Business

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2023 BU$IN€SS

By Abubakar Yunus Abuja

The National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC), says it will start the process of reviewing the national minimum wage on January 23.

President Muhammadu Buhari signed the minimum wage act that approved N30,000 for both federal and state workers in 2019.

Speaking in Abuja recently, Emmanuel Njoku, the spokesperson of NSIWC, said the commission had held a series of training and meetings

FG to start minimum wage review January 23

in preparation for nationwide monitoring of the act.

“The exercise will enlighten the public and private employers and organisations on the economic benefits of adhering to the payment of the national minimum wage,” he said.

“It will also help in obtaining baseline data on remuneration policies and practices of private sector organisations to enrich the commission’s data bank on staff compensation.

“The monitoring exercise will cover the 36 states of the federation including the federal capital territory.”

In October 2021, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), called on the federal government to look into reviewing the current minimum wage, citing increment in prices of goods and services.

Ayuba Wabba, NLC president, who spoke on Workers Decent Work Day said: “N30,000 cannot buy a bag of rice, and we know how the cost of goods or services has gone up. In fact, the worst is that when you retire, you have to struggle to get your benefits.”

BOI clarifies processes for NG-CARES grants disbursement

By Abubakar Yunus Abuja

The Bank of Industry (BOI) says states are responsible for selecting the beneficiaries of grants under the Nigeria COVID-19 action recovery and economic stimulus Program (NG-CARES).

BOI, in a statement, made clarifications on the processes of implementation and disbursements of the grants, following questions raised by some stakeholders.

NG-CARES is an initiative of the World Bank and the federal government of Nigeria to support the recovery of communities, households, and businesses affected by COVID-19.

The programme is stateowned, as state governments are fully responsible for funding and selection of beneficiaries.

So far, BOI has received over one million applications for the NG-CARES MSME grants across states.

In the statement, the bank said the funding arrangement allows each state the autonomy to determine their preferred grant sizes and number of grants across different programme components as approved by the World Bank.

“Based on the Bank of Industry (BOI)’s successful track record of building field networks and technology infrastructure for the transparent implementation of MSME intervention programmes, the World Bank nominated the bank to provide this infrastructure for the delivery of the MSME component of NG-CARES (RA3) nationwide,” the statement reads.

“Following this nomination, 28 out of 33 states chose BOI as their preferred execution partner to leverage the bank’s MSME infrastructure to deliver NGCARES.

“Under this partnership, the states are solely responsible for nominating the beneficiaries and selecting those grants are to be disbursed to, following successful verification.

“BOI’s role as execution partner is to manage the end-toend application and verification processes, and present successful candidates to enable states’ decision-making for disbursements. BOI disburses as instructed by the state.”

The bank further explained that beneficiaries will not receive the grant if they do not meet the criteria.

“While several beneficiaries may apply or be nominated, beneficiaries do not receive the grant if they do not meet the criteria to qualify, or if their states do not select them for disbursement as the states seeks to manage the funding available for the programme and ensure the equitable distribution of benefits across business categories, local government areas, gender, or other demographics.”

It added that further enquiries on the eligibility requirements, implementation status, and other programme information can be made through the NG-CARES federal CARES support unit, state delivery agencies, or the official program website www.ngcares. gov.ng.

Pupils of The Manor International School at the assembly session during the school resumption from Christmas and New Year holidays, yesterday in Kubwa, Abuja

Emefiele: Ensure DSS abides by court order, senior advocates write Malami

By Abubakar Yunus Abuja

Adetokunbo Kayode, former attorney-general of the federation (AGF), and five other senior advocates of Nigeria (SAN) have asked Abubakar Malami to prevent the Department of State Services (DSS) from arresting Godwin Emefiele.

The other SANs, who wrote under the aegis of Incorporated Trustees of Forum for Accountability and Good Leadership, included Oba Maduabuchi, Emeka Ozoani, M.M Nurudeen, Abdul Mohammed, and Emeka Obegolu.

Following the announcement of the new cash withdrawal policy, there have been speculations over a plot to frame Emefiele, the CBN governor.

The DSS had recently filed an application before the federal high court sitting in Abuja, seeking a warrant to arrest Emefiele over allegations that he was involved in terrorism financing and economic crimes.

In declining the ex parte motion — usually filed by an applicant in the absence of the respondent — John Tsoho, the chief judge, said the secret police did not provide any concrete evidence to substantiate its claims.

Also, a federal capital territory (FCT) high court sitting in Maitama issued an order restraining the DSS from arresting the CBN governor.

In the letter dated January 6, the senior advocates urged Malami, the current AGF, to ensure the DSS abides by the court orders.

