The Zamfara State Government is pleased to announce that His Excellency, Governor Dauda Lawal, has approved the payment of allowances/stipends to National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members serving in the state. The approval reflects the administration’s unwavering commitment to the welfare and wellbeing of corps members who are contributing to the development of various sectors across Zamfara State.

The approval covers corps members from Batch A Stream I and II up to Batch C Stream I and II. Through this gesture, the government recognizes and appreciates the patriotism, dedication, and selfless service being rendered by the young graduates in education, healthcare, agriculture, and other areas critical to the growth and progress of the state.

Governor Dauda Lawal has directed the Office of the Accountant General to put in place all necessary arrangements to facilitate the implementation of the approval. The government is committed to ensuring that the process is carried out smoothly and in accordance with established procedures.

The Zamfara State Government remains grateful to the NYSC members for choosing to serve in the state and for their invaluable contributions to community development.

The administration will continue to prioritize initiatives aimed at supporting corps members and creating an enabling environment that will allow them to discharge their national responsibilities effectively.

• The World’s Best Airline, as voted by Skytrax in 2025 for the ninth time, is adding 26 destinations to its network

• With its return to iconic gateways in Asia and Europe and the launch of new routes in the Americas, the airline is restoring connectivity to key global markets • Qatar Airways’ award-winning travel experience includes secure and seamless transfers through its Hamad International Airport hub, and inflight connectivity with Starlink – the fastest Wi-Fi in the sky DOHA, Qatar – Qatar Airways continues to deliver on its commitment to network restoration, and is steadily expanding its reach to more than 160 gateways for the ease and convenience of international travellers. The airline is returning to 26 destinations in key global markets. The World’s Best Airline, as voted by Skytrax in 2025 for the ninth time, resumed safe and secure operations from March 2026 to over 60 destinations. It gradually began rebuilding its network to facilitate connectivity across the globe, and will now serve more than 160 destinations this summer. Qatar Airways’ award-winning passenger experience is delivered on the tenets of operational reliability and safety. The airline delivered 84.42% on-time performance in 2025, which has been recognised by Cirium – the leading aviation analytics organisation, with the prestigious Platinum Award for Operational Excellence. Travellers also benefit from seamless transfers through Qatar Airways’ hub, Hamad International Airport. A destination in its own right, Hamad International Airport is home to Qatar Duty Free’s extensive portfolio of diverse lifestyle and dining outlets for travellers from every walk of life. The travel experience is made more rewarding through the airline’s loyalty programme, Privilege Club. Members can earn and spend Avios during their journey to unlock future benefits. The airline’s onboard experience is supported by Starlink, the fastest Wi-Fi in the sky. More than 140 Qatar Airways aircraft are equipped with Starlink, making it the world’s first and largest Starlink-equipped widebody fleet. Passengers in both Premium and Economy cabins enjoy Wi-Fi speeds of up to 500 Mbps per aircraft. Qatar Airways’ Summer 2026 Global Network: Along with the previously announced Port Sudan (PZU) route to be launched on 2 July, the airline is returning to the following African destinations: • Kigali (KGL), Rwanda, with two weekly flights • Seychelles (SEZ), Seychelles, with four weekly flights • Marrakesh (RAK), Morocco, with seven weekly flights With service to Caracas (CCS) and Bogotá (BOG) starting from 22 July, its return to Philadelphia (PHL) from 1 August, Qatar Airways is reinstating its network in the Americas with four weekly flights to Boston (BOS). As the Official Airline Partner of the FIFA World Cup 2026™, Qatar Airways is increasing its service to Boston from four to seven weekly flights to support fan travel during football’s biggest tournament. Additional FIFA host cities supported by Qatar Airways’ increased flights include: • Los Angeles (LAX), USA: increased from four to seven weekly flights • Miami (MIA), USA: increased from seven to 10 weekly flights • San Francisco (SFO), USA: increased from four to seven weekly flights In Asia and Asia Pacific, the airline is returning to the following destinations: • Adelaide (ADL), Australia, with seven weekly flights • Almaty (ALA), Kazakhstan, with seven weekly flights • Auckland (AKL), New Zealand, with seven weekly flights • Baku (GYD), Azerbaijan, with seven weekly flights • Osaka (KIX), Japan, with five weekly flights • Tashkent (TAS), Uzbekistan, with four weekly flights • Tbilisi (TBS), Georgia, with seven weekly flights • Tokyo Haneda (HND), Japan, with four weekly flights (increased to seven weekly flights from 1 August) • Yerevan (EVN), Armenia, with four weekly flights Qatar Airways’ expanded service in Europe includes the following destinations: • Belgrade (BEG), Serbia, with four weekly flights • Brussels (BRU), Belgium, with seven weekly flights • Budapest (BUD), Hungary, with four weekly flights • Düsseldorf (DUS), Germany, with seven weekly flights • Helsinki (HEL), Finland, with four weekly flights (increased to seven weekly flights from 1 August) • Lisbon (LIS), Portugal, with seven weekly flights • Oslo (OSL), Norway, with seven weekly flights • Prague (PRG), Czech Republic, with seven weekly flights • Zagreb (ZAG), Croatia, with four weekly flights

Union Bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer sat with 30 of Nigeria’s most promising young leaders for a frank conversation on character, relationships and the discipline of growth.

