Aso Villa Reads for 6/09/18
Every day, we bring you the best stories the media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria
“The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved a new five-year National Health Strategic Plan 2, which is to gulp the sum of N6.07tn. Briefing State House correspondents after the FEC meeting on Wednesday, the Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, said the health sector plan involved the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory. He said the previous Plan 1 covered 2010 to 2015, while the new Plan 2 would cover 2018 to 2022. He said the N6.071tn project, meant for a period of over five years, if funded and implemented faithfully, would achieve a 31 per cent reduction in maternal mortality.” Punch reported this.
“In what could be described as a strong move to develop Nigeria’s oilfield services and boosting research and development in the oil and gas industry, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in China with the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). The Sun reports that “the MoU signing, the third in the series within the week, by the NNPC Management on the side-lines of the ongoing Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit, took place, on Wednesday, in Beijing, China. Recall that on Tuesday in Beijing, the corporation signed two separate MoUs with two Nigeria-Chinese consortia (OBAX-COMPLANT Consortium and CAPEGATE-NANNING Consortium) for the development of biofuels and establishment of biofuels complexes across Nigeria”.
“The Federal Government has earned at least N1.2 trillion from private investors for mining projects. Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Abubakar Bwari, disclosed this at the just concluded Africa Down Under 2018 Conference on a topic titled ‘A New Dawn in Nigerian Mining Sector’ in Australia. He said due to the current administration’s commitment to growing the solid minerals and mining sector, leading to the leverage of about $3.32 billion private investments into mining projects as provided in the ERGP focused lab, Nigeria is today ranked amongst the most conducive environments to do mining business”. According to The Sun, the Minister said that “private investments into mining projects covering gold mining and refining, foundry works, lead/zinc exploration and production, tin and Columbite mining and processing among others have experienced unprecedented leap in production.”
The Nation reports that “Federal Government says it has developed a N6.7 billion plan for the reconstruction, rehabilitation and resettlement of northeast devastated by Boko Haram. Nigeria’s Ambassador/Permanent Representative to the United Nation (UN), Prof. Tijjani Bande, said this at the event tagged “Strengthening the humanitarian and development partnership in the Lake Chad Region” at the UN headquarters in New York. The envoy said the plan, known as “Buhari Plan”, aims to advance the humanitarian and development nexus in the country. Bande said Nigeria was spearheading the event based on the need to promote across board collaboration and cooperation among countries of the Lake Chad region, the donors and a whole range of humanitarian and development partners.”
According to Business Day (Thursday 06 Sept 2018, page 33) , the “Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has decided to revamp the Kaduna Refinery from heavy crude distillation unit into light crude. Adewale Solomon, managing director of NNPC Kaduna refinery said in a statement that “the Plant’s crude distillation unit has been cladded so it can refine light sweet Nigeria crude”, a move which will come as much of relief on the part of Nigeria quest to stop products importation and its increasing cost implications on the nation’s economy. “Refinery revamp began last month as the part plant is currently offline, while the refinery is schedule to re-start by year-end,” NNPC said. According to NNPC,” Work on five heaters is on progress awaiting approvals for procurement of fluid catalytic cracking units as NNPC has also invited bids for crude charge unit: awards for boiler, crude tank and waste water treatment work currently awaiting approval.”
“The Consumer Protection Council (CPC) has condemned the mistreatment of Nigerian passengers by Air France, which cancelled its Paris-Lagos flight on July 18, 2018, leaving many of the passengers stranded for two days. In a statement signed by the Director General of CPC, Babatunde Irukera, the Council said despite the efforts by Air France to provide alternative flights for the passengers, many of them suffered severe inconveniences due to the inability of concerned authorities to provide them transit visa.” THISDAY reports that “CPC said it was prompted to investigate the incident in response to the allegation of neglect and mistreatment leveled against the airline by passengers. The Council said its investigation showed that while some of the passengers were re-routed to Lagos, the airline could not lift many of the passengers the following day, thereby leaving some of them stranded in Paris. However, CPC said Air France had in response to requests from the Council provided material cooperation, and information including that the Air France Flight AF I04, operated with Air Belgium, from CDG (Charles De Gaulle, Paris) to LOS (Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos) with scheduled departure for 1430 hrs (2.30 p.m.) and estimated arrival time at LOS of 1830hrs (6.30 p.m.) was initially delayed.”
