Buckingham palace has officially announced that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are to completely give up Royal life after a 'Megxit' deal was sealed following their shock decision last week to quit their Royal roles and be financially independent.

This means Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle will no longer use their HRH titles

Prince Harry, the grandson of Queen Elizabeth, and his wife Meghan Markle recently announced that they will be stepping down as senior members of the Royal family saying the decision came after several months of reflection and internal discussions and it will enable them work to become financially independent.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle also disclosed that they will be splitting their time between Britain and Canada, the North American country expected to be their second home.

The Queen of England, who has been holding meetings with her son Prince Charles and Prince Harry ever since Harry and Meghan disclosed on social media their plans to stop Royal duties, released a letter on Saturday stating that Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved by members of my family.'

The Queen said in a statement: 'Following many months of conversations and more recent discussions, I am pleased that together we have found a constructive and supportive way forward for my grandson and his family. Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved members of my family.'

As part of the deal between Buckingham palace and Harry/Meghan, they will repay the £2.4m spent on renovating their Frogmore cottage home .

Buckingham Palace also said under the new arrangement agreed with Harry and Meghan they are 'required to step back from royal duties' and will no longer receive public funds for royal duties, adding: 'This new model will take effect in the Spring of 2020.'

The couple, who will be known as Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, will stop carrying out royal duties from the spring. The announcement marks the conclusion of talks about their future after days of wrangling with senior members of the family and royal aides to thrash out a deal.

This means Harry and Meghan are now free to pursue an independent life in North America where they can set their own agenda and make money how they choose. However, they have pledged to 'uphold the Queen's values'

Prince Harry, who has been in the UK since this week while his wife Meghan is still in Canada looking for a new house, had to stay back in England and delay flying back to Canada because he is expected to continue talks on Monday, after negotiations with the Palace this week over his future, didn't bring any positive results.

The Duke and Duchess' new website sussexroyal.com has been updated following the Queen's statement, saying: 'In line with the statement by Her Majesty The Queen, information on the roles and work of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be updated on this website in due course.' 

The change means Harry, who served a decade in the British Army, will give up his military patronages and his role as Commonwealth Youth Ambassador, but will remain a prince and sixth in line to the British throne.

The couple will no longer use the titles His Royal Highness and Her Royal Highness, but they are not being stripped of them.

Vladimir Putin in his annual state of the nation address delivered on Thursday in Moscow announced new shocking reforms and sweeping changes to Russia's constitution that will ensure he remains in power for the rest of his life.

On Wednesday Russia's prime minister Medvedev resigned after being told by Putin of his plans, and on Thursday during a live address on national TV, said he was sure the Russian people will support his sweeping changes to the country's constitution that could keep him in power beyond 2024 long after his presidential term ends.

In his address, Putin described how power would be shifted from the presidency to parliament and the state council and comes as the Russian parliament backed his surprise choice for a new prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin.

'Of course these are very serious changes to the political system,' Putin said in his address as he promised a referendum on the plans.

'It would increase the role and significance of the country's parliament ... of parliamentary parties, and the independence and responsibility of the prime minister.'

'I'm sure that Russian people will support me'

In his speech, Putin also called for the power of the State Council, an advisory body, to be increased and enshrined in the constitution ensuring he rules for life just like China's leader Xi Jinping.

Google on Thursday January 16, joined the likes of Apple, Microsoft and Amazon as a $1 trillion company.

The search engine company was able to record the milestone achievement after its parent company, Alphabet ended the day’s trading at $1,451.70 per share, up 0.87 percent.

With Thursday's achievement, Google became the fourth S&P 500 component to top the lofty level. Business Insider reported that while Apple and Microsoft are still valued at more than $1 trillion, Amazon which was the second US firm to ever hit the $1 trillion level back in September 2018 has since fallen below the number.

This is the first time that three American companies are worth at least $1 trillion at the same time. The most valuable company on the planet is still oil giant Saudi Aramco, who went public last month at a valuation of $2 trillion and is currently worth around $1.8 trillion.

Alphabet's record market valuation came after a historic change in leadership at the company. Recall that Sundar Pichai became the CEO of both Google and Alphabet after co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced that they would step back from the company which they founded in 1998.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed on Thursday January 16 announced that the increased Value Added Tax (VAT) from 5 to 7.5 percent will take effect from February 1, 2020.

Zainab who disclosed this at the inauguration of the Chairman and Board members of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in Abuja, said the Finance Act which President Buhari signed into law made provisions to support Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and soften the effect of the VAT rate increase on companies in a bid to increase employment and boost the economy.

