The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Corporation

  • Corporation warns against wasting of water

    LAGOS Water Corporation (LWC) Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer Mr. Mumuni Badmus has urged the public to desist from wasting water because of its enormous cost of production.

    Badmus, who spoke at the weekend on the occasion of the World Water Day, with the theme : ‘’Leaving no one behind’’,  said it would be unfair  to waste the water the corporation produces.

    He said some customers had been given prepaid meters  to prevent water wastage, adding that soon, all customers would be metered.

    Badmus, an engineer, said: “Water is a human right, essential for the well-being and survival of all. The truth is that it has no alternative. Making sufficient water available to all has remained a major challenge around the world. This explains why the United Nations considers it appropriate to carry everyone along.

    “Today, many countries are going through water stress, and the world is jittery about the imminent scarcity that may descend on us in future. However, Nigeria is not sitting on the fence, as the country has made water stress a matter that requires urgent attention, as evidenced by the state of emergency declared on the nation’s water sector last year. This informs us that we must continue to double our efforts towards providing water in sufficient quantity.”

    He said LWC would continue to develop its strategies for increasing water production and supply.

    In recent years, he said, the corporation had developed a strategic business plan as a roadmap to take the water production capacity of the state to 492 million gallons per day by 2023, to close water demand gap significantly.

    “Therefore, in our bid to carry everyone along, we have widened our data base to supply water to more Lagosians. We have equally deployed water meters to properties across the state, so that people can pay for the exact amount of water they consume.

    “In tandem with this year’s theme, ‘Leaving no one behind’, it has been our tradition to involve the younger ones, particularly pupils and students from primary schools to tertiary institutions to be part of our advocacy initiative for water conservation. Not long ago, we brought in Lagos State children parliamentarians because we believe women and children are major stakeholders in the water sector,” the LWC boss added.

  • Why there was water shortage, by corporation

    The Lagos Water Corporation (LWC) yesterday said the disruption of supply in some parts of the metropolis was not connected with the adoption of the Public Private Partnership (PPP).

    Reaction to the claim of the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service, Technical and Recreational Service Employees (AUPCTRE) that the discuption was deliberate and caused by PPP adoption, LWC Group Managing Director/CEO Muminu Badmus, said supply was cut following election problem at the Independent Power Plant (IPP) in Akute.

    The problem, he added affected production and supply from the major water works of Adiyan and Iju.

    With the reconnection to the national grid, the affected communities in Bariga, Lawanson, Ketu, Ojodu, Agboyi, Mile 12, among others, he said, were now getting water as part of the corporation commitment to customers’ satisfaction.

    Badmus said arrangements were on to power the major waterworks to produce to capacity.

    The corporation, he said,  had completed the rehabilitation of 48 mini-waterworks in the state optimal capacity. “And they now jointly produce 87 Million Gallons Per Day (MGD) to complement the major waterworks of Adiyan, 70MGD; Iju, 45MGD Ishasi, 4MGD; and Otta Ikosi, 4MGD; arriving at a total of 210 MGD,” Badmus said.

    The corporation, he said, had initiated projects to tackle water shortageadding: “These projects include the ongoing construction of Adiyan Phase II of 70 MGD, development of the Igbonla Water Scheme Phase 1 of 100MGD, expected to serve Victoria Island down to Epe corridor.

    “Other proposed schemes include Adiyan Phase III of 70MGD, with 6,295 km network, Ibese Phase I Water Treatment Plant of 50 MGD and the Yewa/Ishasi Water Scheme to produce 85MGD.

    “A proposed integrated water supply in Ikorodu and its peri-urbans will be executed to supply 35MGD. This project comprises upgrading Otta-Ikosi from 4MGD to 31MGD and the rehabilitation of Oke-Ota-Ona Water Plant of 3 MGD, and Lagos Road Mini Waterworks of 2 MGD. This integrated water supply project also includes the construction of seven booster stations that will enhance production and supply of water to the communities in the axis.”

    Badmus said the corporation was not planning to retrench and assured the public of potable water supply.

     

  • Corporation appoints children as ambassadors

    The Lagos Water Corporation (LWC) has appointed children as water ambassadors.

    Its Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Muminu Adekunle Badmus, who spoke at the corporation’s head office in Ijora, Lagos on the occasion of the World Water Day, said: “We have decided to bring in members of the Lagos State Children’s Parliament to act as water ambassadors for the corporation because children all over the world have been affected by water crisis.

    “As an agency of the government, we consider it imperative to ensure they come first in our efforts to solve this water crisis.”

    Represented by the Chief Operating Officer, Deji Johnson, Badmus, said the ambassadors were being groom for leadership positions.

