By Isaac Aregbesola

Dr Mustapha Popoola,  Executive Director/Global Impact Lead of Research for Impact and Knowledge Economy for Sustainable Development (RIKESD),  says Nigeria can earn more than N10 trillion annually through a knowledge-based economy.

Popoola  said this  at the inauguration of the organisation on Tuesday in Abuja.

He  said that the nation’s economy could be boosted by attracting Foreign Direct Investment ( FDI)  through research funding into the country.

Popoola said that there was a need  for  government and private organisations,  to invest in capacity building  to enhance the development of knowledge- based economy

He said that there was no way to solve the nation’s economic problem without productivity.

”Until we have those things that we are producing either in knowledge-based or elsewhere.

”Once that happens across board it is not about categorization, everybody can sit down, you can see many innovations coming from various communities, the moment you have those little contributions, that is how to build the economy.”

According to him, what we are trying to do is to ensure that we harness all of that.

”In essence we are looking at a captivating knowledge-based economy that can contribute nothing less than N10 trillion to the economy per annum to our national income.

”The national budget today is about N20 trillion. We don’t know what the budget of the new government will be, that is without the knowledge-based economy.

”If we look at the digital economy and innovation alone it is very huge; assuming we now expand the whole knowledge economy, not only digital.

“We are talking about research in agriculture, in space, in the automotive industry, green economy, circular economy,

”We now aggregate that we are confident that N10 trillion naira will be got legally in Nigeria with the contribution of everybody in Nigeria in their little way, ” he said.

He said that was the way the firm believed the economy should be disaggregated.

”That is why we are now coming up with this initiative to partner with government, industry,  academia and funder.

”We want the funder to be interested in Nigeria, why they are running away is because when they fund they are not impactful,” he said.

The Finland Ambassador to Nigeria, Leena Pylvänäinen harped on the need to make innovation a sustainable development

“Finland is a country of innovation; Finland is constantly ranked as one of the most innovative countries in Europe.

“So we know and fully appreciate what today is about making innovation in our sustainable development,” she said.

The former Executive Secretary of TETFund, Prof Suleima Bogoro harped on the need for the country to invest in research  to sustain its food security

According to him, one of the area’s one of the area’s president declared what are the causes of emergency? Security, national security and food security and that tells you the importance of food security.

”And unfortunately, the National insecurity has so badly affected food production and in fact has very sadly, retarded and destabilize the process of ensuring Nigeria gets food self-sufficiency, but more importantly, food security.

“For most nations, just talk about Finland now, with what Finland is today the economy of Finland that we see from the distance is largely agro based.

“And I think we have lessons to learn from that because look at all the manufacturing activities out there.

“Look at the products in our groceries, take a look, you will know that most of the raw materials are agro-based,” he said.

According to him, that is a message in just the case if you wonder why Nigeria will have the advantage in agriculture case as it were, the advantage is that our climate is convenient for tropical and temperate crops growth as well as the rearing of temperate and tropical animals.

“That is it because we have some of Nigeria’s region cold, cold enough to have temperate varieties of crops and, breeds of animals what that shows also, we stretch from the marine or the ocean to the desert belt.

“So we have all the advantages in that in that regard. Whatever types of crops we want to do, that maybe cross breeds, in most cases in the context of breeding now we encourage that we do the best for our indigenous breeds develop the environment for them nutritionally and all that best for them to compete with our temperate varieties of crops as well as the breeds of animals.

“So we have a challenge. Once a nation cannot feed itself, it is already a problem.

I still will never forget, I like to cite what happened to Soviet Union USSR of Soviet Union, I still remember was consequent to lack of bread on the table of the poor.

“Bread became too expensive for the poor, hunger was, therefore, the driving factor that led to the protests and balkanization disintegration of the Soviet Union.

“The center could not hold. This is a message for Nigeria,” he said(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Joseph Edeh

By Rukayat Adeyemi

The Managing Director, Cornerstone Insurance Plc, Mr Stephen Alangbo, on Wednesday, said that the total assets of the company hit N70 billion at the end of second quarter of 2023.

Alangbo, also Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the insurance company disclosed this at a news briefing held in Lagos to roll out his administration’s agenda.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Segun Adebanji, Chairman, Board of Cornerstone Insurance, had at the firm’s 2023 Annual General Meeting on Tuesday,announced the appointment of Alangbo as the company’s new managing director, effective July 3.

Adebanji said that Alangbo succeeded Mr Ganiyu Musa, the former Group Managing Director of the underwriting firm, following the expiration of his tenure.

