Aso Villa Reads for 14/11/2019
Every day, we bring you the best stories that the Media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria
According to Business Day, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday granted approval for the additional share capital granted Nigeria by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development IBRD, an arm of the World Bank Group which offers cheap loans to middle-income developing countries. The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning , Zaina Ahmed while presenting a memo on additional capital increase for Nigeria by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development IBRD, announced that Prior to now, Nigeria had a share capital of 1687 shares at the IBRD. This is just as the Finance Minister disclosed that her Ministry is targeting a total capital releases by December, 2019, saying that already, N650b has been released President Muhammadu Buhari had while submitting the budget to the National Assembly, in October, indicated that he had given a directive that government should release N600 billion for capital expenditure, by December. But according to the Minister “ we are already more than that, the target for us is to be able to release up to N900 billion by December but right now we are at about N650 billion capita release so far.” The Minister stated that FEC approved the new share capital increase which was earlier adopted in October, 2018 raising Nigeria’s share capital by 3230 shares both for general and selected capital increases
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday received Jack Ma, the co-founder and former Executive Chairman of popular Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba group. Vice President at the meeting with the business mogul promised government support to businesses willing to invest in Nigeria. Mr. Jack Ma is leading a large delegation of Chinese investors to Nigeria. In response to Vice President Osinbajo, he explained that he is in the country to honour the VP’s invitation extended to him earlier in Davos, Switzerland. Jack Ma also expressed desire to assist Africa with particular interest in Nigeria. He disclosed that he is pursuing a programme which he terms “Four Es” — E-infrastructure, Entrepreneurship, E government and Education. Alibaba is one of the world’s largest retailer and e-commerce company, and one of the biggest investment corporations in the world. Channels TV reports
This Day reports that the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) has assured Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) of its support. This, it stated would be done through its digital platforms. The Postmaster General of the Federation, Bisi Adegbuyi, gave the assurance in Lagos, recently. According to him, “There are several ways how we can use the post to enhance and promote small business owners. We can address the challenges associated with SME business in Nigeria such as lack of access to funds, lack of access to market and inadequate logistics, through our innovative platforms that are now digital.” Determined to assist the SME business, the e-Commerce department of NIPOST recently went into partnership with technology savvy Nigerians to create the NIPOST market platform that aggregates the products and services of SMEs and internationalise it by taking such products and services to online for the world to see and have access to them, using the NIPOST wide network, the Postmaster General added. “We are aware that access to credit facilities is a major challenge to SMEs, which is linked to identity management of the small business owners. To address this challenge which has denied SMEs the opportunity to credit facilities,NIPOST is leveraging existing technologies to deploy state-of-art hyper specific addressing system that will help SMEs have genuine identity that could give them access to loans for business expansion.”
The Bangladesh High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Shameen Ahsan, has disclosed that his country will soon sign an agreement with Nigeria, in the area of agriculture. Speaking at a Nigeria-Bangladesh Business Forum, held in Lagos, recently, he said it was important to create a better link to foster commercial activities between the two countries. According to him; “It is very important to interact with members of the civil society to further create a better understanding between the two countries and dispel misconceptions, while I try to make the country familiar in front of the Nigerians audience. “We are currently working on signing an agreement on cooperation, in the field of agriculture and that would provide key platform to share best practices between the two countries. In addition to this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), we are sharing this even in flood control,” he noted. This Day reports.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami has issued a broad policy directive to the sector regulator Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), to immediately ensure that issues regarding automatic voicemails are addressed on all existing phone lines and the subscribers, given the option of accessing the service via an activation code. According to a statement issued by the Spokesperson to the Minister, Mrs Uwa Suleiman, it described it as financial exploitation by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in the country, through the automatic activation of the Voicemail Service on their platforms. According to Tribune, the statement said the Voicemail service should be accessed at the discretion of the subscriber and not by default. “It is apparent, that the recent clampdown on the exploitative activities of some Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in the country, has beamed the searchlight on the sector properly, and some unpatriotic elements in the system are devising subtle, ingenious methods of defrauding Nigerians,” the statement said.
