The report that incessant flight delays and cancellations by domestic airlines are due to the failure of the carriers to upgrade their flight equipment is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
The Punch reports that incessant flight delays and cancellations by domestic airlines are due to the failure of the carriers to upgrade their flight equipment, the Federal Government declared on Tuesday.
It also stated that most of the airlines had not adequately trained their pilots to take advantage of the latest Instrument Landing Systems deployed at airports by the Federal Government.
The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, disclosed this in Abuja during the public presentation of the 2022 Seasonal Climate Prediction and the 2021 State of the Climate in Nigeria, put together by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency.
The National Assembly Joint Committee on Aviation recently threatened to pass legislation that would empower foreign airlines to fly domestic routes in order to check the abuse of passengers’ rights by indigenous carriers, following repeated complaints of flight delays and cancellations.
Reacting briefly to the concerns, Sirika explained that the Federal Government on its part had tried to provide globally acceptable equipment to aid flight activities, but blamed airlines for not upgrading theirs. He said, “We put Category-3 ILS (Instrument Landing System) that you can use to land in 0.00hours.
The newspaper says that a yet-to-be-identified commercial bus driver on Tuesday set himself ablaze in the Ajao Estate area of Lagos State.
The PUNCH Metro gathered that operatives of the task force from the Lagos State Ministry of Transportation, while on enforcement duties along the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Road area connecting Ajao Estate, impounded some shuttles.
The driver, whose bus was among the impounded vehicles, was said to be protesting the seizure when he suddenly reached for petrol, poured it on himself and set himself ablaze.
A resident, who gave his name as Aliu, said there was resistance between the aggrieved drivers and the task force operatives during the enforcement.
He said, “Task force operatives went to clean up the Airport shuttle area. During the exercise, they impounded some buses and had a face-off with some of the drivers. At a point, one of the frustrated drivers poured petrol on himself and set himself ablaze.”
Another resident, who identified herself as Kudirat, said the victim got the vehicle on hire purchase.
“The driver was frustrated. The task force operatives took the impounded vehicles away,” she added.
The Sun reports that President Muhammadu Buhari has forwarded a proposal for the amendment of the 2022 Appropriation Act to the National Assembly. In a letter to the Senate and House of Representatives, he sought an additional N2.557 trillion to fund the subsidy of Premium Motor Spirit in the 2022 fiscal year.
The president said the supplementary budget had become necessary, as there was need to restore provisions for key projects, which was slashed by the National Assembly.
Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, who disclosed this during plenary, yesterday, said the request was contained in a letter dated February 10, 2022.
Buhari in the letter said it was imperative to remove all capital projects that were replicated in the 2022 Appropriation Act, Lawan said.
He said 139 out of the 254 projects in the budget totalling N13.24 billion had been identified by the president for deletion.
He said the president requested the National Assembly to amend the Appropriation Act to provide for capital expenditures in the sum of N106,161,499,052 billion; and N43,870,592,044 billion for recurrent expenditures.
The newspaper says that Nigerian naira weakened to N577 per dollar at the parallel section of the foreign exchange market.
This represents N5 or 0.9 percent depreciation compared to the N572 it traded last week. Traders at the black market spots in Lagos who spoke on the development on yesterday quoted the buying rate of the dollar at N572 and selling price at N577 per dollar.
A parallel market is an informal market for foreign exchange by buyers and sellers outside institutional set of rules by banking sector regulators.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has consistently maintained that the parallel market represented less than one percent of foreign exchange (FX) transactions and should never be used be used as basis for assessing Naira/Dollar exchange rate.
At the official market side, the naira appreciated 0.16 percent to close at N416.67 to a dollar on Monday, according to data on FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange, a platform that oversees official foreign-exchange trading in Nigeria.
Last week, Godwin Emefiele, CBN Governor, said the apex bank will stop sale of foreign exchange to commercial banks by the end of the year to enable them source for themselves.
ThisDay reports that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) yesterday said the supply of petrol would normalise across the country in a few days, announcing that between now and the end of February, it expects at least 2.3 billion litres of the product to berth in Nigeria.
The announcement came as good news to Nigerians, especially in Abuja and Lagos, who in the past couple of days have had to spend hours in long queues to fill their vehicle tanks.
THISDAY observed that there was movement of trucks within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as at last night, which were on the line to discharge products in some filling stations, although many of the streets still remained clogged by traffic due to the prevailing condition.
Like in the last few days, thousands of passengers were seen stranded along major points within the city as few vehicles remained on the roads and black market sellers carried out brisk business, selling the fuel for as much as N450 per litre.
But giving an update on the situation at the NNPC headquarters in Abuja, Group Executive Director, Downstream, of the national oil company, Mr. Adetunji Adeyemi, stated that Nigerians would heave a sigh of relief in the coming days.
The newspaper says that the Bank of Industry (BOI), assisted by Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) has issued a EUR700m Eurobond by way of 144A/RegS Senior Note Participation Notes, irrevocably and unconditionally guaranteed by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
According to a statement by RMB, the global coordinator and active bookrunner on the Eurobond, BOI, the first African National DFI to issue a public Eurobond, has a vision of transforming Nigeria’s industrial sector by providing financial and business advisory services for the establishment of large, medium and small enterprises, as well as for the modernisation of existing businesses.
“BOI’s mandate is guided by Nigeria’s National Development Plan 2025 and Agenda 2050, which have the objective of lifting a hundred million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.
The institution is tasked with providing financing for the development of micro, small and large entreprises.
This deal represents the institution’s first Eurobond, the provision of the sovereign’s first Eurobond guarantee, as well as the first Euro-denominated transaction from Nigeria, creating a benchmark for other prospective issuers from the region,” it stated.
The statement explains that the five-year, Euro-denominated senior note instrument is guaranteed by the Federal Government of Nigeria and issued at a yield of 7.500 per cent.
The Guardian reports that barring any last-minute changes, a 2,500 barrel per day (bpd) modular refinery, five megawatts power plant, 40-million-scf gas processing facility, and a data centre, among others, will come on stream in Edo State in March, after necessary regulatory certifications from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority (NMDRA).
This is contained in a statement by the Special Assistant, Media to the Edo State governor, Crusoe Osagie.
The facilities are located within an Energy Park in Egbokor, Orhionmwon council of Edo State, and operated by Duport Midstream Company Limited (DMCL), a private company.
The company plans to develop the park in phases, with the first phase comprising a 10,000 barrel per day refinery, 60-million-scf gas processing facility, 10-million-scf compressed natural gas (CNG) facility, 50 megawatts power plant and a data centre.
The project is financed by the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) and the Nigerian Content Development & Monitoring Board (NCDMB), among others.
GIK/APA