The plan by the Nigerian government to stimulate the economy with $10 billion agriculture revolution programme and the fear by experts that the local currency will depreciate further against the dollar are some of the leading stories in the Nigerian newspapers on Friday.
The Guardian reports that the Nigerian government yesterday said it would create about five million jobs and inject over $10 billion into the economy in the next 10 years through its agriculture revolution programme tagged “The Green Imperative.”
The initiative, according to the report, will also create a sustainable supply chain of raw materials for the country’s large manufacturing companies to source locally, thereby saving billions of dollars in food-related foreign exchange.
Addressing a joint media briefing yesterday in Abuja, Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said the programme, with investible funds worth $1.2 billion, would save the country scarce resources, promote mechanised farming and engender value-added agricultural production.
| The Punch says that business organisations in Nigeria expect the naira to depreciate further in the next few months, a report by the Central Bank of Nigeria has said.
The dollar on Thursday sold for N440 in the parallel market, as Bureau de Change operators were still awaiting CBN’s resumption of foreign exchange sale to them. The CBN’s May 2020 Business Expectation Survey Report said, “Respondent firms expect the naira to depreciate in the current month, next month, next two months and appreciate in the next six months. “Inflation level is expected to rise in the next six months and 12 months, while the borrowing rate is expected to rise in the current month, next month, next two months and next six months.” The newspaper also reports that the Nigerian Senate Committee on Power said on Thursday that it had concluded plans to execute a three-day investigative hearing on the operations of the power sector since privatisation in 2013. The privatisation exercise was consolidated on September 13, 2013 during the tenure of former president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. In another report, the Punch said that President Muhammadu Buhari, has approved the nomination of a former Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, for the position of director-general of the World Trade Organisation. The report quoted TheCable reported on Thursday as saying that Buhari withdrew the candidacy of Yonov Agah, Nigeria’s permanent representative to WTO, for the same position. The election is scheduled to hold in Geneva, Switzerland in 2021 for a four-year term that would run from 2021 to 2025 after former Director-General of the organisation, Roberto Azevedo, stepped down a year to the end of his second term. The Sun newspaper says that the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), yesterday disclosed that all is now set for internet broadband infrastructure companies (InfraCos) to roll out services across the country. Its Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Professor Umar Danbatta, disclosed this while speaking at a virtual conversation on the socio-conomic and political impact of COVID-19 on telecom and ICT sector in Nigeria, organized by the Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON). Prof. Danbatta stated that the Commission would not rest on its oars until affordable and accessible broadband is available across the country. The Vanguard reports that the Nigerian Senate has started probing about N1.8 trillion the Federal Government invested in the Power Sector through the Electricity Supply Industry, NESI, from 2013 to date. According to the Senate, a holistic investigation would be carried out, especially to find out how interventions by the Federal Government to address the problems associated with the power sector had been executed, noting that government had, over the years, intervened at various times. Addressing journalists, yesterday, in Abuja, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Senator Gabriel Suswan, lamented that despite the huge sums spent so far, the sector has been epileptic, with no commensurate results. ThisDay newspaper says that the Board of Governors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has authorised an independent review of the Report of the Ethics Committee of the Boards of Directors on the complaint by whistle-blowers against the President of the Bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the sole candidate for the bank’s upcoming election. The independent review, the board said, would be conducted by “a neutral high caliber individual with unquestionable experience, high international reputation and integrity within a short time period of not more than two to four weeks maximum, taking the Bank Group’s electoral calendar into account.”’ A communiqué issued after a meeting of the Board of Governors of the Bank, signed by the Chairperson of the Board, Ms. Niale Kaba, said: “The Bureau reiterates that it agrees that the Ethics Committee of the Boards of Directors performed its role on this matter in accordance with the applicable rule under Resolution B/BG/2008/11 of the Board of Governors. “The Bureau also reiterates that the Chairperson of the Bureau of the Board of Governors performed her role in accepting the findings of the Ethics Committee in accordance with the said Resolution.”
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GIK/APA