Air Force To Commence Deployment Of Troops For Northeast Clean Up

Nigeria’s Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, says he will commence a heavy deployment of air troops from Friday, June 17, to Maiduguri for mop up operations on Boko Haram insurgents.

Speaking to reporters in Kano State, North West Nigeria, the Air Force boss disclosed that already, a significant number were deployed in Niger Delta to counter the Avengers’ destruction of Nigeria’s oil pipelines.

The Air Staff boss believes that the most important machinery to air theater in the contemporary security threat to Nigeria is the ability of the defence to employ air power that will make the ground hold-able for the land Army to move into action.

The Operation Lafiya Dole jointly carried out by all security agencies across the country has yielded much needed results as air officers are only being deployed to clear the ground for mop up operations by sister security agencies.

He further assured officers that henceforth, their welfare packages would include the provision of a conducive atmosphere to settle their families at the barracks. He added that making them comfortable at the war front will always come first.

The Air chief also commissioned staff quarters and pilot students hostels at the Air Force Base in the state.

Commissioning the projects, a former Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Mukhtar Muhammad, said that with the commitment shown so far by Nigeria’s defence mechanism, he was optimistic that the activities of Boko Haram insurgents would soon be a thing of the past.

In order to ensure continuity and sustainable security development in Nigeria, the former Chief of Air Staff advised officers and men of the Nigeria Air Force to put all hands on deck, to ensure the actualization of the NAF vision of protecting Nigeria’s Air Defence system.

FG saving N1.4trn annually from subsidy removal – Kachikwu

The recent removal of subsidy from the pump price of premium motor spirit is saving the federal government over N1.4 trillion that would have been expended on subsidy claims per annum, the minister of state for petroleum resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, has said.

Speaking when he visited the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, the minister explained that the deregulation policy has also re-awakened the downstream sector and would help the nation become a net exporter of petroleum products in a few years.

“We now have a lot of people who are interested in investing in our refineries and building more refineries and we will remain committed to the goal which is to reduce importation of petroleum products by 60 per cent by the end of 2018 and become a net exporter of petroleum products by 2019,” he said.

Kachikwu in a statement yesterday by the board noted that with the fall in crude oil prices and reduced investment in the sector, the NCDMB must re-strategise and transit from its role of just propagating local content and local participation to one of finding commonality with industry stakeholders to encourage investment.

Kachikwu also stated that the corporate restructuring initiated in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has reduced the average monthly loss recorded by the corporation from N40 billion in the recent past to N3 billion, while efforts remained on target to achieve profitability before the end of 2016, a feat that had not been recorded in 20years.

He also announced plans to carry out infrastructural re-graphing of Nigeria’s petroleum sector, adding that plans were afoot to review Nigeria’s ageing pipelines, depots and gas infrastructure and begin the process of replacing them.

On gas flaring, the minister stated that the new thinking was to move away from a penalty-based gas regulation which had largely failed over the years to a zero tolerance gas flaring regulation with year 2020 as the new target deadline.

Admitting that the entire spectrum of petroleum industry required strategic intervention, Kachikwu harped on the need to see the challenges as opportunities to transform the sub sectors into income earners for the populace.
SOURCE: TodayNG

IMF welcomes Nigeria's decision to end currency peg

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday it welcomed the decision by Nigeria's central bank to abandon its currency peg and adopt a flexible exchange rate policy, saying this was important to reduce fiscal and external imbalances.

IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told a weekly news briefing the Fund wanted to see how effectively the naira exchange market functions once the new float system is put into effect next Monday.

Nigeria's central bank governor said in a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari the bank expects the naira to settle at around 250 to the dollar after it abandons the peg of 197 to the dollar it has supported for 16 months.

"I think the announcement yesterday to revise the guidelines for the operation of the Nigerian interbank foreign exchange market is an important and welcome step," Rice told reporters. "It will provide greater flexibility in that market, the foreign exchange market."

Senior IMF officials, including Managing Director Christine Lagarde, have urged Nigerian officials to allow the naira to fall to absorb some of the shock to the economy from a plunge in oil prices and revenues. OPEC member Nigeria is a major oil producer. IMF officials have said that Nigeria has not requested IMF financial assistance, but has been in consultation with the Fund on dealing with budget shortfalls.

"As we have said before, a significant macroeconomic adjustment that Nigeria urgently needs to eliminate existing imbalances and support the competitiveness of the economy is best achieved through a credible package of policies involving fiscal discipline, monetary tightening, a flexible exchange rate regime and structural reform," Rice said. "Allowing the exchange rate to better reflect market forces is an integral part of that."