Dangote Foundation asks private sector to invest in water

The Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) says governments at all levels and private sector players should invest more resources in ensuring access to clean water.

According to a statement made available by the foundation, improved investments in water provision will boost the health of citizens and tackle malnutrition.

Zouera Youssoufou, managing director of the foundation, made this call ahead of the World Water Week holding in Stockholm, Sweden between August 26 and 31, with the theme, ‘Water, ecosystem and human development’.

It also follows the recent declaration of emergency on the water and sanitation sector by the federal government.

Speaking on the water component of the ADF Nutrition Programme, the Foundation’s CEO said, “Within our flagship nutrition programme we have a substantial Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) component. We cannot be effective at fighting malnutrition if we don’t also provide clean drinking water to our beneficiaries.”

“We have a global water challenge, which is what SDG 6 is focused on solving. Achieving SDG 6 is essential for progress on all other SDGs and vice versa. Sustainable management of water and sanitation underpins wider efforts to end poverty, advance sustainable development and sustain peace and stability. We all have a part to play as government, private sector, development partners and individuals.

In 2016, the Aliko Dangote Foundation launched a $100 million nutrition programme with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. ADF is focused on Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM), reaching on the most severely malnourished children through the Primary Healthcare System.

This intervention includes treating affected children with Ready to Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF), combined with household level empowerment programmes to enable the parents improve their livelihoods. BMGF’s focus is on Fortification and Behaviour Change Communication.

Aliko Dangote, the foundation’s founder, announced the new flagship programme for the Foundation, the US$100 million Aliko Dangote Foundation Integrated Nutrition (ADFIN) programme at the 2017 UN Global Nutrition Summit in Milan.

“We recognise nutrition as a cross-cutting issue which affects other critical development goals, that is why nutrition has become our core focus. We want to reach one million malnourished children in Nigeria by 2021 and we know that for every dollar invested in nutrition, the nation as a whole will reap huge economic dividends,” said Aliko Dangote. - Cable Nigeria

Salary arrears: Our members dying, can’t afford drugs, Oyo govt dodging responsibility – NASU

Members of the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), The Polytechnic Ibadan chapter, yesterday raised an alarm that some members of the union are dying in various hospitals across the state over inability to afford drugs needed for their treatment due to the non-payment of their eight-month salary arrears by the Oyo state government.

The union, while declaring that it will not suspend ongoing indefinite strike until the state government offsets the eight-month salaries of its members, however urged stakeholders in the state to prevail on the government to stop playing politics with the lives of its members.

NASU members at the institution, DAILY POST recalls, had last Wednesday, declared an indefinite strike over the failure of the state government to offset their eight-month salary arrears.

NASU Chairman, The Polytechnic Ibadan chapter, Comrade Ibrahim Akande, who said that it was unfortunate that the government was dodging its responsibilities by reducing the monthly subventions of the six tertiary institutions owned by the state government, remarked that the reduction of the monthly subventions of the institution from 100 per cent to 25 per cent made it difficult for the institution to pay salaries of its workers between 2016 and now.

Akande added that the increment of the subvention from 25 per cent to 36 per cent in July this year has not changed the situation, saying that the management was still finding it difficult to pay salaries of the workers as at now.

While addressing journalists after a congress of the union which had in attendance, members of the national body of the union, Akande said, “It is unfortunate that the government is trying to dodge their responsibilities. Because in 2016, they reduced the subvention to the institution to 25 per cent. But, as I am talking to you now, the subvention has been increased to 36 per cent, but despite that, the management and the governing council are still finding it difficult to pay salaries not to talk of payment of outstanding arrears which is eight months.

“As at last week, the Commissioner for Education spoke on the media that the governing council and the management should look inward to offset the arrears. When there was a crisis, the government inaugurated the governing council but they were not given money to offset the arrears. We are saying that, we have worked and they should pay us. The government should pay us.

“They should not play politics with our lives. We are suffering, we can’t afford to finance our homes, our children are being sent out of school because we can’t afford to pay school fees. They need to pay us our salaries. The government should not come up with flimsy excuses that the governing council should pay us. If they want the governing council to pay us the arrears, they should give them the money.

“As I am speaking with you, what they owe us is close to one billion naira. The Polytechnic Ibadan is not a company they will be making millions of naira in a month. Imagine in Nigeria you are making 150 million naira per month, it is a big money. But, they are giving us 77 million naira per month as subvention. Our wage bill is 226 million naira. Deduct 77 million from 226, that means the management is augmenting the wage bill with about 150 million naira per month. And so, for the management, they have been paying our salaries from January till date. But, we are calling on the government to offset the eight-month arrears.

