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NPA creates truck park with 3,500 capacity

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The Nigerian Ports Authority says it has designated a truck park with over  3,500 capacity comprising 17 truck parks that can be used for haulage of various kinds of cargos.

In a statement by its Assistant General Manager, Corporate and Strategic Communications Division, Ibrahim Nasiru, the NPA said the new categorisation was in line with the desire of the management of the authority to deepen the electronic call-up system with a view to making movement of trucks seamless and ultimately eliminate traffic congestion on ports’ access roads in Apapa and its environs.

According to him, under the new system, conducive environment has been provided for export cargo.

He said that truckers in this category were encouraged to ensure the completion of all documentations required by the Nigeria Customs Service, terminal operators and shipping lines before approaching the ports.

He said failure to complete these documentations would led to denial of access to the ports.

Nasiru also warned that transporters and truck owners who failed to use the approved truck parks based on the categorisation would not be able to access any of the country’s seaports.

The NPA appreciated the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu for his commitment towards ending the truck congestion through the enforcement of extant rules.

It also expressed gratitudet to all stakeholders and associations for their cooperation towards the successful implementation of the regime of reforms, and asked for continued support to make the new system even more efficient.

The statement said, “The authority is pleased that operations have justified the conviction that we have finally found the solution to the problem of truck congestion on the access roads into the Lagos Ports Complex and the Tin Can Island Ports”

“Although, we have experienced teething problems as would be expected of innovations like this, the authority is pleased that these issues are being tackled as they arise, and that steady progress is being made in the process”

“As part of efforts to deepen the impact of ETO and make the movement of trucks more seamless, the NPA, after consultations with stakeholders arrived at the following categorisation of trucks parks as batching points for all trucks doing business at the ports: Transporters and truck owners who do not use the approved truck parks based on the categorisation detailed above, would be unable to access the ports.”

BOOK REVIEW: Yishau weaves family issues, betrayal into ‘Vaults Of Secrets’

Some contemporary phenomena are just recurring decimals in life. Love and romance, infidelity and suspicion in the family, backstab, politics, name it. In Vaults of Secrets, a compilation of short stories, Olukorede Yishau pops up some of these issues.

The 10-chapter, 118-page book begins with the riveting story of a lady awaiting the hangman for killing her unfaithful husband. While cooling her feet in jail, she reminisces her deceased co-jailer, Kemi, who, in self-defence from her abusive husband, killed him. Kemi, a victim of child trafficking in the United States, died of cancer.

In telling Kemi’s story, this lady recounts her own tale, as well as the ills in the prison and her struggle with leukaemia. Despite her ordeals, she continues to be the “hopeless romantic” she was before incarceration.

Each secret revealed in this book is intriguing and relatable, such that the reader can enjoy a seamless transition from fiction to fact, to history, with a sneak peek into the life of the author. For example, in ‘Lydia’s World,’ which gently takes the reader from a fictitious world to reality, Yishau’s world was used as a window into the world of books and their writers. It makes the reader privy to the feelings, thoughts and activities of Yishau as a co-reader. It also subtly promotes the book, In The Name Of Our Father.

 Vaults of Secrets centres on the everyday life of Nigerians at home and abroad, the mystery and bizarre findings of one’s paternity, the regrets and losses of those who finally get caught up with the law, among others.

The book stirs one’s curiosity to the true story of those behind the walls. It reveals the pains and insecurity people face when they find out how they came to be as well as the evils of baby swapping. It further reflects the hurt people feel when betrayed by those who are supposed to love them.

Betrayal, especially in marriage, occupies a significant space in the vault. The rest compartments are shared between ‘betrayal of children’ and ‘betrayal of country.’ Betrayal of country is seen in the story of Okwy, a politician, who sold information about his country to terrorists and was later caught. When he realised his fault, it was too late to remedy the consequences of his actions on his wife and children, who suffered alongside. Nonetheless, poetic justice is served to all the Judases.

