The Nation Newspaper

Tag: establish

  • Fed Govt to establish delivery units in ministries

    THE Federal Government has finalised arrangement to establish delivery units in six ministries, Minister of Budget and National Planning Senator Udoma Udo Udoma has said.

    He said this is to tackle challenges faced by investors for the implementation of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

    Udoma, who briefed State House correspondents yesterday after a meeting of the ERGP Central Steering Committee, presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, said the units would be set up in the Agriculture, Transportation, Industry, Trade and Investment, Mines and Steel Development and Power, Works and Housing ministries.

    He said: “The units will continue with problem-solving, critical challenges faced by investors in those sectors.

    “It was agreed that the overall philosophy of the focus labs should be continued, as the Federal Government is committed to sponsoring a few more mini focus labs to tackle issues faced by investors.

    “So, the focus lab concept is a continuing concept, which we are working on. We will do more mini focus labs.”

    The minister said the committee also agreed to establish a special office within the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment to focus on the Cotton, Textile and Garment (CTG) industry.

    “The modalities for that office, which will focus on CTG, are being worked out by the minister of Industry, Trade and Investment,” he said.

    Udoma said the electric power sector was a key focus of yesterday’s meeting.

    He said: “The meeting agreed to redouble its effort at engaging and communicating our single and coherent vision for the power sector working with the private sector.

    “It appears that the overall roadmap and impact of initiatives that the Federal Government is working on is not fully understood. So, we agreed to communicate this single roadmap to the public.”

    The minister said the committee referred a number of issues to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to look into, including “wider access of intervention funds by agricultural companies.”

    He said other issues were referred to ministries to look at and address in the next few weeks.

    “So, we continue to monitor and continue to move forward with the effective implementation of the projects that came out of the ERGP Focus labs.”

    Asked the extent to which the focus labs have generated jobs and attracted foreign direct investments, Udoma said: “This is still the early days.”

    Many of the ventures in agriculture and power, he said, were being worked upon.

  • PLWDs: Lagos to establish early intervention centre

    The lagos State Government will in 2018 establish an Early Intervention Centre to provide therapy and educational support services for infants and young children with special needs, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode yesterday said

    The centre, according to Ambode, will enable the government equip such children with skills to develop their potential, thereby overcoming identified developmental delays as far as possible.

    He spoke at the 2017 International Day of Persons Living with Disabilities (PLWDs) organised by the Office of Disability Affairs (LASODA).

    “As a government, we will continue to embark on initiatives to improve the quality of lives of our people. We will always work to develop the productive capacity of persons with disabilities and give them opportunities to play a role in socio-economic growth of our State,” he said.

    Restating the fact that there is ability in every disability, the Governor advised PLWDs not to allow any circumstance limit their progress and life aspirations, adding that they must strive to achieve the best in everything and command respect from people in the society.

    Ambode said it was important for the general public to refrain from looking down on PLWDs but rather look out for their good qualities.

    While reeling out some of the interventions of his administration, the Governor said a total of 250 PLWDs were recently employed into the State’s Civil Service, Local Governments and Local Council Development Areas, while more would be employed next year.

    “Similarly, 500 persons have also benefitted from the State government’s special empowerment programme drawn from the N500 million Special People’s Fund established by our administration, while various assistive technologies, mobility aids and financial grants were given to 2,000 persons living with disabilities and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) involved in taking care of such categories of people,” he said.

    The Governor, who recalled his promise to deliver an all-inclusive government in which no one would be left behind, said the event was another opportunity to reaffirm the policy of his administration, just as he assured that the welfare and well-being of PLWDs would always be a priority.

    At the event, awards were given to various caregivers and NGOs involved in disability affairs, while there were also performances by groups of disabled people including Divine Melody Makers Band, Down Syndrome Society and Wesley School for the Deaf and Hearing Impairment.

  • Kano to establish textile park

    Kano to establish textile park

    Kano State government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Shandong Ruyi Technology Group of China for the establishment of $600million Textile Industrial Park in Kano.

    The Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Usman Alhaji and the company’s Chairman, Mr. Yafu Qiu, signed the agreement at the weekend at the company’s headquarters in Jining, Shandong, China.

    Shandong Ruyi is China’s leading innovative technology textile enterprise and the planned multi-million dollar investment in Kano will be its biggest in Africa, upon completion.

    Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, who had visited one of the group’s factories, described the event as “the biggest foreign direct investment expected in the state in recent times.”

    The Chairman of Ruyi Group, Mr. Yafu Qiu, said the investment was to hasten growth and support global development, adding that having the governor to come for the signing of the MoU boosted his confidence in the implementation of the project.

