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Tag: Fed Govt

  • NGO partners Osun, Fed. Govt. on cancer education

    NGO partners Osun, Fed. Govt. on cancer education

    In its bid to stem the rate of prevalence of cancer in the country, the Glorious Youth Empowerment Centre (GYEC), a non-governmental  organisation (NGO), in partnership with Marie Stopes International, Nigeria, the Osun State and the Federal Ministry of Health, has held a cancer sensitisation and screening programme in Osun State for women.

    No fewer than 23 nurses were trained by a team of specialists from Marie Stopes International, Nigeria at a week-long workshop entitled “Who Shall Deliver us From This Plague?” held in Osogbo, Osun State capital city.

    Out of the 23 nurses, 15 were from Osun Hospital Management Board, seven from Osun Ministry of Health and one from the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hopital (LAUTECHTH).

    Subsequent to the workshop, a capacity building training was carried out for health personnel at the General Hospital Asubiaro in Osogbo.

    According to the team leader of the cancer project, Glorious Youth Empowerment Centre, Dr. Samuel Ekundayo, 200 women were screened for cancer during the week-long programme.

    Ekundayo, who revealed that 80 women were screened for cervical cancer, said at the end of the exercise, no case of cervical cancer was recorded, adding that medical advice was offered to the participants.

    Explaining the mission of the programme, the founder of the NGO, Mrs. Remi Ajibewa, noted that the GYEC had vast interest and experience in the provision of support and necessities for the vulnerable youth, women and widows in the society, saying “our mission is to promote quality life for women, children, young people and other vulnerable population through skill development, enlightenment, advocacy engagements and direct support services.”

    Continuing, she said: “We have specifically focused the attention of this workshop on cancer in order to enlighten our people, especially at this time when our current lifestyles predispose us to different kinds of diseases.

    “Our interest in cancer is because the disease is one of the toughest fights anyone can face. Or even one of the greatest challenges difficult to come to terms with when it is diagnosed. The disease is growing rapidly in our community like a raged fire and the entire world at large, with several lives lost and dreams shattered.

    “The World Health Organisation (WHO) says cancer accounts for 13 per cent of all deaths registered globally. Seventy per cent of that figure occurs in middle and low income countries. In Nigeria, about 10,000 cancer deaths are recorded annually while 250,000 new cases are recorded yearly, with breast and cervical cancers being the commonest among women.

    “Prostate cancer is more prevalent in men. Unfortunately, many Nigerians are still poorly educated on this growing disease. Many Nigerians still see cancer as a disease of the wealthy, the elderly and even restricted to the developed countries. While many sufferers of the disease in the country, on the other hand, still regard it as their fate and, as such, a death sentence.

    “Cancer is not just a health issue; it has far-reaching social and economic implications. It also does not discriminate. It is a global epidemic that affects all ages. Its consequences are alarming, challenging and very demanding; even as it has been noted to kill more than HIV and AIDS.

    “Although persistent research is still ongoing towards finding a permanent cure for this most puzzled disease, we at GYEC believe that massive awareness of the general populace is critical to stemming the tide of cancer in Nigeria and indeed globally.”

  • Fed Govt: 1,459mw coming from 20 plants

    Fed Govt: 1,459mw coming from 20 plants

    The Federal Government plan additional 1459MW from 20 power plants to the national grid next year to bring power generation above 6,000Mw.

    Minister of Power, Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola, who stated this at the weekend, said despite the 3,000 megawatts (MW) lost to gas pipeline vandalism, power generation peaked at 4,010 MW as at November 5.

    Fashola spoke at the weekend while giving account of his one year stewardship.

    He said 37 federal universities and seven teaching hospitals would get 120 MW from 37 independent gas and solar power plants to begin the fulfilment of the constitutional requirement of rural electrification

    “In addition to transmission, we are working to complete uncompleted power generation projects. Some of the projects that should start coming to conclusion in 2017 are the 215 MW Kaduna Power, 40 MW Kashimbilla Power (Hydro), 40 MW Gurara I Power (Hydro), 29 MW Dadin Kowa Power (Hydro), 10 MW Katsina Power (Wind) 1,125 MW (14 Solar projects) and the 240 MW Emergency Power Project for Afam (Gas).

