Jonathan finally signs National Health Bill into law

President Goodluck Jonathan has finally signed the National Health Bill into law. The Bill, which is now an Act of Parliament seeks to provide a framework for the regulation, development and management of a National Health system and set standards for rendering health service in the country.

 According to Nigeria Health Watch, Reuben Abati, presidential spokesman on Twitter said that this is a

Oil Shock: FG Moves to Shore Economy with Building, Construction Industry

The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and her counterpart in the ministry of Housing, Land and Urban Development, Mrs. Akon Eyakenyi, on Thursday urged stakeholders in the housing and construction sector to use the opportunities in the sector as a catalyst to drive the economy.

Okonjo-Iweala pleaded with stakeholders to

Naira falls to record low of 183.05 against the dollar

The naira touched a new record low of 183.05 against the dollar on Monday, driven by concerns over a sustained low oil price and expectations foreign investors would demand more dollars to pull out of local assets, dealers said.

The currency was trading down 2.4 percent from Friday’s closing level.

The central bank has struggled to keep the naira within its preferred band even after devaluing the currency by 8 percent last Tuesday in a bid to halt a decline in the foreign reserves of Africa’s biggest economy. Oil sales provide around 95 percent of those reserves.

The bank’s target band after devaluation is

Defence Council okays emergency extension in Yobe, Borno, Adamawa

President Goodluck Jonathan is set to seek the approval of the National Assembly for the extension of the state of emergency in three North East states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.

This was the decision of the National Defence Council (NDC) after its meeting held at the Presidential Villa, on Thursday, presided over by the President.

It is expected that the extension of the emergency rule would not lead to the suspension of democratic structures in the states as the governors of the three states and the Houses of Assembly would still function and perform their constitutional roles.

The emergency rule which is

Ebola: Nigeria offers recipe for success to ECOWAS

Nigeria at the extraordinary meeting of the Economic Community of West African States’ (ECOWAS) heads of state and government sold its recipe for the successful curbing of the spread of the Ebola epidemic.

This is even as President Goodluck Jonathan stated that the Nigerian government is making all efforts to ensure that Nigeria remains permanently Ebola free.

Speaking at the summit, President Jonathan, who was represented by Vice President Namadi Sambo, said Nigeria was not only looking out for herself but assisting other affected nations in the sub-region to fight the dreaded epidemic.

Nigeria is currently working on

FG to establish 1,000MW coal power plant in Enugu

The Federal Government has announced plans to establish a 1000 mega watts coal power plant in Enugu state.

The President, Goodluck Jonathan, who disclosed this in Enugu, said the plant is expected to help address the epileptic power situation in the country.

Jonathan, who was represented by Vice President Namadi Sambo, said the plant would complement other electricity projects being executed by the Federal Government and private investors in the area and ensure that Enugu and the rest of the South-east region enjoyed improved electricity supply.

The Federal Government had a couple of weeks ago said the country is capable of generating up to 30 per cent of its energy needs from its coal resources using environmental-friendly clean technology.

Jonathan said the country is endowed with abundant coal reserves of the required quality necessary for power generation.

To this end,

We are dying of hunger — NUP, Electricity sector

The Nigerian Union of Pensioners, Electricity Sector, Rivers/Bayelsa Chapter has protested against the non-payment of their arrears and pension for over nine months.

During the protest in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the union drew the attention of President Goodluck Jonathan to the hardship which their members are going through due to the irregular and non-payment of monthly pension since the beginning of the year.

The union insisted that the Ministry of Finance and Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Company, NELMCO Board should apologise to the families of its late union members, who

Nigeria’s economic reform agenda loses steam as elections loom

As Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan moves to seek re-election in five months, his reform agenda pursued for the past four years is gradually losing steam.

While Jonathan who was recently named as sole candidate for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in next year’s presidential election has already attained some goals since launching the transformation agenda in 2010, achievements have fallen short of expectation in most other areas.

There has been some movement on infrastructure (roads, rail), and investments have poured in, as multinationals expand operations in the country.

The major cities of Lagos and Abuja are booming and agriculture output is up, on new government policies that discourage imports.

However, the country ranks poorly on

Onolememen scores Jonathan high on roads projects

Nigeria’s Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, at the weekend in Abuja said many road projects were either abandoned or moving at snail speed due to paucity of funds or technical challenges when President Goodluck assumed Jonathan in 2011.

The Minister who was speaking at the 3rd Ministerial Press Briefing on the achievements of current administration  said before President Jonathan assumed office, travelling on Nigerian roads was a nightmare, as commuters were made to oftentimes stay overnight in transit.

According to him, the Federal Government’s on-going rehabilitation, construction, expansion and maintenance of major arterial highways across the country have brought a new lease of life to citizens and road users.

“From about 4,500km of fair roads in 2011, today more than 25,000km of the 35,000km of federal roads are now in good and motorable condition, with some of the road alignments comparing favourably with roads in the developed parts of the World”, he said.

The minister explained that

President Goodluck Jonathan Bans ‘Bring Back Goodluck’ Campaign

President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered that posters calling for his re-election by using the hashtag #BringBackGoodluck2015 be torn down, his office said.

The slogan is an echo of the #BringBackOurGirls social-media campaign that grew in response to the abduction in April of more than 200 schoolgirls by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

Jonathan has ordered the “signs and banners around Abuja which he and many Nigerians find offensive and repugnant be brought down immediately,” presidential spokesman Reuben Abati said in a statement posted on his website. “President Jonathan wholly shares the widely expressed view that the signs which were put up without his knowledge or approval are a highly insensitive parody of the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag.”

Jonathan, 56, hasn’t said whether he intends

Dangote Cement Slashes Prices, Launches 32.5 Grade

Dangote Cement Plc yesterday announced that it had reviewed the price of cement in the country downwards with about N100 slashed off the original price of each 50 kilogramme bag of cement.

According to the Managing Director of the company, Mr. Edwin  Devakumar, who spoke to journalists in Lagos, beginning from today, distributors lifting cement from the various Dangote cement plants across the country, will pay N100 less per 50 kilogramme bag of cement.

Devakumar also stated that to further comply with the ongoing Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) directive and regulation on the various classes of cement and their prescribed uses, “Dangote Cement Plc has announced plans to launch its brand of the premium

Nigeria hits 39.5mmt installed capacity of cement production

The Federal Government has said that owing to its backward integration policy, the country now has an installed capacity of 39.5 million metric tons (mmt) of cement production.

This was made known by President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday at the Line II groundbreaking ceremony of UNICEM cement factory, Mfamosing, Calabar, Cross River State.

The president, who was represented by Vice President Namadi Sambo, noted that the backward integration policy in the cement industry was initiated by the Federal Government in 2002 to meet self-sufficiency in cement production.

He said, “From a paltry 2 million metric tons of cement hitherto produced locally per annum, by 2013, we have achieved 39.5 million metric tons of installed capacity.”

The president described the manufacturing industry as

Nigeria records over $3billion worth of investments in sugar subsection – Aganga

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, yesterday, disclosed that Nigeria had recorded over $3billion worth of investments in the sugar subsection since the implementation of the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan, NIRP.

He said more than 15 projects had already been situated in seven states of the federation in furtherance of the Sugar Master Plan of the federal government.

The Minister made this known, yesterday in a keynote address he delivered at the opening ceremony of the 7th. National Council on Industry, Trade and Investment (NCITI) in Makurdi.

Represented by the Minister of State in the Ministry, Dr. Samuel Ortom, he said,

Nigeria has no business being net importer of food, says Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan said Nigeria has no business being a net importer of food.

The president, who spoke on Monday at the commissioning of Olam Rice Mill in Rukubi Local Government Area of Nassarawa State, said, “Nigeria’s position as the largest economy in Africa is not enough unless we attain food sufficiency target of 2015, and even within the next 5 years begin exportation of rice and other staple food.”

He lauded Olam Farms for growing the rural economy with investment worth over $72 million that has 1,000 workers mostly rural women and youths in Nassarawa State.

Jonathan, who expressed believe that

FG targets N15.5trn pension assets by 2024

The Federal Government estimates that it could grow the nation’s pension assets by almost 300 percent from $27.2 billion (about N4.216 trillion) March 2014 figure to $100 billion (N15.5 trillion) in the next two decades.

From a deficit of about N2 trillion (about $12.9 billion) in 2004, Nigeria has in ten years accumulated pension assets to a record N4.216 trillion, showing some 9 percent of the nation’s old GDP and 5 percent of the rebased figure.

Speaking on Monday in Abuja as he

President Jonathan signs pension bill into law

President Goodluck Jonathan has signed the Pension Reform Bill 2014 into law.

The new law repeals the 2004 Pension Reform Act No. 2 and prescribes a 10- year jail term for pension thieves.

The Senate and the House of Representatives had, respectively, passed the new 2014 Pension Reform Bill which also accommodates employees of private firms in the contributory pension scheme.

According to postings on the Twitter handle of the presidential media aide, Reuben Abati, on Tuesday, the