Posts

Posted on

Ethiopia, Tanzania Can Connect Africa via Southern African Power Pool: Tanzania Geothermal Company

Addis Ababa April 29/2023 ENA Ethiopia and Tanzania need to amplify the collaboration in energy sector to connect with the Southern African power pool to realize regional integration, Tanzania Geothermal Development Company General Manager said.

Tanzania Geothermal Development Company General Manager, Matthew Mwangomba told ENA that it is open secret that Tanzania and Ethiopia have enormous potential in renewable energy sector.

In Tanzania, he said, the long-term development agenda recognizes energy as a strategic sector for achieving growth for the social wellbeing of the population.

Ethiopia likewise has been undertaking comprehensive reforms to attract investment into its renewable energy sector.

Minister of Water and Energy, Habtamu Itefa recently affirmed that Ethiopia is desirous to connect to the entire region, starting from Ethiopia to South Africa through Tanzania.

Citing that there is a long history between Ethiopia and Tanzania, he said it is very important for Ethiopia and Tanzania to collaborate especially in the power sector.

“As we know, we have got a southern African power pool and this is the way we can connect our Africa, sub-Saharan Africa with power,” the General Manager elaborated.

Ethiopia is working for creating accessibility of electricity not only for its citizens but also connecting with neighboring countries as well.

Accordingly, Ethiopia will provide electric energy to South Sudan and Somalia in the near future as Sudan, Djibouti and Kenya are already getting electricity from the country.

“Without power, we cannot move in terms of development, so it is very important for the two countries to collaborate in energy sector especially in geothermal, hydropower and other sources of electricity.”

In Tanzania, he said “We have got a very nice enabling environment, we have the law like the PPP, we have got conducive environment”.

So, we encourage the two countries to work together, and moving forward regarding energy. Especially in the case of renewable energy, it is important to collaborate between these two countries.

On the business climate in Ethiopia, he said “we understand it is a very nice country, in terms of development, it is moving so fast. For me, Ethiopia has the enabling environment especially for energy sector.”

Recall that Ethiopia and Tanzania have held a two-day conference this week in collaboration with African Energy Now under the theme “Fast-tracking renewable energy investment in Ethiopia and Tanzania” in Addis Ababa.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

Posted on

Africa Cannot Afford to Miss Fourth Industrial Revolution: ECA Acting Executive Secretary

Addis Ababa April 29/2023 (ENA)Africa risks being left behind if it fails to adapt the Fourth Industrial Revolution by allocating the necessary investment, UNECA Acting Executive Secretary Antonio Pedro said.

Speaking with ENA on the sidelines of the National Girls in ICT Day Celebrations in Addis Ababa, Pedro noted that getting left behind is something that Africa cannot afford.

Africa cannot escape this digital transition, he stressed.

The continent has a possibility to provide access for 1.4 billion people and with the African Continental Free Trade Area we have to facilitate e-commerce to unlock the full potential of Africa, the acting executive secretary stated.

ECA facilitated the National Girls in ICT Day Celebrations in Addis Ababa under the theme “Digital Skills for Life” with the view to inspiring and encouraging girls between the ages of 12 and 25 to pursue careers in science, engineering, technology, mathematics (STEM).

According to Pedro, digital skills remains a key component for girls and young women to thrive in STEM careers and engage in the local digital ecosystem.

The one-day event brought together different stakeholders, including mentors, young women and girls to exchange their experiences and share knowledge around digital skills for life and address different topics related to digital skills such as mentorship, education, youth engagement, among others.

The knowledge sharing activities and exchange of experiences were meant to inspire the girls to engage and participate in ICT, pursue careers related to digital technologies, develop and strengthen their digital skills in order to leverage digital technologies and actively engage in the local digital ecosystem.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

Posted on

Invest Ethiopia 2023 Forum Participants Interested in Investing in Agriculture

Addis Ababa April 29/2023 (ENA)Canadian and Indian investors who have been on business travel to Ethiopia told ENA that they are keen to invest in the agricultural sector.

The Canada-based BTE Ltd company Vice President, Moataz Elshafei told ENA that he is visiting Ethiopia for the first time and was glad that he attended the Invest Ethiopia 2023 Forum in the capital city.

“We invest in various parts of the world and also represent a group of investors. In this trip we are representing a group of Middle East investors interested to come and invest in Ethiopia in the agriculture and agro-processing sector,” he added.

Elshafei revealed that he has already made contacts and plans to have another trip to closely explore investment opportunities.

“I see that Ethiopia has been growing over the years and it is one of the growing and strongest (countries) in Africa and well reorganized all over the world. This event is evidence that it is attracting investors from all over the world.”

