FG TO GRANT INCENTIVES TO INVESTORS IN A BID TO RESUSTICATE THE ECONOMY

The Federal Government will grant incentives to encourage investment in the priority sectors listed in the recently released Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.
Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma, said in a statement signed by his Media Adviser, James Akpandem.
Udoma gave the assurance in Abuja when he received the Japanese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Sadanobu Kusaoke in his office.
He said the plan focused on achieving macroeconomic stability, transforming agriculture, driving sufficiency in energy, improving transportation infrastructure and growing industrialization with attention on small and medium scale enterprises.
According to him, implementation is paramount in the realization of the plan’s objectives, therefore attention will be on prioritizing the identified strategies and establishing a clear system of accountability.
He said attention would also be given to allocate resources to prioritized interventions, creating an enabling policy and regulatory environment and developing an effective monitoring and evaluation system to track progress.
The Plan, he explained, would be driven by some fundamental principles, including a focus on tackling constraints to growth.
He said it would also be driven by leveraging the power of the private sector and promoting national cohesion and social inclusion as well as allowing markets to function.

Nigerian Senators are ‘clowns, acting like bunch of errant school children’ – Buhari’s aide, Onnochie

Personal Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Social Media, Lauretta Onochie, has described the Nigerian senate as “clowns” who have turned itself into a chamber that works with blackmail.
Onnochie made the remark while reacting to the recent decision by the Senate not to screen nominees sent by the President until Ibrahim Magu is fired as the Acting Chairman of the EFCC.

In a post on her Facebook wall, the presidential aide lambasted the senators, saying they have neglected their principal’s role of law making.

WRONG MEDICATION KILLS MILLIONS OF PEOPLE ANUALLY - WHO

Medication errors kill and injure millions of people while an estimated 42 billion dollars is lost annually, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said, on Wednesday.
Director-General of  WHO, Margaret Chan,  at a  new campaign, “ Global Patient Safety Challenge on Medication Safety,’’  said  that  medicines should fulfil their real purpose to help people and  not harm them.
Chan said the  campaign was seeking  to reduce severe and  avoidable medication-associated damage across the globe by half over the next five years.

“According to estimates, the global cost associated with medication errors has been estimated at 42 billion dollars annually or almost one per cent of total global health expenditure.
“In terms of impact on the health of people, for instance in the United States, medication errors cause at least one death every day and injure approximately 1.3 million people annually,” she said.
The WHO chief added: “We all expect to be helped, not harmed, when we take medication.

Nigerian Pop Star TEKNO to Break In North America?

Last year, the Nigerian star Tekno heard an instrumental that reminded him of his breakout hit, "Duro." Though the producer, Krizbeatz, was planning to send the beat elsewhere, Tekno asked to take a crack at it. "Then I went upstairs and ate the beat up," the singer tells Billboard. "The feeling I had when I recorded that? I fell in love with my own song like it wasn't mine."
That single, titled "Pana," has gone on to entrap other listeners the same way it conquered its creator, accumulating 30 million streams between YouTube and Spotify. Veterans like Trey Songz and Ludacris have posted clips of themselves listening to the song on Instagram, and "Pana" also caught the attention of Imran Majid, senior vice president of A&R at Columbia, who signed the track and re-released it in December.
Tekno's connection with Columbia is the latest step forward in an inch-by-inch acknowledgement of the commercial viability of Nigerian pop in the U.S. Most of those steps have come via collaborations sprinkled over the last five years -- P-Square and Rick Ross, D'banj and Kanye West, Davido and Meek Mill, Wizkid and Major Lazer, Wizkid and R. Kelly. Nigerian-born Ayo Jay had a minor hit with "Your Number" last year, which got some attention when Fetty Wap appeared on one remix, and Chris Brown and Kid Ink on another. The best-known recent example of a Nigerian-Western team-up is Drake's "One Dance," which included Wizkid. Wizkid is now signed to RCA -- also the home of Davido and Ayo Jay -- with an album due out on the label this summer.

PRESIDENTIAL GOLF BREAKS: GOOD FOR AMERICA

On March 27, CNN reports, US president Donald Trump left the White House for a day at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia, his 13th trip to one of the numerous golf courses he owns. The implication of the media’s mild obsession with his trips is that Trump is wasting time playing cow pasture pool when he should be attending to the duties of his office.
Former president Barack Obama came in for similar criticism from Republicans — including Donald Trump — over the 333 rounds of golf he played as president according to Golf News Net. That averages 41 outings per year, or one every nine days.
Personally, I don’t see the problem. I wish Obama had played more golf, and I’d be happy to see Trump spend seven days a week on the links.

HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE DRESSED AS ALBERT EINSTEIN SET TO SMASH GUINNESS WORLD RECORD

 

If you were wandering around the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto on Tuesday, you might have stumbled upon a peculiar sight: hundreds of people dressed up as none other than Albert Einstein.
Don’t worry, this wasn’t just a spooky sartorial coincidence, but rather an effort to smash the Guinness World Record for the largest group of people dressed as Einstein. And at 404 strong, the group broke the previous record by 99 white-haired scientists.

Fast-track social work programme opens for applications

A government-backed fast-track training scheme for social workers has opened for applications.
The Step Up to Social Work program, will take on 550 graduates for its fifth cohort, which starts in January 2018. Applications close on 5 May.
Trainees on the 14-month course receive a bursary of more than £19,000 and have their tuition fees paid. The minimum entry requirement is a 2:1 degree or a 2:2 degree plus a higher level qualification. The course is delivered by regional partnerships of councils and universities.
Children’s minister Edward Timpson said the scheme offered a “fantastic opportunity” for people to enter social work and help children and families.

HEALTH ALERT: SICKLE CELL ANEMIA A SILENT KILLER

Raipur, Chhattisgarh - Thirty-three-year-old Ramnath Sahu looks visibly distressed. The day before, his four-year-old son, Kuldeep, was diagnosed with sickle cell - a hereditary disease affecting the red blood cells.
"Don't worry my child, nothing will happen to you," says Kuldeep's 54-year-old grandmother, Ramvati Bai, as she caresses the boy in front of their home in the village of Akola, in Bemetara district.
Kuldeep's seven-year-old brother, Harsh, was diagnosed with the disease last year.

According to a 2013 report by the Jawahar Lal Nehru Memorial Medical College in the state's capital, Raipur, 10 percent of Chhattisgarh's population is affected by the disease, with the state's indigenous tribal population disproportionately affected.