₦airaland Forum

The World Bankhas put the unemployment rate in Nigeria at 22 per cent while the youth unemployment rate is 38 per cent.

The Team Leader and representative of World Bank Country representative, Professor Foluso Okunmadewa, made the disclosure at the Youth Employment and Social Support Operation (YESSO) organised by Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P), in Abuja.

Decrying the high percentage of youth unemployment, he said the country should do something about this as Nigeria’s youth hold the key to achieving Vision 20:2020, adding that 15 to 35-year olds account for close to 60 per cent of Nigeria’s population.

Noting that this figure is about 30 per cent of the workforce of Nigeria’s population, he added that approximately four million Nigerians entered into the labour market annually.

Apart from unemployment, he also noted that Nigeria had low education outcomes with considerable dropout rate of between 12 per cent 15 per cent despite Universal Basic Education (UBEC).

Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, on Tuesday told a visiting delegation of French businessmen led by Minister of Foreign Trade for France, Mrs. Nicole Bricq of his government's resolve to combat the housing problems Lagosians experience.

Outlining his plans to the French delegation , Gov. Fashola said “not less than 1, 200 high-rise buildings will be erected in the ongoing Eko Atlantic City.”

”That is the future that we seek for Lagos state. It will be a place that will be bursting with activities,” he added.

Also, during the courtesy visit Fashola said that the reclaiming of the 10, 000, 000 square meters, to build the Eko Atlantic City, was a battle between man and nature. It will be recalled that the state has reclaimed 50 percent of the land required for the construction of the city. The city is expected to provide accommodation for 250, 000 people and become the workplace for a further 150,000.

According to him, The governor said “The protection work hasn’t reached its preferred destination. As we progress, we will protect our shoreline. We see clear evidence that the success of the technology where it has been restored.”

He however said that the state government has commenced the payment of compensation to the owners of the land acquired for the construction of the 16, 000 hectare Lekki Free Trade Zone project.

While speaking, France Minister of Foreign Trade for France, Mrs. Nicole Bricq, expressed her country’s readiness to strengthen the level of bilateral trade and agreement with the Lagos State government.

A Nigerian living in Spain has been arrested at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos with 6.49 kilogrammes of cocaine, Nigeria’s anti-drug trafficking agency said on Monday.

“Attempt by a Nigerian living in Madrid, Spain, to earn N3.3 million (by) smuggling 6.490kg of high-grade Brazilian cocaine has been nipped in the bud by anti-narcotic officials,” said Mitchell Ofoyeju, spokesperson for the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA.


Ofoyeju said the arrest of 32 year-old Francis Bawaba and the seizure of the drug were made at the weekend by NDLEA officers at the Murtala Muhammed international airport in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.

The 364 wraps of cocaine, valued at N72 million, were prepared for ingestion and hidden inside his hand luggage, Ofoyeju said.

“Officials detected the drug during the inward screening of passengers on an Etihad flight.

NDLEA Commander at the Lagos Airport, Mr. Hamza Umar was quoted as saying: “Our investigation has revealed that the suspect took off from Malpensa, Milan and collected the drug while on transit at Abudabi. He had given us very useful information that we are already working on.”

NDLEA quoted the suspect as saying that his concern was how his pregnant wife and two children could cope in his absence.

“This is my first time of smuggling drugs and I was lured with an offer of N3.3 million. I used to work in construction sites in Madrid to earn a living but it has been difficult securing a job since the global economic melt-down,” NDLEA quoted the suspect as saying.

Source: http://naijalog.com/spain-based-nigerian-drug-courier-arrested/

Controversy surrounding the management of the Lekki-Epe Expressway took a new turn on Tuesday as the Lagos State Government announced the termination of its concession agreement with the Lekki Concession Company. Already, the state House of Assembly has approved a supplementary budget of N7.5bn to enable the government to fund the acquisition of the existing concession right of the expressway.

The LCC was mandated under a 30-year Build, Operate and Transfer agreement to upgrade, expand and maintain the about 50-kilometre road (Phase I), and construct another 20km of coastal road (Phase II) along the Lekki corridor. But the firm and the state government came under severe attacks when they introduced what the residents considered as high tolls on the road in 2011 after significant progress was made in the first phase.

The decision of the state government to terminate the concession agreement, it was learnt, followed the lawmakers’ approval of the supplementary budget, which gave it the right to acquire the existing concession rights and toll revenue benefits held by the concessionaire.

Governor Babatunde Fashola had in a supplementary budget proposal letter to the state House of Assembly dated August 19, 2013, requested it to amend this year’s budget owing to unforeseen developments in terms of the state’s internally generated revenue.

Fashola had said, “The proposal for further amendment is largely predicated on the need to fund the acquisition of the existing concession, right and toll revenue benefit held by the Lekki Concession Company, the concessionaire for the Eti-Osa-Lekki-Epe Expressway.

This will effectively accelerate the transfer of ownership of the road to the state, leaving the state with wider policy options with regards to that important infrastructure. “In order to address these issues, we have proposed a two-prong approach namely: re-ordering some expenditure provisions and also directing supplementation of the year 2013 budget. This will entail an increase in the overall budget size by N7.5bn. This is against the background of a projected shortfall of N22.5bn in budgeted internally generated revenues, which now need to be covered by the additional borrowings.”

The Assembly gave its approval to the request on Tuesday in a proposal read on the floor by the Clerk, Mr. Ganiyu Abiru. The commissioners for Budget and Economic Planning, Mr. Ben Akabueze; Finance, Mr. Ayo Gbeleyi; and Works and Infrastructure, Mr. Obafemi Hamzat, were at the House to defend the proposal.

Following the latest amendment, the revised budget has thus increased from N499.6bn to N507.105bn. Users of the expanded road have had to part with different amounts, depending on their class of vehicles. The amounts rage from N50 for motorcycles to N120 for saloon cars and tricycles; N150 for Sports Utility Vehicles, minibuses and pick-up trucks; N80 for commercial mini-buses; and N250 and N350 for light trucks and heavy trucks, and buses with two or more heavy axles, respectively.

Fees are currently being collected at the first toll point called the Admiralty Plaza. The Conservation Plaza was built about 10km away from the first tolling point bewteeen the Chevron Drive and Oluwanisola Estate, but the collection of tolls has not started.

A human rights lawyer, Mr. Ebun Olu-Adegboruwa, took the matter to court to stop the LCC and the state government from enforcing the toll collection until the 10km alternative route was constructed for those that might not use the road. Calls and text messages to the mobile phone number of the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Lateef Ibirogba, were ignored; while the Special Adviser on Media to the Governor, Mr. Hakeem Bello, said he had yet to get the details and promised to call back when he did, but never got back.

Calls put through to officials of LCC were unanswered, while text messages sent to them were not responded to.

samfibby: spectranet uses wimax, 4g technology. Doubt if it would work with 3g devices as they use different spectral frequencies.

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