The Nation Newspaper

Tag: programme

  • Council boosts local economy with empowerment programme

    Members of communities that make up Oriade Local Council Development Area of Lagos State have cause to thank God recently following a unique business empowerment programme embarked upon by the council aimed at alleviating the problems of the needy in the area.

    In recent weeks, Chairman of the council, Hon. Ibrahim Tunde Sanusi, has been on tour of wards in the council area to dispense items of empowerment as part of the council’s efforts to alleviate the suffering of the citizens.

    The programme tagged “Small Business Empowerment Fund Programme”, according to the council chief, aims at making funds available to indigent parents to enable them set up small businesses that will ensure daily income with which they will take care of their families.

    He said: “The LCDA embarked on this programme in order to help those who do not have enough wares in their shops so that they would be able to stock their shops with enough wares for sale during the Yuletide period. We reasoned that between September and October is the best period to help those who are into buying and selling to stock their shops with goods in readiness for December sales.

    “If we decide to empower them in November, cost of articles of trade would be on the high side and the aim of the programme will be defeated. In each of the seven wards in the council, at least 39 members will be empowered with the sum of N30, 000.

    “For instance, in Ward ‘H’ at Ikhaare Town, 64 people benefited from the small business empowerment programme. Each received the sum of N30, 000, 39 students received bursary awards while 38 out of the 300 aged people who benefited from the monthly social security allowance for the elderly are from Ward ‘H’.

    “In Ibasa Town, 65 people received N30, 000 each in the small business empowerment programme while another 110 people received bursary allowance.

    “This gesture cuts across political and religious affiliations.”

    Apart from the small business empowerment fund, Hon. Sanusi said the council is also giving out bursary awards to students that are in higher institutions across the country.

    On infrastructural development, the council chief noted that “physical infrastructure help in enhancing the well-being of the people. This explains the council’s commitment to road construction and rehabilitation across the council area, provision of adequate education and health infrastructure and encouragement of rural farmers with incentives. We also recognise that members of staff become more dedicated to their duties when they are happy and encouraged. That is why the council ensures that workers are highly motivated”.

    While distributing the materials in each of the wards, Hon, Sanusi said abject poverty and unemployment among youths were serious challenges which the council is experiencing, adding that his administration is committed to reversing the awful situation.

    Continuing, he said: “The increasing number of unemployed youths roaming the streets in search of jobs and some parents not having tangible means of livelihood has made them become frustrated and, most times, engage in anti-social activities that are inimical to the well-being of our society. It is therefore our responsibility as government to do something concrete to address this situation by intervening with various measures that will alleviate poverty and unemployment.

    Hon, Sanusi revealed that the council had provided several amenities for the people, which he said included rehabilitation of S.A. Primary School, Ikhaare, construction of footbridge at Irede Ikhaare, construction of public toilet at Iyagbe and Ikhaare, regular clearing of bushes along Ikhaare-Iyagbe-Irede footpath and ongoing construction of health centre and doctors’ quarters at Iyagbe and Irede.

    On youth employment, the council chief said his administration accords great priority to youth employment, adding that about 35 youths from Ward ‘H’ will be considered for contract jobs in the council this month. He also disclosed that some of them had been engaged in various sports such as swimming, football, athletic,  street soccer and track and field events which the council had organised.

    Contributing, the member representing Amowo-Odofin State Constituency at the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. (Mrs.) Akinlola-Hassan Ramotalai praised the council chief for fulfilling most of his promises to the people during his electioneering campaigns.

    She expressed her happiness over what she called “deliberate efforts by the council to make life meaningful for the citizens,” noting that she had also contributed her quota to the development and well-being of the people through her education empowerment efforts. She revealed that she had provided school uniforms for almost all the primary schools in the council because, she said, education is a catalyst for development of any society.

  • Jonathan’s electricity programme, a sham

    President Goodluck Jonathan’s Electric Power Sector Reform, ballyhooed over the years as the magical bullet for the  debilitating electricity situation in the country, is a big flop. The nation has since April been in the rainy season when public power supply perennially improves dramatically because of sufficient water in the dams for the three hydro plants at Shiroro, Kanji and Jebba—all in Niger State—but this has not been so. If anything, power supply has been worsening.

    Going by the projections of the Electric Power Sector Reform programme, which President Jonathan launched with fanfare on August 26, 2010, at Eko Hotel in Lagos, the nation should by now be generating, transmitting and distributing at least 15,000 megawatts (MW). But what is currently generated is a far cry. The country is producing less than 4,000MW, or about a quarter of the projected quantum of power! For a nation of some 170million, the electricity per capita is embarrassingly poor, falling behind Ghana’s, among others.

