Aso Villa Reads for 13/09/19

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

According to THE SUN, “The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has commended Nigeria’s unwavering commitment to the stability of the global oil market which spanned many years of its membership of the organization. This commendation came from the Chairman of OPEC’s 16th Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Thursday. Bin Salman, who doubles as the Saudi Arabian Energy Minister noted that since the 1980s when Nigeria’s late Oil Minister Dr. Rilwanu Lukman reigned at the helm of the Organisation, the West African nation’s role has been very pivotal in helping OPEC achieve stability in the oil market. “Nigeria has always brought commitment and obligation towards the OPEC cause. I always thought of how we would have crossed the uncertainties of the global oil market of the 1980s without Nigeria,” Bin Salman added. According to him, Nigeria’s role cuts across compliance with OPEC charters as well as mediation and reconciliation among member countries over the years. During Thursday’s JMMC, OPEC reiterated its determination to accelerate concerted action towards addressing market challenges and adapting to future developments.”

According to PUNCH, “The Federal Government has given approval for the construction of $5.3bn Ibadan-Kano standard gauge rail line. Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, disclosed this on Thursday at the third Maritime Stakeholders’ Interactive Forum. “Just yesterday, we got the approval to complete the $5.3bn Ibadan to Kano rail project. We have also applied for funding to commence a coastal rail for the Port Harcourt to Warri segment,” he said. According to a statement issued by the Federal Ministry of Transportation in Abuja, the minister also revealed that the Minister of State for Transportation, Gbemisola Saraki, would be in charge of all maritime agencies, while he (Amaechi) would focus on the railway sector. He said, “In my first term as minister, I completely abandoned the maritime sector to the heads of the agencies. This time round, that won’t be happening. I have instructed that the Minister of State for Transportation should personally supervise the maritime agencies, while I just oversee what is happening.” Amaechi said he had discussed maritime safety issues with President Muhammadu Buhari and assured his audience that by next year, the country would have a single window in the maritime sector. He said, “There are two things I discussed with Mr. President that I would be focusing on in this second term as minister. They are maritime security and the single-window project.”

According to PUNCH, “The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission has said that Nigeria ranks 146 out of 190 countries on the Ease of Doing Business globally. The Executive Secretary of the Commission, Ms Yewande Smith, said this while delivering a lecture at the ongoing 43rd Annual Conference and Dinner of The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria, on Thursday in Lagos. Smith, who was represented by the Acting Director, Investment Relations, NIPC, Mr Mutawalli Kukawa, said the ranking was carried out by the World Bank. According to the report, which was presented at the lecture, Nigeria’s Ease of Doing Business score improved by 1.37 points from 51.52 distance to frontier in 2018 to 52.89 in 2019. She added that the Commission had adopted some proactive strategies geared towards improving Nigeria’s Investment Promotion, thereby helping to create ease in doing business. “The Proactive Investment Promotion strategies include focusing on key strategic partners and countries, identifying high impact sectors, better balance investors’ rights with obligations, improving investor experience and using feedback to develop the business environment. ‘Others are: proactively inviting target companies to Nigeria and hand-holding them through decision making and the implementation process, and encouraging more Nigerians to invest in the country. “We encourage states to develop investment promotion agencies so that they will be specifically charged with the responsibility of promoting the states,’’ she said. Smith, however, cautioned investors to ensure that they abide by the relevant investment laws in the nation. She urged government to enable investors so they can create more jobs that will have a significant impact on the economy.”

According to PUNCH, “The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, has said that the Akanu Ibiam Airport, Enugu, would be opened for local and international flights before Christmas. Speaking on Channels Television, the minister said that work is ongoing and if there is sufficient fund to complete repairs on the dilapidated runway, the Federal Government intends to open it before the Christmas festivities commence. “Work is ongoing. If everything goes as planned and we get all of the funding, we intend to open it before Christmas. Work does not necessarily mean the bringing of equipment into the airport to begin the reconstruction of that particular airport or runway; work entails the planning, mobilising people for work and the actual work itself. The planning is even more important than the work itself because when you plan very well, you succeed.“ This runway closed itself because it actually failed and we kept trying to get it to function very well. But it kept failing on a daily basis. We were afraid that what happened in Port Harcourt many years ago could happen on this runway because in Port Harcourt, it was failing and the then Ministry of Aviation was doing the best it could to keep the runway safe. But unfortunately, the runway started to fail beyond expectation and when Air France landed, it got stuck. It took two years and half to get the runway back to function properly.”

According to THISDAY, “The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, Wednesday said the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved N10.07 trillion as the budget for 2020. The minister also said the council approved the increase of value added tax (VAT) from the current 5 percent to 7.2 per cent. However, she was quick to add that implementation of the new VAT rate would be subject to amendment of the extant VAT law. Briefing reporters at the end of the first FEC meeting since the swearing in of new ministers, Ahmed said the estimate was contained in 2020–2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) presented to the council by her ministry. According to her, the document contains N10.07trillion budget proposal for 2020 fiscal year, revenue target of N7.5 trillion and additional N2.09trillion revenue from VAT, $55 per barrel oil benchmark, N305/$ exchange rate and oil production of 2.1 million barrels per day. Ahmed, who said the budget would run at N2.15 trillion deficit, which she described as a reduction from the N2.24 trillion budget deficit of the outgoing 2019 fiscal year, also said the economy had been projected to grow at 3.01 percent at the end of 2019.”

According to THISDAY, “The federal government has approved the $5.3 billion Ibadan to Kano standard guage rail project. This was disclosed Thursday by the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, at the ongoing Third Maritime Stakeholders Interactive Forum in Lagos. Amaechi in a statement by his media aide, Israel Ebeleme, said on Wednesday, “we got approval to complete the $5.3bn Ibadan to Kano rail project. We have also applied for funding to commence coastal rail for the Port-Harcourt to Warri segment.”The statement said Amaechi had also directed the Minister of State for Transportation, Gbemisola Saraki, to take charge of all maritime agencies while he will be focusing on the railway sector. He was quoted as saying: “In my first term as Minister, i completely abandoned the maritime sector to the heads of agencies.“This term around, that won’t be happening again as I have instructed that the Honourable Minister of Transportation for State should personally supervise the maritime agencies, while I just oversight what is happening.“There are two things I discussed with Mr. President that I will be focusing on in this second term as minister, and they are maritime security and the Single Window project.”He noted that he had assured government that by the end of 2020, the nation will have the Single Window at “our maritime sector.” On maritime security, he disclosed that he had told the Israeli firm HSLI that it was too slow, noting that by now, it should have launched. He said, “I want to know the situation of things with the aspect of security on our maritime space.”

According to THE SUN, “The N100 billion made available by the Federal Government assisted in no small way to give the Kano free trade zone a lease of life after a 15-year non-completion of the project, the acting Director General of the Nigeria Export Processing Zone, Authority (NEPZA ), Terhemba David Nongo ,has said. The Ag DG who was addressing the media yesterday in Abuja on the activities of his organisation revealed that in 2017, he travelled to Ethiopia in company of former minister of Trade and Industry Dr. Okechukwu Enelemah; former Director General of NEPZA, Mr. Jime, to Ethiopian industrial park to understudy the Ethiopia industries park which occupied more than 30 square metres in a lonely place where the government has to construct a rail line to reach. According to him, the Ethiopian Government has to construct three industrial parks with each costing N100 billion which is exactly what President Buhari wanted us to do. This is exactly what we are intending to do in Calabar and the Kano Export processing zone, which will create employment opportunities when completed. Presently the Federal Government has established industrial parks in several zones in the country, which, according to him, will provide 350 indirect jobs and yield more foreign exchange. Nongo disclosed that the Authority has now been well funded by the present administration, adding that the authority has no reason not to succeed. He stated that within two years, the organisation will complete four trade zones. However, he fingered the issue of power failure as an impediment, but said they would provide 15 mega watts of power at 15 million each, while Calabar and Kano will benefit.”

