The Nation Newspaper

Tag: World Bank grant

  • ‘Why states may not get $700m World Bank grant’

    Some states may not be able to access a $700 million grant from the World Bank if they fail to publish their 2019 budget online before the end of February next year.

    The Director General of Niger State Open Government Partnership (OGP) Alhaji Sirajo Said disclosed this in a collaborative meeting with Niger state Open Alliance OGP Civil Society Organisation group in Minna.

    According to Sirajo, the grant which would come under the states’ fiscal transparency accountability and sustainability programme was collected by the federal government on behalf of the states.

    “For states to be eligible for this World Bank grant there are 17 DLIs to be met and achieved but most importantly, states will have to have published their audited financial statements for 2017 on or before December 2018 while the budgets must be published online before the end of February 2019.”

    The DG said that the purpose of the grant was to encourage government to be more open, transparent and accountable to its citizens.

    He declared that when government is closed to giving out information, it makes the citizens question the motive of government stressing that the Open Government Partnership is aimed at focusing on government transparency and citizen participation.

    Sirajo said the Niger state government is working towards ensuring it gets the grant which is the reason for the early submission of the 2019 budget to the House of Assembly who are being urged to expedite action on it to enable the approved budget to be ready before the end of January 2019.

    The Project Director of Center for Communication and Reproductive Health Services – Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health at Scale (CCRHS-PAS), Dr. Aliyu Shehu expressed its readiness to partner with OGP in Niger State on openness of the health budget and spending in Niger State.

    He said that this would improve on government accountability and transparency in health sector as well as access to information.

  • ‘Use World Bank grant on health care’

    A civil society group, Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PACFAH), has urged states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to use a recent grant from the World Bank for primary health care.

    The World Bank, under the programme, tagged: “Saving One Million Lives- Programme,” disbursed $500 billion to the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for improvement of  women and children health.

    The group spoke at a two-day training for reporters in Akwanga, Nasarawa State.

    Its Medical Lead Consultant, Dr. Muhammud Saleh, advised nursing mothers to engage their babies in exclusive breast feeding to avoid malnutrition.

    “Our major concern has to do with family planing, child nutrition, malaria, vaccines and essential medicines.

    “Essentially, primary health care services have been covered in the grant saving one thousand lives initiatives. What is needed is for government to institutionalise a working structure to govern activities and implementation of this grant such that an accountable mechanism is well pronounced for expenditure…

    “The emphasis is on result based programming; the most state that performed better will get more reimbursement. The fund is about $500 billion and 82 per cent of it is going to the state.

    ‘’Most state are now in the process of institutionalising it in the primary care development agency so that a consolidated team can be established and better result achieved. So, we are monitoring them and we cannot allow them to divert it,” he said.

     

  • AUST wins $8m World Bank grant

    AUST wins $8m World Bank grant

    The African University of Science and Technology (AUST) has won $8 million World Bank grant to establish 19 African Centres of Excellence (ACE) in universities in Sub-Saharan Africa.

    Briefing reporters in Abuja, Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof Julius Okojie, said the university eventually met the requirements for being enlisted among the centres, which it could not meet up with when they were unveiled last year.

    He expressed joy that the institution would develop its project in materials.

    He said: “We are happy that we retained the specific programme that won the ACE in the African University of Science and Technology, which is called the Pan African Materials Institute, PAMI.”

    The institute would focus on the development of materials for solar energy, health, water purification and affordable housing/infrastructure. It would also support the training of critical mass of PhD graduates and professionals from the industry, government, business and development partners that could contribute effectively to the development of West and Central Africa.

    Okojie said AUST would join nine other universities already listed in Nigeria.

    Redeemers University, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, University of Jos, University of Benin and five other prominent universities in the country are among the 19 schools with the mandate to conduct research into various priority needs of Sub-Saharan Africa. Each of the schools has $8million for its project.

    Okojie said the initiative intends to strengthen the capacities of benefitting universities to deliver high quality training and applied research in specific disciplines.

    He stressed that for the past 30 years, Nigeria “has been taking a back seat” in research, warning that if the country with 10 centres does not succeed, the whole effort of the World Bank might be in vain.

    “I must say for the universities that are on board, this is an opportunity to advise them. They must be thoroughly focused on their desire for research. They must address relevant areas of needs in the sub-region. Africa has a lot of problems. If we explore this opportunity, if we spend funds on research that will affect our brothers and sisters in other African countries, this will serve the purpose.

    “The World Bank has always advised us that we should work with other universities so that we don’t replicate what others are doing,” he urged.

    Responding, Vice-President, Academic, Prof Charles Chidube, said AUST was established to cater for talented young people in the African sub-region. He said the school had graduated more than three hundred masters’ holders from over 19 countries in Sub-Sahara Africa.

    According to him, the school only runs post-graduate programmes.

    “Our PhD programme is extremely rigorous, we have requirements. They must do advanced courses for PhD.

    He said so far, the school had graduated five PhDs and that six more would be graduated before the end of this month.

    He assured that with the quality of staff available in the institution, the university would deliver on its mandate.

    Head of the Pan-African Materials Institute in the school, Akin Ojo, said the focus of the Institute “is on materials development for Africa.” He said the project aimed at making African economy a knowledge-based, and exploring materials on the continents for its prosperity.

    The ACE project is an initiative of the World Bank spread across seven countries namely, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Republic of Benin, Ghana, Cameroon, Togo and Senegal.

    Universities in these countries competed for slots on the project and Nigeria won 10 out of the 19 approved centres. The implication of losing one ACE (AUST) would have been a loss of $8 million approved for that centre. That one would have been reallocated across board, thus reducing Nigeria’s portfolio.

  • FUTA don wins N10m World Bank grant

    FUTA don wins N10m World Bank grant

    A lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Engineering, Federal University of technology, Akure (FUTA), Dr Ayoola Olalusi has won a World Bank Research grant of N10.2million for his proposal titled: “Development and Evaluation of a floating fish feed extruder.”

    Olalusi won the grant through the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP-Nigeria), an initiative under the World Bank.

    A letter signed by the National Project Coordinator, WAAPP-Nigeria, Prof D.O. Chikwendu confirming the award reads in part: “Your project proposal entitled: “Development and Evaluation of a floating fish feed extruder” has been approved for funding by the World Bank.  This is consequent to your submission of more detailed proposal, in line with the concept of Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D)”.

    Congratulating the lecturer, the FUTA Vice-Chancellor, Prof Adebiyi Daramola, said the grant has further confirmed FUTA’s leadership ability and competence in cutting edge research.

    He said the University, which is a World Bank Centre of Excellence in food security, will continue to strengthen its research capabilities and structures to enable it contribute meaningfully to solving societal problems and global needs.