  • ‘Establish uniform royalty, single fiscal regime in mining sector’

    ‘Establish uniform royalty, single fiscal regime in mining sector’

    Solid Minerals, Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Assistant Director, Dieter Bassi, has called for a uniform royalty to be paid by mining companies operating in an area, and single fiscal regime for the sector.

    He said such uniformity would create the enabling environment for foreign and local investors in the sector. “There is the issue of multiple taxations based on the constitution as some states and agencies collect royalty on some minerals that are on the exclusive list.”

    Bassi, who spoke with The Nation at a forum in Lagos, said the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development was supposed to collect royalties, but that, in some states, the local government areas and certain agencies of government collect  royalties in one form or the other.

    He also said changing royalty’s  name into what he described as production tax or development levy would not encourage investment in the sector.

    President, Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN), Musa Shehu, also called on the Federal Ministry of Mines to give adequate protection to miners, who have paid their taxes, noting that licensed companies had been prevented from mining even when they had brought in foreign investors to site. He added that this development, among other factors, encouraged illegal mining.

    He, however, advocated a synergy between the Ministry of the Environment and its state counterparts.

    Also, Director, Planning, Research & Statistics, Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Pade Davies, supported the approval for setting up the National Council of Mines and Mineral Resources by the Federal Executive Council (FEC). This, he noted, would create a forum for states and local government councils to come together and address issues relating to multiple taxation, community agreements and how to resolve them.

    Meanwhile, an expert in the mining sector and pioneer lecturer in the Department of Geology and Mining, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, K’tsoNghargbu, has stressed the need to involve Sociologists and Psychologists in the public relations departments of mining companies in the country.

    This, he said, would reduce the hostilities companies and individuals that have mining titles suffer in accessing their sites in the country. He said their services would help to sensitise host communities on happenings around them as well as inform them on what they stand to benefit from the mining operations around them in the short and long terms.

    Such experts, he suggested, needed to be drafted into the communities and make them to settle to work before the arrival of equipment and personnel into such communities, insisting that it will help to eliminate resentment and misgivings.

    Nghargbu agreed that there were issues hindering the success of mining operations in the country, but  advised mining firms to have community relations units and first deploy their members of staff in such units in communities before moving in their equipment.

    Mining companies, he said, should not end up with geologists and engineers, adding that they needed sociologists as well as psychologists. If that is done, nobody should protest for want of knowledge of what is happening around him or her and would not attack the company in the area.

  • Agency to establish sexual referral network in UNILAG

    The Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT) has concluded plans to establish a sexual referral network at the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

    Students would be trained and empowered at the centre to act as first responders to sexual assault cases on campus.

    The Guidance and Counseling Department of the institution has already assured the team of their commitment to partner with DSVRT in addressing the issue.

    DSVRT Coordinator Mrs Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi said the decision is in line with the mandate given by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to embark on enlightenment campaigns on sexual assault prevention, rape and domestic violence.

    At an event in the campus organised by DSVRT and the Pastor Bimbo Odukoya Foundation, the students were given tips on how to avoid being victims of sexual assault and educated on how to stay safe in social settings, some of which include making a plan ‘B’ for emergency exits from a place, protecting their drinks, avoiding clubs or free parties.

    They were also informed and educated on the legal implications of committing sexual assault offence.

    The students were informed of their roles as bystanders, in intervening and assisting to prevent sexual assault and were taught to “CARE- Create a distraction, Ask directly, Refer the matter to an authority and Enlist others and for their fellow students.

    “Students were also given tips on how to date, some of which include setting limits and being clear on them, being mindful of behaviours of their partners some of which include degrading mannerisms, extreme jokes or language, violent tendencies, and controlling or overbearing tendencies”.

    Mrs Vivour-Adeniyi distributed a manual on sexual assault prevention to the students.

  • ‘Establish centres to monitor earthquakes’

    Following the tremor that recently occurred in some parts of  Oyo, Bayelsa, Rivers and Kaduna states, a group, the Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG), has lent its voice to calls for the establishment of more seismological stations to monitor crustal movements in the identified earthquake-prone areas in the country.

    The group urged the government to invest in earthquake electromagnetic precursors monitoring devices to avert future earthquakes.

    The group, in a statement, recalled that about a year ago, it drew the attention of the government to the possibility of an earthquake;  advising it to reduce the spate of substandard building construction through vigilant monitoring.

    The statement signed by its National President, Kunle Awobodu and National Publicity Secretary, George Akinola, said a nation without an effective national building code would end up in ruins if an earthquake occurred, noting that the enforcement of building regulations without compromise would prevent serious calamity in the future.

    It explained that vibrations accompanying the earth tremors in the affected areas resulted in the collapse of mud houses and infliction of visible cracks in modern buildings within the affected areas.

    This development, it observed,  ossified the harbinger on the possibility of the country having an  earthquake induced-disaster in the near future.

    “The perception that Nigeria is safe or far from the seismic active regions is no longer tenable. Shaki in Oyo State has been subjected to intermittent earth tremors this year and climaxed in the first week of June 2016. Communities in Bayelsa and Rivers states on July 10, 2016 had a similar experience, but in this case due to prolonged effect of oil exploration,” the Guild said, adding that earth tremors have occurred in the country in 1933, 1939, 1964, 1984,1990, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2009 and 2016. It, however, said a series of earth tremors might not necessarily lead to high intensity earthquake.

    The guild explained that a study  by Dr. Adepelumi Abraham of the Department of Geology, Obafemi  Awolowo University (OAU), Ile- Ife, showed that after the tremor of 2009 in the Southwest, the probability of earthquake occurrence in the study area between the year 2009 and 2028 had increased from 2.8 per cent to 91.1 per cent.

    The group, therefore, urged investors in buildings to be concerned about the durability of the buildings they are funding, warning that in earthquake, substandard buildings had been the major cause of high death toll. It regretted that there is no National Building Code in existence in the country.

    It warned that Nigeria could not afford to repeat the mistake of Haiti and Nepal, where stringent building regulations are lacking, thereby aggravating the effects of earthquakes on buildings.

  • Nigeria, Chinese firms to establish mining plant

    A major leap to grow solid minerals was achieved yesterday in China with the signing of an agreement to herald one of the largest granite and processing plants in Africa.

    Chinese company Shanghai Machinery Co. Limited and a Nigerian firm, Granite and Marble Limited, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a plant for assembling of mining equipment.

    It will also support capacity-building for the industry.

    It is part of the efforts to boost the President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s effort at diversifying the economy.

    The MoU signing ceremony was part of the highlights of the business forum on production capacity and investment cooperation organised as part of the President’s ongoing five-day state visit to China.

    The granite mining and processing plant is being supported with the special intervention fund of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through Zenith International Bank Plc.

    Chairman of the Chinese firm Mr. Songke Yang was optimistic that with the commitment exhibited by the President during the forum, the plants should come on stream this the year.

    He promised to be a major player in the nation’s solid minerals sector’s growth.

    Chairman of Granite & Marble Limited Mr. Chiahemba Ayom thanked Ministers of Trade and Investment Dr. Okechukwu Enelama and Solid Minerals Dr. Kayode Fayemi; their agencies and financial institutions; for their support and encouragement to see the project through.

  • Methodist Church to establish MfB

    Methodist Church to establish MfB

    The Methodist Church of Nigeria said it would establish Wesley a micro-finance bank. It said the bank will create jobs and lend money to the teeming youths in Nigeria.

    The leaders of the church also called on other churches in Nigeria to invest in agriculture by encouraging its members to go into full time agriculture to boost food production.

    This was contained in a  communiqué issued in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, at the end the 9th Biennial Conference of Methodist Church of Nigeria held at  Wesley Methodist Church with the theme, ‘Let My People Move Forward.’

    Speaking at the press conference organized by Wesley Methodist Church Rivers State, His Eminence, Dr. Samuel Emeka Kalu Uche, said the church has made every plan to establish a microfinance bank that will lend money to young entrepreneurs.

    He said the strength of the church lies in its ability to help in the development of the society adding that, it is one of the functions of the church. He added that the interest of churches to go into agriculture is to create job opportunity to the teeming youth.

    Dr. Samuel also reveals that one of the ways in which the church can save the society is by creating business and farms that will help provide for the society.

    “The establishment of Microfinance Bank, Wesley Microfinance Bank Limited is geared towards the empowerment of youths and the poor, both within and outside the church. This is in a bid to support the efforts of the three tiers of government in provision of food security and to create job.

    “Most of our youths don’t have job and we know that an idle mind is a prepared tools for  Satan So, we want to help in creating jobs and that is the aim of the church, empowering our people not only Methodists but non-Methodists.”

  • ITF to establish 32 skills training centres nationwide

    The Industrial Training Fund (ITF), a government agency charged with the responsibility of training required manpower for the nation’s industrialization needs has assured the nation that all things being equal, it will keep delivering on its core mandate.

    The agency through it Director-General, Dr (Mrs) Juliet Chukkas-Onaeko announced that plans to establish 32 skills training centers across the nation is underway. She stated this yesterday during the graduation ceremony of its 4th batch (2013) trainees in Lagos. The skill manpower training which is in partnership with the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA)graduated 45 now highly skilled youths in its Technical Skills Development Project (TSDP) at its Industrial Skills Training Centre (ISTC), Ojota Lagos.

