Make Taraba Tourism Capital of Nigeria, Darius Tells FG

The Governor of Taraba State, Arc. Darius Ishaku, has, in the wake of the urgent need to diversify the country’s economy, challenged the federal government to invest heavily in the tourism sector with special attention to his state.

Ishaku, who made this call while speaking to journalists in Abuja on Sunday, said that there is no better place to embark on any serious tourism initiative than Taraba state.

He said the federal government can only demonstrate its readiness to invest in the sector if it makes the state its main pivot scheme.

He said: “One area I believe is very lucrative in terms of investment, is tourism because if you check you find that some countries like Greece, Cuba and even Kenya here make tourism the corner stone of their economy. Tourism gives them enough and it enhances the employment opportunities in these places.

“Unlike other areas, tourism is the sector where the customer doesn’t leave with the commodity. Take the Taj Mahal in India. The place sees millions of customers yearly yet it is still standing. You can only leave with the experience but the tourism attribute remains there for the benefit of the owners. You can imagine how much we as Nigerians spend yearly in travels and sight seeings even with the tough times.

Countries are making a fortune from tourism even in a relatively unsafe world.”

The former university don turn politician, stressed that tourism is a low hanging fruit not requiring too much funding

According to him, “nature has practically finished the work for investment”. “Take our own offer for example. The Mambilla Plateau is already 80 per cent completed by nature with all the wondrous  sight and sound you find there. God has provided natural golf courses, water falls, wildlife, undulating hills and poetic scenes.  The way the weather is constituted, you would think God installed air-conditioning gadgets all over the place all year round.

“It also looks as if God was painting and painted this picture perfect place. So, nature has done its work. What remains now is for us to add the 20 percent of infrastructure needed. This would mean
good roads, hotels, amusement parks and shopping malls,” he noted.

Taraba State Now Ranked Highest In Hepatitis Cases

Like the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Taraba State has again been rated the highest in the country in the prevalence of both hepatitis B and C.

While the national prevalence rate of both hepatitis B and C has remained at 12 percent and 2.2 percent, that of Taraba, according to Danjuma K. Adda, Executive Board Member, World Hepatitis Alliance, Africa Region, has risen to 25 percent and 15 percent respectively, making it the highest infected state in the country.

Adda, who made this known yesterday in Jalingo, Taraba State, while marking the World Hepatitis Day, also noted that 95 percent of “people infected are unaware” and that “less than 1 percent of infected persons have access to treatment.”
Poor access to prevention, drugs and medicines across the country, as well as poor access to diagnosis, he said, are some of the factors accelerating the growth of the epidemic in Nigeria.

Noting that Nigeria was signatory to the Global Health Section on Viral Hepatitis on elimination, as a target by 2030, he expressed dismay at the way and manner the disease is being handled.
Adda, who also doubles as the Executive Director CHAGRO-CARE TRUST, explained that one out of every three people in the world is infected with hepatitis B, while one in 12 lives with chronic HBV or HCV infection and that most people infected with these viruses are unaware of their infection.

Such persons, he said, “faced the possibility of developing debilitating or fatal liver disease at some point in their lives and unknowingly transmitting the infection to others.”



Credit: guardian.ng

RMRDC Gives 5,000 Tea, Coffee Seedlings To Farmers In Taraba

Tea and Coffee farmers in Taraba State were, on Tuesday in Abuja, presented with about 5,000 seedlings of tea and coffee donated by the Raw Material Research and Development Council (RMRDC).

Speaking at the event, the Director-General of the RMRDC, Dr. Hussaini Doko Ibrahim, regretted that the country recorded zero percentage in coffee production for the first four months of 2015 despite the fact that coffee consumption by Nigerians has continued to increase.

He noted that Nigeria has enormous potentials for tea production, especially in the Mambilla Plateau, but the total tea production in Nigeria is not important in the global market, insisting that its production meets only about 25 percent requirement of tea packers and that most of the tea bags sold in Nigeria are imported.

Dr. Ibrahim, who was represented by the council’s director in-charge of Agriculture and Agro-Allied, Abimbola Ogunwusi, however, noted that with adequate planning, Nigeria can make over USD60 million through coffee exports on annual basis, saying the global demand for Nigerian coffee is very high.

In his remark, the National President of the National Coffee & Tea Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Akin Gbadamosi, enumerated the various benefits of drinking coffee and tea and urged Nigerians to support its production nation-wide.

The Senator Representing Taraba Central in the Senate, Yusuf A. Yusuf, stressed the need for a law that will protect the production and processing tea and coffee in the country, saying he will personally lead the campaign.

Representative of tea and coffee farmers in Mambilla-Plateau, Adamu Danjuma Buba, while thanking RMRDC for the gesture, called for government’s assistance in the area of fertiliser, pesticides and access to loan.

The seedlings were donated to the farmers under the RMRDC’s boosting of agricultural raw material for industrial use programme and the event was well attended by stakeholders in the agricultural sector including the representatives of Ministry of Agriculture.

