Nation
FG Disburses N200,000 Grant To Local Producers Of Assistive Devices
The Federal Government yesterday, disbursed N200, 000 each to some identified local producers of assistive devices across the 36 states of the federation.
Hajia Sadiya Farouq, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (FMHADMSD) said this at a three-day capacity building workshop for Local Producers of Assistive Technologies (AT) in Lokoja, Kogi.
The minister explained that the ministry in collaboration with state governments had earlier in 2018, through a forum identified those local producers of assistive devices across the 36 states and FCT.
She added that the inspection team from the ministry and partners had visited the 36 States and FCT to identify the producers.
Farouq noted that the Federal Government disbursed the first phase of the grant in 2021, adding that 36 local producers would benefit from the grants to boost their production in the second phase.
According to her, one person will benefit from each of the 36 states in the second phase.
Farouq noted that each of the identified local producers of assistive devices who participated in the training would be given a grant of N200,000 at the end of the workshop to boost their production.
Represented by Mrs Nkechi Onwukwe, the Director, Special Need Department in the ministry, said the cost of importing the devices was becoming high on the Federal Government, hence the need to look inwards.
The minister advised the beneficiaries to maximise the opportunities and efficiently utilise the fund to show the world that they could deliver on domestic need of assistive device in Nigeria.
She stressed that the ministry would also monitor to ensure proper utilisation of the fund.
Farouq said the workshop was put together with the aim of ensuring that millions of Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) enjoyed the right to independent living, inclusion and participation through local production of quality and affordable assistive devices.
According to her, the workshop is to enlighten local producers on how best to maintain, develop and improve production; interact with successful producers; and ensure standardisation and quality control of production.
“This can be achieved by encouraging our local producers to rise up to the occasion by challenging the status quo and deliver quality products that can match up with foreign ones.
“’Government is ready and will continue to provide enabling environment for the sustainability of our local producers to thrive,” she said.
Farouq stressed that the workshop would enhance the development of participants’ entrepreneurial competencies to favourably compete in the business environment.
She urged all stakeholders to ensure improved access to assistive devices to enable PWDs to participate more actively in societal activities and adapt positively to challenges of impairment.
About 1,000 lecturers of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka have protested non-payment of their salaries after five years of employment.
The protesting lecturers said a total of 12 of their colleagues, who were employed at the same period have died while waiting to be paid their emoluments.
Wielding placards with inscriptions to tell their stories, the lecturers appealed for payment of their salaries, saying that the current economic hardship in the country bites more on them and their families.
One of the affected lecturers, Mr Ibezim Echezona, said, “Our members are dying and we have buried 12 members so far, the last one was this year and this is someone that we saw last December and today she is no more and that is to tell you what we are going through due to non payment of our salaries for five to six years now.
“This problem is in the hands of the university because the IPPIS is no more. We demand an explanation. They should tell us if it is Abuja or the school management that is holding our salaries.”
Another staff who works at the Center for Disabilities And Special Needs Research, Mr Chukwuebuka Emmanuel said since his employment in 2019, he has not received any remuneration, yet he has been delivering services.
Emmanuel, a blind staff said: “We were employed since 2019 and till date we have not received any salary and initially we were told that the problem is with the Integrated Payment and Personnel Information System IPPIS. Later the then Governing Council came on board and approved our payments and capturing, yet nothing came out of it.
“This has been affecting us generally not to talk of people with disabilities and it has not been easy as a family man taking care of his wife and children.
“If I remove my spectacle you can see that I am crying and we are owing our landlords and there is a limit at which the landlord can assist you and what do I tell my children when they demand school fees and other needs?
“We do not know those that are holding our salaries we do not know if it is the Federal government or the Ministry of Education or the University,” he said.
Nigerian workers have announced February 4, 2025, as the date to embark on a nationwide protest against the 50 percent telecommunications services tariff hike in the country.
The Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, disclosed this in a statement yesterday.
This comes as the Nigerian Communications Commission on January 20, 2025, announced the approval for telecom companies to hike services tariffs by 50 percent.
The approval has sparked a wide tide of rejection by Nigerians, including the NLC.
In an update to press home their opposition against the telecom tariff hike, the NLC vowed to shut down the country through a nationwide protest.
This is part of its mobilisation against the planned 50 percent telecom tariff hike.
The Tide’s source noted that the nationwide protest was agreed on at the National Admini-strative Council, NAC, of the labour union.
The protest aims at sounding a note of warning to the government that workers would resist the planned hike as it would worsen the poverty level across the country.
Recall that NLC had, on January 22, rejected the 50 percent telecommunication tariffs hike approved by the Federal Government through the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC.
The NLC said that the 50 percent tariff hike approval, at a time Nigerian workers and the masses are grappling with unprecedented economic hardship, is a clear assault on their welfare and an abandonment of the people to corporate fat cats.
“This decision, coming at a time when Nigerian workers and the masses are grappling with unprecedented economic hardship, is a clear assault on their welfare and an abandonment of the people to corporate fat cats,” the statement by NLC president, Joe Ajaero partly reads.
Earlier, Nigerians under the aegis of the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers vowed to drag the Nigerian government and telcos to court over the 50 percent telecoms service tariff hike.
Meanwhile, the government had repeatedly justified the latest telecom tariff hike on rising inflation which stood at 34.80 percent in December.
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