KEDC to take delivery of 40,000 prepaid meters from World Bank

The Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company will take delivery of 40,000 prepaid metres from the World Bank in February, the company’s Managing Director, Malam Mohammed Idris, has said.
He told the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday in Kaduna that the prepaid meters would solve the current dearth of the equipment in the state.
Idris said the company had marked the areas that the new meters would be installed.
The managing director said that the debt profile of the company stood at N40 billion.
He, however, added that the company had introduced new measures that would enable customers to pay their electricity bills promptly.
He added that “we have introduced new metering programme and we are confident that it is accepted by customers.

“The National Electricity Regulatory Commission said if you have money and want a meter but cannot wait for the free meters from government, you can pay to accredited vendors, approved by the commission.
“Some electricity consumers who keyed into this arrangement will get their meters installed in five weeks.
“We are glad that the arrangement is working and we have recorded successes.’’

We won’t allow politicians use us for violence – NURTW

The National Union of Road Transport Workers in Ogun State on Monday said it was not involved in the recent spate of violence between rival members of the ruling All Progressives Congress in the state.

The union further denied an allegation that the chapter had instructed its members to disrupt any political gathering perceived to be against the interest of Governor Ibikunle Amosun.

The NURTW cautioned Senator Gbenga Kaka not to drag the union into the crisis rocking the APC.

The NURTW State Secretary, Sunday Yeye, who stated this at a news conference in Abeokuta, debunked the claims made by Kaka in some national dailies that the union had a hand in the violence unleashed recently on supporters at the party state secretariat, Abeokuta.

 

 

 

“It is a lie. We did not instruct our members to go against those who are anti-Amosun. It is a false allegation,” he said.

The Ogun NURTW secretary flanked by the state Chairman, Alhaji Akeem Adeosun, the state Vice Chairman, AlhajiAbiodun Akeem; and other union officials argued that nobody appeared at the venue of the violence in the name of the union or carried any banner that reflected the NURTW’s on the day of the violence.

Yeye however noted that the union’s constitution allowed its members the freedom to belong to any political party of their choice.

He stressed that members of the union, whom he described as professional drivers, were not thugs and should not be linked to any political violence.

Lagos Assembly bans smoking in public places

The Lagos State House of Assembly has passed a bill for a law to ban smoking in public places. The bill, which was passed on Monday, has been sent to the executive arm of the government for the governor’s ascent.

The bill, which scaled through the third reading, prohibits anybody smoking in all public places

$10.8bn ‘missing’ money spent by Nigerians –NNPC

In its bid to further defend how it spent the allegedly missing $10.8bn, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Monday stated that the fund was not missing but was used by Nigerians.
Specifically, the Group Managing Director of the corporation, Mr. Andrew Yakubu, declared that if the fund was missing, then it was missing in the pockets of Nigerians.

In what seemed to be a reply to the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the NNPC boss stated that the corporation had persistently filed-in its claims to the Federation Account monthly.
While explaining how the fund was spent, Yakubu said, “The $10.8bn is not a missing money; if it is missing, (then) is missing to the pockets of the beneficiaries who are you and me.”
Okonjo-Iweala had stated that the NNPC would provide evidence to show that the fund was judiciously spent.
“If the money was spent on operational cost, let us see evidence that it was spent in an authorised way. And if not, let the amount be remitted to the Federation Account,” she had said.
According to Yakubu, the biggest chunk of the $10.8bn was the subsidy incurred on petrol and kerosene.
He said, “This is part of NNPC’s quarterly allocation which it is to provide to the country, especially for petrol. NNPC is the only importer and producer of kerosene in Nigeria. The corporation brings in kerosene and sells at less than N50 at designated depots and the landing cost of this is over N150.
“Now we compute these numbers on monthly basis and that amount plus the subsidy on PMS, which we all know, amounts to about 80 per cent of this $10.8bn that we are talking about.
“So what we do is to account for it and they are unrealisable flows, and are unrealisable because they have subsidies and we do not have control over the prices, but we are asked to account for the crude at international crude oil price.”

Fashola redeploys 7 permanent secretaries

 Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, has approved the redeployment of 11 permanent secretaries in the state's public service.

The redeployment was contained in a statement signed by the Head of Service, Oluseyi Williams, in Ikeja on Thursday.

Olalekan Ogunbanwo was moved from the Lagos Television/Radio Services to Parastatals Monitoring Office, while Adekunle Ajanaku, formerly of the Deputy Governor's Office, is to take over from Ogunbanwo.

