BusinessDay 21 Sep 2017

Thursday 21 September 2017
Nigeria‘s economic recovery looks up as oil price reaches below $56 per barrel
OLUSOLA BELLO with agency report
EFCC recovers N409bn, $69m in 8
months, secures 137 convictions
ONYINYE NWACHUKWU, Abuja
Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission
(EFFC) recovered
N409.270
billion between January and
August this year, according
to its chairman, Ibrahim
Magu. Magu said about
$69.501 million, €610,816,
£231,118, AED443,400, and
SR70,500 were also recovered
within the period.
Speaking at the 20th anniversary
of the Finance
Correspondents Association
of Nigeria (FICAN), in Abuja
on Tuesday, he also said the
commission had secured
137 convictions this year.
The EFCC boss said that
Entrepreneurship
as an instrument
of development for
any society involves
the initiation, organisation
and management of a business
venture along with its
inherent risks.
This involves capacity to
find and evaluate business
opportunities, gather the
necessary resources and
implement actions to take
advantage of the opportunities
while guided by high
achievement and motivation.
It is a dynamic process of
creating incremental wealth
by individuals who assume
major risk in terms of equity,
time and or career commitment
to add value.
From inception, Gamaliel
& Susan Onosode Foundation
has organised series of
lectures to properly examine
and recommend solutions
to issues affecting the visible
development of the Nigerian
society with children and
youths as the focal point.
The 2017 lecture themed,
Brent, the equivalent of
the Nigerian‘s Bonny
crude and West Texas
Intermediate (WTI),
dropped to $55.42 on Wednesday
after hitting fresh highs of
$56 in early trading on Tuesday,
with oil demand looking
particularly robust and fears
over hurricane damage to the
market having receded.
Experts have predicted that
the price of crude could reach
$60 per barrels but doubt if it
would ever go beyond that
This is no doubt a big boost
to Nigeria, a country whose
economy depends solely on
crude oil as major source of
foreign exchange earnings. The
2017 budget benchmark was
put at $44.5 per barrels.
The country recent exit from
recession has been as a result
of steady rise in the price of the
commodity and cessation of
hostility from Niger Delta militants
that have stopped pipeline
vandalism, allowing crude
production to grow steadily.
Currently, Nigeria produces
average of 1.8 million barrels of
crude and about 500,000 barrels
of condensates, thereby making
the total oil production to hit
2.3 million barrels per day. Its
external reserve hits about $33
billion last month, no thanks
to the uninterrupted crude oil
production for the period.
Meanwhile, some OPEC
members are still contemplating
a further cut in production
in order to firm up the price of
the commodity and also clear
a global glut, led partly by US
shale production.
Iraq and some other oil
producers taking part in global
output cuts think they should
reduce supply by an additional
1 percent to help re-balance the
market, according to Iraqi Oil
Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi. Some
also favour extending cuts until
the end of 2018, he said.
Producers are talking about
what to do next regarding the
recovered money was kept in
the Recovery Fund account
domiciled with the Central
Bank of Nigeria, saying,
“They were monies illegally
siphoned, and which, undoubtedly
would have gone
a long way to improve the living
conditions of Nigerians.”
At the event, Magu
blamed corruption for the
current lack of development
in the country as well as the
inability of some media organisation
to meet their staff
obligations.
His words, “Indeed, to
state that Nigeria has all it
takes to truly be the Giant of
Africa, is to state the obvious.
We are blessed with both human
and mineral resources.
4th Gamaliel & Susan Onosode
Foundation lecture holds today
“Empowering the Nigerian
Youth through Entrepreneurship”
holds today at the Nigerian
Institute of International
Affairs (NIIA) at 11am.
The keynote address will
be delivered by Yewande
Zaccheaus, CEO, Eventful
Limited, a leading events
planning, venue management
and consulting company
in Lagos, alongside
other discussants relevant to
the sector. The lecture aims
to seek out viable means
to empower the Nigerian
youth for a better future using
entrepreneurship as a
springboard.
The Foundation is a notfor-profit,
non-political outfit
incorporated in May 2013
and committed to contributing
consistently to the promotion
of quality education
in Nigeria. It was founded by
Gamaliel Onosode of blessed
memory. Its mission is to foster
the success of the Nigerian
child through innovative and
flexible learning opportunities
while providing the
enabling environment.
cuts, al-Luaibi said at a conference
in the emirate of Fujairah in
the United Arab Emirates. There
is “no firm decision yet” on
further cuts or any extension of
the current reductions, he said.
“Some think that cuts
should be extended beyond
March, three or four months,
or six months, or maybe till the
end of 2018,” al-Luaibi said.
“Some, like Ecuador and other
countries, even Iraq, think
there should be another cut of
1 percent.”
The OPEC and major suppliers
including Russia agreed
to trim output by 1.8 million
barrels to clear a global glut.
They extended their accord
through the first quarter, and
ministers from Saudi Arabia,
Venezuela, the United Arab
Emirates and Russia have
said producers may consider
prolonging the cuts further.
