Headline

FG Approves N110bn For Youth Development Fund, Agric Scheme

Published

2 months ago

March 25, 2024

Editor

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.

“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,

“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.

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.”

Headline

List Of Persons On Board Iranian President’s Missing Helicopter

Published

4 hours ago

May 19, 2024

Editor

A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was involved in a hard landing while visiting a northern region and his condition is currently unknown.

There were three helicopters in this convoy, two of which were carrying ministers and officials, and they arrived at their destination safely.

According to reports, different rescue groups are moving towards the area to locate the missing helicopter.

DAILY POST reported that it was unclear if Raisi and others on board with him survived the crash.

However, given the unsuitable weather conditions, it may take some time for the rescue team to find the helicopter.

According to World of Statistics, those onboard the helicopter when the incident occurred include Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, East Azerbaijan Governor Malek Rahmati, and Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem, representative of Iranian Supreme Leader to East Azerbaijan.

Headline

Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Azerbaijan Offer Help To Search President Raisi’s Helicopter

Published

4 hours ago

May 19, 2024

Editor

Iranian search and rescue teams were scouring a fog-shrouded mountainside after a helicopter carrying President Ebrahim Raisi went missing in an “accident” on Sunday, state media said.

Fears grew for the 63-year-old ultraconservative after contact was lost with the helicopter carrying him as well as Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in East Azerbaijan province, reports said.

“An accident happened to the helicopter carrying the president” in the Jolfa region of the western province, state television said, while some officials described the incident as a “hard landing”.

“The harsh weather conditions and heavy fog have made it difficult for the rescue teams to reach the accident site,” said one state broadcaster.

More than 40 rescue teams using search dogs and drones were sent to the site, reported the IRNA news agency.

Raisi was visiting the province where he inaugurated a dam project together with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, on the border between the two countries.

Raisi’s convoy included three helicopters, and the other two had “reached their destination safely,” according to Tasnim news agency.

Foreign countries were closely following the search effort at a time of high regional tensions over the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas since October 7 that has drawn in other armed groups in the Middle East.

A US State Department spokesman said: “We are closely following reports of a possible hard landing of a helicopter in Iran carrying the Iranian president and foreign minister.

“We have no further comment at this time.”

An Iranian Red Crescent team was seen walking up a slope in thick fog and drizzling rain, while other live footage showed worshippers reciting prayers in the holy city of Mashhad, Raisi’s hometown.

In neighbouring Iraq, Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani “instructed the interior ministry and the Iraqi Red Crescent and other relevant authorities to offer available resources… to aid in the search”.

Azeri President Aliyev said in a post on X that “we were profoundly troubled by the news of a helicopter carrying the top delegation crash-landing in Iran”.

“Our prayers to Allah Almighty are with President Ebrahim Raisi and the accompanying delegation,” he said, noting that his country “stands ready to offer any assistance needed”.

The accident happened in the mountainous protected forest area of Dizmar near the town of Varzaghan, said the official IRNA news agency.

Military personnel along with the Revolutionary Guards and police had also deployed teams to the area, said army chief-of-staff Mohammad Bagheri.

Iran’s Health Minister Bahram Eynollahi said medical resources had been dispatched.

The reformist Shargh daily also reported that “the helicopter carrying the president crashed” while two other helicopters had landed safely.

Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said one of the helicopters “made a hard landing due to bad weather conditions” and that it was “difficult to establish communication” with the aircraft.

Raisi has been president of the Islamic Republic since 2021 when he succeeded the moderate Hassan Rouhani, for a term during which Iran has faced crisis and conflict.

He took the reins of a country in the grip of a deep social crisis and an economy strained by US sanctions against Tehran over its contested nuclear programme.

Iran saw a wave of mass protests triggered by the death in custody of Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in September 2022 after her arrest for allegedly flouting dress rules for women.

In March 2023, regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia signed a surprise deal that restored diplomatic relations.

Saudi Arabia on Sunday voiced “great concern” after Sunday incident, offering to help with the response.

“We affirm that the Kingdom stands by the sisterly Islamic Republic of Iran in these difficult circumstances and its readiness to provide any assistance that the Iranian agencies need,” the foreign ministry of the Gulf kingdom, a longtime rival of Iran, said in a statement.

The war in Gaza that broke out on October 7 sent regional tensions soaring again and a series of tit-for-tat escalations led to Tehran launching hundreds of missiles and rockets directly at Israel in April 2024.

In a speech following Sunday’s dam inauguration, Raisi emphasised Iran’s support for Palestinians, a centrepiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

“We believe that Palestine is the first issue of the Muslim world, and we are convinced that the people of Iran and Azerbaijan always support the people of Palestine and Gaza and hate the Zionist regime,” said Raisi.

Raisi, born in 1960 in northeast Iran’s holy city of Mashhad, served as Tehran’s prosecutor-general from 1989 to 1994, deputy chief of the Judicial Authority for a decade from 2004, and then national prosecutor-general in 2014.

His black turban signifies direct descent from the Prophet Mohammed, and state media has referred to him by the senior title of ayatollah in the Shiite clerical hierarchy.

Headline

Iranian President: Hamas Raises ‘Great Concern’ Over Helicopter Crash

Published

5 hours ago

May 19, 2024

Editor

Hamas has issued a statement voicing “great concern” after a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and other Iranian officials crashed on Sunday, CNN reports.

Recall that a helicopter carrying Raisi was involved in a hard landing while visiting a northern region and his condition is currently unknown.

Details about the crash are still unclear, as rescue groups are moving towards the area to locate the missing helicopter.

However, Hamas has expressed “solidarity” towards the president and the “brotherly Iranian people.”

The Hamas statement reads partly: “In this painful incident, we express our full solidarity with the Islamic Republic of Iran, its leadership, government, and people, and we ask Allah Almighty to protect and ensure the safety of the Iranian President and his accompanying delegation, and to keep all harm away from the brotherly Iranian people.”