    Chukkas-Onaeko said the TSDP is an initiative which aims at producing appropriate technical skilled workforce with a view to reduce unemployment and youth restiveness by empowering Nigerians with industrial and vocational skills for paid or self-employment. She added that the major plank of President Jonathan’s transformation Agenda is the National Industrial Revolution Plan (NIPR) and the graduation of the trainees, a modest effort of ITF and partners to ensure availability of sufficient quantity of required skilled workforce for driving the NIPR. Through synergy with other stakeholders, she announced that 37, 000 youths were trained in Autotronics, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Tiling, Sewing and Knitting, and welding and fabrication in 2013.

    To address the issue of poverty and unemployment,   Chukkas-Onaeko said three most effective strategies include political, social and economic empowerment. She appeals for release of statutory funds from relevant government agencies to make their all important assignment easy calling for the resuscitation of technical skills training at least in phases.

    The Chairman of the occasion and Managing Director, Vono Products Plc, Mrs Titolola Bakare said the graduation of the skilled trainees was made possible because the synergy between ITF and NECA                       calling for its sustenance as the manufacturing sector of the economy has benefitted immensely since the inception of the programme four years ago. She said no nation can attract investors without sufficient manpower requirements to drive the investment. Mrs Bakare advised the teeming youths roaming the streets to take advantage of skills acquisition opportunities provided by the Federal Government as it can make their dream come true.

  • US to establish $6million Arewa Tv in Nigeria

    The State Department is financing a new 24-hour satellite television channel in the turbulent northern region of Nigeria that American officials say is crucial to countering the extremism of

    radical groups such as Boko Haram.

    The move signals a ramping up of American counterinsurgency efforts to directly challenge the terrorist group, which abducted nearly 300  schoolgirls in April.

    State Department officials acknowledged that setting up an American-supported channel could prove challenging in a region where massacres, bombings and shootings by Boko Haram are common, and where the American government and Western educational programs are far from popular. The group has been known to attack media organizations in Nigeria.

    The new television channel, to be called Arewa24 — arewa means north in the Hausa language — is financed by the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism, and it is expected to cost about $6 million. State Department officials would discuss the programme only on the condition of anonymity, and offered sparse information about it. But details have emerged in publicly available contracting documents and in interviews with people familiar with the effort.

    The project was started last year and is run in Nigeria by Equal Access International, a San Francisco-based government contractor that has managed media programs sponsored by the State Department in Yemen and Pakistan that encourage youth participation in politics, in addition to countering Islamist extremism. Work on the project is nearing completion, but broadcasts have not yet begun.

    State Department officials insisted that the Nigerian government was aware of the television project, and that it had not planned to hide American support for the program, which has not been previously disclosed. “However, U.S. sponsorship will not be advertised or promoted,” a State Department official said.

    The goal of the channel is to provide original content, including comedies and children’s programs that will be created, developed and produced by Nigerians. State Department officials said they hoped to provide an alternative to the violent propaganda and recruitment efforts of Boko Haram.

    Many foreign policy experts, while applauding State Department programs to counter the efforts of Boko Haram and other extremist groups, said the new satellite project faced several challenges in a region with low levels of infrastructure, public services, literacy and security.

    Documents show that the television channel is to target youths, “either subtly or explicitly,” with Hausa-language programs that deliver “themes that reject political violence and violent extremism,” but do not include “news or political reporting.”

    The State Department is expected to finance the channel for two years. Details about the program have come to light in the wake of attempts by the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development to create Twitter-like social media programs in countries such as Cuba and Pakistan.

    The Cuba effort was widely criticized after The Associated Press reported that it was set up to encourage political dissent on the island. Officials said the effort was part of American public diplomacy programs to encourage political discussions, not a covert program to overthrow the government. But unlike the social media programs, the satellite television channel is part of an overall counterterrorism effort designed to delegitimize extremist ideology through the use of social media tools like Facebook and YouTube, as well as blogs, radio programs and online video games.

    State Department counterterrorism officials also engage with terrorist groups in online forums and in the comment sections on media websites. The effort is intended to reach what one State Department official called the “middle-grounders — the fence-sitters, the sympathizers and passive supporters.”

    The United States has long had a media presence in northern Nigeria. The Voice of America offers general Hausa-language news programs in the region, but State Department officials said the new project would go beyond simply providing information. In addition to the broadcasts, officials said the project would provide training to journalists in the region, including women, who would then be able to produce their own video content.