    “Egbin has restored all its turbines even though it has suffered a gas outage as a result of vandalisation. Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro have increased the number of functional turbines, so they are producing 300 MW extra power during this year’s rainy season, more than they did last year,” Fashola said.

    He explained that the second anchor of the ministry’s Rural Electrification Implementation programme would involve the use of small hydro dams to support agriculture and agro processing by providing power.

    The ministry, he added, had also done the audits and planning of all the schools in rural areas to benefit from the programme.

    “All of these sources of power, with embedded power from Paras Energy 40 MW gas in Lagos, the expected completion of Azura power in Edo, expected gas supply to Ihorbor Gas power plant, Gegeru power, Olorunsogo, Omotosho, Gbarain and others make me hopeful that we can get incremental power,” Fashola said.

    On roads, he said the federal government would fix 42 bridges across the country with N277 billion in three years, if the national assembly’s approval is secured.

    The minister explained that although construction of houses had not begun, 27 states had already donated land for federal housing schemes and over 500 contracts were ready to be issued for work to begin.

    The government, he added, inherited about 206 road projects already contracted out with outstanding completion costs of N1.5 trillion, while the works’ ministry’s share of the 2016 appropriation was N260 billion.

    Fashola said: “Our interactions with contractors showed that many of them had not been paid for an average of two to three years before we resumed and this explained the stoppage of work by the contractors, the layoff of workers, and consequently poor condition of many roads.”

    He stated that with limited resources and debts owed, the ministry had to choose which of the 206 roads were more urgent and more impactful than others.

    “So, our choices were determined by roads that carried the heaviest cargo, to allow farmers, businessmen, industries and travellers move their goods and themselves across the country in order to drive productive activity.

    “Secondly, we chose roads that support our energy sufficiency and put our resources in roads leading to and from petroleum tank farms so that we can move petro, diesel and kerosene across Nigeria.

    “We also chose roads that led to and from our major sea and airports so that maritime business can go on, to drive the economy. Therefore, we re-mobilized contractors back to work on roads across the six geo-political zones,” Fashola said.

    He listed the roads to include the Port Harcourt- Aba, Sokoto – Tambuwal – Makera-Kontagara, Ilorin-Jebba, Loko-Oweto Bridge, Shagamu- Ibadan, Shagamu – Lagos and the Ogbomosho-Oko-Ilogbo-Osogbo roads.

    Others are the Funtua-Katsina , Wukari-Akwana , Abriba-Arochukwu – Ohafia, Abuja – Lokoja – Airport, Oji-Achi-Obeagu-Mmaku-Awgu-Ndeaboh-Mpu-Okpanku , Ajase Ipo-Offa- Erinle-Osun State boundary and Ikot Ekpene border- Aba-Owerri dualisation.

    Fashola added: “We also paid consultants who are supervising these roads and had been denied payment for two to three years. This has helped to recover lost jobs, and put some money back in circulation.”

    He said the authority of states controllers of works would be restored to so as to enhance maintenance of the roads “and gradually restore our highways to contemporary quality.”

    The minister explained that next year’s budget would pay attention to roads that lead to and from major food producing states, those in states that produce minerals from mining activity or where there are strategic fuel depots.

    For housing, he noted that simple designs of one, two and three-bedroom bungalows had been completed which reflect cultural, climatic and land use peculiarities of the northern and southern states.

    “We have also identified inputs like doors, windows, tiles, paint, roofing materials that can be made locally and we have resolved to use only made in Nigeria inputs unless there is no local production capacity,” Fashola

  • Fed Govt to float pension scheme for self-employed individuals

    Fed Govt to float pension scheme for self-employed individuals

    There is good news for self-employed individuals. They are to be brought under the Pension Commission (PenCom) umbrella. OMOBOLA TOLU KUSHIMO writes on Federal Government’s plan to roll out a micro pension scheme for artisans, lawyers, accountants among  others, early next year.

