Month: November 2023

The Lagos State Government through the Agro-Productivity, Processing, Enhancement and Livelihood Support (APPEALS) project has donated a blast freezer to the Lagos State Catfish Association of Nigeria (LASCAFAN), Ikorodu Chapter.

Speaking during the unveiling of the project and the introduction of frozen catfish on Tuesday in Ikorodu, Ms Abisola Olusanya, the state Commissioner for Agriculture, said the project was to promote value addition.

Olusanya noted that the introduction of the frozen catfish would address and deliver fish farmers from the crush of fish mongers who determine price without recourse to cost of production.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a blast freezer is a specially designed blast/fast-freeze meat, fish, chicken and other food items, with an operating temperature ranging between 24 and 40°C.

The blast freezer has a capacity of half-a-ton per cycle with about eight-hours cooling and can process one ton of fish daily.

The catfish is fresh fish with no addictive and no preservative.

She said Lagos State with a population of about 25 million people require 425,009 tonnes of fish demand per annum, in line with the World Health Organisation recommendation of 17kg fish protein intake per person per annum.

The commissioner was represented by the Director of Fisheries, Mrs Daisi Osunkoya.

She said this was against the current fish production figure of about 198,706 tons per annum.

The commissioner noted that fish, a major source of protein, is low in cholesterol making it medically acceptable to young and old people.

She said the flexibility of fish farming encouraged the involvement of both older and younger people in fish farming, as a means of livelihood.

According to her, catfish farming has dominated the aquaculture industry in Lagos State and Nigeria for more than two decades because of its handiness, fast growth, and acceptance of artificial feed, among others.

“Over the years, marketing has been a major challenge to fish farmers across the country.

“The introduction of the frozen catfish will address and deliver our fish farmers from fish mongers who determines price without recourse to cost of production.

“This will give the farmers the opportunity to set good price for their product and in turn expand their production,” she said.

She added that there was awareness among people now that fish possess a collection of lipids which along with the flavour enhances amino acid.

“Fish protein has been acclaimed to be healthier for consumption than meat especially as one starts getting advanced in age, which leads to a higher demand for fish produce.

“I congratulate the beneficiaries of the project and urged them to make good use of the golden opportunity to boost fish production and fish preservation in Lagos State,” she said.

Also, Chief Abiodun Ogunleye, a former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, said projects like this would reduce the cost of importation in the country.

Ogunleye said the project would regulate price, stability, improve value and boost export opportunity.

He said the project would address post harvest losses adding that it was a great step in the right direction.

He said majority of items being imported into the country could be substituted locally, while urging people to patronise made in Nigeria fish.

“There are some people who engage in lazy aspect of economy, importing alone but I have refused to import maybe that is why I am like this.

“I believe we are wasting Nigeria’s hard earn foreign exchange on importation.

“With more projects like this, we will reduce our dependency on imported goods, we have to grow what we eat, and eat what we grow and also export,” he said.

“One in Badagry, now Ikorodu, and we will have the third in Agege soon.

“We will no longer sell our fish under pressure, we can now manage our production and market,” he said.

He said the aquaculture value chain if properly harnessed would replace fuel in terms of revenue generation for the country.

Mrs Omolara Oguntuyi, the Lagos State Coordinator, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, said the ministry would continue to support the association.

Oguntuji urged the farmers to take proper care of the project and to transfer the knowledge to their children.

“Lagos is setting the pace in fish production but I think Lagos own the fish and it is a good thing that you are doing what you are doing.

“Protein is in high shortage in Nigeria and everybody can bear me witness that even common people cannot source for protein because they are very expensive.

“What you are doing will stabilise the price of fish and also address wastage.

“If for just these two purpose, I think you have done very well,” she said.

Mr Deola Banjo, Chairman, Ikorodu North Local Council Development Area, noted that the initiative would be a game-changer for storage of agricultural produce in the council.

Banjo said the significance of a blast freezer cannot be over-emphasised as it would in no small measure impact positively on the storage and preservation of farm produce.

He said the project would lead to increased productivity and profitability for farmers.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Ms Yan Yuging, Consul-General, People’s Republic of China in Nigeria, says China’s and Nigeria’s relations are steadily advancing in mutual development and practical cooperation.

