The report that the Nigerian Government has projected that its National Development Plan (NDP) will lift 35 million Nigerians out of poverty and create 21 million jobs within the next three years is one of the leading stories in Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday.
The Guardian reports that the Federal Government has projected that its National Development Plan (NDP) will lift 35 million Nigerians out of poverty and create 21 million jobs within the next three years.
The federal and state governments as well as the private sector will fund the plan, with an investment size of N348.1trillion. The funders from the public sector will contribute N49.7trillion, subnational will contribute N20.1trillion, while N29.6 trillion will come from the Federal Government. The private sector is projected to contribute N298.3trillion to funding the Plan.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, who disclosed this in Abuja, added that the investment is expected to result in Nigeria achieving improved competitiveness of the economy with a Gross Development Product growth of five to six per cent.
“At least 35 million people will be lifted out of poverty by 2025. 21 million full time jobs will be generated for the young workforce to leveraged, and this will significantly enhanced capacity at the national and sub-national levels,” she said.
She further explained that the sectoral composition in the NDP 2021-2025 includes economic growth and development, infrastructure, public administration, human capital development, social development, regional development and plan implementation, communication, financing, monitoring and evaluation.
According to her, the NDP is aimed at accelerating growth, deepening the initiative for diversified growth and fostering sustainable development.
The newspaper says that TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited has declared a force majeure resulting from its Northern option pipeline (NOPL) Line vandalisation at KP41 at the weekend.
According to TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited in a letter to the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited (NDPHC), “NOPL pipeline was vandalised on 7th January 2022 at KP41 Alaoma Etche Cluster.
The Line Block Valve at KP38 was closed to isolate the sabotage point and depressurization of the line, this will affect gas supply to Alaoji (Power Plant) until further notice.
As a result of this development, TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited stated that “Gas supply to Alaoji Power Plant was suspended due to this unfortunate event. Preliminary investigation to determine the extent of the damage is ongoing, and repair works shall commence as soon as feasible.”
Located in the Oil Mining Lease (OML) 58 onshore Nigeria, the NOPL is an important development of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the NNPC2 (60%) and TotalEnergies (40%).
In line with TotalEnergies’ commitments to better energy, the project is facilitating the transport of associated gas to the National Integrated Power Plant at Alaoji, Abia State, Nigeria, thereby providing access to cleaner and purer energy (gas powered electricity) for millions of Nigerians.
The Punch reports that bank loans to government have risen by 22.59 per cent, hitting N2.17tn as of the end of September 2021 from N1.77tn recorded in December 2020.
This represents a N400bn increase within the nine-month period. This was contained in the Central Bank of Nigeria report titled, ‘Deposit Money Bank’s sectoral allocation of credit.’
According to the figures, bank loans to the government rose from N1.88tn as of the end of March 2021 to N2.03tn in June 2021, and N2.12tn in August 2021.
The report further showed that the DMBs’ total loans to the private sector stood at N22.8tn as of September, 2021.The data also showed the amounts of bank loans to other sectors such as industries, agriculture, mining and quarrying, manufacturing, oil and gas, power and energy.
Others sectors include construction, trade and general commerce.
The CBN figures also revealed bank loans to real estate sector, finance, insurance and capital market. Others sectors include education, oil and gas, power and energy, information and communication, transportation and storage and other general businesses.
The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, had said the banking sector would increase access to finance and credit for households in 2022.
The newspaper says that the International Monetary Fund has advised emerging economies including Nigeria to allow their currencies to depreciate in response to tighter funding conditions and an imminent policy tightening by the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States.
The Washington-based lender also counselled the Central Bank of Nigeria and the apex banks of emerging economies to raise their benchmark interest rate in preparation for the Fed policy tightening.
The IMF disclosed this in a blogpost titled, ‘Emerging Economies Must Prepare for Fed Policy Tightening,’ on Monday.
According to the fund, while changes in the global economic outlook appear positive, especially in the United States, these changes are uncertain for emerging markets.
It noted that emerging markets with high public and private debts, foreign exchange exposures, and lower current-account balances had been seeing larger movements of their currencies relative to the US dollar in recent months.
As a result, the IMF said the combination of slower growth and elevated vulnerabilities could create adverse feedback loops for the emerging economies.
It said, “Some emerging markets have already started to adjust monetary policy and are preparing to scale back fiscal support to address rising debt and inflation.
The Sun reports that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says Nigeria’s capital importation rose to $1.73 billion in the third quarter of 2021.
It explained in its new report released over the weekend that the figure represented a 97.73 percent increase from $875.62 million in the preceding quarter of 2021— and 18.47 per cent compared to the corresponding quarter of 2020.
According to NBS, only five states, out of 36 states, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) received capital investments in Q3 2021. Lagos recorded $1.48 billion, accounting for 85.57 per cent of the total capital inflow.
Others include FCT ($249.19 million), Anambra ($44 million), Kano ($15 million) and Abia ($0.01 million). “The largest amount of capital importation by type was received through portfolio investment, which accounted for 70.30 percent ($1,217.21 million) of total capital importation.
This was followed by other investments, which accounted for 23.47 per cent ($406.35 million), and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) amounted to 6.23 per cent ($107.81 million) of total capital imported in Q3 2021,” the report reads.
By sectors, capital importation into financing had the highest inflow of $469.17 million, amounting to 27.10 per cent of total capital imported in the third quarter of 2021.
ThisDay says that Nigeria Remains in Darkness Despite NERC’s Approval for Over 2,000MW Power Projects in One Year — Despite the approval of licences, renewal of new ones and granting of permits covering about 43 power generation projects, amounting to over 2,000MW, in the last one year, not much improvements have been recorded in the electricity generation and supply, a THISDAY review has shown.
An analysis of data released by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) shows that between the four quarters spanning June 2020 to June 2021, the industry regulator granted the approvals, which cover both grid and off-grid power as well as renewable sources of energy.
It also includes new registration for mini-grid projects to be carried out by power generation firms, high-energy demand companies, which require constant electricity to function.
In line with section 32 (2) (d) of the EPSR Act, the commission issues licences to entities that wish to engage in the business of electricity generation, transmission, system operation, distribution or trading in electricity.
In addition, the commission issues permit for captive generation, i.e. electricity generated for consumption by the generating entity and not sold to a third party. However, its purview does not include entities that generate 1 MW and below of electricity or a distribution network of 100KW or below.
GIK/APA