Aso Villa Reads for 09/09/2020

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

The United Kingdom (UK) on Monday announced some £7.2 million Covid-19 research support to Nigeria and other countries to address the impact of the pandemic in vulnerable communities. The UK government said it was investing in 20 new research projects which includes; delivering mass vaccination capacity in Bangladesh, protective equipment for refugees in Jordan and remote healthcare access for patients in Nigeria. These 20 new projects will benefit from a share of £7.2 million of UK government funding to develop new technology and processes to address challenges in partnership with some of the UK’s leading research institutions. Some of the projects according to a statement from the UK Department for International Trade are; a training programme to be led by King’s College London for healthcare workers across Nigeria and Tanzania enabling them to deliver trusted and safe care to patients over the phone where internet availability is limited. Trials will involve 20 health clinics in each country to test the effectiveness of remote health appointments, recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) during the pandemic, to help minimise physical contact that could spread the virus. King’s College London will work with University of Ibadan, Nigeria; Makerere University, Uganda; and St. Francis University College of Health and Allied Sciences, Tanzania. The University of Bath and University of Lagos aim to address the issue of limited Covid-19 testing capacity in Africa by leading a project to measure the disease in domestic wastewater, which can help reveal the health status of a population.[Business Day]

A consortium of Western investors has presented their plan to invest over $5bn in Nigeria’s power sector, the Federal Government has said. According to information obtained from the Office of the Minister of Power in Abuja on Sunday, the investors would focus majorly on the renewable energy subsector of the industry. It was further gathered that the consortium targets to also deliver 1,000 megawatts capacity of hybrid solar power within two years. The Special Assistant to the Minister of Power on Media and Communications, Aaron Artimas, who confirmed this to our correspondent in Abuja on Sunday, stated that the presentations by the investors were made to the Minister of Power, Sale Mamman. “They made the presentation to the minister of power and it is something that is still fresh. The process is still ongoing and you’ll get updates as we proceed,” he stated. The minister’s aide referred our correspondent to the Twitter handle of the Office of the Minister of Power, where it was captured that the consortium would also partner government in electricity grid development across the country. In series of tweets on its verified Twitter handle, the OMP said, “A consortium of Western investors interested in investing upwards of $5bn in the Nigerian power sector, with a major focus on the renewable energy sector, pitched their proposal to the Minister of Power @EngrSMamman at the Power House.”[Punch]

As the Federal Road Safety Corps begins its nationwide end of the year campaigns with the theme; ‘Drive Safe and Stay Safe’, the corps marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi has called on the motoring public to make this year’s ‘ember’ months unique and crash free by adhering strictly to road traffic regulations. He said road traffic crashes are avoidable and road crash free society is possible when best road practices are applied. According to him, “With the rapid infrastructural development going on in the rail transportation sector under the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, commuters are advised to maximise that alternative means of transportation by patronising the train stations where available, as this will drastically reduce the pressure on the road transportation sector.” Oyeyemi also warned that all travelling protocols for Covid-19 must be strictly adhered to. Noting that the enforcement on 50 percent carrying capacity for all vehicles targeted at creating adequate physical distancing is still in place, and the Corps will not spare any fleet operator caught violating these directives.[Business Day]

The Central Bank of Nigeria has set N10 billion as the maximum loan an obligor can access under its N250bn intervention fund for the gas sector. This was disclosed by the apex bank in its new guideline titled ‘Framework for the implementation of an intervention facility for the national gas expansion programme’. Click here to read the guidelines of the intervention fund.[Nairametrics]

The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Olorunnimbe Mamora, says the Federal Government has paid up to N20bn in COVID-19 inducement allowance to doctors and health workers in the country. The minister, who applauded all front-line health workers in the country amid the fight against the pandemic, made this known on Wednesday morning while featuring on Channels Television‘s programme, Sunrise Daily. He said, “We have been able to pay the COVID-19 inducement allowance because we had to suspend the hazard allowance for this period so that we can go into renegotiation after. We are now paying starting from 50 per cent of the basic of the workers depending on where the point of operation is. We were able to pay April, May full, June, part of it has been paid but not fully paid and it is because of the economic situation and these funds have to be sourced for one way or the other. We’ve been able to disbursed close to N20bn and I repeat close to 20bn.”[Punch]

The Federation Accounts Allocation Committee shared N3.88tn to the Federal Government, states, Local Governments and other statutory recipients in the first half of the year. A breakdown of the disbursements showed that N1.53tn went to the Federal Government, while the states got N1.29tn and the 774 Local Government areas received N771.34bn. These were contained in the latest edition of the quarterly review of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative released in Abuja on Tuesday. The review stated that the N1.53tn received by the Federal Government in the first six months of 2020 was 4.28 per cent lower than the N1.59tn it got in the first half of 2019, and 7.36 per cent lower than the N1.65tn it received in the first half of 2018. The story was the similar for the states and Local Government Areas. “For states, a total of N1.29tn was disbursed in the first half of 2020. This was 2.8 per cent lower than the N1.35tn disbursed in the first half of 2019, and 5.6 per cent lower than the N1.37tn disbursed in the first half of 2020,” the report stated.[Punch]

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says there is a need for the relevant ministers and stakeholders to expedite action on the plan adopted to mitigate the effect of COVID-19 disruptions on the economy. Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, said the vice president made the call while presenting an overview of the Economic Sustainability Plan(ESP) at a 2-day First Year Ministerial Performance Review Retreat at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja. He said even though the Federal Government had commenced the implementation of the N2.3 trillion stimulus package, the economic distortions and hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic required urgent action. The retreat was organised for Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, and top government functionaries. According to Osinbajo, everybody recognises that the only way out of the present problem is to ensure that production is funded, consumer spending enabled so that people can go and buy things; thereby putting money in peoples’ hands. He said that under the Mass Housing Programme, 300, 000 homes would be built across the country. The vice president said that efforts were being made to ensure that the price of those homes did not exceed N2 million. On the MSMEs and Solar Power components of the plan, Osinbajo said they were also focused on creating jobs. The vice president said that under the ESP, agriculture required N637.2 billion funding and would provide 5,000,000 jobs.[Vanguard]

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