The Nation Newspaper

Tag: operations

  • Operations picking up at Lagos ports

    Business activities are gradually picking up at the Lagos Ports of Apapa and Tin Can, following the general elections held last Saturday. Most port users had stayed away from the port arena, while some that travelled for the voting exercise are gradually returning to base for their business.

    At the Lagos Port Complex Apapa and the Tin Can Island Port, both in Lagos, quayside workers were seen returning to work in trickles even as various terminals tried to clear backlog of cargoes that had accumulated during the election period.

    However, checks by The Nation showed that pressure of haulage vehicles on the clumsy port roads remained light. The situation may not be unconnected with the directive by the Federal Government, ordering a closure of all land borders and seaports from 12 noon on Friday to 12:00 noon on Sunday, 24th February 2019, ahead of the Presidential and National Assembly elections held at the weekend.

  • ‘We are regularising our operations with NCAA’

    An aviation ground handling company, Precision Aviation Handling Company Limited (PAHCOL) and its partner, Aviation Handling Services (AHS) International have suspended ground handling operations at the Lagos and Abuja airports.

    Investigations revealed that the  suspension is to allow the firm to regularise its documentation with the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

    The regularisation is to clear the air on the allegation that it has been engaging in illegal ground handling operations for Air Cote D’ Ivoire last week at Lagos Airport.

    Investigations revealed that the NCAA may give it a clean bill of health, if it is satisfied with its explanations.

    In an interview in Lagos, Director, AHS, Sam Oluwole, denied reports that the firm and its partners carried out illegal ground handling operations at the Lagos Airport.

    He said one of its partners, Menzies Aviation, used the equipment it sourced within the industry to facilitate the operations.

    Oluwole said some competitors petitioned the NCAA that it was carrying out unauthorised operations.

    He said: “According to NCAA, Menzies Aviation has not obtained a ground handling licence to operate in Nigeria. That is correct. However, our company is not Menzies Aviation but AHS Nigeria Limited. Menzies Aviation is solely providing support to AHS Nigeria Limited with regard to ground handling operating standards and procedure.

    “So, for anybody to say that on February 7, 2018 Menzies Aviation handled a flight at Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) is false. Menzies Aviation did not handle any flight on that day. It was handled by AHS Nigeria Limited, which was made up of PAHCOL and AHS International.

    “That aspect of it is what we are  talking with NCAA. But we are yet to get official notification of what and what they want us to do to regularise the situation.“

    On the way out, he said: “We have to find a way round this whole thing in the interest of the country and make sure that the situation is regularised.

    “Out of respect for them, out of respect for constiaken decision to suspend our operations even without official notification. We expected the official letter to come in this week.

    “We have suspended the operations to show that whatever act of omission that had taken place is not intended to embarrass NCAA or to slight the authorities.”

     

  • Paucity of funds hampered our operations in 2017, says Ngige

    Paucity of funds hampered our operations in 2017, says Ngige

    Minister of Labour and Employment Chris Ngige has said only 20 percent of the ministry’s 2017 budget was released to the ministry before the end of the year.

    He said paucity of funds  hindered the smooth operation of the ministry.

    The minister, who spoke while defending the 2018 budget before the Senate and House Committee on Labour and Employment, however said with the reopening of the financial portal for 2017, the ministry would be able to complete all its line items before the closure of the 2017 budget at the end of March, 2018.

    Ngige said the commendable state of the ministry in both structural and service delivery was as a result of the concerted and diligent implementation of budgeted projects and prorammes in 2017 appropriation despite the paucity of budgetary releases.

    He said : “We were operating on only 20% budgetary release until January 2018. Our budget performance for 2017 would have surpassed expectations of Nigerians and critical stakeholders, if not for the paucity of funds for the implementation of plans and programmes in critical areas of capacity building, strengthening of labour councils and other capital projects which were not fully funded due to the global economic recession.

    “We are very hopeful that we will be able to complete many of the outstanding projects and programmes of all the line items of our 2017 budget before capital budget appropriation closes in March 2018. We are happy that the financial portals have just been re-opened. We, however, pledge to do more before the end of March 2018.”

    The leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity commended the minister for effective and efficient utilisation of the ministry’s 2017 budget mostly in the area of youth empowerment through skills acquisition programmes.

    The Chairman, Senate Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity, Senator Suleiman Nasif, and his House of Representatives counterpart, Hon. Ezenwa Onyebuchi, said: “With the commendable and far-reaching implementation of the 2017 budget by your Ministry in critical areas of both the  recurrent and capital projects regardless of limited budgetary release in 2017, we believe that the impact of 2018 budget that would be fully appropriated will significantly be felt by Nigerians upon implementation.”

    The two committees tasked the minister to deal frontally with the menace of youth unemployment by widening the scope of the various vocational skills acquisition and entrepreneurship development progrmmes already championed by the ministry.

     

  • DPR to automate operations

    DPR to automate operations

    The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) is set to roll out a digitalisation programme to automate its critical operations, enhance efficiency of its regulatory deliverables and accelerate recovery of outstanding revenues due to the government.

    This is contained in a statement by the by Paul Osu of the Public Affairs Department, which said the programme, when rolled out, will improve regulatory service delivery to stakeholders, promote transparency and effective monitoring of the oil and gas industry, enhance the ease of doing business in the oil and gas sector in alignment with the government’s executive order 001, and upgrade the DPR’s operational standards to world-class levels.

    According to him, one of the automation project in the works is IMPEX (Import and Export) Permit digitalisation. The project will automate the administrative role of issuing import and export permits on petroleum products. It will ensure timely and transparent automation for ease of obtaining permits for importing or exporting petroleum products.

    Fiscal Payment Administrative System (FISPAS)  is designed to enhance the collection of government revenue like royalty, concession rentals, and flare penalty, among others. It will ensure timely and transparent e-billing of companies, thereby enhancing the government’s  revenue profile.

    Smart Inspector is the electronic monitoring/reporting system of petroleum product retail outlets nationwide.  It ensures generation of real-time and accurate data of retail outlets and has the overall objective of curbing irregularities in the provision of service to customers by retail outlets.

    It will be recalled that in 2014, DPR automated the process of issuing oil and gas industry service permit (OGISP), a statutory requirement issued to Nigerian registered companies seeking to render services in the oil and gas industry, is categorised into the general, major and specialised categories.

    It was later followed by the National Production Monitoring System (NPMS ) launch, which is designed to receive in real time oil and gas production data from the fields and enhance transparency of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry in alignment with    government’s aspiration.

     

    The DPR wishes to assure all stakeholders that we will continue to strive for excellence with integrity in the discharge of our regulatory oversight functions to the oil and gas sector in Nigeria, he said.

  • Lagos honoured for Hajj operations

    Lagos honoured for Hajj operations

    Lagos State Government has received seven awards from the National Hajj Commission (NAHCON) for its outstanding performance during last yesr’s Hajj.

    NAHCON Southwest Commissioner Alhaji Fuad Adeyemi presented the award to Deputy Governor Dr Idiat Adebule, who stood in for Governor Akinwumi Ambode at the State House, Ikeja, at the weekend.

    The state, Adeyemi said, covered the needs of its pilgrim.

    The state’s welfare packages, he noted, included, accommodation, feeding, coordination, education and enlightenment programmes, urging other states to learn from Lagos to improve their operations.

    He said: “‘If a Christian governor can support another religious body like this, then he must be honoured and appreciated so that he can do more. ‘In 2016, when we went for Hajj in Saudi Arabia, at Arafat, Lagos stood out in terms of their e-tracking device, coordination of pilgrims airlift, feeding, pilgrims’ education.

    ‘’Whenever any Nigerian misses his or her way, the Lagos tent was usually the first port of call to trace such person. Governor Ambode should be commended for making us proud in Saudi Arabia, ‘’ he said.

    Adebule thanked NAHCON for honouring Lagos, pledging that the award would ginger the state to do more.

    ‘’For us as a government, we are committed in making life comfortable for the people of Lagos State and we will not relent in our efforts. I am pledging that the best support will be provided to our people in the next Hajj,’’ she said.

    Commissioner for Home Affairs AbdulHakeemDr AbdulLateef, hailed Governor Ambode for making Lagos home for all religious bodies.

    According to him, the governor’s inclusive policy has brought development to every part of the state.

  • LSSTF ‘spends over N6b on operations’

    The Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF) has spent over N6 billion on its operations in the past two years, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode said yesterday.

    Despite the huge sum, the governor said the people must play their part by providing the intelligence with which security operatives could bust crimes and apprehend criminals in the state.

    The state, he said, would strengthen security in all public schools in order to aid intelligence gathering and bust kidnapping.

    Ambode spoke at a town hall meeting held for tradesmen and artisans in the state at Adeyemi Bero Hall, Alausa Secretariat, Lagos.

    The governor, represented by LSSTF’s Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer Dr Abdulrasaq Balogun, described security as everybody’s business, urging all Lagosians to play their part in safeguarding lives and property.

    He said: “We are here to discuss the potential of your members to play a very important role in intelligence gathering and to consolidate our partnership so that your members can make donations to the Fund no matter how little.”

    Arguing that criminals are no ghosts or faceless people, Balogun said with its membership population, tradesmen and artisans as vulcanisers, painters, dressmakers, hair dressers, welders, carpenters, photographers, could help to protect lives and property by volunteering information about any suspicious customer.

    On how the tradesmen could help fund LSSFT, he said besides paying directly into its account or paying through Remita which could be logged into through the LSSTF’s website, the MTN, as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), introduced a short code 9999 and by testing HELP to that code any MTN subscriber would have contributed a minimum of N50 to the Fund.

    “If the about 60 million Nigerian subscribers on the MTN line subscribe and give us N50 daily, we would have a huge fund to provide the basic infrastructure to strengthen security architecture in the state.”

    He said the fund was financing security institutions such as, police, Depertment of State Service (DSS), Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Lagos Neighbourhood Watch Security Corps (LNSC), Navy and Army by providing logistics and equipment for their operations.

    Rapid Response Squad (RRS) Commander Olatunji Disu, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), said the tradesmen as key players in the informal sector must see themselves as major partners in crime busting in the state.

    He said beside the two toll free numbers-767 and 112-the public could reach the Police Control room through 08070535939, 08024905011 08039344870; RRSResponse Squad could be reached on 09053950347.

    Neighbourhood Corps Chairman Israel Ajao, a retired Deputy Inspector-General of Police urged the artisans to help the government in providing better security in the state.

    “We all should take more interest in what is going on around us. We should volunteer information to the police and other security operatives which could help build their intelligence network and bust crime in the state.

  • Workers threaten to shut down OML 42 operations

    Workers under the aegis of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), have threatened to shut down Neconde Energy Limited (NEL) for alleged breach of agreement. They accused the firm of not complying with the agreement to transfer 25 workers to Warri.

    Neconde, an indigenous oil and gas company, operates OML 42 in partnership with the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (NPDC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.

    PENGASSAN blocked the entrance to NEL offices on Victoria Island, Lagos, on Monday, and picketed the company’s offices in Lagos and Warri. It said actions would continue if the company did not accede to workers’ demands.

    Addressing the workers, who sealed the company’s corporate head office in Lagos over alleged violation of an agreement between the leadership of PENGASSAN and Neconde, the Lagos Zonal Chairman of PENGASAN, Abel Agarin, said the union had written several letters to the company to resolve the issues but to no avail.

    He stated: “Our demand is that we want a communiqué in place that will address the transfer issue of these 21 employees that are affected.” According to a communiqué issued by the union members in PENGASSAN Neconde branch, they alleged “forceful restructuring, alignment, harmonization of structure and condition of service and policies of NEL across other non- exploration and production subsidiaries of the Obijackson Group.”

    Neconde is one of the subsidiaries of Obijackson Group.

    As part of their grievances the union stated: “Unprocedural, immediate and forceful transfer (including pregnant women/nursing mothers) of Staff from Lagos to Warri; nonpayment of outstanding field allowance of staff from August 2016 till date. No evidence (Tax clearance certificate) of remittance of Employees’ tax (PAYE) to Lagos and Delta State Governments since 2012, to name a few.”

    NEL reaction Reacting to the allegations, NEL’s Corporate Communication Manager, Olusegun Micheal, said “We are currently in talks with the leadership of PENGASSAN to ensure that we reach a mutually beneficial agreement on some of the demands presented by the association. So far, management and the company have enjoyed their co-operation and hope that the association will continue to abide by best in class labour union practices by exploring negotiation and collaboration as labour relations tactics.”

  • ‘Militancy affecting our operations in Niger Delta’

    The Managing Director of West African Gas Pipelines Company (WAPCo), Mr Walter Perez, says militancy is affecting smooth operations of the company in the Niger Delta.

    Perez spoke at the inauguration and handover of Ajido Health Clinic, Badagry.

    News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the clinic was built by the company for the Lagos State government.

    The managing director said supplies to other countries, such as Ghana, Togo and Benin had been affected by militant activities in the Niger Delta, adding that the issue was being addressed.

    Perez said the clinic, which cost over N80 million, was part of the company’s social project for communities where it operates.

    “This is not the first time we are building clinic or schools in our host communities.

    “We have built markets, boreholes, toilets and schools, depending on the needs of the host community,” he said.

    Perez appealed to the residents to make use of the clinic, saying the company would do more for them.

    The traditional ruler of Ajido Kingdom, Aholu Topon Toyiagai, hailed the company for the project.

    “We, the people of Ajido and its environs, express our appreciation for the honour done to us.

    “As Oliver Twist, Ajido wants more of people-oriented projects that will improve their living standard.

    “Today, history is being made and the entire citizens of Ajido at home and abroad are appreciative of this laudable gesture,” he said.

    Inaugurating the clinic, Dr Olufemi Onanuga, the special adviser on Public Health to Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode praised the company for the gesture.

    He said adequate personnel would be deployed in the clinic for  operations.

    Onanuga urged other companies to emulate WAPCO’s good gesture.

  • SEC seals off firm for alleged Ponzi operations

    SEC seals off firm for alleged Ponzi operations

    Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has sealed off the premises of a firm, Yuan Dong (YDEC), for unacceptable investment operations.

    Its Head, Corporate Communication, Mr. Naif Abdussalam, in a statement yesterday in Abuja, said the closure was to end the firm’s unlawful activities against unsuspecting investors.

    “Investments in the scheme range from a minimum deposit of N10,000 to a maximum deposit of N240,000.

    “The investment period of the scheme is pegged at a minimum of 30 working days to a maximum period of 10 months with offer of interest rates on short and medium term basis.

    “The company promises a daily profit of N80 and N2,400, depending on the category of investment,” he said.

    Abdussalam said the commission’s investigations showed the company also enticed its customers with payment of bonuses should they convince more investors to invest in the scheme.

    He said the commission established that the company’s activities also constituted a breach of the Investment and Securities Act (ISA), 2007.

    “Furthermore, it was discovered that contrary to their supposed existence in over 20 locations across the country, the company only has functional offices in Asaba, Kano and Abuja.

    “The promoters of these illegal operations have been arrested by the Nigeria Police Force and are undergoing interrogation.

    “The commission wishes to notify the investing public that the company is not licensed to carry out investments business of any type and as such, its operations are illegal,” he said.

    Abdussalam advised the public to exercise due diligence and caution in the course of making investment decisions.

  • AMCON scales down Arik operations

    AMCON scales down Arik operations

    •International creditors to sue Fed Govt

    The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has scaled down Arik Air’s operations to less than 30 per cent, it was learnt yesterday.

    The airline, which at its peak period operated 120 flights a day, now operates about 15 flights daily with very low load factor.

    Of its 28 operating aircraft, only eight are now in operation, including two Bombardiers, CRJ 900, one Bombardier Q400 and five Boeing 737. The Q400 is in a dedicated service with Chevron, leaving the airline with seven operating aircraft.

    This has forced Arik to cut back on its domestic and regional operations, as it suspended its international service immediately after AMCON took over the company.

    It was gathered that international financiers and other creditors of the airline planned to sue the Federal Government after 30 days of AMCON’s management of the airline.

    The source said the creditors were putting their resources together to sue the government for the airline’s failure to honour its international obligations.

    Sources added that Arik workers, who were owed December and January salaries before AMCON took over the firm’s management on February 8, 2017, were paid January salary.

    According to some of the workers, who craved anonymity, AMCON said December salary should be paid by the former management before it took over the company.

    Cabin crew personnel, whose November flight allowances were supposed to be paid with December basic salary, said they did not hope that the money would be paid now that AMCON said the former management should pay their December salary.

    But, Nigeria has lost the West Coast and other African destinations to Asky, AWA and Ivory Coast national carrier because Arik has stopped most of its regional flight service.

    Arik is the only Nigerian airline that operates to Dakar, Senegal, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Luanda, Angola and Libreville, Gabon and since it was taken over by AMCON, it has stopped operating to most of these destinations.

    The airline used to operate six flights to Accra from Abuja and Lagos and these flights have been scaled down to two since AMCON took over.

    With many of the aircraft on the ground as AOG (Aircraft on Ground), it is not certain that the airline would continue to operate any of these destinations in the West Coast.

    AMCON, however, said public confidence was gradually returning to Nigeria’s largest domestic carrier, Arik Air, barely two weeks after it took over the airline.

    AMCON made the claim in a statement signed by its spokesman, Mr. Jude Nwauzor.

    Nwauzor said the new management were confronted with a barrage of challenges and they had surmounted the problems, adding that they had been stabilising the airline’s operations with the few aircraft on the fleet.

    AMCON said unlike what obtained before the takeover, average On-Time-Performance (OTP) of Arik Air to different destinations had improved.

    The corporation also claimed that Nigerian banks that hitherto turned their backs to Arik now cooperated and supported the new management.

    According to the spokesman, engagement with international and local creditors has also been successful while discussions with critical service providers and industry stakeholders have yielded the much desired positive results.