Sophia Ogezi

Sophia Ogezi

Occupation: Broadcasting, Presentation,programming, Packaging of documentary and more. 

Hobbies: Traveling, Experience on the job:2000 till date and the experience has been rewarding and highly impact full.

Schools attended: Federal Polytechnic Kaduna, (KadPoly). 

Benin’s Pendjari National Park, one of West Africa’s largest remaining strongholds for the elephant and the critically endangered West African lion, has now received a major funding boost.

Four groups — the U.S.-based National Geographic Society and Wyss Foundation, South Africa-based African Parks, and the government of Benin — announced on Jan. 31 a combined commitment of more than $23 million to secure and restore the Pendjari National Park. This partnership hopes to “revitalize Pendjari’s extraordinary landscape through increased operational effectiveness, scientific research, innovative technology and visually compelling storytelling,” according to a press release from African Parks. 

The recently-signed peace deal between the Juba regime and the breakaway faction of the SPLM-IO has so far held, and the stern warning by South Sudan’s Salva Kiir to his army and militia commanders to strictly observe the ceasefire and not launch fresh attacks on areas held by his opponents has gone some way to give reassurance that the deal will hold until IGAD troops arrive to stand between the former battle lines.

While East Africa, wary by the failure of every single ceasefire in the past and more by the lamentation of the regime over much of the signed peace deals being not really to their liking, has for now adopted a wait-and-see policy, according to reports that trade visits have begun to rise again. Key obstacles in South Sudan’s need to import goods from the region, mainly from Uganda and Kenya, are the empty coffers of the Central Bank of South Sudan, which has left no significant amounts of hard currency in its vaults as of now. Money inflows from renewed oil exports will eventually begin to change this, but for now, the South Sudanese currency has taken a severe hit as the black market value of the SS pound has risen sharply now that the guns have fallen silent.

Bahr el Jebel Safaris, which remained the only fully-licensed safari operator in South Sudan even though their expeditions had been halted since the outbreak of hostilities in mid-December 2013, has expressed cautious optimism to this correspondent that by early next year a resumption may be on the cards of their trips for intrepid explorers.

Ilorin — Nigeria loses a sum of N250 billion annually to medical tourism, the Nigeria Medical Association(NMA) has said.

To put an end to such capital flight, the NMA recommended the upgrading of the country's tertiary institutions and replacing their obsolete equipment with modern ones.

In a communiqué at the end of its national executive council (NEC) meeting in Ilorin, Kwara state ,the association said it was opposed to giving girls out in marriage before the age of 18.

The communiqué was jointly signed by NMA President and Secretary General, Dr Kayode Obembe and Dr Adewunmi Alayaki.

Reading the communiqué, Dr Obembe urged President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint a medical doctor as the minister of health, adding that "doctors who take care of the sick must be accorded priority in the scheme of things."

Part of the communiqué reads: "NMA has been clamouring for the post of Surgeon General which is paramount in our health system. Examples we can point to are: Attorney General of the Federation, Accountant General of the Federation and Surveyor General and Auditor General.

 Etihad Airways is one of two flag carrier airlines of the United Arab Emirates along with Emirates Airlines. Its head office is in Khalifa City A, near Abu Dhabi City. In an effort to improve its services and guarantee stress-free flights to their designated locations, has recently acquired the United States pre-clearance. The pre-clearance process provides passengers with the unique opportunity to pass through all required checks including US customs, immigration and security conveniently, while in Abu Dhabi, before they board their flight to the US, enabling them to avoid queues on arrival.This was disclosed by the airlines’ Chief Commercial Officer, Peter Baumgartner. According to him, all air travellers flying to the United States from Abu Dhabi will enjoy the benefits that US Customs and Immigration preclearance offers.

The US pre-clearance  have  opened for the early flight to New York JFK  and San Francisco flights since last week, and they conveniently connect with inbound services from Mumbai, Delhi and other cities in India and the Indian Subcontinent. The new early morning US pre-clearance operation complements the mid-morning one, which caters for Etihad Airways passengers on flights to Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York JFK, and Washington, D.C., who proceed through the facility. Since its opening in January last year, the US pre-clearance has been extremely

There are speculations of reduced operation cost for airlines in 2015 by aviation experts and stakeholders. They have projected a sharp decline in the price of aviation fuel, also known as JETA1, owing to an expected fall in price of crude oil. This will prompt a decline in the JETA1, which constitute 40 per cent of operating cost of airlines in the country. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents about 250 airlines accounting for 84 per cent of global air traffic has speculated that the profit of airlines worldwide would rise to $25 billion (15.9 billion pounds) in 2015, giving a profit margin of 3.2 per cent. The Director General of IATA, Tony Tyler remarked that the last time the industry reported a margin nearly that high was in 2010, when it reached 3.1 per cent.He said that industry’s outlook was improving and the global economy continues to recover as the fall in oil prices will strengthen the upturn next year. Meanwhile, the managing director of the centre for Aviation

Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 was a scheduled international passenger flight, operated by AirAsia Group affiliate Indonesia AirAsia, from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. The flight was reported to have crashed in bad weather, killing all 155 passengers and 7 crew on board on 28 December 2014. Fortunately, Indonesian divers have retrieved the data recorder of the aircraft but are yet to reach the cockpit voice recorder, the second part of the black box. The black box is a total forensic timeline of everything that happened and is of immense importance to understanding what caused the crash.

It contains information such as the condition of the engine, what the pilots were doing, whether the plane had stalled and its altitude will all be revealed from the tonnes of data that is on the flight data recorder. The head of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency Bambang Soelistyo said that the device was found under the wreckage of a wing and was reported by the National Transport Safety Committee chief at 07:11 (00:11 GMT) on January 13, 2015. According to him, the cockpit voice recorder had also been detected but divers had not yet succeeded in reaching it.

The aviation passenger service portal (APS) is an online platform designed to provide air passengers with unlimited access to reliable, updated and verifiable information about airlines operations and services in the country, which will help them to make informed decisions and plan their journey. This initiative was launched by the Nigeria minister of aviation, Osita Chidoka in December 2014 alongside aviation helplines to facilitate the transformation of the aviation sector into a customer-centric industry. However, this efficiency of this platform was proved recently through an online poll conducted by the ministry on the new APS. The result obtained indicated that about 65 per cent of Nigerians rated the platforms as not only high but capable of further improving the aviation services in Nigeria.According to the minister, the APS was introduced against the back drop of the incessant flight delays encountered at our airports and designed to

Seychelles, officially the Republic of Seychelles is an island nation, located in the Indian Ocean, northeast of Madagascar and about 1,600 km (994 mi) east of Kenya. The archipelago consists of over 116 islands with its capital city at Victoria. It has the smallest population of any African state estimated at 90,024. Despite these facts, Seychelles poses as one of the most appealing destinations in the continent, with proceeds from tourism contributing a greater percentage of its revenue above earnings from plantations. Recently, South Africa and Seychelles agreed on a partnership that is targeted at exploring new opportunities for collaboration through world of tourism. The South African delegation from the Hotel School and Tourism Office were in Seychelles on a fact-finding mission.

This was to discuss projects that could be implemented as part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which South Africa Tourism had signed with Seychelles. The group paid a courtesy call on Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister of Tourism and Culture, at his offices at Espace Building in Victoria. Eddy Khosa, Chairman of the Federated Hospitality Association (FEDHASA); Tshamekazi Temba, Deputy Director Central, East Africa and Indian Ocean for the National Department of Tourism; and Mandisa Silo, the Head of School – SETH Cape Peninsula University of Technology

Lagos, Nigeria, July 14, 2014Travelstart.com.ng, an online travel agency in Nigeria, today announced its partnership with Dana Air, which will allow customers to book domestic flights on their online travel booking platform. This collaboration gives Travelstart an exclusive third-party distribution rights for Dana Air flights and thus, giving the airline a broader distribution influence in Nigeria travel market. Beforehand, passengers could only book Dana Air flights on its website but under this partnership, passengers can now book Dana Air flights on Travelstart Nigeria website. The alliance is seen as a major move to offer cheap airfares and easy flight booking to the domestic travellers who often fly within the country for personal or business purpose. Commenting on this alliance, Lilian Obinna-Igwe, Country Manager of Travelstart Nigeria, said; “We have collaborated with Dana Air and we will be issuing their flights tickets to domestic destinations in Nigeria on our website.

UNWTO Executive Council Members has identified infrastructure, visa facilitation, transportation, public/private partnerships, public sector coordination and branding as fundamental success factors in the development of tourism routes. This was disclosed by the council at its 98th session, a two-day event that was held in Santiago de Compostela,Spain. It was organized by UNWTO and the Spanish Secretariat of Tourism, under the leadership of the Secretary of State for Tourism, Isabel Borrego, and hosted by the Xunta de Galicia pain. The event which coincided with the World Environment Day lasted from the 5th to the 6th of June, 2014. Mr.Taleb Rifai, the Secretary-General of the council announced that tourism figures has continued to grow worldwide, a strong indication that  the sector deserves a higher degree of attention. However, the responsibility was to ensure that tourism’s growth translates into improved livelihoods and a sustainable future for our planet and the generations unborn.

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