Aso Villa Reads for 09/08/2019

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

According to Business Day, the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP) project would open new vistas for Nigeria’s gas aspirations, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mallam Mele Kyari, has said. Mallam Kyari disclosed this Tuesday in Abuja at a stakeholders’ engagement involving the corporation, its Moroccan partner on the Gas Project, the Morocco National Office for Hydrocarbons & Mines (ONHYM), and the executives of International Oil Companies operating Nigeria, at the NNPC Towers. The meeting was sequel to high-level discussions on the Pipeline Cooperation Agreement (PCA) for the NMGP project signed between both countries during separate visits by their leaders, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari and King Hassan VI of Morocco. The PCA will particularly facilitate the establishment of a gas pipeline to supply the product from Nigeria to Morocco and the West African sub-region and further into Europe. At the moment, both countries are planning to extend the pipeline that has been pumping gas from Nigeria to Benin, Togo and Ghana since 2010 to Morocco. Speaking shortly after the engagement with the representatives of the multinationals, Kyari described the project as strategic for the country, adding that the project would provide market for Nigerian gas. “We have a lot of stranded gas particularly in the Deepwater that we need to put on the table. This project will enable us have more gas for domestic consumption so that we can improve power supply and gas to Industry,” Kyari stated. He explained that along the pipeline’s corridor all the way to Morocco and into Europe, there was a huge potential for development of the West African sub-Continent and part of North Africa.

Daily Trust reports that the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Mrs. Didi Walson-Jack, yesterday inaugurated the ministry’s 2019 Procurement Planning Committee (PPC). This is to ensure that the programmes and activities of government are achieved through careful planning and prudent allocation of resources as well as its effective and efficient implementation in line with the Public Procurement Act 2007. While inaugurating the eight-member committee in Abuja, Mrs Walson-Jack, who also serves as the chairman of the committee, implored members to be committed and synergize effectively in order to realise the common goal of moving the nation to a greater The committee is to, among other things, prepare the list of all known goods, works and services needed to achieve the goals for the procuring entity, evaluation of the list and dividing into contract packaging and carrying out appropriate market and statistical survey; analyze the cost implications of the proposed procurement; aggregate the procurement requirements within the procuring entity and between procuring entities to obtain economy of scale and reduce procurement cost.

The recently signed agreement to strengthen Nigerian power grid and distribution network would be financed by German export credit agency (ECA)and other says Onyeche Tifase, Managing Director \CEO Siemens Limited Nigeria, in an exclusive interview with business day the power grid and distribution network upgrade involves Siemens Nigeria’s parent body Siemens AG and Federal Government of Nigerian according to Tifase once the financing secured the company will enter into a firm cooperation with government and Siemens expects that a lot of planning and efforts already in place will ensure the resource power equipment which have been product are delivered for immediate rollout of the plans developed for the project she stated that the conversation around the project was kick-started. This is according to Business Day (Friday 09 August 2019).

The Federal Government recently fulfilled a promise to power Nigerian university the first hybrid power plan t at Alex Ekwueme federal university Ndufu –Ikike Ikwo (FUNAI) in Ebonyi state, Stephen Onyekwelu suggests that the emerging renewable off-grid energy sector driven by the federal rural electrification agency (REA) seeks to generate value for Nigerian open –air markets un –served underserved communities, teaching hospitals and higher learning institutions. Business Day (Friday 09 August 2019) reported.

The Head of Marketing and Business Development, Africa Region of Maersk, Anita De Werd, has described small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) as the engine of innovation and job creation. Speaking as a panellist during the opening session of the fifth edition of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Forum held in Abuja recently, De Werd said 95 per cent of all companies in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) economies are SMEs and they account for two-thirds of formal sector jobs, despite having much less access to the benefits of trade. According to This Day , she said: “If we can empower small businesses in trade, we can help make economies more inclusive.” De Werd emphasised that the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group focuses on working through partnerships to empower entrepreneurs and SMEs through various partners such as the SheTrades initiative of the International Trade Centre (ITC). She said: “The purpose of SheTrades is to enable female entrepreneurs to access the benefits of trade, aiming to connect three million female entrepreneurs to markets by 2021. This encourages inclusion as well as benefitting business, as WEF research shows that closing the global economic gender gap could add 26 per cent to the annual global GDP by 2025. Together with SheTrades, A.P. Moller-Maersk will help female entrepreneurs in developing countries engage in trade by sharing our expertise on transport and logistics with the female entrepreneurs.”

According to Guardian, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday, said the Muhammadu Buhari administration is 100 per cent in support of the bid by the country to host the 2020 FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup. Osinbajo made this declaration when a team from world football –governing body, FIFA, the Nigeria Football Federation, and members of the Bid Committee paid him a courtesy call at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. “The government of Nigeria guarantees to back the bid 100 per cent,” said Osinbajo. “We are actually excited with the prospect of hosting the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in 2020. “For us, football is a unifying force. Government interest in hosting is beyond commercial; football is a measure of unity and wellbeing of our people as diverse as we are.” Osinbajo, while promising that the government would do everything in its power to ensure a successful hosting in the areas of infrastructure, security and other logistics, reminded all present that President Buhari is an ardent football lover and is excited about Nigeria hosting the tournament. Earlier, NFF president, Pinnick, informed VP Osinbajo about the facilities available in the four proposed host cities — Lagos, Benin, Uyo and Asaba — adding that “hosting the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in 2020 will leave a lot of legacies beyond the physical; it will impact on humanity.” The FIFA team, which arrived in Nigeria on Monday evening, inspected facilities in Lagos, Benin City, Asaba and Uyo, meeting with Governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Godwin Obaseki, Ifeanyi Okowa and Udom Emmanuel, who variously assured them of the keen interest and desire of their various governments and peoples to meet FIFA’s requirements for hosting the competition.

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology, Mr Bitrus Nabasu said the Federal Government has plans to develop a National Leather Product Policy to boost Gross Domestic Product of the country. Nabasu said this during the graduation ceremony of IDP trainees from Borno, trained by the Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology (NILEST), Zaria in collaboration with the UNDP. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the IDPs were trained at NILEST, Zaria while their graduation ceremony was held at the FCT Agency for Science and Technology, Abuja. Nabasu said the leather policy amongst others would establish manufacturing, importation and exportation principles that would checkmate certain operations and regulate stakeholders activities within the industry. He disclosed that leather and leather products’ transaction were estimated to have increased in excess of N450 billion naira for footwear and N200 billion for other finished leather products. “The sad truth about the development is that 90 per cent of the benefit goes to foreign countries while the country benefits only 10 per cent. “Ministry of Science and Technology and NILEST is making frantic efforts to reverse the ugly trend of huge capital flight by putting together, first-ever stand-alone national leather policy in Nigeria. “The leather industry forms one of the vibrant sectors in national economic development, contributing enormously to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country,”. Nabasu said. Tribune reported this.

Mr Alex Okoh, Director General, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), has said that the enterprise has proposed a set of reforms, to attract private funding for the health sector Mrs Amina Othman, the BPE Head of Communications, in a statement, quoted the DG as making the disclosure in Abuja when he inaugurated the Project Delivery Team (PDT), for the Nigeria Health Sector Reform. Okoh said that repositioning the health sector to increase private sector participation and funding, would improve access to quality healthcare for all and reverse poor health indices in the country. He explained that the health sector reform was a joint initiative of the BPE and the Federal Ministry of Health. According to him, it is designed to undertake a comprehensive and holistic reform of the health sector, towards addressing the challenges facing the health sector in the country. “The Project Delivery Team is expected to effectively drive the reform process and make necessary recommendations to the Health Reform Steering Committee (HSRSC). “The team is charged with interfacing with and reviewing the reports of the consultancies and make recommendation to the Steering Committee; “They are also to develop a detailed project plan for the reform of the health sector; design and drive stakeholder’s sensitisation and engagement strategies, for successful reform,” he said. Okoh said that the team was also expected to identify and select the most suitable investors for the health sector. “It will also carry out any other activities that may be necessary to ensure successful reform of the Nigerian health sector, ” he said. Tribune reported.