The Nation Newspaper

Tag: fuelling

  • Nigerians spend N3.5t on fuelling generators’

    Nigerians spend an estimated N3.5 trillion yearly on fuelling generators to meet commercial and domestic needs , as grid power is seriously inadequate. A report from GIZ, a German-based firm, said generators provide alternative source of energy and further improves economic activities for the country.

    The firm, which specialises in offering solutions to countries in solar and other forms of renewable energies, in a report, made available to The Nation, said Nigeria was one of the major importers of generating sets in Africa, noting that the country has spent huge amounts of money on buying, using and servicing generators.

    It said Nigeria has been spending between N3trillion and N3.5trillion yearly on fuelling generators in the past three years, adding that the country mostly imports generators from Asian countries such as China, Japan and others.

    The firm said it was working on a study that would capture the expenditure incurred on importation and maintenance of generators in Nigeria and other African countries for 2016, adding that generators consume huge volumes of fuel after automobiles in Nigeria because power supply is not regular.

    It said Perkins and other brands were used by manufacturers because they help in sustaining production activities.

    The President, Renewable Energy Association of Nigeria (REAN), Mr. Segun Adaju, said the N800billion given by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) as the expenditure on fuelling generators in a year was small when one considers the fact that the country was running what he described as a ‘generating economy.’

    He said virtually every home and office uses generators, adding that the cost of fuelling them run into billions of naira daily. According to him, firms, especially manufacturers, spend billions of naira weekly to procure fuel for generators. He added that they use high-powered generators that consume more fuel.

    Adaju said: “Though the German firm didn’t provide insight into how it arrived at N3.5trillion yearly spend on fuelling generators in Nigeria, its findings are not far from truth given the fact that Nigerians use generators a lot.

    “Millions of people use the smallest size of generators popularly called I better pass my neighbour. The cost of fuelling this brand runs into millions in a day let alone heavy brands such as Perkins that consume drums of diesel in day. Companies that use Perkins and other brands spend on average between N30million to N40million a day.”

    According to him, the study conducted on the use of generators in Nigeria by his association showed that individuals and companies spend billions of naira on generators monthly.

    Adaju, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Consistent Energy Limited, urged Nigerians to explore opportunities in solar and other renewable energies to save money. The need to save money informed the decision of his association to create awareness on the use of solar, wind, coal and biomass forms of energy, he added.

  • Lack of access to vaccination fuelling cervical cancer—Experts

    Lack of access to vaccination fuelling cervical cancer—Experts

    In Nigeria where cervical cancer is said to be one of the major killers of women, many cases of deaths are said to go on unreported because the country lacks a cancer registry. However, the case of Lara Sonoiki, the CEO of Dress Sense, a popular fashion outlet on Allen Avenue in Lagos is one of the few reported cases. It would be recalled that Sonoiki recently celebrated her 40th birthday when she lost the battle to the terminal illness.

    Another Nigerian woman who was said to have lost her life to the scourge was Prof. Dora Akunyili, the former DG NAFDAC and  former Minister for Information. Though her husband would later come out to deny the claim of her dying of cervical cancer, saying she died of a rare type of cancer.

    The import of her story goes to discredit the age long belief that cervical cancer is a disease for white women since many celebrities in Europe and America have been known to die from the disease. Nigeria reportedly has the 10th highest number of deaths from cervical cancer globally.

    In January 2014, the Society for Family Health (SFH), reported that cervical cancer killed about 9,659 women in the country. Mr. Bright Ekweremadu, Managing Director was quoted in a report which said most women get Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), infection at least once in 50 years. He said it is only a few of them that develop cervical cancer. According to him, next to breast cancer, cervical cancer, which claims the life of about 9,659 women annually, is the second most frequent cancer among women in Nigeria.

    Another thing which makes the situation more pathetic is that the country has been rated the first nation in Africa and the fifth in the world with the highest cervical cancer deaths. This is according to a new report released in May last year by the Cervical Cancer Free Coalition, titled “Crisis Card.” The report stated that cervical cancer has reached a crisis level in Nigeria with 9,659 women dying of the disease every year.

    Although a deadly disease, cervical cancer is  99 per cent preventable with a vaccine and also 97 per cent treatable when detected early through screening. This is why developed countries seem to have an upper hand in controlling it because women have access to vaccine and they get information about regular screening.

    Another worrying dimension in the upsurge of the death of cervical cancer is the fact that young women between ages 20-30 are also coming down with the disease. This has led to many stakeholders advocating for a government to subsidize vaccine for women and also put in place a firm national policy on cancer.

    Reacting to the question whether it is not an exaggeration that one woman dies in an hour of cervical cancer in Nigeria, Dr. Femi Olaleye, the founder of Optimal Cancer care foundation said it is not.

