The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Fed Govt

  • Fed Govt plans ICT varsity, says minister

    The Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, has said the Federal Government has concluded plans to establish an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) university. The proposed ICT school, he said, is informed by the low-ranking of Nigeria in terms of development when compared to other African countries’growths.

    At the yearly lecture of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering held at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), the minister urged the academy to partner with the ministry to set up the ICT school, which, he assured, would be “run as a public-private partnership”.

    Shittu said since ICT had become an enabler of growth in modern time, it was time Nigeria filled the gap in the ICT industry by equipping its youths with requisite knowledge.

    He said: “I want to invite your academy to partner with the Ministry of Communications in setting up of the ICT University. If your academy is favourably  disposed towards that, we are prepared to cede one of the six campuses to you, so we can jointly run it to ensure that our youths get the best ICT training.”

    He said he would play an intermediary role between the academy and the Federal Government for whatever contact the academy might need to make the partnership successful.

    The guest lecturer, Prof Michael Adewumi, who spoke on: Training engineers for the global century, said he believed Nigeria needed to train globally-competitive and locally-relevant engineers.

    To achieve this, he said engineering training must surmount the problems of one-dimensional training, ignorance of local context and the expectation of employment in multinationals upon graduation.

    The lecturer at Pennsylvania State University in the United States (U.S.) maintained that local knowledge must be fully harnessed.

    “To train a successful engineer, we must have a seamless integration between what they already experience and what they need to know. For example, while teaching gaming theory or probability, why not focus on the game of ayo instead of baseball,” he said.

    Adewunmi also said three-dimensional education, which involves diversifying the curriculum, as well as creativ1e application of solutions from the local to global stage is essential if Nigeria is to have locally-relevant engineers.

    The event featured induction of new fellows and presentation of life achievement awards to selected professionals.

    Former Minister of Works and Housing Senator Barnabas Germade, who was inducted, lauded the selection process of the award, saying: “It is the application of engineering laws that qualifies anyone to become a fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering.”

  • ‘Fed Govt to amend NBC Code to promote local leagues’

    ‘Fed Govt to amend NBC Code to promote local leagues’

    The Federal Government will amend the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Code to compel brands to sponsor the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed  said yesterday.

    He spoke at the close of the “Two-Day Creative Industry Financing Conference”, sponsored by the ministry in conjunction with “Think Tank Media and Advertising”, which closed on Tuesday in Lagos.

    “We will amend the NBC code to ensure that our Premier League improves.

    “We will make sure that in the Code, if you spend one million dollars to support a foreign football club like Manchester United in Nigeria, you will not be allowed to air that programme unless you spend 30 per cent of that money to promote Nigeria’s league.

    “Some beverage companies in Nigeria support Manchester United (Man U), Arsenal and others and spend about six million dollars a year,” he said.

    “I then asked the question, how much of their products are being consumed over there?

    “I was also told that a particular brand of Nigeria Beer is supporting several premier league teams to the tune of seven million dollars a year.

    “We can imagine if they give us just 30 per cent of that, we will fix our stadia.

    “I know they are going to attack me on this, but I am not made a minister to sustain the economy of other countries.”

    He said the government could no longer tolerate the situation where people continue to develop the economy of other parts of the world from the sweat of Nigerians and at the expense of Nigerian economy.

    The minister clarified an earlier statement credited to him on the amendment to NBC Code to discourage production of Nigerian movies and music abroad.

    “At that meeting, I said that I will work to amend the NBC code to ensure that if a product is designated a Nigerian product; it must be produced in Nigeria.

    “I didn’t say that henceforth, all music and films will be produced in Nigeria.

    “All I said was that if a programme is designated as a Nigerian content programme, we will amend the code to ensure that it is produced in Nigeria,” he said.

  • Fed Govt targets N1.8tr from VAT

    Fed Govt targets N1.8tr from VAT

    The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) is projecting N1.8 trillion Value Added Tax (VAT) collection for the 2017 fiscal year.

