The kids are alright…right?

Nigerians fear the future of education is not bright.

May 01, 2024

Happy Worker’s Day, Big Brains! I hope this email finds you in your pajamas. We should take two days off to celebrate Workers’ Day but I’ll take what I can get. Because I want you to relax and release all pent-up stress today, I compiled a list of my favorite reads from Tinubu’s internet. I hope you love them just as much as I do.

Word count: ~1400

Reading time: ~ 4 mins

Let’s get into today’s edition:

76% Score Below 200 in Recently Concluded JAMB Exam
Customers Without 20-Hour Supply Won't Pay New Tariff
NNPCL Says Fuel Lines Will End Today
Binance Founder Changpeng Faces Potential Three-Year Jail Sentence

The Big Deal

76% Score Below 200 in Recently Concluded JAMB Exam

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has released the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results and the numbers are disturbing.

At a press conference in Abuja, JAMB’s Registrar, Ishaq Oloyede said that out of the 1.9 million students who took the exam across 118 towns in Nigeria, only 0.4% scored above 300 and 76% scored below 200.

Why it matters…

JAMB exams determine the academic readiness of Nigerian students for tertiary education. In 2023, Oloyede approved 140 as the cut-off mark for admission into universities and 100 for polytechnics and colleges of education. However, he mentioned that tertiary institutions could still determine the cut-off mark that works best for them.

If all Nigerian universities followed JAMB’s standard 140 cut-off mark, then 76% of Nigerian students are not academically prepared enough for university in 2024. The low scores could suggest a problem with the Nigerian secondary school system that could seriously impact the academic future of young people.

What caused the mass failure?

While the JAMB registrar didn’t share any reasons for the poor results, Nigerians have theories. Lots of people agree that the poor quality of secondary school education played a role. But some say that the mass failure could be a result of social media addiction and lack of preparation on the students’ part. JAMB is best positioned to share the likely theories for the mass failure but we won’t be holding our breath because that’s not the only thing they’re hiding. They are holding back on sharing who the top scorer for this year is.

As disappointing as these results are, this is not the first round of mass failure. In 2022, only 378,639 of the 1,761,338 who wrote the exam scored above 200.

But on the bright side,

The girlies are getting schooled! A breakdown of JAMB exam numbers shows that the majority of registered students were girls. Specifically, 982,393 boys (49.4%) enrolled compared to 1,007,275 girls (50.6%). The JAMB Registrar pointed out that this is the first time in three years that there were more female students than males.

A win for the girlies is a win for all of us!

Customers Without 20-Hour Supply Won't Pay New Tariff

To the Bandless and the Band-God-abeg, the universe has worked things out in your favor. Power Minister Adebayo Adelabu has promised that customers who don't get 20 hours of electricity won't have to pay the new tariff.

The minister said this on Monday, April 29, while speaking to the Senate Committee on Power during the one-day hearing on the need to stop the proposed increase in electricity tariff by 11 power companies due to the tough economic situation.

Last month, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) increased the electricity tariff for urban customers from N68/KWh to N225/kWh. Band A customers are expected to receive between 20-24 hours of electricity supply daily while the subscribers under Band B enjoy 16 to 20 hours of power supply and those in Band C receive 12 to 16 hours daily. The increase applied immediately and only affected "Band A" customers – customers that receive electricity for 20 hours each day and makeup 15% of Nigeria’s 12 million electricity consumers.

The clarification comes at a time when many Nigerians complain that their electricity supply has worsened since this decision was made. The minister said the government made this policy to rescue the struggling power sector. He assured Nigerians that the discomfort is only temporary and the government cares. He also mentioned that if the tariff isn't adjusted, the government would have to spend ₦2.9 trillion this year to subsidize electricity which is a hard ask, given the current state of the country’s economy.

NNPCL Says Fuel Lines Will End Today

According to The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, your Workers Day is about to double as “End of Fuel Scarcity” day. Femi Soneye, NNPC’s spokesperson, assured Nigerians that the ongoing fuel scarcity and queues will be over today.

He also mentioned that the company currently has over 1.5 billion liters of products available, enough to last for at least 30 days. In yesterday’s edition, we wrote about how NNPC claimed that they had solved the logistic issues causing the fuel scarcity but that didn’t seem to stop the scarcity from spreading across the country. Soneye mentioned that even though the issue has been fixed, it is normal for it to take some time for operations to fully return to normal.

The National Vice President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, also said that he’s expecting the queues in Lagos and Ogun states to ease off this week as the NNPCL promised. However, he mentioned that the queues in Abuja might take longer to clear because of the distance from Lagos.

What to expect

If NNPC keeps their word, we should see a noticeable decrease in fuel prices and transportation costs this week. Fuel line traffic should also ease up, making the rest of your work week less hectic and possibly more productive. But considering the “we solved logistics issues” claim, you may want to reduce your expectations.

Binance Founder Changpeng Faces Potential Three-Year Jail Sentence

Binance executives are facing lawsuits everywhere, first Anjarwalla and Tigran were arrested in Nigeria on February 26 based on the $26 billion of suspicious transactions traced to Binance. Joining the list of legally arraigned crypto bros is Binance’s former chief executive Changpeng Zhao.

What did Zhao do?

US federal prosecutors want Zhao to go to prison on charges of money laundering. Last November, Zhao stepped down from his role at the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange platform as part of a deal with US authorities, announcing his resignation with an X post.

Investigations by two Treasury agencies revealed that Binance didn't take action to stop Gaza-based militant group Hamas and other terrorist organizations from using their platform.

Zhao admitted to breaking US anti-money laundering laws, and Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion to settle the charges.

In a recent court filing, Justice Department lawyers suggested that Zhao should spend three years in prison. They believe this would make him "accountable for his intentional criminal conduct" and send a message to Zhao and "the world."

Even though US Federal guidelines suggest a sentence of 12 to 18 months for this crime, prosecutors said this wouldn't "adequately reflect the seriousness of Zhao’s offense" or provide enough deterrence for others.

This is also similar to the charges Binance’s Anjarwalla and Tigran are facing in Nigeria. Earlier in the year, the Nigerian government claimed that Binance was being used for illegal activities like money laundering, terrorism financing, and market manipulation, harming Nigeria's economy and making naira weaker. The International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL) has already started making plans to find and extradite Nadeem Anjarwalla who escaped from custody back to Nigeria to face the charges. His colleague, Tigran Gambaryan, is still in custody in Abuja and is expected to appear in court again on May 17.

The Big Picks

If you enjoyed this edition of the newsletter, don’t forget to subscribe and share. You can also leave feedback for us in the comments or by filling out this form.