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Tag: Okonjo-Iweala

  • COSON tasks Okonjo Iweala on copyright levy scheme

    COSON tasks Okonjo Iweala on copyright levy scheme

    THE Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) has called on the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, to activate the copyright Private Copy Levy scheme.

    In his address during the celebration of the annual No Music Day on Monday, September 1, the COSON chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji, called on the Minister to immediately and personally see to the Private Copy Levy Scheme, which has remained trapped in the Directorate of Fiscal Policy in her ministry for several months.

    “The Private Copy Levy Scheme, which for many years has been in operation in many countries around the world, including some in our sub region, is intended to provide the badly needed cushion for the stakeholders in the creative industry suffering from the unbridled copying and downloading of creative materials made possible by modern technology,” Okoroji said.

    Okoroji also called on President Goodluck Jonathan to direct the Bank of Industries (BOI), the Nigerian Export & Import Bank (NEXIM), the Federal Ministry of Trade & Investments and everyone connected with the Growth in Employment in States Fund (GEMS) and the Entertainment Industry Intervention Fund announced by President Jonathan three years ago to do what is necessary to make sure that the funds begin to have real impact on the industry, create the badly needed employment and reduce the restiveness in Nigeria.

    “We wish to state that both the Growth in Employment in States Fund (GEMS) and the Entertainment Industry Intervention Fund announced by President Goodluck Jonathan three years ago, which created so much initial buzz, have not been the catalysts they were intended to be,” said Chief Okoroji.

  • Okonjo-Iweala, TAN and decency

    Okonjo-Iweala, TAN and decency

    In the not-a-rally that was a rally organised under the non-campaign name that was political, the minister of finance who parades herself under the new-minted title of coordinating minister of the economy showed herself in the front row. The ex-IMF, ex-World Bank virtuoso who should understand the ethical implications of high and sensitive offices, should understand that she should not be seen in such gatherings. No less flaunting her pro-Jonathan bona fides.

    Her position is a lofty one, in case she does not realise it. She is, in a manner of speaking, President Jonathan’s first minister. What it means is that she should maintain a high and disinterested aloofness from all things partisan. Her position should not be tarred with the narrow and partisan brush of a parochial loyalty as she exhibited in the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria rally that took place last week in Port Harcourt.

    She was there in the full PDP colours, and she was engaged in all the festive vanities of joy and celebration and campaigns for the president’s reelection bid.

    She is one of those Nigerians who have had the opportunities to serve in the high places of the world, enjoyed the perks and aura of the dignitaries of the top nations of the world and contributed as a savvy and cultured member of that elite sanctum. Yet she returned to Nigeria as innocent of the polish of a civilised world. This is not the first time Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has exhibited such gusto in the public space in a campaign. In 2011 campaign, she also materialised on the hustings in Abuja and danced and sang as a party faithful.

    Her positon is sensitive for a variety of reasons. Chiefly among them is that she holds the nation’s treasury, and that means questions will always stir as to whether she took part in the funding of the activities either directly or obliquely. She is the fulcrum of budgets every year, from planning, to approvals to execution. That shows that her role is, principally, technocratic, and her finger touches the pulse of every Nigerian either fervently or remotely.

    Whether it is the transactions of the nation’s main pot, the NNPC, or the doings of international transactions, even to the point that the Central Bank of Nigeria, for all its independence, cannot operate without interacting with the minister of finance.

    That is a weighty responsibility, and that explains why her counterpart in the United States, whose system we have adopted, did not attend the last Democratic Convention in Charlotte, N.C. in 2012. In fact, Tim Geithner has followed a long tradition of the United States in which the treasury secretary does not only not attend conventions or rallies. He does not make political statements. Money, as they say, is the mother’s milk of politics. Hence treasury secretaries stay away.

    The high office is not there for politics but governance, and to main the cathedral poise and dignity of the institutions on behalf of the people. If Okonjo-Iweala did not know that, she should now. She should understand that her roles in TAN or any other political campaigns frown against the decency and dignity of her office.

  • Reps, Fed Govt, NMA meeting deadlocked

    Reps, Fed Govt, NMA meeting deadlocked

    •Lawmakers summon Okonjo-Iweala, others

    The hope to end the indefinite strike of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) dimmed yesterday.

