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Tag: Economic Growth

  • NNPC working hard to stimulate Nigeria’s economic growth – Baru

    The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Maikanti Baru, on Wednesday, said he was pursuing an “aggressive gas development programme’’ to stimulate economic growth.

    Baru said this in a statement by Mr Ndu Ughamadu, NNPC Group General Manager Group Public Affairs Division, in Abuja.

    According to him, the corporation was working in line with a Federal Government mandate to do so.

    Baru said the mandate was to ensure that gas infrastructure development was enhanced for gas supply, stressing that this was a critical focus areas in the Federal Government’s 2016-2019 “Big Wins” for the Oil and Gas Industry.

    “It is also in line with the NNPC’s 12 Key Business Focus Areas to grow the industry.

    “With the vast Oil and Gas experience entrenched in this Advisory Board and with the passion, I, as the Pioneer Chairman of the NGA Advisory Board for gas development; I hereby re-dedicate myself to the aggressive development of the Nigerian Gas Sector.

    “I commit myself and all members of the NGA Advisory Board to do everything possible to achieve the objectives of the Board which align perfectly with NNPC’s key business focus area,’’ Baru pledged.

    Marketing the industry, he noted that opportunities at the upstream gas development included the acquisition and operatorship of oil blocks, drilling, rig leasing, and provision of engineering services, heavy equipment leasing, seismic acquisition and processing.

    Speaking on opportunities in the midstream of the gas value chain, Baru listed the following as areas that should interest investors: Investment in gas processing facilities, mini Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).

    “Others are floating LNG, Gas storage facilities, EPC of over 2000km gas pipelines, EPC of gas processing facilities, EPC of gas metering and monitoring system and Fabrication of pipes.

    “In the downstream, opportunities for investment in LPG bottling and marketing, Investment in gas based industries (Fertilizer, Methanol, Petrochemicals, CNG stations and conversion workshop), EPC of fertilizer and petrochemical plants, manufacturing of LPG cylinders/accessories.

    “The Nigerian Gas sector remains the largest and most vibrant in Sub-Saharan Africa with lots of potentials, especially in the deep water and untapped gas resources,’’ he said.

    Baru said that the gas reform was anchored on a robust strategic framework that is focused on maximum economic impact through gas,

    He also said it was aimed to drive linkages with agriculture, manufacturing and dispersed small enterprise through Power.

     

    NAN

  • Continuous importation of food risky to Nigeria’s economic growth – Odeje

     

    In recent times there has been a call for the Nigerian government to diversify the economy.

     

    Initiator, Taylor Odeje Foundation, Chef Taylor Odeje, has advised that continuous importation of food poses danger to Nigeria’s economic growth and development.

     

    Odeje made the declaration while speaking on enrichment and servicing other country’s economy and exportation of jobs and businesses alongside with free flow of unwholesome food products into the country, thereby has increased disease burden on Nigerians.

     

    He said it should be discouraged and government and Nigerians should look inwards to grow and develop organic food, which helps the people to remain healthy and sound.

     

    According to him: “Generally people don’t care about what they eat and it is scary, but hopefully with the new wave with people like me and people coming around I think we will be able to empower people and let people know better what they need and eat. Letting them know that is not witches and wizards that are responsible for their health challenges but what they are eating that is causing the damage.

     

    “Food importation should be discouraged because we are servicing other people’s economy, jobs and businesses we should have in the country to employ more people that would boost the economy, and the health challenges most of these imported foods do, like GMOs, frozen meats because of the use of chemicals and preservatives are bad. Eating all these things would lead to super bacteria that anti-biotics can tackle.

     

    “Look at cancer cases increasing. In Europe and America people are pushing for organic foods and they are expensive. We should appreciate what we produce as food that is fresh and harness it and see how we stop the importation and start growing home made products.”

     

    He also urged parents to give heed to the issue of balanced diet for their children and wards in order for them to have a productive and healthy life as they grow up.

     

    “For children they need a lot of proteins, vitamins and the complete package. Children could also be picking food but we encourage parents to do a lot of vegetables, and cooking it the right way in order to have the basic nutrients”, he said.

     

    READ ALSO: Customs dismiss officers linked to arms importation

  • We will keep Maritime investment window open to facilitate economic growth – Dakuku

    We will keep Maritime investment window open to facilitate economic growth – Dakuku

    …As Nigerian Chamber of Shipping commends NIMASA’s strides in the sector

    The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside has restated that the Agency is committed to ensuring the viability of the maritime sector to encourage domestic and foreign investors in Nigeria’s maritime industry.

    Dr. Dakuku made this known at the weekend, at the investiture of Mr. Andrew Isichei as the President of the Nigerian Chamber of Shipping (NCS) and the Inauguration of the members of the NCS Governing Council.

