The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Fed Govt

  • Chibok: CAN hails Fed Govt for rescuing girls

    Chibok: CAN hails Fed Govt for rescuing girls

    The national leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) yesterday praised the Federal Government for rescuing 21 of the kidnapped Chibok school girls from the captivity of Boko Haram sect.

    CAN President Rev Samson Ayokunle described the development as great and pleasant and assured the Federal Government of CAN’s prayers to ensure release of the remaining girls.

    In a statement by his spokesman, Bayo Oladeji, he said: “It is one of the best news we have received this year. Let the government be aware that CAN is with it in prayer in getting the rest of the girls released and that they should leave no stone unturned in getting the rest that are still alive released,” he said.

    The Christian body added: “CAN rejoices with parents of the released girls and we are still praying the parents of the remaining girls would soon be reunited with their own soon in Jesus name”.

    CAN appealed to those holding the rest of the girl’s captive to release them “because the Lord is God of freedom, not captivity”.

    Ayokunle also urged the Federal Government not to just release the girls back to their parents but to organise a special rehabilitation programme in collaboration with CAN, for their full re-integration into the society.

    CAN said: “We ask the Federal Government not only to secure their freedom and release them to their parents but to set up a special rehabilitation programme in collaboration with CAN for the girls that would cover their full re-integration into the society”.

    The leadership of the CAN explained that its involvement in the rehabilitation programme is imperative because “their innocence and beliefs might have been compromised by the satanic and strange indoctrination of their captors and this is where CAN will play a prominent role since they are our children.”

    The statement called on the Federal Government to provide free education at all levels to every one of them as part of the integration programme and compensation for the unprecedented trauma and ordeals they suffered from their captors.

    According to him, “securing their future through free education to tertiary level should be part of the integration programme. It is to compensate for the past failure of government in allowing the girls to be kidnapped and kept in incarceration for too long”.

  • Enugu to repair Fed Govt roads

    Ahead of the forthcoming Yuletide, Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has embarked on an inspection tour of dilapidated federal government roads along New Market Road, Ugwu Onyeama, 9th Mile Corner, Opi-Nsukka and Obollo Afor roads.

    Ugwuanyi who was accompanied to the sites by the commissioner for works and infrastructure, Engr. Patrick Ikpenwa and the technical team of Reynolds Construction Company (RCC) promised residents of the areas visited that despite the current economic crunch in the country, his administration will rehabilitate the roads to standard.

    The governor said that he was concerned about the forthcoming Yuletide, adding that”even though most of these roads are federal roads, we cannot continue to wait for the federal government to rehabilitate them, hence the need to fix the roads for road users to enjoy a smooth movement during the Christmas season.”

    He also stated that the initiative was borne out of the need to avoid the ugly experience at the Oji-River – Ugwuoba-Anambra State border, which virtually collapsed as a result vehicular stress on the road, adding that his administration had to commence rehabilitation work on it, to alleviate the suffering of road users.

    This came as the Enugu State Government explained that the final sealing of affected potholes in Enugu metropolis has been delayed by the rains.

    The Chairman of Nigerian Construction and Foundation Company (NCFC), the agency handling the maintenance of roads in the state, Amb. Goddy Agbo, said that it has identified and marked all potholes in Enugu metropolis.

    Agbo added that “the cutting, shaping and regulation of levels of the identified potholes are in progress”, stressing that “due to continuous rainfall and the need for the patched sections to last, the final sealing of the affected areas will be done when the weather is dry.”

    He affirmed the commitment of the state government to serving the people better for them to enjoy the dividends of democracy.

    While appealing to the public, especially road users in Enugu metropolis to bear with the government, the agency’s chairman noted that it “would not embark on a project that would not meet the required standards.”

  • Fed Govt to release expenses template for MDAs

    The Office of Accountant General of Federation (OAGF) is in the process of releasing  a template on appropriate expenses for Federal Government Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs)

    This is to sustain the current effort at making state-owned enterprises productive and accountable.

    Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun who spoke yesterday in Abuja at a workshop on Cost Management on Overhead Expenditure for Permanent Secretaries, Chief Executive Officers of Departments and Agencies, organised by the Efficiency Unit of the ministry, said with the meagre revenue available to government, “it had become imperative to create headroom to be able to invest in capital projects.” As a result, the need to control recurrent expenditure, especially overheads, necessitated the creation of the Efficiency Unit by the Presidency last year.

    She said: “We will also be improving the level of disclosure, that is even when transactions are done. We noticed funds are really leaking through a loose framework.  At the moment, the Accountant General of the Federation is working on a new template to determine what are allowable or unallowable expenses for state-owned enterprises.”

    Mrs Adeosun said when the template becomes official, “there will be a requirement for certain transactions to be disclosed in the audited financial statements of state-owned enterprises so that there will be transparency around certain areas where clearly money is leaking.

    “The days when cost to income ratios of 99.9 per cent was the norm are over. We have secured technical support from the IMF with the state-owned enterprises template.”

    She was particularly unhappy that some state-owned enterprises from other countries especially from China come to bid for contracts in Nigeria, whereas some of the home-based ones are not that productive in terms of income generation.

  • Fed Govt urged to fast-track negotiation with militants

    The Federal Government should fast-track the process of negotiating with the Niger Delta militants, particularly the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), to ensure uninterrupted operations and resumption of oil exploration and production activities in the region stakeholders have said.

    This is coming on the heels of a recent statement by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Emmanuel Kachikwu, that negotiation with the militant groups is ongoing and would be concluded soon.

    A Senior Lecturer, Energy Law, University of Lagos, Dr Dayo Ayoade, urged the government to expedite action on the issue of negotiating with the Niger Delta Avengers in order to end the crisis in the region.

    He said the government saw negotiation as a tool for managing crisis and it should use it well. “There is nothing wrong in government negotiating with the militants in the Niger Delta. The issue does not have legal implication. The Federal Government has the right to protect its people, its assets and other things, hence its decision to negotiate with the militants. President Jonathan did the same thing. However, the government should try and do it in time to avoid bigger crisis,’’ he said.

    Ayoade urged the government to resolve the problem as members of the Nigerian Armed Forces were overstretched fighting Boko Haram insurgents.

    The Niger Delta Avengers had bombed oil facilities belonging to Agip, Chevron, Shell and other International Oil Companies (IOCs).  This has affected crude oil production as well as the capacity of power firms to access gas for generation.

    Also, a Director, Centre for Energy Studies, University of Port Harcourt, Prof Omowunmi Iledare, has urged the government to negotiate with the group in time to save the country from further losses. “It is a terrible thing for the government not to negotiate with criminals. To the best of my knowledge, anybody who overtly or covertly destroys public assets, more so oil and gas pipelines, are criminals and they should be treated that way. You don’t negotiate with criminals. Instead you allow the law to take its course.  Former President Jonathan negotiated with militants in the oil producing areas of Niger Delta.

    Iledare, a former President of International Association of Energy Economist (IAEE) Nigerian Chapter, urged the government to do everything possible to resolve the issue of destruction of oil and gas facilities

  • Fed Govt shops for $500m exploration fund

    Fed Govt shops for $500m exploration fund

    The Federal Government is in talks with the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) and Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) to create a $500 million exploration fund and corporate mining bonds to attract investment, Solid Minerals Development Minister, Dr Kayode Fayemi has said.

    He also said the country had made a “promising” nickel discovery and was looking for investors for a moribund steel plant, part of efforts to reduce reliance on oil exports.

    The country has made boosting the mining sector a priority as a slump in crude sales, which provide 70 per cent of government revenues, has pushed economy into recession.

    “We are looking at a $500 million fund from their side which would primarily focus on exploration,” Fayemi told Reuters yesterday.

    The ministry was also discussing with the stock market selling “corporate mining bonds” in partnership with mining and other investors, he added.

    Nigeria has been trying to attract foreign mining firms. Currently, the only significant foreign investor in the sector, where 80 per cent of mining is carried out on an artisanal basis, is Australia’s Kogi Iron.

    The country has largely untapped deposits of 44 minerals, which include gold, iron ore, coal, tin and zinc, in more than 500 locations spread across the nation.