    Efforts by the Ndudi Elemelu-led House of Representatives’ Committee on Health to resolve the dispute between the doctors and the Federal Government ended in a deadlock.

    The NMA officials held their grounds that they would not end the strike until some important aspects of their demands, particularly skipping and relativity, were resolved.

    The union rejected the passionate pleas from the lawmakers, Health Minister Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu and Labour and Productivity Minister Emeka Wogu to end the strike.

    Members of the committee urged the NMA to suspend the strike to stop avoidable deaths in public hospitals.

    NMA President Kayode Obembe said: “Some of what we are asking for have been on for 22 years.

    “First, I want us to realise that …we doctors are human beings and are not interested in strikes. The people who are dying are our people. We are not isolated. We are not strike mongers but life savers.

    “Relativity and skipping, if not resolved, doctors will not go back to work. They (NMA members) want to see the alert on the relativity.”

    According to him, the circular issued by the Health Minister failed to address the issues raised by the NMA.

    The union leader said the disparity between the basic salaries of doctors and other health workers had remained unresolved for 22 years.

    Obembe said the Federal Government and its agencies were to blame for failing to honour various agreements between both parties.

    He added that the Federal Government could not be trusted.

    Obembe said: “They first said March, then June. But both failed. They are now saying September.”

    The NMA also requested for the payment of N13 billion, of which N9 billion is to bridge the disparity between basic salary of doctors and other health workers for this year.

    The union asked for another N4 billion for call duties, shift duties, clinical duties allowances, among others, for medical and Health workers in federal employment.

    Wogu told the committee that 23 of NMA’s 24 demands were being addressed.

    The minister urged the doctors to return to work pending the full resolution of their requests which, he said, might last between 30 days to three months.

    He said a committee, chaired by Yayale Ahmed, which would address various issues, had been set up by the President.

    Wogu said dental workers had recourse to the National Industrial Arbitration Court in their case.

    Chukwu said the contentious circular on the Deputy Chairman Medical Advisory Committee would be resolved.

    The minister said he was ready to rephrase the circular’s wordings, if this would bring peace.

    Elumelu urged the government to present a supplementary budget to the National Assembly with the N6.7 billion required for the payment of relativity to the doctors for a year.

    The committee members noted that the Ministries of Health and Labour could not resolve the issues alone.

    They summoned Finance Minister Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim; the Director-General in the Budget Office, Bright Okogwu and the Head of Service of the Federation.

     

  • Okonjo-Iweala, where are our girls?

    SIR: The spontaneous uproar for the release of nearly 300 Chibok girls abducted from their Secondary School has done a lot of good. It has exposed the extent to which the Jonathan government has failed in its primary responsibility of protecting the lives and property of citizens, given that every other aspect of a good government remains secondary.

    We have seen how governments all over the world, especially those that we look up to, display uncompromising integrity and pride in the defense and security of their people. They pursue all political angles in order to protect the life of every one of their citizens. All political affiliations are secondary to the preservation of national pride and the contract between them and their electorate. The Israelis are well known for that, and only recently, the US government set an example by securing the release of one Marine, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. They released five (5) Taliban militants in exchange. Clearly, this demonstrates the high position on which they place the respect and love for their people. In Nigeria’s case is, this is a lot different.

    Last month when Abuja hosted the World Economic Forum (WEF), the international community lashed out at the President over his lackadaisical attitude to the plight of the abducted girls and that of their parents.  Just like a wingless bird, the claims by the government’s spokespersons that the President is concerned about the tale of the girls just could not fly. This was especially so in the face of notorious evidence to the contrary. So many questions posed by hosts of TV programmes about the President’s commitment and readiness to combat the hydra-headed monster of insurgency, especially the one waged by Boko Haram were either evaded or to the utter dismay of millions of viewers and the presenters, or  abrasively answered in an unsatisfactory manner.

    Barrage of attacks on the President and his administration have poured in, left, right and center from within and outside the country. Spokesmen for the government have taken turns to feature in prepaid interview sessions, whereupon they are saddled with the choice of either being the kings of their own silence or the slaves of their own false words.

