The Nation Newspaper

Tag: FEC meeting

  • FEC okays N3.38 billion loan for Plateau potatoes 

    FEC okays N3.38 billion loan for Plateau potatoes 

    The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved N3.38 billion Africa Development Bank (ADB) loan for cultivation of potatoes in Plateau State.

    The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the FEC meeting chaired by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    According to her, the state government will also contribute N599 million counterparts funding.

    Stressing that about 60,000 jobs will be created from the potatoes value chain; she said that 17 local governments in the state will benefit from the project.

    A strong monitoring team, she said, will be in place to ensure the loan is judiciously used.

    Details Later…

  • Buhari presides at FEC meeting

    Buhari presides at FEC meeting

    President Muhammadu Buhari presided over the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting yesterday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja

    It was the first time he chaired the meeting since his return from medical vacation in London at the weekend.

    His arrival at the Council Chamber at 10a.m was announced by one of the aides shouting “Kindly rise for Mr. President.”

    Buhari stepped in wearing a white Babanringa and cap to match.

    After rendition of the National Anthem, he called on Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi to say the Christian prayer.

    After he ended, the president looked around and said: “I haven’t seen Lai.”

    Minister of Information Lai Mohammed, raised his voice, saying:  ”I’m here sir.”

    The President then called on him to say the opening Muslim prayer.

    He prayed for more strength and wisdom for the President to continue to steer the affairs of the nation.

    He concluded by saying: “That at the end of the tenure, we will leave a better country.”

    It was later learnt that the FEC meeting approved the establishment of the Nigeria Industrial Policy and Competitiveness Advisory Council with aim of boosting industrialisation in the country.

    Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment Okechukwu Enelamah said this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the FEC meeting.

    He was accompanied by Minister of Information and Minister of Health Isaac Adewole.

    According to him, the new council will engage the private sector to develop a viable policy for the nation’s industrial sector.

    He said the industrial council will be chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and will have two vice presidents from both the government and the private sector, while membership will be drawn from private sector and relevant ministries.

    The health minister said the council also approved Draft Bill for National Centre for Disease Control.

    Adewole added that the FEC approved draft bill to give legal backing for the establishment of the National Centre for Disease Control.

    He said the legal backing will give the agency to have its own board, recruit its personnel and appoint CEO.

    He said there is a budget line for centre already, adding that the Federal Government would not incur any additional expenses.

    Apart from being operational since 2012, he said it has been instrumental in combating the deadly Ebola virus and Lassa fever.

    The agenda of the disease control centre, he said, include strengthening the public health intervention to ensure proactiveness against future epidemic.

  • Buhari presides over FEC meeting

    Buhari presides over FEC meeting

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday presided over the Federal Executive Council meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja

    This was the first time Buhari is presiding over the meeting since he went on medical vacation on January 19.

    The President’s arrival at the Council Chamber by 10:00 a.m. was announced by one of the aides shouting “Kindly rise for Mr. President.”

    Buhari stepped into the chamber, dressed in White Babanringa and cap to match.

    After the rendition of the National anthem, the President called on the Minister of Mines and Solid Minerals, Kayode Fayemi for the opening Christian prayer.

    After Fayemi ended the prayer, Buhari looked around and said “I haven’t seen Lai.”

    The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, immediately shouted “I’m here sir.”

    He then called on him to say the opening Muslim prayer.

    The minister prayed for more strength and wisdom for the President to continue to steer the affairs of the nation.

     

     

  • ‎FG okays N701b power purchase guarantee for GenCos

    ‎FG okays N701b power purchase guarantee for GenCos

    …Power generation hits 4,000 megawatts

    The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved N701 billion as Power Assurance Guarantee for the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET). 

    The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola briefed State House correspondents at the end of FEC meeting chaired by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

    He was accompanied by the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed and Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh.

    Fashola said that the facility, which will be made available by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), is to guarantee the payment for the evacuation of power produced by Generating Companies (GenCos) for the national grid. 

    The amount, he said, will be drawn on monthly basis to tackle liquidity challenges faced by GenCos.

