Gavi Appoints Elumelu Africa’s Champion for Immunisation

**As Authority’s Infrastructure Intervention Excites Reps Committee Chairman The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority on Monday received members of the House of Representatives who were in Lagos to inspect projects undertaken by the Authority and their impact on the economy. Key areas of focus for the Lagos visits were Healthcare, Infrastructure and Agriculture. The Ad-hoc Committee was constituted by the House of Representatives to investigate the activities of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) since the inception of the Authority. The committee during the visit hailed the management of the NSIA on their intervention in the healthcare sector. The members of

By Adedapo Adesanya The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Dr Muhammad Pate, has said Nigeria could become a hub for vaccine production and distribution in Africa, banking on his experience at GAVI. According to him, this can be achieved with the country’s large population, skilled workforce, and existing pharmaceutical industry. “On local vaccine manufacturing, as you are all aware, until I came back as a Minister, I was going to work with GAVI, an international organisation created in 2000 to improve access to new and underused vaccines for children living in the world’s poorest countries. And GAVI also

By Aduragbemi Omiyale A smart recycling hub has been unveiled at the Ojoo terminal in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, courtesy of a waste management consultant, Mottainai Recycling Limited. The facility was opened on Monday at a ceremony attended by the representatives of the state government, the consultant, and the Akinyele Local Government, among others. The Director of Environment of the local council, Mrs Ahmed B.D., said the initiative was aimed to raise awareness among traders, market women, and the general public about climate change, stressing the hazards and consequences of indiscriminate waste disposal, and other undesirable waste management practices.

By Ifeanyi Onuba The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has convened critical oncology stakeholders and strategic partners at the maiden edition of the NSIA Oncology Summit in Lagos. The move, according to a statement from NSIA on Wednesday, is to drive collaborations amongst partners and improve overall patient outcomes in cancer care. Participants at the Summit included over 200 medical professionals in oncology, over 11 Nigerian tertiary hospitals, as well as over 10 external collaborators from the University of Chicago; American Oncology Institute India; American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO); Bio Ventures for Global Health (BVGH); Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer

By Adedapo Adesanya The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its latest forecast has downgraded expectations for the Nigerian economy for the 2020 fiscal year. The Bretton Wood institution said in its reports that it expects Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to shrink by 5.4 percent this year. According to the global lender, this expected economic contraction is in light of recent challenges brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. The fund had in April projected a 3.4 percent decline in Nigeria’s GDP, but an assessment of economic trends associated with the pandemic compelled it to review its earlier position. The global

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Nigerians interested in purchasing any of the forfeited properties to be auctioned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have been given some steps to actualise this. In a statement on Wednesday, the commission said the forfeited luxury apartments are located in Lagos, Abuja, and others, with bids accepted till 12:00 noon on Monday, January 9, 2023. The auction is open to members of the public with the exception of individuals/corporate entities who have been / or are being prosecuted by the EFCC, Directors of such companies, and employees of the EFCC. A competitive bidding process

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday said the consumer price index (CPI), which measures inflation, eased by 0.06 percent in month of February. A report released today by the stats office disclosed that the inflation rate stood at 11.31 percent (year-on-year) in February 2019 against 11.37 percent recorded in January 2019. It was further disclosed that increases were recorded in all COICOP divisions that yielded the headline index, with the index dropping 0.01 percent month-on-month to 0.73 percent in February 2019 against 0.74 percent in January 2019. The percentage change in the average composite CPI

By Adedapo Adesanya In order to fund the proposed N10.33 trillion 2020 budget, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has called on the federal government to privatize government owned enterprises to settle the N2.28 trillion budget deficit. This stance was made known by the Director-General of the BPE, Mr Alex Okoh, at an interactive forum with the Senate Committee on Privatisation at the National Assembly and was contained in an official statement released over the weekend. He called for the sale of the federal government assets which were not bringing in revenues for the government but were becoming liabilities as

By Adedapo Adesanya President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Mr Quadri Olaleye, has disclosed about 80 percent of state Governors in Nigeria have implemented the new minimum wage. Last year, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the new minimum wage bill into law, raising the monthly pay of workers in the country from N18,000 to N30,000. But some state Governors vehemently rejected this pay rise, claiming it was too high for them to meet because of shortfall in revenue. Speaking recently in Abuja, Mr Olaleye commended the federal government for implementing the pay rise as well as some state governors, but

By Modupe Gbadeyanka A member of the House of Representatives, Ms Tolulope Akande-Sadipe, has rekindled the hopes of Nigerians at home and in the diaspora as the nation celebrates its 61 years of being an independent country. On October 1, 1960, Nigeria got its independence from Britain. Though the country is not the true reflection of what the freedom fighters hoped for over six decades ago, Ms Akande-Sadipe believes there is still light at the end of the tunnel. In her message to the nation issued by her Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Olamilekan Olusada, the lawmaker expressed

By Adedapo Adesanya Nigerian business accounting startup, Kippa, has raised $3.2 million in pre-seed funding as it looks to scale its small business financial management app. Kippa is an app that helps merchants to increase cash flow by recovering debts. The pre-seed funding round was led by Target Global with participation from Entrée Capital, Alter Global and Rally Cap Ventures. A number of prominent angel investors also participated in the round, including Messrs Sriram Krishnan (investor in Khatabook), Raffael Johnen (CEO, Auxmoney), Babs Ogundeyi (CEO, Kuda), Chris Bouwer (board member, Cellulant), Kyane Kassiri, Edward Suh (Goodwater Capital), and Sajid Rahman.

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Medical researchers from the Middle East and North Africa region are meeting in Cairo on December 5-7 to study ‘Implementation Science,’ which is a field that brings evidence from biomedical and healthcare research into public health practice and policy. Their goal is to improve public health by bridging the gap between optimal health practices and the realities of everyday practice. The Implementation Science program is sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); the U.S. National Cancer Institute; the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine; and the World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office.