Nation
Suspend 25% Contribution To Federation Account, FAAN Begs FG
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has called for the stoppage of its 25 per cent revenue contribution to the Federation Account.
FAAN said this would help it to address some infrastructure gaps.
The General Manager, FAAN, Mr Rabiu Yadudu, made the appeal during an oversight visit of the Senate Committee on Aviation at the Lagos Airport, yesterday.
Yadudu decried accumulated airlines debt to aviation agencies, particularly FAAN, adding that a particular airline owed N13billion for services rendered and unpaid.
Yadudu noted that one way to ensure development in the industry was to allow revenue generated by agencies in the sector to be ploughed back.
The managing director said that the practice was obtainable across the globe and was also part of the international standard and recommended practice.
“The industry still has an infrastructure gap to stabilise; therefore, government’s support in stabilising the industry is needed.
“This can be achieved by suspending the contributions to the Federation Account in compliance with ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) Doc 9562.
“This document on airport generation provides that revenue generated by the airport should be transparently re-invested wholly in operating and developing airport facilities,” he said.
Yadudu said revenue generation was low as only two airports – the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA) mainly sustained other airports expenditures.
He also highlighted the global economic challenge, both national and international, which had affected airline operators, causing them to reduce fleet, frequencies or withdraw operations, thus affecting the agency’s revenue generation.
Yadudu lamented the rising operating and maintenance cost of the new terminals and existing ones due to inflation and the devaluation of the naira.
However, the managing director said the agency was tweaking its plans to make other airports that were not breaking even to perform.
He also said the airport management had embarked on aggressive debt recovery, while introducing a Pay As You Go system, adding that it had also commenced a cashless policy among other loophole blockage areas.
Responding, the Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Smart Adeyemi, said the idea was commendable, noting that the issue was constitutional and would require a constitutional review to achieve.
Adeyemi stressed the need for rehabilitation of airports.
“There are quite a lot of airports in the country that we need to start looking at budget inclusion for next year, not this year.
“We will not wait till there is a mishap before we start looking at fixing the runways which are in bad shape, a number of them since they were constructed have not been touched, and at times when you land in some of these airports, you don’t need to be a pilot to know that the plane will not maintain a balance,” he said.
Nation
OYO SUBEB Monitors 2nd Term Unified Exams
Chairman, Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Dr Nureni Aderemi, has announced the commencement of the board’s monitoring of the second term unified examination in all public primary schools across Oyo State.
Adeniran made this known while inspecting schools in Ibadan North-East Local Government area of the state, Wednesday.
He said the motive behind the examination exercise was to ensure simultaneous participation of all schools in the examination process.
The chairman appealed to school head teachers to ensure adherence to the time-table given to them by the State Government.
He expressed satisfaction with the level of preparedness of schools and students describing it as ‘quite impresive’.
Adeniran, who said the conduct was smooth, added that efforts and arrangements put in place by the State Government in printing unified question-papers for all schools in the state would ensure better performance of pupils.
According to him, the introduction of a unified examination time-table and questions was to give better credence to the exercise.
He further commended the schools and pupils for their adherence to the examination instructions.
The board’s monitoring team visited schools in Ibadan North; Ibarapa; Ibadan North-West, Ibadan South-West and Ibadan South-East Local Government areas.
Nation
VC Advocates Grantsmanship As Condition For Promotion
Vice Chancellor, University of Ilorin UNILORIN) Professor Wahab Egbewole, has advocated a restructure of the university system in Nigeria where grantsmanship will be recognised in promotion guidelines.
Egbewole made the suggestion when he received a team of facilitators of the Train The Trainers’ (TTT) workshop on ‘Research Proposal Writing and Grant Management’ in Ilorin, midweek.
Egbewole, who is also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN)), identified fundable research grants as one of the problems that researchers in Nigeria are battling with.
The Vice Chancellor lamented that some professors in Nigeria did not know how to write research proposals that can attract so much funding.
According to him, this is where the universities have to focus their attention, while expressing optimism that the workshop initiated by TETFund would facilitate the required enablers.
He, therefore, urged the organisers to put up some measurable indices to evaluate the success or otherwise of what has been invested in the training.
He also encouraged researchers to redirect their energy to publications that are impactful to the society and address local challenges instead of publications that are left to decay on the shelf.
The vice chancellor said that UNILORIN would also organise a similar workshop that would accommodate more staff.
Earlier, TETFund TTT team facilitator, Mr Nuhu Ogirima, said the significance of the workshop was to conduct a stepping down of knowledge earlier acquired by the facilitators on fundable research.
Ogirima explained that Nigeria is struggling among the developing nations because most of the policies of the government are not based on research from academia, which makes them unacceptable by the people.
He observed that there is no difference between academic writing, writing for promotion, writing to impact policy and writing to galvanise the economy.
“TETFund has taken a giant stride towards getting cutting edge research sponsored towards advancing the nation”, he said.
Nation
FG Begins Registration Of Medical Laboratories
The Federal Government has begun an online registration of medical laboratories in Nigeria to enhance service delivery.
The Registrar, Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria, Dr Tosan Erhabor, made this known in Abuja, recently at a meeting with stakeholders and the agency’s consultants on automation led by Prof. Effiong Akpan of the University of Calabar.
He called on stakeholders to avail themselves of the great opportunities offered by the new framework to enhance service delivery.
Erhabor said the registration would scale up efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, speed of service delivery, and data collation and management.
According to him, the purpose of the meeting was to enable stakeholders to witness firsthand and possibly critique the ongoing digitalisation of the medical laboratory registration process.
“This is the latest in the series of council processes to be moved from the manual to the digital platform.
“In spite of our meagre resources, the council has successfully transformed other processes including Licensure, Examination, Indexing, Accreditation Service, and External Quality Assurance and now the registration of medical laboratories”, he said.
Erhabor urged medical laboratory proprietors to continue working with the council to enhance service delivery.
He said proprietors would henceforth be able to register their laboratories seamlessly and from their preferred locations without the need to visit the council’s headquarters in Abuja.
“I am pleased to note that automation has raised our profile among stakeholders, and we must commend the consultants for a job well done”, he said.
Responding, Akpan lauded the council management for scaling up hitherto manual processes into the digital environment to enhance service delivery despite the prevailing economic challenges.
“My team and I are proud to be associated with the council and we encourage other agencies should emulate you in this respect”, he said.
Akpan expressed confidence that the stakeholders would also be proud of the council’s efforts.
Recall that in September 2022, the Federal Government threatened to shut down unregistered medical laboratories in the country.
The council was warned not to relent or rest on its oars in the discharge of its statutory duties.
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