Aso Villa Reads for 03/10/2019
Every day, we bring you the best stories that the Media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria
The Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali, yesterday claimed that the agency had been benefitting in terms of revenue generation from the closure of the country’s borders by the Federal Government. Ali made this claim when he appeared before the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committees on Finance and National Planning, working on the 2020–2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper. According to him, the Customs has been raking in between N4.7 billion and N5.8 billion since the Federal Government closed the borders. New Telegraph reported that the development came just as the joint panel summoned the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele, and the Controller-General of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Muhammed Babandede, to appear before it today. The heads of the two agencies are expected to brief the joint panel on the MTEF/FSP documents. While addressing the members of the National Assembly, the NCS boss, told the legislators that the land border closure was a blessing to the nation. He said, “When we closed the border, my fear was that our revenue was going to drop. To be honest, our revenue kept increasing. “There was a day in September that we collected N9.2 billion in one day. It has never happened before.
As reported by Blue Print, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) Wednesday approved N15.7 billion for the completion of work on Suleja-Minna-Labata road in Niger state and Ibadan-Lagere-Ilesa bye-pass road linking Oyo and Osun states. This was disclosed by the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola at the end of the weekly FEC meeting.He said N12.6 billion was approved as variation for the completion of Suleja-Minna-labata road while the remaining N3.1billion was for the completion of Ibadan-Lagere-Ilesa bye-pass road. “Two contracts were approved. The first one is the Ibadan-Lagere-Ilesa, 22 kilometers, the contract was first awarded in 2010, without budgetary funding and the rates have become obsolete so the contractor wants new rates and that has necessitated a revision of the rates by N3.165 billion and that means the old contract price of N6.7 billion has now moved to N9.8 billion. “The same is true of the Suleja-Minna-Lambata road, covering a total of 101 kilometers, it was awarded in two phases, the first phase was awarded I believe in 2010, 40 kilometers, and then the second phase covering 61 kilometers, was awarded in March 2015 but they used the 2010 rate.“So, the contractor is now saying he cannot continue that way because those rates are unsustainable. So, we recommended that the revised rates be considered and the Federal Executive Council approved that. Now it’s a revision by an addition of N12.6 billion so the contract sum now moves from N23.6 to N36.2 billion,” he said. He said the approvals were given in line with government’s desire and determination to focus on projects that can be completed rather than just starting new projects.
According to Vanguard, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr Mohammed Adamu has called on the Special Task Force on Petroleum and Illegal Bunkering to be firm in the discharge of their duties. Adamu made the call on Wednesday in Abuja at his maiden meeting with the sector, intelligence and unit commanders of the task force. He said the meeting was convened to engage the commanders on new approaches to the security of critical assets in the oil sector. Adamu said the task force was established with the mandate to work with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other security agencies to protect oil pipelines and prevent illegal bunkering. “Your core duties in this regard include and not limited to the protection of NNPC pipelines/infrastructure throughout the federation, identify and destroy all illegal refineries and depots. “Surveillance and generation of intelligence that could be utilised to prevent any act of sabotage in the oil sector, arrest and prosecution of pipeline vandals and those engaged in illegal bunkering,” he said. According to him, in the performance of your duties, you are to be guided by the fact that oil pipelines are not ordinary assets and their security is of strategic importance to the country. IGP called on the commanders to imbibe the virtues of inter-agency collaboration, partnership with the host communities, NNPC and other stakeholders in the discharge of their duties. “You must constantly demonstrate the highest level of professionalism and eschew all forms of corruption. “You must be firm in your enforcement operations, ensure diligent investigation and speedy prosecution of arrested vandals, oil thieves and those involved in illegal bunkering. IGP said.
The Federal Government has concluded designs for the return of toll plazas on Federal roads, Minister of Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola has said. Fashola disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The minister said that, though the government dismantled toll plazas in the past, there was no law abolishing tolls. “Let me just clarify this impression about toll gates; there is no reason why we cannot toll; there is no reason. “There was a policy of the government to abolish tolls; to dismantle toll plazas but there is no law that prohibits tolls in Nigeria today. “We expect to return toll plazas; we have concluded their designs; of what they will look like; what material they will be built with; what new considerations must go into them. “What we are looking at now and trying to conclude is how the back-end runs and that is important because we want to limit significantly if not totally eliminate cash at the plazas while ensuring that electronic devices that are being used do not impede rapid movement. Vanguard reports.
The Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), has said over 2.5 million vehicles plying Nigeria roads this year got their genuine motor insurance policies from its members. The association said these represented motor vehicles that have genuine motor insurance policies. The Director General NIA, Mrs Yetunde Ilori, disclosed this at a media briefing on Monday, to announce a campaign on the Nigeria Insurance Industry Data Base (NIID) and promotion of genuine motor insurance policy tagged: “Wetin You Carry.” She said the association was determined to ensure that all motorists in Nigeria purchase their insurance policies from genuine insurers. She explained that the, “Wetin You Carry,” campaign to be championed by a 33 uniformed men and women team known as ‘The Insurance Court’ on Lagos roads would commence today and would last for one month. She said the objective was to increase productivity and generate more premium for the industry. Ilori, also said the target of the association was to ensure that in the next few years, the 12 million vehicles plying Nigerian roads according to Federal Office of Statistics have genuine insurance cover. She said motorists in Nigeria had continued to patronise quack insurance sellers because they are not able to differentiate between genuine insurers and fake ones. This, she said was why the association resolved to concentrate on awareness creation so that vehicle owners would identify genuine operators and stop patronising quacks. “We have a platform from where we capture what insurance companies have been able to sell and what we have here shows that just over 2.5M motorists have bought genuine policies. This Day reports.
With this decision by the government price of LPG, otherwise known as cooking gas, would be relatively stable, thus attracting more investors and consumers into the sector. Babatunde Fowler, Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, cleared the air on the issue when members of the Nigeria LP Gas Association and others met with Vice President Yemi Osinbanjo, in Abuja. As reported by Business Day, he said the measure was targeted at growing the LPG sector. Meanwhile stakeholders have identified the strategy to be deployed to achieve the two million metric tons production and storage capacity per year as part of the 5-Year long LPG Expansion Plan Target of the current administration. Four new terminal service providers are schedule to come upstream before the end of the year 2019 among whom are Rainoil, Technoil, Prudent Energy etc. They also spoke well about the need for cylinder penetration as a critical success factor in deepening the impact of LPG in the Nigeria economy. To achieve this it was learnt that the government is working closely with NLPGA to put in place a cylinder penetration scheme and also embark on nationwide awareness campaign The challenge of delays of NLNG vessels to discharge at Apapa,Lagos is being looked into by the government so that vessels carrying imported LPG are giving preference with the attendant lead time and turn-around time implications on the businesses in the value chain.
