All Posts in "Day: February 11, 2023"

JAMB Registers 1.1m UTME Candidates,Insists Application Ends Feb 14

 

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has registered over 1.16 million candidates seeking admission into tertiary institutions across the country.

The applicants so far registered are therefore eligible to sit for the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME),JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede said on Saturday, during a monitoring tour of some CBT centres in Abuja.

He visited CBT centre located at Total Child International School, Dutse, JAMB Abuja zonal office, Life Camp, Global Distance Learning Institute and Sascon International College, Abuja respectively.

He also insisted that the Board would not extend deadline for the 2023 Unified UTME registration, while warning centres against extortion of candidates.

Applications for the 2023 UTME commenced on Saturday,14th January, 2023, and is set to close on Tuesday, 14th February, 2023

He said: “Registration is going on well except some of these schools. UTME is not a school based examination, it’s individual candidates and you can see what that school, Stella maris is doing, collecting N30,000 from candidates in the name of JAMB and then end up missing up the telephone number of the candidates

“So once they keep the telephone number of candidates it is unlikely that the candidates when we are contacting them, if we want to make a change in their timetable, you send text to them and it will not get to them after they have graduated from the school and want to do change of course they don’t have access to it.

“And that is a way of extorting the parents and we will take adequate steps to make sure that we stop that. One of the reasons is that we will tell every CBT center to stop doing bulk purchase of pin and bulk registration so if some center sells more than one pin to a source or collect money for more than one pin from a source then we will sanction such center.”

He implored candidates to report cases of extortion, saying that there is a code for candidates to reach the board when they come across any case of extortion, while promising there will be a reward for such act.

admin by — February 11, 2023 in Education 0
I Never Said CBN Lacks Capacity To Print More New Naira Notes-Emefiele

 

Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria CBN,Godwin Emefiele,has clarified reports surrounding the capacity of the apex bank to print more new currency notes in the country.

He said reports blaming the current challenge in the distribution of the newly redesigned Naira banknotes on shortage of printing materials at the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company Plc was misleading.

Spokesman of the apex bank,Osita Nwasinobi, who conveyed the clarification in a statement on Saturday,said at no time did the CBN governor made such statement during his presentation to the National Council of State at its meeting on Friday, February 10, 2023.

He quoted his boss as saying that he only told the meeting that the NSPMC was working on printing all denominations of the Naira to meet the transaction needs of Nigerians.

According to him,while the CBN appreciates the concerns shown by all stakeholders about the distribution of the new Naira notes, “we are alarmed at the extent to which vested interests are attempting to manipulate facts and pitch the public against the bank.”

“We also wish to restate that the NSPMC has the capacity and enough materials to produce the required indent of the Naira.The bank, therefore, wishes to appeal to the public to disregard the said report and exercise more restraint, even as we work assiduously to increase the circulation of the new notes in the country,” he added.

He also faulted a particular voice note trending on the social media alleging that the CBN planned to shut down some banks,in a particular geopolitical region of the country.

The spokesman said there was no such plan and that the claims were illogical and do not comply with the workings of the Nigerian banking system.

He added:“The public is therefore advised to ignore such recordings as they do not represent the policy thrust of the CBN and are only the desperate attempts of persons bent on inciting the public against the bank”

admin by — February 11, 2023 in News 0
GAA: The Generallissimo Of Kwara(1)

 

In this first part of the tripartite epistle, I shall put into perspective how the generalissimo of Kwara has been spinning people’s patrimony just within himself..

Of the four tyrants in Wole Soyinka’s satirical drama, “A Play of Giants”, Kamini was the most brutal. Savagely mean probably because of his knowledge deficiency. He jettisoned democratic virtues for dictatorship by acquiring more powers and mismanaging state resources. He was all in all as he hardly allowed any other organ of government to function. All cabinet members were inferior to him as he took pride in his self acclaimed superiority. Dignity of womanhood meant nothing to him as he violated them at will.

In the case of Kwara generalissimo however, he likes them young, beautiful and married. Those are vital credentials in making it to the cabinet; educational attainment, trackrecords and other important achievements are immaterial.

You are hereby welcome to Kwara, where we presently experience the rebirth of Kamini. Like a reincarnated being, our own generalissimo assumed office like an innocentee, who knew next to nothing. He would drive himself around, carry his own bag to the airport, queue at the terminal and traveled in commercial.

He would arrive at Central Mosque for Jumat service earlier than the entire congregation and sit outside; forming Mahatma Gandhi of Kwara, who represents nothing but peace. Surprisingly, all these have long been thrown to the dustbin, as our generalissimo now jets around the world with chartered flights and abuse opposition leaders using gutter ‘language’ typical of the lumpens. Character, they say, is a smoke, it’d manifest no matter how you try to cover it.

