BusinessDay 07 Jan 2019

50 BUSINESS DAY www.businessday.ng www.facebook.com/businessdayng @businessDayNG @Businessdayng Monday 07 January 2019
NEWS
Labour insists on strike as meeting
with FG continues today
JOSHUA BASSEY & KEHINDE AKINTOLA
SERAP writes Fashola to name contractors that disappeared with power projects funds
MICHEAL ANI, with agency report
Socio-Economic Rights
and Accountability
Project (SERAP) says
it has sent a Freedom
of Information (FOI) request
to Babatunde Fashola, minister
of power, works and
housing, urging him to use
his good offices to “urgently
provide information on specific
names and details of
contractors and companies
that allegedly collected money
for electricity projects but
failed to execute any projects,
starting from the return of
democracy in 1999 to 2018.”
According to SERAP, former
Nigeria’s Vice President
and Presidential candidate
of the People’s Democratic
Federal Government
and organised labour
are expected to meet
again today in their
continuation of effort
to resolve the lingering minimum
wage crisis and avert the
proposed nationwide strike
billed to commence tomorrow.
A similar meeting held on
Friday, January 4, to address
the issue was inconclusive and
both agreed to continue today.
Labour had since commenced
mobilisation of members
and its civil society allies
for what they said would be
a long drawn nationwide industrial
action to demand for
the implementation of the
N30,000 new minimum wage
recommended by the Ama
Pepple-led tripartite National
Minimum Wage Committee.
Chris Ngige, minister of labour
and employment, during
the meeting on Friday, said the
high level Technical Committee
announced by President
Muhammadu Buhari would
work on the fiscal issues to
ensure sustainable payment
of the N30,000 new national
minimum wage.
Labour had insisted there
was no need setting up a technical
committee and urged the
federal government to transmit
a draft bill of the N30,000
recommended by the wage
committee to the National Assembly.
But Ngige said the technical
committee when constituted
would also advise state
governments who have been
complaining and groaning
under heavy wage bill on how
they should source funds to
meet the financial obligations
arising from the new minimum
wage.
According to Ngige, Federal
Government and labour
negotiating teams would meet
again today by 5:00pm to fine
tune fiscal issues on the new
national minimum wage.
“The meeting was not
deadlock. We are making progress
or we have made substantial
progress in terms of the
transmission of the national
minimum wage bill,” the minister
explained.
When informed that the
National Assembly was presently
on recess and expected
to resume on Wednesday,
January 16, 2019, Ngige said:
“Very good that’s the issue we
are looking at, they (National
Assembly) are on recess as you
can see it is a new bill on the
National Minimum Wage Act
2019.”
Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar,
reportedly blew the
whistle on Channels TV
when he said, “Contractors
were given some contracts
for power projects and were
paid 100 percent upfront yet
the money went down the
drain. Up till now, we are
not holding the contractors
responsible. People have
collected money upfront
100 percent and have disappeared;
and have not even
done any work.”
SERAP said: “The revelation
by Atiku is entirely consistent
with SERAP’s recent
report titled: From Darkness
to Darkness: How Nigerians
are Paying the Price for
Corruption in the Electricity
Sector, which also revealed
When asked about the hard
stance of the state governors
on the agreement reached
during the tripartite committee
meeting, Ngige said: “the
issue of the national minimum
wage is n the exclusive list,” as
stipulated by the 1999 Constitution
(as amended).
He maintained that if Mr.
President is not committed to
the implementation of the new
minimum wage, he would not
have provided the resources
for the tripartite committee
which worked for one year.
“He (Buhari) is ready for
it and received the report too.
We are now working on the
report. The report is in a raw
form. It is the milling that we
are doing. Now with labour
discussing.
“The high level technical
committee is not a committee
that to review the Minimum
wage report. It is a committee
that is economic. It is about
budget and planning and advises
Federal Government and
even the state governments on
sustainable implementation
and how we can get the funds.
Not a one and off thing not that
we can pay in 2019 and cannot
pay again. It will advise state
governments that have been
complaining and groaning under
heavy wage bill on certain
things they should do.”
Ibom Air acquires three aircraft for operations
IFEOMA OKEKE
Akwa Ibom State
government-owned
Ibom Airline Company
is gearing up
to commence operations after
acquiring three aircraft into its
fleet, and concluding a recruitment
process with 400 direct
and indirect jobs for Akwa
Ibom unemployed indigenes.
The state government says
the airline will for the moment
operate within Uyo-Lagos-Abuja
routes, adding that
it ventured into airline operations
to add to the capacity of
existing airlines.
