Tag Archives: Proposed

All You Need To Know About The Proposed Scrapping Of NNPC, DPR, PPPRA & Single Oil Sector Regulator

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There is an air of upset in the oil sector following the plan by the government to scrap regulatory authorities including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).

This was contained in the draft National Oil Policy document released by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.

The regulatory bodies will be unified into a single agency to be known as Petroleum Regulatory Commission (PRC).

The PRC will incorporate the activities of the existing petroleum regulatory authorities and will also cover some new regulatory activities not currently covered.

According to the document, the existing “framework was weak, largely ineffective and inefficient, arising from a number of single-issue agencies; overlaps in regulation, gaps in regulation, mixture of policy, regulation and operations; and ineffective regulation.

“Although the agencies generally work well together, their roles, sometimes, overlap and there are significant information gaps within the government as, sometimes, one institution is unaware of what the other is doing.

“At the same time, policy making capacity has been weak, resulting in NNPC and its subsidiaries setting policy and regulation as well as conducting operations in the petroleum sector. The result is an ineffective and inefficient institutional environment in the petroleum sector in Nigeria.

”The new body is also expected to work under the policy supervision of the Minister of Petroleum Resources in order to reduce the inefficiencies in parastatal in the petroleum sector.

The minister of petroleum resources will set and monitor implementation of policies.

“This does not mean that the regulatory authority will report to the Ministry on a day to day basis. The new single regulatory authority will be an operationally independent regulatory institution. The Minister’s involvement will be hands off and just to ensure that the regulatory authority properly carries out its roles of implementing the policy.”

Credit:

http://dailytimes.ng/fg-scrap-nnpc-dpr-pppra-buhari-targets-single-regulator-oil-sector/

Headscarf Emoji Proposed By 15 Year Old Saudi Girl

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A Saudi teenager living in Germany has proposed designing a headscarf emoji.

Rayouf Alhumedhi, 15, has sent a proposal to The Unicode Consortium, a non-profit corporation that reviews and develops new emojis.

The idea gained the backing of the co-founder of online discussion forum Reddit, Alexis Ohanian. If approved, her emoji will be available in 2017.

The proposal comes as countries across Europe wrestle with the issue of the Muslim veil – in all its forms.

The debate takes in religious freedom, female equality, secular traditions and even fears of terrorism.

The veil issue is part of a wider debate about multiculturalism in Europe, as many politicians argue that there needs to be a greater effort to assimilate ethnic and religious minorities.

Read More: bbc

PIB: NNPC Concerned Over Move By Petroleum Ministry To Assume Control Of Proposed IJVs

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The attempt by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources to assume control over the proposed Incorporated Joint Ventures (IJVs) and the Asset Management Company to be created by the new Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) may set the ministry on a collision course with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), investigations have revealed.

The original PIB submitted to the National Assembly by the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua administration had provided for the corporatisation of the oil joint venture (JVs) assets held by NNPC and the international oil companies (IOCs) into IJVs.

But the IOCs had opposed the establishment of the IJVs following concerns that the NNPC, which controls majority stake in the existing joint venture oil assets, might insist on operating the incorporated entities.

As a result, the IJVs were removed from the revised reform bill resubmitted by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2012 to the National Assembly.

However, the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has unbundled the PIB into three legislations for easy passage and also reintroduced the IJVs in the revised bill to resolve the cash call challenged hampering the existing JVs, which have accumulated to unpaid arrears of over $6 billion.

It was also gathered that splitting the PIB was done to ensure that regulatory and fiscal issues are dealt with separately.

The Ministry of Petroleum, it was learnt from a top NNPC source, is in the final stages of completing the comprehensive executive drafts of the split PIB.

It was also gathered that the first of the three pieces of legislation under the revised PIB being prepared by the executive arm of government is called the “Governance PIB”, while the version drafted by the Senate is called the “Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, 2016”.

Investigations have, however, revealed that the NNPC is not happy with the attempt by the Ministry of Petroleum to take over direct control of the proposed IJVs, Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and the Asset Management Company.

Read More: thisdaylive

Why We Proposed N3.87bn For State House Clinic– Presidency

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The Presidency, Tuesday night, reacted to reports by an online newspaper that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government is proposing to spend N3.87 billion on capital projects at the State House Medical Centre, Aso Rock, Abuja.

The breakdown of line items in the 2016 Appropriation Bill shows that a total of N3.87billion was allocated for capital projects at the State House Clinic.

Senior Special Adviser to the President on (Media and Publicity), Garba Shehu in a statement explained that the State House Clinic is not the President’s or anyone’s personal clinic but one which looks after government officials and others.

According to him,  increased spending on government health institutions in the current budget should be seen in the light of President Buhari  administration’s plan to improve medical facilities at home, as well as discourage medical tourism by citizens which impact negatively on the country’s foreign reserve.

The statement reads: “We react to the story: “2016 Budget: Buhari to spend more on State House Clinic than on all federal govt-owned teaching hospitals.”

“This report is not simply off the mark but one that is insensitive to the government’s effort to improve medical facilities at home in Nigeria.

“According to the draft 2016 budget presented to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari, the budget for the State House Clinic is N3.8billion.

“Contrary to the published newspaper report, the total for health institutions as given by the Director-General, Budget Office is more than N200 billion.

“The 17 teaching hospitals have more than 50 percent of that allocation.

“Anyone interested can check out the detailed allocations to the teaching hospitals, the federal medical centers and the specialist hospitals owned by the federal government.

“It is also important to explain that the State House Clinic is not the President, or anyone’s personal clinic but one which looks after government officials and many others who are not.

“The increased spending on government health institutions in the current budget should be seen in the light of the administration’s plan to improve medical facilities at home as a way of discouraging overseas trips in search of treatment by citizens which eat away from our foreign exchange.”

Credit: Vanguard