Author: Lawbreed Limited

In the face of outcry over rising transaction costs of financial services, deposit money banks (DMBs) have extended electronic money transfer levy (EMTL) to domiciliary accounts. The new levy takes immediate effect according to communication messages sighted by The Guardian. The levy, which is completed by banks on behalf of the government, was previously restricted to naira accounts. But banks have communicated to their customers that the fee would, with immediate effect, apply to domiciliary accounts on the directive of the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed. Accordingly, a dollar or pound account holder would henceforth pay…

The operational guidelines outline the procedures that govern how banks and other financial institutions are permitted to access and manage customer data. The Central Bank of Nigeria Wednesday issued operational guidelines for open banking in Nigeria. The operational guidelines outline the procedures that govern how banks and other financial institutions are permitted to access and manage customer data. Open banking is a financial services concept that allows third-party financial service providers to access banking data, typically through application programming interfaces (APIs), with the explicit consent of the customers. It basically allows customers to share their banking data with other financial…

The Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, on Wednesday, gave the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the nod to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, it used for the presidential election. The court, in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of justices, held that stopping the electoral body from reconfiguring the BVAS would adversely affect Saturday’s governorship and state assemblies elections. It dismissed objections that the Labour Party, LP, and its presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, raised against INEC’s move to reconfigure all the BVAS. According to the court, allowing the…

A Delta State High Court has ordered the Chief Judge of the State and the President of the Customary Court of Appeal to present their budgets directly to the State House of Assembly for legislative approval without the intervention or interference of the State Governor. The decision was reached in the case of John Aikpokpo Martins and Olukunle Edun V. Governor of Delta State & Ors in SUIT NO: A/164/2022. The case bordered on the interpretation, as well as, the appropriate consequence of sections 120 (4), 121 (2) & (3) and 124 (4) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic…

Mondelez International Inc., the US parent company that owns the chocolate brand is moving some of Toblerone’s production to Slovakia — which means the chocolate may not meet Switzerland’s legal definition of “Swissness,” according to Aargauer Zeitung, a Swiss media outlet that first reported the news on Friday. Legislation to protect “Swissness” came into force in 2017. Now, Swiss law dictates that any food item marketing itself as being “made in Switzerland” must source at least 80% of its raw ingredients from the country Milk and dairy products labeled “made in Switzerland” need to source 100% of their raw materials…

A Belarusian court on Friday sentenced Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights activist Ales Bialiatski to 10 years in prison after finding him guilty of bankrolling protests. The European Union condemned the trial describing it as a “sham”, according to a report by Reuters. The 60-year-old Bialiatski was awarded the Nobel Prize last year October for his work that tremendously promoted human rights and democracy in the European country. He is a critic of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Russia, who has ruled for nearly 30 years, and violently locking up his opponents or forcing them…

Seven state governments controlled by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have withdrawn a lawsuit filed against the Federal Government at the Supreme Court challenging the declaration of All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President-elect. The states are Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Taraba and Sokoto. In the suit which had the attorneys-general of the seven states as plaintiffs and the Attorney General of the Federation as defendant, the seven states had asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the just-concluded general elections, arguing that the declaration of Tinubu did not follow the Electoral Act. They…

In what appears like a copy-cat replay of an ongoing suit over the move by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to ban the use of some denomination of old currencies, six states of the federation; Adamawa, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo and Sokoto have dragged the federal government before the Supreme Court over the conduct, collation and announcement of the February 25, 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections. The States want the apex court to declare that the pronouncement of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as winner of the February 25 presidential election and president-elect…

The supreme court has invalidated the naira redesign policy introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The court made the declaration on Friday while delivering judgment in a suit instituted by three states of the federation. A seven-member panel of the apex court held that the old N200, N500 and N1000 notes remain legal tender until December 31, 2023. They supreme court faulted the entire policy of the CBN, saying the timing and implementation were defective. In October 2022, Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, announced the plan to redesign the naira to control money supply and aid security agencies in…

A judge in the Ekiti State High Court, Justice Babajide Aladejana, has been reinstated to office 16 years after he was suspended by the National Judicial Council, NJC. The NJC, under the chairmanship of the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Alfa Belgore, suspended Aladejana from office in 2006 alongside the state former Chief Judge, Justice Kayode Bamisile, for their alleged roles in the political crisis that led to the impeachment of ex-Governor Ayodele Fayose. Fayose was impeached from office on October 16, 2006 over the alleged N1.4 billion poultry scandal, abuse of office and illegal operation of a…