₦airaland Forum

RealAAdekunjo:
This should be a fake news. This doesn't, in any way, resemble Gbajabiamila's signature. We mustn't allow ourselves to be swayed or misled by perpetrators of these fake news.

If there's an appropriate way of indicating them, with evidences, Sahara Reporters should come forward. If not, SR should be sued for defamation. Enough of this rushing to press with fake news. It's not helping us as a nation.

iwaeda:
How will Gbaja not be able to build edifices around Surulere, Unilag and Lagos. They will tell the poor to tighten their belts, while they live frivolously.

seunmsg:
The president’s approval is in order. The approval did not state that she should violate extant regulations in the process of paying for the verification. There is no paragraph in the memo stating that she should pay money into the personal account of project accountant.

The seven major oil marketers in Nigeria have registered with the Dangote Petroleum Refinery for the lifting and distribution of refined petroleum products produced by the $20bn plant.

Dealers under the aegis of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria confirmed on Sunday that with the registration, they would commence the distribution of fuel produced from the facility once the commercial terms are sorted.

This came as the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria also revealed that they would meet with the management of the Dangote refinery this week to discuss terms of product loading.

Similarly, the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria stated that PETROAN had been engaging the management of the multi-billion dollar refinery for the supply of products from the facility.


As IPMAN and PETROAN engage the refinery, major marketers who are members of MOMAN have already registered with the plant and are set to start buying products.

The seven major marketers include 11 Plc, Conoil Plc, Ardova Plc, MRS Oil Nigeria Plc, OVH Energy Marketing Limited, Total Nigeria Plc and NNPC Retail.

On Friday, the Dangote Petroleum Refinery announced the commencement of production of Automotive Gas Oil, also known as diesel, and JetA1 or aviation fuel.


The President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, had in a statement issued by the firm, thanked President Bola Tinubu for his support, encouragement, and thoughtful advice towards the actualisation of the project.

He also thanked the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, and Nigerians for their support and belief in the historic project.

“We have started the production of diesel and aviation fuel, and the products will be in the market within this month once we receive regulatory approvals. This is a big day for Nigeria. We are delighted to have reached this significant milestone.

“This is an important achievement for our country as it demonstrates our ability to develop and deliver large capital projects. This is a game changer for our country, and I am very fulfilled with the actualisation of this project,” Dangote stated.

The refinery, located in Lagos, has so far received six million barrels of crude oil at its two SPMs located 25km from the shore. The first crude delivery was done on December 12, 2023, and the 6th cargo was delivered on January 8, 2024.

The refinery can load 2,900 trucks a day at its truck-loading gantries. The products from the refinery will conform to Euro V specifications, according to the firm.

“The refinery design complies with the World Bank, US EPA, European emission norms, and Department of Petroleum Resources emission/effluent norms, employing state-of-the-art technology,” the company stated.


The Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemical Project, a subsidiary of Dangote Industries Limited, is a 650,000 barrels per day crude oil refinery, located in Dangote Industries Free Zone, Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria.

The Dangote Petroleum Refinery is an industrial plant that transforms crude oil into various usable petroleum products such as diesel, gasoline, jet fuel, and kerosene.

Dangote Petroleum Refinery with a capacity to refine 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day covers an area of approximately 2,635 hectares in the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos.

MOMAN ready

When contacted and asked whether major oil marketers would be involved in the lifting of refined products from the Dangote refinery, or whether the facility would distribute the fuel itself, the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer, MOMAN, Clement Isong, replied, “I confirm that we (major marketers) have met with him (Dangote).

According to Isong, all MOMAN members have registered with Dangote Petroleum Refinery to become marketers of its products. He told The PUNCH that MOMAN members would have the product in their stations the moment it was available for sale.

“We have all registered with Dangote so that we call buy and sell. All my members are registered with Dangote. Whenever the product is ready and starts coming out, you will see it in our filling stations,” he said.


