Aso Villa Reads for Tues. 03/11/2020

Every day, we bring you the best stories that the Media is reporting about the Government of Nigeria

President Muhammadu Buhari’s several initiatives targeted at jobs for the youths and alleviating poverty among women and vulnerable groups remain the best in the history of the country. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed stated this in Kaduna at a meeting of the Northern Governors Forum with traditional rulers on the aftermath of the #EndSARS protest. In a presentation to the meeting, the minister who is a member of the federal government delegation said the Buhari government has remained committed to creating jobs for the teeming youths and alleviating poverty. “No government in the history of this country has ever methodically and seriously put in place measures aimed at addressing poverty alleviation and creating jobs for youths like this Administration,” he said. Buttressing his position, the minister identified the N75 billion National Youth Investment Fund (NYIF) initiated by the government aimed at providing opportunities for the youths. He said the Fund is part of the N2.3 trillion Economic Sustainability Plan to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on most vulnerable Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) across the country. The minister said the Fund, approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on July 22, 2020, targets young people between ages 18–35 years and is expected to last for a period of three years (2020–2023). The minister also listed MSMEs Survival Fund as part of the administration’s initiative at jobs sustainability. He said the Fund is a cluster of grants to support MSMEs to meet their payroll obligations and safeguard MSMEs jobs from the shock of COVID-19 pandemic. Highlights of the MSME Survival Fund, according to the minister included Payroll Support for businesses in health, education, hospitality and food production sectors targeted at 500,000 beneficiaries; One-Off payment to support self-employed individuals like mechanics and drivers, hairdressers, Keke Napep and Okada riders, plumbers, electricians with a one-time payment of N30,000 for 333,000 beneficiaries; Formalisation Support where the federal government will register 250,000 new businesses with the Corporate Affairs Commission at no cost to MSMEs; General MSMEs grants which will provide N50,000 to an additional 100,000 MSMEs; Guaranteed Offtake Stimulus Scheme which aimed to stimulate direct local production in the 36 states and the FCT. Products from MSMEs involved will enjoy off-taker guarantees from the federal government. Mohammed said other initiatives targeted at the youths included N-POWER which had engaged 500,000 beneficiaries with 400,000 more in December. He said 10,000 youths had been trained and benefitted under N-TECH and N-AGRO respectively. The minister said the federal government FINTECH created enabling environment for the growth of businesses that use technology to enhance or automate financial services and processes. He said over two million farmers, traders, mostly youths were empowered under FARMERMONI, TRADERMONI and MARKETMONI. Digital Youth Nigeria was also initiated to implement skill acquisition programmes for poverty alleviation and employment generation. Lai Mohammed said over 100,000 youths across the country benefitted from Mobile Service Repair Training with financial and technical assistance. Over 500,000 youths have also benefited from the Graduate Internship Scheme which provides short-term employment graduates. 1000 farmers from each of the 774 LGAs in the country were empowered and guided under the Youth Entrepreneurship Support programme. He said Entrepreneurship Training Programme ensures MSMEs are equipped with skills and access to credit while Digital Youth Nigeria focusses on positioning youth for revenue jobs opportunities tapping into the global tech market. The minister said the federal government made provision for 300,000 homes to be built by young Architects and Engineers as well as provision of 5 million Solar Home System to be installed by youth-owned businesses. [Vanguard]

The Federal Government has approved N4 billion as a bailout fund to airlines to cushion the effects of the impact of the devastation of COVID-19 on their operations. Hadi Sirika, Aviation Minister, made the disclosure on Monday in Abuja on a three-day public hearing to repeal and enact Acts of Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and that of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). Sirika also stated that the Federal Government approved additional N1b for aviation agencies to also cushion the sorry state of most of them which have made payment of salaries difficult for many of them. The Minister, however, stated that very soon, the funds would be distributed to the carriers, stressing that the aviation industry in Nigeria was too crucial to allow it to fail. [Business Day]

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) on Wednesday, October 28th, 2020, signed an updated tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the United States’ foremost competition and consumer protection authority, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The MoU is designed to strengthen cooperation and collaboration in addressing mutual cross-border consumer protection/fraud concerns and problems. The updated MoU reaffirms the Agencies’ intention and willingness to deploy their capacities to work together, share information, and assist one another in relevant investigations. It also establishes a Joint Implementation Committee to develop joint training programmes and provide assistance with regards to specific investigations. The MOU also affirms the Agencies’ continuous support for econsumer.gov; a joint project of similar agencies from 40 countries for reporting international online scams. The MoU is a framework for voluntary cooperation that does not change existing laws in either country. Commenting on the MoU, Babatunde Irukera, EVC/CEO, FCCPC said “this cross-border collaboration is perhaps one of the most vital tools for combating criminal conduct and consumer protection violations which now transcend territories. Indeed, criminals and exploiters specifically create arrangements and devices to exploit consumers globally from remote locations in order to escape justice and retribution. This framework strengthens our joint abilities and efforts to address this”. FCCPC discharges its mandate of protection by both preventive and remedial action, including complaint resolution, investigations and enforcement action, while the EFCC investigates and prosecutes financial crimes, including frauds perpetrated on consumers. [The Nation]