    PLANS are afoot to extend the pension scheme beyond the formal public and private sectors. The Federal Government is planning to organise a micro pension scheme for thousands of artisans, self-employed accountants and lawyers, among others.

    The proposed scheme, according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), underscores the government’s conviction that the informal sector remains a critical part of the economy.

    According to statistics, the sector which accounts for over 70 per cent of the working population, has been uncovered by structured pension managers.

    With the planned introduction of a micro pension scheme, the Federal Government, through the National Pension Commission (PenCom), would be bringing more Nigerians under the pension’s umbrella, thus ensuring that save for the rainy day.

    The pilot phase of the micro pension scheme is expected to kick off by the second quarter of next year.

    Going by Section 2(3) of the Pension Reform Act 2014 which extended coverage of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) to self-employed persons, the Pension Reform Act 2014 established the legal framework for micro pension.

    According to the NBS demographic, 37.6 million (representing 40.1 per cent) of Nigeria’s 93.5 million adult population, operate within the informal sector of the economy.

    A further breakdown of the demographic shows that 8.6 million (representing 9.2 per cent) of the adult population earn their income from the formal sector; 49.4 million (representing 52.8 per cent) is under 33 years; 58.7 million (representing 62.8 per cent) own a mobile phones and 21.5 million (representing 23.0 per cent) have no education.

    The demographic profile also states that Nigeria has a large rural population of 63.9 per cent, but there has been significant urbanisation since 2012. The Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja’s population is growing at nine per cent per annum, Lagos is growing at three per cent and the national growth at two per cent.

    The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as at the end of last year, stood at about N94.1 trillion, with the informal sector accounting for N38.7 trillion and N55.3 trillion from the formal.

    According to PenCom’s report on the current pension coverage, pension managers have 7.24 million contributors in their network as at September under the formal CPS. The figure represents about 7.7 per cent of labour force and above four per cent of contributors in private and public sectors.

    In a paper titled: “Understanding micro pension scheme: Features, prospects and expectations”, presented at workshop organised for  finance, insurance, labour and business editors in Calabar, Cross River State, PenCom Head, Micro Pensions Department, Polycarp C.N. Anyanwu, described micro pension as an initiative that exists for the provision of pension coverage to self-employed individuals.

    According to him, micro pension is a global trend and has been implemented in India, Kenya and Ghana. Anyanwu said the scheme engages and extends pension to the larger working population, especially those outside the formal sector.

    The PenCom official stated that micro pension in Nigeria covers three strata – the lowest, middle and high income earners.

    He listed artisans, accountants, lawyers, mechanics, tailors, traders, hair dressers, architects and engineers among others, who are self-employed in various trades and professions, as the commission’s target.

    Anyanwu noted that the micro pension scheme is an offshoot of the pension industry five-year strategic plan to expand the CPS coverage to 20 million contributors by 2019, adding that the pilot phase of the scheme would be targeting 250,000 enrolments within six months.

    He disclosed that trade unions and associations are expected to assist by introducing the scheme to their members ahead of the kick-off of the pilot phase.

    Anyanwu said: “To commence the pilot phase, we are targeting 250,000 contributors to enroll within 6 months, test ICT technology to ensure adequacy, test run the guidelines and framework, test the ease of operations, registration, contribution, withdrawal of savings portion and embark on capacity building for staff and operators.

    “The possible challenges from the scheme however are socio-cultural inclinations, documentation challenges, low level of financial literacy, lack of confidence in government, irregular income inflow, low level of ICT literacy, associated transaction costs and low level of education.

    “Some of the peculiarities of the individuals that operate within the informal sector are irregular flow of income, highly mobile and flexible jobs, lack of permanent work address, lack of official means of Identification and other documents, typically excluded from pension systems prior to PRA 2014and they are largely uneducated.

     

    Benefits, prospects and

    expectation

     

    Anyanwu restated the commission’s belief the scheme will enable contributors access regular stream of retirement benefits at old age; improve living standards of the elderly; benefit from the various incentives offered by PFAs; deepen financial literacy and secure financial autonomy and independence.

