Germany’s federal parliament, the Bundestag, has passed a bill to reform the Skilled Workers Immigration Act into law. The MPs of the federal governing coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP voted almost unanimously in favour of the draft law on Friday. The opposition parties, the CDU/CSU and the far-right AfD, voted against the bill while the left-leaning Linke abstained. The …

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has invited David Olatokunbo Alaba to invest in Nigeria, the homeland of the Austrian international footballer’s father. The Nigerian leader made the plea when he addressed Nigerians in Paris on Thursday in his first formal engagement with the diaspora. Asiwaju Tinubu, who is in the French capital to attend the Global Financing Pact Summit convened by …

Widely regarded as ‘the Oscars of the aviation industry’, the World Airline Awards have been presented for the 24th time at the Paris Air Show, taking place from June 19 to 25 in the French capital. The annual global ranking of airlines, organised by Skytrax, is eagerly anticipated each year, even though three airlines – Qatar, Singapore and Emirates, have …

Kenako Afrika-Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. And it’s doing it in a big style! In addition to its activities on Berlin’s Alexanderplatz, its traditional venue, from 20 to 30 July, there will also be a Kenako Kids Festival, organised in cooperation with FEZ Berlin, the largest non-profit child, youth and family centre in Europe. Kenako Kids at FEZ-Berlin, …

Each year on 20 June, the world marks World Refugee Day, to draw attention to the plight of millions of people who have been forced to flee war, violence and persecution and to the international obligations under the United Nations 1951 Geneva Convention on the Protection of Refugees. In the face of the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since World …

The German chapter of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) has elected a new executive committee. The election was part of the body’s annual general meeting, which took place virtually on Saturday, 17 June. Dr (Engr) Moses Kolade Ogun was elected with 83% of the votes cast to lead NIDO Germany as President for the next two years. He replaced …

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced that its “Naira 4 Dollar” remittance scheme will end on 30 June 2023. The policy, which was introduced in March 2021 to encourage the inflow of foreign currency, will no longer be in operation as from 1 July, it said. Under the scheme, the CBN pays out a reward of N5 for …

The Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) Germany e.V. will hold its annual general meeting (AGM) virtually on 17 June in Berlin. The event will also feature the election of a new Executive Committee to run the affairs of the group, which is the umbrella body for Nigerians living in Germany, for the next two years. Originally planned as a hybrid …

Five years after the release of ‘Luyando’, Zimbabwe’s most celebrated musical export have returned with their long-awaited follow-up album ‘Tusona: Tracings in the Sand’, released on 7 July by Munich-based Outhere records. Like anywhere in the world Africa’s musical output has become more and more producer based. Mokoomba, however, are the living proof that Africa’s great guitar band heritage is …

As a measure against the shortage of skilled workers in Germany, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Svenja Schulze (SPD) wants to focus more on immigration. “In the search for skilled workers, we should pay more attention to developing countries,” Schulze told the Funke Mediengruppe. Many of these countries face the challenge of creating enough jobs for their young, …