The Nigeria Governors’ Forum says it will prioritize the establishment of farm estates for groups of smallholder producers, including women and youths, to increase the supply of farm inputs, the use of machinery, access to extension services, and market access. It also pledged to expand the country’s aggregate tax revenue by up to 200%. The governors, in a communiqué signed by the chairperson of the forum and Ekiti state governor, Kayode Fayemi and issued after their second meeting of the year which held in Abuja on Wednesday, also pledged to expand the country’s aggregate tax revenue by up to 200%.…
Author: Newsdesk
The Lagos State Coconut Development Authority (LASCODA) says it will produce one million coconut seedlings in conjunction with the private sector in 2022. LASCODA’s General Manager, Mr Dapo Olakulehin said on Wednesday in Lagos that the collaboration would see the agency producing 200,000 seedlings while individual farmers and others produce 800,000 coconut trees He said that the government would later sell the seedlings to farmers across the state at subsidised rate. The general manager said that the distribution pattern would be through input support and technical support to be given to out-growers to enable them sell at affordable prices. Olakulehin…
The First Chronicle Round Table organized by 21st Century Media Services, publishers of 21st Century Chronicle, comes up on Wednesday, February 23, 2022 at the Shehu Yar’adua Centre, Abuja, from 10am. Theme of the Roundtable is Going for Broke: Fighting Insecurity in 2022. A statement by the online newspaper’s Editor in Chief, Mahmud Jega, which was made available to Forefront News stated that two papers each will be delivered in the morning and afternoon sessions of the Roundtable. Jega further said that at the morning session, to be chaired by former Borno state governor, Senator Kashim Shettima, Chief of Defence…
German vaccine maker BioNTech on Wednesday, announced its plans to deliver mobile production facilities in pre-fabricated containers to Africa with the aim of manufacturing mRNA vaccines locally. The firm, which along with pharma giant Pfizer would produce the first Coronavirus vaccine to be approved in the European Union and United States, said it planned to deliver the production facilities to Rwanda, Senegal and possibly South Africa. They would enable the production of Coronavirus vaccines as well as potentially malaria or tuberculosis vaccines in the future. “Each BioNTainer is a clean room which BioNTech equips with state-of-the-art manufacturing solutions. Together, two…
The House of Representatives on Wednesday unveiled plans to investigate the utilisation of the N165 billion appropriated for the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCS) over the past two years. The resolution was passed sequel to the adoption of a motion on ‘Urgent national importance on the deplorable state of Inmates and the unwholesome working conditions of officers and men of the service in spite of huge budgetary allocations with attendant adverse effects on security of custodial facilities. The resolution followed a motion of urgent public importance by Rep. Ndudi Elumelu, the minority leader of the House on the floor of the…
AstraZeneca says the European Commission has approved its prescription medicine Saphnelo as an add-on therapy for the treatment of adult patients with moderate to severe systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). It said on Wednesday that the approval followed the recommendation by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency in December 2021. Saphnelo has also received regulatory approval in the U.S., Japan and Canada for the treatment of SLE and regulatory reviews are ongoing in additional countries. Systemic lupus erythematosus is a complex autoimmune condition that can affect any organ and patients often experience inadequate disease…
The absence of the federal government and the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) in the National Industrial Court on Wednesday, prevented the matter from proceeding. The suit seeks to challenge NARD for embarking on strike from August 2 to September 17, 2021 was slated for hearing in Wednesday’s proceeding. The court presided over by Justice Bashar Alkali on September 17, 2021 had ruled that parties should proceed with their applications due to their failure to reach definite terms of settlement. The court on the same date directed NARD to suspend the strike embarked on, on August 2, 2021. The…
The Department of State Services, DSS, on Wednesday complied with the advice of a Federal High Court, Abuja, not to block the court premises and environs ahead of the trial of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu. The trial judge, Binta Nyako who fixed today’s sitting at 1pm, had advised the officers of the DSS to inform their office about her recommendation. Although Nyako did not specifically made an order, directing the security outfit against such act, she said this would allow the business of the court not to be grounded. A check at…
The All Progressives Congress Pragmatic Youth yesterday threw its weight behind Senator Sani Musa aspiration to the national chairmanship of the Party in the coming convention. The APC-PY at a huge gathering in Abuja on Tuesday regretted that young people are often excluded or overlooked as active political actors which informs their committed determination to ensure the emergence of Sani Musa, a pragmatic young as the next national chairman of the APC. According to the Secretary General, Suleiman Abbah, politics in Nigeria has typically been regarded as a space for politically experienced men, and while women are often disadvantaged in…
The Benue state council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, has announced its rejection of alleged imposition of a caretaker committee, describing it as unacceptable. This is contained in a communique issued after its congress meeting and signed by the chairman and secretary of the drafting committee, Tor Vande-Acka, and Victor Bajah. According to communique, the imposition was totally at variance with the provisions of the union’s constitution as well as the directive of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, which sat in Makurdi. “The State Executive Council (SEC) of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Benue State Council,…