The Nigerian President’s advice to aggrieved Nigerians to seek redress through democratic means and the new salary scale and retirement age for Nigerian teachers are the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday.
The Guardian reports that President Muhammadu Buhari has advised aggrieved Nigerians to seek redress through democratic means.
This is even as he commended members of the ninth National Assembly for understanding, support, and quick response to the policy direction of the Federal Government.
Buhari, who spoke yesterday at the opening of a two-day executive-legislative leadership retreat to promote harmonious relationship between the two arms of government in Abuja, reminded Nigerians of the dynamics associated with lawmaking and governance.
He, therefore, sought their cooperation to make the entire process less burdensome.
The newspaper says that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved a special salary scale for Nigerian teachers as well as increased years of service from 35 to 40.
The President made the announcement, yesterday, as the world marked World Teachers’ Day.
The declaration came as the non-teaching staff of the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), yesterday, swelled the ranks of protesting university workers by joining a 14-day nationwide warning strike declared by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) in public universities.
For years, teachers have agitated for an increase in their retirement age, welfare, and salaries.
Buhari, who was represented by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, announced the changes in teachers’ salary scale and retirement age in Abuja at an event to mark the day.
The Punch reports that Nigeria’s gas exports have rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic, rising for the fourth straight month in July to 115.71 billion cubic feet, the highest level in more than a year.
Nigeria, which has the largest gas reserves in Africa and the ninth-largest in the world, exports gas mainly through the Nigeria LNG Limited, the West Africa Gas Pipeline, and the Escravos Gas-to-Liquids.
The country is among the top 10 largest exporters of liquefied natural gas in the world, with a capacity of 22 million tonnes per annum.
Its total gas exports tumbled to a record low of 87.28Bcf in March amid the sharp drop in global oil prices and demand, from 110.71Bcf in February and 114.96Bcf in January.
The newspaper says that the quantum of electricity generated in Nigeria is rejected or forced to be reduced by an average of 4,210 megawatts daily due to transmission and distribution constraints, power generation companies said on Monday.
In a document obtained in Abuja from the Association of Power Generation Companies, the Gencos stated that the forced reduction of generated electricity had dragged on for several years.
The APGC stated that the supply growth from pre-privatisation to date showed that available generation capacity, which was 3,427.5MW had increased by 138.34 percent to 8,169MW. In the document obtained by our correspondent on Monday, the APGC said Gencos recovered 4,741.5MW.
“However, due to system constraints, generated power is rejected or forced to be reduced to match the infrastructure that transmits and distributes this power to the customer,” the Gencos stated. They added, “A case in point: Between January to August 2020, despite an available generation capacity of 8,169MW, Gencos were only allowed to generate 3,959MW, thus losing an average of 4,210MW daily.”
The Nation reports that arrangements are ongoing to launch West Africa’s first Exchange Traded Derivatives (ETDs) on the Nigerian stock market. Nigeria’s apex capital market regulator, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), last week granted approval-in-principle to two central counterparty clearing houses (CCP), NG Clearing and FMDQ Clear.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the major promoter of NG Clearing, stated that the approval-in-principle will allow it to launch ETDs, to be supported by NG Clearing in the risk management process.
According to the Exchange, NG Clearing will play a key role in the financial market ecosystem by driving the safety and stability of Africa’s global marketplace through efficient and timely settlement of derivative trades.
Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and Chairman, NG Clearing, Mr. Oscar Onyema, said with NG Clearing’s association with a member exchange of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), capital market players can expect NG Clearing to align with the highest standards of global best practices in delivering clearing and settlement services.
The Sun reports that the Nigerian Government under the National Economic Sustainability Plan is to provide 300,000 low cost housing units to 1.5 million Nigerians at an estimated cost of over N400 billion.
To achieve the goal government hopes to provide mortgage loan guarantees to low income earners at low interest and collateral free basis, a member of Economic Sustainability Committee disclosed Monday.
According to him, the implementation of the social housing plan is expected to kickoff next week as early sites for the housing projects have already been identified.
The source which pleaded anonymity as he was not authorised to speak, said the Committee has already approved the plan to ensure that the 1, 2 and 3 bedroom units will cost as little as between N1.8million to N2million, while financial assistance would be available for Nigerians to pay the mortgage.
ThisDay says that Heritage Bank Plc yesterday disclosed that it has been engaged by the federal government to commence account opening for beneficiaries of the special public works (SPW) programme through-out the 774 local governments.
Also, five other financial institutions- Zenith, UBA, Access, Fidelity, FCMB are part of the banks appointed to engage in this exercise.
The Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, Festus Kenyamo announced issuance of letters of engagement to the six Nigerian banks to commence account opening with Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) for the 774,000 participants of the SPW Programme in their branches, through-out the 774 local governments.
The information was disclosed via the verified Twitter handle of the minister. The minister stated: ‘‘The banks assured us that even in LGAs where they don’t have branches, temporary registration centers would be opened in such LGAs so that the participants would not have to travel far to open their accounts.”
GIK/APA