The Minister of State, Education, Mr Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, said that Nigeria has the highest number of Out-of-School Children in sub-Saharan Africa. Nwajiuba stated this during the inauguration of “Better Education Service Delivery For All (BESDA)”, in Katsina on Monday. He announced that Nigeria has an estimated 10,193,918 children out school. According to him, the current challenges affecting the Nigerian Education system has left much to be desired, saying that the system is characterised by high illiteracy level, infrastructural decay and deficits. “We have inadequate number of qualified teachers, inadequate infrastructural facilities/resources and poor funding,” he added. Nwajiuba congratulated the Katsina…
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The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, has distributed engagement letters to 176 trained independent monitors of the National Social Investment Programme (N-SIP) in Sokoto state. Presenting the letters on Monday, Farouq reiterated that the N-SIP was started by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2016 as one of his numerous strategies of lifting Nigerians out of poverty. Represented by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Bashir Alkali, Farouq said interventions included Job creation programmes, N-Power, National Home Grown Feeding Programme, Conditional Cash Transfer schemes, as well as the government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, amongst others. She stressed that…
The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice (CCJ) on Monday commenced its 13th Administration and Budget Retreat, as it sets to resume all physical activities and sittings post COVID-19 pandemic. The five-day retreat, which holds at Goshen City, Nasarawa state, will kick-start physical activities which had been in a virtual mode due to the COVID-19 pandemic. President of the Court, Justice Edward Asante described the retreat as marking an important step in the restoration of the other important activities of the Court that were disrupted by the pandemic. “It has become possible to convene this number of participants for such an important…
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in collaboration with Plan Parenthood Federation of Nigeria (PPFN), an NGO, has trained 50 community leaders on ways to address Gender Based Violence (GBV) cases in Sokoto state. The community leaders were also trained on best ways to educate their subjects on cases of COVID-19, Family Planning and Child Care in their respective communities. The beneficiaries, including traditional, religious, women and youth leaders, were selected from five electoral wards each of Sokoto South and Dange/Shuni local government areas of the state. Hafsatu Halilu, the state Coordinator of PPFN, said that the training is in…
The Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19 has extended the ban on flights from Brazil, Turkey and India by four weeks. Speaking at the national briefing in Abuja on Monday, the Chairman, PSC on COVID-19, Mr Boss Mustapha, said “a few weeks ago, we announced additional measures to be met by passengers arriving from Brazil, Turkey and India. ”This action was due to the prevalence of variants of concern and the dangers associated with importation of such virulent strain. As of May 2021, the PSC banned incoming flights from Brazil, India and Turkey, noting that anyone who had been in…
The Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib says a total of 3.4 million doses of Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine have so far been utilised for the 1st and 2nd dose vaccinations. This he said was approximately 88 per cent of the total COVID-19 vaccine stock in the country. He gave the statistics while speaking at the national briefing of the COVID-19 Presidential Steering Committee on Monday, in Abuja. “A total of 4,024,000 doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine were received by the Federal Government of Nigeria in March 2021.” He said 3.924 million came through the COVAX…
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), has approved the release of 50,000 metric tonnes of maize to 12 major producers, from the strategic maize reserve (SMR). The apex bank said that the release was to enable moderation and price control in the Nigerian market. CBN said that the action, the third of such releases to the companies, was intended to check activities of middlemen that cause hoarding and artificial scarcity. A statement obtained from the CBN listed recipients of the grains to include Premier Flour Mills, Crown-Olam, Grand Cereals, Animal Care, Amobyn and Hybrid…
A non-governmental organization, the Transparency Network Group, (TANGO), says Nigeria loses N5 billion to importers as a result of the Nigeria Customs officers’ wrong declaration of goods at the ports. It also advised the federal government to return the Standard Organization of Nigeria, (SON) to the ports in a bid to ascertain the difference between raw materials and finished goods imported into the country under such guise of wrong declaration. In a statement issued by the National Coordinator, Engr. Uche Okechukwu on Monday, who observed that “Nigeria’s economy is on the verge of total collapse if not urgently rescued”, also…
The first batch of Team Nigeria contingent to the Tokyo Olympics are expected to depart the country on July 6, the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare announced on Monday in Abuja. The minister, who disclosed this while addressing the plenary meeting of the National Sports Federations for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympic games, explained that Team Nigeria’s 61-strong contingent are to depart for the Olympics in two batches. “For the Olympic Games, the first batch of the athletes is scheduled to depart for Kisarazu on July 6, 2021, while the second batch departs on July 13,…
Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar says he believes in girl-child education and would continue to collaborate with UNICEF and other international donor agencies on development issues. He affirmed this when a delegation from the UNICEF offices in Abuja, Kano and Sokoto paid him courtesy visit at his Palace on Monday. The Sultan who disclosed that a “keeping-girls-in-school,” summit would soon be held, admitted that though Sokoto was yet to reach the desired target, the speed with which it is moving towards education for all in Sokoto state, is not disappointing. Bidding farewell to the UNICEF Chief of Field Office Sokoto, Mohameden Fall…