Author: straightnewsng.com

By Akanimo Sampson The world’s first international standard for oxygen reduction systems has emerged. This is a seeming good news of sorts because one of the most effective ways of preventing fires in buildings is to reduce the level of oxygen in the air. Prevention is always better than cure, and there are few better examples than with fires. If fires can only survive when there is oxygen to fuel them, removing it from the air is an effective way to ensure that the environment remains fire-free. Oxygen reduction systems (ORS) do that by creating atmospheres where there is not…

Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom, Tuesday, presented N597 billion for the 2020 budget to the state House of Assembly for consideration and passage into law. The budget lower than the 2019 figure of N672 billion shows a difference of N75 billion. Christened Budget of Industrialisation for Poverty Alleviation Phase II, the budget is made up of N111 billion recurrent expenditure, N369 billion capital expenditure and N116 billion consolidated revenue. Mr Emmanuel said the budget guided by the International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS) in preparation was targeted at building more industries as well as attracting direct foreign investment to…

The Federal Government has presented N10.33 trillion ($33.8 billion) budget proposal for 2020 to the National Assembly for approval. The government said it is working to restore the Budget cycle from January-December format for proper planning and implementation. Presenting the budget to the joint session of the upper and lower chambers on Tuesday, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari presented a record said the 2020 budget is based on a new VAT rate. Nigeria raises VAT to 7.5% from 5% Recently, the government announced an increase in the country’s Value Added Tax (VAT) from 5% to 7.5% to generate more revenue and…

The “Only God” motto adopted by the Divine Mandate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Akwa Ibom Chapter before and during the concluded elections as a swan song reverberated at the weekend during a thanksgiving service in far way Ghana, a West African country. Governor Udom Emmanuel leading of Ephraim Inyang-eyen, the Works Commissioner; Nsikan Linus Nkan, the Finance Commissioner, Orman Esin, the Commissioner for Culture and Tourism; Otuekong Raphael Bassey, the Commissioner for Housing, among others worshipped at Action Chapel International in Accra, Ghana founded by Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams as the host during a three-day Prophetic encounter gathering on…

An Akwa Ibom-born boy from a private secondary school has emerged third in the recent Young Nigerian Scientists Presidential Award, 2019. He is Master Joshua John Mark, a student of Nigerian Christian Institute (NCI), Uyo, the state capital. The Oruk Anam-born who contested with 774 students from the 36 states of the federation won prizes, laptop computer, #500,000 cash and a scholarship to study up to Ph.D level in the university. Receiving the award winner in his office, Dr Iniobong Essien, the state Commissioner for Science and Technology, restated the government’s commitment to the promotion of science and technology in…

By Akanimo Sampson The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) is currently making efforts to boost manufacturing in the country in a seeming frantic bid to smash the country’s rate of importation. Analysts say imports to the country surged 46 percent from a year earlier to N1.042 trillion in June 2019, boosted by purchases of manufactured goods (100.5 percent); raw materials (38.5 percent); agriculture goods (1.6 percent) and solid minerals (86.9 percent) Purchases rose mostly from China (78.7%), India (70.2%), Japan (92..2%), and the US (181.6%). Imports averaged N234.3 billion from 1981 until 2019, hitting an all time high of N2.2…

By Akanimo Sampson The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), a United Nations agency, has assisted 143 Somali returnees stranded in Yemen to return home. A total of 46 men, 41 women, 26 boys and 30 girls set off by boat from Aden, Yemen, the previous Monday and arrived the next day at the port of Berbera. The movement was made possible through funding from the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) and the Government of Kuwait. IOM works in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on returnee movements out of war-torn Yemen. With the…

By Akanimo Sampson Boko Haram still remains a threat to security in the North-East axis of Nigeria, Human Rights Watch has said in its World Report 2019 on Nigeria. The verdict is coming despite notable military advances, and a seeming premature proclamations of the jihadists’ group defeat by government forces. Disturbingly, the Premium Times reported that on Thursday, the rampaging terrorists killed 11 soldiers and wounded 14 in an ambush on a military convoy in Borno State. Thirty-four brave troops of 154 Task Force Battalion, including two officers, were on a patrol of Mauli-Borgozo area of battle when Boko Haram…

President Muhammadu Buhari, Monday, said a significant proportion of Nigeria’s prosperity today is concentrated in the hands of a few people. He said those few people are currently living primarily in four or five states and the Federal Capital Territory. The President said this at the opening session of the 25th Nigerian Economic Summit held in Abuja. He said while only five states had most of the wealthy people, the remaining 31 states have about 150 million people waiting for better opportunities to thrive. The President said a prosperous society is one where the majority of its citizens have an…

Doctors Without Borders, MSF, Monday on warned of a decline in international funding and rapid shifting of the financial burden to affected countries after a decade of strong commitments to fight HIV and tuberculosis (TB). The decline is in danger of reversing lifesaving gains and causing an “epidemic rebound” in some countries, MSF said in a report. The goal of ending HIV and TB is still far from being achieved as the diseases, together, still kill upwards of two million people each year, MSF said. In spite of this, donor and domestic funding for HIV programmes declined in 2018 for…