The Nation Newspaper

Author: The Nation

  • Jigawa’s harvest of dilapidated infrastructure

    Despite huge budgetary allocations to health sector, Jigawa State is home to some of the country’s dilapidated infrastructure, writes FEMI OGUNSHOLA

     

    In spite of yearly budgetary allocation to the health sector in Jigawa State, especially for the upgrade of primary healthcare centres, many of the health facilities are in a terrible state of decay.

    Statistics made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), by Mr Bayoro Kyamba, Director, Planning, Research and Statistics, Jigawa Ministry of Health, covering 2015 to 2019, showed a steady release of funds to the Ministry.

    The state’s budget in 2015 was N99. 550 billion, out of this, N11.965billion was appropriated to the health sector, while N11. 960 billion was released.

    In 2016, the size of the state’s budget was N137.230 billion, while N15. 741 billion was appropriated to the health sector and N11. 971 billion released to the Ministry of Health.

    For 2017, the budget was N127.870 billion, while N16. 450billion was appropriated to the health sector and N12. 386 billion released to the Ministry of Health.

    The 2018 appropriation was N138.67 billion, while N6.7 billion was earmarked for capital investments in the health sector.

    In 2019, the state’s budget was N157.54 billion, 13 per cent of the proposed budget was earmarked for the health sector.

    This consisted of N10.6 billion for recurrent  expenditure and N9.4 billion for capital investments, while N2.8 billion was allocated to primary healthcare and maternal programmes.

    However, checks from some of the local government areas showed that in spite of the yearly allocations, healthcare facilities, were in state of disrepair.

    Mr Shapiu Saidu, the Officer in Charge (OIC) of primary healthcare centre, Tsirme village in Kiyawa Local Government Area, said the centre was built over 30 years ago.

    Jigawa was carved out Kano State by the then Military Head of State, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida in 1991.

    Saidu said the village primary healthcare centre needed a befitting structure, adding that “even if we don’t have a new one, this one should be reconstructed to serve the people”.

    According to him, about 834 patients visited the centre in October, while 454 were male and 380 female.

    In September, he said, 782 visited the centre and out of this, 230 were male and 552 female, adding that the centre has only three workers, thus  putting a huge burden on him and the other two.

    “We need laboratory equipment and health personnel. This will improve our work. We only have three members of staff, we don’t even have Community Health Extension Workers (CHEW) and Junior Community Health Extension Worker (JCHEW).

    “We also need a laboratory technician and the government should supply us medical facilities. You can see that the roofs have been blown off, we need equipment to safeguard our vaccines,” he said.

    However, when NAN correspondent visited Jaudi primary healthcare centre no worker was around as at  8:30 a.m. Most of the workers were said to have gone to Dutse, the state capital for the weekend.

    Efforts by the security man at the centre to call one of the staff who lived around the area were abortive, as she was said to have also gone to Dutse, the state capital.

    Some of the services the centre claimed to have rendered are: Out Patients Diagnosis (OPD), Immunisation, Antenatal care, Referral System/Out Reach.

    They also include Drug Revolving Fund (DRF), Minor Surgery, Health Education, Growth Monitoring and Nutrition Promotion, Family Planning, among others.

    The building, which was  inaugurated on March 23, 2017 by ex-Governor Muhammad Badaru, was in bad shape due to poor maintenance. When NAN called Mr Abubakar Bello, the Officer in Charge (OIC), he said he was in Dutse.

    Also Garkon village healthcare centre in Andaza Local Government Area was under lock when NAN correspondent visited.

    The windows were left open and a view from outside showed that the inside was replete with ramshackle facilities. A man who identified himself as Suleiman was approached for comment on the status of the centre; he stated that the people manning it hardly come on weekends.

    Asked if in case of emergency what the villagers would do. Suleiman said they would call any of the staff on phone to attend to the patients.

    He stressed the need to deploy more manpower to the area as well as encourage the already existing workers.

    However, at Aujara in Jahun Local Government Area, there was a large turnout of patients, while medical personnel were around to attend to them.

    Read Also: Infrastructure: Still a long walk in the maze

     

    Mr Shehu Muhammed, the Officer in Charge (OIC) said the centre has 19 workers, plus a corps member, who is a medical doctor.

