FAO launches Green Cities Initiative to help transform agri-food systems, end hunger - NaijaAgroNet

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has unveiled a Green Cities Initiative and Action Plan to help transform agri-food systems, end hunger and improve nutrition in and around the cities in a post COVID-19 era, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The launch took place at a high-level virtual event entitled "Green Cities to Build Back Better for SDGs - A New Powerful Venture" hosted by FAO during the 75th session of the UN General Assembly.

Highlighting the vast potential of cities in reducing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on people's health and food security and contributing to climate change mitigation, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu encouraged all partners to appreciate the essential role of cities in building back better and the urgency of innovative, comprehensive and coordinated actions.

Today is Equinox day 2020 - NaijaAgroNet .. Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet:

Today, September 22 is autumnal Equinox day, reports NaijaAgroNet.

According experts, on Equinox day, the sun sets exactly on the West today after rising exactly from the East, meaning that there is approximately equal day and night respectively today. 

They posited there is also vernal or spring equinox which occurs on March 21 with same description; based on the time when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator, making night and day of approximately equal length all over the earth and occurring about March 21 - vernal equinox, or spring equinox, whilst on September 22 is autumnal equinox.

BBC says NNPC lied over cause of Sabo inferno in Lagos - NaijaAgroNet ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet: 

New evidence obtained by the BBC Africa Eye has contradicted the official explanation for the cause of an explosion which killed 23 people and destroyed a girls boarding school in Lagos, Nigeria, reports NaijaAgroNet.

As contained in the BBC in a video documentary available to NaijaAgroNet, showed that new evidence obtained by BBC Africa Eye contradicts the official explanation for the cause of an explosion which left 23 people and destroyed a girls boarding school in Sabo-Lagos, Nigeria commercial centre and a residential neighbourhood of Lagos on March 15, 2020 at 8:56am.

Kano: UNICEF decries sentencing of 13-year child to 10 years - NaijaAgroNet

NaijaAgroNet:

UNICEF has expressed deep concern about the sentencing of 13-year-old Omar Farouq to ten years’ imprisonment with menial labour by the Kano State Sharia Court at Feli Hockey, Kano, in northern Nigeria, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Gov. Ganduje of Kano State

The sentence was handed down after he was convicted of blasphemy on 10 August 2020.

Winners emerge @ GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize - NaijaAgroNet

NaijaAgroNet: 

The two winners of the 2020 GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize have been announced at the Africa Green Revolution Forum Virtual Summit in Rwanda: Moses Katala co-founder and CEO of Magofarm Limited (Tanzania) and Daniella Kwayu co-founder and CEO of Phema Agri (Tanzania), reports NaijaAgroNet.

Each winner will receive US$50,000 to support and expand their agribusiness operations.

Part of the Generation Africa youth initiative, the aim of this prize is to identify and inspire young people across Africa to seize the opportunities across the value chain of the $1Tn agrifood industry on the continent in the decades ahead.

Four entrepreneurs were also named to receive a $2,500 Impact Award: Elizabeth Gikebe, founder and CEO of Mhogo Foods (Kenya), Millicent Agidipo, co-founder and production manager of Achiever Foods (Ghana), Dysmus Kisulu, co-founder and CEO of Solar Freeze (Kenya) and Paul Matovu, founder and CEO of Vertical Farm and Micro-Gardening (Uganda). 

COVID-19: TGI Group employees provide 1m free meals to vulnerable - NaijaAgroNet

NaijaAgroNet: 

The TGI Cares Fund, an employee-led charity initiative of Tropical General Investments (TGI) Group, has commenced the provision of one million free meals in communities struggling with the economic impact of COVID-19. 

The pandemic has left many vulnerable people in communities without a steady source of livelihood but TGI Cares Fund, focusing solely on supporting communities during and beyond the economic crisis, is giving them food items. 

Speaking while handing over food items to FoodClique Support Initiative, an organisation that identifies and reaches out to the most vulnerable in communities, Group Human Resources Director and Coordinator of TGI Cares Fund, Mr Tominiyi Oni, reiterated the commitment of TGI employees to assisting less-privileged Nigerians. 

“We are proud of our people who birthed this noble idea. These are difficult times, so I am elated that my colleagues have pooled resources together to kick start this charity drive,” he said. 

Receiving the items on behalf of FoodClique Support Initiative, Team Lead, Bolajoko Fadipe, expressed gratitude for the kind gesture. 

He further appreciated employees of TGI Group, promising proper distribution of the food items to the most vulnerable in low-income communities across the country. 

In its first phase, 280,000 (two hundred and eighty thousand) meals have been provided for children, unemployed youth and women in Lagos State. Phase two of the charity drive will extend to other communities in the northern part of the country. 

Recall that the TGI Group had previously donated the sum of N500million (five hundred million naira) to support Nigeria’s COVID-19 intervention fund organised by the Private Sector Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID). 

