Day: May 30, 2024

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) on Thursday challenged parents on child protection in Kwali communities of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The Director-General of the agency, Prof. Fatima Waziri-Azi, gave the charge at a one-day community dialogue and advocacy on Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV).

She also urged parents not to shield perpetrators of SGBV, saying such act is a crime in the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act.

She added that ‘the Child Rights Act (CRA) is a strong law that protects children, their interest should take prominent place in the hearts of parents.

‘Grievous cases of SGBV like rape, incest should not be covered, we must always learn to do the right thing in reporting these cases to law enforcement officers, or to NAPTIP.

‘Preservation of evidence in these cases must be guided well so that NAPTIP can prosecute the matter, such offences are not allowed to be settled at the community level.

‘Everybody must ensure vi
ctims are protected, while perpetrators are brought to book, settling grievous SGBV cases at the community level is doing injustice to the victim.

‘NAPTIP has started sending strong messages to parents who try to shield perpetrators of SGBV cases, or hide evidence, it is a crime that attracts jail sentence.’

Mr Danladi Chiya, the Chairman of Kwali Area Council, pledged readiness to support NAPTIP in watching out for SGBV crimes.

Represented by Mr Mathew Yakubu, the acting Head of Social Welfare of the council, the chairman charged communities in Kwali to also support NAPTIP and report SGBV cases happening in the area.

Mr Mohammed Kwainanga, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), disclosed that a lot of SGBV cases are reported at the division, while blaming the various chiefs and parents on some of the rape cases happening in Kwali.

He said ‘we receive such complaints a lot, parents do compromised when it comes to reportage, this is not helping matters, parents in Kwali communities must wake up to their res
ponsibilities.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

The Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, says identity management is a key to safeguarding the nation’s national security architecture.

Tunji-Ojo stated this when the President and Chairman of the Chartered Institute of Forensics and Certified Fraud Investigators of Nigeria, Dr Illiyasu Gashinbaki, led his team on a courtesy visit to him on Thursday in Abuja.

He said that identity management was the foundation of any nation, saying that the prevalence of identity theft in Nigeria was alarming.

‘Unearthing the truth about identities is crucial for addressing critical issues.

‘Recently, we uncovered 2,400 non-Nigerians with fake National Identity Numbers attempting to acquire Nigerian passports. This passport symbolises our sovereignty and identity as Nigerians,’ Tunji-Ojo said.

The minister said that the two key responsibilities of the Interior Ministry included enhancing national security and preserving citizenship integrity.

‘Therefore, must build capacity to conduct forensic analysis domestica
lly, eliminating the need to travel abroad for such services,’ he said.

The Minister highlighted the Ministry’s commitment to supporting the institute and enhancing the integrity of national document.

‘The integrity of our documents is crucial for national pride and security. Many individuals holding Nigerian documents are not Nigerians.

‘For instance, we recently arrested a British Airways crew member with a Nigerian passport procured in London, who turned out to be Ugandan,’ Tunji-Ojo added.

On Nigeria’s reputation, Tunji-Ojo stated that Nigerians were among the most law-abiding people he had encountered with.

‘With over 200 million citizens, our correctional centres house about 70,000 inmates, including approximately 25,000 convicted individuals.

‘This simply means that only 0.035 per cent of Nigerians are in custody, reflecting the law abiding nature of the vast majority. But unfortunately, the actions of a few have tarnished our national image,’ he said.

Tunji-Ojo added that through collaboration
with the institute, the ministry aimed to uphold the highest standards of document verification and forensic analysis to protect and serve the nation better.

Earlier, Gashinbaki said that the purpose of the visit was to express the institute’s desire for continued partnership with the ministry to serve the nation better.

He said that the goal of the institute was to establish independent laboratories to conduct forensic analysis to ensure impartiality and adherence to scientific protocols in legal cases.

‘We have also witnessed numerous building collapse due to inadequate testing of structures and product specifications, particularly from countries dumping substandard products in Africa,’ he said.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, Group President, African Development Bank (AfDB), says infrastructure development remain critical for the effective transformation of Africa.

Adesina told newsmen on the sidelines of the ongoing AfDB Annual General Meeting 2024 on Tuesday in Nairobi that infrastructure were the backbone of Africa’s transformation.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting marks the 60th anniversary and 59th Annual Assembly of the AfDB and the 50th meeting of the African Development Fund (ADF).

According to him, having ports, rail lines, power transmission lines, transport corridors and digital infrastructure, among other things, makes economies work.

