Zainab Ahmed
#EndSARS: VP Osinbajo urges States to send judicial panels’ progress reports
As plans for next year’s budget begins to gather pace, the National Economic Council (NEC) has endorsed the 2022-2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) which was presented to it at an emergency meeting of the Council today. Besides the MTEF presentation, the NEC also updated its focus on the reports of the State Judicial Panels set up across the country after last year’s #EndSARS protests. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, urged States where the panels are still sitting to also send interim reports so as to measure progress. According to the Vice President, in a statement by his media aide Laolu Akande, the reports are now being received ahead of a Council meeting where presentations would be made on them, both for States where the panels have conclude...
Nigerian government approves N9.2 billion premium for civil servants’ life insurance
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the sum of N9.2billion as premium to insurance companies that will manage the group life insurance for federal civil servants in the country. Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed revealed this when he briefed State House correspondents on the outcome of the Council meeting which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja on Wednesday. He said: “On behalf of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, I will like to report that council today approved the award of contract for the appointment of insurance companies for group life assurance for federal government employees, public servants, para-military and the intelligence community for the year 2021-2022 in the sum of N9, 248. 995, 907. “This premium is for a perio...
House invites CBN governor on recovered loots
The House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the assessment and status of recovered loots has invited the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, to appear before it. The Chairman of the committee, Rep. Adeogun Adejoro, who extended the invitation on Thursday in Abuja said that it was necessary for the committee to know the number of recovered loots and where they were being kept. The Minister of Finance, Hajia Zainab Ahmed had told the committee that she had no idea of the number of accounts being used to keep the recovered loot. She, however, said that the ministry had a record of what had been recovered and the amount that had come into the account. She stated that N50 billion was provided from recovered loot to fund the 2020 budget, adding that the...
SERAP urges President Buhari to tell Nigerians spending plan for James Ibori loot, others
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to “urgently direct Mrs Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning to disclose spending details of the $700 million looted funds reportedly recovered by the Federal Government in the past four years, including the list and location of projects completed with the money, as well as details of the contractors that executed the projects.” SERAP also urged him to “direct Mrs Ahmed to disclose how the government plans to spend the returned £4.2m Ibori loot, including details of planned capital expenditure, and whether there is any plan to ensure that the money and any future returned Ibori loot would be spent to achieve justice and effective remedies for victims of corruption in...
President Buhari arrives Paris for Financing Africa Summit
President Muhammadu Buhari has arrived in Paris for the Financing Africa Summit. The president left Abuja Sunday for the summit which is being hosted by President Emmanuel Macron of France. According to Buhari’s spokesperson, Garba Shehu, the summit will draw major stakeholders in the global finance institutions and some Heads of Government, who will, collectively, discuss external funding and debt treatment for Africa, and private sector reforms. “During the visit, President Buhari will meet with the French President to discuss growing security threats in Sahel and Lake Chad region, political relations, economic ties, climate change and partnership in buoying the health sector, particularly in checking spread of Covid-19, with more research and vaccines. “Before returning to Nigeria, Pres...
NASU: Decision to reduce civil servants salaries ’provocative’
File Photo The Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) says plan by the Federal Government to slash salaries of Federal civil servants is “provocative’’. NASU made this known in a statement by its General Secretary, Mr Peters Adeyemi on Sunday in Abuja. It will be recalled that Mrs Zainab Ahmed, the Minister of Finance, had given the hint on May 4, at the National Policy Dialogue on Corruption and Cost of Governance in Nigeria, organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in Abuja. Ahmed said during the dialogue that the review of salaries of civil servants and some federal agencies were part of measures to reduce cost of governance. She said the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) had bee...
President Buhari presides over FEC meeting — in pictures
President Muhammadu Buhari is presiding over the 44th virtual meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC). The weekly meeting holding at the First Lady’s Conference Hall at the State House, Abuja, is being attended by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha and Chief of Staff to the President, Prof Ibrahim Gambari. The ministers who are also physically attending the meeting include those of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed; Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed; Justice, Abubakar Malami; Industry, Trade and Investment; Adeniyi Adebayo; and Power, Mamman Saleh. Other ministers, as well as the Head of Service of the Federation, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, are participating in the weekly cabinet meeting from their various of...
N60 billion mint: PDP demands sack of finance minister
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has called for the sack of Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, over what it described as an attempt to mislead Nigerians. The call follows her denial of the revelations by the Edo state Governor, Godwin Obaseki, that N60 billion was printed in March to support federal allocation to states.” Edo State governor Godwin Obaseki had earlier in the week, lamented the sorry state of the nation’s economy, stressing that the federal government had to order the printing of currency to the tune of N60 billion to share among the tiers of government, a claim dismissed by the Finance, Budget and National Planning Minister, Zainab Ahmed. In a statement signed by Kola Ologbondiyan, national publicity secretary of the party, the PDP maintained that “the admission by Central B...
Federal government okays N20.1 billion for Nigerian customs equipment
The federal government has approved a total of N20,114,002871 for the acquisition of various operational equipment for the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS). The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this to State House Correspondents after the federal executive council (FEC) meeting presided over by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo at the presidential villa on Wednesday. The Minister said further that Council also approved the sum of N539,277,673 for the construction of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) building at the Ilupeju Medium and Small Taxpayers’ office in Lagos. On the breakdown of contracts approved for Customs, the Minister said a total of 427 operational vehicles, worth N14.55 billion and nine assorted gunboats worth N5,564,002,871 were a...
Nigerian government blames states for failure of past development plans
Federal Government has blamed the states for the shortcomings of the past development plans, saying it did not receive the needed co-operation from the sub-national governments. Speaking at the closing of 19th National Council on Development Planning (NCDP) meeting on Friday in Abuja, Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, said the overall score card of previous plans were adjudged to be below expectations because of inadequate collaboration from the subnational governments. According to her, the previous plans did not make much impacts based on the assertion that the plans were more of federal government than national. “However, the overall scorecard of previous Plans were adjudged to be below expectations and these were among other factors attributed to inadequate collaboration from Sub-...
WTO chief: ‘Safe Schools Initiative’ to stop abduction of students
The Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Wednesday expressed hope that the ‘Safe Schools Initiative’ will help stop the incessant abduction of students across Nigeria. Nigerian women on Wednesday came out en masse to welcome Okonjo-Iweala in her first homecoming since she became the director-general of WTO, during a visit to the Ministry of Women Affairs in Abuja. Addressing the crowd which included Senators and members of the National Assembly, former Ministers, wives of former governors, women in the Armed Forces, women societies, female political aspirants, Civil Society Organisations, as well as students, Okonjo-Iweala expressed deep concern about the incessant abduction of girls and boys in schools. The WTO boss who noted that it is shamef...
How ICPC is combating corruption in MDAs, stopped diversion of N189 billion personnel cost
File Photo In the past few years, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other-Related Offences Commission, as part of its statutory mandate, has been conducting systems study and review of ministries and organisations in the federal public service. The overall objective of a system review is reform of the systems and procedures of public agencies with a view to identifying and eliminating, preventing, blocking and obstructing opportunities for corruption. To achieve this, the exercise targets detecting areas of vulnerabilities, actual weaknesses, leakages and corruption risks and to recommend ways of strengthening these systems and removing the discretionary gaps and such opportunities for both individual and institutional malfeasance on public resources. In addition, the review also targe...