    Amongst the many interviews that have featured is the one between Richard Quest and the Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on the programme “Best of Richard Quest”. In that memorable episode, even though it is in sharp contrast to what is clearly demonstrated by the actions of the government as proven by its many lies and misdirected anger at the people of Nigeria for demanding action from an inept administration, Dr. Iweala stood stoutly in defence of her Principal’s effort and commitment to the search for the abducted Chibok schoolgirls. As the interview progressed, so many things were revealed. Dr. Ngozi in her responses, frequently reminded viewers that she’s not a spokesperson for the government, but clearly at liberty to speak in its defence. She expressed her disgust for the unprecedented media attention and the constant searchlight beamed on the activities of the government she represents. She charged at Richard Quest by stating that: “Long after the limelight and long after CNN has ceased to cover the issue, we will continue to look for them”.

    And prophetically so, more than 80 days since the girls went missing, the parents of those girls and the nation are still waiting and hoping for their return. As each day passes by, and the whereabouts of the girls still unknown, we all must wonder why the minister asserted that the search will take so long. The CNN would forget. So, Madam minister, now that it is evident that you were right, when should we expect their return?

    • Lami Ladan

    Gwarinpa Estate, Abuja

  • Kano sues Okonjo-Iweala, PPPRA over fund deductions

    Kano sues Okonjo-Iweala, PPPRA over fund deductions

    The Kano State Government has sued the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and two others over their alleged refusal to provide it with information relating to deductions from its allocations and those of its local governments for the Petroleum Support Fund.

    Also listed in the case brought before the Federal High Court, Abuja, are the finance ministry and the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).

    The applicant, in a supporting affidavit to its ex-parte application, stated that its officials had written to the PPPRA on April 11 for information on the issue.

    The state further stated that respondents have been making deductions in this regard from the monies accruable to it and its local Governments, but have never disclosed the amount deducted since 2005 to date.

    The state said it had sought the information through due process, but was denied by the respondents, which informed its filing of this application brought under the Freedom of Information Act, 2011.

     

  • Boko Haram will slow GDP growth – Okonjo-Iweala

    Boko Haram will slow GDP growth – Okonjo-Iweala

    Boko Haram’s insurgency will slow Nigeria’s economy again this year, knocking half a percentage point off growth like last year, the country’s finance minister said on Tuesday, adding that her 6.75 percent 2014 growth forecast took this into account.

    Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told Reuters that while the violence in the northeast might put off some potential foreign investors, those who were in Nigeria for the long term seemed to be holding their nerve, as did portfolio investors in its government debt.

    “We are expecting about 6.75 (percent growth in 2014) and we have accounted for the impact of the insurgency which we will think will take half a percentage point off Gross Domestic Product growth,” she said in an interview during a visit to Berlin.

    Nigeria overtook South Africa as the continent’s biggest economy this year, following a rebasing calculation that almost doubled its gross domestic product. The economy grew about 6.4 percent last year, the minister said, with the sect attacks having most economic impact on agriculture in the northeast.

    The economist and former World Bank vice-president said her talks with German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, emphasised “our strong fundamentals despite the challenges that we face.”

    She sought his support for the creation of a new Nigerian development bank to improve financing to small and medium-sized private enterprises which could become an “engine for growth” as the country seeks to diversify its economy away from oil.

  • Chibok: Jonathan approves $10m for ‘safe school’ project

    Following the abduction of over 200 girls from their school in Chibok, Borno, two months ago, President Goodluck Jonathan has approved an additional $10 million to finance safe school project across the country.

    This disclosure was made on Thursday by the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, when she received a delegation of German investors, the Ambassador and the  German Minister for Co-operation and Development, Mr. Gerd Muller, in Abuja.

    Okonjo-Iweala noted that President Jonathan has approved that a matching $10 million be added to the safe school project to complement the one made available by the Nigerian business community during the World Economic Forum in Abuja last month.

    The finance minister while responding to enquiries on the latest development on the whereabouts of the missing girls said the President has instructed her to work with former British Prime Minister, Mr. Gordon Brown, on the project.

    The fund, she said will be used to strengthen security and safety in schools across the country.

    According to her, the exercise will take off from the North East Zone of the country.

  • Okonjo-Iweala and governors’ performance: the noise, silence, and wisdom

    Okonjo-Iweala and governors’ performance: the noise, silence, and wisdom

    The assumption that underlies the disclosure on how much these 10 states received last year is that the states may not have done what is required of them

    Some of those who are aware that Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been minister of finance twice within the last fifteen years are likely to marvel at the sudden burst of anti-corruption wisdom that came upon her during her recent visit to Ogun State. At a commencement speech at Babcock University in Ogun State recently, the federal coordinating minister for the economy and substantial minister of finance called on citizens to ask governors in the states what they have been doing with the funds made available to them under the country’s system of feeding-bottle federalism. Others are likely to scream at her for remembering very little and forgetting too much in her call for accountability on the part of those charged with political power and in the process trusted with public funds. Certainly, there is some wisdom, partisanship and evasiveness in her decision to present herself as an anti-corruption radar that captures every nook and corner of the polity.

    In a speech calling on governors to account for their allocations from the federation account, the minister thrilled her audience, saying: “Clearly, the federal government cannot do it alone; we need the private sector to work with us and we have reached out to them in transforming Nigeria. But, in addition to that, we should ask ourselves what is the role of the state and local governments in supporting our transformation….A lot of attention is turned on the federal government. So, we also need to ask what our states and local governments do with the resources they get.” Furthermore, she told the nation how much the ten most endowed states received in 2013 from the federation account in order of magnitude: Akwa Ibom 260 billion naira; Rivers 220b; Delta 209b; Bayelsa 173b; Lagos 168b; Kano 140b; Katsina 103b; Oyo 100b; Kaduna97b; and Borno 94b.

    The assumption that underlies the disclosure on how much these 10 states received last year is that the states may not have done what is required of them. Some audience members of the minister may even think that the states not mentioned by the minister must have gotten too little for performance watchers like the minister to expect much from them. Either way, such thinking does not address the meat of Okonjo-Iweala’s stance on national transformation from the states up to the centre, which to the minister is now the epicenter of economic transformation.

    One point upon which admirers and non-admirers of the minister are likely to congratulate her is Okonjo-Iweala’s enthusiasm to make political leaders at the state and local government levels work for the privileges bestowed upon them. Some months ago at a CNN interview of the minister on the performance of the central government, she was enthusiastic in blaming international communities for encouraging Nigerian politicians. For her to now see that most, if not all, governors are under performing suggests that the minister has bought into the idea that corruption and poor governance are like charity: They begin at home. They may also be like the stench from the kitchen sink that ends in the house. Calling on governors to spend funds allocated to their states on verifiable projects in the state is something to praise the minister for having the energy to do at a time that the rest of the world is pre-occupied with over 200 innocent girls kidnapped and kept incommunicado for over thirty days.

    Okonjo-Iweala as a political appointee must have been working for her pay by making transformation the yardstick by which to evaluate governors’ performance in their states. However, she appears to have forgotten to tell Nigerians in what specific aspects the federal government whose economy she coordinates has transformed Nigeria. A commencement speech would not have been in any way inappropriate for her to roll out verifiable statistics of her government’s achievements with respect to transformation. As the minister in charge of coordinating Jonathan/PDP’s transformation agenda, she ought to identify in what ways many of the governors whose states she mentioned have departed from applying the funds allocated to them to transformational projects. One point that the minister missed to explain is why the message of transformation was not passed to the states, especially PDP states that are in the majority by the ruling party.

    Given the character of partisan politics in the country, over partisan citizens may accuse anyone that calls APC governors to order as bashing the opposition, but nobody will blame a minister or anybody appointed by the ruling party for calling PDP governors to order when they fail to work in rhythm with the transformation agenda of President Jonathan, particularly after some of such states were reported not too long ago of getting some special allocations from the president and author of the transformation ethic.  According to citizens’ reports, many changes have taken place in Rivers, Delta, Akwa Ibom, and Kano in the last four years. As most of the states were PDP states until recent migration of the governors of Kano and Rivers to APC, the minister ought to know if those changes fall within the transformation agenda for which she has cited the federal government as the model for all states to follow.

