…38km Bridge To Be Completed In Three Years Without Federal Funding- Ambode

In what is set to become a major milestone achievement in its 50 years of existence, the Lagos State Government on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to kick-start the construction of the 38km 4th Mainland Bridge, expected to bring a 14-year old dream to reality.

The Bridge, which is geared towards economic growth in the State, is expected to gulp N844billion in a Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative and would be delivered in three years.

Speaking at the signing of the MoU held at the Banquet Hall, Lagos House, Ikeja, State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, said that the need for the bridge had become imperative following the phenomenal growth of the State with a population of over 21 million people, which has in turn increased commercial activities and traffic gridlock.

“This has made it imperative for us to have a 4th Mainland Bridge that will serve as an alternative route to the Eastern axis and decongest traffic in the State.

“More importantly this bridge will provide the required transportation compliment to the rapidly growing industrial activities on the Eti-Osa – Lekki – Epe corridor of the State,” he said.

He said the proposed alignment of the Bridge will pass through Lekki, Langbasa and Baiyeiku towns along the shoreline of the Lagos Lagoon estuaries, further running through Igbogbo River Basin and crossing the Lagos Lagoon estuaries to Itamaga Area in Ikorodu.

The Governor said the alignment will also cross through the Itoikin road and the Ikorodu – Sagamu Road to connect Isawo inward Lagos Ibadan Expressway at Ojodu Berger axis.

He said the Bridge would be made up of eight interchanges to facilitate effective interconnectivity between different parts of the State.

“This structure will be a Four-lane dual carriageway with each comprising three lanes and two metres hard shoulder on each side. The bridge will be constructed to have a generous median to allow for both future carriageway expansion and light rail facility. There is no gainsaying the fact that huge benefits will be derived from this project but most importantly, make life more comfortable for Lagosians,” he said.

According to Governor Ambode, the Bridge which would be a PPP initiative is a testimony to the confidence the partners in the project have in the State Government and the Nigerian economy in general.

Expressing confidence that the project would be delivered on a Win-Win framework for all investors, the Governor said for the first time in the history of the State, the Government was embarking on the construction of a long-span bridge and expressway without Federal funding as the project is to be solely funded by the private sector.

“I am delighted that this project which has been on the drawing board for quite some time is now set to become a reality. This again, is the Continuity with improvement which we promised Lagosians.

“We have started the process with the signing of this MOU which is an expression of the commitment of major stakeholders including the government and the consortium of consultants and investors to the delivery of the project within the scheduled time frame,” the Governor said.

Governor Ambode also reassured Lagosians that his administration would remain committed to improving the State with world class transportation system as a vital component, which according to him is a key requirement for the sustenance of economic growth in the State.

The Bridge, among others would accommodate cyclists and pedestrians and feature two service areas as well as additional pedestrian crossing.

The Bridge would also accommodate three Toll Plazas which are still being tested from financial point of view and it would serve as a major boost to the actualisation of the Lekki Master Plan.

The project is to be financed by Africa Finance Corporation, Access Bank and other private investors who have already signified intention to be part of the construction, while Visible Assets Limited would be the coordinating firm.

In his remarks, Executive Chairman of Visible Assets Limited, Mr. Idowu Iluyomade, said the project would go a long way to reduce traffic gridlock in the State and would provide job opportunities for Lagosians.

He said aside improving the quality of life of the people, the Bridge would also be a big asset that would be handed to the Lagos State Government at the end of the concession, assuring that it would be delivered on schedule.

Earlier, Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Engr. Ganiyu Johnson said that the Bridge when completed would utilise state-of-the-art tolling system that will ensure free flow of traffic.

Source: http://www.lagosstate.gov.ng/2016/05/25/lagos-signs-n844bn-mou-on-4th-mainland-bridge/

Other related source: http://thenationonlineng.net/lagos-investors-sign-n844bn-mou-4th-mainland-bridge/

Prepaid meter is in the interest of the masses. It enables you to have value for your money.

With disco estimated bill in Surulere, I used to pay between N21k-24k every month whether there is light or no light. With prepaid meter, I now pay average of N5K per month, which has even reduced further down due to erratic supply nowadays.

