The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Fed Govt

  • Tackle skilled manpower challenge, NCS urges Fed Govt

    Nigeria Computer Society (NCS)President, Prof. Adesola Aderounmu, has urged the Federal Government to raise modern manpower that could sustainably drive the nation’s economy.

    He lamented that nearly 90 per cent of technologies used in the country are imported despite the huge knowledge infrastructure of 162 legally recognised universities, 125 polytechnics and more than 500 agencies.

    “It is sad that after 58 years of independence, Nigeria had failed to come up with neither a globally recognised company nor product originating from Nigerian indigenous technology because the national economy had not been technology-driven,” he said.

    Giving a Keynote Address at the first International Conference on ICT for National Development and its Sustainability organised by the Faculty of Communication and Information Sciences, University of Ilorin, to mark its 10th anniversary, Aderounmu urged the Federal Government to develop the ICT sector through the establishment of research centres, technology parks and incubation centres across the country. He added that the provision of reliable and affordable infrastructure and provision of fiscal incentives for indigenous software developers would also spur the development of the sector.

    Speaking on: “Leveraging ICT for National Development and its Sustainability”, Aderoumu, who is a Professor of Computer Science at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ife, Nigeria, lamented that the country’s economy has not fully embraced technology as its driving force.

    He further suggested that the government could develop the sector through the creation of a special fund to assist start-ups as well as grow existing developers, enactment of a law that mandates MDAs to patronise indigenous software while mandating the immediate implementation of the approved scheme of service for IT professionals.

    While recommending that priority should be given to registered IT professional in the award of IT contracts in the country, Aderounmu equally tasked the academia to promote productive collaborations and partnerships both internal and external and create learning opportunities for the students.

    He said: “The system of mentoring, apprenticeship and tutelage, which existed in the past should be re-introduced and strengthened. Split-site arrangements should be encouraged to enable young researchers to be acquainted with new trends, globally. Spend a considerable portion of its yearly budget on global promotion activities”

    Speaking earlier, Vice-Chancellor, University of Ilorin, Prof. Sulyman Age Abdulkareem, assured participants that the university would do everything possible to ensure that conferences are successfully held in the institution.

    He submitted that conferences are crucial to the students’ development and growth as it gives them exposure and cross-fertilisation of ideas, adding that students should be invited in large numbers to attend conferences.

  • Fed Govt spends $9b on infrastructure in two years, says minister

    •’Nigeria is safe for tourism’

    The Federal Government has spent $9 billion on infrastructure in two years, Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed said yesterday.

    He also said the nation attracted over $6 billion capital investment and that the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) is rated as one of the best six in the world.

    According to the minister, Nigeria is safe for for tourism and investment.

    Mohammed spoke at a news conference in Abuja on the 61st meeting of the UNWTO-CAF which begins today in Abuja.

    The news conference was attended by Secretary-General of the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Mr. Zurab Pololikashvili.

    Expected at the conference will be attended by 26 ministers and 498 delegates from across the world.

    He said: “The government has spent about $9 billion on infrastructure in the last two years.

    This has never been done before.

    “Please permit me to most sincerely thank President Muhammadu Buhari for his invaluable support, without which this event would not have been possible. Thanks to the successes recorded by this administration in fighting insecurity, we are holding this global meeting here.

    “Four years ago, hosting this event in Abuja would have been a pipe dream, considering the level of insecurity. Remember that Boko Haram carried out many deadly attacks in this capital city. That is now history.

    “Nigeria is safe and secure for its citizens and for foreign tourists and investors. Whatever pockets of criminal acts that exist are being addressed squarely.

    “All the ingredients of tourism are here. This administration will promote  tourism religiously.

    “It is common knowledge that culture drives tourism. We will, therefore, use the occasion of this meeting to showcase the rich and diverse culture of Nigeria. Some spectacular cultural events have thus been lined up for the meeting.”

    The minister confirmed that 26 ministers and 498 delegates from the country and abroad will attend the meeting in Abuja.

    He added: “We are all set to host the best UNWTO-CAF Meeting ever! All the necessary preparations have been made to ensure this. The main committee, as well as the many sub-committees, have worked tirelessly to make this event a huge success. We also expect an impressive attendance.

    “As at Sunday,  we have confirmation from 166 foreign delegates, 26 ministers and 332 Nigerian delegates, excluding the gentlemen of the press. Several delegates have arrived and many more are expected in today.

    “As you must be aware by now, the theme of the meeting is ‘’Tourism Statistics: A catalyst for development’’. That theme fits very well into our quest to improve on our tourism statistics for planning purposes and the ultimate development of our tourism.”

    Pololikashvili said: “We will use tourism for peace and creation of jobs.

    “We are working towards seamless travel, investment, innovation, sustainable development worldwide, and security.

    “As the new Secretary-General, I am not a magician, but I know we need to sit down and work out how to promote seamless travel in Africa.”

  • Fed Govt moves to sack over 750,000 striking health workers

    THE Federal Government has begun moves to dismiss 750,000 striking members of the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU).

    As part of the plan, it has directed governing boards of government-owned hospitals to invoke the provisions of Public Service Rule 030413 on the workers for failing to report for duty.

    The government also instructed the governing boards to restore services in their various hospitals with immediate effect, saying nobody has the right to shut down any government hospital.

    The Nation gathered that Minister of Health Prof. Isaac Adewole gave the directive at an emergency meeting with chief medical directors and medical directors of government owned hospitals and their governing boards.

    The public service rule 030413 reads: “Any officers who absent himself/herself from duty or travels out from Nigeria without leave, renders himself/herself liable to be dismissed from service and the onus shall rest on him/her to show that the circumstances do not justify the position of the full penalty”.

    The public service rule consider the action referred to by the minister as serious misconduct, which can lead to dismissal from service if proven.

    Sources told The Nation that the government may also be working toward proscribing JOHESU, which is made up of five allied professional unions. They constitute about 98 per cent of staff of the hospitals.

    The health minister was said to have told the governing boards that anyone, who fails to resume work should be considered to have absconded from duty without leave, which is a serious misconduct in line with the Public Service rule 030413.

    Director, Media and Public Relations in the Ministry of Health Mrs. Boade Akinola quoted the minister as saying that the chief executives not willing to keep the services running should be suspended and be replaced with another officer in acting capacity.

    The statement said the minister’s directive was given at an emergency meeting with the CMDs/MDs of tertiary hospitals on Monday, where the impact of the ongoing strike on health services in government hospitals was reviewed.

    On the strike, Minister of Labour and Employment Senator Chris Ngige said he has been restraining the Ministry of Health from engaging supporting staff to fill the vacancies created by the strike.

    He noted that he may not be able to restrain them for too long.

    Ngige said: “They are on essential services and ILO has conditionalities for workers on essential services. They are not supposed to go on strike. ILO also has provision, which states that if workers on essential services go on strike, the employer must be protected. They are allowed to deny them payment for the period they are away and employ advocate staff to fill the vacancies. I have pleaded and pleaded.

    “They know these laws because they are very vast. We have been begging. These people in JOHESU are Nigerians. If we terminate their appointments and ask new employees to come, you will see over one million applications to fill those vacancies because there are qualified Nigerians outside there.

    “But I have restrained the Health Ministry for some time now. I don’t even know for how long I can restrain them. In doing my restrain, I am guided by the fact that I know that the doctors alone cannot handle the health services. I know that because I am a doctor.

    “I also know that the doctors are not conducting themselves in a very dignified way in this negotiation. Why should they be putting their mouth and interloping? It is in the Labour laws that they should not interfere in what is happening to another union. This is the situation with JOHESU and the ongoing strike.”

  • What we want from Fed Govt, by manufacturers

    •MAN, LCCI, NACCIMA, others seek increased disposable income, infrastructure, access to finance

    The Organised Private Sector (OPS) has urged the Federal Government to improve infrastructure, access to funds and disposable income of Nigerians toward achieving a robust economy.

    The operators expressed their views yesterday in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

    They spoke while assessing the three years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and its impact on the real sector.

    The Director-General of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Segun Ajayi-Kadir, said the challenges affecting the real sector such as interest rates, multiplicity of taxes, bottlenecks in the business environment should be improved upon.

    He said: “No country in the world has ever done well without been industrialised. Imagine that immediately coming out of recession, government is increasing consumption tax in form of excise duty.

    “They are just doing the direct opposite of what they should do, and I believe it is important that they should reverse that, regardless of which products that are being mentioned, because we are taking money out of the hands of the people.”

    The MAN chief appealed to the government to improve the disposable income of Nigerians through improved liquidity in the economy.

    According to him, manufacturers’ warehouses are filled with unsold inventories, and that the sector would not be able to generate additional production activities and expansion, if the situation subsists.

    Besides, he noted that there was uncertainty and apprehension from many quarters on whether government would sustain its activities in the economy with the election fast approaching.

    “It is important that government keeps its focus and works on its reform activities and policy initiatives; and continues to consult with the private sector so that those areas that affect our growth and activities would be addressed,” he said.

    The Director-General of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Muda Yusuf, said the government should address issues of access to and cost of fund in the country, which remains high, and impede economic growth.

    Yusuf said: “With commercial bank lending rate at between 20-35 per cent, depending on the borrower and other factors such as acceptability of collateral, it is very difficult to successfully access fund by the private sector especially the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).”

    The LCCI chief acknowledged government’s efforts through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Bank of Industry (BoI) to extend intervention funds to operators.

    “However, the range of beneficiaries and economic impact of government’s intervention funds remain very limited. There is a need to improve it so that more Nigerians can benefit from it,” he said.

    Yusuf also urged the government to address insecurity across the country because it had become a concern to businesses and a disincentive to local and foreign investors.

    The Director-General of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Ambassador Ayoola Olukanni, urged the government to concentrate more on developing the mining sector to boost the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

    According to him, as the country seeks to drive the growth of its non-oil sector, the mining industry should be repositioned as a strategic player, through effective implementation of the solid pineral policy roadmap.

    Olukanni noted that countries like Australia rely and utilised mining to develop tier economies, and that Nigeria should take a cue from Australia’s success story.

    Also, Mrs Joyce Akpata, Director-General, Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce (NACC), said the government should improve on the nation’s infrastructure toward improving the performance and competitiveness of the non-oil sector.

    She added that the diversification of the economy and increased investment in value-addition of natural resources should be vigorously pursued to boost economic growth, job and wealth creation.

     

  • ‘Fed Govt committed to completing abandoned projects’

    The Buhari Administration is committed to completing abandoned projects, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said yesterday.

    He apoke in Sabke, Katsina State, during the inauguration and handing over of three water supply schemes.

    He said the three water supply projects, for Sabke, Dutsi and Mashi communities, started in 1998 but were abandoned by subsequent administrations.

    Alhaji Mohammed said the commissioning of the three water projects marked the second time in a week that the Federal Ministry of Water Resources was inaugurating a completed water supply scheme, following the one in Edo State last Thursday.

    ‘’The commissioning of these projects fits into our ongoing agenda to showcase the achievements of the Buhari Administration, especially in the area of Infrastructure where the Administration has spent an unprecedented 2.7 trillion Naira in just two years,’’ he said.

    The Minister recalled that the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture had recently kick-started a nationwide tour of Federal Government projects as part of efforts to showcase such projects.

    He said the team had inspected ongoing work on the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Guage Rail, which is the first leg of the Lagos-Kano Standard Guage Rail Project.

    ‘’We then followed up by touring the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, where work has been epileptic until this Administration came into office.

    ‘’Our next stop was the commissioning of an erosion and deflooding project in Osogbo – an Ecological Fund project – last week, which has given the people of the Osun State capital a new lease on life.

    ‘’From there, we inspected the Oyo-Ogbomoso road, the dualisation of which was awarded in 2010 and expected to be ready by 2013 but has been stalled due to lack of funds until this Administration assumed office. Today, we are here to commission three key water projects.