Men and women, who cheated on their spouses, have ready excuses and someone to blame. The book did not suffer them lightly.

In ‘This thing called Love,’ the author makes use of a special character, who tells the story of Jacinta, a loving child betrayed by her father and friend, but whom luck smiled on when her kindness left her at the mercy of the hangman.

Yishau takes the reader to the special compartment of a “gifted secret sniffer,” who keeps stumbling on information that, if revealed, can spell doom. This section is interesting, as it reveals the dilemma of the “sniffer” and his triumph at the end when the secret he finally stumbles on is revealed to the needy party who, sadly, was his best friend.

Olukorede Yishau

The author also reveals the irony of people’s actions. This is seen in the work of Conscience and its friend, Memory, on a lady named Dazini, whose childhood saviour and friend, Moses, later becomes the father of her children while still married to another man. Ironically, Moses kills his wife, whose two children are not his, while he fathered two children for another man’s wife. It reflects the irony of life where the villain goes scot-free but the innocent dies. The injustice women face in marriage is storied across all compartments.

The author makes use of various literary devices. Some of his narratives are hypodiegetic, as some of the stories are within other stories. He does it so well that the reader enjoys the twists and turns in the journey through the vaults. It also makes use of flashback, as it reflects past events that happened before some of the events detailed in the story. Personification is reflected through the character, Roy, who says, “His eyes went to the painting of a woman breastfeeding a child on the wall and he wanted to ask the woman what she knew, but he stopped.”

Vaults of Secrets also leads the reader to the spiritual world of reincarnation and dreams. “When truth dies” pricks the reader on the issue of incarnation.

Nonetheless, the reader gets to enjoy the scenery of Banana Island and the human signatures needed to access the elevator at Eko Signatures. It also takes the reader to historical sites and events in Nigeria as well as educates them on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus.

Even with good story line and dexterity in weaving different stories together, the book did not make it to sainthood due to some typos and other errors, which, though, did not distort the story or thought line. With its simple language, the book is recommended for all, both learners and experts in English literature.

Nigeria’s inflation will rise to 16.56% in February – GTI

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Nigeria’s headline inflation is expected to rise in the month of February, going by political instability and economic headwinds.

The GTI Securities Limited said this in its ‘Weekly Economic and Capital Market Report’ released on Saturday.

According to its findings, the measure of the average change in the price level of both food and non-food items will rise by a minimum of nine basis points to 16.56 per cent year-on-year from 16.47 per cent reported by the National Bureau of Statistics in January 2021.

It said, “We believe that the moderate spate will be driven by a collective rise in the Core inflation (i.e., non-food items price index) and Food inflation (i.e., food price index).

“Also, our stand is backed on the projected aftermath of five predominant drivers within the month, which includes; insecurity, Conflict report between traders in some regions, climate change, increase in energy tariff, and high cost of transportation.”

According to GTI, the recent food blockage from the North to the South, and increasing rift between herdsmen and farmers are expected to negatively influence food price inflation.

“Therefore, we expect the food price sub-index to rise to 21.89 per cent y/y or 1.98 per cent m/m) from 20.57 per cent or 1.83 per cent last month,” it said.

It said the “unpredictable climate vagaries’ such as extreme temperature, drought, or flood, would further impact on the headline inflation.

“Nigerian Meteorological Agency forecasted a below-normal rainfall occurrence over some parts of the country for the year particularly in the North-western zone”, this has more of a negative impact on staple crops productivity such as maize, rice, yams, among others.”

WATRA boss’ll be held accountable to highest standards – NCC

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The Nigerian Communications Commission has said it will hold the newly elected Executive Secretary of the West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly, Mr Aliu Aboki, accountable to the highest standards in order to deliver on the assembly’s objectives.

The NCC Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said this in a statement released on Friday and signed by the commission’s Director of Public Affairs, Dr Ikechukwu Adinde.

Danbatta urged the newly executive secretary “to note all the comments and observations made by member countries during the AGM [Annual General Meeting] and tasked him on the need to be ES for all member states and not only for Nigeria.”

He said the commission, as a regulatory organisation, “will hold Aboki accountable to the highest standards, to deliver on WATRA objectives.”

NUATE threatens to frustrate AMCON’s NG Eagle

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The National Union of Air Transport Employees have warned that if the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria refuses to discuss the fate of the Arik Air workers with the union, its new entity, NG Eagle, will not take off.
NG Eagle is a new airline by AMCON which is yet to be launched into Nigeria’s airspace.
The National President, NUATE, Ben Nnabue, said this on Friday at a congress organised in Lagos to chart a way forward for staff of the Arik Air.
 
AMCON had on February 9, 2027 taken over Arik as a result of the airline’s bad debt to the corporation and other creditors.
According to Nnabue, the union is ready to picket Arik Air for three months if necessary until AMCON sees reasons to address the plight of Arik workers.
He said, “We will declare a strike in Arik, and if they don’t resolve the problems of the workers, a new airline will never come.
“For Arik, we will do it for three months non-stop till the mandate of the workers come to be. They must work with us; they must tell us what they will do with our members.”
The General Secretary of the union, Ocheme Ana, explained that as an aviation trade union, NUATE considered the unveiling of the NG Eagle a positive and welcome development.
He added that the new airline would create job opportunities, provide incentives for deeper business penetration and generally widen the Nigerian aviation horizon.
He, however, expressed misgivings about NG Eagle owing to what he described as AMCON’s evasive tendencies.

Naira weakens despite CBN’s Naira4Dollar Scheme

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Despite the ‘CBN Naira 4 Dollar Scheme’, the Nigerian currency weakened against the United States dollar at the Bureau De Change by 0.42 per cent to close at N477/$1 in the second week of March.

The Central Bank of Nigeria had recently introduced the scheme to enlarge the scope and scale of foreign exchange inflows into the country in a view to stabilising the exchange rate.

At the parallel (black) market, the naira fell by 1.04 per cent to close at N485.00/$1 this week.

The naira weakened against the greenback at the Investors’ and Exporters’ window by 0.24 per cent to close at N410.00/$1 amid sustained rise in crude oil prices.

While at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market, it closed flat at N380.69/$1 amid weekly injections of $210m by the CBN into the forex market.

According to a report by analysts at Cowry Asset Management, the naira/dollar exchange rate appreciated for all of the foreign exchange forward contracts.

The analysts said, “In the new week, we expect naira/dollar to stabilise at most FX windows as crude oil prices sustain the bullish momentum.

“However, we feel that the CBN’s Naira 4 Dollar Scheme appears to be another form of naira depreciation which may have sent wrong signal to the forex market.”

Nigerian expert urges OPEC to keep oil below $70

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An oil and gas expert in Nigeria, Mr Bala Zakka, has urged the leadership of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exportation Countries to come up with a policy to ensure that crude oil price stays below $70 per barrel.

Zakka, in an interview with Financial Street in Lagos on Friday, warned that the continuous increase in crude oil price might boost the production of shale oil.

Shale oil is an unconventional oil produced from oil shale rock fragments by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. These processes convert the organic matter within the rock into synthetic oil and gas. The oil is mostly found in the United States of America.

According to Zakka, when the price of crude oil gets so high, it will become attractive for producers of shale oil.

He said, “Once they (shale producers) start producing, they will flood the market and the prices will come down. So, while OPEC is allowing its member-countries to produce and make money, it will not allow them to tighten the production so that the prices will not increase because once it increases, owners of shale oil will go into production.

“And once that happens, the US will stop buying oil from OPEC member-countries.”

He said higher crude oil prices would enable shale producers to resume drilling campaigns.

Investors drop large-cap stocks amid bearish sentiment

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The Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index declined further on Friday, closing the second trading week in the month on a negative note.

The ASI fell by 0.13 per cent to 38,648.48 points, as highly capitalised stocks shed weight amid negative investors’ sentiment.

The market capitalisation also fell by 0.13 per cent to close at N20.22trn, leaving investors with a loss of N25.48bn.

At the closed of Friday’s trading, the year-to-date loss of the ASI declined to -4.02 per cent as 23 stocks lost, while 17 gained.

Blue-chip stocks such as MTN Nigeria, Lafarge Africa, Guaranty Trust Bank and Zenith Bank moderated by 1.25 per cent, 0.23 per cent, 0.65 per cent and 0.47 per cent respectively, amid sustained investors’ sell-offs.

The sectoral performance was weak as three out of the five indices tracked closed in the red zone.

While the banking, oil and gas and industrial indices dropped by 0.09 per cent, 0.23 per cent and 0.01 per cent respectively, the insurance and consumer goods indices rose by 1.32 per cent and 1.09 per cent respectively to close in the green zone.

The trading activity picked up as total deals, volume and value of stocks traded rose.

At the close of Friday’s trading, the total volume of trade rose by 73.58 per cent to 169.35 million units valued at N3.77 in 293.97 deals.

EKEDC begs customers as blackout persists in Lekki, others

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The Eko Electricity Distribution Company has expressed regret over the prolonged power outage being experienced by its customers in the Lekki, Ikoyi-and Ajah environs of Lagos State.

In a statement on Friday signed by its General Manager, Corporate Communications, Godwin Idemudia, the company urged the customers to be calm to enable it to fix the issue.

According to Idemudia, EKEDC is working with the Transmission Company of Nigeria to ensure that supply is restored very shortly as the ongoing repair works are almost completed.

“We are not unaware of the difficulties our customers are experiencing within the Lekki, Ajah and Ikoyi areas of our network. As we have restated earlier, the outage is a result of ongoing maintenance by our TCN partners. While the work is already behind schedule, we are glad to inform our customers that the repair work has reached an advanced stage and will be completed as soon as possible,” he said.

Further appealing for understanding and calm, Idemudia said the company remained committed to its objective of providing reliable power to its customers.

Market forces’ll determine petrol pump price, says PPPRA

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The Petroleum Products Price Regulatory Agency has said the latest pricing template it released does not translate to an increase in the pump price for Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol.

In a statement obtained by Financial Street on Friday, the Executive Secretary of PPPRA, Abdulkadir Saidu, said that the price could only be determined by market realities in line with the dictates of market forces.

According to him, one of the conditions for the implementation of the Market-Based Pricing Regime for PMS Regulations 2020 is the monthly release of the guiding price to reflect current market fundamentals.

He said, “In line with its mandate to maintain constant surveillance over all key indices relevant to pricing, the agency monitors market trends on a daily basis to determine guiding prices.

“The agency is not unaware of the challenges with the supply of PMS due to some concerns leading NNPC to be the sole importer of PPPRA.”

Saidu said the agency was mindful of the current discussions going on between the government and the organised labour on the deregulation policy.

He said, “While consultation with relevant stakeholders is ongoing, PPPR does not fix or announce prices and therefore there is no price increase. The current PMS price is being maintained while consultations are being concluded.

“Even though market fundamentals for PMS in the past few months indicated upward price trends, the pump price has remained the same and we are currently monitoring the situation across retail outlets nationwide”

Saidu assured the public of adequate product supply, adding that the agency would continue to perform its statutory function in ensuring that the downstream sector remains vibrant as well as support both government and members of the public.

In its earlier template obtained by Financial Street, the agency had fixed Nigeria’s petrol price at N209.61-N212.61 per litre, for the month of March 2021, meaning that at the current pump price of N170 per litre, the Federal Government, through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC is still subsidising the product with N42 per litre.