The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Jigawa

  • Over 200 Jigawa women farmers benefit from outgrower programme

    Over 200 Jigawa women farmers benefit from outgrower programme

    About 200 women in Jigawa State have benefited from an all Women Outgrower programme including women living with disabilities in the state.

    The programme, which was supported by Rashak Farms and Agro Allied Limited, provided support to these women, covering every aspect of the farming, from seed to sale.

    The women received vital input disbursements, including improved wheat seeds, fertiliser, urea fertiliser, insecticides, and other essential resources to enhance their farming endeavours.

    Also included was support of the farm’s expert guidance throughout the farming season, such as training, healthcare, providing warehousing facilities to prevent post-harvest losses, and facilitating connections to the best markets for their produce.

    Rashak Farms said the programme, which took place in Hadeija, was a pioneer programme, which signifies a pivotal moment in its journey toward promoting gender equality and inclusivity within the agricultural sector.

    General Manager, Rashak Farms and Agro Allied Limited, Abubakar Ibrahim, said the farm has been deeply committed to impacting the lives of over 6,000 smallholder farmers for the past 7 years.

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    He said through its aggregation programme, the farm has united farmers and connected them to the best markets, empowering over 5,000 of them to achieve economic prosperity and social equality.

    He added: “I want to reiterate our belief that this strategic initiative aligns with our vision and will not only boost productivity but also enhance food security in the country and the entire continent. This is just the first Co-hot, and we look to have more Co-hots after a bountiful harvest. Moreover, this is anticipated to enable competitive market sales and bring smiles of impact to everyone involved in the untapped women-led wheat farming initiative’s entire value chain.

    “We call on the support of related NGOs, Social Impact investors, and so on to key into this initiative, as there are so many lives that this impact will touch. We have a lot of farmers knocking on our door for this support, but we can only take as many as we can.

    “Over 200 enthusiastic and aspiring female farmers in Jigawa state were empowered through our Outgrower programme, breaking down the longstanding barriers that have hindered their participation in agriculture. Notably, the program also welcomed Jigawa women with disabilities, further emphasising our commitment to inclusivity and empowerment. Our Outgrower programme signifies our dedication to providing comprehensive support to these women, covering every aspect of the farming process, from seed to sale.”

    One of the beneficiaries of the program Mallama Mariah Lawal said “Other agro allied companies suffocate us with very heavy payback prices. I have been farming for more than 5 years, and this is the best offer because I can still sustain my family and have enough to save after returning the loan amount.”

    District Head Tashena, Yunusa Bulama said: “We are very grateful for the opportunity. Our women are very hardworking, We are promising that our women will pay back this loan, and we will live to always remember your sowing this seed of prosperity for our women for years to come.”

    He said the ripple effect of the programme would continue having an impact on the women and their children because their women are creditworthy.

    The farms added that its outgrower program has supported over 1,200 smallholder farmers from ‘seed to sale,’ providing access to finance, inputs, training, and marketplace opportunities.ver 200 Jigawa women farmers benefit from outgrower programme.

  • FG subsidies 70,000 hectres wheat farms in Jigawa

    FG subsidies 70,000 hectres wheat farms in Jigawa

    The Federal Government has promised the provision of inputs and technical support to some selected dry season farmers to cultivates 70,000 hectares of wheat in JIiawa state.

    Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Senator, Abubakar Kyari announced thiswhile addressing farmer at Marma village, Kirikasamma local government in Jigawa State during a field visit.

    The Minister told the farmers the Federal Government in collaboration with the State Government will provide them with all necessary technical support and inputs at a subsidized rate during the forthcoming dry season to cultivate the wheat farms. 

    According to him: “Food security is one of the President Bola Tinubu’s policy agendas, to that regard the federal government resolved to provide every assistance, through intervention to farmers to expand their farming, increase yield, and promote food security for food security, Job creation, growth, and development. 

    “By God’s grace, large, medium, and emall scale farmers will be supported through the registered cluster, and all interventions will be given at the right time for the success of the program.

    Read Also: Jigawa declares today public holiday

    “To tackle the challenges of climate change, the federal government has come up with a policy of Smart Agriculture” under which an Agency will be established for guiding farmers on when to plant crops and how to plant it and other related measures “

    Governor Umar Namadi reiterated the commitment of his government to join hands with the Federal Government and any other collaborator to support farmers and improve agricultural outputs in the State.

