Acholonu calls for protection of micronutrient IP rights - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet:

The sole Nigerian patent holder for the design and technology of micronutrient powder, Dr. Kenny Acholonu, has called on regulatory agencies and stakeholders to ensure protection of Intellectual Property (IP) rights, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Dr Kenny Acholonu

Speaking at the weekend, the quadruple patent holder, urged players in the Nigerian scientific community covering medical, pharmaceutical, and most importantly nutritional products to make certain they recognise and protect intellectual property rights.

Nasarawa unveils action plan for nutrition - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet:

The Nasarawa State Government has unveiled a multisectoral plan of action for nutrition, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Just as the Civil Society Scaling-Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) has applauded the initiative, describing it as a major landmark for the state.

Ken Lohento joins 2021 AgriHack judges - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet:

The Digital Innovation Strategy Consultant with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Mr. Ken Lohento, has been named alongside Ebunoluwa Bolodeoku of Heifer International and six others as confirmed judges for the 2021 Pitch AgriHack, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Ken Lohento

Other members of the judge panel, NaijaAgroNet gathered include Elisee Kamanzi and William Matovu of Heifer International, Nixon Gecheo of AGRA, Barbra Musata of Corteva Agriscience, Grace Vuhya Obeda and Hafou Toure-Samb of African Development Bank.

Niteo, Green Glass Africa partner on power solutions - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

PressRelease@NaijaAgroNet:

The quest to improve access to power and thus boost national productivity has received a positive response with the partnership between Niteo Limited, an indigenous power integration firm and Green Glass Africa, Germany, to provide Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) across Nigeria.

BIPV is an innovative customized solution that enables the integration of Solar Modules into building facades, rooftops, wall cladding, bus shelters and gatehouses among others facilities producing electrical power in addition to the aesthetic enhancements.

This solution is a welcome development especially in urban areas such as Nigeria State Capitals where there is a current trend of utilizing glass for curtain walls of buildings and reduction in space availability. With BIPV,  every available space on building wall claddings, rooftops, bus shelters, factories and warehouses now have the capacity to generate power.

Speaking at the inaugural BIPV seminar in Lagos Nigeria weekend, Eng. Adedayo Afolabi, Managing Partner, Niteo Limited, revealed that solar solutions are all about harnessing the power of the sun to produce electrical energy. 

He stated that while challenges are a part of life, the secret of progress is to understand how to spot and take advantage of the opportunity inherent in challenges. Nigeria, he noted, has power challenges which solar solutions can tackle effectively because of the sheer amount of sunlight available everyday.

With climate change as a growing source of concern, the increasing use of solar solutions, particularly BIPV, will help Nigeria positively reduce its carbon footprint and avert environmental disaster.

Kevin Noukam Tiangueu, Co-CEO, Green Glass Africa, in his presentation provided an in-depth exposition  of the BIPV technology, its application in real-life projects, with relevant case studies and ROI calculations.

According to Kevin, "With BIPV, the target is to transform every building to a power generating set so that each building or structure essentially powers itself." He noted that the real advantage of the BIPV is that it can be customized based on the customer's application, specifications and available space. The bespoke product can be designed based on the size and shape of the available space, or the colour preferences of the customer.

The solar power startup expert explained that BIPV is flexible, so much so that the customer's goals and ideals can be integrated into the design to improve the outlook. BIPV is a multifunctional product with constructive, architectural, aesthetic and power generation functions and capabilities. He revealed that another advantage of the BIPV is that it is fire resistant class A, making it a good construction material for buildings.

Igor Mbakom Tchiengang, Co-CEO, Green Glass Africa noted that BIPV is a solution for Africa. He said that BIPV is versatile, with immense potential and suitable for a variety of projects. BIPV can completely or partially replace building material in addition to generating power, improving transparency and efficiency.

On the product lifespan, he noted that BIPV has a lifespan of 25 years before the commencement of degradation. Working with Niteo Limited, customers will get top of the range after-sales support and service, he stated.

The Managing Partner, Niteo Limited remarked that the existing PVs do not have the functionality of BIPV. BIPV, he posited, may well be the future of solar installation and indeed building construction in Nigeria within a short time. He called on architectural services providers and renewable energy enthusiasts to explore the incredible potential of BIPV.

Open grazing: 3 Southern states yet to enact law - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet: 

Anambra, Edo and Cross Rivers states yet to enact a law prohibiting open grazing of cattle, The Nation learnt on Sunday.

Southern States Governors meet in Lagos recently.

The Southern Governors Forum (SGF) on July 5 agreed on a September 1 deadline for the anti-open grazing law to be signed by all member-states.

Earth Network, NiMet join forces on weather partnership - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet: 

A new nationwide early warning network with real-time lightning detection, severe storm nowcasting, and alerting will be deployed.

Flood control: Oyo Govt insists it'll continue to fund project - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet: 

In upholding his pledge to continue to serve the interests of the people of Oyo State, Governor 'Seyi Makinde has expressed his avowed commitment to the timely completion of the World Bank-backed Ibadan Urban Flood Management Project (IUFMP).

The governor has also appealed to the World Bank not to withdraw its conditional no objection for the Second Pool of Long Term Investments (PLTI2) BERs, and make available funding for the contracts.

