AFR Business

As Nigeria joins the rest of Africa to commemorate the Day of the African Child, UNICEF calls on government and other stakeholders to exploit the opportunities offered by digitalization for learning and development of Nigerian children. The theme for this year’s Day of the African Child; The rights of the child in the digital environment offers us to opportunity to advocate for digital inclusiveness for all children – the right of every child to participate in the digital space. In realizing this right, we are equally offered the opportunity of exploiting the digital space for learning and development.

The education sector in Nigeria faces many challenges. One of these challenges is access to quality learning which is inhibited by low domestic spending on education resulting in limited school infrastructure and qualified teachers, high levels of poverty and social norms not supportive of education especially for girls. These challenges are exacerbated by attacks on schools and abduction of learners. Both have made parents fearful of sending their children to school.

The disruption to education by school attacks has meant millions of children have significantly missed out on learning they would have acquired if they had been in the classroom. More than 10 million children are not in school at the primary level. For those in school, the quality of learning is poor; 75 per cent of primary school age pupils are unable to read with understanding or solve a simple math problem.

To bridge the access to quality learning opportunities, UNICEF and the Federal Ministry of Education launched the Nigeria Learning Passport (NLP) last year, an online, mobile, and offline digital learning platform powered by Microsoft that enables continuous access to 15,000 curriculum aligned learning and training materials in local languages for learners, teachers, and parents.

It is highly flexible and adaptable, allowing states, schools, teachers, parents, and other users to adapt it easily and quickly as their learning management system in school, for homework support and to ensure continuity of learning when schools are closed in emergency contexts

The NLP is inclusive enough to bridge the digital divide because of the availability of an offline module that allows for deployment in rural and hard-to-reach environments where there is no access to the internet. To this end, UNICEF has provided 780 schools in hard-to-areas and rural schools with 13,500 tablets, 1,000 smart rechargeable projectors and 780 Airtel internet routers. Connectivity has been enabled for 186 schools through a partnership with IHS towers and data costs removed through the whitelisting of the NLP on an Airtel SIM card.

So far, since its inception, the Nigeria Learning Passport has provided access to quality teaching and learning resources to 280,000 learners, teachers, parents and young people.

Result of a user satisfaction survey that was conducted involving 5,002 respondents, 92% of them mentioned that they are using the platform more than once, 51% mentioned that they used it daily and 63% mentioned that they access the platform from home. Additionally, 95% of these respondents mentioned that the content meets their needs, 76% said that they learnt new things and 91% (9 in 10 persons) said that the NLP supported their education.

A student testifying from the survey said that “NLP helped me to gain a lot about the topics I don’t understand in school” while a parent said, “I can prepare my kids ahead of their lesson and also follow up on what they are being taught” and a teacher testify that “NLP improves my knowledge, it improves my teaching skills”.

“Digital technology provides us with a platform to innovate and seeks ways for inclusive quality education for all children”, said Cristian Munduate, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria. “I urge all stakeholders in the education sector to adopt and take the Nigeria Learning Passport to scale to reduce the number of children not receiving any education in Nigeria. It will also improve foundational literacy and numeracy”, she noted.

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has warned Nigerians to be careful while consulting with travel agents as some of them may belong to organ harvesting syndicates.

The Director-General, NAPTIP, Fatima Waziri-Azi, disclosed this at a workshop organised for media practitioners in Lagos on Thursday.

“Travelers and their families should also avoid the desperation to make wealth which makes them contract travelling consultants, as some of them may belong to organ harvesting syndicates,” Mrs Waziri-Azi stressed.

The NAPTIP boss expressed regret that financial greed had blinded many parents to the extent that they compromised their wards to these organ harvesting syndicates.

Speaking further, the NAPTIP DG also disclosed that the agency secured the convictions of 42 human traffickers in the first half of 2023.

She said that the convictions were secured from traffickers who were diligently prosecuted from January to June 14, 2023.

Mrs Waziri-Azi was represented by Arinze Orakwe, the director in-charge of Training and Manpower Development, NAPTIP.

“Therefore, NAPTIP is sending a strong warning to human trafficking criminals that the agency will never retreat or surrender.

“The human trafficking industry yields as high as $150 billion annually and globally from harvesting human skin, liver, pancreas, kidney among others.

“I want to plead with the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the Muslim Society of Nigeria (MSM) and other religions bodies in the country to join hands with NAPTIP to wage war against these criminals,” said Mrs Waziri-Azi.

The NAPTIP director-general noted that the syndicates were attracted to huge financial earnings, and they kept evolving new tactics to capture their victims.

She assured Nigerians that NAPTIP was up to the task of defeating the syndicates, no matter how deceptive they became.

Mrs Waziri-Azi appealed to Nigerians to expose individuals and syndicates that harvested human organs for sales.

She urged Nigerians, who wanted to travel out of the country, to always follow safe migration pathways.

“Travelers should get all necessary information on the destination country and procure right travelling documents, among others.”

The workshop was for core members of the Trafficking-in-Persons Media Corps.

It was organised by NAPTIP, supported by the Action Against Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants (A-TIPSOM) and funded by the European Union (EU).

Tanko Yakasai, a northern leader, says President Bola Tinubu is already one of the best presidents to rule Nigeria and has the pedigree and capacity to change the state of things in the country.

Yakasai, 97, is a Nigerian politician, human rights activist and former liaison officer to ex-President Shehu Shagari.

At a briefing after meeting with the president, Mr Yakasai said Nigeria required a man with a track record of good governance and a well-versed politician to get it out of the woods.

He said with the precedence set in Lagos when Mr Tinubu was the governor for eight years, Nigerians should expect good times in the next six to 12 months.

“Right from the time he declared his intention, I had supported Tinubu’s aspiration to lead the country. My support was borne out of a personal conviction that a real politician will be the only one that can solve the myriad problems of the country,” stated Mr Yakasai.

The northern politician added, “In the past few days of his inauguration, I became more convinced that my support was not lost. The few decisions and laws signed as well as appointments have further singled him out as one of the best presidents to rule Nigeria.”

Mr Yakasai called on Nigerians to pray for the Tinubu government to succeed, adding that the gains of the recent pronouncements would soon manifest.

He said he believed that Nigerians would have cause to smile after the benefits of the decisions taken by Mr Tinubu begin to be manifest. Mr Yakasai added that he visited the president to congratulate him on his electoral victory.

“I came with some members of my family to felicitate Mr President on his success at the polls and to pray for the success of his administration. I will want Nigerians to stand by him in order enjoy the kind of development that happened in Lagos,” said Mr Yakasai.

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) says that companies meeting its requirements can import fuel with the petrol subsidy removal.

The NMDPRA said petrol importers must meet regulations stipulated by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA 2021).

NMDPRA chief executive stated this on Wednesday in Abuja while briefing the journalists, shortly after a meeting with the oil marketing companies on expectations on post-petrol deregulation.

The engagement had in attendance officials of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN)and Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.), among others.

Mr Ahmed said the authority was looking at the flexibility and ease of doing business, enabling importers to import easily, stating that the meeting became necessary regarding the current situation in the downstream sector following President Bola Tinubu’s pronouncement by petrol subsidy removal.

“The engagement aims at aligning and also rolling out policies in terms of requirements for the quotation of PMS. We thought it is necessary to fashion out areas of concern and promote clarity regarding the way forward,” Mr Ahmed explained. “There will be transparency while conducting the business of the importation of PMS both by the major marketing companies, MOMAN, and the DAPPMAN, as well as the NNPC Limited.”

The NNPC was the sole petrol importer in the past, but with the removal of the fuel subsidy, “it is necessary to open the way to other interested parties that want to import so long as they meet the requirements,” he said.

He added that the NNPC Ltd would draw down on its importation from being the sole importer to bringing in about 30 to 40 per cent maximum in line with the provision of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) regulation.

“The regulation says that nobody should exceed 40 per cent of the market share in terms of their own regulations, and we want to abide by that,” Mr Ahmed noted. “We also deliberated on some concerns in terms of provision of foreign exchange for them to import. We also discuss the issue of quality of product importation and the source locations.”

Mr Ahmed said petrol prices would not be the same nationwide because of local transportation and logistics.

“For example, the price in Lagos, being the main receiving location for imports, will not be the same with the prices in Ibadan, Sokoto or Borno states because the local transportation costs will be added to the price,” said the NMDPRA chief. “We also agreed finally that we should have a small team to look at some critical aspect of the PIA that warrants only those with refinery or those with international trade experience are allowed to import.”