The Eye foundation hospital was started in 1993 as a high tech specialist Eye hospital capable of providing services comparable to those obtainable abroad. It is the first and foremost indigenous eye practice in the country that runs a group practice with many sub specialized ophthalmologists.
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In order to fulfill its promise of helping Nigeria fight the Boko Haram insurgency, the United States will today, donate 24 mine-resistant and armor-protected vehicles to the Nigerian Army.
The vehicles, which are valued at $11m, would be handed over to the military authorities at the Nigerian Army 9th Brigade Parade Ground, Ikeja Army Cantonment in Lagos.
A statement yesterday, by the Public Affairs Section of the United States Consulate General Lagos, said: “The US is pleased to donate 24 Mine-Resistant, Armor-Protected (MRAP) vehicles valued at $11m to Nigeria’s military authorities.
“The equipment donation represents part of the continuing US commitment to Nigeria and its neighbours to counter Boko Haram’s senseless acts of terror and promote regional security.”
It was gathered on Wednesday that the EFCC operatives were still investigating the account of the army officer, who featured in the procurement of arms in the immediate past administration, whom N400m out of the N2.1bn arms deal was traced to his account.
It was also learnt that the commission would next week invite nine prominent northerners, who were mentioned in a letter which a former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party’s Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, wrote to the anti-graft agency.
A senior operative of the commission said the EFCC was still probing other accounts of the army officer with a view to finding out if more discoveries could be made.The commission is planning to make a series of arrests in security circles very soon.
“Efforts are still being made on more investigation into the matter. The motive is to go after some of these funds that are in private accounts.”
The Federal Government has put the number of reported cases of Lassa Fever outbreak in eight states at 76 with 35 deaths already recorded and 14 cases confirmed by laboratories.
Nigeria has been experiencing Lassa fever outbreak in the past six weeks in Bauchi, Nasarawa, Niger, Taraba, Kano, Rivers, Edo and Oyo states.
The government, which said measures had been put in place to curtail further spread and reduce mortality among those affected, however, ruled out placing travel restrictions from and to areas currently affected.
The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, who stated this in a statement he issued on Wednesday in Abuja, in response to the outbreak of Lassa Fever in the country, added that “the World Health Organisation is being notified of the cases confirmed, and they are also working assiduously to curb the spread.”
Adewole added that in response to the reported outbreak, the Federal Government had taken some drastic measures to curtail further spread and reduce mortality.
The measures, he said, included immediate release of adequate quantities of ribavirin, the specific antiviral drug for Lassa Fever to all the affected states for prompt and adequate treatment of cases; and deployment of rapid response teams from the Federal Health Ministry to all the affected states to assist in investigating and verifying the cases and tracing of contacts.
Netflix CEO, and Co-founder Reed Hastings has announced that the video streaming service will now be available in 130 new countries, including Nigeria.
Hastings made the announcement during his presentation at the global consumer electronics tradeshow, CES
Netflix is a provider of on-demand Internet streaming media and with this expansion, users in Nigeria can subscribe to the service starting at $8 a month.
Stakeholders believe that the introduction of this service in the country means more competition for the established cable tv providers such as Dstv, while others are of the view that poor internet and huge data consumption might be a huge barrier tto the success of the video streaming service in the country.
Whether Netflix will give the cable tv big boys a run for their money, time will tell. Till then, let’s try to Netflix and chill.
Twitter is considering building a new feature that will allow users to tweet things longer than the traditional 140-character limit, and the company is targeting a launch date toward the end of Q1.
Twitter is considering a 10,000 character limit which is the same character limit the company uses for its Direct Messages product.
It is said that Twitter is currently testing a version of the product in which tweets appear the same way they do now, displaying just 140 characters, with some kind of call to action indicating that there is more content you can’t see.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has been looking for ways to jumpstart user growth for some time and recently the company has threw a number of product updates at users to make this happen.
He made the announcement on Twitter with this tweet
Spamming issues may arise from the character limit extension but Twitter will definitely perfect the character limit extension before rolling out.
Bosch, a global supplier of technology and services partnered with United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) recently to organise a stakeholders consultative meeting in Lagos with farmers to discuss the prospect, challenges and marketing of cassava production in the country.
Speaking at the forum, Managing Director of Robert Bosch West Africa, Mr. Ghislain Noumbessy, said it is imperative for farmers to take advantage of the technological tools and services that could help them find solutions to their food loss and perk up their profit.
Noumbessy stated that Bosch has been motivated by the search for ever-better technological solutions and fresh approaches that will help tackle the great challenges of today and deliver benefits to her customers.
A representative of UNIDO from Austria, Dr. Yvonne Lokko stated that organization is working with Bosch in line with the United Nations agenda to reduce poverty, facilitate trade capacity building, agri-business and agro-industry development in Nigeria.
