Nigeria to sign bio-safety law on cotton production TOLA A KINMunMI ABWA
n furtherance 0( its ongoing AgriculturaJ Transformation Agenda, the Federal Goverrunent will soon endorse the bio-safcty law as a strategic step toward returning the countI1' into the league of conan producing and exporting oountrles. The initiative. which is one of the environmental protection prerequisites for membership of the body. Is ooming after over three decades after the country lost its poslUon as one of the largest ronon producers and symbolises the beginmng of the re-enaconent of the glorious old days when agriculture was the mainstay of the econom)!:
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Giving the him at a media briefing on the activities of his ministrY in Abuja. Minister of Agrlcu.Iture and Rural Developmem, Dr. Aklnwum1 Adesina said the sealing of the pact would complement ongoing investments and poUcy re-direction dnve targeted al boosting ootlon productivity and processing for roarkels. According to him., the Federal Government, as pan of the cotton vruue chain programmes is providing 31 least 1,750 metric tonnes of certified. seeds through a Memorandum of Understanding with a private fmn· WACO'r- to farmers in the cur· rent planting season to achieve the objective of improving productivity and enhanc.ini Nlge-
ria's share in the g10bal cotton export markeL Similarly, the minister dlsclosed that in lerms d engaging the state governments in lile efforts to rapidly 11llProve-national capacity on cotton, the .''edcral Government has commenced the mobUisation of conon producers from 11 states spread across geo-polltlcal zones with rotton prOOuction capacity with a view to ensuring thai necessary technical and logtstlc supports are provided the farmers at the grassroots. On the overall objectives of the conan revival ininative, Adeslna said some of the strDteg1es being adopted to meel the targets is 10 improve COlton production through productivity enhance-
ment by SUpportblg research and institutional capacity, and promote industrial value chains of cotton and bye products and dnve prOOuction by using integrated Contract Cotton Farming approach using functional ginneries as production hubs. He expJained. further: "Pan of the strategies is that government will expand cultivable areas in the North West and North East and South West ecologicaJ zones of the COWltry and extend such to other ecological zones that have potent1aJs for cotton productlon_ "In addition. we are also going to encourage seed buy back. arrangement for breeder slock. foundation slock, and certified stock towards lncreasmg local
seed producdm and facilitate a phased acquisition of domestic capacity fQrginneries as a hub~ mass production of CllnOn linL "We are also embarktngon ag-
gressive multipiJcation of pure cotton soerI using public private partnership and also promoting clean cotton by wlthdrawaJ of polypropylene bags and substituting with cotton cloth harvest bags through the glnnerles", Adesina discl,)Sed. He expla.med that in pursuit of the cle4D cotton and ginneries agenda, government has launched the process of producing cotton cloth harvest bags and also engaging the Ginners Assoclatio:1 00 the Public-Prtvate-Partnership for conan pn> duction ani processing.
lD~e~re~g~u~la~tmioMn~k«ewyttoON~ig;e~riaa~'s~=r~~~lf~~~......jiiiiiii economic growth -PHCCIMA CHINEDUM E MEANA PORTHAACOURT
he Port Harcourt Chamber of Commen;:e, industry, Mines and Agriculture (PHCC)J\.iA) has once again reiterated. lis position that a policy of deregulation should be pursued by the Federal Govern· ment as It remains a key ingredient to arriving at economic growth for the countr)( Delivering a paper entitled: ;'Business survtval in a deregula ted economy", at the Sam ObuabWlwa Foundation for Economic Empowerment COilfcrence in Port HarcoW1, President of PHCCIMA, MI: Vm· cent Fum, who suppon ed the aborted full deregulation of the downstream sedor of the petro-
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leum industry in the oountr}' in Jan uary, urged the Federal Government to be bold in pursuing full deregulation of key sectors of the Niger ia's econorul' F\1l"O argued thai opposed to liberalization which is charaL> tensed by regulated markets. deregulation "leads to com petitive intensity, an increase in relnted investment,. more lnnavation
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cus<omer be""" s".
dvised that for busi· to survive in a deregu-
n lated environment Utey mus t
seek ro remain competitive by identifying and red ucing major cost divers in the value chain , respond to market tre nd and need through innovation. while adop ting new technologies and scientific methods of product.ion.
Benue farmers raise the alarm overHlbn agric loan disbursement H ENRY IVORKASE MAI<URDI
hler.nt:hy d Benue Stale branch of All Fanners Association cI' Nigeria (AFAN), yestcrda,y In MaIrunII the Bel1l~ State capital ex· pressed dismay aver the ~ the Wbn allocated to Bcnue farmers by tbf! Central Bank d NIgeria's CommerclaJ A.gricultural Credit Scheme in ooniWlCtioo with Benne State gowrnment were d1sbun;ed. In 3 press statement made avaIlable to reporta's shortly after the emergency ~ Cmnmutee meeting ~ the as. sociation held yest:erda;x wbe:re
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drew up the proposal on how the Agric Credit Funds could be accessed and distributed., they \Wre denied their right to be represented during the disbursement
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the alleged manipulatiorL cL the Benue fartners. the state chalrman d the association. Comrade
Acmnling to the chairman, the associatiOn has divided fhrmen: in groups of JO each and extension officers trained with credit recovery committees put in place in Hoe. with the Federal Government Agricultural 'J'ransfonnatlon Programme for- the putllOSE! fI the credit scheme. 'Ibe cha1rmao further' asserted thar the 209 purported beneficiaries of the loan in the State are not genuine farmers and slIeged that ~ ~ them are poUtlcal cronies eX the state government whom he said IUM! /he Ity to access CAdit facilltIes &om conmerclal banks rattu than cnaoadled on the IEheme meant
Aoodooa Kuhe said Ibooab
lDr....uocale ,."...,
_taken
far I't!3dling decWoos ~re In """"'" to
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L..R: T,... Ac:coI.n w.n.ge, (AbuI' and North), BriIWI AItw8ys Nigeria, M.... Ronnie UzoIgwe; Trade Aecount Manager (LegM Island), M a. EN Ed8dMI; TraM Sales MaMger, Mr. ~ Mel Trade Account M.:I1IiIgIII" (lkoyW1J\..ekJll/ VGCI, M.... Erdoo 0Ih0ma, durlog. tra6e WOfUhop In ~ AIeIIOtly.
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Airtel Nigeria invests Nl08.5bn in two years OWing Its acquisiUon of Zain in a:)IO, Aine1 Nigeria said it bas invested over S'l'OCm (about NI08..5bn) in buIlding and upgrading its telecoms network towards providing improved services to its over 20 mil-
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lion '"""""""''lbeManaging Di.rectorof Airtel Nigeria, Mr. IGijan Swaroop, disclosed this during the official commissioning of the telecoms company's brand new state-of. the-art data centre located al t..e.
kklLago< "[0 2010, when we acqulred Zain, we disclosed our plan to invesi: about $8llm In the Nigerian leJecoms sector in building our net\\'Orlr. in a short while. HowENer; I can tell )'0\1 noYi that v..'C have surpassed this prQ)ectlon as
we have spent more than f700m between then and now," he said While noting thai the newlybuilt data centre Is pan of theongoing investment, Swaroop saJd the bulk of AirteI investment so far has been dlrected at building robust. network.. He said the data cenb'e is signifIcant as it will result in improved service dellvery for AlrteJ
subscribers. The Chief Executive Omcer of ~ Mt: TanI Fafunwa, saki the data centre is the biggest In AirteJ Africa operations. adding it will result in impl"O'VOO. quality of service in an its ramiHcations for Airtel substtibers.. "Resoun::ery is a system integrator and IT company that has been working in deploying aidcal IT and data lnfrastructw'e for many organlsations for effective management of their network
operations." He said, together wIth otheT Airte1 partners such as Ericsson and Aura, Re90urcery had worked C%tRmely hard for the realisation rL the project for Airte.l MAs a company; our role In the project has been to deploy all the tITS and fibre cables lhat are used in the centre and 10 connect them.. We llUild the infrnstruc. rum including flu! computen ~ tng used," he said EarUer In his remarlts, the Chairman of Alrtel Network Umited. MI.: Oha ()rudekD, saki. the staUHlf-fue.an teehnology and equipment is the biggest data emile in A1nel Africa with 3l,Ol)sQ feet of equipment space and goes live with multiple backUpS in terms of power and redundancy for delivering seamless service to the mllllons of Ainel subscriben In Nigeria.