FCT rural farmers call for land allocation

As the present administration focus its attention on agriculture as part of efforts to diversify the economy, rural farmers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have called on the federal government to allocate land to enable them embark on massive production of food.

The farmers, among other challenges, complained of non-availability of land as a major constraint to farmers in the FCT.

They made the demand recently in Abuja, during Avian Influenza (AI) sensitisation campaign and interactive session with rural farmers in Jikwoyi Phase 4, Karu Area Council of the FCT, organised by the African Centre for Food, Agriculture and Sustainable Development AFRI-CASD.

Speaking on behalf of the farmers, a former Deputy Director Pest Control in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Joseph Olorunda affirmed that, to embark on a large-scale farming, which will be beneficial to the country, there is need for the government to support farmers on acquisition of land for this purpose.

According to him, most of the land used for farming in the nation’s capital are either on lease or borrowed.

Earlier, the Executive Director, Afri-CASD, Mr Bamidele Adanikin, expressed dissatisfactions over the challenges often faced by Nigerian farmers despite the importance of Agriculture to reviving the country’s economy.

He explained that not only are farmers at the mercy of buyers of farm produces, but are often faced with post-harvest losses in terms of perishable produces.

Adanikin stressed the need for the establishment of agriculture commodity marketing board by the government, so as to reward the labour of farmers.

While speaking on the federal government’s free meal scheme for schools, he urged the government to develop a policy that would ensure that food commodities are gotten directly from local farmers.

He said, food commodities such as Rice, Garri, Fishes among others should be purchased directly from local farmers rather than importing these from other countries.

His words; ”since government unveiled plans to embark on free meal for schools, which also reflected in the 2016 budget, government should ensure school proprietors, buy food commodities directly from the farmers.

“Rice, Garri, Fishes for instance, should be purchased directly from the local farmers rather than patronising importers of Rice from Malaysia, among other rice exporting nations.

“No doubt, this will show seriousness of the government to revive the agriculture sector as booster of our economy.

Islamic Devt Bank reels reconstruction plans for North

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) said it was making a comprehensive plan to reconstruct Northern Nigeria, the Bank’s President, Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali, has disclosed.

A statement issued by the Bank quoted Ali when he received a delegation of Northern Nigerian States Governors Forum (NGSGF) in Jeddah, the headquarters of IDB.

The delegation, led by Borno state governor, Kashim Shettima, included Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano state, Nasir Ahmad El-Rufa’i of Kaduna state, Umar Tanko Al-Makura of Nassarawa state and Muhammad Badaru Abubakar of Jigawa state.

“We will work together to come up with a comprehensive and constructive plan to support northern Nigeria. We will start with education, particularly bilingual education, and other areas such as job creation”, “before you leave Jeddah, I would like to have a list of your priority areas, from education, power to agriculture and so on”, he added.

In his remarks, the leader of the delegation, Governor Shettima, stated that in Nigeria, “poverty wears a northern face”, therefore, the purpose of their visit to IDB was to explore credible avenues to enhance developmental activities.
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Shettima told the president of IDB that the region was suffering from joblessness, low access to education and healthcare facilities, despite the abundant resources in the region. “It is a giant with a feet of clay” he added.

In his contributions, El-Rufa’i told the IDB president that the North-eastern region required urgent intervention in education, electricity supply and poverty reduction, as according to him, a major cause for the insurgency is poverty.

IDB’s Vice President (operations), Dr. Mansur Muhtar, told the delegation that IDB would do its best to look into various areas of intervention, particularly in the development of infrastructure which was key priority in the bank’s 10 year development strategy.

He, then, thanked the delegation for visiting IDB, and hopes that the visit will help in forging a stronger partnership that will help in mobilising resources for the development of the region.

    
    
    
  

Senate c’ttee moves to resolve NCC, MTN discord over fine

The Senate is wading into the disagreement between the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and MTN Nigeria over the N780 billion fine imposed on the telecoms firm last year.

Chairman of Senate Committee on Communication, Gilbert Nnaji, who disclosed this in an interview with journalists in Abuja said that the panel had initiated a dialogue between the NCC and MTN to ensure that the matter is resolved amicably.

NCC had in October, 2015 imposed N1.04 trillion fine on MTN for failing to fully deactivate subscribers with unregistered and incomplete Subscriber Identification Modules (SIM) cards details on its networks within the stipulated time. The fine was later reduced to N780 billion but MTN dragged government to court over the fine, arguing that it was outrageous.

Nnaji, who described the disagreement as embarrassing, assured that the committee would resolve the matter in a way that all the parties would be happy.

He said: “We have waded into the impasse between NCC and MTN Nigeria, we have started dialogue but it is still an in-house discussion, it will not be made known to the media until we reach a concrete agreement between NCC, MTN and the Senate Committee on Communication. The matter has become very embarrassing, but with dialogue, the matter will be resolved. We don’t want to hear that we are looking for foreign investors in the country and in the other way round, we are chasing them away, we can’t allow that to happen”.

The lawmaker called for review of the Communication Act, stressing that it was enacted since 2003 and has become obsolete due to so many developments that have taken place in the industry.

Dangote Cement production to hit 80mmt

Dangote Cement production in Africa is expected to hit 80million metric tons in 2017.

Speaking at the 38th Pre-Convocation Lecture of the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria on Friday, President of the Group Alhaji Aliko Dangote said the Dangote Cement has production operations in eight African countries including Nigeria, with investments at various stages in another ten countries.

“In Nigeria we have three cement plants with a combined installed capacity of 29.25 million MT per annum. The Obajana Cement Plant in Kogi state is the largest cement plant in the world with a current capacity of 13.25 million MT.

“The Ibese cement plant in Ogun State has combined installed capacity of 12 million MT while the Gboko plant has installed capacity of 4 million MT,” he said.

The theme of his speech was: The role of entrepreneurship in national development: The story of the Dangote Group.

He said: “In 2015, six new plants commenced full operations (Tanzania, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Senegal, South Africa and Zambia) while 12 MOUs for a total contract sum of over $4 Billion were signed.”

Mr. Dangote said: “We are currently building a new 6 million MT plant in Itori, Ogun State among several other new projects, and by the time we complete all our existing Africa projects in 2017 we will have a total installed capacity of 80 million MT.”
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He said he was honoured to have been chosen to deliver the 38th Pre-Convocation Lecture of this great citadel of academic excellence, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, named after one of Nigeria’s revered patriots, the Sardauna of Sokoto and former Premier of the defunct Northern Region, Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello.

He said entrepreneurship is the leading vehicle of job creation and economic growth all over the world. As such, countries pay special attention to the needs of entrepreneurs by creating strong infrastructural frameworks, conducive policy and regulatory environments, and strong legal protections.

According to him, some of the identified major causes of unemployment in Nigeria include inadequate infrastructure (particularly epileptic power supply), lack of access to finance, shortage of technical skills and difficult regulatory environment.

He said the Group was currently working on other huge investments that include rice and sugar production, as well as a petroleum refinery projects, and electricity power plant.

He therefore called on institutions like ABU to move out of their comfort of their traditional environment and work more actively with institutions, groups and individuals.

    
    

Budget: FG seeks $3.5bn emergency loans from W/Bank, AFDB

The federal government has asked the World Bank and African Development Bank for $3.5bn in emergency loans to fill a growing gap in its budget in the latest sign of the economic damage being wrought on oil-rich nations by tumbling crude prices, the Financial Times of London has reported.

The request from President Muhammadu Buhari’s government is intended to help fund a $15bn state deficit, which has been deepened by a hefty increase in public spending as the West African country attempts to stimulate a slowing economy.

It comes as concerns grow over the impact of low oil prices on petroleum exporting economies in the developing world.

Finance minister Kemi Adeosun told the Financial Times recently that she was planning Nigeria’s first return to bond markets since 2013. But Nigeria’s likely borrowing costs have been rising alongside its budget deficit. A projected deficit of $11bn, or 2.2 per cent of gross domestic product, had already risen to $15bn, or 3 per cent, as a result of the recent turmoil in oil markets.

The $2.5bn loan from the World Bank and a parallel $1bn loan from the ADB, which would enjoy below-market rates, must still be approved by both banks’ boards. Under World Bank rules its loan would be subject to an IMF endorsement of the government’s economic policies and bank officials say they would have to be confident the Nigerian government was undertaking significant structural reforms. But both loans would carry far fewer conditions than one from the IMF, which does not believe Nigeria needs a fully fledged international bailout at this point.

“I think we all agree that Nigeria is facing significant external and fiscal accounts challenges from the sharp fall in…oil prices, as of course are all oil exporters,” Gene Leon, the IMF’s representative in Nigeria, told the Financial Times.

Militants Blow Up Oil Pipeline In Bayelsa

A crude oil pipeline in Bayelsa operated by the local subsidiary of Italy’s Eni was attacked on Thursday night, a state lawmaker in the state House of Assembly claimed while talking to Assembly reporters.

This is the second major attack on the oil installation within the Niger Delta region since an arrest warrant was issued this month for former militant leader Government Ekpemupolo, known as Tompolo.
The hits follow years of relative calm in the country’s oil-producing region after a 2009 amnesty halted a spate of attacks on oil installations and kidnappings of expatriate workers.

“I want to condemn the latest attack on the Agip pipeline at Kpongbokiri. This is a clear sabotage by economic saboteurs,” Israel Sunny-Goli, a member of the Bayelsa State Assembly, said after preliminary investigations had been concluded.

He said attackers hit a crude pipeline near Brass, a coastal city and site of a crude export terminal. Eni operates in Nigeria through its subsidiary Nigerian Agip Oil Company.

A spokesman for the oil company said he could not yet say whether exports would be affected.
President Muhammadu Buhari who won last year’s election vowed to crush endemic corruption in the West African nation. Former government and military officials have already been charged, while Tompolo is the first high profile former militant whom the security services have gone after.

Following the amnesty, many former militant leaders were enriched through lucrative pipeline protection contracts under former president Goodluck Jonathan but oil theft reached an industrial scale.

Anxiety as new electricity tariff begins today

As the new electricity tariff regime kicks off today, many consumers are anxious ahead of their increased bills.
The new tariff comes with an increase in electricity charges in the 11 Distribution companies (Discos) as the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) integrates the Fixed Charge component in the adjusted Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO).

Although the various Discos, including the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), has said the tariff will see them increase their investments in the networks, the House of Representatives, and the Nigerian Electricity Consumers Advocacy Network (NECAN) kicked against any increase last week.

The new electricity cost for Residential customer classification (R2) under Abuja Distribution company (Disco) has risen by N9.60 per kilo watts hour (/kwhr).  It was N14.70 in the old tariff. Those in Eko and Ikeja Discos are getting an increase of N10 and N8 while Kaduna Disco tariff has risen by N11.05.
Among some customers who spoke with our reporter, Ahmadu Sule, a cold room operator in Nyanya, Abuja, said he used to pay about N5,600 monthly for an estimated 12kilowatt hour (kwh) daily consumption. The estimated cost with the new tariff will now be around N9,400, he told Daily Trust yesterday.

Spokesman, Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) Mr. Sunday Oduntan, in a press briefing in Lagos at the weekend said the new tariff structure is the best thing to happen to the sector if it desires market friendly and cost reflective tariff.

He explained that over 60 per cent of the tariff paid by customers go to power generation companies (Gencos), 11per cent to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), four per cent to other stakeholders, and the Distribution companies (Discos) retain only 25 per cent to run their business.
He hinted that the price adjustment would be for two years with corresponding tariff reduction between the third and the seventh year.

Meanwhile officials at NERC said the new tariff regime takes off today after it was approved late December 2015. The Acting Chairman, Dr. Anthony Akah had earlier in a statement said the commencement date (today) holds.

A source said the Commission directed the Discos to publish their various tariffs as approved to guide their customers in the new dispensation which will hold Discos to account for their services.
The Head of Commercial at Ikeja Disco, Mrs. Folake Soetan, said the new payment structure will be implemented across five major categories including residential, commercial, industrial, special and street lights to boost the capacity of Discos.

Other Discos including Abuja, Ibadan, Jos, and Kano are publishing their tariffs in line with the directive already which will see those using prepaid meters experience the change first as they purchase electricity tokens this week. Customers under estimated billing may see the differences in their bills rise during payment period in early March, the Daily Trust has learnt.

 Meanwhile the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) have faulted the new electricity tariff, saying it’s meant to add salt to the injury of Nigerians who are feeling the current economic crunch.

In a communiqué issued by the NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, the TUC’s Comrade Bala Kaigama, and the Coordinator, Electricity Consumer Protection Forum and Human Rights Activist, Barrister Toluwani Yemi-Adebiyi threatened to shut the offices of 11 electricity Discos today (Monday) should they increase electricity tariff in the country‎.