The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and Family Homes Funds (FHF), which are key agencies in the housing ministry, say they are determined to deliver affordable houses to low income home buyers. Plans, according to the agencies, have been laid out to address housing deficit in the country estimated at 20 million units which requires the country to build about 200,000 houses annually for over a decade to come to bridge. “We’re determined to ensure affordable housing units, ranging from one to four bedrooms for low and middle income earners. This will be possible because the government has more buildable land in the country,” Femi Adewole, managing director and chief executive of FHF, assured. Adeoye who spoke at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with FHA in Abuja recently, explained that by signing the MOU, support would be given to FHA to drive a large-scale construction of houses, adding that they were looking forward to more proposals in the built sector. He disclosed that with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) planned N200 billion commitment towards the execution of housing projects, FHF would build 300,000 houses for low income earners. “What we will do is to deploy funds to the sites handled by FHA for low-income earners. We will deliver one bedroom for N2 million, two bedrooms for N3.5million, and three room apartments at N3.7 million,” he promised. On his part, Gbenga Ashafa, managing director of FHA, disclosed that the agency had initiated strategic partnership with public sector players, such as state governments, Federal Road Maintenance Agency, (FERMA) and others to drive home the vision of delivering affordable homes for Nigerians. “We are delighted to partner with FHF to provide 300,000 housing units. This will generate jobs to professionals, artisans, suppliers, and others; we’ve kick-started the process towards electronic documentation and digitisation for better service delivery and the pact with FHF is for the construction and delivery of 1,000 homes in Abuja,” he disclosed. Ashafa assured that FHA remained committed to deploying robust partnership and collaboration with other private and public institutions to change, impact and grow the housing sector. In the same vein, FERMA and FHA have also entered into partnership to resolve housing and road maintenance problems in the country. [Business Day]

The Registrar, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, Prof. Segun Ajiboye, on Sunday, urged state governments to key into the new welfare package for schoolteachers, which is about to be implemented by the Federal Government. Ajiboye said the newly-approved salary scale by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), among other welfare packages for teachers, would attract the best brains to teaching. He said, “Very recently, President Muhammadu Buhari approved some welfare package for teachers. The approval cuts across new salary structure for teachers, retirement age, allowances, teaching practice allowances for both lecturers and pre-service teachers, bursary awards for education students, rural housing scheme for teachers, etc. Presently, the Federal Ministry of Education and the Office of Head of Service of the Federation are working out details on implementation of Mr President’s approvals. While this is going on, it is incumbent on the states to be carried along for a smooth implementation at that level, given the fact that education is on concurrent legislative list.” [Punch]

The Chairman, Board of Trustees, of the Tertiary Education Trustfund, Ibrahim Imam, says plans are underway to construct facilities with provision for 2000 bed spaces across Nigerian universities. This, according to Imam, is to cushion the effect of inadequate student accommodation. He disclosed this in an interview on the sidelines of the BOT engagement with beneficiary institutions of the Academic Publishing Centre in the South-West geopolitical zone at the University of Lagos on Monday. He said, “So, we are looking at doing 2000 bed spaces across Nigerian universities, starting with the first generation universities. We wish to do this in collaboration with the management of the universities as well as the private investors.” He said that the intervention body would continue to deliver responsive programmes that would promote creative and innovative approaches to learning. According to him, the TETfund has, over the years, become a veritable source of assured funds for desired intervention at the tertiary levels of education in the country. [Punch]

The Federal Government generated N424.7 billion as Value Added Tax (VAT) in the third quarter of the year (Q3’20). This represents a rise of 30 percent in VAT revenue when compared to N275.12 billion in Q2’20. The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, VAT Report for Q3’20 released yesterday also indicated that this is the third consecutive quarterly rise in the VAT revenue occurring throughout the period of the Coronavirus (COVID-10) induced lockdown of commercial activities across in the country. The Bureau said the “other manufacturing sector” category generated the highest amount of VAT amounting to N47.07 billion while pharmaceutical, soaps & toiletries sector generated the least amount of VAT with N386.2 million. The report stated: “Sectoral distribution of Value Added Tax (VAT) data for Q3’20 reflected that the sum of N424.71 billion was generated as VAT in Q3’20 as against N327.2 billion generated in Q2’20 and N275.12 billion generated in Q3’19 representing 30 percent increase quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) and 54 percent increase year-on-year (YoY).” [Vanguard]

President Muhammadu Buhari has directed engagements with governors, traditional rulers, youths and other critical stakeholders across geo-political zones in the aftermath of the #EndSARS protest. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, announced this on Monday in Kaduna after a closed-door meeting of a Federal Government delegation with the 19 Northern governors and traditional rulers. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Federal Government delegation to the meeting was led by the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari. Speaking on behalf of the Federal Government delegation, the information and culture minister said the engagements are critical to reconciliation and national development. “This is just the first leg in the series of the engagements as directed by Mr President. The Chief of Staff will also address governors, traditional rulers and other stakeholders in other parts of the country. The president has directed that the delegation should engage with governors, traditional rulers, religious leaders, youths and others,” he said. [Vanguard]

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