The Nation Newspaper

Tag: closure

  • Financial closure for $550m power project coming

    King Line Development (KLD) Nigeria, which signed a $550million Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for 550megawatts (Mw) with the Federal Government last week, has set the fourth quarter of next year for the project’s financial close.

    Its Managing Director, Akinnola Fola, who spoke with reporters Abuja at the weekend, said the cost of developing the deal is being borne by Kingline, adding that discussions are ongoing for another investor to jointly fund the remaining development activities’ financial close in January next year.

    On equity contribution, he said it would be partly provided by Kingline and other investors, while land has been provided by Ondo State government as its contribution.

    Confident of securing all equity need at financial,  Fola explained that for the project finance “discussions are with various options available. ECA’s from  South Korea, France and Canada, according to him, are all options. African Development Bank (AfDB), OPIC and international lenders options are all available and very viable”, adding that the PPA gives some credibility to would-investors and lenders.

    According to the Managing Director investors are now ready for the project to go to the next level.

    The agreement, he said, will ensure that 550Mw, which is 12 per cent of the 6,000Mw will come to the national grid for the benefits of Nigerians.

    Continuing, he said after the PPA, “we still need to sign other transaction agreements such as partial risk guarantee, but we are looking at fourth quarter 2018 to achieve financial close. And after that we have 24 months to do the construction. So tentatively we are looking at first quarter 2020.”

    He said there is a mechanism put in place by government of which one is the partial risk guarantee, political risk insurance, which are all measures that international lenders will need to put money into the business to ensure returns on investment (RoI).

  • Union: 11,000 may lose jobs over Intels closure

    Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has expressed concern over the quit notice and cancellation of Intels Nigeria Limited Vessel Pilotage Service by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). It warned that the development may lead to loss of over 11,000 direct and indirect jobs.

    A statement signed by its President-General, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju, said most of these employees are Nigerians with families and responsibilities.

    The union said the socio-economic implications of most of losing their jobs in a volatile area like Rivers State can be better imagined than experienced.

    “As organised labour, our utmost concern is job security and welfare of our members in Intels Nigeria Limited. Today, we are aware that Intels has under its employment over 5000 direct employees and over 6000 indirect employees bringing the number of employees to over 11,000.

  • Why FG ignored other options for Abuja airport closure

    Why FG ignored other options for Abuja airport closure

    The Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, in this interview with Abuja Bureau Chief, Yomi Odunuga and Augustine Ehikioya, talks about the closure of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, national carrier and many other issues. Excerpts:

    Let’s start by asking you about the reconstruction of the Abuja runaway. Are positive that the deadline will be met?

    Of course, the deadline of six weeks closure will be met. I am very sure now that we have done a week; everything is going to the plan. The contractor has mobilized since and everything is looking good. As a matter of fact, I just ordered that we should put countdown clock at the entrance  of the Airport, so each time the contractor is going in there, he is conscious of the countdown and the time. I will also put one for him in his office so as he sits in his office, he sees the countdown. Beyond that, that is just a way of spicing it up, just to create some fun. But the truth is that we have three layers, three sets of consultants. We have the main consultant that we engage for the project, which are private sector consultant. We have got the in-house consultant and the ministry of information in my office had also established some team which created another consultant and these are noble people, well trained, well skilled in project management and they are the consultants for the project. I receive a daily brief from them.

     

    Aviation sector, even before you came in, really put people in doubt as to whether Nigeria really has the capacity to run a thoroughly professional aviation sector. Since you came in, we have witnessed some ups and downs; in what ways do you think your ministry can intervene to make the sector more competitive and professional?

