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THURSDAY, APRIL 7,201 1
ECOWAS to harmonise investment laws HE E con 0 m i c Communi ty of Wes t African States is to harmonise
T
regional investment laws to
boost economi c growth among member states.
A statement from the
body, made ava il able to the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday in Abuja, said that an ECOWAS investment code was being compared to investment
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FG may reduce recurrent expendit~e~~go!~thetop 6 01/0 of GD P T HE Federal Government may peg the recurrent expenditure of all ministries, departments and age ncies of
The percentage of
government at six per cent of
recurrent expenditure to the
the country's Gross Domestic Product. A report of the Expenditure
total budget was 68 per cent, 60 per cent and 70 per cent in 2007, 2008 and 2009 ,
Review Commi ttee , which
respectively.
was su bm i tted to th e Minister of Finance , Mr. Olusegun Aganga, in Abuja on Wednesday, gave this
It. however, declined to 65.8· per cen t in the 2010 amended a nd supplementary budgets.
indication . Th e comm ittee , headed
But the report said, "A situation where more than
by Prof. Anya O. Anya ,
80 per cent of the financia l
was set up by the
mi~ister
defi cit of three per cent of GOP as contained in the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Th e -com'mitt ee a lso
20 economies by 2020 if the current mix of recurrent and capital expenditure as well as the level of fiscal discipline
have had a mere 15 per cen t
recommended
was maintained.
of its expenditure covered . "Th e stark rea li ty is that withou t oil, therefore ,
passage of the Sovereign Wea lth Fund Bill by the Na tional Assembly, as well as
It added that the size and structure of the political and governmental arrangements
Nigeria's bankruptcy will be
the provision of incentives for
in the country did not renect
self-evident. Our situation will be worse than the present day Greece or Portugal. There is a need to peg the ratio
growing n on-oil revenue . I n reaching these conclUSions, the committee said that it id entified
the size of its economy in productive activities. For instance, it said that the critical fiscal relationships
of recurrent expenditure to GOP at six per cent and to
opportunities for a reduction in recurrent expe nditure
were not managed as the ratio o f recurrent expenditure
not more than 100 per cent
and for sw itchin g from its
to total revenue "have been
resources of the nation
of non-oil revenue."
dominance to making capital
embarrassingly high ."
thatwi thoutoil, Nigeriawould
th'~'
quick
laws of member states as
last December to proVide a framework that would help
were devoted to recurrent expenditure as in 2003 cannot
Other recomme ndations include matching the country's
expenditure more important. The committee said that its
The report added that the major dr ivers of high level
part of the harmonisation
the Federal G.o.vernment
be co nsidered responsible
recurre n t expenditu re in
findings revealed that It was
recurre nt expenditure were
process.
to reduce the nSlng cost of
by a ny stretch. This fact is
absolute terms in order to
practically impossible for the
"unbridled multiplication
governance.
underlined by the realisation
maintain maximum fi scal
country to achieve Its VISio n
of structures and processes,
It no ted that participants at a recent meeting held in Port Novo, Benin Republic,
overloading of recurrent
were told to come up
items , especially through
with a report that wou ld constitute the basis for the hanno'nisat ion process to
overheads, and the pervasive defiance of extant rules and regulations on governmen t' s
fiscal operations. Shedding more light on the report , the chairman of the committee said tha t
position th e regio n as a compe titive destin ation for
investment in the global market.
some provisions of the
'Involve local firms in power reforms'
nation's Constitution should be amended to tackle the problem . For instance , he said that
the section that st ipulated that each state must produce
HE Managing Director, Seaco f Engineering Limited, Mr. Charles Fashola, has advised the Federa l
T
a minister in addition to one
from each geo-political zone was not necessary since a
Gov e rnment to in vo lv e indigenous companies in the ongoing power sector
reforms.
Fashola to ld th e News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos that government should build strong confidence in the indigenous companies .
He said that most of the ongoing power projects in the
'L-R' Edo State Commissioner for Finance, Mr. John In egbedion; .representative of the United Bank for Africa Pic, Mr. Feyi Ogoii,· a~d Edo State Governor, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, at the presentation of Nl bn agricultural loan to cooperative farmers , in the state ...on Wednesday.
G Leave agriculture to states, Oshiomhole urges F
country were being executed
by local companies. The expert said that the objective of the Nigerian Content Development a nd Moni toring Board was to
OVERNOR Adams Os hi o mh o le o f Edo State has urged the Federal
empowe r indigenous companies and investors.
agriculture in the hands of
97 ships !()r Lagos po·r ls
N INET Y-seven
s hi ps
laden w ith various items
are expected to sail in to the
Lagos ports between April 6 and Ap ril 27, the News Agency of Nigeria repor ts. This 'was conta in ed in the shipping position made available to newsmen on
Wednesday by the Nigeria Ports Au thori ty. According to the NPA, the report is, however, subject to
daily changes. It said th at the sh ips were expected to berth at 5 Stars, APM Terminal, Ports and Teuninal Muitiservices
Limited and Tin-Can Island Container Terminal Limited in Lagos.
According to the shipping position·. 42 out of th e 97 ships are laden with con tainers; 15 ships contain
second-hand veh icles while seven ships are carryin g
petrol.
James Azania , Benin
G
Government
to
leave
state governments.
Oshiomhole, who spoke on Wednesday during the delegates, conference of the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress, said that th e Federa l Government should not have a minist,y of agriculture because it was
not in contror of land. He said the curre nt structure co uld aid the diversion of public funds rathe r th an suppor t the provision of food and other agricultural products. Oshiomhole a lso called for a review of the revenue
allocation formul a to allow states access more funding to finance projects. H e sa id , "The revenue allocation formula gives so
cS~;~inAgb~~r~~~~e~b~i;::= ::~i~~::~ ~~~~i;::~ ~~~:i~; ~ii~~,~e;~i~~ts;h~~o;a~~;~'ht ~~c~~~~n~~tFoI:sment we will spend N5m to NI0m sinking a borehole, Abujaw Ui sink it for N35m and it will not even be workin g. "Why s h ou ld Abuja preside over the ministry of
a nd the Nigerian Na ti onal Petroleum Corporatio n were spending some of their revenues without proper approval. Th e
go v ern 0 r
a I so
or
e~on~~~~~~~: .
the state wou ld pay the new minimum wage approved for
and ~y co mmitment IS that even If the. other 35 states
sllstainable. "Thi s administration is not
have any competence. " Oshiomhole furth er acc u sed the Federal Govern me nt of failing to re mit what it should into the Federation Account, saying
civil servants. He said, "I couldn't justify why we would pay doctors, academ ics and judicial workers, among others, a nd then we will just tell the core
refuse to Impl e ment the minimum wage, the EdoState Government, by reasonof the fact the Oshlomhole. IS the governor, has ~,n obligation to Impl:ment It. •
only committed to this project, but we are also comm itted to its implementation and already, a number of actio ns have been taken to en h,~nce the quality of spending.
0
er gra es
patter o'f expenditure is not
promised the workers that
Ship owners express interest in national carner management HE Indi genous Ship Owners Association of Nigeria has urged the Federal Government to a llow it to manage the defunct national
T
carrier, Nigeria Unity Line , w hose licence was revalidated
recently. The Cha irm a n , ISAN , Ch ief Isaac J olapamo, made
the operating licence of the
carrier to it, but it was not sure if the Nigerian Maritime
na tional carrier had been
on it the status of a national
revalidated by NIMASA. Onagonuwa said that the shares of the carrier had been slated for sale in line with the re fo rm programme of the
carrier w ith several rights ,
Administration a nd Safety Agency would allow it. Jolapamo said tha t the government should assist the association to float its own
Abuja has far more m oney
status of a national carrier.
than it needs and that is why there are leakages there. " For eve ry Nl that
associa ti o n is ready to
the appeal in an interview on Wednesday in
Lagos. Acco rding to him, the manage the ship if the Bureau of Public Enterprises will not
According to him , the shipping line will operate side-by-side wi th the recently revived national carrier.
association was sure that
NAN reports that the BPE spokesman, Mr. Chukwuma Nwokoh, had qu oted the Director-General, Ms Bolanle
the BPE would not hesistate
Onagoruwa, as saying that
over-price it.
Jolapamo said that the
Nigeria Unity Lin e confers
to hand over the natio nal
with the News Agency of
Abuja collects 52 per cen t of it, the n th e states, plus the FCT and the 774 local governments ·co ll ect and share the remaining 46.4 per
fcco~ht
the He said, "Over the years, we have been looking on how to deal with the issue of the country's high recurrent expenditure patter n . We have made it clear that the
h ave land ? They go into areas in w hich they do not
N ige ria
accrues to the federa tion ,
and I sa id to th e doctors tha t I had made u p my mind that in making any I I t t k . to approva;h mus a e In
agriculture when they don't
carrier if the request failed. He said ISAN pla nned to establish a "mega" shipping lin e that wou ld have th e
much money to Abuja and
country like the United States had only 20 ministers. Simi larly, he said that the huge number of MDAs was unca\1ed for as it had contri buted to the bloating of the recurrent expenditure pattern . Responding , Aganga assured the committee that a plan wou ld be unveiled
government.
She said that the attempt to re-advertise the na tional carrier for 100 per cent equity sale would be premised on some conditions. Onagoruwa said th e
Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act, 2010 had made it mandatory for Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and other key players in the oil indu stry to patronise the ship. "The licence of renewed
privileges and opportunities created by the Cabotage Act 2003," she said. Onagonuwa said that the absence of a national shipping line and the renewed interest of investors in acquiring the Nigeria Unity Line made the new move imperative.
She said that the BPE and NIMASA would soon place adverti semen ts inviting for Expression of Interests from prospective investors.
The Nigeria Unity Line, whi c h ope rated with one vessel, MV Abuja, was floated after th e liquidation of the Nigerian National Shipping Line in 1996.