SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
Try "researchers"
Home Blog Page 3463

Ebonyi Governor preaches unity among political parties

Dominica Ijeoma Nwabufo
-
0

Ebonyi State Governor, Engr David Umahi said there should be unity among Ebonyi people irrespective of their political affiliations.

Governor Umahi stated this during the State All Progressive Congress APC meeting  at the party Secretariat, Akanu Ibiam International Conference Center.

Umahi maintained that with unity and love among people, the rancor and acrimony normally experienced in Political activities would drastically reduce.

“People create enemies because of one political party or the other which should not be. We should see leadership beyond political parties”

“We should rather come together to make progress instead of fighting one another because of political parties”. Umahi said.

He called on the stakeholders in the State to take home this massage of oneness.

“My movement from Peoples Democratic Party PDP to All Progressive Congress APC is a way to unite Ebonyi people so as to connect to the national grid of Nigeria politics. You cannot be in an opposition party and expect much from the Central Government”

“As I talk to you, the Nigeria President Mohammadu Buhari has approved that 30 persons should be nominated from Ebonyi State for appointment into Federal Boards. That is the one of the benefits we can derive from being United and queue into national ruling Party”, he added.

He called on all Nigerians to be one and avoid politics of rancor, bitterness and acrimony.

The immediate past Governor of the State, Chief Martin Elechi advised the people of the State to always obey political party’s Constitution as that would increase the internal democracy in various Political patties.

He called on people to always vote according to their conscience and based on who can represent them effectively.

The State caretaker Chairman of All Progressive Congress APC, Mr Stanley Okoroemegha thanked the stakeholders and all who responded to the call for the meeting despite the short period with which the announcement was made.

He promised to work hard to move the party to the next level and to unite all who have been offended in one way or the other.

On his part, one the stakeholders in the State, who is also a business Mogul, Mr Mike Okoro appreciated Umahi for his giant stride in the development of the State.

 

Dominica Nwabufo

Over 100,000mt of certified seeds available for 2021 cropping season

Lateefat Ibrahim
-
0

The National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) in Nigeria says One hundred thousand and twenty-three point fifty-three metric tons (100,023.53MT) of certified seeds is in stock with seed companies in the country.

This is to ensure availability of seeds for farmers in the coming 2021 cropping season.

The Director General of the Council Dr. Philip Ojo announced this at a media briefing organised by the council to reel out achievements of the seed subsector in 2020 and seed strategy for 2021 in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

Dr. Ojo said, despite COVID-19 in the country, the council has been able to sustain seed productivity in the country to ensure  that farmers get certified seeds to boost food production in the country.

“I am happy to announce to you therefore that even with the pandemic in the year 2020; we were able to sustain national productivity of seeds. The seeds companies under NASC Watch currently have in stock ready for planting in the coming cropping season, 100,023.53 metric tons of certified seeds of rice, maize, sorghum, soya bean, cowpea, millet, groundnut, wheat, sesame and potato”

“This seeds will be available for farmers to buy and plant instead of their own low quality seeds. Buying and planting these good seeds will ensure that farmers get better yield during this trying period” he added

Certification of seed companies

Also in 2020 following the recertification of seed companies accredited by the council, the council delisted and withdrew the operational license of one hundred and three (103) seed entrepreneurs out of the three hundred and fourteen (314) seed enterprises in Nigeria.

This action, Dr. Ojo said was necessary to strengthen the seed industry and ensure that only serious minded entrepreneurs with genuine seed industry vision and farmers interest have the mandate of the NASC and are eligible to participate in seed related activities of government projects, donors  and aid related programs.

Dr. Ojo said in the year in review, NASC equally introduced the National Seed Tracker (NST), a Web application for enhanced operational efficiency of seed company registration and real time tracking of quality assurance processes, a technology he noted was first deployed by the NASC in partnership with IITA in Nigeria and now being exported to other African countries like Tanzania and Congo DR.

