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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • APRIL 17, 2016
NEWS
NEW MONARCH L-R: Mr. Peter Obaseki; Akinla of Erin Ijesa, Oriade, Oba Isaac Adeyeba Ayeni, and Olori Titilayo Adeyeba Ayeni, at the coronation of Oba Ayeni at Ijesa, Osun State...recently
BUNDLES OF JOY L-R: Chairman, Nkanu East LG Transition Committee, Chief Ikechukwu Ubagu; Wife of Member representing
Nkanu East State Constituency, Mrs. Vivian Nnajiofor; wife of the Governor of Enugu State, Mrs. Monica Ugwuanyi; and Member Representing Nkanu East State Constituency, Hon. Paul Nnajiofor at the dedication of twin babies Emmanuel and Emmanuela Nnajiofor in Enugu... recently
Adeosun: Nigeria Does Not Need IMF Loan
• Says there are home-grown solutions to current challenges • AfDB plans $62bn for Africa’s energy infrastructure in 5yrs Kunle Aderinokun and Chika Amanze-Nwachuku in Washington DC, USA Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, has said Nigeria has a home-grown solution to the challenges it is currently experiencing and would not need any foreign assistance to solve its domestic problem, particularly a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Adeosun, who spoke at a panel discussion on “Sub-Saharan Africa: Just a Rough Patch?”, noted that the kind of support it sought and received was a budget support in form of loans from the World Bank and African Development Bank and not a bailout from the International Monetary Fund. According to her, the country’s economy is not sick and per adventure, it falls sick, the federal government has a ‘local remedy’ for the sickness. “Nigeria is not sick and even if we are, we have our own local remedy,” she said with a wave of assurance. Responding to a specific question posed to her by the moderator of the discussion, Nancy Birdsall, President, Center for Global Development, about a lot of borrowings coming from outside to buoy Nigeria’s economy in this challenging times, Adeosun said: “We are speaking to
the World Bank and AfDB for budget support loans. We see the Nigerian opportunity as a policy opportunity and we feel the bank is the place to go to support our policy reforms. There is a lot of stigma and a lot of institutional memories in Nigeria around IMF that is not positive and we believe that this type would not be the right message for Nigeria at the moment.” The statement of the finance minister aligns with the position of the IMF managing director, Christine Lagarde. Lagarde had during her visit to Nigeria in January said given the determination and resilience of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, Nigeria had no reason to seek IMF loan. Lagarde, who responded to a question on whether the IMF was also out to attach conditions to loans Nigeria might seek from the organisation, stressed that she was not in the country to negotiate a loan with conditionality. Adeosun at the panel discussion, noted that the Nigerian economy was vulnerable to shocks because of its overdependence on crude oil, the single source of revenue but quickly added that, “We have resolved to build resilience into the country’s economy to hedge against future oil shocks.” “This is because depen-
dence on oil brings about vulnerability and laziness. So we are doing a combination of things to diversify our economy, with revenue mobilisation to enable sufficient investment in developing the non-oil sectors. “We have a great opportunities to reset the Nigerian economy and ensure that as we go forward, growth will be in a sustainable manner so that we won’t be vulnerable to oil price fluctuations, and with a truly diversified economy we would have enabled opportunities for wealth creation that would trickle down to every Nigerian. “The compelling business case in Nigeria is that the fundamentals remain very strong, a teeming, young growing population, rich in resources and with a government determined to finally get it right. “The great thing is that long term investors recognize this and understand the difference between short term and long term issues and the case for Nigeria persuades one to plan for the longer term opportunities,” she explained. Also, at another panel discussion on Global Infrastructure Forum 2016, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, said the continental development bank has earmarked $62 billion for energy
infrastructure in Africa in the next five years. He explained that the bank will provide $12 billion while it would leverage $50 billion from the private sector. “For us at the bank, we are going to put in $12billion over the next five years into energy sector and we also looking to leverage foreign buy back of $50billion from the private sector. For this to happen, we have to pay attention; so many ministers have a host of infrastructure we are talking about,” he said. He advised that the energy ministers should optimise the opportunities around them. “I mean for us partial risk guarantees and also partial credit gurantees can help to leverage a lot of money. Now we have done something at the ADB, I’m speaking on behalf of my collegues here, which ADB Exposure Exchange, just to allow us to free up a lot of backlog for ourselves. For the bank itself, we have been able to free up about $10billion dollars that allows us to lend a lot more for infrastructure. “Our core financial arrangement, we work with China, we work with Japan in terms of core financing arrangement and all of here, we do blended financing both in terms of concessionary and non concessionary finacing, but at the end of the day, the monies that are out there in the Capital Market, far exceed all the things we get put together,” he added.
‘National ID Card not Replacing Voters Card in 2019’ Clement Danhutor Contrary to reports in some online media that the national identity card would replace voters register in 2019, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has clarified that the report was misconstrued and out of context. According to a statement issued by the Head of Corporate Communications Unit of NIMC, Mr. LovedayChikaOgbonna,thereport emanated from a visit to a royal father in Delta State where the com-
mission’s Delta State Coordinator explained the possibility of harmonising all identity related data on one card, an issue which was wrongly reported. “Management wishes to state that the said headline is false and that our State Coordinator was quoted out of context by the reporter. The electronic ID Card issued by NIMC has a number of applets built into it, which makes it capable and available for use in up to 13 use cases and scenarios, but at no time during the advocacy visit by our Delta State team to the royal father did the state
coordinator announce that the eID Card will replace the voters card presently issued and used for elections by INEC. “The state coordinator did not grantanypressbriefingorinterviews during the visit, neither was she at the palace to make any announcement concerning any elections. The primary reason for the visit was to seek the support of the royal father in the reneweddrive bythe newDGof NIMC Engr. Aliyu Abubakar Aziz to increase the number of enrolment for the National Identification Num-
ber (NIN) and brief him on the collaboration between NIMC and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to uniquely register and issue NIN to farmers in Delta state under the National Agricultural Payment Initiative (NAPI). “The NIMC and INEC are both working harmoniously with other data collecting agencies of government towards the aggregation of all citizens’ biometric data in order to achieve a single national database as directed recently by Mr. President.”
FG: 169 Candidates Sit for National Common Entrance Exams in IDPs Paul Obi inAbuja The federal government yesterday said about 169 candidates at the Internally Displayed Persons’ (IDPs) camps sat for the National Common Entrance Examination conducted by the National Examination Council (NECO). MinisterofStateforEducation, Prof. Anthony Anwukah, said the 169 candidates wrote exams in the North-east where Boko Haram insurgency has been intense. The 2016 examination is for entrance into unity schools and colleges across the country. Anwukah stated this while monitoring the conduct of NCEE yesterday in Abuja. He said the number of students writing NCEE in the North-east had increased as insurgency has eased off. He explained that “total number of registered students for 2016 NCCE was 90,786 with Lagos State having highest number with 25,963 candidates while Zamfara had the least with 103 candidates. “Adamawa State has 313 regular students; those in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps - 34, total for Adamawa - 347. Borno State has 187 regular students; those in IDPs -120, total for Borno - 307; Yobe State has 387 regular students; those in IDPs 15, total for Yobe - 402. “Last year, Lagos had the highest registration with 25,437; the lowest last year was Borno understandably with 35; the total for last year was 86,365. As the insurgency problem is easing off, more of our students are registering for NCCE and affording themselves the opportunity to enter Federal Government Colleges,” he said.
Anwukah observed that there was a remarkable increase in the number of students from Borno and Yobe States in 2016 examination. He stated that in 2015, “Borno had 35 candidates as against 387 in 2016 while Yobe had 68 in 2015 as against 402 in 2016.” The minister explained that available spaces for the candidates across the 104 unity schools in the country were 26,000. He contended that improving the quality of teachers was of paramount concern to the Federal Ministry of Education as it worked toward producing the best qualified teachers for the students. NECO’s Registrar, Prof. Abdulrasheed Garba, told journalists that adequate security measures had been put in place in states having security challenges. “The results are expected to be released by NECO to the Federal Ministry of Education on April 20 after which the ministry will direct NECO to make it public. Candidates are to check the status of their qualification for the interview test both at the various unity colleges and on-line via NECO website www.mynecoexams.com as soon as the release of results in announced. “Candidates that quality after writing this examination will be invited for final selection interview coming up on a date to be announced after the release of these results,” he said. Garba stated that Computer Based Test (CBT) was the latest innovation in examinations across the world, stressing that the council would migrate to CBT when adequate facilities were put in place to implement the policy.
In Brief Mama Akinpelu Passes On The Akinpelu/Ayoola and Popoola families have announced the passing on to glory of their beloved mother, grandmother and great grandmother, Mrs. Victoria Monilola Akinpelu (nee Popoola) aged 73 years.AcommittedChristianwomanleaderandanastutebusinesswoman fondly called ‘Mama Akin’ by family and friends, there will be a wake keep/service of songs for her at 4pm on Thursday April 28, at Williamson Multipurpose hall and grounds, behind Whytak Industry, Oluyole Estate Extension, Ibadan, Oyo State. The funeral service comesuponFridayApril29,by10amattheRCCG,JesusCastle,Beside Zenith Bank. Oluyole Estate, Ibadan, while reception follows afterwards.MamaAkinpeluissurvivedbymanychildrenamongwhomare: Mr. Akinlolu Akinpelu; Pastor (Mrs.) Aderonke Olowoyo; Mrs. Titilola Abodunrin,manygrandchildrenandgreatgrandchildren.