Aso Villa Reads for 22/06/18
Every day, we bring you the best stories the media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria.
Business Day (Friday June 22, page 2) reports that foreign investors who took out their investments in Nigerian microfinance banks in 2016 are gradually returning with diversified financing due to foreign exchange stability in the country. Some of the investors who engaged in capital flight at the event of dollar shortages and sharp price drops and production in crude oil include International Finance Cooperation (IFC), a Dutch development finance institution and several others. Affected Nigerian microfinance banks became unable to pay of their foreign loan obligations due to the scarcity in foreign exchange. However, with relative foreign exchange price stability and continued CBN intervention into the FOREX market, coupled with rising oil production and prices, investors are changing their stride. Currently, a European investment bank is set to invest in the grooming micro finance climate in Nigeria.
As part of efforts to grow stronger economic ties between Nigeria and Germany, the delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Nigeria in collaboration with Nigeria-German Business Association and the German-African Business Association (Afrika-Verein der deutschen Wirtschaft) hopes to explore new investment opportunities. Guardian reports that the Germans have aimed to achieve this through the investment forum which kicked-off yesterday with the theme; “Leveraging partnership for economic growth”, which will provide opportunities for Nigerian and German businesses to network, exchange information and establish business contacts. The Ambassador of Germany to Nigeria, Dr. Bernhard Schlagheck added that the Federal Government of Nigeria needs to provide adequate security for investors as economic stability is imperative in any economy.
According to Business Day (Friday June 22, page 6), the Republic of China is set to enhance its direct investments in Edo state and take advantage of the various initiatives to leverage the business-friendly environment in the state. The Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Zhou Pingjain also commended the state’s steady economic development where he awarded scholarships to 47 brilliant students of Edo origin to mark 47 years of diplomatic relations with Nigeria. The scholarship is named the “October 1st scholarship” which signifies the date Nigeria and China got their independence. He also thanked President Buhari for expanding the scope of the relationship between Nigeria and China during his administration. It should be noted that Edo state government revealed a US$500 million auto assembly plant investment deal with Chinese investors. This will be one of the several other investments with Chinese investors such as the Benin industrial Park and the Benin River Port project in Gelegele.
The Federal Government has set a target for 30% renewable energy contribution to the national electricity grid by 2030 as it intensifies collaboration with India on clean energy sources. This was revealed by Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing, Mr Mustapha Baba Shehuri, who said a loan of $66m and $8m were granted to Nigeria for the solar project after it joined other countries to sign the International Solar Alliance (ISA) in March 2018 in New Delhi, India. He added that Nigeria has an investors’ guide that outlines the target of 30 per cent renewable energy contribution to the national grid by 2030 when the generation level should be at 30,000 megawatts (MW). This was reported by Daily Trust.
Nigerian fashion designers at the micro, small and medium level can now access loans for their growth and expansion from the Bank of Industry as they roll out their N1 billion fashion fund. The fund is aimed at improving financial literacy and industrial entrepreneurship development of entrepreneurs and is one of the numerous funds introduced by the Bank of Industry (BoI), for boosting entrepreneurship in the country such as Nollywood fund, Cottage Agro Processing fund and Graduate Entrepreneurship fund. Business Day (Friday June 22, page 8), revealed that the maximum amount each person can get is N30 million with 75% coming from the bank while the other 25% comes from the interested party’s funding. The loan is to last 5 years and is payable from a maximum of 12 months from the date of loan disbursement.
Vanguard reports that the Federal Road Safety Corps FRSC, revealed that there was an 11% decrease in the number of people killed in road traffic crashes nationwide compared to 57 deaths during the same period, in 2017 of Eid-El-Fitri Sallah period according to their records. The Corps Public Education Officer, Bisi Kazeem, also revealed that there was a significant increase in the number of people rescued without injury during the 2018 Sallah special patrol exercise which was given a wider coverage than previous years, when compared to the same period of Easter celebration in 2017. Kazeem stated that the Corps now has a wider coverage due to the establishment of more FRSC Commands, Outposts, road side clinics and Zebra points who now feed in reports from different routes that were hitherto not thoroughly covered.
The Minister of health, Professor Isaac Adewole, has unveiled the second National Strategic Health Development Plan for effective health care delivery in the country. The second blueprint for the health policy implementation is hinged primarily on achieving Universal Health Coverage in the country. The minister explained that the second plan, which built on the successes and challenges of the first plan that was terminated in 2015, also placed priority attention on Federal Government’s economic recovery plan and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on quality health care delivery. He spoke on some of the achievements recorded by the ministry such as cases of Meningitis which have reduced by 77% in 2018 when compared with the alarming rate of 2017. Read more in Guardian.
President Muhammadu Buhari will on June 26, 2018 commission the multibillion Naira automated rice seed and seedlings factory in Calabar, Cross River state. The factory is said to be the first in Africa and will be a seed multiplication centre that produces high-yielding, disease resistance and vitaminized rice seedlings. Vanguard reported that Governor of the state, Ben Ayade, said that the state was capable of generating at least N50 billion from the factory every year if given support by the Federal Government. In his words, “When I told Cross Riverians that my ambition is to restructure the state and free it from over dependence on federal allocation, I truly meant it because with projects like this; we are going to generate more revenue for the state,” he said. He assured that when it goes into commercial operation, the factory would produce seedlings that will be natural with no chemical added.
According to Business Day 14 June 2018, pages 22–23, the Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Abdullahi B. Baffa revealed that the Fund has sponsored over 22,000 scholars to pursue their postgraduate degree programmes in both local and foreign universities in the last 10 years since its inception in 2008. He said that despite such accomplishments, TETFUND has sponsored about 9,000 scholars, almost half of that number in the last 2 years alone, under the Buhari administration, making it an unprecedented feat in the history of Higher Education in Nigeria. He buttressed the importance of such achievement, saying, “We feel this is a huge success because we think training the teachers in our institutions is the surest way of ensuring higher quality education in our country.” The fund’s current projection is to sponsor 45,000 scholars for higher degrees in the next five years.
