BusinessDay 26 Mar 2018

A2
NEWS
Nigerian states internally generated
revenue hits 8-year high
MICHEA ANI
Internally generated
revenue (IGR) by Nigerian
states in 2017
touched N931.23 billion,
the highest so far
since 2010, according to data
from National Bureau of Statistics
(NBS).
This figure represents a
12.04 percent increase from
the N831.19 billion generated
in 2016 (year-on year).
Analysts are of the view
that the reason for this hike
in IGR can be attributed to
a cut by the Federal Government
on allocations to
states, as they have to find
rigorous means to generate
revenue themselves.
“The reason for this
hike in states IGR is not farfetched.
FAAC allocation has
been going down since 2015,
Good environment health coming as Visionscape assures on cleaner city by April
CHUKA UROKO
BUSINESS DAY
C002D5556
The challenge to
good environmental
health posed by
mounting refuse
dumps in Lagos city will be
a thing of the past soon, if
assurances by the authorities
of the new waste management
firm, Visionscape
Sanitation Solutions, are
anything to go by.
Lagos, in the last eight
months of the coming of
the new waste collector, has
surreptitiously slipped from
its status as a mega city to a
‘mega refuse dump’ where
every street and some major
roads have been taken
over by both residential and
commercial wastes generated
in substantial quantities
by homes and industries.
Vissionscape, a foreign
firm, employed by the authorities
of the state as a
substitute to the homegrown
Lagos Waste Management
Agency (LAWMA),
which, in its imperfections,
tried to manage waste in
A
legislation that seeks
to inject $1 billion
for the completion
of Ajaokuta Steel
Company Limited from the
Excess Crude Account (ECA)
has scaled second reading on
the floor of the House of Representatives.
The $1 billion, according
to Section 2(a-c) of the
proposed bill, is to be drawn
from “Excess Crude Revenue
and “all monies from
time to time appropriated
and authorised to be paid
into the Fund,” as well as “all
loans or grants from time to
time made to Nigeria for the
purposes of completing the
Ajaokuta Steel company.”
According to one of the
experts who spoke at the
sectoral debate on Ajaokuta
Steel project, Anthony
Madagua, Nigeria has the
capacity to produce 12.2mt/
year of steel by year 2020 out
of which Ajaokuta Steel is to
produce 5.2mt yearly, as encapsulated
in the Vision 2020
economic blueprint, which
projects that Nigeria will join
the league of industrialised
nations by 2020 and reduce
importation of $4 billion
worth of steel on yearly basis.
Madagua also said about
$1.4 billion was required for
the completion of the first
phase of Ajaokuta plant of
1.3 million tons of liquid
steel per year, adding that
the thermal power plant had
the capacity of generating
110mw of electricity.
On his part, Hussaini Abthe
state well, is perceived
by many Lagosians as being
incapable of handling the
enormous waste Lagos generates
on daily basis.
But the authorities of the
new firm, which prides itself
as technology-driven waste
collector, assure that before
the end of April, about 30
days from now, “Lagosians
will see a marked difference
in their environment,”
which at the moment poses
serious threat to their health
condition.
John Irvine, the company’s
CEO, explained
that they effectively started
collecting residential
refuse in the state in January
this year, as they used
their first five months in
the state (July to December)
dealing with the over
2,000 identified black
spots (illegal dumpsites).
Specifically, Irvine assured
that in addition to
increasing their capacity
by engaging about 100
waste collection organisations
(WCOs), otherwise
called PSP operators, they
creating a short fall in the income
of states hence most of
them had to look internally
to generate money to meet
the shortfalls in income like
going into aggressive taxation,”
Dolapo Ashiru CEO at
Lagos-based Mega Financial
Capital, said.
Total disbursements to
states fell by 30.5 percent
from N1.009 trillion in the
first half of 2015 to N701 billion
in the first half of 2016.
For local governments, allocations
from FAAC dropped
by 26 percent from the
N580.63 billion of the first
half of 2015 to N429.43 billion
of the first half of 2016.
The reason for this fall
was as a result of a fall in
crude prices coupled with
disturbance associated with
the Niger Delta militant that
sent oil production to a decade
low of 1.2 million barrel
as the economy went to its
first recession in 25 years.
The Federal Government
was also not left behind in
the heat as total disbursements
to the Federal Government
fell from N1.23 trillion
in the first half of 2015 to
N854 billion in the first half
of 2016. This represents a
30.9 percent decline
According to the NBS, 31
states recorded growth in
IGR while five states - Akwa
Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi,
Osun and Taraba recorded
a decline at the end of 2017
fiscal year.
