Author: straightnewsng.com

By Akanimo Sampson A new report launched the previous Monday by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) finds that Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) are now affecting around 58 per cent of trade in the region. One reason for the rise of NTMs, according to the Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report 2019 (APTIR), is their growing popularity as weapons of trade policy in regional and global trade tensions. But, while applied tariffs in the Asia-Pacific region have halved over the past two decades, it appears…

By Akanimo Sampson In countries across Africa, internal displacement remains a significant problem with more than 17.8 million people being displaced by conflict and violence. Women and children constitute the vast majority of those affected. This fact is contained in a joint statement by the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to mark the 10th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Kampala Convention. Africa on Wednesday marked the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the African…

The Senate and House of Representatives, Wednesday, directed the Federal Road Maintenance Agency, FERMA, to undertake a holistic assessment of all the roads in the country and report back to the National Assembly. The Joint Committee on FERMA directed the agency to present its findings to both the Senate and House Committees on FERMA, to enable the National Assembly take appropriate action. The chairman, House Committee on FERMA, Olufemi Bamisele, who gave the directive at a joint budget defence session organised with the Senate Committee on FERMA, said this became necessary because of the deplorable state of roads across the country.…

As part of the efforts to curb xenophobic attacks, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chairman/CEO of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, NIDCOM, said Wednesrday that the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria and South Africa will ensure implementation of the Early Warning Signal mechanisms recently signed between both countries in South Africa. Speaking against the backdrop of renewed zenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa, Dabiri-Erewa said the Consul-General was on top of the situation. No fewer than four Nigerians were injured in fresh xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in Mpumalanga Province the Rainbow country on Tuesday. She said: “The Consul-General, Godwin Adama, is currently…

The Federal Government has spent N383.28 billion as under-recovery, also known as subsidy, on Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, from January to July 2019, according to data obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC on Wednesday. Under-recovery is a situation where the NNPC incurs the cost of the differential between the official pump price of petrol and the actual cost of the commodity, especially as the official price is at present lower than the actual market price. The difference with this current system of subsidy payment is the fact that since the NNPC is currently the sole importer of PMS,…

Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, Wednesday, warned that without credible elections, the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA’s prediction of Nigeria’s disintegration will come to pass. The USA agency had predicted that Nigeria would disintegrate in 2015 but it did not happen in spite of the heat that hallmarked the 2015 presidential election. Justifying INEC’s use of the military in conducting elections, Jega said: ”The CIA thought that 2015 was the do-or-die period for Nigeria, that there would not be a Nigeria in the way you know after the 2015 general election. I think if…

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, is seeking approval of N1.5 billion from National Assembly for use to audit the oil and gas industry in 2020. Executive Secretary of the agency, Mr Waziri Adio, while defending the agency’s budget before the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) Wednesday in Abuja, pledged to release 2017 audit report of the industry next week. Adio said from 1999 to 2016, nine audit reports had been done in the oil and gas sector, while seven audit reports in the solid minerals had been released. The proposed sum, according to the agency,…

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has said there was no going back on October 29, 2019, deadline for 2020 budget defence. It will be recalled that the House adjourned plenary on October 10 and dedicated three weeks for budget defence to enable the country return to January to December budget cycle. Speaking to journalists after inspecting the defence processes Wednesday, Gbajabiamila said the date was sacrosanct, asking agencies of government to keep to it. The House is also expected to resume plenary on the same date. He said: “We are sticking to October 29 deadline for…

The proposed increment in Value Added Tax, VAT, from five to 7.5 percent by the federal government will expose Nigerians to more hardship, causing tax experts to call on the government to stop the increase. The experts, who spoke at the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, CITN, sensitisation seminar on current issues in Nigerian taxation in Lagos, include former Accountant-General of the Federation, Dr. James Kayode Naiyeju, and Yomi Olugbenro of Deloitte & Touche, among others. In his presentation, the former Accountant General of the Federation explained that the economy was not buoyant enough to accommodate VAT increment. “Your…

The hope of the10,000 newly recruited constables joining Nigerian Police Force, NPF, is hanging in the balance. This follows the ruling of Abuja Division of the Federal High Court Wednesday halting the ongoing process to recruit the constables into the Force. The court, in a ruling by Justice Inyang Ekwo, ordered all the parties involved in the recruitment exercise to maintain the status quo, pending the determination of a suit lodged against the process by the Police Service Commission, PSC. Justice Ekwo stressed that since all the necessary parties were before the court over the exercise, there was need to…