Aso Villa Reads for 19/8/2019
Every day, we bring you the best stories that the Media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria
According to Vanguard, President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday in Abuja presided over 2-day Presidential Retreat with Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, some State Governors and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha in attendance. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event was being attended by all the Ministers-designate as well as Permanent Secretaries and heads of Federal Government agencies and departments.
According to Daily Trust, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has pledged to work closely with the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation to promote integrity in data collation, validation and management on revenues from extractive industries. The Executive Secretary of NEITI, Mr. Waziri Adio, gave the assurance in Abuja while receiving the Auditor General of the Federation, Mr. Anthony Ayine, on a courtesy visit to seek collaboration and partnership. NEITI in a statement by its spokesman, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, said Mr. Adio identified poor linkages among relevant agencies as major constraints in national planning, natural resource governance and public finance management. He said: “Our doors are quite open; NEITI is ready and willing to work with sister agencies on information and data sharing, capacity and manpower development. “We are also ready to collaborate and partner with the Office of the Auditor General in particular and other similar agencies in general to promote data integrity, openness, standards and uniformity in data collation, validation management and utilization”.
Vanguard reported that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, yesterday, said 15 consortia, made up of 35 foreign and indigenous companies, have emerged winners of its 2019/2020 Direct Sale Direct Purchase, DSDP, arrangement. In a statement in Abuja, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, said the contract with the consortia/companies was expected to last for one year, effective October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020. Ughamadu declared that this was in line with the avowed commitment of the NNPC to transparency and accountability in all its activities as committed by the new Group Managing Director of the corporation, Mallam Mele Kyari. Under the DSDP arrangement, Ughamadu noted that the 15 consortia shall over the contract period, offtake crude oil and in return, deliver corresponding petroleum products of equivalent value to NNPC, subject to the terms of the agreement.
According to Vanguard, President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated the national female basketball team, D’Tigress, for an impressive outing at the FIBA Women’s AfroBasket 2019 in Dakar, Senegal, that saw the Nigerian ladies retaining the African title. The Nigerian ladies defeated their counterparts and host nation Senegal 60–55 to win their fourth title. Buhari in a statement issued on Sunday night by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, congratulated the D’Tigress for a remarkably synergized play that enabled them to outpace and outplay all the teams at the tournament to retain the title they won in 2017. He noted that the feat further consolidated their position as African champions with four titles. “The President commends the team for discipline, maturity and focus all through the tournament, and deliberateness in promoting the Nigerian flag and accompanying virtues of resilience, persistence and dogged pursuit until victory was achieved”.
As reported by Daily Trust, the Debt Management Office (DMO) has allotted the sum of N324m, raised during its monthly August subscription of the savings bonds, to 408 investors. This was contained in a document published on its website over the weekend. The document showed that N243.3 million was allotted to 258 investors at 11.301 per cent for the August 2022 papers, while N81.03 million was allotted 150 investors at 10.3 percent for August 2021 maturity date. As part of the capital raising for the 2019 Budget, the DMO offered two and three years’ savings bonds for the month of August at 10.3% and 11.3% interest rates earlier. The interest payment of the bond is quarterly, and the bond costs N1,000 per unit, subject to a minimum subscription of N5,000 and in multiples of N1,000 subject to a maximum subscription of N50,000,000.
Vanguard reported that the Presidency yesterday said that the Federal Government has neither banned nor restricted importation of food items into the country. It also explained that the recent directive by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to stop providing foreign exchange for importation of food items did not mean a restriction on the importation of food items. A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, in Abuja further stated that any importers of food items that wished to source their forex from non-government financial institutions (and pay Customs duty on those imports — increasing tax-take) were free to do so.