    The Director General who was represented by the Agency’s Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Mr. Bashir Jamoh stated that NIMASA under the leadership of Dr. Dakuku is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the sector remains viable, and most importantly help build stakeholders’ confidence in investing in the industry.

    According to him, “in line with our mandate of promoting shipping and related activities in Nigeria, we are leaving no stone unturned in advancing Nigeria’s global maritime goals. The vast maritime opportunities that abound in the country need to be harnessed especially as the present administration under President Muhammadu Buhari strives to diversify the economy. We will ensure that our maritime domain becomes more virile and attractive to you stakeholders and other industry players to further build your confidence to invest in the sector”, the DG said.

    Dr. Dakuku also reeled out the strides the Agency is making to ensure safety and security in the maritime space adding that the NIMASA 24 Hour Surveillance system is capable of monitoring and spotting all illegal activities on the waterways.

    He also said that owing to NIMASA’s implementation of the International Ships and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code in Nigeria, the ports and terminals are now safer and more reliable to do business, adding that the compliance level of the code in the country have been adjudged to be over 80 per cent from the about 13 percent it was when NIMASA took over as the Designated Authority.

    Consequently, the NIMASA DG said that the hosting of Heads of African Maritime Administration Conference in Abuja recently was to further open more channels of maritime businesses between the Nigerian investors and their foreign counterpart.

    In his words “Our hosting of African Heads of Maritime Administrations (AAMA) in Nigeria was intended to give you stakeholders a platform to interact with your contemporaries around the world in order to open more maritime opportunities for you, for those who were able to find time to be with us in Abuja for the event, I am quite confident that some useful contacts and engagements were made towards harnessing the various hitherto untapped opportunities” the DG said.

    In his speech, the new President of the NCS Mr. Isichei commended the Agency for driving the process of repositioning the maritime sector.

    In Mr. Isichei’s words “I will like to commend NIMASA for making valuable efforts towards repositioning the Nigerian Maritime Industry. Recently NIMASA hosted the AAMA Conference in which regional maritime security issues were at the front burner. We will continue to support NIMASA in working with our neighbouring countries to ensure that issues of Piracy and other maritime related crimes at Sea become a thing of the past”, the NCS President added.

     

  • Invest in government to promote economic growth, Osinbajo tells private sector players

    The Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday advised private sector players to invest in government to promote the country’s economic growth.

    Osinbajo said this while addressing the third Quarterly Business Forum at the Conference Centre of the Presidential villa, Abuja.

    According to him, the crucial partnership plays itself out in many of the administration’s technology-driven ease of doing business initiatives.

    “What we think will work is to create that environment such that private investment in this particular area thrives.

    “Government simply cannot provide any or all of these services; most times it just has to be private-sector driven and we will do our best to provide the enabling environment to make that happen.

    “So we are doing the best options to deepen broadband internet penetration and we are also seeking the best partners in this respect.

    “So our plan of going forward is really quite simple, we will demonstrate our belief and commitment to this partnership by making ourselves as accessible to you as possible.

    “So that we are able to engage, even in between this quarterly business forum and talk and exchange ideas and hopefully be able to develop working relationships that will endure.’’

    The acting president noted that government had decided to work with a private sector broadband infrastructure provider to manage the problematic Corporate Affairs Commission’s online platform.

    He said government expected that the provider would be fully operational in the next 30 days and that it guaranteed that up time would be 99 per cent.

    “We think that those kinds of partnerships and interventions are important.

    “The only way to make government work is if the private sector invests in government.

    “Not in investing its money but more investing in terms of time, attention and the kinds of partnerships that we are building here,’’ he added.

    Osinbajo mentioned that the issue of broad band internet penetration was one that the government had to deal with.

    He told the forum that government had created points of contacts to enable them to contact the administration to receive ideas and strategies and also give feedback.

    He thanked the business community for availing itself of the opportunity to dialogue with the government in providing solutions to the economic malaise.

    He noted that expertise existed in the private sector which the administration would tap from.

    The Budget and National Planning Minister, Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma, earlier noted that the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) of government was to take the country out of recession.

    He also said that the plan was to move the country on the path of growth, adding that while progress was recorded a lot still needed to be done.

    Udoma said government was ready to remove the constraints hindering business development and economic growth.

    “We want to leverage the power of the private sector. The power of the private sector is unlimited and we want to ensure that Nigeria becomes an investment destination,’’ the minister added.

    Udoma said that the ERGP was hinged on science and innovation, adding that to drive competitiveness, the country needed to harness technology.

    An investor, Chief Paul Okonkwo, said the forum was okay but noted that some government policies discouraged investments.

    Okonkwo, the Chief Executive Officer of Pokobros Group in Onitsha, said the request for end user certificates before some raw materials imported into the country could be cleared at the ports should be reviewed.

    He suggested that government should inform manufacturers ahead of policy changes and ensure that it should also offer short periods for the release of clearance documents.

     

     

     

    NAN