House of Representatives Committee on Health has revealed that not less than five wards with about 150 beds, have been closed down at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba due to a shortage of health workers. Chairman of the committee, Amos Magaji explained that the five wards had to be shut because there were no health workers to operate them despite the large number of patients received at the institutions on a daily basis. While lamenting that the institution was under threat as a result of brain drain, the health committee chairman stated that many health workers in LUTH, especially…

Federal Executive Council has approved a $1 billion concessionary loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to support financing the budget and improve foreign exchange supply, Finance Minister Olawale Edun said on Monday. The AfDB loan will fetch an interest rate of 4.2% for 25 years with eight-year moratorium, Edun told reporters after a cabinet meeting in the capital city, Abuja. The FEC on Monday revised the country's 2024 budget upwards by 1.5 trillion naira to 27.5 trillion naira ($32.76 billion), after increasing the oil price benchmark and lowering the naira exchange rate assumption. "(Federal Executive Council) approved a $1…

President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of the board and management team of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited. In a statement on Monday, Ajuri Ngelale, special adviser to the president on media and publicity, said Tinubu also retained Umar Isa Ajiya as the chief financial officer. The appointments included six non-executive directors: Ledum Mitee, Musa Tumsa, Ghali Muhammad, Mustapha Aliyu, David Ogbodo and Eunice Thomas. Furthermore, Tinubu approved the appointment of Okokon Ekanem Udo as permanent secretary, federal ministry of finance and Gabriel Aduda, permanent secretary, federal ministry of petroleum resources. Ngelale said the appointments will take…

Twenty people were killed and nearly 2,000 inmates escaped during Sunday's attack on a military barracks, a prison and other locations in Sierra Leone, officials said on Monday. The West African country was thrown into panic in the early hours when the assailants sent gunfire ringing across the capital Freetown. The government blamed "renegade soldiers" that it said had been repelled. President Julius Maada Bio said in an address on Sunday that most of the leaders of the attack had been arrested and that efforts to apprehend others were under way. An investigation has been launched, he said. Army spokesman…