Source: Dailytrust

GOODNEWS! Taraba State University 2016 Screening Exercise Starts Today, See Detail

The Taraba State Screening exercise has started today has stipulated. The registration which took place between 25th and 27th, saw applicants complying to the guideline of the institution.

The exercise is expected to run from today to 30th, July, 2016 at the respective faculties candidates applied.

We at Tarabasquare indulge all applicants to report to the screening venue with the required documents. This includes;
1. Online application form
2. Jamb?UTME result slip
3. Original/photocopy of credentials

The screening date for direct entry candidates will be announce at a later date.

We shall keep you posted here. Goodluck to all prospective candidates.

BREAKING NEWS! TY Danjuma Now Ntel’s New Chairman

Nigerian business tycoon, Gen. TY Danjuma, has been named Board Chairman by the NatCom Development & Investment Limited “NatCom”, trading as ntel. The announcement was made on Wednesday, July, 2016 following General Danjuma’s inaugural board meeting. 

With General Danjuma as board chairman, former chairman, Dr. Tunde Ayeni, becomes Vice Chairman. Other members of the board include Captain Idahosa Okunbo, Abiola Ayeni, Kasheem Shettima, Philip Chukwu, Kola Adesina, John Darlington, Dan Kunle, Babatunde Omotoba and Kamar Abass. General Danjuma, fondly known as ‘the green general’ on account of his environmental activism, has interests in oil and gas, banking and shipping.

A respected environmentalist and philanthropist, he was Chairman of Abuja Green Society and through his own Danjuma Foundation, established in 2009, passionately supports poverty alleviation, education and medical aid initiatives across Nigeria. General Danjuma brings to the ntel board robust commercial experience covering some three decades in the public and private sectors, following a successful career in the army from where he retired as a three-star General and Chief of Army Staff in 1980.

He also served as Minister of Defence in the first term of the civilian administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo. Commenting on this key addition to ntel’s board, Kamar Abass, ntel’s CEO, remarked “we are delighted to have a man of General TY Danjuma’s standing join us. As our new chairman, and as a shareholder, we welcome his support as we add momentum to our growth and development in Nigeria’s telecoms industry. 

We expect to benefit enormously from General Danjuma’s sterling leadership credentials and, in this way, to build on the excellent work of our immediate past chairman, Dr. Tunde Ayeni, who positioned ntel to deliver the leading Broadband experiences already evidenced in Lagos and Abuja.” ntel commenced commercial operations of its 4G/LTE-Advanced network on 08-04-16 in Lagos and Abuja.

Network services in Port Harcourt are scheduled to commence early in Q4. NatCom projects making investments totalling more than $1billion by 2020. ntel is Nigeria’s most advanced mobile 4G/LTE network providing superfast Internet Access that enables high-definition voice, data and video services. ntel’s network is built on the 900/1800 Mhz frequency bands which are the best propagation frequencies for the deployment of 4G/LTE technology. ntel’s bouquet of services includes: National Bandwidth; International Voice Termination, International Bandwidth; Mobile and Fixed Communications services.

The company made its first on-net test data call in Lagos on Monday, January 18, 2016 and followed this with its first on-net Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) call in Lagos on Thursday, February 25, 2016. Commercial operations commenced on Friday April 8, 2016

Source: Vanguardngr

NITDA’s Taraba Smart City Project Gets World Recognition

Head, e-Government, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Bernard Ewah (left); Director of IoT Smart City Strategy and Market Development for Intel Corporation, Susan Tauzer and Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder of US Ignite, Dr. Glenn Ricart, during a cheque presentation to Jalingo Internet of Things (IoT)-based Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Tracking and Monitoring project at the Global City Team Challenge Expo in Austin, Texas, United States

The Jalingo City’s Smart IDP Tracking and Monitoring project, designed and implemented under the tutelage of the National Information Technology Development Agency’s (NITDA’s) Nigeria Smart City Initiatives has won a global recognition.

The project was awarded the Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC) a $10,000 Leadership Prize at the just- concluded Smart City Innovation Summit in Austin, Texas, United States.

The Internet of Things (IoT)-based solution offers hope to thousands of Nigerians displaced in Jalingo, Taraba State with a medium to long term plan to implement the solution throughout the North Eastern region.

The project will also provide more accurate data to government agencies and support groups as well as enable citizens receive quicker and better quality response before, during and after displacements.
The Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC) is a collaborative platform enabling local governments, nonprofits, academic institutions, technologists and private corporations from all over the world to form project teams or “Action Clusters” in order to work on groundbreaking Internet of Things applications within the smart city environment.

Across the country GCTC Action Clusters are working to address the country’smost pressing problems in the areas of transportation, public safety, health, education, waste management, internal revenue collection and so much more.

The Jalingo IoT based IDP Tracking and Monitoring System Action Cluster consists of the NITDA, Hope Afresh Foundation Jalingo, Jalingo Local Government Council, IDEA Hub, Land Gate Consultancy and a host of telecommunications companies in Nigeria.

Source: Guardian