All Posts in "Month: February 2023"

JAMB suspends 2023 Direct Entry registration

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

 

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board,JAMB,has announced suspension of its ongoing 2023 Direct Entry registratin.

The board,in a statement by its Head, Public Affairs and Protocol,Fabian Benjamin, explained that the registration which commenced on Monday, 20th February, 2023, was suspended with effect from Tuesday, 21st February, 2023.

The suspension, according to a statement issued by JAMB on Tuesday, is to enable the deployment of certain measures, which are designed to better serve prospective candidates.

The statement said “a new date and fresh registration procedures, which will include upload of JAMB Admission Letter in the case of OND and NCE, Admission Letter issued by universities in the case of University Diploma, and Admission Letter issued by A’ Level examination bodies (IJMBE, JUPEB, etc.), would be announced in due course so that candidates could proceed to JAMB offices nationwide to register.”

Recall that JAMB had commenced DE registration on Monday, 20th February, 2023, and had slated it to end on Thursday, 20th April, 2023.

“Candidates are also to note that only JAMB offices are approved to register them for Direct Entry,”the statement added.

Patoma Admin by — February 21, 2023 in Education 0
Climate change; CAPI cleans up Nyanya Park, calls for safe, healthy environment.

By Favour Nnabugwu
A Non governmental Organisation advocating for a clean and healthy environment, Compassionate Advocacy for the Poor Initiative(CAPI) has began  to mitigate the effects of global change in Nigeria in Nyanya as the rainy season moves closer
Speaking at a clean up exercise in Nyanya motor park in FCT Abuja on Monday,. Amb Rukaiya M Dambuwa. , Director, Climate Change. CAPI said it is important to keep the environment safe and clean hence it’s the basis for avoiding natural disaster like flooding within an environment.
Dambuwa recalled that the effects of last year’s flooding is still taking its tool on the people adding that, the reason CAPI is in Nyanya was to collaborate with the people and see to the safety and clean environment within the area of operation.
 According to her’ “Global change is real and has come to stay, what we can do now is to mange the negative effects of climate change and see how the environment can improve through cleaning and maintaining the environment.
“We are at Nyanya today because this is a gate way out of Abuja city, many people travel from this motor Park to other parts of the country, if they notice that the park is clean and the environment healthy, they will copy and want to replicate same in their place” she said.
Also speaking,  the Director climate change called on residents of Nyanya to stop indiscriminate dumping of  refuse, especially by the road side hence the reason for blockage of drinage resulting to floods.
The best way to tackle flooding is to keep the environment clean. We were in Jabi, now we are in Nyanya motor park, our next point if call will be the school, the reason is that we want the students to know that a clean environment will enhance their learning,” Mohammad said.
Earlier, Mr. Solomon Oga, Director Accounts at CAPI said, the essence of the clean up exercise was not for any personal gain, but a show of commitment to a clean and healthy environment which is the core mandate fo the NGO.
“We are not cleaning the Park because of the forthcoming elections, maintaining a healthy environment and advocating for such is the reason for CAPI. he said.
 Mr. Oga called on all who are interested in environmental matters to join hands with CAPI or carry out the same advocacy within their area of operation adding that the Nyanya motor park management have demonstrated a strong will to maintain their environment by joining them in the cleaning of the Park.
For Amina Sani, she noted that the management of Nyanya Park has become partners because of the receptive and collaborative nature in which they allowed the clean up.
The Director of operations and partnership noted that the advocacy continue with the park management maintaining the Park and talking to their staffs and passengers on the need for a clean and safe environment. ‘We are glad you gave us opportunity to clean this environment. She said.
The park management thanked CAPI and pledged to continue to maintain the clean up exercise.
Patoma Admin by — February 21, 2023 in Metro 0
ITF disburses N24bn as allowances

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

The Director-General of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Mr Joseph Ari, has disclosed that more than N24 billion has been disbursed by the fund as students and supervisors’ training allowances from 2016 to date.

Ari said this on Monday in Jos when the Correspondents’ Chapel of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Plateau council, gave him an award of excellence in leadership and human capital development.

He said that given the fund’s integral role in the training of students of Engineering, Technology and other allied disciplines in tertiary institutions, the ITF had accorded priority attention to the management of the scheme.

Ari assured the public of the fund’s commitment to the prompt payment of students and supervisors’ allowances, “as soon as money is received from the Federal Government”.

He further said that the ITF had automated its business processes in a bid to facilitate business processes within the ITF and with its stakeholders.
He commended the chapel for finding him worthy of the award and dedicated the award to the entire workforce of the ITF for their dedication and resilience.

Earlier, the Correspondents’ Chapel chairman, Mr Gyang Bere, who presented the award to Ari, said that the award was in recognition of the ITF training of thousands of youths with requisite skills for employability and in turn to reduce unemployment. nan.

Patoma Admin by — February 21, 2023 in Industry, Trade & Investment 0
NANS confers Awards on DG PenCom, inducts her into Hall of Fame

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

The Director-General (DG) of the National Pension Commission (PenCom) has received accolade from the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) through her professional service and purposeful leadership in the pension industry was inducted into the Association’s Hall of Fame.

NANS also conferred on Mrs Dahir-Umar the NANS Merit Award for her contributions to national development and support for young people and students.

Speaking during the award ceremony held in Abuja at the weekend, the Senate President of NANS, Comrade Attah Felix Nnalue said NANS Merit Award is presented to individuals whose lives exemplifies the ideas of living for the sake of others and dedicate themselves to national building and service to humanity.

Comrade Nnalue said the induction of Mrs Dahir-Umar into NANS Hall of Fame and the presentation of NANS Merit Award to her were in line with the resolution of the 68th Senate Meeting of NANS held on 25 January 2023 at the University of Abuja.

He Commended the Director General for her hard work, exemplary lifestyle, contribution to nation building and the advancement of the pension industry.

Mrs Dahir-Umar has been part of the journey to reform pension administration and management in Nigeria. Under her leadership as the Director General, PenCom has attained significant milestones in its diligent implementation of the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014 through the successful conclusion of several critical initiatives.

Pension fund assets have been on a sustained growth trajectory, increasing from N6.15 trillion in 2016 to N14.99 trillion as of December 2022. Similarly, the number of registered pension contributors grew from 7.41 million to 9.86 million over the same period.

The launch of the Micro Pension Plan (MPP) by President Muhammadu Buhari in March 2019 was another significant step under her towards the promotion of financial inclusion for self-employed persons and workers in the informal sector. In November 2020, PenCom launched the Retirement Savings Account (RSA) Transfer System (RTS).

The system is an in-house developed computer application that enables a pension contributor or retiree to switch from one Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) to another. Activating the RSA transfer provision was another essential milestone she recorded in implementing the CPS that has been on the drawing board since the advent of the Pension Reform in 2004.

She also implemented the maiden Pension Enhancement for CPS retirees in December 2017. This initiative enhanced the monthly pensions of most retirees on the programmed withdrawal based on significant incomes earned from investment.

In 2021, the Director General oversaw the recapitalisation of PFAs. As a result, all PFAs raised their Shareholders’ Funds from N1 billion to N5 billion. In 2022, the Commission issued the Guidelines on Accessing RSA Balance Towards Payment of Equity Contribution for Residential Mortgage by RSA Holders. This innovative policy will enable workers to own residential houses while in active service.

Patoma Admin by — February 21, 2023 in Pension 0
800 Nigerians detained in Saudi Arabia over irregular documentation

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

 

No fewer than 800 Nigerians are destained in Saudi Arabia for different offences as the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, NIDCOM warned Nigerians against traveling that country without proper documentation

In a statement released by NIDCOM revealed that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has about Eight Hundred (800) Nigerians arrested and detained for various offenses particularly Consular issues since the clamp down began in October, 2022.

The statement further stated that its attention has been drawn to a communication from the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation on Saudi Arabian authorities intensifying crackdown on undocumented foreigners in their country.

Going forward, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between October and December, 2022, intensified joint operations across the country targeted at ridding the Kingdom of undocumented irregular migrants.

In the letter to the Federal Government, the Saudi Arabian government noted that about Forty Five Thousand, Four Hundred and Fifty Eight (45,458) foreigners are in the country with offenses ranging from violation of residency rules, illegal border crossing attempts and irregular migrants for labor-related offenses.

NiDCOM says though the Nigerian Embassy in Saudi is intervening in this matter, it urges Nigerians to resist breaking the laws of other countries.

The commission however appealed to Nigerian citizens that if they must travel, they should travel with proper documentation.

Patoma Admin by — February 20, 2023 in Foreign 0
18 Nigerian nurses in fake certificate scandal in the US

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

The Texas Board of Nursing has filed charges against 18 nurses from Nigeria residing in Texas, the United States for obtaining educational credentials through fraudulent means.

In a statement on its website, the Board published 23 names of persons indicted with fake certificates of which 18 of them were Nigerians. The board in its statement said an investigation carried out showed that the suspects were caught in a grand fraudulent diploma/transcript scheme. The board explained that the suspects procured fraudulent nursing credentials which they used to sit for the national nursing board exam. It added that the formal charges filed against the offenders are not a final disciplinary action, therefore, they are permitted to work pending the outcome of the charges.

The statement read

“The Board has filed Formal Charges against the following nurses for fraudulently obtaining educational credentials. The Board is authorized to file Formal Charges against a nurse if probable cause exists that the nurse has committed an act listed in Tex. Occ. Code §301.452(b) or that violates other law. See Tex. Occ. Code §301.458. Further, Formal Charges are publicly available. See Tex. Occ. Code §301.466(b).

Please note that Formal Charges are not a final disciplinary action, and a nurse is permitted to work, as a nurse, while Formal Charges are pending.”

The Nigerians indicted include Abiodun Yetunde Felicia; Adelakun Abiodun Aveez; Adelekan Joseph Adewale; Adeoye Vivien Temitope; Adewale Modinat Abidemi; Afolabi, Olufemi Toun; Afolabi Omowunmi F; Agbo Odumegwu Steve; Ajibade Charlot Omotayo, Akande Olabisi Christiana; Akhigbe Catherine; Akinrolabu, Folasade Margaret; Ako Esiri Rachael; Akpan Rosemary Moses; Alimi Bukola A; Ani Ndirika Justina; Aroh Nchekwube C.; and Ayodeji Sherifat Olubunmi.

Other non-Nigerian nurses named in the scandal are Abanda Jacob Atambili; Addai Agnes Fosuah; Anaaba Awingrug Musah; Anthony-Annor, and Spendilove; Asanga, Albert Nshanui.

“This list will be updated continuously as the Board receives additional information about the fraudulent diploma/transcript scheme,” the statement added.

Patoma Admin by — February 20, 2023 in Foreign 0
African leaders pledge urgent action to sustain recovery, build resilience

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

 

The African Development Bank Group released the inaugural Africa’s Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook which attracted significant interest among decision-makers in Africa and globally.

The biannual report offers policymakers, global investors, researchers, and other development partners, up-to-date, evidence-based assessments of the continent’s recent macroeconomic performance. It also provides a short-to-medium-term outlook.

In his opening remarks, African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat told participants that the report would be presented to heads of state at the African Union Summit to help steer national planning. Adesina said.

He called for strong and collective support to Africa to help the continent navigate the challenges it faces, especially debt burden and debt vulnerabilities.

The bank president explained further: “Africa cannot run up the steep hill carrying a bag of debt on its back. The channeling of the additional $100 billion of Special Drawing Rights will make a huge difference. We must join hands to harness the enormous opportunities in Africa. There is no doubt that we will make good progress. However, we must work fast, be inclusive, and be competitive.”the G-21,” he added.

Acting Chief Economist and Vice President of the African Development Bank, Prof Kevin Urama, highlighted the importance of Africa’s Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook 2023.

He said: “As we gather here today, global macroeconomic conditions have become increasingly uncertain due to multiple overlapping shocks that make policymaking and investment decisions very challenging. Countries need regular diagnostics and focused policy actions to address these recurring and overlapping shocks.”

Professor Urama affirmed that Africa remains the place to invest despite suffering global shocks.

What the 2023 Africa’s Macro-Economic Performance and Outlook report says

Following two years of global shocks, the report notes that African economies are set to overcome various domestic and global shocks and return to a path of economic recovery, stability, and growth.

The lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the ravages of accelerating climate change, and the impact of rising geopolitical conflicts and tension slowed Africa’s growth to an average of 3.8% in 2022.

To sustain growth, Africa’s economies will require comprehensive information and insights to navigate a labyrinth of intertwined global risks, the report stated.