    He said it was expected that they would act as its watchdog and alert it on issues that were water-related, “as this will help us in responding to residents’ complaints.”

    “Our ambassadors will explain to the public the reason we need to conserve water. They will convince people why it is necessary to pay water bills. They will give us feedback from our customers,” he said.

    The managing director hailed the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for supporting the corporation to provide potable water for residents.

  • ‘Corporation working to provide water for all in 2020’

    Lagos Water Corporation (LWC) is working to provide potable water for all residents in 2020, the Managing Director, Mr. Muminu Adekunle Badmus, has said.

    Speaking at the weekend at the LWC headquarters in Ijora, Lagos during the disposal of un-useable pipes, electro-mechanical and scrapped metallic materials at the corporation’s service areas, he said: “The population of Lagos State keeps rising everyday. Therefore, we cannot say precisely when every Lagosian will get drinkable water. But our target is 2020. We are working to meet this target.

    “Consumers should, however, help us by conserving potable water. We have introduced pre-paid meters to achieve this. We have supplied 12,000 meters to our customers and by the end of this year we intend to increase the figure to over 30,000.”

    Badmus, an engineer, said LWC had many un-useable assets it intended to discard, adding that the bidding for the items was transparent.

    The Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Deji Johnson, an engineer, said expression of interest for the purchase of un-useable  pipes, electro-mechanical  and scrapped metallic materials in locations of Lagos Water Corporation followed approval by the Lagos State government for the disposal of unserviceable pipes of different sizes and electro-mechanical equipment.

    He said a committee was set up by the LWC management to identify materials and equipment no more in use at the corporation’s locations, adding that the committee came out with a list of unserviceable equipment and scrapped materials, which comprised pipes, mechanical, automobile and electrical equipment.

     

  • Water Corporation to improve performance

    Lagos Water Corporation will partner consultants grounded and efficient in using modern and innovative business models, to improve its performance, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer Muminu Badmus has said.

    Badmus, an engineer, who spoke at the corporation’s headquarters in Ijora, Lagos, at the launch of its High Impact, Short-term, Quick Win Performance Enrichment Programme (PEP), said: “In modern day business milieu, one cannot be static. It is important to review strategies regularly, to look at where one is coming from, where one is and where one is going. This is the only way to improve services and progress. Lagos Water Corporation cannot be an exception.

    “In April, it partnered 2ML Consulting to develop PEP. The programme is a tool to accelerate the transformation of the corporation towards meeting its aspirations, goals and objectives.

    “The approach we have embarked on is designed as an incentive-based programme that attracts incentives for good performance and stresses target achievement in seven focused areas, namely: maximising sales, improving collection rate, reducing debt rate, reducing water losses, improving staff productivity, improving capacity utilisation and improving response time to customers’ complaints.

    “Today, we are gathered here to witness the launch of PEP with the signing of the Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) between the following parties: managing director with head of business streams, managing director with regional business managers, managing director with production managers, regional business managers with regional managers and regional business managers with zonal team leaders.

    “The MoU is commitment to effective service delivery, improvement of revenue and operational efficiency. To make the programme successful, we need to be curious, confident and courageous in our actions.”

  • NFC chief: my plan for film corporation

    NFC chief: my plan for film corporation

    The Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) was established in 1979 to help in the development of the film industry and offer training for professionals in the area of production and post production. TONY AKOWE who visited the NFC recently reports the problems that have bogged down the institution.

    The appointment of Dr. Chidia Maduekwe as the Managing Director of the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) no doubt came as a big relief to staff of the corporation. Many of them have complained secretly, of the handling of the organisation by the management who did little or nothing to better the lot of the place and harness the potential available in the industry to turn film-making in the country into a great employment potential.

    Not even the training aspect of the corporation was adequately utilized to empower the youths to boost the entertainment industry in the country.

    Interestingly, the corporation which is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring quality film production in the country has had to grapple with series of problems over the years.  These problems, it seems, have hampered the corporation which also has a training arm by not playing the role it is expected to play in the nation’s movie industry. Former Managing Director of the NFC, Danjuma Dadu said the major problem facing the establishment has been lack of synergy between the corporation and stakeholders in the industry and the lack of money to provide the needed facilities for movie production in the country. Dadu lamented the lack of harmony in the film industry saying that disagreement among key players in the industry cannot move the industry forward.

    He attributed the lack of visibility of the corporation to lack of funds, pointing out that before 2015, the capital budget for the corporation was only N25 million which has however risen to N500million. He told the new Managing Director that one of the issues he must deal with is attracting people to the Nigerian film festivals, saying “we attend film festivals, but nobody attends our own.”