Provision of prepaid meters is a step in the right direction.

How do you manage the video storage?

Can the storage facility store video content for up to 3 years without any need for deletion?

bigtt76:
Of what benefit is this to the Glo subscribers in those areas covered?

Under the Partner Market agreement, Vodafone and Globacom will work together to boost significantly the experience for consumer and business customers, utilising a wide range of their world-beating mobile, voice and data products and unrivalled global experience.

BRIEF-Vodafone announces non-equity partnership agreement with Globacom

Vodafone Group Plc

* Vodafone and Globacom Limited today jointly announced a new, non-equity partnership agreement that covers Nigeria and Republic of Benin.

* Vodafone and Globacom will work together to boost significantly experience for consumer and business customers Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:

Source: http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/11/06/idINFWN13106120151106




VODAFONE AND GLOBACOM LIMITED ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT

Vodafone and Globacom Limited today jointly announced a new, non-equity partnership agreement that covers Nigeria and the Republic of Benin.

Under the Partner Market agreement, Vodafone and Globacom will work together to boost significantly the experience for consumer and business customers, utilising a wide range of their world-beating mobile, voice and data products and unrivalled global experience.

Vodafone Partner Markets Chief Executive Stefano Gastaut said: “We are delighted to welcome Globacom to the Vodafone Partner Markets community which now spans 57 countries across six continents. This strategic partnership with Globacom for Nigeria and the Republic of Benin will help deliver enhanced roaming benefits for Globacom’s consumer and multinational corporate customers, including countries where we have an ultra-fast 4G network. Vodafone will gain from Globacom’s expertise and deep understanding of African markets.”

Globacom’s Group Executive Director, Mrs. Bella Disu, said: “This partnership is unique and far-reaching, giving corporate and individual subscribers on the Globacom network in Nigeria and the Republic of Benin an edge, particularly in voice and data services. The partnership is in line with Globacom’s tradition of partnering with global leaders to avail consumers of the best telecommunications services.”

Source: http://www.gloworld.com/ng/latest-news/vodafone-and-globacom-limited-announce-partnership-agreement/

NCC Fines MTN Nigeria N1.04trn For SIM Deactivation Default

By Chima Akwaja
— Oct 26, 2015 4:14 am

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has issued a landmark fine of N1.04 trillion ($5.2bn) against MTN Nigeria, the largest mobile network operator in the country for failing to disconnect subscribers with unregistered and incomplete subscriber identification modules (SIM) cards within the stipulated time.

The fine which is the largest in the history of telecom infringements may redefine the relationships between telecommunications operators and the regulator. Technology Times which broke the story last night said NCC fined MTN Nigeria “for allegedly undermining efforts by the Nigerian government to tackle security challenges and the war on terror and allied crimes, as the telecoms operator has allegedly refused to deactivate unregistered mobile phone lines on its network”.

A top official of MTN Nigeria who is not authorised to speak on the matter however confirmed to LEADERSHIP that NCC truly issued the fine against MTN Nigeria. The official said “This fine is unprecedented in the history of Nigeria. The amount is even bigger than the entire budget of the Federal Government of Nigeria. It is enough to make the operator close its operations in the country.”

Another top telecom official in the industry also questioned the motive behind this gargantuan fine said the highest fine ever fined an operator in the country is N200 million. Last Thursday, MTN Group had announced that its Nigerian operation lost 5.1 million subscriber lines in the month of August to the deactivation of incomplete SIM registrations ordered by NCC. This has led to MTN cutting its full-year forecast for subscriber numbers.

Nik Kershaw, MTN Group spokesman confirmed that MTN Nigeria is also facing “ongoing regulatory restrictions” related to its market-leading position in Africa’s most populous country. About 3.4 million of the customers have been reconnected, the company said.

While the loss of Nigerian customers is a short-term setback, “it does point to a tough regulatory environment,” Steve Minnaar, a money-manager at Cape Town-based Abax Investment, said by phone according to agency reports. “They have been struggling with the regulator for many years in the Nigerian environment.”

Efforts to reach Mr. Tony Ojobo, director of Public Affairs NCC failed as calls to his phone line were not picked. LEADERSHIP learnt that MTN Nigeria will issue an official statement on the matter today (Monday).

In August, MTN, Airtel, Glo and Etisalat, the four leading mobile operators in the country took their subscribers by surprise deactivating all lines with unregistered or improperly registered mobile subscriber data on their networks. This has resulted in a deluge of crowds at the various services centres of the operators round the country.

Mr. Idehen Efosa, head of enforcement and monitory department of Nigerian Communications Commssions (NCC), the nation’s telecom regulator informed LEADERSHIP that out of the 37.79 million lines, Etisalat had 19.46 million improperly registered lines followed by MTN with 18.6 million lines. Airtel has 7.4 million lines while Glo has 2.33 million lines only.

The order to deactivate the lines followed a meeting between Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Department of State Service (DSS), the network operators and the NCC to examine the security threats posed by unregistered SIMs. Thereafter, the NCC handed down a seven day ultimatum starting from August 4, 2015 to GSM operators to deactivate unregistered subscriber identification modules (SIMs) with invalidity status.

Source: http://leadership.ng/news/469815/ncc-fines-mtn-nigeria-n1-04trn-for-sim-deactivation-default

Final answer: 1,998,295.84 (at the end of year 20 or 240 months)


Month 240
Principal 1,978,510.73
Interest 19,785.11
Compound Savings 1,998,295.84

NIGERIA’S economy, which is going through a turbulent period from reduction in oil income, is set to further unravel. Why? The European Union has just suspended some agricultural food exports from Nigeria. The food items banned from Europe till June 2016 are beans, sesame seeds, melon seeds, dried fish and meat, peanut chips and palm oil. This is a setback for a nation that desperately needs to expand its export basket to boost domestic agricultural activities and create jobs.

According to the European Food Safety Authority, the rejected beans were found to contain between 0.03mg per kilogramme to 4.6mg/kg of dichlorvos pesticide, when the acceptable maximum residue limit is 0.01mg/kg. The embargo is a reflection of our inability to adhere to global standards, and this has come to haunt us at the international level again. Overturning the ban requires a firm approach to enforcing standards at all times.

But the ban is not a bolt from the blue. For some time, the EU has been warning Nigeria that the items constitute danger to human health because they “contain a high level of unauthorised pesticide.” The pesticide is applied when the products are being prepared for export. The EU said it had issued 50 notifications to Nigerian beans exporters since January 2013. It is baffling that the Nigerian authorities didn’t take any significant steps to reverse the situation. Likewise, the United Kingdom also issued 13 border rejection alerts to Nigerian beans exporters between January and June 2015. Our lax system will continue to hamper the economy from appropriating the benefits derivable from a revived export programme.

It confounds many that this problem has been with us for some time and nothing strategic has been done to deal with the situation. In 2013 for instance, 24 commodities of Nigerian origin exported to the UK were rejected, while the figure climbed to 42 food products in 2014. Some of the items were said to have been contaminated by aflatoxins, making them unfit for consumption.

The excuse by Paul Orhii, the Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control that exporters caused the problem by not complying with regulatory requirements for semi-processed and processed commodities is untenable. NAFDAC has not conducted its regulatory oversight properly and needs to put stringent measures in place to monitor our products and guarantee them as safe for export before the next EU review in 2016. The Ministry of Agriculture did not pay sufficient attention to the problem either.

The ban on Nigerian foods provokes some questions. First, how do we preserve the foods that we eat locally? Second, how safe are the foods we import into the country? With our predilection for manipulating the system, Nigerian consumers might be susceptible to poisonous food imported from overseas. Take for example, the imported semi-processed poultry products and meat: several studies conducted by researchers and public agencies in markets in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt are revealing. A study by Okiomah Abu, a nutritional enzymologist, says “poultry products imported into the country contain toxic and heavy metals that can worsen the occurrence of food-borne diseases” because of the combination of feeds the animals eat. Ayoola Oduntan, the President of the Poultry Association of Nigeria, said, “It has been discovered that smuggled poultry products contain (a) high level of bacteria. Also, toxic chemicals and solvents are used in preserving them so that their owners can get them into the country to be sold at prices cheaper than we (PAN members) are selling.”

We should be wary. In March 2014, Akinwunmi Adesina, the then Minister of Agriculture, had to personally order the destruction of a large consignment of contaminated imported frozen fish stored in a warehouse operated by Indians in Lagos. In a 2015 report, the World Health Organisation said, “Food contaminants, such as harmful parasites, bacteria, viruses, prions, chemical or radioactive substances, cause more than 200 diseases – ranging from infectious diseases to cancers.” The global health body added that unsafe food is linked to the death of about 2 million people annually.

However, a report in this newspaper said the Nigerian Customs Service had recently started enforcing the ban on imported poultry products, which are massively smuggled into the country. But government at the three tiers should also make policies to boost poultry and fish farming in the country to meet local demand and for export.

As a way forward, we could follow the standard practice in other climes like India, the UK, China and the United States, which operate effective food safety and regulatory agencies that monitor products stringently. US authorities are still battling China, South Korea, Mexico and South Africa to review a ban placed on American poultry and egg imports over the avian flu scare that broke out in December 2014. Last month, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India ordered Nestlé, the Swiss multinational, to withdraw its instant noodles from the market over safety concerns.

The Ministry of Health, NAFDAC, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria and the newly inaugurated National Food Safety Management Committee should see the EU ban as a wake-up call to sanitise food imported into Nigeria, and those being consumed at home.

The EU action suggests that our unfavourable balance of trade position with our international partners will worsen as we cannot export more agricultural goods. The first quarter figures (2015) released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that crude oil and gas accounted for 89.2 per cent of our total export of N3.23 trillion with other exports constituting only 10.8 per cent. The nation imported goods and services worth N1.64 trillion within the same period. We should reverse this dependency on imports and harness our natural resources to become self-reliant in food production.

(Source: http://www.punchng.com/editorials/eu-ban-on-nigerian-food-exports/)

The articles describes:

Banana plantation establishment
Plantation management
Pests
Diseases
Harvesting and post harvest handling
Economics of Banana
Marketing

More details available from the source.
(Source: http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADJ525.pdf)

Banana Cultivation Guide provides valuable information that centers on the following:

01. Agro Climate & Soil
02. Varieties
03. Planting
04. Maintenance
05. Water Management
06. Intercrop
07. Special Operations
08. Pest and Disease Management
09. Harvesting
10. Storage
11. Post Harvest Handling

More details are available from the source below:
Source: http://www.bananaplanters.com/site/banana-cultivation-guide/

According to the article published by Punch, Federal Government had released a total of N234bn for 307 agricultural projects across the country (4th paragraph)

The report also revealed that agricultural credit to farmers in the month of July 2014 declined by 22.3 per cent when compared to the level in the preceding month (8th paragraph)

Twenty Deposit Money Banks participated in disbursing the funds. UBA, Zenith Bank and First Bank of Nigeria are the first three banks with the highest disbursements.

The banks, according to the CBN, disbursed a total of N41.8bn, N38.1bn and N26.8bn for 35, 24 and 68 projects, respectively.

The apex bank said, “At the end of July 2014, the total amount released by the CBN under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme to the participating banks for disbursement stood at N234.3bn for 307 projects/promoters.”

It stated that a total of N1.144bn was guaranteed to 6,652 farmers under the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme in July 2014. (9th to 12th paragraph)

Source: http://www.punchng.com/business/non-oil-export-revenue-drops-by-34/

From the report above, and the feedback from people not captured in the loan facility, it can be deduced that either the sector is too grossly underfunded or the funds released is being mismanaged.

If about 7,000 people can be reached in July alone with 1.144bn, it implies ave. of 84,000 farmers might be reached in the year. Also, the funds made available to each of the farmer can also be averaged at N160k (1.144bn/7000) per farmer.

N234bn ($1.5bn) may be too small to meet the demand in the Agric sector.

A basic truth we all understand is that government revenue has been grossly impacted by the price drop in crude oil which can also threaten availability of more funds in the new year.

Other survival strategies/means need to be adopted to surmount these challenges e.g. use of cost effective and latest technologies; cluster agriculture, realistic and prudent financial structures, angel investors, etc