    I don’t believe Nigerians don’t have the capacity to run the aviation sector professionally. A lot of Nigerians are well trained aviators, they have seen it all, made names outside the country and have also helped run the industry within the country for a very long time. Of course, it is not perfect just like any other industry. What the ministry is doing to ensure that the industry is run more professionally and also in such a manner that is done very well by engaging the private sector is that we set out our goals. We came in as a government whereby we want to see aviation industry that is forward looking, it is professional, it is led by the private sector, it is in such a way that it is able to connect people and businesses, countries and towns, continents and nations and of course, provides the link to tourism and so on. That is our vision and all of these cannot happen except we do what we think is necessary to put it straight. So, we thought of our airports which are the gateways, we thought of concession to ensure that they are well built. I thought that this is very clear from the onset and we have not gotten there yet but I think we are getting there. We also thought of establishing a national carrier. This national carrier is private sector driven. I don’t even like the name national carrier, may be Nigeria carrier because it is going to be 100 percent private sector. If government will take any stake if necessary, it may not be more than three or five percent. But we will ensure that it is private sector led and driven and that national carrier would connect with other carriers and make alliances and do what is necessary to reach out to other airlines around the world.

     

    Let us look at the human elements that has made the aviation to be what it is in Nigeria today; a situation where airlines that are initially believed to be functioning well suddenly collapse due to probably lack of aircraft or sometimes, they said the government is not helping by giving them soft loans to buy airplanes and all that, what exactly is your ministry doing about that? Secondly, let us also look at the issue of flight delays, people have said it is because there are no concrete sanctioning measures.

    Delays and cancellations are not new to aviation and they are not also unique to Nigeria. What is bad is though is if those delays are things that can be avoided. For example, anywhere in the world, you can have delays due to weather, even in the US, Russia, UK, etc. You can also have cancellations for one reason or the other. And we put mechanism in place from my ministry or Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, they have not made it public on how you are going to seek redress or how a passenger can insist on his rights, may be because we have consumer protection unit in the NCAA which is alive and have treated so many issues. So, we have things in place. It is just that may be information as regarding to delay and so on is that once it is something that is an act of God and not within our powers, there is nothing we can do but if they are things we are caught doing with negligence, for sure we have mechanism of dealing with them. Recently, we fined about three airlines and they paid because those things are there.

     

    Going back to the national carrier, how soon should Nigerians be expecting this?

    Very soon; it is a process, it is not something that once you say now and it happens the next day. By the way there is Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), there is also Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP), there is also Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE). All of these government agencies were established in a situation whereby once you are venturing into something like this, they will have a role to play. You have to appoint transaction adviser, you have to go to BPP to get clearance, ICRC to get clearance, you have to take it to Council for approval by the presidential council, then the bid, then you get to the process of getting cleared.

    So going through the advertisement, going through the short listing, going through the ICRC, going through the BPE, we are now on our way to the council and once council approved, they come back to us for the transaction adviser to do their outline business case which will now be taken to the government to approve and it becomes full business case and then from the business case we go to the market. So, it is a long process that is why since I came we have been talking about concessioning national carrier and nothing happened. People think we are just sitting down doing nothing. We are going through the process so that we would do it according to the law but it takes time. I am thinking at the end of this year, we should be able to have both airport concession and the national carrier.

     

    When you came up with the idea of closing Abuja Airport for six weeks, did you ever imagined the kind of protest and disagreements from different quarters?

    Yes. People sit there and criticize and they think that you can just wake up from your bed and decide to close Abuja airport, no. Firstly, we saw what was wrong with the airport and the runaway as well, we went there and we thought of all the possible ways we could do it without total shutting down. Some of the options were to work in the night from 12 midnight to 6am, may be an hour before the flights would have been an ideal thing but the 3,600km runaway is completely gone bad. If you do that procedure, you will be doing may be only 10 metres a day across and so, if you divide that 10 by 3,600km, it is 360 days. The minimum you can is one year and within that one year, there will be raining season.

    Two raining seasons and before you finished, the remaining runaway would be so dilapidated that you cannot use it. So, that was out of it. If it was spot repairs, may be five or six portions that are bad, then you can shut it down at night, repair it and by the time you do that for two, three weeks, you would have finished those spots and an overlay which is really pretty simple.

    You can be doing that at night until you finish because the main architecture of the runaway is still intact but this one is gone bad so, we cannot afford that. We called consultants, they went there and saw what it is and advised that there is other way we can do it.

