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President Bola Tinubu has assured Nigerians of his commitment to replicate China’s infrastructure success in Nigeria.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media & Publicity, Chief Ajuri Ngelale in a statement on Friday, September 6, said the president disclosed this while addressing members of Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation in China (NIDO China) and the Nigerian community at the China World Hotel.

“What is uppermost in my mind is for you to continue representing Nigeria as good citizens, and I urge you all to be good ambassadors of our nation in China.

We will always celebrate our diversity. We cherish it, but this diversity is our commitment to serve. If it is about service, we must be good citizens.

I cannot tell you more, except from the embassy, that China is a very disciplined society and we have to be disciplined too. Without discipline and commitment, we cannot build a nation that is respected everywhere in the world.

We must exploit our diversity and be ready to do everything required of us within the laws of the communities that we live in and reflect a good image of our country.

Nigeria is going through reforms, and we are taking very bold and unprecedented decisions. For example, you might have been hearing from home in the last few days about fuel prices. [SWIPE]

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The U.S. plans to implement new export controls on advanced technologies, including quantum computing and semiconductor goods, as it continues to target demand from China, the Commerce Department said.

The move comes after the U.S. already imposed export controls on advanced semiconductor chips aimed at curbing China's access. Such curbs have already made it harder for American firms like Nvidia (NVDA) and Intel (INTC)  to sell artificial-intelligence (AI) chips to China.

Friday's controls, made for “national security and foreign policy reasons” according to the text of the proposed rule, are reportedly set to cover worldwide exports but exempt some nations such as Japan and the Netherlands, home of chipmaking equipment provider ASML Holding (ASML).

The curbs cover the export of quantum computing items, advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment, technology that produces high-performance computing chips that can be used in supercomputers and components designed to produce metal or metal alloy components.

There will be a 60-day public comment period before the government issues its final rules.

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The executive governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji, has approved a work-from-home arrangement for civil servants in the state in a bid to further cushion the effect of the current economic situation on workers.

According to a statement by the Special Adviser on Media to the Governor, Mr. Yinka Oyebode, under the new arrangement, officers on level 01- 07 will work from home three days a week.

Also, officers on level 08- 12 are to work from home two days in a week, while officers on level 13- 17 will work from home once in a week.

The new arrangement, which commences on Monday, September 9, 2024, excludes essential workers like teachers, core health workers in the hospitals and security personnel among others.

According to the Governor’s directive, each MDA is expected to produce workable schedule for staff in order to ensure that the new work- from- home arrangement does not jeopardize effective service delivery.

The arrangement will be in place tor a period of two months and is subject to periodic review in line with prevailing circumstances.

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A Republican-led legal battle against federal student loan forgiveness has left borrowers in a place that’s become familiar over the past few years: with their financial fates in the hands of judges.The latest twist came Thursday when a Georgia court ordered a temporary halt to President Joe Biden’s proposal for a second attempt at broad student loan forgiveness while the case is decided. The proposal would cancel at least some of the debts held by 30 million borrowers with federal loans.

Biden and his opponents have battled over the president's student loan programs for the past several years. Since 2021, the Department of Education under Biden has made numerous rules changes to the federal student loan system aimed at making it easier for borrowers to have their loans forgiven.

The most recent attempt at outright forgiveness targeted certain types of borrowers, including borrowers who owe more than what they did when they started repaying their loans and those who would qualify for forgiveness under existing programs but haven’t applied.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey this week filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block the program, which, according to a notice published by the Department of Education, was set to go into effect as soon as October. 

Biden and other Democrats argue that Americans should be able to benefit from higher education without being financially crushed by student debt for the rest of their lives. The administration has forgiven at least $168.5 billion for 4.8 million borrowers, including public servants, people with disabilities, and borrowers who attended for-profit colleges that were later shut down.But while some of Biden’s efforts have succeeded, others have been felled in the courts. The biggest blow came in June 2023 when a coalition of Republican-led states, led by Missouri, got the Supreme Court’s conservative majority to strike down a Biden program that would have forgiven up to $20,000 per borrower. 

After that defeat, Biden began efforts to offer student loan relief through other means, including launching the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan. This plan forgives the debts of borrowers who make income-based payments for 10-25 years, depending on how much was borrowed and whether the loans were for graduate school.

The department also gave broad-based student loan forgiveness a second try through an administrative rulemaking process, resulting in the plan blocked on Thursday.Conservatives have opposed student loan forgiveness, arguing that it’s unfair to people who already paid their loans back and that policy should instead focus on lowering the cost of college. In court, forgiveness opponents have challenged the authority of the administration to cancel loans, arguing that they shouldn’t be allowed to without Congressional legislation.The Biden administration has argued that Congress has already authorized the Secretary of Education to cancel student debt. In defending the SAVE plan and the latest broad forgiveness program, the administration points to the 1965 Higher Education Act establishing the federal student loan program.

The lawsuit adds more uncertainty for borrowers, some of which were already affected by a previous court decision that at least temporarily blocked the SAVE repayment plan.

Some 8 million borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan are in forbearance, with no payments required, while the legal battle plays out. Both the SAVE and forgiveness cases could ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.

“The best advice I can give borrowers right now is to not make any drastic decisions,” said Betsy Mayotte, president of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors, a nonprofit group that advises borrowers. “This situation is truly uncharted territory and it’s going to take the Department of Education and the courts some time to work this through.”

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The Federal Government says there are no age restrictions for taking the National Examination Council (NECO) and West African Examination Council (WAEC).

Speaking in Abuja on Friday, September 6, the Minister of State for Education, Dr. Tanko Sununu, said the government only restricted the age for sitting for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and entry into the university to 18 years beginning from 2025.

“As regards this matter, we have made ourselves clear in different fora. But the issue kept recurring here and there. Actually, nobody among the two of us, the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, nor the Minister of State, stated anything about the age limit for WAEC, NECO or NABTEB.

People just pick up some remarks the Minister made, misinterpreted the statements to imply that age restriction has been placed for WAEC and NECO examinations.

What we have been mentioning in the past was the entry age for University, candidates sitting for the UTME. We have made this clear several times, and this is in line with the National Policy on Education.

The document stated that a child is expected to enter Primary School at six years, and he’s expected to spend six years in that school making it 12 years, three years each in junior and senior secondary schools, making it 18 years. That’s what is contained in the National Policy on Education document.

The Policy further stated that a child should learn in the language of the immediate environment or mother tongue up till primary three before English language could be introduced in subsequent years. That has facilitated learning at that level because you can easily communicate,” Sununu said.

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Broadcom (AVGO) shares fell after the closing bell Thursday, sliding following quarterly results that swung to a loss due to increased merger-related expenses.

The semiconductor manufacturing company posted a net loss of $1.875 billion, compared to a profit of $3.3 billion in the year-ago quarter. Adjusting for $1.5 billion in amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets and other restructuring costs, Broadcom’s earnings were $1.24 per share.

The company projected fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $14 billion, which fell slightly short of the analyst consensus. CEO Hock Tan said the company expected full-year AI revenue to be $12 billion, "driven by ethernet networking and custom accelerators for AI data centers,"

Broadcom acquired software firm VMware in November 2023. "Broadcom's third quarter results reflect continued strength in our [artificial intelligence] semiconductor solutions and VMware," said Tan.

Shares of Broadcom slipped more than 6% in after-hours trading. They've risen substantially this year, climbing some 40%.

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