Aso Villa Reads for 8/5/2019
Every day, we bring you the best stories that the Media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria
“The ongoing integration of databases will fetch Nigeria a total of 45 million individual and corporate taxpayers, Executive Secretary, Joint Tax Board, (JTB), Oseni Elamah has said. Elamah stated this while presenting a report on the new Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) Registration System to the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) Tunde Fowler, in Abuja on Monday. Elamah also said that the JTB has completed the building of a new TIN Registration System which is an integration of TIN numbers of various organisations in Nigeria. He added that the growth of the taxpayers’ database is a major flank of the goals of the JTB in collaboration with the apex tax authority, the FIRS. Elamah said state revenue authorities are expected to benefit from the new TIN System through the Taxpayer Information Accessibility and Accuracy. He also noted that the registration and recording of taxpayer information is one of the fundamental functions of tax administration and to a great extent, it will drive how other core administrative functions operate.” Daily Trust reported this.
“In line with its promises of facilitating Ease of Doing Business at the nation’s seaports, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has finally opened former Lilypond Container Terminal to truckers to use as a temporary park, away from roads and bridges to Apapa.” Business Day “understands the NPA management unveiled Lilypond trailer/truck Transit Park on Friday to aid Ease of Doing Business within the ports community in order to entrench greater operational service efficiency at ports. With this development, APM Terminals which formerly operated the terminal as off-dock facility for containers under a concession agreement that elapsed few years, may have lost the hope to continue managing the terminal in the future. Converting Lilypond Terminal to Transit Park was part of the NPA’s efforts to address issues around the notorious Apapa traffic by taking trucks off the roads and bridges leading to Apapa port city. The terminal will be solely reserved for trucks that have business in Apapa port and have obtained call-up to be in the port to pick containers. When BusinessDay visited the Terminal on Monday, it was discovered that several trucks were already parked on the terminal while a few were sited on the Ijora Bridge trying to gain access into the Lilypond terminal. This also recorded positive impact on traffic into Apapa port city.”
Premium Times reports that “to revive Nigeria’s moribund cotton, textiles and garments sector, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday commenced the distribution of cotton seeds and other inputs to farmers in Katsina State. To encourage local textile production, the apex bank also threatened to blacklist individuals, banks and companies involved in illegal textile importation. Over 100,000 farmers collected the cotton seeds during the national flag-off of distribution of seeds/inputs to farmers for the 2019 planting season. The CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, who opened the distribution of the seeds said the exercise will help improve cotton production in the country from about 80,000 tonnes in 2018 to over 300,000 tonnes by 2020.” According to the report, “Mr Emefiele said the support of the bank to cotton production was part of the commitment to consolidate on the gains of the restriction of foreign exchange allocation on finished textiles and 42 other items in the country. The CBN governor identified insufficient cotton seeds as one of the major challenges cotton farmers face in the country. He said the bank sought to change the narrative on the cotton and textile industry in Nigeria through the distribution of high yielding cotton seeds to farmers. The provision of seedlings to farmers cultivating over 200,000 hectares of farmland, along with extensive training on proper farming techniques, will boost the production of high-grade cotton lint from the current rate of less than one tonne to about four tonnes per hectare.”
Daily Trust reports that “President Muhammadu Buhari will on Friday, May 10 inaugurate 17 projects and lay the foundation for 16 others as part of activities to mark the 13th Convocation of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka. The Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Joseph Ahaneku, disclosed this while addressing journalists on activities mapped out for the convocation ceremony in Awka on Monday. Ahaneku, who noted that the president would be represented by the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, said the programme would commence with an interdenominational church service on May 6. “Some of the projects listed for inauguration are the institution’s main entrance called the Beautiful Gate, six classroom blocks, professorial offices, the remodeled Multipurpose Hall and Uzodike Hall. The president is also expected to lay the foundation for the construction of the institution’s permanent Medical Centre and vice-chancellor’s lodge within the main campus, among others.”
“Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele has flagged-off the distribution of cotton seeds and other inputs to over 100,000 cotton farmers in Katsina State for the 2019 farming season, with the aim of reviving Nigeria’s cotton, textiles and garments sector and improving cotton production from 80,000 tonnes produced in 2018 to over 300,000 tonnes by 2020. Emefiele, who was supported at the national flag-off of distribution of cotton seeds/inputs to farmers for the 2019 planting season in Katsina on Monday, May 6, 2019, by the governors of Katsina State, Bello Masari and Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, as well as the Minister of Agriculture Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, also reiterated that the foreign exchange restriction on finished textiles and other 42 items remained in force.” According to Business Day “prior to the flag-off, he noted that the CBN had identified insufficient cotton seeds as one of the major challenges facing cotton farmers, hence the Bank sought to change the narrative on the cotton and textile industry in Nigeria through the distribution of high yielding cotton seeds to farmers. According to him, the provision of seedlings to more than 100,000 farmers cultivating over 200,000 hectares of farmland, along with extensive training on proper farming techniques, will boost production of high grade cotton lint at much improved yields of up to four tonnes per hectare, from the current cultivation rates of less than one tonne per hectare. He said the move would also reduce the amount spent by Nigeria on imported textiles and ready-made clothing estimated at about $4 billion annually. Emefiele also disclosed that the package included fertilizer, pesticides and knapsack sprayers, adding that the National Cotton Association of Nigeria will ensure compliance of its members with the stipulated terms for the support that will be provided to farmers.”
“Within the period under focus, NNPC transferred N153.01 billion into the Federation Account. Cumulatively, from January 2018 to January 2019, Federation and JV received N905.45 billion and N658.66 billion respectively, under the column of Naira Payments to the Federation Accounts,’’ NNPC said in the report.” Premium Times reports that “the corporation also said that it made a trade surplus of N15.04billion for January 2019, an increase of 24 per cent over the N12.13 billion surplus posted by the corporation in December 2019. It attributed the positive financial position to the improved performance of NNPC’s upstream subsidiary, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), which recorded surplus numbers in spite of reduced operational activities in the month. The report submitted that NPDC’s sustained revenue drive was evident from the recent average weekly production of 332,000 barrels of Crude oil per day. The report noted that this has made achieving 500,000bpd production by 2020 plausible. According to the report, the NPDC’s position contrasts with the high expenditure levels posted by two other entities of NNPC, the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) and Duke Oil, although both ended the month with profit. In terms of sales and remittance of crude oil and gas proceeds, the corporation recorded total export receipts of 381.70 million dollars in the month under review as against 345.68 million dollars posted in December 2018.”
“The Federal Government is planning to establish a Free Trade Zone (FTZ) and an industrial hub within the Kaduna Inland Dry Port corridor as cargo delivery by rail commences at the dry port. The Executive Secretary (ES) Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) Mr. Hassan Bello gave the indication yesterday at the ceremony to mark the commencement of cargo delivery by rail at the Kaduna Dry Port, or inland container deport. He said to make this happen, the FG is partnering the Kaduna state government and relevant stakeholders’, in wooing private investors to the dry port. “It is important that the dry port is not just a transportation center but a hub of economic activities, we need to have so many facilities, like stores, refrigerated warehouses, consolidation centers, factories especially for packaging which is a problem for export,” Mr. Bello said. “ According to Daily Trust, “on efforts being made to bring investors to Kaduna, he said the Council is in preliminary discussion with commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council in London as the FG wants to bring them to Kaduna to bring value to the dry port. He also said the Council is discussing with relevant authorities to have a free trade zone (FTZ) within the Kaduna dry port. Currently, the dry port receives at least 200 containers monthly from Lagos but this capacity will shoot up with the train cargo delivery operations. He also noted that the trains will move containers at least twice a week with the capability of moving some 24 containers on each trip at not more than 50 percent of the cost required to truck containers from Lagos to Kaduna. Currently, it costs between N700,000 to N1.5m to transport 24 containers, depending on the cargo and logistics company.”
