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‎The Benue State House of Assembly has passed the 2026 Appropriation Bill, of N695, 011, 237, 687•28 into law.
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‎The House increased the 2026 budget by N89•5 billion from N605.5 billion earlier presented by the Governor Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia.

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‎The budget was approved on Wednesday following the presentation of a report by the House Committee on Appropriation, chaired by Hon. Isaac Ochikliye ably represented by deputy Chairman of the Committee Hon. Dauglas Akya during a plenary presided over by the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Berger Alfred Emberga, MNIQS.
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‎He explained that the 2026 budget was designed to accelerate infrastructure development, improve social service delivery, and stimulate sustainable economic growth across the State.
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‎Among other recommendations, the House urged House Committees to advise MDAs to avoid extra budgetary expenditures and called for the strengthening of audit and procurement processes to enhance transparency, accountability and effective budget implementation.
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‎The Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Alfred Emberga commended members of the appropriation committee for the good and thorough work on the budget.
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‎The Honourable Speaker directed the Clerk of the House to produce a clean copy of the bill for the Governor’s assent.
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Team Nigeria clinched a bronze medal in judo at the ongoing 4th African Youth Games after winning the 63kg category bout against Zimbabwe.

The result was confirmed in a statement on Wednesday by Kola Daniel, Special Adviser on Media in the Office of the Director-General of the National Sports Commission (NSC).

Nigeria’s representative, Oghogho, defeated his Zimbabwean opponent in the bronze medal contest to secure a place on the podium.

The medal adds to Team Nigeria’s tally at the Games and reflects the country’s participation in judo events.

The African Youth Games in Angola continue to offer Nigerian athletes the opportunity to compete at a continental level and gain international exposure.

By Eddy Ochigbo, Abuja

The Nigerian Content Development Management Board (NCDMB) has reaffirmed its determination to increase the current from 56 per cent to100 per cent local content in Africa between now and next decade, to align with President Bola Tinubu’s “Nigeria First” policy, aimed at boosting local production and reducing dependence on imports in critical sectors of national economy.

Director Corporate Services NCDMB, Dr.

Abdulmalik Halilu, who drop the hint during the week at a capacity building workshop for media stakeholders in Abuja, disclosed that NCDMB, was in good stead to attain 100 per cent Local content in less than no time due to impactful steps being taken by the board. Innovative steps being of the board, be said, has been put in place under the leadership of Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe. While hinging the milestones attained by the board on the establishment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Development Content Act (NOGICD) – a sole agency of the federal government responsible for driving Nigerian content in the oil and gas industry – Halilu urged Oil and Gas Correspondents to place high premium on the core operations of NCDMB, rather than their day to day reportage of policy matters.

The media capacity building workshop themed: “The Role of Media and Communications in Sustaining Nigerian Content Development”, challenged the media to deploy its expertise and professionalism to boost Nigeria’s sustained campaign in championing local content development in Africa.

“The media should do more in the reportage of activities of the board by moving from reporting policy matters, and throw more light on core operations of the Nigerian content performance in the oil and gas industry”, he volunteered.

Meanwhile, NCDMB”s move is to ensure that for every N100 spent in the industry by operators and service companies, N56 is now retained in-country in terms of value addition local assets, goods, expertise to target 70 per cent local content by 2027. The workshop stressed the need for the media to interrogate the board’s activities and keep Nigerians abreast of the ongoing silent revolution in the nation’s local content trajectory.

On his part, Dr Obinna Ezeobi, General Manager, Corporate Services, reiterated that the Nigerian content has become so widespread the world over that a good number of African countries are now seeking ways to optimise value from their oil and gas resources, turning to Nigeria’s local implementation as a case study.

Earlier, Azubuike Ishiekwene, Editor-in-Chief of Leadership Newspapers, who delivered a paper on why “Good Journalism is not Enough: Creating Sustainable Income from your Content in Digital Age”, maintained that good journalism is no longer in vogue because of the collapse of traditional newsroom revenue and the under payment and casualisation of Journalists, especially beat reporters. He reasoned that the Journalist as a knowledge worker, a trusted interpreter, public educator and a martlet signaler must live above board because the digital age did kill journalism, it killed dependency.

By and large, the media capacity building workshop, among things touched on: Formulation and implementation of policies and monitoring its socioeconomic impact; Provision of the economic and social capital, necessary for the growth of industries; and Provision of enabling business environment to support production and consumption of goods and services by local supply chain.