    FIRS Executive Chairman Tunde Fowler announced this yesterday in his 2017 budget presentation…

    before the Senate Committee on Finance.

    The FIRS boss told the committee that the budget focused on capacity to increase VAT and other non-oil revenue.

    He noted that principally, VAT is expected to grow from an actual of N828 billion to a budget of N1.8 trillion which is over 125 per cent increase.

    He also told the committee that the achievement of the 2017 budget will be driven by VAT collection.

  • NLC accuses Fed Govt of disregarding agreements

    NLC accuses Fed Govt of disregarding agreements

    •Health  workers threaten strike

    THE organised labour yesterday accused the Federal Government of disregarding the policy of collective bargaining freely entered into with trade unions.

    It said such attitude was negatively affecting industrial peace.

    Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President Comrade Ayuba Wabba, who spoke while on a visit to affiliate unions, said it was unfortunate that government had decided not to honour its own agreements.

    He noted that contrary to global best practices, decisions of the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council are subjected to different interpretations by government rather than implementing them in the interest of industrial peace.

    Wabba said even when some issues referred to courts by government are decided in favour of the workers, the government still refused to implement such issues.

    He cautioned that anybody who refuses to obey the law cannot turn back and want to benefit from the same law.

    He said: “It is also something that is condemnable  because laws are meant to be respected, court pronouncement are meant to be implemented and collective bargaining agreements in line with our national laws, global best practice and in line with Convention 98 and 87 are supposed to be respected and implemented.

    “I think that without implementing those collective bargaining agreements, we are creating an avenue for chaos in the industrial relation system in this important sector. Where there is disagreement in this sector, it is the citizens that suffer because even the United Nations (UN) Charter recognises the fact that health is one of the fundamental rights of every citizens.

    “In fact, one of the indices of measuring development is health indices. The health indices are used to access whether a country is developing or retarding. So, if it is very important for our people to continue to access quality health services, no reason should arise where those collective bargaining agreements will not be respected and at the end of the day, services will be disrupted.”

    But, the President of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria, Biobelemoye Josiah, said the nation’s health care system may soon witness another round of industrial dispute, saying the health workers plan to shut down all health institutions over government’s failure to implement agreement entered into with the unions in 2014 as well as plans to privatise some health facilities.

    Josiah, who spoke Abuja when Wabba visited the union, said the Federal Ministry of Health has decided to play games with health workers on the agreement freely signed.

    He added that the ministry was waiting to invoke the no work, no pay policy of government when it has not obey its own side of the bargain.

    Josiah told the NLC President that very soon, unions in the health sector under the auspices of Joint Health Sector Unions will shut down the health system due to government’s failure to implement the 2014 collective agreement to adjust salaries of health workers.

  • Fed Govt to deploy aviation drones

    Nigeria is to explore good uses of drones in the aviation industry, Minister of State (Aviation) Hadi Sirika said yesterday.

    He spoke after a meeting of aviation chiefs with Acting President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on hosting a symposium on remotely piloted airctaft system.

    Among those at the meeting was President of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Olumuyiwa Benard Aliyu.

    Sirika said: “Nigeria is going to benefit immensely through this symposium. They have created awareness and we will use the outcome of the symposium to regulate more efficiently the use of unmanned air vehicles.

    “We are not going to over regulate but for sure we will regulate so that we will remain safe and secure and then make the industry much more efficient.

    “We will tap from the good uses of drones. We have seen during the symposium on how we can use drones to send blood samples, to rescue someone with heart attack or to deliver pizza or to take aerial photograph and so on. These are some of the benefits of unmanned vehicles

    “We hope that by regulating we will eliminate the dangers. For example if one unmanned vehicle is capable of carrying loads, you could think of them carrying a kilogram or two of bomb, with GPS and remotely piloted from a bedroom it can go and be dropped somewhere.

    “At this symposium, we will share ideas and come up with solutions on the good uses of the drones and of course over the bad uses,” he said

    On the Acting President’s response, he said: “He has flying drones himself, he is very much conscious and aware and he gave us the support and guidance that we need. He even warned that we should not over regulate so that we will not send people away.”

    Aliyu thanked the Acting President for supporting Nigeria to host the symposium.

    He said he was also in the Villa to express appreciation to the government for the investment and support that is given to aviation development in Nigeria, which is supporting development of aviation in Africa and globally.

    He said: “For Nigeria being a very responsible member of ICAO, I am also here to express the support that I still intend to continue to provide in this aviation development and to urge government to put aviation as the corner stone of the national development.”

  • Fed Govt to end rice importation before Dec, says Ogbeh

    The Federal Government will stop the importation of rice before the end of the year to boost internal production of the commodity and meet foreign exchange earnings that can support economic diversification.

    Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Audu Ogbeh spoke at the weekend in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, during a working visit to Ekiti State.

    He promised that the price of rice would crash within the next two weeks.

    Ogbeh also visited Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) Farm, where he spoke his ministry’s intention to supply the institution with 20 tonnes of rice seedlings in the next planting season to boost rice production.

    According to the minister, the Federal Government will sign a memoranda of understanding with Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD) and Ekiti State government on the production of rice.

    Ogbeh said the recession has helped the Federal Government to think outside the box and had succeeded in bringing the deserved revolution to agriculture sector.

    ABUAD Founder Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) hailed the Buhari administration for bringing revolution to the country’s agriculture sector.

    He said the sector had been neglected by successive governments, describing the economic recession as a blessing in disguise.

    He said: “To support the Federal Government’s initiative, this university for the past three years have been holding annual Afe Babalola Agriculture EXPO (ABAFEX), where we give N1 million to the best farmer in Ekiti and N250,000 to the best in 16 local governments.

    “This year, we intend to hold Rice Summit with intention to expose Ekiti potentials in the production of the commodity.”

  • Fed Govt ‘ll continue to borrow, says finance minister

    Fed Govt ‘ll continue to borrow, says finance minister

    Nigeria will continue to borrow to fund its budget, Minister of Finance Mrs Kemi Adeosun, said yesterday.

    “Nigeria will continue to borrow. Nothing has changed,” the minister said in a statement to debunk reports that the Federal Government had stopped borrowing.

    She said “the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan provides for an increase in spending over a three-year period, which is reflected in the 2017 budget”.

    She added that “in 2017, the government is committed to spending N7.44 trillion, with a projected fiscal deficit of N2.356 trillion, which will be funded by a combination of domestic and international borrowing.”

    Nigeria’s debt to GDP ratio, the finance ministry noted, “is low when compared to our contemporaries in Africa, and across most of the developed world. We have headroom to borrow and are doing so aggressively in the short to medium term in order to address our infrastructure deficit and to stimulate growth.”

    However, the minister added that “it is vital that Nigeria diversifies its revenue base and builds its revenue profile, as is projected in the ERGP, to ensure that we do not continue to overly rely on debt to fund our budget spending over the long term.”

    To build a sustainable economy, Mrs. Adeosun said Nigeria “must replace the debt that we are incurring in the short to medium term, with strong revenue sources”.

    The Ministry of Finance, she said, remains “focused on expanding our tax base, which we are doing with a range of initiatives which include the Voluntary Asset and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) and recruitment of Community Tax Liaison Officers (CTLOS) to improve tax compliance in the long-term, and we are heavily focused on making government spending more productive and efficient.

    “Nigeria cannot rely on debt indefinitely. We must be focused on a future where we can earn enough internal revenue to spend on the projects that will grow our economy. In the short term, through increased spending, funded by debt, will act as the stimulus we need to grow.”

    Also yesterday, House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara queried the non-disclosure of interests accruing to Nigeria’s foreign reserve accounts by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).Speaking when a delegation from the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) visited him in Abuja, he said that agencies, such as the commission, should be in custody of such figures for dissemination to the public when necessary.

    The House on Dec.15, 2015 passed a resolution calling on the CBN to declare interests accruing on the foreign reserves accounts of the federation.

    “We earn interest on foreign reserves, like Botswana. They don’t have oil but the interest on reserve is their second highest revenue source after natural resources.

