The Nation Newspaper

Tag: reports

  • AIB to release six accident reports before March 31

    AIB to release six accident reports before March 31

    The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) plans to release six accident reports before the end of March, its Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer, Akin Olateru, has said.

    This, he said, would bring to 16 the number of air crash reports released since he assumed office over a year ago.

    Apart from the 10 accident reports, the AIB had also released a safety bulletin, he added.

    Olateru said the resolve to release more reports came on the heels of the backlog of reports he met at the bureau.

    When he  assumed duty, there were 27 pending reports that were gathering dust on the shelf, with some dating back to 2005.

    Olateru said:  “When  I assumed duties, I did a review. We had 27 pending accident reports. Some date back to 2005 and we were in 2017. I was wondering what really went wrong. We set everything in motion. Funding was another problem.

    “In carrying out accident investigation, you need a lot of resources – manpower and finance. We pushed everything in motion and through the support of the Minister of State for Aviation, he gave us maximum support and we did what we were supposed to do. To the glory of God, we released 11 reports by December 2017. One year, 10 final reports and one safety bulletin are some of the things we did last year.

    “You can’t have an accident and then the report would drag for years and years. There is no explanation for it. Because the whole purpose of accident investigation is to come up with safety recommendations to prevent future occurrence. There must be lessons learnt.

    “If you investigate and come up with safety recommendations, how would people learn to prevent future occurrence, if the reports are kept somewhere. This is why it is very important. Accident investigation is a very serious business and we should all support it and make sure it is a serious agent of government in ensuring that our airspace is safe.”

    Meanwhile, the Federal Government has approved the upgrade of the obsolete material science and flight safety laboratories, which would help the AIB to investigate accidents in record time.

    Olateru made this known at a training organised by the agency on accident investigation report writing in Lagos.

    Although Olateru declined to give how much it would cost to upgrade the facilities, the upgrade of the software could be huge considering that the facilities have to be input with high-technology to make it function efficiently.

    He further disclosed that the agency has two laboratories – the flight safety and the material science laboratories. The flight safety laboratory is where the Flight Data Recording (FDR) and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) otherwise known as the black boxes of aircraft are downloaded.

  • Quoted firms have tomorrow as deadline to submit Q3 earnings reports

    Quoted companies that have not submitted their operational reports and financial statements for the third quarter must submit their reports to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) before the close  of work tomorrow in order to avoid poor corporate governance tag and sanctions that may range from N100,000 to about N100 million.

    Regulatory filing calendar of the NSE at the weekend indicated that most quoted companies are mandatorily required to submit their interim earnings reports for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2017 on or before the close of work on Tuesday, October 31, 2017.

    Post-listing rules at the NSE require quoted companies to submit their audited earnings reports, not later than 90 calendar days, or three months, after the expiration of the period. The rules also require quoted companies to submit interim report not later than 30 calendar days after the end of the relevant period.

    Most quoted companies, including banks, major manufacturers, oil and gas, breweries and cement firms use the 12-month Gregorian calendar year as their business year.  Not less than 83 per cent of quoted companies use the 12-month Gregorian calendar year as their business year.

    NSE tags and applies fines on companies that fail to meet earnings reports’ deadline. The Exchange had on January 1, 2017 launched a new sanction regime for delay in submission of companies’ results. Under the new sanction regime, companies may pay fines that range from N100, 000 to more than N100 million as penalties for delay in the submission of their corporate earnings reports.

    Companies that also delayed their financial statements and accounts face threats of suspension and delisting in addition to the monetary fines.

    Under the rules, quoted companies are required to file their unaudited quarterly accounts with the NSE not later than 30 calendar days after the relevant quarter, and publish it within five business days after the date of filing, in at least two national daily newspapers, and post it on the company’s website, with the web address disclosed in the newspaper publication. Also, an electronic copy of the publication shall be filed with the Exchange on the same day as the newspaper publication. Where the company chooses to audit its quarterly accounts, it shall be required to file such accounts not later than 60 calendar days after the relevant quarter.

  • SEC vows electronic transmission of annual reports

    SEC vows electronic transmission of annual reports

    Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has vowed the enforcement of electronically

    transmitted annual reports to shareholders.

    The idea is to ensure listed companies receive such reports few weeks before their annual general meeting.

    SEC’s Director General, Mounir Gwarzo, disclosed this at the agency’s second quarterly Capital Market Committee (CMC) meeting press briefing in Lagos. He observed that 98 percent of shareholders don’t get their annual report on time except for institutional investors.

    He said the annual report will not be completely done electronically but company secretaries will deposit some of the hard copies with the shareholders’ associations for those who are unable to access the electronic annual report.

    Gwarzo noted that the pilot stage will take off this year and will be reviewed with time, while adding that the aim is to ensure that all investors get the report on time and study it thoroughly and ask relevant questions and contribution to the meeting.

    Speaking on e-dividend mandate, the Director General said as at the end of July 2017, only 432,000 unique individuals had BVN out of the 2.1million that have mandated their accounts. The deadline for e dividend mandate has been extended to the 31st of December 2017.

    He said: “It’s mandatory for every investor to key in into the direct cash settlement initiative and the committee has streamlined the process and now we have one form that will be completed by the investors.”

    To make the system easier for investors, the capital market committee has merged the direct cash settlement and the e- dividend together in one single form which is now called Electronic Capital Registration System Form (ECRF).

  • Sector’ll do well in 2017, say reports

    There are better days ahead in the oil and gas industry in the year, the Principal Analyst, Upstream Oil and Gas, Malcolm Dickson, has said.

    In a report on the industry, he said: “Companies will get more bang for their buck as development incremental internal rates of return (IRR) will jump from nine per cent to 16 per cent, comparing 2014 to 2017.

    “This is in part a result of a shift in capital allocation away from complex mega projects towards smaller, incremental projects in the Canadian oil sands and deepwater.”

    Also, Dickson said deepwater will revive this year, but over the long term, more cost cuts will be needed. Of the 40 larger pre-FID deepwater projects in the planning stage, about half failed to hit a 15- per cent IRR at $60/bbl.

    “The industry has selected the best projects to optimise and take forward. In 2017, it will have to turn its attention towards optimising the next wave of developments to get them sanction-ready,” Dickson said.

    Wood Mackenzie’s global upstream outlook for the year also predicts that the overall exploration and production spend will rise by three per cent to $450 billion, which is still 40 per cent below the total in 2014.

    At the same time, costs will continue to fall in the year, though only marginally, with a leaner industry emerging, it added.

    In the past two years, capital expenditure (capex) deflation has averaged 20 per cent, the analyst adds, but there is room only for small further reductions with capital costs set to fall by an average of three to seven per cent.

    Wood Mackenzie predicts the number of final investment decisions (FIDs) for new projects will exceed 20 this year, up from nine last year, but still some way below the 40/year average of 2010-2014.

    Typically, the new projects will be smaller in size, more efficient, and with capex/boe (per barrel oil equivalent) averaging $7/bbl (barrel), against $17/bbl for the 2014 projects.

    Senior Vice President, Global fiscal research,  Wood Mackenzie, Graham Kellas, added: “Some governments will be tempted to increase tax rates, but those with uncompetitive fiscal regimes will have to make changes to ensure they can attract still-scarce new capital.

    “Getting the risk-reward balance right will be a critical factor in attracting scarce investment capture in 2017, even for resource-rich hotspots such as Iran and Mexico.”

  • Danjuma warns against false reports

    The Coordinator of the Niger Delta Riverine Protection Programme (NDRPP), Tikari Danjuma, has urged media houses, including the online media, to get their facts right before going to town.

    Recent reports on the constitution of the NDRPP had erroneously addressed the former Minister of Defence, Lt Gen Theophilus Danjuma (retd.) as the coordinator of the body, fuelling confusion and agitation in some quarters.

    In a statement yesterday in Warri, Delta State, by his spokesman, Chief Yerin Ekpedibo Yerin, the NDRPP chief advised the media to avoid reports that could drag the Danjuma family into unnecessary controversy.

    Tikari said Gen. Danjuma, who is the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on the Northeast Initiative (PCNI), has nothing to do with the NDRPP.

    The statement said: “Tikari was appointed into this office strictly on merit and his unparalleled commitment to the activities of the Niger Delta. The Lt.-Gen. is the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Northeast Initiative (PCNI), which has nothing to do with the NDRPP.”

    “A particular Abuja-based online medium is hereby warned not to use the office of the National Coordinator to play dirty politics or practise junk journalism. The office is strictly for security and pipeline surveillance; any attempt to further muddle the good name of the coordinator will be met with appropriate court action.”

  • Bakassi: Panels’ reports not implemented, says Ita-Giwa

    Bakassi: Panels’ reports not implemented, says Ita-Giwa

    Former Presidential Adviser on National Assembly Matters and the political leader of Bakassi people in Cross River State, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, has said the recommendations of two committees inaugurated for the resettlement of her people were not implemented.

    In a statement yesterday in Lagos, Ita-Giwa she was the chairperson of the committee at the local level while Fidelis Ukpo, the then Secretary to the Cross River State Government (SSG) under former Governor Liyel Omole, was the alternate chairman.

    She hailed Governor Ben Ayade for visiting Bakassi indigenes in their refugee camp with his delegation.

    The senator noted that this enabled the governor to have first-hand information on their plight, which she said moved him to tears.

    According to her, the governor’s visit showed Nigerians and the international community the terrible conditions the Bakassi residents are facing.

    Ita-Giwa said the conditions of the Bakassi people were worse than those of internally displaced persons (DPs).

    The former presidential aide asked rhetorically that if N9 billion had been spent on their resettlement, would their condition have deteriorated to that level?

    She said structures in another resettlement camp were there before the committees were created adding that none of the state or presidential committees was able to implement or execute any of the recommendations.

    Ita-Giwa said: “So, up till now, the recommendations of the state-owned resettlement committee and the Effiong Cobham’s Presidential Committee under the supervision of the former Vice President Namadi Sambo too were not implemented.

    “So, I am calling on the Federal Government to implement the recommendations; if possible, come out with a White Paper. We don’t want any palliative anymore. What we want is a permanent solution to our permanent injury.”

    The statement added:” I want to use this medium again to thank Governor Ayade for visiting the Bakassi refugees with his delegation. His visit has enabled Nigerians to see and watch what my people are passing through. The suffering is too much.

    “May I also reiterate that the two resettlement committees’ recommendations were not implemented. That is why we are still in this sorry state.

    “I am, however, calling on the Federal Government to implement the recommendations of the committees and resettle Bakassi people.”

  • Leadway records N137.3b assets, reports 125% increase in profit

    Leadway Assurance Company has posted a 37 per cent growth in assets to the tune of N137.3 billion in its 2015 financial year results from N100.5 billion in 2014.

    A review of its results presented at its 44th Annual General Meeting showed that the company recorded 125 per cent growth in the company’s profit after tax to N6.3 billon from N2.8 billion in 2014.

    The company also paid claims in excess of N14.3 billion, a 13 per cent increase from the N 12.7 billion record of 2015.

    It, however, wrote a 20 per cent increase in gross premium from N39 billion in the prior year to N46.6 billion.

    With good performance on its investments, Leadway reported a record 125% growth in the company’s profit after tax to N6.3bn from N2.8bn in 2014.

    Speaking during the presentation of the results, the Acting Chairman, Mr. Jeremy Rowse, stated that with various guidelines aimed at reinforcing standards and encouraging confidence in the Nigerian insurance industry, the company remains poised to take advantage of emerging growth opportunities to compete effectively within its immediate market and the larger global markets.”

    He further stated that as the Nigerian polity itself becomes restructured to tackle the myriads of socio-political, economic and infrastructural challenges facing it, the opportunity for increase in insurance penetration and contribution to GDP should increase.

  • NASS and audit reports

    NASS and audit reports

    •Time to know how public officers spend our money

    The Auditor-General of the Federation (AGF), Samuel Ukura, has thrown what amounted to a bombshell, when he accused the National Assembly of frustrating the implementation of audit reports submitted by his office to them since 1999.

    At a retreat in Abuja, he told his audience which included members of the Public Accounts Committees (PACs) of both chambers of the National Assembly that the reports produced by his office were usually left unattended to by the committees saddled with the responsibilities of considering them at the two chambers. The reports are said to contain details of fraud and corrupt practices in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

    His words: “Since 1999, we have submitted 14 audit reports which had yet to see the light of the day. The reports were not even considered and submitted by the PAC to the plenary, not to talk of even passing to the executive for implementation”.

    In the circumstance, the AGF expressed frustrations with the constitutional provision that mandates his office to submit its report to the National Assembly, just as he called for a new law which would grant his office the power to make the report public.

    To start with, we couldn’t agree more with the views of the representative of the Department for International Development in Nigeria, Ben Mellor, who also on the occasion noted that “audit reports remained the most effective tool for oversight functions”. Indeed, he merely stated the obvious when he averred that the “Public Accounts Committees are the most powerful instruments of parliament to check wastage and corruption”.

