The report that over 50 Nigerian manufacturing companies have shut down in the last five years and the report that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has not been able to make remittances to the Federation Account due to its huge subsidy spending on petrol are some of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Punch reports that over 50 Nigerian manufacturing companies have shut down in the last five years, according to investigations by The PUNCH.
Some of the manufacturing companies that have exited the industry in the last five years include: Surest Foam Limited, Mufex, Framan Industries, MZM Continental, Nipol Industries, Moak Industries, and Stone Industries.
Others are: Solo Industries, Quick Born Industries, Supercor Industries, Arabi Industries, and Rola Industries.
The PUNCH also found out that Peak Aluminium, Phonenix and Wise Machine Industries are no more functional, according to our investigations.
In an earlier report funded by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, our correspondent had found a list of recently shut-down industries to include: Louis Carter Limited, Sky Aluminium, Grief, Errand Products, Technoflex, Gorgeous Metal, Mother’s Pride, including the Industrial and Foam Equipment, Deli Foods, Universal RubberErrand Products, Technoflex and Universal Rubber.
These industries are located in Lagos, Ota (Ogun State), Agbara(Ogun State), Jos (Plateau), Bauchi, Kano, Nnewi (Anambra State) and other parts of Nigeria.
The PUNCH checked the websites of these firms and found that many were no more functional. Even the contact phone numbers on the websites of many of them were not going through. In some cases, the telecoms companies informed our correspondent that the numbers did not exist.
The newspaper says that state workers and pensioners on Sunday lamented they were carrying the burden of a cash crunch in the country with many state governments failing to ensure regular payment of salaries, gratuities and other entitlements.
Labour leaders, who spoke separately with our correspondents in Ekiti, Benue, Ogun, Ondo, Rivers, Abia, Ondo, Edo and Kano states, noted that pensioners were worst hit by the failure of governors to perform their responsibilities.
Findings by our correspondents showed that deductions by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited from the Federation Account Allocation Committee had continued to deplete the funds being shared by the three tiers of government at FAAC meetings.
The NNPC had explained that its deductions from FAAC were due to the humongous subsidy spending it shouldered.
Since the beginning of the year, the NNPC has not been able to make remittances to the Federation Account due to its huge subsidy spending on petrol.
Figures obtained from the NNPC in Abuja showed that the oil firm spent N210.38bn, N219.78bn and N245.77bn as subsidies on petrol in January, February and March 2022 respectively, translating to N675.93bn during the three-month period.
The state NUP Chairman, Salisu Gwale, in a telephone interview on Sunday with The PUNCH, said, “The amount we were owed was N26bn as of May last year (2021) but the government was able to pay only N1bn.”
He said government debts to the pensioners included gratuity, death benefits and pension arrears.
The Guardian reports that the organised labour has urged Federal Government to suspend privatisation of the electricity sector.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) disclosed this in a joint statement read by NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, at a ceremony to mark the 2022 May Day in Abuja, yesterday.
Labour lamented that the deregulation of diesel, aviation fuel and kerosene has not resulted in availability of the products.
The two bodies said government should take advantage of the five-year review window in the Electricity Sector Privatisation Reform Act, already overdue, to scrap the electricity privatisation exercise.
They said: “We also demand transparent investigation into the power sector privatisation programme, which we believe was hijacked by a few entitled Nigerians to corner the commonwealth without thought for value addition. Enough is enough!”
They insisted that the only sustainable solution to Nigeria’s energy crisis is rehabilitation and optimisation of local oil refineries and building of new ones.
This came as the Federal Government promised: “We will crack the power conundrum (the “up NEPA” thing will stop) by decentralising the national grid system and by providing alternative grids with private sector investments.”
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, disclosed this, yesterday, at Eagle’s Square, in Abuja, during the 2022 Workers’ Day Rally, themed, ‘Labour, Politics and the Quest for Good Governance and Development’.
The Nation says that President Muhammadu Buhari has assured Nigerians that the military was close to defeating terrorists, masquerading under the name of Islam.
“Victory is within sight,” Buhari announced yesterday in his Sallah message to Nigerians as the Holy month of Ramadan reaches its end.
Muslims will officially mark the Eid-el-Fitr on Monday after 30 days of fasting to grow spiritually and get closer to Allah and their loved ones.
The President, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, sent his best wishes to Muslims in Nigeria and across the world celebrating the occasion.
He said that with the end of the fast,” we have cause to welcome the occasion( Eid-el-Fitri) in hope.
Buhari described the war against insurgents and their allies as “long and hard,” saying that with the designation of bandits as terrorists, the challenges of banditry and kidnapping were being tackled differently in the Northwest and Northcentral.
The Sun reports that Nigeria’s high level of corruption and corrupt activities has cost it a whopping N41.6 trillion revenue losses in the last eight years of operating at the nation’s ports.
Stakeholders who spoke on the development said the money was lost to excessive illicit financial flows at ports, which also had adverse effects on the economy, even as they accused the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and port officials of corruption and exercise of discretionary powers.
Multiple cases of corruption at the nation’s ports have become so rampant in recent times, with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) decrying the menace recently on its official page.
Speaking with Daily Sun, an economist, Dr. Otega Martins, said corruption has eaten deep into the nation’s port system and invariably contributing to high rate of inflation and forex crisis.
“The damage corruption has done to the economy between 2014 and 2021 is around N41.6 trillion. Let me give you the breakdown, up to N1.01 trillion, that is about $1.95 billion in government revenue and N4.1 trillion, which is about $8.15 billion in private sector revenue were lost annually due to corruption at the nation’s ports. These figures can be found in the 2020 publication by the Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE).
“Altogether, these figures are about N5.20 trillion annually, then when you calculate this in eight years, its sums up to about N41.6 trillion. A lot of cases of bribery and corruption are adding to the cost of operations at the ports, which affects the purchasing power of ordinary man in the country.
According to him, cases of corruption and discretionary powers among the Government’s MDAs had pushed many customers to now use ports and terminals of neighbouring countries, thereby leading to loss of foreign exchange earnings for Nigeria,” he added.
GIK/APA