Lagos, Rivers, Ogun, Delta
and Kano generated the
highest revenue with an IGR
of N333.97 billion, N89.48
billion, N74.83 billion,
N51.89 billion and N42.4
billion, respectively. While
would be taking delivery
of more vehicles and
waste bins to be distributed
to every part of the
state, especially the suburbs.
With these, he emphasised
they would be more
aggressive, intensive and
extensive in waste collection,
moving from local
government to local government,
street to street and
household to household.
Recently, the Lagos
House of Assembly took
out time to look into the
operations of Visionscape,
raising concerns
among residents that the
action might affect the operations
of the company.
But Visionscape has assured
Lagosians that there
is no cause for alarm over
the resolution of the House
of Assembly, saying that
the parliamentarians were
performing their statutory
function.
The House of Assembly
had in a resolution invited
the Accountant-General of
the state, Abimbola Umar,
Unions to shut down airspace over delayed payment
of ex-Nigeria Airways workers severance packages
IFEOMA OKEKE
Failure of the Federal
Government to pay
the N45 billion final
severance packages
to the almost 6,000 workers of
the former workers of Nigeria
Airways Limited (NAL) may
spell doom for it as the industry
unions have threatened
to shut down airspace in the
next two weeks.
The industry unions are
also peeved by the insensitivity
of the Ministry of Finance to pay
the workers over 10 months after
the approval by the Federal
Executive Council (FEC).
The unions, National Association
of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers
(NAAPE), the National
Union of Air Transport Employees
(NUATE) and the Air Transport
Senior Staff Services Association
of Nigeria (ATSSSAN),
said they would not wait until
the entire workers of the former
national carriers die before taking
step to ensure that they were
paid their benefits.
The petition, dated March
19, 2018, and made available
to journalists, was signed
by Ocheme Aba for NAAPE,
Frances Akinjole, ATSSSAN,
and Alayinka Abioye for NU-
ATE, and addressed to Hadi Siri-
ka, minister of state for aviation.
The petitioners also copied the
ministers of labour and employment
and finance. It would be
recalled that the ex-workers had
accused Kemi Adeosun, finance
minister of wilfully delaying the
payment of the severance packages
despite approval by the
government.
The unions also pointed
out that they had commenced
the mobilisation
of the Nigeria Labour Congress
(NLC), Trade Union
Congress (TUC) and United
Labour Congress (ULC) in a
bid to gather wider support
for the action.
Yobe, Bauchi, Kebbi, Ekiti
and Ebony generated the
least with an IGR of 3.6, 4.37,
4.39, 4.97 and 5.1 billions in
naira. In 2015, IGR shrunk
3.4 percent to N683.6 billion
from the N707.8 billion state
recorded in 2014.
At the end of half year
2017, total revenue generated
by states was put at
N432.65 billion as against
N409.09 billion that was
generated in the first half
(H1) of 2017.
The net Federation Account
Allocation Committee
(FAAC) in year 2017 was put
at N1.73 trillion while the total
revenue available to the
states was N2.67 trillion.
However, the value of foreign
debt stands at $19.9 billion
while domestic debt hits
N3.35 trillion at the end of
2017 full year, respectively.
and three members of the
State Executive Council to
brief its ad hoc committee
on all issues surrounding
waste management and the
role and status of Visionscape.
The invited commissioners
are attorney-general and
commissioner of justice,
Adeniji Kazeem; commissioner
for finance, Akinyemi
Ashade, and commissioner
for environment,
Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti.
ECA: Reps mull legislation for injection
of $1bn into Ajaokuta Steel
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
Monday 26 March 2018
dulrahaman, chairman, Total
Steel Limited, expressed
concerned over the $5.7
billion assets tied down for
over 30 years.
According to Abdulrahaman,
“The opportunity cost
of the non performance of
Ajaokuta Steel company is
best imagined of we judge
it against a similar plant
that was commissioned
in time, had a project cost
and investment payback of
10 years and subsequently
earned profits of 10% of investment
every year for 20
years, for the investor (in our
own case Federal Government
of Nigeria) and cumulative
and investible profits
of $11.4 billion (enough to
build 20 more steel plants of
1.5m TPA).”
The experts’ presentations
and recent working visit of
speaker Yakubu Dogara led to
the House resolve to initiate
the “bill for an Act to provide
for the Ajaokuta steel company
completion fund for the
speedy completion of the project
and for other related matters,”
sponsored by Uzoma
Nkem-Abonta and 300 other
lawmakers.
Section 3 of the bill also
provides that the monies in
the Fund shall be applied
by the Minister only for the
purpose of: construction,
improvement, extension, enlargement
and replacement
of infrastructure and works,
including the provision, acquisition,
improvement and
replacement of other capital
assets (like vehicles, vessels,
machinery, instruments.