BusinessDay 15 April 2018

C002D5556
Sunday 15 April 2018
6 BDSUNDAY
News
Tech4Dev, Microsoft collaborate to train
500,000 youth on digital skills
Josephine Okojie
Tech4dev and Microsoft
have partnered
to train over
500,000 youths on
digital skills through its Basic
Digital Education Initiative
(BDEI).
In a statement made available
to BusinessDay, Joel
Ogunsola, executive director,
Tech4Dev said that the
initiative is an experimental
learning program that is supported
by Microsoft Nigeria
to train young individuals
in primary, secondary and
tertiary institutions on foundational
digital skills.
Ogunsola noted that the
move have become imperative
in order to equip young
minds with the requisite skills
for the 21st century.
“We are making ample
investment in digital skills
education over the decade
through support from Microsoft
Philanthropy to train
the next generation of young
individuals looking to be part
of the fourth industrial revolution
as well as adults who
very much need the skills to
fully benefit from new opportunities
being presented
by the fourth industrial revolution,”
he said.
He noted that the initiative
was a result of Tech4Dev and
Microsoft’s mission to solve
the world’s biggest problems
through technology.
TV series urges society to show
sympathy to infertile women
The next episode of
the TV drama series,
Professor Johnbull,
sponsored by telecommunications
company,
Globacom, preaches tolerance
for women grappling
with infertility issues in their
marriages.
Women encountering conception
challenges in their
marriages are often derided
by their in-laws in Nigeria and
pressured into seeking orthodox
and unorthodox means
to surmount their challenge.
The episode, which goes
on air on Sunday, will look at
all the angles related to the issue
of infertility. The episode
is entitled Childless Wives
and features all the regular
stars, including Professor
Johnbull, played by Kanayo
O. Kanayo, his daughter,
Elizabeth, played by Queen
Okoye, and Olaniyi, played
by Yomi Fash-Lanso, among
others. The episode also features
some new faces, who
put up sterling performances.
Childless Wives explores
some of the emotional anguish
that women caught in
the infertility web go through.
Also speaking during the
training event, Akin Banuso,
general manager, Microsoft
Nigeria said, “in a world
where digital skills are fundamental
to success in so
many environments, leaving
people in the dark about this
major part of their world
amounts to an unacceptable
gap in their education. We
believe technology should
be an equalising force in the
world—inclusive, not divisive.”
“So, we are investing our
greatest assets—our technology,
grants, people, and
voice—to advance a more
equitable world where the
benefits of technology are
accessible to everyone,”
Banuso said. In his key
note speech, Olusegun
Mimiko, former governor
of Ondo State encouraged
the younger generation
to join the advocacy and
push for democratization
of education at all levels.
He further advocated for
more female participation
in tech fields.
“It’s a time of intellectual
domination. Women have
begun to dominate, and they
should get more involved,”
Mimiko said.
“Nigerians have already
missed out on the first second
and third revolution. The
fourth revolution has started
and has begun to influence
the way we live and relate
with each other,” he said.
It would be interesting to see
how Professor Johnbull will
handle the issue brought to
him in this regard. He also
has interesting nuggets for
viewers on the general issues
of love, relationships and
fertility.
Globacom said in a
statement issued from its
headquarters in Lagos that,
“Childless Wives goes beyond
the issue of infertility
to expose the reasons why
‘child-harvesting’ centres,
otherwise known as baby
factories, exist and the negative
roles of in-laws in marriages
that are challenged
by infertility”.
Catch the episode on
DSTV Africa Magic Family
and GOTV Channel 2 at 6
p.m. on Sunday with repeat
broadcast on Thursday at
9.30 p.m. on the TV channels,
It will also be broadcast on
NTA Network, NTA International
on DSTV channel
251 and NTA on StarTimes
at 8.30 p.m. on Tuesday and
Friday, while Anambra Broadcasting
Service will air it at
8.30 p.m. on Wednesday and
Saturday.
Shippers Council, Oyo govt, Chinese
investors collaborate N72bn dry port project
Akinremi Feyisipo, Ibadan
The Nigerian Shippers’
Council
has entered into
partnership with
the Oyo State
Government to establish a
$200million (N72billion)
modern dry port, as well as a
truck transit park in the state,
in conjunction with some
Chinese investors.
A Memorandum of Understanding
to develop the
Ibadan dry port project was
signed few days ago.
While, the proposed park
alone would gulp N4.8billion,
through the Public-Private-
Partnership (PPP).
When completed, the park
would have hotels, motels,
resident doctors, restaurants,
shopping mall, commercial
banks, among other
facilities for the convenience
of transporters.
The Executive Secretary/
Chief Executive Officer of
the council, Hassan Bello
who disclosed this during a
visit the Governor Abiola Ajimobi,
in Ibadan said because
of the strategic importance
of Ibadan, we have had inquiries
from a serious Chinese
investor for the project.
Bello, therefore, solicited
the release of 60,000 hectares
for the dry port and
another 35,000 hectares
along the Oyo-Ibadan road
for the proposed park, which,
he said, would improve the
economic development of
the state and the nation in
general. He said: “We are
here because Oyo State is
critical to development in
transportation in Nigeria.
Since 2006 the Federal Government
had taken a decision
to establish inland port in the
six geo-political zones of the
country, of which Oyo State
is important. We have others
in Abia, Jos, Kano, Maiduguri
and Funtua.
“What we are looking for
from the state government
is to have, along the railway
Boko Haram insurgency: Over 1,000 children
kidnapped in 4 years, says UNICEF
MICHEAL ANI with agency
More than 1,000
children have
been abducted
by the Boko
Haram terror group in northeastern
Nigeria since 2013,
the United Nation Children
Fund said in a Friday report
as the country prepares to
make the fourth anniversary
of the Chibok abductions on
April 14, 2014.
“Since 2013, more than
1000 children have been
abducted by Boko Haram
The Chibok abduction
sparked global outrage and
reignited the fight against the
ISIS-aligned terrorist group.
Some of the girls were finally
freed three years later,
following negotiation talks
between the Nigerian government
and Boko Haram.
But more than 100 of them
remain in captivity.
The pains also inflicted by
the Niger-delta, where oil
pipe lines were vandalized,
sending oil production to
a decade low of 1.2 million
barrel and making Africa’s
largest economy go into its
first recession since 25 years.
Also mentioning, the February
19th Dapchi attack in
Yobe State where some 110
school girls were kidnapped.
The recent attack on a
school in Dapchi in which
five girls lost their lives is
just the latest indication that
there are few safe spaces left
for children in the northeast.
Not even schools are spared
from violence.
“These repeated attacks
against children in schools
are unconscionable,” UNI-
CEF Representative in Nigeria
Mohamed Malick Fall said.
line that is currently ongoing,
a 60,000 hectares of land to
develop a modern dry port,
while the transport transit
park will require 35,000 hectares
of land.”
Enumerating the advantages
of the modern dry
port project, he said it would
provide job opportunity for
10,000 people, adding that
the truck transits park would
equally generate 25,000 jobs.
ack-Rich Tein Jr,. founder/president of Belemaoil, with F.John Bray, US Consul-General in Lagos, when the C-G
led a delegation to the head office of Belemaoil Nigeria Limited in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, recently.
in north-eastern Nigeria, including
276 girls taken from
their secondary school in the
town of Chibok in 2014,” the
statement said.
Nigeria over the last few
years has been hammered by
several insurgent attacks, the
most popular of the attack
that draws global outrage
and condemnation from international
agencies is the
incident that occur on the
1st of April 2014, when the
said Islamist group (Boko
Haram) kidnapped over 276
girls within the ages of 15-17
years in Chibok.
“Children have the right
to education and protection,
and the classroom must be
a place where they are safe
from harm.” he added.
The UN agency explained
that since the conflict started
in north-eastern Nigeria
nearly nine years ago, at
least 2,295 teachers have
been killed and more than
1,400 schools have been
destroyed. Most of these
schools have not reopened
because of extensive damage
or on-going insecurity.
The agency further acknowledged
that the Nigerian
authorities have made
a commitment to make
schools safer and more resilient
to attack, and promised
to stand with the country to
implement the Safe Schools
Declaration, by cooperating
more with the military force
and ensuring more protection
for schools and universities
from violence from the
dreaded Islamic group Boko
Haram.
“UNICEF is appealing for
an end to attacks on schools
and all grave violations of
children’s rights,” the statement
added.