    “It is not. That is over 20 women in a day. That is about 8-10 thousand in a year. Most people think cervical cancer is a rare disease but it is not. It is common. In the bible, the woman with issue of blood that Jesus Christ healed, that was cervical cancer (laughs). You know we doctors diagnose based on symptoms so it is not an assumption. It is just that people cover it up.”

    Dr Olaleyemi also asserted that the prevalence of cervical cancer is not taken seriously because of the lack of a cancer registry in the country.

    “The question to ask is where is the cancer registry in Nigeria? We need a national cancer registry so that all cases of cancer can be reported. That way you will know that it is not a rare disease. We don’t report our cancer cases. Some of them don’t even come to the hospitals-they blame their neigbours and families in the village out of ignorance. Women are dying from cervical cancer quietly. It is the number one killer of Nigerian women. The good news is that it is a disease that can be prevented when detected early which means that all that are at risk, that is, women that have had sex must go for screening.”

    Prevention

    Cervical cancer can be prevented through a primary prevention which is vaccination for those who have not had sex and a secondary prevention of screening for those who are sexually active. For women who are already sexually active, once they take the vaccine, they are protected for a subsequent number of years.

    To prevent cervical cancer from killing more women in Nigeria, Dr Olaleye advocates that pre-sexually active teenagers should be provided with free vaccines.

    “Government should make vaccination free for young girls so that we can give it to them from schools. But because government is not responsible for the diagnosis and care of patients who have cervical cancer, there is no pressure on them to prevent it. If there was a burden on the national government to treat women with cervical cancer, they would want to prevent it. This is why they make screening and vaccination free for young girls in other countries but our women don’t have such privileges, ” the gynaecologist opined.

    At a Global Cervical Cancer Prevention forum held in Malaysia in 2013, stakeholders who spoke at the conference identified cost of the HPV vaccine and poor commitment from governments where this disease is rampant as reasons why more women are dying from cervical cancer.

    Although the cost of the HPV vaccine given to girls and women to prevent the cancer which was formerly pegged at about N20, 800 has been reduced to about N15, 000, many Nigerian women still cannot afford to pay to get vaccinated.

    A donor agency known as GAVI Alliance, which receives funding support from Bill and Melinda Gate foundation is already providing subsidy for the vaccine in some selected African countries.

    The fact that Nigeria is one of the countries with the highest number of prevalence notwithstanding, the CEO of Gavi Alliance, Dr. Seth Berkley said at the conference that Nigeria would be excluded from benefiting from the globally subsided vaccines due to poor vaccination system and poor coverage.

    “The immunisation coverage in Nigeria is just above 40 per cent. For this programme to be effective, we are only giving it to countries that have demonstrated that they have the capacity, infrastructure and human resources to get the HPV vaccines administered effectively.

    “We are not giving it to countries where we can see that their cold chain storage system is not effective and vaccines cannot be stored appropriately or where vaccines would not get to the end users because they do not have the human resources or facilities. Nigeria has not met these criteria,” Berkley was quoted to have said in a media report.

    Although denied of the privilege, this is not to say that Nigeria as a country cannot make provision for subsidized vaccines for its women without support from international organisation.

    “Government is not taking vaccination for cervical cancer serous because they are thinking of how much money it will cost them. The reason why they think it is a lot of money is because nobody is counting the cost of the women that are dying. If the cost of women that are dying daily in this country is counted and government can see it as a loss, then they can now see the need to pay attention to prevention.

    “The vaccine is about N4-5, 000 per dose which is about N15, 000 per person. But the cost of a woman’s death from cervical cancer is probably more than 15, 000 naira to the society and the whole country. The vaccination can be spread over a 10 year period; it is not something you do at once. You can vaccinate only 16 years old in a particular year, and take another age group in another year. The fund remains the same and everybody will be covered,” Dr Olaleye stated.

    He further advised that government can carry out free vaccination in partnership with faith based organisations and corporate organisations who can donate a certain percentage of the profits to vaccinate young girls as a form of CSR.

    Disagreeing with international agencies who refused to fund vaccine subsidy for Nigeria  on excuse of  cold chain storage facility, he stated:

    “Some international organisations are deferring from giving vaccine subsidy to Nigerians based on the claim that we don’t have the cold chain, which is false.

    “It depends on the infrastructure you set up and I give almost about 300 vaccines a month here so I get a lot of people relaying on making sure I keep my cold chain continuous. Question is can you be sure of the person who is wholesaling, of course the person who is retailing the vaccine has a huge  cold room and that is where they store their vaccines. GSK who imports from their French/Belgium European counterparts also ensure that when the vaccines arrive the Murtala Muhammed airport, it’s easily transferred to a cold room. And then when I’m taking it to a remote area, I put them in freezer bags with the same thing to ensure it is cold.  It is a challenge but we can surmount it, he affirmed.”

