Agric lending to
hit 100/0 - CBN THE untral Bank o(Nigeria (CBN) said r~tl': rda y that it will make banks to incrC"ue Itnrling to the agriculture sector in the country from the current 2 percenllo 10 percent In the next five years. The CBN's acting director in the development and financedepartmcnl, Paul Eluhaiwc: said this at a press briefing on the forthcoming conferenell' on the NigC'ria Incenth"t-based Risk Sh;u-ing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), coming up ntxt mOnlh in Abuja. NIRSAl is CBN's new strategy to spa rk agricultural industrialization process through increased production and processingoftht grf'ater part vflhe cQmmodilil"5 produced in the country to boost economic rarnings across the value chain. The apex banksaJd II is allocaling N75 billion 10 NIRSAL to be used in ils five pWars of Risk Sharing F~cility (RSF); Insurance ComponenL(IC); Tec hnical Assistance Facili ty (TAF); Bank Incentive f..'lechanism (DIM); and Agricultural Bank Rating System (ABRS). CBN said that N IRSAl.aimM to leverage N<lSO billion in bank lending into agriculture. thereby dosing 60 percent of agriculture finanCing gap.
Chinese coys to fix
Kainji with S8l.7m By SundaJWi Ilii! ms TWO Chinese companies, Hyd ro China and Harbin Electric Corporation yes terday signed a contract of $81.747,642.49 (about N12.2 billion) with the Power Holding Company of Nigeria ( PHCN) to rehabilitate the Kainjl Power Station. The funding 0(. the contract is from the crMlt facillty recei\"M by the Federal GOyernment from the World Bank to reha bilitate the Kainj i power station under the Niger Basin Water Resou rces Development and Sustainable Ecosystems Management Programme. Speaking at the signing ceremony at PHCN Head office in Ahuja. the Managing Director/CEO of PHCN, Engineer Hussain Labo said the rehabilitation will cover three units of the statioll.
120mw installed capacity; IG-6 with 120mw capacity; and IG- 12 with lOOrowcapacit)'~On completion ofthecontraCl we I\ill have additional 340mw. Presently, the: installed capability of the plan t is 380mw. This means that when the contract is completed, the: full capacity of Kainjl hydro station will be restored,~ he said. He said that because of th e fragile: ne:t work, they require unit~ that can regulate frequency, adding that two of them afe part of the rehabilitation. Speaking, the General Manager, Project Monitoring Unit (PMU) PHCN, Enginee:r Mansum Afolabl Ganiyu said that th e completion time of th e contract is between 40 to 42 months, adding that the: fi rst un its should come oul I\ithln 27 months. tie said that the contractors were chosen ou t of the se:ven that expressed interest in the second bid under the
supervision of the World Bank after failingintherirstatlem pl He explainM that Nigeria is one of the beneficiaries of the World Bank facilit}' among nine countries in the course ofNigt!f", adding that the contr.'!ct will also ~ extende:d to other things in Jebba and Kaniji stations. Also speaking, the CEO of Kainj! Power Station, Enginner Reuben Akinwunmi said that the rehabilitation will apart from increasing their capacity, also control syste:m frequenc}', adding that two of the old machines that cannot \"l1ry the freque:ncywi Ube replacal with the latest units whicq will not be collapsing as it used tobe. The chief tx«utives of the: companie:s who signed the contacts, Duan Xiaopin oftlydro China and Wu /ian· bin said though the project Is challenging, they wUi demonstrate ·their capability and technical know how to ddive r the contract as scheduled.
MTN subscribers in Nigeria hit40m FfDm Hahlmah "jih nle Hurudeen, Lagos MTN Nige ria yeste rday said that its subscribers' base has reached 40 million active lines making thecountT)' the lead across its 21 operational nations. Speaking at the:official closing ceremony of the MTN 21 Days ofYeUo Care in Lagos, the Chieflnfonnation Officer, MIN Nigeria. Mr. Abdul Ismail who represented Group President and CEO Sifiso Dabengwa al the event said Nigeria constitutes the biggest market for the MTN Group's operation with the 40 million subscriptions on ils network in its 10 rears of busi ness in the country. According to him, the group currently has an estimated over ISO million subscribers in 2 t c:ountTil'S of operation. He said; ~We: are proud as a group to announce·that, today. MTN Nigeria contributes significantly to tht:: group's subscribers. In the 21 countrics ..... here weare currentlyoperating from, we hal'!' 150 million co mbined customers and of this, f..ITN Nigeria now has 40 million sub5cribers.~ Ismail explained that the 21 Days of \'1'110 Care is an annual CorporateSocial Responsibility (CSR) ofMTN staff which kicked off21 days ago and featured series of sellles.s service by the members of staff of the tdecom company to orphanages, schools, and the planting of 3,700 trees across the:country.
= .ifH4.6tJ , Foreign ReserVe} Act!
$3Z.8bn
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