    He listed other benefits as passage of wealth to survivors in the event of death; increase in national savings and long term funds; promotion of capital growth and development and access to mortgage and insurance markets.

    Speaking on the prospects and expectations of the scheme, he said the flexibility of registration, contributions and withdrawal process will be contributors-friendly. He stressed that self-employed persons have a large population.

    Anyanwu said: “The pension industry need to carry out lots of enlightenment programs, Trade Associations & Unions would assist to educate members; financial literacy and inclusion drive of the Federal Government would assist, the commission would leverage on CPS zero-fraud reputation for the past 11 years, ubiquity of mobile telephony and internet, growth of pension assets would impact the economy while operators to establish incentives.

     

    Features of the proposed

    micro pension

     

    Anyanwu said the scheme will be characterised by a simplified registration process.

    He said: “The registration will be initiated through physical appearance, internet and mobile phone. There will be flexible frequency of contribution. The contribution and remittance will be made easy by splitting it to two – a smaller percentage of savings accessible to contributors and a greater percentage, strictly for pension.

    “The same individual portable retirement savings account will be managed by the PFAs and the funds kept by the Pension Fund Custodians (PFCs). A special micro pension fund will be established for the flexibility of withdrawals to guarantee safety and fair returns on investment”, he said.

    Speaking on the journey so far, he said the commission has established a micro pension department, developed a database, collaborated with potential contributors and the chambers of commerce and relevant government agencies like the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN).

    He said listed other achievements as the validation of Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFinA) research on the preferences of target audience for the proposed scheme, review of its implementation in other jurisdictions such as Kenya and Ghana; formulation of guidelines and framework; consultations with licenced operators and enhancement of PenCom’s ICT capacity to accommodate the micro pension scheme.

    Anyanwu stated that the scheme is not a social security platform but for self-employed individuals.

    According to him, the commission has been appraising the micro pension guideline.

    His words: “On the guideline, we are taking our time to make sure we understand the people whom we are creating the micro pension product for so that when we finally release it, it will be successful.

    “We have moved from talking about guidelines and framework to plans for a pilot phase. The pilot phase and the guidelines will come out at the same time. We will approve the guideline and use it to test the pilot phase and whatever we get out of the pilot will be used to fine tune the guideline.

    “We are looking into what the age limit for enrolment or entry and at what point are they can exit. But at least we have minimum age of 18 years as law in the country. We are looking at a maximum age limit for enrollment but the exit will be determined by when the person want to retire. When the person is above 50, he can decide when he wants to retire.

    “We understand that these set of people may have money in a month and may not have in the other month hence contribution will be flexible. But we will encourage them to contribute as more as they can. The portion they can draw will also be made known.”

     

    Prospective managers speak

     

    The Managing Director of Premium Pension Limited, Wilson Ideva, spoke of his company’s plan to capture the informal sector, saying he was only awaiting PenCom’s guideline.

    Ideva said: “We have done a lot of awareness creation on the informal sector but everything we do in this industry has to be backed by a guideline. There is yet to be guideline on the take-off of the micro pension scheme.

    “PenCom has asked us to give our input and how we want it done. We have done that and the commission will come back to us on the guideline. Once that guideline is issued, every PFA will key into it.”

    “The contributory pension industry would in no distant time witness even more growth in all ramifications. There is now increased awareness and credibility around the scheme and that is more important than anything.

    “Even with the phenomenal growth in overall pension assets, there is still a growing sentiment that the present economic downturn occasioned by dipping commodity prices is already leading to a decline in pension contributions and consequently a squeeze in pension assets under management.

    “Management of pension funds is a long-term endeavor, the wellbeing of which cannot be measured by short-term macro-economic calculations. What is important today is how to profit from the rising importance of saving to grow the pension industry. And also, to capitalise on the extension of the coverage of CPS to the informal sector to promote micro-pension and further grow pension assets.”

    Executive Director, Finance & Operations, Pal Pension Limited, Godwin Onoro, said his company is bracing to take a strategic position of the evolving micro pension market.

    Onoro told The Nation that his company’s positioning would allow it take the chunk of the market share to expand its clientele base.

