APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The report of widespread blackout across the country following the total collapse of Nigeria’s electricity grid early on Thursday morning dominates the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.
The Punch reports that there is a widespread blackout across the country following the total collapse of Nigeria’s electricity grid early Thursday morning.
It was gathered that the grid collapsed totally around 12:40 a.m. on September 14, 2023, leading to the massive loss of supply to power distributors nationwide.
Multiple sources in the power sector, as well as electricity distribution companies, confirmed the development to our correspondent on Thursday morning.
The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company Plc issued a notice titled, ‘Notice of Total System Collapse’ on Thursday.
In the notice, it said, “The EEDC wishes to inform her esteemed customers of a total system collapse which occurred at 12:40 am today, September 14, 2023.
“This has resulted in the loss of supply currently being experienced across the network. Due to this development, all our interface TCN (Transmission Company of Nigeria) stations are out of supply, and we are unable to provide service to our customers in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states.
“We are on standby awaiting detailed information of the collapse and restoration of supply from the National Control Centre, Osogbo.”
The newspaper says that as tertiary institutions across the country begin a new session next week, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, parents and students started protests as more varsities continue to hike their fees amid a worsening economy.
ASUU as well as the associations of parents and students warned about the likelihood of mass dropouts of students following the hikes in fees by the universities across the country.
The union was worried about the development just as apprehensive parents expressed concerns over the implication of the fee hike for their children and wards in public tertiary institutions.
The National President, ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, frowned on the fee increases, noting that the university is not a profit-making commercial centre.
The management of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, announced a new school fee regime on Wednesday.
The decision, according to a communiqué released by the university’s Public Relations Officer, Abiodun Olarewaju, was taken by the school’s Senate at its emergency meeting held on Tuesday.
The statement disclosed that fresh students in the Faculties of Arts, Law and Humanities would pay N151, 200, while returning students of the same faculties would pay N89,200.
Checks by The PUNCH indicated that returning students in Faculties of Arts, Law and Humanities as of the last academic session paid N20,100.
According to the management, new students being admitted into the College of Health Sciences and the Faculty of Pharmacy are to pay N190, 200 while returning students, who paid N28,100 in the last academic session, will cough out N128, 200.
The Guardian reports that President Bola Tinubu, yesterday, directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to create a platform for quarterly reconciliatory meetings with foreign airlines, towards settling accumulated trapped funds.
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, disclosed this in Abuja at the ongoing African Aviation Summit.
He noted that the development was one of the reasons President Tinubu travelled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to address.
He expressed his displeasure with the trapped funds of foreign airlines in Nigeria.
Before the Minister’s directive, foreign airlines had found it difficult to get their funds due to Nigeria’s foreign exchange (forex) policy.
Keyamo, while stating that he believes that a proactive approach is necessary to find a lasting solution to the issues, added that the Federal Government was also addressing the challenges associated with forex supply, which resulted in the huge sum of money being owed foreign airlines.
He said: “The current administration is aware that one of the setbacks entrepreneurs have suffered in Nigeria in recent years is the fluctuation of forex and its availability.
“This administration is committed to ensuring that forex is readily available to entrepreneurs and I have directed that the CBN hold quarterly reconciliation meetings with a view to resolving this issue.”
He also noted that President Tinubu was on Monday in the UAE to resolve the issue of blocked funds, among other issues.
The Minister also unveiled three roadmap projects, which include Aerotropolis, Aircraft Leasing Company (ALC), and Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility.
He further unveiled five focus areas to realise the country’s vision of becoming an aviation hub in Nigeria. The key areas listed include infrastructure upgrade, ALC, MRO facility and forex availability.
The newspaper says that less than one per cent of the unemployed youth population in Nigeria has benefited from the government’s social safety net, a report by Jobberman has said.
The online platform, in its 2022 report, alluded to the limited coverage and weak targeting of social interventions, among others may have denied a larger percentage of access.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Jobberman, Oreoluwa Boboye, said this during an unemployment roundtable discussion organised by the firm in partnership with the MasterCard Foundation.
He said it is time for youths to shift their priority away from white-collar jobs and develop side hustle to their main job.
He said: “When you hear about a job, what readily comes to mind is a white-collar job, a feeling of working in the office and being entitled to perks and others. Over time, this dictates what is termed as gainful employment and because people are not finding their desired opportunity in the white-collar space, they tend to tag themselves as unemployed.
“But the job is actually beyond white collar job. A lot of youths are engaged in the informal sector with one kind of hustle or another. They usually call this survival, but it is in the actual sense not survival because they are making money from it.
“Like every successful and established entrepreneur, they must wake up to focus and develop that side hustle or survival to the main hustle. This is the way to go because considering Nigeria’s growing population, there will always be job demand and supplier mismatch.”
Boboye further advised on values reorientation, calling for a projection of success stories in the informal sector as a way of motivating players.
GIK/APA