Yan said this on Tuesday in Lagos at the China-Africa (Nigeria) production capacity cooperation symposium held at the Lagos International Trade Fair (LITF) complex.

The symposium had: “Enhancing economic growth through sustainable partnership” as its theme.

Yan noted that with unprecedented changes taking place in today’s world, both countries continued to advance relations by deepening cooperation in trade, investment, and contracted projects.

“China is a significant trade partner for Nigeria.

“According to Chinese customs data, bilateral trade volume between China and Nigeria reached 23.9 billion dollars in 2022.

“China’s exports to Nigeria amounted to 22.3 billion dollars, while imports from Nigeria totalled 1.6 billion dollars,” she said.

Yan noted that Nigeria had, therefore, become China’s second largest trade partner in Africa, and China is Nigeria’s largest global source of import.

“As long as we know each other, even if separated by thousands of miles, we can cooperate like neighbours.

“China and Nigeria enjoy a solid foundation of cooperation in many fields.

“With the growing political, economic, and cultural ties between the two countries, the prospects for future cooperation will be broaden and deepen,” she said.

Yan added that China launched the “Initiative on supporting Africa’s industrialisation’’ to focus on urgently needed areas of the continent’s modernisation.

She said globally, her country signed cooperation documents with more than 150 countries and more 30 international organisations.

“A large number of infrastructure projects and projects benefiting the people will be implemented gradually,’’ she stressed.

In her contribution, Mrs Adenike Akande, Nigeria’s former Minister of Trade and Industry, noted the gap between Nigeria and China in industrialisation and industrial capacity.

She said Nigeria had a lot to learn from China on its journey to industrialisation.

Akande urged China to support Nigeria in the latter’s quests for industrialisation by putting measures in place to aid the Nigerian government and people to improve their production capacity.

In his remarks, Mr Olusola Obadimu, Director-General, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, said in an increasingly interdependent world, collaboration and partnership were essential drivers of economic growth.

Obadimu noted that partnerships were catalysts for economic growth which represented visionary approach to addressing the intertwined challenges of economic development.

According to him, sustainable partnerships can contribute to economic growth through effective collaboration between government, the private sector, and international organisations for the development of critical sectors of the economy.

He noted that China’s engagement with African countries had witnessed remarkable growth over the decades.

“This dynamic trade relationship has become a focal point in global economy characterised by mutual benefits and extensive opportunities.

“The China-Africa trade relationship is not merely about commerce; it offers numerous opportunities for both parties to forge mutually beneficial partnerships that contribute to sustainable economic growth and development.

“Sustainable partnerships hold the key to a prosperous and equitable future and would further strengthen China-Africa trade relationship,” Obadimu stressed.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

An Abuja-based NGO, Digital Health Interoperability Network (DHIN), has expressed readiness to partner with the Federal Government to expand the scope of digital healthcare system.

The DHIN management made the pledge on Tuesday in Abuja at a roundtable on

Unique Identifiers for Management of Cross-Institutional Duplicate Health Records’.

Speaking, Mr Emeka Chukwu, a Digital Health Consultant and a Co-Convener DHIN, said the initiative was born out of passion for the workable solution to interoperability of healthcare system in Nigeria as practiced in the banking sector.

“For many years we have been in this field and we have not seen practical application in Nigeria’s healthcare system and we have realised that everyone is trying to build his own Interoperability system.

“And we figured that what we need to do is to bring people to work together, not at a theoretical level but at a practical level to start building systems that are interoperable not as one organisation but as multiple organisation.

“Just like what we have in the banking sector, Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System (NIBSS), where we have system that settles transactions across banks.

“We also want to stand as such an organisation like NIBSS that will settle transactions in health sector across hospitals in Nigeria.

According to him, when the health system is strengthened, then those in the rural areas will also benefit and technology has shown that it increases access to healthcare facilities, reduces cost if it is properly implemented.

“When systems are interoperable, you can serve cost, you can make sure that there is no duplicate records, no fraudulent system, and other waste in the system can easily be streamlined. “

Also, Mrs Vivian Okafor, Head, E-Health Division, Federal Ministry of Health, explained that the digital health initiative was looking towards achieving universal health coverage to involve the rural areas in particular.