He said that the board also approved the appointment of Mr Peter Ekwueme as the Executive Director (ED), Technical Operations of the insurance company.

Alangbo said that the insurance company’s total assets as at the end of year 2022 was N50 billion, while the firm settled claims of not less than N4bllion.

The managing director said that the company’s issued and fully paid share capital and market capitalisation was N9.083 billion and N10.899 billion respectively as at Dec. 31, 2022.

On his agenda, Alangbo said his team was determined to build people with capacity and a seamless technologically- driven insurance business process.

He said that the firm would also build innovative creative products that would make it stand out in the insurance market.

“We plan to build top leaders in the insurance industry and people who are happy to contribute their quota to the system, knowing that Cornerstone is also there to take of them.

“We will develop innovative and micro insurance products ,different from the traditional insurance products, that people need and would buy without struggling,” he said.

According to him, the firm would also explore competency in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assist it in the area of onboarding customers and claims payment.(NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Buhari Bolaji

By Salisu Sani-Idris

The Niger Delta Power Holding Company L.td., has reiterated commitment to work with relevant stakeholders to overcome the challenges of gas and transmission limitations.

The company’s Managing Director, Mr Chiedu Ugbo, gave the assurance while answering questions from State House Correspondents on Wednesday in Abuja.

Ugbo said that the company had a mandate to ensure effective management and the security of the assets of the organisation for the overall benefits of Nigerians.

According to him, the Federal, State and Local Governments had spent lots of money in terms of the assets that the company developed on behalf of Nigerians.

Ugbo said: ” The assets are there so we are charged with the responsibility of making sure that they are utilised for the benefit of Nigerians. We need maximum performance of the assets particularly the power generation assets.

” Yes, we have a gas limitations, we have transmission and distribution limitations, but we are government investment and we will work with the relevant stakeholders to make sure that we resolve this challenges.

” And to ensure the loads from this plans are uptaken for the benefit of Nigerians. It is a systemic issues in terms of collections from the distribution company.

“It is a systemic issue and in the course of this we owe some gas companies as well.”

The managing director said that the Regulatory Commission with the government were working to resolve some of the identified challenges within the shortest possible time.

Ugbo said: ” Yes, we are being owed no doubt. At the beginning, we are treated as government owned, so essentially stabilising the system.

“But over time the regulatory commission has also seen some wisdom in ensuring that we have some comparable tariff.

” So recently, there are some adjustments in terms of our generation tariff, the escalations that were required that is before the handover of thisa dministration.

” Shortly by the end of the last administration we saw some improvement by our tariff by the regulatory commission but yes before now from 2013 till April we were seeing as government owned.

” And we are seeing as stabilising the system but they have seen the wisdom in because we go to the same market. Nobody sales gas to us at a cheaper rate to us.”

According to him, nobody sells spares at a cheaper rate to the firm, adding, “so /0the regulatory commission saw that and decided to increase our tariff.

“That has improved though not where it should be but there are some significant improvement.”

Ugbo further stated that the whole grid was challenged by uptake, evacuation from transmission company and uptake by the distribution firms.

He added: ” If distribution doesn’t or is not able to take what transmission can carry, transmission would not be able to take what you can generate.

” So it is as simple as that but we are working assiduously to ensure end-to-end from generation to end users.

“We are working with the distribution companies now, so we are working with transmission company to clear the bottle necks to ensure that we reach the end users.

“As we have seen, we have distribution interventions all over the country. And all these things are to ensure that we improve the distribution capacity of the distribution companies.” (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Bashir Rabe Mani

By Lucy Ogalue

The Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Alhaji Garba Abubakar, has reiterated the country’s commitment towards promoting good governance.

Abubakar,  in a statement said this when he led Nigeria’s delegation to the 8th Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit in Tallinn, Estonia.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 2023 OGP Summit focuses on open government in the digital age.

It focuses on the potential of technology to make governance and policy-making more transparent and accountable, and the preservation of democracy.

It also brings together heads of state and government, representatives of civil society, and policymakers around the world annually to promote principles of transparency and good governance globally.

The CAC boss, who is also the State Actors Acting Co-Chair, intimated the gathering on reforms being implemented by the Government of Nigeria in promoting the ideals of good governance.

Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer of OGP International, Mr Sanjay Pradhan, identified Nigeria as one of the countries advancing beneficial ownership transparency in today’s world.

Pradhan therefore commended Nigeria for launching the Public Register of Beneficial Owners of Entities, the first to be deployed in line with the open data standard in Africa.

He also commended the commission for sustaining citizen dialogue as a way of strengthening the civic space.

