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Tag: Federal government

  • Dickson in US defends FG’s plans on modular refineries 

    Dickson in US defends FG’s plans on modular refineries 

    Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, at the ongoing Oil and Gas Trade Conference (OTC) in USA, defended the decision of the Federal Government to establish modular refineries.

    The governor in the event holding at Houston, Texas, commended President Muhammandu Buhari-led administration for the initiative describing it as a brilliant idea that would create more jobs and increase the economic fortunes of Nigeria.

    He said the refineries when completed would also curb the illegal refining of petroleum products and the problems associated with it.

    A statement by Dickson’s Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said the governor spoke on the sidelines of the conference.

    The statement said Senator Foster Ogola, House of Representative members Fred Agbedi and Henry Ofongu; Secretary to the State Government, Serena Dokubo-Spiff, Commissioner for Investment, Trade, Commerce and Industries, Mr. Kemela Okara, Chief Economic Adviser, Duate Iyabe, Special Adviser on Investment, Cyril Akika were among other top aides of the governor, who accompanied him.

    Already Dickson said his government fully embraced the initiative by setting up a firm, Bayelsa Petrochemical and Refinery Company Limited, to partner with willing investors in the modular refineries.

    The governor reportedly told his audience in the global oil industry that as a home of of oil and gas in Nigeria, Bayelsa provides strategic investment opportunities and a conducive and secured environment to drive investment in that sector.

    He said that the participation of his state in the OTC was strategic adding that it would afford Bayelsa the opportunity to meet and leverage on prospective investors in various opportunities offered by his government.

    Dickson boasted that Bayelsa has in abundance gas feedstock to power the modular refineries.

    “It is interesting to note that we already have more than enough gas in abundance to deliver the three modular refineries so we are good to go”, he said.

    The governor assured prospective investors that all investments would be fully secured and allayed fears expressed on threats to destruction of pipelines.

    He said: “To a large extent, as a state government given our strategic and massive investment in security ‎over the last five years, we make bold to say that our state is one of the safest in the Niger Delta and Nigeria. So would-be investors have nothing to worry about”.

    ‎Dickson said that the Kolo Creek Gas plant which is the first independent power plant in the country has been running for in the state for years.

    He listed the opportunities available in the state to drive investments in modular refineries, power plants and allied petrochemical industries.

    The statement also said that Dickson was a guest at the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) strategic stakeholders’ event as part of the OTC roundtable side meetings, where the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe kachukwu, was said to be present.

    At the forum, the governor called on major players in the industry to partner with the state on a number of opportunities in driving investment in key sectors of the state.

    He lauded the recent federal government policy directing oil companies to relocate their headquarters to the oil producing states.

    He said that Bayelsa already provided the enabling environment to make the relocation of the oil companies easy and seamless through the 3.5km runway international airport presently under construction in the state.

    “The airport will enable the oil companies executives to be able to fly in and out of the state without the stress of travel time from Port Harcourt to Yenagoa and the completion of the new heliport will serve the purpose of helicopter shuttles.

    “In addition to that, the ambitious infrastructural projects provided by the present government to facilitate businesses in the state has made Bayelsa to be fully ready and open for business,” he said.

     

  • How LGs shared N1.3bn Paris Club refund in Bayelsa – Commissioner

    Dr Agatha Goma, Commissioner for Local Government Administration, Bayelsa, said the eight local government areas in the state shared N1.3 billion from the N14.5 billion Paris Club refund remitted to the state by the Federal Government.

    She gave the figures in a news conference on Monday, noting that the councils deployed the fund which was the first tranche of the Paris Club fund to clear salary backlogs in the eight local governments.

    She, however, said that the fund was not sufficient to clear the entire backlog as various councils have varying wage bills even as their fund receipts and revenue earnings varied.

    According to her, the breakdown of the sharing shows the following — Brass Local Government; N158.5 million, Ekeremor Local Government; N182.2 million, Kolokuma/Opokuma; N122.6 million and Ogbia; N157.9 million.

    Others are Sagbama; N155.4 million, Nembe; N147.9 million, Southern Ijaw; N209.4 million and Yenagoa; N199.1 million.

    “It is important to restate that what the councils in Bayelsa are facing is as a result of the recession which has taken its toll on the revenue accruable to all tiers of government, nobody tampers with council funds in Bayelsa.

    “Even though we run a unified local government system, the same amount that accrues to the local governments is what is remitted to them and they are financially autonomous.

    “The local government component of both the bailout funds from the Federal Government and the Paris Club refunds were remitted to the eight local governments and they were judiciously used,’’ Goma said.

    President Muhammadu Buhari had on March 23 approved the disbursement of the second tranche of the Paris Club loan refunds to states that had disbursed the first tranche to local governments.

    Accountability of the disbursement of the first tranche is a prerequisite for states to benefit from the second tranche of the disbursement.

    Mr Ebiango Egain, Secretary, Bayelsa chapter of Association of Local Governments of Nigeria said at the news conference that the local governments shared the N1.3 billion and deployed same to clear outstanding salaries.

    He commended Gov. Seriake Dickson of the state for ensuring that council funds were released to the local government as received from the Federal Government.

  • Most states would have collapsed without FG’s intervention, says Katsina governor

    Most states would have collapsed without FG’s intervention, says Katsina governor

    Katsina state Governor, Hon. Aminu Bello Masari has said that without the intervention of the Federal government, many of the states in the country would not have been able to pay the salaries of their workers and would have collapsed in the face of dwindling oil revenue.
    Speaking at a town hall meeting with Katsina state indigenes resident in Abuja on Sunday, Governor Masari said the intervention of the federal government has helped many of the states to stay afloat as what they get from the federation is not enough for about 27 of the states to pay salaries of their workers.
    The governor said since the present administration in the state came into office, it has received intervention from the federal government on four different occasions to address issues of salaries, gratuity and pension of workers in the state, but lamented that his government is still faced with a huge challenge in terms of funding the operation of the local government system in the state.
    According to the governor, federal allocation to the 34 local government councils in the state is not enough for them to pay salaries of their workers, pointing out that while the councils receive about N3.6 billion monthly from the federations account, their total wage bill stands at about N3.7 billion.
    He stressed however that while some of the local government areas can afford to stand on their own, some others, especially the big local government areas has to rely on others to survive.
    He listed federal financial intervention to the state to include the bailout fund of about N11.8billion, N10 billion special intervention to each of 36 states for capital projects, a monthly intervention of N1 billion to the states to assist the state in the payment of salaries and pension as well as N14.2 billion Paris Club refund.
    He disclosed that N6.7 billion from the Paris Club refund will be used to settle arrears of gratuity and pension of civil servants in the state up to June 2016 and that of local government upto March 2016.
    While lamenting the current situation of things in the state, Governor Masari said presently, the state is ranked third in the national poverty index and seventh in revenue allocation in the country, adding that the state has reason to be in the position it currently found itself.

  • FG tasks diaspora on national development

    The Federal Government has tasked Nigerians in the diaspora on the need to assist the country attain economic and technological development.

    Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, said at the ministry’s Investment Forum in New York, organized for Nigerians, that the diaspora had a lot to contribute to the country.

    “Our visit to New York is to get our people in the Diaspora to think home, just imagine what other nations diaspora have been able to achieve for them.

    “If we look at India, there is no way India would have attained the level of development that it have attained today; India is orbiting Mars.

    “India is a space power, India is a nuclear power. India could never have achieved this level without the contributions of her citizens in the Diaspora; the same way China.

    “So we believe that Nigerians in the diaspora, through NIDO (Nigerians In Diaspora Organization) United States, NIDO Worldwide, should be in a position to help our nation.

    “To move from the position we are today to the position where we can be the truly great nation that nature has destined us to be.

    “And what that means is that we are now, that we’ve come to our Nigerians in the diaspora, to now look at the researches that we have already conducted in the country.

    “These researches, we’ve taken all the risks that you need to take if you were to do it yourself.”

    Onu disclosed that the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO) has about 250 products that they have taken up to commercialization level.

    “If we had enough venture capital, there would be people who would come, chasing after these products because that is the easiest way to make money.

    “But we would prefer to hand over this research not even as a partner; you enter into an agreement whereby there would be some fees – the normal license fees.

    “If it is a Nigerian company, we would be very happy to do so because this company will come, establish the facility in Nigeria and be in a position to now hire Nigerians.

    “It will also be in a position to help grow our Gross Domestic Product for the whole country and then you as a Nigerian, you will be making money and you pay more tax to government.”

    Onu said the task of developing Nigeria had now become an urgent one, particularly with science and technology at the livewire of the development.

    He promised to protect the intellectual property so that no other person would come to lay claim to ownership.

    Some diaspora Nigerians commended the ministry and its agencies for their research breakthroughs and called for transparency and removal of bottlenecks in government businesses to aid investment.

     

  • FG to name, shame traffickers says NAPTIP chief

    The Federal Government would employ the name and shame policy to ensure that those who get involved in trafficking do not have a hiding place anywhere across the globe, Director-General, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Julie Okah-Donli, has said.

    She said this at her maiden press briefing with reporters at the headquarters of the agency in Abuja.

    Okah-Donli also said she would appeal to the government to expand the whistle blowing policy to accommodate the crime of human trafficking.

    According to her, if the whistle blowing policy is succeeding in the fight against corruption, it should also succeed when deployed to detect and prevent trafficking in persons.

    She said: “We will employ the name and shame policy to ensure that those who get involved do not have a hiding place anywhere across the globe.

    “I will appeal to government to kindly expand the scope of the whistle blowing policy to accommodate the crime of human trafficking. If this policy is succeeding in the fight against corruption, it should also succeed when deployed to detect and prevent trafficking in persons.

    “We must do all to protect the lives and dignity of our next generation who are being destroyed now by criminally minded individuals.

    “It is a known fact that human trafficking has moved from the era of analogue and person-person recruitment of victims to a well-orchestrated criminal network that is designed to deceive even the very best operatives.

    “This is why the agency during my tenure shall move with all vigour, techniques, skills and the expertise to nab any human trafficker, from the point of conceiving the idea to the point of exploitation.

    “Efforts shall be made to equip operatives of the agency to detect and proactively burst any human trafficking action form the bud. The era of trading on our promising youths as commodities is over and all machinery must be put in place to ensure that our youths have a secure future.

    “We shall increase our surveillance and intelligence around the known endemic communities and villages coupled with a reloaded sensitization and public enlightenment campaign.

    “We shall increase our advocacy to policy makers and other arms of government like the legislators, judiciary and the civil society organizations for the purpose of enhancing accelerated dispensation of justice.”

    She said the agency since inception has 3,407 cases and rescued 10, 685 victims.

    “A critical analysis of the overall performance of the agency shows that since its inception, it has received a total of 4,755 cases, investigated 3, 407 while a huge number of 10, 685 victims have been rescued. In the same vein, the agency has convicted a total number of 321 persons,” she added.

     

  • FG to save over N34billion in dredging of River Niger

    FG to save over N34billion in dredging of River Niger

    The Federal Government Friday said it will save over N24billion as it commences maintenance dredging of River Niger from Ajaokuta to Onitsha.

    This was disclosed during the official flag off of the dredging exercise along Ajaokuta Waterways channel.

    It is believed that the exercise which will be done by the Nigeria Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) will boost trade in Kogi State and it’s environs.

    Speaking, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi said: “I was told that the last dredging exercise cost N44 billion and the federal government was only able to pay N34billion.

    “With the flag-off of this maintenance exercise that will be done by NIWA, the government will be saving that N34billion. NIWA will use N10bn and the remaining N24 will be channeled to other sectors of the economy like the construction of road from Abaaji to Lokoja.

    Amaechi also ordered NIWA to include two items in the 2018 budget. The items are; the purchase of bigger dredger and allowance for staff of NIWA separate from their salary.

    He also urged the host community to give the government the enabling environment to develop the sector.

    Also speaking, the Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello said the dredging exercise will cover a distance of 162km from Ajaokuta to Onitsha.

    On it’s essence, Bello said: “It is intended to keep the waterways between the two locations navigable all year round, thus improving transport and trade.

    “It will reduce the menace of flooding on our communities by clearing the waterbeds of obstructions.”

    The governor also expressed optimism that an Environmental impact Assessments have been duly conducted to ameliorate any adverse effect of the process to native communities, their farmlands and fishing places.

    The governor also urged the minister to advocate for Kogi State in FEC.

    He said: “We want the Honourable Minister to help us reiterate to the Federal Executive Council that Ajaokuta Steel Complex must be resuscitated and maximised immediately.