“We in Nigeria have come to imbibe digital health and currently at the ministry of health. Infact, we are looking towards digitising all our Federal Tertiary Institutions.

“We are hoping that the states and the lower level of health will equally follow suit because with digitisation, it will go a long way to improve health outcome in Nigeria, ” she explained.

Okafor further stated that the forum would serve as a medium to collectively identify some gaps and challenges to extend digital services to rural areas in particular, looking at challenges such as epileptic power supply, gaps in technology/internet system among other factors that could hinder the initiative.

Mr Emmanuel Edet, Ag Director Standards Guidelines/Frameworks, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), explained that the essence of the initiative was to promote the use of digital technology in healthcare delivery.

According to Edet, NITDA is government agency charged with the responsibility of encouraging the development of digital economy in Nigeria and the agency is interested in the initiative brought by the DHIN to expand the scope of health system in Nigeria.

“We are particularly interested because our function has to do with encouraging the development of digital economy in Nigeria and one of the sectors that will benefit a lot from the digital economy is the health sector, ” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the participants at the forum were; Public Health Professionals, Digital Health/ Digital Software Developers, Doctors, stakeholders in health sectors, Health IT Innovators, Data Scientists, Policymakers and regulators.

NAN also reports that DHIN is an NGO that promotes open standards, data integrity, and privacy protection.

It also aspires to transform healthcare into a holistic, patient-centered experience where data flows effortlessly, enabling accurate diagnoses, personalized treatments, and proactive wellness management.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Some stakeholders in the judiciary sector have underscored the need to decongest the correctional centres in the country, using access to justice projects.

They expressed the concern on Tuesday in Abuja at the “Access to Justice parley and joint inauguration of the Court Administration and Case Management, and Reforming Pre-Trail Detention in Nigeria phase II.

Prof. Akinseye George, President, Centre for Social–Studies, said that number one problem of criminal justice system in Nigeria was delay.

George said that the major reason for the delay was lack of effective pre-trail case management.

“Effective pre-trail case management would create a situation where the judge, the prosecutor, the witnesses and all the parties including the complaint would have agreed on the timetable for the trail before the trail begins.

“But in Nigeria we don’t conduct effective pre-trail case management even though the law provides for it.

“So it is important that all the heads of court, Attorneys General must begin to insist that courts trying criminal cases must conduct pre-trail case management.

“So what the Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC) is doing in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy is to begin to build capacity of Nigerian legal system to conduct effective pre-trail case management before trials commence.

He said that without pre-trail, every effort to fast track justice would not be effective, and it does not augur well for democracy.

He, therefore, called on all the stakeholders to work together to improve access to justice because without effective access to justice democracy would be meaningless.

The Chief Executive Officer, PPDC, Mr Jubril Shittu said that over 70 per cent of Nigerian inmates population were on awaiting trial.

He explained that Access to Justice projects was aimed at ensuring that average individual should have the assurance that justice should not delayed or denied.

“Our aim is also aimed that individual have a fair chance at justice and that justice is transparent.

“We want to see that those on awaiting trail, over 70,000 in the correctional facilities across the country, we want to see the numbers reduced.

“We don’t want to be building more correctional facilities. We also want to achieve a reduction in the number of correctional facilities,” Shittu said.

According to him, PPDC was established 20 years and its aim is to see that citizens benefits from good governance, from effective institutions and from accountable and transparent institutions.

Similarly, the Board Chairman, PPDC, Mr Chibuzo Ekwekwuo, said the purpose of the programme was to bring actors together to examine the access to justice reform process in the country.

On his part, the Controller-General, Nigerian Correctional Service, Haliru Nababa, commended the leadership of PPDC, saying that the service was partnering with the Centre to improve on it performance.

“PPDC is partnering with the Nigerian Correctional Service in the development and deployment of Corrections Information Management System (CIMS), and more facilities are being integrated across the states.

“This initiative will benefit indigent persons in our custody and enhance our performance in case management,” Nababa said.

The controller-general was represented by Gimba Dumbulwa, Assistant Controller, Custody, of the Service.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the programme was organised by the Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC) in collaboration with the U.S. government.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria