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  • Mechanised agric solution to Nigeria’s unemployment, say Oyedepo, expert

    Presiding Bishop of Living Faith Church International, Bishop David Oyedepo, on Wednesday said a paradigm shift to agricultural mechanisation is the solution to joblessness and unemployment in Nigeria.

    Oyedepo spoke during the 40th annual general meeting (AGM) of Nigerian Institution of Agricultural Engineers (NIAE) hosted by Landmark University at Omu-Aran in Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State.

    The popular cleric noted that aside agriculture, no vocation or institution could accommodate millions of unemployed Nigerians.

    He said: “This university (Landmark) has a vision to restore agrarian revolution in Africa and the dignity of the African man. We are endowed with fertile land but have over 400 million hungry graduates looking for job opportunities that do not exist.

    “The cheapest way to be gainfully engaged is via agriculture. It can’t go into extinction because man must eat to live. There is no day that food will be irrelevant. It is, therefore, wise and safe now to tackle the impending day of poverty and hunger through mechanised farming.”

    Read Also: ‘Lack of incentives driving youths away from agriculture’

    The AGM, which doubled as the association’s 20th international conference, had the theme: Innovations and Technologies for Sustainable Agricultural Mechanisation and Livestock Transformation for Economic Growth.

    It was attended by participants from within and outside the country.

    Keynote Speaker Prof Michael Ngadi said agricultural engineers of this century played a key role in bringing food to the table.

    The international expert in food quality and safety with specialisation in heat and mass transfer processes in foods, hyperspectral imaging, sensors and properties of foods decried the high rate of human population across the world.

    Putting the global population at about 7.7 billion, he said this has a tendency to grow into 10 billion in a few years.

    Ngadi said unless the food capacity is boosted via agricultural mechanisation, man would suffer from famine and quality health conditions.

    The international expert dismissed Nigeria’s current population growth as the likely cause of unemployment and poverty.

    He said the population of all African nations was equal to the population of China, which has one of the finest Gross Domestic Products (GDPs) due to innovations in agricultural mechanisation.

    “We have a problem with demographic and climatic change, flooding and erosion. Besides, 80 per cent of our produce, especially tomatoes, is getting wasted because of poor preservation system. In fact, it is a known fact that at present, Nigeria has the highest rate of food wastages in the world.

    “The recent ban of rice importation in Nigeria is good but it must be matched with needed local production. Otherwise, we will suffer greatly for food in this country. We should also note that we will not feed the increasing population with knives and hoes of the Stone Age Technology,” Ngadi said.

    The expert urged Nigerian agricultural engineers to design and develop more equipment for local food production and processing.

    He called for an atmosphere that would be conducive for modern agricultural practices to thrive and veritable governmental policies for a private sector-driven food production system.

    Ngadi said Nigeria should upscale its food production, processes and practices.

    The international expert added that “a pull and a push” approach should be embarked upon in the nation’s food innovation strategies.

    “There is a connection between innovation and the GDP of any nation. Therefore, in Nigeria, it is either we innovate now or die of hunger later. We need improved technologies in tillage facilities and maximise the irrigation practices. We must produce affordable technologies to link farmers with processors and consumers. This has been successfully done by Hondurans.”

    Ngadi, who said unlike agricultural principles, which are transferable, innovations are peculiar with the innovators.

    He added that Nigeria, with its largest cashew production capacity in the world, could build strong agricultural technologies around the fruit and its seed.

  • Power, bait and the critic

    THE best way to destroy predatory leadership is to debauch its currency: fear. Fear is what we should conquer; the fear of poverty, of speaking out, and being excluded from the coach of government’s popular gravy-train.

    Fear breeds insecurity, entitlement, bigotries, lawlessness and a wild lust for inordinate acquisitions.

    When fear as currency becomes worthless, so would the ruling class. Its traditional standards of behaviour and precepts of transaction must be shattered for Nigeria to progress. But for this to happen, Nigerians must evolve.

    True, we live in a crazy world, where morality manifests as a Utopian ideal. The honest and industrious are bankrupted while looters, thieves, gangsters, terrorists, looters, kidnappers and lobbyists laugh all the way to the bank.