    The Nigerian Society of Engineers met on this and agreed that the procedure we want to follow is the best. I was surprised when we went to the National Assembly, the President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers having earlier agreed said that what we are doing is wrong but he was countered almost immediately by the Council of Regulatory Engineers (COREN) who are regulator of Engineers. The president of Nigerian Society of Engineers never went to that runaway for one day, never carried out studies, he just woke up and went to the National Assembly and said what he said. But for people who have been there, COREN went there to check first, took samples and carried out test on the runaway and that is why they are supportive. I know that there is going to be protest but like I read on the social media, one guy was saying if you want everybody to be happy with you, don’t become a leader, go and sell ice-cream. What we are doing is it in the interest of the country.

     

    After these six weeks, what are the other maintenance that will be carried out at the Abuja airport and other airports?

    Abuja airport closure was for six weeks but the entire work is for six months and they will continue to work until they finish the runaway and make sure that the runaway is good. Government is thinking of doing another runaway so that these kinds of things do not happen. Just like we have in Lagos, we have two runaways in Lagos, we have two runaways in Port Harcourt, there are two runaways in Kano.

    So, it is high time Abuja should have two runaways. We are doing quite a lot of things which people don’t see with the naked eyes but they are the things that make everything to work; the navigation equipment, communication equipment, radars that see every flying object and try to separate one from another one so that there is no collision.

    These are the things that we have been doing silently and people don’t see. But you need something that will improve the security and safety of the passengers and the efficiency by which they travel. If you are able to fix the safety, efficiency and the security of travel, you would have achieved the intent and purpose of aviation. The remaining things are aesthetics- the air condition, the robust fantastic looking and terminal buildings and so on are things that are desirable, must have but they are not critical to the operation of aviation.

     

     It is always said that people in your position work so hard, they don’t have time to relax. How do you relax?

    Well, I used to create time for me to relax by playing polo or swimming in my house or visiting friends. Occasionally, before now, I go for holidays every three or six months. I will check out some places and relax but since I took this job, unfortunately, I have not been able to do any of those. I remember some two, three months ago, there was a polo tournament being played in Port Harcourt and I sent a team there with the intention to play but believe me, in the week long tournament, I was there only once and I landed Port Harcourt, I went to the field, I found them playing, I played for about 30 to 40 minutes and I got up and came back and I never went back until the end of the tournament. It is very difficult. I know that we need it for the brain to function very well.

     

    What’s yours philosophy for life?

    Keep it simple. Everything you are doing keep it simple. You have to be very sincere in what you are doing. I remember you or your colleague once asked me why is it that I don’t have my photos around the airports and agencies and I told them that the best picture I would leave behind is the work I would have done as a minister. My image and what I have done would not be out of the minds of Nigerians but if I become the worst Aviation Minister Nigeria ever had my photo would not change that.

  • Abuja Airport closure: Shame of a nation

    SIR: Since the idea to close the Abuja International Airport was first mooted, and the alternative palliative measures hurriedly being lined out to ensure the smooth completion of the repair of the ONLY airport runway, coupled with the furore that ensued among Nigerians for and against the whole affair; I have been enveloped in deep thinking about the place of ordinary Nigerian citizens in the scheme of things generally.

    For instance, it took the unfortunate death of a serving minister of state, Mr. James Ocholi, courtesy of the potholes-infested Abuja-Kaduna highway, for the same road to be given a sudden facelift way back in 2016. And that, had the minister miraculously survived the accident, nothing would have been done to reduce the wasteful human carnage that would have continued unabated!

    What a shame that one of the busiest highways in the country, and the gateway to the capital city from the far Northern states, had to be repaired at such supersonic speed in order to impress and satisfy the yearnings of a particular class in the society. As it appears, those for whom it is being undertaken care less about the huge amount being committed to the project, but for the less-privileged the amount would go a long way in meeting their numerous needs like water supply, food, medicine, etc.

    Pitifully, the same highway bedevilled by all sorts of criminals that have been terrorising innocent citizens on a daily basis has all of a sudden come under the limelight with 24/7 joint security watch, all for the sake of the VIPs.  And all the potholes and craters that have been causing avoidable killings, maiming and damaging of vehicles have suddenly disappeared because the crème of the society would be using the renovated Kaduna Airport, albeit temporarily.

    We are no doubt happy that some part of Kaduna, the former capital of Northern Nigeria; a state that was subjugated and degraded by years of bad governance is now wearing a new look. That the Kaduna western bypass, otherwise known as the Nnamdi Azikiwe Road, reported to have had over 701 potholes for many years, has been repaired with newly installed solar street lights to boot, remains however as a source of worry to me personally and other lower-class Nigerians. This unfortunate class stratification and subjugation engenders nothing but inequality and injustice which must be redressed and done away with for the sake of peace and tranquility in Nigeria.

    This development keeps me thinking because Kaduna-to-Kano high-way and many similar highways across the country that are currently in terrible shape, but which unfortunately will not be used by the high and mighty in the foreseeable future, will remain neglected and will continue to remain death-traps, consuming the hardworking breadwinners who daily ply the roads in search of daily means of survival for their families.

    The new realisation to the effect that N10 billion earlier budgeted and captured in 2016 budget was never utilised by FERMA to repair roads, according to reports, for reason best known to them is also depressing reality of the shameful situation of Nigeria. Does that mean that Nigeria’s ordinary poor only have value during elections, political campaign and routine Immunisations?

    I’m not happy at all for my inability  to decipher what really made me and members of my social class less important than the so-called VIPs to warrant extreme concern for them and total neglect  of my immediate basic needs as an equal and bona fide  citizen of Nigeria.

    This politics of Abuja Airport closure reminds me of the famous saying by Charles Dickens in his famous fiction-Animal Farm – that “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”  This is true in the contemporary Nigerian context, most unfortunately.

    Indeed, the closure of the only gateway to the nation’s capital just to allow for the repair of a single airport runway would remain one of the many shames of our nation. And the on-going frantic effort by Federal Government to provide alternative measures to ease the suffering of only the VIPs is, to say the least, most crude and a shameless display of crass insensitivity to the plight of the ordinary and hardworking citizens of this country.

     

    • Kabir Tsakuwa,

    Kano

  • ‘Abuja Airport closure’ll not affect NOG 2017’

    The Federal Ministry of Transportation has said the closure of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport for repairs will not affect the Nigeria Oil and Gas (NOG) conference slated for February 27  and to end on March 2.

    In a notice to industry stakeholders, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Transportation, Alh. Sabiu Zakari, said the essential maintenance works would commence on March 8, 2017, one week after NOG 2017 closes.

    Over 1500 government representatives and industry players have already confirmed their attendance to the 2017 NOG, including the Federal Ministry of Power, Arco, Century Group, Delta Afrik, Exxon, Honeywell and Oando.

  • Senate fails to stop Abuja airport closure

    Senate fails to stop Abuja airport closure

    •Julius Berger gives condition for repairs •Project to gulp N6.934b
    •500 Hilux vehicles, three helicopters to secure Kaduna-Abuja road

