The World Health Organisation (WHO) continues to oppose making booster shots against COVID-19 universally available in the interests of making first jabs more accessible worldwide. Alejandro Cravioto, Chairperson of the Independent Advisory Council on Immunisation (SAGE) said on Thursday that it is a matter of fair vaccine distribution. He said the situation was different for those who had compromised immune systems for whom the council had already recommended a third dose. He said as long as not enough vaccines were available, the priority must remain to offer everyone in the world a basic one or two dose vaccination against COVID-19.…
Author: Newsdesk
Nasarawa governor, Abdullahi Sule on Thursday presented a N109.80 billion 2022 budget to the state House of Assembly for approval. This is below the 2021 budget of N112.9 billion. Presenting the budget tagged “Budget of Sustainable Transformation”, Sule said that it was made up of N70.89 billion recurrent expenditure, representing 64.56 per cent and N38.01 billion capital expenditure, representing 35.44 per cent. “The sectorial breakdown of the budget include – Administrative sector, Government House- 8.94 billion, Secretary to the State Government office- N9.40 billion, Legislative- N1.76 billion and pension and gratuity- N4.8 billion. “Others are Works, Housing and Transport- 14.05…
The Serum Institute of India, the world’s biggest vaccine maker, let Africa down by pulling out of talks to supply Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines, according to John Nkengasong, Head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control (ACDC). Nkengasong said on Thursday that the institute created distrust that affected the demand for the vaccines. He denounced recent comments from Serum that uptake of its COVID-19 shots had slowed because of low demand from Africa and vaccine hesitancy. He said the real problem was that Serum had acted unprofessionally. Serum did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Nkengasong said Serum…
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a three-year loan deal for Republic of Niger worth around $276 million. The IMF said on Thursday, warning that security risks threatened the West African nation’s economic outlook. According to UN data, the decision allows the immediate disbursement of $55 million to support basic infrastructure and social spending plans, desperately needed by the 10 million Nigeriens or 40 per cent of the population living in extreme poverty. The Coronavirus pandemic slowed economic growth by over two per cent points to 3.6 per cent in 2020. But the IMF forecasts a rebound to 5.4…
South Africa on Wednesday, reported nearly 20,000 new COVID-19 cases, a record since the Omicron variant was detected and 36 new COVID-related deaths. It was not immediately clear how many of the infections were caused by Omicron, given only a fraction of samples are sequenced. But experts believe it is driving South Africa’s fourth wave of infections. The statistics from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) brought the confirmed number of cases in the country to 3.071 million, with more than 90,000 COVID-linked deaths since the pandemic started. Early evidence suggests Omicron is more transmissible than any previous variant,…
President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday inaugurated the 106.341 kilometer Kano – Maiduguri Road, Section 3 Azare – Potiskum linking Bauchi and Yobe States. The President inaugurated the completed Section 3 of the giant road project in Azare, headquarters of Katatagum local government area of Bauchi state. Buhari, represented by Amb. Maryam Yalwaji-Katagum, Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, said the the project was part of his administration’s commitment to provide quality road infrastructure in the country. “Our commitment to improve road transport infrastructure; our determination to improve Ease of Doing Business, create jobs and prosperity to lift people…
President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday inaugurated a locally-built Seaward Defence Boat (SDB) 111 in Lagos. The vessel built by NNS Oji is the third of its series to be built by the Nigerian Navy, a statement by a presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina said. Buhari at the event said the new inductions to the naval fleet, would increase the agency’s capacity in securing the nation’s maritime domain. ‘‘We should note that we are in a critical period where our country is faced with a serious decline in our revenue and the security challenges we are facing,” Buhari added, urging the personnel…
The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Muhammad has warned agencies of the government against further harassment and embarrassment of judicial officers in the country. He gave the warning at a special session organised to herald the formal commencement of the 2021/2022 legal year of the Supreme Court in Abuja on Wednesday. The Chief Justice was very specific about the siege on the Abuja residence of Justice Mary Odili of the apex court. “I must say, we were jolted with embarrassing news of the invasion of the official residence of one of our brother Justices, Honourable Justice Mary Peter Odili,…
The United Nations Children’s Agency (UNICEF) has said that COVID-19 has been the worst crisis for children in the Fund’s 75 years history. In a report released Thursday, UNICEF said COVID-19 was challenging decades of progress on key childhood challenges including poverty, access to education, nutrition and mental well-being. UNICEF Executive Director, Henrietta Fore, said the widespread impact of COVID-19 continues to deepen, increasing poverty, entrenching inequality and threatening the rights of children. “While the number of children who are hungry, out of school, abused, living in poverty or forced into marriage is going up, the number of children with…
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Miss Health Beauty Pageant, Nick Bebiem on Wednesday, said it was postponing 2021 edition of the pageant due to the newly emerged COVID-19 Omicron variant. Bebiem said this during a news conference organised by the Miss Health Beauty International in Abuja. According to him, the December 11, earlier scheduled date has been cancelled. Bebiem said that this decision was because of the newly discovered COVID-19 Omicron variant as disclosed by the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC). “The 2021 Miss Health Beauty Pageant scheduled to hold on the December 11, has been cancelled and the…