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Tag: Norwegian

  • Norwegian envoy seeks stockfish inclusion in zero duty list

    Norwegian envoy seeks stockfish inclusion in zero duty list

    Ambassador of Norway to Nigeria, Svein Baera, at the weekend in Lagos, urged President Bola Tinubu to acquiesce to demand of the Norwegian Seafood Council in Nigeria to include stock fish into the list of food items approved in July 2024 for a 150-day duty-free window to facilitate their importation as part of broader efforts to tame rising food inflation across the country.

    Food commodities in the zero duty basket include maize, husked brown rice, wheat, and cowpeas.

    The Norwegian envoy believes stock fish is a major protein source for many poor families in the country, adding that including it in the zero import duty basket would promote affordability and good health for many struggling families.

     “We think stock fish should be affordable for every Nigerian family so that they and their children can have enough protein. To make it affordable, we have suggested that stock fish be added to the list the Federal Government has made for duty free access. So we are encouraging the government to put stockfish on that list so that it is more affordable for Nigerian families,” Baera said on the sideline of his visit to the popular Oyingbo Stock Fish Market, Ebute Metta.

    Fisheries Consultant, The Norwegian Seafood Council in Nigeria, Ms Abiodun Oritsejemine Cheke, said the government of Norway has lowered stock fish prices to assist importers and distributors in Nigeria.

    Like the envoy, she appealed to the “Federal Government of Nigeria to put stock fish among the staple food that will enjoy zero percent duty for 150 days because if we look at it, the stock fish head is about the cheapest protein in Nigeria as of today. One egg costs N300 but with the way stock fish is cut and dissected, you can still get stock fish of N100 that will suffice for about four people.”

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    She is however optimistic that the demand would soon be approved. “It is being attended to; there are committees set up and a committee domiciled in the Federal Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment as the secretariat of the committee. Members of the committee are looking into it because the Presidency and the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy directed our request to them; hopefully it should have gone back to the Presidency. Next week, we will be there to do a follow up,” she said.

    CEO, Norwegian Seafood Council, Christian Chramer, said pricing is a dynamic element in the market which is most times determined by the interplay of the forces of demand and supply.

     “It is too difficult to comment on pricing. It is a dynamic market; we fish from resources that are dependent on nature. It is also about a question of availability, supply and demand. We will like to supply Nigeria with stock fish as much as possible but we will like to see competition between different markets but we see Nigeria as an important market for our fish,” Chramer said.

    Cheke said Norway has been doing a lot in terms of training locals on international best practices in fisheries and aquaculture with a view to getting Nigeria out of the list of countries banned from exporting fish and aquaculture products into developed countries.

     “You know for many years now Nigeria’s aquaculture product has been banned from the markets of the EU, Canada, and the US. What the Norwegian government has done through the Norwegian Seafood Council in Nigeria since 2022 is to organise periodic fish training in quality assurance because the key reason why we were banned is because of sustainability and quality assurance. They sent experts in fisheries and aquaculture from Norway to identify the gap, and because of this, we were able to start training and in fact, the Norwegian government also assisted.

     “Today, if we can vacate the ban, Norway is ready to buy our tilapia at zero per cent export duty. So it is a continuous process and we are still doing it. Also we have been training chefs on the sustainability of cooking, on how to cook fish products. And in this particular market, early last year, we came to teach them not to use insecticide to kill insects. We taught them the sustainable way to do it.

     “Three times every year, we organise workshops and seminars to let our importers and distributors know all the regulatory requirements and the licences they need to procure to do this business, don’t cut corners,” she explained.

    A group, WorldFish, said Nigeria spends about $1.2billion annually on fish importation because about 45 per cent of the fish consumed in the country are imported.

    A study by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) on agrifood diagnostic showed that fish is only second to livestock in terms of poverty reduction effect and only second to livestock and fruits and vegetables in terms of food quality.

    To meet the growing demands of fish consumed in the country, stakeholders stressed the need for national fisheries and aquaculture policy.

