WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8, 2011
Briefly Maize production THE
Go""
l.o<al Council of Kana Stale has set aside about 3,500 hectares of land for maize production this year. An official in chalge of lhe programme, A1hajl DlIhlru Garko. said this in an interview
1 Government
with our correspondent
He said that once the programme got approval from the state government, it would provide
large
Faulty gas plant responsible for low power generation - PHCN 'rHE ManagIng DiT1?d:or, J Power Holding Company of
Nigeria,
Mr.
Hussein
Labo. h<!$ $<lid that the low power generation across the country is due to the ongoing mainlenance works al the Uto rogun Gas Plant in Delta State. !..abo told the News Agency of Nigerlo in ugos, on Tuesday, that the maintenance works on the
plllni had led to further drop in power gem!ralion and hod affected electricity wpply. NAN recalls that the Chief Executive Officer, Egbin Thermal Station, Mr. Mike UzoigvJt!. had, on Tuesday, said that power generaUon from Ihe plant had, dropped from UOO megll\vatts to 500 MW due to insufficient gas to pourer the turbines. ~We have nol received
gas supply from the Nigeria
Gas Company and the water level is lOw The .station is at this time unu5UalIy wilncMing low water level. which has made it impossible to generate the required level of power," he had said. labo, however. ~id that power generation had been nuctuating between 3, l 00MW and 3,200MW in the last few days.
He 5aid tha t work on the Utorogun Gas Plant had affected gas supply to the Omot05ho. OIorunsogo, Egbin, Geregu, Shiroro and Delta power stations. "The Utorogun Gas Plant was shut dawn (01 maintenance work, which I hope In the next one. to two weeks from now, will be back to normal." the managing director said.
quantity
of maize j which would enable the stale 10 relain its position as the le:ading maize producer in the federalion. He explained thai 317 fannm.. who !wi registered, would bmellt from the programme.
Garko explained that the councU had provided improwd maize seedlings. which would be saki al an affordabk!' price of N1,600 per bag 10 I!lUUte the 1Ucces5 and the effectiveness of the
I
programme.
Theofficial addedthat each bag v.oold cover one hedare of land based on findings by agricultural experts. He stressed that a farmer 1M! was prepared to C\I ltivate one hectare under the
programme. would receive
II bag of ferWlser, provided the coocelnoo authority In the minislTy approved the
request
I
Agency disburses N23.8m
T
HE
Katsina State Community Development Agency
has disbursed N23 8m to three oommunities in Ihe Kusada l..ocaI Government -Council for Ihe t!Xew lion of
community-based proj«ts. The benefiting communities are BaurlIwa, Damari and Salemawa. Speaking while disbursing the money, the Chairman, Board of Direqprs of I the agency, Alhaji' Bishir Kankara, said tha t the llmounl rep resented 30 per amt of the expected total sum for the projects. He pointed out Ih;)t four boreholes would be constructed at Baurawa village, three das.srooms in Damari and 4 .3 kilometres of road at Salemawll.. According 10 him, the prcjedswUl help in addres.sing the problems being faced by the communities. Kankara caJIed on the benefiting i to make good use of the money, as.suring Ihem that his agency would ensure prompt execution of the projects Earlier, the agency'si General Manager. Mr. Musa Yar'Adua, commended the state government for its, support to the agency. Var'Adua said more communities would soon benefit from thedisbursement
Labo 5aid thallhe low level of ~ter at Ihe hydro-pa.ver plants had also contributed to the low power distribution across the country. Power generation at the Egbin Power Pic (Lagos Thermal Power Station) dropped on Sunday from i ,100 megawatts to 5OOMW, according to the Chief Executive Offi~er of the station, Mr. Mike Uzoigwe. I Uzoigwe said in lagos on Monday that the. drop was due to insufficient gas supply to Nn the turbines. "We have no t received gas supply from Ihe Nigeria Gas Company. The hydro poo.yer slalions are also at this time witnessing unusually low waler level, whk.h has inade it impos!lible to geneRlte the required level of poo.o;~. Egbln power generaHon has dropped by about 70 per cent," he Sl:Iid. The station has been w(fe.ting from irn::e5.sant snorlage of gas supply and a recent agreement between Pan Ocean and Egbin Power was pari of efforts being made to ensure stable gas supply to the plM\. Uwigwe had earlier said that the management of the company was preparing 10 rehabilitate plant unit 5r·06 of the station to bring pa.wer generation up to il$ installed capacity o f 1,32DMW. He. 5aid that the station's management was trying to put funds together to repair the unit. lhoigwe added that unit 5r-OJ of the plan t, which also crashed in 2009, was repaired within one ~ar. He said. "The repairs gulped the whole sum of about Nlbn. In the past, this type of swift projed t!lI:ecution was unheard of. But with the zeal of the Federal Government to provide steady power 5Upply to the citilenry and with the freehand we had to negotiate the repllirs, it was possible to put the unit back into operation in just one ~ar. -mis, Indeed, added back 220MW 10 the na tional grid. Our job has been m!1de easier and we are proud 10 say that we have since then had avallable capacity of l,08OMW."
