Aso Villa Reads for 30/08/2019
Every day, we bring you the best stories that the Media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria
According to Business Day, President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday said Nigeria’s investment opportunities would continue to offer some of the highest returns globally as a result of the country’s strategic initiatives. Buhari, while presenting Nigeria’s Statement at Plenary Session Three on “Public-Private Business Dialogue” at the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7) in Yokohama, Japan, said he was looking forward to prospective investors making inroads in priority sectors in Nigeria, including power and renewable energy, petrochemicals and gas, maritime (shipping and ports), automobiles, mining, agribusiness, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, ICT and railway. He assured participants at the event, comprising major global business moguls, of good returns as a result of ongoing reforms initiated by his administration, which include the Presidential Committee on Enabling Business Environment set up to promote ease of doing business and make Nigeria more attractive.
As reported by Business Day, the Nigerian businesses showed greater confidence in the macro economy with 64.7 index points for September 2019 according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s Business Expectations Survey (BES) report released on Tuesday. According to the CBN, the BES conducted from August 12–21, 2019 with a sample size of 1050 businesses nationwide. A response rate of 95.4 per cent was achieved, and the sample covered the services, industrial, wholesale/retail trade, and construction sectors. The respondent firms were made up of small, medium and large corporations covering both import- and export-oriented businesses. At 28.6 index points, respondents expressed optimism on the overall confidence index (CI) on the macro economy in the month of August 2019 compared to 28.1 points in July, 2019.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday presided over the first Economic Management Team (EMT) meeting of President Buhari ‘s second term, Next Level. The Spokesman to the Vice President, Laolu Akande, told Business Day that the meeting focused on the preparations of the 2020 Budget, billed for submission in the last week of September 2019, to the National Assembly. The EMT serves as an advisory body to the Federal Executive Council FEC, and is expected to review government’s Medium-Term Expenditure Framework 2019 to 2021, for the approval of the FEC, ahead of its presentation to the National Assembly. According to Akande “The meeting is part of the preparation for the 2020 budget presentation. Their plans are subject to review and approval of FEC”.
The Federal Ministry of Health has said it has been able to put an end to Onchocerciasis otherwise known as River Blindness in Plateau, Nasarawa and Kaduna States, adding that entomological studies are still ongoing to clear Zamfara, Kebbi, Oyo, and Bauchi States. According to This Day, the Ministry, in a statement issued by the Deputy Director (Media and Public Relations), Mrs. Ogundoro Modupe, said report of the National Onchocerciasis Elimination Committee (NOEC) indicated the interruption of the disease in Plateau, Nasarawa and Kaduna States, while entomological studies are ongoing to confirm the interruption in Zamfara, Kebbi, Oyo, and Bauchi States. Quoting the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr. Abdulaziz Mashi Abdullahi, the statement said the implication of this achievement was that a total of about 4.2 million persons are no longer in need of mass administration of medicines for onchocerciasis in the disease endemic local government areas in Plateau, Nasarawa and Kaduna States.
The Federal Government has given cash rewards totalling about N46 million to the first batch of Team Nigeria medalists at the ongoing 12th African Games in Morocco. Punch reported that the rewards were handed over by the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports Development to 58 athletes and four officials, with $3,000 given to gold medalists. The ministry also gave 2,000 dollars to silver medalists and 1,500 dollars to bronze medalists. Adesola Olusade, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, at a brief ceremony Tuesday night at the Games Village, commended the athletes for their good performance at the Games.
According to This Day, two Japanese companies, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, and Toyota Tsusho, Friday in Yokohama, Japan, told President Muhammadu Buhari that they were prepared to invest in different sectors of Nigeria.The companies made the disclosures when President Muhammadu Buhari held respective investment talks with their top officials at the margins of the seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 7), which ended Friday. According to a statement by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, while the bank said it was interested in investing in oil and gas as well as infrastructure, Toyota Tsusho on the other hand, said it would invest in energy, healthcare and automobiles.Adesina said the Toyota group also stated that it would be prepared to register its presence all over Nigeria and build an advanced medical diagnostics centre that would put paid to foreign medical trips in search of cutting edge medical diagnosis.