    A tour of the corporation revealed that despite the vast hectares of land available to it as a film village, the corporation is far from achieving its potential due to what many of the staff described as total lack of initiative by the Dadu-led management. At the proposed film village which is supposed to serve as the permanent site of the corporation, farming activities thrive on their land. The old structures on the land are begging for attention while two blocks of hostels have just been constructed by Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) through collaboration with the University of Jos, while another structure being constructed is said to be a constituency project. The Nation observed that there was nothing on ground at the site to suggest that the place will be put to use soon.

    Maduekwe is however optimistic that something good can still come out of the place.  He told The Nation that he intends to work with stakeholders in the industry to reposition the place to perform the role it was set up to perform. Though a medical doctor, he said he was coming into the industry with what he described as “medicine for movie”.

    He said he was conscious of the fact that nobody can tell the Nigerian story more than Nigerians, hence the need to harness the potential in the industry. He also told the staff members that for the corporation to achieve its mandate, they must change their attitude to work. He said his plan was to make the industry fashionable to be able to attract investors, saying “if it is fashionable to farm now, why can’t it be fashionable to make movies. I am not here to think that things are bad and so, we cannot move forward.

    I am here to tell you that the NFC will work and surpass what the agriculture revolution has achieved in the country. We shall seek collaboration with professionals in the industry, stakeholders, relevant government agencies and investors, with a view to synergising appropriately and create the needed impetus to propel the industry to greater height.

    We will aspire to lead the industry from the vantage position of a government agency and use the platform as an enabler in a globally competitive industry. This way, film-making shall become a professionally rewarding calling and a profitable investment, impressive enough to attract credible foreign investments.”

  • Corporation targets N200m IGR

    The Ogun State Agricultural Development Corporation (OGSADC) has set a revenue target of N200 million in the next fiscal year.

    The General Manager of the Corporation, Mr. Femi Soremekun revealed this during the 2017 Budget defence at the Ogun State House of Assembly Complex, Abeokuta the state capital.

    He said the corporation targeted 100 million as revenue this year and was able to achieve N133 million in the third quarter of this year.

    Soremekun, however, reeled off some of the corporation’s plans towards realising its target to include pruning of existing trees and slashing of 350 hectares at Ibara Orile cashew plantation and construction of additional bee hives for honey production.

    Other plans by the corporation, he said, included purchase of 15,000 point of lay birds for its Balekan and Oke-Eri poultry projects, as well as continuous maintenance of existing rubber trees at Remo Rubber Plantation. He said to raise 60,000 sprouted seeds and planting of oil palm and arable crops has also commenced.

  • No plan to sell water corporation, says MD

    No plan to sell water corporation, says MD

    There is no plan to sell Corporation (LSWC), its Managing Director, Mr Shayo Holloway, has said.

    Rather, the government is considering the public private partnership to meet the state’s water need.

    Holloway said: “There is no iota of truth in the speculation that the Lagos State government is planning to sell its water corporation. Rather, the government is seeking a partnership with private sector under the Public Private Partnership Law of 2004 to accelerate development of water infrastructure to meet the demand, which stands at 540 million gallons per day (MGD).”

    Holloway, who said the corporation provides water to nine million people daily, said the government had foreseen a situation where water demand would increase to 733 MGD by 2020 because of the increasing population in the state. He stressed that the population projection necessitated the need to boost the corporation’s capacity to provide potable water to the population.

    Holloway said the corporation has unveiled a $3.5 billion master plan that would increase potable water production to 745MGD, adding that its implementation would be witnessed by other government agencies to protect public interest.

    “To address the current water demand and meet the projection of the near future, LSWC developed a master plan to take the state from its current 210MGD to 745MGD by year 2020, through development of additional large water scheme taking raw water from rivers and lagoons for treatment into potable water,” he said.

    The state, Holloway said, could not solely fund the project, which will cover the major water works,  adding, that the government has started implementing part of the master plan in Adiyan Phase II, which would add 70MGD to the supply capacity.

    He identified boreholes as threat to efforts to provide potable water for the citizenry, saying Lagos is at risk of salt water from the Atlantic Ocean migrating to pollute the ground water because of boreholes in coastal region of the state.

    If completely implemented, Holloway said, the master plan would discourage the sinking of boreholes by residents. The multi-billion dollars project, he said, would provide surplus potable water to Lagos homes cheap and discourage the sinking of boreholes.

  • Lagos Water Corporation pensioners lament non-payment of benefits

    Lagos Water Corporation pensioners lament non-payment of benefits

    Retirees of the Lagos State Water Corporation have cried out over the non-payment of their several benefits amounting to about N1 billion that is owed them since 2010 by the corporation under the leadership of Mr. Shayo Holloway.

