The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has denied reports of insufficient stock of currency notes in the country.
In a statement released today November 2, the CBN through its Director of Corporate Communications, Isa AbdulMumin, said that there is sufficient stock to facilitate economic activities in the country.
The statement reads;
“The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria has been drawn to reports of alleged scarcity cash at banks, automated teller machines, ATMs, Point of Sale and among Bureax de Change, BDCs, in some major cities across the country.
Our findings revealed that the seeming cash scarcity in some locations is due largely to high volume withdrawals from CBN branches by Deposit Money Banks, DMBs, and panic withdrawals by customers from the ATMs.
While we note the concerns of Nigerians on the availability of cash for financial transactions, we wish to assure the public that there is sufficient stock of currency notes for economic activities in the country,
The branches of the CBN across the country are also working to ensure the seamless circulation of cash in their respective states of operation.
Members of the public are therefore advised to guard against panic withdrawals as there is sufficient stock to facilitate economic activities. Nigerians are also advised to embrace alternative modes of payment which would reduce pressure on using physical cash.”
This review of Sports Interactive Football Manager 2024 was conducted on a Macbook Air, with the game downloaded from Steam.
Video games aren’t supposed to be real. They’re supposed to be forms of escapism, whether you’re building an ultimate team of iconic footballers of yesteryear, or you’re a hedgehog collecting rings.
That being said, it just doesn’t feel right that Switzerland won World Cup 2022 in this reviewer’s FM23 save last season. It’s not that we have anything against Switzerland – it’s just not very likely. Well, Sports Interactive have taken steps to ensure that no such fantasy repeats itself. Unless you want it to.
Now you can build up with three defenders (Image credit: Future)
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If you’re looking for a discount on FM24, there’s a discount on preorder at Fanatical – by shopping via FFT, you can save an extra 5% off the game – making it 22% off overall. That reduces the final price to just £35.05, down from £44.99.
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Previously, whipping balls near post to tall players with good heading stats was enough to rack up 20 goals a season from corners. Now, dead ball situations are simultaneously more in-depth and also, not your problem: set-piece coaches ask for your opinion, suggest their ideas and you can let your experts get on with it, while also being able to fully edit the setup should you wish. The FM team have clearly listened to FFT, who noted this as the most significant way the game could upgrade itself last year.
(Image credit: Future)
The other headlines with this new game are subtle enough for casual players to greet with a shrug – but trust us when we say that having played FM24 for a few weeks now, we couldn’t imagine going back to the previous version (and incidentally, you can now import previous saves from old FM games into 24!).
The top three Japanese leagues are now fully licensed, giving the realism that’s been so brilliantly realised in the Bundesliga and Champions League to new shores and undiscovered talents. Intermediaries are introduced to sell players, meaning that you’ll never be left with an unsellable squad ever again. Players can be set targets, meaning that you don’t have to promise that useless fringe star a position in your squad in 2028, only for him to underdevelop out on loan.
And that’s without touching on the match engine, which has seen noticeable improvements from last year, too. FM25 is set to be a bolder revolution in the series – but considering that FM24 is a mere evolution in comparison, it feels more updated than perhaps even diehard fans expected.
You can use intermediaries to sell players in FM24(Image credit: Future)
It all adds up to a more realistic product – unless, of course, you use the new modes to wipe all summer transfers from the database before you begin. Could Tottenham Hotspur be even better, had they not sold Harry Kane? Could Manchester City achieve invincible status with reported targets Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice signed to the side? Alternately, you can watch players sign on the exact dates they did in real life, and play out reality as it happened.
Football Manager has a knack for imitating the beautiful game through wonderkids, underdogs rising up the pyramid and ‘Moneyball clubs’ dominating. It’s in the ways that you don’t expect FM to be lifelike that it manages to surprise you, though. FM24 is another triumph in that respect and as the last of this current engine before a bigger update in FM25, this is the finest version of the simulation we know and love. Just so long as Switzerland don’t romp to Euros glory next year, of course.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that the official who issued a letter claiming that the electoral umpire has withdrawn from the ongoing Kano Governorship election petition case, has been reprimanded.
Sam Olumekun, INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee said that the letter was not authorised.
He also noted that where litigants join INEC in a case, the commission is under obligation to respond accordingly. Olumekun said;
“We wish to state categorically that the letter was not authorised. It has since been withdrawn and the officer reprimanded.
“The public is therefore advised to discountenance the insinuation that the Commission has withdrawn from the case or even worse abandoned the appeal.
“We have therefore instructed our lawyers to proceed in line with extant policy of the Commission. The policy has not changed.”
