NATIONAL MIRROR, 09 JULY, 2012

A422

Business

Monda.%

News

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FDis into Alrica to double by 2014 - UN '[;'oreign diP-ct investment inflows into JJJica Cell in 20 II for the third consecutive year but could n .o-e than double by 2014, as stronger economic growU- , .,ngoing rdorms and high c-ommodity prices impr'O\c iHV"!slor perceptions, the United Nations has said .

The decline iJ: investment, from $43. 1 blWon 1n 2010 to $42.1 billk,o I., 2011, was largely due to fl!'I h: ced inflows to North Afnca 85 mcial and political unrest h Egypt and Libya deterred it ""stars, according to the 2012 World Investment R~rt Africa's share of global FO also dropped from 3.a percent in 2010 to 2.8 perc::rt in 2011.

However. s to subSaharan Afric a j .Ulpcd 25 percent to $35.9 bUllcn in 2011, close to ill. peak of S37.3 billion in 2003. UI commodity· rich countries in "est and centra1 Africs saN a rise in new projects.

The report, ptltlished by the United Nation! Conference on Trade and Dcvtlopment, said Africa's FOI prospects for 2012 Wen:' promising and forecast aveClge Daws of bettl.-ccn $55 bill'Dl and $65 billion in 2012. It projected this wouJd grow to $70-$85 billion in 2013 and $75$100 billion In 20J4. -'nBows to Africa are: eJq>!Cted to !'eCOYeI" as a «'Suit of stronger economIC growtl', 'mgoing economic nJorms Mld high commodi ty priets, as well as improving im-estol perceptions of the conUflcnt. OIain1y £rom other emergmg n£rkets,· the report said.

For the tintt tune, POI Inftaws from dev~lJlping economies into JJIIC8, OUl!itrlp~ those from developed econoTi ea, the report showed. -[n terms of ~n fidd (new) p 'Ojects, which account for over 90 pert:ent of totaJ Fel, the largest developir g economy

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investors in 20 II ",-ere India, South Africa, China, Korea and Mauritius,· said James Zban, director of UNCTAD's investment and enLerprise division, Afriut'S emerging middle class has aJso spurred the growth of FDI in the services sector, though FOr to the extractive indusUies tends to attract more attentioD, Zhan said.

The study highlights the contrasting fonunes of North Africa, traditionally the recipient of a third of inward POI to Africa, and the rest of the continenL Inflows to the region haJva:l to $7.69 billion in 2011, dwarfed by the $16. 1 billion investors poured into West Africa and the $8.53 billion into central Africa Commodity-rich countnes, such as Nigeria,. Ghana, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo, attracted the bulk of FOI in their respective regions. Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer and most populOUII nation, n:ceived inBows of $8.92 biUion, representing a fifth of all flows to the continent.

However, the repon said new oil- and gasproducing countries such as Ghana, where commercial oil production started in Dece:mber2010, and Mozambique, where major discoveries of gas reserves are: expected to tranllform the economy, should experience strong FDt growth in the future.

Stakeholders kick against merger of NIMG with UNIJOS StOri~1I

by John

u,,~.

Ahuja

takeholders in the Minerals and MinIng Set:tor have kicked against the proposed merger of the Nigerian Institute of Mining and GeoscienC6 (NlMG), JOII with the University of Jos, as recommended by the

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Oransanye Panel.

Project Coordinator, ~u.tainable Management of Mineral Resources: Project, Linus Adie, said at the weekend in Abuja that the World Bank would nOl be happy if the merger was effected as it would affect the plan of the Bank to further develop the institute into a RegionaJ Centre or Mining Excellence.

TIle Nigerian Institute or Mining and Geosciences was an offshoot or the Nigerian School of Mines, established in 195:2 by the colonial government to train lower and middle level manpower for the growmg SoUd Mineral Sector.

While a similar school, Ghana School of Mines, established the same yeaT with the JOII school of Mines had grown into the Takwa Univerllity of Mines in Ghana. the Jos School went moribund owing to the downturn in the Solid Mineral Sector.

According to him, the new impetus to revive the school came with the determination to resusci tate the lIolid mineral sector in its effort to diversify the economy away from oil and

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The Federal Government sought and obtained a $120 million credit from the World Bank/lntemationai Development Association ror the implementation or the Sustainable Management of Mineral Resources ProjecL The project in the past saren years has undertaken a comprehensive reform in the sector, including the upgrading of the School or Mines into the Nigerian InlltItute of Mining and Geosciences which is now a Regional CenU'e of Mining Excellence.

President of Miners Allsociation of Nigeria, Sani Shehu, advised the Federal Government against the planned merger, adding that the lnstitute ill a pride to the mining community in Nigeria and the entire mining community in the lIub region.

He said since inception in the last two years, the institute has Improved the capacity of members of the association by providing latest sector specific training programmes for its members.

To bury the school in the anonymity of a Unijos merger according to Sani Is to ~ the gains achieved in the past two years in the mining sector.

He noted that schools like NIMG are common in aJl mmingjurisdictions and all counUies that take mining seriously, stressing that rather than merge the school, government should leverage on the achievement to provide similar institutions in the six geopolitical zones of the country as it has been done in Agriculture where

.... we bave many Universities of Agriculture and many instiWleS.