    ‘’What these show is that this Administration is delivering on its promises to ensure better life for Nigerians, irrespective of what the naysayers are saying,” Alhaji Mohammed said.

    In his remarks, the Minister of Water Resources, Mr. Suleiman Adamu, said  the Sabke Dam, Irrigation and Water Supply Project was first conceived in 1998, and that after several years of neglect, the

    project was completed and commissioned by the present administration.

    Mr. Adamu, who commissioned and handed over the projects, said the Sabke Water Supply Scheme is a conventional Water Treatment Plant with the capacity to provide 1 million gallons per day of potable water to Daura and Mai’adua areas.

    “The Dutsi and Mashi Water Schemes are package plants with each having capacity to provide 1,000 m3/day or about 250,000 gallons of treated water per day to Dutsi and Mashi inhabitants. In all, the three plants have a combined capacity to serve over 100,000 people daily. We have also provided for the construction of 38 borehole schemes to serve all the villages along the Sabke-Daura water transmission pipeline,” he said.

    Dignitaries at the occasion include the Emir of Daura, Alhaji Umar Faruk Umar, and the Secretary to the Government of Katsina State, Dr. Mustapha Inuwa, who represented the State Governor.

  • Alaafin to Fed Govt: heed intellectuals’ advice

    The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, has urged the Federal Government to tap into the wealth of knowledge and researches of scholars for the development of the country.

    He also appealed to scholars, governments and the academia to always involve traditional rulers in academic discourse and latest research findings.

    The frontline monarch expressed concern about the ecology and the environment to educate the populace.

    Oba Adeyemi spoke at this year’s edition of the Nigerian National Merit Award Winners Lecture at Trenchard Hall of the University of Ibadan (UI) in Oyo State.

    The lecture, titled: Refocusing The Attention of the Federal Government of Nigeria on Ecology and The Environment, was delivered by Professor Emeritus Seth Sunday Ajayi, a 2013 recipient of the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM).

    The event was attended by members of the academic community, traditional rulers, scholars, researchers and students.

    Oba Adeyemi, who decried the dearth of a regulated ecosystem in the country, said the situation had impeded the ecological and economic development of the country due to poor management of human activities on natural environment.

    He said: “The greatest gift of life is the character. It emanates from heredity, environment and education. The Federal Government and the people of Nigeria must listen to the advice of our intellectuals.

    “It is disheartening that most rivers have gone dry, blocked or polluted with aftermath effects like flooding through human activity of dropping refuse in flowing rivers. A lot of things we engage in often destroy our environment, particularly indiscriminate burning and dumping of refuse inside the rivers.

    “Most of the food we eat today are from inorganic sources, therefore, making us to live unhealthy lives. Many animals we were acquainted with during our time are not available for today’s youths to see because they have been killed through bush burning and other erroneous human activities.

    “If our generation knew lion and tiger and such other animals, do our children even know or recognise them anymore? We have devoured all of them in the forest. That is the implication of the ill-knowledge.

    “The guest lecturer made us to understand that the situation in Sokoto, Taraba, Benue, Borno, Zamfara and other parts that are witnessing killings is as a result of Sahara Desert getting closer to us. There is no more forest or what the herders could feed their cattle with. That is what is causing us trouble.

    “Our appeal is also to the Federal Government and scholars to involve traditional rulers in a discourse like this so that we will be informed of latest researches and findings on ecological issues and our environment so that we will be able to advise our people accordingly.”

  • Fed Govt saves N125b reducing official allowances

    The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, says the ministry has reduced travel and stationery allowances by N125 billion in 2016 and 2017.

    In a document released at the weekend to review the performance of the ministry between 2015 and 2017, Adeosun said this was achieved by the efficiency unit set up by the ministry in November 2015.

    “The government has saved N34 billion on travel and transport for 2016 compared to 2015 figures and a further N57 billion on same travel and transport in 2017 compared to 2016,” the document released by Mrs Adeosun’s media spokesman,  Oluyinka Akintunde, read.

    “Again, on office stationeries and computer consumables, the government saved N24 billion in 2016 as against the previous year and a further N10 billion in 2017 compared to 2016 expenditure on the same line item,”added the document.

    Commenting on the voluntary assets and income declaration scheme (VAIDS), Adeosun said the programme is now receiving information on companies that evaded or underpaid taxes.

    She said: “You will remember that the Whistleblower Policy was introduced in December 2016 and since its introduction, we have had 8,373 communications out of which 1,231 are whistleblowing tips.

    “We have carried out 791 investigations and completed 534 of those investigations. Ten are presently under prosecution and we have secured four convictions.

    “For the first time, we are paying N439 million to about 14 whistleblowers who gave us specific tips on tax evaders. From the specific information provided on companies which underpaid their taxes, we were able to go in and communicate with the companies.

  • Fed Govt working hard to address decline in water supply, says minister

    The Federal Government is working hard to address the decline in water supply and sanitation in the country, Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, has said.

    He spoke at the inspection  and handing over of soil erosion control and road improvement works at Yalenguruza, Gombe State,

    Adamu, in a statement issued by the ministry’s Director (Press and Public Relations), Kenechukwu Offie, in Abuja, said the Federal Government had put in place concrete action plans to curtail the problems associated with water supply and sanitation.

    The minister said the water supply projects in the state would address water shortages and improve the socio-economic lives of the people.

    “The successful completion of this project would enhance improvement in the socio-economic lives of the people,” the minister was quoted to have said in the statement.

    The statement said the project is one of the 26 ecological intervention projects across the six geopolitical zones of the federation which was executed by the federal government through the Ecological Fund Office in the state.

    The minister also inspected the Dadin Kowa Hydropower Dam project, the completed Kwami, Gadam and Bojude water supply scheme designed to serve the three communities and environs aimed at providing sustainable potable water and reduce the incidence cases of water related diseases.

    Adamu urged the people to take ownership and guard the project to ensure it’s maintenance and sustainability.

    The state Governor, Ibrahim Dankwambo, commended federal government for the various intervention projects in the water sector in the state.

    He pledged his readiness to partner with the government to bring more water supply schemes which would attract Investments and development in the state.

    The Emir of Gombe, Alhaji Shehu Abubakar thanked the Federal Government for the provision of potable water in his domain.

  • 350,000 get Fed Govt interest-free loans

    No fewer than 350,000 small businesses have benefited from the Federal Government’s interest-free loans, it was learnt yesterday.

    The beneficiaries of Federal Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) MarketMoni scheme are in all the 36 states and the Federal Capital territory (FCT) –  at the Kano State edition of the Micro Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (MSME) Clinic.

    GEEP MarketMoni is a Federal Government Social Intervention Programme (SIP) that provides interest-free loans of between N10,000 and N100,000 to micro enterprises, the segments of society with the greatest difficulty accessing credit. The scheme, which is executed by BoI, a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, directly impacts traders, market women, artisans, and farmers nationwide.

    To assess the impact of the scheme, the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo met with a section of  about 12,000 beneficiaries from Kano State during the state’s edition of MSME Clinic yesterday.

    The Special Assistant to the Vice President on MSME, Tola Johnson, said ”The best thing that has happened to micro businesses in Nigeria is the GEEP MarketMoni programme. It dealt with their collateral challenge because all they need is their data, a bank account and Bank Verification Number (BVN).”

    Johnson added that of the 37million small businesses in Nigeria, 36.9 million are microenterprises. ”This informed the Federal Government’s attention to this space. Micro enterprises are responsible for almost 50 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product and 80 per cent of the workforce,” he added.

    According to Mrs Adeniji, under the GEEP MarketMoni scheme, BOI has given out more than 350, 000 microcredit loans across the country. ”GEEP MarketMoni has given people who otherwise have no access to finance, money to finance their businesses. These micro enterprises are expanding their businesses, making more profit and employing more people.”

    ”Most of our beneficiaries are women, some of whom are widows and single mothers. We are improving the quality of their lives, their children’s lives, their health and even education. We are seeing very quantifiable impacts. No government has ever done this,” she added.