    WorldFish Country Representative, Dr Sunil Siriwardena, said: “Fish is one of the most important food commodities that have a positive impact on poverty reduction and improving food and nutrition security in Nigeria.

     “Nigeria, per capita fish consumption is rather low. Only 11.2 kg is consumed. Because Nigeria can’t meet the demand for fish, 45 per cent of Nigeria’s fish supply comes from imports.

     “This costs the government around $1.2 billion annually. If national fish supply could be increased, this money could be saved for the development of smallholder farmers.”

  • How John Abebe, Obasanjo’s in-law perpetrated $4m fraud

    Two foreigners, Mr Paul Piche,  a Norwegian and Ms Charlene Cross,  a Briton, on Tuesday told an Ikeja Special Offences Court how  Mr John Abebe the brother of late Stella Obasanjo,  the former first lady of Nigeria allegedly forged documents to perpetuate  $4Million fraud.

    Abebe is facing  a four-count charge of forgery, fabricating evidence, using fabricated evidence and attempt to pervert the cause of justice before Justice Mojisola Dada.

    Abebe however denied the charges which were proffered against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    During  proceedings,  Piche who was led in evidence by EFCC prosecuting counsel  Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, revealed to the court how the alleged forgery of a Net Profit Interest Agreement (NPIA) by Abebe was unravelled by Statoil Nigeria.

    According to him, Dr Abebe in 2010 tendered a copy of the amendment letter between themselves (Inducon) and BP Exploration dated 1995.

    He said Statoil made enquiries from BP Exploration  about the original amendment letter from 1995, which was provided to his company from BP Exploration.

    “When we made comparisons of the letter we received and the one that was tendered at the Federal High Court by Inducon and Dr Abebe we saw that there were a number of inconsistencies between the two versions,” he said.

    Piche who was shown the original and the allegedly forged NPIA document revealed the discrepancies in the two documents.

    He said; “Annexure two is the forged amendment letter tendered by Inducon and Annexure three is the genuine version of the amendment letter that we received.

    “In  Annexure three,  the paragraph for the $4Million dollar buyout for production of oil does not exist but it exist in Annexure two.

    He said: “In Annexure two the address of the National Westminster Bank which is in 2A Charing Cross Road is all on one line whereas if you look at Annexure three,  the same address is in two lines.

    “The postcode of the address of the of National Westminster is WCTUH0PE with a Zero while on the Annexure Two the postcode  is WCTHUHOPE with the letter O which is a wrong postcode.

    “In Annexure two at the parenthesis,  instead of i.e, capital L and a lower case e whereas in Annexure three,  in the parenthesis you will see a lower case i and a lower case e”.

    Piche also revealed to the court that the paragraphs of page two of the forged document were not justified compared to the original where all the paragraphs were justified.

    He informed the court that following the discovery,  Statoil petitioned the EFCC and laid a complaint December 14, 2016 at the office of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

    He said they also petition the EFCC asking the agency to investigate the matter.
    “On December 14, 2016 we laid a complaint at the State House office of the Vice President because it was obvious to us that the amendment letter has been forged.

    “We sent copies of the letter to the Honourable Office of the Vice President as well as the Honourable Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation,” he said.

    Under cross-examination  by Mr E.D, Onyeke,  a member of Abebe’s defence team,  Piche admitted to have no knowledge of forensics.

    He said he has a Bsc in Economics  from the University of Warwick and a Masters degree in Economics from the London School of Economics.

    “I’m not a forensic document examiner,  I cannot tell the type of font used in the document,” he said.

    He admitted to the court that his company did not take any legal action on the alleged forgery until 2016 after judgments were given at Federal High Court and Court of Appeal in favour of Inducon,  Abebe’s company against Statoil.

    “I’m aware of the judgment against my company at the Court of Appeal on June 5, 2012 and I’m aware of my company’s appeal at the Supreme Court,” Piche said.

