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THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 24, 2011
Briefly Rural farmers ' neglect he Secretary, Cassava /\ssociatioo, Slate, Mn. Helen Obrngo, has decried the neg/ed of rural farmers by the lhree tien of govimlmenl Shespoke on Wednesday in Asatia white Il!lIcting 10 the move by the FedeRll Governmenl 103 remove subsidy on fertiliser. ~lmplementing lhe policy on subsidy removal will rurther increase lhe poverty lew! of poor far mt'l"S in lhe country:' Obrogo said In an interview with the News Agency of NIgeria.. She noted with regret thaI fertiliser an! not always llVaUable when needed by fillnners In the st."1le. Obrogo said. ~Fertiliscr Is an important fillml input that helps to improw the quallly of the SOIl. because most soil in the state needs fertiliser to improve aop yit!1d·
TFarrneB Della
Powerfirms' sale: BPE generates N867m from bid documents E",ere.sl A m ae.ful e, Ab uJa HE Bureau of Public Enterpriseshasgenerated N867m from the sale of 268 bid documents to prospective investors that intend to acquire interest in the 17 successor companies to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria. Investigation by our corre5pondent showed tnat by Ihe close of the period of application, 146 applicants had paid $20.000 for each of the successor companies they had indicated interest in lIcquiring Some of the potential core investors submItted multIple lIpplications and had to pay for each separately.
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companies that submilled multiple applications were unknown r.ames. in the power induSiry. However. the number 01 filTl\5 interested In participating In the privlltisation exercise is an indication that the actual biddingprocess. includingthe technic.aJ and financial bids, wiD be very competitive. The payment of $20.000 was reqUIred by tne privalisation agency before it could send the Request for Proposal forms to the lIppUc.ants. Several companies that had indicated interest 10 participate in the privatisahon exercise but could not meet the payment 5Cheduled were weeded out.
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Some of the consortia and ..
with the highest number of applications are AES Corporation, Aileo Consortium and Amperion FbwerDistributionCompany. Each of them submitted six applications and paid $120,000. Actis Infrastructure. Consortium and Utility In tegrated Management Services submitted five applications each. On the other nand , First Western Power Consor1ium, Globeleg Advisors Limited. Integrated Energy Distribution and Marketing Umited. KepcoI NEDC Consortium. OpIimex Energy Solution Llmited and Srei Infrastructure FinanOl! Limited fo r four
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power companies ellch Dangote Industries Limited. Dando PIc. Es.s.ar Consortium, Honeywell Energy Resources International Limited. Kenya Bectric Generating Company.Odu'aDistnbution Company Limited and Rockson Engineering are other prominent firms participating in the exercise. The PHCN successor companies up for sale include 11 distribution. six generation and one transmission companies. with the latte'l' being the Transmission Company of Nigeria. The distribution companies include the Abuja Bectricity Distribution Company PIC; Benin
Kana trade fair EVEN fortlign countries have indicall,d in terest to participate In the forthcoming 32nd Kana International
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Electricity Oistnbution Company Pic; Enugu Electricity Distribution Company Pic; Eko Electricity Distribution Company Pic: fbadan Electricity Distribution Company Pic; and l!tela Bectncity Distribution CompaflY Pic. Othcrs aTe Jos Electricity Company Distribution PIc: Kaduna Electricily Distribution Company Pic; Kano Electricity Distribution Company Pic; Port Harcourt Electrlcily Distribution Company Pic; and Vola Electricity Distribution Company Pic. The thermal power stations are the Ughe:lli f'ou..er Pic with total imtaUed capacity of 972 megawa tts of electricily; the 4 14MW ~ Power Pic; Afam Power Pic compruing Alam I·V ....ith comblfled capacity for n6 MW; and the 1,020MW 5apele Power Pic. The hydro power generating companies lire the KlIinji Power PIc comprising the Kainji and Jebba Power Plants: and Shiroro Power
Pic. LlgheJli f'o\A.'er Pic and the Sapele Power Pic emerged the most sought after companies with 23 and 22 applications respectively. Other hignly sought lifter companiesonoffer IOdudethe lbadolln Electridty Olstribu!ion Company PIc: Ike}a Eledricity Distribution Company Pic; Abu}a 8ectrlcity Distribution Company PIc; and Benin E.lectricity Distribution Company PIc. •
T~Fair
The countries are China. India. Egyp t. Selegaj. Niger. Ghanill and Cameroon. The OimIDr-General, Kane Char nher of Commer«. Hines and Agriculture. He jiya Falima Mohammed. di!dosedthls to
the Nat·s Agenov of NIgerio In Kano on Wec.nesday. -Sofar,"','e I'\i:,veregistered about 80 partidpants for the event and we (re expecting nQ( less ihan 2OJmore. she M
Obas anjo becomes IITA ambassador
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The KACCU 'IA chief said the theme of t~1S year's fair was. ·Pohq.' StlbUiIy; Hope fOl" Industrial ard Economic Development -
Agriculture bud!}et THE FedefaI Governmenl 1 has been called upon 10 fulfil its commitment of devoting 10 per cent of the nation< I budget to agriculturcll dev~lopment. The Chainnan. Senate Commitl£e on Agriculture, Mr. Emmanu!l Bwacha, m~e the ca1I ir an interview with the. N( ws Agency oj Nigeria in Yamaltu on Tue!day. The commi tee memben n&d visited Ihe Dadin Kowa Multi.Purpose Dam in YarMtu. Deba Local Government I-sea. Gombe State. Bwacha 5i. id. ~We are st~l Itying to ;ee how the government Gln meet the commitment :Jf 2003 10 ensure that lOpercenl 01 the national b\Jdge . iscommitted to agriculture. -rr they Cal. do just tMl, \,I.'t! wi. slar1 lOrTlewhere. For now. the ,:eillng is lour per cent Of less. First and foremost . U t"'~ sector is not given sufficiEnt attention by govemmahl by way of runding, you d,rltl2lfkabout _b"!y~
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ORMER President Obasanjo Olusegun nas accepted to be a "Goodwill Ambassador of the International Institute of TropIc.aJ Agriculture to help boost the fight against hunger and poverty in Africa. A statement issued by the llTA on Wednesday said the Director·General of the institute. Dr. Nteranya Sanginga. announced Obasanjo's acceptance after a cJosed-door meeting with the former president in Abeokuta on Tuesday The statemen t said as goodwiU ambassador, Obasanjo v,tOuld help oIIdvocate polIcies that v,tOuld advance research and bring to reality Ihe !ong-<.lwaited African Green Revolution. It further said that tne former president would help extend. amplify and focus on the work and mission of IITA in sub·Saharan Africa. Obllsanjos work. il added. would involve helping to l"lIise 20 million Africans out of poverly and to redirect 25 million hectares of degraded land for sustlllnable use in the next 10 years Saonginga iaid the inslitute was honoured by Obasan;o's acceptance of the offer.
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Firm plans 12-lane highway from Calabar to Kano l\lu.staphll Sall hu , Ka no
He stressed tnat the state
was the first port of c.all due
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HE New African Infrastructural Development Fund IS set 10 construct II 12·lane super highway from Calabar 10 Kano in lIddition to a rail link lor dired access to the sea. The Executive Presidenl NAIDF. Prof. Brimmy Olaghere. stated this when he paid a visit to the Kano State Governor. Alhaji Rablu Kwankwaso. at the Government House, Kano.. on Wednesday. He told the governor that to execute Ihe project. the organisation would provide all the personnel lind expertise. noting that all it required from the government was unhindered acceu to land. OIagh~ said his team 's visit to Kano was to inform the governor of the organisation's mission and plans toprovide: infrastructure forthe development of Africa and Nigerill in p<lfticuLar
to its strategic economic importance, lidding that the organisation had a 100year master plan fO\'" the development of Africa and 1I 10·year plan fOI Nigeria. The NAIDF president observed that Africans developed EUrope in the past and as such. the time had come for EUrope to
pay back the continent by assisting it to grow and develop reasonably. In his response, K\\.'ankwaso charged Africans in the Oiaspora to return home to develop the continent. He said the problems of Africa and Nigerill Inparticular. could be property tadded WIth good inteUectuai coIlaborallon and integration of African
experts in the Oiaspora. The governor lIffirmed that his administration deemed it necessary to woo all Kano indigenes within and outside the country back home to develop the state. Kwankwaso expressed his readiness to v,tOOt with any organisation willing to support his lKlministration 10 uplift the standard of living of the people of the state.
Senate to consider Jonathan's N98.4bn virement request D l uwol~ J
osia h . Abu ja
RESIDENT GoodIuck P has asked the Senate: the
Jonathan to lIfJPIO'o""! virement of N98.4bn for some miniS1rie5 and agencies to ensure the completion of some projects before the expuation of the lifespan of the 2011 budget Virement is the agreed IraNifer of money from the budget he<'lding for which It has been allocated to anothe7 budget heading
Senators.
hOl.W\ler.
raised questions about the expediency of the viremenl request at a time when the year had already come to an
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But the Deputy 5e'nale Pnrsident. /IIlr. Ike Ekv.Ieremadu, called on his CXlIleagues 10 take a look at the request as it was st~ a
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He 5lIid the SenlIte should work with the House of Repre5en1ative:s for the extension of the Ulespan of the 2011 budget to I'Ield year. The PTe:sident of the
Senate. Mr. DM.i d t-1ark, supported Ekweremadu. noting that if the money was moved. it wou1d require time
'0",,",,He said in view of the fact that there were a few \\.'eeks to the end of the year. the 5enlIte rommittees Involved should u.'Orit on the propJSed virement and report bad<; within one week.. The virement pro!X)Sa.l had suffered a setbollck at the House of Representatives after
members queried the IlIteness oflhe request