May 12, 2023

Food Crises: Research bodies urge govt. to be proactive in response

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in partnership with the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), have urged the Federal Government to be proactive in responding to food crises in the country.

Katrina Kosec, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI, made this known on Thursday, at the Presentation of IFPRI’s 2023 Global Food Policy Report, and the Launch of CGIAR Research Initiative on Fragility, Conflict and Migration (FCM), in Abuja.

Kosec said in 2022, the world faced crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, civil unrests, political instabilities, climate change, among others.

She said IFPRI had offered critical evidence to support effective policies and programming to enhance food, land and water systems’ resilience in fragile and conflicts affected countries, and those facing migration related challenges.

Kosec maintained that improving international and national responses to food crises, could not be done without accountable governance, effective institutions in place, policies, programming and reliable funding, to ensure immediate needs and long term resilience, were addressed.

According to her, there is need for effective governance at all levels, to tackle early disaster warnings and have in place anticipatory action and policy response, that were sustainable and responsive to the drivers of these crises.

“I think having a critical social protection system in which people that are facing challenges have sources of support from their government to help them graduate from poverty, is necessary.

“It is also important for governments to listen to the needs of their citizens; it is critical to ensure that the voices among those citizens include women and other vulnerable groups.

“We additionally need very good systems that provide early warnings when crises are going to hit, and ensuring that those systems are connected with actions, and planned actions are essential,” she added.

Kosec said though the Nigerian government was seriously working to address these gaps, however, more needed to be done as poverty persisted.

The Minister of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) Dr Muhammad Abubakar, said government and the humanitarian community had been implementing life-saving interventions such as social welfare, livelihood engagement stimulation and environment safety.

Abubakar, who was represented by Ibrahim Tanimu, Director Planning and Policy Coordinator, (FMARD), said government would continue to encourage national and international support, aimed at mitigating insurgency, reactivating infrastructure, restoring businesses and reawakening livelihoods.

The minister said these strategies were to conserve the environment, provide rural infrastructure, strengthen research capacity, expand extension services, raise agricultural productivity, enhance commodity value chain and promote agribusiness.

Kate Ambler, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI, said that the initiative would focus on building climate resilience, protect gender equity and foster social inclusion.

Ambler said the CGIAR research Initiative on FCM, would focus on innovative social protection, Food systems development, and climate adaption programmes in fragile settings, and among migrant populations.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

May 12, 2023

Pre-trial detention: CSO resolves 1,400 cases in 5 years

The Network of University Legal Aid Institutions, (NULAI), Nigeria, a civil society organisation resolved 1, 400 pretrial detention cases in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Keffi, Nasarawa State in five years.

The President of NULAI, Prof. Ernest Ojukwu, SAN, said this at an event organised in Abuja on Thursday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event was organised by NULAI with the support of United States Department of State International Narcotics and Law Enforcement and Partners Global.

The project was on “Reforming Pretrial Detention in Nigeria (RPDN): Project Retrospective Outlook Close -out Session “.

Ojukwu who was represented by Executive Director NULAI, Dr Mukhtar Nasiru said that the project started in 2018 and had been impactful.

“There is no iota of doubt this is the most impactful project NULAI has ever been involved in.

“This is certain because the reports are showing some amazing statistics of impacts that have been made on different fronts.”

He said “Over 1,400 cases have been resolved; over 500 students have been able to support pro bono lawyers to intervene in cases and these cases have been resolved.

“Over 15, 000 pretrial detention cases are being updated , the records are updated in the correctional centres, that is to show you that the use of technology has helped to solve a lot of systemic problems that are affecting the criminal justice system.”

Ojukwu, however, said that there has been a lot of problems of pretrial detention in the country which has resulted into overcrowding in the correctional centres.

“The figure in Nigeria is 75 per cent and it has been consistent. What I mean by 75 per cent is that of every 100 people in the correctional center, 75 per cent of them are pretrial detainees.

“This means that their cases have not been decided. They have not been convicted. Only 25 per cent have been convicted.

“We have been able to reduce significantly all the problems that make cases to be adjourned.”

He said that with the effort by the CSO, the period of adjournment has been reduced from 31 days to 14 days.

Also speaking, David Greene, Charge’ d’ Affaires, U.S. Embassy, Nigeria, said that Nigeria was not alone in facing the challenge of pretrial detention.

“It is universal. The fundamental principle of any democratic society like Nigeria is not just the rule of law, but there must be a functioning justice system,” he said.

He said that the project was implemented in the FCT and Keffi adding that the U.S. would replicate this role to include additional states in north central region.

