Aso Villa Reads for 3/6/2019
Every day, we bring you the best stories that the Media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria
Herald reports that the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has embarked on grassroots sensitisation in the South East to contain impending flood in some parts of the zone. The South East Zonal Coordinator of the Agency, Mr Fred Anusim made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu on Monday. Anusim, who is in charge of Enugu, Anambra and Ebonyi states, noted that preventing disaster through information dissemination was cheaper and better than solving it. The coordinator mentioned Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu where flood forecast would affect this year. Anusim listed some of the council areas prone to flood in Enugu State to include Nkanu East, Enugu North, Enugu South, Oji-River and Uzo-Uwani local government areas. He said that in Anambra, Ogbaru, Onitsha South, Ayamelum and Anambra East would be affected while in Ebonyi; Ivo, Ikwo, Abakaliki and some parts of Ishielu would be affected. He said that NEMA had commenced sensitization in local government areas in the zone on disaster management especially in flood prone areas noting that land disputes could cause disaster that led to poverty and lack of food. “These days, due to development, most of the things we do in the environment contribute to global warming, that is why we are having climate change. “In Nigeria, we are lucky that the only disaster we always face is flooding, but in most cases we are the ones that create such problems for ourselves,” the coordinator said.
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has carried out sensitisation campaign to educate members of the public on the danger of exhibiting ignorance on the use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) tanks and vessels. The Director General/Chief Executive, SON, Mr. Osita Aboloma, stated this recently, at the general sensitisation on the agency’s ‘Certification of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Tanks and Vessels’ held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Aboloma, who spoke through the Regional Coordinator of SON, Sale Babaji, said it was important to carry out the enlightenment campaign because members of the public seem not to have known the danger inherant in using gas tanks at homes. He said: “We have to sensitise the people about the standard of Liquefied Petroleum Gas tank and vessel. These are areas where nobody cares about what they are doing. “We use it on daily basis. But, we do not care to know the components. We don’t care to know the danger involved and the advantages, and how to protect ourselves from danger. “So, SON feels it is a duty, as part of our mandate to meet our stakeholders and sensitize members of the public. It is a sort of capacity building,” Aboloma explained. He disclosed that the Act that established agency empowers it to carry out enforcement on any company operating and producing any substandard items. Sun News reported this.
The Nigerian Export-Import Bank has entered into a partnership with the National Inland Waterways Authority and Sealink Promotional Company Ltd to bridge the waterways infrastructure gap and enhance the country’s trade in the ECOWAS sub-region. The tripartite memorandum of understanding, which was sealed in Abuja, would enhance Nigeria’s annual non-oil exports revenue to between $500m and $1.2bn annually. According to Punch, the Managing Director, NEXIM Bank, Mr Abba Bello, signed the MoU on behalf of his bank, while the Managing Director, NIWA, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, and the Chairperson of Sealink Implementation Committee, Mrs Dabney Shallholma, signed on behalf of their agencies. Speaking on the pact, Bello noted that the agreement was a public-private partnership framework, which was primarily designed to attract private sector investments under government agencies facilitative support at no cost to the government. The MoU, he added, was intended to bridge infrastructure gap that would promote and enhance trade connectivity as well as spur Nigeria’s regional and global trade competitiveness. Bello described the agreement as a significant milestone in the bank’s ongoing collaborations with all key national and regional maritime stakeholders, noting that it would be catalytic to the realisation of one of the priority projects under the ECOWAS Community Development Programmes.
The Federal Government through the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority for synergy and collaborative cross-border search and rescue around the common boundaries of the two states. NAMA said the agreement was part of efforts to address issues arising from the flow of air traffic among adjacent Flight Information Regions. It added that the MoU stipulates guidelines and procedures for collaboration on aircraft and weather/terrain information sharing, deployment of manpower as well as search and rescue equipment in the event of an incident or accident. Punch https://punchng.com/nigeria-ghana-sign-mou-on-cross-border-search-and-rescue/ reports that the agency said it also signed Letters of Agreement with the Ghana team specifying procedures to be followed for tactical separation of aircraft between Lagos and Accra. The agency said, “Stipulated in the Letters of Agreement are details such as how air traffic controllers exchange or manage the movement of aircraft across the two centres in terms of radio frequencies, the point at which to transfer aircraft as well as established boundaries and altitude for transfer of aircraft across the common borders.
According to Vanguard, President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday sent a Federal Government delegation to support Nigeria’s candidate, vying for the President of United Nations General Assembly, UNGA Prof. Tijjani Muhammad- Bande. The UNGA election is scheduled to hold tomorrow, June 4, 2019 in New York, United States of America. Prof. Bande, who is the Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the UN, will become the second Nigerian to be elected President of UNGA after Maj. Gen. Joseph Nanven Garba (rtd), who held the position between 1989 and 1990. The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amb, Mustapha Sulaiman, is leading the delegation which includes, the Director- General, National Intelligence Agency, Amb. Ahmed Rufai Abubakar; Executive Secretary, Petroleum Technology Development Fund, Dr. Bello Aliyu Gusau; and Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu. President Buhari is confident that Nigeria’s Presidency of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly will provide a unique opportunity for Nigeria to lead the global call to tackle the political, social, economic and environmental challenges facing the world.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has stressed the importance of open banking in the development of the Payment Systems Vision PSV 2030. The banking sector regulator said it considers the concept as one of the top global trends and new practices in payment that have been deployed in other countries which must be considered in Nigeria. Open banking is a system that provides a user with a network of financial institutions’ data through the use of application programming interfaces (APIs). The Open Banking Standard defines how financial data should be created, shared and accessed. According to a statement made available to THISDAY by Centric Gateway, the central bank deemed open banking necessary because of the importance of having a strategy that is relevant for the Nigerian market domestically, for regional and global markets where Nigeria plays a role in international flows. The Director of Payment System Management, CBN, Sam Okojere, was quoted in the statement to have noted that the request for information into the Payment Systems Vision (PSV) 2030 document, would define the strategic agenda for the Payments System for the next ten years, “it comes on the heels of its very successful Payments System Vision PSV2020 that wraps up at the end of 2019.”
Director –general, Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE), Alex Okoh, weekend said the Bureau’s decision to intervene at the primary education sector in Nigeria was formed by its belief that the level was the basic foundation for educational pursuit of the children who were the future leaders. Speaking at the commission of projects undertaken by the Bureau in line with its corporate social responsibility (CSR) at the Local Education Area (LEA) Primary School, Dutse-Alhaji in Bwari Area Council of the Federal capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Okoh noted that without a solid foundation athe Primary School level, the future of the Nigerian child woud be bleak . “We have in this school today, future leaders some of whom would be Director-General, Governors and President of this Country and we need to give them a congenial environment to excel,” he said. Business Day (Monday 3 June 2019, page 7) reported this.
