Category: Uncategorized

The federal government has made arrangements to ensure that prolonged power outages are reduced in the country throughout the period of the current lockdown as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In that regard, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) said it had set up a situation room to ensure that all cases are promptly resolved to relieve Nigerians of the discomfort occasioned by the restriction of movements.

Already, the regulatory agency, who said Tuesday that it received 3,225 cases, added that it succeeded in resolving about 1,433 complaints between April 4 and April 17, noting that majority of the complaints bordered on interruption of supply.

However, the NERC Chairman, Prof. James Momoh, noted that his team observed that many cases remain unsolved because some distribution companies (Discos) reported having infrastructural and technical constraints on some feeders which he said the commission is intervening to speedily resolve.

Of the 11 Discos, NERC said the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) had the highest number of complaints totalling 604 out of which 437 had been resolved.

It said that it constituted the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry ‘Situation Room’ to forestall prolonged power outage by the industry operators for the period of lockdown declared by the federal government to curb the spread of Covid-19.

“The ‘Situation Room’ adopted a three-pronged approach of surveillance of NESI during this period-System Operators Report Analysis/Monitoring, Customer Complaints Handling, and Transmission Company of Nigeria and Discos Interface Resolution.

“Complaints received from electricity customers through telephone/text messages, WhatsApp messages, and emails are tracked daily with relevant operators to ensure expeditious resolution.

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the immediate payment of the withheld February and March salaries of members of Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, who have not registered on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information, IPPIS, platform.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, said: “President Muhammadu Buhari has today (Tuesday) approved the immediate payment of the withheld salaries of February and March 2020 of the university lecturers, who have not registered on the IPPIS platform.

“He has also directed the Ministry of Finance, Budget and Planning, and the Accountant-General of the Federation to effect the payments urgently by all means to cushion the deleterious effects of COVID-19 period on the lecturers and members of their family.

“All vice-chancellors are to revalidate affected lecturers’ Bank Verification Number, BVN, and forward same to the Accountant-General of the Federation for the payments.”

Recall that ASUU had, last month, declared an indefinite strike over government withholding of the salaries of its members, who defied the order of government to enroll in the Integrated Personnel and Payroll System, IPPIS.

While ASUU declared an indefinite strike, the government closed down all schools as part of the measures to contain COVID-19.

Recall that the Union’s President, Biodun Ogunyemi, had said: “The Nigerian government has chosen to use hunger as a weapon of war against its academics and we are not going to sit and watch.”

Though the ASUU members included the age-old non-implementation of agreements reached with the Federal Government dating back to 2009 and aimed at fostering better conditions of service for its members and the upgrade of Nigerian universities, the main sticking point was the deadlock over IPPIS.

The Federal Government had enrolled everyone under its payroll into this scheme in order to fight ghost workers and arrest corruption at source.

But ASUU members had stubbornly refused to embrace this because, according to it, IPPIS is an “imposition” by the World Bank.

Vanguard

Candidates sitting for this year’ s West Africa Examination Council and National Examination Council examinations would know when they would be writing the papers after the COVID- 19 lockdown .

Minister of State for Education, Mr Emeka Nwajiuba , said this at the Presidential Taskforce on COVID- 19 daily press briefing in Abuja .

He said that WAEC and NECO examinations had been postponed indefinitely over COVID – 19 but added that the ministry would soon announce the time for the examination when the lockdown was over .

Nwajiuba said that the ministry was working on how schools would be reopened after the lockdown , adding that nobody could reopen school except it was coordinated by the Ministry of Education.

He said that students had been advised to learn via online platforms , stating that the ministry was working with Universal Basic Education and the State Basic Education Board to ease the process .

According to him , 15 states including Lagos and Anambra have already commenced learning through the radio in accordance with the approved standard, while also working with NTA and Radio Nigeria to provide educational content.

He said some tertiary institutions had commenced online learning , adding that the public institution must leverage on such to engage the students .

“ We are working with any stakeholders that can support our plans by providing platform for our students to learn , ” he said .

He allayed fear over the closure of the National Open University , adding that they would soon resume after the lockdown .

NAN

Members from the same family cannot receive money from the Conditional Cash Transfer scheme currently ongoing in many states , the Federal Government clarified on Tuesday .
It also stated that a total of 279 trucks of grains had been deployed to the frontline states that were put on lockdown by the President , according to reports .

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs , Disaster Management and Social Development , Sadiya Umar- Farouq , disclosed this at the daily briefing on COVID- 19 updates in Abuja .

She further said the government was focusing on digitalising the CCT scheme and was getting the Bank Verification Number of beneficiaries as well as their mobile phone contacts to improve on the transparency of the process .

On claims that two members of a family were paid N20 , 000 each recently , the minister said it was highly impossible for such to happen.

Umar – Farouq said , “ This is near impossible because the process involved is a very tedious one , where all critical stakeholders in the community are involved .

“ The faith – based organisations , leaders of the community and other stakeholders are the ones who came up with the list of those to benefit from the intervention in that particular community. ”

She added , “ And if you go through the list, every particular household must be captured in all three or four of the lists being managed by that community.

“ So it is almost impossible for the same members of a household to get this intervention . ”

A COVID-19 vaccine developed at the University of Oxford will be trialled on humans in the UK from Thursday this week.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he was ‘throwing everything at’ the attempt to develop the first vaccine in the world.

The Government will give the scientists an extra £20million to help with their project, Mr Hancock said.

More news👉 https://latestnewsupdates.news.blog/2020/04/21/just-in-global-coronavirus-deaths-top-170000/

The vaccine, known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 will be trialled in conjunction with the University Hospital Southampton.

It is the first British-made vaccine to go into clinical trials and carries with it huge hopes that it will provide a key to getting out of lockdown and banishing COVID-19 from society.

The virus has now infected more than 125,000 people and killed 17,339 in the UK and the UK is on course to end up one of the worst-hit nations in the world.

Source: Daily Mail

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says no damage was done to any records in a fire outbreak in its Jos branch .

The Bank’s Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr Isaac Okorafor said this in a statement in Abuja.

Okorafor said the minor fire had been effectively put out while the affected room had since been cordoned off for further investigation as normal work had already resumed at the branch.

More news👉 https://latestnewsupdates.news.blog/2020/04/21/just-in-fire-guts-cbn-office-in-jos/

He said: “at about 9:15 a.m today, Tuesday, the fire alarm in our Jos branch was triggered and in line with the bank’s fire drill and protocols, the staff on skeletal essential duty were promptly evacuated from the building to the muster point.

“Our branch Controller quickly called the fire service at about 9.19 a.m. However, before the arrival of men of the fire service, the bank’s security unit, relying on information from the fire alarm dashboard, traced the fire to an air condtioner installed in the inverter room on the second floor of the building.

“They swiftly put out the fire with extinguishers and hydrants installed in the building.”

Vanguard

A fire incident has occurred at the Central Bank of Nigeria ’ s office in Jos, Plateau State.

The fire was said to have gutted part of the building .

Confirming the report , the apex bank tweeted, “Minor fire outbreak at the Jos branch of Central Bank of Nigeria , promptly contained today , April 21 , 2020 . ”

Punch

The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 170 , 000 people globally , close to two – thirds of them in hardest-hit Europe , according to an AFP tally Tuesday at 0935 GMT .

In total , 170 , 226 people have died from the virus around the world , including 106 , 737 in Europe . With 42 , 364 deaths , the United States has the highest mortality rate , followed by Italy with 24 , 114 fatalities and Spain ’ s 21 , 282. France has 20 , 265 deaths and Britain 16 , 509 .

There are 2 , 483 , 086 recorded cases around the world, though the number of actual infections is believed to be higher since many countries are only testing the most serious cases.

The figures have been compiled by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization .

AFP

While much of the world labours under strict coronavirus lockdowns , Malawi has bucked the trend after a court blocked attempts to restrict its population ’ s movements — much to the relief of some residents.

“ Had the lockdown been implemented , we would certainly have died of hunger and not coronavirus , ” second – hand clothes seller Thom Minjala said after hearing of the case .

Malawi has so far confirmed just 17 cases, including two deaths , but President Peter Mutharika has warned that without locking down the country, the virus could kill around 50 , 000.

Most Malawians live on less than a dollar a day , scraping together wages through informal trades or low -earning odd jobs .

“ Of course , we are afraid of the disease but our number one fear is hunger , ” said Minjala . “We don ’ t have any money to save , whatever we make from the daily sales is what feeds us for the day ” .

Shortly after Mutharika announced the lockdown , scores of individual traders took to the streets in protest .

The Human Rights Defenders Coalition went to court and secured a seven -day order stopping the lockdown , accusing the government of a “ haphazard approach” .

“ What we want is a balance of human rights while fighting the pandemic . A lockdown is possible with sound measures and not the casual measures meant to foil people’ s freedoms , ” the coalition ’ s leader Gift Trapence said .

The Oxford English Dictionary has been updated with new words relating to the coronavirus pandemic in its April edition .

The PUNCH reports that additions were also made in the dictionary ’ s sub – entries and unrevised entries .

The newly – added words are COVID- 19 , infodemic, R0 , self – isolate, self – isolated, self – isolating , self -isolation , self – quarantine , self -quarantined , shelter in place, social distancing , and social isolation.

The dictionary also added “ to flatten the curve ” in its new entries .

“ PPE ” and “ social recession” were updated in the dictionary ’ s sub -entries while “elbow bump ” and “ WFH” – working ( or work) from home – were included in its unrevised entries .

In a post on its blog, OED also listed 20 keywords searched during the coronavirus pandemic – January – March .

In January and February , some of the keywords related to coronavirus ; others referred to other world events such as the Australian bushfires , the assassination of Qasem Soleimani , Donald Trump ’ s impeachment and acquittal , the Democratic caucuses, locust swarms in East Africa , investigations into the Astros sign -stealing scandal, and so on .

In March , however , every one of the top twenty keywords was in some way related to coronavirus .

In January , the words mainly relate to naming and describing the virus : coronavirus , SARS, virus , human – to -human , respiratory , and flu – like .

By March the keywords reflect the social impact of the virus , and issues surrounding the medical response .

Among the words listed are social distancing , self – isolation , and self -quarantine , lockdown , non – essential ( as in non – essential travel) , and postpone are all especially frequent , as are PPE and ventilator .

Others are COVID – 19 , pandemic , distancing , coronavirus, self – isolate, sanitiser , quarantine , virus , outbreak , corona , postpone , disinfect , and isolation .