The prominent Kano industrialist, Alh. Dantata has died. He died on Friday at the age of 94. He was born in 1931.

He was an astute businessman with investments in construction, manufacturing, banking, agriculture, and the petroleum industries.

He has been a public-spirited citizen as well as philanthropic, and Alh Dangote, owner of the largest refinery in Africa, is an offshoot of his lineage. 

Sixteen clubsides have qualified for the round of sixteen in the FIfa club World Cup tournament on going in the United States of America.

Also their round of sixteen opponents have been revealed including the prize money every club will earn.

On Saturday Palmeiras will slug it out with Botafogo RJ at 5:00 pm and at 9:00 Benfica will face Chelsea.

On Sunday PSG will lorkhorns with Inter Miami at 5pm while Flamengo will face Bayern Munich at 9:00 pm.

On Monday Inter and Fluminense will fight it out for a place in the quarterfinals.

On Tuesday Man City will face Al Hilal at 2:00 pm and Real Madrid will face Juventus at 8:00.

There'll be just one match on  Wednesday when Dortmund will face Monterrey.

In all One billion dollars will be shared among the participating teams. And the winner is expected to go home with a whooping 125 million dollars.

2024, the Central Bank Governor rolled out a policy of increasing the minimum amounts of capitalization of Nigerian commercial banks aimed to strengthen the banking industry.

500 billion naira capitalization was stipulated as minimum for commercial banks with international authorization. 

A deadline of march 2026 was set for banks willing to attain that level of capitalization.

So far only two banks have been able to reach that level and they are the Zenith bank and the Access bank.

Four more banks are likely to beat the deadline of march 2026 and join the other two banks which have attained the minimum capitalization level.

They are Uba, First Bank, Garranty Trust Bank and Fcmb.

There Is a news report that says popular afrobeat crooner David Adeleke otherwise known as Davido was assaulted in a club in Spain.

The culprits were the security of the night club Davido patronized in Spain but the report has it that he escaped without getting hurt.

A more detailed report is still being expected. 

The fans of Botafogo RJ went wild Friday morning when their team ran away with a win over the European champions PSG against all odds.

Against the expectations of everyone, they stood toe to toe with the Louis Enrique boys and ran away with a goal to nil against the European champions through a goal in the 36th minute of the game. And the unlikely hero was Igor Jesus.

Even though the French champions, who had won everything in Europe, were in possession throughout the game, it was the American team that stole victory right under the noses of the tournament favorites.

The 24-year-old Igor Jesus had scored only 8 goals and managed one assist for Botafogo this season. 

A piece of genius by Lionel Messi in the 54th minute has seen Inter Miami almost through to the knockout stages on Thursday night when they got one over Porto in the group stages of the ongoing Club World Cup in the USA.

Porto had shot ahead in the 8th minute of the crunch tie through the irrepressible Spanish Nigerian striker Aghehowa from the penalty spot. Still, after a catalogue of misses in the first half, Sergio Ramon being the culprit, Sergovia pulled one back immediately after the break before Porto gave away a free kick in a vital position just at the edge of the penalty box.

A multiple Ballon d'Or winner was on hand, and he made no mistake converting it into what eventually turned out to be the winner for Inter Miami.

Arguably, the most exciting match so far in the tournament. Inter Miami's first match had ended in a draw, and it would have been an uphill task for them to qualify for the knockout round without a win against a European side, which is arguably the strongest in their group.

They had to dig deep to win it against Porto, thereby jumping to the top of the table ahead of their last game against Palmeiras at 2:00 on Tuesday morning.

They had opened their campaign against Al Ahly on Sunday with a goalless draw, and Ahly was able to stop Messi from scoring.

 The story was going to repeat itself tonight, but for the individual brilliance, and it marked Messi's only goal so far in the tournament.

American Oscar-winning actor, Al Pacino, was received in audience at the Vatican by the American Pontiff, Pope Leo XIV.  Al Pacino met with the newly elected Pope on Monday.

The actor of the famous movies, The Godfather and Scarface, was on location in Italy as the cast of a new movie about the lives of business Monguls, the Maserati brothers.

The 84-year-old father of four actors was in company of the movie producer Andrea Iervolino and some other members of the cast. Iervilino later presented his holiness with a miniature car in a glass box as a gift. 

Pacino was raised by Italian parents who were Catholics in New York, but the Pope is from Chicago, Illinois. Other members of the cast of the film are Gina La Piana, Titian's Luter, Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Alba, Andy Garcia, and Michelle Morrone.

Oil magnate Aliko Dangote has decided to distribute petrol and diesel directly to filling stations free of charge all over the nation to reduce the pump price.

The development has sent jitters all over the market as this is seen as a threat to oil marketers who had been benefiting from a manipulation of oil prices in the past and who have been struggling to keep up the price of petroleum for their profits.

This move will signal a change for the better in respect of consumers' convenience in the industry, which is expected will benefit from the decision, but will signal a lot of loss to marketers.

The date for the takeoff of the program is Aug.15th, 2025. The new Dangote delivery service is expected to involve 4000 trucks and another set of trucks for gas.

All the trucks are expected to be CNG-powered. This development is expected to be a game-changer in the industry as everyone now has direct access to fuel. 

What do you know about the new tax reform law?

It could not be more SME friendly. All the bottlenecks have been resolved, and most of the loopholes that tax officials exploited to take bribes have now been taken care of. Businessmen must take steps so that their ignorance will not be taken for granted.

The political issue has also been resolved.

The political issue centered on the sharing formula among the three tiers of government, namely the federal, state, and local governments.

Making the clarifications recently, a senior special assistant to the president, Abdullai Tanko Yakassai,  cleared all misunderstandings.

The tax will now be shared as follows. 50% of the tax accruing to states will all be shared equally among the states, and 30% according to the percentage of contributions from each state, and the remaining 20% will be shared based on population.

The greatest attribute of the new reform is that small and medium-scale businesses whose turnover is 50 million naira and below are all exempted from paying taxes.

Also all taxes will be paid centrally, and there is therefore not going to be room for multiple taxation.

And the individual level only, anyone earning up to 800,000 naira monthly will be eligible to be taxed. Well, if all these are not worth celebrating, what is?