Aso Villa Reads for 1/7/2019
Every day, we bring you the best stories that the Media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria
Peoples’ Daily reported that the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), yesterday at its joint session at the African House, Kano State shared to the Federal Government, States and Local Government Councils a total of N679.699 billion as federal allocation for the month of May 2019. The breakdown of the distribution to the three tiers of Government (inclusive of Cost of Collection to NCS, DPR and FIRS) showed that the Federal Government received N284.163 billion, representing 52.68 per cent, the States received N187.605 billion representing 26.72 per cent and Local Government Councils got N140.997 billion, representing 20.60 per cent, while the Oil Producing States received N40.436 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue. However, cost of collection/transfers/FIRS refund stood at N26.498 billion. A communiqué issued by the Technical Committee of the FAAC indicated that the Gross Revenue available from the Value Added Tax (VAT) for the month of May 2019 was N106.826 billion when compared to the N96.485 billion distributed in the previous month of April, resulting in an increase of N10.341 billion. The Director, Information, Ministry of Finance, Hassan Dodo in a statement said, the communiqué further disclosed that the distributed Statutory Gross Revenue of N571.731 billion received for the month was higher than the N518.916 billion received in the previous month by N52.815 billion.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has said the Apex bank plans to implement N500 billion facility aimed at supporting the growth of non-oil exports, which would help to improve non-oil export earnings. According the Governor of the bank, Godwin Emefiele, the bank would launch a Trade Monitoring System (TRMS) in October 2019, which is an automated system that would reduce the length of time required to process export documents from 0ne week to 0ne day. Emefiele, who disclosed this during his media presentation in Abuja last week, said this measure would help support the efforts at improving the non-exports of goods and service. In order to reduce Nigeria’s reliance on the importation of items which could be produced in Nigeria, the CBN, restricted access to foreign exchange on 43 items, while deploying intervention funds to support growth and productivity in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors. Sun News reported.
In furtherance to its strategic Corporate Social Responsibility programmes the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority has bequeathed a newly built infrastructure to archive vital documents to the Nigerian immigration service. Speaking at the Ikoyi passport office, Lagos yesterday, the Managing Director of the NPA Hadiza Bala Usman who was represented by the General Manager C&SC Adams Jatto reiterated the fact that the Authority takes pride in adding value to the society through the imple- mentation of strategic and deliberate (CSR) interven- tion projects at locations that support our cooperate goals. According to Sun News, the MD added that the building was delivered to the service, with the believe that it would be put to proper use for documentation, records, and information storage that are central to our nation’s security and history. MD NPA assured that the organization would try to maintain existing good relations with the service in line with international best practice, adding that NPA would have built a bigger facility but were constrained by the lack of enough space at the Immigration office.
Punch reports that the Nigerian Ports Authority has set up a committee to look at the contending issues surrounding the Apapa gridlock, its effect on stakeholders and mitigating steps. The General Manager, Corporate and Strategic Communications, NPA, Jatto Adams, disclosed this to our correspondent over the weekend. Also during the weekend, reports had surfaced that the agency might be prevailed upon to grant a-30 per cent waiver on lease and container throughput fees to terminal operators in order to cushion the effect of the Apapa traffic. The report had quoted the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers Council, Hassan Bello, as stating this when he said the traffic situation in Apapa called for special sacrifice from all stakeholders involved in the port process. Bello was quoted to have said that the NSC was currently in talks with NPA on the need to grant the 30 per cent waiver in port dues to terminal operators. He said “We are also talking with NPA to relax and make the charges and give 30 per cent waiver of certain charges within the period contemplated. This is a temporary measure, but this is what I call general average sacrifice in order to save the situation. When a ship is about to capsize, we have a general average situation where the heavy cargoes are jettisoned and thrown overboard in order for the ship to survive.
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has finalised arrangements to commence the verification exercise of prospective retirees who would be retiring from public service next year. The Acting Director General of the commission, Mrs Aisha Dahir-Umar, made this known during her opening remarks at a pre-retirement workshop organised by the commission in Owerri. The seminar was also conducted in 14 other states. Dahir-Umar, who was represented by a senior staff of the commission, Mrs Patience Uzoma, said the workshop was aimed at educating prospective retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) on how best to enjoy their post-retirement life. According to the Acting DG, the verification exercise which would take place in 15 centres across the country had been scheduled to hold from July 1 to August 2, 2019. The Owerri exercise covers states like Abia, etc. She called on participants at the workshop to remain positive about post-retirement life, while describing them as senior citizens and very important stakeholders whose support has been quintessential in the life of the commission. “We have finalised arrangements to commence verification of prospective retirees for the year 2020 starting from July 1. This is one out of fifteen verification centres nationwide and we are capturing Abia and Imo states. “This is because we want to help you CPS contributors to effectively plan your post-retirement life. We consider you senior citizens without whom we would not have been here today. Feel free to make suggestions and contributions”, she said. This Day reported.