    Testifying, Ms Cross the second prosecution witness described herself as a legal practitioner and provided to the court her knowledge of the business contract.

    “I’m the in-house lawyer,  Assistant General Manager Dispute Resolution Projects and I’m a Solicitor working for BP Exploration on London. I manage all BP dispute globally with the exception of the U. S

    “I know Inducon Ltd and Statoil Nigeria Ltd,  I’m aware of rhe fact that there was a relationship between Inducon Ltd from 1990 to approximately 1992 onwards.

    “I’m aware that there were two aspects to the relationship, the first consisted of a consultancy agreement and the second consisted of a NPIA which was signed on Nov. 12, 1993.” She said.

    Cross told the court that the original NPIA signed by Inducon and  BP Exploration in 1993 was available because it was archived by BP over the years.

    “The original was contained in BP Archive System,  which is a very organised system in place which consists of documents finally executed and sent for safekeeping.

    “The NPIA was sent to the BP Archiving System on Nov. 16, 1993 and it shows on the upper sheer that the Records Managing Unit received this document for safekeeping.

    “There is a barcode in the document which identifies the BP Archive System,” she said.

    Cross told the court that alleged $4Million buy out option could not be inserted by BP into the NPIA.

    “It makes no sense whatsoever for BP to have inserted such language in the document,  in 1993, the NPIA makes clear that the buy-out option is in force as long as the 1993 NPIA is in force.

    “There is no reason for BP to have inserted this provision on this letter of intent at this stage. BP’s provision is that it never agreed to those wordings.

    “The statement that it applied to a pre-production stage of the buy-out is incorrect. I don’t know how the document was put together but this is not a BP document.

    “In the months prior to March 2018, BP was approached by the EFCC to ascertain the authencity of some documents and thus culminated in me writing a statement to the EFCC on March 26,” she said.

    Cross in her testimony,  also corroborated the evidence of Piche by describing details of the document that revealed the alleged forgery.

    On cross-examination by Onyeke,  Cross also admitted to not being a trained forensic document expert.
    She however ststed that she made her statement to the EFCC while in London.

    Earlier during the trial a member of Abebe’s defence team,  Mr Uche Nwokedi (SAN) through a Motion on Notice brought pursuant to Section 36 of the 1999 constitution sought to strike out the charge against Abebe b.

    Nwokedi said the allegations raised by the EFCC in the charges were  allegations which were previously  raised in suits at the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal.

    Opposing the application, Oyedepo urged the court to strike out the application because it lacked merit.

    “There were two judgments at the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal,  however there were no pronouncements freeing the defendant from the allegations before the court,” Oyedepo said.

    In a ruling Justice Mojisola Dada dismissed the application of the defence.

    “Nothing can be gleaned by ousting the jurisdiction of this court, the application is hereby wanting and is hereby dismissed,” she said.

    According to  Oyedepo, Abebe committed the offence on June 22, 2010 in Lagos.

    “Abebe knowingly forged BP Exploration Nigeria Ltd’s letter dated Nov. 30,1995 to Inducon (Nigeria) Ltd.

    “He committed the forgery by inserting in page two of the said letter the following words: “Also note that the ‘Buy-Out Option’ only applies to the pre-production stage of the NPIA. The $4million buy-out is thus irrelevant from production of oil in any of our fields.

    “He purported same to have been issued by BP Exploration Nigeria Limited,” the EFCC prosecutor said.

    The prosecution claims that the defendant used the allegedly forged letter as evidence in suit No. FHC/L/CS/224/2010 between  Abebe, Inducon Nigeria Ltd and Statoil Nigeria Ltd. at the Federal High Court.

    According to the EFCC, the defendant through his actions attempted to pervert the course of justice.

    The offences violated Sections 120(1), 120(2), 126(2) of the Criminal Code Law of 2003.

    The case was adjourned till today for continuation of trial

  • Norwegian envoy pledges support for Ogoni clean-up

    Norwegian Ambassador to Nigeria Kjemprud Jens-Petter has pledged its support  to the Federal Government in implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme  (UNEP) Report.

