The announcement of pay rise for workers by the government yesterday is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
The Guardian newspaper reports that the Nigerian Government yesterday approved an increase of between 25% and 35% in salary for civil servants on the remaining six Consolidated Salary Structures.
It also approved pay rise for its pensioners under the Defined Benefits Scheme, DBS. This came on a day labour leaders said the last year had been tough and agonising for workers and the masses.
The Salary Structure is the Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure (CONPSS), Consolidated Research and Allied Institutions Salary Structure (CONRAISS), Consolidated Police Salary Structure (CONPOSS), Consolidated Para-military Salary Structure (CONPASS), Consolidated Intelligence Community Salary Structure (CONICCS) and Consolidated Armed Forces Salary Structure (CONAFSS).
Recall that those in the tertiary education and health sectors have already received their increases which involved Consolidated University Academic Salary Structure (CONUASS) and Consolidated Tertiary Institutions Salary Structure (CONTISS) for Universities.
For Polytechnics and Colleges of Education, it involved the Consolidated Polytechnics and Colleges of Education Academic Staff Salary Structure (CONPCASS) and Consolidated Tertiary Educational Institutions Salary Structure (CONTEDISS).
The health sector also benefitted through the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) and Consolidated Health Sector Salary Structure (CONHESS).
A statement signed by the Head of Press, National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC), Emmanuel Njoku, said the increases took effect on January 1, 2024.
The newspaper says that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, yesterday, disclosed that it has commenced the process for the 2024 oil bid round with 12 oil blocks on offer and seven deep offshore blocks from last year’s bid round.
The Commission Chief Executive, Engr. Gbenga Komolafe, who disclosed this at the inaugural NEITI House Dialogue in Abuja, said the process will be concluded by January next year.
The new green field oil blocks on offer include six acreages located on continental shelf, four deep offshore blocks and two onshore blocks in the Niger Delta.
Komolafe explained that the Commission has put in place regulations to create a conducive investment environment by ensuring regulatory certainty, vacating entry barriers and promoting global competitiveness.
He said: “The licencing round that we are putting in place is designed to enhance the quality data set and it is going to be conducted in a fair, and competitive bidding process in a non-discriminating manner”.
He noted that some of the criteria required for acquiring the blocks include technical competence, financial capacity and viability.
He also disclosed that the Commission generated N4.344 trillion in revenues in 2023, a rise of 15 per cent from N3.78 trillion generated in 2022.
Speaking at the dialogue, the Executive Secretary, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, Dr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji explained that the NEITI House Quarterly Dialogue will host notable policy makers in Nigeria’s extractive industries and related sectors, who will address issues that are of interest and topical to the industry.
The Punch reports that the Federal Government, on Tuesday announced that it was set to issue a fully valid operating licence to the 650,000 barrels per day capacity Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
It announced this at the Stakeholders’Consultation Forum on Midstream and Petroleum Host Community Development Trust Regulations organised by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority in Abuja.
The NMDPRA, an agency of the Federal Government, however, explained that though it had awarded a pre-commissioning licence to the $20bn refinery, a fully valid operating licence would be issued to the Dangote Refinery soon.
Dangote refinery was inaugurated by former President Muhammadu Buhari in May 2023. The facility started releasing Automotive Gas Oil, popularly called diesel to the domestic market in April this year. It has yet to release Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol.
Speaking at the forum in Abuja on Tuesday, the Chief Executive, NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, told industry players and other stakeholders that the authority would issue a fully valid operating licence to the refinery very soon.
Ahmed, who was represented by the Executive Director, Distribution Systems, Storage and Retailing Infrastructure, NMDPRA, Ogbugo Ukoha, pointed out that currently, only three refineries have valid licences.
“We have issued three refineries with three valid licences. We awarded to Dangote refinery even in their pre-commissioning and sooner than later they will have full commission and a valid licence to also operate,” he stated.
He also stated that about 15 gas facilities across the country have valid licences while more are undergoing processing.
The NMDPRA boss said there are 1,199 facilities with valid licences in the downstream, while more than 176 operators hold gas import permits.
Ahmed said 130 depots have valid licences while 69 hold valid coastal vessel licences, adding that NMDPRA has licensed 9,464 retail outlets as of 10 am on April 30, 2024.
“In the gas processing facility within the midstream, there are about 15 of them with valid licences. And much is under processing. If you go to the downstream sector, in the gas state of the downstream, more than 1,199 facilities have NMDPRA valid licences.
“More than 176 operators hold gas import permits. In the liquid licensing side of the downstream, there are 130 depots with valid licences and coastal vessels of more than 69 valid licences as of today. And in the retail outlets, we have 9,464 licensed retail outlets as of 10 am today, April 30,” Ahmed stated.
The newspaper says that oil dealers under the aegis of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, on Tuesday, declared that it would shut down the 30,000 stations operated by IPMAN members across the country if the Federal Government fails to pay the N200bn it owes marketers.
IPMAN specifically said the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, an agency of the Federal Government, had refused to clear the debt, which had continued to accrue since September 2022.
It disclosed this in a communiqué issued in Abuja by the Chairman of IPMAN Depot Chairmen Forum, Yahaya Alhassan, over the non-payment of marketers’ bridging claims. IPMAN controls over 30,000 filling stations in Nigeria.
Bridging claims are payments made by the government to oil marketers for the transportation of petroleum products loaded from depots to various states across the country.
Alhassan said the consequences of the failure by NMDPRA to pay the N200bn “will be terrible, as every marketer’s outlet across Nigeria, from the North to the South, and from the East to the West, will be shut down.”
He added, “As IPMAN, we have taken every step in the past to salvage this unfortunate and looming situation, which we know will not augur well for Nigerians, but we are presently left with no option than to go all out in the next few days to address this ugly trend in our way, which will portend great hardship and danger for Nigerians.”
The IPMAN official pointed out that at a stakeholders meeting held on February 20, 2024, with the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, and the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, the Chief Executive of NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, was mandated by Lokpobiri to clear the entire debt in 40 days.
GIK/APA