The warning by the National Chairman of the Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC), Dr. Leonard Nzenwa, that the spate of insecurity orchestrated by insurgents and bandits is threatening Nigeria’s democracy is one of the leading stories in Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
ThisDay reports that the National Chairman of the Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC), Dr. Leonard Nzenwa, has said that the spate of insecurity orchestrated by insurgents and bandits is threatening Nigeria democracy.
Nzenwa, who disclosed this in Katsina yesterday during an interactive session with government officials and security agencies in the state, explained that nothing works in a country where insecurity pervades, including democracy.
He said: “Democracy is being threatened in Nigeria. When insecurity pervades a system or undertakes a place nothing works there including democracy. So democracy is threatened.”
Nzewa, who said the IPAC team was in Katsina on a security fact-finding mission, kicked against the call for the declaration of state of emergence in north-west region of the country.
“Once you declare a state of emergency in a place everything that has to do with democratic tenets and culture seizes. It means in many years that this country has moved forward on account of stabilising democracy also dies,” he said.
The newspaper says that the Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN) has said the ongoing controversy over Value Added Tax (VAT) should be handled with caution so that it doesn’t degenerate into a conflagrating crisis.
The President of APBN, Mr. Akinloye Oyegbola, while speaking on Tuesday at the 37th Annual General Assemblyof the Association in Lagos, said the ongoing furore on VAT between some states and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) is one that is worth giving attention to.
He cautioned that “the issues about duplicity of taxation will depress the economy if not nipped in the bud”.
The APBN, which is the umbrella body of 30 professional associations in the country, also expressed concern over the free fall of the naira, saying that the situation is worrisome.
Oyegbola said: “The Board took into cognizance the gradual recovery of the nation’s economy which has been a huge concern to the Board. The drop in inflation rate to 17.01% in August 2021, which is the 5th consecutive decline is encouraging. The Board believes that this gradual growth can translate into more jobs.
The Punch reports that like the Senate, the House of Representatives has passed the 2022–2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper as presented by President, Muhammadu Buhari.
The passage followed consideration and adoption of the report by the House Committee on Finance at the plenary on Tuesday.
Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Benjamin Kalu, was on Thursday asked about the delayed passage of the MTEF/FSP which is necessary before laying of the national budget as prescribed by law.
Responding, Kalu had noted that the House would pass the MTEF/FSP ahead of budget laying by the President later in October.
The committee recommended that the external borrowings proposed by the Federal Government to finance the deficit in the 2021 budget be approved.
The newspaper says that the Federal Government has imposed a travel ban on no fewer than 2,000 Nigerians and foreigners, restricting their movement in and out of the country.
This was disclosed the National Incident Manager of the Presidential Steering Committee, Mukhtar Muhammad, at a briefing in Abuja.
A statement from the PSC on COVID-19 said it had banned more than 2,000 Nigerians and foreigners from travelling out and into the country for one year for evading the coronavirus Polymerase Chain Reaction test at the country’s international airports.
Muhammad revealed that the names of over 2,000 citizens and foreigners had been shared across major federal medical facilities in the country where medical experts were assigned to give care to Nigerians and foreigners that had travelled into the country during the COVID-19 third wave.
The Guardian reports that hinging its argument on a world population that is set to expand to 9.5 billion by 2045 and huge potential for socio-economic development in terms of expanding access to modern energy services for the under-served, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has said oil will retain its number one position in the energy mix, providing 28 percent of global energy needs.
With the exception of coal which will remain stunted, the cartel stated that renewables’ global fuel share will rise over 10% by 2045, followed by gas, driven in part by higher urbanization rates, industrial demand and its competitiveness over coal in power generation.
OPEC in its latest World Oil Outlook, predicted that global oil demand will rise from a pandemic stricken 90.6 million b/d in 2020 to 108.2 million b/d in 2045, from which it will remain largely flat. The cartel’s Secretary-General, Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, stated that the growth in demand will be frontloaded in the first five years, when oil demand will rise 2.6 million b/d yearly, before slowing to 600,000 b/d from 2025-2030 and then 300,000 b/d from 2030-2035.
The newspaper says that the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat have announced the commencement of the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), a financial market infrastructure to enable instant, cross-border payments in local currencies among African markets launched two years ago.
A brainchild of the African Union (AU), PAPSS was conceived as a necessary option for accelerating regional trade as envisaged by AfCFTA.
By simplifying cross-border transactions and reducing the dependency on hard currencies for these transactions, PAPSS is set to boost intra-African trade significantly and underpin the implementation of AfCFTA, a statement by Afreximbank said. PAPSS will serve as a continent-wide platform for the processing, clearing and settling of intra-African trade and commerce.
It is expected to leverage a multilateral net settlement system. The statement said its full implementation will save the continent more than $5 billion in payment transaction costs each year.
The platform was developed by Afreximbank, who also acts as the main settlement agent in collaboration with central banks of participating countries.
PAPSS unveiling came after a successful pilot of the countries of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ). The unveiling is described as an important milestone for the continent’s efforts to boost trade among African countries.
The Sun reports that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Bank of Industry (BOI), Sun Trust Bank and the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), have jointly released $1.2 million to Santuscom Agro Investment to boost rice production.
Managing Director, Santuscom Agro Investment Company Limited, Paul Ofana, in a statement yesterday, explained that the firm signed Memorandum of Understandings with CBN, BoI, SunTrust Bank, and NIRSAL Microfinance Bank to access the facilities.
According to Ofana, the BoI/SunTrust facility is for procurement of equipment, plant and accessories for complete rice milling plant of 60 tonnes per day, which is put to the tune of over N300 million.
He said: “Santuscom Agro Investment Company Limited, the producers of our popular Ogoja Rice have secured and signed an investment deal with the Bank of Industry (BoI) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through the Anchor Borrowers Programme to the tune of $1.2 million, which is equivalent of over N761.9 million.
“The investment from Bank of Industry through the SunTrust Bank Nigeria Limited is to upscale our rice processing factory to package and process a 60 tonnes per day and five tonnes per hour per boiling mill.
GIK/APA