The resumption of duty by Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the director general of the World Trade Organisation on Monday and the report that the Nigerian Government will take delivery of 3.92 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine tomorrow, March 2 are some of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Guardian reports that Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on Monday resumed duty as the director general of the World Trade Organisation, weeks after her appointment was endorsed by the United States and approved by the trade organization. Her appointment was ratified on February 15.
“WTO members have just agreed to appoint Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the next director-general,” the global trade body said in a statement.
Okonjo-Iweala is the first woman and the first African to lead WTO.
But her appointment was almost scuppered by the former American president Donald Trump, whose administration preferred South Korea’s trade minister Yoo Myung-hee for the job.
President Joe Biden subsequently endorsed the Nigerian for the position, with the US Trade Representative praising her “wealth of knowledge in economics and international diplomacy”.
The newspaper says that after shifting the goal post from January ending to late February and then March, the Federal Government says it will take delivery of 3.92 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine tomorrow, March 2.
A statement on February 1 by the National Primary Health Care Development (NPHCDA) had stated that Nigeria would receive 16 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines before the end of February, which would replace the initial 100,000 doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech approved vaccines expected in the country.
However, NPHCDA, World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) in a joint statement, yesterday, said tomorrow’s delivery would mark the first arrival of COVID-19 vaccine in the country and make Nigeria the next West African country to benefit from the COVAX Facility after Ghana, and Cote d’Ivoire.
According to the statement, the arrival of the vaccine will enable the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) to commence the vaccination of Nigerians in priority groups, starting with the frontline healthcare workers.
The Executive Director and Chief Executive of the NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, said the arrival of this vaccine followed the commitment of the Federal Government through the guidance of the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire.
The Punch reports that the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has asked the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to forward the financial statement on the utilisation of the N2.2tn revenue accruing from foreign and domestic debts raised by Debt Management Office.
The Chairman of the committee, Oluwole Oke, made the request based on a query issued against the DMO for the 2018 financial year.
Oke said apart from details of the utilisation of the fund, the committee also wanted to know the reason it reflected in the DMO’s financial statement. He asked why the office could not account for the money that was appropriated for, which also did not appear in the books of the OAGF.
The lawmaker said, “We should hold you liable to the actual sum released to you. If it is in the law that the DMO had a budget of N2.2tn, now where is the money? Who got it? Was it released?
The Sun reports that the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has pledged the apex bank’s commitment to make local lenders raise credit facilities to agriculture sector to 10 percent as part of plans to key into the 2021 global economic recovery forecast.
According to Emefiele, who stated this at the weekend in Lagos, during the Vanguard Economic Summit whose theme is ‘Bankers’ Initiative for Economic Growth’ , with the discovery and deployment of vaccines, 2021 will be a year of massive global recovery and Nigeria must not be left out.
However, in order to drive and sustain the envisaged massive recovery, Emefiele rolled out measures which he considered routes to drive and sustain the economic recovery.
These are to sustain the accommodative fiscal and monetary policy measures aimed at improving access to finance to households and businesses; prevent a resurgence in COVID-19 related cases; ensure that a significant number of the populace is properly vaccinated and improving foreign exchange (forex) inflows into the country.
The newspaper says that the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, has announced June 6-10 as new dates for the 2021 Nigerian International Petroleum Summit (NIPS)-The official Oil and Gas meeting of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“We have had to re-consider the dates in light of the current global pandemic”, Sylva said in a special video broadcast on some television stations and which was also shared on the Petroleum Ministry’s official social media handles.
The theme of the summit, “From crisis to opportunities: New approaches to the future of hydrocarbons” aims at charting the way forward for Africa’s oil and gas industry in the post-Covid-19 pandemic era. Sylva said that “while it has been a challenging year for the oil and gas industry due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the crisis also provides us with the opportunity to re-define our industry for transformative moments.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has indeed engulfed the global economy, especially the oil and gas industry. The global level travel bans along with grounding of international flights led to heavy reduction in consumption of aviation fuel across the globe.
ThisDay reports that the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, has said President Muhammadu Buhari will perform the groundbreaking ceremony for the Eastern rail corridor in the country’s ongoing railway modernisation on March 9.
Amaechi, while on an inspection tour to all the stations from Mobolaji Johnson Station at Ebute Metta to Ibadan station yesterday, also said Buhari had approved the redirecting of the Eastern line to two new spurs.
The minister, in a statement yesterday by the Director of Press of the ministry, Mr. Eric Ejiekwe, identified the two spurs as Abakaliki, Ebonyi State and Awka, Anambra State. He added that the federal government has approved the commencement of the Port Harcourt – Kano rail project and is also negotiating loans for the Lagos-Calabar rail project. On the take-off of the Ibadan-Kano rail project,
Amaechi said the government was seeking approval for a loan to enable it to take off. On the Lagos-Ibadan rail project, Amaechi stated that he had challenged Messrs. China Civil Engineering and Construction Company (CCECC) to deploy global acceptable safety and security standards for the project.
GIK/APA