The bank will release the report in the first and third quarters of each year to complement its flagship Annual African Economic Outlook. The African Development Bank is the first institution to release a macroeconomic outlook for Africa for 2023.

Patoma Admin by — February 19, 2023 in Others 0
Cellulant’s payment service solution licence gets renewed by CBN

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has renewed Cellulant’s Payment Service Solution Provider License in Nigeria.

This license enables Cellulant  to continue providing online and offline payment solutions, including collections, check-out, biller aggregation, and payout services securely to thousands of businesses across Nigeria.

Cellulant’s digital payments platform, Tingg (www.Tingg.Africa)- enables businesses to seamlessly accept and make payments offline and online. A single integrated digital payments solution,

Tingg addresses the complex needs of managing payments by simplifying the payment experience for the end-user and providing tools and processes for a merchant to manage their collections from a single dashboard.

“At Cellulant, we are committed to providing innovative and accessible digital payment solutions to businesses in Nigeria, which play a pivotal role in enabling financial inclusion and driving economic growth in the country.

The renewal of our license is a vote of confidence from the Central Bank of Nigeria on the efforts of our team and partners, who have worked tirelessly to create safe and secure solutions that meet the evolving needs of businesses in Nigeria and the regulatory standards.

Tingg is now used by thousands of businesses and outlets in the 36 states across Nigeria, enabling businesses to easily collect and make payments, monitor transactions, reconcile and settle cash seamlessly,” said Akshay Grover, Cellulant’s Group CEO.

Nigerian consumers have different payment options, including card, mobile money, bank transfer and cash- with volatile currency fluctuations and no single settlement framework. As a result, the demand for digital payments continues to increase.

Roughly 50% of retail customers request to pay for their purchases using digital payment options. However, this demand presents several challenges for most merchants who might not always support the customer’s preferred payment method, resulting in merchants having to enable multiple solutions to support multiple wallets and varying processes for settlement and reversals for a merchant.

Tingg solves these challenges by delivering a single solution to accept all digital payment methods (Bank Transfers, USSD payments, Cards & Mobile Money) maintained with the highest compliance and security standards.

Speaking to the news, Frances Diribe, Cellulant’s Group Chief Risk & Compliance Officer, said, “Cellulant is dedicated to meeting the highest standards of risk and compliance management as we understand the importance of maintaining the integrity of our payment platform.

We have invested heavily in robust security measures and compliance processes to ensure our customers can confidently use our services. We welcome this news that showcases our compliance with the standards, directives, and regulations of the Central Bank of Nigeria.”

In addition to being licensed to operate as a Payments Service Provider in multiple African countries, including Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Botswana, and Zambia, Cellulant has also achieved global security, privacy, business continuity and service management standards. The company’s certifications include ISO 27001 (ISMS), ISO 27701 (PIMS), ISO 22301 (BCMS), ISO 20000-1 (Service Management) and PCI-DSS.

Patoma Admin by — February 19, 2023 in Banking & Finance 0
(AfDB), IsDB join forces to boost Africa’s health defense systems through the pharmaceutical industry

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

The African Development Bank Group and the Islamic Development Bank have signed a joint partnership action plan for the development of the pharmaceutical industry sector within their African member countries.

The plan offers a new framework for strengthened cooperation and mutual development priorities, with a strong emphasis on boosting the continent’s health defense systems.

The aide-memoire was signed on Thursday, at the headquarters of the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, by Dr. Abdu Mukhtar, Director of Industrial and Trade Development for the African Development Bank and Islamic Development Bank, Director of the Economic and Social Infrastructure Department, Idrissa Dia.

The signing rounded out two days of presentations and deliberations on the institutions’ health strategies for Africa and the African Development Bank’s Pharmaceutical Action Plan (https://apo-opa.info/3Kdrv6Y). During the sessions, teams from both institutions discussed a joint pipeline of pharmaceutical projects proposed for co-financing, as well as potential collaboration in advocacy and knowledge creation for their member countries.

The Joint Action Plan enables both institutions to grow a shared pipeline of bankable projects around key complementary themes to which each institution would bring their comparative advantage. The plan covers lending to public and private sector projects and pharmaceutical development projects using a regional approach.