    He said the centre has high patronage, adding that the centre needed equipment and other facilities to cope with the surge.

    According to him, there is a high number of attendees, so we need infrastructure, equipment, drugs as our drug are not enough.

    “Our maternity side is very small, we need a bigger one to accommodate patients because as at now we only have four beds at the maternity ward and two in labour room,” he stated.

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    Muhammed said the centre usually had between 150 to 160 deliveries monthly, adding that the large number made it imperative to have more beds and a bigger delivery room.

    According to him,  the state government gives N10,000 monthly overhead to the centre.

    On the record of patients that visited the centre in August and September, the OIC said 5,638 was the general figure for August while 6,339 was recorded in September.

    “For the month of August, the number of males that visited the centre is 2,658, while the female is 2,980, for September, male, 2,973 and female 3,766,” he said.

    Dr Abba Umar, Jigawa Commissioner for Health, who commented on the state of primary healthcare centres across the state and other sundry issues said the government was aware that it has a number of dilapidated facilities at some primary healthcare centres.

    He said that some of them were included in the budget for upgrade.

    According to him, before the end of the year, most of these facilities will be fixed.

    The commissioner stated that the policy thrust of the state government on health was to ensure that every ward in the state has functional primary healthcare centre.

    “We met some primary healthcare and clinics centres on ground, they were many that were dilapidated when we came in, and so we started the process of improving the facilities, renovating them to ensure that they are habitable.

    “We have done so many of them, and then we also said that every ward that does not have one functional primary healthcare centre, we construct one, so we constructed an additional 87.

    “And that the last batch was 25, which were constructed this year and we are just about to open up those 25,” he said.

    He acknowledged there was shortage of manpower at the primary healthcare centres, adding that the government would address the issue.

    According to him, there are challenges on our human resources, but we are doing all we can to ensure we solve that particular problem.

    “We recruited 600 additional primary healthcare workers and posted them to various facilities to ensure that we bridge the manpower gap at that particular level.”

    He said there was an increase in the number of women that access facilities for antenatal care, and women who delivered on the facilities, adding that it was as a result of favourable government policy of releasing N75million monthly to the Ministry of Health for free maternal and child health.

    “So, every woman who gets pregnant should have free facilities until delivery and any child that is under five should have free services. This has helped in increasing access to the facilities and has helped in reducing maternal and child mortality.”

    Umar said the state got $1.6 million World Bank Save One Million Lives grant, adding that part of the money had already been received.

    According to him, the state government will use the money to continue improving the health sector.

    Mr Yakubu Auyo, Director, Primary Healthcare Development Agency (PHDA), said as from 2020, local government councils would exclusively run primary healthcare centres.

    He explained that the budget for the primary healthcare centres would be decided by the local governments without the state’s input, adding that the state would only assume a supervisory role.

    With close monitoring and supervision, the allocations to the health sector will translate to improved services.

     

     

    • Ogunshola is of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)

  • First public hearings in impeachment enquiry against Trump begin

    Agency Reporter

    The first public hearings in the impeachment inquiry, against President Donald Trump, are set to begin on Wednesday, as Democrats step up their public campaign over what they see as an abuse of power by the White House.

    Lawmakers will question two career diplomats, who have expressed concern that Trump linked aid to Ukraine to a promise to investigate the president’s political rival, Joe Biden, the frontrunner in the Democratic presidential primary for the 2020 election.

    Democrats are also accusing the Republican administration of running a parallel diplomatic service through Trump’s private lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, which potentially undermined national security.

    The first people to testify in public will be William Taylor, the top diplomat to Ukraine and George Kent, a career diplomat.

    On Friday, Marie Yovanovitch, the former Ambassador to Kiev, will testify.

    She was effectively ousted this year by the White House over his apparent refusal to play ball with Giuliani.

    The Democrats have been working to quickly advance the impeachment inquiry, with speculation they might be looking to wrap up the investigations before the end of the year.

    Read Also: Donald Trump relocates to Florida

    Republican lawmakers have nearly uniformly backed the president.

    Trump says there was no quid pro quo and has released a reconstructed transcript of one phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

    The president’s opponents say the call showed pressure on Kiev and highlights Trump’s focus on investigating Biden.

    There is no evidence of criminality by Biden, a former vice president.

