Aso Villa Reads for 05/11/2019
Every day, we bring you the best stories that the Media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria
The Director, Federal Highways, South-West, Funso Adebiyi, has asked transport unions to remove the trucks parked along the Ogere section of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway because they are obstructing reconstruction works on the road, the News Agency of Nigeria. Adebiyi made the appeal during a stakeholders’ meeting at the Reynolds Construction Company project yard on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on Monday. NAN reports that transport unions, truck owners, security officials, traffic regulatory agencies and traditional rulers attended the meeting. Adebiyi said the RCC contractor on Section 2 of the project had suspended work in Ogere because articulated vehicles had blocked the expressway. According to Punch, he said, “We called this meeting in order for us to complete this important road. We started work from Ibadan and got to Ogere and your trucks are parked there. We had to suspend work and the truck are there illegally. “This government is magnanimous in road construction. If we do not have access to the site to do this work, the South-West will lose out.’’ He said all construction zones would be opened to traffic on December 15.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has said it is in the process of establishing two new 200,000 barrels-per-day condensate refineries to boost in-country refining capacity. Unlike the conventional refineries, condensate refineries primarily refine condensate, not crude oil. They often produce one product, mostly Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as petrol. The NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, disclosed this in a statement issued by the oil firm in Abuja on Monday, adding that upon completion, the refineries would help transform Nigeria into a net exporter of petroleum products. He said the exportation of petroleum products from the condensate refineries would be achieved together with the 445,000bpd capacity of the existing refineries being refurbished, and the 650,000bpd Dangote refinery. Kyari said these complementary efforts by the NNPC and the Dangote Group would guarantee energy security for Nigeria. The NNPC boss said, “Our objective is to make Nigeria a net exporter of petroleum products and you can only achieve that by complementing each other, both the public and the private sector. “We are going to do more and we actually need more of these private sector refineries for Nigeria to become a net exporter of gasoline (petrol) and other associated products.” Punch reports.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has unveiled the next four-year agenda of the ministry aimed at repositioning the Nigerian culture and tourism sector to attract more investments, create jobs and improve earnings for both practitioners and the government. According to This Day, the minister disclosed this while receiving in an audience the Culture, Arts, Tourism and Entertainment Writers Association, Abuja (CATEWAA) during a courtesy visit to his office. According to him, the agenda include the conclusion and launch of the National Policy on Culture and Tourism to give the sector the necessary legal framework, the establishment of an endowment fund for the arts to make the National Summit for Culture and Tourism an annual event to have a unified national celebration on World Tourism Day, the exploration of private sector branding of the nation’s cultural centres abroad, and ensuring the final work and launch of the National Festival Calendar. He also stated that there are plans to finalise work on the Motion Picture Council of Nigeria (MOPICON) Bill which would soon be submitted to the Federal Executive Council (FEC), so as to create a proper regulatory environment for the sub-sector that has put Nigeria’s name on the global map, thus attracting the much-needed investment to the sector.
Guardian reports that Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed a former Central Bank of Nigeria Deputy Governor Sarah Omotunde-Alade as special adviser on finance and the economy. “Dr Alade, who holds BSc (Economics) and PhD in Management Science (Operations Research), retired from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as Deputy Governor in 2017 after spending 23 years in the apex bank,” Buhari’s spokesman Garba Shehu said in a statement on Tuesday. “She had also acted briefly in 2014 as the CBN Governor”, a State House statement by Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity,” he added.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele on Monday told Canadian investors to take advantage of Nigeria’s huge return on investment and deepen their investment targets beyond the $984 million trade value between both countries. Osinbajo specifically told Canadian investors to set their eyes on Nigeria’s mining, power, agriculture, education and information technology sectors, citing numerous opportunities that exist in those areas. Speaking at the Nigeria — Canada Investment Summit 2019 in Abuja, Osinbajo informed the investors that Nigeria’s Energizing Education Programme alongside the Energizing Market Programme expose huge opportunities for investors in such sectors through provision of mini-grid solutions to support off-grid electricity is already paying off. Business Day (Page 33) reports.
