The pledge by President Muhammadu Buhari to hand over a strong repositioned agriculture-led, diversified home-grown economy, stable democracy and revamped armed and security forces to the next administration dominates the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Tuesdays.
The Guardian reports that President Muhammadu Buhari has pledged his commitment to hand over a strong repositioned agriculture-led, diversified home-grown economy, stable democracy and revamped armed and security forces to the next administration.
Buhari stated this at a dinner in honour of the 2022 Committee of Business, Political, Media and Civil Society Leaders at the State House, Abuja, on Monday.
The Nigerian president said he was looking forward to completing his tenure in 2023, leaving a legacy for a united, peaceful, and prosperous Nigeria with 24 years of uninterrupted democracy.
He further assured Nigerians that his administration would finish strong in the last lap of his tenure.
He said: ”I am gradually entering my final year in office. It is a period I intend to spend not only on consolidating on the achievements of the past seven years but also to leave a legacy for a united, peaceful, and prosperous Nigeria.
”I take this initiative to mean that you all intend to collaborate with this administration in that direction.”
The newspaper says that Nigeria seeks $1.4m to bring in security ship donated by S’Korea to fight piracy’.
The Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Bashir Jamoh, had said bringing in the security ship donated by South Korea to fight piracy in the Gulf of Guinea will cost Nigeria $1.4 million.
Jamoh, who disclosed this during a media parley in Lagos recently, said as part of foreign communities’ contribution towards the success of the deep blue project,
South Korea donated a security ship to Nigeria recently to help strengthen the fight against maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea.
The NIMASA boss also frowned at the continuous sabotage of Nigeria by member states in the Gulf of Guinea. He said these countries are angry that Nigeria is getting all the commendations and support in the fight against piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, especially with the huge amount of money spent by Nigeria in securing the waters through various projects.
ThisDay reports that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disbursed a total of N23.20 billion to 28 companies whose projects were selected for funding in the maiden batch of its newly introduced “100 for 100 Policy for Production and Productivity (PPP)” initiative.
CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, who disclosed this yesterday in Abuja, also said the apex bank would soon introduce a new foreign exchange (FX) bidding regime.
Emefiele spoke at the formal launch of the 100 for 100 PPP scheme. He explained that the primary objective of the CBN in introducing the initiative was to ensure that priority was accorded to companies that displayed verifiable progress in the bank’s import substitution and job creation drive.
Emefiele said the funds disbursed to beneficiaries of the 100 for 100 policy, which he stressed were loans, followed due screening of the applications received.
He said the projects, valued at N23.20 billion, comprised 14 in the manufacturing sector, 12 in the agricultural sector, and two in the healthcare sector. He assured all current and prospective operators in the industrial sector that the CBN was ready to continue to provide the needed support, financial and otherwise, to fast-track the development of the sector.
The Punch says that Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria has said it is seeking clarification from the Nigerian Government on how the suspension of petrol subsidy removal will affect market operations.
The government had last week suspended its plan to remove fuel subsidy in June this year. It also proposed to extend the subsidy removal implementation period by 18 months, saying it would engage the legislature for the amendment of the Petroleum Industry Bill.
The fuel subsidy regime in the country was supposed to come to an end in February, going by the PIA, which was signed into law by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).
The Chairman, MOMAN, Mr Olumide Adeosun, said on Monday that the decision to suspend petrol subsidy removal “does not bode well” for the petroleum downstream sector.
“The members of the association are currently seeking to consult with the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority and other industry stakeholders to understand exactly how this decision would impact the other provisions in the Petroleum Industry Act as well as market operations,” he said.
The newspaper reports that the National Information Technology Development Agency engaged in 17 data breach investigations and issued N15m fines in 2021, a new report has revealed.
This was disclosed in the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation Performance Report 2020-2021, which was launched by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Pantami, last week.
The report further disclosed that seven investigations were concluded and sanctions were imposed on three entities. It was also disclosed that the number of ongoing investigations on alleged data breaches rose from 15 in 2020 to 17 in 2021, while the number of investigations concluded rose from one in 2020 to seven in 2021.
In addition, the amount of fines issued rose from N1m in 2020 to 15m in 2021. The report further disclosed NITDA that was partnering with key stakeholders to ascertain appropriate sanctions for different kinds of violations of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation.
It read in part, “NITDA is partnering with stakeholders to determine administrative sanctions for identified categories of the NDPR breaches. This would provide clarity and predictability to the NDPR enforcement efforts and serve as a good foundation for any future data protection law.”
The Sun says that hemorrhaging of the Federal Government’s assets, including the refineries and about 5,000 kilometers of pipelines, cost the country about N264 billion in one year.
Despite the injection of funds meant to ensure that the refineries reduce the annual spent of imported petroleum products, they have continued to sink further as pipelines have failed to deliver products to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited depots across the country.
Former Chief Operating Officer (COO), Upstream of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Bello Rabiu, who stated this at a workshop organized by the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) in Lagos yesterday, maintained that the country spends over N22 billion every month on these troublesome assets.
Rabiu, in his presentation, “Challenges of equitable refining, importation, supply and distribution of PMS in Nigeria,” explained that the country spends over N22 billion every month on assets that have an albatross to the economy.
The former GED equally faulted the N9 per litre bridging cost added to the cost of fuel, saying that model is not economical because it does not add value but rather increases the cost of the product.
GIK/APA