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Tag: Kemi Adeosun

  • Nollywood plays major role in Nigeria’s economy – Adeosun

    The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, on Friday said the Nigerian movie industry popularly known as Nollywood is very important to the nation’s economy.

    Speaking at a film industry stakeholders’ workshop aimed at restructuring and reinvigorating Project ACT Nollywood, the minister said the Federal Government was determined to create deliverables that would ensure maximum value for the industry’s stakeholders and Nigerians generally.

    The Project ACT Nollywood is a N3 billion grant set up by the federal government to address challenges impeding the growth of the movie industry.

    The workshop was to examine outstanding areas of the programme yet to be implemented, review such and ensure that they are still appropriate for the industry.

    Adeosun said the problem of the industry was not in the quality of movies produced but in the structure of the industry.

    She said it was regrettable that pirates were the main beneficiaries of the industry, adding that they waited for creative talents to create a product while they claimed the profit.

    According to her, most of those who create the value do not actually get the value in terms of returns.

    The minister stressed the need to ensure sustainability in the industry, adding that a committee would be inaugurated to address issues raised at the workshop.

    The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on his part, said proper distribution of movies was very important in the industry.

    Represented by Mrs. Grace Gebe, the minister said without proper distribution channels, piracy would continue to thrive in the country.

  • 35 states apply for N90bn loan

    35 states apply for N90bn loan

    At least 35 states have so far applied to access the N90 billion loan earmarked by the federal government to boost state governments’ fiscal sustainability capabilities.

    Speaking on Channels Television on Monday, the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, disclosed that the 35 states “are in the process of submitting the required documentation the loan.”

    The minister said the monthly disbursements to each state will be based on compliance with pre-agreed Fiscal Sustainability Plan (FSP) milestones.

    The FSP reforms, she said will take 18 months for full implementation, adding that there are key milestones within the period to measure compliance.

    Adeosun said, “The objective is to ensure that states are set on a path towards fiscal sustainability with a clear link between federal government funding and necessary reform.”

    “The FSP is also a path to supporting and increasing productivity and diversification of states economies, such as in agriculture in order to enhance food security and opportunities for exports.

    “The FSP is about transparency, accountability and sustainability.  State governments have agreed to the 22 points.  It is their (the states) plan, after consultation and discussions between the states and the Ministry of Finance.”

    “The government’s economic plan is strong on fiscal discipline, because people know we need to get our country working.  And to do that we need to do three things – get the country’s spending in check with firm financial controls, raise money for targeted investment in much needed infrastructure and see us diversify the economy from a damaging dependence on oil.”

    “The economic blueprint is about putting in place the financial pillars to enable states to work effectively and to work effectively with the federal government, including as recipients of infrastructure investment. Getting this right will enable states to be critical economic drivers for prosperity and pillars of professional probity.”

     

     

  • FG to restructure N3bn Nollywood grant

    FG to restructure N3bn Nollywood grant

    The N3billion Federal Government’s grant for the Nigerian Film industry known as Nollywood is being restructured to make it serve the purpose for which it was created, the Ministry of Finance said Friday.

    A talk shop to work out the strategy is scheduled for July 1, the ministry said in a statement.

    Expected at the workshop are key stakeholders in the industry including the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, the leadership of Nollywood, the Actors Guild, Film and Videos Censors Board, The Nigerian Film Corporation and the Nigerian Copyright Commission.

    Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun who is convening the workshop explained that  ideas generated  during the workshop would form the basis  for reinvigorating  the Project ACT Nollywood and ensuring  its sustainability.

    To date, the Project ACT Nollywood has implemented specialist training programmes in Nigeria and abroad in which 247 practitioners have been trained to improve their technical and professional capacities in the entertainment industry.

    Similarly, 113 film projects, employing 2,436 people, have been co-financed through grants from the fund at a cost of N799 million, while the Innovative Film Distribution Programme has been designed to support viable solutions in film distribution.

    The Innovative Film Distribution Scheme is also aimed at checking piracy.

    The World Bank estimates that for each copy of a Nigerian film sold, nine pirated copies aresold.

    The National Bureau for Statistics (NBS), reckons the Nigerian Film industry as contributing  1.4 per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product in 2013 and 2014, and employing  an estimated 250,000 people directly.

     

  • FG targets more foreign loans

    FG targets more foreign loans

    The Federal Government will in the next three years focus more on obtaining foreign  loans in the face of the dwindling income from oil and to diversify the economy.

    The government is opting for external loans in order to allow Nigerian banks to assist the private sector to grow by borrowing to the sector.

    The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, disclosed these to State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

    She was accompanied to the briefing by the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed and the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed.

    According to her, the new policy is part of the Debt Management Strategy for the years 2016 to 2019 approved by FEC on Wednesday.

    She said: “Today I presented a memo to the FEC which was approved for the debt management strategy for the years 2016-2019.

    “Nigeria started producing debt management strategy in the year 2012 and three years debt management programme and the previous ones had expired in December 2015 and there was a need for a new one.

    “There was a need for a new one for two reasons, one was that the previous one had expired and secondly, given the current economic challenges and then the economic circus of this government to reflate and diversify the economy.”

    She also explained that there is a need for a new debt strategy in order to base it on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).

    The new MTEF prepared by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, she said, assumed that the domestic debt would reduce from one percent of GDP to 0.7 percent by 2019.

     

  • FG to grant N90bn loan to states with conditions

    FG to grant N90bn loan to states with conditions

    To ensure that states are economically vibrant and depend less on the monthly handout from the Federation Account, the Federal Government on Tuesday said it will grant a N90 billion loan to the states.

    The loan, according to the federal government, will cover a period of one year.

    However, the loan will be extended to the state governments after they meet 22 stringent conditions put together by the federal government.

    Addressing journalists at a stakeholders’ meeting held with states’ Commissioners of Finance on the Fiscal Sustainability Plan (FSP), the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, said “the loan is in two tranches – N50 billion for three months to be shared across the 36 states including FCT and then N40 billion for nine months.”

    “The idea is to tie states over for a year so that they rebalance. The loan is an average of about N1.3 billion per state for the first three months and N1.1billion for the next nine months.”

    “It is a loan and it is fully repayable although it has a secured tie against future dividends, revenues and any amount that government might owe the states.”

  • FG to give fresh bailout to states

    FG to give fresh bailout to states

    A fresh financial support facility is on the way for the states from the Federal Government to cushion the effect of the current economic crisis, although with stringent conditions.

    The scheme is designed to provide relief to the states, many of which are finding it difficult to pay their workers’ salaries.

    The Federal Government recently gave the states a bailout to enable them clear the arrear of salaries owed their workers.

    The problem has refused to go.

    However, the Federal Ministry of Finance said yesterday that further relief would come their way soon provided they met a 22-point reform agenda tagged  the Fiscal Sustainability Plan (FSP).

    The FSP is said to have been endorsed by the states themselves at a meeting of the National Economic Council recently.

    The conditions require the states to publish their audited financial statements and budgets, biometric and Bank Verification Number (BVN) payroll review exercises for the workers, and restricting recurrent expenditure.

    Besides, the states are expected to set and meet targets to enhance their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), establish Efficiency Units to reduce overhead costs, privatize State Owned Enterprises, domesticate Fiscal Responsibility Act, and put a limitation on further bank loans.

    The Ministry said the Federal Government has agreed to develop International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) compliant software for the states’ use.

    It is also developing new bond issuance guidelines to ease access to the capital market for states wishing to fund developmental projects.

    Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun said the FSP “represents an important programme of reforms that will develop best practice financial management across all tiers of Government and will improve transparency and accountability.”

    She spoke of government’s determination to attain financial discipline across government.

    “Overall we believe that the survival of State Governments is essential to the economic recovery of Nigeria, specifically their ability to meet salary obligations,” she added.

  • Nigeria to meet investors next week

    Nigeria will hold a non-deal roadshow in London next week, government sources said on Wednesday, as the country explores fund raising options to finance a record budget deficit widened by the fall in vital oil revenues.

    The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun with officials from the central bank and debt office will meet investors next Tuesday to update the market on government policies.

    Standard Chartered Bank is organising the meeting, the source told Reuters.

    Nigeria plans to borrow as much as $10 billion from debt markets, with about half of that coming from foreign sources, to help fund a budget deficit worsened by the slump in oil prices that has slashed revenues and weakened the naira.

  • Economy is on the way to recovery, says Adeosun

    Economy is on the way to recovery, says Adeosun

    • FGN saves N4.5bn monthly as 43,000 ghosts disappear

    Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun has given a glimmer of hope on the economy, saying it is on the way to recovery.

    Things are beginning to look up regardless of the current hiccups, she said at Sagamu, Ogun State, shortly after monitoring the Biometric Data Capturing exercise for members of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) on Friday.

    Mrs. Adeosun said old investors were returning to the country gradually, adding that despite the drop in oil prices, the fundamentals about the economy still remained strong.

    The programme was organised by the Police authorities and the Office of the Accountant -General of the Federation to facilitate direct and prompt payment of salaries into officers’ accounts, eliminate ghost workers and multiple payments among others.

    The Federal Government, Adeosun said, was determined to  turn the momentary painful period into advantages, remove wasteful spending and effectively tackle corruption so that the economy would  not only recover, but government’s spending would also  become beneficial to the majority of Nigerians.

    “Old investors are coming back gradually and we have said that in a year’s time it will be a different economy it may be slow and painful but we would get there,” she said.

    “Nigeria is going through a change and because of the decline in oil prices, the fundamental things about the Nigerian economy remain strong.

    “What we have to do is to make sure this painful period is used to our advantage by removing the wasteful spending, stopping the corruption so that when money spent by government is spent very effectively to the benefits of the people and that is what is going to make this economy recover.”

    Giving an update on the war against ghost workers, the minister said the number has now reached 43000 and the discovery has made it possible for government to reduce its wage bill by N4.5bý monthly.

    She said none of the brains behind the fraud would go scot free.

    Adeosun said the Biometric Data capturing exercise would be conducted for every employee of the federal government.

    She said: “So far we have reduced what we pay monthly by N4.5bý and it has been increasing every day because those that are not supposed to be on the pay-roll are been removed.

    “And we would keep doing that until we are sure that everybody receiving salary from the Federal Government is valid, and the only way we can do that is to pay salary directly into their accounts and we can also verify by using BVN to ensure that no multiple payments and that the people are alive. We are in talks with the EFCC and they are going to start the prosecution very soon. In fact, some people died and no one told us about their demise but through this exercise such kind of people will be discovered, but when people are fraudulent they should be prosecuted.”

  • FG pays 2015 subsidy arrears to oil marketers

    The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, on Tuesday said the Federal Government had fully paid the N48.2 billion outstanding subsidy arrears owed oil marketers in 2015.

    The ministry’s Director of Information, Mr. Salisu Dambatta, said this in a statement in Abuja.

    The statement said the payment was made recently to enable the oil marketers to import petroleum products and meet up their other financial needs.

    “The gross total outstanding subsidy claims accruable to the oil marketers for 2015 stood at N48.2 billion, while deductable tax liabilities payable to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) stood at N5.2 billion only,” the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the statement as saying on the matter. “

    It also said the minister directed the Debt Management Office (DMO) to pay the claims less tax liability of N5.2 billion, which was computed by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

    It said that oil marketers without tax liabilities were paid in full, while oil marketers with net subsidy claims and FIRS liabilities were paid net claim after deduction of tax liabilities.

    “Oil marketers that were indebted to FIRS and the seven oil marketers that are indebted to the Asset Management Company (AMCON) were not paid until they settled their debts with the two agencies,” the statement added.

  • FG redrafting tax laws  – Adeosun

    FG redrafting tax laws  – Adeosun

    The federal government has commenced the redrafting of the nation’s tax laws.

    Minister of finance Mrs Kemi Adeosun made this disclosure Thursday in Abuja when she met with tax experts.

    According to Adeosun, “An overhaul of our tax code is long overdue as so is the redrafting of our tax laws to reflect current business practices and new trends.  We must respond to the growing phenomenon of base shifting and other practices that allow companies to evade their fiscal and legal responsibilities.”

    She disclosed that the Federal Government plans to engage with relevant members of the National Assembly to ensure that required revisions, amendments and new laws can be passed expediently to keep pace with the rapid change in business practices.

    The Minister explained that the nation’s tax system must be dynamic in order to respond to an ever-evolving commercial landscape and to increasingly technology-driven business models.

    She stated that the Federal Government, as part of the drive to increase non-oil revenue, has set an aggressive target for increasing tax collection.  This, according to her, is a reflection of the fact that the current level of compliance is low and in some cases, the effective tax rate paid by those that are compliant is lower than expected.  She added that the commendable administrative efforts of FIRS would be complemented by an overhaul of the tax code and tax laws.

    She further stated that “We will critically examine our GDP to align taxes with economic activity in our bid to block all leakages. For example, the multi-billion naira losses being identified in our solid minerals sector by illegal and undocumented miners will be addressed with increased formalisation and review of the governing laws. Indeed, we are committed to the continuous improvement of our tax system as part of a dynamic framework. We will use tax administration and technology to widen compliance and encourage more individuals and companies into the tax net”, adding that the Federal Government is already investing in technology to boost the efficiency of our collections.

    According to her, some of the recent initiatives being implemented in the Ministry of Finance mean that it is now virtually impossible to obtain a payment from the Federal Government without being fully taxed compliant.

    Promising that tax revenues will be judiciously utilised going further, Mrs. Adeosun stated that tax payment is part of the social contract between Government and people and that the most effective measure to enhance compliance is the knowledge that tax revenues are being utilised effectively for the development of the people. The Minister explained that the Federal Government is already implementing public financial management reforms to strengthen financial controls and ensure greater accountability, while the government is also making progress to ensure value for money in every naira spent in its efforts to reduce overhead and increase the efficiency of government expenditure.

    She explained that growing the economy at a rate that will address the employment needs of our huge population requires a fundamental change in how government collects its revenues and spends.The Minister said Government is committed to making sure that every naira counts.  “We have strengthened our controls and made significant progress in enhancing the effectiveness of our financial expenditure in bringing development to Nigeria.”

    The Minister further commented that “the commercial opportunities in Nigeria, despite our current challenges, are compelling and I am happy to report that we are now witnessing an increasing level of interest from long term investors who are keen to participate in the Nigerian upside as this government begins to position Nigeria to attain its true potential. It is particularly gratifying that the majority of these enquires relate to the non-oil sector.  However, as encouraged as I am about these developments, I am concerned about the ability of our tax system to adequately develop and deploy effective measures to ensure that government revenue is mobilized in line with these developments.”