Speaking on the Bank of Industry role in Agric-Business development in Nigeria, its Managing Director, Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa stated that agriculture is one of the cardinal agenda of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, saying the bank will continue to give adequate necessary supports and loans to farmers to grow their business.
Olaoluwa, who was represented by the Group Head, Agro Processing Unit of BoI, Mrs. Ruth Kadafa said farming is a serious business and cassava is a profitable trade but there is a significant need for many farmers to improve on their skills and management structures to enable them improve their farming in 21st century.
She said BoI has noticed that many farmers are individualistic and hardly come together as a team to have a registered corporative or association which could enable them to access loans from financial institutions.
Mrs. Kadafa therefore charged farmers integrate and collaborate with like-minds, utilize technological tool to improve the quality of the produce and package them as premium brands that consumers will be willing to pay for.
To encourage farmers to leverage on the opportunity to improve the quality and quantity of their cassava and other farm produce with the aid of her offerings, the company’s Sales Director for Bosch West Africa, Mr. Francis Omoniyi said: “Bosch will be giving one year free service maintenance to customers that purchase any of their tools and educate them how to fully utilize the equipment”this is in a bit to structure Agric business in the nation and as well boost her GDP.
CEO Mr Kingsley Makhubela today announced the appointment of Mrs Linda Sangaret as Chief Marketing Officer of the country’s official marketing and reputation management agency.
Mrs Sangaret has recently concluded a decade long tenure as South African Tourism’s Country Manager in France. During this time, she was key to South Africa’s efforts to position the country as a destination of choice for French tourists.
Between 2000-2005, Mrs Sangaret held the position of Global Communications and Marketing Manager at the Societe Generale Investment Bank in France and was responsible for the implementation of the Bank’s communications and marketing strategy in Asia and the Americas.
Mrs Sangaret has also served the country as a diplomat in Paris between 1995-1999.
Welcoming Mrs Sangaret to Brand South Africa, Mr Kingsley Makhubela said, “Brand South Africa is pleased to have a global citizen of the calibre of Mrs Sangaret as its Chief Marketing Officer. Mrs Sangaret will be responsible for co-ordinating national efforts to position South Africa as a competitive destination of choice in a range of areas and we wish her a successful tenure at Brand South Africa.”
Speaking about her appointment, Mrs Sangaret said, “After many years of working to position my country positively on foreign shores, I am pleased to be able to showcase to the world, including South Africans, the beauty and magnificence of our country and its people. In an increasingly borderless global world, a nation’s reputation and its competitive strengths are its biggest assets. I look forward to the task of defining South Africa’s value proposition with a range of stakeholders so that we can leverage the best that the country has to offer to position South Africa as a world class destination of choice,” concluded Mrs Sangaret.
Mrs Sangaret assumes office on 6 January 2016.
On Wednesday, the Lagos State Government demolished the Owonifari Market at Oshodi which has been in existence for more than 40 years.
The Lagos State government had on tuesdsay closed the market to deal with security challenges within the Oshodi metropolis.
According to the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, the move was geared towards the need to sanitise and beautify the Oshodi area and bring transformation, in particular, to the Owonifari area, as well as the entire bus stop terminal, which had been constituting a menace and an eyesore in the locality.
The demolition was directly supervised in the earlier hours of Wednesday by the Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode among a host of other officials.
It was further learnt that the affected traders and shop owners had been relocated to the new Isopakodowo Market at Bolade Area of Oshodi.
Many flights were cancelled on Monday, January 4 and Tuesday, January 5 as a result of the inclement weather in many cities in the country.
According to sources, virtually all the airlines cancelled many domestic flights while passengers were stranded across the country.
Daily Trust gathered that Arik Air, Med-View, Dana Air, among others had to cancel flights due to poor visibility occasioned by the harmattan haze.
It would be recalled that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) had alerted airline operators especially pilots to take cognizance of the weather before flying.
Arik Air spokesman, Adebanji Ola promised to find out about the flight cancellation and get back to our correspondent.
However, Dana Air Communication Manager, Okwudili Kingsley confirmed that some flights were cancelled on (Monday) and Tuesday.
“We were also affected by the weather. I am aware some flights were cancelled yesterday (Monday) and even today (Tuesday)”, he said.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, has instructed the 11 distribution companies, Discos, not to connect new customers except they are provided with meters.
This was announced on Wednesday, January 6, in a statement by its Public Affairs Head, Usman Abba-Arabi.
The commission, also said the increase in tariff would be effective February 1. It said it has not changed the take-off date as speculated.
It quoted the acting Head of the Commission, Anthony Akah, said the removal of fixed charge under the new tariff regime “was in response to electricity consumers’ complaints and a measure to ensure electricity distribution companies improve on service delivery as their income is dependent on the quantity of electricity used by their customers.”
Nigeria is set to become a major exporter of fertilizer in the first quarter of 2016 when Indorama’s brand new fertilizer plant begins production.