    One point of wisdom in the minister’s graduation speech at Ilishan is captured in her advice to citizens to be critical of their governors, commissioners, and local government leaders if they want improvement in the quality of their lives and not be fixated on the performance of the federal government. It is true that media emphasis has been on the failure of the central government to make any visible use of the over 56% of the nation’s wealth that it expends. The minister has a point in asking that other levels of government that are allocated about 46% of the federation’s funds are also watched as critically as the federal government.  The structure of ownership of most media houses can be blamed for the little attention paid to governance at state and local government levels, especially the latter about which citizens hear virtually nothing. State television and radio stations have over the years become amplifiers for statements from governors and their wives, rather than being allowed to serve as barometers for measuring governors’ performance. Local government chairpersons are out of the media’s watchdog radar most of the time. This may be because most so-called national newspapers are stationed in Abuja and Lagos while most subnational governments are afraid to encourage establishment of newspapers to watch their performance.

    Borrowing from the finance minister’s worries about the use of federal allocations at the subnational level, delegates at the national conference may need to look more critically than (most of the conference committees have done so far) at the issue of revenue generation and distribution. It is necessary to change the current system that gives funds to subnational governments from revenue obtained at the expense of the health of citizens in the Niger Delta. States should be made to generate the resources they need through taxation. The current system that creates a parasitic dependence by all levels of government on revenue generated from the Niger Delta ought to be reformed. Allocations from the federation account funded by all the states should be changed to grants that are attached to specific development projects for central and state governments alike. Citizens who create the wealth at the disposal of states under such system will also have more say in how their taxes are used by those who govern them at all levels. Some measure of civic democracy has started to emerge in Lagos State, where taxes bring more funds to the state treasury than allocations from the oil and gas revenue distributed from the federation account.

  • Military received N130bn in three months, says Okonjo-Iweala

    Military received N130bn in three months, says Okonjo-Iweala

    The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has denied claims by the Nigerian military and other security agencies that poor funding was undermining ongoing war against terrorists.

    She said that the Federal Government has been providing the needed funds to prosecute the war. She said, for example, that the military has received N130.7 billion from the Federal Government between January and April, 2014 while another N3.8 billion had been approved by President Goodluck Jonathan but was still being processed and would soon be released to the military.

    Okonjo-Iweala made this  declaration while briefing journalists on the breakdown of the N4.964 trillion 2014 budget signed by the President on Wednesday but handed over to her in Abuja yesterday.

    According to Okonjo-Iweala, “defence spending is top in everything. You know that military establishments need new things to assist them in their work, and ours will not be different. No budget will be enough to meet their demands but for now, I think the sector takes almost a trillion of the budget.”

    She stated that defence budget in 2014 is “about N968.127 billion and we have disbursed N130.7 billion between January and April 2014, N85.9billion out of what has been disbursed is for personnel cost.

    Oknojo-Iweala said the military is in charge of its personnel salaries “because they are yet to be integrated into the IPPIS.

    On the late passage and signing of the 2014 budget, the finance minister said the delay would not affect the running of the economy as the existing laws give the executive power to spend up to 50 per cent of the annual budget pending its passage and signing.

    According to Okonjo-Iwela, “that is exactly what we have done and we have disbursed N200 billion for the first quarter of the 2014, based on what the law allows us to do. So the effect of the delay may be relatively minimal.” She also stated that N571 billion would be borrowed to bridge the gap (fiscal deficit), adding that the one per cent deficit gap, when analysed within the context of the Fiscal Responsibilty Act (FRA) provisions, which allowed for three per cent, and global best practices is reasonable.

    The finance minister further disclosed that “from June 2014, the Federal Government will advertise for the people that will benefit in the initial 10,000 housing scheme, to give the young ones hope to live.”

    Sshe added that agriculture, aviation and solid mineral sectors would get support in the form of duties to buy equipment to support the sectors. The duties, she said, would be incentives at zero per cent.

  • Jonathan passes 2014 Budget to minister

    Jonathan passes 2014 Budget to minister

    President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday handed over the 2014 Budget to the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Director, Budget Office, Dr. Bright Okogu, for implementation.

    This was disclosed by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, on telephone while on his way to South Africa with the President.

    According to him, the handing over of the document followed the President’s signing of the 2014 Appropriation bill into law on Wednesday.

    He explained that the Finance Minister was not around when the President signed the budget two days ago and which necessitated formal handing over of the document to her.

    He said: “The President actually signed the 2014 Budget two days ago. But you know that the Minister of Finance was not in town.”

    “So he needed to hand over to her and the Director Budget for onward transmission. That was what he did today.”

    “The ministry will be addressing the press in the next one hour,” he stated.