Monday 20 March 2017

Nigeria launches new immigration policy targeting terrorists, foreign herdsmen



The Federal Government has unveiled a new immigration policy known as “Immigration Regulations 2017’’ to check the entry of terrorists and other trans-border crimes in the country.
The Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, while unveiling the document on Monday in Abuja, said the document would also fast-track the ease of doing business in Nigeria.
He explained that the “Immigration Regulations 2017’’ is a vital document that seeks to operationalise the Immigration Act, 2015 and provide the legal framework for the dynamic and unfolding migratory realities.
Mr. Dambazau said the new regulation would replace the old and outdated Immigration Act of 1963, which could not take care of modern realities such as terrorism, technology and new immigration challenges.
“The objective of this new Immigration Regulations 2007 is to provide the legal framework for the effective implementation of the Immigration Act, 2015 and consolidate existing immigration regulations.
“This new document therefore replaces the outdated Immigration Act of 1963,’’ he said.
He explained that the new document empowers the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to properly register all foreigners, protect the borders, enhance internal security and attract foreign investors using the latest technology.
Mr. Dambazau said with the policy in place, the NIS would be empowered to register and monitor the entry and movement of foreign herdsmen who come into the country.
According to him, this will also go a long way in checking the herdsmen and farmers clashes.
Earlier, the Comptroller-General of NIS, Muhammad Babandede, said the “Immigration Regulations 2017’’ would positively change the operations of NIS in line with international best practices.
“The Immigration Act, 2015 made some profound provisions such as the establishment of migration directorate, dealing with issues bordering on smuggling of migrants and so on.
“I can assure you that with the Immigration Regulation 2017, NIS has been strategically positioned to combat all cases relating to transnational organised crimes,’’ he said.
According to him, NIS will be working with other security agencies like the Police, and INTERPOL to check trans-border crimes, human trafficking and arms smuggling into Nigeria.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the occasion was graced by diplomats, officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NIS and the International organisation for Migration (IOM).
(NAN)

2019 election results to be collated, transmitted electronically – INEC



The Independent National Electoral Commission has unveiled an electronic collation and results transmission system with a view to eliminating manual collation which the commission says enables malpractices.
INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Chidi Nwafor, disclosed the development on Thursday during a media parley chaired by the commission’s chief, Mahmood Yakubu, in Abuja.
In his presentation centred on deployment of technology and innovations to drive Nigeria’s electoral system ahead of the 2019 general elections, Mr. Nwafor highlighted the weakness of current collation system which involves manual transmission of results sheets from one stage to the next up to the point of final collation in the course of which malpractices are perpetrated.
“Observations have shown that most election malpractices that take place do not take place at polling units,” said Mr. Nwafor, a fellow of Nigerian Society of Engineers who supervised the deployment of permanent voters’ cards and smart readers for the 2015 elections.
He said it was barely possible to “rig” at polling units where everybody participates in the process of counting of ballot papers and recording of scores.
‘The challenge has been after the poll – between the polling units and the collation centres and at the collation centre.
“INEC has therefore decided to securely transmit results from all polling units to central database such that only viewing access is allowed at the wards and local government levels – which ultimately eliminates manual collation processes.”
The new e-collation system has four procedures, namely:
  1. Results from polling units will be entered into the e-collation application on the smart card reader;
  1. Results are transmitted to a central server;
  1. Results are auto-collated and can be viewed at the RAs (wards) and ECA8s can be scanned at that level; and
  1. Result audit and confirmation takes place at collation centres at LGAs, state and national level.
Mr. Nwafor said the new system could be used for all elections, from local council polls which INEC conducts in the Federal Capital Territory to the presidential election.
He added that the system had “a flexible dashboard to with a real-time user interface showing graphical presentation of status of results collated per given time.”
It is expected that the e-collation system further improves the credibility of Nigeria’s electoral process, as did PVC and smart card reader when deployed for the 2015 elections, reputed as the most credible since the inception of the Fourth Republic in 1999.
INEC said the new system would be first deployed for the November 2017 Anambra State governorship election as pilot phase.
“INEC is preparing for the 2019 elections and is further deploying technology to improve its service delivery and make its processes less prone to manipulations,” said Mr. Nwafor.
At the media parley, the chairman of the commission, Mr. Yakubu said the commission had been meeting with security, intelligence and military agencies to improve security of elections in Nigeria.
INEC’s last outing in Rivers States was widely condemned for widespread violence and malpractices, which ensured the commission had to wait till February 26 before concluding an exercise that started on December 10 of the previous year.
But Mr. Yakubu said 29 staff suspected to have been involved in the misconducts during the Rivers polls had been interdicted pending the outcome of investigation and prosecution by the police.

