The plan by business leaders and government officials from Nigeria and Europe to identify new opportunities to unlock the Nigerian economy towards win-win outcomes for Nigeria and Europe at the 8th EU-Nigeria Business Forum taking place in Lagos this week is one the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.
The Punch reports that business leaders and government officials from Nigeria and Europe will seek to identify new opportunities to unlock the Nigerian economy towards win-win outcomes for Nigeria and Europe at the 8th EU-Nigeria Business Forum taking place in Lagos this week.
According to a statement by the organisers, the EU-Nigeria Business Forum has served as a strong platform for European and Nigerian businesses to engage with the Nigerian authorities towards improving the business environment.
The event is jointly organised by the EU delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, in collaboration with EU member states in Nigeria.
It stated that this year’s event, themed ‘Nigeria and the New Economy’, would focus on three key sectors, including backward integration policy of the Nigerian government; opportunities to increase gas exports to Europe; and new initiatives in the agricultural sector.
The organisers further noted that during the forum, discussions would aim to identify causes of hindrances to businesses and explore how investment opportunities could be unlocked for the mutual benefit of Nigeria and Europe.
The newspaper says that Chint Global and other non-renewable energy firms have proposed solar integration to solve energy challenges in Nigeria.
Speaking with The PUNCH on the power generation gap in Nigeria at the Power & Water Nigeria Exhibition and Conference 2022 in Lagos, Chint Global Country Manager for Nigeria, Michael Chen, said Nigeria had been a major target for solar power distribution.
“Egypt has about 100 million people, but Nigeria has 200 million people. However, the power generation capacity of Egypt is about 60 gigawatts while Nigeria has 13 gb watts. So, the capacity of power generation in Egypt is about five times that of Nigeria. Nigeria has a 200 million population, and one of the biggest GDPs in Africa.
“This will make Nigeria a bigger market for electrical equipment. This is a good opportunity for marketing and a means to contribute to Nigeria with our professional equipment and services to make this country a better place,” he said.
Chen noted that Chint Global, which is into the four industry chains of power generation, storage, transmission, distribution, and utilisation, had contributed solar power to crucial parts of the country.
“As a priority in Nigeria, our 132 kV transformer is working in TC and grid power systems. From Lagos to Ibadan, all the people are using the Chint distribution,” Chen said.
The Guardian reports that one week after the 2022 Global Peace Index ranked Nigeria 143 among 163 independent nations, according to the level of peacefulness, ActionAid Nigeria has raised concern over the mass killings across the country, revealing that such incidents have increased by 116 per cent between 2019 and 2021.
Nigeria had, last week, moved three places up on the global peace log from the 146th position it was ranked last year. However, quoting from research conducted by Global Rights, the Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, Ene Obi, said at least 14,641 people have died from mass atrocities perpetrated across all geo-political zones in Nigeria between January 2019 and December 2021.
She lamented that the trend is increasing daily, as in 2019, 3,183 fatalities were recorded, in 2020, the figure rose to 4,556 and in 2021, about 6,895 deaths were recorded, representing a 116 per cent increase over the last three years.
Obi, while speaking yesterday in Abuja at a workshop on Community of Practice (CoP) on Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) in the country, stressed the need to strengthen private sector collaboration to curb the menace in the country.
Represented by the body’s Director of Resource Mobilisation and Innovation, Andrew Mamedu, she lamented that in the last few years, violence has become fatally routine and a daily affair in the country, such that its intensity, scale and frequency have become endemic, and rapidly acquiring a pandemic nature.
THIS is coming as a new report by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) also revealed that more than 42,000 children were recruited and used in conflicts in the West and Central African region between 2005 and 2020.
The newspaper says that there appears no end in sight to the strike by university teachers as the national president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, said they are yet to hear from the government, after meeting with Prof. Nimi Briggs renegotiation committee.
The committee is expected to review the draft proposed 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement and renegotiate with all the striking unions.
Since April 2022, the Briggs renegotiation committee had been meeting with the unions to address the thorny issues in the 2009 agreement.
Osodeke in an interview said they are yet to hear from the Federal Government on the report of meetings had so far.
He said: “Since our meeting with the Briggs committee, the government has not called us for any feedback. All the committee told us was that they are waiting for their principal to respond, that once the Federal Government responds, they will get back to us.”
Osodeke said they had not gotten the invitation for another meeting and nothing is happening for now.
He, however, lamented that this was the situation since May 2021, “the same way they told us they were waiting for the FG and yet no result.”
Similarly, the national president, of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Ibrahim Mohammed, said all they have done were appraisals and reviews, while the Briggs committee said it would report to the Federal Government for the next line of action.
The Nation reports that the British International Investment (BII), the UK Government’s Development Finance Institution (DFI), is investing $1 billion in Nigerian banks, infrastructure and power in the next five years.
The BII’s investment strategy was announced yesterday by the Chief Executive Officer, British International Investment, Nick O’Donohoe, at a briefing in Lagos.
He said the BII has invested $100 million in FirstBank; $75 million in Stanbic IBTC; $15 million in CardinalStone Capital Advisors and $162.5 million syndicated loan package in Access Bank.
Azura Power also got $30 million debt finance to support the construction of the 461 mega wats Azura-Edo power plant.
He said investments reflects BII’s focus on mobilising capital to build self-sufficiency and market resilience in Nigeria, and improve access to inclusive economic opportunities while helping to catalyse Nigeria’s boundless entrepreneurial ambition.
O’Donohoe said: “Investing in the prosperity of Nigeria’s growing population requires innovative new partnerships that can leverage the country’s abundant capabilities and expertise.’’
He said investments in key segments of the economy are evaluated based on sustainability, inclusion and productivity.
The newspaper says that India came first among Nigeria’s export trade partners in the fourth quarter of last year (Q4 2021) with goods worth N874.86 billion, representing 15.17 per cent share of total export in the quarter under review.
This was one of the key highlights of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) ‘Second Half Economic Review 2021′ (July-December 2021) released recently and made available to The Nation.
The review, which relied on data by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said Spain came second with goods worth N789.23 billion or 13.69 per cent share of Nigeria’ total exports.
MAN added that France came third with goods worth N485.35 billion or 8.42 per cent share of total exports.
Netherlands ranked fourth with export goods valued at N425.85 billion or 7.38 per cent and Indonesia came fifth with export goods valued at N288.10 billion or five per cent share of total exports.
However, in the same quarter of last year, China ranked first among Nigeria’s import trading partners with import goods valued at N1652.65 billion or 27.82 per cent share of total imports.
Belgium came second with import goods valued at N613.28 billion or 10.32 per cent share; India was ranked third with N430.38 billion or 7.24 per cent of the market share of imports.
GIK/APA