The Federal Government will begin the distribution of grains nationwide to cushion the impacts of the hardship in Nigeria.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Senator Abubakar Kyari disclosed this on Monday.

“Dear Fellow Nigerians,” he wrote on his official X handle. “In these trying times, I extend my sincere compassion to those affected by the hardships in the country. I understand the gravity of the situation, especially with the unfortunate event of foodstuff warehouse looting.

“Amidst these challenges, I want to assure you that our commitment to your well-being remains resolute. We shall commence the distribution of 42,000 metric tons of grains, as approved by Mr. President, across the 36 states of the federation as one of the programs to be rolled out this week.

“We are working hand in hand with NEMA and the DSS to ensure that the grains get to the right people in the right packages and quantities. Furthermore, 58,500 metric tons of milled rice from mega rice millers will also be released into the market for stabilization.”

The minister who hailed the resilience of the Nigerian people, urged them to back President Bola Tinubu’s government in its quest to address the challenges facing the country.

“I acknowledge the strength of the Nigerian people, and it is this resilience that will guide us through these difficult times. Let us stand together to support Mr. President in his strive for a better Nigeria,” Kyari said.

“Our government under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is committed to addressing these challenges and working towards a more secure and prosperous future for all.”

Dear Fellow Nigerians,

In these trying times, I extend my sincere compassion to those affected by the hardships in the country. I understand the gravity of the situation, especially with the unfortunate event of foodstuff warehouses looting.

The Nigerian Communications Commission has confirmed that telecom operators have barred all Subscriber Identification Modules (SIMs) which have yet to be linked to their owners’ National Identity Numbers (NINs).

NCC had last week given the operators the go-ahead to block about 11.2m lines whose owners had failed to link them with their NINs.

The commission’s directive followed the expiration of the months long ultimatum given last year to telecom customers to link their SIMs with their NINs before February 28.

But speaking on Monday, the Commission’s Spokesman, Reuben Mouka, said those subscribers disconnected were not serious about their NIN- SIM linkage.

Mouka who disclosed this during a Channels Television interview on Monday noted that the primary objective of the policy is to boost security and national planning.

“It will be difficult to place a hand on the actual number of phone lines that have been barred. But take it that everybody who has not submitted NIN to service providers has been barred.

“The service providers started barring subscribers many days before the deadline.

“We are expecting to do an audit on that before the end of the week because the service providers ought to send in data of the subscribers barred.

“The process is to have an identity attached to a SIM. One of the benefits of SIM registration is to have a digital identity. The Nigerian government is very serious about having NIN as managed by NIMC. The idea is to ensure that we have those together. Some objectives, if you remember, are security and national planning. Also includes Know your customer’s details,” he said.

As the March 1 deadline set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the linkage of bank accounts with either the Bank Verification Number (BVN) or National Identity Number (NIN) expires, approximately 91 million bank accounts face the risk of being frozen.

The CBN had directed commercial banks to restrict tier-1 accounts without proper BVN or NIN linkage.

The directive, issued on December 1, 2023, outlined the immediate placement of unfunded accounts on ‘Post No Debit or Credit,’ with funded accounts scheduled to face the same restriction effective March 1, 2024.

Banks intensified efforts over the weekend, sending final reminders to depositors to utilize digital platforms or visit branches for the necessary BVN/NIN linkage to avoid the potential freezing of their accounts.

The directive further stated that the BVN or NIN associated with all accounts must be electronically revalidated by January 31, 2024.

While the CBN has not officially clarified the consequences for customers failing to comply with the BVN/NIN linkage, banks have warned that non-compliance could result in the inability to carry out transactions.

Panic has ensued among depositors, leading to frequent bank visits as customers strive to update their account information before the March 1 deadline.

As of January 26, the Nigeria InterBank Settlement System (NIBSS) reported that BVN-linked accounts stood at 60,492,104 million.

The Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Housing, Barakat Odunuga-Bakare, has disclosed that the state’s monthly rental scheme will be enforced before the end of 2024 or early next year.

She stated it during a recent press briefing of the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority in Ikeja, Lagos.

She said, “We all see what is being done in other climes, rents are collected monthly. Hence, we are looking and hoping that before the end of the year, or by early next year, we will be able to implement the policy of monthly rental. Also, the rental would be charged according to tenants’ earnings.

“The good part about it is that we would be test-running it first within the public sector since we can ascertain how much everybody is earning, and once we see that it works in the public sector, we can now push it out to the private sector.”

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Odunuga-Bakare reiterated that the N5bn allocated for the monthly rental scheme was still set aside and untouched.

She added that the fact that the scheme was slow to take off showed that the Lagos State Government was still trying to perfect one thing or the other.

She noted, “The last administration that initiated the monthly rental scheme was coming to an end when the scheme was to be introduced. Now, we have a new administration and the governor wants the scheme to come into effect by the end of this year or early next year.”

, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had said the current rental model in which people pay yearly rent in advance to property owners has become inadequate to address contemporary realities in the housing sector, especially in cities where demand for property is high and expensive.

The governor advocated a monthly rental system, which he said would be affordable to low- and middle-income earners pressured by the yearly rent obligation.

Sanwo-Olu made the recommendation at the 10th meeting of the National Council on Lands, Housing and Urban Development held in Lagos recently.

He urged policymakers to consider the suggestion and initiate a regulatory framework that would aid the transition to a new rental system.

The governor said Lagos was already working out monthly rent modalities to accommodate residents not keen on the state’s homeownership scheme.

He said, “In Lagos, we operate a very robust rent-to-own programme of five per cent down payment and six per cent simple interest rate payable over 10 years. We are working on another product, which is a purely rental system, where residents will pay monthly.”

The then Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, corroborated Sanwo-Olu’s position, stressing that the yearly rental system had created inequality in housing supply and widened affordability gap for low-income earners.