NCAC reopens Arts & Crafts village in Abuja, unveils new facilities

By Mashe Umaru Gwamna

National Council of Arts and Culture (NCAC), has revealed the reopening of activities in its Arts & Crafts Village in Abuja after five years of closure .

The Director General NCAC, Otunba Olusegun Runsewe made the announcement yesterday in Abuja, at a press briefing.

Peoples Daily recalled that, the Art and crafts village was shut down by DG NCAC following a host of populated miscreants, illegal and criminal activities happening in that environment.

Runsewe disclosed that, the shutdown of of the 250 shop in the village was also due to huge liabilities the council is indebted to Power Holding Corporation of Nigeria N8.9m; FCT water board, 13.6 and have paid 4m already and security.

He said the council was paying the debts so that the village would function again and become properly managed.

With the reopening of the new face of the village, the director general of NCAC, unveiled new proposed facilities for Nigerians to have best cultural market in Africa.

He said its a launch of a new marketing strategy which includes a toll gate, a night cultural market, a modern pharmacy which will be offering free blood sugar and hypertension tests to Nigerians, and visitors that comes to the market,photoshop and business center.

Others includes restaurants/ recreation and tradition food center, ATM gallery,Public toilets, police post, information center among other arts and crafts activities.

He said this will create 300 jobs as the village is reopening.

“180 of these jobs are direct employment, and 120 indirect employment.

There will also be skills acquisition/empowerment programmes for Nigerians, and a children’s excursion event”,.

According to him,the village space will have a unique selling point with a night cultural market 1st of it kind in Africa, Birthday shop and quarterly media interaction on the development at the center.

He emphasized that the new Arts and Crafts Village will be a product of a public private partnership (PPP).

Meanwhile, He noted that N300,000 will be paid annually per shop, with a N100,000 refundable/ rollover maintenance fee.

He said most importantly there are rules and regulations, terms and conditions for all occupants of the village shop .

Energy mix: Oil coy tasks FG on investments, biomass reduction

Mrs Nkechi Obi, the Group Managing Director of Techno Oil Ltd., an indigenous oil and gas company, has emphasised the need to have significant investments and infrastructure to achieve global energy mix and sustainable energy.

Obi made the call at the business leaders and regulatory dialogue, a session at the ongoing Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES 2023) in Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the session has its theme as “Africa at the Heart of the Global Energy Mix: What’s Ahead in Nigeria.”

NAN also reports that biomass (charcoal), petroleum reserves, natural gas, peat, hydroelectricity, solar and wind are major energy resources in Nigeria and the country remains a top producer of crude oil and natural gas in Africa.

Obi who received a lifetime oil and gas achievement award at the ongoing summit said at the session that gas would play a big role in the global energy mix and that Nigeria had enough of it to drive the industry.

She explained that there were about eight mitigants to achieving the global energy mix but that the provision of infrastructure, reduction in biomass and fossil fuel were key to achieving success, especially in the downstream sector.

According to the GMD, Nigeria needs an enabling environment to drive investments to position itself strategically in view of global trend to transit to cleaner energy.

She said the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA 2021) was a big relief in pursuit of a cleaner energy but regretted that the Act was not being implemented effectively.

She urged the Federal Government to fast track the process of its implementation, especially the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority which had plans to drive the PIA implementation process.

Obi noted that the country had abundant gas reserves but that the challenges of affordability, accessibility and availability were still militating against the progress of the industry.

The Techno Oil GMD said the challenges in the oil and gas sector had led to the company making some investments and improving its infrastructure aimed at benefitting the entire gas value chain.

She said in the quest for cleaner energy and to tackle challenges in the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) adoption, it established a fully automated LPG ultra-modern gas cylinder manufacturing plant with state of the art laboratory and modern testing equipment.

“The terminal we have is about 10,000 metric tonnes capacity and the cylinder manufacturing plant enhances usage of quality cylinders.

“The goal is to help households and encourage domestic switch from heavy biomass use and deepen LPG use which is safer, cleaner, healthier and cheaper to use.

“Today techno cylinders are of standard and the best,” she said.

The summit which started on April 16 and would end on April 20, has its theme as “Global Perspectives for a Sustainable Energy Future.” (NAN)