The report of the lifting of the ban on Twitter operations in Nigeria by the government after 222 days and the economic losses of about N546.5 billion dominates the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.
The Guardian reports that after 222 days and economic losses of about N546.5 billion, the Federal Government has finally lifted the ban on Twitter operations in Nigeria.
The lifting of the suspension was announced yesterday, via a statement by the Chairman Technical Committee, Nigeria-Twitter Engagement and Director-General National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi.
Abdullahi said the Federal Government directed him to inform the public that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the lifting of the ban effective from 12:00 a.m. this morning.
He said the approval was given following a memo written to the President by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Ali Ibrahim. In the Memo, he said the Minister updated and requested the President’s approval for the lifting based on the Technical Committee Nigeria-Twitter Engagement’s recommendation.
Recall that the Federal Government had announced the suspension of Twitter operations on June 4, 2021, after the social media giant deleted a post by President Buhari for “violation of the company’s abusive behaviour policy.”
By June 5, 2021, the suspension was effected by telecommunications companies as Nigerians woke up to a Twitter shutdown across all platforms.
The newspaper says that the World Bank has listed security tension, low COVID-19 vaccination and inflation as major factors that could dampen investment and economic recovery in Nigeria and some other sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries this year through to 2023.
The institution stated this in its January Global Economic Prospects, which downgraded global growth to 4.1 per cent on account of “many risks and considerable uncertainty”. It equally estimated Nigeria’s growth to moderate to 2.5 per cent this year and scale up to 2.8 per cent in 2023.
The country exited the 2020 recession with marginal growth in the fourth quarter (Q4) 2020 but recorded a leap of 5.1 per cent and 4.03 in the second (Q2) and third quarter (Q3) of last year.
With the full-year gross domestic product (GDP) data yet to be released, the World Bank 2021 growth to wrap up at 2.4 per cent.
The World Bank’s 2021 forecast is 1.9 per cent behind the Federal Government’s 4.2 per cent projection for the year.
But the Bank is more bullish on the country’s 2023 growth than the Federal Government, which expects output to slow to 2.3 per cent next year on account of general election impact.
The Punch reports that oil marketers have commenced the establishment of autogas conversion centres in their filling stations following moves by the Federal Government to begin the use of autogas in vehicles in 12 pilot states this year.
Operators in the downstream oil sector under the aegis of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria stated that the use of autogas in vehicles would reduce the demand pressure on Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol.
They told our correspondent on Wednesday that this was another reason why many marketers decided to start creating conversion centres in their respective filling stations and to further boost the autogas consumption drive of the Federal Government.
Sunday PUNCH had exclusively reported that the Federal Government had selected 12 states for the pilot phase of the conversation of vehicles using petrol and diesel to enable them to run on Liquefied Petroleum Gas, also known as autogas.
The Sun says that the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has projected that improved economic performance in the first quarter (Q1) of the new year would depend on government’s ability to sustain the current relative economic stability.
The association also said the performance would largely depend on government’s efforts to support the productive sector and ensure security of lives and property.
President Mansur Ahmed, who made the assertion in the association’s 2022 economic outlook added that improvement in economic growth would also depend on sustained increase in crude oil price and proper allocation of foreign exchange (forex) to the productive sector.
“Growth of real sector’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to remain positive in Q4 2021 and Q1 2022. “Growth of manufacturing sector is expected to remain positive in Q4 2021 but may slow in Q1 2022 but still within the positive quadrant.
“With the suspension of foreign exchange supply to the Bureau De Change segment of the market, the commercial banks would have to be effective in its allocation to drive production in the quarters.
“Manufacturing performance will improve if forex is made available to the industrial sector for importation of raw-materials and machine that are not locally available and the disposable income of Nigerians is enhanced.
The newspaper reports that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), yesterday, said that, following the ravaging effect of coronavirus in 2020, Micro Small and Medium Enterprises’ (MSMEs’) contributions to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decreased to 3.5 per cent when compared to 2017.
Speaking when he released the findings of MSMEs survey conducted in 2020, the Statistician General of the Federation, Dr Simon Harry, said that COVID-19 pandemic affected MSMEs in the country such that 53.2 per cent of SMEs and 37.3 per cent of micro enterprises (MEs) were temporarily closed.
“The major reason reported for the closure was the total lockdown of the economy and restrictions in movements which consequently led to increase in cost of transportation”, he said.
According to Harry, a total number of MEs were 38,413,420 (96 per cent) while the total number of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) were 1,240,965 (3.1 per cent).
In spite of the contributions of this sector to the economic growth, there are still challenges hindering its rapid growth and development. Key among the challenges is the dearth of robust, timely and reliable data on MSMEs.
GIK/APA