We can’t meet ASUU’s N284bn demand now–FG

 

Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige

The Federal Government on Wednesday said while it had met seven out of the eight demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, it could not meet the union’s demand for earned allowance worth N284bn.
This, the Federal Government said, was due to economic recession.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, said this while answering questions from State House correspondents at the end of a meeting of the Federal Executive Council presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Ngige said there was no way the government could pay the allowance because there was no money.
The minister said the government had conceded to the union the right to exclude endowment funds that accrued to universities from the Treasury Single Account.
He said while the government agreed to ASUU’s demand to exclude endowment funds from the TSA, that did not mean that universities’ councils would not have right to audit such an account.
Ngige added, “The other aspect of it is the earned allowance. The earned allowance is the only one that is not sorted out now because everybody knows and agrees that we are in a recession.
“If we are in a recession and you are asking us to pay you N284bn, nobody will pay it because the money is not there.
“So, they (ASUU) agreed and the National Assembly also agreed, but the government offered them some amount pending when we finish auditing of the first tranche of money that has been given to them in that same area of earned allowances.
“That tranche of money that they collected is being audited, but the auditing process is very slow because some people for some strange reasons are not allowing auditing to take place. So, a time frame has been fixed of six months within which the auditing will be done.
“Within those six months, government has offered something that they will be paying on a monthly basis and ASUU has also made a counter proposal to government so both parties have gone back to their principals.
“ASUU has a principal which is the national executive body and government has come  back to look at our finances viz-a-viz with the National Assembly which will appropriate that particular fund because for 2016, there is nothing in the budget for it. It will be done and appropriated as and when due.”
Ngige said ASUU was expected to return to the negotiating table with its counter proposal.

FG lists conditions for assets sale

The Federal Government has given conditions that must be met before the sale of certain national assets.
Top among the conditions is that government will insert repurchasing clauses in the assets sale agreements.
A top government source who declined to be named disclosed this to Daily Sun.
The National Economic Council (NEC), chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, had, last Thursday, endorsed government’s plan to sell off some national assets as part of the solution to get Nigeria out of recession and revamp economic growth.
According to the source,  government has also ruled out outright sale of assets.
“The federal government has no plan to sell-off its shares outrightly in the LNG where it owns 49 per cent shares and the balance 51 per cent owned by private foreign interests.
“Government doesn’t own the entire gas company and will certainly not sell-off its entire shares but is open to the possibility of selling its 49 per cent ownership by five per cent or thereabout.”
On the repurchase clause, the source said: “Just as in other potential asset sales, there would be a repurchase option that guarantees the federal government’s opportunity to buy-back any such assets if circumstances change anytime in the future.”
Though a list of national assets to be sold is  yet to be drawn-up, the source said that there is also a clear decision not to sell any critical asset of the country.
“Some of the intended sales could be in form of time-bound leases, advance renewal payments on leasing licenses and concessioning which would attract buoyant signature fees. If we even want to sell  certain assets, while our target is to get foreign currency, specifically dollars, the option would also be opened to Nigerians at some point to buy limited shares through the Nigeria Stock Exchange.”
The source disclosed that one of the concessioning deals almost completed is the East-West lines of the Nigeria Railways, with the General Electric (GE)-being the concessionaire. He also said the firm will invest $2 billion in the Nigerian economy including refurbishment of the single-gauge lane of the lines that have been left idle for years.
GE under the deal, the source added, is expected to hire back some of the laid off staff of Nigeria Railways and also open a Transport University in Nigeria while building/assembling train coaches in Nigeria.
Under the deal,  the Federal Government would also receive a signature fees in foreign currency as it would in other assets that might be concessioned.

Nigerian government rejects call to increase fuel price

The Nigerian government will not increase the pump price of petrol despite a demand that it should do so, officials have said.

The forum of former Group Managing Directors of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, on Sunday called for the price increase by calling for a removal of price cap in the pricing template.

