The Nation Newspaper

Tag: revenue

  • ‘Govt, intellectual property owners lose huge revenue to piracy’

    The Chairman, Lagos State Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA),  Dotun Alabi, has said piracy is depriving both intellectual property owners and government huge revenue yearly.

    Alabi, a Lecturer at the Federal College of Education, Akoka, Lagos, spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos yesterday.

    According to him, piracy has been detrimental to music, film and visual arts industries.

    He said the music and film sectors were more affected due to audio-visual.

    “Contemporary music in Nigeria have strong roots now than before with a little flavour of culture and this development attracted pirates to tap into such music to make money,’’ Alabi said.

    “The new ideas, values lifestyles from the West and urban centres, which were incorporated into the music genre, made contemporary music to thrive.

    “These include Juju, Afrobeat, Fuji, Gospel and Hip-hop and others. The new generation took Hip Hop to another level with the likes of P-Square, 2Face; 9ice, Ruggedman and others, ’’ he said.

    Alabi noted that the visual arts industry was suffering because most of the works were pirated by those printing them as catalogue, on T-shirts and other materials without the consent of the copyright holder.

  • Julius Berger eyes 45% growth in revenue

    Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, the country’s largest construction company by market value, forecast a 45 per cent jump in 2018 revenue as the economy recovers from a 2016 contraction and the foreign-exchange market stabilises.

    The construction giant, which derives two-thirds of its earnings from government contracts, expects revenue to grow to N210 billion, spurred by contracts in the past year valued at N500 billion ($1.4 billion), Managing Director Wolfgang Goetsch said in a May 24 interview at the company’s office in Abuja.

    “From 2014 to 2017 we had a decline in revenue,” Goetsch said. Combined with the weakening of the naira, the company registered a fall in earnings of almost 70 per cent in dollar terms, he added. “With five months already into the year, our forecast is we will have very significant growth, of about 45 per cent,” this year.

    Julius Berger, which has operated in Africa’s most-populous country since 1965, saw earnings slide as Nigeria suffered its worst economic contraction in 25 years in 2016 as a slump in the price of oil, its main export, caused foreign-currency shortages.

  • IMF to Nigeria: Generate more revenue to service debt

    •Says no formal notification on ECOWAS single currency

    THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) is encouraging Nigeria to embark on fresh measures to boost its revenue base with a view to servicing local and international debts.

    The debts stood at N21.7 trillion last December.

    The Director of Africa Department in IMF, Abebe Selassie, said yesterday in Washington D.C that debt service remains a big issue for Nigeria as revenue generation capability remains too low.

    The problem for Nigeria, according to him, is not debt, but the rising debt service cost.

    “We expect revenue from taxes to step in and bridge the gap,” Abebe said.

    He recommended the use of property tax to expand the tax base, remove tax exemptions, and implement public finance management reforms.

    He added:  “There has been less emphasis on tax collection, so using this avenue to enhance tax collection is important.

    “As to how that is to be done, it is a deeply domestic and political issue. It is for the government to choose what appropriate tax handles to engage.

    “We can provide advice and suggestions but it is up to the government to find how best to optimize tax collection and in what manner.”

    He was of the view that Nigeria has achieved tremendous success in tackling inflation on account of the reforms that have been undertaken in exchange rate regime, as well as capital inflows.

    He said: “Inflation has also been decelerated. These are all welcome trends, but I do think that there remains a need to move towards having a more simplified exchange rate regime moving forward.

    “That would also be important for the conduct of monetary policy, so the idea is to go back to what you have before, so that you have a liquid foreign exchange market.”

    Abebe said fiscal policy should strike a balance between debt sustainability and ensuring adequate space for key infrastructure and priority social spending.

    Oil-exporting countries, he pointed out, should continue to forcefully implement their fiscal consolidation plans and advance economic diversification, taking advantage of the respite provided by the recent pickup in commodity prices.

    He said stepping up revenue collections would allow sub-Saharan African countries to make progress towards their Sustainable Development Goals, while preserving fiscal sustainability.

    He said  most countries in the region have considerable potential to collect higher revenue, and  that despite substantial progress in revenue mobilisation over the past two decades, Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest revenue to GDP ratio.

    “By our estimates, countries in Sub-Saharan Africa could mobilize between three to five percentage points of GDP in additional tax revenue,” he said.

    “Achieving this ambition would require strengthening Value Added Tax (VAT) systems, streamlining exemptions and broadening the tax base.”

    On the single currency for the ECOWAS region, Abebe said the IMF was yet to get proposal from the region on the project, saying the organization only got to know about the project through news reports.

  • NETCO posts N22.46b revenue

    The National Engineering and Technical Company Limited (NETCO), an arm of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), posted revenues of N22.46 billion at the end of its 2017 financial year reflecting an increase of 122 per cent over N10.13 billion posted in 2016.

    This was disclosed at the company’s 2017 annual general meeting (AGM) held at the NNPC Towers in Abuja by the Board Chairman, Mallam Bello Rabiu, who is also the NNPC Chief Operating Officer, Upstream. Rabiu also said the operating profit of NETCO increased by 134 per cent, from N0.89 billion in 2016 to N2.07 billion in 2017 while profit before tax in 2017 was N3.257 billion.

    He noted that the impressive result was the outcome of improved performance in project execution and cost reduction measures put in place during the period, in addition to construction and procurement portfolios in the company’s activities.

    He stated that profit before tax decreased by 34 per cent in the year under review when compared with N4.90 billion of 2016, stressing that the decrease was attributable to the foreign exchange gains which constituted 56 per cent before tax in 2016 as compared to 4.8 per cent gain in 2017.

    He said the remarkable figures were made possible through sustained efforts on the part of the Company to cash in on the strong support of the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Corporation, Dr. Maikanti Baru and the shareholders.

  • BetaSMS helps SMEs raise revenue

    A lagos-based mobile marketing agency, BetaSMS, has unveiled a set of industry-leading business-oriented applications meant to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) increase revenue.

    Some of the solutions, including WasherMEN and iPrefect, were designed to increase the productivity of business owners – giving them more control, encourage lean operations, reduce overhead costs and generate more profit to keep them in business.

    The use of applications to run businesses is the gateway to automating workflows and reducing workforce in areas such as sales and marketing – sending SMS remind ers, developing and sending marketing campaigns targeted at new and existing customers and attending to customers’ complaints etc.

    WasherMEN is a laundry management software designed with the one-man business model in mind, but has the capacity to handle both commercial and industrial laundry activities.

    “WasherMEN was built after we noticed an increased number of Laundry Startups had become increasingly dependent on SMS to notify customers for pickup of their clothes. We decided to create more value for such by building the application to ensure smooth running of their businesses,” said the Managing Director of BetaSMS, Ajibola Awojobi.”

    He said the product presents an opportunity for this population to be gainfully employed and have a lean start-up that can be financed by their personal savings or support from family and friends; both genders can own a laundromat business.

    BetaSMS Sales and Marketing Director, Kolade Adegoke, stated that “First rule of business is to maximise your profit while minimising your overhead costs, the WasherMEN application will look to eliminate costs such as salaries and increase the sustainability of the business owners.

    iPrefect, the latest and most complete school automation software built for every educational institute– colleges, universities, and training schools among others, aims to improve management’s understanding and interaction with students all through their duration in the school while reducing the workforce needed to achieve same. The solution will enable education institutions to perform all activities in the cloud. Having cloud-based Student Information System with no local premise footprint of server or software means less time and money spent on IT and more time is devoted to broader education priorities.

    This powerful solution offers features such as Cloud enabled student information system, student behaviour tracking and analytics, profile management, campus recruitment, communication and social features, admission management, account management, laboratory management, transport management, hostel management etc.

    Student behaviour tracking and analytics, and student profile management, for instance, are strong value propositions for all business owners running any learning institute. As machine learning algorithms advance and data set grows, the behaviour tracking and analytics feature not only notifies the school of any anomaly in the student’s behaviour, but also tracks occurrence and events as well as suggest immediate corrective measures to help nip in the bud any unsavoury behaviour.

    “We decided to create this solution because of the incessant complaints of missing students’ files and records as well as difficulty in tracking students’ performances and behaviour. This solution will help keep records for various institutions, simplify the enquiry processes and help instill discipline among students,” said Adebimpe Ayoola, Head of Communications.