The OGP is made up of 75 national and 104 local governments, plus thousands of civil society groups.

They work to deliver the promise of democracy beyond the ballot box through the Open Government Partnership.

NAN reports that Estonia’s transparent e-governance and close cooperation with civil society stand out in the world.

Their journey has offered valuable experience to pass on, hence its selection as this year’s Global OGP Summit host.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Isaac Aregbesola

By Rukayat Moisemhe/Mercy Omoike

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has called for an enabling environment to encourage sustainable agricultural practices, support smallholder farmers and promote agribusiness entrepreneurship.

The President of LCCI, Dr Michael Olawale-Cole, made the call at the opening of the 2023 LCCI Agrofair and Symposium, on Wednesday in Lagos.

Olawale-Cole said that the event’s theme,” Food Security and National Development in Nigeria”, resonated deeply as it addressed a national and global fundamental challenge.

He noted that the Federal Government, in July, declared a national emergency on food security as inflation made basic foods unaffordable to many, pushing up malnutrition rate.

The LCCI president said that food security – the ability to ensure access to safe and nutritious food for all – was a vital foundation upon which communities, the economy and the future were built.

He said that while the resilience and determination of farmers and entrepreneurs had resulted in noteworthy advancements, challenges still persisted.

“In Nigeria, a nation blessed with abundant agricultural resources, the importance of food security cannot be overstated.

“Our ability to provide ample food for our citizens has a direct impact on our overall development, stability and progress.

“We must embrace modern technologies that enhance productivity while safeguarding our natural resources.

“Moreover, we must recognise the interconnectedness of food security with other critical aspects of national development such as education, healthcare, infrastructure, and social welfare,” he said.

Olawale-Cole said that the 2023 LCCI Agrofair and Symposium served as a platform for dialogue, learning and collaboration on innovative farming techniques and supply chain efficiency to market access and trade policies.

The Permanent Secretary in the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture, Mrs Ibironke Emokpae, said that the theme of the symposium was pertinent to ensuring food security in the country.

“The theme of the symposium is very pertinent in our rapidly-changing world.

“As we deliberate on the critical intersection of food security and our nation’s development, we must recognise the profound implications that this theme holds to our society, our economy and our future.

“Food security is not only ensuring that every individual has access to enough food for sustenance.

“It encompasses factors that include not only availability of food, but also the accessibility, affordability and nutritional value,’’ she said.

The official said that in a country as diverse and dynamic as Nigeria, where agriculture played a significant role in the economy, food security was beyond a moral imperative.

She said that food security was also a strategic necessity for national development.

“Historically, agriculture has been the backbone of our economy, providing employment to a substantial portion of our population and contributing significantly to the gross domestic product.

“Addressing the challenges of the agricultural sector requires a comprehensive approach that will involve governments, the private sector, investors, the academia, civil society groups,” Emokpae said.

The Chairman of LCCI Agro and Allied Sector, Mr Kola Aderigbigbe, said that there was the need to make agribusiness the frontier of national development.

He said that the sector was one of the highest employers of labour notwithstanding its current low profitability due to poor infrastructure and investment.

Aderigbigbe called for more investment in security and innovations to boost agricultural production and increase exports.

He added that Nigeria should emphasise sustainable food production which, he said, required collective efforts.

“There are several issues that must be considered holistically to create the enabling environment for food security and national development,’’ he said.

He listed the issues to include ecological system, security of farmers and adequate infrastructure.

“The ministry of agriculture is very critical to national survival and development; so, the ministry must get it right to deliver its mandate of national food security and seamless flow of agriculture-based raw materials for industrial development.

“When a nation sufficiently builds the capacity to self-feed, it would literally move to the next stage of development which is transferring its agricultural surplus to industrial raw materials.

“If we are going to get it right and lay the real foundation for the total development of Nigeria, we must begin by getting it right in the agricultural sector,” he said.

Aderigbigbe said that there was the need to address the country’s ecological system to guard against flooding and achieve sustainable food security.

He expressed the hope that effective implementation of Bola Tinubu administration’s agriculture strategic plans and other initiatives would lead to attainment of national food security.

The Managing Director of the Bank of Agriculture, Mr Alwan Hassan, represented by the South-West Zonal Manager of the Bank, Mr Adekunle Osho, said that ensuring food security in Nigeria was pertinent.

“Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for most Nigerians, and it remains the foundation of the country’s economy.

“Achievement of food security in any nation is driven by several factors.

“These factors affect agro production level, handling of produce, value addition, seamless distribution that ensures all-round availability and the right details of food items for healthy living. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Ijeoma Popoola