She said;

“I want to state that one of the key provisions in the finance act 2019 that have elicited a lot of interest is the increase in the VAT from 5% to 7.5%, and to remind us all, the finance bill has made copious provisions to improve the ease of doing business; so we have a category of companies that have turnover of 25% and below that will be paying no taxes at all, and also we have reduced tax rates for companies that have turnover from 25 million to 100 million from 30% to 30%.

“The essence of this is to encourage formalization of businesses from the informal sector and also to encourage businesses to grow and become more productive, thereby increasing employment and also meeting the commitment of Mr. President to remove 100 million Nigerians out of poverty over the next 10 years.

“The effective date for the VAT increase from 5-7.5% will be the 1st of February 2020."

Undefeated Heavyweight boxer Tyson Fury has lashed out at IBF, WBA, WBO, IBO world champion Anthony Joshua.

Joshua, who beat Andy Ruiz Jr in December to reclaim the world heavyweight titles, made a public offer to assist Fury as a sparring partner so as to prepare him for his upcoming rematch with WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder which takes place on February 22 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Fury upon hearing Joshua's offer of training with him, quickly accepted it publicly- but since then there has been no word from Joshua or his managers.

Seeing that both fighters haven't fought each other before, and that they are both British and could make a lot of cash from fighting each other in the UK, the sparring proposal from Joshua seemed very strange, as fans would rather want to see a real fight than see both fighters train. But Fury accepted the offer and has now come out to criticize the British-Nigerian boxer.

"They offered hot air as usual. I accepted, they haven’t turned up, take what you want from it, that’s it.

'Joshua’s nothing like Wilder but I’d like to bring him over and give him a good hiding anyway. But they’re not going to come, let’s face it," Fury told BoxingScene.com.

"They’re not going to come over and get beat up in sparring. It was just a stupid offer at a stupid time - wasn’t thinking, I accepted straight away, me being me, and that was it. I don’t read into it too much, he ain’t coming, simple as. He ain’t got the bollocks to turn up and spar, end of."

Fury also criticized for the first time, Joshua's win over Andy Ruiz in their Saudi Arabia rematch.

"I don’t think it was a great performance. I thought it was a hit and run, sh-thouse style, coward. Every time he stood still Andy rocked him to his boots. But it was what it was. He got the decision, fair play. On to the next one," Fury said.

Eminem on Friday morning shocked the music world by unexpectedly dropping a new album 'Music to be murdered by' but that wasn't the only reason he became the number one trending topic on Twitter Worldwide.

Eminem, 47, in one of the new songs, titled ‘Unaccomodating’, from the album made light of the tragic bombing at Ariana Grande’s Manchester concert in 2017 which took over 20 lives and made Ariana suffer from Post Traumatic Stress disorder (PTSD).

Within the lyrics of the song, Eminem raps, “But I’m contemplating yelling ‘Bombs away’ on the game/Like I’m outside of an Ariana Grande concert waiting”

This didn't go down well with fans who criticized him for comparing himself to the bomber and one fan immediately took to Twitter to write;

 “Eminem literally just made a joke about the manchester bombing at ariana grande’s concert… that is just so f**king sick, y’all better not give this man any attention. people literally lost their lives, and you’re going to release music and try to make a profit off of them?”

GTBank Plc, Zenith bank have been rated best among others in 2019. The latest Nigeria Banking Industry Expectation Survey released by KPMG disclosed.

According to the report of the multinational professional services firm obtained, the two top the chart across the three segments captured in the year. The segments are retail, Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and wholesale banking.

KPMG stated that the banks had never been under pressure to perform as competition heightened to improve on customer service experience. The survey covered 25,466 retail customers, 3,045 SMEs and 369 commercial/corporate organisations.

Best banks in the retail segment

KPMG stated that there had been a two-year decline in overall customer experience (CX) performance in the retail segment with nearly all the rated banks falling below the industry average.

Retail banking refers to the provision of financial services by banks to individual customers (private individuals), rather than corporations, local and central governments, and other banks.

Under the retail segment, GTBank (74.2), Zenith (73.4), Access (72.1), Sterling (72.1) and First Bank (71.8) were rated the best banks in terms of customer experience in 2019.

Sterling Bank, First Bank, and UBA were the biggest movers in 2019, coming 3rd, 5th, and 7th respectively.

According to the report, two banks recorded actual increases in their CX scores, and this reflects higher customer expectations and rapidly evolving customer expectations.

SMEs Segment

Under the SME segment, there were lower levels of overall satisfaction for SMEs, as analysis of performance in the segment discloses some levels of dynamism.

The top 5 performers in the SME segment in 2019 are FCMB (74.4), Fidelity Bank (74.2), Access (73.7), Zenith (73.3) and Ecobank (73.3).