The vice president stated that when he goes back to Canada he will hold discussions with colleagues and officials over there. “If Canada doesn’t have strong presence in Ethiopia, definitely I will be an advocate for the Ethiopian government to encourage Canadians to come here.”

According to him, Ethiopian officials are welcoming investors and trying their best to open doors for them.

“I would like to thank them from what I see that they are very welcoming and friendly in all levels and encouraging me to come again and again to make my dreams a reality — to invest in Ethiopia.”

India-Africa Trade Council Coordinator, Babu Parameswaran said on his part he feels that in Africa, especially in Ethiopia, exploration for natural resources and agriculture sector is coming.

For the agriculture sector, we have a proposal to discuss with the Ethiopian Investment Commission. That is where we can do a lot of possibilities in Ethiopia, he stated.

Parameswaran pointed out that he is coordinating some investors from India and Middle East in the field of mining and especially in the agriculture sector.

“We are very much interested to cooperate with the companies and the Government of Ethiopia and we will bring a lot of investors to explore the possibilities in Africa, especially in Ethiopia.”

According to him, “the agriculture sector (in Ethiopia) is growing now. There are a lot of chances to export products to Middle East and other countries. We also like to import pulse items from Ethiopia to India, and a lot of demand is there.”

The climate is good for agriculture and the government is very much active in attracting investors; and I feel that the circumstance is also good.

In Ethiopia electricity and manpower is very cheap, and there is no scarcity of land and water, he noted.

“I know some Indian investors doing agriculture in Ethiopia, and they are very eager to expand their project and looking for other areas of investment,” the coordinator noted.

The international investment forum, Invest Ethiopia 2023, which concluded on Friday has brought together investors, business leaders, policymakers, and entrepreneurs from around the world to enable them explore and unlock investment opportunities in Ethiopia.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

Posted on

Insecurity: Elders forum agrees with Buhari on military’s performance

The National Elders Forum (NEF) has agreed with President Muhammadu Buhari on the performance of the Armed forces in the fight against insurgency and other security challenges since 2015.

Buhari has during the Nigerian Army Trooping and Presentation of Colours Parade 2023 on Thursday, said that the fighting power of the nation’s armed forces had significantly improved in the last seven years.

The president said that at inception of his administration, the nation’s security situation was greatly challenged by the activities of violent non-state actors.

He said the situation had tremendously improved, adding that remarkable progress had been made in the fight against insurgents, militants, oil bunkerers, kidnappers and other criminal elements in the country.

According to Buhari, remarkable transformation of the military in the areas of fighting power, training, operations, manpower, remunerations and medical services, in addition to maintenance efficiency, accommodation and expansion of forces has been recorded.

Reacting to the President’s remark, the NEF, in a statement on Saturday said the military had proven that it had the capacity to defend the country in the face of daunting challenges.

The statement was signed by the President of NEF, Otunba Aremu Obatoke and Secretary, Malam Abdullahi Gambo.

They agreed that even more advanced countries had faced and continued to face security challenges, adding that Nigerian armed forces had done well looking at the available indices.

“Here in Nigeria, we have criminal elements that are surrendering in numbers because the Armed forces is not giving them breathing space.

“We may not have completely wiped them out, but we can boldly say that our country is far better than it was, especially since the present leadership of the Armed forces came onboard 2 years ago.

“We agree with a recent assessment by the Professor of Cyber Security and Information Technology Management, Ojo Ademola, who awarded the current leadership of the Armed Forces of Nigeria pass mark over their commitment to root out Boko Haram terrorists, bandits and other criminal elements from the country.

“He noted that the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor, has brought in a professional touch and unique variety of administration that has proven to be a masterstroke in the war against insurgents.

“NEF therefore say that our military has done very well, we should support them and not weaken their resolve,” the Forum added.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Posted on

NOA, CODE collaborate to improve civic space for sustainable democracy

Connected Development (CODE) is to collaborate with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) towards addressing and improving Nigeria’s shrinking civic space for sustainable democracy.

CODE in partnership with the National Orientation Agency (NOA), with support from the OXFAM held a dialogue geared towards analysing the trends and drivers of shrinking civic space under the Digital Media and Communications for Civic Inclusion Project.

The Director-General of NOA, Garba Abari, said that expanding the civic space was actually not a concern for Nigerian alone but a global issue.

Abari said this therefore, calls for the need to deepen the democratic space.

“You cannot be talking about deepening the civic space without taking in concomitant terms the democratic space and this is of great importance.

“When we are talking about expanding the democratic space , we are talking about the inclusion, however, that does not necessarily mean allowing people to come out and vote during elections after every four years.