  • FIRS eyes N6.747trn tax revenue

    FIRS eyes N6.747trn tax revenue

    The Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) said it is targeting N6.747 trillion as tax revenue this year.

    Its Executive Chairman, Tunde Fowler, spoke yesterday in Lagos during the Institute of Directors (IoD) Members Evening, said N3.776 trillion is expected from non-oil  tax revenue which represents 58.62 per cent while N2.666 trillion  will come  from oil tax revenue which represents 41.38 per cent.

    Fowler, who is also the Chairman, Joint Tax Board (JTB), spoke  on Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) at the forum.

    He said tax compliance level in the country was still below 10 per cent which he said is among the lowest in the world, with countries such as South Africa at 26 per cent, and Ghana at almost 16 per cent.

    He explained that Nigeria’s low tax revenues are inconsistent with the lifestyles and spending habits of a large number of the citizens.

    For instance, he said properties worth over N2 trillion in Abuja were not registered as tax payers.

    Besides this,  individuals and companies engage in schemes aimed at evading tax. He lamented that such actions deny the government funds to carry out development projects.

    He said the total registered individual tax payers was about 14.5 million, adding that the Service increased it by 40 per cent in 2016 from 10 to 14 million.

    Fowler said the FIRS intends to monitor statement of financial transactions by banks and  gathere information from other organisation to combat tax evaders.

    He said said tax amnesty granted between October 4 and November 25 ,2016 was a huge success.

    According to him, some firms are now paying taxes to government coffers.

    While 2,735 companies responded to the amnesty, N94.08 billion was recorded as liability.

    Out of this, FIRS received payment of N35.82 billion within the 45 days window.

    He noted however, that N58.26 billion  was still outstanding  even though the affected companies were making efforts to pay their debts.

    On the the amnesty granted in July last year,  Fowler   said the government  will penalise  tax defaulters who refused to take advantage of the window by the end of next month.

  • Fed Govt’s revenue hits N658.6 billion

    The gross Federally-collected revenue stood at N658.60 billion, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Economic report, has said.

    The figure, which was for last November, showed it fell below both the monthly budget estimate and the receipts in the preceding  month.

    Oil  and  non-oil receipts  (gross),  stood at N417.74 billion and N240.85 billion, and constituted 63.4 per cent and 36.6 per cent of  total  revenue.

    The government retained revenue and estimated expenditure    for the month were N207.91 billion and N293.38 billion, resulting in an estimated deficit of N85.47 billion.

    Sustained non-expansionary monetary policy stance by the CBN in the review month led to contraction in major monetary aggregates and downward trend in inflationary pressure.

    On month-on-month  basis, broad  money  supply  (M2), fell by 0.8 per  cent  to N22.3 billion, on account  of the three per  cent  and 1.6 per  cent decline in  domestic credit (net) and  other assets (net) of the banking system.

    The average prime and maximum lending rates fell to 17.77 per cent and  30.95 per cent.

    Consequently, the spread between the average term deposit  and the average maximum lending  rates narrowed to 22.25 percentage  points at end-November 2017 from 22.43  percentage points in the preceding month. Also, the spread between the average savings deposit  and maximum lending rates declined to 26.43 percentage points from 26.85 percentage points in last October.

  • ‘Customs strike force to block revenue leakages’

    The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) yesterday established a Customs Strike Force Team to block revenue leakages.

    The new team came into existence following the dissolution of the Customs Compliance Team.

    NCS Public Relations Officer, Joseph Attah, who announced the development yesterday at the Headquaters in Abuja, said the   force is to further sanitise and strengthen the services’ anti-smuggling operation to key into the demands of the executive order on the ease of doing business.

    He said: “The Customs Compliance Team has been dissolved by the Nigeria Customs and in its place, a new team to be code named (the Customs Strike Force  Team has been put together.

    The team, in his words, “will not erect checkpoints on Nigeria’s highways. The team is not expected to be roaming about on the highways unnecessarily, except on credible intelligence information from surveillance operatives.”

    Attah said there are surveillance operatives that are to operate covertly upon suspicion of smuggling, and carry out their due diligence before informing the strike force in the Zonal Offices or in the Customs Training Colleges to act, saying the team would to return to its base as soon as it was done with every operation.

    He said under the arrangement, the team is to ensure that their operation does hinder the free flow of goods on the highways.

    Attah named Deputy Comptroller of Customs, U.A. Abubakar, as the the National Coordinator of the strike force, stating  that the team is divided into four sub-teams  based in the four Customs zones in Lagos, Kaduna, Bauchi, and Port Harcourt.

    The zonal offices and the nearest training colleges are places they could chose to base in.

    The spokesman, who said that the team has the power to check the Customs officers and their activities, stressing that the “strike force is empowered to enter into any Command system on suspicion of imminent fraudulent activities with the view of blocking all revenue leakages in the system.

  • More oil, revenue for Nigeria as Egina nears production

    More oil, revenue for Nigeria as Egina nears production

    After 14 years of discovery, the Egina oil field located offshore Nigeria in oil mining lease (OML) 130 and operated by Total Upstream Nigeria Limited (TUPNI), is set for first oil in the last quarter of this year. The floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel berthed at the SHI-MCI, LADOL shipyard for integration of some topside modules fabricated at the shipyard located LADOL Free Trade Zone (FZE) in Lagos. EMEKA UGWUANYI examines the project and its benefits to the economy.

    On January 24, about 2.30pm, the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel that will produce the 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) Egina oil field located offshore Nigeria in oil mining lease (OML) 130 berthed at the SHI-MCI, LADOL shipyard in Lagos, Lagos State.

    The stopover was designed to enable the integration of the six modules fabricated at the LADOL shipyard to the vessel. The modules include water injection, chemical injection and crude oil discharge package, among others. These modules were fabricated in Nigeria as part of Nigerian Content (local content) input into the Egina project. The integration in Nigeria was also meant to further boost local content and indigenous capacity and skills development, hence, it was not shipped to Samsung Heavy Industry (SHI) shipyard in Goeje, South Korea, where the vessel was built.

    The fabrication and integration of some substantial parts of the Egina FPSO in Nigeria will remain a historical landmark that opened a new vista in Nigeria’s upstream operations especially in deepwater oil exploration and production. The Federal Government should ensure no oil firm goes below the Egina project’s performance. The quantum of fabrication undertaken by Nigerian companies for the FPSO underscores the denial of value creation in the economy and skills development of the locals over the years. The milestone is even more pronounced as a global multinational, Total, is involved, disproving years of perception that Nigeria and Nigerians lack requisite skills and the environment for such a huge capital intensive project to be carried out.

    Considering what this project stands for in Nigeria’s oil and gas space, now and for the future, the Federal Government needs to ensure the security of this vessel while the integration of the six modules fabricated at LADOL lasts and ensure the arrival at its final destination, the integration of the remaining components and commencement of operation. Besides, there is a projection that oil price will remain between $60 and $70 per barrel through 2018, therefore, the field will commence operation when oil price is fairly good.

    The Managing Director/Chief Executive, Total Upstream Companies in Nigeria, Mr. Nicolas Terraz, speaking at a ceremony to mark the arrival of the Egina FPSO at the SHI-MCI Yard, LADOL Island in Lagos, said it was a truly historic day, as it is the first time that a deepwater FPSO is being berthed at a quayside in Nigeria for lifting and integration of six large topside modules, which were fabricated locally.

    “To put the significance of this moment in perspective, here are a few Egina records – the Egina FPSO is the largest ever installed in Nigeria, it is also the largest FPSO built so far by the Total and 12,500 tons of equipment will be lifted and installed on the FPSO,” he said. Bear in mind that 15,000 tons were fabricated in Nigeria.

    He further noted that the crane at the LADOL quayside was the biggest crane ever erected in  the country.

    He said: “But beyond these facts and figures, it is important to point out that the integration of the FPSO topside modules here is a game changer for the industry in terms of Nigerian Content. These activities here are a visible and concrete demonstration of our commitment to make meaningful contributions to the development of local capacity and they are the product  of collaborative work between Total, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and our OML 130 partners – CNOOC, SAPETRO and Petrobras.

    “The project was launched amidst considerable risks. But today, it stands as a testimony to our continued commitment, belief and faith in the future of Nigeria.

    “None of this would have been possible without the support of partners and key stakeholders. And for this, I wish to extend the profound appreciation of Total to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA); the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR); the NNPC; NCDMB; National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) and our partners.

