The Kaduna State Contributory Health Management Authority (KADCHMA) on Saturday said it has so far enrolled no fewer than 114,000 vulnerable persons through the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) and the Vulnerable Population Programme. The Director-General of the authority,.Hassan Abubakar, made the disclosure during a one-day Media Engagement Meeting on Saturday in Kaduna. He said the media engagement was to build a strong partnership with the media to enhance public awareness, increase coverage and promote the utilisation of health care services under the state contributory health scheme. Abubakar said, “The authority has made remarkable progress towards this vision. and…
Author: Newsdesk
Gov. Bassey Otu of Cross River has described women as true backbone of national development, saying that Nigeria’s progress depends on active female participation in governance and community building. Otu, who made the remark at the 2025 annual retreat of the Nigeria Governors’ Spouses Forum (NGSF), led by Kwara State First Lady, Prof. Olufolake AbdulRazaq, in Calabar on Saturday, declared, ‘’no woman, no nation.’’ He commended the NGSF members for their role in national development and humanitarian initiatives, describing them as “selfless architects of compassion” whose impact transcended politics. He noted the significant strides his administration had so far made…
Global development finance priorities are shifting after a turbulent year, with donors under pressure to fund projects that demonstrate measurable social and economic value. According to Essam Yassin Mohammed, Director General of WorldFish, Africa’s aquaculture industry offers one of the clearest opportunities to deliver this balance — combining sustainability, profitability and community impact. ‘Aquaculture is the fastest-growing food sector on the continent,’ Mohammed said. ‘It holds the key to Africa’s goals for food security, dignified livelihoods and long-term growth.’ He noted that Africa’s ‘blue economy’ — encompassing fisheries, aquaculture and marine resources — could achieve results comparable to Asia’s aquaculture…
The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has criticised the structural barriers that make it cost about 20 percent more for African countries to trade with each other than with other regions, describing the imbalance as ‘something wrong’. Speaking in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Okonjo-Iweala said the situation exposed deep inefficiencies in Africa’s trade systems. ‘It costs 20 percent more for us to trade with each other on the continent than with others externally. Something is wrong with that,’ she said. According to the WTO chief, Intra-African trade accounts for only 15 to 20 percent of the continent’s total…
Women from areas affected by insecurity in Katsina State have reaffirmed commitments to addressing, preventing conflicts, while promoting a sustainable peace within their communities and beyond. The women made the resolution at the end of a four-day Interest-Based Negotiation (IBN) and Community and Social Development Resource Management (CSDRM) training held in Katsina. The training, organised by Mercy Corps, brought together about 80 women from Sabuwa, Faskari, Dandume, and Safana Local Government Areas of the state. According to the participants, the exercise conducted under the Conflict Prevention, Crisis Response and Resilience Programme (CPCRR), has built their confidence and capacity to foster…
Ogirimangogo Local Government Area has emerged overall best among the 21 LGAs of Kogi in quality primary healthcare service delivery. Gov. Ahmed Ododo rewarded the best-performing LGAs and personnel during the inauguration of 80 revitalised Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) on Friday in Lokoja. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ogirimangogo LGA received a star prize of N5 million. The first positions in each senatorial district received N3 million each. Second-place winners received N2 million each, while individual health officers with outstanding performance across LGAs received N250,000 each. The 80 revitalised PHCs form part of the first phase of…
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has continued his campaign to accelerate the global shift from fossil fuels to clean energy – “the cheapest source of new electricity in nearly every country.” The latest push came on Friday , in his remarks to the Energy Transition Roundtable in Belém, Brazil, held just days before the formal opening of the COP30 climate change conference. “The fossil fuel age is ending. Clean energy is rising. Let us make the transition fair, fast, and final,” he said. The UN chief told world leaders that “the global energy landscape is changing at lightning speed.” Green energy sources accounted for 90 per cent of new power capacity last year, while…
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has reaffirmed its commitment to restoring degraded ecosystems and strengthening livelihoods across Africa’s drylands. This follows the launch of the Scaling-Up Resilience in Africa’s Great Green Wall Area (SURAGGWA) project in Abuja on Friday. FAO Representative in Nigeria and ECOWAS, Mr Hussein Gadain, said the initiative is supported by the Green Climate Fund (GCF). He said it aims to promote climate-smart agriculture and sustainable land use practices across eight countries within the Great Green Wall region. He said the project would be implemented in collaboration with the National Agency for the Great Green Wall…
The Nigerian Medical Association, Federal Capital Territory (NMA-FCT), has appealed to security agencies to step up efforts to secure the release of Dr Chinonye Nwachukwu. The NMA-FCT Chairman, Dr Emeka Ayogu, made the appeal at a news conference on Friday in Abuja. Ayogu said that Nwachukwu, a young medical graduate who studied in Ukraine, had been in captivity for over two weeks. He said that she was abducted on Oct. 21, on her way to Garki Hospital, Abuja, where she works. According to him, the kidnappers had demanded a ransom and warned against interference by law enforcement agencies. He said…
Renaissance Africa Energy Company has invested over 3 million US dollars in the ongoing upgrade of facilities at the Government Technical College (GTC), Okujagu, Port Harcourt. Mr Olanrewaju Olawuyi, General Manager, Nigerian Content Development at Renaissance, disclosed this during a stakeholder meeting on the project in Port Harcourt on Friday. Olawuyi said the initiative reflected the company’s strong commitment to advancing human capacity development and promoting technical education in Nigeria. According to him, upon completion, the college would rank among the best technical institutions in Africa and compete favourably with its counterpart globally. “We have already invested over 3 million…