    NBET will pay GenCos in arrears of electricity generated as a deliberate step to boost their confidence and that of intending investors to the sector. 

    Part of the liquidity problem being faced by GenCos is the inability to pay their gas suppliers.

    Fashola said: “You will recall that a few weeks back we announced the approval of council for early works for the second Niger Bridge. That bridge at some time was part of a PPP initiative. You will also recall that at some time some private agreements have been signed to build the Lagos-Ibadan express way. 

    “The first memo is to brief council on the PPP status of those infrastructure projects and present options to government which was essentially that government where those PPPs are having problems, government must lead and finance the infrastructure while continuing to engage the private sector. Government remains committed to ‎having private participation in infrastructure renewal.

    “But government as a matter of strategy thinks that it can continue until financial closures, agreements and all of that are put in place when PPPs become ready and viable to help deliver. So, it was a strategy memorandum, the conclusion essentially which is that government is committed to doing short financing as much as possible and encouraging PPP as much as possible. 

    “The second memorandum is in another area of critical importance which is power‎. Part of the challenges there was addressed in the memo that was presented to council to solve some of the liquidity problems, especially as it relates to NBET. 

    “NBET as you know is the government’s own company, which is the Bulk ‎Trader Electricity who buys power from the GENCOS. The liquidity problems that have characterized the market have affected NBET’s ability to deliver on its PPP obligations through the GenCos.

    “So, going forward in order to strengthen NBET, CBN is proving a payment assurance guarantee for any energy produced by any GenCos, so that the GenCos can pay their gas suppliers when they get paid. So that the hydros can continue to operate.  

    “What we seek to achieve here is to bring some stability to the production side of the power value chain and also give confidence to investors who want to come in, who are concerned about how to recover their money….. payment assurance and also people who are planning to invest in the gas sector which is being championed by the ministry of petroleum also are saying the same thing in terms of payment for gas produced.

    “So, the approval of council was to provide this guarantee for NBET, which is a 100 percent government owned company to pay on a monthly basis it’s obligations for energy actually produced on to the grid to the GenCos that are its customers,” he said.

    He said that the government is expanding transmission capacity regularly because it wants to generate more power.

    He said “I have been here to announce to you transmission projects that have been approved by council and over the last one year plus the transmission capacity has grown to almost seven thousand from five thousand and is continuing to grow with every project.

    “So, it is not the problem of taking power, ‎it is actually a problem of getting power from generation. If you recall just about a few weeks ago you were reporting that power supply had dropped to a little over 2000. It’s back now at over 4000. Because what we were seeing on the eastern side of the Delta was that there power. We have solved the transmission problem in Ikot Ekpene largely to evacuate over a thousand. But the gas suppliers were being owed so they were not supplying gas for the power producers. 

    “As to the quantum of the guarantee, it is for two years from January this year right through to December 2018. It is capped at a maximum of N‎701 billion but it is to be drawn monthly. It is possible it may not reach that. But we are projected on the total cost that NBET will likely to pay. And that is why it is for power generated onto the grid only.

    “So, if the power generated does not meet that cost we don’t pay for it. It is paid in arrears at the end of the month not in advance. So, it is for actually what gets unto the grid. And this is part of the reforms that we have briefed you about that we were planning to undertake,” he said.

    He also said that he briefed the cabinet on the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) status of the Second Niger Bridge and Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

    Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, said the FEC approved the sum of N263 million for three research institutions to produce gum Arabic seedlings for Nigerian farmers and for export.

    He said Nigeria earned as much as $43 million from export of gum Arabic last year, and that more will be earned with increased production, especially the commodity is in high demand in 17 other countries.

    Ogbeh disclosed that similar efforts are on to boost Cassava research, noting recent discovery of well-packaged ‘garri’ imported from India.

  • FG won’t succumb to threats, Ngige tells labour unions

    FG won’t succumb to threats, Ngige tells labour unions

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige on Wednesday declared that the Federal Government will not succumb to threats from labour unions in the country.

    The labour unions, he said, cannot achieve anything through threats except dialogue.

