The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it is collaborating with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to address the sale of substandard drugs in Nigeria. Its Nigeria Country Representative, Dr Wondimagegnehu Alemu said on Saturday while commemorating the World Health Day 2018 in Abuja on Saturday that addressing the sale of substandard drugs in the country was very important WHO was to achieve its target of supporting member states in reaching Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030. He said it was only when Nigeria ensured sale and consumption of genuine medicines to citizens that it would…
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
By Suleiman Okoth The Kenyan government is banking on the production of genetically modified cotton, expected to start in 2018, to generate more than Sh 50 billion in apparel export earnings and create more than 50,000 jobs as part of its economic revival plan. As part of the country’s big four agenda, Kenya aims to increase the manufacturing sector’s share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 15 per cent by 2022, enhance food security, provide universal healthcare to all citizens and provide affordable and decent housing — by constructing at least 500,000 affordable new houses by 2022. Mr Rajeev Arora,…
A farmer, Mr Adolphus Ogbonna has warned that food security may be threatened in Nigeria in the near future because of persistent herdsmen attacks and climate change. Speaking in Lagos on Friday, Ogbonna said the future of agriculture was not looking good, due to recurring attacks on farmers in many parts of the country. Observing that Nigerian farmers were currently contending with an onslaught of bloody attacks by herdsmen, forcing many farmers to avoid going to their farms to stay alive, he added that the problems of farmers had also been compounded by issues relating to climate change, stressing that…
Some ecologists have expressed worry over the dire consequences of car pollutants on the environment, explaining that the profusion of exhaust fumes from vehicles in the environment was responsible for the prevalence of some diseases such as cancer in the country. Speaking on Friday in Lagos, Mr Temitope Ogunweide, an ecologist and founder of CleanEdge Company said that carbon monoxide produced by exhaust fumes from vehicles was the largest contributor to greenhouse gases in the environment. The greenhouse gases trap heat in the lower part of the earth by blocking infrared heat from passing out and studies say the long-term effect of…
A cholera outbreak in overcrowded refugee camps in Uganda has killed 40 people and infected more than 2,000 as health workers rush to stem the spread, aid agencies said. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said 70,000 people from the Democratic Republic of Congo had fled to Uganda this year due to a surge in ethnic violence. The IFRC said many had been infected with cholera as its emergency operations coordinator, Andreas Sandin said the waterborne disease had spread rapidly since mid-February due to poor sanitation and lack of clean water in the. “The risk is…
The IITA-CWMP in collaboration with the Building an Economically Sustainable Integrated Seed System for Cassava (BASICS) and Catholic Relief Services have trained 35 extension service providers on weed management in cassava farming systems in Makurdi, Benue state. The one-day training, which provided the service providers with new information on integrated weed management in cassava farming systems also gave them confidence to adopt modern systems. “After a day’s training on weed management in cassava farming systems, extension service providers have resolved to adopt and disseminate best bet weed management practices including appropriate spacing, tillage, use of improved varieties, and the use of…
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on Wednesday launched campaign against Cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM). The NEMA Director-General, Mustapha Maihaja represented by the Head of NEMA, Abuja Operations, Mr Bitrus Samuel said at the launch in Abuja that the agency had the mandate to respond to strategic disasters in Nigeria. Observing that CSM epidemics was common in sub-Saharan Africa, he added that the epidemic was more intense during the dry season, pointing out that 2017 recorded the highest suspected cases with 8,057 as at April 2017. According to him, the objective of the conference is…
The Programme Director of Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI), Dr Stefan Kachelriess-Matthess said that its second phase was aimed at enhancing rice production and farmers’ income in West and East Africa. Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday, he said that CARI had been operation in Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Tanzania since 2013, adding that its first phase would wind up in June this year. Kachelriess-Matthess added that the first phase was adjudged as successful in all the five criteria of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), which included relevance, effectiveness, impact, efficiency, and sustainability. “On the basis of the very good…
Scientists in developing nations plan to step up research into dimming-sunshine to curb climate-change, hoping a man-made chemical-sunshade will be less risky than a harmful rise in global-temperatures. Research into “solar geo-engineering”, which will mimic big volcanic eruptions that can cool the Earth by-masking-the-sun with a veil of ash, is now dominated by rich nations and universities such as Harvard and Oxford. Twelve scholars, from countries including Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India, Jamaica and Thailand, wrote in the journal `Nature’ on Wednesday that the poor were most vulnerable to global-warming and should be more involved. “Developing countries must lead on…
Sokoto state government said it has increased access to immunization by more than a thousand fold from a meager 2.5% in 2014 to 25% in 2018. A statement issued by government’s spokesman, Malam Imam Imam in Sokoto Monday, said Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal disclosed this during a review meeting on the progress of routine immunization in Sokoto. “The recent Lot Quality Assurance Survey (LQAS) by the National Bureau of Statistics and partners have clearly outlined the progress we have made in that direction. More still needs to be done and we will not relent on our efforts. Within this period under review,…