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FG Approves N110bn For Youth Development Fund, Agric Scheme
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1 year agoon
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The Federal Government has approved a total of N110 billion to be released for the operation of the newly restructured Youth Development Fund and the investment in agricultural Small and Medium Enterprises.
While N25bn each was appropriated in the 2023 supplementary and 2024 budgets, another N60bn would come from the Central Bank of Nigeria, said the Minister of Youth Development, Jamila Ibrahim, after Monday’s Federal Executive Council meeting at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.
Ibrahim explained that although the Nigerian Youth Investment Fund was established in 2020, the current administration commissioned a technical committee to review and restructure it with the aim of institutionalising it through a legal framework, which will lead to the establishment of the Nigerian Youth Fund.
“We have secured council’s approval for the immediate release of N25bn from the 2023 supplementary Appropriation Act and an additional 25bn from the 2024 Appropriation Act for the Youth Development Fund appropriation in the budget.
“We also received an additional approval from council for a N60bn release from the Central Bank of Nigeria through the agric investment of a small medium enterprises scheme.
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“This will go a long way to support young businesses and bring a lot of succour to young persons, to strengthen and scale young businesses,” said Ibrahim.
An offshoot of revamped Youth Investment Fund, the Minister said, is the establishment of clusters focused on commodities of comparative advantage across the six geopolitical zones.
She explains, “The spread would be across the Six geopolitical zones in the first phase, and we are already in talks with some state governments. We’re in touch with the Katsina state government, where the clusters will be around the cotton value chain. The cotton cluster has a potential to stimulate the textile garment and fashion industry and employ about 50,000 persons through direct and indirect engagements.
“We are also in talks with the government of Ebonyi State to strengthen the rice-producing communities by empowering the young people and bringing them in clusters to increase rice production and of course, managing the waste that comes from rice production,
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“In states like Niger, we’ve gotten a commitment of over 10,000 hectares of land to commence our cluster formation and then the benefits of clusters actually would go a long way to ensure that we leverage on economics of scale, where we have young people leveraging or sharing rather equipment and infrastructure.”
Ibrahim also revealed that the council has granted approval for the institutionalisation of a 30 percent youth quota in all government appointments and an equitable young women representation inclusive of the 30 per cent.
She said this would address the “Long-standing marginalisation and exclusion of young people in decision making, and will also encourage young people to participate in decision-making processes and in civic engagements. This will in turn lead to young people contributing tremendously to national development agenda.”
Meanwhile, the council approved the report of a basic healthcare provision for a sector-wide approach.
This sector-wide approach will “eliminate the defragmentation” between basic health care centres provision fund and its development partners, said the Minister of State for Health, Mr. Tunji Alausa.
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The basic healthcare care provision fund has three gateways—the primary care gateway, the National Health Insurance gateway, and the emergency services gateway.
Alausa said the sector-wide approach is to “align what our development partners are spending which are basic healthcare provision fund so that we can begin to eliminate the defragmentation that we have in the system where there is no coordination with basic healthcare provision fund and our development partners.
“What we’ve done now is to align and coordinate so that more resources will be directed to our primary health care centres where we’ll have more money to increase the immunisation to children.”
He said the new approach would help direct more money to maternal and child health, sexual and reproductive health, and nutrition for children to be better equipped with better brain development.
More funds will also flow to efforts to fight tuberculosis, HIV & AIDS and improve the welfare of frontline workers, he explained.
“So that memo was brought in for final approval by the Federal Executive Council today, which was approved. But we’re moving through speed to implementing our sector-wide approach,” he affirmed.
Alausa also announced the purchase of state-of-the-art CT Scanners for the Federal Teaching Hospital Gombe, saying, “More of these will be coming to FEC.”
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Headline
We’ll Deny You Visa If You’re Traveling To Give Birth, US Tells Nigerians
Published
4 days agoon
July 28, 2025By
Editor
The United States Mission in Nigeria has warned Nigerians planning to travel to the US primarily to give birth to secure American citizenship for their children.
In a post on X, the US Mission stated that using a visa for the main purpose of childbirth is prohibited under US immigration policy.
“Using your visa to travel for the primary purpose of giving birth in the United States so that your child will have U.S. citizenship is not permitted. Consular officers will deny your visa application if they have reason to believe this is your intent,” the US Mission said.
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This warning is coming following the rising scrutiny of visa applications and growing enforcement around what is informally referred to as “birth tourism”, the practice of traveling to the US to give birth so the child obtains automatic citizenship.
Recall that the United States Department of State had also revised its visa reciprocity policy, announcing that most non-immigrant, non-diplomatic visas issued to Nigerian citizens will now be single-entry visas with a three-month validity period.
The US maintained that its visa policies are based on global technical and security benchmarks aimed at protecting the integrity of its immigration systems.
Headline
Three Dead, Several Injured As Train Derails In Germany
Published
4 days agoon
July 28, 2025By
Editor
Three people were killed and several others injured when a regional passenger train derailed in a wooded area in southwestern Germany on Sunday, police said.
About 100 passengers were aboard the train, when the accident occurred at around 6:10 pm (1610 GMT) near the town of Riedlingen in Baden-Wuerttemberg state.
Contacted by AFP, police initially said four people had been killed before correcting their statement to three victims.
Authorities declined to elaborate on the number of injured or how seriously hurt they were, though tabloid Bild cited emergency workers saying there were 50 injured.
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German rail operator Deutsche Bahn confirmed several deaths and numerous injured. Two train carriages had derailed “for reasons yet unknown”, it added.
Authorities were currently investigating the circumstances of the accident, the operator said, and traffic had been suspended over a 40-kilometre (25-mile) stretch of the route.
German media reported that a landslide might have caused the accident as severe storms swept through the region, according to weather services.
The passenger train was travelling from the German town of Sigmaringen to the city of Ulm when it derailed in a forested area.
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– Outdated train infrastructure –
In a post on social media, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed his condolences to the families of those killed.
He added that he was in close contact with both the interior and transport ministers, and had asked them to “provide the emergency services with all the support they need”.
Footage from the scene of the accident showed yellow-and-grey-coloured train carriages lying on their sides, as firefighters and emergency services tried to get to the passengers.
According to local TV station SWR, helicopters arrived shortly after the accident to transport the injured to hospitals in the area, and emergency doctors from nearby hospitals were alerted.
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German transport is regularly criticised by passengers for its outdated infrastructure, with travellers facing frequent train delays, and various technical problems.
The government has pledged to invest several hundred billion euros over the next few years, in particular to modernise infrastructure.
In June 2022, a train derailed near a Bavarian Alpine resort in southern Germany, killing four people and injuring dozens.
Germany’s deadliest rail accident happened in 1998 when a high-speed train operated by state-owned Deutsche Bahn derailed in Eschede in Lower Saxony, killing 101 people.
AFP

At least 11 people were injured in a stabbing at a Walmart store in the Midwestern state of Michigan on Saturday, with police saying it appeared to be a random attack.
A 42-year-old male suspect was in custody, Grand Traverse County Sheriff Michael Shea told a press conference.
“Based on the information that we have at this time, it appears they were random acts,” Shea said of the attack in Traverse City, Michigan.
“The victims were not predetermined,” Shea said, adding that the suspect, a Michigan resident, apparently acted alone and used a “folding knife.”
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Six victims were in critical condition late Saturday, and five were in serious condition, Munson Healthcare said in a statement.
At least three of the victims were undergoing surgery, according to Shea. The victims included six men and five women.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said she was in touch with law enforcement regarding the “horrible news.”
“Our thoughts are with the victims and the community reeling from this brutal act of violence,” Whitmer said in an X post.
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Eyewitness Julia Martell told The New York Times she heard screaming and saw a man with a knife running through the store’s pharmacy section.
Martell said she saw the man shoving and stabbing people as he moved through the store.
The 30-year-old witness described seeing three people with stab wounds and “blood everywhere.”
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Shea said the stabbing spree initially started near the checkout area of the store.
“It is very uncommon for our area,” he said of the violence, adding that citizens in the Walmart “assisted” in apprehending the suspect.
Traverse City is a popular tourist destination located on the shore of Lake Michigan.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said agents were providing “any necessary support to the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office in their investigation of the attacks at the Walmart.”
AFP
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