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Nigeria’s U-20 women’s national team and Africa’s remaining hope at the 2026 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, the Falconets, face an uphill task as they square up against the Young Lionesses of England in today’s high-stakes Round of 16 clash at the Stadion Miejski in Bielsko-Biala, Poland.

The potentially explosive match kicks off at 14:00 local time (14:00 WAT). With a quarter-final ticket on the line, the fixture is drenched in narrative, serving as a direct opportunity for the Falconets to avenge the Super Falcons’ painful penalty shootout exit to England at the same stage of the 2023 World Cup.

To reach this level, the Falconets had to fight back from the opening day 0-2 to former champions Spain to secure a second-place finish in Group F.

The team earned four points across three group stage matches after a goalless draw with China and a 10-1 thrashing of minnows New Caledonia, registering Nigeria’s biggest-ever victory in the history of the tournament.

Hat-tricks from Winner Onajite David and Ramotalahi Kareem, a brace from Rebecca Adegbemile, and a goal from Janet Akekoromowei have proven that the Falconets possess the offensive firepower to trouble any side.

However, the Young Lionesses present a vastly superior defensive structure and a dangerous attack of their own, led by Nigerian-British forward Princess Ademiluyi, who has already scored four goals against New Caledonia in warm-ups and opened England’s account in a 5-1 routing of Tanzania.

Falconets’ Head coach, Moses Aduku, has urged his team to improve their defensive organisation and tactical discipline, but they carry massive momentum into this knockout phase.

With Ghana, Tanzania, and Benin Republic already eliminated, the pressure of a continent rests squarely on the shoulders of Aduku’s girls.

If the Falconets can tighten their backline and maintain the devastating form they displayed on Sunday, they stand a great chance of keeping the African flag flying high in Poland.

Meanwhile, in the Round of 16 games played yesterday, Brazil eliminated USA 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in regulation time while Korea Republic edged out Argentina 1-0 to move into quarter-finals.

The death toll from the consumption of a suspected poisonous herbal drink in Ondo State has risen to 49, while the number of affected persons has climbed to about 170, health authorities have confirmed.

Daily Trust had earlier reported that 30 residents of Araromi-Obu and Odigbo communities in Odigbo Local Government Area died after allegedly consuming the substance.

The Chairman of Odigbo Local Government, Taiwo Adegoroye, had initially disclosed that 14 persons died in Araromi-Obu and 16 others in Odigbo. However, findings indicated that the casualty figure has continued to rise, with the death toll reaching 49 as of Wednesday.

Adegoroye said the situation had largely been brought under control through the intervention of state and local government medical teams deployed to the affected communities. Speaking with Daily Trust via telephone, Ajaka said the total number of affected persons, including those hospitalised and those who died, had risen to about 170.

He said, ‘As we are now, Irele (LG) is where we have serious issue now. Our people were there and many people have died. About 14 people have been recorded to have died as at yesterday’s night.

‘So all the people that have been affected altogether now is about 170, those that have been admitted and those that have died.’

The commissioner reiterated that the consumption of ethanol was responsible for the health emergency, adding that the state government had intensified efforts to contain the situation and prevent it from spreading to other parts of the state.

‘We are always fast about it wherever and whenever we hear the report of the issue. Our teams are already in Irele as I’m talking to you now,’ he said.

The Ondo State Police Command had earlier arrested a man, Oloruntoba Babatunde, popularly known as ‘Meko,’ who is suspected to have produced the herbal liquid linked to the deaths.

In addition, 14 other persons were arrested for allegedly violating a ban on the sale of herbal products imposed by the local government authorities.

The Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Abayomi Jimoh, said the command had launched an investigation into the incident, while the bodies of the deceased were undergoing necessary medical and forensic examinations.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Dr. Kayode Opeifa, has congratulated the Corporation’s Director of Civil Engineering/Newlines, Engr. Adekunle Ayeni Ojobola, on his conferment as a Fellow of the Nigerian Institution of Highway and Transportation Engineers (NIHTE).