    In the wake of this dystopia, the free market and precepts of equality touted as routes to nationwide prosperity have been exposed as a pathetic con game.

    Many are aware of the con but their awareness doesn’t translate to concerted efforts to evade its lure.

    The critic thus becomes society’s courier of rage and revolt against the ruling class’ arrogant hierarchs.

    To the citizenry, the critic is a modern day hero. To the government, however, he is a scourge; a noxious virus or gadfly. The citizenry depend on the critic to have a voice, the government depends on him to smother the citizenry’s voice.

    To achieve its strategy, the government lures him through the state’s revolving doors on to the corridors of power. The unrepentant critic, in identification with his repute as society’s conscience and political gadfly, rebuffs such overture.

    He understands that his acceptance of such offer would bankrupt the emotional and ethical bank account he has so far, built with the citizenry.

    Seun Onigbinde, co-founder of BudgIT, for all his spunk and promise fell for the Nigerian government’s toxic charms. He accepted to serve, against better judgement, as the Technical Adviser to the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba.

    Onigbinde’s appointment sparked off wild reactions from Nigerians on social media. A known critic of President Muhammadu Buhari, the tech expert was flayed for accepting to serve in an administration he once described as a failure.

    Among Onigbinde’s fiercest critics was the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO); a presidential apologist, the group issued a statement, condemning the appointment of Onigbinde whom they said lacks honour and integrity for accepting to serve in a government he criticised.

    Few days, after he accepted the offer, Onigbinde rescinded his decision, announcing his resignation from the office.

    In a statement on his Medium page on Monday, Onigbinde announced: “It is clear that recent media reports about my appointment have created a complex narrative, which I believe would engender an atmosphere of mistrust, as I planned to proceed.

    “I also want to wish the Nigerian Government, led by President Muhammadu Buhari, well. I will always be of help to the federal government in my capacity as the Director of BudgIT, a critical fiscal transparency group, as I have been to several agencies. I would also work to ensure that BudgIT continues to build civic awareness on the right of every Nigerian to know how public resources are managed,” he said.

    In the above statement, Onigbinde captures the essence of his role as a policy analyst, government critic and BudgIT’s co-founder.

    Nigeria needs Onigbinde, among others, to continually unmask the pious frauds of leadership by the current administration and subsequent ones.

    We are at a critical point in Nigeria’s democratic experiment; the business of governance is being bungled by a fumbling ruling class.

    While Buhari’s leadership appropriates the demeanour of Nigeria’s saving grace, like his predecessors, he betrays shortcoming in critical areas of governance.

    Education and health funding, for instance, reveals the lack of vision, acuity and compassion of his administration.

    Although he assured the education sector of remarkable improvement in funding in 2019, he budgeted a paltry 7.05 per cent – or thereabouts – of his proposed N8.83 trillion budget to the sector in flagrant disregard of the minimum funding of 15 to 20 per cent recommended for developing countries by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNICEF).

    He has also failed to make history by facilitating a permanent surgical trimming, of recurrent expenditure. At the backdrop of these failings, his administration has announced an increment of Value Added Tax (VAT) in the country.

    This has generated widespread dissent among the citizenry as critics dismiss the idea as yet another gaffe capable of making the government look bad and insensitive to the people’s plight.

    But as the ugliness persists, government apologists cite lifeboat initiatives like the TraderMoni scheme as wonderful, life-changing projects of the Buhari administration.

    How does the scheme translate to a better life for recipients and perpetual segments of the country’s breadlines?

    A laudable model would see Buhari increase education funding, for instance, and power TraderMoni, among others in such a way that recipients’ fortunes would truly improve, sustainably.

    The ultimate aim should be to lift folk out of poverty and not cushion their stay or relapse into it. Nigeria deserves more than a welfare gravy-train from Buhari.

    The impoverished and disadvantaged outside the corridors of power deserve more than a lifeboat solution. And we need critics like Onigbinde to persistently monitor governance, analyse policy and trigger reaction.

    It is understandable that given the harsh economy and the challenges of earning a livelihood in Nigeria, many a government critic and policy analyst may get charmed and eventually, silenced, by the incumbent administration’s crafty deployment of “appointments” and associated perks.

    Onigbinde’s swift recant restores hope among his keen followers and audience of his governance and policy analysis.

    Despite his duplicity and ethical weakness, it’s a great boon that he didn’t bite dust or lose sight in the glimmer of the incumbent administration’s catacombs.

    In The Emperor’s Tomb, Joseph Roth chronicles the decay of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He wrote that at the very end of the empire, even the street-lights longed for morning so that they could be extinguished.

    Nigeria’s undercurrent, as Hedges would say, depicts the bleakness highlighted by Roth.

    This minute, Nigerians are reduced to tools and disposable integers by a corrupt political elite. Our nation, like Roth’s empire, aspire to the ruins of defunct, powerful civilisations: Rome, Egypt, Persia and the Mayan empires.

    Insecurity, bigotry, nepotism, substandard health and education, dying industries, among others, trigger a similar yearning “for annihilation and escape into hedonism and giddy, communal madness” that signalled the end of the Roman empire.

    We have been taken hostage by a corrupt political elite. “This elite, squandering resources and pillaging the state, is no longer able to muster internal allegiance and cohesiveness” to salvage our country.

    The best they could offer are knee-jerk reactions to devastation inflicted on their watch and by generations of bad leadership.

    As Nigeria careens from maladministration, we need the Onigbindes, among others, to answer as men and fierce critics of the corrupt elite, where many pretenders to ethics have bitten dust.

    Beyond theatrics and lip-service, however, Onigbinde and co, must evolve a more selfless and unflinching resolve to serve the interest of the collective.

  • BOS, conk environmental outlaws

    IT is amazing how life imitates literature. The Lagos refuse crisis somewhat reminds one of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.  Apart from the general admission, after two savage World Wars (1914-1918: WW I; 1939-1945, WW II), that man might not be inherently good, after all, the novel often cited as the main work that won Golding the Nobel Prize for Literature, also showed how even the best trained and cultured of persons tend to lapse into atavism, if the environment is radically tweaked.

    In Lord of the Flies, British public school pupils, glorified poster boys — and girls — of the very acme of high culture and polish, regressed into near-savages, just because they were temporarily trapped in the jungle, after their aircraft crash-landed.

    But what has all this has got to do with the Lagos refuse crisis?  Legit question.

    Just as those boys regressed fast into savagery, the Ambode Visionscape fiasco pushed out the pre-historic refuse behaviour in some Lagos denizens — or how can you explain folks bagging their household wastes and dumping them on major road medians?  As that crisis deepened, many just packed their refuse and “sprayed” them on the road; and passing cars just pressed the dirt into some sickly mart on the tar!

    Though Lagos appears getting cleaner (note the comparative: cleaner, not yet clean) — thanks to faster PSP operators’ waste-clearing relays — it is still a far cry from the pre-crisis situation, when Lagos thought it had put behind its smelly hills of refuse.

    For the PSPs, though, it would appear negative payback time — what goes around comes around!  At the height of the PSP versus Visionscape protest, against the Ambode government’s Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI), some rogue PSP operators stood legitimately accused of deliberately emptying refuse in odd places: to colour bad CLI — and the government that sponsored it.

    At that time, the lunacy of households dumping their wastes, wherever they damn well liked, flared out of control. That misconduct has lasted till this day.

    What PSP operators now do is picking up packed wastes, along high-street medians, as if medians are now legitimate refuse dumps.  That should never be tolerated.

    Which is why Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Tunji Bello, his Environment and Water Resources Commissioner, should somewhat forge a neighbourhood intelligence network that would snare these environmental saboteurs, arrest them and bring them to swift justice.

    All you need is to make a few grand scapegoats, in their own community.  Whoever is arrested putting his or her refuse in wrong places should be tried — by a mobile court — and promptly sentenced to visible refuse-clearing community work, in the same environment he or she had undermined by wilful refuse-dumping.

    Pounce on a few and the stern message would go round fast — refuse outlawry is no longer be tolerated!

    After, the government itself might just be surprised at how fast refuse sanity would race back to normal.  It can then consolidate and build clean Lagos well past the old peak, during the Fashola era.

  • Benin DisCo trains 134

    Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) has turned out another set of 60 graduate trainees and 74 technician trainees in its 2018/19 edition, a programme targeted at improving service delivery to customers and bridging skills gap in the power sector.

    It also announced take-off locations for the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) scheme in Delta State.

    BEDC Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer Mrs. Funke Osibodu disclosed these  at the fourth graduation for trainees held at the Crescendo Conference Centre, Asaba.

    The take-off locations, which will be handled by Inlaks Power Solution sequentially, based on location, street by street are Government House and Cabinet area, Express, Anwai, SPC, Ezenei, SIO all around Asaba Township and Headbridge.

    Mrs. Osibodu said BEDC believes that the recruitment of new workforce and training of workers would help improve service delivery to customers and also build capacity in the power sector.

    “Our yearly recruit new employees under the Graduate Management Trainee and Technician Trainee schemes continue to grow as we lead in the drive to bridge the capacity and skills gap in the power sector. Our goal is to attract and train 1,500 young and new employees with the aim of helping to improve the quality of service to customers and also help reduce youth unemployment in our society,” she stated.

    Declaring that BEDC will leave no stone unturned in its desire to meet customer expectations, Mrs. Osibodu disclosed that between  last year and now, BEDC has connected 112 communities without electricity supply in its coverage areas to the national grid out of which 55 of such connections were done in Delta State.

    She solicited the cooperation of customers in respect of the ongoing enumeration exercise which she said was a precondition for them to benefit from the MAP scheme, stressing that this would enable the company plan properly for network expansion, improve quality of power supply, adding that nearly 400,000 households have been enumerated.

    In his welcome address, Chairman Board of Directors Victor Osibodu said the training schemes were conceived after the power sector privatisation in 2013 to enable BEDC respond to immediate talent needs of the sector, disclosing that within four years of its existence over 600 persons have been recruited.

    “BEDC aims to build a technically competent organisation with the required technical and functional competency, As such the two training programmes are blended learning experiences designed to equip new staff with the skills set needed to deliver excellent services to customers,” the chairman stated.

  • Tasks before Mines and Steel Development Minister

    The tasks before the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, are enormous. These include working with relevant stakeholders to ease miners’ access to various sector intervention funds, tackling illegal mining and attracting investors. He is also expected to give more impetus to the Federal Government’s resolve to diversify the economy through the exploitation of solid minerals. Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA highlights the challenges.

    Nigeria literarily sits on minerals goldmine. With about 44 various minerals in commercial quantity under her belt, she is, no doubt, the envy of her less-endowed peers. The snag, however, is that most, if not all the minerals, including gold, iron ore, tin, gemstones, columbite, topaz, limestone, uranium, laterite, gypsum and kaoline, among others, have remained unexploited by successive administrations.

    Yet, the development of the  endowed natural resources is widely acknowledged as holding the ace in contributing to her Gross Domestic Product (GDP), creating millions of jobs and lifting Nigerians out of poverty, among other benefits. Sadly, however, the activities of illegal miners, lack of genuine miners’ access to various sector-specific intervention funds and investors’ apathy, among other challenges, have continued to hold the sector down.

    Incidentally, these seemingly formidable obstacles are coming at a time the recognition of the obvious benefits of exploiting these bountiful natural resources had forced a strategic refocus on the sector by the Federal Government. This was in the hope of leveraging the sector to drive economic diversification, following the crisis in the oil market, where oil prices had crashed, requiring urgent buffers.

    It was against this backdrop that the coming of the new Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr.  Olamilekan Adegbite, and the Minister of State for the sector, Dr. Uchechukwu Ogah, once again, raised hopes that a new dawn may be in the offing for the sector. Although Adegbite, upon assumption of office, promised to lift Nigerians out of poverty by developing the natural resources, doing so will certainly not be a walk in the park.

    For a start, the minister, working with relevant stakeholders, will have to assist miners ease access to various intervention funds rolled out for the sector’s development. For instance, almost three years after the Federal Government approved the release of N30 billion intervention fund for solid minerals development, stiff disbursement modalities have made it impossible for miners to access the fund.

    President Muhammadu Buhari approved the fund in October 2016, to be used for geo-sciences data generation, improve mine-field security and monitoring, among others. The immediate past Minister of Mines and Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, had said the intervention was in line with the enforcement of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act of 2007.

    Although the fund was to enable miners overcome the near impossible interest rate placed on loans by banks, miners under the aegis of Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN) have been screaming blue murder over the conditionalities for disbursement of the fund, saying that they are very tough, making it extremely difficult for small scale miners to access the fund. MAN President Alhaji Sani Shehu told The Nation that because of the stiff conditionalities, only few members of the Association have been able to access the fund.

    According to him, “Part of the conditionality is that they add the collateral to the amount requested”. “That means if you are asking for N10 million, you are asked to bring N15 million. Two; the earlier impression we had was that the intervention was mainly equipment-based, meaning you can use your equipment as collateral.

    “We thought that the equipment can collateralise itself and then the applicant can now use the fund as working capital. And the collateral should be equal to the amount requested.” Although, he said when the Association complained to the former Minister, he directed that MAN should come up with a proposal that will make it easy for its members to access the fund.

    What this means is that Adegbite and his junior minister may have to continue with the ongoing robust engagement between miners and the ministry with a view to addressing the concerns raised by miners, if they are serious about taking the sector to the next level.

    Apart from the N30 billion Intervention Fund, the World Bank also announced another $150 million in support of notable projects in the mining sector. In doing so, the bank said it was impressed with the steps already taken by the government to turn the country into a mining destination.

    With regards to the World Bank’s $150 million lifeline, Shehu said: “One thing that is not very pleasant is that the World Bank funding system is generally slow.” He, however, told The Nation that “The situation was not applicable to Nigeria only; it’s like a general pattern. Other World Bank intervention programme all over the world is the same thing. So, we hope the intervention will move miners to the next level.”

    Shehu, while stating that insinuating that the fund has not been released will not be fair to the World Bank, noted that bureaucracy amongst the disbursement authorities may have been the problem. They (the authorities) say they are doing their best; we hope their best will translate to something,” he said.

    Perhaps, more important is the need for the new minister to halt the activities of illegal miners, which is said to have become an industry of its own in several states across the country. Some of the states include Niger, Plateau, Zamfara, Ebonyi Enugu and Imo.

    The reported absence of globally recognised mining companies in the country is said to be responsible for the upsurge in illegal mining activities, which is partly responsible for scaring genuine investors away. The activities of illegal miners are also believed to be hurting the sector’s contribution to the GDP.

    Statistics from the Ministry show that over two million people are engaged in illegal mining. Most of them are said to be poor, unemployed and living in rural areas. They use crude methods and household implements to exploit the minerals. This is why illegal mining poses some health challenges which include lead poisoning, mercury pollution, deforestation, poor sanitation and heavy metals pollution.

    Under his charge, Adegbite is, therefore, expected to roll out workable policies and strategies to properly regulate mining. This stemmed from the belief that if fully harnessed, the solid minerals sector  would help boost foreign exchange and create jobs.

    In doing so, Adegbite, who was former Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure under the immediate past Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, is also expected to work with the private sector, including state governments to change the sector’s narrative.

  • UNIOSUN approves start-up scheme for alumni

    The Senate of the Osun State University (UNIOSUN) has approved a scheme that would support start-up projects by the university’s alumni.

    Speaking on the scheme at the university’s pre-convocation briefing, the Vice Chancellor, Prof Labode Popoola, said the aim was to groom entrepreneurs among its graduates.

    He said:”Senate has also just approved Startup Scheme for UNIOSUN Alumni and Alumnae who have bankable proposals. The idea is to create a pool of entrepreneurs and job creators.”

    Prof. Popoola also said the university would not relent in her input to research and societal development.

    “I am glad to tell you now that the institute is now becoming a centre of excellence in postgraduate teaching, research, and societal development in all areas of sustainable development. Also the recent birth and approval of two faculties and new departments in the College of Agriculture is worthy of mention as the university now has Faculty of Agricultural Production and Management (FAPM) which comprises of the Department of Agronomy (AGY), Department of Animal Sciences (ANS), Department of Agricultural Economics & Agribusiness Management (AEM) and Department of Agricultural Extension & Rural Development (ARD) and the Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources Management (RNRM),” he said.

    A total of  1,814 graduating students would be conferred with first degrees across the colleges during the eighth convocation of the university from September 19 to 21.

    Of the lot, 49 will graduate with first-class grades; 670,  second class (upper division); 892, second class lower; and 194, third class. Nine others will be awarded pass degree.

    This will bring to 9,955 the number of first degrees awarded by the university since its first graduation in 2011.

    The convocation would feature three lectures – the Candido Da Rocha Annual Memorial lecture to be delivered by Prof Radius Salawu of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) on September 19; the Foundation Lecture by Prof Abel Olorinishola on September 20; and the Convocation Lecture by the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo on September 21.

    Prof Salawu would speak on: Fraud Detection and Prevention: The role of the reporting company and the external auditor;

    Prof Olorinishola will speak on: Breaking the cycle of indolence and

    dependency- A challenge to the Nigerian Youth; while Pro Osinbajo will speak on: Six decades of checquered nationhood – Nigeria still holds the key to Africa’s Development.

    Other activities for the convocation include inauguration of projects on  Tuesday at the Osogbo campus; exhibition of research and entrepreneurship products (Tuesday and Wednesday); and convocation play titled: Women of Owu, by Femi Osofisan on Wednesday.

  • Kano spends N600m on PG scholarship

    Kano State Government has spent over N600 million on its joint tuition-free post graduate scholarship between the State and French Embassy in Nigeria.

    This covers four batches of Kano indigenes, mainly lecturers, from the state’s tertiary institutions sponsored under the agreement.

    Speaking while presenting travelling documents to the 4th batch of beneficiaries, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje said the programme was initiated to support teaching in the tertiary institutions owned by the state.

    Ganduje, who was represented by his Deputy, Dr Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, said the government was spending a lot to ensure that lecturers get the best of training required to improve their performance.

    “Under this programme, a lot of money has been spent based on 60/40 percent agreement where French Government used to take 60 per cent while Kano State Government takes 40 to ensure that our lecturers from tertiary institutions get the best training. So far, with this batch, by the time everything is being paid, over N600 million has been spent on the programme,” he said.

    Ganduje said all the candidates had been admitted to the top ranking universities in France, which he believed would certainly benefit the state in a couple of years.

    He praised the heads of the various tertiary institutions for their commitment towards promoting equality and fairness in selecting participants for the programme.

    “We usually mention how our students emerged best students when they go for this programme. I think we have to give this credit to you. Why I said this, is because of the transparent nature and prudence being used in terms of selecting these students,” said Ganduje.

    To the students, Ganduje urged them to put in their best to make not only the state but thecountry proud of their performance while aborad.

    In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor Kano University of Technology, Prof Shehu Musa Alhaji, said students were chosen on merit, saying, “so far the first, the second and third sets of the students that have been sent from Kano had made the state proud”.

    Speaking, one of the beneficiaries, Mustapha Sani Musa from Kano University of Technology promised to perform beyond expectations.

    “I want to express our appreciation to all people that have contributed in one way or the other in giving us yet another opportunity to acquire further training which will be of great benefit to our dear state,” he said.

  • PwC: why mining sector is not growing

    Impact of the Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF) is yet to be felt in the industry, despite its rejiging as many issues continue to constitute setbacks to the sector.

    Head, Advisory and Mining Sector Lead, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Nigeria, Cyril Azobu, who stated this, also said commercial banks had remained doubtful and continued to see the industry as high risk. In addition, the existence of multiple regulations is reducing investor confidence as the cost and requirements have contributed to a seeming lack of interest in the industry.

    Established by the 2007 Mining Act and inaugurated in 2013, the Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF) had struggled to take off, despite its good intentions.

    The government’s goal is for the solid minerals sector to contribute three per cent to the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025, currently, it contributes less than half a per cent.

