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Tag: Fed Govt

  • Lassa fever: we’re on top of it, says Fed Govt

    Lassa fever: we’re on top of it, says Fed Govt

    •41 die in 10 states

    Lassa fever has claimed 41 lives from 93 reported cases in 10 of the 36 states, the Federal government said yesterday.

    Last Friday, the government put the death toll at 40 out of 86 reported cases but the number of the suspected cases also rose to 93.

    Minister of Health Prof. Isaac Adewole gave the update on the ravaging disease and the plans to curb it, at a joint ministerial news conference in Abuja.

    He listed the affected states as Bauchi, Nasarawa, Niger, Taraba, Kano, Rivers, Edo, Plateau, Gombe and Oyo.

    He however said there were no new confirmed cases or death in the last 48 hours.

    He did not disclose the state from which the additional life was lost.

    Adewole assured Nigerians that there was no need to panic as the government has the capacity to deal with the outbreak.

    He noted that the disease is different from Ebola and so it will be treated differently; explaining that unlike Ebola which had a single entry point into the country, Lassa Fever has multiple outbreak and has been restricted to rural areas.

    Adewole blamed the states for the heavy casualty for failing to notify his office on time.

    “In the last 48 hours the government raised a four-man expert committee, chaired by Prof. Michael Asuzu, to visit Kano, Niger and Bauchi, the three most endemic states.

    “The committee will embark on a fact-finding mission, assess the current situation, document response experiences, identify gaps and proffer recommendations on how to prevent future occurrences,’’ he said.

    The minister assured the public that the task of the committee was not to apportion blame but rather to document lessons learnt for better planning of an affective responsive.

    According to Adewole, part of the long term response is to establish an inter-ministerial committee to deliver a final blow on Lassa fever and other related diseases.

    The committee is made up of ministers of Education, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Environment, Information and Culture as well as Health.

    Adewole advised communities to improve on their hygiene, including food hygiene and food protection practices.

    He also urged the public to avoid contact with rodents and rats as well as food contaminated with rat’s secretions and excretions.

    “Avoid drying food in the open and along roadsides, it is also important to cover all foods to prevent rodents contamination,’’ he said.

    The minister said affected states have been advised to intensify awareness creation on the signs and symptoms of the disease.

    “The public is hereby assured that government and other stakeholders are working tirelessly to address the outbreak and bring it to timely end,’’ said the minister.

    He said the ministry had ordered for the immediate release of adequate quantities of “ribavirin’’, the specific antiviral drug for Lassa fever, to the affected states for prompt treatment of cases.

    Adewole said Nigeria has the capability to diagnose Lassa fever, adding that “all the cases reported so far were confirmed by our laboratories’’.

    “The reassuring aspect of the current outbreak is that we have not recorded any new case of outbreak in the last 72 hours. We have also not recorded any death in the last 48 hours.

    “This gives one hope that we are beginning to see the end of the outbreak.”

    He cited the case of Niger State where “the outbreak started in August and we were not informed until November. And we consider this to be very unfortunate.

    “Not only that about 80 per cent of the outbreak was concentrated in three states; Kano Bauchi and Niger. Niger recorded 35 outbreaks with 16 deaths; Kano recorded 14 outbreaks and nine deaths; Bauchi recorded 14 outbreaks and three deaths.”

    He announced that no health worker has been effected so far as against what happened in 2012.”

    In respect of Oyo State, he said: “It is a sort of disconnect. We had a confirmed case at the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan. I have the laboratory result that was signed by UCH Ibadan. After treatment, this same individual had test repeated in Lagos and Lagos now said it was negative.

    “We are standing on the original report from UCH which confirmed him positive and we are in touch with Oyo state on the true situation.

    “May I also say that it is only the Federal Ministry of Health that can make pronouncement on the status of Lassa Fever in Nigeria. And to us, we have a case from Oyo state and that case was treated and he is alive, which is a good story.”

    The minister also announced that the two suspected cases in Rivers state have turned out to be negative, likewise the other two from Lagos.

    For now he said the ministry is very comfortable with happening, though he said “We expect to have more report of suspected cases but what we want to assured you is that confirmed cases should not increase. We can assure you that we have not receivedý any confirmed case in the last 72 hours.”

    He also declared that there is cure for Lassa fever but for the cure to occur, the patients must be seen very early. Early presentation to health facilities, he said is important and drugs have been distributed.

