Aso Villa Reads for 16/10/2019
Every day, we bring you the best stories that the Media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria
The African Development Bank, in partnership with the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), has commissioned the Coalition for Green Capital (CGC) to prepare a study on the creation of national climate change funds and green banks in Africa. CGC will identify and work with six African countries to conduct feasibility studies for the project, which was initiated at the Green Bank Design Summit held in Paris in March 2019. The Summit tasked 23 developing countries to craft a new model to mobilise and accelerate investment in clean energyDirector of Global Green Bank Development at the CGC, Andrea Colnes, noted: “For countries to better access climate finance and fully engage the private sector, the climate finance system must reorient toward national financial capacity that is able to channel capital to projects and markets where it is needed most. Blue Print reports.
According to Sun News, the Minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, has said under-recovery of premium motor spirit (PMS), popularly referred to as fuel subsidy, will gulp N450 billion in 2020. She stated this on Monday in Abuja at the public presentation of the 2020 budget proposals. Ahmed said it was called ‘under-recovery’ because it was the cost of operation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC): “We have a provision for under-recovery of PMS in the sum of N450 billion. If you look at the Budget Office website, it is in the fiscal framework, which is an annexure to the budgetPresident Muhammadu Buhari had last Tuesday presented a budget proposal of N10.33 trillion to a joint session of the National Assembly. He put the Federal Government’s estimated revenue in 2020 at N8.155 trillion, comprising oil revenue of N2.64 trillion, non-oil tax revenues of N1.81 trillion and other revenue of N3.7 trillion.
About 66 Public Primary Schools, across the 25 Local Government Areas of Niger State, have won N48.5millions in this year’s Universal Basic Education Commission’s( UBEC) Intervention funds otherwise known as School-Based Management Committee( (SBMC)in three different categories of Special case, Macro and Micro respectively, Nigerian Tribune has learnt in Minna, the State capital. The Director, Social Mobilization of the state’s Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB, Hajiya Maryam Tijani Aminu, stated this in an interview with journalists in Minna on Tuesday, adding that this year’s UBEC Interventions captured three categories of projects in 66 public primary schools across the three senatorial districts of the state. As reported by Vanguard, she stated further that the first category was a special case in which the affected schools School-Based Management Committees would be given the sum of N5million and above, depending on the projects they were handling. Hajiya Maryam T.Aminu said, in the aforementioned case only one primary school in Rafin Gora community in Kontagora local government area of the state was captured by UBEC, adding that the school would be given N6million to either renovate or construct 3 blocks of 6 classrooms.
Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) and partners have remitted about two billion U.S. Dollars (about N720 billion) to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in 16 years, an official said. SPDC’s General Manager, External Relations, Igo Weli, disclosed this on Tuesday at the final of 2019 SPDC-JV Environment Awareness Quiz Competition for Land Hub Community Secondary Schools in and around Port Harcourt.He said the money was released to NDDC as part of the company’s contribution towards development of the Niger Delta. SPDC, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo) and her partners have put in two billion U.S. dollars to NDDC, which is quite huge.“The money was put into NDDC from 2002 to 2018,” he said.Weli said that besides the remittance to NDDC the company had made huge contributions on both human and infrastructure development in its host Niger Delta communities. Guardian reports.
According to The Nations, President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday launched the 2020 Armed Forces Remembrance Emblem and Appeal Fund with N10 million.The launching took place at the Council Chamber of the State House, Abuja before the commencement of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting. The event was an annual tradition towards acknowledging and appreciating the gallantry and sacrifices of veterans in the first and second world wars, peace keeping operations around the world and internal security operations, including the ongoing campaign against terrorism in Nigeria. January 15th of every year is celebrated as the Armed Forces Remembrance Day.
The 2019 edition of International Breweries Kickstart, the innovative youth entrepreneurship programme that empowers young people with the financial muscle, training and mentorship to implement different entrepreneurial ventures, has progressed to the next phase known as the Boot Camp. According to Business Traffic, the initiative received over 17, 000 applications across the Country. Of the lot, 300 successful applicants have emerged based on three criteria namely; feasibility of the business proposal, scalability of the business in its ability to create additional jobs and continuous positive impact in its community. The Boot Camp which is designed to train shortlisted applicants on profitable business management, is a rigorous 3-day capacity building intervention that will expose the young entrepreneurs to course contents that will aid them in managing their businesses in their respective communities. The 3-day Boot Camp training boasts of a robust curriculum which comprises of courses on introduction to entrepreneurship; business plan development; customer service; leadership and team building; introduction to marketing; business laws & taxation; and business accounting 101 among others. Participants will also receive the enterprise tool kit from the Enterprise Development Centre of Pan Atlantic University. The training will take place in three designated venues in Lagos, Abuja and Anambra states to aid easy access for youths who applied across Nigeria.
According to the NPA, safe anchorage operations pile up costs to shipping companies as vessels anchored in the area are expected to pay as much as $2,000 for the first day and $1,500 for the subsequent days. BusinessDay understands that in some cases shipping companies pay as much as $2,500 per day to security outfits guarding the safe anchorage areas. Speaking at a quarterly stakeholders meeting held in Apapa last week, Hadiza Bala Usman, managing director of the NPA, disclosed this in Lagos on Thursday while responding to complaints by stakeholders that some private security companies collect as much as $2,000 per day to secure vessels against attack outside the Lagos anchorage. She directed shipping companies not to pay any anchorage dues to private security firms as the NPA would take responsibility of providing security to vessels at the Lagos ports’ anchorage areas. Today (Thursday 10th October 2019), NPA has issued Marine Notice to say that there is no longer any anchorage in Lagos addressed as safe anchorage. We are aware that about $2,000 is being charged on the first day and every other subsequent day is $1,500. We know that it is increasing charges for shipowners but that would not exist anymore from today,” said Usman, who was represented by Sekonte Davies, executive director, Marine & Operations of the NPA.
On the heels of the growing concerns of poor access to the 2.5bn artisanal mining fund for small scale miners launched by the Federal Government in 2016 pledged to ease the procedures of access of such funds to drive growth in the sector .This analysts say is still not contributing much to Nigerian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) despite potentials. The artisanal miners many of whom had not formalised their mining business had lamented their inability to access the fund, citing concerns of difficult conditions by bank of industry who requests for bank guarantee, collaterals Security ,tax clearance among other. Business Day (16/10/2019, Page 39)reports.
University of Benin(UniBen) and the Benson Idahosa University (BIU) have become the first of Nigeria’s top University to sign partnership agreement with retail development and investment with Retail Development and investment company limited (RDIC) an information technology company to help digitise, store and publish data for the universities through the company’s publication engine, RDIC, which primarily forcuses on content management and distribution using technology tools recently signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with both universities in Edo State, agreeing manage the universities, digital assets, implement their textbook programmes and integration provide library content platform and services as well as anchor the school’s content distribution. Business Day (16/10/2019, page 35)reports.
