Big Brother Hotshots rep, Tayo Faniran welcomes son with girlfriend

Big Brother Hotshots rep, Tayo Faniran welcomes son with girlfriend

Before he went into the Big Brother Africa House, Nigerian rep Tayo Faniran and his girlfriend were expecting their first child together. Tayo received the joyous news on the show yesterday during his diary session that his girlfriend had given birth to a baby boy (pictured right). The little bundle of joy has since been named Akintoye. Congrats to them.

Tayo tears up after finding out he'd just become a father...

New iPhones To Be Available In More Than 115 Countries By Year-end

By thewillnigeria.com

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) said that its recently released iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus phones will be available in more than 115 countries by the end of the year.

The iPhones will arrive in 36 additional countries and territories across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa by the end of this month, Apple said.

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will be made available in China, the world's biggest smartphone market, and India from Oct. 17.

Other countries where the phones will be launched include Israel, Czech Republic, Greenland, Poland, South Africa, Bahrain and Kuwait, making this the fastest rollout of iPhones, the company said.

Reuters had earlier reported that the iPhone 6 will be sold in China from Oct 17, after rigorous regulator scrutiny led to Apple reassuring the Chinese government that the smartphones did not have security “backdoors” through which U.S. agencies can access users' data.

REUTERS

Wall Street Hits Lowest Level In Five Months; S&P Breaks Support

By thewillnigeria.com

U.S. stocks fell on Monday to continue their recent decline, with the S&P 500 dropping to its lowest level since May on global growth concerns.

The benchmark S&P index had slumped 3.1 percent last week and Monday's losses pushed the index below both the 1,900 level and its 200-day moving average of around 1,905, seen as support points.

The declines were sparked last week by a cut in the global growth forecast by the International Monetary Fund and disappointing economic data in Europe.

Earnings season will pick up this week, with results expected from Dow components Intel (INTC.O), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), UnitedHealth (UNH.N), American Express (AXP.N) and General Electric (GE.N), as well as financials Morgan Stanley (MS.N), Citigroup (C.N), Bank of America (BAC.N) and Wells Fargo (WFC.N).

“The market is continuing to fall on technical weakness awaiting the earnings reports … the flood begins tomorrow,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.

“The fact we broke 1,900 on the S&P, the 200-day moving average, if we don't close above there today, that means the trip to lower levels is more than probable at this point.”

Volume is expected to be muted on Monday in light of the U.S. Columbus Day holiday, which could create more volatility.

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd (CP.TO) has approached CSX Corp (CSX.N) about merging the two North American railroad operators to create a transcontinental carrier worth more than $60 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.

CSX shares jumped 11.1 percent to $33.28, while U.S.-listed shares of Canadian Pacific (CP.N) rose 0.7 percent.

At 10:49am, the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 60.13 points, or 0.36 percent, to 16,483.97, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 12.55 points, or 0.66 percent, to 1,893.58 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 45.44 points, or 1.06 percent, to 4,230.79.

The largest percentage gainer on the S&P 500 was CSX while the largest percentage decliner was AutoNation (AN.N), down 6.2 percent.

The largest percentage gainer on the Nasdaq 100 was VimpelCom LTD (VIP.O), rising 3.3 percent, while the largest percentage decliner was Tesla Motors (TSLA.O), down 6.4 percent.

Among the most active stocks on the NYSE were Bank of America (BAC.N), unchanged at $16.48; Petrobras (PBR.N), up 8.64 percent to $16.97 and CSX.

On the Nasdaq, GT Advanced Tech (GTAT.O), down 48.0 percent to $0.42; and Apple (AAPL.O), off 0.4 percent to $100.30, were among the most actively traded.

Declining issues were outnumbering advancing ones on the NYSE by 1,695 to 1,174, for a 1.44-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 1,486 issues were falling and 1,005 advancing for a 1.48-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The benchmark S&P 500 index was posting 3 new 52-week highs and 34 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 10 new highs and 227 new lows.

