Soccer Icon, Pele, passes at 82

Pele, the Brazilian who has long been considered the greatest footballer of all time, has died at the age of 82. The legendary figure, a man who transcended his sport and was a global icon, learned that his colon cancer had advanced on December 21 and was told he would be kept in hospital over Christmas - with the iconic forward needing treatment for cardiac and renal dysfunction.

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source: Dailymailonline 

ECOWAS Leaders Lay Foundation for a New Headquarters Building in Abuja

The Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) laid the Foundation of a new ECOWAS Headquarters building on December 4, 2022 in Abuja, Nigeria. The new headquarters Project which is being financed by the Chinese Government through China Aid is expected to be completed in 26 months.

In his opening address, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, H.E. Dr. Omar Alieu Touray thanked the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for providing the plot covering an area of seven hectares along the Airport Road in Abuja for the building Project and the Chinese Government who provided technical and financial support for the construction of the headquarters. He added that the New headquarters will enhance productivity among staff and reduce operational costs as the ECOWAS Commission currently operates from three (03) locations in Abuja.

H.E. Cui Jianchun, the ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the Federal Republic of Nigeria and ECOWAS, said the government of China is keen on expanding diplomatic relations with Africa through support for construction projects like the new ECOWAS Commission headquarters. He highlighted that these buildings demonstrate China’s sincere determination to support the unity, peace and development of the African region along her efforts to promote and support Africa’s infrastructure development programme.

In his remarks, H. E. Muhammadu Buhari, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, highlighted that the project represents China’s commitment to West Africa’s subregional bloc and evidence of a strong and cooperation between Africa and China. He added that the new Headquarters is a symbol of the unity and brotherhood of ECOWAS Member States and signifies a re-commitment to regional integration and development of the countries in the sub-region. He thanked the Chinese Government for their technical and financial support for the building.

H.E. Umaro Sissoco Embaló, the Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government and President of the Republic of Guinea Bissau, thanked the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for their contribution towards the realization of the building complex. He said the new and modern headquarters will enable the staff of the ECOWAS Commission perform their duties better and provide a suitable working environment.

The new ECOWAS Headquarters will house the ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice and the ECOWAS Parliament all Headquartered in Abuja, Nigeria.

Source: APO

Lagos Set for $2.5B fourth mainland bridge

A consortium led by Portugal's builder Mota-Engil and two Chinese ventures has been shortlisted by Nigeria's Lagos state to build a $2.5 billion bridge that is expected to relieve severe congestion in the mega city, an official said on Sunday.

The 37-kilometre Fourth Mainland Bridge will be built under a public-private partnership. It will include three toll plazas, nine interchanges and a design speed of 120 KPH according to a spokesperson for the Lagos state governor.

Mota-Engil is partnering with China Communication and Construction Corporation and China Road and Bridge Corporation in the bid.

China Gezhouba Group Company and China Geo-Engineering Corporation joint venture and a

consortium led by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation are the two other shortlisted bidders. The winner of the bid will be announced before the end of the year, said Gawat.

source: Yahoo news

Flying fun facts to know about: flight attendants’ perspective

Are you ever curious how often they clean the inside of a plane or where the food really comes from? After years of experience in the industry, flight attendants have seen it all and are ready to spill all of the secrets they've learned. Since flying is supposed to be a fun experience, it's about time to feel more adequately prepared. So, if you're ready to uncover the things that have been kept under wraps for so long, here's your sneak peek at the inner workings of the airline industry.

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source: travlerz

Nigeria and African Energy Poverty and Gas-To-Power Projects: Build More and Build Better

As the executive chairman of the African Energy Chamber (AEC), it’s my honor and my privilege to tell the world the story of Africa’s oil and gas industry – to explain what this continent can do to help power the world and fuel its own future. But it’s also my mission to talk about African energy poverty and to explain why this continent needs better access to energy now in order to illuminate its own potential and power forward. To illustrate the issue of energy poverty in general, I’d like to focus on energy poverty in Nigeria in particular. Within Africa, Nigeria is an interesting subject. It’s the most heavily populated country in Africa, with more than 200 million citizens. It surpassed South Africa to become the continent’s largest economy about a decade ago, and its GDP topped USD441.5 billion in 2021. It has the largest crude oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa and is typically the largest liquids producer in the region, though output figures have slumped this year due to problems with theft and sabotage. Likewise, it has sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest reserves of natural and associated gas and is far and away the region’s biggest gas producer. Nigeria also experiences significant energy poverty, despite these advantages. As noted in the AEC’s recently released report, “The State of African Energy: 2023 Outlook,” consistent access to modern energy services – that is, steady and reliable electricity supplies – is available to only 60% of the country’s population on average, and access rates appear to be significantly lower in rural areas than they are in urban areas. And according to World Bank data, about 99.9 million people, or more than 47% of Nigeria’s population, lived in rural areas as of the end of 2021. That means nearly 100 million Nigerians are living without any true level of certainty that the lights and the electric power that so many in the developed world take for granted will stay on. I, for one, think they deserve to have that certainty. They deserve it on human grounds, and their country already has a significant amount of what is needed to provide them with it. And by that, I mean that Nigeria has gas that it could use to generate power. What Nigeria Has As I’ve already noted, the country’s gas resources are the largest in sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria has already been shown to have more than 200 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas in proven reserves, and government officials believe that the figure could go even higher, perhaps reaching 600 trillion cubic feet (tcf) following additional exploration. If that prediction comes true, Nigeria will have the fourth largest gas reserves in the world, behind only Russia, Iran, and Qatar. It will have more than enough gas to meet current demand; it will have enough gas to produce significant volumes of LNG for export while also supporting gasification programs, both on the domestic and regional levels. But it’s not enough just to have all that gas. Nigeria also needs the means to make use of its gas. Without the proper infrastructure, it won’t be able to put its resources to work and will merely have a scattered collection of raw materials. What Nigeria Needs In practical terms, this means that Nigeria ought to have the following: - Upstream production facilities for gas. - Midstream gas transportation facilities such as pipelines, including field networks and trunk lines. - Downstream gas-processing plants and production facilities for gas-derived fuels such as liquefied natural gas (LNG), compressed natural gas (CNG), and liquid petroleum gas (LPG). - Downstream gas distribution systems, including town gas networks. - Downstream gas storage depots. - Gas-fired thermal power plants (TPPs) – preferably co-generation plants, as they are more efficient. - Transmission, distribution, and storage infrastructure for the electricity produced by gas-fired TPPs. - Smart and secure operational technology (OT) systems that can optimize the flow of data and resources between consumer markets and energy networks. I’m not suggesting here that it’s the Nigerian government’s job to provide all this infrastructure. But I do believe that it’s Abuja’s responsibility to make sure that this infrastructure becomes available. To this end, I think that Nigeria also needs government bureaucracies that are competent and trustworthy enough to ensure that oil-, gas-, and power-related contracts are only awarded to companies capable of providing the goods and services required within the acceptable parameters. What Nigeria Envisions Developing this infrastructure requires the right kind of vision, which Nigeria already has in place: its “Decade of Gas” program is designed to make the country entirely gas-powered by 2030. When President Muhammadu Buhari rolled out this initiative in March 2021, he indicated that it aimed to make the gas sector the cornerstone of Nigerian economic activity. By the time the “Decade of Gas” comes to an end, he said, the country will have done the following: - Adopted a new oil and gas law to facilitate investment. - Carried out new exploration projects, discovered new reserves, and brought new fields onstream. - Constructed new gas-processing plants and production facilities for LPG and other gas-derived fuels. - Built new export pipelines and constructed new production trains at gas liquefaction plants such as Nigeria LNG (NLNG). - Constructed new domestic pipelines along routes to serve local customers plus gas-fired thermal power plants (TPPs) to increase domestic electricity supplies. - Expanded domestic power transmission and distribution networks, especially in rural areas. Nigeria still has a significant amount of ground to cover before it achieves all of these targets. However, it has made progress. The biggest example of this is the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), which Buhari signed into law after it passed both houses of the National