It also donated food items to 2,000 families in Lagos, 500 families in Abuja, 500 families in Ogun and gave N20,000,000 to an Isolation and Treatment Centre in Lagos, among others. 

Tropical General Investments (TGI) Group is an international investment and holding company with diversified interests. Its corporate identity is based on respect for people, its communities and the natural environment as it continuously seeks to support its communities during and beyond challenging times.

 ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

Online health provides easy access to health services - NaijaAgroNet - Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet: 

Online Health Company Limited has launched a one-stop hospital for all through a telemedicine app called “Ohealth Odoctor" that bridges the gap between health consultants and the public bringing both parties together on-air for effective health delivery, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The recent and sudden effect of the COVID 19 pandemic has again brought the world to the reality of how vulnerable human beings could be if there are no functional health facilities that are void of too many layers of protocols and bottlenecks. It is not a gainsaying that at this critical moment of human life, there is an ultimate and immediate need to bring health solutions closer to people where most needed to keep hope alive and preserve the human race as much as possible.

COVID-19: Local Content Committee is enabler for Africa’s economic recovery - NaijaAgroNet ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet: 

The Local Content Committee of the African Energy Chamber ended his first meeting by placing local content development at the core of its activities, reports NaijaAgroNet.

COVID-19: Investing in water, sanitation a public health priority - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

Commentary@NaijaAgroNet:

Investments in improved water and sanitation infrastructure is a public health priority for countries and communities.

As the prevalence of COVID-19 accelerates across Africa, over 40% of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to clean water and are unable to heed the advice of health experts to wash their hands as a primary way to stop the spread of the virus. Preventing infection thus remains out of reach for many.

Action in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene sector, also known as WASH, is therefore critical to containing COVID-19. WASH’s core – providing access to clean water, improved sanitation systems and implementing healthy hygiene practices – lowers the infection rate and builds communities’ ability to ward off infectious disease outbreaks.

The African Development Bank’s guide on WASH interventions is currently helping our client governments in their COVID-19 preparedness and emergency response The guide supports the implementation of emergency WASH interventions at hotspots; utilities and service providers to enhance business continuity; hygiene promotion; improved viability of critical hygiene products and supply chains, as well as enhancement of sustainability of hygiene outcomes.

The Bank has been supporting and advocating WASH long before COVID-19’s arrival. Our investment of an estimated $6.4 billion in strengthening core WASH infrastructure systems over the last decade, has provided approximately 52 million additional people access to improved water, sanitation and hygiene as well as increased pandemic preparedness.

Over the next decade or so, our investments in the water sector are set to provide an estimated 154 million more people access to improved WASH.

Many of our established, on-the-ground WASH interventions have adapted to the coronavirus era, especially in resource-constrained settings.

In Zambia, school children recruited in early 2019 to be “WASH ambassadors” have since added the COVID-19-specific message of wearing masks, social distancing and implementing stay-at-home orders to their healthy hygiene and sanitation practices promotion campaign. Their campaign t-shirts, emblazoned with the slogan “Stop Spreading Germs, Wash Your Hands with Soap,” are just as applicable today as when they were designed pre-COVID, as part of a $243 million Lusaka Sanitation Program co-funded by the Bank and other development partners.

In rural northern Malawi, the Bank co-financed and supervised the Integrated Urban Water and Sanitation Project for the Mzimba Town project, which increased the community’s access to potable water from 65% to 95%, raised access to improved sanitation from 45% to 97% and created around 1,000 jobs. It comprised the construction of primary school sanitation facilities, including secured toilets to provide privacy and comfort to the pupils, especially girls.

School children are also serving as ambassadors to convey the message about preventing the COVID-19 pandemic from spreading into their homes and neighborhoods. This WASH project recently received the Prince Talal International Prize for Human Development (https://bit.ly/32pBxdy). The $200,000 in prize money will go to projects implemented by government agencies, public institutions or social businesses approved by the Mzimba Town scheme.

Investments in improved water and sanitation infrastructure is a public health priority for countries and communities as it significantly contributes to reduced mortality, ill health and impacts of water-related epidemics/pandemics which are a major economic drain.

Investing in WASH is a no-regret policy and decisions taken now to improve these public health systems are going to be worth it, regardless of the uncertainty around COVID-19.

*Contributed by Wambui Gichuri, Acting Vice President, Agriculture, Human and Social Development and Director, Water Development and Sanitation at the African Development Bank.

NLNG lifts Edo, Adamawa with medical equipment - NaijaAgroNet ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet: 

The two states of Edo and Adamawa have been lifted by the Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) with a donation of medical equipment, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This, NaijaAgroNet gathered is coming as part of NLNG contribution to the N11.4 billion Oil and Gas Industry Collaborative Initiative, spearheaded by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.