Kwarans would soon detect the undemocratic tendency in him when he started his sole administratorship with his refusal to form cabinet about five months into his administration. So such sensitive ministries as finance, education, works, etc didn’t have commissioners for months.

No state executive council meeting, no security council meeting and he was approving monies to and for himself. When he eventually constituted the cabinet, it was the worst the state had ever had. Our fears were eventually justified when he sacked the cabinet barely a year later. Even when he eventually reconstituted the cabinet, ministry of education, as sensitive it is, had to suffer for months more before it was considered to be headed. It was that bad.

Ours is a situation of from frying pan to fire, as many of those who considered Abdulfatah Ahmed’s administration as being bad are now chanting _O suwa as they experience worse scenarios in all fronts under GAA; hence, the sudden consideration of the earlier rejected stone to gleamingly form the critical angle of the house. At the moment, transparency has taken flight from Kwara, which explains why the generalissimo keeps siphoning our common patrimony without remorse.

The financial statistics of the state between June 2019 and January 2023 glaringly shows how the government of GAA has received bountifully with infinitesimal justification for its use. GAA is using Kwara resources to rebuild his collapsed businesses prior to becoming the generalissimo of Kwara in 2019. Has it not become an open secret that he has concluded construction of an oil refinery in a neighbouring country? Time will tell.

In his article “For Kwara, 2023 is about facts and relatable history” published on January 2, 2023, Mr. Rafiu Ajakaye, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, toed the line of his barely educated boss by misinforming unsuspecting Kwarans, quoting wrong statistics that the current government received lesser federal allocation compared to the last four years of Ahmed’s administration. I wonder why our friend, who’s a better educated fellow than his boss would shamelessly follow such an ignorant path.

Setting the record straight, former governor Ahmed FAAC receipt, between June 2015 and May 2019 reveals the following:

June — December 2015 = N23,607,056,916.5
2016 = N30,083,630,965.86
2017 = N37,658,120,654.63
2018 = N49,859,910,786.90
Jan — May 2019 = N19,365,739,246.43
Total Gross Amount = N160,574,458,570

Whereas, as at December 2022, if the CPS’ figures on the allocation received so far by the government of GAA, it has gotten N203,113,105,761.03 from FAAC so far. This is without January 2023’s FAAC allocation to the state.

Relying on the data from KWIRS and NBS sites, IGR of the state under both administration reveals that: Ahmed’s administration garnered N17,307,987,696.76 in 2016; N19,793,540,368.26 in 2017; N23,133,522,575.32 in 2018 and
N16,090,373,542.90 in the first two quarters of 2019. These totalled =N76,325,424,183.20 while GAA has realized N14,556,357,866.00 in the last two quarters of 2019;N19,623,992,033.62 in 2020; N26,961,014,485.76 in 2021 and N34,198,834,646.19 in 2022. These totalled =N95,340,199,031.57 as at December 2022.

So, from both FAAC and IGR, GAA has gotten far more than Maigida as against what the CPS and his boss dished out.

Another thing that will make a reasonably concerned Kwaran to worry is the state’s debt profile under GAA. In just three years and few months, Kwara has bitten more than it can chew as the state may continue to pay debts many years after the administration of the most clueless governor the state has ever produced.

For the records however, peeping into the Sub-National Debts Documents from the Debt Management Office (DMO) Nigeria, will reveal the Kwara State debt profile till date.

As at December 2015, the Kwara State Domestic Debt Profile was N31,966,815,195.18. By June 2019, it has built up into N61,335,531,821.69.

The difference between the figures above is N29,368,716,626.51. This interprets that Abdulfatah Ahmed only raised the Kwara debt profile by N29bn between 2015 and 2019. Therefore, as at June 2019, Kwara State Debt Profile maintained N61,335,531,821.69.

The DMO data revealed that as at September 2022, the Debt profile has increased to N109,551,279,948.44 The difference between this amounts to N48,215,748,126.75

The GAA government has been so lucky in terms of its financial fortune that no previous government has so enjoyed the largesse it is swallowing. So much that by now, one would expect a serious government to have conveniently commissioned at least, ten projects worth billions each.

But I am not surprised, Mr. GAA has so far made a lot of money that he now converts same to personal use. It’s gathered that he’s almost through with construction of a personal oil refinery in Cote d’voire. Isn’t it so unfortunate that this is what the noisy O toge of 2019 would produce for Kwarans? Those who contributed to the emergence of GAA should be ashamed of themselves and be bold enough to come out now and apologise to Kwarans.