    “We hope working together we can finally declare the final end of Lassa fever ýin this country,” he said.

  • Fed Govt to borrow N390b in three months

    Fed Govt to borrow N390b in three months

    The Federal Government  would borrow between N260 billion and N390 billion in the first three months of this year, the Debt Management Office (DMO), said yesterday.

    It said the long-term borrowing would come in five, 10 and 20-year local denominated bonds. The DMO said it would sell within the range of N40 to N60 billion in the bond maturing in 2020 in January and February and N20 to N30 billion of same tenor paper in March.

    The debt body will issue within the range of N40 to N60 billion of the 2026 paper in each of the first three months of the year and N40 to N60 billion in a fresh 2036 paper in March. Nigeria said it will borrow about N900 billion locally to finance part of the N2.2 trillion deficits in its 2016 budget.

    Analysts said the government’s  proposed N6.08 trillion budget for the 2016 fiscal year, has  N1.84 trillion deficit financing targeted mainly at infrastructure development to be funded through borrowing.

    The DMO is constitutionally empowered to explore local and international funding sources to see effective funding of the budget. The debt body is expected to source the additional N1.84 trillion budget deficit cash for capital expenditure, N984 billion of which would come from local investors  and N900 billion from international investors.

    The Managing Director, Afrinvest West Africa Plc, Ike Chioke, said the performance of the Nigerian bond market was majorly bearish last week as investors freed up liquidity to meet up with the  bond auction.

    He said the market condition was also affected by increased mopped up exercise and foreign exchange intervention provisioning of last week. The action prompted the average bond yields to close last week at 10.7 per cent from an average of 9.8 per cent a week ago.

    The sell-offs in the market was noticed across all bond tenors on all trading days. The bearish sentiments can be attributable to the decline in liquidity levels given the series of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Open Market Operations (OMO) mop-ups that took place last week and the N136.2 billion worth of Treasury Bills auction that took place last Thursday.

    “We expect an increase in average yields as the DMO embarks on its monthly bond auction for January together with further decline in market liquidity if the CBN continues its mop up activities,” he said.

    Olakunle Ezun of Treasury & Research Unit, Ecobank Nigeria, explained that the drop in the Brent oil price has raised fundamental questions about naira outlook and viability of the 2016 budget. Oil price has fallen to $33.5/barrel from a high of $63.2/barrel about a year ago, representing a 47 per cent fall in 12 months.

    He said global oil prices have fallen sharply over the past 18 months, leading to significant revenue shortfalls in many energy exporting nations, including Nigeria. From 2010 until mid-2014, world oil prices had been fairly stable at around $110/barrel. But since June 2014 prices have more than halved, thereby raising issues about the funding capacity of the fiscal authority.

    Ezun said the N6.08 trillion 2016 budget proposal to the joint session of the National Assembly, seeks to stimulate the economy, making it more competitive by focusing on infrastructural development; delivering inclusive growth and prioritising the welfare of Nigerians. But the low oil prices might hinder the successful implementation of the budget.

    An economist, Bismark Rewane said the budget focuses on funding infrastructure, which entails the provision of tangible assets, like housing, power (electricity), transport, education, communication, and technology, on which other intangibles can be built. It also seeks to protect the poor with a social safety net including scholarships and food provision in schools.

  • ASUU: Fed Govt owes public varsities N660b

    ASUU: Fed Govt owes public varsities N660b

    THE Federal Government owes public universities about N660 billion from unpaid Needs Assessment Intervention Fund, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Ibadan Zonal Coordinator Prof. Segun Ajiboye said yesterday.

    Ajiboye, who is also the University of Ibadan ASUU Chapter chairman, claimed in an interview in Ibadan that the money was part of unpaid intervention fund for the year 2014 (N220 billion), 2015 (N220 billion) and 2016 (N220 billion).

    He added that the intervention fund was part of the N1.3 trillion agreement signed in 2013 by the Federal Government and the union.

    On the 2016 budget presented by President Muhammadu Buhari, he noted that the N369.6 billion earmarked for education was inadequate when compared to the amount needed to cater for all levels of education in the country.

    The ASUU zonal coordinator, who noted that the President did not speak on how the government would fulfil the agreements it reached with the union, added that the government also owed academic staff in the public universities more than N200 billion arrears of earned allowances for the 2014 and 2015 academic years.

