Kano-port Harcourt Train Services Begin

Train services from northern Nigerian State, Kano, to Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, have started, twelve years after the Nigerian government launched a revitalisation project of the railway.



The mixed service train will leave Kano to Port Harcourt every Thursday and from Port Harcourt to Kano every Tuesday.

At the commissioning ceremony of the new trains in Kano on Thursday, the Managing Director of the Nigeria Railway Cooperation (NRC), Adesiyi Asijuwade, said train services in Nigeria was back on track.

The first Kano-Port Harcourt mixed train services was in 1914, technically carrying both passenger and goods from the north to southern part of Nigeria.

However, in view of the ongoing efforts by the NRC, train services are now being resuscitated in phases across Nigeria.

Two 68-seater air conditioned modern first class passenger couches had been put in place to traverse a rail distance of 1,139 kilometres, stretching from Kano to Port Harcourt, with stops at some cities across Kano, Kaduna and Benue among other states in the south.

Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, represented by the Speaker State House of Assembly, Alhassan Doguwa, assured the corporation of the State government’s continued support and patronage.

At the event, the Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sunusi II, urged the management of the NRC to ensure continuity of the train services at an affordable price in order to allow free flow of economic exchange between the south and northern parts of Nigeria.

“We are indeed happy that train services from Kano to Port Harcourt have returned and we pray that Allah will ensure the continuity of the program and may it be a source of our economic strength,” the Emir prayed.

During the British colonial era, train services were regular and one of the best means of transportation in Nigeria, but lack of maintenance of the infrastructure led to a huge setback in that sector, forcing business owners to rely solely on the use of trucks for the movement of goods from one part of the nation to the other.

The dearth in the sector further affected the movement of agricultural produce from farm settlements that were located in towns where the rail line traverse.

The resuscitation of the train services will no doubt bring succour to farmers that may need to move produce from Kano to states along the rail line and in southern Nigeria.

http://www.channelstv.com/2015/07/24/kano-port-harcourt-train-services-begin/ 

Photos: Akpabio Commissions Ibom Specialist Hospital

 For Akpabio, that dream has become a reality with the unveiling of the multipurpose hall last week. But that seemed just a drop in the
ocean as the governor continues to go round the state in the twilight of his administration to commission 165 other projects that have been completed in the state in recent weeks. Among those projects are world-class specialist hospital that costs about N30 billion and five- star hotel that will be inaugurated today according to schedule of activities in the state. The 308-bed international specialist hospital, billed for inauguration on Monday, May 25, is an ultra-modern medical facility with six fully integrated modular theatres that will redirect medical tourism to Akwa Ibom State and the country.

The hospital that is equipped with 640 slides CT scan, digital mammography, endoscopy surgery, highly sophisticated intensive care units and medical gas plants is sitting on a large landmass with paperless and fully automated laboratories. It also has a helipad to facilitate easy emergency movements to and from the hospital. The entire hospital system is also hooked up to a global system for best practice.
In an interview Akpabio discussed the idea behind the establishment of a hospital of this magnitude. He said: “We lose billions of dollars every year to medical trips abroad. We have also lost a lot of people, not because we don’t have the expertise in the country.

We needed a hospital that can run at international standard. I decided to build general hospitals in local governments that did not have and in areas that are very populated, even if the local government already had one. I found out that what we have here can go for a teaching hospital.
“We also decided to have a hospital that would answer to the needs of Nigerians in terms of advance health management and that was why we built the Ibom Specialist Hospital. It is not like a teaching hospital, it is like a quaternary hospital, it is higher than a teaching hospital. We are starting it with about six modular theatres with equipments, that if for instance you are doing a cardiological investigation on a patient,
cardiologists from around the world can hook up to the theatre and see real time what is going on and make their contributions to the
examination and operation. “That kind of hospital cannot be run by government; we needed to hand it over to a private sector. That is the one that will be a revenue earner. So, instead of rich and wealthy Nigerians and nationals of other West African countries going abroad, it is
easier to come here. Sometimes, people die in the air while being transported abroad for treatment. We wanted to shorten travel time
for patients going abroad and at the same time get revenue for the state from health tourism. It is a beautiful concept, it is also very big. It is comfort combined with excellence. We have about 380 suites and so many operating wards. We are starting with 150 expatriates all at once.

We are in agreement with a Swiss hospital group and an Arab healthcare group in partnership with Cardio Care in Lagos, which is a group of
cardiologists. We are providing a place for a lot of Nigerian skilled personnel abroad to come back home. We are providing a place that is equal to where they are operating from. The MRI system we have installed in that hospital is the best in the whole of West Africa. There is none in Nigeria today. We went for the best because we want to save lives.”

 

   Former Governor Akpabio and wife, Unoma, Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel and wife, Martha and Acting PDP National Chairman, Chief Uche Secondus cutting tape to inaugurate Ibom Specialist Hospital in Uyo.

 

 

 

  

  

 

  

 

 Credits:
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http://www.nairaland.com/2338759/akpabio-commissions-ibom-specialist-hospital

Nigeria Now Has 146 Million Active Phone Lines – NCC

The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, on Sunday said the active lines in the nation’s telecommunications industry stood at 146,561,744 in May.

The commission made this known in its Monthly Subscriber Data.

Active lines in Nigeria were 145,476,326 for the month of April. The figure increased by 1,085,418 in May, the NCC said.

According to the data, 144,386,841 of the 146,561,744 active numbers subscribe to the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network services.

The GSM operators increased their active customers by 1,329,607 as against the 143,057,234 subscribers they recorded in April.

The Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators had 1,993,278 active users in May, indicating a decline of 241,024 from the 2,234,302 customers they had in April.

Also, the monthly subscriber data showed that the Fixed Wired/Wireless networks’ consumers reduced to 181,625 in May, after losing the 3,165 customers they recorded from the 184,790 data for April.

The chart revealed that the Tele-density of the country’s telecommunications industry increased to 104.69 per cent in May, from 103.91 per cent in the month of April.

NAN reports that the Tele-density statistics measure the percentage of a country’s population with access to telecommunications services, as determined from the subscriber base.

Nigeria’s Tele-density is currently calculated by the NCC on a population of 140 million people.

NAN also reports that there was an increase of 0.78 per cent in the Tele-density of Nigeria in May.
(NAN)

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/more-news/186537-nigeria-now-has-146-million-active-phone-lines-ncc.html