Apart from the huge sums realized from FAAC, IGR, borrowings and the inherited N5.2bn from Abdulfatah Ahmed’s administration, the government of GAA secured FG infrastructural fund worth N18.6bn, World Bank grant N11.6bn, RAAM project grant N3.2bn, Covid 19 donation support N2.2bn, Paris Club refund N5.2bn, Covid 19 donations from multinationals N2.5bn, EFCC recovery money N600m UBEC counterpart fund N7.1bn, 13bn of Sure-P refund and many other undisclosed funds.

Therefore, when one of the fearless O toge soldiers, Bar. Akogun Oyedepo and a former commissioner for finance in the state, Hon. Banu, were quoted to have said GAA’s administration has gotten more than N300bn and more than N500bn respectively, they were right in their own right.

Dear Kwarans, let me end the first part of this tripartite piece with the words of Jose Saramago, in his award winning prose, “Blindness”. He quipped, “I don’t think we did go blind, I think we are blind but seeing, blind people who can see, but do not see. The difficult thing isn’t living with other people, it’s understanding them. Perhaps only in a world of the blind will things be what they truly are.”

In the second part of this piece, I shall attempt to explain how GAA has dealt severely with transparency and traumatized it completely in different sectors of Kwara economy.

Abdullateef Ishowo is the Director Media and Communications, PDP Presidential Campaign Management Council, Kwara state

admin by — February 11, 2023 in Opinion 0
Students’ Excellent Performance Manifestation Of Adeoye School Commitment To Standard-Akinlabi

 

The Executive Director, Adeoye International Group of Schools, Ota, Ogun State, Prince (Dr.) Olu Akinlabi, has described the overwhelming success the students of the school often recorded in both the junior and senior West African School Certificate Examination (WASCE) as a confirmation of the school’s commitment to high standard of education.

Prince Akinlabi, made this statement during the presentation of the 2022 Awards for Excellence in Entrepreneurship and Service to Humanity to the proprietor of the Adeoye International Group of Schools, Alhaji Nurudeen Oyetunde Adeoye, by the management of the Heritage Media Magazine.

He attributed the feat to the existence of 100 percent facilities and quality of staff in the group of schools.

He emphasized that the school’s conformity to quality standards with both Nigerian and British integrated curriculum has, no doubt, confirmed its core objective of ensuring the production of accomplished and ambitious young boys and girls of proven integrity who are ready to make significant contributions to the society.

The Executive Director noted that Adeoye International Group of Schools was established to meet the needs of parents by bringing value, care and intelligence to kids, adding that the infrastructural facilities at the school’s disposal was a clear evidence of the management’s efforts to build a school that could produce pupils with entrepreneurial and leadership skills grounded in ethical values and ready to lead the train for positive change in the world.

He added that Adeoye International Group of Schools had made continuous professional development mandatory for the staff to ensure that they consistently work hard to remain relevant to the system as well as engineering the culture of encouraging the students to aspire to greater heights and be agents of change in the society.

He said that the schools’ classes would focus on flagship programmes that would promote the development of the child and equip him or her to be self-disciplined, honest and self-reliant, stressing that developing these skills was the cornerstone of the education the school offers.

He added that the pupils were daily being counseled to have the fear of God, develop their talent work hard, follow due process, be role models and strive to leave a good legacy.

He expressed optimism that the school would attain greater height, considering the quality of staff and infrastructural facilities in the school and the support of the members of the school’s governing board, who he described as constant pillars of support.

admin by — February 11, 2023 in Education 0
NDIC Ready To Settle Depositors Of 20 Failed Banks

 

Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has raised sufficient funds to pay all depositors and creditors of all the 20 closed microfinance, primary mortgage, and Deposit Money Banks.

The corporation implored depositors and creditors of affected banks to come for verification and payment of the money that are in excess of their guaranteed sums.

Its Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, disclosed this at the NDIC Special Day at the 44th Kaduna International Trade Fair.

The deposit money banks, primary mortgage banks, payment service banks and mobile money operators were all insured up to N500,000 per depositor per bank, while those of microfinance banks were insured up to N200, 000 per depositor per bank.

He said: “Recently, the corporation repeated its call to depositors of 20 closed banks on which it has declared full (i.e 100%) liquidation dividends, to come forward for verification and payment of their deposits that are in excess of the guaranteed sums.

‘’The implication of this is that through our dogged liquidation activities, the Corporation has realized enough funds to fully pay all depositors of the closed banks.

“Similar notices were also sent to creditors of seven DMBs in liquidation, as well as depositors and ex-staff of two MFBs and a PMB, details of which are still available on our website and social media handles.

admin by — February 11, 2023 in NAICOM 0
Mainstream Energy Recruits Austrian Firm To Rehabilitate Jebba, Kainji Hydropower Plants

Mainstream Energy Solutions Limited (MESL), has recruited ANDRITZ, an Austrian firm,to rehabilitate, overhaul and modernise two generating units, 2G5 and 2G6, at the Jebba hydropower plant as well as the Kainji facility.

The company explained that the move was in line with its capacity recovery and expansion programme.

Jebba was commissioned in 1985, while the second plant, Kainji opened in 1968 to generate 20 per cent of Nigeria’s power sector.

It added that the Kainji andJebba hydropower plants have a combined installed generation capacity of 1,338.4 MW.It noted that both were acquired through a concession agreement with the federal government of Nigeria in November 2013

It said:“The two plants are in a cascade 100 km apart with Kainji Dam upstream of Jebba and are rated at 760 MW and 578.4 MW, respectively. Kainji was commissioned as Nigeria’s first hydropower plant in 1968, whereas Jebba was commissioned in 1985.

“When the power plants were taken over, Jebba was not operating at full power and Kainji was not generating at all. As a result, the total available capacity of both plants was only 482 MW. In response, MESL introduced its Capacity Recovery and Expansion Programme to restore both generating facilities and bring them back to full power,” the firm stated.

The firm said that work had already commenced at the Jebba hydropower plant which houses six generating units, of which two now need a general overhaul.

“In mid-2019, the senior management team of MESL visited ANDRITZ’ locations in Austria to get an impression of our extensive R&D, manufacturing and engineering facilities.

“During the visit a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed agreeing to negotiate the scope for the rehabilitation of unit 2G6 of the Jebba hydropower plant as well as the overhaul of units 2G5, 2G3, 2G2 and 2G1, including their associated equipment.

“In February 2020, ANDRITZ received the first major contract for the 2G6 project. The scope of supply covers the entire electro- and hydro-mechanical equipment, including a 96.4 MW turbine, a 103 MVA generator, and accessory equipment, as well as the intake gate.

“In September 2021, a second order for the rehabilitation of the 2G5 unit with an identical scope of supply was awarded. Both units are expected to be operational in 2024,” Mainstream stated.It stressed that Jebba is currently equipped with six 96.4 MW turbines and has a total generating capacity of 578.4 MW while ANDRITZ is the original equipment supplier for the turbines.

The company said it would also partner ANDRITZ to provide technical services in its bid to acquire more power generation assets within Nigeria and beyond.

According to the company,ANDRITZ, has been active in Nigeria for more than 100 years and was involved in Nigeria’s most important hydropower projects such as Kainji, Jebba, Shiroro and the recently commissioned Kashimbila project.

It added:“Taking account of the development of the hydropower market and in order to strengthen its position in the very promising Nigerian region, ANDRITZ has established a legal entity in Nigeria”

admin by — February 11, 2023 in Power 0
BEDC Mulls Alternative Energy Sources

 

Benin Electricity Distribution Company Plc. (BEDC) said it was considering alternative sources of power supply, aside the national grid, to end the power problem in its covering areas.

The Managing Director of the BEDC,Henry Ajagbawa,who disclosed this when he led the company management team on a courtesy visit to the palace of the Olu of Warri, His Majesty, Ogiame Atuwatse III in Warri,explained that the consideration of the independent sources of power became necessary, due to the constraints in the generation end of the electricity value chain in the country.

He expressed fears over non-payment for energy consumed by the customers in its franchise states in Nigeria.

“I think Nigerians are tired of excuses. Everywhere you go there is no power and the era of explanation is long gone.Today, we have constraints from the generation part of the value chain, we are getting less than 40 per cent of what we require to be able to sell to our communities.

“The average customers do not care what happens because all they want is electricity.There are alternative sources apart from the grid and we want to begin to engage those sources to see how we can begin to alleviate the problems we have today.

“But the crisis of non-payment is also an issue. If am able to bring independent sources, can I get assurance that there will be payment?,” he said.

Explaining his team’s reason for the visit, Ajagbawa said:”We are in the palace to solicit your royal blessings to enlighten and engage the people on what we want to do to get them power.Your Royal Majesty, we would be needing your support as we engage communities to see how we can start enumeration so that we will know the number of people we will be serving”

Speaking,the company’s board chairman, Mr Pastor Kings Akuma, told the monarch that the BEDC team came on board last September to rescue Benin Disco from the wrath and the wreckage that had bedeviled the company.

He said:”Our priority and focus is to pay homage to the first class kings, in our franchise states that include Delta, Edo, Ondo and Ekiti. The essence of our visit today is to seek the blessings and support of our Royal Majesties and to assure our customers in Warri and its environs of our readiness to meet their electricity supply as at when needed”.

The Olu of Warri, His Majesty, Ogiame Atuwatse III, who welcomed the BEDC team to the palace,implored the federal government to open up the electricity value chain for more participation and urged them to find solution to the infrastructural deficit in the value chain.

The monarch advised the new management of the power firm to engage his subjects to make them have full understanding of how the alternative power sources would be operated.

admin by — February 11, 2023 in Power 0
Respect Results Of 2023 General Elections, US Admonishes Nigeria

The United States (U.S.) government has asked Nigeria to respect the outcome of the general elections, billed for this month and March this year.

Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Consulate General in Lagos, Joseph Kruzich, gave the advise during a panel discussion on “Youth Involvement in the Democratic Process,” organised by the U.S. Consulate General in Lagos,said the U.S government is interested in seeing that there is fair, democratic, transparent, and credible elections,which is free of violence and intimidation,”

Kruzich said: “We want to encourage all people to refrain from any type of violence or intimidation and also to respect the results of the free, fair and credible elections.”

He said that 70 percent of the population of Nigeria are youths, adding that Nigeria has one of the largest youth population in the whole world.

He added:”So, it’s vital that the youths of Nigeria participate in the democratic process because a lot of the decisions that will be made by the next government will impact them in their future generations of Nigeria for decades to come”

He said that it is always vital that a large majority of the people exercise their civic duty and “vote and so, that is one of the reasons why we wanted to do this event. ”

Kruzich, who said that the U.S. government “does not have a preference for any candidate or any party, or any policies in particular.

He added: “We want to tell all Nigerian youths and citizens about what our expectations for this elections are.
“We want to see that there is fair, democratic, transparent, credible, elections that is free of violence, and free of intimidation.
“We encourage all people to refrain from any type of violence or intimidation and also to respect the results of the free, fair and credible elections.”

Underlining that there will be a part of some international observation efforts during the presidential and governorship elections, Kruzich said: “We will work with a lot of our allies and friends from around the world, in Africa and in Europe, to be part of the observation process. We will work with INEC and the Nigerian government.”

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Molly Phee, said: “Nigeria is so important. We want to encourage Nigerian youths to ensure the conduct of peaceful polls and ensure that results count.”

admin by — February 11, 2023 in Politics 0
Accidents: Lagos Plans Implementation Of Logistic Routes For Trucks

The Lagos State Government is planning the implementation of logistic routes for trucks and articulated vehicles as specified in the state’s transport master plan

The government explained that the development was necessary in order to
prevent consistent road hazards caused by trucks and articulated vehicles onthe highways, especially the recent ones, which resulted in loss of lives and property in the state.

Dr. Frederic Oladeinde, the Commissioner for
Transportation, in a statement said the government planned the idea during a stakeholders’ engagement meeting held with the owners and drivers of truck and articulated vehicles.

He explained that in order to curb incessant truck accidents within the state, the stakeholders’ were gathered periodically to
chart robust strategies that would further checkmate unceasing truck accidents,
saying safety and security of Lagosians remained paramount to the state
government.

He added that that a combination of different policies,which include erecting truck barriers, compliance with minimum safety standards
as well as restricting movement of articulated vehicles to designated routes would
go a long way in curbing persistent truck accidents in the state.

Speaking Also, Engr. Abdulhafiz Toriola, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Transportation added that the government was considering implementing use of designated routes for articulated vehicles as one of the strategies to checkmate the operations and activities of trucks plying the state roads.

He emphasized that the government did not want to take unilateral decisions hence, it called for the stakeholders’ engagement meeting to dialogue with relevant unions before taking necessary steps.

The ministry was reviewing the
Minimum Safety Standard Procedure for trucks and articulated vehicles being
implemented by the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) with a view to modifying it,by including the Vehicle Inspection Service (VIS) and Federal Road Safety Corps
(FRSC) Officials in the inspection process.

He also expressed government’s willingness to collaborate with relevant truck operators to ensure that drivers manning the steering of trucks were well-trained and only qualified drivers are allowed to drive the trucks/articulated vehicles within the state.

Mr. Adeyinka Aroyewun, the Representative of Council of Maritime Transport Union and Association, (COMTUA) further called for genuineness and clarity of purpose by both parties,which would help in achieving the desired results.’

admin by — February 11, 2023 in News 0