World Bank

The international lender, in a statement, issued late on Friday said 2.5 million learners will directly benefit from the Uganda Secondary Education Expansion Project.

A total of 116 new lower secondary schools will be constructed and 61 schools will benefit from additional classrooms in underserved districts in the country.

This will create 70,300 new spaces for learners, including 30,000 in areas hosting refugees.

The project, according to the statement, will provide textbooks and teacher guides, support continuous teacher professional development and implement an accelerated education programme for children who are not currently attending school.

Uganda needs to expand access to secondary education to enhance its human capital.

This is essential if Uganda is to improve the future wellbeing of its citizens while also enable the economy to grow through their increased productivity, said Tony Thompson, World Bank Country Manager for Uganda.

This project aims to provide new school spaces while at the same time creating a conducive learning environment, which is safe, promotes students personal growth and self-esteem.

It will also increase retention for both boys and girls, Thompson was quoted as saying in the statement.

The bank said while Uganda is a pioneer in sub-Saharan Africa in implementing policies to achieve universal access to primary and secondary education, funding to the sector is among the lowest in the region.

During the last five years, education expenditure as a share of the national budget declined to 10 per cent in 2019/20 while the average for sub-Saharan Africa is 16 per cent and has been steadily increasing over the same period.

While Ugandas enrolment at the Universal Secondary Education level has increased at an average of six per cent annually, the rate of growth remains low compared to 25 per cent in Kenya and 16 per cent in Rwanda. (Xinhua/NAN)

Source: NAN News

This is coming a day after China ordered it to close in response to a U.S. order for China to shut its consulate in Houston.

The tit-for-tat consulate closures have brought a sharp deterioration in relations between the worlds two largest economies.

A consulate emblem inside the compound was removed as staff could be seen pushing trolleys and several consulate vehicles came and went.

Police, including many plain clothes officers, gathered outside and closed off the street to traffic.

Neither the consulate in the southwestern Chinese city nor the U.S. embassy in Beijing have responded to requests from Reuters for comment on the closure.

The Chinese order to close it was retaliation after the Trump administration gave China until 4.00 p.m. last Friday to vacate its consulate in the Texas City.

U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said the consulate had been a hub of spying and intellectual property theft.

The U.S. consulate in Chengdu was also given 72 hours to close, or until 10.00 a.m. on Monday, the editor of Chinas Global Times tabloid said on Twitter.

The consulate opened in 1985 and has almost 200 employees, including about 150 locally hired staff, according to its website.

It was not immediately clear how many are there now after U.S. diplomats were evacuated from China because of the pandemic.

A steady stream of people walked along the street opposite the entrance throughout the day, many stopping to take photos or videos before the Police moved them on.

At the Houston consulate, staff packed up belongings watched by jeering protesters.

Shortly after the closure order took effect a group of men who appeared to be U.S. officials were seen forcing open a back door to the facility.

Residents in Chengdu expressed mixed views on the closure of the U.S. consulate in the city.

What I fear the most is the U.S. wont just stop there, it might get uglier, said 19-year-old university student, Zhang Chuhan.

I approve. The U.S. closed our consulate, I think we should shut theirs too, said a man who identified himself as Jiang, 29.

Relations between Washington and Beijing have deteriorated this year to what experts say is their lowest level in decades over issues ranging from trade and technology to the novel coronavirus, Chinas territorial claims in the South China Sea and its clampdown on Hong Kong.

Chinas Foreign Ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, has said some personnel at the Chengdu consulate were conducting activities not in line with their identities and had interfered in Chinas affairs and harmed its security interests.(Reuters/NAN)

Source: NAN News

Coronavirus

In total, more than 2.3 million infections have been registered in the largest and most populous country in Latin America.

At least 85,238 people have died in connection with COVID-19, the lung disease caused by the virus.

Brazil is currently one of the focal points of the international coronavirus pandemic.

The real figures are believed to be far higher due to insufficient testing in the South American country, which has 210 million inhabitants.

Brazils far-right populist president, Jair Bolsonaro, had initially downplayed the novel coronavirus as a little flu, causing confusion among the population about the seriousness of the disease.

He also did not want to take any containment measures for economic reasons and refused protective measures.

Bolsonaro has tested positive for the virus at least three times.

The mayor of Sao Paulo on Friday announced the citys major carnival celebrations in February next year would be postponed, without giving a new date. (dpa/NAN)

Source: NAN News

Gov. Babagana Zulum of Borno has approved the payment of N202.6 million to offset monthly allowances of serving and outgone corps members.

