Aso Villa Reads for 26/8/19
Everyday we bring you the best news the media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria
Vanguard reports that the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) has unveiled an online portal which registers individuals within 48 hours relying on the database of the Bank Verification Number (BVN). The portal was developed to fast track the registration process for professionals in the country. Speaking at the unveiling of the portal in Lagos, Executive Secretary and Chief Executive, FRCN, Daniel Asapokhai, said the Council was leveraging on the database of BVN to reduce the discomfort of visiting FRCN office for registration by professionals. He stated that the portal ensures the Council fulfils its mandates through a friendlier, responsive and cost-saving process that makes it easier to do business with government. He said: “The new individual registration portal enables a professional register with the Council at the comfort of his office, home or indeed anywhere internet is available without a physical visit to our offices. Furthermore, it reduces the registration process period to the barest minimum. With the new individual registration portal, we expect to issue registration numbers within 48 hours after success completion of the online registration process.
According to This day, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Adeniyi Adebayo, has said the ministry will attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) into the country by stimulating business linkages between large and small enterprises. Adebayo, said this at a stakeholders’ engagement for the Implementation of “Business Linkage Programme” for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and Multinational Enterprises (MNES)/Large Local Cooperates (LLCs). The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the meeting was organised by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) to work out strategies for the business linkages. Adebayo, who was represented by the Deputy Director, Investment Promotion Department, Mr Olajide Bamidele, said the ministry, through NIPC and SMEDAN played an intermediary role in a comprehensive approach for promotion of sustainable business linkages. The legal practitioner said they would equally provide a combination of advisory (policy oriented) and technical assistance (action oriented) services in the field of FDIs and enterprise development. “FDI can add little to local development if there is lack of adequately skilled human capital, absorptive capacity in local firms or incentives to transfer technology to local firms. “There is the need to combine MSMEs support policies with FDIs attraction policies. Well design MSMEs and FDIs policies can ensure that FDIs work for local enterprise development.”
In order to fulfil its promise of moving 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next ten years, the Federal Government (FG) has revealed that it will be creating new technologies that will lead to new start-ups. It says the new start-ups will lead to new enterprises and entrepreneurs in the country, whom will start as micro businesses and eventually grow. Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu who made the revelation said that this is how wealth is created the world over and how the government will in turn grow its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and create employment. He said this Monday in Abuja, when he and the Minister of state of the ministry Alh. Mohammed Abdullahi met with Supervising Directors of the Ministry and DG/CEO of Agencies to roll out a new policy thrust for the Ministry. He added that the President intends to continue with the three areas that he had focused on during his first four years which is to grow the economy, security and fight corruption. His words, “The three areas that the President worked on in the first four years are the areas we will continue to concentrate on which is to ensure there is security, that we will continue to grow our economy and ensure that all those that want to work in the country are given the opportunity, so the work that we are going to be doing here in the next four years will be channeled towards achieving the objective that the President has set to grow our economy secure our nation and have a transparent administration. The Nation reports.
Special Adviser to the President on Social Investments, Mrs Maryam Uwais, has disclosed that the Federal Government will prosecute saboteurs of its Social Investment Programmes (SIPs). Uwais disclosure was against the backdrop of media reports in which she accused monarchs and other traditional rulers in the country of collecting bribes from beneficiaries of the SIPs. Uwais made this known in a statement by the Communications Manager, of the programme, Justice Bibiye, on Sunday in Abuja. She said that the Federal Government would continue to mainstream the principles of transparency, accountability and probity in the implementation of the SIPs of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. According to her, efforts were being intensified to track down those bent on sabotaging the SIPs by exploiting beneficiaries for personal gains, or sensationalise untruths to discredit the efforts at uplifting poorer citizens of the country from poverty. Uwais said NSIO was working with the relevant security agencies to ensure that those found wanting were arrested and prosecuted. This is according to Authority NGR.
Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi says the ground-breaking ceremony of the University of Transportation in Daura, Katsina state will be performed in October. Amaechi, who disclosed this during the inspection of Lagos-Ibadan railway project on Friday said the University will provide more manpower for Nigeria’s the railway. The minister said plans are also underway to manufacture wagons and coaches at Kajola, Oyo state. According to him “we are insisting that they can’t continue to manufacture coaches and wagons in China and sell to us, so as part of the benefit we will get out of the contract we have given them,they will build a factory in Kajola. “For now they will manufacture wagons but they will progress from wagons to coaches and locomotives”. According to Blueprint He said the gridlock will be ove when the rail gets to the seaport and goods are moved by trains. According to him , the target is to get to the seaport so that goods can be evacuated from the seaport. Amaechi who reiterated the need to source for materials for the project locally, assured that Nigerians that are being trained in China will take over from the Chinese.
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) says it will begin to impose Value Added Tax (VAT) on online transactions, both domestic and international, from January 2020. The chairman of FIRS, Tunde Fowler, disclosed this at the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) Technical Workshop on VAT on Monday in Abuja. According to Premium Times, Mr Fowler said many countries had identified Nigeria as a big market and many of them were doing online businesses, adding that there was the need to tap the potentials to generate more revenue for the country. He, however, said that the date of commencement of the VAT on online transactions would be subject to the government’s approval. “We have thrown it out to Nigerians. Effective from January 2020, we will ask banks to charge VAT on online transactions, both domestic and international. “VAT remains the cash cow in most African countries, with an average VAT-to-total tax revenue rate of 31 percent. This is higher than the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s average of 20 percent. “This statistics, therefore, is a validation of the need for us to streamline the administration of this tax with the full knowledge of its potential contributions to national budgets.