Similarly, NULAI’s Programme Manager, Mahmud Yusuf said that the organisation had been working with the Nigeria Correctional Services (NCS) to achieve its goal.

He said: “With a little over 70,000 detainees in detention in correctional centres across states, 63,000 are pretrial detainees which constitute a high percentage of pretrial detainees.

“The problem with pretrial detention is a system wide problem not just from the correctional centres but from the point of entry, you look at what are the courts doing, what are the prosecuting agencies doing.

“And then the resulting effect is the congestion and then the resultant pretrial situation we have across the country.”

He said that the way out was to look at the structures in place to address pretrial detention.

For Controller-General Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS),.Haliru Nababa, appreciated NULAI’S effort at

reducing cases of pretrial detainees in the country.

Nababa was represented by Controller, Custodial, Adamu Yahaya.

He said that the major challenge in the custodial centres was overcrowding of the facilities.

“NULAI has supported the service in addressing the issue of overcrowding of inmates awaiting trial in custodial centres,” he said.

Also speaking, Ms Deborah Mancini, Director of the Africa PartnersGlobal said the organisation had been discussing issues relating to pretrial detention in Nigeria.

“We realise that Nigeria had gone through a very progressive legal reform process where they have put in place the Administration of Criminal Justice Act.

“The Act gave a lot of opportunity to ensure that pretrial detention cases were handled more effectively in the courts.”

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

May 12, 2023

NCC gets frequent consumers’ complaints on data depletion- Akande

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says it has been inundated with frequent complaints from consumers on fast depletion of their internet data.

Its Chairman, Board of Commissioners, Prof. Adeolu Akande, made this known on Thursday at the NCC fifth edition of Campus Conversation held at the University of Ibadan.

The commission, however, sensitised students of the university on how to manage their data usage on mobile telecommunications network to reduce the rate of data depletion.

Akande, represented by Mrs Afure Iloka, Special Assistant to the Executive Vice-Chairman of NCC, said that consumers’ complaints were the reason why NCC, through its Consumers Affairs Bureau (CAB), embarked on sensitisation exercise.

According to him, this is to educate telecommunications consumers on various ways to manage their internet data.

He said that the campus conversation initiative sought to educate students on the various consumers centric initiatives of NCC toward protecting the telecommunications consumers against unfair practice by Service Providers.

“This initiative is consistent with the mandate of the Commission to Protect, Inform and Educate the Nigerian Telecom Consumers.

“One of the mandates of the commission is the ‘Protection of the rights and interests of Consumers’.

“This can only be achieved when consumers are well informed and educated on their rights and obligations as telecom consumers.

“This conversation is also in tandem with the Strategic Management Plan (SMP 2020-2024) of the Executive Vice-Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, which is to improve quality of experience and stakeholders’ satisfaction.

“The conversation strengthens our focus on the protection of the rights, privileges and interests of telecommunications consumers, including people living with disability and the elderly through information dissemination,” Akande said.

Also, the Head of Consumers Affairs, Mr Ayanbanji Ojo, said that a consumer would experience high rate of data depletion when such consumer turn on automatic updates of apps, videos and pictures to the cloud on smartphones.

Ojo said that faster download speeds due to 4G coverage and downloading on higher defaults video formats like 5G and 4G compared to 3G and 2G mobile network could also result to high rate of data depletion.

He noted that consumers could manage their data usage by the use of data compression in phone browsers, disable mobile data when internet connection not needed and by reducing video streaming quality from video sites such as YouTube.

In his remarks, Mr Babagana Digima, Team Lead, Nigeria Office for Developing Indigenous Telecoms Sectors(NODITS), said that Nigerian youths remain greatest assets within the telecom ecosystem in the country.

Digima, an engineer, noted that involvement of youths in indigenous telecommunications innovation would bring fresh perspectives and new ideas, which would drive meaningful change in the indigenous telecommunications sector.

Responding, Mrs Adewole Adeyinka, President, UI Students Union Government (SUG), lauded the efforts of NCC on data usage sensitisation initiative and other programmes targeted at youths development.

Adeyinka urged NCC management to improve on its support programmes for students through provisions of Laptops and other educational materials that would ensure smooth academic process.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the conversation also featured cyber security and child online protection lecture.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

May 12, 2023

Exhibitors laud South Africa Tourism on 2023 INDABA

Some exhibitors at the just concluded 2023 Africa’s Travel Indaba (ATI) on Thursday commended the South Africa Tourism (SAT) for a well organised expo.

The exhibitors who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in separate interviews expressed excitement over sales recorded and business deals sealed at the expo.

