The National Agency for the Great Green Wall (NAGGW) has sought the support of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, to actualize its 50 million date palm project. The Director-General of NAGGW, Saleh Abubakar, made the appeal during a courtesy visit to the SGF in his office in Abuja. He explained that the initiative is designed to combat desertification and restore degraded lands across the 11 frontline states of Northern Nigeria. Abubakar recalled that the agency, during its 10th-anniversary celebration in August, launched the ambitious project as part of efforts to curb desert encroachment.…
Author: Newsdesk
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has uncovered a social media–driven drug distribution network that packaged illicit substances as imported Christmas cookies and snacks. Two masterminds behind the syndicate were arrested after operatives raided their hideout in the Lekki area of Lagos. NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Mr. Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday in Abuja, said the syndicate imported Canadian Loud — a potent strain of cannabis — concealed in colourful designer sachets printed with images of cookies and snacks. He said the group distributed the drugs through a WhatsApp platform and had been under surveillance…
Zamfara State Governor, Dauda Lawal, has highlighted the state’s vast agribusiness opportunities to global investors, positioning Zamfara as a prime destination for agricultural investment. This was disclosed in a statement on Sunday by the Governor’s spokesperson, Sulaiman Idris, in Gusau. According to him, Governor Lawal made the pitch during the Africa Investment Forum (AIF) Market Days 2025, held from November 26 to 28 in Rabat, Morocco. The AIF Market Days, led by the African Development Bank (AfDB) in partnership with six other founding institutions, brought together investors from across the continent to facilitate deal negotiations and accelerate financing for strategic…
Niger Foods has trained more than 200 smallholder farmers in Minna on financial literacy in a bid to expand their access to formal financial services and strengthen their capacity to manage agricultural businesses. The one-day training was organized by Niger Foods, in partnership with AGRA’s Niger State Project Officer, Godswill Aguiyi, and seven financial institutions The initiative aligns with Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago’s agricultural transformation agenda, which seeks to promote sustainable and inclusive growth by empowering farmers with the knowledge and tools needed to thrive. During the session, facilitators introduced farmers to key financial management skills such as budgeting, planning,…
Stakeholders at the 2nd African Cassava Conference (ACC 2025) have called for robust continental policies, improved financing, and coordinated innovation to transform cassava from a subsistence crop into an industrial powerhouse. In a communiqué issued at the end of the Abuja conference themed “Building Sustainable and Quality-Driven Cassava Industries in Africa,” participants warned that despite producing 65% of the world’s cassava, Africa captures only a fraction of the over $10 billion global market. They blamed low yields, weak value chains, poor mechanisation, post-harvest losses, and inconsistent policies for the sector’s stagnation. Describing cassava as Africa’s green gold, delegates highlighted the…
Rice farmers’ associations in Lagos State have projected a further decline in the price of rice ahead of the festive season following Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s decision to slash the price of Lagos Rice. The farmers made the prediction in separate interviews with journalists on Sunday in Lagos. Governor Sanwo-Olu recently reduced the price of a 50kg bag of Lagos Rice from N64,000 to N57,000. Vice Chairman of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Southwest and Lagos chapter, Mr. Sakin Agbayewa, applauded the state government for the strategic pricing move. He said the decision Rice could trigger healthy competition in…
The African Development Bank (AfDB) and Shanghai Ocean University (SHOU) have opened applications for the 2026 AfDB–SHOU Scholarship Programmes, offering fully funded academic opportunities to African nationals seeking advanced training in marine science, aquaculture and ocean governance. The initiative, announced on the institutions’ official platforms, aims to strengthen Africa’s technical capacity in the blue economy. The scholarships form part of the AfDB’s Ten-Year Strategy for 2024–2033, which prioritises the development of specialist skills that support sustainable fisheries, resilient aquatic food systems and more effective management of marine resources. The Bank says the partnership with SHOU will help build a new…
For at least the next dozen years, rural areas will continue to have only about two-thirds of the primary care physicians they need, according to a report released Monday. The nonprofit Commonwealth Fund based its analysis on federal health workforce data. Its report comes just days after states applied for portions of a $50 billion rural health fund included in the broad tax and spending law President Donald Trump signed in July. Some states want to use the federal money to expand their rural residency programs, as physicians who complete their residencies in rural areas are more likely to practice in one. About 43…
In a media statement, RMIS CEO Dewald Olivier said the Polokwane shipment, which was “falsely labelled as ‘Butanol’”, was successfully intercepted at the airport and transported under police escort to the transboundary animal diseases lab at the ARC-Onderstepoort Veterinary Research facility for testing. He added that the vaccines contain FMD serotypes O and A, not present in South Africa, which could spark outbreaks for which local animals have no immunity, threatening producers, exports, and national food security. “This case has now been handed over to the State Security Agency and is under investigation as a potential act of terrorism,” Olivier…
Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government launched a joint venture (JV) initiative that links landowners without resources or agricultural know-how to investors, in a bid to revive farming operations on dormant properties by developing farmers’ skills, increasing mechanisation, and unlocking finance to boost productivity. This marked a departure from the approach of the late former president Robert Mugabe, who believed such arrangements would allow white former farmers back onto the land, thereby reversing his land reform programme. More than 2 400 JVs approved so far For the JVs to be legally binding, they must be approved by the Ministry of Lands,…