According to DAILYTRUST, “The Federal Government said it would soon commission a commercial fishing cluster for 9,000 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Kebbi State. The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, disclosed this during the launch of National MSMEs Clinic and TraderMoni scheme in Birnin Kebbi on Thursday. “The commercial fishing cluster will be commissioned next year in Kebbi and over 9,000 MSMEs in the state will benefit,” he said. He stated that the FG had been able to find a minimum number of one cluster per state, adding that the project would be part of the next level project. “In the next level project, we have what we call ‘Share Facilities’ for MSMEs. We are trying to have 37 clusters across the nation”. He said it would provide MSMEs the opportunities on working to full equip clusters where they have specific facilities for entering into the production of their products. “For instance, at a cheer butter cluster, people who use cheer butter for their project will be given the facilities where they can process their products, package it; then government will provide the equipment and all that will make it easy for them because a small producer will not be able to buy the equipment they need”, the vice president said. He said kebbi was the 24th State to host the MSMEsClinic since its commencement across the country in 2017 and over 400,000 small businesses have been directly impacted.”

According to BUSINESSDAY, (page 4, Friday September 13, 2019) “The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday pegged the aggregate off-balance sheet for Bankers Acceptance (BAs) and Guaranteed Commercial Papers (CPs) at 150 per cent of shareholders’ funds unimpaired by losses for a bank and 300 per cent for the discount Houses (Merchant Bank). The CBN on Wednesday released the guidelines on the issuance and treatment of BAs and CPs extended to a single obligor shall not exceed to 3o per cent of a bank’s discount houses shareholders’ funds unimpaired by losses said the regular. A AB according to and CBN is a draft drawn on and accepted by a bank unconditionally ordering payment of a certain sum of money at a specified time in the future to the order of a designed party. Since the instrument is negotiable, title to it is transferred by endorsement.”

According BUSINESSDAY, (page 5, Friday September 13, 2019) “The Central Bank of Nigeria has urged financial technology companies, payment service providers and Deposit Money Banks engaged in offering payment solutions to customers to ensure they adhere to policy framework and standards that guide their respective operations in the ecosystem in which they operate. The Deputy Director, Payments System Policy and Oversight, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Musa Itopa Jimoh stated this in Lagos in the week during the corporate launch of Xpress Payment Solutions Limited. He explained that the CBN was trying to build an ecosystem that allows everyone to have equal opportunity to present and run his own system, adding that fintech was introduced into payment system with the aim of deepening financial inclusion in Nigeria. The event was witnessed by representatives of some state governments, Deposit Money Banks, fintech organisations, e-payment industries who commented on the quality and reliable services provided by Xpress Solutions.”

According to HERALD, “187 Nigerians affected by the recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa have arrived in Nigeria yesterday after the CEO of Air peace Allen Ifeachukwu Onyema set to evacuate them from South Africa on his own account. They were promised N40,000 Naira worth of air time, 9GB of data valid for 2 months as well as a soft loan from the Bank of Industry by the Federal government. Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission,( NIDCOM) Abike Dabiri-Erewa led a team of government officials to receive the returnees while commending the management of Air Peace for the kind gesture. Dabiri-Erewa said a “total of 187 Nigerians were evacuated, amongst whom over 30 were children.” About 317 were initially billed to return on the flight, which experienced over 15 hours delay, by the South African authorities. The development follows a directive from President Muhammadu Buhari to evacuate Nigerians in South Africa willing to return home due to renewed xenophobic uprisings. President Mohammadu Buhari gave the order after receiving the report of the special envoy that he dispatched to South Africa over the xenophobic attacks. Hon Dabiri-Erewa told the returnees that “apart from transport stipend to convey them to their various destinations, for ease of communication, they are to receive a SIM card park with N40,000 Naira worth of air time, plus 9GB of data valid for 2 months as well as a soft loan from the Bank of Industry to support those interested in small trade and businesses.”