As FIFA game theme songs go, Blur’s ‘Song 2’ – the iconic track of choice for FIFA 98 – is right up there.
In their 90s heyday, the Britpop superstars might have demanded a hefty fee for it’s use – but, as it turns out, they weren’t really bothered about money in this instance.
They had their eyes on remuneration of a different kind – as Tom Stone, EA Sports’ Vice-President of European Marketing at the time explains to FourFourTwo.
(Image credit: Christian Liewig/TempSport/Corbis via Getty Images)
“Sean Ratcliffe, who became head of EA Sports Europe, phoned Blur just as they were about to go on stage in Australia,” recounts Stone of the FIFA 98 agreement.
“Sean said to them, ‘We want Song 2 – what can we give you?’ and I think it was Damon Albarn who replied, ‘We’ve got more money than we know what to do with, but what we can’t get is tickets to the World Cup final’.
We knew how to get them, so we secured four tickets for the 1998 World Cup Final and the deal was done.”
Woohoo!
(Image credit: Getty Images)
FIFA ’98 was the first time EA Sports included a soundtrack on the game. Music used in FIFA quickly became a big thing for bands’ marketing and record sales.
Music was a popular bi-product in the best-selling franchise. Typical sound tracks over the last 15 years have been a mix of up-and-coming artists, as well as already established music that has been given a new lease of life by the game.
EA Sports could even be credited with helping launch the careers of some world famous artists like Avril Lavigne (above).
Blur were already world-famous and rich by the time EA Sports secured Song 2 for FIFA ’98, but their song isn’t the most streamed FIFA-anthem. That honour goes to Glass Animals for their track, Heat Waves, which has an incredible 1,946,964,717 plays.
More EA Sports FC stories
With EA Sports FC 24 out, FFT has the complete guide to football’s biggest game.
Golf is a good game, perhaps the best of games, but the course has a tendency to bring out the very worst sides of people so from time to time we get a peek at the truly insane things that are happening and both public and private tracks all around this great nation. Some of them escalate to needless violence between weekend warriors of varying yet largely insufficient physical fitness and a person could argue that if you’ve seen one then you’ve seen them all. The latest clip, however, challenges that assertion.
We jump in with the situation already in progress, apparently sparked by a gentleman picking up the wrong ball and another group not too happy about that development. Anyone can tell there’s going to be escalation just based on the way he’s standing, with arms folded in front of himself and a stare that could bore a hole in the richest of mahogany. Just as a pro tip, if you are ever in a discussion with someone effecting this stance, there’s a 90 percent chance it’s about to go down.
And it very much goes down, with his anger crescendoing to a point where the only way to not be consumed by it is to rip off a dad polo to reveal a body carefully crafted in a strip mall gym where you pay month-to-month.
The language is not great and a little spicy and certainly not to be condoned but even the most troubled have to admit he fires off some good lines.
Why you always tread carefully when you interact with solo golfers on the course. pic.twitter.com/VIewSTAzib
“You see that? That’s a dude that’s been to heaven, b—h, and you want to test god.”
How does a person even come up with a taunt like that? Especially in the heat of the moment, off-the-cuff.
Thankfully, it looks like cooler heads and barer torsos prevailed and no one felt compelled to test god or get planted. The 19th hole must have been something, although I think you finish the round and get the hell out of there if something like this happens, while never, ever returning to that particular course.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is good for a handful of “what the hell is he talking about” quotes every season. It’s been that way for decades. Wednesday night brought us our first of the 2023 season thanks to an interview Jones did with a local FOX affiliate.
Jones was asked about defensive end Sam Williams, who was arrested over the weekend by Frisco police and is facing possession and weapon charges. It’s the second time Williams has been involved with the police while a member of the Cowboys; last year, he was cited for going 98mph in a 55mph zone. Apparently Williams was pulled over for speeding again this time around because Jones said it’s evident Williams is “maturing” due to the fact that he was caught going 66mph instead of 98mph.
When Jerry Jones spoke about Sam Williams’ latest arrest, Jerry said Williams is “maturing” because he was driving 34 mph less compared to his arrest last year
A classic Jerry quote through-and-through. Revealing previously-unknown, potentially confidential information with an extremely casual quote that makes light of a situation he probably shouldn’t be making light of.
Younger fans of the Lionesses could be forgiven for thinking they’re watching a footballing powerhouse that has dominated the women’s game for the past 30 years.
In reality, England Women were a long way behind their rivals for years before recent successes. From a lack of professional clubs across the nation, to a lack of experience and confidence in the latter stages of competitions, it was long clear that the Lionesses were failing to live up to their enormous potential.
That was, until Sarina Wiegmann’s charges stormed to victory at Euro 2022, thanks to the efforts of a smart, strong and flexible group of players, and a perfect blend of youth and experience. For defender Alex Greenwood, who starred for England at Euro 2022 and hopes to do the same again at this summer’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, the biggest change has been psychological.
“Over the course of the 10 years I’ve played with England, we have definitely changed mentality-wise more than ability-wise,” defender Alex Greenwood tells FFT. “I think the ability has always been there – we’ve always had enough top-level players to compete with the world’s best teams – but I don’t know if the mentality or the ruthlessness were there.”
For Greenwood, the 2021 decision to replace Phil Neville, who had led the Lionesses over the previous three years, with Dutch coach Sarina Wiegmann, has been key to that evolution.
“Sarina has changed so many things about England and how we approach things, the direction we want to head in, the language that we use… that clarity for every player to think as a footballer can be difficult to find sometimes,” concludes Greendwood. “When you’ve got it, everything takes care of itself.”
Stargazers and astrophiles from Los Angeles to Istanbul rushed outdoors to see the first supermoon of the year on Monday night. It did not disappoint.
The supermoon, which was flush with amber and red tones, was 14,000 miles closer to earth than typical full moons. A supermoon — the term was coined in 1979 by the astrologer Richard Nolle, and it is not an official astronomical term — can be about 17 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than a full moon at apogee, or its farthest point from Earth.
Here are some quick facts about supermoons and images from around the world.
From Monday night into Tuesday morning, the supermoon was the talk of social media, with enthusiasts sharing images of it behind skylines and above landmarks.
In some locations, including in Kansas City, Mo., the supermoon provided a unique backdrop to fireworks shows on the eve of the U.S. Independence Day.
While the supermoon was seen in full by many, in some cities it was obscured by clouds and other weather, including in Rome, where clouds partly covered it over the Forum.
July’s full moon is also called the buck moon, because the antlers on male deer are growing fast at this time of year, adding as much as a quarter of an inch per day, according to the Farmers’ Almanac, the collection of folk wisdom and factoids.
The full moon this month is also sometimes called a thunder moon because of the frequent thunderstorms that are associated with early summer, NASA said.
Native American tribes gave names to each moon to mark a particular point in the year, according to Western Washington University. Some used words to describe the color of the July moon, calling it a raspberry moon or a ripe corn moon, while others linked it with summer weather, naming it a hot moon.
Monday night’s supermoon was the first of four this year. Two more will come in August and another in September, according to NASA.
The final supermoon of 2022, the Sturgeon Moon, swept social media last August and thrilled stargazers.
Family Feud asked 100 people to name “a way a woman likes her men AND her cheese.” The public came up with eight answers. The Bruce and Weaver families only managed to come up with four correct answers between the 10 of them, but we need get a new kind of cheese out of the round.
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) June 26, 2023
Adventurous cheese. It’s a very amusing concept. Sure, if she had said “hard” or “stinky,” it would have sent Harvey into one of his trademark reactions, but it’s nice to mix it up a bit. Clearly the idea of cheese running around the dairy section wasn’t Harvey’s best bit, but again, adventurous cheese does capture the imagination.
Personally, I wish someone had said spread because that is the kind of absurd response that would have sent Harvey walking around the set for a good three minutes. Then when the answer showed up on the board he might have retired.
And that’s what’s great about Family Feud. The show debuted in 1976 and has been through six distinct hosts and eras and at its heart its just an excuse to get normal people to say mildly dirty things that makes the host laugh. And sometimes they say adventurous cheese. You really can’t go wrong.
The Rivers state chapter of the All Progressives Congress has denied inviting former Governor of the state, Nyesom Wike, to join the party.
The state chapter described those calling for Wike to join their party as imposters.
The state Publicity Secretary, Darlington Nwauju said in a statement on Saturday, June 24, that Wike’s disposition to APC members during his administration was enough evidence to confirm that he has no business with the party.
Nwaju who disassociated the leadership of the party from any “so-called” stakeholders meeting suggesting that the party and its benefits be handed over to Wike, dared anyone to provide video evidence of Wike campaigning openly for the APC in the state in the just concluded election.
Reiterating the party’s resolve to lend one hundred percent support to the policies and programs of the federal government under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu, the state chapter of the ruling party asked “blackmailers” to desist from the tradition of using the name of the APC to curry favor from, “desperate politicians seeking relevance at the centre.”
