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National Malaria Elimination Targets Achievable in Jigawa, Say Stakeholders

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Some stakeholders in Jigawa on Monday expressed the strong hope of achieving the national Malaria elimination targets, given the existing capacity and improved skills among its health workers.

They made their views known at the Support Malaria Programme Phase II (SuNMaP) final close out dissemination meeting in Dutse, the state capital.

The object of the meeting was the presentation of findings to stakeholders, progress accomplishment and project sustainability by focal persons, as well as soliciting for increased domestic funding for malaria elimination.

Abubakar Musa, the Supply Chain Officer, Malaria Consortium, noted in his presentation that the state stood to gain an increase of N5.

6 million for its malaria control programme, if one per cent of its projected revenue of N3.7 billion for 2020 to 2022 were allocated to the programme.

“Jigawa State is projected to have a total revenue from VAT, FAAC, IGR and special releases of N119.1 billion in 2020, N117.6 billion in 2021 and N132.9 billion in 2022.

“This implies the potential of additional revenue of N13.8 billion in three years from these sources, and a fiscal space of N276 million for malaria control programme in the next three years,” he added.

Musa pointed out that although there were currently 38 donor partners in the State, the domestication of donors was still a major challenge.

“The State government does not receive or have records of donors’ budget and work plans and this affects planning.

“Jigawa State Government is making considerable efforts to comply with guidelines provided by Affordable Medicines Facility – malaria (AMFm).

“The state operates an electronic drug revolving fund system for antimalarial medicines. Drugs are supplied directly to health facilities from the central medical store and decision on quantification is made based on issue data and 10 per cent projected increase in utilization,” he explained.

He announced that the state had spent N12.7 million for flag-off, procurement of ACT, RDT, transportation of SPAQ, (Demand creation) of SMC 2021.

According to him, N 8.8 million is for LLIN campaign for 2021, adding that all the 27 local governments have been directed to release N50,000 to support the transportation and other logistics for SMC commodities.

Musa also said that the state had procured malaria commodities worth N1.5 million and created a budget line for malaria elimination in its 2021 budget, while providing free MNCH services worth 75 million in about 22 Health facilities had increased the availability of free malaria commodities across the state.

In addition to that, the state government had included malaria interventions on the list of services to be provided by the state’s health insurance scheme.

“The state has established integrated procurement and supply chain processes between programmes (Public & DRF system); this will help in reducing stock outs of malaria commodities across the state.

“It has also established a sustainability committee on malaria which provides leadership on malaria elimination sustainability issues in the state,” Musa said of the many other interventions.

Earlier, in his remarks, Mr Kola Maxwell, Programme Director for Malaria Consortium in West and Central Africa, expressed happiness on how the programme had been yielding results in the past six years in Jigawa.

“I have been privileged to be coming to Jigawa, for over 20 years now and on several projects, and each time I come, I see progress.

“The first time I came before I joined Malaria Consortium, I was impressed with the health system.

For this third period, Maxwell said they had been discussing with the government on how the malaria programme could be made sustainable in the state.

He expressed appreciation over the nature of the debate and actions witnessed at the stakeholders’ meeting, which he described, as a good testimony of everybody’s commitment in the state.

Maxwell noted that the operational challenges in Jigawa were very similar to the ones in a state in Central Africa, regarding the issue of capacity and the problem of skills.

He, however, expressed happiness that despite the challenges, the programme had been given serious support and attention by both the state and the federal governments.

“You know that the reason why this programme is going is because of the global economic challenges; and Nigeria as a country is not immune to that and so the economic challenge is also really posing a serious issue to sustainability.

The issue of malaria is a mixed message. For example, on one side if we can actually collaborate, sustain our gains and imagine, we can make faster progress and eliminate malaria, it will mean that some of the burden that the health system is carrying, one of them is removed,” Maxwell added.

In his remarks, Dr Umar Namadi, the Public Health Director, in the state Ministry of Health, also appreciated how the programme was yielding results in the state.

” We have seen it and the results we can see from the presentation, we see variations from where they started and where we are today. That shows there is result in that direction and we have also outlined whatever is needed to continue.

” So, we are going to include it from next year’s budget, so that all the activities that have been in place are continuing in the state,” he said. (NAN) 

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Bandits Invade Niger Local Market,  Village  Head, 20 Others Killed

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From Dan Amasingha,  Minna

After relative  peace since the start of the Ramadan fast,daredevil Bandits  invaded a Niger local market and killed the Village head and 20 traders in Madaka, Rijau local government areas of Niger State.Rijau Local Government which borders  neighbouring Kebbi State, has experienced consistent banditry attacks in the past one year.

Eye witnesses inform our Correspondent that the suspected bandits riding on motorcycles stormed the market  on Thursday  afternoon  around 3.
30- 4pm  when activities at the market  were  at its peak.According  to the source,  the invading  bandits who shot sporadically  into the air to scare away traders later started ransacking big time traders by carting away food stuffs  and Cash.
Villagers who had the pandemonium at the market square fled into nearby bushes to take cover and the Village head who attempted  to find out  what was happening was shot dead at close range.”At the end of the confusion, we discovered that twenty one persons  including our Village  head were wasted,The Source  maintained that, the bandits before leaving  later set about 50 houses  including commercial shops on fire, and a  number of cars and motorcycles were burnt down during the incident.”After  killing innocent victims and burning down the market they also went away with an unspecified number of the villagers to an unidentified destination”Confirming  the incident,  Madaka District Head, Alhaji Isah Bawale  said  it was a black Thursday evening in a telephone interview on Friday morning.He further recounted that the Community  had come under similar attack some times ago when his predecessor  was killed without any resistance from security agencies.When contacted, Niger State Command of Police Public Relations Officer PPRO SP Wasiu Abiodun assured to verify and get back but he couldn’t revert at the time of filing in the report.Meanwhile, the Niger state government, especially the commissioner for security, General Bello Abdullahi Mohammed (retired) is yet to speak on the incident.

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Women Are Nation Builders, Bayelsa NAWOJ

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From Mike Tayese, Yenagoa

The Nigerian Association of Women Journalists, NAWOJ, Bayelsa State chapter has described women as society builders hence they should be empowered to harness their potentials for nation building.

Chairperson of NAWOJ Bayelsa, Mrs Grace Orumieyefa handed down this during a one day program to commemorate the 2024 International Women Day held at the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ Press Centre in Yenagoa, the state capital.

Mrs Orumieyefa noted that NAWOJ has over the years been at the forefront of advocacy for women rights as the empowerment of women brings empowerment for everyone around her which makes a better society.

Also speaking, Chief Executive Officer, Eunice Nnachi Women Advocacy Foundation, ENWAF, Lady Eunice Nnachi urged women to take advantage of technological advancement to improve their learning and training in order to empower themselves.

“You can learn almost anything using the internet, through YouTube, women should use this medium to learn many things and train themselves.”

While responding to questions, she said, women should not be desperate to get life partners but should ensure that they have partners who can help them to achieve their dreams.

The Keynote Speaker, Mrs Ebi Kakandar who delivered a lecture on “Harnessing the Prospects and Potentials of Women” called on women to shun all forms of laziness, be determined and courageous to pursue their life ambitions.

Mrs Kakandar pointed out that factors such as building a growth mindset, improving your emotional mindset, developing willpower, cultivating strong social support, aspiring for greatness and setting achievable goals are some of the keys to achieving success as a woman.

She encouraged women to seek more knowledge and inspire themselves to be self-reliant.

Various organizations such as NUJ, FIDA, NLC, MWAN, Starzz Initiative, DO Foundation, POWA and other women organizations as well as NGOS delivered Goodwill messages for women advising to aspire for higher achievement.

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Students Loan: FG Explains Delay in Take-off, Sets New Date

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The Federal Government has set the month of March for a definite opening of the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFund) portal for eligible students.

Dr Akintunde Sawyerr, Execute Secretary NELFund, who disclosed this in an interview with newsmen on Thursday in Abuja urged eligible students to register to access the fund.

President Bola Tinubu on June 12, 2023, signed the Access to Higher Education Bill into law to enable indigent student access interest-free loan to pursue their education in any Nigerian tertiary institutions.

The scheme was slated to commence between September and October 2023, but because of unforeseen circumstances, there was a revised timeline to January.

Giving reasons for the delay in starting the scheme as earlier scheduled, Sawyerr explained that the process is technically driven and necessary measures needed to be put in place for proper execution.

“The take-off date is this month (March) and the reason for the delay is that we are trying to get it right.

“This is not a political programme where we say, oh! we are just going to do it, it doesn’t  matter how it works.

“This is a programme that will, probably run beyond me as a human being, not even as a Secretary. This is something that we want to run adequately, so we have to get it right,’’ he said.

Sawyerr, reiterated President Tinubu’s commitment to ensure that lack of finance should not be a reason for any student in Nigeria to halt education at a tertiary level.

According to him, the scheme was designed for indigent Nigerian students in tertiary institutions and applications would be done online.

“We have decided that, all applicants should be able to access this scheme regardless of where they are, who they are and who they know.

“We want this to be a process that is fair to all and we will advertise the portal widely so that applicants will be able to go to the website to fill series of forms and answer certain questions.

“Base on the data they input and their answers to the questions, the system will be able to determine appropriately, whether they are eligible to apply or not,’’ Sawyerr explained. (NAN)

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