“We are talking about inclusion of vulnerable groups, like youths ,women and persons with disabilities.”

Abari said that to achieve such inclusion , there was need to therfore implement the Disabilities Act and political parties needed to be imbibe internal democracy to strengthen participation of women and youths in politics for sustainable democracy.

Also speaking, Mr Hamzat Lawal, Chief Executive of CODE, noted that the Digital Media and Communications for Civic Inclusion Project was aimed at harnessing the power of the media and civil society to address some of the factors contributing to the shrinkage of the civic space.

“We all know and can agree that the role of civil society is crucial to our democracy, CSOs provides essential services, helps and advocates for victims, monitors human rights and collects evidence of violations to hold powers responsible to account.

“CSOs helps in a way to stabilise and preserve our democracy, but for doing this, civil society comes under attack, and these attacks are coming from different angles. ”

Lawal added that fake news, misinformation, disinformation were undermining Nigeria’s democracy and truncating national unity.

“We have seen in countless ways how disinformation can be used to influence negative and extremist views, a good example is the just concluded elections.

“There are also different attempts to counter fake news and disinformation with fact checking initiatives but fact-checking initiatives are only a first step.”

Lawal however, said that the challenge remained ineffective collaboration of the media and civil society to counter disinformation .

He said that this must include better regulation of the social media and technology industry, developed through participatory processes and including safeguards for freedom of expression.

Contributing, the Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission, Mr Tony Ojukwu,SAN, said that the civic space was shrinking in Nigeria due to non-observation of regional and international instruments that guaranteed the protection of the right to freedom.

Ojukwu represented by Mrs Agharese Arase Director, Corporate Affairs and External Linkages, said that censorship and restrictions violate the fundamental rights of citizens to freedom of opinion and expression.

He said that arbitrary arrest ,detention ,politically motivated criminal charges and sedition laws further shrink the civic space .

He said that it was the duty of the media to to avail the society with information on matters of public interest, create platforms for scrutiny, public debate and reflection .

He said that the gains of allowing a free civic space far outweighs any effort at shrinking it because shrinking civic space may lead to undemocratic practices and lack of transparency in governance.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event was aimed at identifying ways to educate the masses on the role and value of civil society and the civic space.

The roundtable discussion was one of the first steps towards defending and expanding the shrinking civic space in Nigeria by focusing on the reorientation of the masses and building the capacity of key stakeholders.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Posted on

NBTE engages security agencies, others to weed out illegal health institutions

The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) has engaged security agencies, heads of health colleges and registrars of health professional bodies to weed out illegal health institutions in the country.

The Executive Secretary of the board, Prof. Idris Bugaje, said this at a one-day meeting with provosts, proprietors, principals of health institutions and registrars of health professional bodies in Kaduna on Thursday.

Bugaje expressed concern over proliferation of illegal colleges of health sciences and technology, adding that many of such institutions were swindling students and giving them unrecognised certificates.

He described the situation as “worrisome”, where some two-bedroom apartments were converted to colleges of health

technology, offering all kinds of courses.

He warned that anybody who decided to call its programme National Diploma (ND) or Higher National Diploma (HND)

without NBTE registration and accreditation, is creating serious problem for himself.

According to him, NBTE is determined to clean up the system because health is the wealth of any nation.

“This is why we invited all the provosts and proprietors of health colleges, both legal and illegal and professional bodies, to discuss the challenges and develop a common roadmap to address them.

“If it is the registration conditions that are too stringent, let us know so that we can review what can be reviewed without compromising standard.

“We will give a moratorium for every health institution to go and regularise its registration, after which,

we will bring the full ambit of the law and security agencies at our disposal to close the illegal ones.”

The executive secretary said that the NBTE had already reviewed the N100 million Bank Guarantee mandatory requirement for registration to N25 million.

He disclosed that some of the operators of illegal health colleges were currently being investigated by the Department of State Services (DSS) in two states.

He added that the board had also constituted a standing Disciplinary Committee to try members of staff who were colluding with illegal institutions to give them fake accreditation.

“Already, some senior management staff of the NBTE involved have been suspended and as I speak, while some are facing disciplinary committees, we will leave no stone unturned.

“One of you gave one of our staff N2.5 million to facilitate registration. It is illegal and we are investigating the fraud. I learned the staff has refunded the money, but must face the full wrath of the law.”

Also, the NBTE Director, Inspectorate, Hajiya Bilkisu Daku, said registration with the board is crucial in the

establishment of colleges of health technology offering ND or HND in the country.

Daku added that the board partnered with the police, DSS, Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission and other anti-graft agencies to curtail the proliferation of illegal institutions.