The world economy is picking up



“IF WINTER comes,” the poet Shelley asked, “can Spring be far behind?” For the best part of a decade the answer as far as the world economy has been concerned has been an increasingly weary “Yes it can”. Now, though, after testing the faith of the most patient souls with glimmers that came to nothing, things seem to be warming up. It looks likely that this year, for the first time since 2010, rich-world and developing economies will put on synchronised growth spurts.

There are still plenty of reasons to fret: China’s debt mountain; the flaws in the foundations of the euro; Donald Trump’s protectionist tendencies; and so on. But amid these anxieties are real green shoots. For six months or so there has been growing evidence of increased activity. It has been clearest in the export-oriented economies of Asia. But it is visible in Europe, in America and even, just, in hard-hit emerging markets like Russia and Brazil.

The signals are strongest from the more cyclical parts of the global economy, notably manufacturing. Surveys of purchasing managers in America, the euro zone and Asia show factories getting a lot busier (see chart 1). Global trading hubs such as Taiwan and South Korea are bustling. Taiwan’s National Development Council publishes a composite indicator that tracks the economy’s strength: blue is sluggish, green is stable and red is overheating. The overall economy has been flashing green lights for seven months and is pushing up towards the red zone.

This reflects, among other things, demand for semiconductors around the world; this February exports from Taiwan were up by 28% compared with 2016. Although that is the most striking example, exports are up elsewhere in the region, too. South Korea’s rose by 20% in February compared with a year earlier. In yuan terms, China’s were 11% higher in the first two months of 2017 than in 2016.

This apparent vigour is in part just a reflection of how bad things looked 12 months ago; suppliers who overdid the gloom in early 2016 are restocking. Asia’s taut supply chains also owe something to the two-to-three-year life-cycle of consumer gadgetry. On March 10th LG Electronics launched its new G6 smartphone. Its larger rival, Samsung, is due to unveil its Galaxy S8 phone by the end of the month; a new iPhone will be out later this year.

But the signs of life run deeper than just those specifics would allow. Business spending on machinery and equipment is picking up. A proxy measure based on shipments of capital goods constructed by economists at JPMorgan Chase, a bank, suggests that worldwide equipment spending grew at an annualised rate of 5.25% in the last quarter of 2016.
The good news goes beyond manufacturing, too. American employers, excluding farms, added 235,000 workers to their payrolls in February, well above the recent average. The European Commission’s economic-sentiment index, based on surveys of service industries, manufacturers, builders and consumers, is as high as it has been since 2011. After a strong fourth quarter, the Bank of Japan revised up its forecast for growth in the current fiscal year from 1% to 1.4%. Such optimism raises two big questions: what is behind this nascent recovery and will it take hold?

Lilacs from the dead land

The revival’s roots can be traced to the early months of last year, when a possible calamity was averted. At the end of 2015 stockmarkets tumbled in response to renewed anxiety about China’s economy. Prices at the factory gate, which had been falling steadily for several years, had started to plunge. There were fears that China would be forced to devalue its currency sharply: a cheaper yuan might spur China’s oversupplied industries to export more, fatten profits and service their growing debts.
Such a desperate measure would, in effect, have exported its manufacturing deflation to the rest of the world, forcing rivals to cut prices or to devalue in turn. The expectation that China’s economy was weakening pushed raw-material prices to their lowest level since 2009. The oil price briefly sunk below $30 a barrel. That worsened the plight of Brazil and Russia, already mired in deep recessions. It also intensified the pressure to cut investment in America’s shale-oil industry.

