Blog

NAN-HE-17
Shares
By Chinyere Joel-Nwokeoma
Lagos, Nov. 18, 2016 (NAN) The Nigerian equity market on Friday closed the week on a bearish trend, with market indices dropping by 0.24 per cent, amid huge loses by some highly capitalised stocks.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the All-Share Index shed 62.25 points or 0.24 per cent to close at 25,537.54, compared with 25,599.79 posted on Thursday.

Similarly, market capitalisation lost N21 billion or 0.24 per cent to close at N8.791 trillion against N8.812 trillion recorded on Thursday.

A breakdown of the price movement chart showed that Seplat topped the losers’ chart, dropping by N18.05 to close at N342.95 per share.

Flour Mills came second with N1.74 to close at N16.20 and PZ shed 78k to close at N14.99 per share.

Berger Paint dipped 66k to close at N6.23 and Okomu Oil lost 47k to close at N42 per share.

On the other hand, Transcorp Hotel led the gainers table, gaining 48k to close at N5.25 per share.

Ashaka Cement followed with a gain of 23k to close at N11 and Oando gained 18k to close at N3.96 per share.

Dangote Sugar improved by 17k to close at N6.48, while Dangote Flour gained 13k to close at N3.73 per share.

NAN also reports that Diamond Bank emerged the most traded in volume terms, accounting for 35.41 million shares worth N31.86 million.

FBN Holdings accounted for 27.17 million shares valued at N82.88 million and Access Bank traded 23.73 million worth N130.51 million.

Sterling Bank sold 16.44 million shares valued at N12.55 million and Transcorp exchanged 12.24 million shares worth N8.69 million.

In all, investors bought and sold 165.58 million shares valued at N888.17 million exchanged in 2,279 deals.

This was in contrast with 161.59 million shares worth N1.19 billion transacted in 2,086 deals. (NAN)
JNC/HA
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Edited by Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu

NAN-DS-11
Shi’ites
Maiduguri, Nov. 18, 2016(NAN) The Borno Police Command on Friday advised members of the Shi’ite sect to drop their planned unlawful procession in Maiduguri.

The state’s Commissioner of police, Mr Damian Chukwu, gave the advice while addressing newsmen in Maiduguri.

Chukwu said that the group should adopt a lawful means of championing its cause rather than engaging in road procession.

“We just got information that the Shi’ite group is trying to embark on public procession in Maiduguri and the state government had already issued a statement banning that procession.

“I want to say that we are in support of the ban because the law banning public procession without permission is still in force,” he said.

The commissioner said that most procession organised in states by the group had always ended in violence.

“We know the group will always want to carry on with the procession without even trying to seek permission.

” We hereby advise them to please shelve the procession in the interest of peace,” he said.

Chukwu said that the police would do everything possible to ensure the maintenance of peace in the state and warned the group to drop the planned procession. (NAN)
ABI/OIF/AMY

Edited by Ifeyinwa Okonkwo and Abdullahi Yusuf

Polio: Association demands cold stores in Jigawa

NAN-HG-4
Storage
Dutse, Nov. 18, 2016 (NAN) A Community Based Association in Buji Local Government Area of Jigawa has urged the State Government to provide cold rooms for storing Oral Polio Vaccines (OPVs) in the area.

The Chairman of the group, Wards Development Association (WDA), Malam Sunusi Shehu, made the call when members of the association visited the state Executive Secretary, Primary Health Care Development Agency (PHCDA), Dr Kabir Ibrahim, on Friday in Dutse.

“The 12 communities under the aegis of Wards Development Association stressed the need for the state government to provide cold stores in all the 12 political wards in the area for safe and proper keeping of vaccines meant for routine immunisation and other child killer diseases.

“So that is why we want to present to the government, through your office, our major problems. We are requesting government to provide more cold stores across the local government areas.

“This is because the only functioning cold store is the one in Gantsa town, which is not sufficient for whole council.

“For that, vaccinators are experiencing serious difficulties during routine immunisation against polio and other children killer diseases as they have to return to Gantsa to store the remaining vaccines for another day’s exercise.

“As such, most times, the vaccinators arrive late to most of the areas as they had to go Gantsa and collect the vaccines for every round of the exercise,” he lamented.

He noted that the primary objective of the association was to enlighten and mobilise people, especially parents on polio acceptance, attending and receiving all sort of immunisation by the health and medical agencies.

“We thank God as most parents are responding positively and women are always attending antenatal and postnatal care due to our work,’’ he explained.

Shehu called for the deployment of female antenatal and postnatal personnel in the council.

“We are also in dire need of additional antenatal and postnatal female personnel in the area.

“As I’m talking to you, there is no single female medical personnel in all our health centres and this is negatively affecting the number of pregnant women attending clinics for antenatal and postnatal care,” the chairman lamented.

Responding, the Executive Secretary of the agency, Dr Kabir Ibrahim, commended members of the association for their courage and efforts to remind government of its mandate.

He attributed the shortage of some facilities in some clinics to the present economic situation bedevilling the state and the nation in general.

“Despite that government is still doing its best to ensure effective healthcare delivery to the people in the state,’’ he said.

Ibrahim noted that the agency included the provision of solar power for health facilities in its 2017 budget.

He assured the association that health facilities in Buji Local Government Area would be the first to be considered for the provision of solar power generating system.

“The agency in considering the use of Corps members as part of solution to the shortage of medical personnel.

“We will engage NYSC members, give some of them training in our general and specialist hospitals and then deploy them to rural areas to serve in health facilities.

“We will also recruit casual unemployed female community health workers who graduated from schools of Health Technology to run antenatal service in your clinics,” he assured.

He promised to convey all their requests that are not within the agency’s power to resolve to the state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr Abba Umar. (NAN)

MNB/OIF/MST

Edited by Ifeyinwa Okonkwo/Muhammad Suleiman Tola

NAN-DS-9
Device
Abuja, Nov.18,2016(NAN)The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) said Adamawa,Taraba,Niger and Yobe had yet to comply with the implementation of the Speed Limiting Device after six weeks of its commencement.

A statement signed by its Head of Media, Mr Bisi Kazeem, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja said the commission had yet to record any installation of the device in the states mentioned.

Kazeem said that statistics of the FRSC showed that between Oct.1 and Nov.16 13,8506 vehicles were checked, while 7,417 vehicles had installed the device and 13,1089 had yet to comply.

“So far, Cross River is leading the compliance record with 1,224 and Akwa Ibom comes second with 859, while Ebonyi comes third with 565, and Enugu is forth with 556.

“Apart from the four states of Adamawa ,Taraba, Niger and Yobe who have zero record , states like Kano, Jigawa ,Sokoto and Bauchi states recorded low compliance with less than 10 vehicles installed with the device.

“ The Corps Marshall Boboye Oyeyemi has always advised Nigerians to imbibe the culture of safety.

“People need to embrace this scheme on their own without being forced to because come Feb. 2017, there will be no more subtle or advisory enforcement it would be total enforcement and strict implementation,’’he said

Kazeem said the Corps Marshal gave the grace to allow commercial vehicles some time to comply with the scheme considering the economic situation in the country.

He urged motorists to install the device so as to save lives and property, especially during the Ember Months.(NAN)
ATAB/AMY/AMY

Edited by Abdullahi Yusuf

SMEDAN to assist trainees source funds to establish ventures

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Ventures

By Chukwuemeka Opara

Abakaliki, Nov.18, 2016 (NAN) The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) is to assist its trainees source funds to start their businesses, an official has assured.

Mr Monday Ewans, SMEDAN’s Acting Director, Policy, Advocacy and Coordination, gave the assurance in Abakaliki in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

According to him, trainees trained by SMEDAN in skills and entrepreneurship development with collaboration of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) will benefit from the programme.

“At the conclusion of their training, we will assist them to develop practicable business plans and forward such to the Bank of Industry (BOI).

“The BOI is handling the Access to Finance aspect of our programme, as it would review the plans and offer funds to the trainees to start their various ventures.

“This would enable the trainees practicalise the technical and entrepreneurship skills they acquired; to create jobs for themselves, society and check poverty,” he said.

He noted that the vocational, skills training and financing initiative is under the National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP), a subset of the National Enterprise Development Programme.

“The NISDP was conceptualised to build a bridge over the gap between employers and job seekers in the industrial sector, aimed at reducing youth unemployment,” he said.

NAN recalls that SMEDAN in conjunction with ITF recently trained 500 youths from Ebonyi on skills acquisition and entrepreneurship development.

Ewans who represented Dr Dikko Radda, SMEDAN Director General at the training’s closing ceremony, inspected items produced by the trainees with officials of ITF, Ebonyi government, among others. (NAN)

RCO/GOM/OU
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Edited by Gregory Mmaduakolam/Obike Ukoh

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Hormonal imbalance, leading cause of sexual dysfunction – Expert

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Imbalance
By Talatu Maiwada
Abuja, Nov. 18, 2016 (NAN) A Lagos based fertility expert, Dr Kayode Jegede, on Friday identified hormonal imbalance as one of the major causes of sexual dysfunction in men and women.

Jegede told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in a telephone interview in Abuja that hormonal imbalance was the fluctuation in level, either high or low, of one or more hormones in the body.

He said this could affect the chances of conception as well as sexual satisfaction.

“Hormonal imbalance, according to research, has proven to be one of the leading causes of female sexual health-related issues.

“This condition also makes it extremely difficult for couples trying to conceive to have a baby of their own,’’ he said.

Jegede said that causes of hormonal imbalance in individuals could be stress, poor diet, environmental pollution and deficiency in one or more key nutrients.

According to him, the symptoms include irregular menstrual cycles, excessive bleeding or very little bleeding, excessive weight gain or loss, low libido, absence of menstrual period, and pains during sexual intercourse.

The fertility expert defined sexual dysfunction as the inability of an individual or couple to experience satisfaction from any sexual activity.

He said research had shown that sexual dysfunction was common among couples, adding that 43 per cent of women and 31 per cent of men experienced one form of sexual dysfunction.

Jegede explained that the condition manifested in various ways like painful sexual intercourse, inhibited sexual desire, inability to become aroused, and lack of orgasm.

“These sexual problems occur in adults of all ages and among those commonly affected are older adults, which may be related to a decline in health associated with aging.

“The intake of certain medication such as antidepressants, alcohol, stress and diabetes are also some of the causes of sexual dysfunction,’’ he said.

The fertility expert stressed that most individuals and couples did not seek medical help when they experienced sexual dysfunction, due to social stigma.

He urged individuals and couples experiencing symptoms of sexual dissatisfaction and infertility to seek medical help, saying that most cases of hormonal imbalances and infertility could be treated with technology. (NAN)
TIM/COF/MST
Edited by Oluyinka Fadare/Muhammad Suleiman Tola

NAN-H-62
Transformation
By Chiazo Ogbolu
Lagos, Nov. 18, 2016 (NAN) Reliance Infosystems Ltd., a business solution provider on Friday says it is partnering with Microsoft Nigeria to bring digital transformation to businesses.

The Chief Executive Officer of the firm, Mr Olayemi Popoola, in a statement in Lagos, said the transformation would hold at the 2016 edition of Christmas-in-the-Cloud event.

According to him, the event will take place on Nov. 26 in Lagos.

“Christmas-in-the-Cloud is an annual year-end event that brings together C-Level executives across mid-size and enterprise organisations to share ideas on how to enhance technology input in businesses.

“Using the theme digital transformation, this year’s event is anchored around a message that encourages stakeholders to embrace digital transformation.

“It is the route to positioning their businesses for profitable disruption and attainment of business excellence,’’ he said.

Popoola said that this year’s conference would come in different tailor-made sessions that target participants’ roles in their organisations.

“For the deep dive sessions, we have identified customers whose businesses can be massively transformed on adoption of Microsoft Cloud technology.

“These sessions are most suitable for attendance by the C-Level executives and heads of units from organisations as implementations are typically that of top-down approach.

“There will also be tremendous networking opportunities,’’ he said.

Popoola said the facilitators of the conference include: Isaac Orolugbagbe -Vice Chairman of FedEx; Yinka David-West, Executive Director – Lagos Business School; and John Edokpolo, Head, Legal Services-Microsoft Nigeria. (NAN)
CAN/ENN/AJA
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(Edited by Edwin Nwachukwu/Adeleye Ajayi)

NAN-S-9
T/Tennis
Lagos, Nov 18, 2016 (NAN) Nosiru Bello, the National Coach of Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), on Friday said that talents identified at the ongoing national championships in Lagos would be nurtured adequately.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the players are competing in 18 events on offer at the championships holding at the Knock-up Hall of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.

Bello told NAN that some of the young players in the competition had done exceptionally well from the skills they displayed on the tables.

“The skills exhibited by some young girls and boys in this competition shows that the future of table tennis is bright in the country.

“The NTTF championships this year is different because the junior players were given the opportunity to play in the senior category.

“The players’ performances have shown that they have what it takes to represent Nigeria in the nearest future and we will help them to progress,’’ he said.

In some of the concluded events, G20 Club defeated Cross River 3-1 in the Women’s Team event.

Habibu Memuna of Delta defeated Lawal Kehinde of Rivers 4-1in the Para-Women’s Singles event final.

NAN reports that a total of N2.8 million is up for grab as the competition ends on Saturday. (NAN)
KOA/ENN/PDE
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(Edited by Edwin Nwachukwu/Peter Ejiofor)

Experts urge Nigeria to embrace biotechnology
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Technologies
By Ebere Agozie
Abuja, Nov. 18, 2016 (NAN) Experts in biotechnology management have recommended the use of improved technologies to boost the country’s agricultural production toward achieving food security.

The experts gave the advice in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday.

Prof. Benjamin Ubi, the President, Biotechnology Society of Nigeria (BSN), said biotechnologies like Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are tools in agricultural research, which if embraced would lead to agricultural development.

“We cannot say no to this modern biotechnology in Nigeria but rather to address the issues of food security and sustainability concerns expressed by people through scientific approach.

“I believe that this is the time to revitalise our economy through agriculture by making use of modern technology.

“By biotechnology, the green alternative policy of the government will achieve its goal of ending hunger, ensuring food security and promoting sustainable agriculture,’’ Ubi said.

He said that for Nigeria to be food sufficient, it must research and develop modern agricultural practices.

Also, Mr Yarama Ndirpaya, the acting Director, Partnership and Linkages, Agricultural Research Institute of Nigeria, said that biotechnology was the only way out of food scarcity in Nigeria.

“Biotechnology, GMOs or modern agricultural practices are to combat terrible diseases and terrible insect resistance that will not allow for bumper harvest.

“This technology is introduced when we know that there is a need and when traditional measures of breeding have failed.

“We must infuse modern agricultural practices into local cultivation.

“Our farmers can use these modern practices simply with the aim to improve and increase productivity, eliminate diseases and pests that cannot be controlled by conventional methods.’’

Ndirpaya added that biotechnology had the capacity to improve agricultural productivity across the globe, reduce hunger, sustain food security and create wealth through employment.

Also speaking with NAN, a don, Prof. Chidi Uhuegbu, said Nigeria should join other countries across the globe by embracing biotechnology.

“Many developed and developing countries have used GMOs to produce food in abundance and I see no reason why we should not follow suit.

“We should support it and follow the trend as it comes.

“This is because it will aid abundant production not only for consumption but also for export,’’ Uhuegbu, the Dean, Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences, Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu, said. (NAN)
EPA/COF/MST
Editing by Oluyinka Fadare/Muhammad Suleiman Tola

NAN-HE- 12

Statistics

By Cecilia Ologunagba

Abuja, Nov. 18, 2016 (NAN) Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma, Minister of Budget and National Planning has urged the users of statistics to effectively collaborate with the producers of statistical information to achieve desired results.

Udoma made the call at a forum organised by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), to mark the 2016 African Statistics Day on Friday in Abuja.

The minister said the use of data should form an essential element in government’s decision-making process.

He said it should form government decision-making process as timely statistical information was expected to provide the basis for decision making in the governance of the country.

“Statistical information could equally serve as an important tool for championing the course of users in every sphere of endeavour.

“It is important to note that production of statistics is not only time consuming, but time sensitive. For this reason, users of data should endeavour to assist NBS to provide accurate information.

“They should also assist other data producers of statistics to resolve the paradox by providing accurate information and responding promptly to all statistical inquiries/surveys,’’ the minister said.

Udoma, however, urged the forum to come up with suggestions to address various challenges in the Nigerian Statistical System.

“I hope the forum will provide the way forward to those challenges for better and effective statistical delivery in the country.

“It is equally my sincere belief that the forum will come up with appropriate and improved method of data production in Nigeria including the application of modern ICT tools,’’ he said.

In his address, the Statistician-General, Dr Yemi Kale, said the NBS had been collaborating with other data producing agencies to facilitate the production of basic statistical information.

Kale said that the forum would help to come up with ideas that would help to strengthen the development of statistics in Nigeria.

He said that economic statistics and national accounts data had provided a comprehensive assessment of the performance of a country’s economy over time.

“A strong national statistical system with good infrastructure for collection, processing, compilation, analysis, dissemination and archiving of all economic statistics, is vital to national development.

“The African Common Project on the implementation of the 2008 United Nations Systems of National Accounts (SNA) is making steady progress in assisting countries to improve their economic statistics.

“The SNA is an overarching coordinating framework for economic statistics in two important ways.

“SNA is a conceptual framework for ensuring the consistency of the definitions, standards and classifications used in official statistics; and it is an accounting framework to ensure the numerical consistency of data drawn from different sources,’’ the official said.

He, however, appreciated the contribution of the development partners for providing support for the development of statistics in the country.

Also speaking, Prof. Sidney Onyeagu, President of Nigerian Statistical Association said statistics were important in every day development process and in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Onyeagu said the forum would deliberate on the importance of strengthen economic statistics and how it could promote structural transformation as well as promote sustainable development.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the theme of the celebration is “Strengthening Economic Statistics for Regional Integration, Structural Transformation and Sustainable Development’’.

NAN also reports that the African Statistics Day Celebration is an offshoot of the meeting of ministers responsible for planning in Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia held in 1990.

The meeting set aside Nov.18, of every year as a special day for statistics and promoting awareness about the important role it plays in the development of the society (NAN)

CIA/ESAN/MO

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Edited by Abiodun Esan/Morayo Omolade