Out of 25,000 applicants, only 30 earned a place. That single figure tells you how rare the room was when Yetunde B. Oni, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Union Bank of Nigeria, recently sat down with a cohort of the Lateef Jakande Leadership Academy.

The Academy, a Lagos State Government initiative established in honour of Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, the state’s first civilian governor, exists to raise a generation of ethical and capable young leaders. Its fellows are drawn from across professions, sectors and ethnicities, and shaped through a fellowship facilitated by the Africa Leadership Initiative, West Africa (ALI WA), whose work on values and principled leadership has become a quiet engine behind some of the country’s most thoughtful emerging talent.

It was into this gathering that Mrs Oni brought not a corporate address, but a conversation. Honest, personal and at times disarming, she spoke about the philosophies that have carried her through a career spanning more than three decades, the setbacks she has had to surmount, and the values that opened doors she never expected to walk through.

She gave them a framework to hold on to. She called it THRIVE.
The six principles
T — Take ownership of your relationships. Leadership, she argued, begins with the deliberate stewardship of the people around you. Relationships are not incidental to a career. They are infrastructure.
H — Honour God. She spoke openly about faith as a steadying force, an anchor that keeps ambition tethered to something larger than the self.
R — Recharge and refresh. Mental and physical health, she insisted, are not luxuries to be deferred until the work is done. Leaders who neglect their own wellbeing eventually have less to give.
I — Invest in your growth. Continuous and heavy investment in personal development is, in her telling, the price of staying relevant. The learning never ends.
V — Value your work. She pressed the fellows on identity and brand. What do you stand for? Do you create value? Who, in truth, are you? The questions were not rhetorical.
E — Embrace setbacks. Failure, she said, is not the opposite of progress but a part of it. The leaders who endure are the ones who learn to metabolise disappointment rather than be defeated by it.

The people behind the leader
If one theme threaded the entire conversation, it was relationships. Mrs Oni was candid that she did not arrive at the top of Nigerian banking alone. She credited the steady support of family, her parents and her husband, alongside the mentors, friends, coaches and sponsors who shaped her at different stages.

She drew a sharp and useful distinction between a mentor and a coach, two roles often conflated and rarely understood, and she traced much of her progress back to a foundation of Nigerian cultural values: hard work, honesty and integrity, courtesy and respect. These, she told the fellows, are not relics. They are the very qualities that have earned her trust and opened doors throughout her journey.

“You need people,” was the message, delivered without sentiment. Relationships, she explained, must be managed and nurtured with the same seriousness one brings to any other discipline. Time must be managed with equal care.

On believing, and risking
Perhaps the most resonant moment came when Mrs Oni spoke about self-belief. She admitted that becoming the MD/CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, Sierra Leone, did not cross her mind – not because she was unqualified, but because she didn’t think she would get it. Encouraged by her husband, she applied anyway, and she got it!

That appointment would later see her make history as the first woman to lead a Standard Chartered Bank operation in her market.

The Union Bank of Nigeria appointment told a similar story. She had not even known the position existed after the CBN’s intervention. It came to her through relationships; through the quiet networks of people who knew her work and recommended her name while she was unaware in faraway Sierra Leone.

The lesson she left with the fellows was unambiguous. Believe in yourself. Take the risk. Put in for the thing you are not yet certain you deserve, because the opportunity you are waiting for may be one you cannot see, reaching you through someone you have not yet met.

Why this matters
Engagements of this kind are easy to underestimate. They produce no headlines about balance sheets and no immediate line on a financial statement. Yet they speak to something Union Bank has long understood: that institutions endure when they invest in people, and that leadership is built one honest conversation at a time.

Credit is due to the Africa Leadership Initiative, West Africa, whose facilitation of the Lateef Jakande Leadership Academy continues to shape young Nigerians of real promise, and to the Academy itself for the rigour of a process that turned 25,000 hopefuls into 30 fellows ready to lead.

For Yetunde B. Oni, the afternoon was less about what she has achieved than about what she was willing to give: her time, her story and her counsel, offered freely to those coming after her. It is, in the end, what the best leaders do. They light the path for the next generation, and they THRIVE.