Ocean News

  Ex-British Council Director, Roberts Former British Council Director in Abuja, David Roberts, has said Nigeria’s economy which posted a GDP growth of 3.46% in Quarter 4, is anything but m£ssy.  Speaking in a statement, he said: “I lived and worked in Nigeria for many years as a British diplomat and one of the issues that most disturbed me was the sustenance of the fuel subsidy regime. Why would a country with a severe infrastructural deficit invest more money on a wasteful expenditure such as cheap petrol, instead of building schools, hospitals, dams and a national railway system? It is evident that it had to go. We joined the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in saying as much to the Nigerian government. And at long last, it is gone. And everything we said that would happen after it goes is happening. Nigeria’s GDP is growing at 3.46 per cent while Europe is on the edge of recession. Her stock market just crossed 100,000 basis points, overtaking Argentina’s as ...

The Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) has suspended its eight-month-old industrial action conditionally, a member of the union’s National Executive Committee told Channels TV early Friday. The union decided to suspend the strike during a meeting of its leadership that started on Thursday night and lasted into the early hours of Friday. The meeting was called by the union to determine its next line of action after its state branches met over the Court of Appeal ruling last week.The Court of Appeal had ordered ASUU to suspend the strike before its appeal of the ruling ordering lecturers to resume work can be heard. Members of the union’s National Executive Committee, which comprises the chairmen of the state chapters and members of the national executive, attended the meeting at the ASUU National Secretariat in Abuja. ASUU has been on strike since February 14 this year.

The Federal Government has disbursed the entire $322.5 million Abacha loot of 2017 to 1.9 million poor and vulnerable Nigerians. Before making the disbursement, the money accrued an interest of $11 million where it was deposited. Mr. David Ugolor, Executive Director of ANEEJ, an independent monitor providing independent report on the use of the funds, made this disclosure in Abuja yesterday. Mr. Ugolor told reporters that “the Abacha loot is exhausted. An interest of $11 million was accrued in the money where it was saved and it was disbursed to around 1.9 million poor Nigerians”. He added that “no politically motivated data was used in selecting the beneficiaries; the National Social Register was used to determine those who will benefit and the register is updated regularly to remove those who have d#ed”. According to the ANEEJ Executive Director, “the Abacha loot that was recovered have been exhausted, we have a responsibility to inform Nigerians and then to make sure to tell them wh...

The Federal Government has introduced a new tax on phone calls to fund free healthcare for the Vulnerable Group in Nigeria.  The telecom tax is the equivalent of a minimum of one kobo per second for phone calls to boost the funds required to finance free healthcare for the vulnerable group in Nigeria.  This is contained in the National Health Insurance Authority Bill 2021 signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on May 19, 2022. The law defines the vulnerable group as children under five, pregnant women, the aged, physically and mentally challenged persons, and the indigent “as may be defined from time to time”. It specified that the money from the vulnerable group fund shall be expended to provide subsidy for health insurance coverage of vulnerable persons as determined by the council; and for the payment of health insurance premiums for the indigent. Speaking on the development via his Twitter handle, Taiwo Oyedele, fiscal policy partner and Africa tax leader at PwC, sa...

Nigerian singer Bankole Wellington, popularly known as Banky W, has urged the Federal Government to make the National Youth Service Corps scheme optional. In an interview with Channels TV, Banky W said, "At least half of the young people who do NYSC might not need it. You have people that go for NYSC and they just sign a paper somewhere and give somebody money, so that they say they have it and then go off and do whatever. Banky W further asked, "Is that program really achieving what it was meant to? "Can we consider amending the constitution so that we can say that this thing is no longer compulsory, it is optional?" Banky W is vying for a seat in the House of Representatives to represent the Eti-Osa Federal Constituency in Lagos State.   https://www.instagram.com/tv/Cch2CPhKOkJ/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited may need an estimated N201 billion worth of clean Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) to bring 170.25 million litres of adulterated product imported the country up to standard, an analysis of industry data has shown. The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority had said on Tuesday that for every 200 litres of the adulterated product, 800 litres of petrol with good quality would be required for the blending that would be done. Going by the NMDPRA’s parameter for the re-blending of the adulterated petrol, the two cargoes, containing a total of 170.25 million adulterated petrol, would require 681 million litres of clean product worth N201bn (based on a landing cost of N295 per litre). The N201bn is a conservative estimate, as there are other costs that would be associated with the re-blending. However, the quantity of the other two cargoes remained unknown as of the time of filing this report. President Muhammadu Buhari has...

The federal government may increase the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), better known as petrol, to N302 per litre in February 2022 as part of the recommendation of the National Economic Council (NEC) in November 2021.  This is part of the government’s plan to fully deregulate the PMS prices, eliminating monthly subsidy payments with provisions to ensure fair competition in the market, TheCable is reporting. Petrol price is currently between N162 and N165 per litre in Nigeria. The recommendations were put forward by the NEC ad-hoc committee interfacing with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on the appropriate pricing of PMS in Nigeria.  The report was presented by Nasir El-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state and head of the committee. The committee was established last year by NEC headed by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo to look into the dwindling revenues of states. Other members of the committee include Godwin Obaseki, Kayode Fayemi, and David Umahi, governors...

  Twitter users may soon have access to the social media platform which has met the six conditions imposed on it by the Federal Government, The Nation is reporting. The Technical Committee raised by the government to resolve the impasse between the two parties is fine-tuning the offers by the micro blogger before making a final recommendation to President Muhammadu Buhari. The President is also awaiting the report of the committee to lift the ban it imposed on Twitter on June 4, last year. Investigation by The Nation revealed that Twitter has complied with all the terms given by the government to restore its services. The conditions agreed to by the firm are: Have a country representative, register  with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), get National Broadcasting Commission’s licence, payment of fair taxes, sensitive to national security and cohesion. It must not undermine the nation’s security and train Nigerian IT personnel and strategic intelligence officers on how to...

The Ministry of Interior has debunked report of a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, ruling that all marriages conducted by the Ikoyi marriage registry are illegal and invalid. Permanent Secretary and Principal Registrar of Marriages, Ministry Of Interior, in a statement released on Tuesday evening, December 14, described the report as “false, misleading and a deliberate distortion of the decision of the Court in Suit No: FHC/L/CS/816/18 between Eti-Osa Local Government Council & 3 others”. The ministry said the trial judge held that nothing in the role of local governments, as defined in the Constitution, suggests that local governments can conduct or contract marriages as alleged in their pleadings. It added that the court affirmed that powers of the local governments to contract statutory marriages is derived from the Legal Notices issued by the President. It was also revealed that the Court held that the Suit was an abuse of court process, as it could not be invited to make a...

Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and national planning, says Nigeria will remove fuel subsidies by 2022 and replace them with N5000-a-month transportation grant to the poorest Nigerians. Speaking at the launch of the World Bank Nigeria Development Update (NDU) on Tuesday, the minister said the grant will go to about 30 to 40 million Nigerians who make up the poorest population of the country. She said the final number of beneficiaries will depend on the resources available after the removal of the fuel subsidy. “The subsidies regime in the [oil] sector remains unsustainable and economically disingenuous. Ahead of the target date of mid-2022 for the complete elimination of fuel subsidies, we are working with our partners on measures to cushion potential negative impact of the removal of the subsidies on the most vulnerable at the bottom 40% of the population. One of such measures would be to institute a monthly transport subsidy in the form of cash transfer of N5,000 to between...