To stabilise the yuan in the face of rapid outflows of capital, China spent $300bn of its foreign-currency reserves between November 2015 and January 2016. Capital controls were tightened to stop money leaking abroad. Banks juiced up the economy with faster credit growth. With capital now boxed in, much of it flowed into local property: house prices soared, first in the big cities and then beyond. Sales taxes on small cars were reduced by half. Between them, these controls and stimuli did the trick.
Soon stocks of raw materials that had been hurriedly run down started to look skimpy. Iron-ore prices jumped by 19% in just one day last March. Curbs on Chinese coal production underpinned a mini-revival in global prices. Steel prices rose sharply, helped by the closure of a few high-cost mills as well as more construction spending. Oil climbed back above $50 a barrel (though it has slipped back a bit recently).

By the end of the year producer-price inflation in China—and across Asia—was positive again. And China’s nominal GDP, which had slowed more than real GDP, sped up again (see chart 2). Central bankers, who had been employing various measures to forestall global deflation, were mightily relieved. On March 9th Mario Draghi, boss of the European Central Bank (ECB), proudly declared that the risk of deflation had “largely disappeared”.

His relief was a recognition that, though a surge in inflation will flood the economy’s engine, a gentle dose can serve as a helpful lubricant. At a global level, a bit more factory-gate inflation lifts profits, since a lot of manufacturers’ production costs are largely fixed. Fatter profits not only make corporate debt less burdensome, they also free cash for capital spending, which creates further demand for businesses in a virtuous circle.

Since worries about China and deflation receded, spending on things that show some faith in future income has indeed begun to stir. A revival in producer prices and thus profits is leading to business investment around the world. In the last quarter of 2016 business spending in Japan rose at an annualised rate of 8%, according to official GDP figures. Gartner, a tech consultancy, predicted in December that consumers and companies would increase their spending on IT by 2.7% in 2017, up from 0.5% in 2016. John Lovelock, a research analyst at Gartner, says the biggest jump in spending is forecast for the Asia-Pacific region.

Continuous as the stars that shine?

In America imports of both consumer goods and capital goods are up. There has been speculation that the “animal spirits” of business folk have been lifted by Mr Trump’s election in November, and that cuts in tax and regulations, and a subsequent return of the estimated $1trn of untaxed cash held abroad by companies based in America, will fuel a big boom in business investment.

But James Stettler, a capital-goods analyst at Barclays Capital, notes that “no one’s really pushing the button on capex yet”. And companies which might benefit from an investment boom are not getting carried away. In a recent profits statement Caterpillar, a maker of bulldozers and excavators, said that, while tax reform and infrastructure spending would be good for its businesses, it would not expect to see large benefits until at least 2018. So far the recovery in global capital spending is in line with what you would expect from the recovery in global profits, says Joseph Lupton of JPMorgan Chase (see chart 3).

The signs of recovery are encouraging. But can they be trusted? The last few bursts of optimism about the global economy all petered out. In 2010 the rebound from a deep rich-world recession was pulled back to earth by the sovereign-debt crisis in the euro area. As soon as Europe gingerly emerged from recession in mid-2013, hints from America’s Federal Reserve that its bond-buying programme would soon tail off prompted a stampede out of emerging markets. This “taper tantrum” blew over in a few months, but it had repercussions. The prospect of tighter monetary policy in America, however distant, hit the supply of credit in emerging markets. The squeeze was made worse in 2014 when the oil price fell from over $100 a barrel to half that in just a few months. The price of other industrial raw materials, which had settled onto a plateau after peaking in 2011, began to fall. The subsequent slump in investment was enough to drag big commodity exporters, such as Brazil and Russia, into recession.

Even so, by the end of 2015 the Fed was sufficiently confident about the outlook to raise its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, the first such increase in a decade. More increases were expected in relatively short order. But the jitters about China, and then Brexit, meant that it was a full year before the next. It has now followed up with another increase in much shorter order (see article).
False dawns were perhaps to be expected: recoveries from debt crises are painfully slow. Spending suffers as borrowers whittle away their debts. Banks are reluctant to write off old, souring loans and so are unable to make fresh new ones. And the world has had to shake off not one debt crisis, but three: the subprime crisis in America; the sovereign-debt crunch in Europe; then the bust in corporate borrowing in emerging markets.

