Money
Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, January 20, 2015
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Union flays telcos over fraudulent subscriptions
Growth for African airlines likely weeks away from boost Chukwuemeke Iwelunmo As African leaders under the African Union plan to converge in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia by the end of January, one of the expectations of the continent especially airline investors is to see a deliberation that would support the full implementation of the Yamoussoukro Declaration, which was reached in 1988 to open the African skies up, for the stimulation of synergy among various African airlines operating in the continent. For whatever political reasons the YD may have been suffering this perpetual setback in implementation, stakeholders believe that it is time the leaders of the continent put economic development on the front burner in order to close the gaping pace of sectorial economic development
between Africa and rest of the advanced world. Even before other continents started implementing open skies with encouraging results, the idea had been developed in Africa and at a time when the number of investments in the aviation sector was still negligible. Addressing newsmen in Addis Ababa recently, the Chief Executive Officer of Ethiopia Airlines, Tewolde Gebremariam, said the whole sector was waiting with their breaths held, to know what the outcome of deliberations by the continent’s chief economic pilots, later this month would have to offer African aviation. According to him, African aviation sector is tottering because of absence of a common policy on air transport that would
Tewolde Gebremariam drive development, where investments were not lacking. “Basically what we are looking for in the coming meeting of heads of states of Africa is full implementation of the Yamasokoro Declaration on one hand, which means that the African airspace will be treated as a single airspace. So, any African carrier will be able to fly from any point to any point without any restriction in the continent. The second objective which we are pushing as African airlines, the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) and the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC), which is headed by a Nigeria, is
to formulate an aviation policy, single market for Africa which will have the same community clause as the European Union has today,” he said. According to Gebremariam, European Union member states treat the European airspace as a single market; they have full freedom of the air for their airlines within the European Union but when it comes to air services agreement negotiation between member states of the European Union and other countries outside the European Union, the European Union acts as a single market.
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Out-of-date policy costs maritime sector N7trn revenue, says Agbakoba Funmi Coker
Olisa Agbakoba
The untapped revenue in the maritime sector has been estimated at N7trillon by a law firm, Olisa Agbakoba Legal (OAL). Former National President, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Dr Olisa Agbakoba,(SAN) stressed the need to overhaul the outdated
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government’s policy, institutional, regulatory and legal framework while speaking to Daily Times in his office on revenue generation from maritime sector as alternative to oil. He noted that the last major review of Nigerian Shipping Policy was 28 years ago when the NSP act no 10 of 1987 was enacted. Agbakoba advised that gov-
The National Union of Posts and Telecommunication Employees (NUPTE) has condemned the constant unsolicited adverts on cell phones being posted by telecom providers in the country. Mr. Sunday Alhassan, President, NUPTE, said this in Abuja, adding that the unsolicited adverts, drop-in-calls and others charges had become very worrisome. He said that there had been a lot of complaints from different quarters on how unnecessary charges had been deducted for calls or unsubscribed ringtones. `` What we are condemning is the text you get saying that your subscription has been renewed automatically when you never subscribe to such a product. ``Then the text is telling you, if you intend to unsubscribe key into some numbers and as soon as you key into those numbers they will tell you that it is an error. ``We believe that this is a fraud on the part of the telecom providers. We have also discovered that a lot of calls drop or fail while making them and till date none of the providers has given us any explanation. As a union we seriously condemn these acts, ‘’he said. Alhassan said that the union had complained to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the regulatory body of the telecommunication operators, on the matter. He said that the commission had assured the union that something would be done about the issue. ``We are not taking on the operators specifically because some of these operators are yet to allow their workers to belong to the union,” he said.
ernment should create enabling environment in the industry to encourage investors. He added that the Nigerian ports which supposed to be the hub of shipping for West and Central Africa had become uncompetitive. According to him, the country’s ports had been abandoned for those in Benin Republic and
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