State Governors Are Responsible For Rising Poverty In Nigeria – Federal Government Says

 

The state governors are responsible for the rising rate of poverty in the country, the Federal Government has said.

 

Speaking in Abuja, on Wednesday, November 30, the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clement Agba, blamed the governors for priotising the construction of heavy pieces of infrastructure such as bridges and airports in cities rather than improving the lives of the rural poor.

According to him, 72% of Nigeria’s poor live in neglected rural communities, but the governors had abandoned the critical demography, preferring to spend state resources on the capital cities instead.

“The governors are basically functioning in their state capitals. And democracy that we preach about is delivering the greatest goods to the greatest number of people. And from our demography, it shows that the greatest number of our people live in rural areas, but the governors are not working in the rural areas.

Right now 70 per cent of our people live in rural areas. They produce 90 per cent of what we eat. And unfortunately 60 per cent of what they produce is lost due to post harvest loss and it does not get to the market.

I think from the Federal Government’s side we are doing our best. But we need to say that rather than governors continuing to compete to take loans to build airports that are not necessary, where they have other airports so close to them, or governors now competing to build flyovers all over the place, we appeal that they should concentrate on building rural roads so that the farmer can at least get their products to the market,” he said.

 

Nigerians Travelling To UK, US, Others For Education Are Responsible For Naira Fall – Emefiele

 

Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele says the number of Nigerians seeking foreign education is to blame for the fall of the naira.

 

Emefiele said this at the 57th Annual Bankers Dinner, organised by the Chartered institute of Bankers Nigeria (CIBN), in Lagos.

The dinner had the theme, “Radical Responses to Abnormal Episodes: Time for Innovative decision-making” was appropriate and well timed.

According to Emefiele, there was tremendous increase in visa issuances to Nigerians by the United Kingdom in 2022 alone.

The apex bank governor noted that the number of student visas given to Nigerians by the United Kingdom spiked from a yearly average of about 8,000 visas in 2020 to almost 66,000 in 2022, implying an eight-fold increase amounting to $2.5 billion yearly in study-related forex outflow to the UK alone.
He stated that the move had immensely put pressure on Nigeria’s foreign reserves and the Naira.

According to him, due to this and the need to increase forex earnings, the CBN and the Bankers’ Committee started the RT200 scheme in February 2022.

He added that the steady increase in headline inflation from 15.60 per cent in January to 20.77 per cent in September was consistent with global trends.

“Food remains the major component of domestic consumer price basket. The annualised uptick in headline inflation mirrors the 6.21 percentage points upsurge in food inflation to 23.34 per cent in September.

“During this period, core inflation also resumed an upward movement from 13.87 per cent in January to 17.60 per cent.

“In addition to harsh global spill overs, exchange rate adjustments and imported inflation; inflation was also driven by local factors such as farmer herder clashes in parts of the food belt region,” he said.

 

Update: Former NDDC Acting MD,Joy Nunieh Says ,Three Groups Are Responsible For The Corruption In NDDC

Former acting Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission, Joy Nunieh who testified before the House of Representatives Committee on NDDC at the ongoing investigative hearing on the alleged illegal expenditure and mismanagement by the commission today July 17, narrated some incidents that occurred before her removal from the commission.

Nunieh who denied embezzling money as NDDC's acting MD, also denied collecting kickbacks from contractors.

 She disclosed that during her tenure, NDDC staff worked throughout December and there was no break.
The former NDDC Acting MD stated that she only spent Eight (8) billion Naira during her tenure which ran from October 2019 to February 2020. She alleged that three groups are responsible for the corruption in the NDDC and they include the management - IMC, staff of the commission and the people of the Niger Delta.

Nunieh further debunked claims of a forensic audit being carried out at the commission. She affirmed that she knows nothing about the N641m spent by NDDC on media support for the forensic audit.

She also recalled how the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio allegedly tried forcing her into taking an oath of loyalty and also threatened her. Nunieh called on the police to investigate her allegation and bring the defaulting party to justice.