    We must observe that a number of puzzles – flowing from the revelations – readily fall into place. First is the routine but increasingly flagrant violations of the extant financial and general orders in the federal bureaucracy that have grown in the years covered by the reports. Second is the pervasive corruption fostered in the absence of institutional checks and oversights by bodies like the PAC. The third is the overall decay of the bureaucracy itself as an institution, a phenomenon that has hobbled the process of delivery of the public good –all of these happening because the PAC failed to do its public duty. 

    And what did the office of the AGF do in those years – if we may ask?

    It seems to us that the office of the AGF has not done nearly enough to bring the issues on the front burner. This is even more unfortunate considering that the process is something that the constitution actually mandates.  

    We note the suggestion by the AGF for the law to be changed to grant his office the power to make the report public in the light of current demands for openness and transparency. While the suggestion makes eminent sense, the issue is that it does not in any way take away the monumental abdication of a sacred duty by the PAC.

    Of course, the logical question that must flow from that abdication is the content of the erstwhile so-called oversight duties that have gulped billions of taxpayers’ money over the course of the last decade and half. For, if the nation is any familiar with the National Assembly oversights via the elaborate jamborees and duty tours packaged to deliver maximum returns to the lawmakers, one would imagine that the same institution would spare some moments to consider the report of audits that cost the office of the AGF time and taxpayers money to put together.   

    In their failure, they have simply let the nation down.   

  • NLC faults NBS’s reports

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has faulted the National Bureau of Statistics  reports which put unemployment rate in the urban areas of the country at 10.1 per cent in the second quarter of this year.

    The NLC fumed at the escalating rate of unemployment in the country, describing the situation as a ticking time bomb that all tiers of government must give immediate attention to address.

    The National Executive Council (NEC) of the central labour union expressed sadness that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the government agency responsible for researching and providing reliable data to assist government’s job creation efforts, is not doing enough in this direction.

    In a communiqué at the end of its meeting in Lagos, signed by its President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, the NLC frowned at what it called “disingenuous approach of the NBS and other agencies of government to manipulate unemployment figures in the country.”

    “This fraudulent approach is not helpful to the government, which needs accurate figures to properly plan on ways of resolving the alarming unemployment situation in the country,” Wabba said.

    Recently, the NBS put unemployment rate in the urban areas of the country at 10.1 per cent in the second quarter of this year. The rate indicated about 2.3 percentage points higher than the 8.8 per cent recorded in the preceding quarter and 3.6 percentage points higher than the rate in Q4, 2014.

  • Buhari ‘ll implement NEITI audit reports

    Buhari ‘ll implement NEITI audit reports

    The Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari will take all necessary steps to implement the findings and recommendations contained in the Audit Reports of Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).

    Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo gave the assurance yesterday while receiving the Chair of the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), Clare Short and her delegation at the Defence House, Abuja.

    NEITI Director of Communications, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji in a statement yesterday, said the VP reaffirmed Federal Governments’ commitment to the implementation of EITI principles as part of plans to reform the oil and gas sector. Prof. Osinbajo commended NEITI for its courage, diligence and commitment to corporate governance of the oil, gas and mining industries. He said the Federal Government will carefully study the reports with a view to ensuring that the findings and recommendations guide government actions on the reforms.

    Short advised the government to consider a major shakeup in the oil and gas industry if the benefits from Nigeria’s abundant resources are to be felt by all Nigerians. “The NEITI Reports have all the information and data that will guide the government to reform the industry. It is also important that the government integrates the NEITI into its overall economic policy team.”

    The Chairman of NEITI, Ledum Mitee appealed to the government to overhaul the Inter Ministerial Task Team (IMTT) set up to implement NEITI reports, arguing that the Team has recorded very little progress.

    The Executive Secretary of NEITI, Mrs Zainab Ahmed  urged the government to take urgent steps to divest Nigeria’s interest in the joint ventures operations to free the country from huge burden imposed by Joint Venture obligations.

    Mrs Ahmed  also advised the government to critically examine the management of domestic crude allocations, consider the removal of oil subsidy, abrogation of oil swap arrangement and take urgent steps to recover huge sums that are outstanding in the hands of companies as a result of underpayments, underassessment of taxes, rents and royalties.