According to the statement, Paul Omotayo Bamgbose-Martins of Ministry of Works takes charge at Office of Infrastructure.

Nurudeen Adeyinka Ojora-Adejiyan moved from Local Government Service Commission to Teachers’ Establishment and Pensions Office, while Ashamu Fadipe of the Ministry of Tourism and Intergovernmental Relations, is to serve at the Local Government Service Commission.

Olufunmilayo Balogun of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Culture is to take over at the Ministry of Tourism, Omotayo Olabenjo, formerly of the Civil Service Commission, takes charge at the Ministry of Home Affairs and Culture.  

Four newly appointed permanent secretaries were given portfolios as follows -- Jokotola Ojosipe-Ogundimu (Civil Service Commission), Michael Dawodu (Deputy Governor’s Office), Olujimi Hotonu (Works) and Oluwatoyin Adegbuji-Onikoyi (Ministry of Finance). 

In the same vein, three newly appointed tutors-general/permanent secretaries were also deployed  - Florence Ogunfidodo (Education District I2), Margaret Titilayo Solarin (Education District II) and Yinka Olaniyi (Education District III).

The statement added that the postings would take effect on January 20.

Jonathan advocates computerisation of land registry

President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday advocated for the computerization of land registry as a means of assisting land administration in the country. The President said this will ease the cost of house construction and sale by private developers.

Mr. Jonathan said this while speaking at the presidential launch of the Nigerian Mortgage Refinancing Company (NMRC), a vehicle for funding the cost of residential mortgages and promoting affordable housing for Nigerians .
While calling for a reduction in the cost of land registration, the president stressed the need for the streamlining of quick completion of the foreclosure processes. He advised state governors to consider delegating land consent in their states to speed up the process of land acquisition.
President Jonathan further disclosed that his administration has taken steps to create a stable macroeconomic environment that has lowered the rate of inflation from 12 per cent to 8 per cent last year as well as reducing all impediment to a sustainable and dynamic housing market.
“The Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company was established to support our objective towards. The housing sector is a key component of this administration’s transformation agenda. That is why we conveyed the presidential retreat in May last year.
” And in November, I asked the Coordinating Minister to host a roundtable on housing finance. The objective was to take a critical look at the sector and recommend ways that could be harnessed to provide shelter for Nigerians and create jobs for our teaming youth.
“The housing sector is known worldwide as an avenue for job creation and economic stability. That is why we are focused on the sector and the concrete action we have taken I alleviating the major constraints to its rapid development.
“The first step we are taking is to create a micro economic environment that will lower inflation from 12 percent to 8 percent,” he said.
He said government is carrying out these measures because of its understanding that high inflation constitutes a major impediment to the creation of a sustainable and dynamic market.
“The next major step we have taken is to create the enabling environment for primary mortgage bank and other financial institution to offer real mortgage facilities to Nigerians at affordable rates,” he said.
The ceremony witnessed the signing of two major agreements. The first was between the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, and Shelter Afrique; while the second was a subsidiary agreement between the Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Nigeria, and World Bank on the occasion.

Nigeria launches new Mortgage Refinance Company

Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan launched the proposed Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company.

                                

The mortgage company is a key part of the government’s economic transformation programme and aims to re-energize the housing sector as well as deliver effective mortgage financing to Nigerians.
“There’s the Mortgage Refinance Company which is being launched and there is also the supply side initiative because the challenge with mortgage in Nigeria is, beyond the financing, there is a supply constraint which also needs to be unblocked,” Niyi Adeleye, Head Real Estate Finance West Africa, Stanbic IBTC Capital.
The country currently has a deficit of 17 million housing units and needs one million units per annum for the next 17 years to meet this demand. The Mortgage Refinance Company is expected to create over 200,000 mortgages over the next five years at affordable interest rates and will begin in 14 pilot states and the state governors have agreed to fast track land titles.
“The mortgage refinance focuses on creating a window, a liquidity window for financial institutions to refinance the long term exposure that they can go back into the market and create new mortgages with the expectation that there’ll be greater incentives for banks to create mortgages,”
Banks in the country currently do not create mortgages because financing is generally short term and the mortgage liquidity company is trying to fill this gap, however the supply side still plays a major part.
“For a developer the most important thing is, the government has to factor what are the funding alternatives that developers can access to improve the supply of housing stocks into market by virtue of technology or by virtue technical capacity which I believe the government really needs to look into critically,” Damola Akindolire, General Manager Alphamaed Property Development Company told OPINIONVOICES.
Mustafa Chike-Obi, the Managing Director for Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) recently said that the housing market needs N10 trillion annually for the next five years. However, with the launch of this new company, interest rates are expected to come down to about 13 per cent.
“The company is supposed to create sustainable droppings in mortgage rates. The thing is that if you have a liquidity window that financial institutions can’t access and this is both banks and PMI’s, the liquidity premium that they normally add to mortgages which would be 10, 15, 20 years long, will be shortened or eliminated. The expectation is that over time, that would translate to a drop in mortgage rates,” Adeleye said. 

