The approval of $1.5bn for the rehabilitation of Nigeria’s Port Harcourt Refinery by the government and the acquittal of Shell and ENI in the controversial Malabu Oil scandal by an Italian court are some of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.
The Vanguard reports that the Nigerian government has approved the sum of $1.5bn for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, stated this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The Minister said that the rehabilitation, which would be in three phases would commence immediately and be handled by an Italian firm, Tecnimont S.p.A.
He explained that the first phase would be completed in 18 months, the second phase in 24 months and the final phase would be within 44 months.
He assured that the other three refineries will be put in place before the end of the Buhari-led administration.
The newspaper says that an Italian court has declared Shell, Eni and their managers all acquitted in the controversial Malabu scandal.
They were all acquitted by the court yesterday. The Malabu scandal involved the transfer of about $1.1 billion by Shell and ENI through the Nigerian government to accounts controlled by a former Nigerian petroleum minister, Mr. Dan Etete
From accounts controlled by Mr. Etete, about half the money ($520 million) went to accounts of companies controlled by Aliyu Abubakar, popularly known in Nigeria as the owner of AA oil.
Anti-corruption investigators and activists suspect he fronted for top officials of the Goodluck Jonathan administration as well of officials of Shell and ENI.
The transaction was authorised in 2011 by Mr Jonathan through some of his cabinet ministers and the money was payment for OPL 245, one of Nigeria’s richest oil blocks. Although Shell and ENI initially claimed they did not know the money would end up with Mr. Etete and his cronies, evidence later showed that the claim was false.
Shell, Eni, Mr Etete, Mr Aliyu and several officials of the oil firms are being prosecuted in Italy for their roles in the scandal. Italian prosecutors had alleged corruption in the deal while campaigners said the Nigerian government was short-changed.
After years of trial, the court in Milan has now determined that Shell and Eni are not guilty of the charges.
The Guardian reports that leaders of Southern Nigeria and Middle-Belt, under the aegis of Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS), yesterday set modalities to extricate their people from what they described as the “contraption called Nigeria.”
At a world press conference at New Bodija, Ibadan, Oyo State, the Chairman of NINAS, Prof. Banji Akintoye, and other leaders of the group, comprised indigenous nations and people of southern and Middle-Belt of Nigeria, complained of injustice in the country and contradictions in the polity and 1999 Constitution.
The press conference was organised at the expiration of a 90-day notice of grave constitutional grievances Issued by NINAS to the Federal Government on December 16, 2020.
Other leaders of the group, who participated in the event include Tony Nnadi (Secretary), Prof. Mayowa Ogedengbe, and Chief Sunday Adeyemo (a.k.a Sunday Igboho).
Akintoye said: “As the distressed federation of Nigeria continues to wobble through what seems its terminal throes, it will be recalled that NINAS, aggregating the indigenous nations and peoples of southern and Middle- Belt of Nigeria, who have found themselves at the receiving end of a most vicious ethnic cleansing onslaught by heavily-armed invading Fulani militia, masquerading as ‘herdsmen’, formally declared a dispute with the federation of Nigeria as represented by the Federal Government of Nigeria via the constitutional force majure proclamation of December 16, 2020, in which it made a five-point demand upon the Federal Government of Nigeria to formally commence the remediation of the grave constitutional grievances enumerated in the said proclamation, within a period of 90 days beginning from midnight of December 16, 2020.
The Punch says that Nigeria’s external reserves dropped by $523m to $34.475bn as of March 16 from $34.998bn as of March 1, figures from the Central Bank of Nigeria revealed on Wednesday.
The reserves, which had continued a downward trend of recent, lost $1.1bn in February, after it dropped from $36.19bn as of February 1 fell to $35.09bn as of February 26.
The CBN had recently stated that Nigeria’s external reserves at $35bn was sufficient to finance the country’s seven months’ imports.
When the reserves had experienced gains in the last quarter of 2020, the CBN disclosed that at $36.46bn, it could finance 8.4 months of import of goods or 6.3 months of import of goods and services.
According to the CBN’s monthly economic report for the fourth quarter of 2020, the performance of the external sector improved in the review quarter, despite the challenges of sluggish global recovery, weakened global demand, soaring second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and tense political environment in the United States.
The Sun reports that for more forex inflow for investment in productive activities, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to work with the International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) and deposit money banks (DMBs) to deal with the remittance infrastructure challenges, the cost, initiate portfolios and measures to point remitters in that direction.
The Director General, Segun Ajayi-Kadir made the remark in respect to the Naira4dollar scheme of the apex bank to encourage Nigerians working abroad to remit more into the country and thereby improve the forex inflow.
Ajayi-Kadir, however, noted that, there is need to dimension the inflows which has historically been 70 per cent for family support and 30 percent for other purposes, including real estate which carries the greater part.
He also posited that there was also the need to consider where the domestic foreign exchange earners stand within the context of the scheme, asking could a manufacturer who exports his product and repatriates his dollar profit, get his money in dollars and also benefit from the Dollar 4 Naira Scheme?
ThisDay says that the number of mobile internet subscribers in Nigeria, including subscribers to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), dropped in two consecutive months – December 2020 and January 2021 – according to a recent statistic released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
According to the report posted on the NCC website, in November 2020, the total number of mobile internet subscribers was 154 million, but dropped to 153 million in December 2020, and dropped further to 150 million in January 2021.giving to the operators of the sector.
Ajaero, who doubles as the General Secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), asked the government to unmask the real owners of the Distribution and Generating Companies the sector was sold to in 2013.
The drop also affected VoIP subscribers, which recorded 429,121 subscribers in November 2020, and 415,941 in December 2020, before it further dropped to 387,169 in January 2021.
GIK/APA