- Suspends planned National carrier, Nigeria Air
By Lawrence Olaoye
The Federal Government has approved the concession of 20 national silos spread across the country to private operators.
The government is to earn the sum of N6 billion from the concession in the next 10 years after which the agreement could either be renewed or terminated.
The government has also approved the sum of N3 billion to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for the provision of materials for flood victims across the country.
Briefing newsmen after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday, Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbe, said “Today we presented a memo to council seeking concession the silos which have been built in different parts of the country. A total of 33 silos exist with a capacity of 1,360,000 metric tons of grains and there are spread almost evenly through the geo-political zones of the country.
“In 2014, government decided to concession some of these silos, so that the private sector can help use them and pay a fee to the federal government.
“The process was carried out by the World Bank, the concession committee of government, NGOs, private sector and the ministry of agriculture. It has taken this long to arrive at this because the processes are very slow. We wanted absolute accountability. And so we arrived today at presenting a memo to council to approve the concessioning of 20 these silos most of them with a capacity of 100,000 tons. Members of council asked a lot of questions on how we intend to manage this and make sure the concessionaire actually do the right thing.
“We informed them that the fact that we are concessioning some of the silos does not mean we are reneging on our responsibility to guarantee food security. We are keeping six of the silos which is according to international standard, we keep five percent of all the grains we harvest every year, the rest will go to private sector groups. Those who bided and have shown capacity have been the ones allocated the silos, those who are unable to manage them will have the concession revoked.
Government will earn N6 billion in the 10-year period of the first instance. The federal government remains the owner of the silos and at the end of 10 year it can either renew, revoke or takeover the silos and operate them ourselves.
The advantages of the concessioning include, private sector groups with these silos in their possession will drive the production of grains where these things grow more suitably. We have request for grains from different parts of the world, soya beans, sesame, sorghum and millet. We also have massive rice production going on and the likes of Dangote and Coscharis going into rice production now need these silos. So concessioning it to them means they will organize local groups to produce grains for them to dry properly and store and market when the need arises or even export.”
Also at the briefing, the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, disclosed that federal government has put in place measures to contain the expected flooding following early warnings He noted that the water level has risen to 11.19 , but has not reached the 12.4 level that led to flooding in 2012.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has suspended the proposed new National Carrier, Nigeria Air, a Channels TV news report said yesterday.
The Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Serika, made the announcement on Wednesday through his Twitter handle – @hadisirika.
“I regret to announce that the Federal Executive Council has taken the tough decision to suspend the National Carrier Project in the interim.
“All commitments due will be honoured.
“We thank the public for the support as always”.
He, however, gave no reason for the decision, the report said.
The Federal Government’s reported decision to suspend a new national carrier follows its unveiling two months ago.
During its unveiling on July 18, the minister said the national carrier will be private sector driven and not a “social service”.
According to him, the Federal Government will not own more than 5% (maximum) of the new National Carrier.
Sirika explained that the airline will create economic and job opportunities.
“We want to use this new private-sector-led airline to make a statement that, ‘Yes, Nigeria can do it!’ and we want to promote our cultures and traditions. It will also create economic opportunities and jobs”, he said.
