Aso Villa Reads for 23/09/2020
Every day, we bring you the best stories that the Media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday said it has funded smallholder farmers (SHFs) under the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) to the tune of N374 billion across the cassava, maize, cotton and rice value chain from 2016 to date. CBN Director, Development Finance Department, Mr. Yila Yusuf, disclosed this at a meeting of key stakeholders in the programme. Specifically, he said in the 2020 wet season farming, the apex bank disbursed over N200 billion to SHFs which represented the highest amount made available in a single year from the inception of the programme. According to This Day, he said the CBN had accentuated the importance of cultivating staple foods locally to drive its food security mandate and shore up its foreign reserves by discouraging the importation of these commodities that could easily be cultivated in the country. He said: “In this season, we have emphasised the use of new improved seeds which will guarantee bumper harvest for the farmers and enable the SHFs to pay back their loans with ease. The season also saw more involvement of prime anchors participation in the programme. The proposed 2020 dry season farming, will focus on the use of contagious lands for mechanisation by increasing land under cultivation with state government contributing between 20,000 to 100,000 hectares, use of improved seed and establishment of off take agreement.” The CBN director, also pointed out that the ABP which was introduced in 2015, had witnessed a reasonable degree of success as indicated by the reduction in commodities importation, value chain development- particularly development of processing capacity of indigenous companies, empowerment and job creation as well as financial inclusion among others.
Buoyed by the need to ensure that Nigeria attains self sufficiency in its energy needs, Waltersmith Refining and Petrochemical Company will in the next two weeks add 271 million litres to Nigeria’s refining capacity. The project, according to the promoters is scheduled for commissioning in late September / Early October 2020. The initiative is to be achieved between Waltersmith Petroman Oil Limited (70 per cent equity) and the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) 30 per equity. The first phase of the 5,000 barrels per day (bpd) modular refinery located in Imo State will make use of Waltersmith own operated crude as feedstock with alternative sources including the over 7,000 bopd NNPC/SEPLAT OML-53 JV Ohaji South production processed at Waltersmith’s Ibigwe Flow station. Negotiations on crude sales and purchase agreements are at an advanced stage with both SEPLAT and NNPC. Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed alongside other dignitaries were last week on a pre-commissioning tour of the refinery. The 5,000 bpd Phase 1 refinery was to be commissioned in Q2 2020, an achievement that would have resulted in 18 months projection completion timeline the project has been adjudged by stakeholders to be among the fastest in the world. By March 2020, the refinery had progressed to 98 per cent completion, but was delayed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Commissioning is now planned for late September / Early October 2020 and the Phase one of the refinery is expected to about 271 million liters of refined petroleum products which included Diesel, Kerosene, Heavy Fuel Oil-HFO and Naphtha) per annum.[Sun News]
Challenged by dwindling revenue and crippling debt amid the COVID-19 pestilence, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) on Tuesday began a training programme for treasury officers who will be deployed to strategic Federal Government Owned Enterprises (FGOEs) as Revenue Directors to help swell government’s purse. The move also tackles the perennial challenge of low remittance revenue generating agencies have been accused of. In the pilot phase, 10 federal agencies have been penciled down where Revenue Directors from OAGF will be posted to. The agencies are; Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Directorate of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Nigeria Shippers’ (NSC), Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). Speaking at the commencement of a three-day training programme for the Revenue Directors, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, said the government has been compelled to improve revenue generation, especially in the non-oil sector, to fund the country’s huge expenditure. Ahmed charged the Directors of Revenue to remain above board as they would be involved in the revenue operations of the FGOEs. She urged them to learn fast and have an understanding of the business processes and operations of the FGOEs to realise improved transparency and accountability in revenue reporting by the FGOEs.[Sun News]
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) says it will soon verify and pay all outstanding fees owed students under its foreign scholarship programme, Guardian reports. Dr Cairo Ojougboh, NDDC Executive Director of Projects stated this in a statement by the commission’s Director of Corporate Affairs, Charles Odili in Port Harcourt on Tuesday. Ojougboh was quoted to had pledged payment at a recent meeting with representatives of the United Kingdom (UK) based-scholarship students’ in London. “So, we have decided to verify the scholarship awards of the students because of obvious discrepancies. We are also doing this due to the fact that 50 of the students awarded the scholarships in 2019 did not leave Nigeria for their studies to the UK. The verification exercise will involve the registration of all scholars on the commission’s newly custom built portal to confirm the claims with the students’ universities of study,” he said. The executive director blamed the delayed in payment of the students on distraction caused by the probe of the commission by the National Assembly. He further said the death of Chief Ibanga Etang, the then NDDC Executive Director of Finance and Administration, also played a part in the delayed payment of the students. “NDDC could not pay the students as it needed to wait for the replacement of Etang to be able to access funds in its domiciliary account at the Central Bank of Nigeria. So, after the verification, we will pay all outstanding foreign scholarship claims within the next few weeks,” he assured the students.
The Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, has re-affirmed his ministry’s commitment to driving renewable energy in Nigeria. According to the minister, renewable energy is one of the ministry’s focal points to drive power supply in the country even as it plans to integrate renewable energy through the Paris Agreement and the Vision 30:30:30 to deliver 30GW of electricity with 30 per cent renewable energy mix by 2030. The minister, represented by the Director, Renewable Energy and Rural Power Access, Faruk Yabo, at a virtual launch of Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Energy Finance (SUNREF), explained that the lack of financing was the key challenge facing the renewable energy and energy efficiency in Nigeria. “It is quite gladdening that the private sector and our partners are working tirelessly to ensure that Nigeria gets emission reduction as well as other commitments that are being achieved. We will like to commend the support rendered by the Finance Development Bank as well as the European Union and other partners to ensure that this particular programme comes to fruition,” he said. He added the €70 million grant funded by the AFD and the European Union Infrastructure Trust Fund (EU-ITF), which would be accessed to support energy efficiency and renewable energy, would go a long a way in supporting the government’s electricity vision 30:30:30.[Guardian]
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday announced reduction of the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) from 12.5 per cent to 11.5 per cent. Mr Godwin Emefiele, the CBN Governor made the announcement while presenting the communiqué the 275th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on Tuesday. According to Guardian, Emefiele said that the decision to reduce the MPR was made to sustain economic recovery efforts and to arrest rising inflation. He projected that the country could enter into recession on the third quarter, while there would be growth in the fourth quarter of 2020 or first quarter of 2021. The CBN governor said that the committee also retained Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) at 27.5 per cent. He said that recent inflationary pressures were not driven by monetary policies rather as a result of structural policies. He called on commercial banks to respond to the reduction of deposit rate by also reducing interest rates on borrowing to encourage borrowing for investments. He said air and road transportation, accommodation, food services were worst hit by the lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. He called for more aggressive funding of those sectors to engender economic growth.
The West Africa Container Terminal (WACT) Onne, Nigeria’s leading container terminal in the Eastern part of the country, said it has received two more state-of-the-art Mobile Harbour Cranes (MHCs) and two 45 tons Reach Stackers, making the terminal one of the most equipped in the country. The arrival of the latest set of MHCs brings the number of such cranes at the facility to four, a feat that is unmatched by any other terminal in Eastern Nigeria. In 2019, WACT invested $14 million to acquire its first set of two MHCs and other sophisticated modern cargo handling equipment, including 14 Specialized Terminal Trucks and two Reach Stackers. Since then, it has consistently implemented its growth and development plan of becoming the most efficient container terminal in West Africa. In 2020, the company announced a further investment in its Phase Two terminal upgrade, which includes acquiring three additional MHCs to bring the total in operation to five; 20 Rubber Tyre Gantry Cranes; three Reach Stackers; 13 terminal trucks and trailers, and empty container handlers. The upgrade will also include the deployment of reefer racks with a 600-plug capacity and expansion of the current yard, new workshop, and a new terminal gate complex. Confirming this, Noah Sheriff, WACT Commercial Manager, said the two new Konecranes Gottwald Mobile Harbor Cranes arrived Onne aboard MV Hanna on Tuesday, 8th September. He said the cranes are highly sophisticated and designed to provide versatile and economical handling of containers at the terminal.[Business Day]
Concerned by the earnest completion of the Ebute Metta Junction corridor of the ongoing standard gauge rail project extension into the Apapa port which has witnessed protracted delays majorly due to the corona-virus pandemic, Nigeria’s minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has directed the Chinese Civil Engineering & Construction Corporation (CCECC) to set up a task force that will work assiduously towards the completion of the Apapa train station at the same time with other major and minor stations along the Lagos-Ibadan corridor that are at various stages of completion. As reported by Business Day, Amaechi disclosed this during the last ministerial project tour to see progress of work on the $1.5 billion, 156.5 kilometer Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail project. He told the CCECC to ensure that all the stations included the Apapa train station are completed and delivered to the federal government at the same time. According to the minister, ‘’I have insisted that a special task-force be set up to make sure Apapa station is completed same time as all the others. If you see the station at Olodo, there are improvements; they finished flooring, roofing, lighting, ceilings; just doors and windows left. Again, what is left at Kajola is just painting. There is improvement in Olodo and Ebute-metta. And to that extent, the upcoming Apapa station should not be left out’’. He noted that much work has not been done on the Apapa station because the building of the station just commenced, and called on the project managers to finish all the stations at same time. Amaechi also disclosed that the contractors were expecting more engineers on site to speed up construction. “The only station in which I am not satisfied is this last station in Ibadan. However, they have given us the following targets that by end of September, three stations will be ready; end of October, all the seven minor stations will be ready while by end of December, everything will be ready,” he said.
Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, and his Water Resources counterpart, Suleiman Hussein Adamu have defended the controversial National Water Bill 2020, insisting that it has no secret intentions as being widely contended. Addressing a joint news conference Tuesday in Abuja, the two ministers particularly dismissed widely- held views that the National Water Bill would cede a vast swathe of land along river banks to herdsmen, and encourage the widely rejected Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) programme of government. The two ministers also insisted that bill does not in any way affect land ownership. Their clarifications followed controversy that has trailed the National Water Resources Bill 2020, which is currently making its way through the National Assembly. Lai Mohammed explained that there is nothing new about the National Water Resources Bill because it is an amalgamation of Water Resources Laws that have been in existence for a long time. The laws include; Water Resources Act, Cap W2 LFN 2004; The River Basin Development Authority Act, Cap R9 LFN 2004; The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (Establishment) Act, Cap N1100A, LFN 2004; as well as the National Water Resources Institute Act, Cap N83 LFN 2004. He said the laws are being re-packaged to incorporate necessary modifications in line with current global trends as well as best practices in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).[Business Day]
The Minister of Environment, Dr Mohammed Mahmood, has pledged the Federal Government’s commitment to the training of beneficiaries of high-pressure polyurethane foaming machines to create more jobs. Mahmood made the pledge during the inauguration and handing over of four sets of portable high-pressure polyurethane foaming machines to beneficiary companies in Lagos. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the minister supervised a demonstration of how the equipment worked. The equipment is spraying and pouring machines under the UNIDO component of stage II of the Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) phase-out Management Plan (HPMP). While handling over the machines to beneficiaries, the minister commended UNIDO and the Multilateral Fund of the Montreal Protocol for their assistance. He said that the machines were intended to help beneficiaries manage their transition from the use of HCFC based foaming equipment to HCFC and Hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) free ones by replacing the existing equipment to use environment-friendly methyl formulae (MF) as the foaming agent. Mahmood added that the transition was aimed at phasing-out the eligible consumption of 30.5 metric tonnes of HCFC-141b used in the manufacturing of polyurethane foam in the production of cold rooms and other commercial refrigerators.[Vanguard]
In its bid to enhance food security, the Federal Government, through the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Tuesday, commenced training of 100 unemployed Nigerians in livestock and vegetables. The training was part of the Federal Government’s renewed efforts to revamp the country’s agricultural sector, under the NDE’ Sustainable Agricultural Development Training Scheme (SADTS). Speaking at the flag-off of the training scheme, held at Kosobo, in Oyo town, the state’s Coordinator, NDE, Oyo State, Mrs Olayinka Olayemi, said the initiative was aimed at encouraging unemployed Nigerians to take up agriculture as a means of livelihood. Olayemi hinted the initiative would, thereby create more jobs, ensure food security and enhance wealth creation in the country. Similarly, Mr Kabir Adedoja, the NDE Oyo, Head of Rural Employment Promotion Department, made it known that the 100 trainees were drawn from the three (3) Senatorial Districts of the state. Adedoja said the training which is three months duration, would take place at the Agricultural Skills Acquisition Training Centre (ASTC), Onsa village near Oyo town, adding that stipends would be paid to the beneficiaries at the end of the training while certificates would be awarded to successful participants. He advised the trainees to seize the opportunity of the scheme to acquire necessary agricultural skills which would be provided free by the Federal Government through the NDE. He further explained that the training would consist of Agric business tutorial/practical demonstration in vegetable and livestock production.[Vanguard]
The Nigerian Navy on Tuesday deployed troops on board six warships, including 60 gunboats, in a special military exercise to tackle pirates, oil smugglers and other criminalities in the nation’s waters. Rear Adm. David Adeniran, Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Naval Command (ENC), Calabar, announced the deployment at the flag-off of the exercise in Onne, Rivers. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the operation was code-named, ‘Exercise Sanga Sung,’ meaning ‘Safe Transit’ in Ibibio dialect. Adeniran said that the two-day exercise, aimed at consolidating on similar Exercises Bekan Mmon I and II, would hold on the territorial waters of Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ebonyi and Rivers states, under the ENC. He said that personnel of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigerian Immigration Service and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) would also participate in the exercise. Others are the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigerian Customs Service.[Vanguard]
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