    Jens-Petter spoke after visiting  Nsisi-Oken, one of the demonstration sites in Eleme Local Government Areas of Rivers State.

    He said: ” There is every need for the clean up to proceed, we hope to support the Nigeria government but the government must deliver results to the people of the region. I grew up in 1990s as a political activist in Norway when Ogoniland issue came up to the nation’s agenda and coming here as ambassador, I have been planing to come here based on the widely known UNEP report which is now seven years old.

    “I am here to see for myself, and to try to understand to see what in ways the International community could be helpful to HYPREP and to the Nigerian Government (FG), in pushing forward in  the cleanup and  rehablitation as been promised by the international communities.

    “Although I have not seen to many faces and talked to the locals yet,  there must be a lot of impatience that the cleanup should proceed,  that’s where we hope to support and expect the Nigerian Government to deliverer to the people of the communities.’’

    Gideon Abu, who owns the Nsisi-Oken site, told the visitor that the depth of the contamination was seven meters and that the company would ascertain the kind of contaminants.

    An environmental activist and Founder of Friends of the Earth,  Nnimmo Bassey, said: “The UNEP Report greatly validated the complains of the Ogoniland people,  the Niger Delta struggle and the reason Ken Saro-Wiwa and others lay down their lives. For me and others watching the Ogoniland/Niger Delta events across the world,  the testing has further validated that the UNEP Report is something that need to be implemented urgently.”

    The  project Coordinator of Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), Dr. Marvin Dekil,  hoped that the partnership between the Federal government and Norwegian government would lead to the successful delivery of the project.

    Dekil noted that technical,  and livelihoods supports, such as provision of water, were required to ensure progress of the exercise.

  • Norwegian clubs chase Okiki

    Norwegian clubs chase Okiki

    Several Norwegian clubs are now chasing joint leading scorer in the Nigeria league, Afolabi Okiki.

    AfricanFootball.com has specially gathered that Okiki, who has scored 13 goals same as Wikki Tourists star, Godwin Obaje, is now wanted by a host of Norwegian clubs because his rampaging style will fit in nicely with the football in that country.

    “He is big, strong, has speed and packs a good shot, and these qualities will make him a big hit in Norway,” said a top scout.

    Okiki, who at a time was involved with the Nigeria Olympic team, was originally a left winger at his first top club Shooting Stars, but his switch as top striker at Sunshine Stars appears to have brought out the best in him.

  • Akeem Latifu set to quit Norwegian club

    Akeem Latifu set to quit Norwegian club

    Nigeria international Akeem Latifu has not renewed his contract with Norwegian club, Aalesund after spending three seasons there.

    The right back disclosed that the club have offered him  a new deal, but he is looking forward to a new challenge away from the club.

    “I have a good working atmosphere at Aalesund. I was offered a new deal but I want to face a new challenge elsewhere,” he said.

    “There are interests from clubs in Norway and beyond but there is no deal sealed yet.”

    The 26-year-old defender has played for Stromsgodset and Hodd, also in Norway.

  • Nigeria gets Norwegian $15m grant for mother, child healthcare

    Nigeria gets Norwegian $15m grant for mother, child healthcare

    Efforts to improve the country’s healthcare delivery service, especially for mother and child care received a boost  yesterday as Norwegian government offer Nigeria a grant of $15million.

    The money is to assist Nigeria to  upscale it’s  maternal and child health programme.

    A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to that effect was signed yesterday in Abuja.

    The project is to be implemented by Clinton Health Foundation.

    Speaking at the occasion, Minister of Health Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu said the country remain committed to meeting the Health-Specific Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) by 2015.

    He explained that the “Norwegian government is supporting Nigeria with equivalent of 90million Norwegian crones. When you change it to US dollars, it translates to $15million. Now, they have given Nigeria that money as a grant or donation to support the work we are doing in terms of maternal and child health to ensure we meet the MDG target by next year; as far as goal number four and five are concerned.

    “This commitment by Norway of giving us $15million to support our maternal and child health is in furtherance of friendship between the two countries. We called it tripartite agreement because to execute it, both countries agreed that we will use the Clinton Health Action Initiative, what we call CHAI. They’ve been working for us in Nigeria and they have demonstrated capability and capacity to work in the health sector particularly in this area of maternal and child health. They also have to commit that they will do exactly what the two countries want the money to be used for. That is the essence of today’s ceremony.”

    He further explained that “although Nigeria has mainstreamed MDGs target into various national initiatives and strategies in order to fast track the attainment of the MDGs, more efforts continue to be required to ensure we achieve the goals, or come as close to achieving them as possible by the end of next year.

    “The development of Harmonized Country Plan of Priority Interventions for 2014-2015, HCPPI, is one of such initiatives to step up our efforts in this regard.

    “This plan represents a call to action to all states and supporting partners to improve programming and focus more resources on the identified, evidence-based, cost-effective and scalable interventions that are already producing results in order to achieve better health outcomes.

    “Through this plan, we aim to save an additional 420,000 maternal and children’s lives by 2015 at a total cost of $650 million as identified in the Harmonized Country Plan, and we have an estimated funding gap of $420 million. We have available commitments totaling $121 million currently being mobilized through projects from the Private Health Sector Alliance, UNICEF, GFATM, the Federal Ministry of Health, USAID and GE Healthy Imagination among other, leaving $299 outstanding.

    “The Tripartite Agreement we have signed today represents one of the many efforts to meet the resource gap. The expected impact on the target group is the reduction of maternal and neonatal deaths in the three selected states by 40% by 2015. This translates to approximately 2,961 maternal and 19,825 neonatal additional lives saved.”

    In his short remark, Norwegian Ambassador to Nigeria, Rolf Ree said the  collaboration could not  be successful without the strong leadership of Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu.

     

  • Norwegian airline prepares for global expansion

    Norwegian airline prepares for global expansion

    A Norwegian direct airline service to Los Angeles has revived hopes for a budget long-haul market.

    Budget airline Norwegian has started the new twice weekly service out of London’s Gatwick Airport.

    It will fly twice weekly from London to Fort Lauderdale and thrice weekly to New York.

    Norwegian made its first foray into long-haul last year with routes from Scandinavia to the United States and Thailand.

    Norwegian says that some low season flights can be had for as low as £179 ($272) one-way to New York, however only a limited of seats are available at this price.

    Norwegian’s website was offering flights in the height of the holiday season in July and August from £329 to £647.

    But the service, run from a new company called Norwegian Air International (NAI) in the Republic of Ireland, has been heavily criticised by US airlines and labour unions.

    They say NAI is using Ireland because of its more flexible labour laws.

    The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) said the creation of Norwegian Air International “was clearly designed to attempt to dodge laws and regulations, starting a race to the bottom on labour and working conditions”.

    Among their complaints is NAI’s use of pilots and crews from Asia to drive down costs.

    Norwegian says that it always respects the regulations of the markets in which it operates and says it is hiring 300 American cabin crew and New York-based pilots for its 787 Dreamliner operation.

    It said in a statement that NAI was based in Ireland to “access to future traffic rights to and from the EU (Norway is not a member of the EU)”, and because being registered in Ireland gave it access to more flexible rules on financing.

    Norwegian has planned its long-haul business round fuel-efficient aircraft. It has a fleet of 787 Dreamliners with four more due for delivery before the end of the year.

    If the Norwegian long-haul budget model works it could have far reaching consequences for the development of travel and how airports are used.

    The new generation of fuel efficient aircraft could mean more passengers flying “point-to-point” rather than via large hub airports such as Heathrow, Schiphol or Charles de Gaulle.

    There is an argument that these new routes are so significant, they could change the course of the runway debate in Britain