Nigeria Content Online

Tullow oil in $2.9b Uganda deal

British-based oil
explorer, Tullow Oil, has agreed to sell stakes in its Ugandan
operations to France’s Total and China’s CNOOC for $2.9 billion,
bringing in big partners to develop the oil fields.

Tullow said on
Wednesday it agreed to sell each company a one third interest in fields
around Lake Albert, which Tullow estimates to contain 1 billion barrels
of oil, and potentially as much as 3.5 billion barrels. Tullow will
retain a third share.

The deal leaves
unresolved a massive tax dispute with the government. Uganda’s energy
minister, Hilary Onek, said the country would receive a total of $472
million in taxes from the farm down deal.

Money

Analysts doubt ability to execute gas plan

Analysts doubt ability to execute gas plan

Operators in the
oil and gas sector have listed steps that must be taken for the ‘gas
revolution’ project launched by the federal government to make any
meaningful impact. They said the atmosphere for the smooth sail of the
project cannot be laid in the little time the government has left.

President Goodluck
Jonathan had last week launched the project which he said will result
in foreign direct investment of about N410 billion over the next three
years.

According to him,
the full implementation of the entire gas master-plan agenda will
result in about $25 billion worth of investments in gas processing,
transmission, and downstream gas utilisation projects.

Following the
launch, some local companies like Oando have been selected to build
central gas-processing facilities at an estimated cost of beteween $2 –
$3 billion.

However, Dragan
Trajkov, oil and gas sector specialist at Renaissance Capital, an
investment bank, said “While we think it is almost impossible for
anyone to build a $3 billion project by the end of 2012, we understand
that the numbers might be presented optimistically in the light of the
ongoing presidential campaign,” he said in a report published this week.

A few observers
dismissed the launch of the project at the middle of electioneering
campaigns as just another political stunt by the government.

Not so bleak

Despite the
illusions of the revolution, some industry watchers say the
‘revolution’, if well executed, would help stop gas flaring and develop
the nation’s domestic gas market.

“The gas revolution
launched by President Goodluck Jonathan holds the promise of inducing
further development and growth of Nigeria’s domestic gas market,” Fola
Onasanya, oil and gas expert at Ciuci, a consultancy firm, said.

“With the $3
billion Central Gas Processing Facility (CPF) by Nigerian Agip Oil
Company (NAOC) and Oando Nigeria Plc, a huge sink will be created for
storing and utilising natural gas resources which otherwise could have
been flared, thus providing a boost to the economy both in terms of
value generation and job creation,” Mr. Onasanya said.

According to him,
so also will the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Saudi Arabia’s
Xenel Industries Limited to construct a proposed 1.3 million tonnes/p.a
Petrochemical Plant in Warri, Delta State, along with five fertiliser
blending factories by Nagarjuna and Chevron.

“However, for these
moves to deliver their optimal gains and attract foreign investments,
key areas articulated in the Gas Master Plan need to be addressed by
strategic decisions and actions of the government,” Mr. Onasanya
further said.

Mr. Onasanya said
these include the issues relating to the gas pricing policy – which
provides a framework for the minimum price that any purchaser of gas
can be charged.

“This needs to be
tackled in the fair interest of all stakeholders (including the IOCs),
the Domestic Reserves Obligation – which aims to ensure the
availability of gas for domestic consumption in order to stimulate
economic growth – needs to be actualised and the Gas Infrastructure
Blueprint – which provides for the establishment of a network of gas
hubs which would ultimately reduce the cost of supplying gas – should
be implemented in full gear,” he said.

“Overall, the ‘Gas revolution’ is not over-ambitious, provided the government follows through with strategic actions,” he added.

However, a top
official of one of the major oil companies operating in the country,
who would not want to be quoted because he was not authorised to speak,
described the project as rather “ambitious”, adding, “It is a huge
project that would require huge foreign investment because it is
obvious that the government would not be able to do this alone.”

According to him,
there would be need for billions of dollars to cater for professionals
and the investment would be required for the plants that would be
required to carry out the processing and transmission of the gas. This,
he observed, cannot be done in a short term.

Nigeria’s oil
assets have been exploited for more than 50 years. However, while oil
companies have profited from the resource, local communities in the oil
rich but conflict struck areas live with the daily pollution caused by
non-stop gas flaring.

The country has
lost billions of naira on gas flaring, a process of burning off into
the atmosphere, surplus combustible vapours from an oil well, either as
a means of disposal or as a security measure to relieve well pressure.