    THE Senate yesterday failed to stop the planned closure of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, for the rehabilitation of its runway.
    At the resumed hearing on the issue, the Senate said it would have preferred segmented repairs of the runway to avoid total closure.
    Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the plenary, told the Minister of Works Babatunde Fashola and Minister of State for Aviation Hadi Sirika that although “Senate prefers segmented repairs of the runway to avoid total closure, the Ministry of Aviation could take a decision based on advice by stakeholders”.
    He said: “Final decision is yours and you will also take responsibility. While you take final decision, endeavour to take note of our concerns and the concerns of other stakeholders.
    “Also take into consideration the position of local and foreign airlines that they would have preferred continued use of the airport while repair is going on.”
    Sirika and Fashola insisted there was no alternative to shutting down the airport to ensure proper rehabilitation of the runway.
    The Nigeria Society of Engineer (NSE) disagreed.
    The society said its meeting with the relevant agencies confirmed it was possible to carry out the proposed reconstruction without shutting down the airport.
    Julius Berger, which is scheduled to handle the repair, backed the government’s position that the airport be shut.
    The construction giant told the Senate that the only way to ensure holistic repair was to close the airport.
    Fashola, who was the first to appear before the senators, said: “For the benefit of Nigerians, who may be listening that it is the runway and I think that emphasis must be continuously made as a matter of public communication. But it is the runway of the airport where planes take-off and land that needs to be repaired because it is no longer safe for that purpose by extension. Therefore, the airport cannot be used. This is a matter of immense public interest.”
    The former Lagos State governor said contract for the rehabilitation of Abuja-Kaduna road had been awarded and the contractor mobilised to site.
    He put the contract at N1.085 billion.
    NSE President Otis Anyaeji, an engineer, noted that the society held a meeting with the relevant agencies on Monday.
    Anyaeji told the Senate the outcome of the meeting “confirms that it is possible to carry out the proposed reconstruction without shutting down the airport”.
    He noted that the issue raised by the aviation agency was that “the procedure is challenging and risky”.
    “Therefore, the issue is not technical but managerial since aviation has known recommended procedures to manage this type of activities and the expertise can be learned,” he said.
    Julius Berger’s Managing Director Wolfgang Geotsch said a runway could be repaired without closing it, but it depended on the scale of repairs.
    Geotsch said the state of the Abuja Airport runway did not give room for the airport to be open while repair is going on.
    He noted: “There is absolutely unfortunately no option than to close the runway for the six weeks because actually it is not repair work, far beyond that. It is almost a new construction of the whole surface of the runway.
    ”It is all in our interest to make the thing happen and to solve it as quick as possible. That is, from our end, we guarantee that within six weeks, the repair work is will be done subject to the fulfillment of the obligations of all stakeholders.”
    The construction firm chief guaranteed a lifespan of the runway up to 10 years minimum after repairs, subject to regular maintenance.
    Sirika said funds for preparation work for the repair included N1.3 million for Nigeria Railway Corporation, Police (358 million), Federal Road Safety Commission (N237 million), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (N325 million), Nigeria Immigration Service (N29 million) and Ministry of Transportation (N84 million).
    The representative of the Inspector General of Police, AIG Joshak Abila, listed 500 Hilux vans and three Helicopters as part of the things the police will mobilise to secure Abuja-Kaduna highway during the repair.
    Abila gave assurance that police will ensure maximum security on the Abuja-Kaduna highway during the assignment.
    Senator Magnus Abe (Rivers South East), however, said efforts of the Senate might be an academic exercise “because the plan to close the airport may have been concluded while funds might have been expended”.

  • Students stranded after UNILAG’s closure

    Students stranded after UNILAG’s closure

    Many University of Lagos (UNILAG) students have become stranded following the school’s closure last Friday.

    They do not have money to transport themselves home.

    They have been forced to squat with friends, hoping that the school will reopen soon.

    An executive member of Sodeinde Hall told The Nation that students never expected the school’s closure, but only wished to draw management’s attention to their plight.

    The student said: “The school sent us text messages to vacate school that Friday morning. My phone record showed that the message (to leave school) got to my phone around 6:30am but I woke up around 7:30am to see it, which meant I had less than three hours to vacate the school. But most of the people I know that stay on campus, including myself don’t live in Lagos State. I live in Adaamo, in Ogun State so it is not possible for me to suddenly pack up and go home within the stipulated time. I did not even have the money to go home so I am squatting with a friend at Sabo”.

    The students, he said, were forced to protest because of monopoly of Unilag ventures on ‘pure’ water, among others.

    “People believe Unilag boys and girls are big boys that pluck money on trees, but it is a lie. Most of us hustle for our school fees and feed ourselves in school. So when we could not find sachet water to drink, we had to be buying table water, which was much more expensive. Imagine, I bought garri (cassava) for N20 and sugar for N10. Normally, I would have bought N5 or N10 sachet water, but because there was no sachet water in the school, I had to buy N50 table water. What polynomial function would justify N30 garri and sugar with N50 table water? Unilag has this policy of monopoly of sachet water because we have Unilag ventures, but these people have been hoarding the sachet water intentionally because they want to be selling it at N10 to outsiders.”

    A 300 level mass communication student lamented what he called management’s injustice, especially the scaring of students with security operatives.

