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Coronavirus: Nigeria gets $15 million grant for safe school reopening
The Federal Ministry of Education says Nigeria has received 15 million dollars response grant from the Global Partnership on Education (GPE) for COVID-19 safe school reopening across the country. Hajia Binta Abdulkadir, Director, Basic and Secondary Education in the ministry, said this on Wednesday in Bauchi, at a Cluster Mobilisation and Sensitisation Meetings on COVID-19 Protocols, Surveillance and Safe School Reopening Readiness. Abdulkadir was represented on the occasion by Mr Achede Owoicho, Deputy Director, Basic and Secondary Education and the Focal person for the GPE. The workshop is initiated with the support of the United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF). Abdulkadir noted that through the grants, UNICEF had sent WASH and ICT materials to 16 states for preparation of digit...
Senate considers bill to unbundle NIPOST
The Senate has commenced moves to unbundle the Nigerian Postal Service with the consideration of a bill to repeal and re-enact the Nigerian Postal Service Act 2004. The bill which scaled second reading on Tuesday was sponsored by Senator Oluremi Tinubu (APC, Lagos Central). Leading the debate on the general principles of the bill, Tinubu said the piece of legislation seeks a reform of the Postal Industry and to make Comprehensive Provisions for the Development and Regulation of Postal Services in Nigeria. According to the lawmaker, the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) which dates as far back as 1852, evolved from an exigency of the colonial administration to a Collection Office of the United Kingdom and eventually, to the NIPOST. She recalled that as at 1st of October, 1960, when Nigeria g...
2023: INEC reassures on continuous voters registration
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it plans to resume Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) across the country in the second quarter of 2021. Mrs Wunmi Balogun, INEC Head of ICT, Ibadan, said this at the training of electoral officers and assistants electoral officers on access to Polling Units (PUs) in Ibadan on Monday. Balogun added that the commission would be using INEC Voters Enrolment Devices for the CVR instead of the Direct Data Capturing Machine. Mr Mutiu Agboke, the state INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) said the training was to address the challenges being faced by voters on access to polling units during elections. Newsmen report that the workshop was specifically held for INEC’s head of departments, electoral officers and assistants electoral of...
INTERVIEW: Strengthening the ICT Sector in Ethiopia
The ICT sector is fast-growing. To unpack this, Co-founder and CEO of iceaddis – Ethiopia’s first innovation hub and tech incubator – Markos Lemma talks to his experience of the East African country’s innovation ecosystem: How do you picture the development of ICT in Ethiopia? When we started iceaddis in 2011, Internet penetration was less than 1% among the population; and the role of ICT was limited. 10 years have passed since then; the internet penetration rate is around 19% today. We have seen significant progress in infrastructure, service provision, human capital and research. There are key players in the ICT sector and there is political willingness to advance this sector. In this regard, the contribution of the private sector is unneglectable. The Ministry of Innovation & techno...
Management shuts down Nasarawa polytechnic over students’ protest
The Management of Isa Musthapha Agwai Polytechnic Lafia, has shut down the institution for one week following students’ protest on Thursday. Newsmen report that the students had barricaded the Lafia-Jos Road for several hours, to protest the alleged closure of the school’s registration portal by its management. Dr Justina Kotso, Rector of the polytechnic announced the temporary closure of the school while briefing newsmen on the aftermath of the protest in Lafia. She said decision to shut down the institution for one week was reached at an emergency management meeting following the unrest in the school. “We woke up Thursday morning preparing our students for semester examination scheduled to begin on Monday, March 15, then suddenly we realised that the students started a protest.” She said...
Telco Vs TechCo – a Battlefield for the Future of ICT
Across the world, disruption has become a reality that is driving changes the business sectors. Included in this disruptive environment is the telecommunications industry, which is having to take account of changing technologies and the challenges these changes bring to the way the sector has traditionally done business. Under examination must be the industry’s twin roles as a primary provider of telephone services and platforms to OTT suppliers to launch their offerings to users. Internationally, experience shows that there has been an average decline in revenues per user as IT suppliers, offering focused services, have made products built around mobile and data less critical to end-users. Although some different market factors apply to the African and South African markets, we are not ex...
