The plan by the Nigerian government to spend N2 trillion of the pension fund on construction of roads and housing and 3 million jobs lost to border closure are some the leading stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.The Sun reports that the Nigerian Government, yesterday gave the indication of using N2.0 trillion, part of the over N10 trillion pension funds, to construct roads and houses in order to prevent economic depression arising from the coronavirus effect.
Inaugurating the Joint Planning Committee (JPC) for the 26th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES 26) in Abuja, Nigeria’s Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Mr. Clem Ikanade Agba, said that apart from utilising the pension funds, the government was taking other steps, including increasing non-oil revenue generation, to boost the economy.
Agba told the committee that it would review the report of the 25th Economic Summit, make all arrangements for the successful hosting of the NES 26, including the programme of events and timelines for the implementation of the key activities of the summit, articulate the budgetary requirements and the sources of funds for hosting the summit.
The newspaper also says that barely 10 months after closing Nigeria’s land borders over alleged security breaches and abuse of international trade facilitation procedure, the economy of border communities appears to have taken a turn for the worst with over three million people formerly engaged in legitimate businesses losing their jobs with about 90 percent of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) either grounded or relocated.
The Muhammadu Buhari administration had introduced a joint military operation codenamed “Ex-Swift Response” on August 20, 2019 across the nation’s borders, which in its wake crippled the economy of most border communities.
Since its launch, those living in the communities who had relied on border activities survival are now living in abject poverty leaving many with no option than to embrace illegal businesses around the border corridors to put food on the table for families.
Nigeria shares international land border with Benin Republic, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
The Punch reports that the unreliable power supply in Nigeria is causing huge economic losses, estimated at N10.1tn, yearly, the World Bank has said.
The World Bank, in a new report, noted that transition from a publicly-owned to largely privately-owned power market, which began in 2013, did not bring the expected outcomes.
“The sector is under severe stress,” it said, adding that the causes for the stress were interlinked and the result of key stakeholders falling short of their expected contributions for achieving sector turnaround.
The report said this had led to a lack of trust between key stakeholders and among the general public with respect to power sector improvement. It said a credible reform process would require an integrated approach of resolving regulatory and policy failures, and establishing a credible and fiscally sustainable financing plan by the Federal Government to ensure full funding for tariff shortfalls, among other measures.
ThisDay says that the value of electronic payment transactions through the point of sale (PoS) terminals, Nigeria Interbank Settlement System Instant Payment (NIP) and Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) increased significantly by 82 percent to N11.676 trillion in May 2020, compared with the N6.421 trillion recorded in April 2020.
The Chief Executive Officer, Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, attributed this to the impact of COVID-19 in a report he presented at the Lagos Business School’s executive breakfast session for July at the weekend.
He stated that the figures were obtained from Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS). The spike in e-banking activities in the month was necessitated by the lockdown in the country then, as part of efforts by both the federal and some state governments to contain the spread of COVID-19.
According to the report, the value of PoS transactions in May was N358 billion, which was a 31.63 percent increase from the N245 billion recorded in April; while NIP transactions increased by N10.405 trillion, up by 48.44 percent when compared with the previous month.
The newspaper also says that GBfoods, a culinary product manufacturing, in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kebbi State Government and the Emirate of Yauri, recently built a N20 billion Tomato processing factory, in Kebbi State in northern Nigeria
The factory was said to be the second largest in Nigeria and the only fully backward integrated plant in ECOWAS – and has the largest single tomatoes farm in Nigeria.
According to the partners, when all phases of the project are finished, the factory would be the largest fresh tomatoes processing factory in Sub-Saharan Africa. It was further stated that the investment in the factory and adjoining farm, included a drip irrigation and fertigation infrastructure, greenhouses, seed planting robots, an incubation chambers and a plethora of agricultural machinery.
source:Journalcameroon