    He spoke with State House correspondents after FEC meeting.

    He said “Government is on the issue of industrial relations as possible as we can, especially with an economy that is in technical recession like ours.

    “We have cooperation from most of the unions: the NLC and the TUC. We have maximum cooperation from them.

    “On the minimum wage issue, we have a technical committee that is working and members of the two congresses are members of that committee. We are almost finishing our work and we are handing over next week.

    “Everybody knows that prices have gone up and in some states, workers are not getting salaries. They are unable to pay the minimum wage. These are the things we have taken into account in our discussion.

    “We also have warnings from doctors’ union and ASUU as well as NASU. We are discussing with them but we want to appeal to all of them that there is nothing like warning strike.

    “There is nothing you cannot get by negotiation and you cannot get certain things by threats. Warning strikes as far as government is concerned are threats. I have made it clear to them.” he said

    Government and labour laws, he said, make provision for social dialogue and collective bargaining agreements.

    “It also makes provision for the review of the agreements. Nigerian unions should imbibe the culture of social dialogue. They can go on strike after giving the mandatory notices but the same law says in Section 43 that if you withdraw your services, your union is supposed to pay you. Your employer will not pay. That is how the issue of no work, no pay came up.

    “It is in the country’s labour. For the period you withdraw your services, it will not count for you in your pensionable times. It is taken as broken service. The unions have the responsibility to lecture their members on this.

    “If your employer has not complied with an agreement, you take him back to negotiation table or he can ask you for a re-negotiation.

    “Everything is about money and funding. Most of those agreements are not backed by appropriation. Government at times because of threats and pressures from the unions succumb to certain conditions that are not implementable.

    “We have a lot of them and that is why the university unions will now have to go back for renegotiation for the 2009 agreement they had with the Federal Government.

    “We want them to give government a chance. Government has a human face; we are human,” he stated

     

  • FEC approves N60.9b engineering infrastructure for FCT

    The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved N60.9 billion for a contract to provide engineering infrastructure to Kyami District, Zone C, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    The Supervising Minister of Information, Nurudeen Mohammed, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the meeting presided  over by Vice President Namadi Sambo.

    He was accompanied to the briefing by the Ministers of FCT, Bala Mohammed and Environment, Lauriencia Mallam.

    Nurudeen said: “Minister of FCT informed the council that this is in line with the statutory responsibility of the FCTA to provide engineering infrastructure to the FCT. This is one of the residential districts located in Phase V of the city with a land area or 942.56 hectares.”

    “Council deliberated extensively on the scope of work, contribution of the project to the overall development of the FCT including job creation and noted that all due process requirements were met and approved the award of the contract to Messrs. Mangrovetech Construction and Engineering Nigeria Limited (KaKatar CE Limited) in the sum of N60, 887,492,656.65 with the completion period of 60 months.”

    “This government has demonstrated that it is above board in partisan politics. It will be demonstrated equitably to women in this country.”

    He also disclosed that a second memo was presented for council’s ratification of Mr. President’s anticipatory approval for the award of contract for the procurement of 750,000 units of clean cook stove and 18,000 wonder bags under the National Clean Cooking Scheme.

    The scheme, he said, is an aggressive drive to engender clean cooking culture amongst the poor rural women, to reduce and possibly eliminate cooking with solid fossil which is detrimental to health.

    According to him, the scheme is expected to provide 20 million clean stoves over a five year period at the rate of four million stoves per annum which will be distributed free of charge.

     

  • Impressive turn-out at Sambo-led FEC meeting

    Impressive turn-out at Sambo-led FEC meeting

     

     

    he Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Vice-President Namadi Sambo last week witnessed an impressive turn-out of ministers.

    President Goodluck Jonathan was away in Brussels, Belgium attending the European Union (EU)-Africa summit.

    The FEC meeting recorded attendance of 27 ministers out of the current 37 members of cabinet.

    Attendance to various past FEC meetings presided over by Sambo had always been within the range of between 12 and 15 ministers.