• L-R: Group Managing Director, NigenOli Notloool A!froleum Corporation, Mr. Austen Onlwon; Group &ecullue DIrector. Refinery (lJld Aco1ro Chemiwl, Mr. PhIlip Chuln»u; and Group Grneml Monoger, H uman Resource5, Mr. Chris Osarumwerue, at (I ~ oonference on kero5eTlE' .saucity in Abujo ••• OIl Tuesci:zv. Photo: Sam Adeko
Recapitalisation: CBN pledges to vacate court injunctions EVII!Tut Amaeful e, Abuja
THE Central Bank of J Nigeria, on Tuesday. said it would take all legal steps to vacate various injunctions trailing the rec.apita1isa1ion of eighl banks thai it ~ from imminent collapse in
2009. Briefing journalists at the
end of Ihe 3041h session of the Bankcn' Committee meeting in Abuja, the Director of Banking Supervision and Operations al the apex bank. Chief Sam Oni, said il was unfortuna te that some bank shareholders were trying to frustrate Ihe refOfTTl process through court injunctions. He said that the apI!X bank would not aDow anybody 10 derail the process, adding that aU legal means would be used to vacate the injunctions. Oni WiI5 joined althe pres! briefing by lhe Mal10llgmg Diredors of Zenith Bank PIc, Diamond Bank PIc and Sianbic 1BTC. Bank PIc, Mr. Gaddy Emefiele. Mr. Alex Olli and Mrs. Sola David·
ao.ha._. Oni said,
~We ill1:! ~ute
to bring the process to a logical end. We will nOi fold our arms to watch aD sor\$ of injunctions being given Before injunctions are Issued. bolh parties are supposed to be 1i5lened to.. ~Because we are a law abiding organisation, we will obey ~ourt orders. but we are going to take every
necessary aep to ensure that • again. There is a hole of lhe injunctions are vacated. N1.51n to be HOed, plus We actually have II. number capital adequacy ratio of 10 of options available to us. but per emt. The. banks were whatever step \\Ie IlIke, we already gone. They exist will not allow any depositor lodlay because of CBN' s or aedito r 10 suller. They are aedit guarantee scherne,~ he lOOper cent covered." added. "The shalehokiers should The committee also know that. tedmlca/ly, Ihe deliberated on the issue banks doflt belong to them of penalty announced by
the CBN for daily cash WIthdrawals above the maximum limit of Nl50,OOO. According to Oni, 90 per cent of Nigerians, whose lramactions arc less than NI50,OOO have been subsidising the 10 per cent of the citizens, whose IranRldions are above NlSO.OOO.
UniCem slashes cement price to Nl ,600 l\tud lag a AUe , Call1ba T
I\. major
producer of l'icement in tke soulhern zone., United Cement Company of NiQcria, hM slashed tile price of a bag of the commodity from OW"! N2,OOO to Ni,600. The. compooy abo has plans to increase its production capacity flom the 1.3 million metric tormes achieved In 2009 10 1.8 miDion metric tonnes thIS year, with a projection of 2.5 million tonnesfor2012.
TheSalesDirector.UniCcm, Mr. Wdlillm Anam, who mOOe. this disdo$l,.IIe In a scatemen! issued in Calabar, the Cross River Stale capital on Tuesday, said the decision to slash the price of the produd was in line with the directive of President GoodIuck Jonathan. He said. "This good news comes lIgl:Iinst
the backdrop
of the meeting Initiated by President Goodluck Jonathan with lhe Cement Manufacturers Association, wherein he direded the manufacturen; to address
and a.lIb the rising price of cement. "Nationally, cement companies have lisen to lhe challenge and UniCem, the Largest producer of C"I!lm!Tlt in the. South...5outh and South· East, is no exception. !he company, Mth its cement plant at Mfamoslng, Crt. River Stale, produces the wd~ UniCem brand of 32,5R all purpose cement. v.ilich is rena.vned
in the. region for Its superior quality: "In recent \OIe'I!k5, there has been gcxxI news regarding the price of cement In Cross River ;and Akwa Ibom states, lIS the. reIl:IU pria! of cement has shown a downward trend. A 00g of Cl!meT1 t In CaJabar is now NI.600 and N1.700 in lJyo. compilled to aver N2,OOO per bl:Ig in Pllrts of the South-South jusI a month ago," headdro.
Global 2011 grain output, prices will rise - FAG ORlD
~
output
W expec;ted to to a record due to rise
in 201 1
~
new
more
pion"," and .......... ""'" the United Nations Food and Agriculture. Organisation has
""-
-But 10w stocks are set to keep prices high and volatile." the FAO said on Tuesday iii its nrst estimate of 2011 total global crops, according to a report by Reuteni. The organbaliOn nDted thai the global cerWs output was expedcd 10 rise by 3.5 per cent to 2.315 bifl'1Ofl tonnes
ttm. Y'MT, ~ after a one per cent faD In 2010. Aa::ording to its key Food o...Uook report, WOI1d wheat output is seen rising by 3.2 per cent to 674 miDion Ionne5 Ihis year. dov.m frcwn an earlier forecast 01 676 mWion due 10 unfavourable weather in North AmeriaI and parts of Europe. \IJheaI outlook in the main producing countries is patchy with the European Union's outpul seen Rat at 137 million tonnesandUnitedStatesaops falling by 6.5 per cent to 55 million, hit by bad \V2Olther.
RUSSIa'S
output is
~
to jump by 32.5 percent toSS miDion,reooveringafter20lO'$ severe cIrooghL The Rorne-ba.o;ed agency said that the weather in the coming months remained critical for shapmg final crop outcomes.. The FAO $aid increasing
global grain production this year would not be sl.dfldcnl 10 rebuild strong stocks. which could stabilise. prices. adding thai demand gra..vth was 0Cpeded to slow down this year, espedalIy from the biofuels sedor