All Posts in "Day: November 29, 2021"

 Evans Alleged Accomplice Dies Of HIV 

JUST IN: Evans accomplice dies of HIV complications in prison | SundiataPost
Chiemeka Arinze , an alleged accomplice of billionaire kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, popularly known as Evans, has reportedly  died in prison custody.
He is standing trial alongside, Evans, Joseph Emeka, and Udeme Upong, over the attempted kidnap of Chief Vincent Obianodo, the Chairman of the Young Shall Grow Motors, before Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of an Ikeja Special Offences Court.
They are facing a seven-count charge of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, attempt to kidnap and sale and transfer of firearms.
 He died on Friday, November 26, 2021 as a result of Cardiopulmonary arrest.
 Arinze, who has been sick, was rushed from the prison to a General Hospital on Friday, where he later died.
The medical records from Ajeromi General Hospital, Ajegunle signed by Dr. Salisu B. E. indicated that the deceased who died at the age of 45 was suffering from complicated Advanced HIV.
Online Editor by — November 29, 2021 in Crime/Metro 0
Nigeria Gets  New Domestic Base Price For Gas 

NMDPRA sets new domestic base price for gas
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has established  new Domestic Base Price (DBP) framework and applicable gas wholesale price for the strategic domestic sector.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), NMDPRA, Engr Farouk Ahmed,explained that the new framework is in fulfilment of the relevant sections of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.
    The law, which was assented to by the President on the 16th of August 2021 and gazetted on the 27th of August 2021, provides a clear regulatory framework for the determination of a market-based pricing regime for the domestic gas market in Nigeria.
He added  that the  applicable wholesale gas Price for the power sector shall be the established Domestic Gas Price.
He hinted that the DBP will be determined annually based on the criteria set in the Third Schedule of the Act, which are:
   a. Reference DBP to prices of gas in countries with significant reserves and production of natural gas.
    b. Ensuring that Base Price considers the lowest cost of gas supply based on a Three-tier Cost of Supply Framework.
   c. DBP is related market-prices tied to International Benchmarks (for strategic investors)
He said Domestic Base Price shall be the Export Parity Price at the delivery point where there is a dominant supply of gas in Nigeria.
Export Parity Price in this context is defined as a market-driven pricing framework, responsive to fiscal changes and weighed to ensure pricing flexibility while moderating swings to protect fragile domestic industries.
He further explained that the pricing framework for gas conversion industries namely: ammonia, urea, methanol, polypropylene, Low Sulphur Diesel (GTL), shall be as currently specified under the Fourth Schedule.
The NMDPRA helmsman highlighted that the other commercial sector consisting of cement, non-grid power, iron and steel industries, aluminium and all such industries requiring gas for heating shall be DBP +US $0.50.
He stressed that these prices shall apply to gas supplied under the domestic gas delivery obligation which shall be determined by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) under Section 110 of the PIA.
He disclosed that the agency  is currently  consulting with industry stakeholders in the development of DBP and applicable wholesale prices for the domestic gas market.
He assured that an industry-wide stakeholder engagement will equally be conducted before the final declaration of the 2022 DBP and wholesale price of gas to the strategic sectors.
He expressed appreciation to all investors in the Domestic Gas market and assure them of the agency’s  commitment to ensuring transparency, deepening of the domestic gas market, and creating an investor-friendly business environment, as the Authority dutifully implement all the provisions of the new regulatory framework.
Online Editor by — November 29, 2021 in Oil&Gas 0
How To Tackle  Telecoms Industry Challenges-NCC Boss

