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Kaduna Budgets N11bn For Health Care Services

Kaduna State Government is to spend over N11 billion this year to improve health care services, the Commissioner for Health, Mr Turaki Kalik has said.

Kalik said while defending the budget at the State House of Assembly on Friday that, N4 billon of the amount would be spent on capital projects while N6.1 billion would be for recurrent expenditure.

Kalik said part of the amount would be used to upgrade some primary health centres, as well as the Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital being upgraded to a teaching hospital.

He said the recurrent budget size when compared to 2012, had risen from N5.5 billion to N6.7 billion, due to plans to recruit more doctors, nurses and other health workers.

He said the ministry had established a monitoring and evaluation department to supervise health workers and healthcare facilities.

He added that the state had provided N1 billion to fund the new free health services programme for children and pregnant women.

The Chairman, House Committee on Health, Alhaji Shehu Adamu expressed satisfaction with the ministry's presentation.

Adamu assured that the assemby would appropriate the funds requested in order to enhance healthcare delivery in the state.

In a related development, the state government said it would spend N5.6 billion on the digitisation of its broadcast stations, and an additional N341 million for other works on the state radio.

The Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Saidu Adamu said while defending the budget of the ministry at the assembly that the aim was to fully equip the stations to provide quality services to the people. (NAN)

 

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Interbank Lending Rates Rise On NNPC Cash Recall, T-bills Auction

Nigerian interbank lending rates rose by about 100 basis points this week, to an average of 12.5 per cent, as dollar sales by the state-owned energy firm NNPC and treasury bills sapped naira liquidity. The NNPC sells the bulk of dollars traded on the i...

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NSE Market Capitalisation Loses N43bn To Profit-taking

Transactions on Nigerian Stock Exchange on Wednesday bowed to profit-taking with the market capitalisation dropping by N43 billion. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the market capitalisation, which opened at N9.297 trillion depreciated by 0.46 per cent to close at N9.254 trillion.

The All-Share Index lost 132.68 points, which represented 0.46 per cent, to close at 28,956.83 against the 29,089.51 posted on Tuesday. Nigerian Breweries led the price losers' chart with N4.85 to close at N145.65 per share. It was trailed by Presco with a loss of N1.90 to close at N20.50, while National Salt lost 44k to close at N8.30 per share.

Stanbic dropped 33k to close at N11.21, while FBNH dipped by 26k to close at N17.25 per share. Conversely, NewGold, for the second consecutive day, led the gainers' chart, appreciating by N13 to close at N2,535 per unit.

Nestle came second with N3.50 to close at N710 per share, while Okomu Oil gained N2.15 to close at N49 per share. Lafarge Wapco gained N1.90 to close at N55.90 and was followed by Ashaka Cement with N1.71 to close at N20.69 per share.

The financial services sector was investors' delight, accounting for 335.08 million shares worth N2.72 billion traded in 3,396 deals. UBA drove activity in the sector with 147.58 million shares valued at N832.86 million traded in 147.58 deals.

In all, investors exchanged 455.81 million shares worth N4.06 billion in 6,980 deals. This is against the 529.79 million shares valued at N3.71 billion traded in 6,858 deals on Tuesday. (NAN)

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CBN Sells N66.9bn Forex At WDAS

The Central Bank of Nigeria (NAN) sold foreign exchange worth 43.2 million dollars (N66.96 billion) at its bi-weekly Wholesale Dutch Auction System (WDAS) on Wednesday. This information was contained in the apex bank’s Website on Wednesday after the auction.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the WDAS sale on Wednesday was smaller than the one conducted on Monday at which 150 million dollars was sold.

A dealer, who preferred anonymity, said that the action of the apex bank was to control foreign exchange in the system. "The small amount of forex sold this time around is because it is the second auction in the year.

``Again, most Nigerians abroad came in with foreign currencies during the Yuletide and that means that there is still much foreign currencies around,`` he said. The official exchange rate remained at N155.79 to the dollar at Wednesday's auction.

The dollar has remained at N155.79 to the dollar since the Dec. 19, 2012. A total of three banks participated at Wednesday’s auction against 15 banks that participated at Monday’s auction. (NAN)

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