The Managing Director, Ecobank Nigeria, Patrick Akinwuntan says the bank is set to support the Nigerian movie industry to project everything good about Nigeria.

Akinwuntan who spoke at the premiere of the movie ‘The Bling Lagosians’ in Lagos said Ecobank is determined to support the creative industry as they are most suited in the task of reinventing the Nigeria of our dreams.

This also being in line with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) vision to support the Creative Industry through a Financing Initiative

Mr. Akinwuntan said Ecobank is passionate about Africa and its cultural renaissance, and its partnership with Bolanle Austen-Peters, a renowned African culture promoter, sits perfectly with the Pan African brand.

Further he stated that the bank will continue to leverage its digital offerings to facilitate a more seamlessly connected Africa. According to the bank Managing Director, through its flagship products EcobankPay and the Ecobank Xpress ecosystem the bank will remain in the forefront as key enablers of digital payments across the continent.

As part of the partnership, Ecobank handed over the sum of N.5 million to the best dressed person at the premiere, being the climax of the ‘Eko for Show’ dress code for the event. Guests were encouraged to dress spectacularly to win cash prizes sponsored by EcobankPay.

EcobankPay, is the lifestyle digital payment and collections service of Ecobank Nigeria, had been designated the payment solution for the premiere of the much anticipated movie.  EcobankPay is a convenient digital QR code that enables payments using the mobile phone, without the need for a plastic card. The uniqueness of the platform is that it has MasterPass, MVisa and Mcash embedded in the merchant identity QR Code. This enables each customer to transact across the three platforms not minding the bank cards they are holding.

 ‘The Bling Lagosians’ is a story that centres on the lifestyle of a Lagos family that is presently living in their past glory. Although, they are not as wealthy as they once were, they still want to live that lifestyle they once used to. They want to host the talk of the town kind of party, they want to wear the best designers and ride the fastest of cars even if they are wallowing in debt. This movie is intended to show how people go the extreme to keep up appearances in public.

‘The Bling Lagosians’ is already attracting great audience. The film stars Jide Kosoko, Elvina Ibru, Denola Grey, Monalisa Chinda, and Helen Paul among others.

On Friday, 10^th of May 2019, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate was appointed by the World Bank Group as the Global Director of Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) and Director, Global Financing Facility (GFF), in Washington DC.

Announcing the appointment, Annette Dixon, the Vice President of the World Bank Human Development Practice Group, stated that ‘Mr. Pate was selected to this position through the Bank-wide competitive managerial selection process, and will be a great addition to the work of GFF in health and human capital development.’

Less than 2 weeks following the World Bank appointment, on Thursday, May 23, Muhammad Pate was also announced by the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health as ‘Julio Frenk Professor of Public Health Leadership in the Department of Global Health and Population.’

The selection of Pate, according to Professor Michael J. Grusby, Dean for Administration at the institution, was based on the dedication of his career to strengthening public health systems and building innovative partnerships to combat preventable causes of mortality.

Indeed, Muhammad Pate has shown an exceptiona lpassion to improving healthcare delivery systemsin some of the countries and regions of the world most affected by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria and other diseases.

From his early days as a young Medical Officer at the Nassarawa Hospital, Kano in 1991, to 2008 when he became an Executive Director of National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), to 2011 as Federal Minister of State for Health, Dr Pate has remained passionate about saving the lives of vulnerable persons from preventable health challenges and mortality.

At the NPHCDA, Muhammad Pate led his team to tackle the polio epidemic headlong. Less than two years into his appointment, Nigeria, in 2010, achieved a 95% reduction in the Wild Polio Virus. This feat was recognised at the 2011 World Health Assembly in Geneva by Bill Gates when he lauded Pate’s leadership in public health delivery.

As Minister of State for Health, Muhammad Pate led domestic reforms aimed at improving cogent primary healthcare indicators in the country and engagements with multilateral funding agencies and donors.

In 2012, under Pate’s leadership, high-level development partners, under the then Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg of Norway arrived in Nigeria to join President Goodluck Jonathan to launch the Saving One Million Lives (the SOML) initiative with support from Clinton Health Access Initiative.

The aim of the initiative was to save an estimated one million mothers and children that die each year from preventable causes.

A man of vision, Muhammad Pate had earlier laid the foundation for the Saving One Million Lives initiative when he led the NPHCDA to launch the national Midwives’ Service Scheme (MSS) to take care of the deficit of trained midwives and skilled birth attendants in the rural communities.

It is a living legacy of Muhammad Pate’s work that the SOML is still delivering on its vision; and represents the boldest attempt by Government to improve maternal and child health outcomes so that they are more in line with the country’s level of wealth.

Pate has also meritoriously served the global health community in various capacities and programmes.

In 2013, shortly after delivering on his Ministerial role to the people of Nigeria, Muhammad Pate took up a professorial chair at the United States’ Duke University’s Global Health Institute. Under the position, Pate served as Senior Adviser to the Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Pate was also the founding chief executive officer of the Big Win Philanthropy which invests in children and young adults in developing countries to improve their lives and maximize demographic dividends for long-term economic growth.

In 2017, the Ondo University of Medical Sciences, in recognition of his contribution to the field and practice of medicine, established the ‘Muhammad Ali Pate International School of Public Health’ and named him the Chair of its Board.

The Medical Women’s Association of Nigeria (MWAN), a non-governmental, non- profit, non-sectarian, and non-political organization of Nigerian female Medical and /dental practitioners, has been watching the sterling progression of Dr Muhammad Ali Pate over the years.

We are excited at the announcements; and strongly believe that Dr Pate will typically deliver on the terms of the appointments,both as a Global Director at the World Bank Group and a Julio Frenk Professor of Public Health Leadership at the Harvard,towards a healthier world for all.

