Day: April 3, 2023

Mr Ekerete Gam-Ikon, an insurance expert has advised elected leaders at all levels to adopt insurance as their strategic action toward improving Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in states.

Gam-Ikon, the Convener of Insurance September, an insurance platform, in a document on Sunday said the revenue could be generated by making those without insurance coverages to pay a fine.

The expert urged the leaders to direct members of their constituencies and states to register for health insurance scheme.

He said the leaders should also ensure that public buildings including offices, schools, markets, religious places, hotels and every public place were insured against risks of fire outbreak, collapse and flood.

Gam-Ikon advised the leaders to ensure that all their contracts were insured against non-performance and delayed delivery date.

The expert suggested that the contracts would include supplies and projects.

“Coordinate with the necessary legislative instruments to ensure insurance is fully operational in your Constituency and state.

“With all your people having health insurance coverage, you will address the major challenge of healthcare.

“Next is to ensure they live in safe and secured environments.

“Insurance is the best kept secret of rich people and rich nations.

“Start asking questions now and let the answers you get embolden you to consider doing something different in governance in our country using insurance,” he said.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

The Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), says steps are being taken to resolve challenges of knowledge gap of the Free Trade Zones (FTZS) scheme by policymakers and stakeholders.

Prof. Adesoji Adesugba, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NEPZA said this on Sunday in Abuja in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Adesugba said it would also resolve the intra-agency lukewarm cooperation and non-existence of Offshore Banking System being faced by the authority.

“It is interesting to note that steps are being taken to resolve these challenges so as to free up the scheme for greater exploitation, being a veritable option for revenue generation for the government aside oil and gas,’’ he said.

He said it was evident that the authority’s consistent engagement with owners of zones, enterprises operating in the zones and its stakeholders had brought about the desired confidence of investors in the scheme much more than before.

He said it was able to achieve this through management’s open corporate governance system and with the establishment of three subsets.

The managing director listed the subsets as the NEPZA Alternative Dispute Resolution Centre (ADRC), Special Economic Zones Security (SEZs) and the Nigeria Economic Zones Association (NEZA).

According to him, these three-subsets have been deployed appropriately for the scheme’s sustainability.

On infrastructure development, Adesugba said some interventions were done, aimed at repositioning the status of our free zones for global competitiveness.

“We are aware of the inherent competitions posed by neigbouring countries and so the country has no options than to improve and build fresh infrastructure that can be used to attract investors,’’ he said.

He listed the interventions as Pre-built zone factory building and service plots, Pre-built zone warehouses for storage of raw materials and products and Efficient telecommunication facilities.

Others , he listed as a one-stop-shop administrative centre to handle all investors’ needs, training centres to cater for skills needs, among others and 25 Megawatts of electricity in the Calabar and Kano Free Trade Zones

He also included others as the Special Economic Zones Security (SEZSEC)/Police/DSS posts to provide adequate security in the zones and Construction of internal roads in Kano and Calabar FTZs.

Others are Construction of Investors Suites in Kano KFTZ, digitisation of NEPZA’s operation to enhance service delivery and Federal Government investment in improving outside infrastructure (Rail//Roads/Power).

He described Nigeria as the largest consumer market in Africa with more than 200 million inhabitants.

He said investors were taking advantage of this market while developing their export market.

“We definitely have an edge over our neigbours even as we continue to seek improved budgetary allocation to develop world facilities for the scheme to compete favourably.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Society for Corporate Governance Nigeria (SCGN) is seeking to partner with Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on specialised and industry-specific trainings for Executives and Board of Directors in the telecom industry.

The President of SCGN, Mohammad Ahmad made this known when he led the organization leadership on a courtesy visit to NCC on Monday, in Abuja.

Ahmad, represented by Tijjani Borodo, a Director and fellow of the society, said that the NGO would also like to partner with the NCC in the area of capacity building initiatives for the sector.

“The Society for Corporate Governance Nigeria would like to partner with the commission on capacity building initiatives for the sector and the organisations regulated by it.

“The society hereby expresses her interest to partner with the commission on Specialised and Industry-Specific Trainings for Executives, Board of Directors, and the Executive Management of organisations in the Telecommunications industry around Board Leadership, Governance and Sustainability.

“The society would like to express her interest in collaborating with the commission to sensitise and create awareness of the guidelines within the sector and organisations regulated by it.

“We can provide framework for compliance and reporting of the anticipated corporate governance guideline.”

Ahmad said that the partnership was to promote good corporate governance and foster best practices in the communications sector and in the country.

“We strongly believe that the partnership will strengthen the commission’s position as a promoter of good corporate governance and setting an example to other regulators as a champion of excellence and progress,” he said.

In his response, NCC’s Executive Vice-Chairman, Prof. Umar Danbatta, represented by the Executive Commissioner Stakeholders Management, Mr Adeleke Adewolu, said the visit was one of great importance for several reasons.

Danbatta said that the SCGN and the commission have had fruitful professional relationships, adding that the NGO was instrumental to the development of the telecommunications Industry Code of Corporate Governance issued by the NCC in 2014.

He said that it was a pioneer code, which was carefully designed to enhance governance in the Nigerian communications industry and which led to the development of similar instruments by other sectors.

Danbatta said NCC had commenced the development of guidelines for the communications sector, adding that members of the SCGN have been part of that process.

He said the NCC had recognised that critical elements of its statutory mandate can only be realised when sector players adhered to best corporate governance and ethical standards.

“This is why we pioneered the development of sectoral Corporate Governance Codes and this is why we insist on the highest possible governance and ethical standards for our licensees.

“This is also why we consider it of utmost importance to strengthen our relationship with stakeholders like the SCGN,”Danbatta said.

He said one of the most important strategies that the NCC had adopted was to harness stakeholder views in the development of its regulatory interventions.

Danbatta also said that SCGN, in its role as a frontline advocacy group for sound governance and ethical business conduct, had been a worthy partner of the commission.

He said that the commission looked forward to many more years of fruitful professional relationship with the SCGN and its members at large.

Mrs Chioma Mordi, Chief Executive Officer, SCGN, said that the NGO had corporate members who spread corporate governance across various sectors.

Mordi called on the NCC to be a part of the society for continuous access to information in corporate governance, both locally and internationally.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that SCGN is committed to developing and promoting corporate governance’s best practices and business ethics founded by Prof. Fabian Ajogwu.

The society had collaborated with some institutions to develop sectorial corporate governance codes and guidelines, as well as organise capacity-building training for their sectors and industries.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

A 68-year-old businessman, Nelson Gwede, on Monday appeared before a Wuse Zone 2, Abuja Magistrates’ Court charged with defrauding one Agwu Ogbonna of the sum of N115 million.

Ngwede, a resident of Chika, Airport Road, Abuja, is facing a two-count charge bordering on criminal breach of trust and cheating.

The two crimes contravene the provisions of sections 312 and 322 of the Penal Code, according to the prosecutor, Edwin Inegbenoise.

Inegbenoise told the court that the defendant, sometimes in March, introduced himself to the complainant as a “financial facilitator”.

“The defendant convinced the complainant that he was going to introduce him to a facility through which he would get liquid cash.

“The defendant provided an account number 4011441873 owned by OCHKWO HANDRAIL NIGERIA LTD domiciled in Fidelity Bank into which the sum of N100,000,000 was paid by the complainant.

“The defendant also provided another account number carrying his name, Nelson Gwede, with number 3039016860, domiciled in First Bank.

“An additional N15 million was paid into this account in exchange for liquid cash.

“The defendant collected the money through the above mentioned accounts but refused to give the cash equivalent to the complainant as agreed,” he said.

The prosecutor added that the defendant’s actions had affected the complainant and prevented him from carrying out his business transactions.

Inegbenoise said that the defendant, during police investigation, mentioned that one Mr ThankGod, now at large, was responsible for the account into which the sum of N100,000,000 was paid.

At the hearing of the matter, Ngwede pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Magistrate Huzaifa Maccido granted the defendant bail in the sum of N10 million with two sureties in like sum that must reside within the jurisdiction of the court.

Maccido ordered that one of the sureties must be a civil servant on Grade Level 14 while the other must be a businessman.

All sureties must be living in their personal houses, the magistrate ordered.

He, thereafter, adjourned the case until May 17, for hearing.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

The Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), says that the Free Trade Zones (FTZs) Scheme generated a total of N35.1 billion for government as Customs Duty in 2021.

The authority said the sum of N408.3 million was also remitted as Pay As You Earn (PAYE) taxes in 2021.

Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday, Prof. Adesoji Adesugba, the Managing Director, NEPZA said it ensured effective generation of customs duty and administration of taxes applicable in zones operation.

NAN reports that PAYE tax is one of the vital types of taxes in Nigeria that individuals pay to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) within their respective state of residence.

Section 19 of NEPZA Act mandates FTZs enterprises to file returns for statistics and data, while section 8 stipulates that enterprises operating in zones should be exempted from federal, state and local government taxes.

However, they are under obligations to pay all deferred taxes and duties when they extend their businesses to the customs territories.

The NEPZA boss further said that the scheme also generated a total of 19,125 employments in 2021

According to him, a total of 3,000 jobs skills have so far been transferred to Nigerians in 2021.

The managing director explained that the Federal Government approved the establishment of the Special Economic Zones Security (SEZSEC) to be operated by NEPZA.

He said it was for the very reason of creating a viable revenue option to reduce over-dependency on the downstream sector that the Nigerian government adopted the FTZ scheme and created NEPZA with an Act 63 of the parliament in 1992 to regulate and manage it.

“I can confidently say that the authority has done well in the actualisation of its mandate.

“We have experienced a turnaround in the last seven years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration as he continues to show commitment and passion through the Federal Government’s unflinching support for the success of the scheme.

“For instance, in 2017, the present administration buttressed the role of special economic zones in Nigeria’s industrialisation agenda under the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP),” he said.

He said the SEZ model was used to accelerate implementation of the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP), a four – year road map on industrialisation to create jobs and promote exports, which in turn would facilitate economic growth.

“The successes and prospects of the scheme have been in the last few years made manifest as a result of the entrants of private investors,” Adesugba said.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria