NRTC Business Pot​pour​ri

Roland Bayode brings us a highlight of the recent goings-on within Nigeria’s business sector.

One million jobs saved, prevented the closure of 150,000 SME’s – Osinbajo

The Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has said that the present regime saved over one million jobs. They also stopped the closure of over 150,000 small businesses hit by COVID-19 through the Economic Sustainability Plan.

Osinbajo made this assertion on Tuesday in Abuja, while speaking virtually during a United Nations High-Level Forum on Jobs and Social Protection.

Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, disclosed this in a statement tagged, ‘Why social protection schemes are crucial’.

According to him, Nigeria’s response to COVID-19 was guided by the conviction that social protection schemes are important. And that they can break the cycle of poverty and give real access to jobs and economic opportunities. As such, it also improves human capacity and productivity.

NNPC denies funding elections with bribes from oil traders

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has reacted to an allegation that trading firms paid its agents to win oil contracts. It is alleged that these payments helped to raise funds for Nigeria’s general elections in 2015 and 2019.

In a report released by NNPC, a former Glencore Plc employee in July admitted paying a middleman $300,000 to secure a crude shipment. The employee understood that the money would be spent on the national election.

The 2015 contest for the presidential seat was mainly between ex-President Goodluck Jonathan and Rtd. Major General Muhammadu Buhari. And in 2019, it was between Buhari and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar. Buhari emerged as the winner in both elections.

UBA publishes names and account details of Forex defaults

The United Bank of Africa has published names of individuals who applied for Personal Travel Allowance to buy dollars cheap. However, they did not use the funds for the declared purpose.

The UBA disclosed this in a publication on its website titled ‘CBN FX Defaulters. The publication included account numbers and Bank Verification Numbers of the defaulters.

According to the bank, the beneficiaries committed the offense after applying with fake or by cancelling their trips. And in compliance with the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria, banks must publish the names of defaulters.

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  NRTC Business Potpourri

Why we continue to borrow, says FG

The Federal Government has responded to critics who describe its frequent request for loans as insincere. The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, spoke for the government during a town hall meeting in Maiduguri on Thursday.

Mohammed inferred that the critics were members of previous administrations who ‘performed poorly in terms of modernizing our infrastructure, even when they served at a time when our earnings were multiples of what we get today.”

He added that the government doesn’t borrow for recurrent expenditure or to pay salaries. But it does so to build world-class infrastructure that would benefit generations of Nigerians.

FG, States, LGs shared N696.9bn in August – FAAC

The Federation Accounts Allocation Committee confimed that it released a total of N696.965bn as August 2021 revenue. This is for payments to federal, state and local governments, as well as other relevant agencies in Nigeria.

The Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) disclosed on Wednesday, that the shared revenue was contained in a communiqué issued by FAAC after its monthly meeting for September 2021.

The OAGF’s Director of Information, Press and Public Relations, Henshaw Ogubike, made this known in a statement issued in Abuja.

Buhari demands PIA amendment, ignores host communities’ three per cent agitation

President Buhari has asked the Senate to amend certain provisions of the controversial Petroleum Industry Act. However, the new amendments proposed by the President did not address the concerns of the South-South stakeholders.

Buhari also remains silent on the contentious three percent equity share for the host communities in the Petroleum Industry Bill approved by both chambers of the federal parliament.

According to him, the conference committee set up by the presiding officers of both chambers have addressed the situation. In their recommendation, they fixed the equity share at three percent. The National Assembly subsequently approved their recommendation.