Category: Uncategorized

By John Ofikhenua, Abuja

The Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has informed seven electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) that it is not the responsibility of customers or communities to provide transformers for themselves.

In its tweeter handle, the commission told Ikeja Electric, Jos Electricity Distribution Company, Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, Benin Electricity Distribution Company and Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company that it is also not the responsibility of the customers or communities to provide poles and similar equipment for the supply of electricity.

The commission said: “It is not the responsibility of electricity customer or community to buy, replace or repair electricity transformers, poles and related equipment used in the supply of electricity.”

NERC had earlier warned the energy Distributors on no account should they connect any customer without first installing a meter for him or her.

The commission made it clear that any un-metered customer, who is disputing his or her estimated bill has the right not to pay the disputed bill, but pay only the last undisputed bill as the contested bill go through the dispute resolution process of NERC.

Read Also: NERC orders DisCos to replace obsolete meters

According to the Commission, it is the customer’s right to contest any electricity bill.

It stressed: “Customers have the right to appeal the decision of the NERC Forum Office by writing a petition to the Commission.”

Should the commission is dissatisfied with the manner his/her complaint is handled, it could proceed to the NERC Forum Office in the DisCo’s coverage area.

The Commission insisted that “If a complaint is not satisfactorily addressed all customers have a right to file complaints and to the prompt investigation of complaints.

“All complaints on electricity supply and other billing issues are to be sent to the nearest business unit of the DisCo serving the customer”.

By Adeola Ogunlade

Lagos Health Commissioner, Professor Akin Abayomi, has said the State is aggressive with vaccination because it is the epiccentre of COVID-19 in Nigeria.

Abayomi spoke at the COVID-19 vaccine summit organised by Global Emerging Pathogen Treatment (GET) Consortium at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry Conference, Alausa, Lagos.

The event tagged COVID-19 Vaccine’s Administration in Nigeria: Strategies to manage perception and overcome hesitancy attracted medical experts, civil society groups and government representatives.

He said Lagos carries the burden of the virus declaring “we survived two waves, some countries are not as lucky as they have gone through the 3rd and 4th waves of the pandemic.

Read Also: Why I won’t take COVID-19 vaccine, by Apostle Suleman

“We are not taking any chances, this is an opportunity for Lagos to increase his resilience to this pandemic. We know that a lot of people in Lagos have been infected and there is a natural immunity and these vaccines just come to improve our ability to stop this virus from spreading within the community“.

He added: “It’s been a very intense logistics planning in Lagos over the last three weeks. We have manage to vaccinate over 120, 000 people which amount to 0.53% of the population in the state in the last two weeks.

“We are continuing day by day until we reach and exhaust the vaccines that we have and we are expected to get more consignment from legitimate vaccines centres anywhere in the world.”

Abayomi said: “Lagos has recorded about 300 minor and mild side effects and about 900 serious side effects but they are expected reaction to any vaccines. If you vaccinate 1, 000 people with polio vaccines, the recipients will react to it differently.

“Most people who get the vaccine and they starts feeling headache, weak , we tell them to take paracetamol, eat well, sleep well and dehydrate properly. They can also call the number in the jab card if are experiencing serious effect which occurs after receiving the vaccine.”

CEO MotherGold Consulting, Dr. Adesina Fagbenro, identified fear of the side effects of the vaccines, distrust of commercial interest, racial experience in some countries, personal choice vs collective responsibility, alternative use and insufficient evidence are some of the factors making the people hesitant to the vaccines.

He tasked government to engage people through positive mass movement, enlightenment programmes and lead by example.

Member of the House of Representatives representing Ikeja Federal Constituency, James Abiodun Faleke, has called on wealthy individuals and corporate organisations not to relent in assisting government at all levels to improve education in the country.

Faleke, the Chairman of the House Committee on Finance, spoke last Wednesday and Thursday when he donated exercise books, textbooks to primary schools in his constituency and inaugurated a block of six classrooms at the State Primary School, Onilekere, Ikeja.

Faleke’s view was presented by All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairmanship aspirant for Ojodu Local Council Development Area, Alhaja Kafayat Funmilayo Layeni (KFL); Chairman of Onigbongbo Local Council Development Area, Dotun Olakanle; and his counterpart in Ikeja Local Government, Mojeed Balogun.

Faleke said education expenditure continues to increase making it difficult for government alone to shoulder the responsibility.

“We all have to play our part and contribute our quota to the development of the education sector in the country,” he said.

A block of six classrooms was inaugurated at Estate Primary School, Onilekere while 12,474 exercise books, 15,756 textbooks, 510 The Phonics textbooks, 510 The Spelling Champion and 510 The Heritage textbooks were distributed among pupils of Estate Primary, Ogba; Olusosun Primary School, Olusosun; Ojodu Primary School, Ojodu; Army Children School, Maryland; and Ikeja Primary, GRA, Ikeja.

By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

Parents who have children in Lagos public primary schools have praised the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu for introducing the EkoEXCEL programme – an intervention to reposition primary education in the state.

