PAGE 18 NEWS (New)

PAGE 18 NEWS (New)

Pg 18 News

Stamp Duty: FG disowns NIPOST’s committee

By Zakariyya Adaramola

The Federal Government has disowned the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST’s) committee charged with the responsibility of appointing agents to collect stamp duty on its behalf.

The Minister of Communications, Barrister Adebayo Shittu in a statement yesterday, said NIPOST has not been authorized to appoint new agents to collect stamp duty for the government.

“The Minister of Communication has received information that a committee purportedly raised by the acting Post-Master General has commenced the process of appointing agents to collect STAMP DUTY on behalf of the Nigeria Postal Service and, by implication, on behalf of the Federal Government.

“The Minister hereby serves this warning that NIPOST has not been authorized to appoint new agents in respect of collection of Stamp Duty,” a statement issued yesterday by his Chief of Staff Adeyanju Binuyo said.

“It is therefore expedient to thread with caution and ensure that all issues bordering on the administration of the STAMP DUTY by NIPOST are done in line with the Federal Government’s commitment to due process, transparency and accountability,” it read.

It said new process has been suspended until government appoints a new Post-Master General in due course.

The Daily Trust reports that the Federal Government has projected an accrual in excess of N2.5trillion from payment of stamp duties from the financial services industry as outlined by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Korean agency invests $8.56m on Nigeria’s e-governance- Shittu

By Zakariyya Adaramola

The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has invested $8.56 million on training and implementation of Nigeria’s e-governance project, the Minister of Communication, Barrister Adebayo Shittu has said.

Shittu said this in Seoul at the capacity building training for e-government in Nigeria, according to a statement from his media aide Mr Victor Oluwadamilare.

The project, according to the minister, has three components: establishing an e- government master plan, capacity development programme, and establishing an e-government training centre in Nigeria.

He said the collaboration with the Korean government would enhance Nigeria’s capability for efficiency, transparency and accountability in governance, with its attendant benefits trickling down to the masses.

Shittu who heads a 14-man delegation to the training programme, said it was designed for senior government officials who would lead in the implementation of the e-government programme.

Planners hold professional education programme

By Simon Echewofun Sunday

The Town Planners Registration Council of Nigeria (TOPREC) and the Centre for Human Settlements and Urban Development, Federal University of Technology, Minna have said it will soon commence the 2016 Mandatory Continuing Professional Planning Education Programme (MCPPEP) in two centres.

TOPREC Registrar, Tpl. Ibrahim Yunusa, in a statement, said it will hold on April 6 & 7 at Royal Tropicana Hotel, Kano and at Immaculate Royal Hotel, Owerri, Imo State by September 28 & 29, 2016.

With the theme, ‘Entrepreneurship in the Urban and Regional Planning Profession,” the programme seeks to expose participants to the various opportunities in physical planning while targeting creating business ideas.

Other objectives of the programme include turn those ideas into viable businesses, and building their business to enable them become employer of labour and a contributor to the economic development of their town, cities and states.

Yunusa urged town planners to take advantage of this capacity development training for sector relevance and professional rating.

C/River plans mega fair to resuscitate Tinapa

From Eyo Charles, Calabar

As a way of revamping activities at Tinapa Business Resort Ltd, government of Cross River State has planned to stage monthly trade fair which will climax in a mega-trade fair in December 2016.

The new managing director of Tinapa Business Resort Ltd, Mr Asuquo Ekpenyong announced this during while signing a pact with Cliqit, an e-commerce business management and development platform recently.

Ekpenyong said the Calabar International Trade Fair (CITF) will attract more than 10,000 vendors to the resort and with attendant clientele.

He emphasised that the introduction of the trade fair to the Calabar Carnival is expected to increase the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state up to N5billion.

He also said that the Trade Fair will create about 15,000 jobs and 10,000 Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SME’s) and empower people of Cross-River state with skill acquisition and go-to market strategies, which shall ultimately contribute to the development of the state.

Founder/CEO of Cliqit, Gerald Konwea, who is the brain behind the project, described the project as a history making venture which is why the Guinness World Records was involved.

“This is going to be arguably the biggest trade fair in the world. There are though big trade fairs in Germany with up to 7,000 vendors and there are even bigger trade fairs in China. But from what we are planning with the Cross River State government, it certainly will earn a place in the Guinness Book,” he said.

Nigerian astronaut to land in space by 2030

By Zakariyya Adaramola

The Federal Government is putting all the structures on ground to ensure that a Nigerian astronaut lands in space on or before 2030, the Minister of Science and Technology Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu has said.

The minister stated this when the management team of Defence Space Agency led by Air Vice Marshal Victor Udo paid a working visit to his office in Abuja.

According to Dr. Onu, FG would work very hard in the years to come to strengthen all the structures of the Nigerian space agencies that would help us to ensure that a Nigerian lands in space in fourteen years’ time.

“We believe that this is achievable and we are working very hard to make sure that all the structures that are needed is provided. The space programme is a very important programme for a country like Nigeria”, he said.

The minister noted a special military space agency is major asset which nation like Nigeria should have for the purpose of protecting our own national interest.

Earlier the Director-General of the agency AVM Tommy Udo had said that they are seeking for the ministry’s support to achieve the desired efficiency.

Nasarawa govt to create 30,000 jobs for the unemployed ?

From Hassan Ibrahim, Lafia?

?Nasarawa state government said it has concluded arrangements in partnership with Institute of Technical Education (ITE) from Singapore to provide employment to over 30, 000 unemployed youths in the state through skills acquisition programme.

?Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura who spoke through his media aide, Ahmed Tukur to newsmen yesterday in Lafia, said the intensive training exercise will hold in the six skills acquisition centres of Doma, Lafia, Assakio, Wamba, Nasarawa and Agwada.?

?Al-makura, said the state has received 28 containers of assorted training kits worth N350million, while expecting the expatriate trainers in the state shortly.?

“Very soon we are going to receive the Singaporean experts that will come and stay here in Assakio to put the buildings up, install the equipment, train the trainers,” he said.

?The governor noted that the specialists will train people on many skills in electrical, technical, welding, tailoring, POP specialisation, and masonry.

Consumers urged to support Fashola on electricity tariff

By Zakariyya Adaramola

A former Coordinator, Niger State Liaison Office, Abuja, Alhaji Abubakar Abdullahi Aliyu, has appealed to Nigerians to support the Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola on the increase in electricity tariff.

Aliyu in an interview yesterday said the federal government took the decision to increase the tariff, which had earlier been approved by the Goodluck Jonathan administration in January 2015, in order to attract investors to the market.

He said, “It is understandable that the nation’s labour leaders and ordinary citizens see the current effort by the Minister to reposition the power sector as a ploy by self-interested public officials to take from the poor, all in the name of privatisation.

“Tariff for a product like electricity refers to the price of producing power which covers cost of generation, gas purchase, transportation, transformers, staff costs and so on, they are dis-aggregated and charged per kilowatt/hour to make the business of power profitable,” Aliyu explained.

He said with a regime that supports accountability and transparency in the management of the nation’s resources, Buhari’s cabinet including Fashola has the competence and the sincerity of purpose to turn around the fortunes of the power sector.