Aso Villa Reads for 07/11/2018

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

“The Nigerian government on Tuesday closed its case in a suit before a Lagos Division of the Federal High Court seeking to recover $110 million from the Nigeria Agip Oil Company Limited. The oil company, owned by Itslisn oik giant, Eni, under-declared the volume of crude oil it shipped out of the country between January 2011 and December 2014 to the tune of $55 million, the government said. The government is urging the court to compel the oil company to pay the $55 million with an annual interest of 21 percent and another $55 million as exemplary damages.” Premium Times reports that “the judge, Mojisola Olatoregun, adjourned till November 7 for Agip to open its defence. The Nigerian government instituted several lawsuits in 2016 against Agip, Total E&P Nigeria Plc, and Chevron Nigeria Limited accusing them of under-declaring their crude oil shipments. Against Total, the government sought to recover $490 million — $245 million being the value of the company’s under-declared or undeclared crude oil shipments and another $245 million as general damages. The government said the lawsuits followed a forensic analysis linking the decline in crude oil export and government revenue at the time to the alleged under-declaration of the volume of crude oil shipped out of the country by the oil companies. The federal government claimed to have uncovered the alleged illegality using high-technology information technology system, including satellite tracking systems, which were deployed by its consultants.”

Daily Trust reports that “a total of 230.35Billion Cubic Feet (BCF) of natural gas was produced in the country in July 2018, averaging a daily production of 7,678.17Million Standard Cubic Feet (mmscfd). The sum represents 8.81 per cent increase compared to the previous month of June 2018. This was contained in the NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations report for July 2018. The report indicated that for the period, July 2017 to July 2018, a total of 3,084.09BCF of gas was produced, representing an average daily production of 7,834.62mmscfd, while the daily average natural gas supply to gas power plants stood at 744.86mmscfd, equivalent to power generation of 2,898MW.” The report said that “according to a statement by NNPC spokesman Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, production from Joint Ventures (JVs), Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), contributed about 69.38 per cent, 21.69 per cent and 8.93 per cent respectively to the total national gas production in July. A further breakdown of the numbers showed that out of the total volume of gas supplied in July 2018, 127.19BCF of gas was commercialized, comprising of 35.55BCF and 91.65BCF for the domestic and export market respectively.”

“Federal Government on Monday reiterated the call for a Public Private Partnership, PPP, in driving its economic agenda. Okechukwu Enelamah, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment who made this call in Abuja, stressed that diversification and industrialization cannot be achieved without private partners working more closely with the government.” Business Day (Wednesday 07 November 2018, page 8) reported that the Minister said this at the Nigeria- Canada Investment Summit, adding that “as part of the current administration’s desire to drive the economy towards a less oil- reliant one, diversification and industrialization to drive investment is imperative.” According to him, “industrialization is the heart of the economy. Trade drives investment and investment then leads to efficient industrialization. However, we cannot fully actualize this, if we do not have foreign private partners with the required expertise.”

“Nigeria was one of the top five countries of the world which received about $613 b in remittances, last year, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said. Quoting a World Bank report on remittances in 2017, the Governor of the CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, said that Nigerians in the Diaspora and other African nationals sent $72 billion home last year.” Vanguard reports that “in an address at the opening of the workshop on Remittance Household Surveys, in Abuja, Tuesday, the CBN boss who was represented by the Director, Statistics Department of the apex bank, Dr. Mohammed Tumala, said that Nigerians in the Diaspora placed the country on top of the list remittances in the region. He said, “Remittances inflows contribute substantially to foreign exchange earnings and household finances in most developing economies. Money sent home by migrant workers is among the major financial inflows to developing countries and in some cases, it exceeds international aids and grants. “According to the World Bank, global remittances have risen gradually over the years to about $613 billion in 2017, of which $72 billion was received by African countries. As a recipient country, Nigeria tops African countries and is also ranked among the top five globally.”

“The Presidential Amnesty Programme has empowered a total of 4,903 ex-agitators from the Niger Delta region who have completed their business and skill training have been empowered, with 535 of them empowered from May till date. The Special Assistant on Media to the Coordinator of the Programme, Prof. Charles Dokubo, Mr. Murphy Ga‎nagana, who disclosed this to Journalists in Benin said 5,700 others have been proposed for empowerment/business set up this year depending on the availability of fund. He said the Programme will on November 7 flag off entrepreneurial revolution in the Niger Delta by showcasing empowered ex-agitators and linking them to financial institutions to enable to increase their financial base. Ganagana disclosed that the Amnesty office is constructing its vocational training centers across the Niger Delta region for the training of the ex-agitators who are yet to be placed in either vocational training facilities or deployed for formal education.” Daily Trust reports that “Ganagana listed the training centres to be completed soon to include Oil and Gas Vocational Training Centre located in Agadagba-Obon, Ondo State, Maritime Vocational Training Centre at Oboama, Rivers State, Basic Skill Vocational Training Centre, Boro Town, Kaiama, Bayelsa State, Power and Energy Vocational Training Centre in Bomadi Delta state and Agricultural Vocational Training Centre at Gelegele Edo State.”