Republicans warn of security flaws in Obamacare website

Republicans in Congress sought to showcase what they call major security problems with the Obamacare website HealthCare.gov on Thursday, just as U.S. officials ramp up a national campaign to persuade young adults to use the site to enrol in health insurance.
In a public messaging tug-of-war that will likely intensify in coming weeks, the Republican-led House of Representatives targeted the healthcare reform law in three separate oversight hearings. Two were geared toward Republican claims that HealthCare.gov remains vulnerable to hackers more than three months after its botched October 1 rollout.
Democrats accused Republicans of "cherry picking" partial information about the website to try and scare consumers away from it. Later in the day, Obamacare supporters, including federal and state officials, staged a six-hour presentation on YouTube.com intended to drive enrolment among 18-to-34-year-olds.
The administration also disclosed plans for a media promotion campaign during next month's Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and unveiled 30-second ads with former basketball stars Magic Johnson and Alonzo Mourning.

U.S. officials are eager to boost youth participation, which is widely seen as vital to the success of President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy achievement.
The administration needs enough young people, who are typically healthier, so that their premiums will help offset costs from older enrollees and prevent insurers from raising their rates.
Officials hope to enroll more than 2.5 million young Americans in coverage by a March 31 deadline. So far they have signed up only about one-fifth of that number, partly due to early technical glitches at HealthCare.gov.
While the performance of the website has greatly improved, the Obama administration is contending with fresh attacks from Republicans eager to highlight the healthcare reform's flaws, including security questions.
"It seems to defy common sense that a website plagued with functional problems was, in fact, perfectly secure by design," said Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, who presided over one of Thursday's security hearings.
At another Republican-led hearing, a cybersecurity professional warned that the federal government has failed to implement fixes necessary to protect the HealthCare.gov website from hackers.
"HealthCare.gov is not secure today," David Kennedy, head of computer security consulting firm TrustedSec LLC, told the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.
HealthCare.gov is the consumer web portal to a 36-state federal health insurance marketplace, which offers private insurance, with federally subsidized rates for some consumers. The 14 other states have built their own marketplaces.
Kennedy said "nothing has really changed" since a hearing before the same committee in November when he and three other expert witnesses said they believed the site was not secure and three of them said it should be shut down immediately.
"I don't understand how we're still discussing whether the website is insecure or not," said Kennedy, who worked for the National Security Agency and the U.S. Marine Corps before entering the private sector. "It is insecure - 100 percent."
Before the hearing, Kennedy told Reuters the government has yet to plug more than 20 vulnerabilities that he and other security experts reported to the government shortly after HealthCare.gov went live on October 1. Hackers could steal personal information, modify data, attack the personal computers of website users and damage the infrastructure of the site, Kennedy said in an interview.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency responsible for HealthCare.gov, said in a statement to Reuters, "There have been no successful security attacks on Healthcare.gov and no person or group has maliciously accessed personally identifiable information from the site."
CMS said Kennedy's methodology undermined his findings: "Because this individual had no direct access to the operations of the HealthCare.gov website, the information in the report is based on assumptions, not fact."
The agency's information security chief also publicly tried to reassure lawmakers that the site is safe.
The CMS chief information security officer, Teresa Fryer, said the website underwent end-to-end security testing on December 18 and met all industry standards.
"The (federal marketplace) is secure. In many instances, we have gone above and beyond what is required, with layered protection, continuous monitoring and additional penetration testing," Fryer said before the House Oversight panel.
Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings charged that Republicans were "cherry-picking partial information to promote a narrative that is inaccurate" about the Obamacare website, when its security was "strong and keeps getting stronger".
Instead of holding ever more hearings on the Obamacare website, lawmakers should be looking into the massive data breach affecting millions at Target Corp, Cummings said at the hearing where CMS's Fryer appeared.
As the hearings took place, Republicans sought to amplify their anti-Obamacare message by advancing another bill to tweak the law. The legislation, which passed by a 259-154 vote, would require the Obama administration to issue weekly enrollment statistics.
The White House considers the transparency bill another Republican attempt to harass implementation of its healthcare reform. However, 33 Democrats voted for the bill. Last week, the House passed a Republican measure that would require the government to notify consumers in two days if their personal information on HealthCare.gov has been compromised.

