Aso Villa Reads for 22/7/2019
Every day, we bring you the best stories that the Media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria
The Federal Government will sign an agreement with German-based Siemens AG on Monday (today) on an electrification roadmap aimed at addressing the nation’s power crisis, our correspondent has learnt. Punch correspondent gathered that the Global Chief Executive Officer, Siemens, Mr Joe Kaeser, will be visiting Nigeria to sign a Letter of Agreement with President Muhammadu Buhari on the road map. “This project is similar to the Egypt megaproject and the Iraq electrification project recently awarded to Siemens,” an industry source told our correspondent. It was learnt that Nigerian Electrification Roadmap initiative came to being following the meeting between President Buhari and German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, August 31, 2018. The initiative is aimed at resolving existing challenges in the power sector and expanding the capacity for future power needs. It was learnt that in developing the road map, Siemens engaged relevant stakeholders in the sector at different times and fora, with the Bureau of Public Enterprise acting on behalf of the Federal Government.
According to Punch, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Sunday announced a trading surplus of N6.33bn for the month of May, a figure which is 13 per cent higher than the N5.6bn surplus posted in the preceding month of April. Details of the corporation’s performance contained in the May edition of its Monthly Financial and Operations Report attributed the marginal rise to the increase in gas and power output in contrast to the figure for the preceding month. The report, which was made public by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Ndu Ughamadu, also attributed the result to the surplus recorded by the corporation’s downstream entities. The report further indicated that within the period, the corporation recorded a total of $580.32m in export sale of crude oil and gas, which was 23.39 per cent higher than the previous month’s figure. Out of this number, crude oil export sales contributed $458.59m, which translated to 79.02 per cent of the entire dollar transactions, compared with the $342.11m that was contributed in the previous month. The report showed that between May 2018 and May 2019, crude oil and gas worth $5.97bn was exported. In the downstream, to ensure uninterrupted supply and effective distribution of petrol across the country, a total of 2.06b billion litres of petrol translating to 66.49 million litres per day were supplied in the month of May 2019.
According to This Day, the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo admitted yesterday that there are “significant” security concerns all over the country but assured Nigerians that President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to ending insecurity. According to him, they have begun consultations with critical stakeholders to arrive at how to stem the tide of insecurity pervading Nigeria. The consultations, he said, were being done on the instruction of Buhari, and they have met with some traditional rulers eager to contribute to the improvement of the nation’s security architecture. “There are significant security concerns all over the country and on the instruction of President Muhammadu Buhari, the President and I believe that consultations with traditional rulers are important in beefing up security across Nigeria. “President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to improving security in Nigeria. Our nation will be peaceful and prosperous,’’ Osinbajo stated yesterday on his twitter handle, @ProfOsinbajo.