    “You will see it as a budget item, interest earned from foreign reserves.

    “In Nigeria, we have been asking the question, `are we earning or are we just running charity with it or just leave people to manage it?

    “Are we capitalising the interest and what is the interest? Nobody has ever told us,’’ Dogara said.

    He said that CBN was the custodian of foreign reserves.

    But, he pointed out that if they are not forthcoming with regards to what had been happening with the interest earned on foreign reserves, there should be an agency of government to handle it.

    The speaker also sought to know why the ceiling on borrowing as stated in the FRC Act was not adhered to, adding: “Do we continue borrowing until we have borrowed billions?

    “The Fiscal Responsibility Act speaks to those things; so, why is it that it is not being done?’’ he asked.

    Dogara spoke of an urgent need for the government to properly fund the commission to enable it deliver on its mandate and strengthen its powers.

    According to Dogara, the commission has the capacity to reduce corruption by over 80 per cent.

    In his view, the approach adopted by the government to fight corruption through the EFCC to punish offenders after the crime has been committed should be redirected to checking the root of the problem.

    He said the reason for the establishment of FRC was for Nigeria to have an agency that would ensure that it had efficient allocation of resources.

  • Local milk sourcing: Fed Govt lauds FrieslandCampina WAMCO

    Local milk sourcing: Fed Govt lauds FrieslandCampina WAMCO

    The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, has praised  FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria, makers of Peak and Three Crowns milk, for pioneering local milk sourcing and development, and improving the lives of dairy farmers.

    The minister made the commendation while inspecting the local milk collection facilities of the company in Fashola Village and Iseyin Town, Oyo State, during the week.

    The company’s state-of-the-art milk collection centres and offices operate under its Dairy Development Programme (DDP).

    After inspecting the milk facilities and speaking with members of the host communities, Ogbeh said: “It will be wonderful if each Nigerian child can get two pints of fresh Nigerian milk daily and we express the gratitude of government to FrieslandCampina WAMCO for ongoing efforts in this regard.

    He expressed the government’s appreciation of the company’s commitment and investment, saying this was because not many investors are willing to go this far. “We are delighted,” Ogbeh said.

    Noting that the company’s  investments have guaranteed steady incomes for Fulani farmers as well as an improved lifestyle, Ogbeh said: “It is remarkable and FrieslandCampina WAMCO’s intervention should be commended for being instrumental to this.”

    Responding, the Managing Director, Ben Langat, thanked the minister. He said apart from FrieslandCampina WAMCO, no other dairy company in Nigeria has started collecting milk locally for production since 2011.

    Langat said although there is serious infrastructure deficit such as roads, power and water, the company was still grateful to the  minister, the ministry and the Oyo State government for partnering with it.

    “So far, we have provided 15 boreholes in the communities here in Oyo State. We are in this for the long run. We are investing funds and expertise in artificial insemination, cattle feeding and pasture for high yield in order to raise locally sourced milk to the desired levels for production” Langat said.

    Chief Ogbeh assured FrieslandCampina WAMCO of government’s continued partnership. He affirmed that improved local production of milk was the only panacea to lack of adequate milk supply.

    “Indeed, we need to improve the breed of our cattle and the ministry will partner with FrieslandCampina WAMCO to develop the programme. The import bill on milk is very high, while milk consumption among young people is too low. We can’t continue like that because of the effect on their brain and capacity,” the Minister said.

    He promised that government will soon address the challenge of roads, water, and other necessary infrastructure. “We are happy to see the families, women and the community leaders and we will help with more boreholes as the ministry has rigs and we will deploy them here,” he assured.

    FrieslandCampina WAMCO has been investing in the DDP since 2011 and has established the country’s largest milk collection network. Today, the company collects milk from about 1700 farmers in over 70 communities in Oyo State. It has five milk collection centres and one Bulking Centre for its DPP in Oyo State.

  • Extend school feeding to tertiary schools, Fed Govt told

    Students of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) have urged the Federal Government to extend its free school feeding programme to institutions of higher learning.