But the initial and most painful stage of economic adjustment in emerging markets is coming to an end. Current-account deficits have narrowed, leaving most countries less reliant on foreign borrowing. Their currencies are a lot more competitive. And interest rates are high, so there is scope to relax monetary policy to boost demand (see chart 4). Business spending is already rising in response.


The breadth of the improvement—from Asia to Europe and America—makes for greater confidence that a pick-up is in train. A broad trend is a good proxy for an established trend, notes Manoj Pradhan of Talking Heads Macro, a research firm. Nevertheless, some countries are in better shape than others. India and Indonesia recovered quickly from the taper tantrum; their GDP growth has been fairly strong and steady. At the other end of the spectrum, Turkey and (to a lesser extent) South Africa look unlikely to see a big revival soon.

In the middle, there are signs that brutal recessions in two of the largest emerging markets, Russia and Brazil, are slowly coming to an end. Inflation in both countries is receding, restoring spending power to consumers. In Russia inflation fell to 4.6% in February, down from a peak of 16.9% two years ago. In the three months ending in September, GDP growth probably turned positive, according to the central bank, which has cut its main interest rate from 17% in January 2015 to 10% today; more cuts are likely. Manufacturing activity grew in each of the seven months to February, according to a survey of purchasing managers published by Markit, a data provider.

Brazil’s economy shrank again in the final months of 2016, but with inflation tumbling towards the 4.5% target, its central bank has cut its benchmark rate by two percentage points, to 12.25%, since October. Further cuts are again likely. Other commodity-producers in Latin America (bar Mexico, where the peso has weakened since Mr Trump was elected) are also relaxing monetary policy.

The recent buds relax and spread

That is the bull case. What of the risks? One is that tighter commodity markets will stymie consumer spending in the rich world by raising prices. But core measures of inflation that strip out volatile things like food and energy costs remain low: nowhere in the rich world have they reached the 2% rate that is the goal of central banks, the rate seen as necessary for a “normal” cyclical recovery. America is closest to that target; the index preferred by the Fed puts America’s inflation at 1.9%, with the core rate at 1.7%. In Europe the core rate is stuck below 1%, with wage growth of around 1.3% last year; but oil prices have pushed headline inflation back to 2%.

There is also the risk of expecting too much. A pick-up in global aggregate demand is good news. But growth rates will always be constrained by how fast the workforce can expand and how much extra output can be squeezed from each worker. In lots of places there is scope for jobs growth; but in America, Japan, Germany and Britain the labour market is already quite tight. 

With America close to full employment, wage growth has picked up to 2.8%, which is consistent with 2% underlying inflation if productivity growth stays around 1%. Pay is growing fastest in less well-paid industries, such as construction, retailing, hospitality and haulage, according to Morgan Stanley, a bank.

Wages might perk up yet more if productivity improved. But the post-crisis slump in productivity growth that has affected both rich and developing countries shows no sign of ending. In America output per hour rose by 1.3% in the year to the final quarter of 2016. 

Europe has not been able to match even that dismal rate. It would take an astonishing shift in productivity for America’s economy to manage the 4% GDP growth promised by Mr Trump. A less fanciful view is that American GDP growth might top 2% this year, a bit better than is expected for Europe. 

Continued investment, and possibly deregulation, could improve productivity somewhat; but they will not provide a step change. Without one, rich-world interest rates are likely to stay well below the levels that were considered normal before 2007.

It is not hard to imagine things that might yet derail the recovery. Though there is a cast-iron consensus that nothing bad will be allowed to happen before the big Communist Party congress in the autumn, China’s growing debt pile could still bring markets tumbling down. Populist victories in Europe’s various elections could bring about a crisis for the euro. Even if they do not, an end to the ECB’s bond-buying programme, which has kept government-borrowing costs at tolerable levels and even allowed a bit of fiscal stimulus to lift the economy, will lay bare the euro’s still-unfixed structural problems.