    The student, who is squatting with a friend at Bariga, said: “People were passing through the canal because of the ongoing panic to leave school. But we never wanted the school to be closed down. To show that we did not want the school shut, we started the protest on Wednesday, around 4:30pm, the normal time that all academic activities should have stopped for the day and the protest was very peaceful. But on Thursday, before we even started protesting, we could see so many police vans everywhere, as if we were fighting a war. We did not understand it, when all we wanted was for the VC to address us and show us that the university cared. On Friday, police vans were parading the school blaring sirens. That was what even woke me up, as if they were threatening us that if we do not leave, something would happen. The school gate had been locked by University of Lagos Student Union (ULSU) because as people were moving out that morning; hoodlums were already outside collecting people’s bags and properties. So it was not safe. So that is why we had to pass through the canal. Now, I am staying with a friend at Bariga, because I don’t have the money to go home.”

    However, a 400 level law student of Biobaku Hall, believed management did the right thing by sending students home.

    He said: “I feel management did the right thing ordering students to leave campus, because things were getting out of hand. Students were getting violent, fighting, forcing students that did not want to protest to come out of their hostels and join them. But it would have been the best for the VC to come out and address the students. That would have solved a lot of issues. I live at Akoka, so it was not difficult for me to go back home.”

    ULSU President, Muhammed Olaniyan has decried management’s “refusal” to listen to them until the union was able to address the issue.

    “What we were telling management was that they should look at issues concerning students and do something about it. We told the students not to leave school on Friday, but looking at the number of police and armoured tanks the school had deployed, we had to renege on our order, by telling the students to obey management’s directive. We are working hard to speak with management to ensure that students return to school as soon as possible,” he said.

    Dean, Students Affairs (DSA), Prof Tunde Babawale, said the Senate closed the school, adding that it will reopen it when it is time to do so.

    He said: “That is the consequence of their negative actions and there is nothing the university can do but to close, because the protest was degenerating into violence. Don’t forget, we did not shut down the university until the third day of their continuous protests. It started on Wednesday, continued on Thursday and even Friday. No responsible management will wait and see the degeneration of protests into a situation of violence and disruption of activities and allow it to continue, so the school had to take the necessary and rational step of bringing the situation under control by asking students to go home. It was not meant to harm them in anyway, it was meant to restore normalcy to the school. The school was closed down by the senate, so only the senate can say when it will be open. I am not in the position to know. Even the VC can’t know.”

  • Expert laments closure of textile firms, loss of jobs

    Expert laments closure of textile firms, loss of jobs

    A United Kingdom-based firm, Plexus Cotton Limited in collaboration with Nigerian-owned Synergy Cotton and Agro Allied Limited have pledged to  revive the cotton industry in the country.

    The two firms have started a campaign with the farmers in Kano and its environ on the need to revive the agric sector, especially the cotton value chain during a seminar in the ancient city.

    Chairman, Plexus Cotton, Mr. Nick Earlam, lamented the neglect of  cotton production in the country, which he said depleted from 900, 000 metric tonnes in the 60s to less than 45,000 metric tonnes.

    He said the worrisome trend has led to the closure of textile industries and loss of jobs, pointing out that his company would redress the issue, using technology and other incentives for farmers, to add value to cotton.

    Earlam said his company would  engage 3, 000 employees and later 200,000 small holder farmers to turn around the cotton sector for the benefit of the country.

    “Without the raw materials, we don’t have the capability to build the value chain. All the three chains have to work together. It does not work if everybody wants to do it on its own. We have to do it with the private enterprises, development agencies and with government support. We need to make the cotton grow again. We don’t need to be selfish. The target is to build the cotton back to 100,000 metric tonnes in the next two years,” Earlam said.

    He stressed the need to add value to Nigeria’s cotton to enhance development, create more jobs and build the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

    Earlier, Chairman, Synergy Cotton and Agro Allied Limited, Dr. Adebayo Jimoh, said the company was out to replicate the success story of the value addition programme it did in Uganda, Mozambique and Malawi.

    He said the collaboration between Plexus and his company was in line with the desire ofPresident Muhammadu Buhari to revive the agric sector to create jobs and empower the citizens.

    “But Mr. President cannot do it alone. We also cannot do it alone. You, as the merchants, cannot do it alone. We need a partnership and by the time you listen to what were done successfully in Uganda; you will agree with me that our President is on a right course.

    “For any country where there is no cotton production, food production generally goes down. Cotton is life and big people in the world started life as cotton traders. Let’s believe in cotton to enjoy better life, improve GDP and prosperity for all,” Jimoh stated.

    Spokesperson, Kano State Cotton Merchants, Alhaji Lawan Garo, urged the cotton farmers to key into the initiative of the cotton firms and use the opportunity in line with the approved agricultural practices for expected and increased output.

    Earlier, management teams of both firms had visited the Kano State Deputy Governor, Prof. Hafiz Abubakar, with the state Commissioner for Commerce and Industry.

    Welcoming the teams, the deputy governor expressed the readiness of the government to support the cotton value chain.

    Abubakar referred to the garment factory established by the immediate past administration in each local government area of the state as part of support the government has created to improve cotton value chain, urging Earlam and his team to visit the factories and see how they could be improved upon.

  • TSA: AGF insists on tomorrow’s deadline for accounts’ closure

    TSA: AGF insists on tomorrow’s deadline for accounts’ closure

    The Accountant- General of the Federation, Alhaji Ahmed Idris, has said there is no going back on tomorrow’s deadline to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to close all Federal Government accounts with commercial banks.

    He said the directive is in line with the new Treasury Single Account( TSA).

    The directive was contained in a statement by the Deputy Director( Press) of the OAGF, Mrs. Kenechukwu Offie.

    The statement said: “The Office of Accountant- General of the Federation hereby reassures all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as the general public that the September 15, 2015 deadline for the closure of all accounts of Federal Government MDAs with the commercials banks is realistic, achievable and will not be shifted forward.

    “This is to correct speculations making rounds in some quarters of the media, that the deadline may not be feasible.

    [ad id=”403656″]“The Accountant-General of Federation, Alhaji Ahmed Idris emphasizes that Implementation Guidelines have been developed and will soon be made available to all interested parties and the general public.

    “The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, in line with its statutory mandate and directives by Mr. President on the TSA, will continue to provide all necessary information and technical support to all MDAs, Banks and the general public to ensure a smooth, seamless and transparent implementation of the TSA/e-Collection policy.”

    President Muhammadu Buhari had set a deadline of Tuesday, September 15 for full compliance with his directive that all revenue due to the Federal Government or any of its agencies must be paid into the Treasury Single Account (TSA) or designated accounts maintained and operated in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), except otherwise expressly approved.

    A circular to all Ministries, Departments and Agencies by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mr. Danladi Kifasi, urged the MDAs to ensure strict compliance with the deadline to avoid sanctions.

    The circular said a number of MDAs were yet to comply with the August 7, 2015 circular, which conveyed President Buhari’s original directive on the payment of all Federal Government revenue into a Treasury Single Account.

  • Students condemn school closure

    To forestall breakdown of law and order, Ogun State government has directed the management of the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) in Ago Iwoye to shut the campus indefinitely.

    In a release by the Secretary to the government, Mr Taiwo Adeoluwa, the decision to close the university was taken in the overall interest of peace and order.

    The government said students threatened to foment trouble as they rejected all entreaties and concessions made by the government on their demands. The government advised parents to call their wards to order, noting that it would not tolerate any act that will disturb the peace enjoyed in the state.

    Some students alleged that they were flogged by policemen deployed in the campus. It was gathered that some students, who wanted to use Automated Teller Machine (ATM) on the campus, were beaten by the police.

    Adeniyi Shofoyeke, a 200-Level Pharmacy student, said: “I believe the total shut down is a misuse of power by Governor Ibikunle Amosun. It is clear he has disappointed the students. The closing down of the school is uncalled for because students have been peaceful in their agitations.”

    The Students’ Union president, Olusegun Ifade, said: “The closure is illegal, unacceptable and uncalled for. Our agitation has been peaceful. We understand that there are some people who want to hijack the struggle, but we are not political. This is purely students’ struggle. We also don’t want the security agencies on our campus. We call on government to re-open our school and withdraw the army of occupation on the campus.”