Akan Okon, the state commissioner
for special duties
how over N11 trillion meant
to provide regular electricity
supply was allegedly squandered
by politicians and
contractors under successive
governments.”
In the FOI request dated
January, 4, 2019 and signed
by SERAP senior legal adviser
Bamisope Adeyanju, the
organisation said, “By publishing
the names of the contractors
and their registration
details, if any, Nigerians will
be better able to hold them
to account for allegedly absconding
with public funds
meant for electricity projects,
thereby throwing the country
into perpetual darkness and
socio-economic stagnation
as well as denying people
their human rights.”
and aviation development, said
in Uyo, the state capital, that the
recruitment process had been
concluded with an Akwa Ibom
son as chief pilot. He explained
that the heavy traffic witnessed
at the Akwa Ibom airport made
it imperative for the state government
to join the few airlines
operating there.
“Ibom Air has come to stay.
Three aircraft are secured and
are ready for commencement
of operation. It is completely
owned and operated by Akwa
Ibom State government and it
will provide 400 direct and indirect
jobs,” Okon said
Okon said though the airline
was exclusively owned by
the Akwa Ibom State government,
its management and
operations would be benchmarked
against international
best practices.
Staff of the new airline, recruited
strictly on merit, are
currently undergoing training
in their various areas of
specialties, and getting set to
start operations as soon as
required formalities are concluded,
he said.
On the state of the Victor Attah
International Airport, he said
was at the moment undergoing
work to improve the standard
of the airport with the ongoing
work on the second runway, new
taxiway, a power sub-station,
new commercial building and
other unique features.
SHIN achieves first oil on 200,000bpd Egina FPSO
KELECHI EWUZIE
Samsung Heavy Industries
Nigeria Limited
(SHIN) says it has
successful achieved
the first oil on the 200,000
barrels per day-capacity Egina
Floating Production Storage
Offloading (FPSO) unit.
The FPSO achieved first
Oil on December 29, 2018,
after the global shipbuilding
firm successfully completed
the mooring, hook-up and
required offshore commissioning
of the floating vessel.
In a statement by the
company, this volume of onshore
and offshore work had
never been accomplished in
Nigeria before now.
According to the company,
“With all these accomplished,
the high-risk portion of the
Egina project has now been
completed. This achievement
have been followed by very
good response from Nigerian
authorities, international clients
and earned major headlines
in the press. This leads
SHI to gain competitive edge
in future offshore project orders
in West Africa, of course
including Nigeria.”
The Egina FPSO, one of
the world’s largest FPSO,
and indeed the largest FPSO
ever deployed by the Total
Group, was built for the
French oil giant by SHIN.
Production from Egina
field of 200,000 barrels per
day at peak will increase
Nigerian current crude oil
production by 10 percent.
Since Egina FPSO arrived
at its offshore location on
August 29 from the fabrication
and integration yard in
Lagos, SHIN has worked towards
successfully achieving
this challenging goal of
achieving First Oil in 2018,
as agreed by all parties.
The Korean giant also
completed the FPSO
mooring well in advance
- completed on September
17,2018 against target
date of September 23, 2018,
riser hook-up activities and
required offshore commissioning,
putting an exemplary
effort in achieving
First Oil in 2018.
The company had also
successfully completed the
FPSO work in SHI-MCI yard
before it continued its work
offshore under strict Nigerian
local content regulations
with similar safety and
quality standards applicable
in the company’s Geoje
shipyard in Korea.
The statement says “We
are very proud to announce
the successful achievement
of First oil in 2018, which is
adding another feather in
our cap, subsequent to our
completion of the first ever
Nigerian Onshore Integration
works for EGINA FPSO
with thorough preparation
in compliance with Nigeria
Local Content.”
“Samsung is confident of
successfully completing the
remaining offshore commissioning
works and handover
of Egina FPSO to our client
Total along with its partners
(NNPC, CNOOC, SAPETRO
and PETROBRAS on schedule,
through close co-operation
and support from all relevant
Nigerian Government
Agencies including NNPC,
NAPIMS, NCDMB, NPA,
NEPZA, NIMASA, NIS, DPR,
etc., with Highest levels of
Safety and quality control.”
SHIN won the order to
build the Egina FPSO in
2013 and the facility is currently
installed on the offshore
field, located 150 km
off the coast of Nigeria.
The mega facility is 330
metres in length, 61metres
in breadth, and 34metres in
height. It boasts 200,000 barrels
of production per day at
the peak and 2.3 million barrels
storage capacity with topsides
weighing 60,000 tonnes.
The new-build FPSO contract
was a turnkey project in
which SAMSUNG covered
the entire engineering, design,
procurement, construction,
transportation and commissioning.