The Desk Officer of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in the state, Mr Christopher Godwin-Akaba, gave the hint in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Maiduguri on Saturday.

Godwin-Akaba said that corps members received a monthly stipend of N10,000 each, while the medical corps doctors and paramedics received N100,000 and N50,000 respectively.

Hesaid that N75.4 million was released by the governor within the last one year to pay allowances of 454 medical doctors and paramedics corps members serving in the state.

N127.2 million was equally released to offset allowances of other categories of corps members, numbering 3,133 in the state, he said.

The desk officer said that the provision of good welfare packages to the serving corps members in the state was part of the state governments drive in motivating them to contribute their quotas to the development of the state.

He said that the government had provided befitting and secured accommodation toall categories of the corps member as incentives by the state government.

He explained that due to challenges occasioned by the insecurity in parts of the state, no corps member was posted to serve in volatile areas.

According to him, the government has been collaborating with security agencies with a view to ensuring the safety, the security of lives and properties of corps members.

Godwin-Akaba said thatarrangement has reached advanced stage to resume orientation exercise at the new orientation camp with state of the art facilities by the state government in Maiduguri.

This came in line with Gov. Zulums request when the Director-General of the scheme, Brig.-Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim paid him a visit in 2019.

The camp has been completed and we are ready for the take-off of the exercise if necessary security clearance is received, he said.

Also speaking to NAN, theState Coordinator of the NYSC, Mr Nura Umar, commended Gov. Zulum foroffsetting the outstanding allowances of corps members serving in the state.

Umar said that the governor is giving priority attention to the safety and welfare of the corps members by providing befitting accommodation to them.

The coordinator told NAN that the corps members, serving in the state, would not relent in contributing to the socio-economic development of the state, mostespecially, in the areas of healthcaredelivery, education and wellbeing of persons affected by theinsurgency.

Source: NAN News

Beneficiaries of the Cardinal Onaiyakan Foundation for Peace Programme for Youths Living Above Drug Addiction and Abuse (YOLDA) in Abuja.

By Okeoghene Akubuike

The Cardinal Onaiyekan Foundation for Peace (COFP) on Friday graduated 36 youths from its Youths Living Above Drug Addiction and Abuse (YOLDA) Programme.

Rev. Sister Agatha Chikelue, the Executive Director, COFP disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) on the sidelines of the Graduation and Empowerment ceremony of the graduates in Abuja.

Chikelue said the youths after their rehabilitation were trained on skills acquisition such as tailoring, photography, ICT, videography, driving, hairdressing and hair cutting, pastery making, catering, cobbling, makeup, among others.

She said the YOLDA programme, which started in 2018, graduated 30youths in 2019 bringing the total number of graduates to 66.

Chikelue said the aim of the programme was to ensure that youths were put on the right track to live more dignifiedlives in the future.

A lot of young people are into addiction many because of poverty and unemployment, and we all know the damage it can cause to them and even the society.

We as a peace organisation, saw it was not enough to bring people together to come and talk and dialogue.

We needed to go an extra mile to bring these youths together to nurture them and help them recover and recover fully from drug addiction and help them live useful lives.

She said the one year programme was in three phases which are counselling and peace building, medical and empowerment stages.

Chikelue said the beneficiaries went through series of tests such as heart, liver, kidney, SDTs, malaria, typhoid, hepatitis and HIV to determine if they had been affected by the drugs, while those with issues started treatment.

She said the empowerment stage afforded the participants the opportunity to identify skills they had a passion for and the organisation paid for their training and gave them start up kits.

At the beginning, there were about 60 of them but today we are graduating 36 because some people dropped out along the way.

We do not end by giving them a certificate, we give them the sum of 50,000 to help them start up their business.

We call them to follow up and monitor them, sometimes they so not even know we are monitoring them and we bring some of them to be the motivators for the next set of beneficiaries.

She said the beneficiaries were made up of 26 males and 10 females drawn from the FCT and its environs.

One of the beneficiaries, who spoke with NAN, Mr Abednigo Amos, 32 years, said he was addicted to alcohol because he worked in a hotel and was influenced negatively by the lifestyle he was exposed to.

As I was introduced to the COFP, after two to three months, I started seeing changes, and my body started getting strong. Things I could not do before I am doing them now.

They foundation has really helped me, they enrolled me in driving school which lasted three months and I have quit my job at the hotel.

At some point it was not easy getting over the addiction but they kept encouraging us about our peer group and I had to put some friends away so I can fully recover.

