There is no gain saying the fact that the current constitutional amendment exercise being undertaken by the National Assembly would naturally attract the attention and keen interest of Nigerians in view of the importance of that document as the sine qua non of our social contract as a nation. One major area of such exercise that has attracted and is still attracting attention, is the Bill No. 3 on Devolution of powers, which among other things seeks to ensure that the Central Government cedes certain powers to the States. When, therefore, the Devolution of Powers Bill proposed certain amendments introducing the subject of pensions under the Concurrent Legislative List, one was compelled, as a stakeholder in the pension industry, to interrogate…
Author: Orientalnews Staff
The Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, has said that twenty six vessels with petroleum products, food items and other goods are expected to arrive at Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports in Lagos from August 21 to September 2. The agency stated this in its publication, `Shipping Position’, in which it said that the ships contained buck wheat, bulk fertiliser, crude palmolein, bulk corn, base oil, petrol and containers laden with goods. Already, ten ships have arrived the ports earlier, waiting to berth with bulk fertiliser, corn, base oil, bulk maize, palmolein and petrol while twenty four other ships are at the ports discharging…
World Bank Group, CFO, Joachim Levy has said that tapping the capital market for support from institutional investors, as done in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) and associated reinsurance sectors, helps to make the provision of risk transfer and insurance more competitive and efficient. In the global mission to enhance resilience in developing regions and nations, the use of insurance and risk transfer is widely accepted as a key piece of the puzzle, providing the incentives to become more resilient and the capital required to help recovery when disaster strikes. Insurance and reinsurance structures and capacity have a unique role to…
Oil major, Total is buying Maersk’s oil and gas business in a $7.45 billion deal which the French major said would strengthen its operations in the North Sea and raise its output to 3 million barrels per day by 2019. For Danish company A.P. Moller Maersk, the sale of Maersk Oil, with reserves equivalent to around 1 billion barrels of oil, fits with a strategy of focusing on its shipping business and other activities announced last year. The world’s top oil companies have been back on the takeover trail over the last year, helped by signs of a recovery in…
The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to replicate the medical equipment he saw in a London hospital where spent over three months to attend to his health. The charge was contained in a communiqué issued and jointly signed by its national president and secretary general, Professor Mike Ozovehe Ogirima and Dr. Yusuf Tanko Sununu respectively after the body’s national executive council (NEC) meeting held in Kaduna. Ogirima who read the communiqué called on the president to duplicate such facilities in Nigeria before 2019 saying Nigerian medical practitioners would have been able to handle his (president’s) health challenge…
The Federal Government has begun repositioning of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), with the sacking of two directors. The two were former Director of Administration Ibrahim Saleh and Human Resources Director, Uwem Akangson. In the ongoing restructuring, Alhaja. Maria Ibrahim Bashir, a lawyer replaces Saleh as Director, Human Resources Management and Administration. She was a former General Manager, SERVICOM, NAMA. She now manages Human Resources and Administration which has now been brought together. Remaining General Managers and Deputy General Managers in NAMA may likely be disengaged or redeployed today. Meanwhile, Director of Administration in Federal Airports Authority of…
As aircrafts in its fleet depletes, FirstNation Airways has switched temporarily from offering scheduled flights to charter services. The Director-General, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Capt. Muhtar Usman, who made the disclosure said the airline’s current non-scheduled status would remain so until it improved its aircraft fleet to at least two and met the requirements for scheduled services. The airline, which had been operating with one aircraft, was recently fined N33.5m for safety violations. Usman, who spoke about the airline’s suspension of its scheduled services at the commencement of the United States Federal Aviation Administration’s audit of the NCAA in Lagos,…
The Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Group of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), the premier Chamber of Commerce and a leading voice in the organized private sector (OPS) in Nigeria, is set to hold its annual seminar. The theme of this year’s seminar is “EASE OF DOING BUSINESS: ECONOMIC REALITIES FOR SMEs.” The annual SME seminar, according to the Group’s Chairman, Mr. Jon Kachikwu, is scheduled to hold on Wednesday, 23rd August, 2017 at the LCCI Conference and Exhibition Centre, 1, Nurudeen Olowopopo Street, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos by10am and would be used to highlight the opportunities and challenges in the SME sector; and evaluate the extent to which the Federal Government’s policy…
Nigeria’s local Content is set to witness a significant leap as the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB has obtained all necessary approval to relaunch the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund (NCI Fund), the Boards executive secretary Simbi Wabote has said. Funds in the pool which is available for lending to qualified oil and gas players had been increased from $100m to $200m to ensure that more deserving companies benefit at the same time and the money will be disbursed directly by the Bank of Industry (BOI) at eight percent interest rate and repaid within five years. Wabote’s confirmation of this is coming as the management of Dangote petroleum refinery has agreed to select competent Nigerian vendors that will participate in the construction of the plant from the Nigerian Oil and…
NIGERIA’s external reserve is set to hit a 30-month high of $32 billion by the end of this month.Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that the external reserve rose to $31.55 billion on August 16, from $30.84 billion on July 31, representing increase of $710 million in 16 days. This trend is expected to persist in the second half of August driving up the reserve to the $32 billion mark. The external reserve had been below $32 billion since February 2015, 30 months ago, from where it declined steadily to $23.89 billion on October 19, 2016. Financial Vanguard analysis…