A removal of the price cap would mean that marketers would be free to sell petrol at their desired price, based on several factors such as the exchange rate and international crude price. With the Naira exchange rate going down by over 50 per cent to about N412 since the current petrol price was fixed, approving the recommendation would have meant Nigerians pay more for petrol.

The Nigerian government through the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, however, said on Monday that it will not accept the advice.

The former GMDs had in a 12-point communiqué at the end their meeting with the incumbent GMD of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru, said the price cap of N145 per litre of petrol was “not congruent with the liberalization policy.”

The removal of the cap under a liberalised market environment would allow marketers of petroleum products to sell products at any price to enable them recover cost.

The Forum said the current ceiling price of N145 per litre did not factor the current foreign exchange (FOREX) rate and other price components of the pricing template, like crude oil cost and Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) charges, which remain uncapped.

While stating the government’s response, the acting Executive Secretary of PPPRA, Sotonye Iyoyo, said the proposal was the personal opinion of the former state oil chiefs.

“If it was a recommendation, that is what it is – a personal opinion. I’m not aware government is planning any fuel price increase. We are in a liberalised market already,” she told PREMIUM TIMES.

The spokesperson of the NNPC, Garba Deen Mohammed, also described the advice as an “opinion.”

“The forum was expressing its opinion, which it is entitled to,” Mr. Mohammed reported. “NNPC is a player in the petroleum industry and has a right to have its views about the industry. Nobody is bound by the opinion.”

In the communiqué, the forum also asked the federal government to include funding of joint venture operations as first line charge to guarantee sustainable oil and gas production and national reserve growth.

The industry has, for years, been contending with challenges of dwindling investments to grow production and national reserves, due to inability of government to meet its funding obligations to the joint venture regularly.

The meeting also reviewed issues affecting operations of the oil and gas industry as well as recommendations to resolve them.

The issues include the insecurity in the Niger Delta, NNPC’s poor corporate reputation, poor state of the country’s refineries, current state of petroleum products supply pricing template, and need to focus attention on the Chad Basin in the ongoing frontier oil exploration activities in the northern part of the country.

Other issues include operations of the National Petroleum Investments Management Services, NAPIMS; Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB; NNPC’s relationship with its partners; NNPC’s dwindling revenue base and rising debt profile as well as its widening pension funding gap.

During the meeting, Mr. Baru presented the status of NNPC’s finances and the state of the oil and gas industry, spanning his management’s 12 business focus areas towards restoring the corporation on the path of growth and profitability.

In its review of the current state of industry and ways to resolve issues militating against its progress, the meeting was concerned about declining production levels and the consequences on the country’s revenue.

On insecurity, the meeting noted the threat to oil production and damage to the Niger Delta environment. It said there was need for government and security agencies to refocus their engagements with the various host communities to build sustainable partnership toward a lasting solution to the problem.

The former GMDs urged government to ensure the refineries were refurbished using the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), while their operations were restructured as Incorporated Joint ventures (IJV) modelled after the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), with credible technical and financial partners.

The meeting also asked the government to ignore the proposal in the draft PIB for an NNPC investment subsidiary, NAPIMS, to be removed from the state oil firm. it said that would inhibit its effective function as a national oil company in comparison with its peers in other countries.

On its dwindling revenue base, the former GMDs said they were concerned with the situation and called for particular attention to be focussed on revenue generating entities – the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, the retail arm, and the refineries – to restore its growth and profitability.

Worried by the high level of NNPC’s debt profile, the former oil chiefs urged its management to urgently ascertain its true financial status and immediately decide on the most appropriate capitalization model.

“If the current situation remains unchecked, it could lead to the crippling of the corporation and the nation’s oil & gas sector, the mainstay of the Nigerian economy,” they said.

Group Asks FG To Declare State Of Emergency On Economy

A Civil Society Organisation (CSO) has advised the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on Nigeria’s economy.

The call follows a report from the National Bureau of Statistics which shows that Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has contracted by 2.06% in the second quarter of 2016.

The Executive Secretary of the Centre for Social Justice, Mr Eze Onyekpere, made the recommendation on Wednesday while addressing journalists in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.

