The 12-day ultimatum given to all civil servants in Kaduna state to receive COVID-19 vaccine is the latest of compulsory vaccination push embarked on by the Federal and some state governments is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
The Guardian newspaper reports that the Kaduna State government, yesterday, announced a 12-day ultimatum for all civil servants in the state to receive COVID-19 vaccine in the latest of compulsory vaccination push embarked on by the Federal and some state governments.
The ultimatum was announced in a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the governor on Media and Communication, Muyiwa Adekeye. According to him, all civil servants are expected to be vaccinated by October 31, after which they will be denied entry into government offices if found not to have complied with the directive.
“The Kaduna State government will from October 31, 2021 require compliance with COVID-19 protocols, especially facemasks and vaccination, for access to its offices,” the statement reads.
Visitors will, however, be permitted entry upon presentation of evidence of registration with the state Ministry of Health for vaccination, while wearing their facemasks.
The statement read: “As it continues to balance public health considerations and the safe pursuit of livelihoods, the government is constantly monitoring COVID-19 infections in the state and reviewing the pattern of spread.
“Based on these reviews, the state COVID-19 task force has advised the government that the risk of mass infection remains. This necessitates that careful attention must be paid to continued enforcement of preventive measures and encouraging residents of Kaduna State to practice personal responsibility more consistently.”
“The Ministry of Health has since commenced the vaccination of all civil servants, and this is expected to be completed by 31st October. All civil servants are required to be vaccinated by that date.”
Meanwhile, the directive by the Federal Government, last Wednesday, on compulsory vaccination for civil servants in the country on or before December 1, 2021, is still generating debates and controversy.
The newspaper says that the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), partnering the Federal Government, will soon commence immunisation of children in Nigeria against the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19).
UNICEF Health Specialist and Officer in charge of Enugu Field Office, Dr. Olusoji Akinleye, dropped this hint at a recent Media Executive Meeting, in partnership with Broadcasting Corporation of Abia State (BCA), Umuahia, on ‘Child Rights-influenced Reporting on COVID-19’ in Enugu State.
Akinleye, who lamented that so many children had died of COVID-19, said: “In the next few months, Nigeria will start administering the vaccine on children under 12 years of age.”
On why the children’s vaccine was coming late, he said they were not getting the vaccines because a lot of processes were involved before any drug would be administered on children. He, however, called on parents to ensure that their children were protected, by adhering to the safety protocols.
The health specialist said though the Federal Government, UNICEF and other development agencies had made considerable progress to ensure the spread of the pandemic is brought under control through the importation and accessibility of vaccines, they are still faced with serious challenges in the areas of public hesitancy, unwillingness and conspiracies against the COVID-19 vaccines.
In this regard, Akinyele said: “We recognise the partnership in promoting and highlighting the right of every child to life. The very first right that every human being is supposed to have is the right to life; we recognise that the media have always supported the effort of government and partners, including UNICEF, in promoting right to health.
“UNICEF looks forward to more robust collaboration with the media and an expected upward trend in the promotion of health and hygiene practices by the media in Nigeria by daily communication to the public of protocols enforced by the government to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”
The Sun reports that having satisfied the listing requirements of the Nigerian Exchange Limited as well as obtained relevant regulatory approvals, the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Group Plc, recently listed its shares on the main board of the stock exchange.
This means that the NGX Group is now listed in the Financial Services and Capital Market Infrastructure sector of the exchange, with the ticker “NGXGROUP” with a total of 1,964,115,918 shares admitted to trading.
According to the NGX market bulletin, the group’s listed price was at N16.15 per share as of when it was admitted and the volume of shares traded stood at 3.56 million units which was exchanged in 31 deals.
By this, the group has added about N34.86 billion to the market capitalisation of the exchange. Furthermore, the group also revealed that the new price of its shares will be traded at N17.75 per share while adding that the listing will enable a much wider universe of potential investors and market participants to share in its growth journey.
Commenting on the listing, the Group Chairman, NGX Group Plc, Otunba Abimbola Ogunbanjo said,the listing of NGX Group on NGX is another milestone attained pursuant to the Group’s 2018 – 2021 corporate strategy.
The newspaper says that the Nigerian Railway Corporation has resumed movement of cargoes in containers to Kano and Kaduna Inland Dry Port. Managing Director of Inland Containers Nigeria Limited (ICNL),
Ismail Yusuf, who confirmed the resumption to journalists in Lagos, said about 40 containers have been moved in the first instance.
He also said an additional 40 empty containers have been returned through same mode to Lagos from the Kano and Kaduna Dry Port, which is a subsidiary company of ICNL.
Yusuf added that the movement by rail will contribute to cost reduction, time saving and further ensure safety of the consignments being moved by rail.
According to him, it will now cost half of what is presently spent on road haulage to move containers by rail. He added that ICNL is still in talks with NRC to deploy additional coaches to the port operation because his company has cargoes on ground to be moved.
“As you know that Federal Government is encouraging the Nigerian Railway Corporation to ensure movement of cargo from the sea port to the hinterland and this is very critical to our Kano bonded terminal and Kaduna Inland Dry Port, which is our subsidiary company.
The Punch reports that the President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has said that the bank will provide Nigeria with strong support to tackle its food security challenges.
He said this while he received a high-level Nigerian delegation led by Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mohammad Abubakar.
This was contained in a statement titled, ‘African Development Bank Group President, Akinwumi Adesina, assures Nigeria of bank’s strong support to achieve food security,’ issued by the bank on Tuesday.
The statement read, “Adesina said the bank’s strategic support for Nigeria’s food production would be hinged on five factors: support, scale, systemic, speed, and sustainability.”
The AfDB boss was quoted to have said, “I want to assure President Buhari that the African Development Bank will provide his government with very strong support to tackle the country’s food security challenges.
“Inflation in Nigeria is high, at 16 percent or more. Of course, the biggest share of the consumer price index is the price of food, at almost 65 percent. So, if we can drive down the price of food, of course, we can drive down inflation.”
GIK/APA