The listing of the achievements of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration since 2015 and the new COVID-19 cases recorded in 18 states and the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja are some of the leading stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Nation reports that the Presidency has listed the achievements of the Muhammadu Buhari administration since 2015.
In a statement on Sunday by the Special Adviser on Media to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, the Presidency said Buhari signed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
According to the statement, Buhari had recently declared a N287 billion profit after tax by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which was the first in the over 40 years of the corporation.
Adesina said the Buhari administration launched the first National Social Investment Programme in the country’s history and is today the largest Social Investment Programme in Africa and one of the largest in the world.
He also mentioned the restoration of the federal budget to a January-to-December cycle, after more than a decade.
“Finance Acts 2019 and 2020 – the first time ever that Federal Budgets are being accompanied by dedicated and specific reform legislation to support implementation. Discrimination Against Persons With Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018: Another unprecedented piece of legislation in Nigeria. Treasury Single Account (TSA) started in 2012, expanded across the entire Government by President Buhari,” the statement said.
On projects, he said Buhari is the first President to start and complete a rail project in Nigeria’s history, citing the Lagos-Ibadan rail project.
The Guardian says that Nigeria on Sunday recorded 459 new COVID-19 cases in 18 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) disclosed on Monday morning.
The NCDC also reported 30 COVID-19 related deaths.
The centre added that the new cases posted on Sunday, showed a drop from the 964 infections posted on Saturday.
The centre said that Lagos led the infections chart with 185 cases, Abia and Oyo, 38 cases each.
Others are Akwa Ibom and Cross River (33), Osun (24), Ekiti (23), Benue (15), Kwara (14), Kano (12), Delta, and the FCT (10), Edo (nine), Kaduna (five), Ogun (three), Kastina, Nasarawa , and Rivers reported (two), each, while Bayelsa recorded(one).
It quoted the News Agency of Nigerians report as saying that the number of Nigeria’s active coronavirus infections, however, declined from 10,026 as reported on Saturday to 8, 429 on Sunday.
”The rise in COVID-19-related deaths is attributed to the 23 deaths captured as backlog from Lagos on Sept. 3, which pushed the overall COVID-19 related deaths in the country to 2,552, as of Sept. 6,2021.
”Lagos state COVID-19-related death toll increased to 645,” the centre said.
The NCDC said that over 2. 7 million people have been tested for the virus out of the nation’s roughly 200 million population.
The agency said that a multi-sectoral national emergency operations centre (EOC), activated at Level II, continues to coordinate the national response activities.
The newspaper reports that the Super Eagles’ coach Gernot Rohr is confident his team can get a positive result on the Island of Mindelo during their Match Day 2 fixture against Cape Verde on Tuesday.
Nigeria took command of Group C following a 2-0 home win against Liberia’s Lone Star, courtesy of Kelechi Iheanacho’s brace at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos on Friday.
But the team is depleted ahead of playing away to Cape Verde, due to COVID-19 red alert UK restrictions on the Island country.
Rohr will not have the services of all the Britain-based players, including Leicester City forward Iheanacho who was Man of the Match against Liberia.
Others who would not be available for Tuesday’s tie include defenders Leon Balogun (Glasgow Rangers) and William Ekong (Watford FC).
The rest are midfielders Oghenekaro Etebo (Watford FC), Wilfred Ndidi (Leicester City), Joseph Ayodele-Aribo (Glasgow Rangers) and striker Alex Iwobi (Everton FC).
Rohr described his side’s home win against Liberia as heart-warming in spite of “difficult conditions”.
But he admitted that they have a huge game in their hands against the Blue Sharks at Estadio Municipal Aderito Sena on the island of Mindelo.
“Some players are leaving because they cannot travel to Cape Verde and it’s not going to be easy to build a new team in two days,” he said.
The Punch says that the Federal Inland Revenue Service may lose over N2.4tn revenue to the 36 state governments in 2022 if it loses its appeal against a Federal High Court verdict which barred it from collecting the Value Added Tax and Personal Income Tax.
The N2.4tn is what the FIRS projects to collect from the VAT if retains the authority to collect consumption-based tax, a document available to our correspondent has shown.
The FHC sitting in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, had on August 10 ruled that states and not the FIRS have the legal rights to collect VAT and income tax.
The FIRS has appealed the judgement. Meanwhile, the governments of Lagos and Rivers states have expressed their readiness to begin the collection of Value Added Tax in accordance with the judgment.
SUNDAY PUNCH reported that the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, had signed into law the bill that empowers the state to collect VAT, while the Lagos State Government said it had already notified all the stakeholders involved in the payment and receipt of VAT of its resolve to enforce the judgment to the letter.
The newspaper says that the Oil and Gas Free Trade Zones Authority has attracted the sum of $16.6bn foreign direct investment into the economy within a 20-year period spanning 2001 to 2020. During the same period, the Authority also attracted the sum of N255.33bn local investments into the country.
The Managing Director of OGFZA, Okon Umana, disclosed this during an interview with journalists in Abuja on Sunday. He added that between January and May this year, OGFZA generated N9.41bn as revenue through the free trade zones.
A breakdown of the revenue revealed that N2.1bn was generated in January, while February, March, April and May had N1.45bn, N4.39bn, N1bn and N453.98m respectively.
Speaking on the developmental impact of the agency, he said that within the last few years, there had been great improvement in the operations of the free zones. He said this was achieved through dedicated leadership as well as the commitment and exceptional quality of members of staff of the authority.
This, he stated, had resulted in the huge interests by both local and foreign investors in the zones.
ThisDay reports that President of the Dangote Group, Mr. Aliko Dangote, has disclosed that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) would offer his conglomerate a business opportunity that is estimated to be worth $12 billion per annum.
Dangote made this disclosure during a “High-Level Roundtable Discussion on Industrialisation in Africa,” which was organised by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) as part of the activities to mark its 50thanniversary celebration.
He said: “You know that long before the AfCFTA, we have always designed and planned to be an export-based company. We (Dangote Group) are interested in the AfCFTA because we are going to be its major beneficiaries. Number one, if you look at it today, we have the largest fertilizer plant in Africa so we will supply fertilizer all over the continent. We are building the largest petrochemicals on the continent.
“We are also building 650,000 barrels per day petrol refinery. All these are not for the Nigerian market alone. They are actually for Sub-Saharan Africa because all the Sub-Saharan African countries are importing their petroleum products.
GIK/APA