    Speaking with journalists in Kano, the Head of Agent Networks, Sherifat Abdullahi, who interacts directly with agents, association heads and the beneficiaries, said, ”Apart from the 350,000 direct beneficiaries across the country, it has created employment opportunities for over 5,000 Nigerians who act as MarketMoni agents, some of whom are graduates, previously unemployed.”

    Sherifat added: ”As someone who has direct contact with the beneficiaries, this has been a very emotional journey for me, watching how this interest-free loan scheme is changing the lives of people, especially women and the vulnerable. We truly appreciate the Federal Government for doing this.”

    According to the National Bureau of Statistics, there are at least 37 million MSMEs in Nigeria, 85 per cent of which lack access to funding. It is in a bid to address this challenge head-on that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration established MarketMoni – the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), a social intervention programme aimed at reinvigorating the economy at the base of the pyramid, the hotbed of Nigeria’s financially vulnerable.

    To benefit from the scheme, applicants just need to apply through their registered Market Associations and Cooperatives, have a Bank Verification Number(BVN), and a mobile phone. The loans range from N10,000 to N100,000, and are expected to be repaid within six months without interest.

    Apart from GEEP MarketMoni, the three other Social Investment Programmes embarked on by the Federal Government include the School feeding programme, Conditional Cash Transfer to less privileged and N-Power.

  • Soyinka urges Fed Govt to seek foreign assistance to end killings

    •‘Killings are ethnic cleansing’
    •Ortom: it’s return of Jihad

    Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has advised the Federal Government to solicit the support of the international community to combat insecurity in the country.

    Soyinka spoke yesterday in Makurdi. He was in the Benue State capital for the 35th anniversary of Senator Suemo Chia’s novel, Adan Wade Kohol Ga, written in Tiv.

    He said: “If the government cannot cope, it should not shy away from asking for international help”, adding: “people are dying, this government cannot cope, please just ask for international help and I know they’re ready and willing to come to our aid.”

    Soyinka said: “Instead of treating the country of its cancerous disease rather, it is ringworm that is being treated.

    “The killings that are taking place in Benue and other states are targeted at ethnic cleansing and there is no any other word to describe it than that,” he said.

    Soyinka said that instead of hunting animals for food, the killer herdsmen hunted for human beings, adding that the act was barbaric.

    He said some people wanted to change the narrative that the killer herdsmen were Libyans, querying “who brought them, who kept them and who funds them?’’

    The renowned writer noted that herdsmen “kill and occupy people’s communities which clearly reveal their actual motive’’.

    He urged the Federal Government to give marching orders to the herdsmen that were occupying communities that were not theirs to vacate them in 48 hours.

    “We have to come together to probe the ugly situation so that the impunity which is going on in the country for long will stop.

    “If the President had visited any community where lives were lost due to the killings perpetrated by the armed herdsmen and give warnings, the killings would have stopped since,” he said.

    According to Soyinka, the killings are sponsored by desperate politicians because of their selfish motives, and the killings are not sporadic but well-coordinated and the people behind the killings should be identified for prosecution.

    He said that the phenomenon was not new because it happened in Rwanda and other crisis-ridden countries, “so Nigerians ought to have learnt from Rwanda to avoid the situation turning to an epidemic’’.

    Ortom thanked the Nobel laureate for the solidarity visitadding that he had told the world what the state was going through, particularly its security challenges.

    “What is happening to us is not a hidden agenda because the herdsmen, through Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, had said at several fora that they want to take over the Benue valley.

    “The attacks are also the continuation of the jihad which was truncated by the Benue people in 1804,” Ortom said.

    He said he had all evidence to buttress what he was saying and that armed herdsmen were perpetrating the heinous acts with impunity.

    The governor deplored the latest case of the killing of people who attended the mass burial of the two priests and 17 other parishioners, by herdsmen on Tuesday while returning home.

    The burial took place at the Se Sugh Maria Pilgrimage Centre, Ayati, Gwer Local Government Area of the state.

    “We will continue to demand for justice and believe that security agencies will live up to their responsibility by nipping the killings in the bud,” Ortom said.