In a bid to promote academic excellence, the MTN Foundation has increased its annual scholarship for the highest-scoring candidates from ₦200,000 to ₦300,000 under its Top 10 UTME Scholarship programme.

This initiative aims to recognize and reward the exceptional academic achievements of Nigerian students admitted into tertiary institutions.

It would be recalled that recently JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, announced the top scorers in the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), during the Board’s policy meeting in Abuja, which propelled the telco to increase the reward for exceptional academic achievers in Nigeria.

Beyond recognizing the top ten UTME scorers, the programme provides financial support throughout their academic journey. Scholarship recipients can renew their funding annually, provided they maintain the required academic performance criteria.

The UTME Scholarship programme is inclusive, catering to deserving students from both public and private tertiary institutions, irrespective of their preferred field of study.

The increased scholarship funding also extends to other initiatives under the MTN Foundation Scholarship Program including the MTN Science and Technology Scholarship (MTN STS) for 300-level students studying science and technology-related courses, and the MTN Scholarship for Blind Students (MTN SBS) eligible for 200 and 300- level blind students studying any course in public tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

Through these initiatives, MTN Foundation continues to set a benchmark for corporate investment in education, demonstrating its role as a catalyst for positive change in Nigeria’s educational landscape

Healthcare consulting firm Salient Advisory has launched its latest market intelligence report, focusing on 24 leading Africa-focused supply chain innovators which appear to be on the cusp of more substantive impact.

Funded by the Gates Foundation, the report titled “Leading Innovations Enabling Health Product Access in Africa”, finds that, amid difficult macro- economic realities and dwindling investment in African technology ecosystems, a select number of African health innovators are emerging as leaders.

Having operated for 10 years on average, the 24 leading innovators collectively now partner with 100+ manufacturers and 75 public health institutions, reaching around 50,000 providers (who serve hundreds of thousands of patients per day) and delivering health products to millions of consumers directly.

Kasha made news capturing Series B investment last year, and has since gone on to build its health technology access platform and report annual revenues of more than $50 million in 2023 – the highest ever recorded by Salient’s research to date.

Like Kasha, innovators that offer digitally-enabled Order and Inventory Management services to hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and drug shops appear dominant amongst the leading companies, making up 13 of the 24 featured innovations, with operations in 30 countries.

Four leading Online Pharmacies are reaching nearly 10 million customers and generating median annual revenues of nearly $9M. The other categories featured are innovations in Product Protection and Visibility, Medical Drone Delivery and Data Analytics.

While leading innovators now appear positioned to deliver more substantive impact, they require targeted engagement from governments, donors, industry and global health institutions to transform access for unserved populations and improve the cost-effectiveness of care.

To leverage leading innovators’ models in driving increases in access, governments, industry, donors and global health agencies should: simplify regulatory pathways; explore innovators’ ability to generate cost- savings for health systems, pursuing partnerships when the evidence is strong; and evolve contracting and payment systems to enable innovators to partner in healthcare delivery systems at larger scale.

The 24 leading innovators featured are (in alphabetical order): Chefaa, DrugStoc, Field Inc, Figorr, Grinta, HealthPlus, Kasha, LifeBank, Maisha Meds, Meditect, mPedigree, MYDAWA, Pendulum, PharmaSecure, Remedial Health, RxAll, Sobrus, Sproxil, Talamus Health, VIA Global Health, Viebeg, Wingcopter, Yodawy and Zipline.

Speaking on the launch of the report, Yomi Kazeem, Engagement Manager at Salient Advisory, commented:

‘’The findings underscore the remarkable resilience and growing impact of African supply chain innovators. Having tracked healthtech startups for many years, the emergence of a group of leading innovators is exciting to report.

“Local and global public health communities must increasingly recognize and leverage the innovators in developing reliable and resilient health supply chains.”

Ann Allen, Senior Program Officer at Gates Foundation, commented: “Technology-enabled innovations have the potential to help reverse long-running challenges in African health systems, while creating local jobs and strengthening local health markets.

“The report confirms innovators are increasingly positioned to deliver on this promise. However, there is more to be done as leveraging these innovations to truly transform cost-effective access for millions of unserved Africans will require concerted efforts from governments, industry and global health agencies alike.”

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) resumed dollar sales to Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators on Thursday July 18, with a planned disbursement of $20,000 to each licensee.

The apex bank said the forex injection is expected to curb forex distortions, boost liquidity in the market and stabilise the naira.

In a circular to all BDC operators and the public, the CBN said it “observed the continued distortions in the retail end of the market, which is feeding into the parallel market and further widening the exchange rate premium.”

The circular was signed by Aliyu Mahdi for the bank’s Acting Director of Trade and Exchange Department.

The apex bank said that eligible BDCs would be allowed to purchase a maximum of $20,000 at a fixed rate of N1,450 to the dollar. The rate is pegged to the lower band of the previous day’s trading rate on the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange (NAFEX) window.

BDCs are permitted to sell dollars to eligible end-users at a maximum margin of 1.5 percent above the purchase rate from the CBN.

To ensure compliance, BDCs are required to make Naira payments into designated CBN accounts and submit necessary documentation for disbursement at specified branches in Abuja, Lagos, Kano, and Awka in Anambra State.

The CBN attributed the decision to the widening gap between the official and parallel market exchange rates, which it blamed on distortions in the retail end of the market. The bank expressed hope that the move would also help to reduce pressure on the naira.

Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) President Aminu Gwadabe said the new dollar injections in the market will induce liquidity and stabilise the naira.

He added that the move has already impacted positively on the Naira, which appreciated from N1,640/$ to N1,570 /$ at the parallel market.