    After announcing for months that 10,000MW would be generated by December, the Ministry of Power on August 3, announced, without any sense of embarrassment, that the new target for the period is 6,000MW, a little above half of the figure bandied about for some time. Even so, no one is realistically expecting the nation to hit 5,000MW by December which is only four months away.  After all, the dramatic improvement which Power Minister Chinedu Nebo promised the nation that would be experienced from last June has yet to be realized. The power sector has been  a shambles since hawks, anti-reform and extremely corrupt elements in the Jonathan government forced the world renowned engineering authority, Professor Bart Nnaji, to resign as Minister of Power on August 28, 2012. The steady improvement in power supply experienced under Nnaji, who raised power generation, transmission and distribution to an all-time high of 4,500MW, ended a few weeks after the professor left office abruptly; ever since then, the country has been on a downward slope, electricity-wise.

    The new owners of the six generation companies and eleven distribution companies privatized since November 1, 2013, are all in a mess financially. If great care is not taken, the banks which loaned them huge sums in the belief that they were assisting a worthy national development cause will be shaken thoroughly. All the assumptions upon which the entrepreneurs committed huge investments in the electricity privatization programme have turned out to be calamitous. Generation firms are unable to produce much because there is no gas supply from the Nigerian Gas Company, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) under the leadership of Deziani Alison-Madueke, the Minister of Petroleum Resources. Apparently, she has shown little interest in addressing this problem, preferring instead to focus on petrol and kerosene and crude oil lifting contracts. The President commissioned the Geregu power utility in Kogi State and the Omotosho plant in Ondo State without a single molecule because there was no gas pipeline to any of them. The nation was taken for granted.

    The joint press conference on the power situation addressed by Mrs Alison-Madueke, Power Minister Chinedu Nebo, National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) chairman Sam Amadi and  Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele on August 3, was a panic public relations stunt to calm Nigerians who are becoming increasingly restive over power supply as the 2015 election is fast approaching. NERC’s decision to substantially  increase tariff during the next Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) will not make a dent on the distribution companies’ obligations to banks if there is no considerable increase in quantum of power generated and transmitted by various firms. Distribution companies themselves have already been over-billing customers in a desperate effort to remain afloat, and in some instances, they have refused to supply power to rural communities because of the paltry returns. In other words, electricity is worse for the Nigerian people than in the pre-privatisation days.

    Worse still, the transmission network is in a mess. It cannot wheel up to 5,000MW because it is old and poorly maintained. Politicians in government and elsewhere have been swooping on the limited resources available to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), which has in the last one year had two chief executives and two board chairmen. Manitoba Hydro International of Canada, contracted three years ago to manage it for three years, has not been given a free hand to run the company professionally.  As if to add a comic touch to the farcical drama, President Jonathan announced two years ago, a unilateral cancellation of the $20m contract, only to swallow his own vomit in public a few days later when the international community challenged him over his unilateral action.

    Nigeria’s power sector is in no doubt in a fiasco. Perceptive analysts knew  all along that this fiasco was an accident waiting to happen. Any government which could afford to dispense with the services of Nnaji as Minister of Power cannot possibly mean well.  Any government which sold the Kano Electricity Distribution Company and Sapele generating facility to cronies of some people in The Presidency cannot mean well for the Nigerian people. Any government which sold the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company to unknown quantities in power, over and above the Southeast state governments and their most accomplished entrepreneurs and researchers. has merely sentenced the South-east permanently to the dark age of history.

    A serious government will appoint only professionally sound persons as Minister of Petroleum Resources and Minister of Power and heads of agencies under them, so as to work with honesty and a sense of urgency on various electricity projects.  A serious administration will look into petitions of controversial privatizations of key power assets to fronts of government officials.  A fair minded administration will simplify and reduce the current requirements for power generation and distribution so that state and local governments as well as private organizations can produce and distribute electricity without the federal administration breathing down their neck.

    A serious administration will create a lot of incentives in the gas sub-sector so that investments will flow into it. It will also encourage the exploitation of resources like coal so that it could serve as a major source of power;  our coal is among the best in the world, given its low sulphur content. In addition, it will aggressively explore alternative sources of energy like solar, water, wind, biomass, etc, in collaboration with international development agencies and friendly countries like Germany which have advanced technologies in this field. Such power should be off-grid, that is to say, generated and supplied to end users in the vicinity, instead of being sent to the transmission network. A serious administration should cause electricity distribution companies to provide pre-paid metres to consumers within 12 months of coming into being.

    It is no longer in dispute that the President Jonathan’s Electric Power Sector Reform, advertised as elixir for the crippling electricity mess, is a big flop—in fact, a national swindle. Instead of generating light, it is generating heat and darkness. It is not working because of a profound lack of sincerity of purpose, a profound lack of vision, a profound lack of commitment and a profound absence of depth and rigour.

    • Dr Ishaku and Engr Nwosu signed this article on behalf of Electricity Stakeholders Conference.

  • ‘Agricultural Development Programme going into extinction’

    The National Association of Nigerian Traders ( NANTS) has decried the dwindling service of the Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) in the country, saying the service is being neglected by government.

    NANTS  President,   Ken Ukuoha, who stated this at a stakeholders consultative meeting  on the state of Agricultural extension service in Nigeria, said the ADP remains the most enduring public system of Agricultural extension in the country with direct linkage to the grassroots and small holder farmers.

    He said, “In recent times, the extension service delivery has almost gone into extinction, as the spark which the ADP was known for appears dwindling,  To some observers the ADP was abandoned as soon as the funding  meant for it from the world Bank dried up.

    “The regretable result is that today,  the current ratio is one extension agent to two thousand farm families,  and this is an impossible task to create impact. Interestingly,  policy wise,  agricultural extension service occupies a major plank in the Agriculture Transformation Agenda  of  Nigeria.”

    He said the ADP  is  a key component of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development (CADDP) which the  Agric Transformation Agenda  domestically seeks to represent, adding that the regional level,  Nigeria is a major country upon which ECOWAS relies for the implementation of its agricultural policy, called ECOWAP, especially for the economic development and food security of her over 300 million population.

    He said it should be noted that ECOWAS accorded extension service sub-sector a significant role in the implementation of the region’s agricultural policy.

    Ukuoha explained that in  the spirit of the existing partnership with the Federal Public Administration Reforms of the Department for International Development, the Department  For International Development, (DFID), NANTS seeks to beam the policy searchlight on the status of extension service delivery in Nigeria.

    He said the goal is to monitor and engage this agricultural policy of government with a view to ensuring positive impact on the small holder farmers.

     

  • Estate firm unveils programme in Lagos

    3Invest Limited,the continent’s largest online platform and information platform for the real estate sectoron Wednesday 27 August, 2014 hostedmedia representatives to a conference and brunch at Victoria Island Lagos, to officially launch Real Estate Unite 2014—the International Business-to-Business event that convenes players from across Africa’s real estate industry. The event is scheduled to take place from 2 – 3 October 2014 at the prestigious Intercontinental Hotel in Lagos.

    Speaking at the press conference, Ruth Obihwho is Chief Executive Officer of 3Invest,said with Nigeria’s rebased GDP, the sub-Saharan real estate market presents an attractive investment opportunity; a portfolio which currently accounts for about 7.6% of the nation’s GDP but can be as much as 40% if better mobilized.

    “This is what we are seeking to do at this year’s event through the theme, ‘Igniting the F.I.R.E, where lies the key?” she said.

    The theme represents key factors 3Invest have identified over the years as having the potential to catalyse the industry’s growth.  The “F” represents Finance, the “I” represent Infrastructure, “R” represents Red-Tapism while “E” represents Education.

    Also speaking at the event was Peter Bamkole, Chairman of the Real Estate Unite Advisory Board and Director of the Enterprise Development Center, Pan-Atlantic University. “Real estate is a major contributor to employment in the country,” he said. “The more we are able to provide jobs, the less the likelihood that we are going to have uprisings.”

    The launch also witnessed the introduction of the Health Care Real Estate Forum which will be part of the event in October, 2014.

    “As a forum that is responsive to growing trends in the industry, we knew it was time to bring to the forefront a new market opportunity when we were suddenly faced with the outbreak of the Ebola virus in Lagos and West Africa at large,” Obih said. “With the infrastructural challenges of providing medical services to the infected, exposed and others, I knew that at Real Estate Unite, we had to focus on healthcare real estate or simply put, the future of care from the real estate perspective.”

  • Hour to Receive holds

    |Hour to Receive, the three-day life transforming programme of New Birth Ministries Ikeja, kicks offon August 21 by 5pm.

    A vigil takes place on Friday, tagged night of reaching the globe, from 11pm.

    The anointing service ends the programme on Sunday by 8am.

    The chief host, Bishop Francis Anunobi, assured that participants will receive divine touch.

  • ‘Why Aregbesola’s agric programme is a success’

    ‘Why Aregbesola’s agric programme is a success’

    Bureau of Communications and Strategy, Office of the Osun State Governor has emphasised that the StateRural Enterprise and Agricultural Programme (OREAP) remains “one of the successful, laudable development and wealth creation programmes of the Rauf Aregbesola administration.”

