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VP Shettima sets up committee, says Nigeria’s future linked to HCD

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VP Shettima sets up committee, says Nigeria’s future linked to HCD

By: Our Reporter

In a bid to drive the goals of the Human Capital Development (HCD) programme of the federal government, Vice President Kashim Shettima on Monday approved the constitution of a multi-sectoral committee.

The multi-sectoral team made up of the federal and state governments as well as donors and partners is expected to convene every two weeks to review the progress of work in addressing the objectives of the HCD programme.

This was the outcome of the VP’s meeting with World Bank’s Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri; the Chairman of the Dangote Foundation, Alhaji Aliko Dangote; Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Mr Tony Elumelu, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate, among others at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

At the meeting, Sen. Shettima stressed the need for government and partners to invest in human capital development to create a workforce that is not just globally competitive but also adaptable to the modern demands of the 21st century.

He said, “This gathering marks our collective recommitment to redirecting the promise and potential of our human capital towards safeguarding the economy. It’s an honour to host you and I eagerly anticipate celebrating the success of the initiatives uniting us.

“Our presence today signifies a tacit understanding that our future is intricately linked to the development of our human capital. We have witnessed the growing shift towards knowledge and service-based economies and the advantages they offer, particularly to our youths,” VP Shettima stressed.

Acknowledging the significant impact the two Nigerian wealthy businessmen, Dangote and Elumelu, have had on the population, the Vice President noted that every society rises and falls depending on the quality of its leadership.

Earlier, Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Pate, noted the current efforts the federal government has made, putting the people at the centre of the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’, even as he underscored the importance of investing in human resources.

He noted that going forward, stakeholders involved in the Human Capital Development programme of the Tinubu administration will reinforce and harness existing data to ensure accountability and accuracy in the implementation of programmes and projects under the initiative.

Prof. Pate expressed optimism that the renewed efforts at fast-tracking human capital development across different levels and tiers of government would attract interest from all stakeholders, including international partners and donor organisations.

On his part, the Chairman of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, commended the foresight of Vice President Shettima in convening the meeting, noting that it underpins the commitment of the Tinubu administration to addressing challenges around human capital development.

While pledging his support for the administration’s HCD programme, Dangote called on stakeholders to work diligently towards tackling the challenge of inaccurate data, describing it as the biggest problem in the task of addressing human capital development.

In the same vein, the Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Mr Tony Elumelu, pledged his support for the federal government’s initiatives towards Nigeria’s Human Capital Development.

“We will support you; our commitment is guaranteed. This is a laudable idea,” Elumelu stated.

For his part, the World Bank Country Director, Nigeria, Mr Chaudhuri, pledged the bank’s support for the HCD programme of the federal government, especially in the areas of technical assistance and strengthening of databases.

Remarks were also made by representatives of other partners such as the Nigerian Governors’ Forum Secretariat, British High Commission, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNICEF and JICA, among others.

In March 2018, the National Economic Council (NEC) had at its Special Session launched a dedicated Human Capital Development programme, in response to Nigeria’s dismal performance in all global indexes of human capital development.

The HCD programme represents a significant step forward in Nigeria’s efforts to address its human capital development challenges and position itself for sustainable growth and prosperity.

The programme’s comprehensive framework and multi-stakeholder approach provide a solid foundation for achieving its ambitious goals.

It aims to address the challenges faced by Nigeria in areas such as education, health and labour force participation.

To drive the programme, NEC had set up a Steering Committee chaired by the Vice President and comprising representatives from the Senate, House of Representatives, and key ministries.

The committee is also represented by the governors of six geopolitical zones, as well as representatives of development agencies.

The programme is guided by a Steering Committee comprising high-level representatives from the government, private sector, and development agencies, which oversees the implementation of the programme and ensures alignment with the National HCD Vision.

A Core Working Group (CWG) has also been established to work directly with states to ensure the practical implementation of the HCD programme at the local level.

The CWG comprises representatives from relevant ministries, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, the Organized Private Sector, and donors.

The HCD programme focuses on three thematic areas: Health and Nutrition, Labour Force Participation and Education, and six essential human capital development areas, including under-five mortality rate, malnutrition, adult mortality, expected years of school, quality of learning and labour force participation rate.

VP Shettima sets up committee, says Nigeria’s future linked to HCD

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Nigerian Air Force Neutralises Terrorists in Successful Air Interdiction at Maisani

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Nigerian Air Force Neutralises Terrorists in Successful Air Interdiction at Maisani

By: Zagazola Makama

The Nigerian Air Component of Operation Hadin Kai have executed a coordinated strike on a major terrorist enclave located at Maisani in the Timbuktu Triangle general area of Borno State, killing several ISWAP terrorists.

Intelligence sources told Zagazola Makama that the air interdiction mission conducted on May 4, 2025, at approximately 1800 hours, was informed by credible intelligence and sustained surveillance, targeted terrorists’ structures cleverly concealed and camouflaged under thick shrubs in the area.

The sources said that using advanced platforms, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) conducted a focused Air Interdiction (AI) mission, resulting in the destruction of the identified enemy hideouts and the neutralisation of an unconfirmed number of insurgent fighters.

According to the sources, Post-strike Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) obtained from our Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms confirmed that the airstrike achieved its intended objectives, dealing a significant blow to terrorists.

Nigerian Air Force Neutralises Terrorists in Successful Air Interdiction at Maisani

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Nigeria Looks to World Bank to Tackle Challenges of National Capital Accounting

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Nigeria Looks to World Bank to Tackle Challenges of National Capital Accounting

By: Michael Mike

As the world marks the 2025 Environment Day, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has appealed to the World Bank for support on capacity building, data and in addressing the challenges poised by Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) in the country.

Head of Department, National Accounts Energy and Environment at the NBS, Dr. Baba Madu made the appeal at the 2025 Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) Conference on Thursday in Abuja with support from the World Bank in. collaboration with the NBS and the Federal Ministry of Environment.

Madu while noting that the NCA was a new area Nigeria must exploit to further boost the nation’s economy, said for Nigeria to grow and be at par with other developed nations, there was need to account for her natural resources.

He said: “NCA has been tasked with the crucial role of integrating natural capital into economic measurement. It is impossible to measure the economy accurately without accounting for natural resources. Issues such as environmental degradation, afforestation, desertification, and climate change all directly impact productivity.

“Productivity in turn, influences output—one of the core components of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). These environmental factors must be reflected across all economic activity sectors to present a more accurate picture of national output.”

While stating that Nigeria currently has data on NCA in Nigeria, the NBS official however raised concerns over the huge data gap from relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the environment sector.

He said: “We are not doing badly but we need to improve on what we are doing. In terms of data sources, I can tell you there’s a big gap because these are new areas needed to be exploited.”

Programme Leader on Sustainable Development at the World Bank, Vina Vutukuru, said there was need to jointly
explore the vital role of national accounting in national development plans and to brainstorm on how Nigeria could institutionalize it.

He said: “Establishing the national capital accounting as part of the national account system will allow us to measure the economic value of ecosystem services such as clean air, water and biodiversity which are essential for our well-being and economic prosperity.”

Vutukuru commended Nigeria for having “very bold ambitions” as far as responding to climate change was concerned saying, “That shows the commitment of the policy makers here towards the issue of climate.

“But I think to back up that aspiration and the aggressive goals that Nigeria has set for itself, the foundational thing for those goals to materialize those objectives to come true is a very strong natural account system.”

Head of Media, National Council on Climate Change Secretariat (NCCCS), Chioma Azie who represented her Director General, Dr. Nkiruka Maduekwe at the event, described Nigeria as a very ambitious country, stressing that natural resources was instrumental to achieving all the objective of climate action.

She said: “Technology, policy reforms, behavioral changes has a role to play but natural resources is very key because they’re underpinning the mitigation and adaptation for climate action.

“If you look at Nigeria’s NDC, the NCA is an avenue to provide raw materials that we could use to develop mitigation and adaptation strategies.

“If you look at what we have done in terms of this NDC in 2020.which is the second leg of the NDC, we identified a lot of mitigation activities within this mentioned sectors of ours. In agricultural sector we talked about smart agriculture. What is smart agriculture without natural resources?

“We talked about biomass, what is biomass without natural resources? We also spoke about land use changes and that is natural resources, we talk about natural solutions and we talked about also afforestation, reafforestation. Those are mitigation potentials of our NDC. So, we cannot achieve our NDC without SEEA.

“What you cannot be able to account for is recorded as if it is not done so if we know what is existing in terms of the reservoirs we have for natural resources, it can inform the scope of the mitigation activities we’re going to be imputing in the NDC 3.0,” she said.

Nigeria Looks to World Bank to Tackle Challenges of National Capital Accounting

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NIMC Insists All Its Verification Services, Functional, Accessible

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NIMC Insists All Its Verification Services, Functional, Accessible
.. Says Police Service Commission Not Denied Access

By: Michael Mike

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has said all its verification service platforms are functional and accessible to all partners including all security agencies.

The Commission, in a statement on Thursday by its spokesman, Dr. Kayode Adegoke said it is aware of the purported ”inability of the Police Service Commission (PSC) to access the NIMC verification server,” insisting that the “information is not only misleading but also inaccurate.”

Adegoke said: “To set the record straight, the NIMC granted verification access to all Nigerian Police formations for the verification of the National Identification Number (NIN). The NPF, PSC and other security agencies have been enjoying uninterrupted verification services for over five years.

“NIMC has provided top-notch verification services for recruitment into the Nigeria Police Force, as conducted by the PSC and at no time have there been any complaints or issues regarding NIN Verification by the NPF or PSC.”

Adegoke, in the statement, claimed that: “The Commission has a robust and harmonious working relationship with the Nigerian Police Force and the Police Service Commission. The Information Communications and Technology (ICT) department of the Nigeria Police Force is actively managing the long-standing verification and integration service between the NIMC and all Nigeria Police formations. NIMC will continue to provide flawless verification services for the purpose of recruitment, security mapping, cybercrime control, and any other security matters.”

He explained that: “The framework by which NIMC provides services to the security agencies was recently restructured for standardization and effective implementation, following consultation with the Office of the National Security Adviser, and NPF has confirmed the verification services have continued to be available. We therefore believe that any service interruption experienced by PSC may be due to internal matters.”

He promised that: “NIMC is committed to providing excellent verification services to the PSC, NPF and all its partners but the terms and conditions inherent must be adhered to for uninterrupted flow of service.”

NIMC Insists All Its Verification Services, Functional, Accessible

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