Benchmark Brent crude has
slid about 2 percent this year
and is currently trading at less
than $56 a barrel.
Federal Government
said the timely
commencement
of the proscription
process of the Indigenous
People of Biafra
(IPOB) by President Muhammadu
Buhari prevented the
crises in the South East from
snowballing into bigger nationwide
problem.
This is as minister of
information and culture,
Lai Mohammed, officially
revealed that President
Buhari had approved the
process of proscribing
the separatist organisation
known as Indigenous
People of Biafran (IPOB).
Mohammed disclosed
this during an interaction
Governor of Edo State,
Godwin Obaseki,
on Wednesday,
flagged off the 2017
routine immunisation intensification
project in Egor Local
Government Area of the state.
As an expression of his
administration’s premium
on the immunisation project,
Obaseki rewarded three local
government areas with N10
million, for their extensive
coverage of people during the
programme from January to
September this year.
He declared that the cash
award would be given yearly
to encourage local government
councils to take the immunisation
programme to
every doorstep in all the local
governments of the state, and
assured that more vehicles
would be provided to improve
surveillance of immunisation
activities.
“This is the third immunisation
programme that I am
flagging off as the governor
with State House correspondents
at the Presidential Villa
Abuja, shortly after the weekly
Federal Executive Council
presided over by Vice President
Yemi Osinbajo.
The minister, who said
he refused to join the debate
over the legality or otherwise
of the proscription of the
group, said, “But for the quick
action of state governors in
the South East and the North,
there would have been a
conflagration of immense
proportions.
“But I ask, if the President
had been overly concerned
with legality, where would
Nigeria have been today? If
attacks in the South East had
attracted reprisals elsewhere
in the country, what would
have happened?
C002D5556
of Edo State and we want all
children under ages 0-5 years
in the state to be immunised
against deadly diseases such
as Polio.
“We want health workers
to go out and immunise children
across the various local
government councils in the
state. The need for mothers
to immunise their children
should always top the agenda
during social gatherings,”
Obaseki said.
Akoko Edo Local Government
Area was given N5
million for clinching the first
position with 85.5 percent immunisation
coverage. Estako
Central LGA was adjudged the
second-best council and got
N3 million while Esan Central
was given N2 million for taking
the third position.
In her remarks, the World
Health Organisation (WHO)
coordinator, Edo State, Faith Ireye,
commended the governor
for initiating the yearly cash
award to the best performing
“For those who are fixated
with legality, I have
good news for them: President
Muhammadu Buhari
has approved the process of
proscribing IPOB, and the
procedure is on as I speak.”
The minister also accused
IPOB of externalizing it’s
campaign by writing to the
government’s and Parliaments
in the West nation’s alleging
genocide in the South
East. He said that the IPOB
has engaged in using highly
emotive videos of killings
to deceive the international
community.
He commended the governors
in the South East for
dissociating themselves from
the violent campaign embarked
upon by the IPOB
“I am not interested in the
BUSINESS DAY
35
NEWS
Obaseki flags off immunisation project, rewards LGAs with N10m
LGAs in routine immunisation
and said that it would spur
every local council and health
workers to put in their best during
immunisation programme.
Ireye said Edo State routine
immunisation coverage
had been adjudged best in
the country, with no variation
between its administrative
data and the outcome of the
National Converge Survey
conducted in 2016.
“There is a huge reduction
in vaccine-preventable disease
rate in the state: Edo had been
able to achieve the measles
elimination target of less than
one measles case per 1, 000,000
population,” she said.
The WHO coordinator
added that the objective of the
routine immunisation intensification
project was to improve
the current immunisation
coverage of 72 percent by 20
percent and reduce the number
of unimmunised children
in the state of about (26,968)
by 30 percent.
L-R: Oladotun Afolabi, executive secretary, Igbobi College Old Boys Association (ICOBA); Julius Solomon, chairman,
ICOBA 1987 set; Foluso Phillips, president, ICOBA, and Yomi Badejo Okusanya, secretary general, ICOBA, at the launch
of the Igbobi College Reading & Book Club sponsored by ICOBA set ‘87 as part of activities marking their 30 years of
leaving school in Lagos.
Proscription of IPOB prevented
reprisal attacks - Lai Mohammed
... as Buhari approves proscription process ... court proscribes IPOB, designates it as terrorists organisation
ONYINYE NWACHUKWU, Abuja
semantics or legality of troops
deployment or the proscription
of IPOB. All I know is
that IPOB has engaged in
terrorist activities, viz: Setting
up parallel military and
paramilitary organizations,
clashing with the national
army and attempting to seize
rifles from soldiers, using
weapons such as machetes,
molotov cocktails and sticks
and mounting roadblocks to
extort money from people,
among others.
“To those who have engaged
in semantics or legality,
I ask: Which country in
the world will tolerate those
activities I have listed above?
Which national army will
look the other way when it
is being attacked by a band
of thugs?”