The Sultan Foundation on Sunday concluded the onboarding of 334 routine immunisation (RI) service providers, calling for greater efforts to tackle the zero-dose challenge among children in Zamfara State. The one-day onboarding exercise was conducted in four phases in collaboration with the Zamfara State Government under the Z-TRACE project. The participants comprised 313 routine immunisation service providers and 21 local government area (LGA) team leads, community-based organisation (CBO) representatives, and LGA Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) officers. The exercise aimed to identify, track and vaccinate zero-dose and under-immunised children across seven selected local government areas. The Foundation is implementing the Z-TRACE…
Author: John Asishana
The Sokoto State Government says it will periodically engage traditional rulers to identify community needs and guide development partners’ interventions in the state. The Commissioner for Budget and Economic Development, Dr Bashir Muhammad-Achida, disclosed this on Friday at the 2027 Budget Town Hall Discussion for Sokoto East Senatorial District, held in Wurno Local Government Area. He said the initiative would be coordinated by the Ministry of Budget and Economic Development, which is responsible for driving the state’s economic development and coordinating development partners’ activities. According to him, the initiative aims to ensure that development partners’ interventions address the actual needs…
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Sokoto/Zamfara Area Command, has seized 599 bales of second-hand clothes, seven sacks of second-hand women’s bags, 43 cartons of cigarettes and other contraband in Sokoto. The Acting Area Comptroller, Mr Halliru Isa-Abdullahi, told newsmen on Thursday that the items had a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N722 million. Isa-Abdullahi listed other confiscated items to include seven cartons of coffee, unregistered pharmaceutical products, 100 packages of quinine and 500 packages of amodiaquine drugs. According to him, the other items included 140 packages of paracetamol, 300 packages of anti-cold medication, a carton of analgesic injections, four cartons…
The Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation has disowned online documents relating to the 100,000-hectare Multi-Crop Project, describing them as unauthorised and misleading. The ministry stated this in a public disclaimer issued by the Office of the Permanent Secretary and made available to reporters on Wednesday. It said the documents, attributed to CARECOM COMFAS and the RBDA National Agricultural Intervention Programme, did not originate from the ministry. The documents include a contractor registration form for input suppliers, an infographic on implementation and field operations, and an alignment map linking river basin development authorities with the multi-crop project. The ministry…
The Federal Government, in collaboration with state governments, has initiated measures to strengthen mortgage and land systems to accelerate inclusive housing delivery in Nigeria. Nasiru Dantsoho, the Sokoto State Commissioner for Lands, Housing, Survey and Town Planning, said this at the opening of the 15th National Council on Lands, Housing and Urban Development meeting on Monday in Sokoto. Dantsoho advocated single-digit interest rates on mortgage loans, down from the current double-digit rates, and an extension of mortgage tenures from 25 to 35 years to make repayments more affordable. He also called for expanded access to mortgages beyond the formal public…
The Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) has launched a strategic media engagement plan to strengthen domestic nutrition financing in Kaduna. At the event on Thursday in Kaduna, Mrs Celestina Ayim, CS-SUNN State Chapter Coordinator, said adequate domestic financing was fundamental to improving nutrition outcomes and achieving sustainable development. She noted that financing gaps continued to undermine interventions. Ayim said Nigeria remained among countries with the highest malnutrition burden globally, citing the 2023–2024 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey. According to her, the survey showed that 40 per cent of Nigerian children under five were stunted, eight per cent…
The Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, has called for freedom for Muslims to practise their religion without compulsion. Abubakar made the call on Thursday in Abuja at the Special Prayer for the Nation and 2026 General Assembly organised by the NSCIA. The Sultan said Muslims had important roles to play in addressing challenges confronting the country and the world. He urged Muslims not to remain passive in the face of developments that could negatively affect their religion and society. According to him, Muslims should be allowed to…
Some agriculture stakeholders have called on the Federal Government to implement workable measures to reduce production costs in the sector. The stakeholders made the call in separate interviews with reporters on Thursday in Lagos. They were reacting to President Bola Tinubu’s 66th Independence Day celebration speech, in which he promised to reduce production costs across sectors. In his Independence Day Broadcast, President Tinubu said reducing production costs in agriculture and other sectors would help achieve shared prosperity for Nigerians. The Lagos State Chairman of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Mr Sakin Agbayewa, commended the administration’s efforts but called…
The Sultan Foundation for Peace and Development (SFPD) has mobilised Community-Based Organisations (CBOs), religious and traditional leaders to reach 70,000 unimmunised children in seven Local Government Areas of Sokoto State. The foundation organised a one-day capacity-building workshop under the Sokoto Tracking and Accountability for Equitable Immunisation (S-TRACE) Project. It is collaborating with the Sokoto State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (SSPHDA), with the project funded by GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, and supported by Mannion Daniels. Speaking at the event on Wednesday, SFPD Director of Programmes Dr Aminu Inuwa said the CSO Fund Mechanism aimed to work with community structures and gatekeepers…
The Africa Hub for Innovation and Development (AFHID) has called for the development and adoption of trusted, homegrown and human-centred Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions to address healthcare challenges in Nigeria. The call was made on Thursday at a pre-summit webinar on AI in health, where experts examined the opportunities and challenges of deploying emerging technologies across the health sector. The Chief Executive Officer of Advantage Health Africa (Aha), Abimbola Adebakin, said trust was particularly important in deploying AI in healthcare because health is a “low-forgiveness sector”. She said Aha had built its ‘myMedicines’ platform around familiar channels such as WhatsApp,…