Mr Onyekpere noted that Nigerians were yet to feel the impact of the economic policies.

He advised the government to cut down on its spending and come up with a clear template on how it intends to build the economy.

FG to borrow for 3 years to end economic woes

The federal government has approved a three-year rolling external borrowing plan, Nation reports.

Briefing State House Correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting held in Abuja on Wednesday, the Minister for Finance, Kemi Adeosun, said the approval would be transmitted to the National Assembly immediately.

She said the loans would come from agencies such as the World Bank, African Development Bank, China Exim Bank, and other development agencies like the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The finance minister said the plan to borrow externally was in line with government’s strategy to focus on concessional debts, low cost loans particularly from multi-lateral agencies.

Other highlights of the meeting according to News24 included the changing of the name of Ministry for Solid Minerals to Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, the approval of a new roadmap for the development of the solid minerals sector, approval of contracts to build a new structure called international house at the University of Ibadan and a library at the University of Lagos.

The National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday released the much-awaited Gross Domestic Product figures for the second quarter of 2016 with the GDP growth rate sliding further from -0.36 per cent in the first quarter to -2.06 per cent year-on-year.

In the GDP report released by the NBS, the bureau said, “In the second quarter of 2016, the nation’s Gross Domestic Product declined by -2.06 per cent (year-on- year) in real terms.

ASUU threatens to embark on strike after FG ignores demands

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) through its Lagos Zone Coordinator, Prof. Olusoji Sowande at a news conference in Lagos on Tuesday, threatened to embark on a nationwide strike in regards to its demands for the implementation of its 2009 agreement with the Federal Government.
Sowande said the 2009 FG/ASUU agreement, Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on funding of state universities, breaches of the conditions of service and re-negotiation of the agreement, exclusion of Nigerian universities from Pension Management Company and non-release of NEEDS Assessment Intervention Fund were still being ignored.
He said:

“The review of the agreement should have been undertaken in 2012 and 2015 but that did not happen.‎ “The implication is that our union has shown enough patriotism and understanding on these matters in the last four years.

“We are perplexed and disappointed that both the Federal and State Governments are not responding to our consistent appeals to bring about genuine transformation in the education sector, ‘’ he said.

He said they would rather not embark on a strike because it is the Students and ASUU members that end up suffering. Adding:

“It is unfortunate that the only language government appears to respect and listens to is that of industrial action like strike”.

FG Approves 2017-2019 Budget Framework

As the federal government fine-tunes preparations for the 2017 budget, wednesday it approved the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) for 2017-2019, estimating that the nation’s economy will grow at an average of 3.73 per cent in the next three years.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma, who disclosed this in Abuja, after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, said the economy is projected to grow by three per cent in 2017, 4.26 per cent in 2018 and 4.04 per cent in 2019.

“The reason the GDP growth rate for 2019 is slightly lower than 2018 is because it’s an election year and usually in an election year, because of the uncertainties, we have also made provisions for that,” he clarified.

The minister said government set $42.50 as a reference price in 2017 for oil and projected that it would rise to $45 in 2018 and $50 in 2019.

He said: “Government is being very conservative in terms of the reference price of crude oil, even though we are expecting it to go higher than this, but we are keeping to an extremely conservative price scenario.”

In terms of oil production, he said government would retain this year’s estimate of 2.2 million barrels per day for 2017 despite the fact that the militancy in the Niger Delta has forced oil production to below one million barrels per day.

For 2018, government remained ambitious and expects production to rise to 2.3 million barrels per day, while in 2019 it is targeting an increase to 2.4 million barrels per day.

The minister said:‎ “The Federal Executive Council meeting approved the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) for 2017-2019.

“As you know, the Fiscal Responsibility Act requires the executive to prepare the MTEF/FSP and send it on to the National Assembly for their consideration.

“And it is on the basis of the MTEF that the next budget will be fashioned. So, in short, we have started the process of preparing the 2017 budget.

“Before the MTEF was presented to FEC for consideration, there were extensive consultations with the private sectors, governors and NGOs.

