President Muhammadu Buhari has officially commissioned the $1.5 billion Lekki Deep Seaport, in Lagos first in Nigeria. He was accompanied by the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who was the chief host. Buhari had earlier arrived at the Murtala Muhammad Airport, Lagos on Monday at 3:33 pm, received by Sanwo-Olu and proceeded straight to the location of the Deep Seaport in Lekki. The seaport spanning over 600 meters, is enough for a vessel of up to 16,000 standard containers (TEU). The approach channel is 11 km long. The Lekki Deep Seaport made history last year as it received the first-ever vessel…
Author: Elvis Eromosele
By Elvis Eromosele Nigeria is a study in contradiction. It has the largest proven gas reserve in Africa yet faces a significant challenge in providing access to gas for a majority of its citizens and businesses. On top of this, it occupies an unenviable position as one of the top seven gas-flaring countries in the world, according to the World Bank. The tale would be unbelievable if it was fiction. Sadly, the reality is grim. Oil-producing companies burn off millions of cubic litres of natural gas during oil production. They use a fancy term, gas flaring, to describe it. It…
Against projections by some experts, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has increased the monetary policy rate by 100 basis points to 17.5 per cent. This is contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the first MPC meeting in 2023, in Abuja on Tuesday. CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, who read the communiqué said that the previous increases had yielded results, with the slight drop in the inflation rate recorded in December 2022. The committee however, held all other parameters constant. While the Assymetric Corridor of +100/-700 basis points around the MPR was…
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has said the state government spent $150 million on flood control and erosion management in different locations. This amounts to N69,075,000,000 when converted to naira at the official rate of N460 to the dollar. Obaseki made the disclosure at the official launch of the Edo State Flood, Erosion, and Watershed Management Agency in Benin at the weekend. Edo FEWMA is a new agency established by the government to sustain the gains recorded in erosion control and flood management started under the World Bank-assisted Edo State Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project. Special Adviser to…
By Eniola Mayowa It is not unusual to have Public Relations Managers lament the frustration on their jobs; particularly the poor understanding of the value public relations brought to bear on the bottom line and the overall success of the business they represent. I recall my experience as a greenhorn in public relations practice over two decades ago. The office of public relations reports directly to the CEO, however, there was the common office intrigues to have public relations moved to the legal department. Of course, my boss resisted the move and that brought the office into conflict with the…
The federal government is targeting to create over 5 million jobs through smart farming. Thus, it has through the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), distributed smart agriculture materials to beneficiaries of the National Adopted Village for Smart Agriculture (NAVSA) 5-Day Empowerment Programme which took place at Al-Qalam University, Katsina, Katsina State. The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa was represented by Ag. Director, Digital Economy Development of the Agency, Engr. Salisu Kaka, stated that “Agriculture remains one of the critical sectors of Nigeria’s economy. This is evident in the policies of the current…
The World Bank has revealed that some twenty-eight million nine hundred thousand people living in Nigeria and other West and Central African countries depend on emergency food assistance for survival. This is despite an above-average yield in the 2022/23 agricultural season. The global bank explained that countries in these regions continue to face high levels of food insecurity because of persistent insecurity and macroeconomic challenges. It noted that unless measures are taken, 41.9 million people in Nigeria and these countries could be food insecure between June and August of 2023. The bank stated this in its latest ‘Food Security Update.’…
As the scarcity of the Premium of Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, continued on Sunday, oil marketers have hinted that the cost of the commodity would cross N800/litre once the subsidy on PMS is removed. Industry operators had repeatedly stated that the high cost of subsidy on petrol was a burden on the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and contributed to the prolonged crisis in the downstream oil sector. NNPC is the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria. The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, recently suggested that the government should gradually withdraw subsidy on PMS, stressing…
Nigeria’s mobile subscriptions rose to 222.23 million in 2022, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has revealed. This is in spite of the bottleneck imposed by the implementation of the Federal Government’s National Identification Number-Subscriber Identity Module policy. According to new data from the Nigerian Communications Commission, the total number of subscriptions grew from 195.13 million as of December 2021 to 222.23 million as of December 2022. This growth signified a complete shake-off of the decline that plagued the telecoms industry in 2021 when the total number of mobile subscriptions declined by 4.42 per cent from 204.15 million as of December 2020…
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has announced that it collected over N10 trillion in tax revenue in the year 2022, the highest tax collection ever recorded in its history. The Service made this known in its “FIRS 2022 Performance Update,” report signed by its Executive Chairman, Mr. Muhammad Nami, and released to the public on Monday, after his briefing with President Muhammadu Buhari. “The FIRS, in the year 2022 collected a total of N10.1 trillion in both oil (N4.09 trillion) and non-oil (N5.96 trillion) revenues as against a target of N10.44 trillion. “Companies Income Tax contributed N2.83 trillion; Value…