    The Bureau spoke yesterday while reacting to what it called “another in the litany of the Iyiola Omisore lies.”

    Omisore had claimed in some media reports that the state’s agricultural programme tagged OREAP was a fraud, alleging there is nothing to show for it in almost four years.

    Describing Omisore’s position as ill-informed and an indication of the crass ignorance of the working of development programmes in government, the Bureau said Aregbesola had not come to power before recognising the need for massive food production to grow an economy such as that of Osun; ignite industrialisation and create jobs.

    The statement by its Director, Semiu Okanlawon, said the allegation gave away PDP and its candidate as a lazy bunch of people who lack the capacity for simple facts-finding before going to the press.

    “Farmers are among the happiest beneficiaries of the current administration in Osun. This is because of the prime place Aregbesola accords food production. The agricultural sector has been very strategic to the overall development of Osun. At least, the state’s massive food production programme is central to the realization of three of the six integral action plans of the administration. Only the nit-witted would conclude that agriculture has not played a lead role in banishing poverty, banishing hunger and creation of jobs and wealth,” the Bureau stated

    Against the lies being bandied by the PDP that farm estates and settlements were supposed to be upgraded, he said land validation exercise and perimeter survey were done with latest technology in nine farm settlements which he noted is the first in the history of farm settlements in South-West of the country.

    He added that over 3,070.3 hectares of land was cleared and 6,209 hectares tractorised across the state.

    Okanlawon also noted that 20,000 Hectares of farmland were validated in the nine farm settlements, more 4,211 Hectares was discovered and reallocated to small holders.

    According to him, “This is a programme that was well thought out to empower farmers. The Government procured 5000 metric tons of fertilizers sold to farmers at 50% subsidy over the last 2 years; 1,830 rural farmers in 61 local communities received farm inputs from the State in collaboration with UNICEF.”

  • U.S Agency offers support for new degree programme

    U.S Agency offers support for new degree programme

    USAID-funded agency has promised to help universities mount degree programme in Health Information Management System.

    Samson Bamidele, Country Leader of Measure Evaluation, a USAID funded intervention agency in the Nigeria’s health sector, told The Nation that beyond helping the Federal Government to review the curriculum for Health Information Management system in its training institutions, it can assist in mounting BSc programmes, which does not currently exist in Nigeria in the field.

    He noted that there was so much happening in Health Information Management, yet the nation lacks adequate professionals in the area.

    Bamidele, who was in Zaria for regional workshop on Monitoring and Evaluation of Public Health programmes, praised the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria for collaborating to raise professionals in the field.

    Also speaking, the Chief Medical Director of Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Prof. Mohammed Khalid, said that the nation is making progress in the health sector today because of the attention paid to public health issues in the country.

    While pledging the continued support of the tertiary hospital, Khalid said that people are able to live together in the country today because of sustained efforts at disease control, pointing out that this will not be possible if there is no improvement in public health.

    Head of department of Community Medicine, Dr Mohammed Sambo, said that the the Monitoring and Evaluation training which is the fifth in the series is comparable to the best in the world.

    He disclosed that for the first time since the training started, there was an international participant coming from Ghana.

    About 150 people have so far been trained.

  • Senator sues FRCN chief, others for stopping his programme

    Senator Abubakar Sadiq Yaradua (APC, Katsina Central) has sued the Director-General of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), the Companion FM, Katsina, and its General Manager, Yusuf Zayn Dogara, for allegedly denying him his fundamental human rights.

    Yaradua prayed the Federal High Court sitting in Katsina to compel the director- general and others joined in the suit, to pay him N10 million as aggravated damages.

    In the suit, the senator is asking the court to declare that stopping the broadcast of his sponsored programme, Tsintsiya Madaurin Ki Daya, was ilegal.

    The senator prayed the court to declare that “the illegal and unlawful stopping of the broadcast of the programme,” allegedly on the instructions of the respondents, ran contrary to Sections 39, (1), 42 (1) (A) and (B) of the Constitution.

    He also sought an order of the court directing the FRCN and other respondents in the suit to “tender an unreserved apology published in three national newspapers and same to be broadcast in Companion FM, Katsina”.

    Yaradua sought an order of the court compelling the respondents to “continue with the broadcast of the programme to enforce his fundamental rights of freedom of expression and freedom from discrimination.”

    The senator alleged that he had an agreement with the FRCN’s Companion FM to broadcast a sponsored 30-minute programme for which he was charged N400,000.

    Yaradua averred that he paid the amount for the first quarter in early January.

    He said the station collected the money for the quarter but returned it, thus refusing to continue with the broadcast of the programme.