“In the 2017-2019 MTEF, the government intends to intensify efforts in pursuing a manpower driven economy.

“So we intend to intensify efforts to diversify the economy; we intend to go on with the implementation of on-going reforms in public finance; we intend to enhance the environment for ease of doing business so as to generate private sector investments.

“We intend to continue to pursue gender sensitive, pro-poor and inclusive social intervention schemes, similar to what we did in 2016 – our social intervention programmes is going to be sustained.

“We intend to devote even more resources to critical infrastructure projects, just as we did this year. So we will continue to spend more on roads, rails, transport infrastructure, ports and so on.

“We intend to focus on governance and security and we intend to maintain the zero-based budgetary approach.”

Also speaking at the briefing, ‎the Minister of Industries, Trades and Investments, Okechukwu Enelamah, said FEC also approved the ratification of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement.

He explained that the agreement was approved by all the members of WTO at the ministerial conference held in 2013.

He said: “What that agreement seeks to do is basically to lower the cost of trade generally for everybody.

“There was a clear understanding that everyone benefits from lowering the cost of doing trade, it is particularly beneficial to developing countries that want to access the international market.”

He said‎ Nigeria was one of the countries that approved the agreement.

“We have been going through the process to ratify the agreement so that it will come into effect. The idea is that the agreement will come into effect when it is ratified by two thirds of all the countries that approved it originally, we think that will happen sometime this year,” he added.

He said that given the importance of trade to Nigeria, it was appropriate that Nigeria not only ratifies the agreement but also that it should champion the cause of lowering the cost of doing businessm which the agreement seeks to achieve.

When asked to produce figures of what other sectors such as mines and agriculture would contribute to the economy in view of government’s diversification programmes, Udoma said that the MTEF included projections for other sectors, but did not disclose the figures.

He said: “Even though we want to diversify, we still have to use a particular number to plan in terms of revenue from crude oil. It doesn’t mean we don’t use numbers for other receipts. I was just reading the highlights.

“We have numbers for everything, we have numbers we expect to get from customs, VAT, independent revenue, etc. So we have numbers for all the things we expect but because oil is volatile and is an area that has caused us to be where we are today, we want to assure Nigerians that we are not going back to using high estimates even though we sense that prices may be moving towards $60 per barrel in the next year or so, we are still going to use conservative numbers.”

On the exchange rate projections, he said government would use N290 to $1 as the exchange rate in 2017.

He said: “We believe that the naira will stabilise and we believe that N290 to $1 is a fair estimate from the central bank of what the naira is worth.”

On the level of implementation of this year’s budget, the minister said: “In terms of the performance of the current budget, in terms of the capital budget, we have released over N400 billion and we are up to date in terms of the recurrent, all salaries have been paid, overheads are released, statutory transfers have been made.”

He said the government had done well in terms of implementation of the budget.

In a related development, the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammad Sanusi II, has warned that the inconsistencies in the country’s economic policies by successive administrations have plunged the nation into unprecedented hardship.

Sanusi added that if Buhari does not act fast by reviewing his economic policies, his administration might end up the way of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.

Sanusi insisted that Nigeria has to retrace its step in terms of economic policies.

He also cautioned Buhari on the activities of those he described as “voodoo economists” in the corridors of power.

Delivering a lecture in Kano yesterday at Tahir Guest Palace, during the 15th Joint Planning Board (JPB) and National Council on Development Planning organised by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning in collaboration with the Kano State Government, Sanusi said the inconsistencies in the country’s current economic policies do not favour business and investment in the country.

The emir also advised the federal government to copy Lagos in terms of formulating policies that could boost trade, business and attract investors, adding that the Lagos example could bail the country out of its current economic woes.

He decried Nigeria’s over-dependence on oil, pointing out that more investment in agriculture, the power sector, manufacturing and infrastructure development and attractive incentives to investors would enhance the growth of the nation’s economy.

According to him, “I just saw that we are always blaming the past administration, but we have also made mistakes in this administration.

