Aso Villa Reads for 27/02/2020
Every day, we bring you the best stories that the Media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria
The long-standing friendly relations between Nigeria and Australia are billed to be accorded an official seal in April in Abuja when both countries are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the merit scholarship scheme administered by the Australian Government. The document is expected to provide a special scholarship package for Nigerian post-graduate students. The scheme is expected to be implemented this year with the first 200 Nigerian recipients arriving in Australia in December 2020. It is expected that Nigeria’s education minister, Adamu Adamu, and the Australian high commissioner to Nigeria, Claire Ireland, are billed to meet at a round-table in Abuja to sign the MoU. A source at the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja told BusinessDay exclusively that Australia’s educational system is not necessarily identical with Nigeria’s as “the quality of education there is so high that it is a great pleasure to have Nigeria as one of the three commonwealth countries that would benefit from the scheme”. The merit scholarship scheme is to promote human resources development, through support for training within Australia for Nigerian students of exceptional academic merit. In like manner, come 2021, another 250 Nigerians would benefit from the scheme.
The Nigerian government is collaborating with AFRITEX Initiative to host the maiden edition of its EdTech event slated for 3rd and 4th March 2020 in Abuja. The Summit and Awards programme is an annual professional development conference, exhibition, pitch and workshop in educational resource, training and technology-based solutions for all levels and sectors in the Nigerian education and training industry. The summit which will take place at the Exhibition Pavilion, besides the International Conference Centre, Abuja, will have over 1,000 delegates comprising Educators, Administrators, Leading Academics, Principals and School Heads; University and College Heads, Curriculum Specialists; EdTech Start-ups & Entrepreneurs, States, and Local Government Education Boards. Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu and his counterpart in the Ministry of communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami will be guest speakers at the summit. Other critical stakeholders scheduled to speak include NITDA, Oracle Academy, Zinox Technologies, Phase3 Telecom, EDVES, NCCE, JAMB, McAnderson Institute of Technology, and selected Universities’ Vice-Chancellors who will deliver keynote speeches, brainstorm on, and develop working principles and designs on implementation of the theme of the summit “Educational Technology and its Practical Application in Education”. This is aimed at promoting the application of innovative and adaptive technology solutions in enhancing Nigeria’s education ecosystem. Business Day reported.
Nigeria approved disbursing $268 million in funding to support agricultural entrepreneurs and young technology innovators, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said. One tranche of the funding, worth 90 billion naira ($248 million), will be dispensed by the central bank as “soft loans” for people building small-scale agricultural businesses, while another $20 million will provide funding support to young innovators in technology, according an emailed statement by the presidency. Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crude producer, is seeking to diversify its economy away from oil dependence by boosting productivity in non-oil industries. Business Day reports.
According to This Day, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is to expand its domestic gas footprint with the delivery of the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS) II to double capacity from 1.1 billion standard cubic feet of gas to 2.2 BSCF. A statement by its Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Samson Makoji, in Abuja, said the Group Managing Director of the corporation, Mele Kyari, spoke on the expansion at the fourth sub-Saharan Africa International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (SAIPEC) in Lagos. Speaking on the theme: “Oil and Gas as an Enabler for Economic Transformation in Sub Saharan Africa,” Kyari stated that the NNPC would commence the construction of the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline in the second quarter of 2020 to serve as an enabler to further boost economic activities of the country. Represented by the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Gas and Power, Mr Yusuf Usman, Kyari explained that the recent passage of the Deep Offshore Act into law has set the industry on the path of irreversible growth. According to him, Nigeria as Africa’s leading exporter of LNG and the fourth in the world after Qatar, Australia and Malaysia, is ready to capture more LNG market with the Final Investment Decision of the NLNG Train 7.
