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A session on "Demographic Dividend in the Sahel" was held on 13 November 2019 at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD25) in Nairobi, Kenya. The event organized by the implementing partners of the Sahel Women's Empowerment and Demographic Dividend Project (SWEDD), CREFAT-CREG, and Promundo US, was an opportunity to exchange on the best practices and innovative approaches for the empowerment of women and girls, an essential lever to accelerate economic growth and sustainable development. Over 300 delegates attended the session, which was carried out in two stages. A first panel with the ministers of the SWEDD countries, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and their representatives for Benin and Ivory Coast outlined the encouraging results and successful interventions of the project in their respective countries. The second panel, with partners, focused more on strategies and tools for monitoring the demographic dividend to promote human capital. Priority actions focus on increasing girls' access to education, training for young women, family planning programs, along with taking cultural norms into account, and the elimination of child marriage and other harmful practices, while including men's contributions to gender equality.

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Mobile telephone network service providers holding concessions in Cameroon would have their financial accounts audited, the sector's regulator has indicated. According to Philemon Zoo Zame, the General Manager of the Telecommunications Regulatory Board (TRB), an independent audit firm will scrutinize the financial records of MTN Cameroon, Orange Cameroun and Viettel Cameroun (Nextel) during the period 2015-2018. In line with the auditing, the telecoms regulator has launched a call for manifestation of interest, inviting national and international firms competent in finance, accounting, auditing, economy and/or engineering in electronic communicationsMobile. Interested firms will have up to December 9, 2019, at midday, to submit their bids, after which the most qualified bidder will be selected and accorded three months to execute the job. TRB officials said the main objective of the study is to ensure the authenticity of financial records submitted to them by operators, in a bid to guarantee that the correct annual royalties are paid to the State. Under existing regulations, mobile telecoms companies in Cameroon have the obligation to pay 4.5 percent of their annual income (tax not inclusive) into the State coffers. Going by the tender, the firm which would be contracted by the regulator will extract and consolidate; by category of revenue, financial figures related to the billing systems of the operators. The firm will also examine supporting documents of billings and scrutinize the Call Record Details of MTN, Orange and Nextel. In addition, the job will entail analyzing variance between sales revenue figures in the Statistics and Financial Distribution of the different companies and what appears in their balance accounts.

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The Bangladesh High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Shameen Ahsan, has disclosed that his country will soon sign an agreement with Nigeria, in the area of agriculture. Speaking at a Nigeria-Bangladesh Business Forum, held in Lagos, recently, he said it was important to create a better link to foster commercial activities between the two countries. According to him; "It is very important to interact with members of the civil society to further create a better understanding between the two countries and dispel misconceptions, while I try to make the country familiar in front of the Nigerians audience," he noted. In his speech, the President, Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI), Mr. Babatunde Ruwase, said both nations have expressed mutual interest to expand bilateral relations overtime. "The Bangladesh Tariff Commission in 2014 prepared a feasibility study for the benefits of signing a preferential trade agreement with African states and recommended that Nigeria along with Mali was the most promising country for signing such agreements."However, while export-led policies have helped Bangladesh rank among the world's fastest-growing economy with some eight percent annual expansion rate, Nigeria is keen to boost economic growth which is stuck at some two percent by attracting private capital into the non-oil sector." The President, Nigerian-Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce, Retired Capt. Usman Hamidu, represented by the Vice-President, Ltd. Commodore Jerome Jatau advised the Nigerian business community to take advantage of the huge opportunities the association offers to increase the trade volume which was at about $1.39 billion in 2018, according to the United Nations.

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The Federal Government, yesterday, said it has approved the development of gemstone laboratories that would enable the country to certify the genuineness of precious stones locally. The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, stated this during a familiarisation tour of the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA), in Abuja. He urged the management to focus on developing the capacity to attain the Gemmological Institute of America (GIA) Certification in order to generate revenue for the nation. According to Adegbite, the training of competent staff has become necessary, instead of outsourcing and referencing the commodity to other countries of the world. The Minister further explained that the certification and repair of faulty equipment locally would not only save foreign exchange but also generate additional revenue for Nigeria. Also, the Minister of State, Dr. Uchechukwu Ogah, tasked the management to make Nigeria the mining hub of Africa and assured of the Ministry’s to enable them to achieve set mandate. Earlier, the Director-General of NGSA, Dr. Abdulrazak Garba, said the agency is delivering on its mandate of wealth creation as well as producing geological data on precious metals. He said the generation of the interactive map of gemstones, will offer first-hand information to foreign investors while reiterating commitment to achieving greater success.

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Piqued by the unprecedented lull that has bedeviled Nigeria’s capital market in the last few years, stock market investors have urged the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to interface with the government on measures that would promote venture capital in the country. Venture capital refers to the initial fund or equity capital made available to start-ups, and already existing companies by high worth individuals, corporate organizations, among others, who specialize in building high-risk financial portfolios, to foster growth and development. With venture capital, the venture capitalist gives funding to the start-up company in exchange for an equity stake in it, through which it can expand and approach the banks for loans. This is essential for start-ups with limited operating histories and high upfront costs, as many entrepreneurs have great ideas, but struggle to bring them to fruition due to lack of funding. Against this backdrop, investors noted that for small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) that are not yet large enough to go public, SEC, working with venture capital firms can be a good alternative to going through an initial public offering (IPO). According to them, there is a need for SEC to intensify enlightenment campaigns in the market, to enable shareholders and other market participants to fully understand the concept and apply it towards the growth of the market and the entire economy. They noted that these SMEs may grow and subsequently approach the capital market to raise more funds. Specifically, the President, Constance Shareholders Association, Shehu Mikail, said developing venture capital industries enables small businesses to grow by providing capital for their expansion, adding that these SMEs may grow and subsequently approach the capital market to raise more funds.