Aso Villa Reads for 24/8/18
Every day, we bring you the best stories the media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria.
According to a report by Punch, Nigeria’s oil exports are expected to rise to their highest in four months in October, on the back of supply of several larger grades coming back online following a series of pipeline outages in the last couple of months. Loading of Nigerian crude will rise to 1.73 million barrels per day from September’s 1.41 million bpd. October’s will be the largest programme since June this year.
Nigerians that operate West Coast destinations complain that they are made to pay exorbitant charges by some countries in the sub-region and insisted that there must be uniform charges for the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) to be successful. The Federal Government has responded to this issue as it has started series of meetings with some countries in West and Central Africa to review airport charges on Nigerian airlines. This Day reported that this Federal Government move was confirmed by the Director of Consumer Protection, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Adamu Abdullahi who said that the civil aviation authorities in the sub-region had met to review the charges. Abdullahi said if the charges are not reviewed downward, Nigeria may be forced to apply the principles of reciprocity in the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA).
The Federal Government will present the 2019 budget to the National Assembly in September in a bid to restore the January to December budget cycle. This was confirmed by the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, who added that the federal government had consulted widely with members of the National Assembly in that regard. In her words: “Our aspirations is that we want to meet the requirements of the law to submit it by September but as you know the National assembly is itself away on recess and they resume by September.” She said the law encourages the executive to submit the budget by September and the idea is that by December, the budget is passed. Daily Trust reported this.
Records of passenger traffic on inbound and outbound flights have indicated that foreign airlines are increasing frequencies into Nigeria as a result of an uptick in economic activities. This Day referenced a recent data released by African Aviation Services Limited, which showed that foreign airlines operate over 300 frequencies weekly into and out of Nigeria. This showed an increase of 22 per cent from about 220 weekly frequencies operated by foreign airlines two years ago.
Punch reported that the Central Bank of Nigeria has released funding of N10bn per project under the Real Sector Support Facility aimed at channelling funds to the manufacturing and agricultural sector. The facilities were to be administered at an interest rate of nine per cent per annum. The aim, according to the apex bank, is part of measures aimed at increasing the flow of credit to the real sector of the economy. This is expected to consolidate and sustain the nation’s economic recovery. The Acting Director of Corporate Communications for CBN, Mr Isaac Okorafor, spoke on the matter and said that the Deposit Money Banks would henceforth be incentivised to direct affordable, long-term bank credit to the manufacturing, agriculture. Apart from the manufacturing and agriculture sectors, other sectors considered by the CBN as employment and growth stimulating would also benefit from the long-term credit to be given at single digit interest rate.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has stated that there exist 74 million businesses under the Micro, Small, Medium Enterprise (MSME) bracket. This represents 84% of the labor force which contribute 50% to GDP and 7% to export. With this statistics, the renewable energy sector, notably solar hybrid inverter systems for offices is a major business opportunity which Nigerian start-ups can undertake. Such move will enable Nigerians overcome unreliable electricity supply and costs of generator sets and power. Currently, the financial value of Nigeria’s off-grid power market, based on solar systems, is valued at $9.2 billion according to the Rural Electrification Agency (REA). Various operators and investors are changing the negative stories associated with solar power through judicious investments and sustainable projects. Business Day (Friday August 24 2018, page 13) reported this.