“The problem is that there is nothing we are facing today that we did not know would happen. That is the truth.

“We made mistakes, many of them deliberate. We ignored every single warning. Not building roads, not building power, and other necessary infrastructure that can boost the economy and development of the country.

“We are spending 30 to 40 per cent of every naira we earn servicing debt. The new borrowings were simply recycled into much higher recurrent expenditure. The country’s GDP was growing largely due to consumer spending.

“In 2010 when I was the central bank governor, the government increased the minimum wage to N18,000. I protested but they went ahead and borrowed money to pay.

“In 2012, as CBN governor, I said that this was an unsustainable wage bill; we needed to reduce the size of public service, which fell on deaf ears.

“I believe we have started retracing our steps and we have to retrace our steps. If a policy is wrong, it is wrong and it has to be changed.”

He further advocated for the devaluation of the naira, stating that those who are advising the president on the nation’s economy are not getting it right.

In his opinion, only very few Nigerians are benefitting from the current economic policies, noting that some of them are making the rich get richer, while the poor continue to wallow in poverty.

According to him, Nigeria has also been hampered by bad trade policies which are responsible for the collapse of industries.

Sanusi further warned that the economic downtown could engender terrorism and other crimes, because millions of Nigerian youths are jobless and restiveness.

Unity schools: FG releases admission list

The Federal Government has released the admission list of successful candidates into the Federal Unity Colleges for the 2016/2017 academic year.

The government also announced September 19 2016 as resumption date for all Unity Schools in the country.

The Deputy Director (Press and Public Relations) in the Ministry of Education, Ben Bem Goong, made the announcement in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday.

He quoted the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, as saying that the list has been posted online via www.fmeinterviewtest.com.

According to him, candidates who took part in the National Common Entrance Examination should check their names on that website.

An analysis of the results, Goong said, indicated that a total of 89,231, candidates took part in the examination, out of which 46,869 met the cut off mark.

FG okays four oil wells for Lagos, rejects one

The Federal Government says four of the five oil wells discovered in Lagos belong to the state.

It added that the fifth oil well could not have belonged to the state since its location fell outside the approved distance.

The Chairman, Indices and Disbursement Committee, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Alhaji Aliyu Mohammed, on Wednesday explained that the disproved oil well fell beyond 200 metres isobaths and could not have legitimately belonged to Lagos State.

Mohammed spoke at the Lagos Governor’s office, Lagos House, Ikeja, during the visit of a delegation of the committee, adding that the delegation was in the state for the purpose of verifying crude oil and gas production from the recently discovered Aje oil wells.

He said the verification by the committee and its recommendation would facilitate the disbursement of 13 per cent derivation fund to the state in line with the Nigerian Constitution.

According to Mohammed, as part of procedure and in pursuant to its constitutional mandate, the commission set up an inter-agency technical committee which comprised the commission, the Department of Petroleum Resources, Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation and the National Boundary Commission to determine the location of the Aje oil wells.

He said, “The technical committee recommended that for the purpose of derivation as spelt out under Section 162 (2) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), as well as the provision of the Allocation of Revenue Act, 2004, Aje oil wells 1, 2, 4 and 5 fall within the 200m isobaths and therefore should be attributed to Lagos State.

“As a result, the commission and members of the inter-agency committee had to embark on this working visit to conclude the process. Please, note that Aje oil well 3 falls beyond the 200m isobaths and therefore cannot be legitimately attributed to Lagos State.”

He added that the commencement of oil production from Aje oil field by Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum Company Limited was the first time oil was being produced outside the Niger Delta.

Governor Akinwunmi Ambode described the visit as historic. He pointed out that the visit marked the beginning of the official step that would take Lagos to the final destination as an oil-producing state.

Ambode said, “The discovery of oil in Lagos State is significant for Nigeria. It is the first time that oil would be produced outside the Niger Delta.

“It means that a new path to diversification is what we are now witnessing. We will also encourage other states to start activating their mineral deposits to expand the Internally Generated Revenue.”

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