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Tag: establish

  • Kwara to establish agric lab

    Kwara to establish agric lab

    The Kwara Government said it will establish an agriculture laboratory for soil-testing to attract commercial agriculture to the state.

    Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed made the promise in Ilorin, when the Chief Executive Officer of Promasidor Nigeria Limited, Chief Keith Richards, paid him a courtesy visit.

    “The proposed laboratory is part of our administration’s policy in the agriculture sector to ensure that the right crops are planted on the right type of soil for desired dividends,’’ he said.

    The governor assured potential investors that his administration will create the enabling environment which would spur agricultural and economic development in the state.

    He described the interest of the private sector in investing in the state’s agriculture as a positive development which would boost commercial agriculture in the state.

    Earlier, Richards said his company would invest about $5 billion in cheese production in the state.

    He said the proposed dairy factory would produce cheese, butter and other products from milk.

    Richards said Promasidor was committing about $5 million of the amount to equipment and auxiliary investments.

    “The factory will create employment and encourage the commercial development of Shonga where the factory will be sited,” he added

  • IBM to establish research lab in Nigeria

    IBM is set to establish a research laboratory in the country to expand its foothold in Africa, its Chief Technology Officer, Central East and West Africa, Sandra Johnson, has said .

    Johnson, who spoke in Lagos with The Nation, said she could not say how soon that will happen, adding that the firm’s last technology research facility in Africa is in Nairobi, Kenya. She said it was done in partnership with the government through the Kenyan ICT Authority.

    “IBM is really expanding into the African continent. The lab built in Kenya is actually in partnership with the government of Kenya. So at some point in the future, I cannot say when, but we will have more than one resources location in the world,” she said on the sidelines during the IBM Lasgidi Hackathon that took place at the Co-Creation Hub, Yaba, Lagos.

    The Kenyan research laboratory is IBM’s 12th global research laboratory for carrying out applied and far-reaching exploratory research into the grand challenges of the African continent by delivering commercially-viable innovations that impact people’s lives.

    She said IBM loves to support innovation, inventions and creativity which drive the engine of growth, adding that it is also the driving engine behind many of the firm’s client. She said innovation is at the centre of what IBM does and what it does well.

    She said: “We want to drive innovation in the country of and one of the best ways to do it is through young people, very agile, very smart with the drive to want to change things, to improve the system.

    “From technology perspectives, we can improve upon the lives of the whole world. So, we invest in encouraging the young people to really think about, in this case mobile money, government, and other issues, to know different things outside the box that they can do to improve the lives that they know; some of the things that can also improve the quality of the lives of Nigerians.”

    According to Sandra, the intention of IBM is to make the young boys and girls involved in the programme “come up with great ideas and we believe that some of them will get really good ideas that will take them to the next level. That is the whole objective of this programme.”

    She said Lagos was chosen because Nigeria will become the largest economy in Africa in a couple of years to come.

     

  • Fed Govt to establish 100 Almajiri schools

    Fed Govt to establish 100 Almajiri schools

    Vice President Namadi Sambo says the Federal Government will establish 100 Almajiri Special Schools across the nation as part of its efforts to prevent street begging.

    He stated this in Gusau, Zamfara , at the end of the week long National Qur’an Recitation Competition.

    According to Sambo, the schools when fully established, will promote both Islamic and western education among school-aged children who are now roaming the streets.

    He stated that although the schools would be built across the country, a larger number would be established in the northern part of the country.

    Sambo said the Federal Government had procured 96 million text books in core subjects of English, Mathematics, Sciences and Social Studies to improve teaching and learning at the junior secondary school level.

    He said the text books which would soon be distributed, were purchased through the Text Books Initiative of the Universal Basic Education Commission.

    Sambo praised the organisers of the competition as a good initiative towards discovering hidden talents which would assist oneness, unity and brotherhood among the Muslim Umma and their relationship with others.

    He also noted that the initiative would also be a mechanism for the attainment of lasting peace.

    The Vice President commended the Zamfara State government and the Centre for Islamic Research of the Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto for organising the event.

    Earlier in his welcome address, the State Governor, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, urged participants to use the event in praying for peace and well being of the nation.

    At the end of the competition, 60 winners in six categories of the competition made up of males and females were given one car each, Hajj seats, lap tops and digital Qur’an.

     

  • ‘TETFund should establish research labs’

    ‘TETFund should establish research labs’

    : Lawmaker says agency should pause funding

    Rather than wait for the private sector to invest in research as some academics advocate, a Member of House of Representative, Hon Kehinde Odeneye has said the government, through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) can undertake to establish state-of-the-art central research laboratories to boost research capacity of Nigerian universities and academics.

    Odeneye, who is a member of the House Committee on Education, told The Nation in an interview that the agency could temporarily withhold funds from tertiary institutions for a year to establish the laboratories in the six geo-political zones of the country.

    He added that when established, academics from all tertiary institutions could be involved in multidisciplinary researches that could solve pressing national problems.

    That way, Odeneye said the government would put its money where its mouth is and build the confidence of the private sector in the education system.

    He said: “The intervention we need in our education system should be total and holistic so we ourselves will believe in it. So much money goes into research and nobody wants to take a gamble. Rather than collaborate with the private sector on research, what we should do is that TETFund should set up a research centre where professors will come together and let’s see what they can do. If anybody should take a gamble, it should be the government.

    “The research centre should be a general one that will be fully loaded. To me, TETFUND can even stop general intervention funding to institutions for a year to set up the state-of-the-art centres in the six geo-political zones.”