REUTERS

Airtel Partners Microsoft, Intel To Promote Rural ICT Empowerment

Airtel Partners Microsoft, Intel To Promote Rural ICT Empowerment ...…Takes Data Awareness Campaign To Lagos, Ogun

By Adebayo Dawodu

In continuation of its initiative aimed at boosting data awareness in rural communities across Nigeria, leading telecoms operator, Airtel Nigeria, has partnered with Microsoft, the world’s foremost software company and Intel, one of the largest chip makers in the world to promote ICT empowerment in Lagos and Ogun state.

This collaboration is coming two weeks after the telco flagged off its empowerment and enlightenment campaign dubbed ‘Boost ICT Usage in Rural Areas’ in Western Nigeria.

According to Airtel, the partnership with the two ICT giants will further enrich the programme and create unique experiences for participants in Lagos and Ogun states, as the two ICT giants will provide digital literacy curriculum content and smart mobile devices through which participants will be able to experience, view and download content using Airtel data.

The Lagos activities took place at Ibowon-Epe, whilst that of Ogun will follow at Osiele Community town hall, along Olu of Osiele’s Palace road, Osiele, Abeokuta.

Airtel’s Chief Commercial Officer, Maurice Newa, noted that “the programme was initiated to empower consumers in these underserved communities to have first-hand experience of the company’s superior data services with no financial implication to the consumers”.

The campaign is designed to empower rural dwellers with basic ICT skills, enabling them to use smartphones, laptops and tablets to surf the World Wide Web and connect with friends and family members via the Internet.

Speaking on the collaboration, Mark Ihimoyan, Director, Consumer Channel Group, Microsoft Nigeria, reiterated the company’s commitment to the development of ICT awareness in rural Africa. He said: “At Microsoft, we remain committed to provide Africans with affordable access to devices and services, through both the 4Afrika initiative and our Mobile Devices Division, not just in the urban areas, but also to the previously unreached rural populations.”

According to Intel’s Country Manager for Nigeria and West Africa, Mr Olubunmi Ekundare, “the initiative ties back neatly to what we stand for both globally and locally in Nigeria; ‘Empowering Nigerians through technology‘. However, technology without connectivity is useless to the user. Partnering with Airtel in the ICT ecosystem will help drive a scalable adoption of technology that is aimed at impacting the lives of every Nigerian.”

The ICT awareness programme for Western Nigeria commenced in Iseyin Town in Oyo, Ido-Osi Town in Ekiti and Ipetu-Modu community in Osun State. Thus far, the initiative has crisscrossed several rural communities and interior towns in the South East, South-South and South Delta parts of the country.

Launched on 25th August, the programme has covered communities in Enugu, Imo, Benue, Delta and Edo States one week afterwards. The train subsequently moved to Abia, Rivers, Bayelsa and Cross River States between 3rd and 12th of September.

The Airtel ICT campaign is also expected to hold in communities in Abuja, Nassarawa, Adamawa, Taraba, Kastina, Zamfara, Plateau and Niger States within the month of October.

The initiative highlights Airtel’s role as the innovative leader in data services. The Telco currently prides itself as the leading data-centric company with superior 3.75G data network services which can be accessed across the 36 States and Federal Capital Territory in Nigeria.

Honda Recalls 43,000 2014-2015 Acuras In U.S. To Fix Front Belts

By thewillnigeria.com

Honda Motor Co (7267.T) said Monday it is recalling 43,000 Acura luxury models in the United States to fix faulty seat belts.

Honda said front seat belts may not release from the retracted position in very low temperatures below 0 degrees Fahrenheit (-17.7 Celsius).

Affected models include the 2014 Acura RLX sedan and 2014-2015 Acura MDX crossover, the company said.

Honda said it has no reports of accidents or injuries related to the issue.

REUTERS

MoneyGram Nigeria set to open outbound Money Transfer

By Eric Eghaghe

Lagos, Nigeria (October 09, 2014) –-- Global Money Transfer giant, MoneyGram, may have concluded plans to kick-start its outbound money transfer services from Nigeria to over 200 countries. There are indications this service will be live next week. This latest move by MoneyGram is aimed at alleviating the stress Nigerians face in sending funds abroad for family upkeep, schooling and other legally recognised developmental purposes. This will align Nigeria with the best-practice around the world, in line with the country’s standing as Africa’s largest economy.

CBN recently licensed the three major Money Transfer Organizations (MTO’s) in Nigeria to engage in outbound service. MoneyGram thus becomes the 2nd operator after Western Union to operate outbound money transfer services from Nigeria.

The MoneyGram Outbound Service which will re-inforce the well-known MoneyGram “Receive and Send money in 10 minutes” brand promise is expected to lead to greater convenience and ease as customers will be able to access in the majority of MG location, through their partner banks. MoneyGram is offered through respected financial institutions in Nigeria including Ecobank, UBA, First Bank, Access Bank, Sterling Bank, Fidelity Bank, Skye Bank, Keystone Bank, Enterprise Bank, Mainstreet Bank, Diamond Bank and Wema Bank, among others.

A leading industry watcher noted that with over 10 million migrants resident in Nigeria and financial inclusion still below 50%, the move by the CBN to grant licence to MTOs to engage in outbound fund transfer service from the country was in the right direction.

He noted “The CBN’s policy to allow outbound traffic by the key MTO’s is good. It moves a huge chunk of transfers from this country into the formal sector, allowing the CBN to better track and report this traffic. In addition the Federal Government will gain from VAT revenue it would have otherwise lost. In addition customers no longer have to risk losing money by using shady characters for transfers.”

OPINION”CRISIS OF ECONOMICS OR ECONOMIC CRISIS? (2)

By thewillnigeria.com

Why the global economy needs new economic thinking.

From the onset of the first edition, I raised critical question as to whether the global economy needs new economic thinking. If yes, then what is the new economic thinking? It is very obvious that the current global economic imbalances and the failures of economists, give room for concerns. Few economists saw our current crisis coming, but this predictive failure was the least of the field's problems. More important was the profession's blindness to the very possibility of catastrophic failures in a market economy. The call for new paradigm in the economics profession is justified then; for me, it does. Not in particular against existing theories, but for the simple evidence that existing theories have failed us in recent times.

Former Federal reserve Chairman, Paul Volcker made a profound statement on economics and how it is failing to scrutinize the realities surrounding humans when he said 'it's clear that among the causes of the recent financial crisis was an unjustified faith in rational expectations and market'.

He further said that 'The economics profession is in trouble. I have been involved in questions of economic policy for almost 60 years, and despite all the years of economic theorizing and the application of high-powered mathematical and statistical approaches, an analytic consensus on policy approaches has eluded us. Never has that been more evident than during these recent years of financial and economic turmoil.

We need to do better. We are dealing with an intellectual problem—a profession that has been absorbed by theoretical constructs abstracting from human behaviour. We are dealing with ingrained ways of thinking. The challenge is to raise questions about accepted approaches, in drawing lessons from recent experience'.

Paul Krugman, an American economists and Nobel laureate in economics (2008), made revealing statement about economics when his article titled 'How did economists get it so wrong?', published in the New York Times on September 2, 2009. He said, 'As I see it, the economics profession went astray because economists, as a group, mistook beauty, clad in impressive-looking mathematics, for truth. Until the Great Depression, most economists clung to a vision of capitalism as a perfect or nearly perfect system. That vision wasn't sustainable in the face of mass unemployment, but as memories of the Depression faded, economists fell back in love with the old, idealized vision of an economy in which rational individuals interact in perfect markets, this time gussied up with fancy equations'. This was quoted in an article sub-titled 'mistaking beauty for truth', published in The New York Times in September 2, 2009. The underlining nuances are plenty and quite worrying. Economics and economists in particular ignored the limitations of human rationality.

