Business
FG Pledges Bold Reforms To Revive, Sustain Economy
The Federal Government has promised to implement daring reforms that would revive and sustain economic growth and development in the country.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, made the promise in Abuja yesterday at the launch of the International Monetary Fund’s Regional Economic Outlook report on Sub-Saharan Africa.
According to IMF report, Nigeria’s real GDP is expected to grow at 0.8 per cent in 2017 and 1.9 per cent by 2018.
The reports further said inflation would remain elevated at 17.5 per cent and fiscal deficit to deteriorate to 5 per cent of GDP in 2017.
It also said GDP was projected to go from 19 per cent in 2016 to 20.1 per cent in 2017 and 20.4 per cent in 2018.
According to it, imports is expected to reduce from 13.8 per cent of GDP in 2017 to 12.4 per cent in 2018 and trade balance to improve by 1.5 per cent of GDP.
IMF, however, said the growth projection was hinged on adequate implementation of policy actions such as the Federal Government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).
Adeosun said that government was pursuing necessary reforms in areas of economic diversification, structural transformation, fiscal consolidation, public finance management and macro stability.
“Nigeria was one of the countries hardest hit by the commodity price decline.
“We have tried to mitigate these pressures through series of interventions, such as growing of the non-oil sector base through increased efficiency of tax and customs collections.
“We have also reduced cost of doing business, increased support for agriculture, infrastructure and manufacturing as well as reflating the economy through fiscal support to sub-nationals among several other measures.
“The security situation has improved considerably and investors’ confidence is on the increase. It is heartwarming to say that Nigeria will be out of recession soon,’’ she said.
Adeosun further said that the lessons derivable from the report was that, it was time sub-saharan countries take seriously the issue of exporting raw commodities with little or no value added.
She tasked all 45 sub-saharan countries to implement reforms that would boost local production, help create jobs and achieve sustainable growth.
Also, the Director, Monetary Policy Department, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Moses Tule, said a comprehensive and coordinated implementation of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan were vital to the growth of the economy.
He, however advised against delayed policy response, uncoordinated implementation of ERGP and other economic reforms, in order not to hurt the growth projected for Nigeria in the Regional Economic Outlook report.
“Resolution of the Niger Delta crisis is expected to make headroom for higher oil exports, thus improving the fiscal space.
Also, the current forex reforms are expected to further improve, following improved terms of trade with higher oil exports and increased substitution with local production.
“The successful issuance of the last Eurobond is fast restoring confidence in our economy as evident in the recent Sovereign Bond Issuance offshore,’’ he said.
Also, the Director of the IMF’s African Department, Mr Abebe Selassie, said the delay in implementing much needed adjustment policies was responsible for creating uncertainty in economies.
He also said the overall weak outlook for the region partly reflected insufficient policy adjustment, holding back investments and generating risks, particularly in oil exporting countries like Angola and Nigeria.
Selassie, who cited the region’s modest growth recovery from 1.4 percent in 2016 to 2.6 percent in 2017, noted that this would barely put sub-Saharan Africa back on a path of rising per capita income.
“The uptick will be largely driven by one-off factor in the three largest countries; that is a recovery in oil production in Nigeria, higher public spending in Angola and fading of drought effects in South Africa.
“ But for other countries, the outlook remains shrouded in substantial uncertainties, including possible further appreciation of the U.S. dollar and tightening of global financing conditions, especially for countries where fundamentals have deteriorated.
“ On top of that, the outlook is further clouded by security issues that have contributed to an increase in food insecurity and even famine in parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
Selassie stressed the urgent need to ensure macroeconomic stability, complemented with structural reforms to support rebalancing and policies to strengthen social protection for the most vulnerable in the region.
He, however, reiterated that sub-Saharan Africa remained a region with tremendous potential for growth in the medium term, provided strong domestic policy measures were implemented.
Two universities in the Niger Delta zone (University of Port Harcourt and University of Benin) have emerged winners of the South-South region in the Nigerian Engineering Olympiad (NEO) competition.
