The Chief Medical Director, Abia State University Teaching Hospital, Dr Shedrack Offiah, said the management had sacked six doctors for abandoning their jobs after collecting their salaries. Offiah disclosed this on Thursday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria while showcasing steps taken to deter ABSUTH doctors who use government time to work in their private hospitals. He said he sacked the six doctors recently to discourage absentee staff members who do not work but collect salaries, adding that such were ghost workers and should be treated as such. He said that some doctors who had left the…
Author: Temitope N.
There were indications on Thursday that at least 13 states had stopped testing for COVID-19 despite the impending third wave of the disease propelled by the highly infectious Delta strain. Epidemiological data obtained from the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control showed that since the first case of the Delta variant was reported on July 8, 2021, only about 23 states and the Federal Capital Territory had been sending reports to the NCDC. These came to the fore on Thursday as data from the NCDC showed that the COVID-19 tests reduced from 735,573 to 521,738 in three months amid warning by…
The Federal Government says it has commenced the payment of death benefits to deceased doctors and other health workers under the Group Life Insurance. The Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, said this at the end of a meeting between federal government representatives and the Nigeria Association of Resident Doctors on Thursday in Abuja. Ngige described the meeting as fruitful and tendered evidence by the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation to show that insurance companies have started paying up. According to him, the evidence corroborated what the Head of Service of the Federation, Dr.…
Projected to hit $53 trillion by 2025, the global Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) assets can provide leeway for most oil and gas projects in Nigeria, especially the private and public sector, to address inherent hindrances. Across the world, investors are now shifting attention to ESG, applying the non-financial factors as part of the key analysis process to identify material risks and growth opportunities. At a time when funding for fossil fuel investments is being withdrawn, most analysts see priority for ESG as an escape path to financing projects in the sector. A report published by Bloomberg had noted that…
The Senate Committee on Trade and Investment has called on the Federal Government to give out the Eleme-Onne Road in Rivers State to a private investor for reconstruction and management, considering that the road is a key transport artery for the nation’s economy. Speaking at the Oil and Gas Free Zone in Onne during an oversight visit, Chairman of the committee, Senator Francis Fadahunsi, decried the deplorable state of the road and said the lone access road to the oil and gas industrial hub in the Eleme-Onne axis of Rivers State needs to be urgently saved from total disrepair to…
Kaspersky, an Internet security firm said in South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria, its research identified the top malware families as ransomware, financial/banking trojans, and crypto-miner malware. When comparing the first quarter of 2021 (Q1) with second quarter of 2021 (Q2), Kaspersky saw a 24 per cent increase in ransomware in Q2 2021 in South Africa, as well as an increase of 14 per cent in crypto-miner malware. In Kenya and Nigeria, Kaspersky saw a large increase in financial/banking trojans in Q2 2021 when compared to the figures for Q1 2021 – a 59 per cent increase in Kenya and a…
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele has assured the apex bank’s collaboration with the National Agriculture Land Development Authority (NALDA) to develop integrated farms across the country, provide affordable and accessible finance to farmers in rural communities in addition to providing jobs for the teeming population. Emefiele noted that NALDA, an integrated farm estate, is expected to serve as an agricultural hub for inhabitants with its wide range of facilities to support farming, processing and packaging plants, storage, clinics, residential area, school, training centres among other facilities. He spoke recently at the inauguration of the…
Despite the fresh concerns posed by the new wave of COVID-19 pandemic, air travellers have bemoaned frustration posed by various travel rules, testing requirements, and excessive test costs. The travellers, in a new survey conducted by the body of international airlines, showed a higher preference for, and confidence in mask-wearing protocols. This is coming amid anxiety that countries may begin to impose fresh border closure and lockdown to safeguard citizens from raging delta variant. The variant is now the dominant strain worldwide and surging rapidly, even in countries with high vaccination rates. For instance, new coronavirus infections in the United…
After many deliberations, the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) has finally begun the implementation of zero surcharges on imported commercial aircraft and spares parts used by local airlines. The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), yesterday, confirmed the removal of mandatory seven per cent charges that airlines have erstwhile paid. It was a hard-fought battle that dated back to 2016. Though the Ministry of Aviation had rallied against the charges as part of measures to support local airlines, the Ministry of Finance and NCS had continued to impose the charges on operators. The Guardian learned the matter reached its peak recently at…
Selling above $75 dollar per barrel earlier this week, Nigeria’s Bonny Light crude yesterday, dropped to $68 per barrel on the backdrop of rising inventory by the American Petroleum Institute (API). With a record $7 slide in less than two days, API had reported a build in crude oil inventories of 806,000 barrels for the week ending July 16, bringing the total 2021 crude draw to under 50 million barrels. This follows a recent agreement by the Organisation of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its alliance to boost production monthly by 400, 000 barrels per day. While Nigeria had set…