NEWS
Bayelsa Flags-off Basic Health Enrolment Fund
From Tayese Mike, Yenagoa
The Bayelsa state government through the state owned Bayelsa Health Insurance Scheme (BHIS) has commenced enrollment of beneficiaries into the Federal government funded Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF).
Speaking at the flag-off programme tagged: “take-off of implementation and registration of eligible enrollees into the Basic Health Care provision fund”, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Pabara Newton-Igwele, represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr.
Wisdom Sawyer, described the programme as one of the many dividend of the prosperity government headed by governor Douye Diri.He asserted that it was long overdue the government started benefiting from the Federal government funded scheme, saying that this was to compliment the government’s effort in the functioning Bayelsa Health insurance scheme towards providing affordable health care for Bayelsans.
“This programme has been flagged-off in Yenagoa local government area, but we’ll take it to all the 107 health centres across the 105 wards of the state.
“It’s for children under the age of five, for the pregnant women, elderly and the vulnerable in the society.
“No person employed by the government or who is working is entitled to benefit from this fund,” the commissioner said.
Also speaking, the duo of the chairman and Secretary, Bayelsa state Health insurance scheme, BHIS, Professor (Mrs) Onyaye Kunle-Olowu and Dr. Zuoboemi Agadah, cautioned against infiltration of the scheme by those on government payroll.
The duo noted that the state health insurance scheme has also commenced the registration of beneficiaries in the informal sector, saying that the scheme over time would attain a universal coverage.
“We commend the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), the national health insurance scheme,(NHIS), the world Health Organization,(WHO) for their partnership.
‘This fund has now be released to the Bayelsa state government and this take-off programme of the fund is a signal that we ve commenced the deployment as well as utilization of the fund for the right beneficiaries and purposes.
“It’s for children under five years of age, the pregnant women, elderly and others who can’t afford their health bills. But not for those who can afford these bills,” they said.
Highpoints of the event were goodwill messages delivered by the state representatives and coordinators of the world health organization,(WHO),the NPHCDA, the NHIS and the executive secretary of the Bayelsa state primary health care development board,(BSPHCDB), respectively.
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Operations Unit Zone C, says it intercepted contrabands with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N510.92 million between July 15th and September 15th, 2024.The zone covers the six states in the South-South geopolitical zone and the five states in the Southeast geopolitical zone.
This is contained in a statement signed by Jerry Attah, Public Relations Officer, NCS, Zone C, and made available to journalists on Wednesday. According to the statement, Comptroller Michael Ugbagu, NCS, Zone C, gave the statistics while showcasing the seized contraband to relevant regulatory agencies at the Government Warehouse in Edo.Ugbagu said that the zone also recovered the sum of N25.57 million from demand notices raised based on some infractions noticed, making a cumulative sum of N536.49 million recorded within the months under review.“The DPV was derived from our seized goods, which include 49,699 sachets of various brands of tramadol and 3,350 bottles of various cough syrups with codeine without an NAFDAC number.“1,015 sacks of dry donkey meat and skin, 75 jumbo bales of second-hand clothing, 463 cartons of foreign spaghetti, 269 pieces of used pneumatic tires, and 56 cartons of smuggled foreign tomato paste.“More worrisome is the interception of 49,699 sachets of various brands of tramadol and 3,350 bottles of various cough syrups with codeine without NAFDAC registration numbers.”He noted that the cough syrup with codeine and tramadol without NAFDAC registration numbers, if not intercepted, could have had adverse effects on youths.He added that the items were mostly intercepted along the Ewu-Okada/Benin expressways based on credible intelligence. (NAN)
The Forum of Stakeholders of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has decried the deplorable condition of some federal roads in Nigeria. Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, the North-Central Chairman of the forum, said this in an interaction with newsmen on Wednesday in Jos. Zazzaga described some of the federal roads as ”death traps”, particularly those within the north-central region.
He said that some of the deplorable roads in the region include Jos-Akwanga, Makurdi-Oturkpo-Otukpa, Makurdi-Ankpa, and Jos-Saminaka. Other roads that needed urgent attention, he said, included Suleja-Minna, Ejule-Otukpa, Ganawuri-Manchok, Lokoja-Abuja, Lapai-Agaie-Bida, Birnin-Gwari-Bokani-Mokwa, Minna-Zungeru-Tegina-Kontagora. ”Currently, the north-central region has the most deplorable roads and highways in the country. ”These deplorable roads have brought severe hardship on the people and lost lives and property through preventable road traffic crashes. ”We call on President Bola Tinubu to intervene and ensure the rehabilitation of these roads because good roads are vital enablers of development,” he said. The chairman also called on governors of states within the region to reconstruct the dilapidated roads and seek refunds from the federal government. ”Though these are largely federal roads, they are located within states, and the beneficiaries are the people of these states. ”So we call on state governments to reconstruct these roads and seek refunds from the federal government,” he added. (NAN
The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the yuan, strengthened 160 pips to 7.087 against the dollar on Wednesday.This is according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.In China’s spot foreigners exchange market, the yuan is allowed to rise or fall by two per cent from the central parity rate each trading day.
The central parity rate of the yuan against the dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day. (Xinhua/NAN)
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