The Fed might tighten policy too quickly, driving up the value of the dollar and draining capital (and thus momentum) from a recovery in emerging markets. Or Mr Trump might make good on the repeated threats he made in his campaign to raise import tariffs on countries he considers guilty of unfair trade, thus taking a decisive step away from globalisation just as the world’s main economic blocs are at last starting to get into sync.

These risks are not new or surprising. What brings a freshness to the air is that a cyclical recovery has managed to overcome them. There may actually be some rosebuds to gather, for a while.

-The Economist

David Rockefeller: Billionaire banker and philanthropist dies aged 101



Billionaire philanthropist David Rockefeller has died aged 101, a family spokesman has announced.
The influential banker and political spokesman was the chairman and chief executive of US banking giant Chase Manhattan throughout the 1970s.
Reuters news agency reported that he died in his sleep at his home in Pocantico Hills, New York, on Monday.
He was the last surviving grandson of oil tycoon John D Rockefeller and was the youngest of six children born to John D. Rockefeller Jr. 

He was the guardian of his family's fortune and head of a sprawling network of family interests, both business and philanthropic, that ranged from environmental conservation to the arts. 
To mark his 100th birthday in 2015, Rockefeller gave 1,000 acres of land next to a national park to the state of Maine. 
Despite never seeking public office - unlike his siblings - David Rockefeller wielded power and influence through other means.
Rockefeller graduated from Harvard in 1936 and received a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago in 1940.

He served in the Army during World War II, then began climbing the ranks of management at Chase Bank. That bank merged with The Manhattan Company in 1955. 
He was named Chase Manhattan's president in 1961 and chairman and chief executive officer eight years later. He retired in 1981 aged 65 after a 35-year career. 
In his role of business statesman, Rockefeller preached capitalism at home and favored assisting economies abroad on grounds that bringing prosperity to the Third World would create customers for American products. 
He parted company with some of his fellow capitalists on income taxes, calling it unseemly to earn $1 million and then find ways to avoid paying taxes on it.

He didn't say how much he paid in taxes and never spoke publicly about his personal worth. In 2015, Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at $3 billion. 
Under Rockefeller, Chase was the first U.S. bank to open offices in the Soviet Union and China and, in 1974, the first to open an office in Egypt after the Suez crisis of 1956. 
In his early travels to South Africa, Rockefeller arranged clandestine meetings with several underground black leaders. "I find it terribly important to get overall impressions beyond those I get from businessmen," he said. 

But Rockefeller took a lot of heat for his bank's substantial dealings with South Africa's white separatist regime and for helping the deposed, terminally ill Shah of Iran come to New York for medical treatment in 1979, the move that triggered the 13-month U.S. embassy hostage crisis in Tehran. 
Rockefeller maintained the family's patronage of the arts, including its long-standing relationship with New York's Museum of Modern Art, of which his mother had been a fervent patron. His private art collection was once valued at $500 million.
His philanthropy and other activities earned him a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in 1998. 
Rockefeller and his wife, the former Margaret McGrath, married in 1940 and had six children - David Jr., Richard, Abby, Neva, Margaret and Eileen. His wife, an active conservationist, died in 1996.

Article 50: Theresa May to trigger Brexit process next week



Prime Minister Theresa May is to officially notify the European Union next Wednesday that the UK is leaving.
Downing Street said she would write a letter to the European Council, adding that it hoped negotiations on the terms of exit and future relations could then begin as quickly as possible.
An EU spokesman said it was "ready and waiting" for the letter.
Mrs May's spokesman also rejected reports an early election may be held, saying: "It's not going to happen."
Under the Article 50 process, talks on the terms of exit and future relations are not allowed until the UK formally tells the EU it is leaving.
If all goes according to the two year negotiations allowed for in the official timetable, Brexit should happen in March 2019.
A No 10 spokesman said the UK's Ambassador to the EU, Sir Tim Barrow, informed the European Council, headed by President Donald Tusk, earlier on Monday of the date that Article 50 would be triggered.
Mrs May is expected to make a statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday shortly after invoking Article 50, setting out her aims.
A spokesman said the government wants negotiations to start as soon as possible but added that they "fully appreciate it is right that the other 27 EU states have time to agree their position".
The BBC's Ben Wright said he expected the Article 50 letter to be short, possibly extending to two pages at most, and for Mrs May to use it to publicly reiterate her general objectives - such as leaving the single market but reaching a mutually beneficial agreement on trade and other issues.