    The students, under the aegis of Parrot Publicis Consultants of the UNILORIN Mass Communication Department, said the extension of the scheme would help cushion the adverse effect of the recession on students.

    Addressing reporters as part of activities to  kick start the ‘my Indomie story campaign’ holding on the campus next week, the Chief Executive Officer, Parrot Publicis Consultants, Oladimeji Olushola, said the demand for the feeding scheme was in line with what used to be in the past.

    “We are also demanding that the school feeding programme be extended to higher institutions of learning as it was the case in the past when most of our today’s leaders were served with full chicken in their university days,” he said.

    The campaign, organised in conjunction with Dufil Prima Foods, producers of Indomie noodles, is to implement the practical aspect of a course for 300-Level students of Mass Communication and Library and Information Sciences, who specialise in Public Relations and Advertisement.

    In executing the school feeding programme, Olushola urged the government to patronise Dufil Prima Foods to encourage the firm to fulfil its social responsibility.

    “We want to use this medium to urge the Federal Government to patronise Dufil Foods in its home- grown school feeding programme as a way of encouraging the company to do more,’’ he said.

    “Our preference for Dufil Prima was borne out of the fact that it is one of the few companies in Nigeria that has continued to provide succour to Nigerian students and many families in this period of hard economic recession where having a three square meals is almost impossible.”

    He urged the government to establish an endowment fund to support fresh graduates willing to set up their own businesses with seed funds.

    Olushola added that the fund would discourage the quest for what he referred to as “elusive white collar jobs”.

  • ‘Fed Govt ‘ll boost economy through DSDP’

    The introduction of the Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) fuel import model by the Federal Government will boost the economy if properly implemented, Prof. Wunmi Iledare has said.

    Iledare, the Vice President, International Institute of Energy and Law,  said the initiative would spur the growth of the downstream subsector of the petroleum industry if the idea is well implemented.

    He told The Nation on the phone that the idea was a temporary measure introduced by the government to ease fuel supply, stating that the government has a long-term plan to fully develop the industry by bringing more investors into it.

    He said: “The government has plans to attract investments into the industry in the future, in order to galvanise its potentials. As part of efforts to achieve this goal, the government has introduced DSDP model through which it would bring foreign crude oil refiners into the country to invest for growth. However, the success of the idea is dependent on the ability of the government to provide infrastructure in the sector. The oil refining companies abroad are exposed to better facilities and would like to work with similar facilities in Nigeria. The government would decide whether it wants the refiners to stay in the country or not.

    “It is a fact that the four government-owned refineries are unable to operate at full capacities, the issue has resulted in poor operation of the refineries and its inability to guarantee supply nationwide. But if the government can implement the DSDP model well by making infrastructure available, which the foreign crude oil refiners would work with, the better for the country.”

    He said the initiative is better than ‘SWAP’ because it would help in attracting investors in refineries into the country in the future. SWAP, which was introduced in order to swap crude oil for petroleum products, has been abandoned by the government.

    On the take-off of DSDP model, NNPC’s spokesman, Ndu Ugbamadu, said he would clarify the time from the management, adding that the decision to implement the idea lies with the government. He said NNPC would leverage the idea to promote investments whenever the government begins the implementation.

    He said the intention of the government was to open its door to investors through DSDP model, stressing that any attempt by the foreign crude oil refining companies to invest in Nigeria, is line with the policy of the government to grow the economy.

    He said the government would not prevent any foreign crude oil refiner that operates under the Direct Sales Direct Purchase import model from investing in refineries in Nigeria, adding that such ideas would help in encouraging economic growth.

    He said the government has been calling for local and foreign participation in the economy, stressing that the oil and gas sector would help in achieving that goal.

    It would be recalled that some local and foreign oil companies have submitted bids in order to be able to operate under the DSDP model. The approval of the bids lies in the hands of the Federal Government, which would allocate crude oil to the winners of the bids whenever the model takes off.

    Through this means the government hopes to lessen the burden of sourcing for fuel abroad and improve the participation of operators at the downstream subsector of the industry.