The Federal Executive Council, FEC, has approved a National Language Policy for the country.
Briefing newsmen on the approval, the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, said the policy would institutionalise teaching in primary schools in mother tongue.
He however said implementation of the policy would require development of teaching materials and training of teachers.
“There are 625 languages in Nigeria. When the policy is fully operational, each locality will teach students, primary one up to six, in their own mother tongue.
”Research has shown that pupils learn much, much better when instruction is in their mother tongue at that level, but even at that time when they are getting instruction in their mother tongue, they’ll be taught other Nigerian languages of their choice, and then they’ll be taught the international languages at certain stage, English, French, Arabic,, and so on”. He explained.
The Minister said FEC had equally approved the upgrade of JAMB portal to enhance and expand its performance and capacity.
FEC also approved the engagement of a consultancy firm at over N600 million to develop and deploy Contract Administration System for ministries, departments, and agencies of government, as well as the digitisation of the process of Solicitors’ Development.
The Minister of Justice, Alhaji Abubakar Malami, told newsmen that the decision would address the deficiencies associated with contracts that would expose. Nigeria to higher risks and damages.
“We are all aware of key incidences that happened as it relate to contract administration in Nigeria. One of them that fresh in our memory is the P & ID on account of which the Federal Government was by arbitral award subjected to a liability of over 10 billion dollars on account of deficiency in the contract, which translated to a higher risk. We’re equally aware of the global contract relating to Ajaokuta, the defect of which stagnated our development towards Industrialisation, arising from litigation”, Alhaji Malami stressed.
Similarly, approval was granted to the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation to go into a public-private partnership on research and development of satellite technology and equipment for the provision of cost-effective satellite broadband service to rural areas.
The partnership, according to the ministry, is at no cost to the government, but that the concessional period is 15 years, explaining that the government stands to gain about 1.5 billion Naira within the period.
The Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba, said the 3rd Quarter GDP revealed a positive performance of 2.25 percent, which is however lower than the 4.03 percent realised in 2021.
The Minister attributed the development to the base effect of performance in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic period.
Prince Clem Agba explained that the non-oil sector accounted for 94. 34 percent in real terms.
FEC also approved a public-private partnership requested by the Nigeria Police Force to develop its property at Maitama for senior officers of the force.