'Clear aims'

Speaking in Swansea on Monday, during the first of a series of visits around the UK before she triggers Article 50, Mrs May said she was intent on "delivering on Brexit and getting the right deal".
Last year's referendum result, she added, "was not just about leaving the EU" but was a vote for a "change in the way the country works".
"Part of that is building a strong economy and ensuring that the benefits of economic growth and prosperity are felt across every part of the UK."

Brexit Secretary David Davis said the UK was now "on the threshold of the most important negotiation for this country for a generation".
"The government is clear in its aims," he said. "A deal that works for every nation and region of the UK and indeed for all of Europe - a new, positive partnership between the UK and our friends and allies in the European Union."
In response to the news, Mr Tusk tweeted: "Within 48 hours of the UK triggering Article 50, I will present the draft Brexit guidelines to the EU27 Member States."
Mr Tusk has previously said he expects to call an extraordinary summit of the 27 other members within four to six weeks, to draw up a mandate for the European Commission's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier. Under this scenario, talks are likely to begin in earnest in May.
Sir Tim Barrow, the UK's most senior representative at the EU, said the 27 had had plenty of time to prepare for this moment and he expected them to set out their stall "pretty quickly".
"Our mandate is clear, it is to get on with it," he told MPs on the European Scrutiny Committee. "There is a timetable that everyone has bought into it."
Mrs May said last year that she intended to notify the EU of the UK's intention to leave by the end of March. The move was approved by Parliament two weeks ago when peers and MPs passed unchanged a bill giving the prime minister the authority to set the process in motion.
EU leaders have said they want to conclude the talks within 18 months to allow the terms of the UK's exit to be ratified by the UK Parliament and the European Parliament, as well as approved by the necessary majority of EU states.
Mrs May has said MPs and peers will have a vote on the deal she negotiates but she has insisted the UK will leave anyway even if Parliament rejects it. The government has said it expects to secure a positive outcome but made clear there is a chance of there being no formal agreement.
Labour's Keir Starmer said the opposition would hold the government to account throughout the process, claiming the prime minister had failed to provide certainty about her plans or prepare for the "clear dangers" of not reaching a deal at all.
The Scottish National Party's Europe spokesperson at Westminster, Stephen Gethins, said: "Today's announcement... shatters beyond repair any notion or position that the Prime Minister is seeking a UK-wide agreement.
"For nine months since the EU referendum, there has been no attempt by the UK government to seek a meaningful discussion or agreement with the devolved administrations."
Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, who has called for the public to have their say on the terms of exit in a further referendum, said Mrs May's decision to rule out membership of the single market before negotiations began was proof she was pursuing an "extreme and divisive" Brexit.
"Leaving the single market was not on the ballot paper in the referendum, it is a political choice made by Theresa May," he said.
Later this week, EU leaders will gather in Rome to mark the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, which established the European Economic Community - the initial forerunner to the EU. Mrs May is not attending the event.
BBC

Plane crash-lands in South Sudan with 45 onboard


A passenger jet carrying 45 people crash-landed in South Sudan’s north-western city of Wau on Monday, leaving at least 14 people injured, government and airport officials said.
“The weather is not good. Visibility was not good up to now and (the plane) was landing from the east to west then it just crashed (off) the runway. The pilot I think was not seeing the runway well,” said Paul Charles, an engineer at Wau airport.
Images circulating on social media showed thick black smoke billowing from the aircraft, which was completely burned out except for the tail, clearly bearing the insignia of local carrier South Supreme Airlines.
“Right now we have the ambulance which has just come out from the airport and we have received 14 patients being rushed to hospital in stable condition,” said State Information Minister Bona Gaudensio.
It was not clear if the rest of the passengers were alive or dead.
“There were 40 passengers and five crew (on board) that is all. I don’t have any information,” said Gabriel Ngang, the manager of South Supreme Airlines.
He said the plane had taken off from the capital Juba.
AFP