“The government should not play politics with our lives. Our people are suffering, our people are dying on daily basis because they can’t afford to have access to good health. Our people can’t afford to buy drugs, they can’t afford to pay school fess of our children. They can’t afford to even go and do test, so they should pay us the 8-month arrears.

“This is Ileya (Eld-Kabir) that is coming, they will love to go to the cooperatives for loans but there is no loan to give them. So it is somehow ridiculous for the Commissioner for education who is a professor that has been saying all these, playing with the lives of the students and workers in the education sector. You can now see how our education sector is throughout the state, we are not moving forward, we are moving backward. This is rather unfortunate.

“And we are trying to be patient enough because since Wednesday, we decided not to lock the gates in order not to cause civil disturbances, but, if they push us to the wall, we will shut down the whole institution and we are going to do whatever we fell is good for us. So, they should please pay us our salary arrears.” - Daily Post

Senate records crisis every month, Saraki should resign – Junaid

Junaid Mohammed, Second Republic lawmaker, has highlighted why the Senate President, Bukola Saraki should resign.

In a recent interview with DAILY POST, Mohammed said it was “immoral” for Saraki to continue as the Senate President following his defection from the All Progressives Congress, APC, to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.


There have been calls from the National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, for Saraki to resign as Senate President following his decampment to the PDP. 

On his part, Junaid stated that Saraki should resign because he started the current crisis rocking the upper legislative chambers back in 2015.

He said, “APC Chairman is insisting that Saraki resigns, well I can as well insist that Saraki resigns but it doesn’t mean much. What we should ask in this circumstance they find themselves is, do they have the numbers to make Saraki resigns or be impeached and I don’t know which of the factions have the numbers.

“No, I don’t believe its moral for him to continue as the President of the Senate since he decided to switch parties. If other Senators can reel in such immorality, Saraki cannot and it’s a very bad example because what he has started doing by cutting deals across the aisles was a very bad taste and in bad fate.

“He launched the crisis as far back in 2015 and it’s the same crisis that has continued to follow the Senate, they have a crisis every month or two months. As far as I’m concern if it’s not in the interest of the common majority party, he should please resign.” - Daily Post

Banking access lowest in Northeast, Southeast

NorthEast and Southeast regions have the least access to banking, a report on financial access touch-points released yesterday has shown.

With five per cent financial access touch-points for the Northeast and seven per cent for the Southeast, both regions remain disadvantaged in access to financial services despite efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Bankers’ Committee and commercial banks to take banking to the grassroots, the Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility (SANEF) report has shown.

The CBN has voted N20 billion for banks, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS), licensed Mobile Money Operators and Shared Agents to accelerate financial inclusion and take banking to more Nigerians.

Southwest is leading on financial access touch-points with 54 per cent; Southsouth 12 per cent; Northcentral 11 per cent and Northwest 10 per cent. It said Nigeria has 5,600 bank branches, 17,600 Automated Teller Machines (ATMs); 15,000 Point of Sale terminals and 51,754 Agents as at December last year.

A member of Technical Committee of SANEF, Bolaji Lawal, said the SANEF initiative involves on-boarding 40 million low income and un-served Nigerians into the financial system, increasing financial access points from the current 50,000 to 500,000 by 2020 and deepening access to mobile and digital financial products and services such as savings accounts, microloans, insurance, pensions by Nigerians.

He explained that the project seeks to deepen financial inclusion through an integrated ecosystem with strong regulatory oversight, consumer protection and interoperable payment systems with limited concentration risk. “It will create a platform for Nigerian owned financial services companies to grow, whilst empowering and creating jobs for Nigerians. So, wherever you see the SANEF sign, you can perform basic financial services such as account opening, cash deposits, cash withdrawals, funds transfers and bills payments,” he said at a media briefing in Lagos .

He said the project is expected to reduce transaction costs, bring about convenience, create job opportunities, and increased adoption of financial services. The platform is also expected to handle government’s social disbursements initiatives. It will also lead to reduced cash dependency, better tax collections and reduction in crime rates.

He said the SANEF will help the banks achieve 70 million Bank Verification Number (BVN) Bank Accounts by 2020 from about 34 million at present.

He explained that Nigeria’s financial inclusion model is similar to Indian model, where over 1.2 billion people gained access to financial services.

