For describing the National Assembly as being peopled
by a gang of unarmed robbers, the House of Representatives has lashed out at
ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, calling him the grandfather of corruption. The
Reps described Obasanjo as the most corrupt Nigerian that ever held a public
office, adding that he, however, saw himself as the only clean human being.
Specifically, the House called Obasanjo the “grandfather of corruption” in
Nigeria. It added that a reason Obasanjo would never like the members of the
National Assembly was the fact that they foiled his third term ambition in 2007
after taking his money and displaying it publicly to put him to shame. The
House accused Obasanjo of churning out outright lies and mischievous innuendos
against the National Assembly. On Wednesday, Obasanjo had attacked the
legislature on several fronts, including their salaries/allowances and the
alleged diversion of constituency projects. He had stated, “Once you are a
member, you are co-opted and your mouth is stuffed with rottenness and
corruption that you cannot opt out as you go home with not less than N15million
in a month for a senator and N10m a month for a member of the House of
Representatives. The National Assembly is a den of corruption by a gang of
unarmed robbers. “If the judiciary is being cleaned, what of the National
Assembly, which stinks much worse than the judiciary? Budget padding must not
go unpunished. “It is a reality, which is a regular and systemic practice.
Nobody should pull the wool over the eyes of Nigerians. Ganging up to
intimidate and threaten the life of a whistle-blower is deplorable. Source:
Punch
Friday, November 25, 2016
Thursday, November 24, 2016
ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME FOR PROFESSIONAL MEMBERS OF THE INSTITUTE
Dear Sir/Madam,
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME FOR PROFESSIONAL MEMBERS OF THE INSTITUTE
We are pleased to
invite you to participate at the Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) for
Professional Members of the Institute scheduled to take place as follows:
Date: Friday, December 9, 2016
PC 19, Adeola Hopewell Street
Victoria
Island, Lagos
Time: 9.00
a. m.
Mrs. Tara Fela-Durotoye, Founder
& CEO, House of Tara International and Mr.
Tayo Oviosu, Founder & CEO, Paga have been invited as Guest Speakers to
speak on “Surmounting the First
Challenge: Your Start-Up as an Entrepreneur” and “Essential Tools for Small and Medium Business: The Critical Success
Factors” respectively. Also, Mrs.
Florence Seriki, MFR, Founder/Chief Executive, Omatek Ventures Plc will be
the Special Guest of Honour.
The highlight of the
Programme will be the Public Presentation of Practice Licence/Seal to 21 (two
one) members whose applications for the Institute’s Practice Licence/Seal were approved
by the Governing Council.
The attendance of the Programme which
attracts 5 Credit Unit under the Compulsory Continuous Professional Development
(CCPD) is free
of charge. Certificate of attendance will
be issued to participants.
To enable us to make adequate arrangements, we
shall be grateful to receive a confirmation of your willingness to attend on or
before December
5, 2016. Please forward your name as you
expect it to be written on the Certificate to Peter
on peterejeomo@cibng.org
/ 08028444550.
We look forward to
welcoming you at the programme.
Yours sincerely
Segun
Shonubi
Group Head, Membership
Services
THE CBN GOVERNOR WITH THE CIBN OFFICE HOLDERS DURING THE 2016 ANNUAL BANKERS’ DINNER
THE CBN
GOVERNOR WITH THE CIBN OFFICE HOLDERS DURING THE 2016 ANNUAL BANKERS’ DINNER
Senate condemns 2017 draft budget, says assumptions unrealistic
The 2017-2019 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and
Fiscal Strategy Paper sent to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu
Buhari for legislative approval narrowly escaped being rejected again at the
Senate on Wednesday. The upper chamber of the National Assembly condemned the
projections in the documents as unrealistic, even though it said the Presidency
had set December 1 for the presentation of the 2017 Appropriation Bill to the
legislature. The senators, who took turns to criticise the new version of the
MTEF/FSP as well as the officials who prepared the documents during the day’s
plenary, submitted that it should be sent back to the Executive to include the
“correct” figures showing the true state of the economyThe MTEF/FSP, which will
form the basis for the national annual budget for the next three years, had
earlier been rejected by the Senate over the failure by the Executive to
include some critical details in the document. The Majority Leader, Senator Ali
Ndume, had described the first version of the MTEF and FSP as “empty.” Members
of the Senate, however, agreed that rather than send the MTEF/FSP back to the
Executive, the legislature was bound to tinker with the projections to make the
proposal “realistic.” Ndume explained in a written document that the MTEF/FSP
articulated government’s revenue and spending plan as well as its fiscal policy
objective over a period. Represented by the Deputy Majority Leader, Senator
Bala Ibn Na’Allah, Ndume noted that Section 11 of the Fiscal Responsibility
Act, 2007 required the Minister of Finance to prepare the MTEF/FSP and lay it
before the Federal Executive Council .” Source:
Punch
Recession: FG plans tax relief for manufacturers
The
Federal Government, in a bid to ease the burden of the current economic
recession on the manufacturing sector, is planning some form of tax relief for
the sector. The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, dropped the hint on
Wednesday in Abuja while responding to questions from journalists at the end of
the Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting. She said the tax relief
was part of measures by the Federal Government to reduce the negative impact of
the foreign exchange crisis on the sector. Based on the Gross Domestic Product
report for the third quarter released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the
manufacturing sector’s growth rate was recorded at -2.93 per cent year-on-year.