    He agreed that the micro pension market segment has remained untapped unexplored by the pension operators, noting that the segment holds the future of the industry and the economy.

    Onoro said: “While the operators are getting to the peak of the formal sector, the informal sector is yet to be explored. The exploration of the informal sector requires efforts of the entire industry which include the regulator and the operators.

    “Pal Pensions is already doing underground work in preparation for exploration of the informal sector market. The frame work has not been fine-tuned. All we are doing now is to prepare ground.

    “We will have activities when the regulation is released. The regulation will make the picture, the modalities for operation clearer but as it is now, there are still some limitations.”

  • Fed Govt approves N1b to repair Abuja airport’s runway

    Fed Govt approves N1b to repair Abuja airport’s runway

    •Flights to divert to Kaduna airport during maintenance
    •More restructuring coming to FAAN, NCAA, NAMA

    THE Federal Government has approved about N1 billion to rehabilitate the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport runway, Abuja.

    As part of steps to fast-track the project, Minister of State for Aviation Hadi Sirika, at the weekend, said a committee has been set up to oversee the work.

    The committee, a source hinted, was constituted to enable Sirika conclude discussions with the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) on the date the runway rehabilitation work will commence.

    The minister has already designated Kaduna airport as alternative to Abuja airport.

    Abuja bound flights, a source hinted, would be diverted to Kaduna Airport while work is ongoing at the nation’s second busiest airport.

    Industry sources said the work has already been advertised with bids for the job coming from Gilmore, Julius Berger and PW.

    The acting General Manager, Corporate Affairs of FAAN, Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu, confirmed the rehabilitation plan for the Abuja airport.

    She said efforts were being made to ensure that the runway is restored to international standards.

    The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said the runway has been in a bad state due to over-utilisation.

    This, sources hinted, informed the need for its total overhaul before another runway is constructed.

    The committee for the rehabilitation is expected to schedule the maintenance dates and decide whether the runway would be closed daily or some hours of the day so that work could start on the facility.

    The Abuja airport would be certified by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) in 2017 and the process for certification would end by March.

    The airport has also been chosen to pilot the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) No Country Left Behind campaign.

    The news came as government concluded plans to overhaul the aviation security arm of FAAN to enable its personnel carry firearms like their counterparts in the United States (U.S.).

    Sirika said this at the weekend during a stakeholders’ forum.

    He said very soon, requisite training would be given to FAAN security personnel in line with global standards.

    The minister said ongoing restructuring at the FAAN was far from over.

    He said there was need to restructure the authority because of its over-bloated work force.

    Other agencies, including the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) will not be left out, according to the minister.

    Already, government has started redeploying, re-assigning, demoting and even terminating appointments of workers in what it called improper placement of personnel at the agencies, especially in FAAN, where the workers have felt the full impact of the restructuring.

    According to Sirika, the restructuring became imperative because of the top-heaviness in these agencies with a total of 88 general managers on grade level 17.

    He said government was handling the restructuring in phases, adding that the shakeup would go round, “leaving a leaner and more effective agency instead of the over-bloated workforce that has provided little or no impact in the system”.

    Sirika, fielding questions at the forum, clarified issues on the planned concession and the Chinese funded terminal, which he said had no effect on each other.

    He stated that the Chinese funded terminal was not a concession or Build Operate and Transfer (BOT), but a loan.

    “The Chinese terminals are not BOTs. It was a loan of which the Chinese provided $500 million and Nigeria provided $100 million counterpart funding. Even at that, the biggest of those terminals will be doing 1.5 million passengers annually. But what we are looking at is different and larger.”

    “The terminals, kudos to the originators to the best of their thinking, as the one in Abuja we will have to move it as it is blocking the control tower and the fire service. But we are already building and we have to put it to use. The same story in Lagos too.”

    He said government after the technical hitches in the yet to be completed terminals would spend nothing less than N30 billion to relocate the fire service tower and control tower at the airports to an appropriate area.

