In celebration of Nigeria's 53rd Independence celebrations, Close Up is celebrating the country with its Close Up Loves Naija Concerts to hold at Silverbird Galleria in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja on the 1st of October 2013.

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Following media reports, FBN Holdings Plc, on behalf of First Bank of Nigeria Ltd. (‘FirstBank’) has clarified its position regarding the approved application for the acquisition of International Commercial Bank (ICB) Ghana by FirstBank from ICB Financial Group Holdings AG.

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In meeting the aspirations and needs of the customers, leading mattress and bedding manufacturing company in Nigeria, Mouka Limited, has unveiled Mouka Exquisite, a new mattress made with the latest technology and high quality raw materials.

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The world's largest search engine turns 15 today!

To celebrate its birthday, at an event in Menlo Park, Google announced a few new features for its mobile products, including features for its iOS app and redesigns across the board. Tamar Yehoshua, VP of search at Google, demoed some of Google's search features. Yehoshua showed how Google is able to maintain context through multiple searches. She also demonstrated how Google has increased how it's using its "card" design metaphor in more places.

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BlackBerry has confirmed that it has aborted the roll out of BBM for Android and iPhone. BBM was scheduled to land on 21 and 22 of September for Android and iPhone respectively, but has now been delayed and the reason is said to be the leaked version of the application, which appeared online last week. 

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Style aficionados now have less to worry about keeping their wardrobe stocked with unique pieces of wares and accessories that make them stand out at different occasion with the launch of MyAsho.com and MyAshomarket.com, a twin online fashion store. The re-launch which held at 56 Wells Street, London W1, saw the emergence of two sites. 

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Leading oral care brand, Close Up toothpaste and Fabric Cleaning brand Omo, have received accolade from different stakeholders for fulfilling its promise of Big wins in the just concluded Buy, Display and Win promo which produced over 200 winners. 

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By Celine DeCarlo, CNN International

One of the most cherished parts of a career with an international news channel is the time spent traveling. While visits to different countries are often frustratingly short, after a while you get an acute sense of how a place is developing.  As the years go by and one revisits such destinations again, certain changes catch your eye, and you find yourself mentally tallying the signs that a country has advanced.  Advancements such as a sleek new airport terminal or a pedestrian walkway where the unmade road use to be, the steady electricity power during a stay at a hotel and the new store at a junction where once a fruit stall stood.  Also noted are the numbers of tablets being used in meetings and the appearance of the latest smartphones in people’s hands.

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The search for the top five Etisalat Geek Force Interns came to an end recently with Muyiwa Iyowu, Victor Alayande, Onyemaechi Okafor, Peter Ndirpaya and Valentine Ubalua emerging as winners of the competition. After six weeks of intense trainings and tasks set up to test their individual knowledge, speed and responsiveness, these tech-savvy youths proved their mettle by beating other contestants to qualify for the one year paid internship with Etisalat Nigeria.

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BlackBerry has confirmed that its popular instant messaging service, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), would launch on Android on 21 September and iOS on 22 September. The firm will also launch a new smartphone next week, the Z30.

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In furtherance of its corporate resolve to ensure that its customers enjoy quality and restorative sleep and healthy living, leading mattresses and foam brand, Mouka, has introduced a new initiative tagged, Discover the Mattress for You. The initiative is internet based and Apps driven, and can be accessed from the Mouka website.

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L-R: President/CEO General Electric (GE) Nigeria, Dr Lazarus Angbazo;Counselor for Economic Affairs, Embassy of the United States of America, Mr. Douglas Climan and Communications Manager, General Electric(GE) West Africa, Mr. Osagie Ogunbor, during the GE/United States African Development Foundation "Off-Grid Energy Challenge" Press Conference in Transcorp Hilton, Abuja

In order to support off-grid energy solutions, the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) has teamed with GE Africa (NYSE: GE) to launch the Power Africa Off-Grid Energy Challenge, a three-year, USD $2 million challenge that will award 20 or more grants of up to $100,000 each to African companies and organizations providing off-grid solutions that deploy renewable resources and power economic activities. 

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Manager, Youth Segment, Etisalat Nigeria, Idiare Atimomo (left) and Rector, Federal Polytechnic Oko, Anambra, Professor Godwin Onu (right), presenting a brand new car to winner of Cliqfest Raffle draw, National Diploma II Student of Science Laboratory, Mr. Enechukwu Jacob during the Etisalat Cliqfest held at Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State

In keeping with its resolve to empower Nigerian youths, the fastest growing and most innovative network in Nigeria, Etisalat Nigeria, has trilled students at the Federal Polytechnic, Oko in Anambra State to a two-day festival of education, entertainment and fun during the telco’s campus youth empowerment programme, Cliqfest.

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Designed by Sam Sorgiovanni and built by Oceano, the ultra-luxurious megayacht made its debut in 2012, and at 290 feet long it's the 39th-largest yacht in the world. It can go up to 22 miles per hour (about 19.5 knots maximum speed).

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As a follow-up to the successful SAP Africa SME Forum hosted in Johannesburg last week, SAP Africa today unveiled an update to its business management software suite offering aimed directly at Africa’s burgeoning small to medium enterprise (SME) sector – and it says the new solution will bring big-business functionality to local SMEs at small company prices. 

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A lecturer from the Benue State University, Ode Egena, has emerged winner of the 2013 Young Managers' Competition organised by the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) in collaboration with leading telecommunication services provider, Airtel Nigeria.

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Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Mustafa Chike-Obi

The Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has formally invited prospective investors to express their interests in acquiring its 100 per cent stake in Enterprise Bank Limited, one of the three banks nationalised by the Federal Government in 2011.

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Airs Saturday: 0230pm; Sunday: 0800am, 0530pm; Monday: 0930am, 0430pm; Tuesday: 0430am

 This week, Nigerian-born, Offiong Ekanem Ejindu, popularly known as Princess Fifi, a Nigerian descendent of royalty, who studied in America and became a pioneer in the field of architecture, will feature on African Voices, CNN International’s weekly half-hour programme highlighting Africa's most engaging personalities.

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By Kola Boluwaji

The debate on the desirability of stricter tobacco control laws is on, as the Tobacco Control Bill (TCB) reaches the public hearing stage at the House of Representatives. Both the pros and the antis have been advancing their arguments based on the facts available to each group and most times, these arguments are prejudiced. 

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Ifie Sekibo, Managing Director/Chief Executive, Heritage Bank Limited

Heritage Bank Limited has sponsored Nigeria’s first Virtual Arts Museum, a project of the Pan Atlantic University.

The museum, named the Virtual Museum of Modern Nigerian Art is an online, free, searchable database of Nigerian art from the beginning of the twentieth century. Its main aim is to serve as an educational resource that will contribute to the dissemination of knowledge on modern Nigerian art and artists among the widest possible audience.

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Samsung unveiled the third generation of its big-screen Note smartphone line, the Galaxy Note 3, at events in New York City's Times Square and Berlin on Wednesday.

In evolving the Note line, Samsung says it's attempted to make the phone "slimmer, lighter, faster, larger and better." In addition to a larger screen with a "warm, textured" design, the Note 3 includes a new security system called Knox, which lets sensitive apps and data run in a protected environment called the “container.”

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Ecobank Nigeria has announced the deployment of toll free telephone lines in a bid to boost its customer service delivery.

According to a statement from the bank, the toll free lines will impact on service delivery positively as customers will be encouraged to use the lines for speedy resolution of issues and other customer-related activities.

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Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Access Bank

Access Bank Plc has said it will explore multi-channel banking and retail franchise platform as part of its goals to move to the next level.

The bank also said by 2015, it hoped to have become a diversified, “high-performing bank” in the country, using technology as a competitive advantage.

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Culled from Reuters

Two years after hitching its fate to Microsoft's Windows Phone software, Nokia collapsed into the arms of the U.S. software giant on Tuesday, agreeing to sell its main handset business for 5.44 billion euros ($7.2 billion).

Nokia, once the world's dominant handset maker, has failed to close a yawning lead opened up by Apple and Samsung in the highly competitive market for smartphones and will now concentrate on its networking equipment unit, navigation business and technology patents.

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SAP Africa has been recognised as Africa’s best place to work by the internationally accredited Top Employers Institute at a gala awards ceremony held in Johannesburg. As well as securing first place in the category ‘Overall Top Employer Africa’, SAP Africa also secured first place in the ‘Industry IT Top Employer’ in South Africa category, as well as fifth place in the ‘Overall Top Employers South Africa’ category. The company was praised for its skills development efforts and its focus upon education, learning and employee development.

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