NB: Dr Joyce Barber, National President, Medical Women’s Association of Nigeria

By Joyce Barbers

Despite significant progress in recent years, the world is falling short of meeting the global energy targets set in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for 2030.

Ensuring affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030 remains possible but will require more sustained efforts, particularly to reach some of the world’s poorest populations and to improve energy sustainability, according to a new report produced by the International Energy Agency (IEA) the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the World Bank and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Notable progress has been made on energy access in recent years, with the number of people living without electricity dropping to roughly 840 million from 1 billion in 2016 and 1.2 billion in 2010. India, Bangladesh, Kenya and Myanmar are among countries that made the most progress since 2010. However, without more sustained and stepped-up actions, 650 million people will still be left without access to electricity in 2030. Nine out of 10 of them will be living in sub-Saharan Africa.

• Tracking SDG7: The Energy Progress Reportalso shows that great efforts have been made to deploy renewable energy technology for electricity generation and to improve energy efficiency across the world. Nonetheless, access to clean cooking solutions and the use of renewable energy in heat generation and transport are still lagging far behind the goals. Maintaining and extending the pace of progress in all regions and sectors will require stronger political commitment, long-term energy planning, increased private financing and adequate policy and fiscal incentives to spur faster deployment of new technologies.

The report tracks global, regional and country progress on the three targets of SDG7: access to energy and clean cooking, renewable energy and energy efficiency. It identifies priorities for action and best practices that have proven successful in helping policymakers and development partners understand what is needed to overcome challenges.

Here are the key highlights for each target. Findings are based on official national-level data and measure global progress through 2017.

• Access to Electricity: Following a decade of steady progress, the global electrification rate reached 89 percent and 153 million people gained access to electricity each year. However, the biggest challenge remains in the most remote areas globally and in sub-Saharan Africa where 573 million people still live in the dark. To connect the poorest and hardest to reach households, off-grid solutions, including solar lighting, solar home systems, and increasingly mini grids, will be crucial. Globally, at least 34 million people in 2017 gained access to basic electricity services through off-grid technologies. The report also reinforces the importance of reliability and affordability for sustainable energy access.
• Clean Cooking:Almost three billion people remain without access to clean cooking in 2017, residing mainly in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. This lack of clean cooking access continues to pose serious health and socioeconomic concerns. Under current and planned policies, the number of people without access would be 2.2 billion in 2030, with significant impact on health, environment, and gender equality.
• Renewablesaccounted for 17.5% of global total energy consumption in 2016 versus 16.6% in 2010. Renewables have been increasing rapidly in electricity generation but have made less headway into energy consumption for heat and transport. A substantial further increase of renewable energy is needed for energy systems to become affordable, reliable and sustainable, focusing on modern uses. As renewables become mainstream, policies need to cover the integration of renewables into the broader energy system and take into account the socio-economic impacts affecting the sustainability and pace of the transition.
• Energy Efficiencyimprovements have been more sustained in recent years, thanks to concerted policy efforts in large economies. However, the global rate of primary energy intensity improvement still lags behind, and estimates suggest there has been a significant slowdown in 2017 and 2018. Strengthening mandatory energy efficiency policies, providing targeted fiscal or financial incentives, leveraging market-based mechanisms, and providing high-quality information about energy efficiency will be central to meet the goal.

“We need to do more to put the world on track to meet all SDG7 targets. I am particularly concerned by the dramatic lack of access to reliable, modern and sustainable energy in certain parts of the world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, a region where we need to really concentrate our efforts. The IEA will continue to cooperate with countries and organizations to make sure that successful solutions are efficiently deployed so that the sustainable energy revolution leaves no one behind,” said Dr Fatih Birol, Executive Director, International Energy Agency.

“The progress we have seen over the last few years is encouraging- the number of people without access to electricity has dropped to 840 million- but we still have a great deal of work to do as much of this population lives in the poorest countries and most remote locations. Over the last five years the World Bank has committed $5 billion to access programs, whether it is on- or off-grid, and we will continue to scale up,” said Riccardo Puliti, Senior Director for Energy and Extractives at the World Bank. “The successes in several countries in Africa and Asia show the way. This report demonstrates the importance of sound planning, integrating grid and off-grid approaches, a focus on affordability and reliability, and addressing gender inequalities.”

“Renewable energy and energy efficiency are key to sustainable development, enabling energy access, spurring economic growth, creating employment and improving health. We can extend the energy transition to all countries and ensure that the benefits reach the most vulnerable communities. IRENA will strengthen engagement with our Membership and key partners to facilitate on-the-ground solutions to build a sustainable energy future for the benefits of all humankind,” said Francesco La Camera, Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

“This report shows the progress achieved so far on SDG7 using comprehensive data compiled by the five collaborating international agencies. Despite the advancements towards Goal 7, progress is insufficient to meet the 2030 Agenda’s energy-related goals and targets. This is especially true for developing countries, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, and small island developing States. Moreover, gaps in official statistics abound for these countries, and they need investments in energy statistical systems to obtain better data to inform policy accurately and drive sustainable development,” said Stefan Schweinfest, Director, United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD).

“Around 3 billion people lack access to clean cooking solution and the progress is too slow to achieve the universal access goal, by 2030. This poses a big threat to health and exacerbates inequality, especially towards women and children. Targeted actions should be taken to prevent some 4 million deaths per year particularly from pneumonia, heart disease, stroke, lung disease and cancer, attributed to household air pollution. Although challenging, fast progress can be achieved through political and financial commitment towards expanding access to reliable and affordable supply of clean cooking solution,” said Dr Maria Neira, Director, Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health
World Health Organisation (WHO)