    Objectives of the SMDF are to develop human and physical capital; geo-scientific data gathering, storage, and retrieval; the purchase of equipment by state-owned mining institutions; the provision of infrastructure; and the provision of extension services to small-scale and artisanal mining operations.

    It is expected to catalyse the minerals sector mainly by providing access to financial resources and training and by formalising the status of artisanal miners, this activity is envisaged as a way to reach the three-percent target. The first solid minerals roadmap, developed in 2015, had the objective of raising the sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) to five percent by 2015, and 10 percent by 2020. Unfortunately, this target proved to be unattainable, and it was lowered to three percent by 2025.

    Azobu told The Nation in Lagos that data, which was at the heart of the industry was not robust enough to support investment inflows and key infrastructure such as access roads, dedicated rail lines, power, among others remain a challenge.

    He, however, expressed optimism that if the government maintained the drive and make the right choices, the solid minerals sector could contribute up to three per cent of GDP by 2025 as predicted in the roadmap, up from a current contribution of just about 0.5 per cent.

    Azobu agreed that there had been some notable achievements in the sector in the last few years. For instance, there have been efforts to improve the sector’s regulatory framework with enactment of new laws and establishment of the National Council of Mining and Mineral Resources Development.

    Notably, the Nigerian Institute of Mining and Geo-sciences, Jos (Establishment) Act was assented to by the President in November 2018 for training of manpower for the sector and research.  In addition, the Federal Government in the same year presented a roadmap for the “Development of Nigeria’s Industrial Minerals”, developed by the World Bank-assisted Mineral Sector Support for Economic Diversification (MinDiver) Project. Also, the National Gold development efforts saw the issuance of the first gold refining licence in the year.

    Furthermore, efforts to curb illegal mining had been ramped up by the provision of surveillance vehicles for mine inspectors across the country, and increased inter-agency co-operation.

    “The ministry has also continued on its journey to transform its processes by digitising some of its key activities,” Azobu said, adding that efforts were ongoing to automate the ministry’s activities with the provision of geographic information system (Egis) web portal and electronic submission of licences, permits and certificates to improve efficiency and speed-up the processing of transactions.

    GIS is a framework for gathering, managing, and analysing data. Imbedded in the science of geography, GIS integrates many types of data. It analyses spatial location and organises layers of information into visualisations using maps and 3D scenes.

    Azobu said: “This has become even more critical in the light of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) Agreement coming into force.”

    According to him, the fixation on extraction and exporting of raw minerals and ores at the expense of value addition is a big disservice especially as Nigeria continues to depend on importation of finished products.

    This, he stated, had further worsened by other African countries potentially taking advantage of the AfCFTA to invade our economy. “We must assess how competitive Nigeria will be against other more developed mining territories on the continent,” he added.

  • Parents groan over N50,000 hostel fee as FSTC resumes

    As students of the Federal Science and Technical College (FSTC), Yaba resumed Sunday, many parents lamented that they had to pay N50,000 imposed by the school’s Parent Teachers Association (PTA) for a hostel project.

    They also lamented that they had to construct buildings in a school owned by the Federal Government.

    The N50,000 fee is in addition to the N5,000 PTA levy approved by the Federal Ministry of Education, Abuja for Unity Schools across the country because of past complaints about the money parents were forced to pay in the name of PTA.

    A few days to the resumption, some parents cried out that their wards would not be allowed to resume if the special hostel levy, which was called a donation in the last term’s PTA newsletter, was not paid.

    However, on Sunday, The Nation observed that the pupils were allowed into the school once they showed evidence of part payment of the levy.

    Some parents who refused to give their full names, expressed their grouse on the issue.

    A father, who simply called himself Mr Victor, said this would be the second hostel parents would be building for the school.

    “There is nothing we will not see in this country. It is only in Nigeria that a civil servant would be constructing a building for a Federal Government school. Are you aware we built the previous hostel just right there? I paid N10,000. Let us see how it goes but I know I will not pay the total amount”, he said.

    Another parent, Mr Maxwell said he had paid half of the bill for his two children who are pupils of the school.