He said that BVN roll-out is aggressive with NIBSS already partnering with Agent Managers appointed by banks, Other Financial Institutions, Mobile Money Operators, Super Agents and other licenced Nigerian companies for remote BVN enrollments. NIBSS will ensure training of Agent/Managers to ensure proper hand-holding as may be required for the BVN enrollment process.

“NIBSS is expected to provide the BVN enrollment devices for the agents. Remote capture devices will be made available to agents across Nigeria particularly rural areas with priority for North East, North Central and North West. NIBSS will pay N100 to agents for every unique BVN enrolled and targets 40 million unique BVN by 2020,” he said.

He said BVN enrollment in 774 Local Government Areas across the country will commence in September and that Nigeria had adopted the Indian financial inclusion model where over 1.2 billion people are uniquely identified.

He said the Nigeria target is to achieve 70 million BVN target by 2020 and create more access to financial system especially at the grassroots. - The Nation

Lagos uber driver refuses to ‘pay prostitute N6000 fee’

A 28-year-old Uber driver, Sunday Omale, was yesterday arraigned before an Ogudu Magistrates’ Court for allegedly refusing to pay a commercial sex worker.

Omale, who lives at Alhaja Elesin Street, Ogudu, is facing an assault charge, occasioning bodily harm after having three rounds of sex with Precious Mustapha.

The accused was alleged to have refused paying the N6, 000 she charged him.

Prosecuting Sergeant Lucky Ihiehie said the accused committed the offence on July 29 at Ogudu.

Iheihei said Omale allegedly assaulted the complainant after sleeping with her.

The prosecutor said the 28-year-old complainant reported the matter to the police.

Iheihei said the complainant met Omale at the Afrika Shrine, Ikeja, where she charged him N6, 000 after having three rounds of sex with her.

The prosecution said an argument ensued when Omale claimed he did not have cash on him to pay her.

He suggested using his ATM card to withdraw for her.

Iheihei said Omale drove with the complainant round Ikeja and Ogudu axis, without stopping at any bank to use his ATM card.

The prosecution said Omale also deceived the complainant by driving her to his friend’s house under the pretext of collecting money from him to pay her.

“Unfortunately the accused’s friend chased him out of his compound. When it became clear to the accused that there was no place where he could get money, he used an object to hit the woman on the head and started beating her,” he said.

Omale pleaded not guilty.

Magistrate E. Kubeinje granted the accused N50,000 bail, with two sureties in the like sum.

The magistrate adjourned till September 25. - The Nation

54-year-old man arrested for pretending to be a Professor

A 54-year-old man, who pretended to be a professor of Animal Husbandry at the University of Ibadan, has been arrested by the Oyo State Police Command.

He was apprehended after he fraudulently collected N1m from a man under the pretext of manufacturing animal multivitamins for him.

Parading the suspect, the state Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Odude, said the suspect, Olayinka Emmanuel, acted in connivance with an accomplice, Adegoke Adewumi, 53, to obtain the sum from Kolawole Kamorudeen.

He said, “The duo lied to the victim that they were manufacturers of animal multivitamins. Believing them, the suspect parted with the sum only to later discover that the so-called multivitamins supplied to him were grinded green beans.

“The suspect told police during investigation that the label was printed somewhere in the Oluwole area of Lagos State.

“Four cartons of the green beans branded as multivitamin were recovered in the course of investigation.”

Accomplice of the fake professor, Adewumi, said he went into the business in order to make ends meet because he was jobless.

“We actually used animal supplement to produce the vitamin, but we added green beans to improve the quantity for more money. I am jobless and that is why I went into the business. The professor is my boss,” he said. - Daily Post

Sowore To Contest Presidential Election On The Platform of African Action Congress

Omoyele Sowore, a presidential aspirant and publisher of SaharaReporters, on Tuesday unveiled the political party on which he would vie for the highest political office in the country.

The logo of the party, African Action Congress (AAC), was revealed by Malcolm Fabiyi, Director General of the TakeItBack Movement, a socio-political group propelling the candidature of Sowore.

In a statement announcing the choice of AAC, Fabiyi urged Nigerians interested in the progess of the country to embrace the party.

Noting that the official unveiling of the party would take place at the AAC headquarters in Abuja, on Wednesday, Fabiyi also said the TakeItBack Movement would announce members of its 'Coalition of Authentic Progressive Parties & Organisations (CAPPO)' at the official unveiling.

He added: “With our own dedicated party platform, we are now able to match up a pacesetting movement with a transformative political platform.

“We call on progressives and youth everywhere to embrace the AAC. Our party is the authentic platform for political transformation in Nigeria. Our party’s slogan will be: Take it Back - Action!!!” -Sahara Reporters