I confirm that my members have registered with them. We were waiting for the production to start and now it has started and they will start discussing the commercial terms. So yes, major marketers and other players will buy for the market. The important thing was the registration.

“So now the commercial terms will be agreed with each marketer and then they will buy from them. There are several ways you can buy from them. They have loading ranks, over 90, so you can take your truck to go and pick. You can also use vessels to pick. Those are the two ways you pick products.”

Asked to state how soon marketers would start picking products from the plant, Isong said, “I don’t know, but I know we started registration last year. So as soon as they say they are ready we will pick the products. Also as soon as the commercial terms are set, my members will pick.”

Former President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the Dangote refinery in May 2023. The facility missed its crude oil refining target a number of times due to the non-supply of crude to the plant by oil producers.

It, however, started receiving crude oil batches of one million barrels each in December 2023 and got the 6th batch of one million barrels of crude this month. Officials at the plant had explained that the refinery required six million barrels of crude to commence production.

Meanwhile, the MOMAN CEO expressed excitement about the coming onstream of the refinery but stated that he could not tell what the pricing policy of the refinery would be.

“It should be the market price because you need to recover your cost, and capital, and repay your loans. I don’t know what the market price will be, but I know that with my international experience in the economics of petroleum, nobody does this business to make a loss,” he stated.

The prices of diesel and aviation fuel are fully deregulated commodities, unlike that of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, which has been a subject of debate on whether it is being subsidised or not.

Meanwhile, the major marketers CEO further explained that the cost of crude oil would play a major role in determining the cost of fuel from Dangote refinery.

He said, “We expect the price of products to be what is called market price. Remember he has built the refinery at $19bn. He has to refund his loan. He has to pay his contractors. He has to pay the owners of capital.

“I believe he will sell the product at a price that will enable him to recover his costs, both capital and operational costs, and then make a profit. I don’t expect the price to be much different from the market price today.

“You know that crude oil is also priced in dollars, so what’s the difference? The price of crude oil is the same internationally, even if you buy locally. Why will you buy below the cost, unless you want to go back to subsidising. Crude oil is very expensive to produce. A lot of that oil is offshore.

“I’ve heard some people say there will be savings in freight, that might be true. But that is a very small part of the cost. The major part of the cost is the raw material, which is the crude oil; even the refining cost is quite small. I don’t expect a significant drop in price, definitely not N400, that’s very unlikely, in my opinion.”

The President of IPMAN, Abubakar Maigandi, told one of our correspondents that the association would meet the management of Dangote refinery this week to discuss modalities around the loading of products.



He also stated that independent marketers would not be able to state the project cost of refined petroleum products now, until the commencement of loading.

“It is when we start loading that he can give us the price and then we will know how much to sell,” Maigandi stated.

Asked to state when IPMAN members would start loading, he replied, “We are going to hold a meeting with him this week. No date has been fixed yet for the appointment, but the meeting is to be held this week.”

When questioned further to tell the amount of reprieve Nigerians should expect in firms of the cost of refined products, the IPMAN president said, “We can’t say that yet and wouldn’t want to estimate. So it is after our meeting that we can now tell the direction, especially when we start loading products. However, there will be changes.

“Immediately he starts releasing products, we are assured of the availability of products and there will be no more scarcity, provided that he is producing. Also, it will create employment opportunities.”

Price reduction imminent

On his part, the President of PETROAN, Billy Gillis-Harry, said the cost of refined products would drop marginally, but noted that it would be tough to give a specific amount now.

On how much reduction in the cost of diesel and aviation fuel should Nigerians expect once the products start hitting the market, he said, “It is difficult to give an exact figure because so many variables are at play.

“However, the fact that the crude oil that is being used is the one for domestic consumption, takes away the cost of freight and insurance from the total cost. So if that has been removed, there is a likelihood that prices will be impacted positively to the benefit of Nigerians.

“But what exactly will be the price is to be awaited and worked out because, for instance, we don’t know how much he received the crude oil, whether it is in naira or dollar, and those are business information that sometimes is difficult to release.

“However, regardless of whatever the situation is, we should still expect a reprieve, some advantages should come to us. So that is my thinking.”

The PETROAN president faulted the pricing templates that were being released some years back for petroleum products, stressing that the computations were not realistic.

“We kept writing and talking against it. So, of course, when it stopped we were not surprised, because you cannot just do arm-chair projections on these things. There must be empirical values and these values vary day to day, hour to hour, and minute to minute.

“So you can’t just wake up and say this is the price unless you are speculating. And if you are speculating, then you cannot give us a price band. Therefore that information is actually business secrets if a company wishes to post it,” he stated.


Gillis-Harry also stated that PETROAN had been meeting with the management of the Dangote refinery concerning the supply and distribution of products from the plant.

PETROAN meeting Dangote

“PETROAN has been interfacing with the Dangote refinery for a long time. So we hope that with the production coming in, PETROAN will also speed up and advance discussion on how our members can benefit and how Nigerians can be served better and efficiently.

“We’ve been having discussions with them, because, at the end of the day, Dangote cannot be the one producing and also selling at the retail outlets. We know that in previous times such tendencies were not too far-fetched, but we hope that in this dispensation everybody will do their part,” he stated.

Gillis-Harry noted that the coming onstream of the Dangote refinery means that “the sleeping giant is gradually waking up, and Dangote has fired the opening shot that refining can happen in-country. So it is a thing for us to be glad about. Next is the Port Harcourt refinery

“Nigeria stopped refining crude since the regime of former President Olusegun Obasanjo when we were refining at a minimal capacity. And before he finished his tenure as President, the refining of crude in Nigeria had ground to a halt. So it is a big plus for us that Dangote refinery has started production.”

Also speaking on the coming onstream of the facility, a former President, Association of National Accountants of Nigeria, Dr Sam Nzekwe, expressed excitement about the development and said the cost of refined products should drop.


“The commencement of production at Dangote refinery is a good development but we await to see what is going to be the prices of products from the facility. We believe that with Dangote refinery, fuel will be cheaper because the cost of logistics in importing fuel will be removed.

“The situation where someone will come to Nigeria to get crude oil, take it abroad, refine it, and bring it back to us as fuel will be gone. So the cost of logistics will be factored into the cost of these refined products. But with the Dangote refinery, I know that that cost will be removed and fuel prices will be reduced.

“This may not be significant, but at least we should see a marginal reduction from the price we pay for fuel now. This will also encourage the NNPC to deliver its refineries and the government should license more players to refine crude. How can you be exporting crude and importing fuel? It is not sensible,” Nzekwe stated.

A national ex-officio of IPMAN, Surajudeen Bada, also expressed joy over the commencement of production at the Dangote refinery and said he was hopeful that the expectations of Nigerians would be met.

“We hope it will be able to meet the expectations of Nigerians because a lot of Nigerians have expected so much from Dangote in the last year. Now that it is coming up, we hope that it will reduce the current hardship,” he stated.

When told that Nigerians were expecting a reduction in the price of fuel, Bada said, “I know people are concerned about the price, but if the product is available everywhere and accessible to marketers, competition will set in.

“When we compete among ourselves, we will have to reduce our (profit) margin. Already we have a fixed margin that we should benefit as marketers. But we will be ready to forgo N1, N2 from our margin, and anything we forgo is for the benefit of the masses.”


On his part, Prof. Ndubuisi Ekekwe, said, “Congratulations to team Dangote refinery. Everything is easy until one is asked to do it. From industry to industry, Dangote has continued to serve his nation and his continent.

“In five years, someone here will say ‘the refinery sector was given to Dangote’, forgetting how it was before Aliko decided to pay attention. And as they continue to talk, who knows, you could pick the power sector, and they will forget how Nigeria has been generating darkness for ages.

“Aliko Dangote we salute because nations rise when great entrepreneurs emerge, not when ‘siddon-look’ analysts bark. Congrats that the refinery is up and running. We want more wins!”

Efforts to speak with the Dangote Group have been unsuccessful since Saturday. The Group Director of Corporate Communication, Anthony Chiejina, had earlier promised to get back to one of our correspondents on Saturday, but he did not do so.

Calls and messages to him on Sunday were not answered nor replied to.

inoki247:
Lol all this our Senator are analog Senators no wonder they jus go to the chamber nd can't add any value to the system.....


What happens to using 2FA...

And the one transferring money too let me not say they're dumb even though they're.....

freeborn02:
You just copied like a fooool without editing. You even copied contents not related to the news

The Federal Government, on Thursday, said it settled for N800 to dollar exchange rate in the 2024 Appropriation Act after considering the average performance of the naira.

It said it avoided basing the foreign exchange benchmark in the 2024 budget on a spot rate, to avoid eventualities and uncertainties.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu, who spoke with State House correspondents explained that the FG had earlier chosen the projected exchange rate of N750 to the dollar in the 2024 budget which the National Assembly raised to N800 to the dollar,

Bagudu said, “For budgeting purposes, you don’t use the spot rate of anything. Oil prices can go to 120 today, maybe there is a shortage, or maybe there is a collision between two ships that will block a channel.



“It would be foolish to use that as a reference price, I should take a period maybe six months to one year and say let me observe this average behaviour, so you don’t use spot prices. So even with the exchange rate, it is like that.”

He explained further, “Much as we are hoping that it would soon come below, but at the time you are doing the budget, you will take a view on average performance. And that’s what we took.

“We took an average performance of N750 on the executive side and we proposed it to the National Assembly.”


The minister also said that Tinubu regarded the National Assembly’s decision to raise the rate further considering his respect for institutions and democracy.

“So, he respected democracy that even though it was higher than what he submitted, but the institution that says so has the authority to say so and even at the time they say 100 because it’s not an official rate it’s tidal because, with the deregulated market, you no longer have an official rate, it is much lower than even the way the markets are bidding,” the minister said.

The minister noted that the FG is positive that its current measures would soon yield a significant increase in the supply of foreign exchange in the economy.

Bagudu also spoke on the level of borrowing to fund the deficit in the 2024 budget, saying there is a significant difference between 2024 borrowing compared to last year’s.

“In 2023, the budget anticipated a borrowing of close to N14tn. This year’s budget is N9.1 trillion. So we think that is significant.

“Because it’s 2023 took us to about 6.11 per cent of our GDP as borrowing. This one is 3.8 per cent. So the quantum had decreased,” Bagudu added.

The former Kebbi State Governor said the FG will operate strictly within the dictates of fiscal responsibility law in the new year, which provides for the Central Bank of Nigeria to lend to the government through its Ways and Means window, only 5 per cent of the total budget.

He explained, “We will not go outside the law and borrow from ways and means, what is outside the law. So the fiscal responsibility law says, that every year, the central bank can lend the government up to 5 per cent of its budget for the year.

“So if you go out of that, you’re going outside the lawful limit, and that’s what the minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy was very clear we are not going to do. We are not going to resort to borrowing outside the law.

“And secondly, as much as possible, we will even borrow away from the central bank because sometimes it’s even cheaper to borrow. So, those are the two elements. So the quantum has decreased, then we will go by the book.”

The Defence Headquarters has urged Nigerians to prevent terrorists from having free rein in the new year.

The DHQ called on the citizens to be security conscious and report criminal activities in their environments to security operatives.

Addressing journalists in Abuja on Thursday, the Director of Defence Media Operations, Edward Buba, promised that the military would take action on such tip-offs.

“Make Nigerians no gree for terrorists this year. You see something, you say something and we assure them of doing something, ” he said in pidgin.

Buba joined in using the slang ‘no gree for anybody ‘ which is currently trending among youths as slang for the year.

Many believe that the slang is about staying to one’s beliefs and not easily succumbing to the influence of others.

Unlike Buba, however, the spokesman of the Nigeria Police Force, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, had on Wednesday warned that the slang was capable of plunging the country into crisis.

After asking Nigerians to rise against terrorists, Buba noted that the aim of the military in 2024 is to locate and destroy the terrorists wherever they were hiding.

He added, ” The aim of our ongoing operations remains unchanged and clear even in the new year 2024. We aim to find and destroy the terrorist wherever they may be hiding to ensure their enduring defeat. This would deny the terrorist the ability to terrorize or hurt citizens across the country.

“Our operations indicate that we are hunting the terrorist commanders and their senior leadership. Indeed, from their topmost leadership to the lowest commanders are dead men walking and we will stop at nothing until they are dead or surrender.”

He noted that military operations in the last two weeks had resulted in the killing of 86 terrorists, while 101 have been arrested.

“Our operations resulted in 86 neutralized terrorists with 101 of them arrested. Troops also arrested 30 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 21 kidnapped hostages.

“In the SS, troops denied oil theft of the estimated sum of N736,115,470.00 only,” Buba added.

infofta:
I applied for a visitors visa in 2005 and was refused based on family ties in the country I was supposed to visit.
My question is how long does the embassy keep record of visa denials?
I heard there is an immigration record retention period of six years.
How true is this? Valuable inputs from experts needed.

The ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia, which has an estimated net worth of $1.4 trillion (£1.1trillion), is believed to be worth four times more than the combined net worth of two of the biggest billionaires in the world – Elon Musk and Bill Gates.

While Forbes estimates Musk, the Tesla founder and X owner is currently worth $251.3 billion (£191billion), Gates, the founder of Microsoft turned philanthropist, is reportedly worth $119.6 billion (£93billion).

The Saudi Royal family includes descendants of Muhammad bin Saud, the founder of the Emirate of Diriyah in the 18th century – also known as the First Saudi state.

The family is composed of some 15,000 members – although the majority of wealth is held by around 2000 relatives.

The ruling faction of the family comes from the descendants of Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman, the modern founder of Saudi Arabia.

The current head of the family is King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who has been reigning since 2015.

His most famous son and heir apparent is Mohammed bin Salman. Also known as MBS, the Crown Prince is the current Prime Minister of his country and is seen by many as the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.

MBS and King Salman oversee an absolute monarchy and autocratic state where civil liberties and political rights are restricted.


The origin of this family’s wealth is believed to derive largely from the vast oil reserves uncovered in the country seven decades ago, during the reign of King Abdulaziz ibn Saud.

The Saudi royals keep details of their finances private, but their lavish lifestyle and big spending often attract the attention of the public.

Meanwhile, the net worth and finances of the British Royal Family are often under the scrutiny of the media and the public. Business consultancy firm Brand Finance valued the monarchy treasure now being led by King Charles III as having a net worth of $88billion (£69bn).

This means the rulers of Saudi Arabia have a net worth estimated to be nearly 16 times that of King Charles’s family.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has put up for sale the sixth largest power distribution utility over a N110billin ($130 million debt), less than two years after the lenders who took over the company failed to turn it around and make it profitable.

Nigeria, has 11 power distribution companies but it is struggling to remain profitable because of lack of capital and sub-economic tariffs imposed by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).



Kaduna Electricity Distribution Plc (Kaduna Electric) is one of 18 successor companies created following the privatisation of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria in 2013 and sells electricity in four northern states.

The utility owes N110bn, NERC said in a notice on Monday, to companies including the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trader and power generation firms.


The regulator said it now considered the company a ‘failing licensee’, allowing NERC to dissolve its board using a law passed last year.

Kaduna Electric was taken over by African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and local lender Fidelity Bank in July 2022 but they have struggled to improve its financial performance. The Nigerian government through its Bureau of Public Enterprises also owns a 40% stake.

NERC said it had appointed an administrator and special directors to manage Kaduna Electric in the interim and sell its assets to the highest bidder.


It stated that Dr. Umar Abubakar Hashidu is hereby appointed as the administrator of KAEDC in furtherance to section 75 of the EA.


“The administrator shall be the de facto chief executive officer of KAEDC and shall be responsible for the management of the day-to-day affairs of the utility pending the finalisation of the sale of the undertaking to a new core investor.

“The administrator shall work with a team of special directors that shall constitute non-executive directors of the board for governance purposes. The following are hereby appointed as special directors for KAEDC; Alex A. Okoh, Chairman, Kabir Adamu, Sharfuddeen Zubair Mahmoud, John Ayodele and Rahila Thomas.”

It added that the executive management team that shall work with the administrator would be constituted by the commission and announced in due course.

“The Commission shall administer the sale of the undertaking in accordance with the provisions of the EA on the basis of the highest and best price offered for the undertaking.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Umar Abubakar Hashidu yesterday resumed office as the Chief Executive Officer of Kaduna Electric.

A statement issued by the Head of Corporate Communication, Abdulazeez Abdullahi, this morning, said a brief handover ceremony presided over by the NERC’s Commissioner for Legal Licensing and Compliance, Dafe Okpaneye, at the company’s corporate headquarters in Kaduna.

At the ceremony, which was followed by a short interaction with staff, Okpaneye thanked the former MD for the work he had put in in the past 18 months to move the company forward. He charged Dr. Hashidu to harness the talent and resources available to him to take Kaduna Electric to greater heights.

dre11:
The presidency has said that it is investigating the transfer of N585.189 million grant meant for vulnerable groups in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ogun and…





https://dailytrust.com/betta-edu-n585m-palliative-scandal-under-investigation-presidency/

Nlfpmod

CodeTemplar:
Yes. Can gistlover split any loot or settle them?
The kidnappers can and are probably willing to.
Will a bandleader just part with his money to the po-po? No.

iwaeda:
N91M, five bedroom, fully detached, in some parts of Lekki. We are just playing in Nigeria. May you not fall victims of kidnappers and bandits. So that one olode oduru will not rejoice over you.

Adewunmi Samuel Sofomade, the leader of the Abuja-based music band kidnapped along the Lokoja highway, has disclosed the amount paid for their release.

DAILY POST reports that the band leader was abducted in December 2023, alongside his crew, while returning from a show in Kogi State.

The 13-man group was later released after a few days in captivity.

However, recounting his ordeal in a recent interview with BBC Yoruba, the band leader, also called Omoba De Jombo Beats, stated that the kidnappers later reduced their ransom from N10m to N7 million each before they were released.

“We were 13 that went to perform at a burial ceremony in Itakete Isao, close to Isan-Olu in Kogi State. And we had to move by road because they don’t have an airport in Kogi.

“We had gone since Thursday. We finished performing at about 5:30 pm on Friday. So we felt that there was still time to return to Abuja. The incident happened just after we have past Dangote Cement.

“We spent six days with the kidnappers inside a very thick forest and the six days felt like six years because a lot of things happened in that forest.

“They asked for N10 million each. We started begging their commandant that we could not gather N10 million. He later reduced it to N7 million each.

“When we received the information that the money had been completed but there was no cash during the December period, we started looking for cash. They initially agreed that the money be converted to dollars, but their leader later changed his mind and insisted on naira.”

yinkus6750:
Good job by the eagle eyed customs officers that arrested the bullion van.
But, I read it was 12bags that was discovered, was that really a smuggling cartel or opportunity for personal use ?
The real smugglers still continue business as usual.
The bank and van owners are just lucky .
Could have as well been confiscated.
Especially the van.

Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are currently at the Lagos head office of the Dangote Group, TheCable understands.

They are conducting a search on forex allocations to the company during the tenure of Godwin Emefiele as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Dele Oyewale, the EFCC spokesman, declined comments when contacted by TheCable.

However, a Dangote employee confirmed to TheCable that the operatives are at the head office.

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“They asked for documents on forex transactions with the CBN,” the employee said.