Aso Villa Reads for 5/09/18
Every day, we bring you the best stories the media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria
“The federal government has offered for subscription two-year savings bond at 11.36 per cent and three-year savings bond at 12.36 per cent, the Debt Management Office (DMO) has said. According to the offer circular obtained from the DMO website on Tuesday, the two-year bond will be due in September 2020 while the three-year bond will be due in September 2021. It, however, did not state how much was offered, but added that the maximum subscription was N50 million at N1,000 per unit, subject to minimum subscription of N5,000 and in multiples of N1,000. The website said that the bond was fully backed by the full faith and credit of the Federal Government, with quarterly coupon payments to bondholders. The savings bond issuance is expected to help finance the nation’s budget deficit.” Premium Times reported this.
According to Business Day, “China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has assured the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru, of its unflinching commitment towards securing funding for the successful financing and subsequent execution of the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipeline project.”. According to the paper, “the AKK gas pipeline would enable connectivity between the East, West and North that is currently non- existent. It would also enable gas supply and utilization to key commercial centers in the Northern corridor of Nigeria.”
“The construction of the $50 million (N18bn) Transportation University to be located in Daura, Katsina State will start by next year, the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has said.” According to Daily Trust , the university is to be built by China Civil and Construction Company (CCECC) and is part of the Federal Government’s efforts to develop qualified manpower that will manage the many railways facilities across the country and other transportation facilities, Amaechi added.” According to Amaechi, “in addition to Katsina, another Transportation University might be built in Rivers State to meet the growing demand of manpower in the transportation sector. He said the contract has already been awarded to CCECC and the construction would have commenced if the governor of Katsina State had provided land for it, adding that once the state government provided the land, CCECC will mobilize to site and fence the land for construction to start.” The report mentioned that the Minister revealed that “the young Nigerians being trained on scholarship in China on Railway Engineering upon completion of their studies would be deployed to teach in those universities for a period of time before they are allowed to do other endeavours. “If we get the land, the fencing will start this year. The CCECC has written to ask for land from the state government,” he said.”
This Day reports that the Nigerian “stock market rebounded yesterday as the Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index (NSE ASI) rose 0.28 per cent to close at 34,933.68 after opening the month on a negative note the previous day. Similarly, market capitalisation added N36.1 billion to close at 12.8 trillion. Buying interest in banking stocks such as Zenith Bank Plc, GTBank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc buoyed the return of the bulls. However, 23 stocks appreciated compared with 18 that lost value.”
“Nigeria’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) is like a seed planted to unlock business opportunities across key sectors which will have a trickledown effect to the common man.” Business Day (Wednesday 5 September, 2018, page 33)writes in a feature article that “in less than a year, following its launch by President Muhammadu Buhari, the implementation of the ERGP has seen the country’s economy record significant strides, including its exit from recession last year and improved stability in the fiscal and monetary markets.” The report opines that “the Federal Government through the ERGP has demonstrated strong commitment to restoring growth and provide strategic economic direction for the country over the medium term (2017- 2020), with a target of 7 percent rate by 2020, and 15 million jobs over the Plan period”.
“French oil major, Total and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) along with some other partners will, later this month, launch Egina crude in Singapore. The launch will take place at the Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference (APPEC), scheduled to hold from September 24 to 26, in Singapore. Singapore’s APPEC is one of Asia’s biggest annual petroleum industry gatherings, during which producers, refiners and merchants sign and renew supply deals and exchange information.” Premium Times reports that “a copy of an invitation to the conference, reported by Reuters, shows that the launch will take place at a reception billed to be hosted by stakeholders at the conference.” The report added that “the Egina field in Nigeria is expected to start production in December. Its FPSO unit sailed away last month from the SHI-MCI Yard, LADOL Island, Lagos, Nigeria to the Egina oilfield in Oil Mining Lease 130, which is located about 150km offshore the Niger Delta. The FPSO was built by Samsung Heavy Industries of Korea for Egina oilfield being developed at a cost of $16bn by the global oil giant, Total. The Egina field will add 200,000 barrels per day of crude oil to Nigeria’s daily output when it comes on stream.”
“A higher Zinc grade has been discovered in large quantity along the Benue Trough by an Australian mineral firm, Symbol Mineral, the company has announced.The Zinc, is about 300 percent above the global grade and already exploration activities have commenced in some sites, the Minister of States for Mines and Steel Development, Abubakar Bawa Bwari said yesterday.” Daily Trust reports that Symbol Mineral, Chief Executive Officer, Tim Wither said in a presentation made at the World Mining event titled: Africa Down Under 2018 at Australia at the weekend that the firm obtained a 25- year license to explore the minerals in 510 km2 of exploration tenement along the Benue Trough. He said one of the projects titled: Imperial, has 30 priority targets, most of them have shallow historic workings with visible ZINC mineralisation. “The Diamond Drilling Results confirms exceptional high grades of Zinc and the company has already commenced application of modern geophysics”, said Wither. He said another project site called: Tawny located approximately 150 km east of Abuja, 4 kilo mitre from major highway, along the Middle Benue Trough is a 7km2 exploration license. He explained that all the projects have no funding challenges as the company adopted self-funding exploration model.”
