General News
NANS Names Tim Akano, CEO Of New Horizons, 2022 Man Of The Year
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), over the weekend, named the Chief Executive Officer of New Horizons Nigeria, Mr. Tim Akano, as the association’s 2022 Man of the Year.
According to NANS President, Com. Usman Umar Barambu, the award is in recognition of Uncle Tim’s leadership acumen, passionate professional capabilities, fervent and productive contribution to the societal development of the nation, and support for humanity.
Through Uncle Tim, many youths from universities, Polytechnic, and Colleges of Education have enjoyed numerous scholarships, internship, job placement, mentorship, and skills acquisition in the last 20 years across Nigeria and Africa
The deputy senate president, NANS, Ekundina Elvis, while presenting the award said the leadership of the association is happy with all the support Uncle Tim has been rendering to Nigerian students and youths.
He said, “We appreciate a man who has thought it expedient to build a nation, a man who has always been at the forefront of building leaders of today and leaders of tomorrow. We believe history will never forget a man who turned a village into a city, and history will still never forget a man who turned a city into a village.
“Like Oliver Twist, we will always ask for more,” Elvis said, adding that ” what we want to ask from you is that you should not relent in doing the good works you have been doing, and we believe this is the starting point.”
In his comment at the occasion, the NANS public relations officer, Giwa Temitope, also showered praises on Akano saying ‘Uncle Tim is the tested and trusted leader and mentor of all the Nigerian students and Youths.
He recounted many scholarships and assistance Uncle Tim has been rendering to the Youths all over Nigeria and Africa through New Horizons and One Africa Initiatives Academy. Giwa concluded that this recognition giving to Uncle Tim was to encourage him to do more for the Youths most especially in these trying times”
The CEO of New Horizons Nigeria, Mr. Tim Akano, responded to the award by saying, “I want to show my deep and sincere appreciation to the association because this is the first of its kind in Nigeria as NANS Man of the Year, even though I have received so many awards.” I want you to know how much I truly and deeply value this particular one from NANS.
It could be recalled that in the last two years, close to 150 Youths organisations have bestowed an honour on uncle Tim for his unparalleled commitment to the success and progress of the Youths across Africa.
“The day I understood that the reason God created me and saw me through life’s many challenges and spared my life was to reproduce myself in millions of youths across the continent was my happiest day in life”. To me it is beyond a mission, it is a commission, It is for this purpose and assignment I was born and it is for this commission I am living for”.
Today, “African Youths see me as their next of kin in virtually all situation.” Thousands of Nigerian and African students are currently under mentoring through the NGO founded by uncle Tim called One Africa Initiatives Academy.(OAIA)
“I believe that supporting youth through education is the best investment I can make in their lives because when they are educated and acquire necessary life’s skills, a lot of things can change for the better.”
Akano took advantage of the opportunity to encourage the elderly to support today’s youth in any way they can.”We must recognise that we cannot always be able to do everything by ourselves forever, and our relevance tomorrow is dependent on how many young ones we can bring up to stand stronger than us,”
“All the lessons I have learned, the mistakes I have made, I am sharing everything with the youths because our time on earth is limited and I do not want them to repeat those mistakes I made.
I am committed in ensuring that what took me 40 years to accomplish our youths should be able to get it done within 25 years. They should move at a faster speed than myself and that is why you see me surrounding myself with the youths ”
“Today I spend close to 70% of my disposable time on mentoring the Youths across Africa. This week alone, I sponsored a Youth Event program in Uganda that brought together the Youths of that country and I have never been to Uganda.
“But I believe in “One Africa” and I am the Chief Promoter of that ideal that the youths in Africa must unite and come together for total transformation of mother continent.
And the results are all over the places, some of the Youths I have mentored are now the ones making waves in Silicon valley, USA, UK, Canada and Nigeria.
“The entire 360 degrees leadership of Students Associations in Universities, Polytechnic, Colleges of Education, etc consists of the Youths under mentorship.
“And the feeling and the joy that come with it has no parallel”. The way the Youths reciprocate in getting virtually everything fixed for me personally worldwide without leaving the comfort of my home or office is incredibly ecstatic .
“Today, there is hardly any country in the world where I don’t have at least one Youth I have helped doing great and who in turn, is ready to pick my call at the first ring and run around for me. That, to me, is the true meaning of success, happiness and immortality.”
Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has busted a Ponzi Scheme Academy and arrested 133 suspects in Abuja.
They were arrested at the Compensation Layout in Gwagwalada area of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, following actionable intelligence on the existence of the Academy.
The Academy, named Q University (a.k.a Q-Net) is in the business of recruiting gullible young Nigerians who are trained to recruit more gullible citizens into the scheme with the promise of getting unrealistic profit returns.
The suspects are enrolled into a training codenamed: “Special Training for New Generation Billionaire” and brainwashed to believe that they would graduate into the league of billionaires.
They got into the training by obtaining a form the promoters called “Independent Representative Application Form” with promotional slogans such as: “I’m a Champion” “I’m Unstoppable”, “I’m Infinity”, among others.
The EFCC carried out the operation in collaboration with officers and men of 176 Guards Battalion, Nigerian Army.
Items recovered from the suspects include phones, computers and other electronic gadgets.
They will be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.
Big companies are leaving Nigeria are leaving Nigeria because of what Heineken Lokpobiri, minister of state for petroleum resources described as “middlemanism”.
So called “middlemanism” is slack form of middleman, which is an intermediary who facilitates transactions between a buyer and a seller, often taking on roles like wholesaling, distribution, or brokering, and earning a commission or fee for their services.
The minister made this known during the opening of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria’s Sub-Saharan Africa International Petroleum Conference.
Heineken Lokpobiri disclosed that a lot of intermediaries who entered the oil industry caused its damage.
According to the minister, due to middlemen and intermediaries, some big and multinational oil service giant such as Schlumberger, Halliburton, McDermott, and others left Nigeria.
“We have made mistakes. And I’m saying this specifically so that all African countries here today will not make the mistake that Nigeria made. When I became minister, one of the issues I was confronted with had to do with the multinational service companies all exiting Nigeria. They’ve all gone, except, maybe this Italian company, Saipem. That was the only one that was around. So we had a situation where there was a monopoly.
“The other big boys—the Schlumberger, Halliburton, the McDermotts—all of them have gone. All of you here in PETAN have your good days in these companies. That was where you started from. That was where you actually developed your capacity,” Lokpobiri said.
Authorities in seven African countries have arrested 306 suspects and seized 1842 devices in a sweeping international operation targeting cyber-enabled fraud and scams.
Dubbed Operation Red Card, the effort ran from November 2024 to February 2025, focusing on dismantling cybercrime networks that defrauded over 5000 victims through mobile banking fraud, investment scams and malicious messaging app schemes., according to infosecurity-magazine.com
In Nigeria, police arrested 130 suspects, including 113 foreign nationals, for running fraudulent investment schemes and online casinos.
Authorities found that criminals funneled illicit proceeds into digital assets to obscure their financial trails.
Investigations also uncovered signs of human trafficking, with some individuals coerced into participating in the scams.
Law enforcement seized: 26 vehicles; 16 houses; 39 plots of land; and 685 electronic devices
In Rwanda, 45 individuals were arrested for orchestrating a social engineering scam that defrauded victims of more than $305,000 in 2024.
Scammers posed as telecommunications employees and falsely claimed victims had won lotteries to extract sensitive information.
Others impersonated injured family members to request emergency financial assistance.
Authorities recovered $103,043 and seized 292 devices.
South African authorities arrested 40 individuals and confiscated over 1000 SIM cards, along with 53 desktop computers and towers linked to a sophisticated SIM box fraud scheme.
This setup allowed cybercriminals to disguise international calls as local ones, facilitating large-scale SMS phishing attacks.
In Zambia, law enforcement apprehended 14 members of a cyber syndicate specializing in malware attacks.
The criminals sent phishing messages containing malicious links, infecting victims’ devices and taking control of messaging and banking apps. This enabled them to access financial accounts and further spread fraudulent links.
The operation was carried out through INTERPOL’s African Joint Operation against Cybercrime (AFJOC) initiative, which supports law enforcement efforts in combating cyber-threats.
The United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office funded Operation Red Card under the AFJOC initiative, allocating £2.6m to enhance Africa’s law enforcement capabilities in detecting and preventing cybercrime.
The seven participating countries – Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, To and Zambia – continue to collaborate on intelligence-led cybercrime investigations.
“The success of Operation Red Card demonstrates the power of international cooperation in combating cybercrime, which knows no borders and can have devastating effects on individuals and communities,” commented Neal Jetton, Interpol’s director of the cybercrime directorate.
“The recovery of significant assets and devices, as well as the arrest of key suspects, sends a strong message to cyber-criminals that their activities will not go unpunished.”
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