Aso Villa Reads for 18/6/2019
Every day, we bring you the best stories that the Media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria
This Day reports that Nigeria’s renowned engineering construction company, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, has donated a fully functional office and secretariat to the Nigerian Business Coalition against HIV-Aids (NIBUCAA), in Abuja. Also, the company has launched a dedicated website, www.second-river-niger-bridge.com for the Second River Niger Bridge project. The objective of the website is to make project progress visible to the general public, said the company’s statement. On the Abuja office, Julius Berger said the donation was a worthy and commendable show of its commitment to its corporate social responsibility to citizens and society, with regard to the health and safety of workers both in its employ and across the country. In a keynote address at the ceremony where the Executive Management of Julius Berger handed over the new Secretariat to NIBUCAA in Abuja, the Chairman, Executive Committee of NIBUCAA, Dr. Musa Shaibu of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) stated that since 2003, NIBUCAA has passionately galvanised the private sector initiative and executed HIV-Aids and related mitigation programmes for the workplace, as well as for communities. Relevant assistance by these services, he said, had been provided and made available to citizens at zero cost to them. According to Dr Musa Shaibu, “…of the estimated 193 million people that make up the Nigerian population, about 1.9million now live with HIV according to the Nigeria HIV/AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS) Repoert published in March 2019. The statistics meant Nigeria dropped to fourth on the global HIV prevalence rankings.” Dr Shaibu said the situation calls for aggregation of more resources to further influence the drop of the country’s HIV prevalence rate which currently stands at 1.4%.
The Central Bank of Nigeria said the available records show there was an increase in Foreign Direct Investment in Nigeria during the 2018 financial period. It stated this while reacting to a report on Reuters, quoting World Investment Report, 2019, recently released by UNCTAD on Foreign Direct Investment to African countries. Punch reports that the bank noted that the report alleged a decrease of over 40 per cent in FDI inflows to Nigeria in 2018. It stated that, “While the CBN is not privy to the methodology used in arriving at the figures, we wish to state that available records show significant increase in FDI in Nigeria during the period 2018 contrary to the Reuters report. “For instance, in 2018, the total capital inflows to the country stood at $19.07bn out of which FDI accounted for $7.78bn. “Furthermore, total capital flows to Nigeria, from January to May 2019 stood at $14.2bn of which FDI accounted for $2.87bn, representing a 20.18 per cent of the total amount. “The country continues to enjoy steady capital flows due to the prevailing stable macroeconomic environment and sustained investors’ confidence in the economy. “Against this background, we wish to urge the public to take advantage of several publications by the CBN and the National Bureau of Statistics, which give adequate and accurate statistics on the subject matter.”
Punch reports that the Nigeria has called for the employment of more Nigerians at the International Labour Organisation office in Abuja. The Head, Press and Public Relations Unit, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Mrs Rhoda Iliya, said in a statement the call was made by the head of the Nigerian team to the 108th Session of the International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, William Alo, on Monday. The statement said, Alo, who is also the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, called on the organisation to upgrade its sub-regional office in Nigeria. Also said, “It has become clear that the office in Senegal can no longer effectively serve our technical assistance requirements of the sub-region. We urge the ILO to upgrade its Country Office in Abuja, which also covers Ghana, Sierra-Leone, Liberia and Gambia, to the state of a decent work sub-regional office to serve. “In the same vein, we renew our call for the employment of more Nigerian professionals at the office in order to bridge the under-representation of Nigeria in the ILO workforce, bearing in mind Nigeria’s status and contributions to the organisation.”
According to Punch, the Central Bank of Nigeria has released a total of N607.87bn credit to selected Deposit Money Banks to disburse for 587 agricultural projects, latest figures from the CBN have shown. In its most recent economic report, the apex bank stated that the money was under its Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme, adding that a total of N345.06bn had been repaid by beneficiaries of the scheme. The bank further noted that its agriculture credit guarantee to farmers increased by 98 per cent within the space of one month to N342.7m. It said, “At end-April 2019, the total amount released by the CBN under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme to participating banks for disbursement amounted to N607.87bn for 587 projects, while total amount repaid stood at N345.06bn.” In its latest economic report for April 2019, the CBN stated that Zenith Bank Plc, UBA Plc, Sterling Bank, and First Bank of Nigeria disbursed the highest amount to beneficiaries of the scheme. The banks disbursed N122.66bn, N83.06bn, N72.17bn and N52.52bn, respectively, with 20 banks participating in the agriculture credit scheme. On the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme, the CBN stated that ACGS guaranteed a total of N342.7m to 2,022 farmers in April 2019. It said, “The amount represented an increase of 98 per cent and 22.1 per cent over the respective levels in the preceding month and the corresponding period of 2018, respectively.
Prices of Petroleum products across the 36 states of the federation witnessed a significant decline in the month of May, 2019, with the price of cooking gas decreasing by 1.7 percent. Nigerian Bureau of Statistic, NBS, said in its latest report on the prices of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG, stated that the average price for the refilling of a 5kg cylinder for LPG, popularly known as cooking gas, decreased by -0.90 percent month-on-month and -2.13 percent year-on-year to N2,028.04 in May 2019 from N2,046.53 in April 2019. Similarly, average price for the refilling of a 12.5kg cylinder for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Cooking Gas) decreased by -0.79 percent month-on-month and -1.82 percent year-on-year to N4,220.44 in May 2019 from N4,253.91 in April 2019. A breakdown of the prices at various states, showed that, states with the highest average price for the refilling of a 5kg cylinder for cooking gas were Adamawa and Bauchi (N2,500.00), Yobe (N2375.00) and Borno (N2,342.86). The NBS further stated that, states with the lowest average price for the refilling of a 5kg cylinder for cooking gas were Edo, Abuja and Ebonyi, which sold the product at N1,714, N1,675, and N1,667 respectively. While Bayelsa (N4,690.00), Akwa Ibom (N4,611.67) and Enugu (N4,608.33) recorded the highest average price for the refilling of a 12.5kg cylinder of LPG, Katsina (N3,842.86), Kano (N3,825.00) and Ekiti (N3,806.25) sold the least. Vanguard reported.
