--bAiLY TRUST Wednesday, March 30, 2011
22 BUSINESS "
Business
Nigerians spend N2tr on generators annually By SundayWilliams WHILE the government promised to fix the electric power sector by December, Nigerians spend a whooping $13 billion (N2 trillion) on self-generated electr icity using generators, diesel and petrol annually, The figure is more than the N Itrillion capital vote for the 2011 budget proposal. The budget estimate is N4.9trillion. The figure is however less than the $16billion spenton power sector by the former preSident Oluse-
gu n Obasanjo government. The country currently generates about 2,200M W of electricity, even as it moves to unbundle its premier Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). Nigeria plans to up its power tariff in June, even though its ability to generate electricity is far behind the 38,OOOMW of South Africa. The Chairman Communication Commillee, Presidential Task Force on Power Abimbola Agboluaje said 40 percent of Nigerians are connected to the
grid, adding that there is effective demand for grid-based power in the country. He said different investors across the world during the last presidential retreat in Abuja pledged to invest $22 billion in Nigeria's power sector. As many as 331 companies have expressed interest in buying into the 6 generation and I I distribution Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) successor companies under the power sector road map.
Agboluaje said that the key
criterion for selecting investors to operate Nigeria's II distribution companies is their capacity to upgrade the distribution system and reduce power loss. He said that critical projects requiring investment have been identined, adding that some projects are currently being undertaken by the government and will continue to add to the capacity of the distribution infrastructure to deliver more power to Nigerians until private investors assume management of the system in the last quarter of 20 II.
He said the Presidential Task Force on Power has also identi ned the infrastructure projects reqUired to supply gas to new power plants and build trans mission capacity to wheel the increased generation into the national grid. "We plead for the patience and understanding of Nigerians. More and more households and businesses will benefit from the increased generation and enJoy more hours oflight as dencienCies in the distribution network are progressively eliminated; he said.
N7.2bn graft: Senate exonerates NAPEP boss ByTuraki A. Hassan
Nigeria's agric insurance scheme is broad -World Bank IPMAN: We'll not pull out of NIPCO BySundayWilliams THE Nigerian Agncultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) has been commended over its efforts to sustain the specialized agricultural insurance scheme, which is tailor -made to provide insurance cover to Nigerian farmers nationwide, a statement from NAIe's Head Corporate Affairs Butrous D. Pembi said. Speaking during a technical visit to the corporation, team leader of the World Bank, Ramiro Iturrioz, revealed that Nigeria is the only country whose agricultural insurance scheme is broad based and not specific to a particular crop, but also provides insurance cover on livestock in its service delivery to farmers generally. He explained that only one-crop insurance cover was successfully provided in about 10 countries like Argentina, India, South -Africa, Australia, Sweden Germany and Malaysia, adding that the Nigerian model of agricultural insurance was a huge success and should therefore be sustained with more subSidy from govemmenL Mr. Iturrioz, disclosed that the World Bank was very impressed by NAIC service delivery, especially its pre-inspection farm initiative and also the prompt clainlS
response mechanism in the discharge of the corporation's statutory mandate, towards mitigating faml loses, occasioned by floods. drought, pest, fire and other disasters. He said given NAIC broad-based agriCultural insurance portfolio, the World Bank was desirous of partnering with the agency towards introdUcing the Weather-Index Insurance and to complement the traditional crop insurance presentlyoperated byNAIC Responding. NAIC Managing Director, Mr. Kwatri Kwagga Yusuf, welcomed the idea of partnering with the global agency, but observed that the challenges of the weather index insurance model was both enomlOUS and tasking, giving the narrow scope of its coverage on the crop index and also using the unpredictability of the weather especially (floods and drought) as a major factor to mitigate farm losses. He argued Umt U,e World Bank initiative would be less attractive to the Nigerian farmers whose capacity are very minimal, adding that risks like pests and ftfe are also critical disasters U13t the Nigerian farmers contend with annually, which cannot be indexed and therefore outside the weaU,er index perils.
From Mohammed Shosanya,Lagos THE Independent Pe troleu m Marketers Associalion of Nigeria (JPMAN) has said U,at it has no plan to pull out from the jOint ownership of the Nigeria n independent Petroleum Company (N IPCO). Its National President, AIhaji Abdulkadri Aminu, said at a news conference in Lagos that IPMAN is still a major shareholder of N IPCO and considered the petroleum company as the only one that can protect his members' interest. His reaction came on the heels of last week's signing of Memorandum of Understanding between some suspended members oflPMAN and Capital Oil and Gas Industries for the supply and distribution of petroleum products. Alhaji Felande-Mohammed ,who led the group to sign the Memorandum of Understanding in Lagos,said the develop-
ment was necessary in order to
crash the rising price of Dual Purpose Kerosene(DPK). But Aminu said that the purported Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by some fo rmer members of the body was done in bad faith as it did not represent the ma ndate of the generality of the members. The IPMAN national president said that only national body of the association has the right to sign the document and make such pronouncement. He urged the management of Capital Oil and Gas not to sign any MoU without the omcial confirmation from the national body of the association. He said that the FelandeMohammed- led group ceased to be members of the association based on a court judgment since 2008. Speaking, Alhaji Adebisi Bada, Financial Secretary, South-West said that his members were not aware of the MOU signed with Capital Oil.
THE Senate Committee on National Planning, Economic Affairs and Poverty Alleviation has refuted reports that it has indicted the National Co-ordinator of National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), Dr. Magnus Kpakol over allegations of mismanaging N7.2 billion. In a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja yesterday, committee chairman, Senator Zainab Kure (PDP, Niger) , described the reports of the purported indictment as false. She said the Committee in its investigation ofNAPEP, did not find Dr. Kpakol or any staff of the agency culpable of misappropriating monies meant for poverty alleviation in the country. Senator Kure also described as false and baseless the claims that the Senate had indicted Dr. Kpakol for conniving with banks to mismanage large sums of monies meant for the growing Nigerian poor. "The attention of the Senate Committee on Nalional Plan ning, Economic Affairs and Poverty Alleviation has been drawn to an alleged indictment of U,e National Co-ordinator of NAPEP and the Special Assistant to Mr. President on Poverty, Dr. Kpakol by the committee. The Committee's report has not been considered by the Senate taLk less of indicting Dr. Magnus Kpakol as alleged. It is pertinent to mention that the committee is not aware of the alleged report:' Senator Kure said. She clarified that the com mittee has no knowledge of the lodgment of the N7.2 billion into two commercial banks for the purpose of yielding interest for U,e national coordinator. According to her, "the committee is made up of distin guished members and highly diSciplined staff to divulge wrong information to the media or anybody forthat matter."