Day: April 16, 2023

Mr Cyprus Nii Sackey, Country Director, OKRA Projects, has commissioned a three-unit classroom block for the Have-Hadzidekope D/A Junior High School in the Afadzato South District to enhance delivery of quality education.

The block, which also has offices, toilets and polytank, is a community initiative, which got assistance from Okra Projects in December 2022.

Mr Sackey noted that they supplied the materials to the community as an assistance they provided, adding that the new block was the third project in the district.

He said more than 30 projects had been commissioned nationwide in six years of its operations adding that the communal spirit of the community members was commendable.

Mr Sackey noted that it was their hope that they would return to the community someday and urged teachers and pupils to enjoy the structure and make the best out of it.

Madam Janet Esi Hammond on behalf of the Afadzato South District Education Director, said the school over the years had been suffering from a befitting classroom block, which hindered on quality academic work.

She said the situation had been an albatross on the neck of the Directorate as no means was available to salvage it.

She commended the donors, the community’s commitment and the communal spirit exhibited to build the edifice.

Madam Hammond called on all stakeholders to revive the maintenance culture and support the school authorities to maintain the facility for its durability.

Togbe Dzeh I, Chief of the Community in a speech read for him, commended the Okra Projects for their kind gesture to the community while appealing to the Education Directorate to complement the gesture with the provision of desks.

He said there was there need for more teachers and pleaded for grants from the Directorate in sustaining education in the community.

Mr Felix Normenyo, Assemblyman, Have-Alavanyo Electoral Area, noted that the contribution of the community members towards the success of the project and called on the Education Directorate to continue to assist education in the community with resources.

He commended the teachers for their commitment towards the welfare of students.

Mr Normenyo called on stakeholders and benevolent individuals and groups to help provide the needed infrastructure to help the community while urging the student to learn.

Mr Peniyena Felix, Headteacher, expressed gratitude to the donors for the support and promised management’s commitment to ensure that proper care would be taken of the structure.

Mr Kenneth Kofikuma Puem, former Headteacher of the school, said the school was established in 1997 as a community-based school to give formal education to the pupils from this community and its environs.

‘In 2009, the school was absorbed by government and first professional teacher posted into the school in 2010 September.’

He said the school started with a student population of 23 made up of 10 boys and 13 girls on a gradual footing with lack of infrastructure and other facilities where teaching and learning was done under thatched buildings coupled with challenges where sometimes snakes fall from the buildings where classes were in section.

Mr Puem said the school was well represented in sporting activities, adding that the school sat for its first BECE in 2020 and had a 100 per cent pass, 65 per cent in 2021 and 90 per cent in 2022.

He said the school is faced with lack of classrooms, furniture and teachers and urged the current Headmaster to continue to work in addressing the challenges.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mr Wisdom Gidisu, the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for Krachi East Constituency, has said his priority is the provision of potable water to households in the Municipality.

He said despite River Oti running across Dambai, the regional capital, the resource is still scarce for households and that was a bother to him.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), he said many communities in his constituency which was largely rural were deprived of potable water and has cogent plans to correct the situation.

Mr Gidisu assured the delegates to give him the authority on May 13, to lead the party into the general election and winning to translate these projects into reality becomes their representative in parliament 2025.

He observed that most of the towns in the constituency are not connected to the national grid saying his position as the representative of the people is not only to win votes but to leave a befitting legacy for the generation yet unborn.

He explained that electricity connectivity and expansion to the neglected communities by his predecessor was essential because it would have opened the Municipality for investment and raise the standard of living of the people, while creating employable opportunities for the youth.

He assured that the remaining communities without electricity would be connected to the national grid, should the NDC come to power in 2025 and he remained their MP for the constituency.

He assured party faithful, chiefs and other stakeholders to tackle the unemployment challenge in the Constituency by creating jobs for the youths especially those that may be interested to join security services.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Founder of Eko Innovation Centre, Lagos, Mr Victor Afolabi, says Nigeria needs homegrown cyber security solutions that understand the challenges of its local environment.

Afolabi, also the Curator of Art of Technology Lagos, made this known during the grand finale of the Secure Hack 1.0 event powered by Eko Innovation Centre on Saturday evening in Lagos.

He said that one of the major challenges of technology adoption in Nigeria was cost barrier.

The founder said that most tech people in Nigeria today had to buy laptops and smart devices which are foreign to do their jobs, adding that the devices were usually very expensive .

“Looking at the cyber security solutions, anti-viruses that we buy, many of them are paid for in Forex and the sad thing is that they are ridiculously expensive because the dollar rate keeps going up.

“This cost element increases the vulnerabilities of organisations in emerging markets like Nigeria.

“When a cyber security solution is too expensive, only few would be able to afford it and that leaves many organisations vulnerable to cyber attacks.

“How do we protect ourselves when we do not have homegrown solutions,” he said.

Afolabi said Nigerians need solutions developed here either for cyber crime or physical crime that people could pay for using Naira.

He said that the way our cyberspace would be more secured because people would be able to afford the cyber security solutions.

Afolabi said that was why the innovation centre put together hackathons like the secure hack 1.0 to encourage young talents with innovative ideas.

The founder said that when solutions are homegrown, its maintenance would be easy and one would not have to start sending messages to the manufacturer unlike when it’s imported.

He said: “Hopefully as the Nigerian tech market matures, things would get better. 20 years ago nobody was building softwares in Nigeria, but today we are beginning to see foreign people using our talents.

“They are now taking our talents abroad and paying them a lot of money to build solutions for global use,” Afolabi said.

He noted that soon banks and other organisations would start using locally-developed cyber security solutions when the market matures.

Afolabi added that one day, Nigerian talents would build solutions that would be at per with international solutions.

Speaking on the Secure Hack 1.0, he said that the hackathon, which was launched in February, garnered over 400 registrations from participants to form 100 plus teams from 62 locations in four countries and across two continents.

He said that the teams were split into groups of four and were required to work together for three weeks, brainstorming and identifying new concepts based on their focus areas which include cybersecurity, physical security, and biosecurity.

Afolabi said that the best team would have the chance to win N2,000,000 prize pool and an acceleration programme investment to get their products ready for the market among other benefits.

NAN reports that some of the teams that participated are Cyber Hive Pitch Desk, a platform that offers cyber security education; Health Waka, a platform that provides seamless tracing and tracking of sick people; Team 9 and Team 18, among others.

After the pitching of ideas, team Health Waka was declared winner of the N2,000,000 pool prize by a group of Jurors.

Some of the Jurors were Dr Obadare Peter Adewale, Co-founder, Digital Encode Limited; Ayodele Olojede, Group Head, Emerging Businesses Africa, Access Bank, and David Ali, Chief Information, Security Officer, Airtel among others.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

The Federal Government has approved the release of N45.3 billion as reimbursement to States and the FCT for the implementation of the Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG CARES) Programme.

The National Coordinator of NG-CARES Programme, Dr Abdulkarim Obaje, made the disclosure in a statement by Mr Suleiman Odapu, Information and Communication Officer, NG-CARES, on Sunday in Abuja.

Obaje explained that the funds, disbursed on Thursday, April 13, were based on Results each State and FCT earned after a rigorous result verification exercise conducted by an independent Consultant.

He stated that the results earned by the States and the FCT show significant progress towards achieving the set objectives and targets of the NG-CARES Programme.

“To facilitate the smooth take-off of the programme, the Federal Government disbursed a one-off recoverable advance of N35.3 billion to all the 36 States and the FCT in March 2022, and in less than one year, States and FCT have produced results valued at N77.2 billion, impacting over 2 million direct beneficiaries.”

“The Federal Government on Thursday reimbursed the 29 States and FCT to the tune of N45.3 billion after recovery of the one-off advance. The top three best performing States in this round of reimbursement are Zamfara State, with N5,273,150,000.00, Bauchi State N4,232,200,000.00 and Ondo State N3,838,233,411.00.

“This is a milestone in the efforts at reducing poverty in the country,” Obaje noted.

The National Coordinator appealed to States and the FCT to use the funds released in line with the Financing Agreement and the “Funds Release Policy” which all the States and FCT signed.

Obaje commended key stakeholders in the programme, notably, the Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, for providing the needed leadership at the federal level to coordinate the implementation at the States and FCT, State Governors, and the World Bank for providing the credit and technical support.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that NG-CARES Programme is a Federal Government initiative and supported by the World Bank implemented in all 36 States and FCT.

The Programme aims to expand access to livelihood support and food security services and grants for poor and vulnerable households and firms.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

The Nigerian Navy (NN) has sustained presence of her capital ships at sea as well as directed operations bases to enhance efforts to dominate their Areas of Operations, In response to recent spike in piracy in the Gulf of Guinea (GoG).

The Director of Information, Nigerian Navy, Commodore Adedotun Ayo-Vaughan, said this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.

Ayo-Vanghan said the spate of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea (GoG) within the last 10 years reduced to an all time low in 2022.

He said that while concerted efforts were being made to reduce piracy within the GoG to its lowest minimum, two unfortunate incidences were recorded within the region in the last three weeks.

According to him, the first incident which involved the hijack of Motor Tanker (MT) MONJASA REFORMER, occurred on March 25 at a location144 nautical mile (nm) West-South-West (WSW) of Pointe-Noire, Republic of Congo.

He said it was later discovered that the pirates abducted six crew members from the vessel.

“The second incident involved the hijack of MT SUCCESS-9 about 306 nm SW of Abidjan Fairway Buoy (FWB), Cote d’Ivoire on April 10.

“It is pertinent to state that the NN vectored Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) GONGOLA to rendezvous MT MONJASA REFORMER in company of NNS KANO and a French Warship to escort the vessel to Lome, Togo.

“The NN has equally continued to employ her surveillance infrastructure to monitor shipping activities within the nation’s maritime environment and will continue to exploit intelligence to track activities of criminals, to maintain sanctity of the Nigerian Maritime Environment (NME).

“To this end, the NN enjoins all seafarers to continue to carry out their legitimate businesses without fear,” he said.

The naval spokesman said that no incident of piracy had occurred within NME, adding that the area remained safe for maritime and economic activities.

He gave assurance that NN would continue to sustain credible presence to deter any form of criminality.

“In securing the NME and GoG in general, the NN appreciates the efforts of international partners under the Coordinated Maritime Presence arrangement as well as the support of other maritime stakeholders that play other roles in the collective security of the GoG,” he added.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria