NAIJAFEED

Thursday, October 20, 2022

Nigeria's flooding spreads to the Delta, upending lives and livelihoods

People wade through fast-flowing water, holding one another to avoid being swept away, balancing suitcases, clothing and food on their heads.

The torrent was, until recently, the East-West Road in Nigeria's Rivers state, the gateway to the nation's oil and gas.

Now parts of Rivers, along with large swathes of 32 other states, are inundated by the worst flooding in 12 years.

"We cannot access Ahoada West anymore," local government chairman Hope Ikiriko said of the area he represents. He said 30 boats were helping to move people to camps built to accommodate the area's 150,000 displaced.

"We are going to rescue people who hitherto never wanted to quit," he added.

Nigerian authorities said Rivers, Anambra, Delta, Cross River and Bayelsa states remain at risk of flooding until the end of November.

The flooding has killed more than 600 people, displaced around 1.4 million and damaged or destroyed 440,000 hectares of farmland. Health officials warn it could worsen an ongoing cholera outbreak, and even natural gas exports are at risk.

Authorities blame heavy rains and a water release from the Lagdo dam in Cameroon. Experts say global warming, and poor planning, worsened the disaster.

"Climate change is playing a big role in this," said Hiba Baroud, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Vanderbilt University. "But the other component is...the vulnerability of the infrastructure. This is how we end up in a disaster like this one."

The 2021 Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index ranked Nigeria among the bottom 20 nations in its readiness to adapt to climate change.

Baroud said a Nigerian dam meant to backstop Cameroon's Lagdo was planned, but never completed. A lack of zoning allows houses in flood zones and poor irrigation places farmers at the edge of rivers that can inundate their fields.

"It's going to have cascading effects on diseases, on food security and so on," Baroud said.

By Angela Ukomadu

Reuters

Video - Nigeria floods: Thousands of displaced people in need of help

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Dangote sets 10-yr manufacturing target for Nigeria’s industrialisation

Group, Alh. Aliko Dangote, has outlined the targets that Nigeria’s manufacturing sector needs to meet to ensure the nation’s industrialisation in the next 10 years.

To promote industrialisation in the country, he said that the manufacturing sector’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) should be more than double to 20 percent, up from the current 9 percent, among others, within the next decade.

Dangote spoke yesterday, in Lagos, at the 2nd Adekola Odutola Lecture organised by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) in commemoration of its 50th Annual General Meeting.

He stated: “Nigeria needs to, henceforth, intensify efforts at promoting industrialization with specific focus on the attainment of the following targets in the next 10 years:

“15% manufacturing sector growth, 20% manufacturing contribution to GDP, 15% growth in export of manufactured products, 10% increase in the share of manufacturing to total export merchandize, stronger inter-industry linkage between SMEs and large corporations, improved manufacturing contribution to government tax revenue and 20% increase in manufacturing employment.”

Dangote noted that industrialisation facilitates the global competitiveness of a nation in the production of processed and manufactured goods by linking industrial activity with primary sector, domestic and foreign trade, and service activities.

His words: “To achieve industrialisation goals, it is necessary for a nation to formulate plans and policies that will enhance and sustain industrial development. Sustainable industrial development involves establishment of a conducive environment to encourage investment and ensure efficient usage of resources to increase productivity and growth of the nation.

“The creation of a pathway to steady and sustained industrial growth entails the deployment of industrialization centric strategies and policies; promotion of the National Manufacturing Philosophy; securing the buy-in of government for successful implementation of the agenda; promotion of smart manufacturing; the establishment of a robust framework aimed at improving the business environment, the extension of comprehensive and integrated support to priority sectors with strong linkages and growth potentials as espoused in the NDP 2021-2025 with particular emphasis on improved value addition and export of manufactured products. It also entails the development of strong partnership with the private sector within and outside the country.”

By Yinka Kolawole

Vanguard

Dangote oil refinery to help solve fuel shortage in Nigeria

Direct flights between Nigeria and Israel might be coming soon

Starting next month, Israelis might be able to travel to a new destination in Africa directly from Ben-Gurion Airport.