     

  • Fed Govt not serious about Mambilla power project, says governor

    Fed Govt not serious about Mambilla power project, says governor

    THE Federal Government is not serious about delivering the multi-billion naira Mambilla Hydropower project despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval that the project must begin, Taraba State Governor Darius Ishaku has said.

    He told The Nation in an interview in Abuja that it was still impossible for contractors billed to handle the project to access the site because of the lack of access road.

    According to the governor, the government was yet to engage the communities that will be displaced by the project in meaningful dialogue with a view to sensitising them.

    Ishaku said despite several meetings with the Minister of Power, the government was yet to come up with a workable plan on how to compensate the people living in the area.

    He said: “The Mambilla Hydropower project is going to be the biggest power project in Africa and not just in Nigeria because it is going to have 3,050 megawatt, which is more than the power we are generating now. So, we are going to almost double the power that Nigeria is producing now. It is going to take between five to seven years to complete.

    “I am happy that Mr. President has taken the bold step of awarding this contract and I am working assiduously to clear the encumbrances affecting the project.

    “As I speak to you now, the Federal Government has done nothing in terms of remuneration and compensation for the people and getting the site cleared of encumbrances. Right now, I can’t take you to the site of the project because the access is not there.

    “There is no road to where the dam will be built. People are still living in the valley of the dam as we speak. There is a Bible College right where the dam is going to be built. Will you just come and start the dam and clear the people? The people must be sensitised and made aware of what is coming.

    “I am going to resettle 150,000 people in five different local governments. The area of this dam is bigger than the area of Lagos State. When people talk about the dam, they talk as if you will just drive there and start work. It is not done like that.”

    The governor explained that the process of compensation takes a long time, including sensitisation.

    He lamented that the Federal Government had not done anything as at the moment.

    “We have held meetings with the minister and till now, I have not seen any result and this will take us about one year.

    “So, if you say the project will take seven years of construction and for one year, nothing has been done, especially in trying to get to the site, it means a lot still need to be done.

    “I am happy with the project and we will do everything possible to make sure the project is realised to the benefit of the country and Taraba State.

    “But a lot need to be done in terms of moving to site because there is no accessibility to that site. So, many thing that need to be in place before the contractor can move to site have not been done,” he said.

    He said owing to the Mambilla project and the need to open up Taraba State, the first thing he did when he came on board was to open the Taraba airport. “Before now, you cannot access Jalingo with air flight. But right now, you have Overland on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays and we are hoping that by December, it will be a daily flight.

    “All the engineers and contractors that will come to the state should have an easy access. It is one hour flight from Abuja to Jalingo and it takes you six hours from Jalingo to go up the mountain.

    “The airport is supposed to be a cargo airport and so, we are looking at expanding it so that from there, we can export agricultural produce. If I package beef, it needs to be in the market immediately. The same applies to fruits and other agricultural produce.

    “So, the first step to opening up the state was to reopen the airport which is working now. These are the things I did to unlock the state. Otherwise, we are stocked in a corner of the country. In terms of traveling by road, it takes you between nine to 10 hours from Abuja to Jalingo, depending on how many road blocks you have on the way.”

     

  • Fed Govt, ILO to validate national employment policy

    The Federal Government, International Labour Organisation (ILO) and others have met in Abuja to validate the much-expected National Policy on Employment.

    The meeting, which was organised by the Federal Government, in conjunction with the ILO, aimed at moving Nigeria forward.

    According to the Director, ILO Country Office for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Liaison Office for the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), Mr. Dennis Zulu, the meeting was to determine whether the government and stakeholders could contribute towards taking steps to address unemployment and under-employment in a comprehensive, coherent and integrated way.

    Zulu said the stakeholders forum marked an important milestone in the process of preparing an employment policy for Nigeria, which started in 2012. The  objective, according to him, is to prepare a policy that would promote full and productive employment by developing integrated employment, development and skills policies that will maximize the employment impact of economic growth, investment and development; and which are inclusive, gender sensitive, productive and sustainable.

    The ILO director said extensive consultations involving a wide range of stakeholders across the length and breadth of the country have been held during the last four years.

