• FEC, Reps order repair of Airport-Apapa road
THE Federal Government has begun moves to prosecute contractors who violate the Procurement Act through the use of "sharp practices" to get its contracts.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC), which met yesterday in Abuja, has, therefore, directed that the contractor for the 1.6 kilometres Oshodi-Apapa, Lagos State road be handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for investigation and possible prosecution for allegedly bidding for the contract with false information.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has urged the Federal Government to urgently begin the rehabilitation of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport road in Lagos.The road is reported to be in a dilapidated state, and hoodlums are said to cash on it to attack innocent people who make use of the road.
Also in its resolution on a motion brought by Chairman of the House Committee on Health, Ndudi Elumelu, the House has mandated the joint Committee on Works and the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to investigate the matter to ascertain whether any contract had been awarded for the rehabilitation of the said road in recent times, and why if so, it was not executed.
Elumelu said the poor state of the road was fast becoming an embarrassment to the country, especially since it serves as the window to the nation's commercial city.
The Council also approved a total of $100 million for the Federal Government backed French Development Agency (AFD) credit for the co-financing of the second phase of the Lagos Urban Transport Project.
The Council also approved the execution of the pilot phase of the Nigerian Universities Electronic Teaching and Learning Platform in 12 federal universities in the sum of N325,274,000, with a completion period of eight weeks.?
Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, who briefed journalists alongside the Ministers of Education (Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufa'i), Agriculture (Dr. Akinwumi Adesina) and Transport (Senator Idris A. Umar), said that the Council has approved new measures presented by the Minister of Agriculture aimed at increasing the use of cassava for the production of bread.
According to Maku, "today (yesterday), FEC took a major decision to begin to take measures to check sharp practices in the process of contract award, especially at the federal level. Last week, there was a contract that was probationarily given to a company to rehabilitate a 1.6 km road in Apapa, Lagos. But? because we were not too sure of some of the information contained or claimed by the contractor, Mr. President directed that there should be further investigation to ensure that council was taking the right decision.?
"On the result of our findings, council got the information clearly that there were still some problems with the information that was offered by the said contractor that tendered for the job. Under the Procurement Act, it is an offence for any contractor to give false information or forge document in order to win a contract. So, today, the President in Council directed that the matter be referred to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for further investigation. So, the matter will be directed to the EFCC to investigate this particular contract because of the unverifiable claims contained in the contractor's quest for the contract.
"We also took the decision? that henceforth, if anyone violates the Procurement Act, it will be investigated and if there is sufficient evidence for prosecution, we will recommend for the prosecution of all those who engage in sharp practices because they want to win a contract. Once the EFCC concludes the investigation on the actual state of things, further actions will be taken and you will be briefed."?
Adesina noted that "Nigeria is the highest producer of cassava in the world. It produces 35 million metric tonnes of cassava yearly. But we import a lot of wheat. We spend N635 billion every year importing wheat. And a lot of times, the wheat we are talking about is third grade wheat imported into this country. But this is an opportunity for Nigerians. Nigerians must eat what we produce because we have to create market for our farmers, we have to make sure that we stabilise the prizes of the commodities produced here, we have to diversify our economy and we have to create a lot of jobs. I am happy to report to you that 640 metric tonnes of high quality cassava flour that has not been bought before, has been bought. In fact, Ogun State alone has released about N1.3 billion for its farmers and processors, this means we are ?going beyond that."
Agricultural has continued to top the nation's economic growth with a 43.64 per cent share in the third quarter of 2011, the third quarter GDP report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed.
Dr. Yemi Kale, Statistician-General of the Federation noted that despite a little deep in the gross domestic product (GDP) in the third quarter, "the structure of the economy however remained largely unchanged with agriculture (43.64 per cent), crude oil and natural gas (14.27 per cent) and wholesale and retail trade (18.29 per cent) accounting for 76.2 per cent of total GDP".
He stated that the "fact that these three sectors account for over 76 per cent of GDP may explain in part why GDP growth has remained non-employment generating and poverty reducing in the last few years".
In the report released on Tuesday in Abuja, Kale said that "agriculture is mainly subsistence in nature and until it becomes more commercial, few job creating opportunities will emanate from that sector." He noted however, that the Ministry of Agriculture had developed what he described as an impressive transformation agenda for the sector, which once implemented, will not only increase growth but generate significant employment opportunities directly and indirectly. Similarly, crude oil is largely capital intensive in nature with very few Nigerians in any case currently having the core competences and skills to operate in the sector.
Consequently, the sector under its current arrangement is not designed to create significant new jobs. This should change however, with the Petroleum Industry Bill. Wholesale and retail trade sector, which constituted the third largest component of GDP is made up largely of imports resold in the country and involves largely the same individuals operating in the sector yearly with consequently relatively few opportunities for massive employment creation.
Until the sector becomes more dominant with massive influx of locally manufactured commodities requiring significantly more wholesalers and retailers, it would continue to generate relatively few new jobs every year, he said.
He maintained that "sectors that have significant employment generating opportunities like manufacturing, business enterprises especially micro, small and medium scale enterprises, solid minerals, building and construction and tourism and entertainment, which are growing strongly, however, still constitute a small fraction of GDP.
Together, these sectors contribute less than 10 per cent of GDP. Until the structure of the economy changes where such sectors have a larger share of GDP, it may be difficult to have inclusive job creating and poverty reducing growth."
Kale explained that "the above structural challenges coupled with a high level of inequality has resulted partly in strong growth that has not created jobs nor had any significant impact on poverty, which stands at 54 per cent on average.
He quoted recent NDIC reports that stated that 96 percent of banking deposits were held by four per cent of Nigerians. If correct, he maintained, then you can see the extent of inequality in the country, which means a high percentage of GDP growth is benefiting only a small fraction of the population and the trick as espoused in the Vision 20:2020 blueprint and Mr. President's transformation agenda, is to make the benefits of growth more inclusive and spread across more Nigerians. "This is why every time we release our growth estimates, the public say they do not feel the growth. It is because the growth is subjected to high inequality so that we are growing but the benefit of that growth is being constrained to a small percentage of Nigerians."
In the survey, the Statistician-General said "Nigeria's economy as a whole nevertheless continues to grow strongly while many of the countries we need to jump to be among the top economies in the world by GDP by 2020 continued to grow slower than predicted. This means that the double digit growth required to be among the top 20 economies in the world by 2020 may not be necessary".
At the time the Vision was conceptualized, he stated, "many of the countries we planned to surpass were performing much better than they are now and accordingly, we needed to perform even better to jump them. Hence the requirement in the Vision for double-digit growth. Since the global economic crisis hit the world, however, these countries have slowed down considerably meaning Nigeria may not need to grow as fast as previously assumed at the time the Vision was being conceptualized, especially if the trend continues," he said.
Kale disclosed that the Bureau in collaboration with "SMEDAN is currently conducting a survey of micro, small and medium scale enterprises. This is the first time such a comprehensive survey has been conducted in Nigeria in recent times and it is hoped that the result of the survey, which should be completed in December, would shed light on the nature, structure and challenges of the businesses involved in the sector towards developing appropriate polices that would lead to their growth and development," he said.
The Guardian