    “Thousands of Hectares of valuable land beldnging to Kogi State is occupied by it. Many of our communities were displaced to make room for it. It is thus urgently important that it begins to give back to Kogi State, and by extension, Nigeria as soon as possible.

    “Kogi State offers several quickwins for your assignment at the Federal Ministry of Transport. We share boundaries with 10 States and the Federal Capital Territory.

    “We are the intersection at the centre of the Nation. Transport, trade and commerce can be quickly boosted across the various parts of this country if you place a transport hub especially land and waterways, in Kogi State which will radiate outward to every part of the Nigeria.”

    Commenting also, the NIWA boss Boss Mustapha said: “On assumption of office a few months ago, I realised that the Authority own a dredger which was on lease. As the need for maintenance dredging of Ajaokuta/Onitsha waterways had become imminent, especially as it was affecting the conduct of businesses on our waterways.

    “In search for solutions, ‎I realised that NIWA possesses the necessary manpower and technical know-how to carry out the maintenance dredging of channels as opposed to contracting the task out,  incuring large expenses in the face of dwindling resources and increasing staff redundancy among other things.

    “The current exercise is a value focused project aimed at providing navigable channels on routes with proven economic activities.

    “The estimated removal of 523, 000m of dredged material will create deeper channels suitable for the current movement of ceramic tiles and granites from Ajaokuta to Onitsha, clay from Ozubulu to Ajaokuta among others.

    “Hopefully, the next and final phase of our campaign will focus more on river training works such as channel contraction/straightening, shore protection, installation of barrages and groynes, cross dams, bottom panels with accompanying navigation like lightening for night navigation and provision of security and communication installations.”

     

  • NYSC DG expresses FGs commitments towards empowering corps members

    NYSC DG expresses FGs commitments towards empowering corps members

    Brig-Gen. Suleiman Kazaure, Director-General, National Youth service Corps (NYSC) said on Thursday that the Federal Government was committed to   empowering corps members with skills to enable them become self-employed after their  service.

    Kazaure stated this when he inspected the NYSC Integrated Skills Acquisition and Vocational Centre project for the North- East zone in Lafiawo town of Akko Local Government in Gombe state , currently under construction.

    He said similar centres would be sited in each of the six geopolitical zones of the country.

    Kzaure said the projects would not only enable the corps members to be self-employed, but also become employees of labour after their service year.

    “When we come on board, we discovered that we have problem of post-camp training in skills acquisition and therefore decided to initiate a project in the six geo-political zones.

    “If you look at the number of corps members we are producing, no government or private organizations can employ all of them,” he said.

    According to him, the project is being embarked upon in collaboration with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Bank of Industry (BOI).

    Kazaure expressed his satisfaction with the level of work on the projects in the state and urged the contractor to maintain standard.

    Mr Ibeh Chidube, NYSC Coordinator in Gombe said that the centre had the capacity to accommodate 500 corps members and 20 facilitators.

    He then commended the effort of the D-G for his initiative, and Gombe state government, for their support

  • FG to stop sponsoring of Pilgrims by 2022

    …Christian pilgrim’s to embark on pilgrimage on 9th May

    The Federal Government Wednesday said it will stop sponsoring Christian pilgrims to holy land in five years’ time.

    Also, to prevent people from using pilgrimage as an Avenue to abscond to other parts of the world, the Nigeria Christian Pilgrims Commission (NCPC) said it will develop an electronic data capturing system.

    This was disclosed in Abuja Wednesday by the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Uja Tor Uja when he inaugurated Metropolitan and Zonal Coordinators to make movement and funding of the whole pilgrimage process easier.

    Uja also disclosed that over 1000 pilgrims will embark on pilgrimage on the 9th of May.

    On the essence of the inauguration, he said: ” We want pilgrimage to stop depending so much on government.

    “Our target is that in the next five years, NCPC should be completely free of government support of any kind.

    “With a proper strategy and work plan in place, we should be able to generate our funds by mobilizing and effectively carry our pilgrims to the promise land and back and by also ensuring that pilgrimage is beneficial to our nation, spiritually and also in socio-economically.

    “So we have raised the metropolitan zones that are focusing on major cities in Nigeria and that is why we have Lagos, Sokoto, Awka, Kano, Asaba, Abuja and Gombe which we consider as some of the most vibrant places.

    He further said: “We want them to work with the government, businessmen and womenband above all the churches and leadership in those places to plan for pilgrimage and to make NCPC self-sufficient.

    “They will finance it and to make NCPC self-sufficient and we believe that we can achieve this with proper things in place.

    “All we ask of the government is that they should support us for five years and with our work plan of five years, NCPC will be free of government support for the next generations.”

    He also urged Nigerians and church leaders to sponsor and not abandon pilgrimage to the government alone.

    On efforts made to prevent people from using pilgrimage as an Avenue to abscond, he said: “We are talks with Israeli government and they promised to send us a partnership team who are experts.

    “They will use facilities we have and also ask us to buy some if needed in order for us to have  global data capturing system that we can use to track our people wherever they are and whatever be their situation.

    “It will prevent the way pilgrims use it as opportunity to abscond.”

    On when this year’s pilgrimage will commence, Uja said: :It was supposed to be in April but unfortunately when we were processing the visa, the entire Israel was on ten day holiday and they just resumes last week from holiday. We have sent our materials for visa and we can only start the pilgrimage by 9th May and we are flagging it off in Lagos.

    “We have over 1000 people who are going on Easter pilgrimage and we are going to finish it in May. 900 are going to Israel and about 200 are going to Rome and Greece.

    “We are finishing it in May because by July, we intend to flag off the women pilgrimage. We don’t want the pilgrims to take much time”

  • Buhari seeks Senate nod for $12.921b World Bank, Chinese loan

    Buhari seeks Senate nod for $12.921b World Bank, Chinese loan

    President Muhammadu Buhari Wednesday asked the Senate to approve a loan of $12.921 billion as part the 2016-2018 external borrowing (rolling) plan of the Federal Government.

    The loan approval request was read by Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki in the chamber Wednesday.

    Entitled “Request for approval for Federal Government 2016-2018 external borrowing rolling plan” President Buhari in the a memo dated 21st April, 2017 referred to his earlier letter on the same subject matter.

    It is however speculated that the request for the approval of the loan was part of the $29.96 billion loan request rejected by the Senate.

    The memo read in part, “I wish to refer to my earlier letter in respect of the above subject and to inform the distinguished Senate that the China-Exim Bank has approved our request for a loan to execute the Lagos-Kano Railway modernisation project (Kano-Kaduna segment) for a sum of $1.231billion.

    “The Chinese have also informed us that approval of the Lagos-Kano railway modernisation project (Kano-Kaduna segment) and coastal Railway project, Lagos-Calabar segment, are imminent.”

    The letter listed China-Exim supported project to include 1. Lagos-Kano railway modernisation project, the Lagos-Ibadan segment, $1.231billion; 2. Lagos-Kano railway modernisation project, Kano-Kaduna segment, $1.146billion; 3. Coastal Railway project, Lagos-Calabar segment $3.474billion; making a total of $5.851billion.

    It added, “As you are aware, the funds available under the China/Africa fund are limited and loan applications from all African countries are funded based on first come first serve. And therefore there is an urgent need for us to sign these loans as soon as they are approved or we will lose out in the event that we delay in signing the loan agreement. These loans form part of our overall rail funding strategy.

    “We are already in the process of completing the concession of the Port Harcourt to Maiduguri line to immediately link the eastern part of the nation. We fully intend to source further consessioning funding to ultimately upgrade this critical line to high speed standard guage line. These projects form part of our overall plans to resuscitate the rail transport across the nation and thereby drive inclusive growth.

    “You may also recall my earlier request for the speedy clearance of some emergency projects earmarked for the North East in the 2016-2018 borrowing plan. You will also recall that my request was based on the need to consolidate the relative peace at that time. Since then the situation as you are aware, has changed dramatically and introduced even more urgency to the situation in the zone than ever before.

    “While the capture and destruction of the stronghold of Boko Haram in Sambisa forest was welcome news, the recent and unfortunate incident of the bombing of an IDP camp by mistake with loss of civilian lives, brings to fore the need to resettle the people back to their homes quickly in other to avoid such incidence in the future.

    “However, for us to be able to do this, there is need for urgent consideration of the identified projects, which will enable us to start reconstruction and rehabilitation of the region in other to create jobs for the people and rehabilitate the schools to get the children of the streets into schools.”

    The letter said that the World Bank has approved a sum of $575million to assist the Federal Government in these reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts as well as for the procurement of vaccines and other ancillary facilities for national routine immunisation to eradicate polio after the outbreak in the North East in 2016.

    It said that the projects earmarked for the emergency rehabilitation and reconstruction in the North East are as follows: Previously requested emergency World Bank supported projects.

    1. Polio eradication support and routine immunisation project, $125million
    2. Community and social development project, $75million
    3. Nigeria’s states health programme investment project $125million.
    4. State education programme investment programme investment project $100million
    5. Nigeria youth employment and social support project $100million
    6. Fadama 3 Project $50million; making a total of $575million

    President Buhari also informed the Senate that “our national Social Safety Net programme, which is intended to assist the poor and most vulnerable people in our society nationwide started this January 2017 with the first cash transfer payments in eight states.

    The President noted that “for us to expand the programme to all the states, we need additional resources in addition to our 2017 budgetary allocation.”

    “It is for this reason that I am requesting your early consideration of a proposed World Bank-assisted $500million loan to help expand the assistance and support to the poor, our most vulnerable especially in these difficult times,” he said.

    He listed additional emergency World Bank supported projects to include, “Social inclusion and welfare advancement project $500million”

    President Buhari noted that giving the current state of the country’s economy and the need to urgently address some of the country’s infrastructural deficiencies in other to quickly improve the livelihood of Nigerians, “it has become imperative that we work together in an expeditious way to get our economy out of recession and back to growth.”

    He appealed to the Senate, for an expeditious consideration and approval of the requests, which he said will go a long way in bringing stability to the North East and improvement on the infrastructure and by extension a great improvement in the economy and livelihood of our people.

    “In view of the above, the Distinguished Senate is invited to urgently consider and approve all the above projects totaling a sum of $6.926billion to enable us commence the construction and rehabilitation of the North East, provide for the poor and most vulnerable people and commence rail projects in ernest,” he said.

  • FG directs mining companies to ensure human, environmental safety

    The Federal Government has directed mining operators to ensure environmental and human safety to avoid lead contamination during mining.

    Dr Kayode Fayemi, Minister of Mines and Steel Development, gave the directive during a visit to the Royal Salt Lead and Zinc Processing Company at Enyigba community in Abakaliki on Tuesday.

    According to Fayemi, in as much it is a win-win process, the Federal Government would not accept any mining investor across the country to operate without taking considering environmental sensitivity and sensibility.

    He, however, said the company had submitted environmental protection plan to the ministry on how it would reclaim and protect the environment, but the ministry would monitor the whole processes to ensure no stone was left un-turned.

    Fayemi expressed appreciation of the company’s efforts in processing minerals lead and zinc being exploited, rather than exporting them raw, which had benefited the country.

    “One of the primary interests in the ministry’s road map is to increase the level of beneficiation and processing to ensure raw minerals are processed locally rather than exporting them.

    ” This will create jobs for the youth, which the company had taken step to employ over 400 Nigerians in the state,” he said.

    He urged the company to employ more locals than foreigners and train them on jobs that expatriates were doing, to take charge of their responsibilities.

    The minister also urged the company to meet the demands of the host community and legitimate revenues being charged by the federal and the state to ensure smooth operations of its business.

    Gov. David Umahi of the state who was in the minister’s entourage to the company’s sites, said that it acquired 500 hectares of farm land for mining.

    Umahi said the operations had devastated the state’s vegetation, ecosystem, adding that the state had not made revenue from the company.

    He advised the company to comply with all its obligations to the state and the host community to avoid loosing the land.

    He also urged the state Commissioner for Environment to take water from the boreholes drilled by the company to a reputable laboratory to ascertain that it was free of lead.

    Mr Vassu Gowda, the Project Manager of the company, assured the minister and the state government that it would comply with all the terms and conditions.

    The two ministers of the sector had embarked on a nationwide tour to all mine sites, to build stakeholders’ confidence, get feedback from them, identify challenges and proffer solutions.

    The ministers have so far visited seven states: Kaduna, Lagos, Ogun, Nasarawa, Benue, Enugu and Ebonyi.