“In spite of these two categorical judicial decisions, we observe moves to still proceed and sidetrack and disobey the court decisions and unduly and unlawfully interfere with Mr. Emefiele’s fundamental rights,” the lawyers said.

“In the circumstance, we wish to urge the Hon attorneygeneral of the federation to use his good offices to guarantee and ensure that the government, especially the security agencies, observe the rule of law as a foundation of a democratic society by complying with court decisions.

“The court, as the last hope of the citizen, has made a pronouncement on the legal rights and obligations of citizen Godwin Emefiele. It behoves on all agencies of government to obey the order of the court until such order is set aside by an appellate court.

“The constitutional role of the judiciary as the third arm of government includes to serve as a bulwark against oppression and intimidation. The judiciary remains available to both the government and the citizens in the ventilation of perceived grievances.

“Consequently, we respectfully urge the Hon. attorney-general, as chief law officer of the federation, to ensure adherence to the rule of law and advise the security agencies, especially the Department of State Security (DSS) to comply with the order of the court and not do anything that will cast this government in a very negative light In this circumstance.

“This is very important as it will signal to Nigerians and the international community that the government is committed to the rule of law as we proceed into this transition era.”

NEWS

Nigeria’s inflation rate drops to 21.34% in Dec 2022

By Abubakar Yunus Abuja

Nigeria’s inflation rate eased to 21.34% in December 2022 from 21.47% in November 2022, first drop in about 11 months.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its latest inflation report showed a decline of 0.13% between November and December.

“In December 2022, the headline inflation rate eased to 21.34% compared to November 2022 headline inflation rate which was 21.47%,” the NBS report partly read.

“Looking at the trend, December 2022 inflation rate showed a decline of 0.13% when compared to November 2022 inflation rate.

“However, on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 5.72% points higher compared to the rate recorded in December 2021, which was (15.63%). This shows that the headline inflation rate increased in the month of December 2022 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., December 2021).

“On a month-on-month basis, the percentage change in the All Items Index in December 2022 was 1.71%, which was 0.32% higher than the rate recorded in November 2022 (1.39%). This means that in the month of December 2022, the general price level was 0.32% higher relative to November 2022.

“The percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months ending December 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 18.85%, showing 1.89% increase compared to the 16.95% recorded in December 2021.”

FG approves over N4.7 Billion for 219 TETFund research grants

By Maryam Abeeb

The Federal Government has approved the sum of N4,736,782,352.21 for the award of 219 research grants to successful participants under the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) National Research Fund (NRF) programme for the 2021 grant cycle.

A statement by the Acting Director of Public Affairs, Abdulmumin Oniyangi said that this followed the report of the TETFund National Research Fund Screening and Monitoring Committee (NRFS&MC) which recommended the funding of the 219 research proposals after a rigorous screening exercise which commenced with the receipt of 4,810 Concept Notes from prospective applicants in November 2021.

According to him, a breakdown of the approval indicates that the sum of N3,066,156,844.61 was approved for the Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation (SETI) thematic group, N806,381,998.00 for Humanities and Social Science (HSS) while Cross Cutting (CC) received N864,242,509.60, with individual grants ranging from N4.5 million to over N41 million.

It’s reads,” some of the approved research works tailored towards enhancing national development include Molecular epidemiology of recurrent cholera outbreaks in Nigeria and pre-clinical evaluation of indigenous medicinal plants for its management; Effective High Throughput Phenotyping and Artificial Pollination for Improved Yield in Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) with Autonomous Drone and Investigating Nigerian medicinal plants as sources of lead compounds for development of chemotherapeutic interventions for uterine fibroid and Production of Cartridge made from Hydrochar for the Treatment of Textile and Tannery Wastewater in Nigeria: ″Emerging Technology for Sustainable Water Purification using Biomass Waste; all under the Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation (SETI) thematic group.

“Projects under Cross Cutting thematic group include Design and Fabrication of Efficient Solar Energy Storage System for Electricity Generation to Rural Communities; Adaptation of Conventional Septic Tank to Bio-digester for Sustainable Energy Generation and Viable Economy for Households Use in Nigeria and Development of Polymer-soilcrete Blocks and Pozzolanic Cement Concrete for Integrated and Sustainable Mass Housing in Nigeria, amongst others.

“Approved under Social Science are Development and evaluation of phytoestrogenic transdermal nanogel for the management of menopausal symptoms and associated diseases; Fabrication and Characterization of New Glass Series from Rice Husk and Bismuth-Tin Ores for Application in Radiation Shielding and Green Pathway for Barite Production towards Decarbonisation of Mining Sector in Nigeria, amongst others.

“The National Research Fund (NRF) Grant was introduced to encourage cuttingedge research which explore research areas relevant to societal needs of Nigeria such as power and energy, health, security, agriculture, employment and wealth creation etc.