Group unite to fight crude oil theft 'T'he Niger Delta Indigenous 1 Movement for RadicaJ Change (NDlMRCJ has declared its intention to join forces with the founder or the Movement for Emancipation oCthe Niger DeJta (MEND), Government Ekpemupolo, popuJarly known as Tompolo to stop crude oil theft in the country.

Tompolo III currently providing security in Nigma's territorial waters through Global West Vessel SpeciaJist Agency (GWVSLI. a company where he ill said to have in~t. The award of the contract by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA)to GWVSL has generated quite some controversy from certain quarters.

Tompolo in a recent interview assured that he would b reak the oil caboJ, disclosing that some memberll of the aba1 have been intercepted since he swung into action and that in no distant time, Nigerians will see the benefit of the contract.

The oil mOnitoring group, NOlMRC in a statement by its President, Nelly Emma, Sec:n::tary, John Sailor and Public Relations Officer, Stanley Mukoro promised to support Tompolo to stop the cabal from stealing Nigeria's resources.

According to the group, -Members of the cabal in I.h.is country are collecting all the money to the detriment oC the masses and this is wby we have declared our interest to join forces with Tompolo to lltop the oil thieves, they have stolen enough.· ~We know the capability oC Tompolo in lltopping people (rom canying crude oil out of thill country everyday through the sea and this is wby ..-e are gaving him our total support so that we can win this national war against the oil thieves; to amount of threat £rom any quarter will make us to surrender to the oil cabal; all well meaning Nigerians should back this war against those milking us dry through the lIt.ea1ing of the nation's resources,· the group said.

The group also tasked aecurity agencies to haJt oil bunkering and illegal crude refineries in the NigCT Delta region and also stop its members [rom colluding with oil thievell to rip off the country, claiming that Tompolo was up to the taBk of breaking the oil cabal. ~e people of the Niger Delta region are providing the resol1l"ceS that is sustaining the country and yet we are so poor and development is far from us, whereas the oil thieves who have been feed.mg rat from the Nigcna's resources, do not care about the suffering of the masses, we have decided to join forces with Tompolo. an illustrious son of the Niger Delta region who hate injustice and illegal activitit.:1l to stop the oil cabal,· the group wrote.

Benue farmers get N200m loan 'T'he Benue State government 1 has been commended for disbuning over N200 million loans to farmers in the state to encourage expansion of farming activities in a bid to grow internally generated revenue and ensure food oecurity.

The South West Coordinator, 'Benue Outside Benue', a non- governmental organization, Abab Daniel Udeh after a visit to the state with hill members recently hailed the deve!opmentaJ strides of Governor Gabriel Suswam , especially in the area of agriculture which the lltate is known ror.

Udeh urged the farmen in

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the stale to jud:ciously put the funds into farming, advising that it was an offel1ce to divert the money for other use other than the pllrpOSC br which It was given.. -our constant visit to Benue State in the last five yean has shawn , hnl if the present level of de\·eIopmental strive had been in place before now, the s.a..e would have gone far above where it is today. Of great htc:rest is the many areas like 'lcalth, agricultural, educt tioo. security, sanitation, sports, legislative andjudJci~ He said tha;. lt is no news today that M3lo urdi, the state capital is <ne of the neatest state c:q:ital in the entire north ccnt.ra..\ zone with vast road netw( rk. The just compl.e ted Beuue State Univusity Teaching Hospital and the compirtioll uf the Makurdi .-ater WOI k~ is no longer news· stres:llJlg that -as soon as the nC',," pipes are laid Makurdi. alonJ ·..nth other senatonal distncts "ill have uninu:m.Jpted wat.:!r supply.

According Co h: m, -Benue State has shown U\.81 it is one of the few Stat,,!S to the north that takes pI"03ct.ive decisions in terms or security of the wdl being 01 its citiuns, noting that, it i" e(; uilly of Interest to note thl rancour· free relationshio bo-t'veen the ex«utive and other ..urns of govemmenL Udeh was of the view that now that Issues bttJ-enng on eLectoraJ disput.es over the last gubernatorial poUt are over, it is important tha Ell Benue indigenes sbould support the government to mO'"C the state rO<WWd.

Nigeria's coaslal vessel traffic records live percen1nrowth

By Fnada; &lem

'T"he volume of c()a;Jta1 1 vessel traffic thai call at Nigena's various seaports has recorded a 4 .6 pen:e..t growth, an indication that there has

been an increase in coastal trade acbvities within the West African cauL Official port statistics released by the Nigerian Pon.a Authority for the month of May 20 12 shows that the gross tonnage of coastal vessels handled at the various nation 's seaports stood at 742,511 metric tonnes at the close of port business on May 31, 2012.

This represents a 4 .6 percent growth rate when compared with the 709,755 metric tonnes bandied during the comparative period of 2011.

Also, there was a marginal increase in the number of coastal vessels handled allhe various ports in the country as at May 2012, as a total of 1,918 coastal vessds, representing a 2 .7 percent increaJSe wben compared with thel , 867vesscls handled during the comparative period of last year.