Eko Excellence in Child Education and Learning (EXCEL) is an educational transformation initiative aimed at bridging the gap in quality education delivery, through the use of technological devices such as tablets and smartphones.

Mrs. Adebola Coker, whose child attends Ireti Girls’ Primary School, Ikoyi, said the enthusiasm of her daughter towards educational content had increased tremendously as well as her ability to easily grasp what she is taught in class.

“I first noticed the changes about seven months ago.  Toyin is now more interested in studying. When she comes back from school, she is eager to do her home work with very little assistance. We no longer have to chase her around to get her homework done,” she said.

Another father, Mr. Owolabi, said: “Primary education in Mushin had never experienced such a transformation and the results are evident in the lives of the pupils who attend the schools. My children are now more interested in going to school earlier than ever before.  They come back home singing and teaching us new words and they even construct better sentences. For us it is a great feeling to see the changes Eko EXCEL has brought to our government schools especially because we want the best for our children and we can’t afford private schools.”

On his part, Sanwo-Olu described EkoEXCEL as a game changer in primary education.

Speaking while receiving the Chairman, House Committee on Basic Education and Services, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere and members of the committee, he said: “In the last couple of years, we have built strong foundations and this fiscal year, we increased our budget on education from eight to twelve per cent. We invested in curriculum development through EKOEXCEL to change the learning outcomes from our schools.”

By Adeyinka Aderibigbe

A global Non-Government Organisation (NGO) Mixta Africa and Junior Achievement Nigeria (a British Entrepreneurial programme) have announced plans to train 300 public secondary school girls in Lagos, Oyo, and Rivers states on basic financial literacy tools.

Speaking Wednesday at the Junior Achievement Nigeria Virtual Stakeholders Engagement Session, Mixta Africa’s Chief Commercial Officer, Mrs. Rolake Akinkugbe-Filani, said beneficiaries would be taken through basic tools such as business planning, savings, investments and more.

The Mixta chief said the training was conceived to give young people entrepreneurial skills and an opportunity to be in charge and plan their own destinies.

Reeling worrisome statistics, Akinkugbe-Filani said an approximately 767 million girls worldwide had been forced out of school due to COVID-19 pandemic while 60 percent of Nigeria’s out of school children are girls.

She said: “These girls as a result, are exposed to the risk of exploitation, a surge in child marriage and early pregnancy. These are the people Mixta Africa wanted to provide with sustainable support in partnership with Junior Achievement Nigeria BE-Entrepreneurial Programme.”

She said Mixta Africa with its partner is stepping up its community engagement and would be setting a long term focus on girl empowerment.

“Even if they don’t start a business, youth involved in entrepreneurship programmes gain skills and become more innovative and effective employees and managers,” she said.

Speaking on the partnership, JAN’s Executive Secretary Foluso Gbadamosi, said the organisation had built a track record of success in delivering high-quality experiential hands-on programmes under the three pillars of financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship, to young people between five and 27.

By Emma Elekwa, Onitsha

It was celebration galore in three schools in Anambra State following donation of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities by former Minister of Defence, General Theophilus Y. Danjuma, through his humanitarian organisation, Victims Support Fund (VSF) Taskforce on COVID-19.

The three schools, Community Secondary School, Mbaukwu; Boys High School, Nteje and Community Secondary School, Igbakwu, Anyamelum, are drawn from the three Senatorial zones of the state.

Among the facilities donated to the schools included a 4,000-litre solar-powered borehole, four hand washing stations, 2,000 pieces of reusable facemasks, five packs of four litre hand sanitisers, 120 bottles of hand wash and five cartons of bleach.

Chairperson, VSF Taskforce on COVID-19, Mrs Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji said the initiative was part of the foundation’s contributions to the fight against COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.

She said: “This project is one of the extensions of solidarity to the good people and government of Anambra State as well as the students and teachers and non-teaching staff in Mbaukwu, Nteje, Igbakwu and Anambra State as a whole.

“The Victims Support Fund COVID-19 Taskforce was set up in March 2020 by General Danjuma as a rapid response initiative of the VSF which is the first private sector-led humanitarian initiative in Nigeria. And we kicked off our interventions on April 14 in an IDP camp in Abuja.

“We have travelled through the length and breadth of Nigeria providing food, personal protective equipment, medical items in support of indigent communities and households across all the six geo-political zones of Nigeria. We did that between April and December 2020.

“In the third phase of the project where we are now , we decided to move on from just distributing food, PPEs and others to more enduring interventions that will even outlive the COVID-19 pandemic.

“And we decided, based on our needs assessment of our Monitoring and Evaluation and Programmes Department at the VSF, we realised that water is one of the most urgent needs of many communities across Nigeria.

“We make bold to say that since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 in Nigeria, the VSF is the first and perhaps, the most impactful private sector-led organisation in the whole of Nigeria.

“You will see our projects in communities most people will not really go to. Today, we are here for the official commissioning and handover of this 4,000 litres solar powered borehole facility which has been situated here in Community Secondary School, Mbaukwu.”

Responding on behalf of the benefiting schools, the principal of Community Secondary School, Mbaukwu, Mrs Anizoba Catherine, expressed appreciation to the benefactor, promising proper maintenance of the facilities.

By Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin

Ahead of the April 7, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) elections in 16 local government areas of Kwara State, some teachers have blamed successive leaders of the union for not prioritising their welfare.

The teachers also urged members at the local government branches to resist attempt by any principal or headmaster to impose delegates on them.

A Coordinator of Concerned Teachers from Moro Local Government Area, Abbas Muritala, told our correspondent that he had been in the trenches fighting for the right of teachers for a very long time.

Muritala added: “We have been in the struggle for the betterment of teachers for more than five years. And what we have been agitating for is the teachers’ welfare. We want to change the method they have been using in electing executives of the state NUT.

“This time around, we want every teacher in the state to know his or her right; that no principal or headmaster has power to choose delegates that will elect the NUT executives at all levels.

“The delegates should be chosen in the schools democratically. The teachers are to choose their representatives at local government level.

“That is why we are sensitising our people to know their rights. NUT  eletion    at the local government level slated for April 7, 2021 will take place during the holiday. We want teachers to come out en-masse and vote for the candidates of their choice. Those that have hitherto been representing us had failed us. They failed to protect our interests that border on paying of salary arrears, promotion and others.”

Another Coordinator from Ilorin West Mallam Abubakar AbdulWahab, hailed the NUT executives in the state for promising to ensure free and fair election under his watch.

“I want to appreciate the NUT chair in the state Chief Olu Adewara. He promised free and fair election. We believe he is a man of his words who wants to write his name in gold,’’ he said.

Within the shortest period in office, he has given NUT secretariat a good shape. He deserves a big commendation for that. Having said that, we are urging teachers to come out and vote for the candidates of their choice on election day,” he said.

By Cletus Okoye

MTN is stifling the progress of Nigeria’s small and medium-sized enterprises by ensuring that access to airtime and data through simple technology is cumbersome. With the increase in the transfer charges on USSD, MTN is looking to drive Nigerian SMEs who sell data and airtime out of business.

MTN has also compelled SMEs who aggregate data and airtime sales to push only MTN platforms while at the same time cutting down commissions on sales but that is not all, there is the issue of privacy policy.

With MTN Nigeria, your personal information is not safe. Why is that? MTN is insisting that most of their customers use their own (MTN) apps or application to buy recharge for both voice and data services because they want to collect as much personal information from customers as possible.

This means MTN can share your details which includes your phone number, Bank Verification Number amongst others to third parties for targeted advertising and possibly phishing. Do you still receive unsolicited SMS on your MTN line? That is because MTN is sharing your phone numbers with companies that are willing to pay for it.

These companies then target you even though you never requested for their service. You will notice that you randomly receive SMS from companies asking you to take quick loans or even luring you to enter into a competition where you can win millions of naira.

There are two things involved. The first is that MTN has made its customers vulnerable and has stepped up its game by insisting that you use their own applications like MTNTopit and MoMo channels to transact. This helps them monitor your transactions as well as monitor your browsing history.

Secondly, as an organization, MTN has shown gross negligence to customers who do not use smartphones, as a matter of fact, they did not factor such customers into their nefarious plans. Instead of encouraging more customers to embrace USSD, they are pushing them back into the era when we used to buy paper recharge cards.

The question is simple, is this obtainable in South Africa? Why is Nigeria the guinea pig for MTN’s callous scheme? Why is MTN making life harder for Nigerians and why are they selling personal information to third parties?

The privacy policy of MTN is one that is not customer friendly, so how then have they been able to get away with it? What exactly are the regulatory agencies doing? What is the role and functions of the Nigerian Communications Commission? Why is MTN allowed to get away with things like this?

Remember when MTN aided terrorism and was fined by the Nigerian government? For some reasons, they were allowed to get away with it. How does the NCC explains how $5.2 billion fine was reduced to a paltry sum? Is the Nigerian government culpable? Is the Nigerian government concerned about the safety of its citizen?

The NCC has been slow in reacting to some of the monopolistic actions by the MTN. In a circular, MTN asked their customer service agents to pacify customers, why? Why is MTN asking customer service agents to pacify Nigerians if it has not committed any atrocious act?

“Please be informed that some of MyCustomers may not be able to purchase airtime and data recharges via banks including MOD and myMTN App.

“Please pacify MyCustomers and educate them to use MTNTopit, MoMo channels, as well as the debit card options on MOD or myMTN app.”

The above quotes is from the MTN circular which clearly explains that MTN has a heinous plan and how being allowed to perpetuate it, thanks to the failing of the regulatory agency, in this case, NCC.

Some of you will remember how Cambridge Analytica and Facebook colluded to selling the personal information of users and how it backfired? Nigerians must rise up in one voice and put an end to the monopolistic and oligarchy mentality of MTN.

We want to buy data and we want to continue to do it using our USSD, we do not want to use MTN apps that will enable MTN have more of our information and sell them to third parties.

In conclusion, every Nigerian must note that their information is not safe on the MTN apps and if we do not kick against it, then they have us where they want us.

Okoye, a tax consultant writes from Onitsha, Anambra state.