Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Nigeria launches drone surveying pilot project to map capital Abuja

Nigeria is set to launch a pioneering drone survey project, aimed at creating digital twin maps of the country's capital Abuja, marking one of the first such initiatives in Africa. The project will utilize drone technology to capture 3D representations of buildings, providing an accurate and real-time digital model of the city’s landscape.

The project, which will be carried out over a timespan of three weeks, aims to advance land surveying and geospatial capabilities. With the growing importance of accurate geospatial data, this initiative will help modernize surveying practices and support urban planning and development efforts.

Collaboration with international experts will provide the technical support needed to process the data, further enhancing the country’s ability to leverage the latest technologies in geospatial information management. The project is also aligned with the broader goals of sustainable development, as surveying plays a key role in achieving 14 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Geospatial modernization strategy

In addition to the ongoing project, Nigeria has experienced recent successes in staff development, including the training of over 100 personnel through collaborations with the United Nations. These trained staff will serve as focal points for the office’s continued modernization efforts. Furthermore, the office has made strides in creating a National Repository of Metadata for gathering and handling geospatial data and is working to support federal ministries with mapping and geo-spatial information services.

A review of the Survey Coordination Act of Nigeria may also be beneficial to ensure that the office operates with the most relevant and effective legal framework.

If successful, this project could pave the way for similar mapping initiatives in other Nigerian cities, while also serving as a model for other African countries. It would further enhance the country’s geospatial capabilities and support its urban development goals.

Monday, March 24, 2025

Canada denies over 13,000 Nigerians refugee status

Over 13,000 Nigerians who applied for refugee protection in Canada from January 2013 to December 2024 were rejected.

Data from the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada said this figure includes 811 Nigerians whose applications were turned down in 2024.

The breakdown of the rejections showed that 127 Nigerian claims were rejected in 2013, 241 in 2014 and 248 in 2015.

In 2016, 2017 and 2018, 476, 917 and 1,777 claims were rejected, respectively.

In 2019, 3,951 Nigerian applicants were turned down, marking the highest number of rejected claims by Nigerians.

Meanwhile, 1,770, 1,686, 728, 439 and 811 persons were denied protection in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, respectively.

The board placed Nigeria among the top five countries with the most rejected claims in 2024.

Mexico tops the list with 2,954 rejections, followed by India and Haiti, which have 1,688 and 982 rejected claims respectively.

Colombia is in fourth place with 723 rejected claims, while Nigeria is in fifth place with 811 rejections.

In Canada, asylum seekers get refugee protection if the RPD satisfactorily confirms that their claims meet the United Nations definition of a Convention refugee.

Skin-lightening creams in Nigeria: 'I scarred my six children'

 

At first it seemed to work. The grandmother warmed towards Fatima's children, who were aged between two and 16 at the time.

But then the burns and scars appeared.

Skin-whitening or lightening, also known as bleaching in Nigeria, is used in different parts of the world for cosmetic reasons, though these often have deep cultural roots.

Women in Nigeria use skin-whitening products more than in any other African country - 77% use them regularly, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

In Congo-Brazzaville the figure is 66%, in Senegal 50% and in Ghana 39%.

The creams may contain corticosteroids or hydroquinone, which can be harmful if used in high quantities, and in many countries are only obtainable with a doctor's prescription.

Other ingredients sometimes used are the poisonous metal, mercury, and kojic acid - a by-product from the manufacture of the Japanese alcoholic drink, sake.

Dermatitis, acne and skin discolouration are possible consequences, but also inflammatory disorders, mercury poisoning and kidney damage.

The skin may become thinner, with the result that wounds take longer to heal, and are more likely to become infected, the WHO says.

The situation is so bad that Nigeria's National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (Nafdac) declared a state of emergency in 2023.

It is also becoming more common for women to bleach their children, like Fatima did.

"A lot of people link light skin to beauty or wealth. Women tend to shield, as they call it, their children from that discrimination by bleaching them from childbirth," Zainab Bashir Yau, the owner of a dermatology spa in the capital, Abuja, tells the BBC.

She estimates that 80% of the women she has met have bleached their children, or plan to do so.

Some were bleached themselves as babies, she says, so are just continuing the practice.

One of the most common ways to tell whether someone is using skin-whitening products in Nigeria is by the darkness of their knuckles. Other parts of people's hands or feet get lighter, but knuckles tend to remain dark.

However, smokers and drug users also sometimes have dark patches on their hands, due to the smoke.

So users of skin-lightening products are sometimes mistakenly assumed to belong to this group.

Fatima says that is what happened to her daughters, aged 16 and 14.

"They faced discrimination from society - they all point fingers at them and call them drug addicts. This has affected them a lot," she says.

They have both lost potential fiancés because men do not want to be associated with women who might be thought to take drugs.

I visited a popular market in Kano, where people who call themselves "mixologists" create skin-whitening creams from scratch.

The market has a whole row of shops where thousands of these creams are sold.

Some pre-mixed varieties are arranged on shelves, but customers can also select raw ingredients and ask for the cream to be mixed in front of them.

I noticed that many bleaching creams, with labels saying they were for babies, contained regulated substances.

Other sellers admitted using regulated ingredients such as kojic acid, hydroquinone and a powerful antioxidant, glutathione, which may cause rashes and other side-effects.

I also witnessed teenage girls buying bleaching creams for themselves and in bulk so that they could sell them to their peers.

One woman, who had discoloured hands, insisted that a seller add a lightening agent to a cream that was being mixed for her children, even though it was a regulated substance for adults and illegal to use on children.

"Even though my hands are discoloured, I am here to buy creams for my kids so they can be light-skinned. I believe my hands are this way just because I used the wrong one. Nothing will happen to my children," she said.

One seller said most of his customers were buying creams to make their babies "glow", or to look "radiant and shiny".

Most seemed to be unaware of the approved dosages.

One salesman said he used "a lot of kojic" - well over the prescribed limit - if someone wanted light skin and a smaller quantity if they wanted a subtler change.

The approved dosage of kojic acid in creams in Nigeria is 1%, according to Nafdac.

I even saw salesmen giving women injections.

Dr Leonard Omokpariola, a director at Nafdac, says attempts are being made to educate people about the risks.

He also says markets are being raided, and there are efforts to seize skin-lightening ingredients at Nigeria's borders as they are brought into the country.

But he says it was sometimes hard for law-enforcement officials to identify these substances.

"Some of them are just being transported in unlabelled containers, so if you do not take them to the labs for evaluation, you can't tell what is inside."

Fatima says her actions will haunt her forever, especially if her children's scars do not fade.

"When I confided in my mum about what I did, due to her behaviour, and when she heard the dangers of the cream and what stigma her grandchildren are facing, she was sad that they had to go through that and apologised," she says.

Fatima is determined to help other parents avoid making the same mistake.

"Even though I have stopped... the side-effects are still here, I beg other parents to use my situation as an example."

By Madina Maishanu, BBC

Friday, March 21, 2025

Video - Nigeria advocates for China tariff exemptions



Nigeria and China have maintained a strong trade relationship, with transactions surpassing $21 billion in 2024. While China recently granted tariff exemptions to 33 African countries, Nigeria was not included, raising concerns about Nigeria's trade policies and its competitiveness.

Video - Nigeria's petrol import expenditure soars to all-time high in 2024



Nigeria spent $9.64 billion on petrol imports in 2024, a 105 percent increase from 2023. This sharp rise underscores the country’s continued reliance on imported fuel despite efforts to boost domestic refining capacity.