Ayeni was conferred with the Fellowship of the professional body on September 12, 2026, in recognition of his contributions to civil engineering, transportation development and the Nigerian railway sector.

Congratulating the Director on the professional recognition, Opeifa described the elevation as a well-deserved acknowledgement of Ayeni’s many years of professional service, technical competence and commitment to the development and maintenance of Nigeria’s railway infrastructure.

The NRC Managing Director noted that professional recognitions of this nature not only celebrate individual achievement but also reflect positively on the quality of manpower available within the Corporation as it continues efforts to reposition the railway system for improved service delivery.

Born on November 11, 1966, in Kutiwenji, Niger State, and originally from Iyara-Ijumu in Kogi State, Ayeni has built a professional career spanning more than three decades in civil engineering, transportation and railway infrastructure development.

He obtained a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Ilorin in 1989. He subsequently earned a Postgraduate Diploma in Transportation from the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT), Zaria, in 2003, and a Master’s degree in Transport and Logistics from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 2013.

Before joining the Nigerian Railway Corporation in 1997, Ayeni had acquired experience in construction and infrastructure development. He joined the NRC as a Senior Civil Engineer and rose through various positions to become Director, Civil Engineering/Newlines.

In that capacity, he has played significant roles in the maintenance, rehabilitation and development of railway infrastructure across different parts of the country. His responsibilities have included supervision of track works, district operations, infrastructure projects and technical advisory functions relating to the Corporation’s railway network.

Ayeni has also contributed to human capacity development within the railway sector, serving at various times as a technical instructor and resource person in railway civil works, track design, construction, maintenance and operations.

His professional affiliations include membership of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and registration with the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN). He is also a Fellow of the Permanent Way Institution, London.

With his latest elevation to Fellow of the Nigerian Institution of Highway and Transportation Engineers, Ayeni joins the ranks of senior engineering professionals recognised for their contributions to the development of transportation infrastructure in Nigeria.

The new Fellow attributes his professional journey to a personal philosophy centred on positively impacting humanity through excellent service and a strong commitment to duty.

For the Nigerian Railway Corporation, his latest recognition further underscores the critical role of engineering professionals in the ongoing rehabilitation, expansion and modernisation of the nation’s railway infrastructure. Engr. Ayeni is married with children.

The Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II, on Wednesday said Nigeria is facing an acute nutrition challenge that requires stronger investment, coordination and accountability across government and the private sector.

He spoke in Lagos at the 56th Annual Scientific Conference and Annual General Meeting of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria (NSN).

Sanusi, who is also the Chairman of the NSN Board of Trustees, said the country could not address malnutrition through the health sector alone, as agriculture, education, water and sanitation, social protection, trade, finance and political leadership all influence nutrition outcomes.

He added that a poorly nourished child would struggle to learn, while a poorly nourished workforce would be unable to deliver the productivity required for Nigeria’s economic transformation.

Sanusi said the latest nutrition figures showed the scale of the challenge facing the country, noting that the Nigeria Mini-Demographic and Health Survey 2025-26 showed that 41.1 per cent of children under five were stunted, while 19.2 per cent were severely stunted.

He said the situation was worse in the North-West, where 58.2 per cent of children were stunted, adding that only 25.3 per cent of children under five received any iron-containing supplements in the past year.

‘These figures should not discourage us; they should guide us,’ he said, stressing that data must be translated into decisions, budgets and programmes that reach those who need them.

The NSN chairman called for greater investment in local food systems to make nutritious diets more affordable and accessible, as well as increased private-sector participation in food fortification and responsible marketing.

He said Nigeria must move away from fragmented interventions and short-term projects to coordinated systems and sustained investment in nutrition.

Sanusi also urged the government and stakeholders to strengthen nutrition financing through dedicated budget lines, timely releases and expenditure tracking.