Assembly. The Nigerian government is also successfully promoting LPG, a gas-derived fuel, as a replacement for wood and charcoal as cooking fuel. (According to NLNG, domestic LPG consumption has climbed by around 1,000% over the last 14 years.) And as recently as this November,  Nigeria moved closer to building its first floating liquified natural gas (FLNG) facility. Nigerian company UTM Offshore signed a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract to design the facility with JGC Corporation, Technip Energies, and KBR. Chief Timipre Sylva, Minister of Petroleum Resources, Nigeria, described the project as a step in the right direction for Nigeria to develop, exploit, and monetize its natural gas. During the African Energy Week in Cape Town, Amni International Petroleum Development Company Limited, a Nigerian independent oil and gas exploration and production company and the African Export–Import Bank (Afreximbank) signed an agreement for the provision of a $600 million syndicated reserve-based lending facility. To a lesser extent, Abuja can also claim credit for the headway it has made on the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipeline, which is being built to bring gas to the northern part of the country. When finished, the pipeline will deliver fuel to gas-powered industrial facilities and feedstock to TPPs with a generating capacity of 3,600 MW. It may also serve eventually as the first leg of the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline (TSGP) network, which will allow Nigeria to export gas to Europe via Algeria. Unfortunately, though, the project has been running behind schedule, and the heavy floods that began hitting many parts of the country in mid-2022 have caused additional delays. In the meantime, Abuja has also moved forward with plans for establishing another gas export network – the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP), a 5,600-km offshore network that would serve more than a dozen West African states. This system would, like TSGP, pump Nigerian gas to Europe, but it would also serve the purpose of delivering the gas to regional markets as well. As such, it would establish Nigeria as a supplier of fuel to much of West Africa. Thus far, neither NMGP nor TSGP has been built. But Nigerian authorities are working to hammer out agreements on these projects – and they see the ways that European market conditions have changed since the beginning of 2022 as an incentive to work harder and to work faster. What Nigeria Could Achieve If they succeed, they will create infrastructure that could do quite a bit to alleviate energy poverty in Nigeria and beyond. In the case of NMGP, the construction of this pipeline would provide multiple countries beyond Nigeria with a steady source of gas. As such, it would serve as an incentive for the construction of TPPs in places where millions of people do not have access to reliable energy supplies. At the same time, the pipeline’s access to European markets, where buyers are more likely to pay in hard currency, would help ensure the profitability of the whole system. Likewise, the TSGP network has the potential to benefit Nigeria by ensuring that the country has enough access to hard-currency markets in Europe to cover the costs of the domestic initiatives that depend on AKK – that is, the gas-fired power and industrial projects in the northern part of the country. Infrastructure Is Needed Throughout the Continent Of course, energy poverty is not limited to Nigeria; more than 600 million people in Africa lack access to electricity, and nearly 730 million use hazardous and inefficient cooking fuels and technologies. Nevertheless, while each African country is unique, I hope that this look at Nigeria helps shed light on some of the common challenges facing our continent’s countries — a higher rate of energy poverty in rural areas and the tremendous need for infrastructure development. As “The State of African Energy: 2023 Outlook” points out, even in the four African countries with a universal electricity rate of more than 70% — Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, and Algeria — access to electricity drops significantly in rural areas, to an average of about 63% of the population, compared to an average of 96% in urban areas. The situation for rural Africans is even more dismal in other parts of the continent. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, only about 19% of the overall population has access to electricity and in rural areas, only 1% of the population has electricity. This will not change until we develop the necessary infrastructure to deliver energy to Africans throughout the continent. On the brighter side, Nigeria also gives us examples of measures African countries can take to begin addressing these challenges. No, Nigeria has not achieved its ultimate goal-eradicating energy poverty, but it has plans and initiatives in place with real potential to make a difference — as long as Nigeria continues pursuing them. If they haven’t done it yet, governments throughout the continent should be developing and implementing multipronged programs of their own to eradicate energy poverty. They, like Nigeria, should be leveraging their natural gas resources. They should be developing and executing gas utilization plans, improving their approach to resource management, monetizing natural gas to help pay for infrastructure projects, and launching more gas-to-power initiatives. Instead of being daunted by the vast numbers of Africans without electricity, shrugging our shoulders, and giving up, I hope that we will be steadfast in our determination to make energy poverty history by the end of this decade. For a complete look at our recommendations and “The State of African Energy: 2023 Outlook,” download our report here (https://bit.ly/3goAZzK). OPINION PIECE by By NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman, African Energy Chamber Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Chamber.

