2~ BU~NESS
"DiE GUARDIAN. Monday. SeptemberS. 20U
PHCNdenies plan to layoff workers
Foundation, institute plan bio-fortified cassava to boost food security, revenue
CONTItiUED FROM PAGE 15 menlS In
tlves
lin~
with the objec. lh~
of
Federill
Goo.'C1l1ntnt or Nigeria as set OUI in the NEW.
Meanwhile, the General ',Ianager, Public A!fain, I'HCN, Mrs. Effuru Igho, has
debunked the speculations that the company was pi .. ". fling to layor some of iUSfaf[ 19bo told News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) In AbuJa lhat
she \v.ts not aWOlre of any plan by the r'flleral Go~'emment to sack some of lhe workers.She advised
stArr orPH(N todls~
gard the rumour. as It was false. Ihf' ~Ier.l l
~mm(!nt
had r~ ;ured usa numberor ti~
lh.l1 nobody would be
retrenched In PHCN. lhe
MlniStn- of J'o\VI!r ~n said
Ih15, ;and b«iIuse of the reform, [he~ are $0 many comt»nies coming on bOilrd. Ihe~
aft so many comp.l-
nies coming out. which
\',;ould require the people to work there. The peoplt! ut! PHOI rufTthal ~l lUdy1utow Iht! system. So, 11J.f!1Iev1e what lhe ~deral Government Is saying~ that nobody will ~ SolCketl 1>K~use 'hey annat go outskle to SOIJ(Ce for peoI)h::,~ she said, Igboilck1a1 that Ole F«Ie:ral Go\'emment would employ well-traln~ people like PHCN Starr, who were already compelent, knew the lernln and how to operate tile machlnes_ Onthc IssueofOlorunsogo power plOlnts which W.1S reportet.l by newspapers tllat the mOlnual of the machines were writtcn In Chinese language, she .Rid ~ he was not OIware whether II was wtilten In Chinese or not
'T1 IE Bill and Melinda Ga tes J. Foundation is sponsoring the Nalion;ll Root Crops Rese.lrch Institute (NRCR1). Umudlke, to conduct rest'arch Into the productiOn of blo-fortified Guava. Dr. Kt'neth Nwosu, the executive director of the Instl· LUte, discl osed this o n Thumiay, In an Intervlew with the Neil'S Agency o(Nigerfa. ln Abuja. He said that bh>-fortlfial c.1ssava would help In Improving the nutrition o f 40,000 chilijren. who died yearly In Nigeria Trom vitamin -A' deficiency. Nwos u said tha t though casSolva was rich In calories, It offered limited nutri[Jonal value. He gid the InstJtute had succeeded In fortifying GlSS.lva with three vital nuuf·
e n lS- vila min A, Iron, and prouein. 111e Bill and Mellnd.l Ga tes Foundation Is providing 100 per cem funding and they h.1ve.llsolfilined some of our scientists. ~R.ight now, we have fourol oursclent1sts working In laboratories In the u.s. to fMh· Ion Out how best to achieve the concept, ~ he $.1ld. NwO$u said Ihat two other countries In Africa· Uganda .lnd Kenya wou ld.llso b(nefit from Ihe gr.lIlt He said the grant would be used \0 su~ pon research Inlo the devle]· opment of dlfrerenl varieties of [:.suva :.pproprliue for small fanners fn Nlgert:. ilnd Ke.nya, where c~suva was widely consumed. Nwosu that said the instl· tute was :.Iso collaboliltlng with iI consortium ca lled
-Harvest rlus Research', to Increase the pro-vitolmln -A' conlent of CClSS.lViL He said Ihe Insticute had also produced high qUAlity cassaVOl flour rorbaldng bread. Meanwhile. Nwosu has Il'lceratt'd that the adoptio n of agrlcu ltulill biotechnology would boost food produc· tlon/ help achieve national fooo security and ensure swtalnabllllY of the sector. He Solid that the Institute had recorded positive results through the applicalion of modern biotechnology on some crops. "The use o f blolechnology will be a success story In Nigeria becawe any technology thilt Is teSlM glob.llly and approved as suitilble for human beings. ca n be applied In my part of the world.