The institutions will also cooperate on the organization of a global Pharmaceutical Business Forum in May 2023 at the General Annual Meetings of the African

Development Bank. The event will bring together key pharmaceutical sector industry captains, including big pharma companies, continental, regional and governmental regulatory agencies, technology transfer entities. The gathering will deliberate on business opportunities, vaccine off-take agreements, pharmaceutical technology transfer agreements and project preparation resources, among other topics.

“The African Development Bank Group places considerable importance on partnerships in its contributions to sustainable development in Africa. Through partnership we can go further, we can increase development effectiveness, we can leverage our complementarities and harness our synergies,” said Solomon Quaynor, Vice President of Infrastructure, Private Sector and Industrialization.

In addition to defining a joint action plan, Anasse Aissami, IsDB Director General, Country Programs, encouraged the participants to expedite implementation of the respective pharmaceutical programs with focus on increasing local production and regulatory support. Amer Bukvic,

Acting Director General, Global Practices and Partnerships, seconded his remarks, adding that: “we will solidly establish and operationalize the health and pharmaceutical collaboration, and we will work hard to enhance the technical cooperation”.

In 2017, heads of the two institutions signed a co-financing Memorandum of Understanding to scale up co-financing activities over the period 2018-2020. A sum of $2 billion was earmarked for co-financing, equally split between the two institutions. The MoU was extended to December 2023 in order to intensify co-financing across strategic sectors such as infrastructure development; human development; private sector development and investment promotion.

“There is room to extend our partnership under the umbrella of the existing MoU to our priority sectors,” Desire Vencatachellum, Director, Financial Mobilization and Partnerships for the African Development Bank noted during the meetings.

Following the signing, Dia, highlighted the need to increase cooperation across all human development sectors and initiatives, given the strong strategic and operational alignment between the IsDB and the African Development Bank across the health, pharmaceutical, education, water and sanitation sectors.

The African Development Bank’s Pharmaceutical Action Plan is well aligned with IsDB’s strategy in the pharma sector. We will work collaboratively and with other partners to achieve results in this sector, which is critical to Africa’s development,” Mukhtar said.

Dr. Ammar Abdo, Human Development Manager indicated that the IsDB-AfDB health industrialization initiative is a deep dive exercise between the two sisters’ institutions on strategic and operational health matters.”

Also present, Martha Phiri, Director of Human Development Department noted the alignment of the Health Infrastructure Strategy of the African Development Bank with IsDB’s plans. “The respective health teams will explore a joint pipeline in line with this pharmaceutical collaboration pipeline,” she said.

The teams will continue to meet monthly to review progress and share insights on proposed common projects. They also announced that they would hold a review meeting before December 2023 to assess the progress of sovereign and non-sovereign projects.

Patoma Admin by — February 19, 2023 in Banking & Finance 0
CBN directs banks to collect old N500, N1,000 notes

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

 

The Central Bank of Nigeria has directed Deposit Money Banks to  collect  old N500, and N1,000 notes from customers with reference code generated from its Currency Return Portal, CRP

Multiple bank sources stated that  branches received  directives from their head offices  some hours ago that they should collect the old notes from their customers who have enrolled and generated reference code from the CRP.

A top CBN official confirmed saying yes we have directed them to collect the old N500 and N1000 from customers, subject to a maximum of N500,000.

Recall that President Mohammadu Buhari directed that the old N500 and N1,000 notes are no longer legal tenders but those having the notes should take them to the CBN so as not to lose their money.

Consequently, the CBN opened  the CRP  for people with the old N500 and N1,000 notes to register how much they want to deposit and to get a reference code to confirm their registration. The reference code will be used to deposit the old notes at any of  the CBN offices across the country.

Investigation however revealed that the CBN might have allowed the banks to collect the old notes from their customers following the huge number of people that besieged its offices to deposit the old N500 and N1,000.

A too source of a bank said the branch will collect old notes from customers tomorrow, Saturday,  as the branch did not open to customers today due to fear of attack.

Further investigations however showed that some bank branches that had started collecting the old N500 and N1,000 notes from customers were suspended by midday citing inability to access the  CBN’ CRP for registration of old notes deposit.

Meanwhile, the ongoing scarcity of cash persisted yesterday as most banks were closed and most ATMs did not dispense cash.

Patoma Admin by — February 17, 2023 in Banking & Finance 0