COVID-19 food price hikes in least developed countries raise concerns - NaijaAgroNet

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

Food insecurity has been a long-standing concern in least developed countries (LDCs), but COVID-19 is exacerbating this problem, derailing progress towards UN Sustainable Development Goal 2, which aims to achieve “zero hunger”.

Source: UNCTAD secretariat calculations based on data from FAOSTAT.

Data points for the difference in inflation rate compared to the pre-pandemic period for two outliers – South Sudan and Sudan – are not displayed to ease readability.

Breastfeeding week 2021: Breast is best says Prof. Abayomi - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet:

Lagos State Government has declared that breast is the best for children under two years, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Lagos Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, made this declaration at a news conference, in commemoration of the World Breastfeeding Week, in Alausa-Lagos.

Prof. Emma Akin Abayomi

“Breast is the best ... for the first 2 years” he asserted.

Oyo begins training of 3,300 youths in agribusiness - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

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

Ekeigwe Harps on Importance of Self-Control in Organizations

One of Nigeria’s leading minds in accounting, Christian Ekeigwe, has harped on the need for accountants to exercise sufficient self-control as they play their gatekeeping roles in society.  Ekeigwe, a fellow of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and Certified Public Accountant (CPA, Massachusetts), traced audit failures to lack of self-control in people holding critical governance and control positions in organizations, and yet accounting wisdom does not recognize this pathology. He, therefore, describes self-control as “accounting’s blindside”, which he said is the root cause of what ails it (accounting) and from where it suffers myriads of setbacks.

Ekeigwe who is the Chairman of Audit Committee Institute (ACI) and pioneered IT auditing in Nigeria decried the fact that “self-control has been unremarked in the accounting conversation in our society despite recent egregious audit failures, which he said can only be explained by flaws in human judgment due to insufficient self-control competence.”  

Ekeigwe made these assertions in the third edition of his now sought-after allocution series to the accounting profession titled, A Letter to My Profession.  He said that after four decades of training and working in the accounting profession, he has come to the conclusion that self-control, the “skill that matters most,” is the blindside of accounting. He argued that self-control is a blindside of accounting because it is not conceptually captured in the wisdom of accounting, despite the fact that its absence has resulted in a recent history of accounting that is punctate with, among other things, inexpiable audit failures.  He asserted that failure of self-control is the root cause of what ails modern accounting, and that recognizing the profound role of self-control will have equally profound impact on the survival and prosperity of individuals, firms and nations.

Accounting, he continued, must now include self-control as a deliberate competence that all accountants must consciously cultivate, recommending that accounting training should use instruction, examples and impressive imagery to inculcate self-control in the new generation of accountants to immunize them against the halo effect of hedonic histrionics of modern society.

Dwelling on the importance of self-control, Ekeigwe pointed out that empires, companies and individuals have collapsed as a result of poor self-control, noting that in all philosophies, religions and civilizations, self-control has been shown to be a critical success factor. According to him, the importance of self-control is well captured by Tony  Schwartz, an American journalist and business book author, when he said “without self-control, we can’t accomplish almost anything of enduring value.”  Stretching the argument, Ekeigwe said ‘in fact, civilization itself advanced only after humans started exercising sufficient self-control which made trust and cooperation possible.

He further argued that without self-control it is impossible to become trustworthy, a fundamental quality for accountants without which society would withhold the audit franchise.  “One can conclude that the majesty and affordances of accounting could not be sustained without self-control as a deliberate competence”, he added.  He regretted that despite the overwhelming scientific evidence that self-control is a critical competence particularly for accountants and auditors in their gatekeeping roles in society, the profession has not recognized and emphasized it in its curriculum, wisdom and practice, noting that ethical standards of the profession touch on self-control only indirectly, tangentially.  Pointedly, he said “after a fair search of accounting literature, I now conclude that self-control is the blindside of accounting and that we cannot fix what ails modern accounting and auditing until we accept the wisdom of the discipline of self-control into the wisdom of accounting”. 

Ekeigwe strongly recommended that “in view of its prepotent role and benefits, self-control should be institutionally identified as a necessary deliberate competence for accountants and consciously cultivated”. He also recommended that the auditability of self-control should be operationalized with appropriate risk assessment methodologies, audit work programmes that help identify reportable conditions and a reporting regime that sends subliminal message of the primacy of self-control in governance.  In this regard, he said: “A low rating of self-control should be identified as high risk organizations and should be an eliminator when selecting management and employees who would occupy critical and sensitive roles.  In particular, job profiles that are associated with oversight of high-value assets or sensitive resources should require high self-control reliability index”.

Ekeigwe maintained that “self-control is the most important emerging competence for the accounting profession.  He however lamented that “we are preoccupied with the impact of technology, forgetting that even technology itself depends on the self-control of the individuals who ideate, design, build, operate technology systems and on the self-control of those who use the data generated with technology tools for critical decision making”.

According to him, accounting cannot deliver on the promise of accounting to serve the public interest and uphold the public trust with a generation that is tragically low on self-control. He warned that ignoring the accounting profession’s blindside, which he has identified as self-control, will be an undermining “unforced error” that could bumble the profession to irrelevance, obscurity and failure.