The Nation Newspaper

Tag: licences

  • Erratic power: PENGASSAN urges revocation of firms’ licences

    Erratic power: PENGASSAN urges revocation of firms’ licences

    Labour has urged new investors in the electricity sector to provide light to Nigerians or have their licences revoked.

    Speaking at the opening ceremony of the fourth Triennial National Delegates Conference of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), in Abuja, the National President, Comrade Babatunde Ogun, lamented the abysmal state of electricity supply since the sector was privatised in November last year.

    He said: “All the distribution and generating companies have not shown enough readiness to invest in improving electricity supply in the country.”

    It would be recalled that the nation’s electricity supply which stood at over 4,000 mega watts (Mw) before privatisation, was recently reported to have dropped to below 2,000 megawatts.

    Ogun  said the companies have continued with their dubious regime of billing customers for electricity not consumed.

    Although he commended the efforts of the regime in improving power supply in the country, the labour leader said it was high time the new power firms started work and live up to the expectations of Nigerians.

    He said: “This nation can never have any meaningful development without power. Nigerians are getting impatient with excuses: please give us efficient and regular power to drive the economy.”

    Ogun, who condemned Federal Government’s lackadaisical  approach at fighting corruption, noted that the scourge was responsible for most of the systemic failure in the country.

    He said corruption is endemic in the country and has equally eaten into every fabric of the society.

    “Corruption has not only impinged on the nation’s economy but also battered our image among committee of nations. The actions of the Federal Government do not appear to engender confidence from the Nigerian people on the sincerity of the government in the fight against corruption,” he said.

    Ogun criticised the government for its inability to create tangible jobs in the country.

    He said the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) has failed to make any meaningful impact due to poor funding.

    In his address, the Minister of Labour and Productivity , Chief Emeka Wogu said  the Federal Government is sensitive to the plight of all Nigerians, including workers.

    He explained that the government transformation agenda is aimed at restructuring and re- modelling Nigeria as a giant economy ranking at least the 20th Economy by 2020.

    Wogu said the funds that have accrued to the country from the 2012 subsidy removal have been marshaled into the SURE-P.

    He said the programme has empowered 119, 000 women and youth by creating 3,000 jobs, per state, and the FCT. He said the programme was building eight skills development centres, public works, agriculture, tourism, and ICT programmes that will add value to the lives of the youths in the country.

    The two-day conference, which has as its theme: “Repositioning the Nigeria oil and gas industry: Possibilities and realities,” will climax with the election of new executives of the association.

  • FRSC to prosecute motorists with old number plates from July 1

    The Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC) said it would prosecute motorists with old number plates and drivers licence as from July 1.

    Corps Commander, Clement Oladele, who is the Head, Advisory and Planning Unit of the Corps, said this on Tuesday in Jalingo at a workshop to sensitise motorists on the need to switch over to the new policy.

    Oladele noted that the workshop became necessary given the fact that the June deadline to phase out the old system was fast approaching.

    “Nigerians are aware that Oct 1, 2013 was set as deadline for them to switch over to the new licence and number plate following the launch of the new policy by President GoodLuck Jonathan, but for some reasons the deadline was shifted to June, 2014.

    “As the new date is fast approaching, there is need for us to sensitise and appeal to Nigerians to switch over to the new licence and number plate.

    “We want to let people know that when enforcement commences on July 1, anybody found with the old licence and number plate would be treated as a criminal and would face the full wrath of the law,” he said.

    Oladele also said that the new driver’s licence and number plate were designed with security features which would be used to check crime.

    “The new number plate is tied to an individual and not the vehicle. This implies that if you change your car, you are expected to visit a Motor Licence Agency and do re-validation for your new vehicle.”

    Also speaking, Mr.  Peter Kibo, the FRSC Sector Commander in the state, said the sensitisation was a continuous process and appealed to Nigerians to try to obtain the new licence and number plate before the June deadline.

     

  • NCC to issue more licences soon

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said it will give licences to infrastructure providers it called InfraCos under its open access model of broadband deployment across the country.

    Its Director, Public Affairs, Tony Ojobo, said a total of seven licences will be on offer for firms willing to take advantage of the regulator’s initiative to take broadband to all the nooks and crannies of the country.

    Ojobo, who spoke on the sideline in Abuja, said the seven InfraCos will be licenced to provide infrastructure in the six geo-political zones of the country while one will serve Lagos.

    According to him, based on the business plans of some of the firms that would be licenced, funding will be made available to them to serve as an incentive to roll-out and deploy services in rural areas where there might not be any attraction to do so.