Axxess Training and Certification Program Surpasses 20,000 Users

The Axxess Training and Certification Program has reached an impressive milestone by attracting more than 20,000 users in just five months. The popular program not only is succeeding in making care at home professionals more knowledgeable about all aspects of care delivery, but organizations have also begun using the material to rethink their staff development efforts.

The Axxess Training and Certification Program, which includes materials for home health, home care and hospice across clinical, operational and financial responsibilities, was launched in June and made available to anyone in the industry at no cost. About 2,000 organizations are currently using the program with more joining each day. Through a robust online curriculum using a series of focused training modules, participants are trained and tested on their understanding of care at home industry standards and Axxess solutions in short elements that can be completed all at once or between other tasks.

“The home health material has been the most widely adopted so far,” said Tammy Ross, senior vice president of professional services at Axxess. “The skilled home health courses have been very popular due in part to OASIS-E and value-based purchasing implementation in 2023. We are also seeing acute care nurses return to practice after the Great Resignation so we have created special breakout courses that focus on compliance elements to ease their entry into home health practice.”

Early program adopters such as Liberty Homecare, Hospice and Palliative Services have enjoyed the program so much they are sunsetting other training tools and switching to the Axxess program.

“We’re moving away from our current learning management system because Axxess has better, more up-to-date features,” said Pamela Reyes, HCM Software Education Coordinator at Liberty. “And the fact that Axxess solutions are ACHC Certified gives our team peace of mind knowing we’re staying compliant.”

The Axxess Training and Certification Program leverages industry expertise alongside Axxess solution training to provide continuing education and development for leadership and staff at all levels. Participants may earn certification from foundational to expert levels across clinical, operational and financial tracks. Up to 66 hours of nursing continuing education units are available at no cost.

About Axxess

Axxess is the leading home healthcare technology company, providing solutions that improve care for more than 3 million patients nationwide and are trusted by more than 9,000 organizations. Axxess offers a complete suite of easy-to-use, innovative software solutions, empowering home health, home care, hospice and palliative care providers to grow their business while making lives better. The company's collaborative culture focused on innovation and excellence is recognized nationally as a “Best Place to Work.”

Four U.S.A. Students Knifed to death at home

The four University of Idaho students knifed to death in the early hours of Sunday morning were killed so brutally, blood was left oozing through the walls of their rented home, DailyMail.com can reveal.

Police say the scene inside the home is ‘the worst they’ve ever seen’ with the victims left to bleed out following the brutal early morning attack.

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source: Dailymail

Oguta killings irks Buhari

Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari is irked by the recent killing of Imo State traditional ruler, Eze Ignatius Asor and three others. Reports claim that the attackers entered the chief's home on false pretense before shooting him dead. Two of the people killed in Monday's attack in Oguta were aides to the traditional ruler.

 President Muhammadu Buhari has stated that the killers will face the "full wrath of the law".  Police believe the gunmen were separatists posing as "distressed" passers-by who needed help. It is not clear why the, was targeted.

President Muhammadu Buhari

Monday's attack in Imo state is the latest of a string of killings in the south-east. The secessionist group, Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) - which police blame for these killings and rising violence in the south-eastern region - has not yet commented.

In his statement, President Buhari condemned what he calls the "heinous" killing, describing the attack as a "dastardly act". The gunmen also attacked the office of a community vigilance group as they fled - killing at least one person and stealing three motorbikes, police say.

source: naija news

President Ramaphosa arrives in Bali, Indonesia for the G20 Leaders' Summit

South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa has arrived in Bali in the Republic of Indonesia for the annual G20 Leaders' Summit. The President will participate in deliberations among world leaders whose economies account for 85% of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 80% of world trade and two-thirds of the world’s population.

The Summit takes place on 15 and 16 November 2022 under the G20 Presidency of Indonesia, themed “Recover Together, Recover Stronger”.

The G20 was formed in 1999 as a result of the Asian financial crises of the late 1990s, initially as a gathering of finance ministers and subsequently as a platform for Heads of State and Government in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

The group consists of leading developed and developing economies aiming at a collective response to global economic and financial challenges rooted in the interconnected economic and financial architecture.

President Cyril Ramaphosa 

The G20 also seeks to increase multilateral cooperation for the recovery of the global economy, to bring stability to the global financial system, to promote long-term sustainable growth and to strengthen global economic governance.

G20 Leaders will seek consensus on Global Health Architecture, Sustainable Energy Transition, and Digital Transformation.

The G20 agenda has expanded beyond economic and financial issues and now encompasses issues of peace and security, global governance, international terrorism, the environment, refugees and other geo-political and foreign policy-related matters.

President Ramaphosa will be accompanied by the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Dr Naledi Pandor and Minister of Finance, Mr Enoch Godongwana.

Ahead of the start of the G20 Leaders' Summit, the President will chair an engagement of the African Union and NEPAD on Africa’s value proposition and priorities.

Issues under discussion in this forum will include the continent’s aspirations to reach the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, the realisation of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 goals, and securing permanent membership of the G20 for the African Union.

Distributed by APO

$19.3 billion worth of military assistant spent on Ukraine by the U.S.