Meanwhile, Managing Director of the authority, Omar Suleiman, who commented on the impressive performance of the ports, disdoscd that NPA has concluded arrangements to procure five additional security patrol boats for the Nigerian Navy.

According to him, this is part of the authority's contribution to the Federal Government's giant strides in providing security on the nation's water channels with a vic:w to eradicating the menace of maritime piracy and sea robbery.

This, he argued would bring about increased movement of coastal vessela in and out of the nation's waterways, as they would become more user· friendly.

The Federal Government had recently set up a 13· man lnrer+Ageocy Maritime ~tions~nlination

Committee, which was part of measures to adopt a unified approaclt to maritime security in Nigeria with a vtew to curtailing the increas.ing menace of maritime piracy and other illegal bunkering activi.ties in lbe nation's waters.

Senior Special Adviser to the president on maritime services, Leke 0yew01c, who spoke in a telephone interView, had disclosed that over the yean, the various government agencies such as the Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety and Agency, the Nigerian Pons Authority, the Nigeria CUstoms Service and the National Inland Waterways Authority, among othus have approached the issue of maritime security slU"Veillance independenUy and on their individual basis, which has DOl yidded the expected results.

However, other port

statistics shows that laden container throughput Btood at 83,044 TEUs at the end of May, 2012 which. rep~ts a 9.4 pen::e.nt increue over the 75,875 TEUs recorded during the comparative period of last YeM.

Empty oontainer throughput also stood at 56,923 TEUs, representing a 13.5 percent growth rate when compared with the SO, 169 TEUs recorded in May 20 II .

Vehicle traffic in the month under revic:w stood at 23 ,445 units representing a growth of 0 .6 percent over the '23,305 units recorded at the end of May last year.

The NPA· boss had while commenting on the imp.r e8sive performance of the deep sea shipping activities in the counby. noted that with the tremendous support of the Federal Government, NPA h as engaged in massive infrastructuraJ development which bas resulted in increased container traffic.

According to him, more efforts will be made to vigoroualy pursue its vision of m.aki.ng Nigerian ports the hub of maritime activities in the West and Central African

....on Suleiman also pledged that the authority will continue to sustain its current efforts at capital and maintenance dredging. which had made it possible for the channels to accommodate bigger vessels that carry more conaignments with the attendant economy of large scale.

Port concession iq Nigeria was successful, says exNPAMD I\. former Managing Director

.nor the Nigerian Pora

Authonty, Abdulaa1am Mohammed has said that despite the teething problems faced by the Nigerian port 8)'1Item more than six years after the reform of the ports,

the exercise has recorded a huge: success.

The Federal Government under former President Olusegun Obasanjo had embarked on a port concession under a Public - Private Partnership, which stripped NPA of Its cargo handling functions and gave same to both foreign and indigenous private concessionau-es.

1be programme, which was heavily criticised, especially for the hurried. manner in which it was done, adopted the Port of Antwerp, Belgium land lord model but failed to create a commercial regulator, which Is a major feature of the model, since the enabling legi..slation was yet to be passed years after the exercise was concluded.

Abdu1sala.m. who was a general manager in charge of the eastern porta and played a significant role during the negotiation process, spoke at the investiture of managing director of NPA, Omar Suleiman and Dr. Tai9."O Afolabi, executive vice chairman/chief executive officer of the Siro: Group as patrons of the Maritime Rq>ortus Association of Nlgeria and launch of the cooperative multipurpose society of the association, which held in Lagos.

He noted that notwithstanding the current challenges faced by the seaports, the concession programme haa substantially ach.iCged its set objectives.

According to him , the transfer of cargo handling functions (Port operations) from NPA to private professional tenninal operations has brought about a measw-e of efficiency in the port system, which would not have been poss.ible without the concession programme.

-cargo handling operation Is fundamental in any port system and the fact that the 8)'1Itc:lD is currently working well is an indication that PPP can work effectively in Nlgeria-, he noted.. ~ere have been 80 many transformations in the port industry. I tell you, no system is perfect; it IS all about win some and lose some. But gene:rally, the port concession prog:ra.mme in Nigeria has ~rded. a subsrantiallevel of success-, he further argued.

Abdulsa1am, who was a1ao at a certain stage of the transitional stage of the ports managing director in charge of NPA Western Ports, an &ITBngement that was later collapsed, however admitted that there is always room for improvement, but insiated that the fundamental objectives of the programme has been acbieYCd He therefore charged both the public and private sector

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operators to play according to the rule of the, arguing that while the private sector profit mt.ere8t should be protected, that should nOl be allowed to hamper government's aim or providing quality and dJicient services to the public at the lowesl possible cosL Dr. Afolabi had also while speaking at the event, pledged his company's commitment to the provision of quality and efficient port services to the shipping community.

He had argued that as an import--dependent nation. the seaports are critical to the economic .....eI1being of Nigeria and that both the public and private sectors should work together to ensure that the system works.

Molabi, who is also a lawyer by profession pledged to continuously support the association, which he argued also constitute a critical stakeholder in the port indusuy.

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