Amos advised youths who were addicted to one from of substance or the other to stay away from them in order to live long and healthy lives.

According to him, any substance you take in order to get you out of problem will never solve the problem; If you want to live a sound healthy life, stay away from drug and people will appreciate you for who you are.

Another beneficiary, 27 years old Pamela Adubasim, thanked the foundation for helping her overcome her two year addiction to alcohol.

She said the one year programme had changed her life, adding that she was now a caterer, as she called on the youths to stop addiction because of the harm it caused to the health and its effects on the family members and the society. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

Al-Sadd coach and former FC Barcelona and Spain midfielder, Xavi Hernandez

Al-Sadd coach Xavi Hernandez, the former FC Barcelona and Spain midfielder, said on Saturday he had tested positive for COVID-19 but was asymptomatic.

Xavi, who renewed his contract with the Qatari club on July 5, said he would go on to self-isolate as his team prepare for their first match on Saturday.

The Qatar Stars League (QSL) would be restarting after it was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today I wont be able to join my team on their comeback to the official competition, Xavi said in a statement.

David Prats, coach to the Al-Sadd reserves, will be there on my behalf as head of the technical staff.

A few days ago, following the QSL protocol, I tested positive in the last COVID-19 test. Fortunately, Im feeling OK. But I will be isolated until I am given the all-clear.

When the health services allow it, I will be very eager to return to my daily routine and to work.

The QSL resumed on Friday after being suspended since March due to the new coronavirus pandemic.

Al-Sadd, who are third in the table, play Al-Khor on Saturday with five rounds remaining. (Reuters/NAN)

Source: NAN News

Nigerias Super Tucano fighter planes

By Sumaila Ogbaje

The Defence Headquarters says the Air Component of Operation Hadarin Daji, has overran a bandits camp, headed by one of their leaders, known as Dangote in the Doumborou Forest of Zamfara.

The Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. John Enenche, disclosed this in a statement on Saturday.

Enenche said the air interdiction missions, which was conducted on Thursday, also resulted in the killing of several armed bandits.

He said the operation was based on intelligence that revealed the relocation of the bandits in the new camp, around a rocky high ground within the forest.

The coordinator added that the bandits moved along with logistics, including motorcycles and hundreds of rustled livestock to the location.

He said the Air Component dispatched an enhanced force package of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), fighter jets and helicopter gunships to attack the location.

The attack aircraft engaged the target area, scoring accurate hits and taking out some of the bandits.

Many others, who were seen trying to flee the location in disarray, were mopped-up in follow-on attacks.

The Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, commended the Air Component of Operation Hadarin Daji, for their professionalism.

He urged them to remain resolute in the conduct of air strikes, whilst continuing to provide close air support for ongoing ground operations, in order to eradicate all armed bandits.

This is geared towards accomplishing directives of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), to restore normalcy in the North West and North Central zones of the country, Enenche said in the statement. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

NSE

Trading on the nations bourse returned to the negative territory on Friday with key market indices declining by 0.35 per cent.

Specifically, the All-Share Index (ASI) dipped 85.04 points to close at 24,427.73 compared with 24,512.77 achieved on Thursday.

In the same vein, the market capitalisation of listed equities lost N45 billion or 0.35 per cent to close at N12.742 trillion from N12.787 trillion reported on Thursday.

Seplat topped the laggards chart, dropping by N38.60 to close at N347.40 per share.

BUA Cement trailed with N1 to close at N39, while Unilever dipped 60k to close at N12.25 per share.

United Bank for Africa lost 10k to close at N6, while FBN Holdings inched lower by 5k to close at N4.75 per share.

Conversely, Julius Berger dominated the gainers table, appreciating by N1.55 to close at N17.05 per share.

Stanbic IBTC came second with N1 to close at N30, while Custodian investment added 50k to close at N5.50 per share.

Dangote Sugar Refinery increased by 20k to close at N11.90, while NAHCO gained 17k to close at N2.20 per share.

However, the volume of shares traded increased marginally by 6.03 per cent with an exchange of 174.19 million shares worth N2.38 billion in 3,723 deals.

This was against a turnover of 164.29 million shares valued at N2.13 billion recorded in 2,986 deals on Thursday.

The banking stocks drove the activity chart with Zenith Bank emerging the most active, trading 34.57 million shares worth N537.55 million.

FBN Holdings sold 28.13 million shares valued at N140.12 million, while United Bank for Africa traded 14.49 million shares worth N87.93 million.

