Stock Watch

FG seeks poverty reduction through sugar masterplan

By Abubakar Y. Ojima

The Federal Government says it is committed to using the sugar master plan to reduce poverty and unemployment in the country.

The Executive Secretary, National Sugar Development Council, Zach Adedeji, made this known during the ground breaking ceremony of a N300 billion sugar plantation and mill in Iseyin, Oyo State.

The Sugar industry is an essential sector that has significantly contributed to Nigeria’s GDP in the past decades.

According to reports, despite the government’s efforts to boost local production of sugar, and claims by some private investors to have substantially invested in the industry, the nation has relied on about 98 per cent importation of raw sugar for the last 3 decades which was not the situation before now.

While Nigeria produced up to 41,478 metric tonnes of sugar in 1990, the figure fell drastically to 38,597 metric tonnes in 2019.

Now, to change this narrative, the Federal Government along side the Government of Oyo state are commissioning this Sugar Plantation and Mill sited along Iseyin-Ogbomoso Road.

The Oyo state governor who was represented by his deputy, promised to ensure good roads that will attract investors.

The project when fully ompleted will improve the socioeconomic development of Oyo state through poverty reduction and employment creation in the Oke-Ogun and Ogbomosho axis while also attracting both Local and Foreign investors.

The plantation site is a strategic one by the Federal Government in conjunction with the Oyo State Government through the National Sugar Development Council and seeks to return the glory of sugar production in Nigeria to the Days of the Bacita Sugar Company and Others which also produced a former Governor of Kwara State as its managing Director before his advent into Politics, Senator Muhammed Shaba Lafiaji.

The strides made by the National Sugar Development Council in places like Oyo State through the plantation is also expected to be a template for other parts of the country to not only produce Sugar cane but to also generate employment opportunities for thousands of Nigerians.-

SEC reminds CMOs on renewal of registration

By Abubakar Yunus, Abuja

Capital Market Operators and the general public have been informed that the annual renewal of Registration for year 2023 will commence from January 01, 2023 and expected to end on January 31, 2023.

This was stated by the Securities and Exchange Commission in a recent circular released to the capital market.

According to the Commission, “the annual renewal of registration of Capital Market Operators which is aimed at ensuring that only fit and proper persons operate in the Nigerian Capital Market

“In line with the Commission’s Rules and Regulations, all CMOs are to complete the process of renewal of registration for 2023 on or before 31st January 2023 through the Registration Renewal Portal – eportal.sec.gov.ng.

“For more enquiries or support in complete the process, please contact as registrationrenewal@ sec.gov.ng”

The SEC had in 2021 reintroduced periodic renewal of registration by capital market operators which was premised on the need to have a reliable data bank of all CMOs registered and active in the Nigerian capital market, to provide updated information on operators in the Nigerian capital market for reference and other official purposes by local and foreign investors, other regulatory agencies and the general public.

The renewal was also introduced to increasingly recue incidences of unethical practices by CMOs such as may affect investors’ confidence and impact negatively on the Nigerian capital market as well as to strengthen supervision and monitoring of CMOs by the Commission.

Consequently, the Commission amended its rules and re-introduced the requirement for yearly renewal of registration by all CMOs and carried out electronically in order to ensure efficiency.

L-R: Presbyter, Methodist Church of Trinity Tinubu, Lagos. Very Rev. Dr. Jonathan B. Osin; Prelate Methodist Church of Nigeria, His Eminence Dr. Oliver Ali Aba; Bishop of Trinity Church Tinubu Methodist Church, Lagos, Rt. Rev.Dr. Oladapo O. Bablola and Presbyter Tinubu Church Lagos, Very Rev. Bolanle Samuel Ojeyemi, during the 2022 Christmas Services at Methodist Church Nigeria in Lagos,at the weekend.

NPA managing Director raises alarm over blackmail by unknown CSOs

By Abubakar Yunus Abuja

Mohammed Bello-Koko, managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), has raised alarm over what he described as a “cheap, sponsored blackmail” aimed at smearing his image.

Reports recently surfaced online that some foreign investigators have written to the United Kingdom government, seeking an exclusion order to ban Bello-Koko and his family from entering the country over alleged money laundering and fraud.

Responding to the issue in a statement on Saturday, the NPA boss claimed that some “faceless individuals” under the cloak of unknown civil society organisations (CSOs) were responsible for the “malicious concoctions”.

He vowed not to succumb to “the shenanigans of the blackmailers”, affirming his commitment to bequeathing to the nation a transparent and accountable management of the NPA.

“Because they (blackmailers) are faceless, I don’t have the opportunity to seek redress in court on the grounds of their rehashed and rehearsed lies,” Bello-Koko said.

“I need to reiterate that for all of my years as a banker and a public officer up till today, I have never been indicted or convicted by any court. And this fact is in the public domain.

“Resorting to writing to the UK government, seeking visa cancellation and forfeiture of assets belonging to my wife and I, is not only malicious but also cruel and wicked. I have yet to understand why these evil machinations would be orchestrated against me.”

Bello-Koko said the latest attack, in the series of sponsored blackmails targeted at him, which also began in 2021 immediately he was appointed as NPA MD, is intended to damage his reputation.

Listing some of the allegations gainst him, he said: “In deceit, they have disingenuously claimed in the sponsored report that UK/Ireland investigators were the ones that had written to the UK government after they had purportedly unearthed alleged criminal acts against me, bordering on money laundering activities, fraud, forgery, and tax evasion, which are all baseless figments of their malicious intent.

“Whereas, particulars cited in the report were the regurgitated allegations that they had sponsored and which had been doing the rounds in the media from the outset, this latest attempt is as spurious as their first attempt ever.

“Their claim that UK/ Ireland investigators, and not metropolitan police or Scotland yard, are investigating me falls flat on its face and gives out the sponsors of the report — which is a piece of cheap blackmail — as desperate hustlers who are not civil and neither working in the interest of the society.

“It is unfortunate that some online news media have lent their platforms to these desperadoes to ply their odious trade.

“However, I challenge the conduit pipes of this malice to go ahead and mention the names and true identities of the CSOs and the investigators.

“If the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had been on the matter as indicated in the report, it is then unfair to suggest or claim that some questionable UK/Ireland investigators are now pushing for exclusion order to ban me from ever entering the United Kingdom.

“One expects that there should be inter-agency collaboration in line with some bilateral or mutual agreements.

“All the supposed assertions and innuendos in the report are nothing but spurious and malicious concoctions intended to cause a predetermined damage.”

Bello-Koko, therefore, vowed to institute legal action against any media house that publishes unsubstantiated and damaging reports about him.

“I’ll not hesitate to seek the support of all well-meaning and decent citizens to tell my traducers to use their energy for more meaningful endeavor than to engage in maliciousness of their campaign of intimidation, blackmail, and vendetta,” he added.

“My job at the NPA is not personal. It is national service, to which I had resolved from the outset to give my best shot.”

According to Bello-Koko, his administration gives premium to due process in the execution of the agency’s core mandates.

He said under his watch, the NPA generated the sum of N286 billion and remitted over N100 billion to the consolidated revenue fund (CRF) account of the federation as of November 2022.