₦airaland Forum

First, It was the President (an unbiased Ijaw man)who alerted that Anambra is the "Brain Box" of Nigeria
http://www..com/index.php?topic=32437.0

The Statistician General of the Federation, Dr. Yemi Kale ( a Yoruba) further rebuffed El-Rufai by stating rather that Anambra is - as a matter of fact one of the leading states in terms of employment. This was backed by another high ranking Federal Government Official, Minister & Chairman of National Planning Commission in the person of Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman (an Hausa)
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/el-rufai-was-wrong-on-anambra-says-fg/119220/

Today,as if it is now a competition, another unbiased Yoruba man - The Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr Olusegun Aganga, revealed that Anambra state holds the key to industrial revolution in Nigeria and has the highest number of small and medium scale enterprises
http://odili.net/news/source/2012/jul/18/607.html

https://serving.thisdaylive.com/0bef99d6-acf5-4e2c-9779-8fa02ba3fcd4/assets/2401F04.Rochas-Okorocha.jpg?maxwidth=400&maxheight=540

Governor Rochas Okorocha


By Amby Uneze in Owerri

The Imo State Government and the European Union (EU) have entered into partnership to execute 200 micro projects in different communities of the state under the MPP9 community projects involving the nine Niger Delta states.
The disclosure was made by the EU Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Dr. David Macre, when he paid a recent courtesy visit to the state governor, Mr. Rochas Okorocha, in government house, Owerri.

Macre explained that 100 projects have been launched in the first phase while agreement has been reached to execute another round of 100 projects in the second phase. The ambassador further explained that the choice of the projects was determined by the priority of the communities with overriding interest on education, health and infrastructural development.

He, however, lauded the development strides of government and promised to collaborate effectively with the state in its development.

The governor, in his reaction, expressed the state government’s readiness to partner the EU to ensure the completion of the projects. He also canvassed a sustainable synergy between the state government and EU towards promoting education as the cardinal programme of his administration.

by Layi Adeloye


Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Musa Muhammed Sada

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The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Musa Muhammed Sada, has said that a new era await mining and steel production in the country will soon experience a lift in activities, going by policy input and restructuring being undertaken by the ministry in the two divisions.

According to him, the government is ready to offer necessary support to operating firms in the steel sector, just as mining is being made to benefit all segments involved in the mining process.

The minister stated this when he visited the new integrated steel mill belonging to Western Metal Products Limited, situated at Magboro, Ogun State. Western Metal Products Company Limited on Friday began a test run of its new multi-billion naira integrated steel mill.

The minister said while the government would continue to initiate new policies and schemes to encourage investor participation in mining activities, informal mining sector would continue to be taken care of. Besides, he said plans were in the offing to ensure that Ajaokuta Steel Company, the backbone of steel rolling mills in the country, got required attention in terms of the appointment of the right management.

He said the government made a peculiar mistake in its past efforts to privatise the Ajaokuta Steel Complex by putting emphasis on possession of money as the most important consideration in its choice of management team.

He said, “Past efforts did not achieve the desired results because money was put ahead of other considerations in the selection of management team. In such a process, three things are important: money, requisite management skill and adequate understanding and belief in the environment.

“In past attempts at privatisation, capital was given the most important place. After all the ongoing scuffles over with the immediate past management have been settled, the Federal Government has decided to be careful by emphasising possession of the right management skills and in-depth understanding of the environment and belief in its peculiarity as key conditions for selecting a new management for Ajaokuta Steel Company.”

The minister said his visit to the new WEMPCO integrated steel mill, ahead of the formal inauguration of the new facility, was informed by the importance the government attached to the position of steel in its economic transformation efforts. He said a quick resolution of all the problems associated with the non effective working of Ajaokuta Steel Company would have multiplier effects on the operations of steel rolling mills and other sectors of the economy.

Besides, he said under the new management of Ajaokuta Steel Company, “the government will not step back; it will be involved in a supervisory role.”

The Group Managing Director, WEMPCO, Mr. Lewis Tung, while conducting the minister round the sprawling facility, said steel remained the basic metal-backbone of all industries, just as it happens in advanced countries of the world.

He said the new integrated steel facility had production capacity of 700,000 metric tonnes and a production machinery of five-stand Tandem Mill, which is the first of its kind in Africa.

He described the factory as one set to produce cold roll steel sheet of up to 0.15mm in thickness and coils of the same dimension and above.

Tung listed the facilities at the plant to include a 52-megawatt generator for power supply; a water treatment and recycling plant; an acid generating plant; an air purifier and an annealing line.

He listed the benefits from the steel companies to include a boost in economic activities of the immediate communities, local, state and the country; increase in downstream economic activities, general empowerment and job creation for artisans, like technicians, drivers, auto technicians and fabricators; and training and technology transfer.

geez*:
Yawns! The state still has a bigger economy that any state in Igboland and is also as big in landmass as the whole of Igboland

Telecommunications operators in Nigeria could face additional fines imposed by Nigerian authorities for poor customer service ratings.



According to the Information and Communications Technology Ministry, operators are not meeting the minimum standards established in the country. Last month the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) banned operators from issuing new promotions or lotteries.

The NCC will lift the ban once the telecom operators’ customer service ratings improve. However, some of the operators in the country simply ignored the NCC’s ban and continued offering promotions to their customers.

“The Commission has, in recent times been inundated with several complaints from consumers and Industry Stakeholders against the various promotions offered by telecommunications operators,” said Tony Ojobo, NCC Director of Public Affairs.

The NCC confirmed that it has been “consistent with its processes” and has “evaluated the complaints received, especially against the backdrop of sustaining the integrity of the networks, general interest of the consumers, the socio-economic impact of these promotions on operators and other relevant stakeholders.”

Operators were previously fined NGN 1.7 billion (US$ 267 million) in May this year for bad service quality.

ICT Minister Omobola Johnson said Nigerian government is working together with the operators in question so as to avoid any future fines, especially in the next six months.

“This ban is with immediate effect and shall continue to remain in force until such a time as may be determined by the Commission,” said the NCC and identified Globacom, MTN, Intercellular, Visafone Comms, Etisalat, Airtel Networks and Multilinks Telecoms as the guilty parties.

According to Diezani, “We cannot eat our cakes and have it. We cannot keep calling out for transparency and accountability and pointing at corruption if we are not prepared to bear some of the hardship that will obviously come when you are trying to clean up a sector.”

The minister further went on to attribute the commodity’s scarcity to the present administration’s policy of making subsidy verifications before payments are made disclosing that already, the move had started to pay off.

“The verifications were being done; payments could not be made by Finance and I think they have said that severally, but the verifications have been done; payments are now being made and like I said the queues have actually begun to go down,” she said.