18 BUSINESS
THE GUARDIAN, Friday, May 17, 2013
Oyo partners private investors on job creation From Kehinde Olatunji, Ibadan OVERNOR Abiola Ajimobi G of Oyo State has reassured of his administration’s commitment to continue partnering with the private sector in order to create an avenue for job creation for the unemployed youths in the state. The Governor who spoke while formally inaugurating the facility of Spanco Group at the Old Kingsway Building, Dugbe said government would soon institute
an e-governance system and outsource some services in order to create a support system that would improve information-sharing across various areas for the citizens of the state. Also, through a partnership between government and the Spanco Group, he said,his administration would rollout a Government to Citizen (G2C) Help Line which would establish an information link between government and citizens. This, Governor Ajimobi said
With its 1,600 square meter facility here in Ibadan, with our support, Spanco hopes to generate 5,000 jobs within Oyo State in the next few years would cover various initiatives by the state like Health Helpline and Medical Care, Health Emergency and Hospital/Ambulance Management, Agriculture Helpline, Land Registry, Women in Distress and Police Helpline aside any other new initiatives and programmes that would be
NRC increases operational capacity with 62 coaches By Tosin Fodeke HE management of the T Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), yesterday, announced that it had increased carriage capacities of its trains with the addition of 62 coaches and wagons. The coaches and wagons, which were rehabilitated in Enugu and Lagos, using direct labour comprise of 14 coaches, 30 Covered Hopper Wagons (CHWs) for wheat, 17 Container Wagons for cement and one power car and have been deployed to districts where they are mostly needed as track rehabilitation is presently ongoing in the Eastern District. The 14 coaches are being shared to the existing mass transit trains in Lagos, OffaKano passenger train and Lagos – Kano intercity pas-
senger train. To alleviate passenger congestion, a minimum of ten standard class passenger coaches with one air-conditioned passenger coach and a power-generating car per train is being made available for the commuters in Lagos mass transit trains. With this improvement, each of the Lagos mass transit trains will carry about 1, 650 passengers at about 150 passengers per coach. All the coaches come with improved interior facilities like lightings, fans, seats, and toilets. Lagos District still maintains its 16 train trips daily Monday to Friday between Iddo/Apapa and Agbado/Ijoko. The 47 wagons on the other hand are being deployed to the Corporation’s cement and
wheat freight customers to enhance freight carriage capability in that regard. It will be recalled that the Corporation embarked on direct-labour rehabilitation of coaches and wagons in 2012 in its workshops in Minna and Zaria. The rehabilitated coaches were deployed to strengthen the Minna-Kaduna-Minna mass transit train services. As the Corporation continues to strategize to deliver efficient, reliable, and affordable train services, the Managing Director, Engr. Adeseyi Sijuwade, has confirmed that the Corporation is expecting delivery of two sets of Diesel Multiple Units (DMUs) each with a carrying capacity of 540 passengers and six 68-seater air conditioned passenger coaches by the end of the year.
introducing in the future. ``All over the world, the trend now is for organizations to fan-out the execution of key aspects of their responsibilities to professionals and experienced solution-providers. This is the reason for our government’s synergy with Spanco Group, an organization which possesses business spread across System
Integration, Power, Technology Infrastructure, eGovernance and Business Process Outsourcing as well as state-of-the-art infrastructure, including skilled work force,’’ he said. He said the state possessed a fertile ground for any investor wishing to take optimal advantage of its Godendowed possibilities. ``With the wealth of multilinguistic residents of our state, skilled, talented but unemployed youths, we became the best choice for Spanco Group to establish a large BPO Infrastructure that
will help execute 24x7 outsourced processes,’’ he said. According to him creating a functional state-of-the-art infrastructure in the state capital, with over 1,000 skilled resources, the largest BPO operational centre in Nigeria, a substantial number of unemployed graduates in the state had been rescued from the unemployment market. ``With its 1,600 square meter facility here in Ibadan, with our support, Spanco hopes to generate 5,000 jobs within Oyo State in the next few years,’’ he said
Managing Director, Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited, Adeola Adetunji; Managing Director, Lady Mechanic Initiative, Mrs Sandra AgueborEkperuah; and Managing Director, Nigerian Bottling Company Limited, Ben Langat, during the Graduation ceremony of first Batch of Lady Mechanic by Nigerian Bottling Company and Coca-Cola Nigeria held on Wednesday at Benin city, Edo State. PHOTO: SUNDAY AKINLOLU
Lawmakers absolve CBN of poor record keeping By Chijioke Nelson HE nation’s lawmakers T have cleared the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from the allegations bordering on record keeping and document retrieval processes. Speaking at the resumed session of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts, to review the queries and observations by the AuditorGeneral for the Federation over the issue, the Committee Chairman, Olamilekan Solomon Adeola, disclosed that the apex bank has forwarded all relevant documents requested by the committee to clear the suspicions. The bank was earlier accused of destroying documents or records of its activities and other related transactions after five years, inflating of contract sum for upgrade and reconstruction of offices to the tune of N2.805 billion. Adeola said that the bank’s record keeping is the best among government agencies known for good record keeping, adding that it was able to forward those documents to the satisfaction of the committee within the specified 48-hour timeframe. It was also cleared of the audit observation relating to an upward review of contract sum by N5 million for upgrading Fire Detection System in Lagos Office, as the committee was convinced that the review was occasioned by additional work identified and executed under the said contract. The CBN Deputy Governor, Corporate Services, Alhaji Suleiman Barau, also prom-
ised to make more documents available to the committee in order to adequately address other issues raised in audit observations. On the Port Harcourt Branch building, Barau explained that the building was reconstructed at the cost of N2.8 billion and not mere refurbishment as erroneously stated in the audit query. The committee expressed satisfaction with the documents submitted by the apex bank, which included the building plan, bill of quantity and pictures of the old and new structures and therefore, cleared the CBN of the query. The lawmakers also cleared the bank on the issue of the
provision N10 million for the upgrade of the Ilorin Branch and Governor’s residence in Lagos with the sum of N22.0 million and N50 million between1993 and 2005. But the committee however, advised the apex bank and other agencies to always to be more proactive in providing information as and when requested by authorities like AGF in order to avoid unnecessary waste of resources in conducting investigative exercise. In view of the potential dangers in these erroneous reports, the bank maintained that “it does not destroy documents and records of any transaction whatsoever after five years”.
Foundation plans $100 million investment for youth employment By Taiwo Hassan HE Rockefeller Foundation T has announced a new foundation initiative that will focus on Africa’s youth development and employment opportunities, called “Digital Jobs Africa” (DJA). The foundation said it has set aside $100 million investment which will impact about one million people in Africa, through jobs and skills for youths in the information communication technology (ICT) sector who do not have an opportunity for sustainable employment. Specifically, the DJA initiative builds on three years of the foundation’s existing work and will focus on high potential youth who lack access to jobs and economic opportunities.
The initiative, led out of the foundation’s Africa Regional office in Nairobi, Kenya, will continue on for the next seven years and leverage significant funds and support from other stakeholders. The announcement was made by the President of the Rockefeller Foundation, Dr. Judith Rodin at the World Economic Forum meeting in Cape Town, South Africa. South Africa is one of the six focus countries of the initiative. The others are Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco and Egypt. The country selection was based on high levels of youth unemployment, the growth of their ICT-enabled sectors, including the existing level of governmental support and the potential to create significant numbers of jobs within the sector.