse by the security crisis.

The administration recognised that Zamfara State could not afford to lose another generation to illiteracy and has therefore intervened on several fronts, addressing shortages of teachers, dilapidated school infrastructure and the financial barriers affecting students.

The renovation of schools and payment of outstanding WAEC and NECO fees reflect an understanding of the challenges. For struggling families, the inability to pay examination fees can mean an interrupted academic journey for their children. By removing these barriers, the administration has restored more than access to education; it has restored opportunity for upward mobility in a world that is increasingly becoming a knowledge economy.

Just as he has done in education, Governor Lawal has also invested heavily in strengthening the healthcare delivery system to meet the medical needs of the people. The rehabilitation and upgrading of dilapidated healthcare facilities, including general hospitals and primary healthcare centres, are significant interventions in a state where access to quality healthcare has long been a challenge.

The installation of solar power systems in these facilities has also helped address the challenge of unreliable electricity supply. For expectant women in rural communities, access to functional healthcare improves the chances of safe delivery, the better-equipped facilities have reduced the need for long and often difficult journeys in search of basic medical care.

Improving healthcare is ultimately an investment in the wellbeing of the people. And increasingly, the impact of these interventions is becoming visible in the improved availability and accessibility to essential healthcare services across the state.

There are also the public servants, whose role is indispensable to the smooth functioning of government itself. They are not always visible in the successful story of development, but they are the machinery through which government policies, programmes and projects are translated into results. There is no denying the fact that an efficient and motivated public service is critical to the success of any administration. Governor Lawal’s regular payment of salaries, alongside efforts to clear the backlog of gratuities and other outstanding obligations, has helped restore morale in the service.

The importance of this cannot be overstated. A public servant who receives his salary as and when due is better able to meet his responsibilities.

Prolonged non-payment of salaries had a ripple effect that extended far beyond the civil service, affecting families, businesses and communities.

While years of banditry have severely disrupted farming and forced many farmers away from their fields, agriculture remains at the heart of Zamfara State’s economy and the livelihood of a large proportion of its people. It provides food, employment and income, sustaining much of the rural economy.

Recognising this, Governor Lawal has invested significant resources in revitalising the sector by providing farmers with the inputs, equipment and support they need to return to productive farming. The message is clear: terrorists cannot be allowed to destroy the foundations of Zamfara’s economy. In a state where agriculture is a way of life, reviving farming is, in many respects, an essential part of rebuilding Zamfara State itself.

The work is not finished. Governor Lawal himself would be the first to acknowledge that much remains to be done. But, as Chinua Achebe reminds us, “the morning shows the day.” And the signs are unmistakable: Zamfara State is moving forward, with a renewed determination to rebuild, recover and reclaim its future.

As Governor Lawal seeks a second term, therefore, the most important question before the people of Zamfara is no longer whether the Rescue Mission has made a difference. The evidence of change is increasingly visible across the state.

The more consequential question is how the progress already achieved can be consolidated, institutionalised and sustained, so that the gains of the past three years do not merely become a chapter in Zamfara State’s history, but the foundation upon which a stronger, safer and more prosperous state is built.

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) wishes to inform all successful candidates who applied for recruitment into the Service that the physical screening and documentation exercise is scheduled to take place at the Nigeria Customs Command and Staff College (NCCSC), Gwagwalada, Abuja.
Furthermore, all shortlisted candidates are required to appear for the screening and documentation exercise with the original and photocopies of the following documents: National Identification Number (NIN); original Birth Certificate or Declaration of Age; and educational certificate(s), including O’Level, ND, HND, Degree or other applicable qualifications.

In addition, candidates must present a Certificate of State of Origin; two (2) recent passport photographs; a completed Guarantor’s Form; and an NYSC Certificate, where applicable. Candidates are required to wear a white T-shirt, shorts, and canvas shoes for the exercise.

Candidates are reminded to report only on the date allocated to their respective states and cadres. Attendance at the physical screening and documentation exercise is compulsory, and failure to appear as scheduled may lead to disqualification from the recruitment process.

Upon successful completion of the physical screening and documentation exercise, shortlisted candidates will receive further instructions from the NCS regarding subsequent stages of the recruitment process.

The Nigeria Customs Service, under the leadership of the Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, MFR and his management team, assures all candidates and the general public of a transparent, fair and merit-based recruitment process and urges candidates to rely solely on official NCS communication channels for authentic information regarding the exercise.

The Executive Governor of Zamfara State, Governor Dauda Lawal P.hd has expressed profound grief over the death of the Sarkin Zamfaran Zurmi, His Royal Highness Alhaji Bello Sulaiman, who passed away on Monday at the Federal Medical Centre in Gusau. The revered traditional ruler’s transition marks the end of an era for the Zurmi Emirate, where he reigned with dignity and dedication for many years, and his death has sent shockwaves across the state, with many describing it as a monumental loss to the traditional institution and the people of Zamfara.

Governor Lawal described the late monarch’s passing as a “profound loss” that will be felt across the entire state, lauding Alhaji Bello Sulaiman’s unwavering commitment to his people and noting that his reign was characterized by a deep sense of service, wisdom and dedication to the peace and progress of Zamfara State. “His Royal Highness was a pillar of the traditional institution whose counsel and leadership were invaluable to the development of our dear state,” the Governor said, adding that his contributions to peace-building and community development will forever be remembered. The Governor acknowledged the late ruler’s role in fostering unity within the Zurmi Emirate and his efforts to promote harmonious coexistence among the diverse communities in the area.

During his tenure, the Sarkin Zamfaran Zurmi was known for his commitment to preserving cultural heritage and promoting traditional values, working closely with successive governments to ensure that the interests of his people were represented at all levels.

Community leaders and residents of Zurmi Emirate have continued to pour out tributes, recalling the monarch’s accessibility, fairness and dedication to resolving conflicts within his domain. Governor Lawal extended his heartfelt condolences to the deceased’s immediate family, the Zurmi Emirate Council and the entire people of Zurmi Emirate, urging them to find comfort in the legacy of service and leadership left behind by the late traditional ruler.

In his message of solace, the Governor offered prayers for the repose of the monarch’s soul, saying: “May Almighty Allah forgive his shortcomings, reward his good deeds abundantly, grant him Aljannah Firdaus, and give his loved ones the strength and fortitude to bear this irreparable loss.” He also called on the people of the emirate and the state at large to remain peaceful during this period of mourning and to honour the memory of the late Sarkin Zamfaran Zurmi through continued unity and progress.

Details regarding the funeral and burial arrangements are expected to be announced by the Zurmi Emirate Council in due course, in accordance with Islamic rites and tradition. The late Alhaji Bello Sulaiman’s passing leaves a significant void in the traditional institution of Zamfara State, and his legacy of service, peace and cultural preservation will undoubtedly endure for generations to come.