    The practice was that many of the ministers always regard official trips of President Jonathan outside the country as an opportunity to stay away from Sambo-led FEC meetings.

    The ministers, who were rarely absent during any FEC meeting presided over by President Jonathan, unless on official engagements abroad, always prefer to go for their private businesses when the President is not around.

    It has also been rumoured in the past that ministers who travel for international conferences abroad prefer to go on shopping sprees while important meetings were in progress.

    But the President has spoken on their defence, claiming that not all ministers were meant to attend all meetings as they were scheduled to attend those meetings relevant to their portfolios.

    The ugly trend witnessed in some past Sambo-led FEC meetings prompted me to draw attention to it in my write-up of Tuesday, October 1, 2013 entitled “Where are the Ministers?”

    Only 14 ministers attended the October 1, 2013 FEC meeting.

    I also pointed out in the write-up the importance of truly serving the country with commitment and without any eye-service. I also added that any disrespect for Sambo is also disrespect for Jonathan who mandated the Vice-President to preside over such meetings in his absence.

    But last Wednesday’s attendance was a different story even though the meeting did not last for more than one hour.

    The 27 ministers who arrived at the FEC Chamber before the meeting started with National Anthem and opening prayer by 10:07 a.m. were Mike Onolememen (Works), Chinedu Nebo (Power), Laurencia Mallam (Environment), Mohammed Adoke (Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice), Mohammed Sada (Mines and Steel Development).

    Also at the meeting were Emeka Wogu (Labour), Tanimu Turaki (Special Duties), Omobola Johnson (Communication Technology), Asabe Ahmed (Agriculture – State), Nyesom Wike (Education -State), Sarah Ochekpe (Water), Zainab Maina (Women Affairs), Boni Haruna (Youth Development), Edem Duke (Culture and Tourism).

    Others in attendance were Samuel Ortom (Trade and Investment-State), Abba Moro (Interior), Viola Onwuliri (Foreign Affairs-State I), Garious Ishiaku (Niger Delta-State), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Finance), Umar Idris (Transport), Labaran Maku (Information), Olajumoke Akinjide (FCT-State), Khaliru Alhassan (Health – State), Musiliu Obanikoro (Defence-State), Mohammed Wakil (Power-State), Deziani Alison-Madueke (Petroleum), and Bala Mohammed (FCT).

    The three ministers, who were officially announced to be in the President’s delegation to Belgium, were Aliyu Gusau (Defence), Aminu Wali (Foreign Affairs), and Olusegun Aganga (Trade and Investment).

    Since there are currently 37 ministers in the cabinet, seven ministers who did not travel with Jonathan were not at the Sambo-led FEC meeting last week.

    Being the last warning, I will not mention those who were absent from the FEC meeting here.

    Even with the impressive attendance at the meeting last week, this piece is a reminder to all of us to continue to put in our best at all times for the country’s growth and development.

  • FEC meeting cancelled

    The weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting did not hold in Abuja on Wednesday.

    No official reason was given for the cancellation of the meeting.

    Some ministers who were not aware of the cancellation turned up early for the meeting that didn’t hold.

    Journalists were also in their numbers waiting for the meeting to start before information filtered in that it has been cancelled.

     

  • FEC meeting fails to hold

    After the festive period, the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting did not hold in Abuja on Wednesday.

    The last FEC meeting was held exactly a week before Christmas.

    No official reason was given for the development even though there is no law pinning the executive on a particular calendar for meetings unlike the legislative arm of government.

    Many journalists and government officials who were not aware that the meeting will not hold turned up early at the Presidential Villa only to see that the normal arrangements prior to such meetings were absent.

    But most of the ministers were obviously aware that the meeting will not hold as they did not show up for the meeting by 10.00a.m, the usual commencement period of the meeting.

     

  • FEC meeting cancelled

    The weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting did not hold in Abuja on Wednesday.

    No official reason was given for the cancellation.

    President Goodluck Jonathan was in Anambra State on Wednesday for the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) campaign towards Saturday’s governorship election in the state.

    Vice President Namadi Sambo is presently attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) meeting in Sri Lanka.