On the seed authentication, Dr. Ojo called on farmers to patronise only seeds affixed with the NASC SEEDCODEX Tags which is the mark of quality for seeds in Nigeria

“The SEEDCODEX tags as you are aware is the output of the NASC electronic seed verification and authentication system that enhances the efficiency of our seed certification and quality assurance scheme which we put in place to prevent seed adulteration by unscrupulous seed merchants,” he stated.

He informed farmers that all certified seeds packed in Nigeria must carry the  authentication tags with code affixed on them for farmers to send to a dedicated number to be able to verify instantly.

Lateefah Ibrahim

2021 Strategy: Nigerian Seed Regulator to go Digital

Mercy Chukwudiebere
-
0

The National Agricultural Seed Council is set to digitise its activities in 2021 to enhance the performance of the council and prompt response to the need of farmers and seed industries in Nigeria.

The Director General of the Council Dr. Philip Ojo made the disclosure in Abuja, at a media briefing organised by the council to reel out the seed strategy for 2021 .

Dr. Ojo said the council would be working to boost seed production by further enhancing its capacity in 2021.

He said; ”part of the things the council would be working to achieve in 2021 is the passage of the Plant Variety Protection Bill (PVP) which is currently at the National Assembly  and the council would collaborate with the Ministry of Agriculture and other relevant stakeholders to achieve this.”

According to the Director General, the council would be adopting new technology to institutionalize monitoring of varietal adoption in the country.

“This year, we are coming with a new innovation to track adoption of varieties in the country. With the support of BMGF we will join Ethiopia and Tanzania to make effort towards institutionalising the monitoring of varietal adoption, turnover and performance using genotyping (DNA Finger-Printing) to trace effectiveness of varieties released and adopted by farmers,” Dr Ojo  stated.

Crop descriptors
He said that ”the council would continue to develop crop descriptors to support the council’s field staff and other stakeholders in the identification of the Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability traits of both released varieties and other varieties of common knowledge which will further help our seed sector development.”

Dr. Ojo further sent out a warning to unscrupulous seed merchants in the country to desist from any act that affects seed production negatively.

He added that the council is stepping its monitoring and surveillance of seed activities in 2021, to ensure farmers get access to only quality certified seeds in the country.

 

 

Mercy Chukwudiebere

 

NPA begins Electronic truck call up system

Mercy Chukwudiebere
-
0

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has announced the commencement of Electronic Truck call-up system as part of efforts aimed at finding a permanent solution to the problem of truck congestion around Apapa and its environs. 

A statement issued by the Assistant General Manager, Corporate &Strategic Communications of the Authority, Ibrahim Nasiru, says the system is designed for the management of truck movement and access to and from the Lagos Ports Complex and the Tin Can Island Ports, Apapa, Lagos State.

The statement reads; “All trucks doing business at the ports will be required to park at the approved truck parks until they are called up into the port through the E-electronic app. 

“The E- electric app will be responsible for the scheduling, entry and exit of all trucks into the ports with effect from February 27. 

“Therefore, all transporters, trucks owners and truck drivers will be required to download the E- electronic App from Google play store or sign up at http://eto.ttp.com.ng before the commencement date to enable them register accordingly.”  

“In addition to this, cargo owners should please note that empty containers can only be returned to the ports through the approved holding bays of shipping companies using the Platform. It is the responsibility of the shipping company to move empty containers from their holding bay to the Port. All cargo owners have to do is drop their empty containers at the holding bay of the shipping company. The shipping company will then make the necessary bookings on the E- electronic platform to return empty containers to the Port.

“The management of the NPA solicits the cooperation of transporters, truck drivers, cargo owners, clearing agents shipping companies and all port users in the implementation of the project, which will bring order and sanity to the ports access roads.

“Non-compliance to the use of electronic and its guidelines will result in denial of access into the Ports, impounding of trucks and withdrawal of registration/operating license,“ it said.

 

Mercy Chukwudiebere

Youth ICT and skills acquisition project begins in Enugu

Mercy Chukwudiebere
-
0

The Nigerian Bottling Company, NBC, says it has spearheaded the launch of the Nigerian Business League for youth, an initiative which has witnessed the sign-in of a couple of private sector organisations to a concerted and collaborative efforts to tackle youths’ skills and employability gap.

The Director, Public Affairs and Communications of the Nigerian Bottling Company, NBC, Mr. Ekuma Eze made this known in Enugu while flagging off the youth ICT and Skills Acquisition Project, YISAP, which is being carried out in collaboration with the Baywood Foundation.

Mr. Eze, said that the Coca-cola system, comprising Coca-cola and the Nigerian Bottling Company, through the Coca-cola Foundation, has demonstrated it’s commitment to the well-being of Nigerian youths through the provision of funds for the Enugu Youth ICT and Skills Acquisition Project.

He enjoined the would-be beneficiaries of the current scheme, not to take this opportunity for granted and request that they devote, wholeheartedly, to the training schedules.

“As an organisation, we believe that the future of this country belongs to the youth. If we do not give them the opportunity to develop, many years down the line, it would tell on the progress of the entire nation,” Mr. Eze explained.

He was represented by the Commercial Manager of NBC, Mr. Ademola Yusuf at the event.

The  Country Director of Baywood Foundation, Mr. Ojielo Chukwudi expressed gratitude to the Enugu State SME Center, for the commitment to provide support training for beneficiaries of the YISAP Project on access to loans, grants and government funds where available.

“These supports are huge and we are grateful to you. After today’s event, our project team will officially commence programme activities in the various LGAs and we hope that they will continue to enjoy your supports for the success of the YISAP project. The YISAP project will begin in Udi immediately, followed by Igboeze-North and finally Enugu East will come towards late 3rd quarter of 2021,” Mr Chukwudi said.

He said; ”The YISAP project brings hope and opportunities for young people. With the increasing demography of Nigerian youth population and the correlating rate of unemployment, dwindling economies, and the recession caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the YISAP project is a beam of light to cushion the effect of these challenges towards addressing them and resuscitating hopes to becoming economically independent .

“Today we have come to witness the official opening ceremony and launch of the Youth ICT and Skills Acquisition Project (YISAP). Last week we announced that Baywood Foundation has received a Grant Award from the Coca-Cola Foundation to implement the YISAP Project in Enugu. Personally, I am very excited about this project and I am confident that with the existing programme designs, the YISAP project will drive impressive impacts and cause improved livelihood for the beneficiaries.”

The YISAP Project will be implemented in Udi, Igboeze-North and Enugu East LGAs, selected across the three senatorial zones in Enugu State, and is designed to empower 600 indigent youths, especially young women, including Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), between the ages of 18-35 years, with relevant entrepreneurship and vocational skills such as ICT, Photography, Photo and Video Editing, Barbing, Digital Marketing, Graphics Design, Confectionaries, Making of House hold essentials as well as homemade consumables, fascinator, hats and other small scale enterprise.

The YISAP Project will also provide seed funds to 100 persons to help them start-up their businesses. There will be support systems to provide mentorship on business branding and packaging, business registration as well as empower beneficiaries with skills of business and financial management.

Since its inception in 2009, Baywood Foundation has supported communities and populations at negative edges of household income, unemployment, marginalisation and exclusion. They have implemented various projects and interventions across the country in areas of Health, Education, Peace and Security and most importantly, youth development.

As a Non-Governmental Organisation, Baywood Foundation aims to complement government efforts through its projects.

 

Mercy Chukwudiebere

Nigeria confirms 2314 new cases of Covid-19

Mercy Chukwudiebere
-
0

Nigeria has recorded 2314  new cases of Covid-19, bringing the total number of the confirmed cases to 118,969 with 94,877 Discharged and 1, 497 Deaths.

The Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, made the confirmation via its official Twitter page @NCDCgov.

Below is the breakdown of the new cases as recorded by the NCDC;

Selling public assets, will boost Nigeria’s economy – Finance Minister

Nnenna Okoronkwo
-
0

The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, on Friday, said the Federal Government’s planned sale of public assets will benefit Nigerians and help to boost the economy.

The minister made the statement in a televised interview where she stated that some government assets were currently moribund and would provide little or no value to Nigerians in their current state.

“There are some government assets that are dead that can be sold to the private sector to be reactivated and put to use for the benefit of Nigerians.”

 “So we are looking at different – and I am a member of the National Council on Privatisation – we are looking at different categories of government assets that government has not been able to manage, that is lying down and in some cases even completely rundown, to cede them off to the private sector.”

On January 12, the minister had revealed the government’s plan to sell public assets to partly finance the N13.58 trillion 2021 budget.

She further stressed that the “intention is not just funding the budget, it is to reactivate these assets and hand it over and have them bring contributions to the growth in the economy.”

Adding that the Bureau of Public Enterprises will begin to coordinate with other arms of government on the asset sales in the first quarter of the year.

” . . . in the last week of December, we had a meeting of the National Council on Privatisation where we approved the annual work plan, the 2021 work plan, for that Bureau of Public Enterprises.

“And I guess it is in this first quarter that the BPE will now be engaging the Senate committee and other committees they work with to say this is our work plan for the year.”

In a statement on Sunday, January 17, the civil society group SERAP had asked the National Assembly to stop the federal government from selling public assets to fund the 2021 budget.

The group said the government should, instead, look to identify areas in the budget to cut, such as salaries and allowances for public officials.

On Monday, Osun State Lawmaker had defended the federal government’s plan to sell public assets to fund the budgets.

“The issue of the sale of assets is not new,” he said during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today. Even in the previous budgets, there have always been other sources of revenue and the sales of assets is one of such.

“ . . . the critical issue we need to look at, is ‘What assets are we selling?’ Some assets are already liabilities, so what are we keeping them for? That is my humble opinion,” the lawmaker added. “You have to tell us which assets we are looking at.”

President Muhammadu Buhari signed the 2021 budget into law in late December after it had been passed by the National Assembly.

About one-third of the budget is devoted to capital expenditure but critics maintain the government hasn’t done enough to curb unnecessary spending, especially around cuts in salaries and allowances for public officials.

With oil revenues still affected by the pandemic, the government has said it will borrow N5.6 trillion from domestic and foreign lenders to fund the budget.

The sale of moribund assets is expected to provide additional funding and the National Arts Theatre and the Tafawa Balewa Square are some assets that could be put up for sale by the government.

Suzan O

 

NPA to launch Electronic Truck call-up app

Nnenna Okoronkwo
-
0

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) announced the launch of Eto, an Electronic Truck call-up system designed for the management of truck movement and access to and from the Lagos Ports Complex and the Tin Can Island Ports, Apapa, Lagos.

The NPA announced this in a social media statement on Friday.

” All trucks doing business at the ports will be required to park at the approved truck parks until they are called up into the port through the Eto app. The Eto app will be responsible for the scheduling, entry & exit of all trucks into the ports with effect from 27th Feb. 2021.”

The NPA urged all truck drivers and owners to download the app or sign up for the system online at http://eto.ttp.com.ng before the commencement date to enable them to register accordingly.

 

“The management of the Authority solicits the cooperation of transporters, truck drivers, cargo owners, clearing agents shipping companies and all port users in the implementation of the project, which will bring order and sanity to the ports access roads,” NPA further stated.

NPA added that refusal to comply with the implantation of Eto will result in denial of access into the ports, impounding of trucks and withdrawal of registration/operating license.

Note that the  Federal Government revealed that the perennial traffic in Apapa and its environs is expected to end within the first quarter of 2021. The Lagos State Government on December 2020 moved to take over from the Presidential Taskforce on Port Decongestion and create a new operational template for the taskforce.

By December 2020 The haulage cost of moving containers from the Tin Can Island Port increased from N1.2 million to N1.8 million in a week.

Police disperse pro-Bobi Wine protesters in Nairobi

Olajumoke Adeleke
-
0

Police on Friday dispersed a crowd from Jeevanjee Gardens in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, as it planned a demonstration to demand Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s resignation.

The officers, who had teargas, confiscated the group’s placards before protest activities began.

The group, including Ugandans living and working in Kenya, intended to march from the park to the Ugandan embassy in Riverside.

They said their main objective was to voice displeasure with Uganda’s recent elections, which they alleged were neither free nor fair.

They claimed that National Unity Platform candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi also known as Bobi Wine, was denied his victory.

Wine has also made this claim and intends to take court action, but President Museveni insists that there was no cheating.

However, one of the protesters and activists, Anthony Muraya said they will regroup and decide their next step.

“We will hold another demonstration next week. This time, we will go above and beyond what the police are asking for,” Muraya said.

Last Thursday, Haki Africa Executive Director Hussein Khalid was arrested alongside other human rights activists while trying to hold a press conference outside Ugandan House to demand democracy in Uganda.

READ ALSO:
Ugandan Bobi Wine remains under house arrest

 

Olajumoke Adeleke

CBN decries continous diaspora remittances in Naira

Nnenna Okoronkwo
-
0

 

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has expressed displeasure over continued diaspora remittances into the country in Naira instead of dollars, by International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) and unlicensed companies, contrary to its directives.

Dr O.S. Nnaji, Director Trade and Exchange Department of CBN, said in a circular, on Friday, that the action contravened the apex bank’s directive that all remittances be paid to beneficiaries in dollars.

The circular, entitled, “Modalities For Payout of Diaspora Remittances”, was posted on the CBN website on Friday.

“Further to our circular titled ‘Receipt of Diaspora Remittances: Additional Operational Guidelines,’  it has come to our notice that some IMTOs and unlicensed companies continue to facilitate diaspora remittances into the country in Naira, “in clear contravention of the Central Bank of Nigeria directive that all remittances be paid to beneficiaries in dollars,” it said.

The circular clarified that only licensed IMTOs were permitted to carry on the business of facilitating Diaspora remittances into Nigeria, stressing that all diaspora remittances must be received by beneficiaries in foreign currency only, whether via cash and/or transfers to domiciliary accounts of recipients.

The CBN said IMTOs are not permitted, under any circumstances, to disburse diaspora remittances in Naira ( either in cash or by electronic transfers) be it through naira remittance settlement accounts, which had been directed to closed, third party accounts or via any other payment platforms within and/or around the Nigeran financial system.

It said that the measures were intended to promote transparency, grow diaspora remittances and significantly improve foreign exchange inflows into Nigeria.

The bank further stated that strict sanctions, including withdrawal of operating licenses, shall be imposed on any individuals and/or institutions found to be aiding, abetting or directly contravening these guidelines.

For unlicensed operators, the CBN said it shall not hesitate to authorize the closure of their accounts in Nigerian banks, including being barred from accessing banking services in Nigeria.

It promises continued monitoring of developments in this regard, adding that it would also issue further guidance as appropriate.

Suzan O

1...3,4623,4633,464...3,652Page 3,463 of 3,652

HEALTH

ENTERTAINMENT & TOURISM

WORLD

NEWS COMMENTARY

NEWS FEATURE

Voice Of Nigeria Mission is “Reflecting Nigerian and African perspectives in our broadcasts, winning and sustaining the attention, respect and goodwill of listeners worldwide, particularly Nigerians and Africans in the Diaspora … making Nigeria’s voice to be heard more positively in the shaping of our world.”

More from CN

Contact

© Voice of Nigeria Broadcasting Service