Legal Tech CEO Shares 10 Leadership Tips for Women
Women in Tech (WIT) Conversations is an all-women virtual forum launched recently to spark interaction and impart professional insights for the advancement of women in the South African tech space. A collaboration between legal technology firm, LexisNexis South Africa, and information technology vendor, Dell Technologies, the sessions see some of South Africa’s foremost women in technology sharing their professional experiences. Those interested in attending the next WIT Conversations event on Monday, 8 March 2021 at 14:00, commemorating International Women’s Day, can register here. During the first event in the series, held on on 18 February, LexisNexis CEO and Chairperson of the Board, Videsha Proothveerajh, shared insights under the theme, Love Lessons in Leadership. /* cust...
Crypto ban: We acted in Nigerians’ best interest – CBN
The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, says the Bank’s decision to prohibit deposit money banks, non-banking institutions, and other financial institutions from facilitating trading and dealings in cryptocurrency is in the best interest of Nigerian depositors and the country’s financial system. Mr Emefiele made the declaration on Tuesday, February 23, 2021, while briefing a joint Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions; ICT and Cybercrime; and Capital Market, on its directive to institutions under its regulation. Describing the operations of cryptocurrencies as dangerous and opaque, the CBN Governor said the use of cryptocurrency contravened an existing law. He said given the fact that cryptocurrencies were issued by unregulated and...
UNICAL to resume 2019/2020 academic session February 5
The University of Calabar will resume its 2019/2020 academic year on February 5. The University Senate on Monday approved the revised academic calendar for 2019/2020 session. This announcement was made through the university’s twitter handle. Students are to resume on February 5 while lectures will begin on February 8. The University had announced on Friday that only staff (Teaching and non-Teaching) of the University were to resume work on Monday. The Vice Chancellor, Florence Obi, disclosed that the date was picked to allow management carry out repairs in some of the hostels that had been destroyed and vandalized in the violence that tailed the #EndSARS protests in the state. In October, newsmen reported that the University of Calabar was broken into. Banks within the school premises wer...
Sokoto border communities warned against aiding smuggling
Border communities in Sokoto State have been warned against aiding the smuggling of illicit items into the country. The Area Comptroller of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Abdulhamid Ma’aji, gave the warning at Illela during a sensitisation meeting held Tuesday with youths and community leaders at Illela town, a border community in the northern state. The border post was among four major international borders announced for reopening by the Federal Government in late December 2020. Ma’aji, while officially reopening the border’s gate, described the event as a remarkable day, urging the people to observe all the guidelines layout by the Ibrahin l Government. According to him, ‘now that these borders have been reopened, I want you to note that those illicit items that have been prohibited rema...
CBN: Naira to fall further in January
Barely five days to the end of the year 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria has disclosed that a survey carried out by its Statistics Department revealed that the naira is expected to depreciate further in January 2021. The report, titled, ‘December 2020 Business Expectations Survey Report’ added that there might also be a steady rise in interest rate from December till the next six months. The naira witnessed a sharp fall in recent weeks, reaching its lowest on November 30, 2020, when it exchanged for N500/$1. Since then, the dollar has been hovering between N460 and N470. As of Friday, however, one dollar exchanged for 465 in the parallel market. Also, the Nigerian economy had on November 21 slid into its second recession in five years when the economy shrank again in the third quarter. Th...
Nigerian government seeks new Eurobond
The federal government yesterday disclosed that it would approach the Eurobond market next year in its effort to shore up the economy, amidst cocktails of measures being put in place to douse the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy. On the same day, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, while speaking at the 55th Annual Bankers Dinner organised by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in Lagos, predicted a two per cent growth in the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2021. Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, who disclosed the Eurobond plan while speaking on Bloomberg TV, explained that the decision would depend on the prevailing interest rates. She, however, did not specify the amount to be accessed from the Eurobond. The Eurobond option is ...