NAN reports that the three-day expo witnessed business meetings, conferences, exhibitions, diverse cultural displays, virtual tourism education, nightlife experience and more.

The expo attracted no fewer than 8,000 delegates from across the globe with over 1,000 exhibitors.

Tabitha Muchogu, Sales and Marketing Administration Manager, Heritage Hotels,Kenya, who had been attending the expo for the past 15 years, said significant improvement was observed.

Muchogu said the organisation of the fair was well coordinated and appropriate imformation were consistently and promptly circulated.

She noted that the quality of buyers had also improved tremendously as travel agents known as the buyers had the potential to sell their products.

“Now I can see that we have fewer jokers coming into the exhibition, who one can confidently transact businesses with. I don’t know how this was done but there are great improvements compared to the past editions.

“Going forward, I would want the South Africa Tourism to consider serving local dishes because what we had was lots of finger foods,” she said.

Also, Julia De Beer, Marketing and Reservations Manager, Siviti Timbavati Plains, said “It is a great experience here, the exhibition has been a prosperous one, we have made sales.

“I have also been able to learn a lot, for instance, I learnt the real estate business from some other exhibitors around.”

Similarly, Cassilda Ntsane, Group Sales Manager, Premier Hotel in Pretoria, who commended SAT for a well organised expo, advised them to ensure that the number of buyers exceeded that of the exhibitors, going forward.

“This will ensure that market demand meets supply,” he said.

Frank Udeme from Nigeria, said the expo was beneficial to him because he learnt diverse aspects of African culture.

He urged Africans to keep being friendly with one another and explore more of African boarders during leisure, instead of visiting the western world for tourism.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

May 12, 2023

New Durban will emerge before 2024 INDABA expo – Official

Durban Tourism, the marketing authority for the city of Durban, South Africa, says some tourism infrastructural development are underway in the city ahead of the 2024 edition of Africa’s Travel Indaba (ATI) expo.

Winnile Mntungwa, Deputy Head, Durban Tourism, gave the assurance during a news conference at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre on Thursday.

Mntungwa assured tourists that the development would totally transform Durban, the host city for the just concluded three-day ATI expo.

According to her, the development is neccesary as Durban remains the host for the 2024 and 2025 editions of the expo.

“A film city similar to what is obtainable in Hollywood will be constructed as well as a resuscitation of the waterfront in the city.

“There will be a different Durban in 2024, when you come for Indaba. You all know that we take pride in ourselves as the city under construction.

“We hope to complete the film city which will be of disney standard; cruising activity will be upgraded and we have a lot of other infrastructural developments ongoing as well,” she said.

Mntungwa noted that the organisation had exceeded its success projections for the expo so far, as 6,000 delegates were targeted but was able to attract 8,629 delegates.

“I am happy, we are making a positive and upward impact, we look forward to a big one in 2024 and I believe we Africans will continue to tell our stories more,” she said.

Also, Zinnie Nzama, Acting Chief Convention Bureau Officer, South Africa Tourism, noted that 21,000 meetings were held during the expo as against 18,000 meetings held in 2022.

She said this was quite encouraging as she appealed to Africans to engage themselves further and make 2024 edition of the expo a bigger one.

Mr John Arittho, Chief Operations Officer, Durban International Convention Centre (ICC), promised to provide a more comfortable venue for the expo in 2024.

Arittho also assured tourists that the hotel facilities around the ICC would be made available for them to use in 2024.

He disclosed that for each day of the just concluded expo, 6,000 meals were served.

“The most interesting aspect of the expo was having students from different vocational academy in Durban participate in the expo.

“This is a way of catching them young to enable them become self reliant and responsible,” he said.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

May 12, 2023

Ethiopia Stresses Need to Hold Ministerial Meetings, Bilateral Political Consultations with Pakistan

The positive relationship that is being observed in commerce and business between Ethiopia and Pakistan should be encouraged in the same manner in politics, State Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Mesganu Arga underlined.

State Minister briefed senior officials of Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on current Ethiopia-Pakistan relations.

The State Minister underlined in his speech that the positive relationship that is being observed in commerce and business should be encouraged in the same manner in politics.

According to Ambassador Mesganu, Ethiopia is one of the developing nations experiencing significant economic growth, and the Government will give Pakistani investors the assistance they need to further expand their involvement in the economy of the country.

He further urged holding ministerial meetings and bilateral political consultations to improve ties between the two countries.

The meeting also discussed of regional peace and security issues, according to Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The senior officials of Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed their delight with Ethiopia opening its embassy in Islamabad.

They stated that improving relations with Ethiopia and developing Pakistan’s ties to Africa depend on each other.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency