Electricity distribution companies will resume distribution of prepaid meters under the Meter Assets Provides programme this week.
This was revealed by the Head, Metering Team for Ikeja Electric, Morenikeji Amosun, at a virtual stakeholders’ forum.
While giving an update on IE’s metering efforts to customers during the meeting, Amosun said a new set of meters had been imported under the programme, and deployment would resume.
He added that the firm would first clear backlogs of old orders made about two-three months ago before attending to fresh orders.
According to him, electricity customers who had paid the old prices before the newly released prices by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, would be metered without additional payment, while fresh orders would attract new meter prices.
He said, “We can assure you that MAPs has brought in new meters and customers will start getting their meters in the coming week and beyond. But the focus would first be on those that had ordered about two/three months ago at old prices. For those that had paid old prices, no additional payment would be required from them before they get their meters. But new orders would carry the new prices.”
The Executive Vice-Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta has said that telecoms investment inflow grew from $38 billion to $77 billion by the second quarter of 2023.
Danbatta, who made the disclosure at a media chat with stakeholders in the media industry in Kano on Saturday, revealed that the sector had contributed 16 percent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product within the period under review.
He said that the statistics by the NCC was based on the computation by the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics.
“From about eight percent contribution to GDP in 2015, when I came on board as the EVC of NCC, quarterly GDP has increased significantly to reach its current threshold of 16 percent.
“And this has continued to positively impact all aspects of the economy,” he said.
The NCC boss, however, attributed the success to “thorough sustained regulatory excellence and operational efficiency by the commission”, adding that the industry has grown in leaps and bounds over the past two decades.
“We have witnessed explosive growth, improved regulatory standards, and digital innovation that have generated global recognition,” he said.
According to him, telephone users in Nigeria had hit 218.9 million, internet subscribers 159.5 million, while broadband users in the country now are 88.7 million within the period under review.
Danbatta listed issues of right of way, fiber cuts, the high capital requirement for deployment, multiple taxations, and regulations, among other frustrations, constituting barriers to broadband deployment in the country.
The EVC, however, assured that the NCC would “navigate regulatory complexities, digital divide, and literacy to tackle the challenges”.
He said that the commission would establish an emergency communication center in each of the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
He noted that the centers when established, will bridge the gap between distressed and emergency response agencies in the country.
He explained that the commission had increased the amount of research grants being given to universities from N20 million to N30 million.
He said that three universities had benefited from the new grant, so far.
“NCC as a regulator is mindful of the fact that telecom is an enabler and catalyst for the economic advancement of the country.
“It has consistently made available, affordable, and accessible telecoms service to check certain telecoms barriers,” he said.
The vice-chairman however said there challenges confronting the commission which included wilful destruction of its facilities and the number of taxes imposed on telecommunication companies.
“The challenges being faced by the commission include 41 categories of taxes imposed on telecommunications companies and wilful destruction of our facilities,” he said.
He said that the commission would continue to engage stakeholders in the media industry in order to keep members of the public abreast of its activities.
They say the strategic decision by LASU aligns with the broader national initiative to protect and promote Nigeria’s diverse linguistic and cultural legacy.
Students have also confirmed that GNS 104, (Use of Yoruba) classes have commenced in full.
Sao Tome and Principe women’s team has withdrawn from the 2024 Women Africa Cup of Nations first round Qualifiers against Nigeria’s Super Falcons.
The game is scheduled for the Mobolaji Johnson Arena, for Friday, September 22nd, with the return leg scheduled for Tuesday, September 26th.
A source confirmed to Pulse Sports that the team has withdrawn from the qualifiers, and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has written to clubs to notify them about the withdrawal of Sao Tome.
Recall that during the week, the NFF announced the Super Falcons squad for the games with confusion over the coach status.
Among the 24 players invited to the Super Falcons’ camp for next week’s first-leg qualifying match for the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations against Sao Tome and Principe are goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie, midfielder Rasheedat Ajibade, and striker Asisat Oshoala.
Onome Ebi, the team’s captain, as well as the regulars Michelle Alozie, Rofiat Imuran, Ifeoma Onumonu, Vivian Ikechukwu, and Gift Monday are all listed on the roster.
With the withdrawal of Sao Tome, nine-time African champion will play host to the winner of another first-round match between Liberia and Cape Verde during the second-round stage, which is scheduled to take place from November 27 to December 5, 2018.
The biggest Women Football fiesta on the continent will once again be held in Morocco, which hosted it last year.
Manchester City begin the defence of their Champions League title this week as the group stage gets under way.
Pep Guardiola’s side are joined by Arsenal, Manchester United and Newcastle from the Premier League, with the latter making their return after a 20-year absence.
Scottish champions Celtic are playing in the group stage for the second successive season.
Here’s all the key information about the 2023-24 Champions League.
Who has the toughest Champions League group?
Newcastle have been drawn in a tricky Group F alongside French champions Paris St-Germain, Italian giants AC Milan and former Champions League winners Borussia Dortmund.
City will fancy their chances of qualifying from Group G with little difficulty as they face RB Leipzig, Red Star Belgrade and Young Boys.
Celtic have what appears on paper to be a favourable group featuring Feyenoord, Atletico Madrid and Lazio.
The obvious concern for United are German giants Bayern Munich. But, with FC Copenhagen and Galatasaray also in Group A, United will feel they have enough to go through.
Arsenal are up against Europa League winners Sevilla, PSV Eindhoven and Lens.
Who are the big names missing?
For years, the prospect of seeing Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi on European club football’s greatest stage was a given, but neither will feature in this season’s Champions League.
Ronaldo was one of the first big names to move to Saudi Arabia – he plays for Al Nassr – while Messi is in the United States with Inter Miami.
They are not the only two absentees, Brazil forward Neymar and France striker Karim Benzema having joined Ronaldo in the Saudi Pro League. They are with Al Hilal and Al-Ittihad respectively.
We will still get to see some of the biggest names of the present and future, with France striker Kylian Mbappe at PSG and City goal machine Erling Haaland looking to break more records.
Lamine Yamal is also causing plenty of excitement. The 16-year-old this year became Barcelona’s youngest player of all time as well as the youngest debutant and scorer for Spain.
When are the Champions League games played?
Matchday one: 19-20 September.
Matchday two: 3-4 October.
Matchday three: 24-25 October.
Matchday four: 7-8 November.
Matchday five: 28-29 November.
Matchday six: 12-13 December.
Last 16: 13-14, 20-21 February 2024 and 5-6, 12-13 March.
Quarter-finals: 9-10, 16-17 April.
Semi-finals: 30 April, 1 May, 7-8 May.
Final: 1 June.
Where is the Champions League final?
The final this season will be held at Wembley.
Who are the Champions League favourites?
City are favourites to win the Champions League, ahead of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, according to simulations based on Gracenote’s Euro Club Index.
City have a 37% chance of victory, Real 13% and Bayern 11%, and there is a 19% chance that a new name will be on the trophy.
City, Real, Bayern and Barcelona each have at least a 90% chance of reaching the knockout stage.
When is the Champions League format changing?
This will be the last season of the existing format – 32 teams in the group phase, split up into eight groups of four, and the top two going to the last 16 – with widespread changes coming in for 2024-25.
The new format will feature 36 sides, with two of the four extra places awarded to countries whose clubs have performed the best in the previous campaign.
Nigeria’s Rivers United are off to a good start in the CAF Confederation Cup as they have forced Etoile Filante of Burkina Faso to a goalless draw at Yamoussoukro in Cote d’Ivoire.
They need just a minimum win in the return leg to advance.
Stanley Eguma’s side put up solid display in the keenly contested encounter.
Rivers United will need a win in the second led to progress to the group stage of the competition.
The former Nigeria Professional Football League champions made it to the quarter-final stage at the last edition of the competition.
The Pride of Benue were drawn bye in the first round.
The Port Harcourt club will host Etoile Filante in the second leg at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, Port Harcourt on Sunday, October 1st.
A peculiar pattern has persisted in official UK Government data for some time. Approximately five months after each dose of the Covid-19 vaccine is administered to each age group, the mortality rates per 100,000 rise significantly among the vaccinated compared to the unvaccinated in each age group.
So much so that by the end of May 2022, mortality rates were lowest among the unvaccinated in every single age group in England, and highest among the one-dose vaccinated, the two-dose vaccinated and the three-dose vaccinated.
Now, an analysis of Covid-19 data published by the UK Government has found that not only does the same pattern persist in Covid-19 deaths, but each dose of Covid-19 injection given causes a significant rise in Covid-19 deaths.
Between the 1st March and 31st July 2021, a period of 5 months, the vaccinated accounted for the majority of Covid-19 deaths in England, and it was the one-dose vaccinated who accounted for the majority (66%) of those deaths.
Between the 1st August and 31st December 2021, a period of 5 months, the vaccinated again accounted for the majority of Covid-19 deaths, with deaths nearly tripling compared to the previous 5 months, and it was the two-dose vaccinated who accounted for the majority (83%) of those deaths.
Finally, between the 1st January and 31st May 2022, a period of 5 months, the vaccinated once again accounted for the majority of Covid-19 deaths, with deaths again increasing compared to the previous five months, and it was the triple vaccinated who accounted for the majority (82%) of those deaths.
The following charts were created using data extracted from table 1 of the Office for National Statistics dataset on ‘Deaths by vaccination status (Jan 21 to March 22)’ which can be accessed on the ONS website here, and downloaded here.
The first chart shows the age-standardised mortality rates per 100,000 person-years by vaccination status between the 1st January 2021 and the 30th April 2021 –
As you can see, mortality rates are highest among the unvaccinated each month. However, by the end of April 2021, five months after the first Covid-19 injection was administered in the UK, things started to even out among each vaccination group and the unvaccinated.
But look what happened in the following four months.
The first chart shows the age-standardised mortality rates per 100,000 person-years by vaccination status between the 1st May 2021 and the 30th August 2021 –
The mortality rate among the vaccinated began to surpass the mortality rate among the unvaccinated significantly. By the end of August 2022, the mortality rate per 100,000 among the unvaccinated was the second lowest among each vaccination group.
Unfortunately, a follow-up report published by the ONS on 6th July 2022, proves that things did not improve for the vaccinated population.
The following two charts were created using data extracted from table 2 of the latest ONS dataset on ‘Deaths by vaccination status (Jan 21 to May 22)’, which can be accessed on the ONS website here, and downloaded here.
The charts show the monthly age-standardised mortality rates by vaccination status and age group between January 2022 and May 2022 –
A more detailed analysis of the data contained in the above charts can be read here, but what these two charts show is that by May 2022 at the latest, mortality rates per 100,000 were the lowest among the unvaccinated in every single age group in England.
Mortality rates were already generally higher among the one-dose vaccinated and two-dose vaccinated in each group, but with a mass booster (third dose) campaign not beginning until December 2021, we did not begin to see mortality rates among the three-dose vaccinated surpass mortality rates among the unvaccinated until… you guessed it… approximately five months later.
These are age-standardised figures. There is no other conclusion that can be found for the fact mortality rates per 100,000 are the lowest among the unvaccinated other than that the Covid-19 injections are killing people.
This pattern may explain why official data on Covid-19 deaths suggests that each dose of Covid-19 vaccine administered increases the number of alleged Covid-19 deaths, with those who have had the most doses accounting for the majority of those deaths.
According to the UK Governments’ COVID-19 Dashboard’, by the 1st March 2021, 35.9% of people in England aged 12 and over had received a single dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, and just 1.3% of people in England aged 12 and over had received two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.
But here’s what happened in terms of Covid-19 deaths in the following five months from that point onwards according to data extracted from table 1 of the latest ONS ‘Deaths by vaccination status‘ dataset –
The public was told that they needed two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine for it to be fully effective. But despite only a tiny percentage of people being two-dose vaccinated by the 1st of March, Covid-19 deaths began to fall significantly by the month.
However, as you can see from the above chart, it was the vaccinated who accounted for the majority of Covid-19 deaths each month, and it was the one-dose vaccinated who accounted for the majority of those deaths over a period of five months.
In all, there were 5,629 Covid-19 deaths. The vaccinated accounted for 63% of those deaths, 66% of which were among the one-dose vaccinated.
But things actually began to get worse for the double vaccinated in June, and unfortunately, by July 2021, Covid-19 deaths were on the rise again.
By the 1st of August 2021, 81.3% of people in England aged 12 and over had received a single dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, and 66.4% of people in England aged 12 and over had received two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.
But here’s what happened in terms of Covid-19 deaths in the following five months from that point onwards according to data extracted from table 1 of the latest ONS ‘Deaths by vaccination status‘ dataset –
third dose needed to be offered to the elderly and vulnerable from the beginning of October. But the claim that vaccine effectiveness wanes is a myth.
All the vaccine allegedly does is instruct our cells to produce part of the Covid-19 virus. It’s our immune system that does the rest. Therefore, it’s the performance of the immune system that wanes.
Nevertheless, as you can see from the above, people given a third dose began to account for a large chunk of the people dying of Covid-19 from the very first moment it was administered.
It was however, the double vaccinated who accounted for the vast majority of Covid-19 deaths among the vaccinated during this period. 83% to be exact. And the vaccinated population as a whole accounted for 79% of the 13,309 alleged Covid-19 deaths between the 1st of August and the 31st of December 2021.
This means the overall number of Covid-19 deaths increased by 136% over this period compared to the previous five months.
By the 1st of January 2022, 90% of people in England aged 12 and over had received a single dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, 82.3% of people in England aged 12 and over had received two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, and 59.1% of people in England had received three doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.
But here’s what happened in terms of Covid-19 deaths in the following five months from that point onwards according to data extracted from table 1 of the latest ONS ‘Deaths by vaccination status‘ dataset –
By the end of May 2022, England had suffered 15,113 Covid-19 deaths, and the vaccinated accounted for a shocking 13,666 of them. The majority of them among the triple vaccinated every single month.
This means that overall the vaccinated population accounted for 90% of Covid-19 deaths during this period. 82% of which were among the triple vaccinated.
But what’s perhaps most concerning in this period is the massive decline in deaths among the unvaccinated but the increase in deaths each month among the vaccinated.
In January the vaccinated accounted for 85% of Covid-19 deaths, 67% of which were among the triple jabbed.
In February the vaccinated accounted for 90% of Covid-19 deaths, 74% of which were among the triple jabbed.
In March the vaccinated accounted for 93% of Covid-19 deaths, 82%% of which were among the triple jabbed.
In April the vaccinated accounted for 94%% of Covid-19 deaths, 91% of which were among the triple jabbed.
Finally, in May, a month where we would expect seasonal illness to decline, as proven by the figures, the vaccinated still accounted for 94% of Covid-19 deaths, 85% of which were among the triple jabbed.
We are still waiting for the official figures on deaths by vaccination status to be published for the months following, but unfortunately, we know from the UK Governments’ Covid-19 dashboard that the drop in Covid-19 deaths in May was short-lived, with deaths beginning to rise again from July onwards.
Something that doesn’t make sense when it comes to the fact these deaths are supposed to be caused by a virus that thrives in winter and declines in summer.
But when we see that the elderly and vulnerable were being offered a fourth dose from April onwards, we perhaps shouldn’t be so surprised that Covid-19 deaths began to rise in the middle of a red hot summer.
The problem now is that they are offering a fifth dose to the over 75’s and “most vulnerable” and a fourth dose to the over 50’s –
This means an already struggling National Vaccination Service, sorry, National Health Service (NHS), could be in for one hell of a winter and about to rename itself the National Treat Covid Only Service once again.
Aruna, who is the tournament’s number-one seed, overwhelmed Saleh in the final clash with a convincing 4-0 win.
Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri has successfully retained his title in the men’s singles of the 2023 ITTF African Championships after beating Ahmed Saleh of Egypt in the final match played on Sunday.
Aruna, who is the tournament’s number one seed, overwhelmed Saleh in the final clash with a convincing 4-0 win to hold on to the title he won last year in Algeria.
There were mixed feelings for Aruna in Tunis, having missed the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games ticket through injury at the same venue.
“I am happy with the title because I have a good and bad memory of Tunis, having got injured here during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games qualification. Winning another title here is good to erase the bad memory. This win will remain with me for a long time. I am happy and I look forward to the next challenge,” the Nigerian said.
Meanwhile, Egyptian teenage sensation, Hana Goda, dethroned her compatriot Dina Meshref to claim the women’s singles title on the final day of action in Tunis, the Tunisian capital.
Two-time Africa Cup champion Goda was at her best against defending champion Meshref with another inspiring 4-1 win in the final encounter of the women’s singles.
An excited 15-year-old Goda described the victory as “special”.
“This is special, especially with the support from the Tunisian fans. I will cherish this for a long time to come,” she said.
Oshonaike and Fatima Bello
Before the triumph recorded by Aruna, seven-time Olympian, Funke Oshonaike, partnered with rising star Fatimo Bello to claim the gold medal for Nigeria in the women’s doubles event on Saturday.
The feat made them the first Nigerians to win a gold medal in the fiercely contested tournament in Tunis, Tunisia.
Oshonaike came out of retirement to participate in the women’s doubles alongside Bello.
The pair were up against Cameroonian player Sarah Hanffou and her teammate, Egypt’s Marwa Alhodaby, in the final.
The event was not one with open qualification for the Olympics, and both teams only had the gold medal to play for.
A Nigerian teacher, John Obot, who is attempting to break the Guinness World Record for the longest marathon reading aloud, successfully hit 100 hours, 5 p.m. on Saturday.
As of now, Obot, has broken the current 124-hour world record for the longest marathon reading aloud by an individual.
The Akwa Ibom state-born teacher broke the Guinness world record set by Rysbai Isakov of Turkey and is now setting a new record of 145 hours of non-stop reading aloud.
The exercise is ongoing in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom state capital and is expected to end at about 1 a.m. on Tuesday when Obot will have completed his 145-hour reading attempt.
Before Isakov was Nigerian Olawunmi Bayode, a father of three kids, who set the record at 120 hours at 15.30 in March 2018.
Lalong said that he had directed the Department of Trade Union Services and Industrial Relations to convene the meeting with the leadership of the NLC on Monday.
He said it was important for the unions to sit down with the government to resolve all pending matters to avert further disruption to the economy.
“The administration of President Bola Tinubu will always engage organised labour and respond to its concerns after due consultation and negotiations.
“This is in order to guarantee industrial harmony, which is critical to the attainment of the Renewed Hope Agenda,” Lalong said.
Also, the NLC National Executive Council threatened, on Sept. 1, in a communiqué, to embark on an indefinite strike within 21 days of the issue of the communiqué.
NLC demanded, among other things, that the minimum wage for workers be increased to N200,000.
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