The NEO competition which took place at the Nigerian Content Tower(NCT), headquarters of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board(NCDMB) in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State is a nationwide engineering, innovation and entrepreneurship competition launched in 2025 by a non-profit organization, ‘Enactus Nigeria’, in partnership with NCDMB, Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited, First Exploration & Petroleum Development Company and the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE).
The two Universities teams represented differently by ‘Inovation team PROTRONICS’ and ‘Innovation team VHORDE’, won their counterparts from the Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE), Effurun, Delta State, and the University of Uyo, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, in the competition showcasing hardware and software prototypes developed to serve as innovative solutions to real-world challenges with specific reference to Nigeria and Africa.
From UNIPORT’s ‘team PROTRONICS’ was an innovation called ‘KEYTRIC’ which the competitors presented as a ‘SMART POWER CONTROL’ that makes electricity usage effortless and automating with the use of an intelligent locking systems.
Team PROTRONICS highlighted high electricity bills, electricity fire risk and expensive smart home and gaps in existing solutions, including costly installation, lack of integration between security and energy, and dependence on the Internet as the reason for their innovative invention.
“Our innovative solution is a smart energy door lock that switches off a user’s electricity supply when they lock to leave the house.
“Our solution saves money on electricity bill, reduces the risk of electric fire accident, and is affordable to everyone”, the Uniport’s team said.
On the other hand, Team VHORDE of the University of Benin presented what it terms Intelligent Real-time Interface(IRIS) which enables visually impaired individuals to gain sight.
They pointed out that there are 4.5 million visually impaired Nigerians who are in some way incapacitated and unable to live life to the fullest.
The students displayed an IRIS pack, consisting sensors, wearable glasses, microphone, camera and Haptic feedback.
On how the IRIS works, the UNIBEN students said the smart glasses, which consist, a camera, depth sensor, and edge Artificial Intelligence(AI) processor, enables a visually impaired person to see and understand the world in real time.
“There’s an AI Compute Unit to be worn at the waist, which runs Convolutional neutral network (CNN) object detection, face recognition, and voice processing on-device”, the team said.
In a section on Business Model and Revenue Streams, the University of Benin competitors indicated production-scale pricing for IRIS Standard as N699,000 one-time purchase.
According to the team, the IRIS standard has the following functions, real-time object and scene identification, familiar face recognition, obstacle and hazard detection (haptic wristbands), natural voice interaction, Edge AI – fully offline core functions, and OTA software updates via Wi-Fi.
In an assessment of the prototypes and demonstrations made, one of the key judges of the competition, Engr. Dokubo Obongo, Manager, Institutional Strengthening, at the NCDMB, described all the presentations as “top-notch”.
He noted that there are solutions that are viable marketwise, relevant to the society and the challenges humans face, explaining that the Engineering Olympiad is a competition targeted at developing home-grown solutions from research and development from Nigerian universities.
“The idea is to see how we can proffer solutions to our own problems which means creating business opportunities”, he said.
Speaking for Enactus Nigeria, the group’s Country Director, Mr. Michael Ajayi, said the two top finalists from the six geopolitical zones would move to a boot camp for further preparation towards the main national championship, and that the best three teams would share N100 million.
He also disclosed that each of the 30 teams that displayed prototype technology in the regional competition would receive N3 million.
Team PROTRONICS of the University of Port Harcourt had as Team Lead Dr. Victor Jinn (Faculty Adviser), while the contestants were Chukwuma Sunday-Odu, Fubara David Otokini, and Ekemini Godwin Akpan, while Team VHORDE of the University of Benin had Anoint Oritsetimeyin Igorki, Oghosa Derick Osarobo, Uti Henry Eworitsewarami, Jada O. Godfrey-Ariavie, Richard O.Enegbuna, Momodu O. Olayemi, and Asemota G. Ayevbosa.
By: Ariwera Ibibo-Howells, Yenagoa
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has officially unveiled the Simplified Customs Advanced Declaration System (SCADS) at the international wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
The move is aimed at improving passenger clearance, compliance and customs operations.
This was contained in a statement by the NCS spokesperson, Abdullahi Maiwada, and made available to Newsmen in Abuja.
Maiwada explained that the platform, designed to simplify baggage declaration for inbound international passengers, aims to reduce manual bottlenecks, improve transparency in revenue assessment and enhance operational efficiency at Nigeria’s international airports.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Deputy Comptroller-General of Customs in charge of ICT/Modernisation, Oluyomi Adebakin, said the deployment of SCADS marked another major step in the service’s digital transformation agenda.
Adebakin said the initiative became necessary to address operational challenges encountered on the service’s previous passenger declaration platform earlier this year.
She explained that rather than allowing the setbacks to slow operations, the service chose to develop a stronger and more efficient alternative.
“When the earlier platform experienced operational challenges, we chose not to see it as a setback.
“We saw it as an opportunity to build something better, stronger and more efficient,” she said.
According to her, the newly introduced SCADS platform allows passengers to declare items before arrival, thereby reducing clearance time while improving compliance and operational integrity.
“For passengers, this system creates the opportunity for advance declaration before arrival. It means faster clearance, easier compliance and smoother movement through our airports,” she added.
Adebakin said that the system would eliminate subjective revenue assessment by ensuring that duties were being automatically generated based on declared items, their quantities and actual values.
“When we talk about revenue collection, it is not about collecting more or less. It is about collecting the right revenue. With this system, assessment will now be more objective, accurate and driven by data,” she said.
Earlier Comptroller Customs Area Controller, FCT Area Command, Victoria Alibo,described the selection of the command for the pilot phase as a vote of confidence in its operational capacity.
Alibo said the new platform integrates passenger baggage and e-commerce declarations into a single digital framework designed to support global Customs best practices.
“SCADS is designed to simplify declarations, reduce clearance time, eliminate manual bottlenecks and align our operations with international standards,” Alibo said.
She said that the pilot phase would run for five days, from May 18 to May 22, during which officers would evaluate the system in a live environment ahead of nationwide deployment.
The event was attended by senior Customs officers, officials of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, partner government agencies, technical teams, and other key stakeholders in Nigeria’s aviation and border management ecosystem.
By: CHINEDU WOSU
Olubiyo, said this in an interview with Newsmen to Monday in Abuja.
He said energy theft occurs at both the consumer and institutional levels across the electricity value chain from generation to transmission and distribution.
According to Olubiyo, at the consumer level electricity theft includes metre bypass, illegal connections and unauthorised access to power without proper billing.
According to him, some customers would dig underground cables directly to their homes or businesses without being metered, while others exploit estimated billing systems to consume electricity without payment.
“Whether through metre bypass or illegal connection, many customers are using electricity for free. That is energy theft,” he said.
He also alleged that institutional energy theft exists within the power sector, particularly through defective, obsolete, or wrongly installed metres used in monitoring electricity generation and distribution.
He said that wholesale metres installed at critical interfaces among generation companies (GenCos), transmission companies, and distribution companies (DisCos) were often out-dated or improperly configured.
He said those could lead to inaccurate readings and inflated subsidy claims.
“If 4,000 megawatts is generated and 7,000 megawatts is recorded, that is energy theft because the excess energy does not get to consumers,” he stated.
The expert further said some operators in the sector allegedly exploit maintenance and repair contracts through inflated contract sums and possible collaboration with vandals.
He also cited the deployment of secure pole-mounted metres in military barracks as an example of how technology can curb metre tampering and unauthorised access.
He, therefore said the sector had to urgently address infrastructure decay, weak regulation, poor investment, and corruption within the value chain.
Otherwise, according to him, Nigeria’s electricity industry will continue to face liquidity challenges, revenue losses and unstable power supply.
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