Five things to know to start your Wednesday

DMO cites Indonesia example, urges Nigeria to cut spending, drive revenue growth

In a tweet on Tuesday, the Debt Management Office cited Indonesia as a perfect example of a country Nigeria should emulate in remodelling our economy, especially as the country deals with mounting debt financing.

The tweet read, “Indonesia, a fellow oil-producing country with a population size of 273 million people, is a prime example of how increased revenues and prudent spending can lower budget deficits and borrowings. Some of the measures they implemented to achieve this are included in the report.”

Indonesia, a crude oil exporting country like Nigeria, saw its budget surplus widen to 1.1 percent of GDP in the first four months, supported by strong revenue and on-track spending realisation.

The DMO urges Nigeria to follow this example, especially as its budget deficit continues to widen.

Read also: Abuja residents lament fuel crisis, queues

Boat operators back Tinubu on subsidy removal, seek palliatives

Babatope Fajemirokun, president of the Waterfront Boat Owners and Transporters Association (WABOTAN), has backed President Bola Tinubu on subsidy removal, just as he called for palliatives to cushion the effect.

Speaking for the association, Fajemirokun told journalists on Tuesday in Lagos that the fuel subsidy removal is a bitter pill that the country needs at this time if we are to move forward.

“We see this government as a listening government, and we want them to bring up whatever palliative is necessary to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal.

“Some Nigerians have been clamouring for the removal of this subsidy for a long time; some people even described it as a fraud. But for us, it is a welcomed idea, and we will get used to it.

“For us as boat operators, we don’t think this is something that will choke everybody,” he said.

Subsidy Removal: Long queues easing off in Ilorin amidst hike in price

The long queue that greeted some fuel stations in Ilorin on Monday following the removal of the fuel subsidy is easing off amidst a price hike in the commodity.

An observation from activities in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, revealed that many of the filling stations are now selling the product at between N200 and N300.

Some of the petrol stations that were shut in the early hours of the day were reopened for business after the state government threatened to sanction those refusing to sell the commodity.

On Tuesday, Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara, in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Malam Rafiu Ajakaye, cautioned oil marketers to avoid imposing needless hardship on the citizens through the creation of artificial fuel scarcity in the state.

Elizabeth Holmes enters Texas prison to begin 11-year sentence for notorious blood-testing hoax

Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, a company that promised to detect diseases from just a blood sample, entered a Texas prison Tuesday, where she is expected to spend the next 11 years for overseeing a blood-testing hoax.

According to the AP, Holmes, 39, could be seen from outside the prison’s gates walking into the federal women’s prison camp located in Bryan, Texas, wearing jeans and a brown sweater and smiling as she spoke with two prison employees accompanying her.

The minimum-security facility — where the federal judge who sentenced Holmes in November recommended she be incarcerated — is about 95 miles (150 kilometres) northwest of Houston, where she grew up aspiring to become a technology visionary along the lines of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

As she begins her sentence, Holmes is leaving behind two young children: a son born in July 2021, a few weeks before the start of her trial, and a 3-month-old daughter who was conceived after a jury convicted her on four felony counts of fraud and conspiracy in January 2022.

Chinese tech entrepreneurs keen to ‘de-China’ as tensions with US soar

As the political tension between the U.S. and China gets stiffer, expanding into the U.S. market gets more difficult for Chinese tech entrepreneurs.

According to Reuters, before 2019, there were few major impediments to having a Chinese company do business in the U.S. from China. But amid escalating U.S.-Sino trade tensions, particularly after Washington slapped sanctions on telecom giant Huawei (HWT.UL), some Chinese firms began setting up headquarters overseas—moves that could help them draw less U.S. government attention.

Now, some mainland China tech business owners say they need to go further and gain permanent residency or citizenship abroad to avoid the curbs on and the biases against Chinese companies in the United States.