    However, despite complaints of inadequate funding, Odeneye lamented that many tertiary institutions fail to access their yearly capital grants from TETFund.

    He urged the institutions to do their parts in meeting the conditions of the agency so they can access the funds, advising them to even apply for special intervention funds which are also available.

    “TETFund has been trying in disbursing grants to institutions but some schools don’t even access their allocations. The TETFUND has billions in its account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the chairman complained that most schools do not come for their allocations. My call to institutions is that they should approach TETFund and apply for the grants, even the special intervention funds. I do not see any reason why there should be funds and they are not used,” he said.

    To attract the best of brains to education and other sectors, Odeneye called on the Federal Government to emulate the scholarship programmes of China, India and other fast-growing countries.

    The lawmaker explained that these countries send their best brains to study in the best schools in the world and engage them once they are through so they can invest their newly acquired skills into their economies.

    “Look at India, they follow up their students. When you finish secondary school and you want to become a doctor, they send you to the best medical school to train and immediately you finish, they bring you back to work. But in Nigeria, if there is such a scheme, it is not working. If they go on PTDF scholarship, they don’t come back here. If they come back, they will be begging for jobs instead of the government to engage their skills,” he said.

  • Fed Govt to establish FMC in southern Kaduna

    The lawmaker representing Kaduna South, Senator Esther Nenadi Usman, said in Kaduna yesterday that efforts are being made by the Federal Government to establish a Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in the senatorial district.

    She told a meeting of stakeholders in her senatorial district that what is required to actualise the project is the approval of the governor, adding that once it is approved, the project would receive attention from the Federal Government.

    Said she: “All that is required for the establishment of the Federal Medical Centre is the approval of the governor. So, I wrote a letter to the former governor, the late Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, on the issue. But before he could act on it, he died.”

    Senator Usman said as part of her senatorial projects, the Federal Ministry of Education is building a 400-seater library and 426 students have received scholarship from her in the last two years.

    She said she has sunk boreholes in 87 communities, adding that about 229 women were mobilised for an initiative aimed at boosting the production of food items for subsistence and commercial purpose.

    According to her, consultants from Thailand and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development were invited to sensitise women on how to plant, harvest and sell vegetables and other cash crops, while the women were registered and issued e-registration numbers to enable them purchase seeds and fertilisers at subsidised rates.

  • Govt urged to establish burn centres

    A surgeon at the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Professor Ismail Lawal has urged government at all levels to establish burn centres in the country.

    He also canvassed the formation of disaster management teams that will map out disaster plans.

    Lawal spoke at the 122nd inaugural lecture of UNILORIN in Ilorin, Kwara State. The lecture was entitled: A plastic and reconstructive surgeon in a developing country: Practice and prospects.

    He added that establishment of burn centres would transform the management of burn injuries in Nigeria.

    His words: “We have the expertise; all we are asking for is a well-equipped centre and we shall be able to bring down the mortality of burn patients to the level that is obtained in developed countries.

    “Preventive measures to help epileptics avoid injuries, such as burn injuries while cooking at home, are extremely important. They must never be allowed to cook alone without someone beside them.

    “There should be legislation in controlling the sales of concentrated sulphuric acid by roadside battery chargers or any persons who might have access to the products.”

    The don urged Nigerians to embrace cosmetic surgery, adding that “Nigerians do not need to travel to Europe, the United States or even Asian countries spending huge amount of money for a service that can be provided within.

    “Micro vascular surgery is still at its infancy age in our sub-region. We need to train more personnel, make appropriate instruments available and in this 21st century, we should be able to be at par with our colleagues in the developed countries.”

    He enjoined more surgeons to specialise in plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgery.

    “This will improve the availability of the specialty spread across the country and thus increase the service delivery in this sub-region,” Lawal said.

     

  • Floods: Kwara monarch urges govt to establish power commission

    The establishment of Hydro Power Producing Areas Development Commission (HYPPADEC) is the antidote to perennial flooding in Kwara State, the Etsu Patigi in Patigi Local Government Area, Alhaji Ibrahim Umar, has said.

    The monarch also prescribed the extension of the dredging of River Niger to Jebba to prevent flooding in Patigi and Edu local government areas.

    There were floods in some parts of the state when River Niger overflowed its banks.

    The floods destroyed farmlands and property worth millions of naira.

    Umar spoke in his palace when the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, Dr Bukola Saraki, visited flood victims in the area.

    Thanking the senator for donating relief materials to the flood victims, Umar said: “You are familiar with the problem of flooding in this state and you are always concerned with what happened in Patigi. As you might be aware, we recall that you championed the establishment of HYPPADEC, which we believe will be a permanent solution to perennial flooding.

    “We’ve been suffering from it almost annually. So, unless we have a commission, we believe flooding will continue to recur and the problem is not on relief alone but also on a permanent solution which a commission of that nature will be able to address.

    “For us to solve this perennial problem, extend the dredging (of River Niger) to Jebba. It will be one of the permanent solutions that will save us. Our problems are so many because every year, people lose their farmlands and homes. This year’s flooding is unprecedented, because some villages were completely vacated. The houses were submerged because of the effects of Kainji Dam, Jebba Dam and Shiroro Dam. The effects of these dams continuously affect us in this part of the state.”

    Saraki assured that the dredging of River Niger would be extended to Jebba in Kwara State.

    He noted that the extension of the dredging would check flooding in Patigi and Edu Local Government areas.

    The senator described the recent floods in Nigeria as a national calamity.

    Saraki promised to assist the victims.

    The former Kwara State Governor said his committee would monitor the distribution of materials donated to the victims to prevent their diversion.