The demand for tax holiday by manufacturers and the opposition to any fresh lockdown by the organized private sector and labour leaders are some of the leading stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Punch reports that given the devastating blow coronavirus has dealt businesses in the past five weeks, business owners in the country have demanded one-year tax break among others from the Nigerian government to enable them to recover.
The newspaper also said that the Nigeria LNG Limited stated that it has paid over $13 billion to the Nigerian Government for feed-gas purchase since the inception of its operations. It added that the NLNG disclosed on Twitter on Sunday that over $7 billion in dividends and $8 billion in taxes had been paid to the Nigerian government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
ThisDay says that as President Muhammadu Buhari addresses the nation today after 14 days of relaxation of the lockdown of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lagos and Ogun states he had imposed on March 30 to curb the spread of COVID-19, the organised private sector (OPS) and labour have indicated their opposition to a fresh shutdown of the economy.
It added that leading members of the sector and the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) said yesterday that a fresh lockdown of the economy would be retrogressive and would have tremendous negative economic and social consequences on the country.
The Nation newspaper reports a foreign chartered aircraft belonging to Flair Aviation from the United Kingdom (UK) has been impounded by the Nigerian Government.
Flair Aviation, an aviation company with ties to Germany and the UK, was caught operating commercial flights into Nigeria.
Nigeria’s Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika said the aircraft had been seized and the crew being interrogated.
According to the minister, the company was given clearance for humanitarian operations.
The Guardian says that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has declared its intention to get the best possible coach for the Super Falcons no matter where the person comes from.
The NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, disclosed at the weekend that Pricewaterhouse (PWC), which has been given the contract to recruit coaches for the national male and women teams, has drawn out well-structured criteria the coaches must meet to manage any of the teams, adding that the federation is doing everything possible to ensure the Super Falcons get a manager that can keep them on top of African football.
“The Super Falcons’ coaching job is open to Nigerian and expatriate coaches, who must meet the standard set by PWC,” Pinnick said, adding, “the company has what it takes to pick the best among the list of applicants.
The Vanguard says that the United Nations Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has warned that lockdown could kill more people than COVID-19, predicting there could be 1.2 million child deaths.
The warning came at a time physicians all over the world also called on governments not to relent in providing the World Health Organisation (WHO), with sufficient funds, warning that withholding funds to the organisation as this time of a pandemic was neither helpful nor safe. This warning came ahead of the 73rd World Health Assembly which begins tomorrow.
GIK/APA