Aso Villa Reads for 14/02/2020
Every day, we bring you the best stories that the Media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria
Nigeria and Ethiopia have signed a pact on visa waiver for diplomatic and official passport holders. They also agreed to relate mutually on defence matters. President Muhammadu Buhari and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed witnessed the signing on Tuesday in Addis Ababa by their Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, and Gedu Andargachew. Both leaders had earlier discussed on new areas of collaboration to enhance existing ties between the two nations. The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Garba Shehu, in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja explained that the waiver is to ease official travels and strengthen bilateral relations.He noted that the defence cooperation was to engender coordinated efforts in the fight against terrorism and promote peace and stability in Africa. West and East Africa regions in particular, and the continent in general.The memorandum of understanding (MoU) is also to enhance bilateral military exchanges in the areas of training and education, technical assistance, visits and technology transfer. Not left of the calculation are peace support operation issues within the framework of the laws of the parties on a reciprocal basis.Both countries equally consented to swift conclusion of talks on their revised Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) and cultural cooperation. Guardian reported.
The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mustapha Shehuri, has said the ministry, in collaboration with African Development Bank, will develop special agro-industrial processing zones in the country. According to Punch, he said the zones would enable both local and foreign partners to advance the level of trade and investments in the agricultural sector. The minister said the move was also vital as it would form part of the strategy of government to diversify the economy. He said these during the Ecobank Agribusiness Summit with the theme “Unlocking productivity and investment opportunities across Nigeria’s agribusiness value chain.” Shehuri, according to a statement from the ministry, noted that there was a need for a viable synergy of all the relevant stakeholders in the agricultural sector to ensure food security.
The National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) said on Thursday nine eligible northern states in the country have been targeted for the Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) to eliminate the scourge of malaria this year. The 2018 World Malaria report showed that there were 228 million cases of malaria worldwide with 53 million annual cases in Nigeria contributing to a 25 percent global burden. The report said with 81,640 deaths annually, Nigeria accounts for 19 percent of global malaria deaths. The National Coordinator of NMEP, Dr. Audu Mohammed, disclosed this at a meeting with stakeholders on the review of the 2019 round of SMC and proposed the 2020 round of intervention. Mohammed, who was represented by the Head of Case Management, NMEP, Dr. Nnenna Ogbulafor said the exercise was already taking place in Jigawa, Katsina, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara. Vanguard reports.
Julius Berger plc has given assurance that the 2nd Niger Bridge will be completed in February 2022. Friedrich Wieser, project supervisor of the company, gave the assurance when minister of works and housing, Babatunde Fashola, visited and inspected the project. He said the project was 33 percent as against 20 percent when the minister visited last, pointing out that the company had mobilised 1300 workers and 425 equipment to the site to meet the target scheduled. Wieser said the work on the seven kilometres access road world be completed in September this year. “This job is going on smoothly and I am confident that the access road from Onitsha end and Asaba end will be completed by September 2020. At the moment no challenges, we are following our programme as scheduled. “When the minister was here last time we have done 20 per cent progress, now 33 percent,’’ he said. He affirmed that compensation to the host community was not the responsibilities of the contractor but rather the employed, saying, “We never have any disturbance because of compensation.” The minister said the project was going scheduled, added that the recovered looted fund to foreign countries were being used to develop such infrastructure. “You are aware of the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari to recover money that was stolen out of the country. This is one of the projects in the benefit of that money. Business Day reported.