    The Democrat was in charge of Ukraine policy at the end of the Obama administration while his son was being paid handsomely to sit on a board of a Ukrainian energy company. (dpa/NAN)

  • Driver in court for allegedly attacking policeman

    A 37-year-old driver, Sunday Nworu, who allegedly punched a policeman in the face on Wednesday appeared in an Ota Magistrates’ Court in Ogun.

    Nworu, who lives at No. 26 Temitope St., Iyana-Iyesi, is charged with assault.

    The Prosecution Counsel, Insp. Abdulkareem Mustapha, told the court that the defendant the offence on Nov. 10, at about 9 p.m., at Oyede Street,Oju-Ore, Ota, Ogun.

    Mustapha alleged that the defendant punched Insp. Yusuf Ajayi in the face while performing his lawful duty.
    He said that the offence contravened the provisions of Section 351 of the Criminal Code, Laws of Ogun, 2006.
    The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

    Read Also: Driver lynched in ‘fetish ritual’ bid with four-year-old

    The Chief Magistrate, Mr Mathew Akinyemi, admitted the defendant to bail in the sum N200,000 with two sureties in like sum.

    Akinyemi, ordered that the sureties must reside within the court’s jurisdiction and be gainfully employed with evidence of tax payment to Ogun government.

    He adjourned the case until Nov. 18 for further hearing. (NAN)

  • Gender-based violence: Lawyers, Journalists unite in Ekiti

    Rasaq Ibrahim, Ado Ekiti
    The Federation of International Women Lawyers(FIDA) and Nigeria Union of Journalists(NUJ), Ekiti Council, on Wednesday held a sensitization programme against the prevailing sexual based violence in the state.
    The unions said the efforts was targeted at reducing the scourage of rape, defilement and child trafficking in the state.
    The unions expressed, during a match against the hydra problems, sadness at the increasing rate of rape, defilement, teenage pregnancy and child abuse in the state, saying strong actions must be taken to stem the tide and protect the rights of the children.
    The procession, which was part of the activities lined up for the   2019 NUJ press week,  took off at the NUJ’s office located at Oke Bareke, Ado Ekiti and moved down to Irona Market, Atikankan, Okeyinmi junction,  Okesa and Fajuyi areas of capital city.
    Addressing the people, the chairperson of FIDA, Mrs Seyi Ojo, advised those with uncontrollable libidos to be cicumspect of their actions, saying the laws are already in place to decisively with such individuals.

    Read Also: 818m women suffer gender based violence globally

    “Ekiti had sought  amendments  to the Gender Based Violence Prohibition Law to include life jail for rape offenders, instead of the usual five years jail term.
    “The punishment also include medical castration and publishing of names and photographs  of offenders and even suspects on the state’s website to notify the world about their evil deeds.
    “We hear of one rape incident everyday and how children under five years were being defiled by old men. This is unacceptable and it must stop”, she said.
    The NUJ Chairman, Ekiti Council, Com. Rotimi Ojomoyela, said it sounds incredible and appalling ,  for a 50 years old man to be having sex with a minor.
    “Some men are even get worse by committing incest, having sex with their own daughter and even going to the extent of Impregnating her. Ekiti is a land of honour and integrity, this sordid scenario should not be allowed to continue”.
    The Chairman of the Trade Union Congress, Com. Sola Adigun, urged parents to comply with the government’s directive that all children of school age must be registered in school.
    “Don’t make children  slaves by asking them to hawk during the school hours. This can expose them to sexual molestation or deprive them of education. Monitor your children movements and don’t allow  anyone you can’t trust to take them away for sexual slavery”, he said.

  • We’re ready to provide affordable house – Lawal

    By Kolade Adeyemi, Kano

     

    The Kano state Commissioner for Housing and Transport, Barrister Musa Abdullahi Lawal, has assured Kano citizens that during his tenure, they should expect the provision of standard and affordable houses.

    Lawal, who made this known, shortly after resuming duty on Wednesday, noted that establishing more housing estates in the state, will alleviate the challenges of accommodation in the state, adding that the state, is a cosmopolitan one, which needs decongestion.

    He disclosed that the Ministry will explore the possibility of establishing Uniform Transportation System in line, with the modern transportation system, in other developed countries.

    Read Also: FG seeks states’ collaboration to address Housing deficit

    According to the Commissioner, it will ease the free flow of traffic within the metropolis, promising that the Ministry will also provide adequate strategy, aimed at sanitizing the menace of tricycle operators in the state,

    Also, he disclosed, that the State Government will enact a policy of registering, each tricycle operator for proper tracking and monitoring.

    Barrister Musa Abdullahi Lawal also sought the maimum support and cooperation of employees in the Ministry, toward executing his plans, emphasizing that Kano state government under his watch will provide friendly working conditions for the staff of the Ministry.

    However, he warned employees of the Ministry against absenteeism, lackadaisical attitude and flouting rules and regulations, governing the conduct of Civil Service in the state..

  • Access Bank’s Womenpreneur winners get cash prizes

    Access Bank Plc on Tuesday rewarded three winners in its Womenpreneur Pitch A-ton 2019 programme with N9 million.

    The winners are Cotton Loops Chief Executive Officer, Bolulope Adebiyi, who beat 49 other contenders to win the N5 Million first place prize while  Physiocraft Allied Health Service, Tinuade Olanrewaju and CEO Learntor Limited, Mercy Igbafe, emerged as the second and third winners with N3 Million and N1 Million cash prizes respectively.

    Adebiyi was grateful to God for the victory, and thanked Access Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC) for the opportunity. She said  the grant  would enable her expand the company’s factory. “Cotton Loops is an ethical black and white fashion lifestyle brand.

    We design and create black and white fashion globally. We make black and white high-street clothes, casual and cooperate clothes.

    “Within the next six weeks, we are expanding to Dakar, Nairobi, Ghana and the United Kingdom. So, we are going to expand it, and make the clothing more affordable, even here in Nigeria. We are also an ethical brand, which means, we up-circle all of our production risk, and we give to the local women in the market for their children to crawl on and sleep on due to the dirty environment,” she said.

    Also speaking, the second runner-up, said she was so humbled for the experience, describing it as life-changing.

    “Access Bank has changed our lives. There is potential here in Africa but our women lack the right visibility due to digital skills gap. Hence with this fund, Learntor can do more to digitally up-skill women, empower them, so they can give their businesses digital visibilities even in the international community,” she said.

    Coordinator, Access Bank Womenpreneur Pitch-A-Ton 2019, Ayona Trimnell, said the initiative was part of the banks philosophy to build women capacity in business so they can transform the country’s economy and compete globally.

    According to Trimnell, “Access Bank is a leading financial institution for women entrepreneurs in Nigeria. Hence we create programmes not only to empower them, but to enable them and give them better access to finance and business knowledge.  ”Before today, we put out a call to women entrepreneurs who has been in business for about minimum of a year, to send us their business ideas by applying for this program.

     

    And we got 36,000 applicants from all over the country.

     

    Read Also: Empowering women for national development

     

    “We careful narrowed them down from that number to 500, and to 50. And for the 50 women, in collaboration with IFC, we took them through 14 weeks intensive entrepreneural training. And they were awarded with a Mini-MBA, from the IFC.

     

    “Out of the 50 women, three winners emerged and they got grants. For the first price, N5 million, second prize N3 million and the third price got N1 million.

    So. the whole programme is really about empowering and encouraging women. And we are hopeful that we would continue to do this every single year. And for the 36,000 women, we are going to keep training them. We have come up with a digital way we would be reaching rem and training them for three months. Hence, they are all winners.”

     

  • $1b boost for female entrepreneurs

    By Daniel Essiet

     

    The European Investment Bank (EIB) has announced a $1.1 billion lending programme to help women entrepreneurs  in Africa.

    The EIB is the lending arm of the European Union. The EIB has supported investment in Africa for more than 50 years. Last year, it provided a record €3.3 billion to African countries, with more than half the funds being pumped into the private sector.

    A  statement said the EIB Vice President, Ambroise Fayolle, also revealed that the bank has signed three further agreements to boost sustainable development on the continent.

    But the major deal is what the EIB has dubbed SheInvest. The EIB expects the gender-lending initiative to allow women to play a more active role in economies.

    “This initiative aims to promote female entrepreneurship,” said Fayolle, noting that female entrepreneurs will also gain business skills from the initiative. He explained that the financing will promote gender investment related to climate change and is part of broader European engagement to provide targeted support for new investment that supports increased female economic participation in Africa.

    The announcement was made at the ongoing  Africa Investment Forum in Johannesburg, where hundreds of investors, development partners and wealth funds have gathered for the continent’s premier marketplace.

     

     

    As one of the largest providers of climate finance, the investment bank has also struck a deal with Guinea-based telecommunications provider, IPT PowerTech Group, which will see the company abandon fossil fuels for cleaner sources of power such as solar and wind.

     

    Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at IPT PowerTech Group, Mohamed Al Habbal, said  the move to renewable sources of energy such as solar power will help the company reduce its carbon footprint. Habbal estimates that thousands jobs will be created as a result of this deal.

    Read Also: Access Bank’s Womenpreneur backs SMEs

     

    A further deal that was signed on the first day of the second Africa Investment Forum, will see African Trade Insurance increase its membership in Western and Southern Africa. This increased insurance coverage is expected to attract more investment to the continent.

     

    In Southern Africa the EIB confirmed a new lending programme to support access to finance by entrepreneurs across Malawi and confirmed a new scheme to finance smallholders in the country to be launched early next year.

     

    A Senior Manager at Malawi’s FDH Bank, Patricia Hamisi,  said  the money will help the bank enhance its long-term credit to small businesses owned by women. “The agreement comes with technical assistance which will help the bank enhance its trade financing,” said Hamisi.

     

    The Africa Investment Forum inaugural edition was launched in 2018 in partnership with Africa50, Afrexim Bank, the Trade Development Bank, the Development Bank of South Africa, the Islamic Development Bank, the Africa Finance Corporation, the European Investment Bank.

     

     

     

  • From clay, Ozioma inspires Seed Yams …

    By Obidike Okafor

    One of Nigeria’s contemporary artists and Professor of Ceramic Art at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ozioma Onuzulike, has made a statement, and he made it in a language that is local, yet universal.

    His declarations take strategic positions at the exhibition space of the Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA), Lagos, in an exhibition curated and organised by CCA’s curator, Iheanyi Onwuegbucha entitled Seed Yams of our Land’.

    For someone from the eastern part of Nigeria, the installations will look familiar because yam barns are a common sight in many rural areas. While to a visitor the patterns created by the yams and the way they are displayed is both intimidated and engaging.

    Onuzulike must have paid close attention to the techniques and patterns in which the real yams are tied in the barn as he repeats this in creating lines of ceramic yams and yam seedlings forged from the clay dug up in Nsukka-a popular university town in Eastern Nigeria.

    Anyone looking at the long rows of yams hanging on the wall, or suspended on metal frames to create barns might think that they are real yams from a distance, but, on closer examination the glassy and hollow surface reveals the truth.

    Yam plays a central role in the Igbo tradition, and it even has its own festival that is celebrated by descents of the Igbo society in Nigeria and in the diaspora.

    Onuzulike takes the powerful crop and uses it to make statements that are social, political, economic and to an extent spiritual.

    This two-year project takes its roots from the one question, what does the future hold for the seed yams (Youth) of our land?

    With this timely showing he metaphorically explores yam and the yam barn in dimensions that have never been imagined.

    In the Bible man was molded by God from clay, he takes this symbol literally as his basic material and explores the violent studio processes of pounding, cutting, crushing, firing as fitting metaphors for the human conditions in Africa today.

    He draws the attention of the audience to the consequences on the ‘seed yams’ (the youth) of things like unwholesome politics, hunger, unemployment, banditry and armed conflicts in Africa.

    Yams are everywhere, in heaps that are familiar with the way they are sold in the marketplace, arranged in rows on the walls and on beams.

    Read Also: Ofala Festival begins with Arts exhibition

    Some of the yams look like they have been attacked by insects, while another set take the shape of bowls, each ‘gathering’ telling its own story.

    For example, in the installation ‘Yam Fields’ made up of ceramic yams in wooden enclosures and x-rays installations that are placed under light.

    Like all the yams displayed at the exhibition there are cuts on the body of each one symbolic of the scars of war, deprivation, destruction and the challenges faced by the African every day. The x-ray part of the installation tells something jarring yet hopeful- A broken bone joined together by metal to assist with the healing process.

    This could indicate artist’s optimism that in the middle of all the fracture caused by conflicts, politics, unemployment and banditry, there is still hope that peace will come to heal all the broken parts.

     

    Onuzulike takes the powerful crop and uses it to make statements that are social, political, economic and to an extent spiritual. This two-year project takes its roots from the one question, what does the future hold for the seed yams (Youth) of our land?

     

    Onuzulike who is also a poet used the exhibition to launch his latest collections of poems which address the same themes as the exhibition. He teaches both the artist and viewer one powerful lesson amidst the many things he talks about in his new body of work. Anything consumed by the mouth can inspire the brain.

     

    • Obidike writes in from Lagos.

     

  • LAPO MfB promotes sustainable finance

    LAPO Microfinance Bank (MfB) Limited, a pro-poor financial institution is championing the cause of sustainable finance in the industry.

    Its Managing Director/CEO, Godwin Ehigiamusoe, said the bank will continue to promote sustainable finance in the interest of the economy.

    He spoke at the conference with the theme, ‘Enhancing Sustainable Finance in the Microfinance Sub-sector’, held in Lagos.

    He said the conference was to promote the practice of sustainable finance and banking values especially among Microfinance banks.

    “Microfinance industry is growing, having a large number of institutions and also considering the nature of their clients who are obviously active on the environment, I feel there is need for Microfinance banks to adopt some of these principles as LAPO has done for the past six years,” Ehigiamusoe said.

    According to him, the bank had achieved paperless transactions in all its board meetings, management meetings, review meetings and has also decided to track the numbers of paper that would have been used, put naira and kobo and discovered it has been able to save millions of naira in doing that.

    “Because we are tracking we have been able to ascertain how much we are saving on monthly basis especially if we put in the cost of digital devices we still make some profit. The second thing is that if you also look at the social dimension, supporting the people you do business with for instance LAPO has priority in recruitment of children of our customers,” he said.

    Read Also: LAPO is microfinance bank of the year

     

    Also speaking, President, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) said, Uche Olowu, said: “I believe that LAPO champions the move for sustainability in the environment,” said Uche Olowu, president/chairman of council, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN)”.

    Olowu further said, “The way we look at it from CIBN is how you direct your efforts to clients that are in the vanguard of sustaining the environment. How do environmental, social and governance risks are modeled to make sure that we sustain the environment.

    The climate change is a big problem, he said. “How do we need to continually fund the degrading environment? We direct finance and manage our risk in such a way that we continue to push for sustainability in the environment”.

     

    Chair in Business & Sustainable Development University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, Kenneth Amaeshi, who delivered a keynote speech on ‘Rethinking Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as an investment opportunity’, at sustainable finance conference organised by LAPO in Lagos, noted that uptake of sustainability is low in the global financial sector.

    He said Sustainable Development thinking and practices help to minimise risks and explore opportunities. Risk minimisation and opportunity exploration are both important for immediate and long term success.

     

     

  • DataPro rates SFS Fixed Income Fund AA

    Nigeria’s foremost Investment Fund, SFS Fixed Income Fund has been rated AA by DataPro, a Lagos-based rating agency.

    DataPro in a recent rating report highlights good credit quality, good liquidity and experienced fund managers as key strengths of the N2.2 billion-worth Fund, which has grown from a base point of N960m in 2015.

    SFS Fixed Income Fund, an open-ended collective investment scheme launched in May, 2014 and registered by the Security and Exchanges Commission (SEC), is managed by SFS Capital Nigeria Limited. It is targeted at investors with low risks investment appetite who require liquidity and optimal benefits for their investments.

    Read also: Adron Homes targets middle income class

     

    The long term rating of AA indicates lower risk and is assigned to Funds deemed to have very good financial strength, operating performance and profile.

    In arriving at the score, DataPro took cognisance of relevant qualitative and quantitative factors to arrive at the assigned risk factor, with risk factors assessed by considering the credit risks, interest rate risk, liquidity risk, regulatory framework, and the operating performance of the manager.

    “This Fund, in our opinion, has strong ability to meet its on-going obligations”, remarked Oladele Adeoye, Chief Rating Officer, DataPro.

    Aside the fund managers, other parties to the fund are: United Securities Limited (Registrar); Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc (Custodian), STL Trustees Limited, and Sterling Partners & Co (Auditors).