According to the report, Fidelity Bank and Ecobank made the greatest improvements as both banks moved up more than four places into the top five banks.

Wholesale/Corporate

Wholesale banking refers to banking services that are offered just to other institutional customers, corporate organizations with strong balance sheets, government agencies and so on. In the wholesale segment, there was also a dip in overall CX scores compared to the previous year’s performance.

Meanwhile, Citibank, GTBank, Standard Chartered, Zenith, and Access Bank ranked top in the segment.

A further breakdown shows that Citibank and GTBank maintain top spots from the previous year, with new entrants (Standard Chartered and Access Bank) making top five positions.

Banks rank high in integrity

The survey was conducted based on over 3 million detailed customer evaluations, anchored on six pillars of experience excellence. The six pillars include personalisation, resolution, integrity, time and effort, expectations and empathy.

According to KPMG, leading banks demonstrated mastery of these pillars and were outstanding at all of them. However, when assessed, integrity (defined as being trustworthy and engendering trust) is the pillar where Nigerian banks performed the strongest.

Personalisation (bank’s ability to use individualised attention to drive an emotional connection with the customer) falls behind other pillars.

Irish UFC star, Conor McGregor has revealed talks to fight Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao are ongoing.

McGregor is currently preparing for his UFC 246 showdown with Donald Cerrone in Las Vegas on Saturday night, and he is expected to rake in a staggering $80 million from the fight.

The 31-year-old professional mixed martial artist is wasting no time as he is already making plans for his next fight which could be a boxing bout with Manny Pacquiao.

The Manny Pacquiao talks have been ongoing,' said McGregor. 'An aspiration of mine now is to win a boxing world title.

'I think that would be a phenomenal feather in the cap and something I look to achieve in the future. And something I will achieve.'

In August 2017, McGregor was defeated in his first boxing bout by Floyd Mayweather, who flawed him by TKO in the 10th round of their Vegas contest.

'I would love that Floyd rematch,' McGregor added. 'I thought I did, for what was in front of me, very well.

Spanish giants, Real Madrid have reportedly agreed a €55million (£47m) deal with Ajax to sign highly-rated Dutch midfielder, Donny van de Beek.

The Ajax star has been one of Europe's most wanted midfielders following his impressive performances at the Champions League last season.

According to Marca, a deal has been agreed to take the 22-year-old to the Bernabeu but he will not arrive until next summer. It was also claimed in the report that at least one current Real player will be shown the door to make space for Van de Beek.

Van de Beek's impending arrival in Spain comes as a blow to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who wanted to sign the Dutchman for Manchester United.

The update comes after Van de Beek revealed he was not going to leave Ajax anytime soon.

Speaking during Ajax's mid-season training camp in Qatar, the playmaker said: 'I have said it before and I will say it again: I will remain at Ajax this season. And maybe next season as well.

'These reports about Real Madrid or Manchester United are a good sign, but it is not important now. I've said I will stay at Ajax and I will do so, 100 percent.'

The United Nations on Thursday January 16, decried an alleged increased number of checkpoints manned by Boko Haram terrorists in the North-East region of Nigeria.

According to the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria Mr Edward Kallon, the increased number of checkpoints manned by insurgents have exposed more aid workers to attacks.

He said;

“I am extremely worried by the increasingly insecure environment that humanitarians are working in to provide urgent and vital assistance to civilians affected by the crisis.

“The humanitarian community is troubled by the increased trend in vehicular checkpoints set up by non-state armed groups along main supply routes in the states of Borno and Yobe.

“These checkpoints expose civilians and humanitarians to heightened risks of being killed or abducted.”

Kallon also disclosed that a total of 12 humanitarian workers were killed last year, which is double the number recorded in 2018

The UN humanitarian cordinator who insisted that insecurity has increased in the North-East region and has led to attacks on aid workers, called on the Nigerian government to intensify its effort in protecting aid workers and residents of the state to avoid gross violations of international laws.

President Buhari will on Friday January 17th, depart Nigeria for London where he will be attending the inaugural UK-Africa Investment Summit holding on Monday January 20th.

A statement released by Femi Adesina, the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, said the summit would be hosted by the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

According to the organisers, the event is expected to bring together African leaders, international business chief executives and heads of international organisations “to create new partnerships that will deliver more investments and jobs” to the benefit of people and businesses in African countries and the United Kingdom.

”Apart from highlighting new perspectives on UK-Africa Partnership for Prosperity, issues of Sustainable Finance and Infrastructure; Trade and Investment; Future African Growth Sectors and Clean Energy and Climate, are expected to dominate presentations and discussions during the Summit.

