Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23, 2016 —
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Arco records successes at the African Petroleum Congress and Exhibition
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VISIT: From left, Chairman, Lagos Mainland District Society of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Alhaji Rasaq Adesokan; National President of ICAN, Otunba Samuel Deru; Managing Director, Nigerian Bottling Company Limited (NBC), Ben Langat; Chief Financial Officer, NBC Limited, Mrs Seun Oni; and Director, Legal, Public Affairs and Communications, NBC Limited, Sade Morgan during the courtesy visit of the president and members of EXCO of Lagos Mainland District, in Lagos.
FG to focus on rail, inland waterways for trade facilitation By Godfrey Bivbere & Favour Nnabugwu
ity in the sub-region. Amaechi who was represented by the minister of state, aviation, INISTER of Trans Hadi Sirika, at the event hosted portation, Rotimi the Nigerian Shippers Council, Amaechi, has said that the FedNSC, said that government workeral Government is to focus railing at creating a conducive enviways and inland waterways as a ronment for Public, Private, Partmeans of enhancing the nation’s nership, PPP to help achieve the inter-connectivity to reduce the desired connectivity for the nacost of its global trade. tion. The minister made this known According to him, “The main at a two day workshop for West policy thrust of this administraand Central Africa sub-region tion is to evolve a multimodal, inwith the theme “Transport cost tegrated and sustainable transand regional connectivity of Afriport system, with greater emphacan countries.” sis on rail and inland waterways Amaechi also assured repretransportation in order to foster sentatives of the region that the quality connectivity within the Nigerian government would supsystem. “ An enabling environport efforts to achieve connectivment for Public-Private Partnership, PPP, is being created by designing new policies, legislation and institutional frame$132.75 -1.55 work that would support the envisaged improve$3,114.00 -4.00 ment of the sector. “However, the ports $15.83 -0.14 alone are not enough to connect to markets, other modes of transport (road, rail, air transport, inland $41.21 0.01 waterways and inland $ 38.91 -0.53 ports) are essential since trade logistics now inCURRENCY BUYING SELLING volves door-to-door or factory to warehouse US DOLLAR 196 196.5 197 movement of goods in inPOUNDS 284.0236 284.7482 285.4727 ternational trade transacEURO 221.3624 221.9271 222.4918 FRANC 202. 584 203. 1008 203. 6176 tions. YEN 1.7571 1.7615 1.766 The minister stressed CFA 0.3188 0.3288 0.3388 the need to adopt a hoWAUA 275.2285 275.9306 276.6327 listic approach towards RENMINBI 30.2483 30. 326 30.4036 RIYAL 52.2569 52. 3902 52.5235 addressing the chalKRONA 29.6848 29.7606 29.8363 lenges of transport cost SDR 275.5956 276.2987 277.0017 and connectivity. He noted that such an apCBN Exchange rate as at 22/03/2016 proach must take into
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considerations important issues such as: Cost effectiveness of shipping services, competitiveness and survival of national and regional operators. Other steps he said are, efficiency of seaports, efficiency of transit corridors/special needs of landlocked containers, availability of coastal shipping service, efficiency of multi-model transport systems, protection of shippers interest and partnership with service providers. Speaking earlier, Executive Secretary of the NSC, Hassan Bello, noted that there are two kinds of connectivity which are “outside market and intra-regional market.” Bello stressed the need for intra-regional connectivity especially with the changing global trade. This he explained, will enhance trade, investment, tourism development, narrow developing gap and facilitating people-to-people contacts.
HERE have been remarkable moments for Arco Group Plc at the 4-day 6th African Petroleum Congress and Exhibition, Cape VI that took place in Abuja, during the week. Arco was one of the Gold Sponsors of the event. The highlights of the successful outing of Arco at the Congress and Exhibition were: the visit of dignitaries to the Arco Stand at the exhibition hall; the presentation of the Group Managing Director of Arco Group, Mr. Alfred Okoigun at a strategic session during the Congress and the unveiling of the two ISO Certifications of Arco Maintenance and Engineering Limited, AMEL a subsidiary of Arco Group. The momentum started with the visit of the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo to the Arco Exhibition Stand after declaring the Congress open. He was accompanied by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu.
Oil and gas industry The Vice-President was received by the Group Managing Director of the Company, Mr. Okoigun who briefly presented to him, Arco’s advent into the oil and gas industry in Nigeria as a service rendering company to the oil majors in the upstream and downstream sectors of the industry. He informed the visitor that the one-man business he founded in 1980 has become a threesubsidiary organization today with Arco Group as the holding company and among them employing over 400 Nigerians engineers, technicians and other professionals as well as ancillary staff.
The Managing Director of Arco Integrity Solutions Limited, Mr. Pius Ajabhu who is the pioneer of the business model told the visitor that the Arco subsidiary has the largest number of radiographic crawlers as a Nigerian company. The company also pioneered the American Welding Society Training that certifies welding inspectors. He said that the Arco subsidiary is now carrying out jobs in some West African countries including Ghana, Togo and Bene Republic and is eyeing job offers in other African countries. He said, “Our subsidiary is now an international company by virtue of its proven expertise in integrity solutions.” The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources told the Vice-President during the visit that Arco Group is a company that has maintained its focus on the services it renders in the oil and gas industry over the years. Among the earliest callers at the Arco Stand was the Secretary to the Federal Government of Nigeria, Mr. Babachir David Lawal who expressed his delight that the company has recorded marvelous growth over the years. Arco GMD’s presentation on Value Addition through Local Content in the Oil and Gas Industry in Africa on day 3 at the Congress was an opportunity for him to bear his experience as a player in the industry which had spanned a period of nearly 40 years. He cited the experience of countries like Malaysia, Norway and Brazil as the early starters in the implementation of local content development policies in their nation’s oil and gas industry and expressed his views that African oil producing nations had not done well in that regard.
Confab on global oil crisis holds in Lagos By Iloaze Blessed-Odidi
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LOBAL oil crisis, labour and employment reforms in the Nigerian oil and gas industry is the thrust of a two day International conference put together by the Department of Industrial Relations and Personnel Management, university of Lagos, UNILAG, to address the global oil crisis and other challenges facing the country. The conference tagged “Global oil crisis and labour &
employment reforms in the Nigerian oil and gas industry”, which begins today, will attract stakeholders in the oil industry, government officials, politicians, academics among others. A statement by Professor Dafe Otobo, Chairman, Organising Committee, said issues to be discussed included: “Dwindling global oil prices and governance in Niger, Globalisation, oil crisis and terrorism, oil and gas Nigerian economy, Alternative energy, Environmental pollution,
Fuel subsidy, Crude oil price, Gas flaring and pipeline vandalism.” Other are; “Change mantra and employment reforms in Nigeria, Managing unemployment in a recessed economy, Trade union response to the global oil crisis, Global economic meltdown, employment generation and wealth creation in Nigeria, Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, Corruption/crude oil theft and role of unionism and trade union.”