Aso Villa Reads for 07/12/2018

Every day we bring you the best news the media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria.

“The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved next year’s budget proposal. The approval was granted during today’s special FEC session presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari. The meeting which started by 10:30am lasted till around 1.pm at the Presidential Villa. The Minister of Budget and Planning, Udoma Udoma announced the approval while briefing State House correspondents at the end of FEC meeting at the presidential villa, Abuja. Udoma said the Council will liaise with the National Assembly to determine when the president will submit the draft estimates for the consideration of the two chambers.” Daily Trust reports that “the session which was presided over by President Buhari approved a budget estimate of N8.73tr for the 2019 budget, N400bn lower than that of this year. The price of crude oil per barrel was pegged at $60, exchange rate at $305 and daily crude oil production was put at 2.3m by the FEC. The MTEF/ FSP was designed to translate strategic development objective of the economic recovery and growth plan into a realistic and implementable budget framework.”

Guardian reports that “barring any further hitches, the first phase of the second Niger Bridge would be ready in 2022.Project Manager of the construction company, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, Friedrich Josef Wieser, disclosed this during an unscheduled inspection.He said the plan is being driven by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), led by the Managing Director, Uche Orji and Executive Director, Stella Ojekwe-Onyejeli. The first phase of the project entails raising a six-lane second bridge across the 10 kilometers River Niger, between Onitsha in Anambra State and Asaba in Delta State. Also included is another 12 kilometers of road before and after the bridge, among other ancillary civil and engineering works to be done within the given period of 44 months.” The report noted that “according to Wieser, the February 28, 2022 delivery date was certain, based on NSIA ‘s renewed commitment to the project.This, he, said, comes with the signing and moblisation of N33 billion, being first tranche payment out of the N220 billion earmarked for the entire project. He said: “As at today, we are at 16 per cent progress of the works, and we are confident that we will complete the project on schedule by 2022. We have 44 months, which is four years of construction period. “We started actual construction on September 1, this year and we are confident that we will complete the job on February 28, 2022. The dredger is going to arrive tomorrow to dredge the river to enable us commence serious activities.”

“The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) has begun moves to conclude the sale of three out of 10 power plants under the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP), in the first phase of its power privatisation programme.” According to documents seen by Business Day (Friday 07 November, 2018) says that “the two agencies propose a revised transaction structure for the three power plants namely Geregu, Omotosho and Calabar, which would involve engaging with the preferred bidders and a revision of the Share Sale Agreement (SSA). This is to ensure that no transaction structure proposed in the memo addressed to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who is the Chairman of the National Council on Privatisation and Commercialization (NCPC) in respect of the plants is addressed adequately.”

“A total amount of N33bn has so far been released for the implementation of the second Niger bridge project. The Managing Director, Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, Mr Uche Orji, gave the figure while speaking shortly after an inspection of the project. Orji visited the site with the Obi of Onitsha, Nnaemeka Achebe, who was accompanied by some of his chiefs. The project which is being handled by Julius Berger Plc was awarded in 2014 by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.” Punch reported that “the second Niger bridge project which is estimated to gulp about N220bn has been experiencing delays as various administrations have paid lip service to the implementation of the project, only showing some efforts towards electioneering periods. However, Orji expressed optimism that the project would not experience further delay. He said that the private sector funding for the project was being planned to be raised by 2020 through bond and equity. Orji explained that already, a Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund to be managed by the NSIA had been set up for five critical road and power projects across the country. He said the PIDF with a seed funding of $650m was targeted to catalyse funding for the second Niger Bridge, Lagos-Ibadan expressway, East-West road, Abuja-Kano road, and Mambilla Hydroelectric Power. The NSIA boss said that the PIDF would eliminate the risks of project funding, cost variation and completion that had plagued the development of the nation’s critical infrastructure assets.”

According to Leadership “ongoing drive by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to increase Nigeria’s crude oil reserve heightened yesterday with the unveiling of multi-billion dollar investment opportunities in the nation’s deep-offshore frontiers at the 10th World Energy Capital Assembly in London, United Kingdom. Delivering an address at the panel session entitled: Spotlight on Africa”, group managing director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru said that “globally Nigeria has the highest untapped deep water resource of about 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent, in addition to other vast opportunities in the oil and gas value chain.” The NNPC GMD, who was represented at the event by the group general manager, Corporate Planning & Strategy of the NNPC, Mr Bala Wunti, explained that Nigeria has the largest and one of the most vibrant economies in Africa with lots of potentials, especially in the gas, refining and infrastructure space.” The report noted that the NNPC GMD rep “further explained that NNPC has a clear strategy for harnessing these potentials through collaboration and building robust partnerships as entrenched in the Corporation’s 12 Business Focus Areas being aggressively driven by the leadership of the Corporation. The World Energy Capital Assembly, is a leading gathering of energy executives, finance and investment professionals to discuss emerging and re-emerging energy investment opportunities, review deals done and chart an outlook of energy related activities across the globe.”

Business Day reports that “in the last 9 years, the largest economy in Africa, Nigeria, has recorded significant progress in increasing financial inclusion in the country. However, major challenges which may inhibit the attainment of the nation’s vision 2020 of achieving 80 percent financial inclusion remains. According data revealed in the 2018 state of the market report released on Thursday by Lagos Business School (LBS), statistics of banked people in the economy has doubled from 23.6 percent of total population recorded in 2008 to 48.6 percent in 2017. Meanwhile under banked Nigerians have reduced significantly to 10.7 percent compared to 23.9 percent recorded in 2008. Also, unbanked Nigerians reduced to 40.8 percent of total population from 52.5 percent recorded in 2008.

According to report, Nigeria recorded progress in growing the banked and under-banked segments by 7.5 to 48.6 percent and 0.2 percent to 10.7 percent respectively whilst reducing the unbanked segment by 7.6 percent”.”

“The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, has said the current administration believes a conducive business environment is crucial to achieving the government’s diversification agenda. Dr. Enelamah pointed out that even though significant milestones had already been recorded, the greatest effect was only possible with the active collaboration of state and local governments. Enelamah was speaking at the 10th meeting of the National Council on Industry, Trade and Investment meeting held in Umuahia recently. The meeting had its theme: “Ease of Doing Business: The Role of States and Local Governments”.” According to Daily Trust “the minister pointed out that President Muhammadu Buhari had shown strong political will by establishing and supporting the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) with an ambitious mandate of removing constraints and bottlenecks in doing business in Nigeria; and by signing the Executive Order 001 which promoted transparency. The minister took stock of some of the successes recorded by the government so far in diverse areas. “Business registration in Nigeria can now be concluded within 48 hours with the automated platform by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC),” he said. On trading across borders, Enelamah listed some of the completed reforms to include reduction in import documentation requirements from 14 to eight and export documents from 10 to seven, introduction of advance cargo manifests and scheduling of joint physical examination anchored by the customs service. Other reforms include the passage and signing into law of two bills to ease access to credit for MSMEs.”

“The African Development Bank and the Africa Growing Together Fund (AGTF) have approved a $200m loan for the Federal Government of Nigeria to finance the Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP).” Compelo Energy reported that “for the electrification project, the African Development Bank has approved $150m sovereign loan to the Federal Government of Nigeria. NEP. The AGTF is a $2bn facility sponsored by the People’s Bank of China and directed by the African Development Bank. AGTF has also approved a loan of $50m to the Federal Government of Nigeria to co-finance the project. The joint funding is expected to support the government’s attempts to tackle the deficiency of critical energy access and achieve the universal energy access target by 2030. Financing provided to the NEP, which will be implemented by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), is aimed at boosting private sector development and launching new off-grid solutions, along with the installation of dedicated power systems for Federal Universities. The NEP allows channeling private sector investments into mini grid and off-grid solutions to deal with the energy shortage with an innovative approach.”

Leadership has reported that “the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) have committed to growing local content in the oil and gas industry from the current 40 per cent to 70 per cent by 2027 as part of strategies to sustain economic development in country. NNPC’s group managing director, Dr. Maikanti Baru, made this commitment while delivering a keynote address at the 8th Practical Nigerian Content Conference in Yenogoa, Bayelsa State, saying strategies for implementing the NCDMB local content development include closing human capacity gaps, skills acquisition and assets ownership by indigenous companies, among others. He explained that the theme of this year’s conference: “Driving Economic Development and Sustainability” was very relevant to NNPC, the industry and the country at large given the considerable gains recorded in the nation’s oil and gas landscape.”

“The Federal Government and Microsoft have met to discuss digital transformation in the country’s governance process. The discussion which held in Abuja Wednesday had officials of FG’s IT agencies and top management staff of Microsoft in attendance. How fast Nigeria should adopt new technologies, such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things in governance topped discussions at the meeting. Microsoft officials told FG team and other participants that the new technologies would create a promising new opportunity for governments to enhance the way they interact with citizens. ‘’At the same time, there is a responsibility to ensure security, compliance and data privacy in every digital interaction’’, Salwa Smaoui, Public Sector Government Leader — Microsoft Middle East & Africa told journalists on sideline after the meeting tagged Reimagine the future of Nigeria. “Success in an increasingly digital future depends on how well governments use technology to transform, create new value and positive business outcomes, and deliver new and improved citizen services at scale,” added Smaoui.” Daily Trust reported this.