”With the expected take-off of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in mid-2020, the London investment summit will provide Nigeria with the opportunity to project itself as a leading investment destination for new industries.

”In addition, the summit will deepen Nigeria-United Kingdom investment ties post-Brexit given that Africa currently represents just two per cent of British trade activity, with Nigeria accounting for only 10 per cent of that total,” Adesina stated.

He further disclosed that the Nigerian delegation to the investment meeting will showcase what the Federal Government had done through policies and legislations to improve the investment and business climate in the country.

While in the United Kingdom, according to the presidential aide, Buhari will meet with the Head of the Commonwealth, Prince Charles in Glasgow, Scotland.

The stock market bounced back on Thursday to retain its N15 trillion mark as the All-share index moved up by 1% to close at 29,352.13 index points having traded in 387.16 million units of shares at N5.02 billion across 4,654 deals.

Access Bank, Zenith Bank, Lafarge, UBA and Morison Industries top the list of actively traded stocks on the bourse. The equity market capitalisation closed at N15.14 trillion.

Top trades by volume

Access Bank was the most active stock on the stock market trading 74.64 million units of shares valued at N770.93 million across 657 deals. Zenith Bank followed having recorded trades in 71.83 million units of shares at N1.56 billion across 638 deals.

Lafarge traded 40.73 million units of shares at N629.9 million across 288 deals with UBA trading 37.25 million shares at N327.99 million across 375 deals while Morison industries traded in 35 million units of shares at N15.76 million in 2 deals to cap the list.

Top gainers

Livestock Feed performed positively with 10% gain to close at N0.55 hereby leading the gainers’ chart, followed by Forte Oil which gained 8.42% to close at N20.6 and Lafarge with 6.33% gain to close at N15.95.

Jaiz Bank also made the ranks of gainers with a 6.25% increase to close at N0.68 while First Bank Holdings rounded off the list with a 5.71% gain to close at N7.4.

Top losers

BOC Gas stocks performed the least on the bourse today as it dipped 10% to close at N4.95 followed by Caverton Offshore, which lost 9.97% to close at N2.62. Cornerstone Insurance lost 6.9% to close at N0.54 as UACN recorded 6.54% decline to close at N10 while BUA Cement lost 5.26% to close at N36.

Zenith Bank Plc has re-instated its commitment to the development of sports in Nigeria with a pledge to maintain its leadership position in this direction.

The bank’s Group Managing Director, Ebenezer Onyeagwu, who stated this, stressed that in the New Year (2020), the outfit would continue in its great support for sports in the country.

Onyeagwu who laid more emphasis on the fact that the bank was proud of the role played in the development of sports in Nigeria over the years, especially in the year 2019.

The bank which is in its 16th year of sponsorship of the Women’s National Basketball league, 5th year of the Delta State Principals’ Cup for Secondary Schools is also in partnership with the football federation with the annual NFF/Future Eagles competition for U-13 and U-15. Zenith Bank also sponsors swimming in Ikoyi Club 1938 and table tennis at the Lagos Country Club.

The bank’s GMD said: “We are happy with our sports projects last year and we hope to do this again this New Year and improve on all the programmes.

“Talking the youths to the next level is one of our objectives just as we also support federations like football and basketball in an attempt to catch talents young in the country.

“We are going ahead with all our sporting events this year and we expect the competitions to be better in all aspects.”

Air Warriors of Abuja defeated MFM Queens to emerge the 2019 Zenith Bank Women Basketball League Champions at the sports hall of the National Stadium last October.

In the Zenith/Delta Principals Cup competition, School of Commerce Warri emerged 2019 winners after defeating Zappa Mixed School, Asaba 2-1 at the Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba.

It could be recalled that some of the products of Zenith Bank in the U-13, U-15 Future Eagles competition represented Nigeria at continental and global stage in the U-17 cadre.

In line with listing regulations of the Nigerian Stock Exchange for quoted companies, Zenith Bank Plc hereby informs its shareholders, The Nigerian Stock Exchange and the investing public that the Board of Directors of the Bank is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, January 28, 2020, to consider the Group's Audited Financial Statements for the financial year ended December 31, 2019.

Consequently and in line with the post-listing requirements of the Nigerian Stock Exchange for quoted companies, Zenith Bank Plc hereby declare the commencement of the closed period for trading in the bank's shares from January 3, 2020 in respect of the Audited Financial Statements for the financial year ended December 31, 2019. The closed period will run until 24 hours after the audited account is released to the public.

Accordingly, no Director, employee, person discharging managerial responsibility and adviser of the Company and their connected persons may directly or indirectly deal in the shares of the Company in any manner during the closed period.