The AfDB president reiterated the bank’s commitment to transformation, disclosing that it had invested about $50 billion in infrastructure on the continent.

‘From rails to ports to airports, to digital infrastructure, the transport corridors, water and sanitation and all of that.

‘And so, we will continue as the African Development Bank
to push more for infrastructure.

‘And that is why we inaugurated the Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa (AGIA).

‘That alliance aims to mobilise 10 billion dollars of private sector financing for infrastructure because Africa is still developing its infrastructure,’ he said.

Adesina said the continent’s transformation also depended on the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

‘To turn the AfCFTA into reality, we need policies that allow industrial manufacturing and specialised value chains to gain comparative advantage in national, regional, and global markets.

‘Energy is also critical for economic transformation on the continent, as you cannot industrialise in the dark.

‘You cannot be competitive in the dark and grow economies when you have no power. Electricity is the lifeblood of the body.

‘It is like the blood in your body or mind. If you do not have it, your economy dies. It is that simple, and there’s no two ways about it,’ he said.

Adesina, who highlighted some of the bank’s inv
estments in power, said AfDB and the World Bank recently agreed to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030.

The AfDB president also reiterated the need for Africa to feed itself, adding that the AfDB, to drive this, invested about 1.5 billion dollars in a facility called Africa Emergency Food Production Facility.

He said beyond this was political will and the need for collaboration.

‘Through collaboration, $72 billion was raised by the stakeholders globally to help boost Africa’s agricultural production,’ he said.

NAN reports that the AfDB annual meeting, which started on Monday, would end on Friday.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Business Development experts have urged African nations to intensify efforts to attract private-sector financing to enhance tertiary education in order to equip the continent’s youth with competitive skills.

The experts spoke at a panel discussion in Nairobi, Kenya, on the sidelines of the 2024 African Development Bank (AfDB) Annual Meetings.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Bank organised the event in collaboration with the Kenyan government, the African Union Commission and the German Development Agency (KfW).

The theme of the meeting is ‘Policy Dialogue on Innovative Financing for Tertiary Education in Africa: Revitalising the Role of the Private Sector.’

The session explored strategies and best practices to stimulate private-sector financing for tertiary education.

The experts reiterated the importance of political commitment to guarantee returns on private-sector investments in education.

Former Tanzanian President, Jakaya Kikwete, Chairman of the Global Partnership for Education (
GPE), he advocated national policies to build strong foundations in primary and secondary education.

According to Kikwete, strong education foundations provide a talent pool of trained young people for lifelong learning that will make them thrive.

He said there was a need for a renewed commitment to increase national education expenditure to harness Africa’s demographic potential as the world’s largest future labour force.

While commending efforts by some African states to bolster their education budgets, Kikwete said the recent global financial challenges required innovative resource mobilisation for education.

‘There is also a need for strong and diverse partnerships that put young learners at the heart of the continent’s development agenda,’ he said.

Kikwete highlighted collaborative initiatives by the GPE and the AfDB to mobilise investment to support education in Africa.

He said the Nairobi gathering would provide further opportunities for the two bodies to advance their partnership and deliver sus
tainable financing for African education systems.

‘Today is only the beginning; we must always work together to explore avenues to ensure the entire education system from basic to tertiary is adequately funded.

‘Giving our young people the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in the 21st century’.

Beth Dunford, the AfDB’s Vice President for Agriculture, Human, and Social Development, said the Bank had been actively engaged in education and skills development since 1975.

‘We are committing significant resources to strengthen science, technology, engineering, and mathematics infrastructure at tertiary levels and enhance sectoral policy environments.

‘The institution has committed 964 million dollars to tertiary education and skills development over the past decade.

‘The focus has been on strengthening infrastructure for technical and vocational education and training and catalysing private sector investments in skills development and job creation,’ Dunford said.

The vice-president highlighted the Ban
k’s 80 million dollars support for Nigeria’s Ekiti State special economic zone project.

She also highlighted a three-million-dollars investment in Rwanda’s proposed Centre of Excellence for Aviation Skills as one of the projects that would help boost economies and create jobs.

Prof. Mohamed Belhocine, African Union Commissioner for Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation, said increased investment in tertiary education requires national, continental, and global action.

He said that between 2017 and 2019, only seven African countries met the required seven per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expenditure on education, with the average standing at about four per cent of GDP.

Similarly, Dr James Mwangi, the Group Chief Executive Officer of Equity Holdings, shared how collaboration with tertiary institutions boosted human resource development across the continent.

