Business

Oyigbo Residents Protest Over High Power Tariff

Published

7 years ago

February 20, 2015

Residents of Seaside
Road, Umuebele II and Express sections of Oyigbo, in Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers State have protested over the high charges in power supply as against low power consumption in the areas.
The protesters who carried placards with inscriptions such as ‘power must go’, no light no bill, give us our correct bills among others, stormed the Power Holding Offices in the area, yesterday morning, demanding that their charges be made equal with their consumption.
Some of the protesters who spoke to The tide lamented that the arbitrary tariff has become unbearable, maintaining that should the charge take the same shape, by next monthly, they would be left with the option of an intense riot.
According to a resident Ikedi Godstime, “Infact, high charge is an understatement. Imagine that I will leave my house in the morning with all my electrical gadgets put off and to come back at night yet I am served a bill of over N10,000. No. this must stop”.
Augustina Gabrel, a boutique owner and resident of Seaside Road also said a situation where you are paying for light that you did not consume is terrible PHED will only give us light when they see that the month is ending and after the payment of the bill, you don’t see light again.
Also speaking, a trader along the PH-Aba Expressway lamented the situation saying, “it is unfortunate how the Nigerian system works. For us here, our light is being rationed. They give us light maybe one or two weeks and it will be the turn of the others. Yet, the bills keep coming as if you used the light all through the month. This has to stop otherwise, it will result to something serious between us and them.
When contacted, the Business Service Manager Oyigbo North Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) Mr Emake Anamemena, confirmed the protest stating however that the situation was due largely to estimated bill charges rather than from actual meter reading.
While nothing that the residents of the areas were mostly commercial residents with petty shops, Anamenena explained that there was a general increase in commercial tarrif from about N18 to N32 per Kilowatt hour adding that this was the situation that the consumers never understood.
He said “the people came agitating against high charges in this month of February. The problem is because a lot of them do not have metres and without that we can’t get the actual bill for their consumption. Anamemena, therefore, urged the protesters to shun the habits of short-cuts and purchase their individual metres as well as follow due process in the registration for proper computation saying “this is one way of ensuring that this problem could be tackled.

Lady Godknows Ogbulu

Business

NSE Begins Week On Negative Note, Loses N19.49bn

Published

2 days ago

December 1, 2021

The Tide

The Nigerian stock market began the week on a negative note as banking and consumer goods stocks, among others, triggered a N19.49bn loss.
At the end of trading on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited , the NGX All-Share Index dropped by 0.09 per cent to end at 43,270.94 basis points, while the market capitalisation declined to N22.58tn.
Market activities were mixed as the total volume of shares traded decreased by 30.19 per cent while the value traded rose by 34.05 per cent.
A total of 213.13 million shares valued at N2.36bn were exchanged in 4,105 deals, compared to 305.32 million shares worth N3.58bn in 4,450 deals last Friday.
FCMB Group Plc topped the traded stocks in terms of volume, accounting for 27.43 per cent of the total volume of trades while Airtel Africa Plc emerged as the most traded stock by value, representing 28.81 per cent of the total value of trades on the exchange.
14 firms gained compared to 21 losers.
AIICO Insurance Plc was the biggest gainer for the day, topping the gainers’ chart with a price appreciation of 8.57 per cent to N0.76 per share.
It was followed by LivingTrust Mortgage Bank Plc with a rise of 7.95 per cent, ending the day at N0.95 per share.
Analysing by sectors, three of the five major indices closed lower, led by NGX Oil & Gas (-0.56 per cent), NGX Consumer Goods (-0.23 per cent) and NGX Banking (0.18 per cent).
But the insurance (0.82 per cent) and industrial goods (0.002 per cent) indices gained at the end of trading.

Business

… Introduces TIES To Boost Business Loan

Published

2 days ago

December 1, 2021

The Tide

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has introduced the Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme (TIES), which provides undergraduates and graduates with a platform to access loans.
The TIES’ underlying aim is to provide access to capital for Nigerian undergraduates and graduates with innovative entrepreneurial and technological ideas from polytechnics and universities.
TIES intends to shift undergraduates and graduates away from white-collar job pursuits and towards a culture of entrepreneurship development for economic development and job creation.
In a national biennial entrepreneurship competition, the Developmental Component would be distributed in the form of awards to Nigerian polytechnics and universities.
The competition aims to increase undergraduates’ awareness and visibility of high-impact entrepreneurial/technological concepts, foster entrepreneurial talent hunts in Nigerian polytechnics and universities, and encourage commercially viable and transformative technologies.
Interested Nigerian polytechnics and universities shall apply to participate in the national biennial entrepreneurship competition on a dedicated online portal.
Outlining brief details of the project, potential impact and evidence of originality of project, CBN said it is an innovation for students entrepreneurs.

Business

CITN Applauds FG, Tax Authorities On Fiscal Policy Decisions

Published

2 days ago

December 1, 2021

The Tide

The Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) has lauded the Federal Government and tax authorities on the giant strides made on fiscal policy decisions and tax administration measures initiated this year in the area of Finance Act 2021 and the introduction of TaxPromax solution.
President of the institute, Adesina Adedayo, who gave the commendation at the institute’s yearly award ceremony at the weekend in Lagos, assured the government and tax authorities of aligning with the measures and promised to provide professional thoughts and insights on ways through which they could achieve an efficient and effective Nigerian tax system.
Adedayo emphasised the need to address the database, adding that without knowing who the tax-payers are, there is no way they can take money from unknown tax-payers.
Database is the aspect we have been emphasising on as an institute and in doing this, there are so many of pockets of data we have. All the data must be harmonised to have a simple unique tax-payers identification number,” he said.