    “I had to pay N50,000 for two of my children. What do you want me to do? I don’t want them to stay at home, but on getting here I heard Federal Government has reacted and it has been suspended, I hope they refund the money to the set of parents like me that has already paid”, he said.

    Another parent a mother who refused to give her name, said “It is a normal thing, they also did the same thing in King’s College. I have two of my kids there. We were asked to contribute money to build a hostel which we did so it is okay.”

    However, not all parents paid money for heir wards that day. A fahter said his son was allowed in without paying anything.

    He said: “Well I did not pay and they have checked my son in. I don’t think they would want to create a scene,” he said.

    A parent, Mr Chuks, who paid just N5,000, said he was not at the July 27 meeting where parents were said to have agreed to pay for the project.

    “I paid N5,000 and they allowed my daughter in. So, probably, next session again I will pay another N5,000. The country is hard and besides all fingers are not equal. I was not even at the meeting when the decision was made. But then what can I say? I will like to call on the Federal Government to look into this situation because everyday on the news we hear of millions and billions being pumped into the education sector but look at the crisis we have here at FSTC,” he said.

    The decision to pay N50,000 per pupil at the July 27 PTA meeting was documented in a newsletter sent home with the pupils as they vacated last session.

    The newsletter signed by Mr Olisaeloka Anene noted that the PTA had sought approval from the FME to embark on the project. It also noted that parents could spread the payment of the N50,000 donation over three terms.

    It reads: “At the PTA general meeting held Saturday, July 27, 2019, parents unanimously agreed to embark on a hostel project. The committee of professionals which was set up during the last meeting gave their reports. They have generated complete building plan and have paid a visit to the Permanent Secretary, FME to discuss with him about the project.  The Permanent Secretary told the parents that if they agree to support a hostel project that he will not stop us. according to the committee chairman, the Permanent Secretary requested we send him a complete drawing of the building with the bill of quantity for their records.

  • UNILAG VC prods students on N250m grant

    Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos, Prof Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, has advised students to take advantage of the N250 million grant given to the institution by the Bank of Industry to support creative and entrepreneurship ideas.

    Ogundipe spoke during this year’s Accounting and Entrepreneurship Summit for Students, organised by the Nigeria University Accounting Students Association.

    The event, with the theme: Technological advancement: The Nigerian economy and the future of the accounting profession, held at the main auditorium of the institution. It featured hundreds of students from tertiary institutions nationwide.

    Ogundipe, who noted that N50 million has been earmarked for training and renovations, added that the outstanding would be given as loans to start-ups among the students, depending on their proposal and cost required.

    He said: “We will be giving out loans between N1 to N2million to students that are able to come up with great innovative business ideas. We are also planning to register a limited liability company for our students while we will recommend experts to mentor them.”

    Ogundipe added that the summit was appropriate and in tandem with his vision as he concludes his maiden Professor Ogundipe Innovative Challenge (POIC) 2019.

    He boasted that UNILAG is well equipped to mentor and provide all the needed support for students with creative business ideas.

    He challenged participants to take advantage of the summit and the lineup of facilitators on ground to speak to them, adding that as youths, the future of accounting profession is in their hands.

    Head of Tax and Corporate Advisory Services of PwC Nigeria, Taiwo Oyedele challenged participants to open their minds, networks, share opportunities and be ready to diversify.

    He reminded the students that the accounting profession is a critical sector in every nation’s life, noting that understanding the economy, its complexity, trends and its opportunities, is imperative.

    Oyedele bemoaned the lopsidedness in the nation’s tax system which he said, favours the rich that pay less at the expense of the poor that pay more.

    A Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria (ICAN) Joseph Aborowa challenged the students to develop the art of integrity as they prepare themselves for the marketplace, saying organisations fall and rise due to the premium they place on integrity.

    Some of the sessions during the event were anchored on: tax sustainability of the Nigerian economy; leveraging technology for business growth; integrity, learning and excellence which are keys to remaining relevant in the profession: and excelling in entrepreneurship, among others.

    In his words, the President of NUASA, Opeyemi Oderinde, said the programme was aimed at helping accounting students to keep abreast of the latest trends and issues in the profession so they could be more equipped to stay ahead.