NDE's model ticldes Sierra Leone CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15 jlOOr quality educaUon and lack o f competency skills of Nlg~rian graduatt'S as the n~asons for th~ high rate of gr.. Juate unt'mploymenl in fhe country. Aso mu~ 5G1l~ tJl15 .11 an interactive orienl&ltion for 87 graduates benenclarit's of fhe Directorate·s Gldduate Atlachmenl Programme (GAl') In Enugu_ Under lhe NIJE pr0gIiJmme, Ih~ gradua tes a re ilUached to publiC and private establishments for purpos~s of exposing the partldpanu to practical field t'Xr:nel1c~ In th~ir professlona areas with the expectation that the host
institutions may oUer them pennane.nt paid }cbs after a l>triad of six months. Asomugha said that Ihe mblem of unemployment n Nigeria Is one of the mqst crltlcal challenges Nigeria Is fadng. He t'lIplalned thaI a rttent esllmat~ by the International Labour Organ isa ti on (ILO) and Ihe Federal Ministry of Fll\anc~ said thaI t9.7 per cent Nlgt'rlans available and actlv~ly seeking lobs are unemployed. lie Solid that gradua tes conSist of the prillclpal fraction o( the unemployed accountIng for near ly )5 per cent to 50 lH'r cent of th ose In tht'
r,
employment markeL The Iilte of unemployment with· in the ag~ grou p of 20 to 24 yeus Is 40 per cent and between 15 to 19 years It Is 31 per cent. lie said that unless the productive sector of the economy Is en couraged to grow through elimination of (U r(uptlon and provision of power to drive economl( activities, unemploymenlln Nigeria would contJ nue to be a cha llenge. Thl' coordinator urged ihe beneficiaries to add value to their places of attachment III order to have a cunlngofllge adVOlnlage In getting penna· nent jobs where they all' cur· ~ntly serving.
~Nlgeria'scilSeshould not be dlfrerem and I hope the country will not be left behind In the scheme of thlngs.MNwosusald. He further said that more than 3,500 rarmers across the six gea-polltlcal zones of the country had benentt~ from the Institute's producu. AccordlngIOhlm,theaF.PU. cation o f blotechno ogy enabled Nigeria to become the world·s largl.'.St producer or cassava and yam with productlon at about 33.1 million mnnesand 19 million tonnes annuallyrespectlVf!ly. MCassava production Is now
and yam Is t9 million tones annually. This uack record. which ha.s p laced Nigeria on the ....-orld rn.1p, was achieved throu~h the a p p I I c a t I on ofblotechnoiogy,MheSOlld_ The executJve dlreclor noted that the d~lopment of mini·set techniqut', which helped tu reduce tht' production cost ofyam.cilSsava.sweetpoLlIo ana cocoyam, was one of tht' notable achle~ements made by the Institute. 11Ie Institute. he said. had released 17 varlelles or c.assava, adding that six Im:r roved varieties of ~JJ~_~I~m.:...I~"o~n;....l~o_n~n~";...;Y~'~'_"~Y_;"Cm _WO ":'"C'.:..;soon be released.
Brent crude rises above $114 a barrel CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15 lrelwlng back tOW<1rds m:1eSsian: PI!Iu Ballel. presidmt of trading advlso!)' Cameron Hanoversaid In a note. ~ to w that lIle belief that the kd ....~II ride to the resCUI: - ~n though nOi t'\~ry one wants It to -"Is OYerly opd-
't
mbtk."
L.1testdat;ashowa! unCJt~· ed growth In the u.s. manurac-
tunng sector In August and fewer jobless dalrm last w~k. despite a slump In confidence that threatened to pwh the economy back Into Il!(es.sloll. In tJM: Culf of Mexico, major 011 and gas producers on Thursday shut down offshore platronns and evacuated workers ahead of a slorm brewfng offshore th oll WilS expeoeil to bring llootIing to louisiana over tlM:wte.kmd. So far only a fraction ofCulf
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output WOl! shut as of Thuooaf-: 5-7 per cen! of 011 supply and 2.4 percenl of g<1S su~pl)r. according to the us. government Those percenlag~ \vltI !Ikely rise signiflGln!· Iy In (ommg days as the 5torm d~lops.
I~ton ....~ also concerned wil h OUL1ges in the North ~a and Nigeria, Newedge's Set.J. said. rererrtng to a fone m.ljeure of Nigeri.1II Bonny light, production ISlUes at the forties and Ekofisk. This hilS pwhed up October Brent fut\lres and WIdened its gap \\~th November contract, keeping the lTlarket in wide backward,loon. h~ said Brent"s prt'miumagiJirut U.s. crude \Iidencd 10SlS.62 J barrt'l rrornlhursdily'~ close. The premium hit a ~ord Sl6.6g on August t9. according to Raltmwla.