Aso Villa Reads for 25/7/2019
Every day, we bring you the best stories that the Media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria
Punch reported that the Federal Inland Revenue Service on Wednesday said it generated N5.23tn for the Federal Government in four years, aside from the income from crude oil. The Chairman of the FIRS, Mr Babatunde Fowler, stated this during his visit to the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai. He added that the army’s efforts in ensuring nationwide security had created the “environment for the huge revenue generation.” He said, “We are quite aware that unrest brings about poverty, unemployment and instability, which affect the economy. However, in the last four years, the economy has come out of recession and several sectors of the economy are experiencing improved performance. “That is why in the last four years, we have generated in excess of N5.23tn. This is outside oil revenue, which has never happened before. A part of this reason is that the Nigerian Army has done its beat of dealing with situations that would have caused instability and affected an environment conducive to investment.
Nigerian Tribune reported that President Muhammadu Buhari will depart Abuja on Friday for Monrovia, Liberia to attend the 172nd Independence Anniversary Celebrations of the country. A statement issued in Abuja on Thursday by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media and Publicity), said apart from being the Special Guest of Honour at the event, President Buhari will receive “The Grand Cordon of the Knighthood of Venerable Order of the Pioneers,” Republic of Liberia’s highest national honour. He explained that the award is presented by the government for outstanding and distinguished service in international affairs, government, religion, art, science or commerce, and also for singular acts of philanthropy and deeds of heroism and valour. President Buhari will be accompanied by Governors Kayode Fayemi, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq and Mai Mala Buni of Ekiti, Kwara and Yobe States respectively, as well as the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Mustapha Sulaiman, and other top government officials. He is expected back in the country later on Friday.
Vanguard reported that the Bank of Industry (BOI), reputed to be Nigeria’s oldest development financing institution, commenced operations as Investment Corporation of Nigeria (ICON) in 1959, incorporated as Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (NIDB) in 1964 and later reconstructed into BoI in 2001. Olukayode Pitan, Bank of Industry, BoI In this interview culled from Internationalbanker.com, BoI’s Managing Director/CEO, Mr. Olukayode Pitan, narrated the bank’s impact on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria over the years. Excerpt. The bank’s development orientation is towards supporting projects with high developmental impact such as job creation and poverty alleviation to enhance the socio-economic standard of Nigerians. Any statistics to back this up? Indeed, BOI’s developmental mandate is geared towards supporting projects with the capability to generate considerable multiplier effects, such as business linkages, job creation and poverty alleviation, which would positively impact the socio-economic condition of Nigerians. Over the past few years — 2015 to 2018 — BoI supported 4,908 SMEs and large enterprises across the country with N529.4 billion in loan disbursements. We have also developed youth-centric products — Youth Entrepreneurship Support Programme (YES-P) and the Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund (GEF) — and trained 14,000 youths in entrepreneurship and other business-management modules. A total of N1.8 billion has also been disbursed to 726 beneficiaries under these programmes.
According to Punch, President Muhammadu Buhari has inaugurated the Tulsi Chanrai Foundation Eye Hospital in Abuja in a bid to promote quality and affordable eye care in the country. The event, which also had in attendance other top government officials and notable individuals from the private sector, saw different experts hammering on the need for a more robust health system that is accessible to ordinary Nigerians. In a statement, the management of TCF Eye Hospital said, “We at Tulsi Chanrai Foundation believe that eradicating curable blindness not only offers a person the gift of sight but more importantly, restores livelihood; thereby favourably impacting economic output across the nation. “This state-of-the-art eye hospital is the answer to a long felt need for excellence in eye health sector across Nigeria and West Africa. It will adopt modern techniques to prevent blindness and treat various eye conditions through hospital-based and outreach activities. “Around 60 per cent of the hospital’s services will be provided free of charge to benefit the poor and marginalised communities, while the rest will be at highly subsidised rate for those who can not afford it. “The hospital is expected to be self-sustaining in about four years from now and would be run largely by a team of Nigerians, who have recently undergone intensive training in India.
As reported by Vanguard, the National Biotechnology Development Agency, NABDA has unveiled prototype Digesters and Process Optimization Test Systems developed by a team of its scientists, engineers and technicians. The invention was in fulfilment of the mandates of the Bioenergy Development Programme as intended in the government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan. With the novel Test System, we can determine the biomethane content of any Biodegradable Oraganic Feedstock, BOF, in the country. The Prototype which was developed with all sectors in mind comes in three sizes named BEGs 250L, BEGs 500L and BEGs 1000L. these are 250 liters, 500 liters and 1000 liters digesters that will meet bioenergy needs of households, and small and medium enterprises including restaurants, markets and abattoirs.
According to This Day, the Nigerian inter-bank foreign exchange market received another boost of $210 million from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) following transactions concluded the previous day. The CBN Director in charge of Corporate Communications, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, disclosed this, adding that authorised dealers in the wholesale sector of the market received $100 million, while the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and the invisibles segments were allocated the sum of $55 million each. A statement quoted Okorafor to have also said the Bank’s management remained particularly pleased with the prevailing stability in the Nigerian foreign exchange market. According to him, the CBN management, as noted by the Governor in his post-Monetary Policy Committee meeting briefing on Tuesday, July 23, 2019, welcomed the continued stability in the foreign exchange market and the steady accretion to country’s external reserves. The spokesman said the CBN would therefore continue its intervention in the forex market to ensure liquidity, maintain stability and meet customers’ demand.
This Day reported that the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has restated its commitment to enhancing access to capital for the federal government and the private sector, saying it is key to national economic growth. The Head, Trading Business Division, NSE, Mr. Jude Chiemeka, stated this during the listing of second N100 billion, 7-year Federal Government of Nigeria (FBN) Sukuk due 2025 bond on the NSE by the Debt Management Office (DMO). “At the exchange, we believe enhancing access to capital for the federal government and the private sector is key to national economic growth. This is the motivation behind our commitment to promote and support the growth of the debt market in Nigeria. Our efforts are geared towards expanding the NSE’s position as the multi-asset hub, creating ample possibilities for our key stakeholders, while delivering a transparent and liquid market to investors,” he said. He said the emerging and frontier markets could expect greater traction in their quest to continually unlock dormant pools of capital.
As reported by Business Day, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele on Tuesday, at the June Monetary Policy Committee Meeting, said the apex bank was adding milk to the list of 43 items restricted from the FX market. The decision, he said, was based on high cost of importing milk which stands between $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion. “The era of forex restriction on milk importation is coming sooner than expected,” he said. The bank said it was ready to lend to players in the milk industry to commence the production of the diary product locally.