Obama picks Latina banker to lead small business agency

U.S. President Barack Obama nominated Maria Contreras-Sweet on Wednesday to lead the Small Business Administration, an agency that provides loans and helps small businesses get government contracts.
"She understands the needs of small business owners like herself. She knows how they can lift entire communities, and ultimately how they lift our country," Obama said in making the announcement at the White House.
She is the second Hispanic nominated to Obama's second-term cabinet after Labour Secretary Tom Perez.
Contreras-Sweet founded ProAmerica Bank, a Latino-owned community bank in Los Angeles, which focuses on lending to small- and medium-sized Latino businesses.
"Maria knows how hard it is to get started on a business, the grueling hours, the stress, the occasional self-doubt - although I have not yet seen self-doubt out of Maria," Obama said.
The Mexican-born Contreras-Sweet was California's secretary of business, transportation and housing in the Democratic administration of Gray Davis. She immigrated to the United States as a child.

China says smaller firms will get more loans, other help

 China said on Thursday it will take steps to boost bank lending and subsidies to small and medium-sized businesses in labour intensive industries, many of which are facing a tougher business environment.

 

A joint statement issued by nine government departments outlined broadly how smaller firms would be assisted, but did not give specifics on what kind of lending help will be extended.

Among the bodies issuing the statement was the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The statement said that the government would "develop financial products and services fit for small- and medium- sized firms in labour intensive industries and set loan rates reasonably".

Syndicate Arrested with Presidential Seal, Fake Custom Seal

On Thursday, members of the Ogun State Police Command have arrested four members of a syndicate which specialized in the production of fake Customs papers.

Mr. Muyiwa Adejobi, Ogun state Police Public Relations Officer said, the suspects were arrested by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, in Ogun State. According to Adejobi, items recovered from the suspects include fake seal of the Presidency, fake stamps of Nigeria Customs Service and Nigeria Police, computers, typewriters, printers and forged tinted glass permit.

Speaking with the press, three suspects; Austin Henry, Bala Idris and Peter Patrick, confessed to the crime of forging customs papers in the last three years, they however said, they were not the only ones involved as others had fled before the police could nab them.

Sack Of Service Chiefs

Removal of the Service Chiefs by President Goodluck Jonathan in compliance with the judgment of the Federal High Court in the case of Festus Keyamo Vs. President and 4 others (which declared the previous appointments null and void) is a welcome development. Recall that last week I issued a fourteen-day ultimatum to all relevant parties to comply that judgment.

 Therefore, the appointments of the new Service Chiefs that have just been made subject to the confirmation of the National Assembly (in compliance with the judgment) is also commendable.

Nigerian power supply at risk

In 2013, Nigeria’s energy sector witnessed a slew of activities, with the handover of ten distribution and four generation companies.

                                

Many Nigerians claim that the power supply in the country has worsened. Photo: Getty images

The events in the country’s energy sector last year were no doubt significant, however, despite the set target to raise power generation capacity to about 20,000 megawatts, power supply in the country seems to have worsened.
“You have to look at these things in perspective. Given the lack of investments taking place in this sector over the last 20 years or so, we Nigerians have to be a little patient in expecting the gains in the reforms that just took place to actually bear fruit,” Muyiwa Lawal, Business Manager- Power and Services, Diamond Bank told  Opinionvoices.
Even so, Lawal is optimistic about the future of the sector in 2014 because improvement in the service delivery can be expected as the new owners take stock of the assets they’ve acquired and also put in place measures to stop technical losses.
With more privatized power companies seeking offshore funds, Lawal believes that the process won’t be too difficult and as a result of the BPE’s proper handling of the first phase, a lot of the foreign investors who were weary of the sector are more comfortable now.
“We know that for us to achieve that (target), we require about 3.5 billion dollars of annual investment in the sector. If you look at those numbers and what took place last year, it doesn’t just add up that local banks would be in the position to cover the funding gap,” he added.