He said the company had provided scholarships to about 23,000 students in partnership with the Kenyan government.

NAN reports that the
highlight of the event was the signinh of a letter of intent with the German Corporation for International Corporation (GIZ) to scale up joint commitments to skills development in Africa.

More than 10,000 participants registered for the AfDB hybrid 2024 Annual Meetings, with about 5,000 delegates attending physically.

Several heads of state are expected to participate in a presidential dialogue on Wednesday.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Gov. Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers, on Wednesday, said that his administration has shown commitment to service delivery in line with its campaign promises.

Speaking at an event to unveil his scorecard in Port Harcourt, Fubara said that his administration had done well in economy, infrastructure, housing and agriculture among during its first year in office.

He said that the current administration gave priority to citizens’ welfare and human capital development.

‘The welfare of the citizens and human capacity development are critical to the economic growth of any society.

‘We have been able to prioritise the welfare of our workers whose promotions were stagnated for more than 10 years.

‘We have paid their promotion arrears and improved permanent retirement benefits,’ he said.

The governor said that the informal sector had been supported to play its role as a major driver of economic growth and prosperity.

‘We are partnering the Bank of Industry to establish a N4 billion MSMEs fund, this is to create more
jobs and put more money in circulation,’ he said.

Fubara said that conversations were already ongoing to evolve policies that would reposition agriculture in the state.

He said that the government had renovated no fewer than 35 health centres across the state to boost healthcare delivery.

‘We have approved the employment of about 1,000 health workers across the state, this is also to strengthen the health the sector,’ he said.

In education, he said that the state government had remodeled and rehabilitated many secondary schools in different parts of the state.

‘Our government has provided the enabling environment for the ongoing massive housing estate development that is targeting about 20,000 affordable housing units for citizens.

‘We have initiated and completed nine new road projects valued N534.3 billion. We have completed 12 out of 34 uncompleted roads inherited from the previous administration,’ he said.

The governor urged Rivers people to protect government projects in their communities and sup
port the contractors to deliver according to time and specification.

In his remark, the Chairman of the occasion, Sen. John Azuta-Mbata, expressed the gratitude of Rivers people over the governor’s performance in one year in office.

He congratulated Fubara for laying his scorecard bare for Rivers people to appraise.

‘What you have done today is to show Rivers people what you have been able to do within one year as governor.

‘Democracy is about the people, power belongs to the people, so governance is meant to benefit the people.

‘You have shown clearly that you understand the essence democratic governance,’ he said.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Dr Adedamola Dada, the Medical Director of Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Ebute Metta in Lagos State, says the hospital has started giving specialised care to further expand its services to patients.

Dada, who disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday,

said the specialised care included laparoscopy and pin hole surgery.

NAN reports that laparoscopy is an operation performed in the abdomen or pelvis, using small incisions with the aid of a camera, while a pin hole surgery is a minimal invasive treatment for gum recession.

He said: ‘We have started some highly specialised care and services and one of it is the laparoscopy surgery.

‘We also have the pin hole surgery.

‘We sent some doctors to learn these techniques, and they are already back and they have been able to do many abdominal surgeries with very minimal pain and quick recovery.

‘Usually when patients undergo surgery, the abdomen is open through incision but rather than doing that, we use technology to transmit
the entire arrangements of the abdomen to a camera.

‘A surgeon is able to operate on a patient through this technology and we have been able to do a lot of abdominal surgery with this technology.

‘Some of the surgeries include appendicitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, and endometriosis, as done in other climes.’

On other strides the hospital achieved in the last one year, the medical director said the hospital is currently building a cancer centre to ensure more people have access to care.

He added that a new clinical building inaugurated in January had expanded the hospital’s bed space to 420 beds and also featured its In vitro fertilisation (IVF) centre.

‘We are building a cancer centre which is going to be one of the best in West Africa; we have gone to the UK to do pre-shipment inspection of equipment so we can match specification with production.

‘We have built the outpatient component of the cancer centre, the bunker is ongoing, and in a couple of months, Nigerians will have access to it and this
will revolutionise cancer care in the country.

‘We are in the stage of equipping our IVF centre and we also constructed our trauma ward within the one year of this present administration.’

According to the medical director, the hospital is guided by the four key policies of the President Bola Tinubu-led administration to achieve the feats in the last one year.

He said the policy centred on good governance, unlocking the value chain, health security and strengthening the health sector.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria