President Bola Tinubu has approved the 2024 Intervention Funds for public tertiary education institutions in the country.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports President Tinubu gave the approval on Friday, according to his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale.
Details of the approval revealed public universities will receive N1,906,944,930.00 each while polytechnics get N1,165,355,235.00 each and Colleges of Education, N1,398,426,282.00 each
Details later…
The Brekete Family Programme, a reality radio and television talk show has suspended its proposed N20 billion ASUU Crowd Intervention Fund aimed at resolving the lingering crisis between the union and the Federal Government.
Ahmed Isah, Ordinary President of Brekete Family Programme, suspended the intervention fund in Abuja on Saturday during a live programme as the officials of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), led by Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke dissociated themselves from the intervention.
Isah urged the union not to hold the government to ransom as its members were not ready to listen to the voice of peace, mediation and reconciliation, urging the government to take necessary action against them.
He expressed concern for the suspension of the fund, especially as a donation of N50 million was received in the studio from Gov. Emmanuel Udom of Akwa Ibom and many Nigerians was also willing to contribute to the fund.
He said that the target was to raise N20 billion so that people of integrity would be nominated as trustees.
According to him, the money will be handed over to the trustees, who will, in turn, give it to the Federal Government for onward transfer to the union to end the lingering strike.
” I am an individual and as a leader is trying to ensure that the crisis is resolved and the union is saying no to the whole process, it is so disappointing.
” I don’t know what will be the next action. I have suspended the crowd funding. After thinking it over, and if there is need for me to revisit it, I will but if not, I will refund everybody’s money and I will withdraw the N10 million I have contributed.
“Udom Emmanuel that has just lost the presidential ticket brought N50 million cash and others were willing to come because I said I was not willing to shift the date I gave. I gave two weeks for us to raise this money and we have the money.
” If only 36 people would bring N50 million, we will have the money. If 20 million Nigerians will contribute N1,000 each, we will have N20 billion. 20 million Nigerians is equivalent to less than 10 per cent of Nigeria’s population.
” If we cannot solve our own problems, then something is fundamentally wrong with us as a people,” he said.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed on Saturday met with the leadership of the National Assembly to intimate it with an Executive proposal to establish a N500 billion COVID-19 Crisis Intervention Fund.
Mrs Zainab, with senior officials from her ministry, held the meeting with the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila.
The meeting which held at the National Assembly was also attended by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, Deputy Speaker, Idris Wase and some other principal officers from both Chambers.
The meeting was a follow-up to the one held last week Wednesday between the National Assembly leadership and members of the Presidential Committee which was set up for the management of the COVID-19 crisis.
“What we are proposing is an establishment of a N500 billion COVID-19 Crisis Intervention Fund,” the minister told the parliamentary leaders.
“This Fund that we are proposing, that should be created, will involve mopping up resources from various special accounts that the government as well as the Federation have, to be able to pull this N500 billion,” the minister said.
Zainab Ahmed said, in addition to the identified special accounts from where the money will be drawn as loans, the proposed intervention fund is also expected to be sourced from grants being expected and loans from multilateral Institutions.
“Our general view is that this crisis intervention fund is to be utilised to upgrade healthcare facilities as earlier identified.
“The Federal Government also needs to be in a position to improve health care facilities not only in the states but to provide intervention to the states,” Mrs Ahmed said.
She explained to the lawmakers that the Fund, if approved, will also take care of special Public Work Programmes currently being implemented by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE).
“We know that there will be a need for the parliament to agree and approve the taking of loans from these special accounts and we will be coming back with a proposed bill in that regard that will define what the fund will be used for,” the minister said.
Earlier in his remarks, the Senate President said the meeting was in fulfilment of an earlier promise to provide support as the need arises in this time of crisis.
“Just like we told Nigerians, when there is need for us to meet or to take legislative action in support of ensuring that the government responds appropriately to developments issues and challenges in the country, we will do so.
“This meeting, the second in the series after we shut down the National Assembly for two weeks, is a clear testimony of what we have said.
“Governance requires that we work together, so we want to listen to those things that you have on your side and how we can also play our constitutional role in ensuring that Nigerians continue to benefit from governance and how we are able to weather the storm created by COVID-19.
“Going forward, we need to interact more because very fundamental decisions will need be taken, and these decisions can only be said to be constitutionally legal if the legislature gives its stamp of authority for the executive to implement and execute.
“I think coming to us for those loans is critical because we are in an emergency and time is of essence. So, we must work as expeditiously as possible to ensure that we place the request before the National Assembly.
“I think time has come for us to redefine the implementation of the Social Intervention Programme, probably going out to communities to give them N20,000 per person might not be the best way to go. It is still an effort, but I think we need a better approach that will be more efficient,” Lawan said.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed says the Federal Government through Bank of Industry (BoI) has approved facility of about seven billion naira under its creative industry group.
Ahmed said this at the Greeners Business-to-Business Annual National Economic Dialogue 2020 held in Abuja on Saturday.
The economic dialogue has a theme “Positioning Nigeria’s Creative Industry as Growth Engine of Africa Continental Trade Agreement (AFCTA)”.
Represented by her Special Adviser on Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Dr Armstrong Takang, the minister said the fund was approved to a creative group of 35 firms in content production, content distribution, production equipment, digital transmission equipment among others.
Ahmed said in order to continue to build capacities among Nigerian youths, the N-Power Creative programme was created to train and develop 5,000 young creative talents.
According to her, the strategy is to put the creative industry on the global radar as exporters of world-class services and content.
She disclosed that the beneficiaries were trained and certified in Animation, Graphic Design, Post-production and Script Writing.
She added that all beneficiaries received computing devices that enabled them to master their skills during and after the training.
Speaking on AFCTA, the minister said the major areas which Nigeria had a comparative advantage in the creative economy were Music, Film, Information Technology Industries and Fashion.
Ahmed noted that the music industry was set to grow by 13.4 per cent by 2021, with an estimated worth of about 73 million dollars adding that the gaming industry in Nigeria was also growing.
“The gaming industry is benefitting from a widening customer base, mostly the large and youthful population. UNICON values Nigeria’s video game industry at 150 million dollars.
“It also estimates mobile gaming to surpass 147 million dollars by 2020”.
In his remarks, the convener of the dialogue, Dr Mustapha Popoola said this year programme was the fifth economic dialogue which aimed at mentoring people to develop their businesses.
Popoola said that a lot of Nigerians mainly youths had registered under the platform.
He disclosed that the business to business which was a hub was being taken to a creative hub and would be expanded to major cities of the country.
He stated that plan had been concluded to open centres in Lagos and Kano with a view to help develop people with business ideas across the country.