    He noted that farmers in the State are very enthusiastic about the Wheat programme but the Federal Government must take all necessary measures to ensure the quality of seeds to be provided, and everything inputs shall be given in time to avoid late or anything that may cause late planting or poor harvest. 

  • Jigawa declares today public holiday

    Jigawa declares today public holiday

    The Jigawa State government has declared today as a public holiday to mark this year’s Maulud Nabiyy celebration.

    The Public Relations Officer (PRO) in the Office of the Head of Civil Service (HoS), Alhaji Ismail Ibrahim, announced this in a statement yesterday in Dutse, the state capital.

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    The statement quoted the state’s Head of Service, Alhaji Muhammad Dagaceri, as saying the public holiday was approved by Governor Umar Namadi.

  • Jigawa has 123,996 out-of-schools children – Govt

    Jigawa has 123,996 out-of-schools children – Govt

    No fewer than 123,996 children between the age of 10 and above were out of school as of September last year in Jigawa State.

    This was disclosed by the director, Child Development in the state’s Ministry of Women Affairs, Hajiya Indo Garba, shortly after the opening ceremony of a 3-day training of the 100 case workers held at Jigawa State Polytechnic, Dutse.

    Hajiya Garba said: “In September last year to be precise, we revalidated our data of out-of-school children across the state that stood at 123,996.”

    Garba, who doubles as a focal person of the Ministry/UNICEF programme, stated that as a pilot programme, the state government has made partnership with UNICEF to enrol 8000 out-of-school children roaming the streets back to school as part of efforts to curb the menace.

    The UNICEF focal person maintained: “We have registered 2000 children from each of the four local governments to begin the programme as a pilot, which makes it 8000 in total”.

    She said children of age 10 to 14 will be enrolled back to school while those from 14 to 19 will at the same time be attached to learn some skill for self-reliance.

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    Hajiya Garba said, “We are now holding a 3-Day training on case management, harmonised tool and Child Protections Information Management System to equip the selected case workers with the needed know-how on the use of Child Protections Information Management System, build and strengthen their capacity on case management”.

    The director added: “At a piloting stage, the ministry selected 4 civil society organisations to begin implementation of the programme in the state and at the current stage. As the first batch of 50 case workers derived from Dutse and Birnin Kudu CBOs are undergoing training, the second batch of those from Kafin Hausa and Yan’kwashi would subsequently follow.”

    On her part, the Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF Kano Field Office, Mrs. Fatima Adamu said the organisation is providing a platform to mitigate the gap of having children on the streets that will be stranded without the support.

    “We’re working with Jigawa State to look at children’s at Tsangaya, to look at safe guiding them, providing them with the services that they require, such as psycho social support, livelihood skills, school enrollment for those that want to and not only Almajiri children but also all adolescent out of school girls.”

  • 10 die of suspected diphtheria, 91 cases recorded in Jigawa

    10 die of suspected diphtheria, 91 cases recorded in Jigawa

    The Jigawa State Ministry of Health confirmed the death of 10 people of suspected diphtheria disease as an outbreak of the disease recorded in 14 local government areas in the state.

    The permanent secretary of the ministry, Salisu Mu’azu made the confirmation while fielding questions to the newsmen.

    Mu’azu said: “10 people suspected died and 91 suspected recorded cases in the state. So far two cases have been confirmed at Kazaure and Jahun local government as some samples had been taken to Abuja for confirmation. The epidemic had been recorded at areas with zero doses of rotten immunization in the affected local government areas in the state.”

    According to him, there has been an outbreak of a disease in Jigawa, which is adjacent to Kano and Yobe states, saying that this has prompted the state’s ministry to be vigilant and put in a lot of effort to address the issue of eminence.

    Read Also: Jigawa gov hails MSF on free training, healthcare

    Ma’azu noted that the ministry had already collected necessary information and data in the effects areas and updated the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHDA) and National Disease Control (NDC) for further actions.

    The permanent secretary of the state government is making arrangements for administering vaccines in the state whenever the vaccine arrives.

    Salisu Mu’azu attributed the outbreak to the healthcare services distraction some years back during the COVID-19 pandemic when everything suspended a reason that a rotten immunization was not carried out.

    Our reporter gathered that the JIgawa neighboring state, Kano constituted 80 percent of diphtheria disease outback according to the UNICEF report

  • Jigawa: Merging anti-corruption with risk management

    Jigawa: Merging anti-corruption with risk management

    By Aliyu Sulaiman Hadejia

    Sir: In a newspaper interview a few weeks ago, Governor Umar Namadi of Jigawa State intimated that he had set up a committee to probe the activities surrounding some missing funds in the state which ran into ‘hundreds of millions of naira’. These points to the suspicion that these funds were misappropriated, mismanaged, diverted or blatantly stolen, and the committee would investigate and forward recommendations for his approval for onward implementation. Even before the interview, the governor was recently captured on camera, in what turned out to be a viral video on social media platforms, where he was obviously livid and scolding someone who seemed to be a state government official for ‘inflating a contract’. The governor was adamant that the inflated funds must be returned.

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    It is safe to say that the governor is well aware of the level of mismanagement of state funds. In all of these, the common theme is loss of public funds. And perhaps now more than ever, Jigawa State needs to save as much funds as it can for the challenges ahead. For all the agricultural potentials of the state, there is still a huge infrastructure and funding gap to boost the state’s economy into self-sufficiency.

    There is no surprise too, when the bill for the establishment of the state’s Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission passed its third reading in 2022. Kano and Bauchi states already have this type of agency and it is expected that a similar blueprint will be applied for Jigawa State.

    It is against the backdrop of loss of funds (for any reason) that Jigawa needs to create an independent anti-corruption and risk management agency, which would proactively and smartly identify, measure and mitigate risks associated with leakages, stealing, misappropriation and mismanagement of the state’s funds. This risk management agency could also handle all public complaints against the state’s public servants bordering around their ethics, which have the ripple effects of crystallizing into loss of funds, or dovetailing into corrupt/nepotistic practices.

    It is clear that this agency is similar to the ones operated in other states like our neighbours, Kano. However, the key factor here is that Jigawa State would have some different and proactive modus operandi, which is why and where enterprise risk management comes in, as against a reactive ‘investigate and then prosecute’ conventional anti-corruption agency.

    The state should look to create an all-encompassing and robust agency, which not only investigates petitions and attempts to run after corrupt people, but also smartly assesses the systems of funds allocation (budgets), disbursement and utilization, to block all avenues for possible fraud and/or wastages. This agency would be smart, lean and data-driven, so much so that objectivity would be sacrosanct and difficult to circumvent.

    All the necessary composition of legal, financial (audit), law enforcement and technology building blocks would be harmonized to work in synergy to achieve the mandate spelt out by the governor. The main functions of the commission will include but not limited to vetting of cost allocations in projects and supervising them through to their completion, and reviewing and investigating petitions within stipulated service level agreements and turnaround time. The commission would also sensitize public servants on the CBN Anti-Money Laundering and Combating of Financing of Terrorism Act (2022) among other fraud detection and prevention trainings.

    This submission is therefore appealing to the governor to make this agency or commission among the priorities for his first few months in office, while incorporating the aforementioned additions to a conventional PCACC.

    Perhaps most important among the need to have a robust PCACC and risk management agency is that in a globalized, constantly evolving and smarter world, risk management will help the state government and its agencies to be more reactive to change, which will in turn help them make better decisions and operate with more internal efficiency. Data would also be readily available for non-apparent risks, which would aid in making the executive make better decisions – exposure to financial loss will be minimal, and the number of cases for the PCACC to investigate and prosecute will be brought down to the barest minimum.

    Aliyu Sulaiman Hadejia, Jigawa State.

  • Over 30, 000 children have eye diseases in Jigawa

    About 30, 000 children below 14 years in primary and junior secondary schools ?are suffering from various eye diseases in Jigawa State.

    An eye specialist and head of eye clinic at Rasheed Shekoni Specialist Hospital in Dutse, Dr Abdullahi Idris, who disclosed this during a roundtable meeting between the ministry of health officials, media and the team from the Health and Development Support Programme, said out of over six million people in Jigawa state about 2.4 million are children, adding that about 30,000 of these children have one eye disease or the other.

    Idris said that out of the total figures, 20 percent are suffering from cataract, about 20 percent have Glaucoma, 20 percent suffer from scar, 10 percent ROP while about 30 percent are suffering from other common eye diseases.

    According to him, the major causes of child eye diseases ?include lack of vitamin A which take 60 percent, measles, trauma, Keratitis, HTM, ON among others and it happened through sexual transmitted diseases, ROP/pre-maturity and consanguineous/genetics.

    He called on the parents of children with any eye disease and the general public to use the opportunity to bring such children for free treatment.

    Read Also: Over 30, 000 children blind in Jigawa

    Dr Idris further called on parents to give their children and pregnant women food with nutritional value. He also urged them to report any eye case to the appropriate centres to reduce the risk of blindness in the state.

    The Director, Public Health, Dr. Umar Bulangu, said all identified children in primary and junior secondary schools were to enjoy free eye treatment offered by Jigawa State Government in collaboration with Standard Chartered Bank of the United Kingdom under the Health and Development Support Programme (HDSP) in the state.

    Bulangu further explained that “the Ministry of Health had designated about 40 health centers to identify and refer them to the treatment centre at ECWA Eye Clinic in Kano.

    Also speaking the Jigawa State team leader for the project, Dr Abalis Dasat Abalis, said the sum of N1.8 billion was released by the Standard Chartered Bank UK for the project in Nigeria where over 1.5 million children are targeted across the country.

    Dr. Abalis Dasat explained that the project titled, “Seeing is Believing (SiB), is taking place in 11 states, including Jigawa.

     

  • Jigawa cuts official working hours

    THE Jigawa State government has cuts off official working hours by two hour in the state during throughout this holy month of Ramadan (Fasting period)

    A statement by the Public Relations Officer,  Office of the State Head of the Civil Service, Mr Ismailia Ibrahim, said the civil servants in the state would now report to the office at 9am and close by 3pm between Monday and Thursday against 5pm in the fast.

    The statement also stated that workers would on Friday reports to work on by 9am and close by 1pm against the usual 3pm.

    “The gesture is aimed at providing more opportunities to Civil Servants to prepare for their Ramadan break and also to have more time to observe spiritual activities in this holy month,” he said.

     

  • Man allegedly beheads brother

    Jigawa State Police Command has arrested a 22-year-Old man, Gambo Sa’idu of Badakoshi village in Gwaram Local Government, for allegedly beheading his elder brother.

    The Nation gathered that the suspect allegedly killed his brother over cows.

    Confirming the crime, police spokesman Abdu Jinjiri said: “One Gambo Sa’idu used cutlass to behead his elder brother, Haladu Sa’idu, 40.”

    He said the police at Gwaram Station received the report around 2pm on Wednesday and arrested the suspect on the scene.

    Read also: Kano/Jigawa Customs impounds foreign rice, others worth N45m

    Jinjiri said the suspect had been detained at Gwaram Police Station, adding that investigation was on.

    He said the case would be transferred to the State Criminal and Investigation Department (SCID) after which the suspect would be arraigned.

    The spokesman alleged that the suspect killed his brother because he envied him for having more cows than other members of the family.

     

  • Kano/Jigawa Customs impound rice, others,worth N45m

    The Kano/Jigawa Nigeria customs Area Command, has impounded over 1500 bags of foreign rice along side other contraband items valued at over N45 million.

    Displaying the seized goods at the Kano Area Command headquarters on Thursday, the Area comptroller,Nasir Ahmad said that 20 vehicles worth N7.2 million were used as means of transporting the seized items.

    He said over 260 jerry cans of foreign vegetable oils valued at N3.7 million were intercepted at various locations, adding that 25 bags of foreign sugar were also seized valued at N412,510.

    According to him, the command has also impounded 20 used exotic vehicles at various boarder locations and now in detention awaiting the owners to come forward for clearance.

    Ahmad explained that the various contrabands that were impounded were intercepted at Miltara road, Gumel boarder in jigawa, Bello road, Katsina Road, Babura, Achilafiya, Zaria road and Maigatari border in Jigawa state.

    Ahmad said ” You can see another method that is being used by smugglers to smuggle in rice into the country by using empty jerry cans to conceal the rice.

    “If you see a bus conveying empty jerry cans of vegetable oil, one would hardly suspect anything but alas! it is another way of transporting smuggled foreign rice.

    “We have resolved that any vehicle coming out of the zone must be properly inspected.

    “There should be no snuggling of rice especially to these part of the country where rice is largely cultivated and with lots of rice mills that can give us enough local rice.”

    He warned smugglers to desist from these illegal business and find another means of livelihood that any one caught indulging in such act will not be spared by the law.