Responding, Dr Sani Barka, the Chairman, Association of Heads of Health Training Institutions in Nigeria, said the proliferation of illegal health colleges in the country is alarming.

Barka, who is the Provost, Gombe State College of Health Sciences and Technology, Kaltungo, commended the NBTE for taking a step to curb the trend.

Also, Dr Bayo Ojo, the Chairman, Association of Provosts of Colleges of Health Sciences and Technology of Nigeria,

also commended the board for the downward review of the N100 million Bank Guarantee to N25 million.

Ojo described the move to sanitise the operations of colleges of health sciences as a laudable step toward ensuring lawful accreditation and supervision for minimum standard.

Similarly, Mr Yahaya Tsumi, the Director, Special Duties, Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, said “what the NBTE is doing is a laudable move to check illegal health institutions.

“As a regulatory institution, we are in full support so that the right thing will be done to produce qualified health professionals.”

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Posted on

‘India, Somalia have historical relations, we want to strengthen our collaboration’, Somalia Health Minister

The Health ministers and delegates from various countries are in the national capital to participate in the 6th edition of the ‘Advantage Healthcare India’ event, which aims to promote ‘Medical Value Travel’ in the country. During a visit to one of the private hospitals in Delhi, Somalia Health Minsiter, Dr Ali Haji Adan, told ANI, ‘We have historical relations between Somalia and the Indian govt. A large number of Somali people come to India for medical purposes. We want to strengthen collaboration with India.’ The Deputy Health Minister of Egypt, Dr Ahmed Hussein Shehata Elsobky on his visit to Apollo Hospital said that his meeting was fruitful and will pave the way for cooperation between India and Egypt. ‘We saw the latest technology, and a lot of advancements have been made. Technology is at the heart of the hospital, we would like to have MoUs with the hospital to train our people from Egypt. The meeting was quite fruitful, it will pave the way for cooperation between India and Egypt,’ he told ANI. Sugiyanto, the Director of the Health Ministry, in Indonesia, also visited Medanta Hospital in Gurugram on Thursday. Speaking to ANI, during his visit, he said, ‘I will recommend to my friends in Indonesia that India has sophisticated hospitals and talented doctors.’ He further said, ‘I saw sophisticated equipment. In India, there are a lot of specialities. for transplant, patients can come here and experts from India can go to Indonesia for training purposes in order to improve the specialities of both the countries.’ Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually inaugurated the event ‘Advantage Healthcare India 2023’, a G20 co-branded event on Wednesday. ‘India’s ancient vision of Health was Universal. Today, when we say ‘One Earth, One Health’, it is the same thought in action,’ Prime Minister said while inaugurating the event. PM Modi also highlighted India’s strength of ‘Talent, Technology, Track Record and Tradition’. ‘When it comes to talent, the world has seen the impact of Indian doctors. Both in India and outside, our doctors are widely respected for their competence and commitment,’ PM Modi added. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya also addressed the event saying, ‘As the ‘Voice of the global south’, we aspire for a better future – a future where healthcare is service and not commerce.’ ‘A 3-day seminar on the theme ‘Medical Value Travel’ was organized today. Representatives from 73 countries have arrived to attend it. Country-to-country, country-to-company, hospital-to-hospital MoUs are being done and I am hopeful that in coming days India will be the most favorable destination for medical value travel,’ Mansukh Mandaviya said. The health ministers from countries like Bangladesh, Armenia, Bhutan, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Maldives, Nigeria, Russia and Somalia participated in the summit. The health ministers were accompanied by dignities and delegates from government and private hospitals and medical facilitators.

Source: Somali National News Agency

Posted on

PM Abiy Discuses With General Al-Burhan, Dagalo on Need to Settle Differences Amicably in Sudan

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has held phone discussions with both General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo on the need to settle differences amicably and bring stability to Sudan.

The premier twitted today that the great people of Sudan deserve peace.

“I have held phone discussions with both General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo on the need to settle differences amicably and bring stability to Sudan,” Abiy said.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had called on the Sudanese warring parties to come to the peace alternative by taking lessons from Ethiopia’s peace agreement in a message he delivered last Sunday at an event organized to honor those who have contributed to the Pretoria Peace agreement under the theme: “Enough with War, Let us Sustain Peace!”

The premier said during the occasion that Ethiopia’s peace agreement signed in South Africa, Pretoria is a lesson to the neighboring countries and all other African countries.

He called on Sudanese rivals to resolve their current conflicts through dialogue, drawing lessons from Ethiopia’s peace agreement.

Ethiopia has also been preparing to deliver humanitarian aid to Sudan to express its solidarity to the people of Sudan.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency