From Uche Usim, Abuja
Plans by Nigeria to have a national airline and an aviation university were amplified yesterday as the Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika, and the Chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation, Adamu Aliero, described the projects as worthy undertakings that needed all the support they could get.
The minister, who spoke when the Senate committee visited his ministry on an oversight assignment tour, said the national carrier and university would be government-owned and operated under a public-private partnership arrangement.
He said Nigeria’s population and location were such that required a national carrier to enable the country enjoy the intra-Africa and intercontinental markets, which are dominated by foreign airlines. Sirika also described the university as very vital to the nation as the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, Kaduna State, was not designed to offer management courses.
“When NCAT’s pilots, engineers, cabin crews and other professionals retire, they cannot easily fit into the larger society because they didn’t offer management courses. So they’re only confined to aviation. Now, with this university that will be addressed. NCAT will run and so will the university. We’re speaking with various international bodies on this,” he said.
Sirika also hinted that the Federal Government was in touch with world renowned aircraft leasing companies to set up an office in Nigeria as a way of making it easier for local operators to access good aircraft to expand their fleet and become more competitive.
“Some of our local carriers have three airplanes. How can they be competitive? With the aircraft leasing companies here, we can address that. Again, we want to establish a maintenance repair and overhaul facility to reduce the capital flight on fixing airplanes overseas. That facility will create jobs as well,” he said.
BUDGET: FG set to evolve economic development plan
From Basil Obasi, Abuja
In a bid to reposition the ailing economy onto the path of sustainable growth and development, the Federal Government has started the process of developing an expansive and all-inclusive medium-term economic development plan (2017-2019).
Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, who made this disclosure yesterday in Abuja during a retreat, explained that, after preliminary consultations within the Economic Management Team and partners from the private sector and academia, it was proposed that the work should be along five thematic areas, macro-economic policy, economic diversification and growth, competitiveness, jobs and social inclusion, and governance.
In a statement by Mr. James Akpandem, media adviser to the minister, Udoma told the experts that they have been invited to work with government in transforming the country’s economy, the purpose being that government wants a final product that would achieve the desired result and also stand the test of time.
Recalling the various actions culminating in the retreat, the Minister stated that the Economic Management Team has been working very hard since the release of the Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP) in May, which formed the basis for the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper that was completed in August 2016.
Dismissing comments in some quarters that government does not have an economic programme, Udoma saId, “The administration laid out a clear economic vision and direction in the President’s 2016 budget speech as well as in the SIP for the 2016 Budget of Change.”
EDUCATION: FG to reconstruct burnt UniJos library
From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
the Federal Government has approved the reconstruction of the three-storey building housing the University of Jos main library, two faculties and four departments as well as the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facility that was destroyed by fire on October 8, 2016.
Daily Sun learnt that the reconstruction would be financed through the special intervention programme of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), even as the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, urged TETFund to expedite action on the reconstruction work.
A statement issued in Abuja yesterday by Mr. Benn Ebikwo, TETFund’s Director of Corporate Affairs and Public Relations, indicated that the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Dr. Abdullahi Bichi Baffa, had also visited the institution for assessment of the damaged complex.
Baffa, while commiserating with the management, students and university community, expressed his readiness to ensure that the library was quickly rebuilt and put in use in no distance time.
He said, “This is where the special intervention programme of TETFund comes in. I had insisted that we give all the normal or annual intervention that we (normally) give but when something like natural disaster happens, then we can respond with such special intervention.
“That is the original intent of TETFund and we are working towards ensuring that we implement it as such.”
COMMUNICATION: Nigeria loses $450m to cyber attacks, says Shittu
From Walter Ukaegbu, Abuja
Minister Of Communication, Adebayo Shittu, has disclosed that recent data from the Nigeria Information Development Agency (NITDA) showed that there were 3,500 cyber attacks in Nigeria and 70 per cent of them, estimated at $450 million, were successful.
Shittu, who stated this during the eighth Annual International Conference (ISACA) wondered whether Nigerians should go back to the old days or “move ahead with spears” to conquer this cyber war. He stressed that Nigerians must fight the war and win it with optimised technology.
Avvording to the minister, the share of telecommunication in total real GDP declined through 2010 to 2014, and for the last five quarters growth in telecommunications has been higher, which meant that the trend has been reversed.
“Nigeria has one of the largest economies in Africa, according to the IMF, it has a GDP valued at $296 billion. The 2016 second quarter report of the Nigerian National Bureau for Statistics says the growth in our non-oil sector is driven by activities in social infrastructure like agriculture, information and communications technology, water supply, arts, entertainment and recreation, professional services and technical services,” he said.
Shittu emphasised that the ICT sector contributed 12.62 per cent to the total nominal GDP in the second quarter of 2016 up from 12.25 per cent in the first quarter.
POWER: Federal varsities to handle rural electrification
By Omodele Adigun
After years of dilly-dallying on the rural electrification scheme, the Federal Government has decided to implement the programme through its universities, just as it has resolved not to revisit the privatisation of the power sector.
According to the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who dropped the hint Thursday in Lagos during the fifth EU-Nigeria Business Forum, 37 Federal Government-owned tertiary institutions and seven teaching hospitals have been penciled down to implement the programme.
As for those clamouring for the cancellation of the sale of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), the minister warned that investors that took the plunge should have the assurance that government would not flip-flop.
He explained that the new version of the rural electrification programme developed by his minsistry has got presidential approval to commence soon.
His words: “In driving that project, we have said the project must target specific sectors, education and agriculture. Because it is a rural electrification programme. How do I want it to work in the rural areas? We have decided to use our universities and their campuses. Most universities, and Nigeria is not an exception, are usually sited in the rural areas. The government chose them to open up access to these rural areas. So they are going to be the anchor of our rural electrification programme.”