He continued to say that, 'this romanticized and sanitized vision of the economy led most economists to ignore all the things that can go wrong. They turned a blind eye to the limitations of human rationality that often lead to bubbles and busts; to the problems of institutions that run amok; to the imperfections of markets — especially financial markets — that can cause the economy's operating system to undergo sudden, unpredictable crashes; and to the dangers created when regulators don't believe in regulation'.

This is the clearest manifestation and the strong sense on the part of policy makers and the informed public that the economic profession is in crisis and has failed to provide guidance either in the run up to the financial crisis or in the events that followed. Many economists are now disillusioned. They find that what they learn fails to answer, or even illuminate, the large social questions which led them to take up the subject of economics.

The perfect market model
Many economics scholars believe strongly that perhaps some economics theories requires vigorous scrutiny for proper understanding and relevance, especially in the twenty first century. Trust me, one of such theories is the perfect market model. The perfect market model has some of the ridiculous assumptions in economic theories. Some of which include the following: utility maximization (opportunism), perfect rationality, preferences are transitive and stable, perfect competition, perfect information, certainty, no externalities (e.g. no pollution, no network externalities, no look-ins), no public goods, no economics of scale and scope, no distortions (e.g. tax), homogeneous goods, time is static, no measurement problems, all exchange is voluntary etc.

Here, you realize the neglect of human nature. There is no such thing now as perfect market and rational human being. No externalities and product homogeneity? You can understand why we are spending billions of dollars to tackle climate change. It is that simple, time is never static.

According to Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics (2001) and professor of economics at Columbia University, his students keep asking this same question year after year; 'Why are we wasting our time studying that perfect market model?' In their thinking, it clearly irrelevant a theory for studies, especially in this twenty first century. The idea is that, new economic thinking is required and the many of these assumptions underlining some economic theories are the worries. Like those students, the same worries are expressed by both economists and non-economists alike.

As a note of caution, he further said that there is the need to acknowledge the importance of irrational and often unpredictable behaviour, face up to the often idiosyncratic imperfections of markets and accept that an elegant economic 'theory of everything' is a long way off. In practical terms, it will translate into more cautious policy advice — and a reduced willingness to dismantle economic safeguards in the faith that markets will solve all problems.

The simplicity of economics of market efficiency of the world may not always be true and it is that dangerous, looking at the complexities of the global economy. At least, from this current certain, human beings are now irrational, especially pertaining to economic choices, the effect of which are blatantly ignored.

Former Federal reserve Chairman, Paul Volcker also said that 'it's clear that among the causes of the recent financial crisis was an unjustified faith in rational expectations and market'. The lack of the realism and the neglect of the nature of human, has brought a lot of pressure on economics.

New economic thinking
The new economic thinking to me, as I stated earlier on requires more intellectual rigor and interdisciplinary approach to the subject of economics. It demands the same standards of scrutiny as the economics of old. It should be able to embrace diverse views on the theory and practice of economics. This diversity can be enabled only be the active participation of scholars with varied theoretical inclinations, practitioners with differing experiences, and some representatives from emerging countries.

I am privilege to be associated with an organization of young economists across the world who believe that economics is an important field of study and it's going to be even more important in decades to come. Yet, there is the need to open the debate and establish a strategy for the re-launch of economics and make it more relevant. It is time to ask the questions that have not been asked before, measure that which have not been measured before and step forward boldly to say what has not been said before. It is a unique opportunity for young economists to step forward and examine the world freely without and shred of doubt.

The new economics requires a practical and conscious re-examination, the understanding and appreciation of economics. It requires a community of scholars and policy makers across nations. The Young Professional Economists Network has open the dialogue and started an already ongoing debate into the relevance of economics in solving our everyday challenge. At the Young Professional Economists Network, we share a common vision of championing a new economic thinking which is going to stay relevant to the twenty first century and beyond.

Paul Frimpong, Ch.E., Chartered Economist and the founder of Young Professional Economists Network (YPEN. He is also a fellow of the Bastiat Ghana Institute.