The United States continues to support Ukraine with military assistance to approximately $19.3 billion since the beginning of the Biden Administration. U.S. secretary of State Antony J. Blinken announced an additional $400 million drawdown to include additional arms, munitions, and equipment from U.S. Department of Defense inventories.

“The United States will continue to stand with more than 40 allies and partners in support of the people of Ukraine as they defend their freedom and independence with extraordinary courage and boundless determination”.

 Antony J. Blinken

The air defense, long-range, and precision fire capabilities that we are providing are carefully calibrated to best serve Ukraine on the battlefield as it makes gains from Kherson to Kharkiv. The U.S. stated that it will continue to support Ukraine so it can defend itself and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table when the time comes.

Source: U.S. state department

Ooni lauds tech entrepreneur for solutions driven initiative

His Imperial Majesty Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, recently visited the Lagos offices of Cavista Nigeria, and lauded its founder and chairman Niyi John Olajide for his strides in creating advanced technology as a tool for development and job creation.

During the visit, the Ooni further stated that the giant strides of Olajide, a proud descendant of Oduduwa from Erinmope-Ekiti, Ekiti State, should not go unnoticed.

“Despite the stereotype woven around Nigerian youths, Olajide has proven himself to be a worthy ambassador putting Nigeria on the world map as a problem-solver.,” the Ooni said. “The purpose of my visit is to show my unflinching support for him and task the government to encourage technology businesses and entrepreneurs to achieve their dreams by creating an enabling environment.”

The Ooni also said Olajide, the founder and president of leading global healthcare technology company Axxess, a global partner to Cavista, is setting an extraordinary example for other business leaders.

“At a time when the best brains of our young people are relocating out of Nigeria due to a harsh economic climate, Olajide is in Nigeria utilizing his wealth of experience to create opportunities for job creation while ensuring consistent development of technology solutions in healthcare delivery across Africa,” the Ooni emphasized.

“Olajide is doing a lot, not only for himself but for the Nigerian youths he has engaged,” the Ooni continued. “Nigeria requires more than 65% of its total young population to take the lead in instituting modern governance and leadership, as well as establishing the noblest economic outlooks capable of competing favorably with any nation in the world through their entrepreneurial spirit.”

Since Olajide created Axxess in 2007 as an IT consulting firm, it has created and pioneered innovative healthcare solutions using cutting-edge technology to solve complex challenges in healthcare in North America and Africa. Today, Axxess is trusted by more than 9,000 organizations that serve more than 3 million patients worldwide.

“With investments in Cavista Nigeria, where more than 250 software engineers are currently employed, we provide cloud-based solutions that can be used anytime, anywhere, so people can receive the absolute best healthcare efficiently, and in the privacy and comfort of wherever they call home,” Olajide said.

 

John Olajide with the Ooni of Ife

“Olajide’s story of struggles and challenges resonate with me and strikes a chord with a lesson of always believing in your dreams,” the Ooni said. “His toughness and doggedness exemplify the widely-held belief of ‘no pain, no gain.’ Indeed, there is the promise of greater value and reward for the price of persistent and intentional work.”

Appreciating the Ooni for his words of encouragement and playing his fatherly role during the visit, Olajide noted he kick-started his entrepreneurial sojourn from his days at the University of Texas at Dallas, where the vision for Axxess was conceived.

Ooni presents a gift to John Olajide

Axxess has a diverse pool of employees representing more than 45 countries worldwide.

“I believe that when we can harness the power of our diversity, we will replicate our success around the world in Nigeria at Cavista,” Olajide said.

Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) and the Future of Capital Raising in Africa

Since January, I have been approached by investors and projects owners alike who are looking to get projects funded or deals flowing. At the same time, I have been trying to estimate using available data the gap between infrastructure and energy funding. The figure we have been using is $250 billion a year between now and 2025. Given that the African population is set to double between now and 2050, we can expect that figure to be in the trillions unless the continent finds a way to successfully develop and fund energy projects to universally guarantee electricity access and infrastructure expansion.

Over the past few months, I have made a couple of observations of which the most prominent is that not all deals are made equal. Many investors want renewable projects but only deals above a certain size - $2 million is too small, for example, for many larger investors though this project size timeline is much shorter and can bring immediate impact. A project upwards of $2 billion is more attractive in terms of funding returns but the timeline to project completion could be up to a decade. Overall, there is a hesitancy to engage in hydrocarbon projects even though there are about a dozen markets actively touting their blocks, which, in oil and gas hotspots, could be easily tied into existing infrastructure.

Given the enormous funding gap, I truly believe there is an opportunity to revolutionize how projects are funded. My thesis is that more African energy projects should be crowdfunded either in fiat or digital currency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to ensure that these projects get developed, especially the smaller ones.

This could work in two ways. Firstly, through crowdfunding debt. A project needs to raise debt for a project to start. All agreements and feasibility studies have been completed and the project has a 30-year term agreed with the government. Investors can loan the project money with a fixed percentage of return over a two-to-three-year period. The project gets funded, and investors get a great return on their money. Some projects could deliver up to 30% return if successful.

Secondly, through crowdfunding equity. A project needs to raise a percentage equity funding to attract larger institutions who will structure and loan the rest. The owners of the project have already invested all their working capital into completing pre-feasibility studies and there is little scope of sovereign guarantees due to historical mismanagement of funds. Investors can crowdfund to own an equity stake in the project and make the project more attractive to institutions. Equity owners later receive annual dividends over the lifespan of the project. With off take agreements in place from the beginning of the project, this could make the deal even sweeter.

Neither of the above is revolutionary as both strategies are often employed in the start-up scene. However, given the investment gap and how few Africans have a stake in their own energy futures, this could prove an interesting theory.

Then, in my opinion, I started to get a bit creative. I’ve been paying a little attention to crypto, blockchain, web3 and NFTs. I am not an expert by any means and the NFT pump mostly disinterested me until I started to hear about real-world utility. NFTs can be used to prove authenticity and ownership, and this has instant utility in the world of event ticket reselling and luxury fashion. A few weeks ago, I read a few articles about the tokenization of real estate in Miami whereby investors could “mint” a real-estate token giving them part ownership of the building. There must be an analogue linking of the deed to the token but after that point, the token is on the blockchain and can be transferred to future owners. In this respect, the barrier to entry is much lower. Instead of finding a 10% deposit for an apartment, real-estate NFTs could be minted for as little as the creator sets it at.

Could this be applied to African energy projects? I think so!

Let’s look at the above scenarios with a web3 lens such as energy asset NFT – debt. In this regard, the project raises capital via a cryptocurrency. Ethereum based technology makes sense, especially Polygon or Solana. Investors mint an energy debt NFT in order to raise capital for the project. NFT holders are rewarded through holding the NFT throughout the debt term by earning additional cryptocurrency interest known as distribution. The NFT can be sold at any point to a new owner on the blockchain and the sale can also trigger smart contracts ensuring a royalty to the project owner or the wider community where the project is taking place.

Secondly, let’s look at energy asset NFT – equity. This is where things could get interesting. If you tokenize a whole asset – such as a solar farm, oil block, or biogas plant - it means that anyone (with access to a smartphone, WiFi and a cryptocurrency) can own part of a real-life asset. What I like about this idea is the democratization of the energy asset ownership. It is not just energy companies, finance institutions, governments that get to get to own our infrastructure but anyone including everyday Africans and those in the diaspora. While NFTs cannot pay a dividend as they only prove ownership, the value of the NFT will naturally rise over time as a project comes online and starts to cashflow. Owning 1,000 tokens of an oil block pre-production will become far more valuable when the asset is producing, especially at $100 per barrel. Token owners can be rewarded in cryptocurrency or fiat when distributions are paid out.

I think the key thing here is transparency in ownership and transparency which sets the continent up for long-term success. If token holders are also constituents in the project vicinity, it brings an additional layer or accountability and governance. An NFT could contain voting rights, and future sales generate royalties that are directed back into the local community.

By Kelly-Ann Mealia

Source: APO Group on behalf of Energy Capital & Power.

Covid relief fraud lands Texas Nigerian in Jail

Lola Shalewa Barbara Kasali, 24, of Houston, submitted two fraudulent loan applications to two different lenders on behalf of her companies, Lola’s Level and Charm Hair Extensions. Through these loan applications, Kasali sought over $3.8 million in PPP loan funds. Kasali falsely represented the number of employees and payroll expenses in each of the PPP loan applications. 

To support these applications, Kasali also submitted fraudulent tax records. Kasali ultimately received over $1.9 million in PPP loan funds. The Justice Department, along with its law enforcement partners, seized the funds that Kasali fraudulently obtained.

Kasali was convicted of two counts of making false statements to a financial institution and two counts of bank fraud. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 25, 2022, and faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison for each count of conviction. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

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source: justice.gov