“The National President of the Association of Hydrologists, Ehidiamhen Charles, on Tuesday, said the two recent earth tremors in Abuja could not lead to earthquake. Mr Charles stated this Minna, Niger State while speaking with journalists. “The minor incidents should not cause panic among the residents of the Federal Capital Territory. These incidents are minor, they cannot cause any concern; there should be no cause for alarm.” Mr Charles described incidents as ‘‘mere earth movements”, which he said “are normal”, asserting that the tremors could not cause damages to individuals and the community. ‘‘Tremor is a regular phenomenon, Nigeria is stable, we are not an earthquake zone; the nearest we have here is volcano, even the volcano is dormant.” He attributed the incidents to human activities saying, ‘‘so many construction works are going on in Abuja. ‘‘So many mining activities are going on; if I use dynamite, the blasting can only cause accentuation, the tremors are not destructive.” The national president said there was no adequate consultation with the association before raising the alarm. “Nigerians should not be made to panic, government should not be made to spend money unnecessarily,” he advised.” Premium Times reported this.

Business Day reports that “Federal Government has reiterated its resolve to bridge the infrastructure gaps by improving investment in eight critical sectors of the economy as well as increase the ratio of non-oil tax revenue from the current rate of 6% to 15% in the medium term. They are: Security, Infrastructure (including power and transportation), Agriculture, Manufacturing, Housing and Construction, Education, Health and Water resources. President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration also assured its resolve to reduce support job-creating opportunities which will in turn foster greater and diversified economic growth. The roadmap was captured in the 2019–2021 Medium term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy policy (FSP) submitted to the National Assembly. According to the document obtained by Business Day, the administration is to strengthen the tax system by improving collection efficiency, enhancing compliance and re-organizing the business practices of tax and revenue agencies. According to Speaker Yakubu Dogara, who confirmed the receipt of the 2019–2021 MTEF/FSP documents from the President, the transmission of the document was in compliance with the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007.”

“The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed that it is working to create a non-interest window for the development financing interventions. The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele made the disclosure yesterday while delivering the keynote address at the 2018 financial inclusion conference by Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA) with the theme “the Business Case for Financial Inclusion”. Emefiele said “the interest free window will assimilate a large section of the population excluded due to their aversion for interest and interest-based products, into the financial system.” The aim of the conference is to examine how to drive the uptake of financial products and services specifically targeted at the poor and at the same time provide stakeholders with the right incentives to create and support these products and services.” Daily Trust reported this.

“President Muhammadu Buhari, Wednesday expressed dissatisfaction over the leadership of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, that ruled the country for sixteen years, arguing that Nigerians wouldn’t have been bordered about who is in power, but rather mind their businesses if PDP had used the nations resources very well. Vanguard reports that “speaking when a group from the South-east part of the county under the aegis of One on One Nigeria, visited him on Tuesday night, Buhari opined, “We are trying to organize the country. The extent of mismanagement we met when we came was mind-boggling. “Many times, I have spoken about the tremendous resources available to us between 1999 and 2014, and how it was frittered. If only they had used just 25% of it on infrastructure; road, rail, power, Nigerians would mind their own businesses, and not bother about whoever was in power. The casualty figure on our roads daily is simply scandalous. No wonder they are in opposition now, despite all the power they thought they had.” The group, led by Chief Chido Obidiegwu, said it had keenly observed the strides of the Buhari administration nationwide, particularly in the South-east, “and it is now payback time.”

According to Premium Times “President Muhammadu Buhari has sworn in the chairman and members of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), and commissioners for National Population Commission (NPC). The president swore them in Wednesday inside the council chamber of the State House Presidential Villa, Abuja shortly before the commencement of the meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC). Both sets of appointees were screened and cleared by the Nigerian Senate last month.” The report continued: “Those sworn in for the CCB include Mohammed Isa, who will head the Bureau. He hails from Jigawa State. Other members include Murtala Kankia Katsina, (North West) Emmanuel Attah, Cross River, (South South), Obolo Opanachi, Kogi, (North Central), and Ken Alkali, Nasarawa, (North Central.) Others are S.F. Ogundare, Oyo, (South West), Ganiyu Hamzat, Ogun, (South West), Sahad Abubakar, Gombe (North East) and Vincent Nwanne, (Ebonyi, South East.) For the National Population Commission, the commissioners sworn in include Nwanne Nwabuisi (Abia), Clifford Zirra (Adamawa), Chidi Christopher Ezeoke (Anambra), Isah Buratai(Borno), Charles Ogwa (Cross River), Richard Odibo (Delta), Okereke Onuabuchi (Ebonyi), A.D. Olusegun Aiyejina (Edo), Ekike Ezeh(Enugu) and Abubakar Mohammed Danburam (Gombe)”.