Tinubu sacks BPE director-general, appoints replacement 

President Bola Tinubu has relieved Mamman Ahmadu of his duties as director general of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE). In a statement by presidential spokesman Ajuri Ngelale on Saturday, the president also approved the appointment of Ayodeji Ariyo Gbeleyi as the new DG of the BPE. “Mr. Gbeleyi is a renowned financial expert and award-winning chartered accountant,” the statement read. “He is a fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN). “He is also an alumnus of executive programmes of the prestigious London Business School, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and Lagos Business School. “He has over 30 years of post-qualification experience in diverse sectors, including manufacturing, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), investment & commercial banking, project finance, telecommunications, infrastructure, and public administration. “He was the board Chairman of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and Commissioner of Finance in Lagos State from 2013 to 2015. “The President expects the new Director-General to bring his vast experience and competence to bear in this role to strengthen the agency as the national resource centre for capacity building and sustenance of reforms through the promotion of a competitive private sector-driven economy, ensuring social accountability and efficient deployment of public resources, as well as advancing effective corporate governance and fiduciary discipline in the public and private sectors.”

WHO Releases $16m To Tackle Cholera, Says Director-General

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released 16 million dollars from the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies to tackle cholera. Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General said this during an online news conference. Ghebreyesus said that the organisation was providing essential supplies, coordinating the on the ground response with partners, supporting countries to detect, prevent and treat cholera, and informing people how to protect themselves. “To support this work, we have appealed for 160 million dollars, and we have released more than 16 million dollars from the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies. “But the real solution to cholera lies in ensuring everyone has access to safe water and sanitation, which is an internationally recognized human right,” he said. According to him, in the previous week, WHO published new data showing that cases reported in 2022 were more than double those in 2021. He said that the preliminary data for 2023 suggested was likely to be even worse. “So far, 28 countries have reported cases in 2023 compared with 16 during the same period in 2022. “The countries with the most concerning outbreaks right now are Ethiopia, Haiti, Iraq and Sudan. “Significant progress has been made in countries in Southern Africa, including Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, but these countries remain at risk as the rainy season approaches,” Ghebreyesus said. According to him, the worst affected countries and communities are poor, without access to safe drinking water or toilets. He said that they also face shortages of oral cholera vaccine and other supplies, as well as overstretched health workers, who are dealing with multiple disease outbreaks and other health emergencies. On COVID-19, Ghebreyesus said that as the northern hemisphere winter approaches, the organisation continued to see concerning trends. He said that among the relatively few countries that report them, both hospitalisations and ICU admissions have increased in the past 28 days, particularly in the Americas and Europe. WHO boss said that meanwhile, vaccination levels among the most at-risk groups remained worryingly low. “Two-thirds of the world’s population has received a complete primary series, but only one-third has received an additional, or “booster” dose. “COVID-19 may no longer be the acute crisis it was two years ago, but that does not mean we can ignore it,” he said. According to him, countries invested so much in building their systems to respond to COVID-19. He urged countries to sustain those systems, to ensure people can be protected, tested and treated for COVID-19 and other infectious threats. “That means sustaining systems for collaborative surveillance, community protection, safe and scalable care, access to countermeasures and coordination,” he said.