Nigerian airline Air Peace could start offering direct flights between Nigeria and Israel very soon, CEO Allen Onyema revealed this week in a meeting with the Israeli envoy to Nigeria.

The launch of the new flight route between Lagos and Tel Aviv, while not officially confirmed as of yet, could come as early as next month.

New potential line good news for Nigerian Christians

The 4,300 km. route would see the flight time between the two countries decrease significantly to only six hours. Currently, the travel can often include several transfers and usually takes longer than 10 hours.

The potential line is especially significant for many Nigerian Christians who wish to travel to Israel for its holy sites.

The Jerusalem Post

Frustrated Nigerians 'flee' abroad in punishing pre-election brain drain

Nnamdi Nwaogu, a 44-year-old IT worker, has packed his bags. In Lagos, Nigeria's frenetic commercial capital, galloping inflation and a plunging naira have pummeled his salary.

Nwaogu, like hundreds of other Nigerians, left amid a brain drain that is punishing even for a nation used to losing its young and educated.

"We have serious doubts if this is the time for that hope to blossom," he said before flying to the UK last month.

Nwaogu began a master's degree in England, while his wife, a doctor, will join him in January with their three children.

Departing workers are impacting nearly every sector, stretching a weak healthcare system, forcing employers to recruit on a continuous basis and worsening services from banking to tech.

The phenomenon -- dubbed "japa," meaning "to flee" in Yoruba -- regularly trends on social media. Many cite unprecedented nationwide insecurity, inflation at a 17-year-high and a loss of faith in leaders before the February 2023 presidential election.

"We are witnessing an epidemic of brain drain," said Dr Dare Godiya Ishaya, president of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).

Ishaya said comparatively low pay, workplace assaults and lack of safety – 20 NARD members have been kidnapped this year -- were all reasons members left.

A NARD poll showed that nearly 800 resident doctors had left this year, while 85% of its leadership were planning to leave. The result is hours-long waits at hospitals, he said, doctor burnout and deteriorating care.

Real-time nationwide statistics on those leaving are not available. But British government data showed a 300% increase in Nigerians getting UK work visas in the year to June, to 15,772.

Others are going to Canada, Australia and the United States.

The exodus lead a banking industry group to release a study last month on ways to retain workers, while tech firms such as Yellow Card Financial, a cryptocurrency exchange, told Reuters they had started offering stock options and pay in dollars.

"The competition for talent is only going to get more and more intense," said Yellow Card chief executive Chris Maurice.

The pull from countries grappling with their own worker shortages is aiding the exodus.

One Nigerian accountant who moved to the UK in May said it took her just three months to get offers from two of the Big Four accounting firms; her company, she said, recently doubled its referral fee to 1,000.

Lagos-based consultancy SBM warned that the loss of skilled labour was bound to have a negative economic impact.

For Nwaogu, there is no choice.

"I want to be able to give my children a better quality of life," he said. "I can't get that here."

By Libby George

Reuters

Middle-Class Emigration affecting skill shortage in Nigeria

Video - Low wages, and lack of infrastructure leading to a "brain drain" in Nigeria's IT sector

Gunmen abduct at least 10 hospital workers in Nigeria's Niger state

Gunmen have abducted at least 10 healthcare workers in Nigeria's Niger state and killed an unspecified number after bandits invaded a general hospital early on Tuesday, a hospital and military source said.

Armed bandits operating for cash have kidnapped or killed hundreds across northwest Nigeria. Niger state officials have said that Islamist militant group Boko Haram had taken over multiple communities in the state, offering villagers money and incorporating them in their ranks to fight the government.

The hospital source said more than 20 staff were kidnapped, including patient relatives, while the security source said two people had been killed after the gunmen invaded the general hospital in Lapai local government in large numbers.

Niger state governor, Sani Bello said a number of people were killed during Tuesday's attack at Gulu General Hospital and unspecified number abducted including medical workers. He did not specify how many had been killed.

Separately, Dr Dare Godiya Ishaya, president of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), told Reuters that 20 NARD members have been kidnapped this year, causing some of them to leave the country partly due to a lack of safety.

By Chijioke Ohuocha

Reuters

Video - Freed schoolboys arrive in Nigeria’s Katsina week after abduction