    In trying to control the spread of cancer, stakeholders in the health centre have made case for a government policy in cancer management. Citing the case of the seriousness with which the Ebola case was treated, Dr. Olaleye said that with a policy from government that is backed up with a budget, then government can be taken more seriously on the fight against cancer.

  • Fuelling the fire: Journalism and Boko Haram

    SIR: When Paul Collier, the professor of Economics at the Oxford University wrote in his book “Wars, Guns & Votes – Democracy in Dangerous Places”, not a few development media journalists criticized him for indulging in illicit generalization about the problems of insecurity in Africa especially considering the tripartite roles of civil unrest manifesting in wars, weapons and the elusive pursuit of peace through democratic practices.

    But Africa is indeed a hotbed of crisis. And Nigeria is living up to the calling as the battleground. The nation has been in the news across major news outlets around the world; providing daily items for the media with nothing short of bad advertisements for the continent in reports (often contrived) of insurgency and the perceived failure of the security agencies to repeal these attacks. While the nation groans under the threat of insecurity, politicians are busy perfecting their acts and strategies to win the elections either by “rigging” or “shifting” of the elections; and the media busy feeding on all sorts from rumours to outright falsehoods.

    Reports on threats of Boko Haram especially in the run up to the general elections have dominated the media. Almost half of every news bulletin on Nigerian television stations is dedicated to stories on Boko Haram. Newspapers sell more with screaming banner headlines announcing Boko Haram exploits or rarely of the bravery of our soldiers as Chris Olukolade or the Defence Headquarters would want; radio is not any better. A very common but disturbing practice is the undue publicity given to the dreaded group with every video. Every time Boko Haram releases videos, the newsrooms go crazy; feasting over it; some even broadcast their videos end-to-end thereby directly aiding the group to push its deadly agenda. No censorship. No sense of responsibility to the society and the Nigerian state.

    Real news informs and enlightens. It should not, in and of itself, incite or propel negative responses. Not for a nation in dire need of responsible and development-oriented journalism like Nigeria. News should lead to rational response and reason, not reactionary impulse. What Boko Haram is doing and promoting through its media, is evil and unconscionable to the lowest imaginable. From the abduction of Chibok girls to videos of treasonable speeches; the news that the captives were being sold and used as suicide bombers provides the information from which we can form a reasonable response. The showing of the actual videos promotes only the most reactionary of responses; it stoops to the level of Boko Haram and moves us backward, instead of forward.

    Journalists would therefore do our society more good by adhering to the time tested principle of sieving through information for public consumption. And there are criteria for this. A key criteria is: Boko Haram wants us to show it. If Boko Haram wants you to show something, you should start with the principle of ‘How can we avoid doing that?’ Sometimes you can’t, because it’s editorially a key part of the story. But in this case, we can if we want to.

    • Adedeji Ajayi,

     TVC News, Lagos

  • Nigeria, Angola fuelling global growth, says DHL boss

    Nigeria, Angola fuelling global growth, says DHL boss

    While Oil and Gas activity in West Africa is nothing new, it is the activity in East Africa which is creating a stir amongst exploration companies and of course, their suppliers.

    This is according to Steve Harley, President, DHL Energy Sector, who says that while Angola and Nigeria have always been the most notable producers within the Sub-Saharan region, more recently, significant gas discoveries in Tanzania and Mozambique, has led to East Africa now receiving its share of attention from global oil companies and potential investors.

    “Oil discoveries in Uganda and Kenya have also added to the excitement in the sector as new players look to enter these markets, including some of the largest independent and international oil companies, otherwise known as the super majors, who are now also witnessing the potential in this region.”

    He says that in addition to the developments in East Africa, both Namibia and South Africa are also on the radar of investors within the sector. “South Africa in particular is receiving much attention, mostly because of the potential of shale gas in the Karoo, but also because it has a long and largely unexplored coastline, off which many believe large hydrocarbon fields may exist. As a result of the region’s potential, there are several offshore drilling exploration expeditions currently being planned in South Africa by the major oil companies.”

  • Petrodollar fuelling corruption in Nigeria, say UK, UN officials

    Petrodollar fuelling corruption in Nigeria, say UK, UN officials

    Revenue from the oil and gas sector has been identified as the cause of corruption and conflicts in Nigeria.

    This conclusion was drawn by several key speakers including the United Kingdom Deputy High Commissioner in Nigeria, Mr. Peter Carter and Head of the United Nation’s Global Compact (UNGC), Ms. Olajobi Makinwa, at a dialogue on the extractive industry held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, yesterday.