NCC values continuous dialogue as means to tackle telecoms industry challenges - Danbatta – TechEconomy.ng
The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, says  continuous dialogue between the regulator and its various licensees is central to finding lasting solutions to issues negatively impacting the licensee’s compliance with extant regulations and challenging the growth of the telecoms industry.
Danbatta stated this during the second edition of NCC’s 2021 Talk to The Regulator (TTTR) forum held at Four Points by Sheraton, Lagos, over the weekend. The theme of the discourse is, “Improving Stakeholders Satisfaction”.
According to Danbatta, who was represented at the forum by NCC’s Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Adeleke Adewolu, the forum is organised in keeping with the Commission’s commitment to continually ensure regulator-licensee interactions to develop collaborative solutions and implementation programmes to the challenges of the telecom ecosystem.
“The Nigerian Communications Act (NCA, 2003) invests the NCC with powers and responsibilities for the regulation of both the technical and market-related aspects of telecoms infrastructure and services in Nigeria. We consider our role as a regulator very vital to ensuring industry sustainability because NCC considers consultation as the lifeblood of regulation” the EVC emphasised.
He also declared that “we have consistently deployed stakeholder engagement tools like public enquiries, private investigations, written information requests, one-on-one discussions as we are having it now and diverse consumer engagement platforms.These tools enable us to ensure that our interventions are well-grounded and that our decisions are based on a clear understanding of stakeholders’ perspectives”.
Danbatta said that such interactions fit squarely within the five pillars of the Commission’s Strategic Management Plan (2020-2024), which include Regulatory Excellence, Promotion of Universal Broadband Access, the Development of the Digital Economy, Facilitation of Market Development, and Strategic Partnering.
“Through regular interactions with our licensees, the Commission is able to gain valuable insights to enhance our regulatory output and enabled us to drive excellence in consonance with the five pillars of our strategic vision for the industry as streamlined in the Commission’s Strategic Vision Plan (SVP), 2021-2025,” he said.
The EVC also reinforced the Commission’s belief that only through optional performance by the licensees will Nigeria be able to achieve the national objectives and targets in the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) 2020-2030, the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP), 2020-2025 and other national policy instruments targeted at developing the nation’s digital economy ecosystem.
He said on this basis that the Commission is, “Therefore, we intend to use this forum to seek support for many initiatives that the commission has carefully developed in our quest to enhance market opportunities for all our licensees,” Danbatta said to emphasise NCC’s faith in collaboration with stakeholders and its licensees in order to address any concerns that may impede the attainment of the relevant policy objectives.
The NCC CEO also emphasised that the Commission will continue to roll out forward-thinking and all-inclusive regulatory initiatives to provide market opportunities for all its licensees. Additionally, Danbatta said NCC is also committed to constantly reviewing licensing framework as well as key regulatory instruments so as to refresh the Commission’s regulatory frameworks and ensure better service delivery for consumers and efficient attainment of other national interest objectives.
However, Danbatta said some licensees are not doing as much as they ought to be doing. “Several licensees are struggling to pay their staff, many are unable to comply with basic licence obligations, some are defaulting in the payment of their Annual Operating Levies (AOL) while the level of interconnect and other inter-licensee indebtedness is still unacceptably high.
Therefore, we are required to ensure regulatory interventions are put in place to address challenges, bottlenecks and grievances that may arise among the licensees in this regard,” he said.
Also addressing the gathering, the Director, Licensing and Authorisation at NCC, Mohammed Babajika, said the forum was intended to foster a harmonious relationship with licensees, identify their challenges and provide feedback on licensees’ fulfilment of their licence obligations and to re-emphasise the role of licensees in ensuring good quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE) for the consumers.
Online Editor by — November 29, 2021 in IT&Telecoms 0
Nigeria’s $41.4bn External Support 9month Imports-CBN

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele,says Nigeria’s current $414bn external reserves is enough to support 9 months of imports into the country.
Emefiele,who disclosed  this  at the 56th Charted Institute of Bankers (CIBN) annual Banker’s dinner in Lagos at the weekend,noted  the development is a morale booster for both foreign direct and portfolio investors willing to invest in the economy.
He added that it provides significant fire power to support our domestic industries that need to import critical machines and equipment for domestic production and exports.
He said: “I would like to state that notwithstanding these positive indicators, our economic growth remains fragile, as our unemployment and inflation rate remain at levels that are not very supportive of growth. Second, continued implementation of our intervention efforts would need to be undertaken to sustain the recovery efforts and stimulate further growth of the economy. Third, given population growth at about 2.7 percent annually, it is important that we continue to deploy measures that will enable our economy to attain annual growth rates of over 5 percent.
“Through the pandemic we are aware that our policy responses are often more effective when we work with the private sector. For example, the CACOVID alliance played an instrumental role in reducing the negative effects of the pandemic, by providing palliative support to families affected by the virus and in rebuilding our healthcare institutions.”
“Leveraging the strength of the private sector will be critical in mobilizing funds that are needed toward building a more resilient and stronger economy. We intend to strengthen collaborations with the private sector in order to support investments in critical sectors such as infrastructure, and ICT, in addition to ongoing efforts to build a stronger agriculture and manufacturing base in Nigeria.”
He announced that  the Infrastructure Company Limited (InfraCo) is slated to commence in two months citing that the strategic projects it would fund would speedily foster economic activities and inclusive growth.
He said the sum  N1trillion has been provided to support the operations of the company.
He said following  the decline in revenues due to federal and state government as a result of reduced receipts from the sale of crude oil, alternative ways of funding infrastructure are critical if the country must ensure sustained growth of its economy.
“As we are all aware, the cost of logistics is often seen as a significant impediment to the growth of businesses in the country. In recognition of the role improved infrastructure could play in the development of our economy, along with the need to leverage private sector capital in funding the over N35 trillion deficit, which is the estimated amount required to build an efficient infrastructure ecosystem in Nigeria, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) working in partnership with critical stakeholders such as the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and African Finance Corporation (AFC) set up Infracorp. Infracorp is expected to raise over N15 trillion to support investment in critical infrastructure in Nigeria.
“So far, N1 trillion has been provided as seed funds by the promoters to support the operations of Infracorp. We recently appointed four fund managers, and a Management Team has been selected to run and manage Infracorp. Over the next two months, Infracorp will kick off its operations by targeting strategic infrastructure projects that would help catalyze further growth of our economy. Infracorp is expected to set the standard template that will help in enabling greater private sector funding for public infrastructure projects in Nigeria.”
He spoke on the exchange rate management,saying the apex bank has so far given a creditable account of itself.
 According to him:”As a result of our demand management policy, the naira has remained largely stable around N411/US$1 at the I&E window particularly since the discontinuation of foreign exchange allocation to Bureau De Change operators along with the convergence between the CBN and NAFEX rates. Banks are now able to meet the demands of their customers seeking forex for SMEs, school fees, medical and PTAs, which has reduced the need of customers to rely on alternative providers of foreign exchange. Average daily Fx turnover at the I&E window is now over $250million, up from $40million in April 2020.”
Online Editor by — November 29, 2021 in Banking&Finance 0
We Wont Condone Import-Driven Deregulation-PENGASSAN

We Won't Support Import-Dependent Deregulation Policy – PENGASSAN – Independent Newspaper Nigeria
Petroleum and Natural Gas Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN),says the ongoing attempt by the federal government to deregulate the oil industry while the country largely depends on importation of petroleum products due to the poor state of the refineries.
President of the union,Comrade Festus Osifo,disclosed this at a panel of discussants at the 2021 National Association of Energy Correspondent   Strategic  International Annual  Conference with a theme, PIA: Energy Transition
He maintained that while organized labour is not opposed to deregulations, it is difficult for the government to transfer its inefficiencies to the masses,which manifested in the sorry state of the nation’s refineries.
According to him, the organized labour told the government is that fix the refineries, when the refineries are working we would support you to deregulate, that what they don’t want is import drive deregulation. But it should be based on local production.
He added:“If the refineries were working  I don’t think that the labour organizations would oppose deregulation”.  He said mid nineties the direction of labour has been government why not fix the refineries. So that the foreign component that goes into the costing would be eliminated.
Just imagine today, people working in refineries are Nigerians, you will pay them in Naira. So when you are, when the dollar is appreciated against the Naira, at the end of the day, the manpower is stabilized. The cost of labour is in Naira and not in dollars. So the only thing you now price in dollar is the cost of crude oil.”
 He  lamented that there has been trust deficit between the government and the people over the years,adding that there was need to change this orientation with a view to enabling the two parties strike equilibrium for national development.
Speaking,Olufisayo Duduyemi, chief strategy officer Axxela Limited, in his comment, said in the context of the energy transition, it is acknowledged that there would be a significant reduction in the use of fossil fuel in the years ahead and urged Nigerian to switch over to natural gas as fuel of choice.
According to him, it is through the usage of natural gas that Nigerians can experience some soft landing from the effects and impact of full deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry.
He emphasized the need for  the country’s gas resources to be harnessed and monetized.
He added: “Let us put gas into our processes and industries. By so doing cost of production would reduce, cost of commodities would drastically reduce and would become more available to the masses, this is the role natural gas is playing now and in the future,” he said.
In his contribution, Wiebe Boer, Chief executive officer of All On,  an investment company,said renewable energy is the future of energy
According to him,  if Nigeria so much time as a country figuring out this problem on an industry that is currently losing momentum or becoming outdated in the world,  the country  would be left behind in the energy transition .
 He also advocated for total deregulation also in the power sector so that the economy can just move in the direction it should move.
 He said there is a lot of interested parties are coming into the market and this is a big opportunity for Nigeria.
He stated that some downstream companies with petrol stations are thinking of transforming those petrol stations from just selling petrol to providing services in areas such as renewable so that Nigeria can key in into the drive of renewable.
 Adeola Yusuf, team lead,Platform Africa,maintained that lack of trust has been the reason why the people are not supporting government.
He said the government has been talking to people and not communicating with them.
Online Editor by — November 29, 2021 in Oil&Gas 0