chidi Nduka Aja

By Kate Douglas “Whatever thy hand findeth, do with all thy might.” This was the advice that Adenike Ogunlesi’s mother would repeatedly give her as a child. “And my mother’s voice still echoes in my head today.” Ogunlesi is the entrepreneur behind Nigerian children’s clothing manufacturer and retailer, Ruff ‘n’ Tumble. The brand has 15 stores across five cities in the country and has another opening before the end of the year. There are further plans to open an additional 28 stores between 2016 and 2018. It all started during a rainy season in 1996 when Ogunlesi decided to make her three small children pyjamas. They were cotton, colourful, and trimmed with lace with a Peter Pan collar. There was nothing like them in the market. They caught the attention of her sister-in-law who ordered seven pairs. And this planted the thought in Ogunlesi’s mind: maybe other mothers would be willing to pay for them. She began selling them out of the boot of her car after dropping h...

The British Council and English Premier League in partnership with the Lagos State Ministry of Education and Lagos State Football Association have introduced the Premier Skills International Enterprise Challenge. A project aimed at using the English Premier League’s expertise in the UK, alongside the British Council’s global network to engage, inspire and unlock potential by developing business and enterprising skills in young people across several schools in Lagos state, using the power of football.  This new project builds on the highly successful Premier Skills/Ekofootball partnership introduced in Lagos public schools in 2014. Five teachers from Abeeso Community High School, Gbadagada Senior Grammar School, Morocco Comprehensive Junior High School, Girls Senior Academy Lagos Island and Iponri Estate High School will represent Nigeria at a workshop scheduled to hold from 22 nd to 28 th November in Lusaka, Zambia. The six-day training programme will enable them to run ...

At a time when Nigeria is grappling with fallen oil revenue, an innocuous revolutionary invention by one considered a bench-warmer on one of Europe’s biggest soccer teams, is about to compound the country’s woes and even other oil producing countries that did not plan for the rainy day. Mathieu Flamini, a 31-year-old Frenchman who currently plays for Arsenal, secretly created a company that made a scientific breakthrough that could bring an end to the use of fossil fuels. Flamini’s company, GF Biochemicals, announced Monday it had figured out how to mass-produce levulinic acid, an organic compound that can replace oil in all of its many forms. In theory, GF Biochemicals’ discovery means an end to gasoline, biofuels and plastics as we know them. It also means Flamini’s company could be the first entrant in a brand new market worth upward of $30 billion. Not bad for a guy who once jilted Arsenal for Italian giants, AC Milan back in 2008. At the time, Flamini was the engine o...

L-R: Fisinba Idasefiema, assistant director, National Lottery Regulatory Commission; Osazuwa Igbinoba, regional director, Commercial Abuja & North Central, Skye Bank Plc; Nkolika Okoli, head, Retail Banking, Skye Bank Plc; Edeaghe Mark, secretary, North Region, National Lottery Regulatory Commission, and Kingsley Ogbonna, alias   Dauda, Nollywood actor and celebrity host, at the   Bank's “Reach For The Skye”   reward draw in Kubwa   Main Market , Abuja , FCT,   Thursday, 12th   November 2015. In line with its commitment to empower and delight its customers, Skye Bank Plc. has produced more millionaires in the on-going “Reach for the Skye Millionaire” reward scheme which draw held in Kubwa Market in Abuja last week. While three customers of the bank were rewarded with the sum of N1million each at the monthly draw, a total of four and 10 others smiled home with N250,000 and N100,000 respectively during the random electronic selection proces...