    “I also wish to thank the Nigerian authorities that have been involved in ensuring a safe and secure passage for the FPSO. And here, I must thank, in particular, the Nigerian Navy; the Nigerian Immigration Service; the Nigerian Customs Service and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).

    “I must also express our sincere appreciation to the Management and staff of Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) and LADOL. Ours is clearly a partnership that creates great results and we are very delighted with how far we have come on Egina. We look forward to a successful completion of the next chapter of the Egina story.

    “To our own staff working on the Egina Project, please accept the heartfelt appreciation of the Management on this milestone. We are in the final stretch of the project and we are counting on you to sustain the momentum and safely lead us to First Oil on schedule and on budget.

    ‘’Let me conclude by pointing out that our plan is to complete the topside installation works in six months and sail away to the Egina Field in July. And to make this phase of the project a success, I wish to appeal to all our partners to continue our legacy of achievements.”

    For the Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Ms Hadiza Bala Usman, it was the first time the NPA and the country would be handling vessel of such  size. “This is the first time the NPA and by extension, Nigeria, would be handling any vessel of this size, we therefore, congratulate Total, LADOL Free Trade Zone and Samsung Heavy Industry for the synergy from which this venture emerged.

    “We recognise that the magnitude of this project presented the NPA with the opportunity to, once again, showcase our unrelenting efforts at building capacity to meet the needs of customers across board. We are grateful for this unique partnership and look forward to more of such.

    “This project put a demand on the NPA to facilitate the berthing of the FPSO for the completion of its construction at Lagos Harbour. It also furthers the Federal Government’s local content policy with multiplier effects evident in employment opportunities, capacity building, technological transfer, cost saving, reduction in capital flight as well as the attraction of oil and gas hub to Nigeria for the sub-region.

    ‘’The FPSO project is an attestation to the constant infrastructural and operational preparedness of the NPA. At the NPA, we are conscious of the inherent opportunities that challenges present and successful berthing of this huge vessel testifies to our capacity to provide improved services to the oil and gas industry,” Usman said.

    The General Manager, Projects and Operations,  Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Paul Zuhumben, who represented the Executive Secretary of Board, Simbi Wabote, praised the efforts of Total and partners for the milestone achieved and assured of the Board’s support at all times. He, however, noted that Egina project created a lot of employment for Nigerians but the issue is where will all these people be engaged on completion of the project. The question called for an appeal to Total and other international oil companies to quicken the development of  their undeveloped assets to retain these people in employment.

    The Egina project has a total budget of $16 billion covering all activities of the project including the field development and the FPSO.  Six out of the 18 topside modules of the FPSO were fully fabricated in Nigeria and will be integrated on the FPSO at SHI-MCI yard, Ladol Free Zone Lagos, within the next six months. After the integration, the vessel will commence its final sail-away to the Egina field.

    The FPSO has a length of 330metres, width of 61 metres and depth of 33.5 metres with storage capacity of 2.3 million barrels and it is the deepest offshore project undertaken by Total Group.

    The buoy, manifold, pressure vessel, crane pedestal, flare tower, piles and risers, among others, were all done in Nigeria by different companies with a multi-disciplinary field operations team of about 280 persons offshore and onshore. Over 15 local companies won one contract or the other resulting in 24 million man-hours job in Nigeria, 560,000 man-hours of human capacity development, fabrication 60,000 tons of equipment and training of 250 Nigerians in-country and abroad.

    The field will increase Nigeria’s oil output by 10 per cent at first oil.

  • Plateau fails to meet 2017 revenue target

    The Jos Metropolitan Development Board (JMDB) was unable to meet its target revenue of N80 million in 2017, it was learnt yesterday.

    The General Manager, Mathaias Hata, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that 2017 was the most challenging year for the board.

    According to him, the board targeted N77 million in 2016 but generated N120 million.

    He regretted that the board only generated N64.7 million of its targeted N80 million in 2017 due to lack of equipment and being under-staffed. The board also got N7.1 million from its tenants though it expected N30 million.

    Hata, however, appealed to the government to strengthen the board by way of equipment, increased staff strength and provide other logistic needs to enable it discharge its duties effectively.