This is lower by 1.02 percentage points than what was recorded in the second
quarter of the year. The report had blamed the decline in manufacturing
activities to the continued drop in the naira to dollar exchange rate, which
has made industrial inputs more expensive. Adeosun said since the sector was
one of those badly hit by the economic crisis, the Federal Government would
support it with some form of incentives next year. In addition, she said
massive investments in infrastructure would be made to reduce the operating
costs of the manufacturing sector. The minister stated, “It is clear from the
figures that the manufacturing sector is the one that is really challenged and
the challenge in the sector is clearly that of foreign exchange availability. I
think that the sector will benefit from more consistency of the foreign
exchange policy. “On the fiscal side, we are rolling out a number of measures
to support the manufacturing sector in terms of tax reliefs and other measures
that will allow the balance sheet of the sector to be repaired. They
(manufacturers) have taken quite a hit and we will continue to try and support
them through it.“We have a fiscal road map that we will be rolling out and it
includes a number of measures around revenue mobilisation, tax reliefs and the
fiscal instrument, which will be issued in 2017 to get the economy back to
recovery.” Responding to a question on the position of the Central Bank of
Nigeria t. Source: Punch
Reps increase Buhari’s virement to N208bn
The House of
Representatives has increased the N180bn virement sought for by President
Muhammadu Buhari to fund critical recurrent and capital items by N28bn, taking
it to N208.821bn. The president had written the National Assembly on Oct. 26,
seeking for the approval of the legislature to vire N180.8bn from the funds
appropriated for special intervention in the 2019 budget. The intervention is
to fund critical recurrent and capital items. The report of the House Committee
on Appropriation was presented to the House on Wednesday by its Chairman, Rep.
Mustapha Dawaki (APC- Kano). In the report was the request for the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs (foreign missions), increased from N14bn to N16.34bn. Also,
increased was the request for statutory transfer (Public Complaints
Commission), which had been increased from N1.2bn to N2.5bn. All other
items were retained as requested. While presenting the report to be debated and
approved on Thursday, Dawaki disclosed that the committee, on Nov. 17 and Nov.
21, met with the relevant stakeholders and brainstormed on the proposal.He said
it was established that the affected MDAs justified the need for intervention
and approval of the virement for their respective agencies. He said, “The
committee observes that there are other areas of critical needs with potential
for development and stimulating the economy and for which additional funds
could be provided through virement from the Special Intervention Programme”
Details of the recommended proposal for approval showed that under Recurrent,
the Service Wide Vote: Public Service Wage Adjustment takes N71.80bn, Service
Wide Vote: Contingency N1.20bn. Similarly, Service Wide Vote: Margin for
increase in Cost N2bn, Ministry of Interior: Cadet feeding-Police Academy, Wudil,
Kano N932,4m, Service Wide Vote: Amnesty Programme N35billion. Also,Service
Wide Vote: Internal Operations of the Armed Forces N5.20bn, Service Wide Vote:
Operation Lafiya Dole N13.93billion, Ministry of Youth and Sports Development:
NYSC N19.79bn. Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Foreign Missions N16.34bn, Federal
Ministry of Education: Augmentation of Meal Subsidy/Direct Teaching &
Laboratory Cost N900m. Also recommended for approval under Statutory Transfer
is Public Complaints Commission N2.5billion Source: Punch
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