NNPC to contribute 4000mw to national grid within 10 years


The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation says it will generate about 4,000 megawatts of power in the next 10 years to boost power supply in the country.
The Corporation’s Chief Operating Officer, Gas and Power, Mr Saidu Mohammed, in a statement by NNPC Group General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndu Ughamadu, on Monday said the corporation would achieve this by building independent power plants over the next three to 10 years.
He said that the power plants, which would be built with Joint Venture Companies, international power companies and Nigerian investors, would be structured after the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas business model.
“Power generation is a big business. As at today, NNPC has interests in two power plants, one in Okpai, Delta State and the other in Afam, Rivers State.
“Both were built by joint ventures with Nigerian Agip Oil Company and Shell Petroleum Development Company.
“These two power plants collectively generate up to 1,000 megawatts and they are the most reliable and cheapest source of power to the national grid in Nigeria today.”
Mohammed said in order to make up the 4,000 megawatts, plans were underway to build Okpai Phase 2, Obite and Agura power plants to boost power generation in the country.
He said that the corporation had commenced the extension of its major gas pipeline infrastructure on Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano axis and other robust networks to connect various parts of the country.
“The main base-loads to justify such infrastructure are power plants that would consume the gas and for that, we are planning to build about 2,000 to 3,100 megawatts, combined in these three cities.
“The partnership will involve players who will bring in their various capacities as operators, builders of power plants and as investors.
“NNPC will also bring its strength of being a dominant player in the Nigerian gas value chain,” he said.
He said NNPC had developed capabilities in processing, transportation and marketing of gas for export and domestic utilisation, adding that the nation’s gas resources could change Nigerian economy for the better.
“If you generate enough power, the multiplier effect will revive most of the moribund industries across the country.
“NNPC intends to capture 50 percent of the gas market by growing the Nigerian Gas Marketing Company from the 500 million standard cubic feet/day of gas that it is today to about 3-4 billion standard cubic feet/day in the next 10 years,’’ he said.
(NAN)

EFCC hands over Amosu’s $2.15m hospital to Air Force



A hospital with medical equipment worth about $2.15m which was seized from a former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu (retd.), has been handed over to the Nigerian Air Force, The PUNCH has learnt.
The hospital, St. Solomon Hospital, which is located on Adeniyi Jones Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos, is said to have state-of-the-art equipment including a Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine which costs well over $1m.
 A reliable source at the EFCC told our correspondent that the EFCC could not manage the property and therefore decided to hand it over to the Nigerian Air Force medical unit.
He said, “The hospital has very expensive equipment including an MRI machine which is very rare. However, we could not manage the hospital so we handed it over to the air force pending the outcome of Amosu’s trial. It is assumed that the money used in buying the hospital was stolen from the air force.”
Other properties seized from Amosu included a house on Adeyemo Alakija Street, GRA Ikeja worth N250m; a duplex at House 11, Peace Court Estate, GRA Ikeja worth N110m; a N40m property located at NAF Harmony Estate, Asokoro base; a five-bedroomed house at Valley NAF Estate, Port Harcourt, worth N33m and a N95m house on Umaru Dikko Street, Jabi.
The Federal Government has also commenced moves to seize Amosu’s house at 50 Tenterden Grove, NW41TH, London worth about £2m.
Amosu as well as a former Chief of Accounts and Budgeting in NAF, Air Vice Marshal Jacob Adigun (retd.); and a former Director of Finance and Budget, Air Commodore Olugbenga Gbadebo (retd.), are currently standing trial before a Federal High Court for allegedly stealing N22.8bn from the coffers of the Nigerian Air Force between 2014 and 2015.
The commission has seized 33 properties they allegedly bought with stolen funds.
Documents made available to our correspondent showed that besides the hospital, the EFCC had seized plazas, schools, mansions, farms and a quarry from Amosun, Adigun and Gbadebo.
While almost N2.835bn cash has been recovered from Amosu alone, Gbadebo has returned N190m. Adigun’s wife, returned some money as well.
The document further stated that properties recovered from Adigun were worth N9.6bn.
Calculations by our correspondent showed that the cash and assets which the air force men might forfeit permanently, add up to about N15bn which is more than three quarters of what they allegedly stole.
They have, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

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