    The regulator said the proposed industry structure consists of players in layers one and two

    “InfraCos shall be licensed, geographically focused entities. InfraCos shall provide wholesale Layer 2 transmission services on a non discriminatory, open access, price regulated basis. InfraCos may also provide Layer 1 (dark fibre) services on commercial basis;

    “The InfraCos shall focus on the deployment of metropolitan and regional fibre and provide end-to-end transmission services, to be available at points of access (PoAs), to access seekers. InfraCos may do this by leveraging existing inter-city fibre to deploy their services, purchase/lease transmission or long haul fibre capacity from other providers where available for the purpose of interconnection, as well as connect to international bandwidth providers,” NCC explained.

    According to the regulator, the customers for InfraCos include wholesale wireless last mile operators; retail service providers (RSPs) that require wholesale bandwidth; independent operators/ wholesale operators who require to lease transmission services; and other access seekers such as vertically integrated operators.

    It added that the second layer is the wholesale wireless last mile provider (WWLMP). According to NCC, the WWLMP shall interconnect with the InfraCos at their Points of Access (PoA), thereby creating an integrated broadband service.

    “The last mile connectivity shall be deployed using a mixture of existing technologies, including wireless and fibre optic broadband. The available 2.3GHz spectrum license shall be auctioned to provide last mile wireless access on a wholesale basis,” he said.

  • CBN may revalidate some revoked Bureau De Change licences

    CBN may revalidate some revoked Bureau De Change licences

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it may revalidate some Bureau De Change (BDC) operators’ licences revoked over their inability to meet up with the recapitalisation deadline in 2012.

    Mr Olufemi Fabanwo, the Director of Other Financial Institutions and Supervision Department (OFISD), disclosed this yesterday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

    He said that the CBN might reconsider allowing the affected bureau de change operators to resume their operations, if they were not found guilty of any offence.

    According to him, the authority may reconsider, reinstate and align the bureau de change operators back into business, if their licences were not supposed to have been revoked.

    “If they have not paid before the deadline, it means that they got their licences under a false pretence and that cannot be revisited.

    “For those that had paid prior to the revocation and there is evidence and proof that they paid, then, the CBN can reconsider their licences,” Fabanwo said.

    The CBN had in January 2013 withdrawn the licences of 236 Bureau de Change operators over their inability to recapitalise to the tune of $250,000.

    The bank, in a circular dated Jan. 11 said that the withdrawal of the licences took effect from January 14. Also the CBN had on Nov. 3, 2010, cancelled the issuance of Class ‘A’ BDC licences, following its review of the two-tier structure of the market.

    The bank said appraisal of the policy initiative revealed gross abuses of the enhanced official funding of Class ‘A’ category of the BDCs and the negation of expected benefits to the economy

    “The CBN has also been inundated with complaints from foreign countries that some Nigerian travellers indulged in cross-border transportation of large sums of foreign currencies in cash,” it said.

    The CBN said that the Class ‘A’ BDCs, whose licences had been withdrawn, were free to apply for Class ‘B’ licences with the attendant privileges by fulfilling the stipulated licensing requirements.

    The Apex bank had on Feb.26, 2009, restructured the BDCs into categories ‘A’ and ‘B’, to further liberalise the foreign exchange market and enhance its efficiency.

     

  • ‘Govt to review criteria for granting school licences’

    President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday directed the Ministry of Education to include sporting facilities in the criteria for approval of public and private primary and secondary schools nationwide.

    Jonathan gave the directive at the close of a one-day “Presidential Sports Sector Retreat” in Abuja.

    The theme of the retreat was, “Harnessing the Potential of Nigeria Sports Sector from Playground to odium”.

    He said that for any place to be called a primary or a secondary school, it must have at least a field or a pitch where students could engage in exercise and sports.

    Jonathan decried the current situation where in many high density areas in the country, storey buildings without any space were being converted to schools.

    He noted that such a situation would make it impossible to discover talents at a young age and thereby affect the development of sports in the country.

    “When next the Ministry has a national Council, I expect the minister of Education to discuss with the commissioners of Education in the states; there is a need for us to review the criteria for approving primary and secondary schools.

    “Because, taking our children to these choked areas and they cannot even have a yard where they can practise running throughout their primary and secondary school career, I think it is not the best,’’ he said.

    The president said that government would consider a review of some existing legislation, particularly the law on lottery, for sustainable funding for sports.

    He agreed with the participants at the retreat that lottery was a major avenue that could be tied to sporting activities to generate fund for the development of the sector.

    Jonathan assured that government would henceforth ensure that money for any tournament would be released in good time to ensure its judicious use.

    “What I have noticed is that sometimes, we wait till the eleventh hour to release funds for sporting events, and of course people will just eat the money.

    “Probably the money is meant for training period for a very long term, and people are not trained until a day to the tournament and then you release the money, and of course they will eat the money.

    “And in that case you may say you have spent N8 billion or N10 billion, but how did we spend it. That is why we are talking about sustainable way of funding sport, including releasing money as at when due,’’ he said.

    The president restated the commitment of his administration to wipe out polio in the country notwithstanding that the medals won at the London Paralympics were by disabled athletes, who are victims of the scourge.