    He said: “The ILO wishes to note that the validation of the draft national employment policy is in line with the prescribed process of preparing national employment policies as articulated by ILO Employment Policy Convention No. 122 of 1964.

    “The Convention requires national employment policies to be positioned as a major goal within the national agenda. It calls for an active employment policy to be pursued as a major goal of macroeconomic policy, with a focus on the design and implementation of such policies.”

    Given the progress that has been made in Nigeria in putting in place an employment policy, Mr. Zulu appealed to the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment and  the social partners to consider ratifying ILO Convention 122 .

    He pointed out that by putting in place an employment policy, Nigeria is already in line with the objective of the convention.

    At the meeting, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige reiterated the commitment of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, to job creation and provision of decent employment opportunities for Nigerians.

  • College praises Fed Govt intervention on land grabbers

    As the Federal College of Agriculture Akure (FECA) rolls out the drums for its 60th  Anniversary early next year, its management has praised the Federal Government for intervening in the problem of land grabbing in the institution.

    Its Provost, Dr Samson Odedina spoke at a briefing to unveil  activities lined up to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of the institution.

    He said the pending case between the institution and land grabbers has been moved to the Appeal Court.

    Odedina is hopeful that all those who destroy government properties are being prosecuted.

    He said FECA had moved the college higher via various partnerships with organisations in the agriculture sector.

    The don lamented the exclusion of  colleges of agriculture offering National Diploma(ND) and Higher National Diploma (HND) from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), which he described as a ‘national error’ that must be  corrected.

    Odedina said: “The implication of this is that about 500,000 youths in over 40 colleges of agriculture nationwide, will be learning under poor infrastructures, and poor interest in taking agriculture as a vocation.”

    He added: “Sixty per cent of our original land is gone, while the remaining 40 per cent which is occupied by rocks and motor parks around is under threat of sponsored litigations.

    “How can some people wake up in 2014 and lay claim to the land legally acquired since 1949, and such people continue to receive sympathy from certain government officials?’’

    He urged all well-meaning Nigerians, including alumni in the country and Diaspora, to come to the aid of their alma mater.

  • Fed Govt advised to review TSA

    Fed Govt advised to review TSA

    The Federal Government should review the Treasury Single Account (TSA) to enable it link up with an information technology (IT) platform, Cowry Asset Management Limited Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Johnson Chukwu.

    He said the platform would allow either the Ministry of Finance or the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) or whoever the government gives the responsibility to monitor the account, to see the balance at a glance on a daily basis.

    TSA, he explained, was one of the financial policies implemented by the present government to consolidate all inflows from all the federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in the country to a single account at the apex bank.

    He told The Nation in Lagos that some policies needed to be put in place to bring the country out of recession. These, according to him, include restoring the confidence of both local and foreign investors, boost dollar liquidity in the currency to restore confidence and stabilise the exchange rate.

    To boost dollar liquidity, he said in the short term, the country needed to access funding from international funding institutions or trading partners, adding the country either has to access funding from multilateral agencies or bilateral agencies or both. The multilateral agencies he said include the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB).

    The bilateral partners he added include China, Japan, United States, India and India and Britain, adding that it will be short term measures. In the medium term, he added that the country needed to open up the economy for foreign capital beyond purchase/sale of crude oil.

    This, he said, would come in form of either concessioning of some of the nation’s infrastructural facilities that are commercially viable or the sale of some of government assets that are sub-optimally producing.

    Again, there was need to re-inject liquidity into the local economy, and to inject liquidity into the banking system by reducing the cash reserve ratio of the monetary policy rate.

    Chukwu maintained that the government needs to have articulated policy that will contain some of the policy issues mentioned, adding it will show the investing public that the government is open to private capital; again, that it is open to solicit and attract foreign capital so as to restore confidence.

    “It could get to a point where the president will need to meet some of the investors in their country home to reassure them that Nigeria is open to private capital,” he said, adding that these steps needed to be taken by the government to improve the country’s chances of economic survival.

    He said these policies needed to be implemented at the same time, arguing that parts of the challenges facing the country at the moment are implementing policies.

    “One policy alone will not bring the country out of the present economic crisis; a number of policies implemented together and consistently executed will bring Nigeria out of the crisis,”he said.

    Chukwu said the country may have lost an estimated N600 billion to non-productivity as a result of the TSA.

    He said the idea of keeping about N3.5trillion dormant in the CBN meant that between 3.5 and 4 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is kept dormant during the period.

    He also said about N2 trillion of income was lost in terms of GDP in the second quarter of the year, adding that the GDP was contracted by 0.02 percent.

    He explained: “If N3trillion is in the vault of banks and the banks had interest rate of five percent of this sum, that will give you N150billion; if the banks had to lend out N3trillion at even a central bank or government specified rate which could be lent to the small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) at 10 percent, the banks would make N150billion which is N300billion lost to productivity by keeping the money with the central bank within the year.

    “If you lent N3trillion to the SMEs, you would have created several thousands of jobs; if on the average the borrowers end returns of 20 percent on the capital they borrowed, that will give you N600billion.”

    According to him, by the time N300billion is paid to the banks, they would have retained what would go into the payment of salaries and taxes to the government. So, in effect N600billion lost could be traced toloss of productivity during the period under review, he added.

  • Fed Govt to train 120 on fabrication of agro-machines

    The Federal Government is planning to train 120 persons in the country on the fabrication of agro-processing machines, it has been  learnt.

    The aim is to give a boost to agricultural revolution in the country.

    The Acting Executive Director of the NCAM, Dr Yomi Kasali who spoke during the graduation ceremony of the male batch of the trainees in Ilorin, Kwara State assured that the Federal Government was committed to encouraging the growth of the agric sector.

    He said the scheme was also aimed at spreading the skills so acquired and imparting same to other interested Nigerians, just as starter packs have been coupled to be freely distributed to the trainees at the end of the rigorous programme.

    No fewer than 60 of the male trainees yesterday completed their theoretical and practical courses on fabrication of the relevant machines at the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation (NCAM) Ilorin, Kwara State.

    It was gathered that their female counterparts drawn across the 36 states of the federation will next month, commence their own version of the training at the NCAM.

    Represented by the Director, and Head of Department (HoD) of Farm Power and Machinery Department of the centre, AbdulGafar Kamaldeen, Dr. Kasali said the skills so acquired should serve as a security against youth unemployment in the country.

  • Fed Govt urged to reconsider arrested judges’ cases

    Fed Govt urged to reconsider arrested judges’ cases

    THE Federal Government has been urged to reconsider its stance on the fate of the judges arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS).

    International Human Rights and Anti-corruption Society (IHRAS) Director General Dr. U. O. Udofia made the request in a letter dated October 26 and sent to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami (SAN).

    The group, which said it was particularly concerned with the case of Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court, Abuja, noted that from its members’ findings, the judge was above board.

    In the letter, a copy of which was sent to the Director General of the DSS, IHRAS argued that although it support efforts by the government to curb corruption, it must be done in accordance with the rule of law and due process.

    “Our independent investigation reveals that Justice Dr. Dimgba was appointed in December 2015 as a judge of the High Court and started sitting in January 2016 and has remained a judge of high repute in the discharge of his constitutional duties effectively and transparently.

    “The case files taken by the DSS in Justice Dimgba’s residence during the DSS operations were for judgments on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of the following week, before the DSS operation on Friday night.

    “Justice Dimgba has a right under the law to take the case files for study and writing of the judgments. During the DSS operation, noting was found, no monetary materials were found in his residence.

    “It is upon this background that we appeal to the Federal Government, particularly the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the DSS, to reconsider the case of Justice Dimgba, whose residence was mistakenly invaded by the DSS.

    “The appeal is predicated on the outcome of our untainted and undiluted investigation and opinion poll conducted among legal practitioners and others, within and outside the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    “All those contacted on this issue attested to the sincerity and honesty of Justice Dimgba in the discharge of his duties,” IHRAS said.

    The group urged the government to ensure that the fight against corruption should serve as incentive, to encourage and not discourage all those who are working sincerely in the interest of public.