Aso Villa Reads for 23/10/2018

Every day, we bring you the best stories that the media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria

“The Federal Government has revealed plans to begin mop up of small arms and light weapons in seven states of the federation. Daily Times reported that “the Presidential Committee on Small Arms and light weapons listed the states as Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Kaduna, Kebbi, Akwa Ibom and Cross River states. The Project Director, PRESCOM, Dickson Orji, disclosed this to newsmen in Abuja, on Monday at a 4-day training programme for security personnel on new standard operating procedures on physical security and stockpile management. He said the committee hoped to consolidate on previous efforts in the eradication of illegal arms proliferation in the country. Mr Orji also revealed that the committee with support from international partners has destroyed about 7000 illegal arms in Benue, Katsina and Zamfara states. “We have engaged state governments and asked them to begin the civilian disarmament programme in their various states. “So far we are working in these seven states, and this is an ECOWAS-EU small arms project, we are working with 5 states from the North and 2 states from the south east”, he said.”

Daily Trust reports that “the Federal Government is seeking to generate additional 4.2 Gigawatts of power to the national grid in the next 12–18 months. It aims to achieve that through the coordination of the Nigeria Industrial Policy and Competiveness Advisory Council. Besides, government has commenced moves to deploy underutilized power assets to deliver incremental power to industrial centres and needy communities in the country. Towards this end, a total of eight power projects have been selected for the critical intervention, according to a statement from the council yesterday. They are the Aba Integrated Power Project; Kainji rehabilitation and expansion; power transmission; captive power projects for industry; Afam IV rehabilitation; Afam V rehabilitation; a Seplat gas facility; and Alaoji power plant. According to the Council’s Executive Secretary, Edirin Akemu, the objective of the intervention is being achieved through enhanced distribution infrastructure and elimination of technical power rejection; transmission upgrades on critical path to industrial and commercial load centres; and generation optimization and maximization of NDPHC output.” The story revealed that “Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment who is also the vice chairman of the council, Dr Okechukwu Enelemah, said work is ongoing on the Alaoji power plant to supply about 360MW of unutilized power to industrial centres and people in the South-East Axis of Onitsha, Aba, Nnewi and Ihiala. He explained that only 120MW out of the 480MW of power generated by the plant is regularly utilized, so 360MW of power is available for centres willing and ready.”

“The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr William Symington has said that Nigeria has advantage over most countries of the world as it is the seventh largest integrated markets in the world. Ambassador Symington stated this on Tuesday in Ilorin while delivering the Convocation Lecture at the 34th Convocation Ceremonies of the University of Ilorin.” Daily Times reports “that the Lecture was entitled: “Citizen Leadership and the link between economic diversity and economic good governance”. He observed that with the abundance human and natural resources in the country, “Nigeria has wonders and incredible beauty”, while urging people to help the country succeed and do well. Symington was of the opinion that Nigeria is wonderfully endowed and beautiful, adding that anyone that has traversed the length and breadth of the country would appreciate its beauty.”

“The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma, Monday, said the Nigerian government has issued the first gold refining license to improve the country’s economy. Udoma disclosed this while speaking at the 24th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES24) in Abuja. “Today, I am happy to inform us that the first gold refining license has been issued to a company called Kian Smith Limited, which was one of the companies that participated in the labs,” Udoma said. “As an outcome of the ERGP focus labs, we have also been able to accelerate the development of the national gold development policy and the establishment of a federal gold reserves scheme in Nigeria,” he added. The minister further stated that the primary objective of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) was to get Nigeria out of recession. He, however, maintained that Nigeria has achieved her primary objective by issuing the first gold refining license in Nigeria to Kian Smith Limited. He said, “The federal government is finalizing modalities to purchase gold from local refiners, via a federal gold reserves scheme.” This was reported by The Guardian.

According to Business Day, “about 69.30 percent of Nigeria’s N8.3 trillion total pension assets are currently invested in Federal Government Securities, according to the National Pension Commission (PENCOM). This indicates a total of N5.78 trillion investment in Federal Government securities. A breakdown of the figure indicates that N4.22 trillion is invested in FGN Bonds; N1.49 trillion in government’s treasury bills; agency bonds consisting of investments in Federal Mortgage Bank (FMBN) and Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) totaled N10.91 billion; Sukuk bonds also received N53.15 billion investments, while N6.96 billion is invested in green bonds. The new figures for August 2018 are contained in a monthly report presented by the Commission, which gave a detailed breakdown of investments made by Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) handling Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs).”

“Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo is expected to be in Bauchi on Tuesday for the flag off of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Clinic in the state. Daily Trust reports that the MSMEs clinic is a federal government’s initiative to facilitate interactions between businesses, regulatory agencies, and financial institutions in the country. Speaking at a Press Conference earlier in Bauchi, the Special Assistant to the Vice President on MSMEs, Tola Adekunle-Johnson disclosed that the MSMEs Clinics were designed to give opportunities small businesses to develop through meaningful interactions with relevant stakeholders in various economic sectors. “The Presidency has approved the establishment of shared facilities for MSMEs because as the clinics have gone so far, we have seen that there are some MSMEs, that do not have financial capabilities to run their businesses,” he said.”

“The Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has improved infrastructure and laboratories for product testing across the country, keying into the EU funded and UNIDO-administered National Quality Infrastructure Project, but the body is under-funded and lacks capacity in terms of technology and personnel to check imported Chinese goods, analysts say. The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control is not exempted from this situation, with a number of low-quality food products in the market. “How can they do with so much little funds and few personnel,” Muda Yusuf, director-general of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), told Business Day on the phone. “There are close to 4,000 borders. Many of these regulatory agencies need funding and logistics to work week, but these days, they are even supported by the private sector who they are supposed to regulate,” Yusuf said.” Business Day (October 23, 2018, page 8) reported this.

“The federal government on Sunday said there are no missing names of beneficiaries in the ongoing verification of the liquidated Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL) workers. The supervising Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, said on Thursday while addressing pensioners in Lagos, the account of those verified would be credited with their entitlements this week. The minister said the verification exercise, which was meant to end on October 22 (today), has been extended by additional one week to ensure all qualified beneficiaries were attended. Mrs Ahmed said the verification exercise and payment of all entitlements of the pensioners was based on the recent directives and approval of President Muhammadu Buhari.” Premium Times reports that “the minister was represented by the head of the federal government delegation on inspection tour of the various centres and secretary, Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA), Mohammed Dikwa. Mr Dikwa said adequate measures have been put in place to address some challenges being encountered since the exercise started last week Monday, fast track the process and get every pensioner properly verified. He appealed to the pensioners to be patient and remain orderly, adding that after the verification exercise, 50 per cent payment of entitlements would be made in this first tranche from this week”.

“Farmers in Logo and Ukum Local Governments of Benue, who were displaced by the protracted crisis with herdsmen, have returned to their villages. The farmers, who spoke with newsmen in several villages in the two local governments, said that they were enjoying “sweet peace” in their natural abodes. Newsmen were led to the villagers by Maj. Gen. Adeyemi Yekini, Commander, Operation Whirl Stroke (OPWS), the security outfit charged with maintaining peace in Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba States. Among villages visited were Jootar, Gov and Iorja in Logo, as well as Gajem and Gbeji in Ukum. The five villages were under the control of Fulani militia until the bandits were rooted out by OPWS.” OAK TV reports that “throughout the period of the occupation of their lands, the villagers were quartered in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), scattered through Benue. Speaking to newsmen at Gov, the village Youth Leader, Mr Torngee Iorhemba, commended the Federal Government for sending OPWS to curtail the activities of the militia. Iorhemba disclosed that the arrival of the Special Forces had helped them to return to their homes, adding that they were enjoying a very cordial relationship with the personnel of OPWS. “OPWS has helped us so much; their presence has helped us to return to our homes. Our only challenge now is that we don’t have any clinic and portable water,” he said. He said that the farmers were happy to move freely to the markets and to their farms”.

According to Business Day, “Nigeria has been ranked as 115th out of 140 countries assessed in the 2018 Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) of the World Economic Forum. The report, which was released on October 17th 2018, shows improved performance across key enabling business environment indicators, and suggests an overall improvement in the country’s competitiveness.” According to the report, “beyond the rankings, the GCR offers comparative insights based on the competitive business conditions as reported by the organised private sector in surveyed countries. The following are a few insights we can learn from the 2018 report about Nigeria’s improving competitiveness: Nigeria improved in the area of “Enabling Environment”; Nigeria is ranked top 100 in terms of “Business Dynamism”; Nigeria’s inflation rate has steadily declined to near single-digits since 2017; Nigeria’s competitive environment is one of the most entrepreneurial in the world” and “Nigeria’s market size remains an increasing source of competitive advantage in the global economy.”