The report that the United Kingdom will remove Nigeria and 10 other African countries from its travel red list, allowing free entry of flights and travellers with minimal conditions into the UK is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
The Guardian reports that effective this morning, the United Kingdom (UK) will remove Nigeria and 10 other African countries from its travel red list, allowing free entry of flights and travellers with minimal conditions into the UK.
The UK government, yesterday, said all 11 countries would be removed from the UK’s travel red list from 4:00a.m. today (Wednesday). The travel ban lasted 10 days.
The reversal comes just a day after Nigeria said it had initiated diplomatic steps to make the UK and the UAE reverse the restrictions imposed on the country rather than impose its own travel ban in retaliation.
Similarly, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has modified its stance on welcoming Nigerian flag carrier, Air Peace airline, into the country, with an approval of seven weekly slots into the Dubai International Airport, Dubai.
Air Peace, may, however, not warm up to the offer as it runs contrary to its desire to operate into Sharjah Airport, in avoidance of head-to-head collision with Emirates Airline at its Dubai hub.
But as at last night, The Guardian learnt that the parties had met in Abuja with “fruitful deliberation” towards an amicable resolution of the row.
The UK government had recently reintroduced the red list as a precaution after the emergence of the Omicron variant. Affected were: Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The newspaper says that the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB), yesterday, approved a $210 million loan to Nigeria to fund agro-industrial processing zones in different parts of the country.
The loan will co-finance phase one of the Nigeria Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone Programme, a statement obtained from the Bank said. The programme is expected to unlock Nigeria’s agriculture sector potential and create jobs for the citizens.
It is conceived to promote industrialisation through the development of strategic crops and livestock. According to the statement, the financing represents one of the Bank’s most ambitious operations in terms of scale and scope to date.
The facility is made up of an AfDB loan of $160 million and an Africa Growing Together Fund loan of $50 million.
The first phase of the project targets seven Nigerian states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The states and focal areas are Cross River (cocoa, rice and cassava), Imo (beef and dairy livestock), Kaduna (tomato, maize and ginger) and Kano (rice, tomato, groundnuts and sesame oil). Others are Kwara (livestock), Ogun (cassava, rice, poultry and fisheries), Oyo (cassava, soybean and rice) and FCT (beef and dairy livestock).
The Punch reports that crude oil production in Nigeria increased by about 2.55 million barrels in the month of November 2021, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries announced on Tuesday.
According to OPEC, the country’s crude oil production rose by 85,000 barrels to 1,420,000 barrels daily in November, when compared to the 1,335,000 barrels that was produced daily in the preceding month of October.
Figures obtained in Abuja by our correspondent from the December 2021 Monthly Oil Market Report of the 13-member nation organisation, showed that Nigeria’s crude oil production in November was higher than what the country recorded in September and October.
Records from OPEC showed that Nigeria produced 1,365,000 and 1,335,000 barrels of crude daily in the months of September and October respectively.
The report, however, stated that crude oil spot prices declined in November, amid concerns regarding the emergence of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant, and easing of the energy crunch which had resulted in higher oil demand from the gas-to-oil switching.
The crude oil value in the OPEC Reference Basket dropped by $1.74, or 2.1 per cent in November to an average of $80.37 per barrel, amid lower prices of almost all medium and heavy sour grades in Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
The newspaper says that the Debt Management Office on Tuesday disclosed that Nigeria’s public debt was N38.005tn as of the end of the third quarter of 2021.
In a press statement titled, ‘DMO publishes total public debt for Q3 2021’, and published on the DMO’s website, the debt agency said the total debt figure comprised total external and domestic debts of the Federal Government, the 36 states and the Federal Capita Territory.
The statement read in part, “In line with its practice, the Debt Management Office has published Nigeria’s total public debt as at September 30, 2021. The data which includes the total external and domestic debts of the Federal Government of Nigeria, 36 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory, shows that Nigeria’s public debt was N38.005tn or $92.626bn at the end of Q3 2021.
The total debt stock rose by N2.540tn in three months from June 30 to September 30, 2021.
The statement further said, “The increase of N2.540tn when compared to the corresponding figure of N35.465tn at the end of Q2 2021 was largely accounted for by the $4bn Eurobonds issued by the Government in September 2021.” It added, “The issuance of the $4bn Eurobonds has brought significant benefits to the economy.
The Sun reports that the Organised Private Sector (OPS) yesterday threw its support for the removal of fuel subsidy as proposed by the Federal Government, saying it is riddled with corruption.
But it warned that it is also important for government to take step to address the socio-economic issues that would arise from the subsidy removal.
The Organized Private Sector of Nigeria (OPSN), comprising Manufacturers Association of Nigeria(MAN), Nigeria Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), Nigeria Association of Small Scale Industries (NASSI) and Nigeria Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) addressing the media on the state of the nation on Tuesday, said the fuel-subsidy regime seems fraught with corruption with few petroleum importers benefiting.
They said the subsidy payment is a huge leakage from the revenue portfolio of the nation, adding that there is need to address it urgently in order to free up needed funds for development.
Chairman of the OPSN, Mr Taiwo Adeniyi, who doubles as the President of NECA, said Nigerians should not suffer for a product that their nation is endowed with and neither should they suffer for the inefficiencies in government.
ThisDay says that three years into the launch of the micro pension plan (MPP), pension fund operators said they have registered just 72,846 contributors revealing that they have resorted to introduction of value addition incentives to encourage more participation into the Micro Pension Plan.
The micro Pension plan was officially launched by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration on March 29,2019.
Since its launch, contrary to the desires and aspirations of the pension sector regulator, the National Pension Commission (PenCom), the micro pension plan has witnessed slow growth.
This is in contrast to the speedy growth witnessed by the Contributory pension scheme (CPS) which had within 17 years of its regime registered over 10 million contributors and built up N13 trillion assets.
Speaking at the Annual media Parley organised by the umbrella body of pension fund administrators, the Pension Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp), the Head, Micro Pension Department, PenCom, Mr Dowda Ahmed, said current number of contributors into the micro pension scheme which was approximately 73000 contributors fall short of the commission’s expectation.
According to him, the commission, had expected more than what it has recorded, adding that the commission had engaged some stakeholders to ensure that the MPP had an enabling environment to thrive.
GIK/APA