    He reminded Buhari that the 2009 agreement, which was due for a review in 2012, has not been addressed by the Federal Government, adding that ASUU had written severally to the government on the need to start the renegotiation of the agreement to reflect contemporary realities.

    “When you consider the agreed intervention fund in 2013, it was N1.3 trillion, but has the Federal Government kept to that promise? They only released N200 billion in 2013 after the six months strike and since then, nothing has been injected.

    “Unfortunately, it is the same government agents that will be saying Nigerian universities are lowly ranked globally without doing the needful to make the universities meet global standard. This involves injecting enough funds into the tertiary education system. If the funds are released, our universities will be able to compete when the necessary infrastructure is in place,” the union chief said.

  • Falana to Fed Govt: obey orders on Dasuki, Kanu

    Falana to Fed Govt: obey orders on Dasuki, Kanu

    Lagos lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) has asked the Federal Government to obey the court order granting bail to former National Security Adviser (NSA) Col. Sambo Dasuki and leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mr. Nnamdi Kanu.

    In a statement, entitled: “The orders for the bail of Dasuki and Kanu should be obeyed”, Falana said the alleged refusal of the Department of State Services (DSS) to obey the order admitting them to bail, coupled with the failure to re-arraign Dasuki on fresh charges, amounted to impunity.

    The lawyer noted that for the 16 years that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in power, the Federal Government exhibited total contempt for the rule of law, in which the constitution and other laws were breached with impunity while court orders were disobeyed on a regular basis.

    According to him, one of the reasons Nigerians voted for President Muhammadu Buhari was his promise to fight corruption and end impunity.

    “Therefore, he has a duty to ensure that all organs and officials of the government operate within the ambit of the law,” the lawyer said.

    Falana said the President should not allow overzealous security personnel to engage in impunity and thereby expose the government to unwarranted embarrassment.

    “The decision of the DSS to ignore the order admitting Col. Dasuki to bail coupled with the failure to re-arraign him on fresh charges is tantamount to impunity. If the Federal Government was aggrieved by the order admitting Col. Dasuki to bail, it should have challenged it at the Court of Appeal.”

    Falana said the order admitting Kanu to bail should also be complied with.

    To him, if the Federal Government had other charges against both suspects, it should file them in court.

    “There is no provision for keeping criminal suspects at the pleasure of security officials. Meanwhile, all valid and subsisting orders made by courts in favour of criminal suspects should be obeyed without further delay,” he said.

  • ‘Fed Govt has no record of its workers’

    ‘Fed Govt has no record of its workers’

    Minister of Labour and Employment Senator Chris Ngige has said the government does not know the number of civil servants in its employment since there is no record of such.

    Ngige, who spoke when Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole visited him, said the government could not even provide the number of Nigerians employed in the private or public sector.

    The governor had reminded the minister of the relevant law, which states that employers should file with the Ministry of Labour the number of people employed or dismissed yearly.

    He noted that without such statistics, it would be difficult to fight unemployment.

    But the minister said his experience showed that there was no record of those employed in the country.

    He said: “Since I came here, I contacted with the Office of the Head of Service so that we can know the number of civil servants employed by the government. But the record is not there.

    “I thought it was a mistake and I approached the Civil Service Commission, which said it relies on ministries to declare vacancies before it employs.

    “Things are upside down. We don’t need to blame them because we ought to have a database. But you discover that we don’t even have the one of the public sector, which concerns us.”

    Ngige described the unemployment situation as horrendous, saying: “It is alarming and it is an emergency situation.”

    He said the National Directorate of Employment should have statistics and database of unemployed and employed persons.

    The minister said the government would revive skill acquisition centres, saying the Federal Executive Council (FEC) agreed to complete ongoing skill centres.

    He added that the Buhari government would tackle Biafranism and fight insurgency through skill acquisition centres.

    Oshiomhole said it would be difficult to address unemployment without a proper data of unemployed Nigerians.

    He said: “Bearing in mind that the primary purpose of government is the welfare of the people and because there is no national dining table, the only way to deliver on public welfare is to pay attention to job and job creation.

    “There were things in the past that were absent. For example, we want to deal with job creation, but we don’t know how many people are unemployed and there are no locations for such people to report. Labour centres located across the states, which offer training and carry out trade test have been abandoned.’’

    “Given the seriousness of  present government to job creations, we need to re-establish those centres in all states of the federation and possibly, in all local government areas where people who are qualified to work, who are able to work and wish to work register.

    “Under the law, employers of labour are expected to report when they recruit new hands because if you don’t report, government has no means of monitoring how many new jobs are created. They are also obliged to report whether they dismiss or retrench. That is when you are able to know the number of job losses in the economy.”

     

     

    “I also know that there is law that when there is a strike action, the employer is obliged to report to the ministry, not only disclosing the grievances of the workers, but to state the facts of the strike, the number of persons involved and the number of man-hour lost.

    “At the end of the year, the ministry will be able to publish the statistics of man-hour lost to enable govern appreciate the level of disharmony in work places.

    As you go round the country, you find a lot of expatriates, unskilled expatriates doing jobs that unskilled Nigerian workers can do.

    “I believe that this is absolutely unacceptable. I believe that you should liaise with your brother in the Ministry of Internal Affair to review the attitude to expatriate quota because what we are doing now is not expatriate quota.”

    He described the Ministry of Labour as the most challenging ministry because it “deals with human factor, human behaviour and a community that believe that they belong to one family and some other times, they seem to be at war. But it is a mock war because none of the parties wants to kill each other because both sides need each other to survive.”

  • Fed Govt plans to revive depots

    Fed Govt plans to revive depots

    Plans are underway to fix  depots that are under the management of the Pipeline and Product Marketing Company (PPMC), The Nation has learnt.

    The depots are located in Ejigbo, Mosimi, Ilorin, Aba, Ore, Kaduna, Gombe, Yola, and Enugu.

    Others are  Atlas Cove in Lagos and  Makurdi.

    It was gathered that many of the depots are not active due to several years of neglect by successive administration, a development that   informed the decision  of the Federal Government to revive them.

    An official of one of the companies hired by the government to secure pipelines across the country, said the Federal Government has carried out an impact assesment programme on the depots with a view to determining their level of viability vis-a-vis putting in place measure to repair them.

    The official, who was part of the   team that followed  the Managing Director of PPMC, Mrs Esther Nmandi Ogbue to Mosimi depot  recenlty, said efforts are at advanced stage to bring the depots back on stream soon.

    The sources who  spoke on condition of anonymity, said many of the moribund depots are located in states in the North-Eastern, North-Western and other parts of the country.

    “ The strategic locations of the depots, and the huge volume of fuel the depots are pumping before they went bad, was the major reason why the government is planning to fix them.

    Alluding to this,  was the Zonal Trustee of  Independent Marketers Branch(IMB) of National  Union of Petroluem and Natural Gas  Workers (NUPENG), Mr Kofo Oladehinde, who  said most of the depots are in dire strait.

    He said Ibadan, Ilorin and Ore depots have not been working for sometime, adding that the operations of the depots are strategic.

    He said failure of the depots to work well has affected fuel supply to some parts of the country.

    He said Mosimi depot is not operating optimally, adding that the government through the Pipeline and Product Marketing Company is putting in place measures to upgrade it.

    He said the upgrade would increase the capacity of the depot, as well as making it more useful.

    According to him, the upgrade was part of the restructuring programmes initiated by the government to return the depots to optimal level.

    ‘’Activities at Mosimi depot where I work have not been impressive due to operational hitches. We are hoping that the depot and others in the country are repaired to stimulate efficiency in the downstream segment of the oil and gas industry”, he said.

    The Managing Director of PPMC Ogbue, said efforts were being made to put the depots to optimal usage.

    She said the government was concerned with the state of the depots, hence the decision to repair them  to ensure uninterrupted supply of fuel to filling stations across the country.

    She said: “In places like Makurdi and Yola, petroleum products have not been pumped from depots in those areas in the last 10 years, and that means in that regioin, the government has to move trucks from Calabar to Enugu to Aba to Yola.

    It would be recalled that the Federal Government has put in place  measures to improve power supply. They include fixing of pipelines to improve fuel supply, rehabilitation of the refineries, direct importation of fuel by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC) among others.

  • AfDB, Fed Govt to spend $300m on agric

    The African Development Bank (AfDB), said it would spend about $300 million on the ‘Enable Youth Empowerment Agribusiness Programme.

    The project is to be implemented in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development within 18 months.

    The bank’s Director, Agricultural and Agro- Allied Industries, Dr. Chudi Ojukwu, said the three-year project would enable training and funding of young graduates, who are interested in farming across the country.

    The programme is expected to encourage youths into agriculture, thereby increasing food sufficiency, reducing unemployment with each recipient to benefit to the tune $75, 000.

    In a statement yesterday, the Agriculture Minister, Chief Audu Ogbeh,  said the project would commence from the three Federal Universities of Agriculture in the country. According to the release by the Director of Information, Tony Ohaeri, Dgbe said “a total of $300 million would be accessed to cover the three year project which would bring young graduates together and train them for 18 months as entrepreneur farmers.

    “The initiative would create 250,000 jobs; the beneficiaries would be trained at various incubation centres on all aspects of value chains, with each beneficiary  supported with about $75,000. The project would cover the 36 states including the FCT, while the Agricultural Aransformation Agenda (ATA) would be expanded through the processing zones.”

    The Minister emphasised the need for the three Universities of Agriculture in Umudike, Makurdi and Abeokuta respectively to revert back to the provisions of the Act that established them.

    Ogbeh advised the country to re- invent her own economic strategy to revive its economy.

    He stated that the strength of a nation lies in the population of the youth and expressed concern on the rate of youth unemployment in the country saying, “We need to take care of them before they take care of us”.

    He promised to collaborate with representatives of AfDB and International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), who came to present him the concept note on the youth agriculture scheme.

    However, the Minister tasked IITA to intensify efforts towards researching into the conversion of cassava leaves into animal feeds, while some components of the Labour Intensive Family Enterprise (LIFE) of the ministry could be built into the youth empowerment initiative.

    IITA Director-General, Dr. Nterayana Saginga, called for a change in the mindset of the young graduates, saying that the IITA’s experiment in the past on young unemployed graduates revealed that they could make good turn over on their investments.

    He pledged the readiness of IITA to provide necessary support to the ministry.

     

  • Fed Govt to bridge 3m metering gap

    Fed Govt to bridge 3m metering gap

    •Ministry eyes job creation through meter production

    Minister of Power, Works and Housing Babatunde Raji Fashola yesterday met with local manufacturers of electricity meters to work out how to rapidly roll out more of the energy measuring devices.

    He said rapid production of the meters would ensure that distribution companies charge consumers only for energy they consume.

    But a report submitted to the meeting indicated that there are over three million unmetered customers in the country.

    The ministry said the Federal Government’s policy was to bridge this gap  with maximum impact on local manufacturing and job generation through local firms.

    A statement from the ministry said Fashola, who was joined by the Minister of State, Mustapha Baba Shehuri, urged the “local meter manufacturers to think outside the box through innovations to reap bountifully in the fledging electricity industry”.

    The forum deliberated on issues of concern to the Federal Government and the local manufacturers, including the need for distribution companies to patronise locally manufactured meters.

    On their concerns, the representative of the group, Kola Balogun, said access to and cost of credit was a major impediment to the growth of their production capacity in meeting demand for meters.

    The local manufacturers assured the minister of their readiness to support the rapid roll-out plan, but urged government to put in place clearer incentives for local production as opposed to importation of meters.

    The parties agreed to continuous engagement among actors – government, local meter manufacturers, distribution companies, the industry regulators and others – on the issue.

    inister of Power, Works and Housing Babatunde Raji Fashola yesterday met with local manufacturers of electricity meters to work out how to rapidly roll out more of the energy measuring devices.

    He said rapid production of the meters would ensure that distribution companies charge consumers only for energy they consume.

    But a report submitted to the meeting indicated that there are over three million unmetered customers in the country.

    The ministry said the Federal Government’s policy was to bridge this gap  with maximum impact on local manufacturing and job generation through local firms.

    A statement from the ministry said Fashola, who was joined by the Minister of State, Mustapha Baba Shehuri, urged the “local meter manufacturers to think outside the box through innovations to reap bountifully in the fledging electricity industry”.

    The forum deliberated on issues of concern to the Federal Government and the local manufacturers, including the need for distribution companies to patronise locally manufactured meters.

    On their concerns, the representative of the group, Kola Balogun, said access to and cost of credit was a major impediment to the growth of their production capacity in meeting demand for meters.

    The local manufacturers assured the minister of their readiness to support the rapid roll-out plan, but urged government to put in place clearer incentives for local production as opposed to importation of meters.

    The parties agreed to continuous engagement among actors – government, local meter manufacturers, distribution companies, the industry regulators and others – on the issue.

     

  • ‘Fed Govt owes Armed Forces insurers 2013 premium’

    ‘Fed Govt owes Armed Forces insurers 2013 premium’

    The Federal Government is owing insurers and brokers’ premiums for 2013 Group Life Insurance Policy (GLIP) of the  Armed Forces, Defence Spokesman, Colonel Rabe Abubakar, has said.

    Abubakar, who made this known in an interview, however, said efforts were on to ensure that the premium was paid to the brokers to enable them pay beneficiaries of the deceased.

    He appealed to the next-of-kins of the deceased soldiers affected, to be patient, assuring that they would receive their payments soon.

    He said: “We have Group Life Insurance Policy for our soldiers and it covers those who died in active service. The policy was given to brokers accredited by the Defence Ministry.

    “All premiums have been paid except 2013 premium, but we are making efforts to ensure that we pay the premium to the brokers so that they can begin to pay claims to the affected beneficiaries.

    “The leadership of the military is very concerned because the welfare of the military is very compulsory. We are trying to solve the problem within the shortest possible time,” he said.

    Earlier, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, said the Federal Government is owing insurance industry cumulative premium in excess of N10 billion.

    She said the government was conscious of its debt to the sector and would endeavour to offset outstanding premiums as soon as the economic situation improves.

    “The government, meeting its responsibility of paying premiums to some extent is a challenge; you will also agree with me that there is a serious situation in the country in terms of revenue that accrues to government.

    “The tasks ahead are onerous and it is the expectation of government that the Nigerian insurance industry should wake up to its responsibilities and as a potential growth area of our economy, it must accept the challenges of change.

    “It must surmount its timidity, shape up and contribute to the turnaround of the economy. It must contribute positively to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the creation of employment. It can achieve these by cleaning itself of the bad eggs within itself and by improving its services to its consumers.”

    Commissioner for Insurance, Alhaji Mohammed Kari, also said the industry has made frantic efforts at recovering the Federal Government’s outstanding premium owed to the insurance companies.

    Kari said the Commission is looking at reviewing Federal Government insurance policies to meet the desired requirement of insurance.

  • Curb illicit financial flows, KPMG urges Fed Govt

    Curb illicit financial flows, KPMG urges Fed Govt

    A partner with KPMG, Mr. Ayo Salami, has advised the Federal Government to stop illict financial flows into the country, adding that it hurts the economy.

    He spoke with The Nation on the sideline of a workshop organised by the Industrial Group of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) in Lagos.

    He said illicit financial flows and unbridled importation stifle economic growth.

    According to him, unscrupulous people import all manner of things under that guise, at the detriment of local industries. He however, argued that the blanket ban on key raw materials for the manufacturing sector is a minus to the growth of the sector and job creation in general.

    The KPMG boss stressed the need to encourage local production and exportation of locally produced goods to earn foreign exchange (forex). This, he said, will make up for the shortfall experienced by manufacturers.

    Salami urged the government to stop the importation of palm oil, regretting that what used to be a cash cow for the country is now imported with the scarce forex in the kitty of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

    On the CBN’s forex restriction, Salami said government should have first addressed the structural weaknesses and inadequate public utilities/infrastructure that hamper the nation’s business environment.

    One of these structural weaknesses, according to him, is the absence of tight border controls to curtail smuggling of products into the country. “It is important to curb the smuggling of these identified goods into the country to promote their local production,” he said.

    Salami expressed regrets that many companies are relocating to neigbouring African countries as a result of government policies, which are hurting.

    “The forex policy needs to be revisited to douse the tension over possible job loss. Massive job cut looms in the manufacturing sector; customs revenue is depleting; the construction sector is in a dire strait. It is therefore, imperative for the government to do the needful by reviewing the policy,” he said.

    In the short term, he advised manufacturers to engage extensively with the CBN to postpone the policy and allow for the clearance of backlogs and orders already placed for raw materials, goods and services.

    He further called for collaboration with local producers to exhaust all local supply channels, besides engaging the CBN for exemption to finance importation of inputs with no local substitute or where local capacity is inadequate.

    In the medium term, he asked for the provision of update on shortfalls from local supply channels compared to demand to make way for importation. He argued that the blanket ban on raw materials in the medium term will not augur well for the economy.