Onitsha River Port: The New Gold Mine…South East lost N4 trillion in 2 years…Get ready to upgrade your pre-paid metre…plus South East Digest…

Onitsha River Port:  The New Gold Mine

The recently concessioned Onitsha River Port would receive its first barge of container cargos in the next couple of days.  This is one of the highlights of the webinar organized last week by the Anambra State Ministry of Transportation and ANSIPPA.

The management of the port expects to handle between 10 and 12 percent of the 60 percent national cargo that goes to the South East within the first year of its operation.  They plan to handle about 70 percent of the 60 percent national cargo on or before the fifth year of operation.  Initially, the port would be receiving about 70,000 20-foot containers and 20,000 40-foot containers.   By the fifth year, it is planned that the port would be handling over 800,000 40-foot containers.

Another major highlight is that it is important to further dredge the Niger to ensure that the full potentials of the Onitsha River Port, and also the Lokoja and Oguta post, are achieved.  Dredging would also support all the efforts to reduce or eliminate the perennial flooding challenge being faced from Lokoja to the lower Niger region.

Other highlights include the fact that the port would be a port origin as well as a port of destination, it is an Export Free Trade Zone, and the fact that the port would have its own power plant with possibility of selling/supplying power to industries in and around Onitsha.

Panelists at the webinar included:  Chief George Moghalu, Managing Director, Nigeria Inland Waterways Authority; Mrs. Patricia Igwebuike, Anambra State Commissioner for Transport;

Lady Ada Chukwudozie, President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi chapter; Dr. George Nwangwu, Chairman, Universal Elysium (Concessionaire);

And Wannes De Witt, Port Manager on behalf of the Concessionaire.  Mr Mark Okoye II, MD/CEO of Anambra State Investment Promotion and Protection Agency (ANSIPPA) formally opened the webinar.

South East lost N4 trillion in 2 years

Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Kalu, has disclosed that statistical data indicate that the South East lost about N4 trillion in the last two years due to the sit-at-home orders of separatists groups.  He was speaking during a meeting with Ndigbomaka Progressive Markets Association in Lagos.

Get ready to upgrade your pre-paid metre

Your pre-metre may not function after November 20, 2023, if you have not upgraded before then, according to Kaduna Electric.  It is a worldwide systems upgrade.  Kaduna Electric begins upgrade in August 2023. 

20 State Govts seek $540m AfDB funding for agro-industrial zones – Adesina

Twenty Nigerian states have expressed interest in accessing over half a billion dollars in international financing to create agro-industrial zones in their States, Akinwunmi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, said in a speech in Lagos.

While delivering the keynote address at the annual BusinessDay CEO Forum, Adesina said Nigeria must make agriculture a major wealth-creating sector and financing is key.

The African Development Bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the Islamic Development Bank last year approved $540 million to Nigeria to develop the first set of Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones in nine states 

“An additional twenty state governments have expressed interest to be engaged for the second phase of the programme,” he said.

Though he did not reveal the states that have shown interest thus far, there has been a significant uptick in production from the states that previously accessed the funds.

The pilot phase of the programme sought to raise the output of commodities such as rice, cassava, and cocoa, which are grown in Cross River State, beef and dairy cattle in the Federal Capital Territory, livestock in Imo State, beef and dairy, tomato, maize, and ginger from Kaduna State, rice, tomatoes, groundnuts, and sesame oil from Kano State, livestock in Kwara State, cassava, rice, poultry, and fisheries in Ogun State, cassava, soybeans, and rice from Oyo State.

“ It is time to take bold policy measures to drive the structural transformation of agriculture, with infrastructure and spatial economic policies that will help turn the rural economies of Nigeria away from being zones of economic misery to new zones of economic prosperity,” Adesina said.

The AfDB boss said the key to this is the development of Special Agro-industrial Processing Zones (SAPZs) across the country.

These will be zones enabled with infrastructure and logistics, to support private sector food and agriculture companies to locate close to the areas of production and to process and add value to food and agricultural commodities.

He said this will turn cotton into textiles and garments, tomatoes into purees and tomato paste, milk into cheese, butter and substitute imported milk and drive massive transformation of finished rice products.

“In short, the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones will turn rural Nigeria from zones of economic misery into new zones of economic prosperity. The booming wealth will touch every part of Nigeria, and every person in Nigeria, from rural to urban areas,” he said.

The BusinessDay CEO Forum, now in its 14th edition, brings together decision-makers in the country’s private and public sectors to discuss emerging opportunities and prevailing challenges they encounter in running their organisations.

This year’s event was held in Lagos on July 13, with the theme “Charting a Course to Growth and Development” and explored what is required by business leaders to reposition for economic growth.

 

(A digest of latest reports on the Economy, Industry, Politics, Sports, and developments around the South East of Nigeria)

ANAMBRA STATE

Onitsha Traditional Council Gives Quit Notice to Nigeria Prison Services, Says Lease Agreement Expired

The ancient Onitsha Town in Anambra state has issued a Notice to quit it’s ancestry land to the Nigerian Correction Center located in the area.  The said land was given to the then Nigerian Prison Services in the year 1910 for a duration of ninety nine years which according to the town has expired.

It also ordered the Correction Center to stop fort with the acquisition and occupation of more land belonging to Umudei quarters Iyiawu quarters, Okposi Eke section of Ogboli Eke quarters which also belong to the town.

According to a release signed by the Chief Of Staff Chief Osita Anionwu Ike Akunwani the Onitsha Traditional Council (Ime Obi) said ;

 “Ime Obi calls for return of lands illegally occupied by Nigeria Correctional Services” 

“Onitsha, July 14, 2023The Onitsha Traditional Council (Ime Obi) is insisting that the Nigeria Correctional Services should put a stop to its appropriation of parcels of land belonging to Onitsha families, and that these should revert to the owners the parcels of land, properties of the Umudei quarters, lylawu quarters, and Okposi Eke section of Ogboli Eke quarters are in the Akpaka area of Onitsha”

“Some facilities of the correctional services agency are located on them Ime Obi stated that despite the expiration of a lease of agreement in respect of the parcels of land, which hitherto were used as farmlands by the Onitsha families, the Nigeria Correctional Services has continued to lay claim to them. Chief Osita Anionwu Ike Akatakwuani/Chief of Staff, Ime Obi, explained that “by a lease agreement signed by the Obi of Onitsha acting for and on behalf of the chiefs of Onitsha with the Colonial Government dated July 22, 1910, Onitsha leased the Land to the Colonial Government for a term of 99 years with no renewal clause. 

Anionwu added, ” with the expiration of the lease in 2009, the Nigeria Correctional Services took unilateral action to scuttle the non-renewal of the 1910 lease agreement, a development which is unacceptable to the Onitsha community.”

“The Onitsha Traditional Council observed that beyond the occupation of the parcels of land for which the lease agreement had expired, the Nigeria”

 “Correctional Services has gone ahead to encroach on adjoining parcels of land including that which has been set aside for the National Maritime Institute, a federal government agency under the Nnamdi Azikiwe University. It called on the correctional agency to remove all structures placed on these lands. including reestablishing the thoroughfares to the various Onitsha shrines in the vicinity”

IMO STATE

Hope Uzodimma Increases Minimum Wage For Workers To N40,000, Rolls Out Multiple Palliatives For Citizens Of Imo State

Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State at the weekend rose to the challenge of hardship recently made worse by the removal of fuel subsidy in the country, raising the minimum wage of workers in Imo State to N40,000 and rolling out multiple palliatives that will go a long way in alleviating the sufferings of the citizens.

The multiple palliatives include but not limited to enhanced free transportation, feeding and medical care for workers, generous loans to genuine farmers, establishment of marketing and commodity boards, payment of gratuities to retirees, mass housing, recruitment of more teachers for primary, secondary and tertiary institutions, bursary and scholarship for Imo State students, among others.

Governor Uzodimma unveiled the package at a special meeting of critical stakeholders comprising religious leaders, politicians, farmers, traders, labour leaders, among others, which he convened at the Rockview Hotel, Owerri.

The Governor said he knows that "because we are buying petrol now at the rate of N530 per litre as against the previous rate of N189, you may hardly believe it. But I know that faith and hope are recurring words in our everyday lives."

"Because you have hope and I know you also have faith in what we are doing, you will ultimately triumph. And I want you to be rest assured that this promise will come through. My dear brothers and sisters, you must believe me, when I tell you that I am truly touched by the reality on the ground. Yes, I am personally affected because whenever the nose weeps, the eyes join."

 

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