Latest Home News Blog

By Prince Okafor THE Federal Government has saved over $30 million as a result of the switch to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) from diesel, as well as a reduction of 76 million kilogramme of CO2 emissions.  Disclosing this, yesterday, in Lagos, the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Powergas, Mr. Deepak Khilnani, said the company will complete its mini Liquefied Natural Gas, LNG, facilities with a total production capacity of over 385,000 Standard Cubic Meter Per Day, (scmd) in Rivers State by mid-2017.  According to him, “More will be saved by its consumers as the positive result of the use of Powergas CNG keeps increasing.” READ  Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/05/nigeria-saves-30m-utilization-cng-powergas-ceo/

Ndidi celebrates his goal against Derby Nigerian midfielder Wilfred Ndidi picked up Leicester City’s Young Player of the Year gong at the club’s awards ceremony on Monday night. The 20-year-old Nigerian joined Leicester from Genk in the January transfer window and has made a major impact at the King Power Stadium. He has made 15 Premier League appearances and scored two goals, with the Super Eagles player particularly impressive when Craig Shakespeare took over from Claudio Ranieri. Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel was named the Players’ Player of the Year and the Player of the Year, while Goal of the Year went to Danny Drinkwater. The impressive Wilfred Ndidi has scooped the Young Player of the Season award after some brilliant performances for the Foxes! Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/05/ndidi-wins-leicester-city-young-player-award/

By Babajide Komolafe President Muhammadu Buhari presenting the 2017 Budget before a joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday, December 14, 2016.  LAGOS — In spite of increase in federally-collected revenue, buoyed by increase in crude oil price, the Federal Government recorded a deficit of N404 billion for the month of February, 2017.  The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, disclosed this in its economic report for February posted on its website, yesterday, indicating another threat to the budget.  The report among other things showed that banks borrowed N4.2 trillion from the apex bank during the month, while they paid N3.2 billion as interest to the apex bank.  The report stated: “The estimated Federal Government retained revenue for the month of February 2017, at N194.38 billion, was below the 2017 provisional monthly budget estimate of N337.48bn and the receipts in January 2017 by 42.4 per cent and 5.9 per cent, respectively. Of the total receipt, ...

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru ABUJA — TERTIARY Education Trust Fund, TETFund, has released about N1 trillion intervention fund to public universities, polytechnics and colleges of education for project development and content-based intervention in the last five years, Executive Secretary, Dr. Abdullahi Baffa, has said. Baffa, who disclosed this to journalists in Abuja, also said the agency had made it compulsory for benefiting institutions to defend their project proposal before funds would be released to them to ensure effective utilisation.  He noted that TETFund embarked on Access Clinic/Project defence proposal which lasted two months for the beneficiary institutions.   According to him, the beneficiary institutions that made presentations at the Access Clinic/Project Proposal defence, based on the 2016 allocation, were 181 in number, including 74 universities, 50 polytechnics and 57 colleges of education. He explained that the main aim of the clinic was to discuss, diagnose ...

By Prince Okafor  Nigeria’s crude oil production suffered fresh set back Monday as Trans Niger Pipeline, (TNP), which exports about 180, 000 barrels of crude oil per day was shut down as a precautionary measure after a fire was seen on the “right of way” at Gio community in Ogoni land, one of the two pipelines that export Bonny Light crude oil.  TNP transports crude oil to the Bonny Export Terminal and is part of the liquid gas evacuation infrastructure, critical for continued domestic power generation (Afam VI power plant) and liquefied gas exports.  According to the spokesman for Shell Petroleum Development Corporation (SPDC), the operator of the joint venture with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Precious Okolobo, “It was not yet clear whether export supplies will be subject to force majeure. A joint investigation visit will determine the cause and impact of the fire.” The line is also the right of way for a Bonny-refinery pipeline belonging to the Pe...

By Victor Ahiuma-Young, Dapo Akinrefon &’Johnbosco Agbakwuru  ABUJA — ORGANISED Labour, weekend, advised the Federal Government to jettison  planned sale of national assets, to avoid mass revolt and civil unrest that will be worse than the anti-SAP riots of 1989. The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC; Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC; the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG; and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, in one accord, told government that it would be playing with fire should it go ahead to sell the assets.  No comment — Presidency The Presidency kept mum, last night, as Spokesman to the President, Mr. Femi Adesina, in a reply to the text message sent to him, said “no comment.” Caption this photo However, Budget and Planning Minister, Udoma Udo Udoma, said  in a statement on Saturday that the Federal Government would not sell critical national assets to shore up its foreign reserves as...

By Godfrey Bivbere  THE Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Dr. Peterside Dakuku, yesterday, said that the agency would be restructured to empower its three zones to ensure efficiency in the performance of its core functions.  Dakuku, who frowned at condition of the facilities at the zone, spoke when he visited the agency’s  Western Zone on a familiarisation tour. He said all the powers of  NIMASA will no longer reside at the head office as the zones will be empowered to carry out it’s operational responsibilities while the head office will only take charge of policies.  He noted that the economic situation in the country has made it imperative for the maritime industry which the second largest income contributor in country to be taken seriously. He stressed that for the maritime industry to succeed,  NIMASA must be in the fore-front of the recovery of the economy, adding that NIMASA cannot succeed if the...