    Fayemi wants to increase mining’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) to 10 per cent, from just 0.3 per cent now, within a decade.

    He said a geologically “strange” discovery of nickel in the northern state of Kaduna seemed promising.

    The discovery of some 40 million tonnes of nickel with a depth of five meters over a 13 kilometer area, around the town of Dangoma, was announced in August by an Australian team registered as Comet Nigeria Limited.

    “It could also be that what they are telling us is an under-estimation of what it ought to be by the time we do core drilling,” he said.

    Fayemi also said there was need to get a grip on the informal gold rush which he said is dominated by smugglers.

    “Clearly a lot is being taken out illegally,” he said, adding that gold was being smuggled to neighboring Cameroon and Niger, as well as Togo and registered in those countries.

    Fayemi said his ministry did not have figures for gold production but the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had provided figures the minsitry was trying to validate.

    “They have given figures in the region of about 100kg of gold leaving the country on a daily basis.

    “None of this gets accredited as gold from Nigeria,” added Fayemi.

  • Fed Govt advised to fund capital projects

    The Federal Government has been advised to fund capital projects in the nation’s budget to reflate the economythroughthe building of infrastructurewhich will create jobs for the citizens.

    Currently, construction companies are laying off their workers a development analysts say would adversely affect the nation’s economy.

    Country Representative, Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), Dauda Garuba, who gave this advice, said there was the urgent need for the government to get construction going on across the country so that people would work and grow the nation’s economy.

    In a telephone interview at the weekend in Lagos, Garuba also said the government needed to ensure that it funded critical sectors of the economy such as construction.

    He said the government needed to take a critical look at the monetary policy side of managing the economy, lamenting that the current double digit interest rate in the country was crushing to businesses.

    He said the government also needed to be serious about the categories of goods it has banned from being imported into the country as it would allow the country to look inwards and save foreign exchange from being spent on frivolous goods.

     

     

    According to him, the recent report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) clearly showed that the diversification effort of the Federal Government was working adding that it has recorded progress in the area of solid minerals as well as agriculture.

    But Garuba condemned the calls on the Federal Governmentto sell prime national assets, adding that such calls were not driven by patriotic zeal.

    He said: “They are our common heritage, we are not supposed to sell them; we have seen assets that were sold in the past and till date, we are not clear as to how the money realised from these sales were utilisedto justify the necessity of this debate again.

    “The fact remains that the assets you are talking about are not just about money that they no longer largely generate as a result of the falling oil prices, but there are other strategic implications that are far more than even the monetary benefits that we are looking at.

    “If you leave its business in the hands of private individuals who expectedly will be buying up these assets, it is as good as putting your energy security issues in the hands of private individuals.”

  • Fed Govt mulls TCN’s assets sale

    The Federal Government may consider selling the multi-billion dollar assets of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) once the appropriate investment propositions that would support the action are in place.
    The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, gave this hint, during a technical session of the just-concluded power conference in Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
    He argued that aggregation or collection of investments facts or opinions is vital to the sale of the assets transmission company.
    Fashola said: “The debate about selling the assets of the National Transmission Company should be rational and not emotional. There is need to find out whether TCN has achieved efficient service delivery or not? Has the three-year transition deadline given TCN to improve its operation matured or not? I think our energy, as a nation, must be focused on those areas, if we want to show to the world that privatisation of TCN’s assets is the way to go.
    “It is not the practice of a nation to sell everything it has. What I have learnt is that there are no regulations that specify what we must keep as assets as a nation. In whatever we do, we are trying to provide some levels of control. By this, we are trying to be security conscious so that we are not vulnerable to the entire electricity market.”
    Fashola said countries, such as China, India, South Africa, Brazil and Mexico, were yet to do what Nigeria did in the selling assets in key value chains, such as the generation and distribution segments of the electricity sector.
    He said there was no power company in the world that could achieve 100 per cent collections in tariff, adding that the only thing an energy firm could do was to reduce its losses to the barest minimum level.
    According to him, debts in the form of electricity owed by consumers are a continuum, because people consume power daily.
    He advised consumers to pay their bills on time to enable the power distribution companies (DisCos) meet their obligations to them.
    The DisCos,Fashola said, get their money from the power they distribute to consumers and further pay the power generation companies (GenCos) for supplying them electricity.
    The issue of selling the nation’s transmission assets came up in 2014 during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
    Two weeks ago, the issue resurfaced as stakeholders in the sector, advised President Muhammad Buhari, to consider selling the assets of TCN to generate money to finance public expenditures.

  • Fed Govt proposes N6.866tr for 2017 budget

    Fed Govt proposes N6.866tr for 2017 budget

    The Federal Government has proposed an estimate of N6,866,335,052, 740 for the 2017 fiscal year.

    The government has also pegged the oil production figure for 2017 at 2.2 million barrels per day with a projected oil benchmark price of $42.50.

    Average exchange rate for 2017 is slated at N290.00 per dollar.

    These are contained in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) submitted to the Senate by President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday.

    The government budgeted N6,060,677,358,227 for the outgoing 2016 fiscal year while it pegged the oil production volume also at 2.2mbp.

    The oil benchmark for 2016 is $38 while the average exchange rate is N197 to a dollar.

    For 2017, the government put recurrent expenditure (Non debt) at N2.563b, it was N2.346b in 2016; personnel costs (MDAs) for 2017 is N1.815b, it was N1.748 in 2016 budget; overheads for 2017 is N180b, it was N163.392b in 2016.

    Capital expenditure (Exclusive of transfers) is N1,756,199,794,310 while special intervention programme will receive N350billion, it was N300 billion in 2016 budget.

    Presidential Amnesty Programme will receive N65 billion, it was N20 billion in 2016. Refund to special account is N50 billion.

    Statutory transfers will be N370.697b, Debt service N1,639b, sinking fund to retire maturing loans is N177,460b.

    Provisions in the MTEF the government said, are drawn from government’s development priorities over the medium term and more specifically driven by its fiscal strategy and reflect the broad aggregates of the government’s annual budget over the period.

    The government noted that the aggregate revenue to fund the 2017 budget is projected to increase over the 2016 estimate of N3,855 trillion by about 8 per cent (or about N313 trillion)

    It said that thirty three per cent of this is to come from oil sources while the balance is derivable from non oil sources-in consonance with the government’s renewed focus on diversification of its revenue base.

    It said that the planned aggregate expenditure is estimated to exceed the provision of N6.06 trillion in the 2016 budget by 13.3 per cent (or about N806 billion)

    The government said that the distribution the resources among the spending categories is driven by government’s strategic focus and the continuing efforts to complete and exit projects and programmes outlined in the strategic implementation plan of the 2016 budget.

    It noted that over the medium term, government is strategically postured on reflating the economy while addressing issue around revenue generation.

    “This informed the downward trajectory projected for the 2016-2018 medium term. However, this trajectory is a slightly altered for 2017 in order to make requisite provisions for some of its strategic programmes and projects over the medium term,” it said.

    The government also said it would continue to provision for social intervention programmes in order to cater for the social and developmental needs of the poor and vulnerable Nigerians.

    Accordingly, it said that the recurrent (Non Debt) expenditure and capital payments are projected to increase in nominal terms by N217.42 billion and N177.6billion especially in 2017 over the 2016 estimates.

  • Fed Govt floats N25b mass transit loan scheme

    Fed Govt floats N25b mass transit loan scheme

    The Federal Government has set up a N25 billion revolving loan scheme for transport companies to access funds to buy mass transit vehicles.

    Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment Okechukwu Enelamah spoke in Abuja yesterday at the opening of a two-day national workshop for chief executives of mass transit companies.

    Enelamah said the initiative was aimed at boosting the country’s mass transit system as well as encouraging local patronage of local vehicle assembly plants.

    He explained that the loan would be administered through the Infrastructure Bank at zero per cent interest rate.

    The workshop is organised by the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) in collaboration with the Nigerian Institute for Transport Technology (NITT), Zaria.

    The theme of the workshop is “Nigeria Automotive Policy: A National Agenda for Sustainable Mass Transit Operation Development.’’

    “Government is determined to develop the automotive industry because of its extensive linkages, impact on job creation, technology transfer as well as foreign exchange savings and earnings.

    “The response by investors has been encouraging and we have brought back vehicle assembly and are now focussing on local content development.

    “Many of the new assembly plants produce buses and mini-buses. I hereby call on Nigerians to patronise the products of these assembly plants,’’ he said.

    Enelamah urged the workshop participants to come up with innovative solutions for the development of an efficient and affordable mass transportation system.

    Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi said the mass transit sector was one of the major engines driving the nation’s socio-economic and cultural development.

     

  • Fed Govt to spend N150b as intervention funds on tertiary education

    Fed Govt to spend N150b as intervention funds on tertiary education

    The Federal Government plans to spend N150 billion as regular and normal intervention for public universities, polytechnics and colleges of education this year.

    The government, which disclosed that tertiary institutions in the country were eligible to access the fund, said the cash would be disbursed to all beneficiary institutions in the country.

    The Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Dr. Abdullahi Baffa, spoke in an interview with reporters at the 7th TETFund interactive forum jointly organised by the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) in Lagos with the theme: “Sustaining Education Tax Collections and Disbursements under a Depressed Economy.”

    He explained that the cash would be released to the beneficiary institutions in trenches after they have met the conditions to access the funds.

    Dr. Baffa added that private universities would not benefit from the disbursement of the cash.

    He said: “We are proposing to spend N150 billion as regular, normal intervention and this is the one that is shared among the beneficiary institutions on equality of Universities, equality of Polytechnics and equality of Colleges of Education.

    “All our beneficiary institutions are going to benefit; for all Universities, it is the same amount, for Polytechnics, the same amount and all Colleges of Education, the same amount.

    “Private Universities will not benefit; no and not through the intervention of TETfund because TETfund is for public tertiary institutions defined by the law to mean public Universities, public Polytechnics and public Colleges of Education. There is no plan in the pipeline and not in the near future for public funds to be extended to private Universities.

    “It is not about application, they are entitled to TETfund intervention and allocation is given to them. And so, it is only left for all beneficiary institutions to meet the requirements and conditions for access and they can draw. These conditions of access are very straightforward but the key thing is transparency and accountability.

    “You can’t draw subsequent intervention until you account satisfactorily for the previous one. It is as simple as that. We have an excellent monitoring and evaluation system. We don’t release these funds 100 per cent. We release them in three trenches. If you meet certain conditions, we give you first trench. If you utilise that, we go to the field, monitor. And if we are satisfied that the money has been used judiciously and it has reached the level that it is expected, then we treat your request for second trench.

    “We process your second trench releases, you go and utilise it, when you are done with using the second trench, you notify us. We come to the site, monitor and evaluate what you have done and then we will process your application for the last and final trench. So, it is all about transparency and accountability and judicious use of public funds in public interest.”

    He stated that the oil sector accounts for 80 per cent of education tax collection in the country.

    According to him, the FIRS has a major role to play by ensuring the improvement in the education tax collections that are made available to TETFund for disbursement to the public tertiary institutions.

    Baffa said: “At the moment the oil sector accounts for about 80% of education tax collection. We are optimistic that when the non-oil sector is harnessed and developed, the economy would be a lot healthier with the attendant implication of national prosperity and development. We are very positive about the implication of this to education tax collections.

    “We shall continue to keep our tab on all TETFund beneficiary institutions by ensuring all our guidelines and processes for accessing and utilization of interventions are strictly adhered to.

    “We shall continue to be guided by our establishment Act in disbursing and distributing interventions equitably among the beneficiary institutions. And in all these, we shall continue to remain committed to protecting the public interest by ensuring that there is optimal value for money for every project in every beneficiary institution.”

    He said President Muhammadu Buhari was deeply concerned about the low ranking of Nigeria’s university globally.

    “Mr. President is deeply worried about the low ranking of Nigeria’s tertiary education institutions and so TETFund has been challenged to reverse the trend.

    “To achieve this would require among other things focused and targeted inflow of funding in our beneficiary institutions through the fund.

    “We also intend to work closely with regulatory bodies in the education sector such as the National Universities Commission (NUC), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), and National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) to ensure that quality and standard are improved and sustained,” he added.