Access Bank sold a total of 9.76 million shares worth N60.35 million, while Nigerian Breweries traded 9.72 million shares valued at N301.31 million.

Source: NAN News

Mrs Julie Okah-Donli NAPTIP D-G

Mr Shehu Umar, the Zonal Commander in charge of Kano Zone, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Friday in Kano.

Umar said that the NAPTIP Joint Board Task Force (JBTF) gathered intelligence on the movement of the victims and suspects.

On receiving information the agency conducted three operations between July 15 and 19, which led to the arrest of the suspects and rescued of the victims.

We apprehended three suspects comprising one Nigerian and two Cameroonians who are between the age bracket of 21 and 36.

The victims and suspects were apprehended enroute Algeria, Morocco and Libya. he said.

Umar explained that 18 out of the 71 rescued victims were Cameroonian nationale, comprising 14 Males and 4 females, while19 Nigerians comprised of 11 males and 8 females.

He added that the Cameroonians would be handed over to the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) for further investigations and repatriation.

While 19 Nigerian rescued victims aged between 15 and 28-years-old hailed from Kano State.

The commander revealed that the Agency had on July 19, received transfer of 34 victims of human trafficking from the NIS, Katsina State Command, comprising of 24 females and 10 males.

The victims think they can move out of the country freely without documents, without clear understanding of what they are going to do outside the country.

The traffickers promised greener pasture to deceived the victims, he added.

The Commander cautioned Nigerians against embarking on a overseas journey without specific reasons for doing so.

Source: NAN News

Gov. Nasir El-Rufai

By Philip Yatai and Stella Kabruk

Kaduna State Government says it has upgraded 226 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) out of the 255 functional PHCs in the state.

The health project were executed in each of the political ward of the state.

The Kaduna State Government says it has completed the renovation and upgrading of 226 Primary Healthcare Centres, out of the planned 255 functional PHCs, one in each political ward of the state.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Amina Baloni stated this in Kaduna on Friday, while providing updates on health status, budget performance, COVID-19 intervention and renovation of 255 PHCs in the state.

She spoke at the Open Kaduna Health Quarterly Interactive Forum, organised by Kaduna State Maternal New-born and Child Accountability Mechanism (KADMAM).

The meeting was organised in collaboration with the state Ministry of Health and other Development Partners with the theme, #Open Kaduna Health in the Midst of COVID-19 Pandemic.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the state government began the renovation and upgrade of the 255 PHCs in 2017, to increase access to quality healthcare services.

The commissioner said that so far, 226 have been fully completed, while 28 were at over 50 per cent completion and one below 50 per cent completion.

She said that out of the 226 completed PHCs, 81 were in Zone 1, 71 in Zone 2, and 74 in Zone 3, while five of the uncompleted PHCs were in Zone 1, 10 in Zone 2 and 14 in Zone 3.

On budget performance, the commissioner said that N1.5 billion was released out of the N7.9 billion allocated for the ministry and its departments and agencies for capital expenditure in first and second quarter.

She said the released fund was for the ministry, Primary Health Care Development Agency, state Contributory Health Management Authority, and the Health Supplies Management Agency.

Others include the State College of Nursing and Midwifery and Shehu Idris College of Health Science and Technology.

On maternal health, we have recorded a decline in antenatal care attendance between January and June 2020, while uptake of contraceptive services had increased within the period.

The practice of exclusive breastfeeding had also increased, including uptake of Vitamin A supplement due to the six months maternity leave declared by the state government and availability of Vitamin A.

A significant number of children under five years have been fully immunised, but the children were not receiving long lasting insecticide nets due to stock out.

Malaria treatment and prevention is a priority area of the government, she said.

On COVID-19 intervention, Baloni said that the government approved N1.2 billion for the control of the disease while the World Bank donated N100 million.

According to her, other donations were received from philanthropists to combat COVID-19, in form of personal protective equipment, drugs, and consumables.

Earlier, the Co-Chair of KADMAM, Mr Mustapha Jumare pointed out that low-cash backing of budget releases is undermining performance of the health sector in the state.

Jumare acknowledged a reasonable budgetary allocation to the health sector by the state government, in line with the Abuja Declaration of a minimum of 15 per cent budgetary allocation to the sector.

He, however, pointed out that in spite the reasonable budgetary allocations, the health indices in the state had remained very disturbing.

Jumare said that the interactive forum was organised with support from DFID-funded Partnership to Engage Reform and Learn (PERL), Lafiya-UK support for health in Nigeria Programme, and SuNMaP2 support to the National Malaria Programme.

Source: NAN News