COVID-19: Nigeria Shut Down UK High Commission - MONEY INFO 247

COVID-19: Nigeria Shut Down
UK High Commission

COVID-19 exposure has forced the
shut down of the Nigerian High
Commission in the United Kingdom.
Naija News reports that the mission would be closed for 10
working days.

This was made known in a statement on Thursday titled,
‘Closure of Nigerian High Commission, London’.

“This afternoon, the Head of Immigration Section and two other
officials went for a meeting at the Home Office,” the
statement read.

“At the entrance, Covid test was administered on them and one
of them tested positive to COVID-19. The affected officer
immediately isolated while the other officials, who tested
negative will also isolate for the next 10 days.

“In response to this challenge, the Mission embarked on
testing all officials of the Mission, after which another
official of the Mission tested positive.

“In line with COVID-19 regulation and the need to adhere to
the rules and regulation of the host country, the Mission will
close down for the next 10 days, in order to observe the
mandatory isolation of those who were in contact with the
affected officials.

“While the High Commission regrets any inconvenience that this
may have caused, we solicit the cooperation of the general
public.”

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Zambia           blocks            WhatsApp              as

voters wait hours                            to cast
their ballots in                             ‘tense’
election

Authorities in Zambia blocked WhatsApp messaging on Thursday,
according to data from a global internet monitor.

The suspension of WhatsApp comes as Zambians cast their
ballots in an election taking place in a tense security
environment.

Polls opened at 04:00 and were due to close at 18:00 local
time. Voting was slow at several stations, with queues snaking
around some of the 12 000 polling stations across the country.

Observers and opposition politicians raised concerns over the
slow pace of voting, fearing many would not reach the ballot
box before the official closing time. Zambians still able to
communicate on WhatsApp reported using a VPN to bypass the

restriction.

Just days before the election, the Zambian government assured
voters that there would be no disruptions to their internet
connections. The 7 August promise came after observers raised
concerns that Zambian authorities would enact a tool that has
become increasingly popular with authoritarian regimes.

Netblocks, the global internet watchdog monitoring Zambia’s
servers on election day, found that both back-end and front-
end servers in Zambia were unavailable on Thursday afternoon.
Netblocks found restrictions on the government-owned Zamtel,
as well as private networks Airtel Zambia and Liquid Telecom.

South African-headquartered MTN also saw restrictions of use
for WhatsApp, the Netblocks report said.

“WhatsApp is down in Zambia but the cause is not on the MTN
mobile network or other operators. Mobile operators did not
cut anything. It is outside the environment of the mobile
network operators,” said Bart Hofker, CEO of MTN Zambia.

MTN’s subsidiaries in Uganda also previously blocked WhatsApp
and social media during the election there in January this
year. During the unrest in Eswatini, local lawyers also tried
to sue MTN after it blocked WhatsApp following a government
directive.

Twitter and Facebook were also restricted according to some
reports. Observers fear that this could be the start of an
internet shutdown that will continue as vote-counting begins
on Thursday evening.

Waiting hours to vote

All day, Zambians waited in long queues to cast their vote. At
a polling station in a middle class Lusaka suburb, men and
women were separated into queues that stretched around around
the corner for more than 300 metres.

An “anxious and tired” Monica said she had stood in a queue
for four hours. The 25-year-old university student said she
hadn’t voted in the 2016 election because she didn’t “take it
seriously,” but this year had followed the competing
politicians on social media.

Twenty-seven-year-old Agatha continued to wait to for over
three years to cast her ballot for the first time in her life.
A stay-at-home-mom, Agatha said she wanted the incoming
government to fix the economy.

Ann Phiri (not her real name) has voted in each election since
1991, when Zambia transitioned from a one-party state to
become a multiparty democracy.

“That took me five hours. I’ve voted every time, but I’ve
never waited so long,” said the 52-year-old.

“There’s a thing in the air that you must vote, you have to
vote.

“There’s a hype, but a silent hype, because you don’t want to
be too cheerful,” she said, adding that citizens were being
more “vigilant” about their civil rights.

Observers fear that the use of biometric voting stations in
certain areas will further delay the vote, and depress turnout
in high density areas where the opposition may secure a swing
vote.

The biometric voting stations were already beset with
challenges, with training only introduced at the end of last
month. On voting day, observers at polling stations said these
stations had markedly fewer workers who could effectively
operate the system.

Neither the government, nor the electoral commission, could be
reached for comment at the time of publication.

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FG   Begs   Jobless   Youths:
Please Be Patient With Buhari

The Minister of Youth and Sports
Development, Sunday Dare, has
begged jobless youths in the
country to be patient with the
Muhammadu   Buhari-led   federal

government.
Naija News reports that the minister made the appeal on
Thursday on the occasion of the International Youth Day while
featuring on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ programme.

On the rising unemployment index of young Nigerians under the
present administration, Dare said there is a need for patience
on the part of the youths.

He said, “This government has tried to change the fundamentals
of youth engagement to move from just merely empowering our
youths to investing in them and that is the paradigm we see in
the international     community    because   our   youths   are
investible.”

On the rising unemployment statistics, he said, “Without
giving any excuses, it boils down to resources, we have seen
government’s resources over time dwindle. When you also go to
other countries where you find unemployment stabilise for a
while, it is a collaborative effort; on the part of the
government, on the part of private collaborations, working
together, and international non-government organisations
working together.

“On our part, you will see government trying to allocate
resources, competing resources. It is a huge country, 210
million people. The youths form a large part of this
population. But also, we are trying a reset that does not just
emphasise certificates but skills – vocational and technical
skills, that is the future of decent jobs.

“That is why the focus right now is making sure that we
provide our youths with the digital skills they need to
compete, even when you go out of the country as a Nigerian
youth, there are digital skills you need to compete.”

“We will have to just be patient because resources are

dwindling but concerted efforts are on to make sure we bring
down the unemployment numbers in our country,” he added.

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Top   Nigerian    Newspapers
Headlines For Today, Friday,
13th August, 2021
The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, has said there was the need
to approve extra-budgetary funding for modern military
equipment to enhance the firepower and operational needs of
the armed forces. Lawan disclosed this at the graduation
ceremony for the National Defence College (NDC) Course 29
Participants in Abuja. The Senate President argued that the
additional funding passed by the National…

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Osun assembly passes anti-
open grazing bill
The Osun House of Assembly on Thursday in Osogbo passed the
“Osun Animal Gracing Regulation and Cattle Ranches
Establishment Bill 2021’’ after its third dreading. Speaker of
the Assembly, Mr Timothy Owoeye, explained that the bill, when
accented to by the state governor, would regulate animal
grazing and establishments of cattle ranches in the state.
Owoeye also added that the bill would also…

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Why   There  Should   Be   a
Moratorium    on   COVID-19
Booster Shots Until Low-
Income     Countries     Get
Vaccinated
“I got my first shot and am yet to receive the second. The
situation was tough for the last two months, where over 2000
people died, including health workers. We hope that    vaccines
will be able to reach different parts of the country   and that
people will be responsible and go for vaccination.     COVID is
spreading, though people are now moving to work in     order to

earn a living…

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EFCC Declares Opa6ix, Four
Others Wanted, See Why
Naija News reports that the antigraft agency shared photos of
Opa6ix, Solomon Efosa, Emeka Ayaunor and Barnabas Akojie. The
commission accused them of other crimes such as criminal
conspiracy and obtaining money by false pretence. “The public
is hereby notified that Opaogun Oluwasegun Akinola whose
photograph appears above is wanted by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in a case…

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SEC collaborates with RIMAN
to deepen capital market

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has expressed its
readiness to collaborate with the Risk Management Association
of Nigeria (RIMAN) in its quest to make more products
available in the capital market as well as deepen the market.

Mr Lamido Yuguda, the Director-General of the SEC, stated this
in a goodwill message on RIMAN 20th International Conference
held virtually.

Yuguda disclosed that from the outbreak of the pandemic to the
subsequent lockdown, the Commission had worked with Capital
Market Operators and other industry stakeholders to ensure
that the market experiences minimal destruction.

“We have supported and acquired the emergence of various
technology-driven innovations around market operations and
products some of which include Fintech, Digital Assets and
Crowdfunding.

He said “To support this, we developed a regulatory framework
to galvanize these activities while focusing on managing the
risk inherent in the products and activities in line with our
mandate of market development and investor protection.

“In supporting this innovation, we hope to build a better
market, attract more investors, and reduce the demographic of
the average age that presently invest in our market. We also
hope to include millions who were excluded from the capital
market by making it easier for them to gain access.

“To achieve this, there is a need to collaborate with an
organization such as yours and we hereby invite you to
contribute in whatever way you can in building the Nigerian
Capital Market. We invite you to do more in building the risk
management capacity in the capital market, to conduct studies
in risk capital market processes and products ad contribute
your opinions and recommendations to our exposed rules”.

He added that with increased membership the association has
been more feasible in capacity building in the area of risk
management and in organizing excellent events such as this
adding that “since the SEC’s registration as an institutional
member of the association, the Commission has endured several
benefits that cut across the capacity building and the
opportunity to share ideas.

“We will sustain this relationship and continue to contribute
in any way we can to help the organization succeed and develop
risk management practice in Nigeria”.

He described the theme for this year’s conference, “Risk
Management in a Digital Era” as apt, and could not have been
discussed at a more appropriate time as the coronavirus
pandemic has increased the need for the use of technology in
the corporate world assuring that as the regulator of a
dynamic capital market the SEC would see this technological
transformation as an opportunity to change the way it works
and the way it performs its regulatory functions.

Yuguda, therefore, pledged the willingness of the Commission
to partner with RIMAN in its activities towards developing
risk management practice in Nigeria.

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Why   There  Should   Be   a
Moratorium    on   COVID-19
Booster Shots Until Low-
Income     Countries     Get
Vaccinated
“I got my first shot and am yet to receive the second. The
situation was tough for the last two months, where over 2000
people died, including health workers. We hope that vaccines
will be able to reach different parts of the country and that
people will be responsible and go for vaccination. COVID is
spreading, though people are now moving to work in order to
earn a living, since the majority depend on hand to mouth.”

This was part of an email we received last week from a midwife
in Ugandan, Harriet Nayiga. It reinforces how difficult life
is in parts of the world where Delta and other highly
transmissible variants are ripping through populations, which
remain largely unprotected due to extremely low vaccine
coverage.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

To date, 10 countries have administered more than 75% of the
world’s vaccines, while low-income countries have received
just over 1%—nowhere near enough to fully vaccinate their
health workers, older populations and others at highest risk

of severe disease and death.

Despite this searing inequity, some rich countries have
announced plans to administer “booster” doses to populations
that have already received a full course of vaccination. Not
only is this ethically objectionable, when considering the
hundreds of millions of people who have not yet received a
single dose in the world’s poorest countries, the scientific
data to support such a major policy intervention, which will
have dramatic effects on global vaccine supply, is still being
gathered.

Health workers in low-income countries must be reaching for
their dictionaries to look up the meaning of solidarity.

The data we do have from high-income countries now clearly
demonstrates that solving this gross inequity is a life or
death situation for lower income countries. We are still in
the midst of one pandemic, but increasingly it has two starkly
different tracks. Countries with high coverage are seeing a
decoupling of cases and deaths, whereas countries that cannot
access vaccines are seeing high cases drive with steep rises
in mortality.

For these reasons, WHO has called for a global moratorium on
COVID-19 booster shots, at least until the end of September,
to enable progress towards vaccinating at least 10% of the
population of every country. So far, just over half of the
countries in the world have reached that target, almost all of
them high- and upper-middle income or vaccine-producing
countries.

I understand that every government has the mandate and the
responsibility to protect its people. As a health minister and
foreign minister, that’s what I did, too. But as counter-
intuitive as it may seem, that national, domestic objective is
better achieved by vaccinating health workers and the most at-
risk people in all countries before moving to younger

populations at much lower-risk and booster shots.

With supply limited, more vaccines for people who have already
been vaccinated means fewer doses for people who have not.
Furthermore, the more people who remain unvaccinated globally,
the more opportunity the virus has to spread and evolve into
potentially more dangerous variants, which increases the risk
for everybody

We are living through a global crisis, but rhetoric is
outpacing action. I’ve heard political and industrial leaders
talk about the need to vaccinate the world because “no one is
safe until everyone is safe.” At the same time, these leaders
are signing bilateral deals that further exacerbate the gap
between the haves and have nots.

Political and corporate leaders must make a choice. Do the
handful of countries and companies that control supply really
want to run the risk of new variants appearing globally and
unnecessary waves of death, job losses and insecurity
everywhere?

Or, do they want to end the pandemic and drive a truly global
recovery?

What needs to happen? First, countries that have vaccinated
the majority of their high-risk populations need to share
vaccine doses—unearmarked—now with COVAX and other entities,
like the African Union, which has established its African
Vaccine Acquisition Trust, to give countries with low coverage
the means to catch up. Some countries have started sharing
doses but we need more and faster sharing to curb this fast
moving virus. This isn’t charity; this is the best way to
protect fragile gains everywhere. As part of this effort, we
must document and report on all donations of doses, which is
essential for understanding needs and effectively sharing and
distribution of vaccines going forward.

Second, companies that produce vaccines must for the next six

months commit and ensure that the majority of their product
goes to COVAX and low-income countries whose coverage—from all
sources—is not on track to achieve the global goals of 10%
coverage in every country by end-September and 40% by end-
December.

Third, there must be an increase in vaccine manufacturing
capacity in all regions, starting with those with the least
production capacity. I’m pleased that WHO’s first mRNA vaccine
manufacturing hub is moving forward in South Africa with
partners from the private and public sector. We will be
establishing further hubs in other regions of the world too.

But it would move even faster if pharmaceutical manufacturers
shared their licenses, technology and know-how.

There’s little to be gained by a small number of companies
making big profits if the world continues to lose trillions of
dollars by going in and out of severe restrictions on their
populations.

A year ago, India and South Africa put forward a proposal for
the World Trade Organization to temporarily suspend patent
rights on the tools needed to battle COVID-19. Most countries
now support the idea, but a small number that have already
vaccinated the majority of their populations are still
blocking it on the basis that voluntary licensing is the
fastest way forward. Fine, but if other companies had followed
AstraZeneca’s lead by sharing their licenses, know-how and
technology and more effectively mass producing vaccines, or
sharing them through WHO’s public health driven platform—the
COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP)—we might not be having
this discussion.

I’m not against the private sector being incentivized to make
new products; far from it. I would be happy to see them
succeed for next generation tests, treatments and vaccines to
be developed quickly and be well rewarded.

But it’s unconscionable that some vaccine-producing companies
are reporting record profits, and some countries are offering
boosters, while so many people remain unprotected.

For the future, an international treaty on pandemic
preparedness and response will be crucial for ensuring there
are clear “rules of the game” that will help to ensure such
shocking inequities are not repeated.

In the meantime, to ensure all health workers like Harriet and
in countries like Uganda, and those at most risk of severe
COVID-19 disease are protected, a temporary moratorium on
boosters is a necessary and sorely-needed statement of
solidarity that would help save the most lives and help end
the acute stage of this pandemic everywhere.

* This article was originally published here

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Official:  Romelu Lukaku
Returns To UCL Champions
Chelsea

UEFA Champions League and Super Cup
winners Chelsea have completed the
signing of Belgian striker, Romelu
Lukaku.
The former Inter Milan striker has signed a five-year contract
and will add attacking firepower to Thomas Tuchel’s squad of
European champions.

‘I’m happy and blessed to be back at this wonderful club,’
said Lukaku. ‘It’s been a long journey for me: I came here as
a kid who had a lot to learn, now I’m coming back with a lot
of experience and more mature.

‘The relationship I have with this club means so much to me,
as you know. I have supported Chelsea as a kid and now to be
back and try to help them win more titles is an amazing
feeling.

‘The way the club is going fits my ambitions perfectly at 28
and just coming off winning Serie A. I think this opportunity
comes at the right time and hopefully we can have a lot of
success together.

‘Since I left Chelsea, it’s been a long journey with a lot of
ups and downs, but these experiences made me strong and the
challenge is to try to help the team win some more trophies. I
can’t wait to get started and to help the club achieve more
success.’

Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia added: ‘Romelu Lukaku is
quite simply one of the world’s best strikers and goalscorers.
We are absolutely delighted to be bringing him back to the
club he loves, and are excited to be adding his talent to our
Champions League-winning squad.

‘We are of course looking to build on last season’s success,
and Lukaku will play a big role in achieving our targets. I’m
sure all Chelsea fans will join me in saying welcome home,
Romelu!’

Lukaku is back at Stamford Bridge a decade after he originally
joined the club. He has netted 80 goals for club and country
in the past two seasons alone, adding a ruthless streak to the
tenacity and touch that have defined his game for so long.

A formidable forward who is equally adept at holding the ball
up with his back to goal as well as running into channels with
purpose and intent, Lukaku has eight years of Premier League
experience under his belt.

During that time, he scored 113 goals in the division, taking
him up to 20th place on the list of all-time Premier League
goalscorers.

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