     

  • Nigerian women in U.S. for exchange programme

    Two Nigerian women entrepreneurs are participating in this year’s women’s entrepreneurship exchange programme in the United States.

    The programme is sponsored by the U.S. Government to grow small and medium businesses run by women in Africa.

    This year, 30 women from 27 African countries are participating in The African Women’s Entrepreneurship Programme (AWEP).

    “This has been uplifting,” said Ora Atuguba, CEO of Weave and Co., a Lagos-based company focusing on interior decoration and the creation of handcrafted multifunctional basket works.

    The company creates a range of products that reflect the variety and depth of African craftsmanship, style and art as well as wicker furniture.

    Atuguba added: “As a woman, this has changed my views about the support system women have, and we cannot go back.”

    Her colleague, Femi Olayebi, is the CEO of My World of Bags, an Ibadan-based company which specialises in designing and manufacturing varieties of bags. These include hand bags, conference bags, laptop bags and much more, using eye-catching colours, African beads, and swathes of animal-print fabrics.

    “The highlight for me so far has been meeting people who are giving us insight on gaining entry to U.S market and the best ways of practicing our business,” said Olayebi, whose products are already being sold in South Africa, the United Kingdom, and France.

    The programme created to promote positive cultural exchange between the U.S and African women entrepreneurs has participants visiting local businesses, business incubators, schools, and non-governmental organizations from the city of Chicago, Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, to Washington DC and New York, where the dio are meeting with the UN Women, a United Nations organization that focuses on empowering women.

    “One thing we’ve been hearing over and over is – if it is not very good, it’s not good enough!” said Atuguba.

    “We have been really challenged to stop complaining and act more,” said Olayebi, “There are so many opportunities out there; we must learn to dream bigger and take charge. Most importantly, where the power is, we have to be there,” she added.

    The two women are determined to make a difference upon their return to Nigeria. “I do not see why I cannot organize some training for more women,” said Olayebi, who currently has eight women among her staff.

    For Atuguba, her zeal is to incorporate a fusion of different African cultures in her designs and promote volunteerism. “We must learn to do things without expecting anything in return,” she said, after their visit to a Girl Scout event, where the duo were challenged by teenage girls volunteering to make a difference. Atuguba currently has 13 women on her staff, working along side men.

    Both women agree that knowledge of the social media would propel the visibility and growth of many small businesses in Nigeria.

    “We need training centers on social media for women if the government can look into this, because almost everything related to business is now online. We have cyber cafes, but we need training centers just for business women; at least, you need to be able to send a simple email,” said Atuguba.

    “The first thing is to create awareness of the power of social media because information is power, and to let people know you’re never too old to learn,” said Olayebi.

    Addressing Nigerian women facing obstacles in their businesses, Atuguba said, “When there is a blockage, they can only make you better, so learn from others who have become successful out of necessity in the face of adversity.” She also urged women to focus more on the beauty that comes from being creative. “A lot of women spend hours on looking good outside, but beauty is skin-deep, it is that which comes from the inside that matters,” she said.

    “Women need to believe more in themselves; we need to have confidence in our skills, this will help to propel us and others around us,” said Olayebi.

    The programme also has participants from Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, the Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Niger, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo and Uganda.

     

     

     

     

     

  • SA Life begins awareness programme

    SA Life begins awareness programme

    TO deepen insurance in the country, Standard Alliance Life Assurance Limited, said it has partnered with Almond Finance and Wealth Report to enlighten the public on the need for insurance.

    Head of Corporate Communications, Mr Nelson Egboboh, in a statement, noted that the company has picked the challenge of sponsoring enlighnten-ment programme on the electronic media one of which is anchored by Almond Finance and Wealth Report on a local channel.

    He said the underwriting firm also went ahead to sponsor more programmes, which is aired on both local and international channels.

    He added: “A situation where below two per cent of 160 million Nigerians subscribe to insurance is discouraging and unacceptable.” He said: “This is why programmes of this nature must be supported by insurance companies to help Nigerians come to grasp with the value of insurance in their lives and businesses.”

    “We, at Standard Alliance Life Assurance, are concerned about making Nigerians across the different class divides know much about insurance and its important place in their lives,

    “We also believe that Nigeria with such a huge population ought to be the biggest market for insurers in Africa if only the people are fully aware of what they stand to benefit from subscribing to any applicable form of insurance.”

    Egboboh explained that the desire of the company is to ensure that no losses are suffered by Nigerians and the need to enlighten the public on the crucial role of insurance.

     

    plays in the economic stability of any nation informed the organisation’s decision to throw its weight behind the insurance awareness deepening television programme.