The Indorama fertilizer project is the world’s largest gas-based single stream urea plant being built in Eleme, Rivers State, by the Indorama Eleme Fertilizer and Chemicals Limited (IEFCL), a sister company of the Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals Ltd. (IEPL).
The company, in its in-house magazine, Impact, disclosed that several critical sections of the plant are going through various stages of commissioning and test-run leading to the plant’s inauguration in 90 days’ time.
An 84km gas pipeline to supply the Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) feedstock and a port terminal at Onne Port Complex are also being completed to complement the fertilizer project.
The Bauchi State Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar of Bauchi presented a budget proposal of N135. 3billion for the 2016 fiscal year to the State House of Assembly.
The Governor, while presenting the budget proposal to the Bauchi State House of Assembly complex on Wednesday, January 6, said the budget was made up of N65, 498, 008, 456 as recurrent expenditure, and N69, 805, 091, 554 as capital expenditure.
He gave a recurrent estimate of the budget as N67, 136, 820, 593 for recurrent revenue.
According the Governor, the estimate of the budget is made up of Internally Generated Revenue of N9, 998, 136, 773 and statutory allocation of N57, 138, 683, 820.
Governor Abubakar also gave the budget’s recurrent expenditure of a total sum of N65, 498, 008, 456 comprising of personnel cost of N25, 182, 118, 675; Overhead cost N23, 745, 885, 004; consolidated revenue fund charges of N16, 570, 004, 777.
According to him, the consolidated revenue fund charges comprised of Pension and Gratuity N8.5 billion; Public Debt Charges/Debt Services N7.02billion; and Public Officers’ Salary of N1.04 billion.
The Governor said it is projected that Bauchi state will realize capital receipts in the sum of N57, 714, 770, 077 comprising of opening balance N250 million and internal loans N21, 600, 000, 000; External loans N7, 774, 261, 216; Grants and Aids N9, 993, 223, 164; and Other capital receipts/local Govt. Joint Project N18. 097, 285, 697.
The Budget capital expenditure breakdown is Administrative sector N5.4 billion; Economic sector N30.5 billion; Law and Justice Sector N1.9 billion; Regional sector N3.3billion, and social sector N28.5billion, giving a total of N69, 805, 091, 554.
He explained that the present administration came into power at a difficult time when the economy was at the brink of total collapse with public treasuries at all levels of government empty, high level of corruption, and insecurity of lives and property nationwide.
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, has said the new terminal building at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos, which will be completed in 2016 is expected to boost the airport’s passenger capacity by another 15 million in addition to existing capacity of 15 million passengers,
Spokesman of the airport authority, Yakubu Dati told reporters in Lagos on Wednesday, January 6, that FAAN was currently gearing up towards handling the expected 30 millions passengers traffic at the completion of work at the international airport terminal building.
The aviation authority faces the new challenge as it awaits the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) safety audit in March this year. But the agency said there was no room for disappointments.
Dati, who spoke on the activities of the agency on traffic management before and after the yuletide period, said except the Turkish airline’s passengers breach that happened on Christmas day, the yuletide season saw a hitch-free and seamless passengers facilitation.
He said FAAN was alive to its responsibilities in ensuring that its security operatives and other security agencies deployed detective machines such as screening machine, CCTV, full body scanners and personal intelligence to ensure easy facilitation of passengers.
He said, “Let me also emphasise that a safe and secured airport will be in place and will be witnessed this year when the new terminals under construction will be completed and passengers will have that experience they always enjoy outside the shores.
“With the completion of the new terminal in Lagos, the terminal will be able to process additional 15 million passengers which means we will able to service about 30 million passengers. All these are things put together to raise aviation to a new level this year.”
The Commission noted that there are inbuilt consumer protection mechanisms and incentives for improved service delivery by the distribution companies and fair return on investment in the new tariff order.
Consequently, the Commission has restated its mandate to the distribution companies (DISCOs) to abide by its order not to connect new customers without first providing them with meters.
The acting Head of the Commission, Anthony Akah, in a statement made on Wednesday, January 6, said the removal of fixed charge under the new tariff regime “was in response to electricity consumers’ complaints and a measure to ensure electricity distribution companies improve on service delivery as their income is dependent on the quantity of electricity used by their customers.”
Akah said that the Commission will continue to engage stakeholders including members of the National Assembly to address their concerns on the new tariff regime, adding that “NERC holds the National Assembly in high esteem and we are sure that both institutions are working to ensure that the national and consumer interests are protected.”
The Commission, in implementing this cost reflective tariff will effectively monitor and enforce all service delivery agreements in the new tariff order, Akah said in the statement.
The new tariff order aside from eliminating fixed charge has a robust mechanism to ensure that electricity distribution companies fully meter their consumers and eliminate “crazy” billing within one year.
