IN order to boost agricultural production, Federal Government has provided N60 billion loan for agro-dealers at 9 per cent interest rate across the country.
FG made the loan available through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Central Bank of Nigeria. The loan was granted under the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending(NIRSAL) initiative.
This was disclosed yesterday in Ibadan by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mrs. Ibukun Olusote at a Stakeholders meeting of Southern States on the commencement of the implementation of Growth Enhancement Support (GES) Scheme held at Wallan Hotels, Ibadan.
According to her, the loan will allow small scale input retailers to have access to finance to stock up on seeds and fertilizers all across the country.
The meeting was well-attended by stakeholders in Agriculture industry especially Commissioners for Agriculture in Osun, Ondo, Oyo, Ogun, Imo and other states from the North, South and East.
She also noted that President Goodluck Jonathan had given approval of N15 billion to recapitalize the Bank of Agriculture at less than 10 per cent interest rate for farmers.
”As you are all aware indirect targeting of farmers made it easy to divert funds because subsidised seeds, fertilizers and other equipment are diverted to open market and illegally sold at huge profits. As a result, tens of billions of naira were spent every year to reach farmers with agricultural inputs but the level of utilisation of improved seed and fertilizers remained very low”, she said.
”To ensure that only genuine farmers got the subsidised seeds and fertilizers, we put in place the first ever database of farmers in the history of Nigeria. In 2012, we started with the registration of 4.2 million farmers and will increase this year with 5 million farmers” Olusote promised.
The Oyo State Commissioner of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Peter Odetomi who read welcome address said, “the impact made by the distribution of seeds, fertilisers and other inputs to the small holder farmers in the country via electronic platform and scratch cards, which started in 2012 cannot be over-emphasized.
Rolling out the achievements of Growth Enhancement Support in the state in 2012, he said it was tremendous adding that 76,082 farmers were validated out of 78,000 farmers that registered for the GES scheme.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Late Whitney Houston’s ex-husband, Bobby Brown has been sentenced to 55 days in a Los Angeles jail after being convicted for his third drink driving offence last year.
City attorney’s spokesman, Frank Mateljan (mah-tell-JIN’) says Brown was sentenced last Tuesday after pleading no contest to charges he was under the influence and driving on a suspended license when he was arrested in October.
The 44-year-old New Edition singer was arrested on October 24, at around 1am when police officers are said to have caught him driving erratically in Tarzana, Los Angeles.
Bobby denied the DUI charge and pleaded not guilty to being under the influence of alcohol but on Tuesday, a judge found him guilty and has ordered him to serve 55 days in jail.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
About four Improvised Explosive Devices suspected to have been planted by terrorists in Maiduguri the Borno state capital , Thursday, exploded at different locations within the metropolis.
The explosions occurred simultaneously at Baga road, Customs, Gamboru general areas at about 3pm, while that last one in London ciki happened at about 6pm.
An unconfirmed report from a hospital source said, over six corpses including security operatives and that of civilians were brought to the mortuary of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.
When contacted, State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Yuguda Abdullahi said, he was aware of only one blast in Maiduguri where he personally visited the scene, but declined comment on the number of casualties.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Nigeria has once again recorded another victory as the leading brewer, Guinness Nigeria Plc, was recently awarded the certificate for the world’s largest football jersey.
The largest football jersey exploit, was part of Guinness’ Fly with the Eagles campaign in support of reigning African champions- the Super Eagles as they took on the rest of the continent at the just concluded AFCON 2013 tournament in South Africa.
The largest jersey was unveiled at the Teslim Balogun Stadium Surulere Lagos and the Liberation Stadium, Port Harcourt in a bid to galvanize the support of millions of fans for the Super Eagles in their quest for victory at the city of Madiba.
The jersey which measures an amazing record size of 241ft 3in in width and 294ft 2in in length to set a new world record as the largest football jersey in history , beating the last record held at a size of 234ft 1 in by 259ft 8in. created and displayed in Sukru, San Istanbul Turkey in 2009.
According to the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Guinness Nigeria Plc, Mr. Seni Adetu, it is a case for double joy for the nation.
“We are elated as a company to have greatly contributed to these successes, putting Nigeria on the world map once again with this feat. Initially, there were doubts as to whether we had broken the world record when we started out.
However, today, I am proud to present to you the Guinness World Record Certificate for the largest football shirt in the world proving that we actually did break the world record” Adetu announced.
While the jersey was laid out during the AFCON tournament, over 40,000 fans inscribed their goodwill messages, wishing the Super Eagles victory at every stage of the tournament and Adetu believes it was a great motivating factor for the team.
“As the Super Eagles played at the tournament in South Africa, they were spurred on by the goodwill messages inscribed on the largest jersey by thousands of fans back home in Nigeria. It also raised the teams’ morale and they realised they are made of more with the support of their fans back home.
Here we are after 19 years of exploit, the Super Eagles are once again, African champions” Adetu enthused.
The Marketing and Innovation Director, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Mr. Austin Ufomba in his remark appreciated the support of the government for this achievement. “We sincerely appreciate the support of the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) and the River State Governor Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi for giving their approvals to lay the jersey on their respective stadia.It was indeed an honour bestowed on not just Guinness but the over 160 million fans of football that stood by the Eagles throughout the tournament” Ufomba said.
On the authenticity of the claim, Ufomba said everything was done to meet the requirement for the Guinness Book of World Record. “The jersey was measured by the quantity surveying firm, Billings Cost Associates and vetted by renowned audit firm, Alexander Forbes. So, there was no issue on the claims” Ufomba assured.
The Marketing Manager, Guinness, Mr. Obinna Anyalebechi while commenting on the whole campaign said: “we know Nigerians share a common passion for the Super Eagles and we believed in that passion. We embarked on this journey with full confidence that we will make a difference and today we stand here justifiably vindicated. Nigeria called, the team answered, the fans supported, and together we made history”.
For the last five years, Guinness Foreign Extra Stout has been the number one supporter of the Super Eagles.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
LONG BEACH, California (AFP) – Jack Andraka catapulted from being a typical US teenager unaware of the pancreas to one with a cheap way to detect cancer in the organ before it turns deadly.
“Through the Internet, anything is possible,” Andraka said while telling the story of his screening breakthrough at a prestigious TED Conference in Southern California on Wednesday.
“There is so much more to it than posting duck-face pictures of yourself online,” he continued, sucking in his cheeks and pushing out his lips to playfully underscore his point.
“If a 15-year-old who didn’t know what a pancreas was could figure out a way to detect pancreatic cancer, imagine what you could do.”
Andraka, who turned 16 in January, recounted how three years ago he began scouring the Internet for information about pancreatic cancer after it killed a cherished family friend.
He told of being shocked to learn that the cancer was typically found too late to save people. On top of that, the test used to screen for the illness was 60 years old, he said.
“That is older than my dad,” Andraka quipped. “More important, it is expensive, inaccurate, and your doctor would have to be ridiculously suspicious that you had the cancer to give you this test.”
He figured what was needed was a test that was inexpensive, fast, simple and sensitive.
“Undeterred due to my teenage optimism, I went online to a teenager’s two best friends: Google and Wikipedia,” Andraka said.
What he found was there were thousands of proteins that could be detected in the blood of people with pancreatic cancer, and he hunted for one that could serve as an early flag for the illness.
“Finally, on the 4,000th try when I am losing my sanity, I found the protein,” Andraka said.
The revelation came in what he described as an unlikely place, a high school biology class he referred to as an “absolute stifler of innovation.”
“I was sneakily reading this nanotubes article under my desk while we were supposed to be paying attention to antibodies,” Andraka recalled.
“Suddenly it hit me that I could combine what I was reading with what I was supposed to be thinking about.”
He described a recipe for making paper sensors to detect the protein – mesothelin – in blood that is “about as simple as making chocolate chip cookies, which I love.”
The test costs three cents, takes minutes, and appears to be 100 percent accurate, according to his TED Talk.
Andraka said he sent out 200 requests to scientists for lab space to continue his work, only to be rejected by all but Johns Hopkins University where he was fiercely grilled before being taken in.
He commenced to fix holes he discovered in his “once brilliant procedure” and went on to be awarded the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair grand prize.
Andraka described his approach as having the potential to be tailored to screen for other forms of cancer as well as heart disease or HIV/AIDS.
He told of currently working on “something the size of a cube of sugar” that could “look through your skin” and study blood or signs of almost any disease. The cost? An estimated five dollars
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
The recent CAF Africa Cup of Nations saw Nigeria, under Stephen Keshi, began the year with a bang, going all the way through to claim their third continental title and thus seal a place at this June’s FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013.
The feat plunged the entire nation into raptures, and former captain Yakubu Ayegbeni was quick to pay tribute to the Super Eagles despite not featuring during the African finals. “It was an exciting campaign for Nigeria,” the 30-year-old Guangzhou R&F striker told FIFA.com. “We had a young team but they put in brilliant performances. The coach has done a good job in moulding the team into a strong unit. It is an achievement which has made all the Nigerian people happy.”
The success, according to the former Middlesbrough and Blackburn marksman, provides Keshi’s charges with not only a morale-booster but also challenges heading into the eight-nation global showpiece, where they are grouped alongside Spain, Tahiti and Uruguay.
“The team are expected to continue their good form in Brazil in June,” continued Ayegbeni, who is Nigeria’s third highest international goal-scorer with 21 goals from 57 caps. “But after our triumph in the Africa Cup of Nations, we will become a target for rivals, who will be motivated to defeat us. And these are the continental champions of the world so the pressure is greater, but it is good for our youngsters to gain international experience.”
Striking prodigies It proved to be, though, a campaign harder than expected for Nigeria. Keshi’s hopefuls opened with two 1-1 draws against firstly Burkina Faso, and then Zambia, before a pair of late penalties from Victor Moses against Ethiopia sent them to the quarter-finals. They proceeded to edge Côte d’Ivoire 2-1, before routing Mali 4-1 to set up a final re-match with an impressive Burkina Faso, where they prevailed 1-0.
“African football has made consistent progress over these years, so there were no easy games throughout the campaign. Every rival we played against are strong and our team defied all the odds to win the African title,” Ayegbeni reflected.
With the entire Nigeria team excelling, it was a pair of striking wunderkinds that stood out as the Super Eagles secured African supremacy. Spartak Moscow forward Emmanuel Emenike finished the tournament’s joint top-scorer with four goals, while 22-year-old Chelsea star Moses was twice on target.
“Emenike is a very good striker,” said Ayegbeni of the 25-year-old, “He performed very well. Although I have never played alongside him, I think he is a very talented player. Moses is equally impressive, and the striking partnership formed by these two players should be one of the best during the tournament (Brazil 2014).”
Midfielder Sunday Mba, too, caught the eye with a series of brilliant showings. The 24-year-old Warri Wolves man has developed a reputation of scoring crucial goals, having sealed victory against Côte d’Ivoire, as well as hitting the tournament winning-goal against Burkina Faso.
“Mba has the potential to play in Europe,” Ayegbeni said. “By playing with a top European side, a player can have better chances of playing top level matches like in the African Cup of Nations.”
Busy year for Super Eagles The coming year is, indeed, action-packed for Nigeria, with the FIFA Confederations Cup sandwiched by two crucial back-to-back meetings with Kenya in 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ qualifying. Nigeria are topping the section also featuring Namibia and Malawi with four points, and wins against Kenya will stand them in good stead as they seek to progress to the last ten in the final qualifying round. Ayegbeni, however, warned the team against complacency.
He said: “The January’s Cup of Nations has shown that in Africa no team can be underestimated. Kenya will be keen to win the games and we should prepare carefully. An opening victory against Kenya will be a timely boost for us ahead of the Confederations Cup.”
When asked if Nigeria can improve on their last-four finish at Saudi Arabia 1995, Ayegbeni gave the thumps-up.
“The team travel to Brazil on the back of the Cup of Nations success so they are inspired to put in good showings on the world stage,” he said. “I am confident our side can live up to the expectations. And above all, we will qualify for the next World Cup.”
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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