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Let’s Partner to Transform  The Niger Delta into a Massive Agricultural Hub – Al Humphrey Onyanabo, CEO Majestic Agricultural Hub, pleads

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As the current political dispensation slowly winds down, key state actors in the Niger Delta have been advised to consider transforming the oil rich region into a Massive Agricultural Hub in view of the dwindling fortunes from crude oil sales and it’s effect on the economy of the nation.
Speaking to Reporters, Mr Al Humphrey Onyanabo, CEO of Majestic Farms and Good Processing Co. Ltd, promoters of the Majestic Agricultural Hub project sais,
” Our region and indeed Nigeria needs to have a total rethink about food security and economic survival. By 2030 zero emission will be adopted by the major world powers which means oil will no longer be needed to power machinery and vehicles as they transmit to alternative energy and electric cars. It will be a disaster if we are caught napping. We must therefore wake up and find alternative sources of survival, Agriculture is a viable option and the transition can happen fast if action is taken now.”
Mr Onyanabo further said,
” we have made attempts in the past with successive regimes in the Niger Delta and across Nigeria to partner with us to set up massive integrated farms in their regions . As another circle of politiking commences, we resume our appeal to key actors in the political space to partner with us to transform the Niger Delta into an agricultural hub”.
How It Will Work
Mr Al Humphrey Onyanabo revealed that The Majestic Agricultural Hub, a developmental project, the first of its kind in the country, shall comprise of a network of integrated state – of- the- art farms spread across different states interconnected   with their host communities through a vast web of ‘Partnership Farms’ operated by youths and women and cooperatives where output is channeled through a central storage and processing system that assures them of a regular income unaffected by the vagaries of market forces year round. He also said,
” The HUB, shall supply them with improved seedlings, farming implements and teach improved farming techniques to help them improve their yields.
The Majestic Agricultural Hub will play a big brother role to galvanize farming activities throughout the  region into one huge year round enterprise that profits and prospers all”.
He also said,
“Most importantly, the HUB will ensure that our men, women and youth interested in farming stay back in the villages to pursue their dreams knowing they do not really miss much by coming to overcrowded city centers.
The Majestic Agricultural Hub will re-enforce backward integration and we are consumed with the vision that the future of our great country rests on our people going back to the land.
“We therefore see ourselves as partners for development in helping to provide food security and jobs for local people, both skilled and unskilled, where ever we operate. We harbor a deep seated and abiding faith in the Nigerian entrepreneurial spirit and the ability of Nigerians to excel at every given tasks or venture”.
 The benefits of the project for every state  are myriad.
  The HUB he revealed ,will create over 200,000 jobs in three years for both skill and unskilled workers per state. Thousands of jobs will also be created through the second degree marketing of our products. Furthermore, there will be vast openings for transporters, food sellers, and artisans in the state such as carpenters, painters, bricklayers, electricians etc and such ancillary service providers as advertising and. The HUB will open a flood of opportunities into each state where the hub is located like never before that will directly affect the masses.
”  We will set up a local fabrication yard to encourage entrepreneurs’ have access to affordable   industrial machinery built locally and fixed locally.
 “We will set up technical training centers to train youths in specific technical vocations that will ensure they will have up to date technical skills.
 Part of our rural integration scheme will be keeping our employees in our various farms feeling fully at home where they work. We shall commence the development of a 100 bungalow housing estate for each hub.
” Each of our housing estates will have a day care, nursery/primary school, a general sports and recreation center, veterinary clinic and a Health Centre for staff and our host communities”.
Speaking further the Chief Executive said all they require from a partner state or community or local government is land, security and an enabling environment for an enterprise to thrive,
“Each hub will be about 20,000 hectares either in one location or scattered across four local governments or communities. We will provide in totality the  finance for take off, equipments and technology and the also foreign technical assistance modern farming methods which will be passed on to our youths. Each Hub shall be superintended by a  Special Purpose Vehicle,SPV, with all stakeholders accommodated”

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Shoreline Group secures US$200 million Afreximbank Facility

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Shoreline Group today announced that African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has approved a US$200 million facility in favour of Shoreline Power Company Limited and co-borrowers including Arkad S.p.A., Shoreline’s majority-owned engineering and construction platform.
Approved in June 2026, the facility was arranged and provided by Afreximbank as sole mandated lead arranger and lender. It provides bonding and working-capital capacity for Arkad’s delivery of the Hassi Bir Rekaiz project and supports Shoreline and its affiliates in developing further pipeline and infrastructure
projects in Nigeria and other permitted jurisdictions.
“This is a defining transaction for Shoreline and Arkad. We built Arkad as an African- sponsored engineering platform capable of competing at the highest level, and it is now delivering against a billion-dollar energy contract. Afreximbank’s US$200 million commitment gives the platform the financial strength to match its engineering capability and pursue further major infrastructure mandates. It demonstrates that African enterprises can assemble the capital, capability and partnerships required to compete for infrastructure at international scale.”
Hassi Bir Rekaiz Phase 2a Arkad holds 44 per cent of the approximately US$1 billion EPCCS-1 contract awarded by Groupement
Hassi Bir Rekaiz (GHBR) to an unincorporated consortium led by Egypt’s Petrojet, which holds 56 percent. EPCCS-1 covers engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and start-up for the Phase 2a central processing facility and related infrastructure at the Hassi Bir Rekaiz field in Algeria’s Berkine
Basin.
GHBR is the joint operating entity for the licence, held by Sonatrach with 51 per cent and Thailand’s PTTEP with 49 per cent. The project includes a new crude oil processing facility with capacity of 31,500 barrels per day, facilities for associated gas and produced-water treatment, approximately 217 kilometres
of pipelines and the brownfield modifications required to integrate existing Phase 1 infrastructure.
The facilities are designed to support later expansion to 63,000 barrels per day under Phase 2b.
“This financing addresses the instruments that determine whether an EPC contractor can execute at scale: performance guarantees, advance payment guarantees and working capital through the project cycle. Hassi Bir Rekaiz is a demanding scope, combining a new central processing facility, associated treatment systems, pipelines and brownfield integration. With Petrojet, and with the support of Shoreline and Afreximbank, Arkad is focused on disciplined delivery against the project’s safety, quality and schedule requirements.”
The transaction was structured under Afreximbank’s Engineering, Procurement and Construction Initiative, which supports African engineering and construction firms with the financial instruments required to compete for and execute large infrastructure contracts. Afreximbank also supported the Arkad-Petrojet partnership through its EPC twinning work at the Intra-African Trade Fair held in Algiers
in 2025.
According to Afreximbank, the transaction is its first support for a Sub-Saharan African contractor undertaking a major infrastructure project in North Africa. For Shoreline, it demonstrates a practical model for combining African ownership and capital with established international engineering andindustrial capability.

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BUSINESSWOMAN AISHA ACHIMUGU SPEAKS OUT, CALLS FOR PROTECTION OF LIFE AND RESPECT FOR RULE OF LAW

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Nigerian businesswoman and investor Aisha Achimugu has made a public appeal for the protection of her life, her family, and her business interests while alleging a sustained campaign of intimidation, media trial, and asset seizures.

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Achimugu, in a statement Tuesday, said she is facing actions that she described as an affront to the rule of law and natural justice.
She then called for the respect for court orders and for an end to what she termed misleading media coverage about her person and companies.
According to Achimugu, the widow of the late Engr. Sulaiman Achimugu, former Managing Director of the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, PPMC, she has over the last three decades built businesses in the oil and gas and other sectors, and runs the SAM Empowerment Foundation, SEF, which she said has implemented health, education, and community projects across Nigeria.
The businesswoman, however, alleged that since 2023 she has been the subject of investigations and actions by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Narrating her ordeals, Achimugu noted that in 2023, the EFCC’s Port Harcourt zonal office froze her personal accounts, her children’s accounts, and company accounts linked to the Felak Group, based on an interim forfeiture order.
She said this was connected to a mistaken association with MBA Forex and Capital Investment.
Achimugu stated that in January 2024 she honoured an EFCC invitation with her counsel, clarified her company’s single transaction with MBA Forex, and refunded N58 million by bank draft to the EFCC recovery account.
In March 2025, the businesswoman said she received WhatsApp messages inviting her to the EFCC Port Harcourt office. Her lawyer responded in writing, proposing dates in April 2025. Despite this, she alleged a media campaign began on March 10, 2025 linking her to wrongdoing.
On March 28, 2025, the same day her company, Oceangate Oil & Gas Limited, submitted proof of $20 million payment to NUPRC for oil blocks PPL 302-DO and PPL 3007, subsequently, she claimed the EFCC declared her a “Wanted Person” for “conspiracy and money laundering.” She also alleged that EFCC operatives searched her home that day.
In April 2025, Achimugu said she filed a fundamental rights suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja. But upon returning to Nigeria on April 28, 2025 from a foreign trip, she alleged she was taken into EFCC custody, granted bail by a judge, but released five days later. She also said her international passport was collected.
She alleged further asset actions, including freezing of bank accounts, and the seizure of vehicles from her home in January 2026. She said matters relating to these actions are the subject of ongoing litigation and appeals.
Achimugu also alleged that her United States visa was revoked in April 2025, and that she encountered issues with visa processing related to her Grenadian citizenship, which she linked to media reports citing the EFCC’s declaration.
Achimugu stated that she has invested nearly $90 million in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector in the last five years and has attracted over $100 million in investments into the economy while directly employs close to 200 Nigerians.
However, she said the actions of the anti-graft agency have affected her business operations, international partnerships, and family, including her elderly parents and young children.
Achimugu then called on the National Assembly, the Judiciary, security services, and local and international human rights organizations to examine her case.
She also asked for the protection of her life and properties, respect for court orders, and an end to what she described as a “media trial”.
“I believe that justice delayed is justice denied, and I am not afraid to face the law provided due process is followed. My lawyers are pursuing all legal remedies locally and internationally,” she said.
Achimugu added that she remains committed to Nigeria and to supporting private sector growth.

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Nigeria’s Credit Crisis: Why Firms Still Struggle for Loans

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Nigeria’s Credit Crisis deepens as businesses struggle with high lending rates, weak bank credit access and government borrowing despite falling inflation (more…)

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