He called for the scaling up of proven interventions, including maternal nutrition, breastfeeding support, micronutrient supplementation and food fortification through routine systems rather than isolated projects.

Representing Vice President Kashim Shettima, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Health and Focal Person on Nutrition, Mrs Uju Rochas-Anwukah, said the government recognised the need for a coordinated approach to nutrition.

She said nutrition outcomes were shaped by several sectors and that the Nutrition 774 Initiative of the National Council on Nutrition was designed to take nutrition interventions to every local government area.

‘Good intentions do not feed a child. Budgets must be released on time, expenditures tracked, and every naira judged by measurable community impact,’ Rochas-Anwukah said.

The President of the NSN, Prof. Salisu Abubakar, said Nigeria’s nutrition situation required stronger links between food systems, health systems, government, academia and the private sector.

‘Nutrition problems are interconnected, and our solutions must carry the same intelligence,’ Abubakar said.

He said businesses had a role to play through food fortification, workforce nutrition programmes, innovation and investment in local food systems.

The Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, called for collaboration among regulators, nutrition professionals, academia, industry and policymakers.

Adeyeye said stronger collaboration with the NSN and other stakeholders would support efforts to improve food safety, consumer protection and access to healthy diets.

The conference also highlighted maternal and child nutrition, adolescent nutrition, food fortification, biofortification, clinical nutrition and stronger regulation of the nutrition profession as areas requiring sustained attention.

The Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Senator John Owan Enoh, has said right financing must be long enough to support investment in machinery and production capacity, while being affordable enough for manufacturers to price their products competitively.

He stated this at the Ministerial Roundtable 2 of the Industrial Revolution Work Group (IRWG) of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI), themed ‘Affordable Long-Term Finance and Building: The Capital Architecture for Industrial Growth and MSME Inclusion,’ saying manufacturers need what he described as the ‘right kind of money’ to expand production and compete.

‘Our manufacturers do not lack ambition, they don’t lack orders, they don’t lack markets. What they continuously lack is money, the right kind of money,’ he said.

He argued that the country cannot achieve industrial growth without restructuring how capital gets into factories.

He said the challenge facing manufacturers was not simply the availability of money, but the cost, tenor and structure of financing, noting that industrial investments often require years to mature and therefore cannot be sustained with short-term funds.

He stressed that the long gestation period of industrial investments made the current structure of financing unsuitable for manufacturing.

‘The issue is not that there is no money. It is the price of the money, the term of the money and the capital architecture into the factories,’ he said.

The minister said a business investing in a long venture that could take 10 to 15 years to mature could not reasonably be expected to repay financing within three or six months.

He said the mismatch in financing was contributing to a situation where businesses could find trading more attractive than investing in production, particularly when the cost and structure of capital made manufacturing less viable.

Enoh said the finance sector needed to help move Nigerians from trading to production, stressing that the objective of the ongoing discussions was to find ways of directing capital towards productive investments.

He added that Nigeria’s manufacturing sector, which contributed more than 20 per cent to gross domestic product in the early 1990s, had struggled to move beyond the eight to nine per cent range for more than a decade, despite the resilience of manufacturers.

The minister said the country’s industrial policy had set an ambition of raising manufacturing’s contribution to about 20 per cent by 2030 or 2031, but achieving the target would require financing arrangements capable of supporting long-term industrial investment.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, represented by his Special Adviser on Finance and Investment, said commercial banks’ credit to the manufacturing sector contracted by about N1.9 trillion in 2025, representing a decline of more than 22 per cent from N8.5 trillion to N6.61 trillion.

He said manufacturers were borrowing at prime rates averaging about 27 per cent, with maximum rates reaching the mid-30 per cent range, describing the environment as unsuitable for investments requiring seven, 10 or 15 years to deliver returns.

Oyedele said the focus should extend beyond commercial bank lending to the deliberate use of public balance sheets, blended finance, institutional capital, pension funds, insurance assets and the capital market to support productive investment.