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Tag: bodies

  • Bodies of Cyprus students killed in Turkey quake flown home

    Bodies of Cyprus students killed in Turkey quake flown home

    The bodies of seven Cypriot students killed in the powerful earthquake that hit Turkey have been returned home, with Turkish media reporting that 19 children in the group died.

    Two dozen children aged 11 to 14 from the island, along with 10 parents, four teachers and a volleyball coach, were in the southern Turkish city of Adiyaman when Monday’s quake hit.

    The 7.8-magnitude tremor, whose epicentre was near Gaziantep, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) southwest of Adiyaman, has claimed the lives of more than 21,000 people in Turkey and Syria.

    The children had been taking part in a school volleyball tournament and had been staying in a hotel in Adiyaman that was completely destroyed by the quake.

    “The bodies of 19 students have been found under the rubble,” a correspondent for Turkey’s NTV channel said.

    A plane arrived in Cyprus the early hours of Friday with the bodies of the seven children as well as two teachers and a parent, local TV images showed.

    Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar welcomed the bodies accompanied by other government and military officials of the breakaway Turkish Cypriot statelet of northern Cyprus.

    Officials on Friday confirmed 16 members of the group had died.

    The tragedy has devastated the small breakaway statelet on the Mediterranean island of 270,000 residents.

    The region’s government had declared a national mobilisation, hiring a private plane so they could join the search-and-rescue effort for the children.

  • Corporate bodies charged to invest in infrastructures

    Corporate bodies charged to invest in infrastructures

    MTN

    Following the Federal Government’s approval of MTN’s N202.8 billion reconstruction of the Onitsha-Enugu expressway through its Road Infrastructure Tax Credit (RITC) scheme, the Chief Corporate Services Officer (CCSO) of MTN Nigeria, Tobechukwu Okigbo, has advocated for more public-private partnerships to ensure infrastructural development in Nigeria.

    The CCSO, MTN Nigeria, made the comment at the Ehingbeti Economic Summit’s technology panel discussion on October 12, 2022, at the Eko Hotels and Suites. The panelists who discussed Driving Value through Tech by Positioning Lagos as a Top Destination for Innovators included tech heavyweights such as: COO, Flutterwave, Bode Abifarin; Founder/CEO, Kasi Cloud, Johnson Agogbua; Senior Special Assistant on Science and Technology to the Governor of Lagos State, Saheed Balogun; and Principal Program Manager – The Garage West Africa, Microsoft,  Soromfe Uzomah.

    The 9th Ehingbeti Lagos Economic Summit, tagged, ‘Lagos 2022- 2052: Charting the Paths to Sustainable Socioeconomic Growth,’ held recently, provided a constructive and engaging forum for members of the public and private sectors to share ideas that would stimulate socio-economic growth not only in Lagos but throughout the country, such as the RITC scheme.

    Speaking at the summit, Okigbo said, “I suggest that the government work on creating an environment, put policies in place, and allow corporate bodies to invest in infrastructure. The more the corporate bodies do it, the less the government has to invest and the more money the government has to intervene in the specific places that need intervention.”

    Recall that in January 2019, President Buhari signed Executive Order 7 establishing the RITC scheme, which allows the private sector to invest tax liabilities in the country’s road construction, repair and maintenance. The scheme saves the government money while also ensuring that other critical sectors receive much-needed funding.

    Participating companies will be entitled to claim a tax credit for the total cost (project cost) incurred in the construction or rehabilitation of an eligible road against their future Company Income Tax (CIT) liability until full cost recovery is achieved.

    MTN Nigeria expressed readiness to reconstruct the Enugu-Onitsha expressway under the RITC in August 2021, and with this approval, the ICT giant will complete the dualisation of the 110-kilometer road.

    According to a Global Competitiveness Report, Nigeria ranks 131st in the world and  31st in Africa based on performance in the provision of road infrastructure, with a score of 2.5 out of 7. Despite having the continent’s largest economy, Nigeria continues to struggle with improving its transportation system to meet its needs.