The new record of 1,565 COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 95,934 on Thursday and the report that President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, are among the first set of Nigerians to be administered with COVID-19 vaccines are the leading stories in Nigerian newspapers on Friday.
The Vanguard reports that Nigeria recorded 1,565 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 95,934 on Thursday.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) made this known on its verified website.
The centre said that 24 states recorded the new infections with Lagos State registering 807, while the FCT (Abuja) has 236. Others are Kaduna-79, Oyo-57, Plateau-47, Rivers-37, Katsina-35, Edo-30, Sokoto-30, Delta-26, Kebbi-23, Ondo-20 and Enugu-18.
Others are Abia-17, Ogun-17, Benue-16, Bayelsa-15, Bauchi-14, Niger-13, Kano-10, Borno-six Imo-five, Ekiti-four and Osun-two and Jigawa-one.
The centre also said that Nigeria reported six COVID-19 related deaths in the last 24 hours.
The centre said that out of the 95,934 total cases, 77,982 patients recovered and were discharged.
ThisDay says that the Nigerian government yesterday listed President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, among the first set of Nigerians to be administered with COVID-19 vaccines, when the country takes delivery of the first batch by the end of the month.
The Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib, at the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 press briefing in Abuja, said their vaccination would be televised to inspire public confidence in the safety of the vaccines.
He had said on Tuesday that Nigeria was hoping to get 42 million COVID-19 vaccines to cover one fifth of its population through the global COVAX scheme.
He had explained that the initial vaccines would come as part of Nigeria’s plan to inoculate 40 percent of its population this year and another 30 percent in 2022, with shipment of 100,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine due to arrive by the end of the month.
Shuaib, at yesterday’s briefing, however, said the federal government would prioritise the first set of people to be vaccinated.
No fewer than two million Nigerians are living as internally displaced persons (IDP) as a result of terrorist activities in the North-east, as well as banditry and other forms of criminal activities in the North-west and other parts of the country, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouk, said yesterday.
The Punch reports that the Nigerian Government on Thursday ordered the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to suspend the implementation of the January 1, 2021 nationwide electricity tariff hike.
The Minister of Power, Sale Mamman, directed the commission to revert to the December 2020 power tariff, as he also revealed that the government was currently subsidising 55 percent of on-grid consumers in selected bands.
Mamman further noted that the government never hiked tariff by 50 percent, as erroneously reported by some sections of the media.
On why the tariff hike should be reverted, he explained that the government and labour had been engaged in discussions about the electricity sector through a joint ad-hoc committee led by the Minister of State for Labour and Productivity and co-chaired by the Minister of State for Power. Mamman said in a statement he personally signed that great progress had been made in these deliberations which were set to be concluded at the end of January 2021. He noted that some of the achievements of this deliberation with labour were the accelerated rollout of the National Mass Metering Plan and clamp downs on estimated billing.
The newspaper says that the Central Bank of Nigeria has said 874 microfinance banks have licences to operate in the country.
It listed the names of the MfBs in its report titled ‘List of CBN licensed microfinance banks as at December 7, 2020’.
The CBN recently revoked the operating licences of 42 microfinance banks in the country. According to the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, the operating licences of the 42 microfinance banks were revoked by the CBN effective November 12, 2020.
As the official liquidator of the banks whose licences were recently revoked, the NDIC said it was in the process of closing the listed banks and paying their insured depositors.
The CBN, in consideration of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on economic activities in 2020, revised the deadline for compliance with the minimum capital requirements for microfinance banks in Nigeria.
The Sun reports that with refineries operational loss at N164 billion in 2019, there are strong indications that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is reportedly in high level discussion to raise about $1 billion in a prepayment with trading firms to refurbish its largest refining complex in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
If the financing is concluded, the long overdue rehabilitation of the refinery is expected to reduce Nigeria’s heavy fuel import bill.
The move, according to the report, would also mark Nigeria’s second oil-backed financing since the COVID-19 pandemic added to the difficulty in finding investors as fuel demand is sapped by lockdowns with renewable energy gaining ground over fossil fuel. The money, according to sources close to the deal, would be repaid over seven years through deliveries of Nigerian crude and products from the refinery once the refurbishment is complete. Cairo-based Afreximbank is reported to be leading the financing deal.
The newspaper says that Nigeria, Niger and Benin Republic have unveiled a tripartite security drill tagged Nigeria’s Joint Border Patrol Team (JBPT) to combat smuggling, irregular migration and other trans-border crimes.
The new outfit is a transformation of Operation Swift Response (OSR), a land border, multi-agency operation, which was launched in August 2019 and coordinated by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).
The spokesman of Customs, Joseph Attah, who made the disclosure in a statement said that JBPT was coming at a time Nigeria was gradually reopening the land borders to facilitate regional trade.
According to Attah, “With the reopening of the borders for commercial activities, items such as parboiled rice, frozen chicken, illicit drugs, among others remain prohibited.
GIK/APA