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Employ Sign Language Interpreters, Foundation Urges Nigerian Banks

Published

3 months ago

May 21, 2025

Editor

A foundation, Sharing Education and Learning for Life (SELL), on Wednesday, called on all Nigerian banks to employ signs language interpreters across the country.

Mr Benji Benjamin, the Programme Manager of the foundation made the call in Bauchi during a one-day programme focused on policy discussions, compliance and awareness regarding inclusive services for Persons With Disability (PWD).

According to him, the move would greatly help and make banking services more accessible to people with disabilities especially, the hearing impaired individuals.

He explained that the one-day programme would add to the several conversations that were already ongoing on how to make communities, societies and infrastructures, whether public or private, more inclusive for everybody, including PWDs.

“At the end of the day, each and everyone of us that has been invited for this conversation will add to the discussions.

“It is expected that we leave here with a direction on how each and everyone of us will contribute to making our public and private spaces more inclusive for everybody,” he said.

Similarly, Mr Mainas Ayuba, from Bauchi State Network of Disability Forum, observed that there would always be people with impairments but it shouldn’t be seen as a barrier.

He recounted how someone complained bitterly about the non availability of sign language interpretation in banks as he had an issue with his account and was going to the bank without resolving the issue.

“Apart from not resolving the issue, they didn’t give him correct information, apart from not getting the right information, sometimes if he went there, he will be asked to sit down and they will forget about him.

“A lot of persons with disabilities who yearn to have bank accounts are resolving to opening online banking as they can’t go to the conventional banks because they are not getting well treated as expected.

“Sometimes, some services of banks are upstairs and someone who is on the wheelchair or crutches can’t go there and sometimes if they are told that there are customers downstairs, they won’t come down.

“They rather give them forms to fill and that’s how they will end up walking around in the bank with the form and usually, the person that is subjected to that rigour is the one who takes the customer to the bank,” he said.

He called on all and sundry to conceptualise disability as this would bring change in the way people see and treat persons with disabilities in their various environments.

Ayuba also called on institutions of learning to allow people on wheelchair to use their chairs while receiving lectures and writing examinations instead of taking them off their chairs to sit on desks.

Also, Malam Haruna Pali, Chairman, Joint National Association of Persons With Disabilities, expressed concern on how his people are being marginalised and denied inclusivity by some quarters.

Responding, Mr Morris Choji, a representative from Ecobank Nigeria Limited, Bauchi branch, said they learned a lot of things by coming to the programme.

He promised that when they assemble for the next bankers committee’s meeting, all the issues discussed would be tabled for them to be effectively addressed.

Other stakeholders present at the programme included a representative from Wema Bank, Ministry of Women Affairs and Child development, Civil Society Organisation, state’s Agency for Persons With Disabilities, among others.

Some of the participants in their separate remarks, also advocated for the full implementation of the Discrimination Against Persons With Disabilities Prohibition act, 2018.

News

FG Shuts 22 Illegal Tertiary Institutions

Published

4 hours ago

August 25, 2025

Editor

The National Commission for Colleges of Education has uncovered and shut down 22 illegal Colleges of Education.

The discovery was made during a crackdown on illegal colleges of education in the country.

The development was revealed in the commission’s achievements, seen by our correspondent.

“The NCCE identified and shut down 22 illegal Colleges of Education operating across the country.

“The NCCE conducted personnel audit, financial monitoring in all the 21 federal colleges of education,” the commission said.

President Bola Tinubu had recently urged the National Universities Commission, the National Board for Technical Education and the National Commission for Colleges of Education to weed out illegal higher institutions of learning in the country.

Speaking at the 14th convocation of the National Open University of Nigeria in Abuja, the President ordered the NUC, the NBTE, and other agencies to take decisive action against what he described as “certificate millers” undermining the credibility of the education sector.

Tinubu, who was represented by the Director of University Education at the Federal Ministry of Education, Rakiya Ilyasu, warned that the integrity of the academic system must not be compromised.

“At this juncture, it has become imperative to reiterate that this administration remains committed to strengthening the integration of all agencies involved in the administration of education to enhance efficiency and quality,” the President said.

He added, “The National Youth Service Corps, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, the National Universities Commission, the National Board for Technical Education and the National Commission for Colleges of Education are working in alignment to improve the quality of education and ensure that cases of forgery and unrecognised institutions both within and outside the country have no place in our education ecosystem.”

News

EFCC Orders Arrest Of Dismissed Officer On Lege Miami’s Show

Published

6 hours ago

August 25, 2025

Editor

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has condemned the actions of one of its former staff, Olakunle Alex Folarin, who was recently spotted participating in a matchmaking programme on social media platforms hosted by popular entertainer Lege Miami.

The agency has ordered his immediate arrest for retaining official EFCC property, including an identity card, following his dismissal for certificate forgery.

The anti-graft agency, in a statement on its official X handle on Monday, said Folarin served as a driver at the EFCC’s Ibadan Zonal Directorate.

He was, however, dismissed after investigations confirmed he had forged his academic credentials.

It said, “The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, condemned in the strongest terms, the involvement of one of its former staff, Olakunle Alex Folarin, in a matchmaking programme running on Lege Miami social media platforms.”

“Folarin was recently dismissed from the Commission for certificate forgery. He was a driver at the Ibadan Zonal Directorate of the EFCC.”

The statement said EFCC Executive Chairma,n Mr. Ola Olukoyede, has ordered Folarin to be arrested and emphasised that Folarin’s actions should not be associated with the commission.

“The Executive Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede, has ordered his arrest for being in possession of some Commission’s properties, including an identity card, which he should have handed over upon being dismissed from the EFCC.

“The public is advised against associating Folarin’s post-dismissal conduct with the EFCC,” the statement concluded.

News

NERC Transfers Regulation Of Electricity Market To Bayelsa

Published

6 hours ago

August 25, 2025

Editor

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has transferred regulatory oversight of the electricity market in Bayelsa State to the Bayelsa Electricity Regulatory Agency.

In a notice on its social media handles on Monday, the commission said this was in compliance with the amended 1999 Constitution and the Electricity Act 2023.

“In compliance with the amended Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Electricity Act 2023 (Amended), the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has issued an order to transfer regulatory oversight of the electricity market in Bayelsa State from the Commission to the Bayelsa State Electricity Regulatory Agency,” the commission said.

Recall that with the Electricity Act 2023, the commission retains the role as a central regulator with regulatory oversight on the interstate/international generation, transmission, supply, trading, and system operations.

The Act also mandates any state that intends to establish and regulate intrastate electricity markets to deliver a formal notification of its processes and requests NERC to transfer regulatory authority over electricity operations in the state to the state regulator.

The transfer order by NERC directed Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company Plc to incorporate a subsidiary distribution company to assume responsibilities for intrastate supply and distribution of electricity in Bayelsa State from PHED.

PHED was also directed to complete the incorporation of PHED SubCo within 60 days from August 21, 2025.

“The subcompany shall apply for and obtain a licence for the intrastate supply and distribution of electricity from BYERA, among other directives,” the commission said.

It concluded that all transfers envisaged by the order shall be completed by February 20, 2026.

With this order, Bayelsa has joined states like Lagos, Imo, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, Enugu, Niger, Edo, Oyo and Plateau, which have got the power to regulate electricity markets.

The state can now generate, transmit, and distribute electricity while issuing licences to investors within the value chain.