Aso Villa Reads for 06/11/2019

Every day, we bring you the best stories that the Media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria

Business Day reports that Nigeria has an installed lubricant capacity of 600, 000 metric tonnes but there is no independent reference laboratory in the country, people familiar with the matter say. This presents investment opportunities. With the recent increase of import duty on base oil and additives (10% duty and 5% value-added tax) and 30 percent duty, 5 percent VAT on finished lubes, investors have a chance to take advantage of investment opportunities in the sector. Nigeria currently accounts for 700 million litres (1%) of global demand. According to a report by TechSci Research, a research-based management consulting firm, Nigeria’s automotive lubricants market is projected to reach $683 million by 2023. The demand for lubricants in the domestic market is met by supermajor international oil companies (IOCs), as well as independent marketers in Nigeria. The IOCs operating in Nigeria have a major share in the market share in terms of sales volume as compared to the independent marketers.

Guardian reports that the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar says the air force will deepen its partnership with the National Engineering Design Development Institute (NEDDI) for greater efficiency. Abubakar, who disclosed this during a visit to the NEEDI office complex in Nnewi on Tuesday, said that the partnership would encourage home-made engineering designs. He expressed happiness with the level of technological advancement at the institute and promised to improve the working relationship between the institute and the air force. “We shall tap into the experience and proficiency of this institute by availing our officer’s training in engineering design,” he said. Abubakar stated that security remained a critical ingredient in the development of any nation, saying “development can only thrive in a secure atmosphere”. “As a force, we are prepared to deepen this partnership with NEEDI, we hope to improve on our existing understanding to shore up the capacity building.

As a way of integrating the maritime sector into rail master structure, the ongoing linkage of standard gauge railway line to Apapa port will make movements of goods to and from the ports more effective and boost economic growth, the minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi has said. Leadership reports that the minister who made this known in Lagos recently during the “World Maritime Day” also said that it is a policy of government that all seaports in Nigeria must be connected by rail adding that “We have put in place a 25-year modernisation programme for the rail system. With the master plan, we have taken rail from where the past government stopped into the seaports.” For instance, Amaechi stated that the original plan for current Lagos-Kano rail line began from Ebute Metta, but that the present administration reviewed it and extended another line from Ebute Metta to Apapa seaport. According to the minister, “With this, when you bring in your goods, you turn them to the rail that takes them to the hinterland. The one from Lagos to Calabar will link the Calabar, Port Harcourt, and Onne seaports, and so on.”

According to Peoples Daily, despite the controversies generated, locally and internationally, in favour and against the border closure, rice and poultry farmers are smiling to the banks due to bumper sales. A visit to some Markets within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja revealed that the demand for food stuffs especially, Nigerian rice and eggs have actually gone up. This is equally the positive reports obtained from the Markets across the country. Hitherto, the country’s Markets and border space were taken over by smuggling and dumpling activities to the obvious disadvantage of the farmers, traders and Nigeria’s economy. Nigerians’ insatiable appetite for foreign goods and corruption should be blamed for aiding this illegal business over the years. Consequently, this has made it very difficult for successive governments to change the narrative. All thanks to the present administration through the doggedness and resilience of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele for leading the country on this part of long awaited prosperity.

Punch reports that the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation said it had improved the level of internal control to check fraudulent practices in its operations. NDIC’s Managing Director/Chief Executive, Umaru Ibrahim, said this during the inauguration of four new members to the corporation’s Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit. The inauguration was done by the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission at the NDIC’s head office in Abuja. Ibrahim, who was represented by the Executive Director, Corporate Services, Omolola Abiola-Edewor, said the agency had adopted zero tolerance for corruption and all forms of malpractices. He said the corporation had established a culture of zero tolerance for corruption by implementing strict operational procedures and guidelines geared towards instilling transparency and accountability in the workplace. Ibrahim described the inauguration of the new members as an extension of the NDIC’s commitment towards maintaining high anti-corruption standards. This, he stated, had been strengthened by the core values of honesty, respect and fairness, discipline, professionalism, teamwork and passion.

The value of foreign portfolio and direct investment in equities amounted to $9.48bn (N3.44tn) between June 2017 and June 2019. Data obtained from the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday showed that foreign direct investment in equities stood at $2.42bn (N878.45bn) while foreign portfolio investment in equities stood at $7.05bn (N2.56tn). In the last nine months of 2017, the value of the FDI in equities stood at $769.34m (N273bn), while $1.03bn (N374bn) was recorded in 2018; and $465.56m (N169bn) in the first half of 2019. The value of foreign portfolio investment in equities in the last nine months of 2017 stood at $3.54bn (N1.29tn). In 2018, $2.36bn (N857.96bn) was recorded as the value of the FPI in equities while $1.15bn (N417.59bn) was recorded in the first half of 2019. Data from Ernst and Young showed that the total FDI into Africa in 2018 stood at $75.5bn, while that of Nigeria stood at $8bn. This means Nigeria accounted for 10.59 per cent of the total amount of the FDI in Africa in 2018, making it the third largest destination of the FDI inflow on the continent after Egypt and Algeria. This is according to Punch.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has saved over $3bn from arbitration, the oil firm’s Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, announced on Tuesday in Abuja. Kyari disclosed this when he engaged workers of the corporation in a town hall meeting that also involved the participation of the corporation’s outstation staff. He commended the management of the corporation’s legal division for the savings, adding that its due diligence accounted for the feat. He told employees of the firm that it was imperative for the corporation to increase its level of efficiency, reduce cost and increase revenue across the value chain of its businesses within the shortest period possible. According to Punch, Kyari also examined his tenure as NNPC boss, noting that some remarkable successes had been recorded within the period. The achievements, he explained, included the attainment of over two billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit or petrol reserve, completion of Phase One of Port Harcourt refinery rehabilitation exercise and discovery of oil in Kolmani River-II Well.

On October 30, 2019, the Supreme Court panel of seven led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, dismissed the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, challenging the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari in the February 23, 2019 presidential election. The CJN said the reasons for the decision of the court would be made known at a later date. This judgement has once again polarised the polity with the ruling party lauding the verdict while a section of the opposition political parties castigated Their Lordships for failing to give victory to Atiku and the PDP. Well, congratulations are in order to the President and his party, the All Progressives Congress, for winning the legal challenge. The long-drawn legal fireworks had begun immediately after Buhari’s re-election in February. For six months, the Court of Appeal, serving as court of first instance in a presidential election petitions, had heard the PDP’s and Atiku’s petitions and on September 11, a five-man panel of jurists led by Justice Garba Mohammed gave victory to President Buhari. Punch reports.

According to Vanguard, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, under the leadership of Governor Godwin Emefiele, has stood out as not just the major backbone, but also a flagship of President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic policy recovery efforts. While the nation had waited in vain in 2015 for the Buhari administration to launch its blueprint towards rescuing our rapidly plunging economy, it took the Anchor Borrowers’ programme of the CBN introduced in November that year to stimulate the agricultural sector, resulting in the massive rekindling of the interests of Nigerians in farming. The result is a near self-sufficiency in poultry products and the resurgence in local rice production and investments in other agricultural sectors. While inaugurating the first retreat for his newly-appointed ministers in Abuja on August 19, 2019, Buhari had boasted that his government would, after eight years in power, lay the foundation for lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty, though he did not disclose the policy roadmap for achieving such ambitious plan.

According to Vanguard, the Minister of Health, Dr. Emmanuel Osagie on Tuesday disclosed that the Federal government will adopt radical policies and measures targeted at eliminating polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases in the country. Dr. Osagie explained that though Nigeria had reached an appreciable percentage in the eradication of vaccine diseases but added that more efforts still needed to be put in place to ensure hundred percent success. The Minister of Health said this in Ado Ekiti, during the National Scientific Conference of the National Association of Community Health Practitioners of Nigeria. Represented by the Chief Medical Director Federal Teaching Hospital Ido Ekiti, Professor Kunle Ajayi, the Minister stressed the need for health workers to step up the quality of their operations and support government in recording hundred percent immunization coverage for children. “We have a target to get rid of all vaccine diseases in children, this is why we require improved service delivery by health workers.

The federal government on Monday in Abuja, disclosed plan to institutionalise the National Council of Mining and Mineral Resources Development (NCMMRD). The move is expected to address constant frictions between the states and federal governments on right to mineral resources in the country. This Day reports that the National Council on Mining and Mineral Resources Development (NCMMRD) is the highest decision-making body on policy matters on mining and mineral resources development. It is a structured interactive platform with advisory roles, where all stakeholders converged for policy formulation, validation and advice government on minerals and metals matters. The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr. Olamilekan Adegbite, said this while addressing the press on the fourth coming NCMMRD summit. Adegbite, noted that even though mineral resources was on the exclusive legislative list, mining and mineral related activities are conducted across the all the states of the federation.

According to Punch, the transfer window that will enable contributors under the Contributory Pension Scheme to change their Pension Fund Administrators will be opened in June 2020, the pension operators have said. Some executives of the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria, who spoke during a seminar organised by the association in Lagos on Friday, said the window had not been opened because the operators were still trying to get the biometrics right. “The National Pension Commission and operators are working to ensure that by June 2020, the transfer window will be opened,” an executive of PenOp said. However, the President, PenOp, Mrs Ronke Adedeji, said the operators were doing all things possible to open the window, but added that June 2020 was a tentative date. The Head, Communications, PenCom, Mr Peter Aghahowa, said the operators were ensuring the development of the micro-pension plan, which was launched by the Federal Government in March 2019. He said the plan would improve the standard of living of the self-employed on retirement. Contributions would be passed to the next of kin in case of the contributors’ death, he said.

Babatunde Raji Fashola, the Minister of Works and Housing, said the federal government is in partnership with UN-Habitat in reviewing the national urban development policy of the government to address concerns of growing slums in major cities across the country. This move, the Minister said, was in line with the Federal Government’s determination to address concerns of unplanned cities which lead to the emergence of slums Fashola made the call in his keynote address at the commemoration of the 2019 World Habitat Day and World Cities Day in Abuja, a statement issued by the Ministry on Friday said. The Minister said the review would involve implementing urban renewal and slum upgrading programmes in several urban communities across the country. Fashola in the statement called for a collective reflection, stock taking and strengthening partnerships, to accelerate action in the pursuit of sustainable urban development in Nigeria. Business Day reports.