    Speakers at the one-day workshop, entitled: ‘Extractive Industry Dialogue on Corruption,’ organised by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) in collaboration with the UNGC, urged Nigerians to exploit existing legislatures, including the Freedom of Information Act to demand answers on revenue and expenditure from their government.

    Mr. Carter noted that oil and gas mining can deliver transformational change, not only in Nigeria, but also all over the world, if revenues are judiciously utilised for the good of the people.

    He said: “Last year, Nigeria’s oil export is over total net aids to the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa. “Giving information about the sale and purchase of these valuable natural resources is vital to ensure that they are properly managed and to build open economies and society.

    “As we all know today, if people can see how much their governments receive from selling the resources that rightly belong to them, they can question how that money is being spent.”

    Ms. Makinwa, Head, Transparency and Anti-Corruption Initiatives of the UNGC, said: “Huge revenues from these industries have often fuelled corruption, economic stagnation, inequality, conflict and so on.”

    She lamented that while oil multinational companies continue to record global profits, governments in resource-rich nations, such as Nigeria struggle to stay solvent.

    “Discrepancies in reporting has led to host governments (including many African countries) not receiving full payment from the extractive and logging industries operating in their territories.

    “Many resource-rich countries are not receiving benefits from the extraction of their natural resources; wealth is not distributed evenly and local citizens are not feeling the positive and developmental impact from foreign investment in the extractive industry.”

    In his presentation, entitled: ‘Global Rulers on Corporate Disclosure in Payments/to Governments in the Hydrocarbon Industry: How Much Compliance?’ Mr. Ledum Mitee, Chairman of the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI), noted that global rules alone cannot stamp out corruption in the sector.

    He said for global legislations to be successful, local laws and system must cooperate with them and go ahead to deal with local circumstances.

    The Chairman of the NESG, Mr. Foluso Phillips, said the oil industry is prime to transparency, adding: “It is the root of a lot of things we express dissatisfaction with as long as corruption is concerned.”

  • Ransom money fuelling terrorism in Africa, says Jonathan

    Ransom money fuelling terrorism in Africa, says Jonathan

    President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday attributed the increasing incidence of terrorism in Africa to the huge funds received by kidnappers as ransom for hostage taking and drugs trafficking.

    Speaking in Switzerland, Jonathan said the terrorists would always want to instigate crises because of the money they make out of it.

    He said the Libyan crisis is fueling terrorism in the continent.

    Jonathan, who spoke on the theme, “De-Risking Africa”, as one of the panelists at an interactive session at the World Economic Forum, said Africa needs the cooperation and support of the International community to deal with terrorism on the continent.

    The President explained that deployment of Nigerian troops in troubled Mali was to prevent it from spilling over into other West African countries.

    If not properly handled, he said, Africa is at risk of being run over by terrorists with the potential of increasing investment risks in the continent.

    He said: “One fundamental problem in Mali is the issue of governance and religious extremism. The terrorist aspect and issue of hostage taking for the purposes of ransom and drug trafficking happened because of the crisis in Libya and, of course, the terrorists will always want to instigate crisis because they make money from it.”

    “If we do not contain the problem of Mali, definitely it will affect other African countries and that is why Nigeria had to move fast and we thank the government of France.”

    Jonathan spoke alongside South African President Jacob Zuma, CEO of Bharti Airtel Limited, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Executive Chairman of SAB Miller, Graham Mackay, and President of International Crisis Group, Louise Arbour.

    On the theme, Jonathan said that Africa was not the only one facing risks, stressing that there are generally risks involved in any business venture anywhere in the world, depending on the circumstances.

    Jonathan said: “Before this time, African states were quite politically unstable. We have had military intervention and where government is not stable and where the political system is not stable, it is a big risk in terms of investment because laws could be changed arbitrarily.

    “Over the period, most of the African states now have stable political systems. Presently, about 33 African states have conducted successful elections two times, where one civilian administration has handed over to another. In Nigeria, we have done our elections four times. In the past, we never experienced that.

    “In terms of political stability, African countries have been reasonably de-risked because government has become stable and because the political system is stable, it also affects economic planning,” he added

    “The growth rate had been stagnant before this time, but over the period the growth rate in most African countries is significantly above the world averages,” he said.

    Jonathan said Nigeria was diversifying her economy from overdependent on oil as a source of revenue.

    “In terms of oil income, any country that depends on one major commodity is a big risk because anything that affects oil production or global oil price also affects us. That is why we are looking at different areas and one of the key we want to market in Davos is our agriculture transformation, solid minerals and others, and those with the potentials. The country before now was not politically stable and if you take over power, what you want is quick money to satisfy the people. So there was no investment in other areas,” he said