    The retirees, numbering about 150, have been demanding payment of the benefits since a few years ago. They have now drawn the battle line with the corporation and have petitioned the Governor Babatunde Fashola, stating that the management plotted them out of all forms of benefits, which amounted to about N1 billion as at 2013.

    The Chairman, Association of Retirees, Lagos State Water Corporation, Mr. Leo Onayemi, who made this known in Lagos, said the amount, which includes bonds and other emoluments started accumulating since 2010.

    “There is this lump sum that has been there since 2010 and as at 2013, it amounted to about N1 billion and we have been doing everything to get the attention of the group managing director but it has not been successful,” he said.

    He alleged that the management of Water Corporation had failed to maintain the life insurance policy in favour of the employees for a minimum of three times the annual total emolument of the employees as enshrined in Section 15 of the Lagos State Pension Reform Law.

    He said: “It is glaring that the Group Managing Director (GMD) of Lagos Water Corporation has no regard for the Lagos State Pension Reform Law. He has dismissed the law with impunity. He has refused to budget for all the staff of the corporation on a yearly basis as regards staff bonds, insurance, taxes, among others, which naturally would have been approved by the Lagos State Government under the leadership of Babatunde Fashola, who has never defaulted in paying as at when due, the retirees that are directly under the state government.”

    He also alleged that the GMD had resorted to reengaging some retired management staff of the corporation as a ploy to scuttle any form of collective agitation by the embittered members of the association.

    “We all say ‘No’ to this reengagement, especially that of the management team. The GMD should allow the young ones to grow in the system and contribute their own quota to the development of the corporation,” he added.

    On the way forward, Onayemi recommended that a dedicated or consolidated fund should be created and managed by a special committee to ensure funds for the corporation workers yearly; direct deduction from statutory allocation or subvention due to the corporation; using the corporation’s Group Account Revenue to offset all the backlogs of entitlements of the retirees in payments of their bonds, insurance and five per cent redemption fund to the relevant authority as at when due including paying the pension deductions of staff to the appropriate Pension Fund Administrator.

    Responding to the petition, the governor, through the Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Mr. Ben Akabueze, said he would look into it and other grievances of the corporation.

    He stressed that the corporation’s problem was peculiar because it did not fall in the same group with other organisations, which enjoy full retirement benefits.

    Lagos State has been well disposed to regular payment of benefits to all its retirees across board. Recently, Fashola disclosed that the Contributory Pension Scheme had imposed a huge financial burden on the state’s finances.

    He said before the pension reform by the Federal Government in 2004, the state’s pensioners faced the risk of a life of penury due to the unfunded nature of the Pay as you Go Pension Scheme in the public service and the lack of provision of pension arrangement for employees in the private sector.

    He said: “The risk of the elderly not having financial independence and dying in poverty was real and to eradicate this risk, the Lagos State Government subscribed to the fully funded Contributory Pension Scheme.

    “It imposed on us a huge liability as we needed to pay of 7.5 per cent of basic salary, housing and transport allowances as monthly pension contribution; fund the Retirement Bond Redemption Fund Account with five per cent of employees monthly total emolument figure to provide for accrued pension rights, being entitlements for years spent in service before the commencement of the contributory pension scheme. We pay the annual premium to guarantee the life assurance cover as stipulated in the law and which is intended to provide a death benefit of at least three times the annual total emolument of each employee.”

     

  • Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation strategises for growth

    Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation has adpoted a new strategy aimed at reclaiming and sustaining its leadership in the reinsurance market.

    The Managing Director of the company, Lady Isioma Chukwuma made this known to reporters in Lagos.

    She disclosed that the execution of the new strategies has begun with the creation of a new department called critical operations, noting the department is divided into three, namely customer loyalty, research and development and strategic performance units.

    She said the organisation has since spearheaded the implementation of the strategy for the successful realisation of the new charge.

    She said: “The new roadmap is all encompassing. It is designed to create more market for the company, improve customer relationship, increase the company’s premium level and improve the visibility of the company.

    “The management of the organisation has packaged special programmes specifically for our external partners. These programmes will include local and international seminar/lectures, monthly customer loyalty team visits to all our existing and potential customers.’’

    She noted that the objective requires an urgent strategic roadmap for projecting the new possibilities in the reinsurance market, and that this need formed the reason the board of the company embarked on a week’s retreat where the new roadmap was rolled out.

    The retreat, she said is tagged, “Strategic roadmap for Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation” and has a time frame of 10 years starting from 2014 to 2024 and would be reviewed every five years for improvement where necessary.