Inability to solve
the lingering problem has been increasingly recognised as a huge
environmental problem in the Niger Delta region of the nation.

Money

Taxpayer identification number begins next month

Taxpayer identification number begins next month

The Federal Inland
Revenue Service (FIRS) yesterday said that the project to computerise
the nation’s tax system is billed to take off with the full
implementation of the Unique Taxpayer Identification Number (UTIN)
system in April.

The computerisation
system, which the service has been championing in conjunction with the
Joint Tax Board (JTB) in the last four years, is expected to become
available for taxpayers’ registration at pilot locations in November,
while nationwide operations are billed for April 2012.

Indications are
that the pilot phase of the system would become operational in eight
locations in the six geopolitical zones of the country, including
Lagos, Rivers, Delta, Adamawa, as well as the Federal Capital Territory
(FCT), Abuja.

Indications towards
the planned take off of the new tax system is coming just as the JTB
has renewed the call on the National Assembly to accelerate the process
towards the passage of Personal Income Tax (PIT) Bill as soon as they
reconvene from recess, to facilitate the realisation of the objectives
of the proposed law.

The PIT Amendment
Bill, which has been pending before the National Assembly for the last
three years, finally sailed through legislative deliberations before
the close of the 6th Legislative Assembly.

The call for the
passage of the law, which was amongst eight-point decisions at the
124th Meeting of the Tax Administrators in Abuja, would give some
relief to taxpayers, as it seeks to reduce the current rate from 20 per
cent to 17.5, even as government is convinced that the amendment would
also improve the tax compliance of taxpayers generally.

On the
administration of the existing PITA provisions, the Board urged all
federal, states and local government Ministries, Departments and
Agencies (MDAs) to ensure that the provisions were strictly adhered to
by deducting adequately all Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) taxes of their
employees.

Approved taxes

Ifueko
Omoigui-Okauru, FIRS chairman, in a communiqué after the meeting, said
the members also resolved to sustain their ongoing fight against
multiple taxation by increased public awareness campaigns at all levels
of government, including the publication of the list of approved taxes
and levies on a sustainable basis.

Similarly,
discussions on the proposed Enhanced New Drivers Licence scheme ended
with a resolution that adequate awareness about its take off on April
18 this year, even as the Board commended the initiative of the
Students’ Tax Advisory Initiative (STAI), while urging Nigerian youth
to take active interest in taxation as a fiscal policy option for
building a better Nigeria.

With these
resolutions, some of the member states may have shifted position on
their earlier subtle opposition to the proposed amendment of the Bill
in view of what they believe were its likely negative effects on their
Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) profile.

Some governors,
particularly those with High Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)
profiles, had begun moves to ensure that the proposed amendment to the
PITA was considered simultaneously with the proposed amendment of the
Value Added Tax (VAT) law, which they believed would offset some of the
revenue losses their states might suffer as a result of the amendment
of the former Bill.

The PIT is imposed on the income of all Nigerian employees or residents who derive income in Nigeria and outside Nigeria.

Money

Stock Exchange suspends general manager

Stock Exchange suspends general manager

The
management of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday suspended
Binos Yaroe, general manager, Listing and Quotation Department.

He
was placed on indefinite suspension over what was described as
“indiscipline act”. However, no further explanation was given as to the
nature of the indiscipline.

Mr. Yaroe, who was suspended on Tuesday, has been asked to stay off work from the following day (yesterday) till further notice.

Wole
Tokede, the NSE’s spokesperson, confirmed the suspension and said the
sanction was “an internal discipline of the Exchange” measured against
the offender.

The
development has been generating various comments from some market
operators. A stockbroker, who spoke to NEXT on the condition of
anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said he believed
that Mr. Yaroe’s suspension was not unconnected with plans by the
interim administration of the NSE to “further clear away all the old
members of staff to give Oscar Onyema, the chief executive officer
designate, a fresh start.”

An
official of the NSE, who also pleaded anonymity, said, “His (Mr.
Yaroe’s) suspension was the outcome of the Exchange’s effort to
practice what it preaches on enforcement of good corporate governance.”

However,
Mr. Tokede said, “I know that he (Mr. Yaroe) has been suspended but I
don’t know whether definite or it has a time dimension,” adding that
the suspension was “an internal discipline of the Exchange, as it does
not have anything to do with the insinuation that they (the NSE) are
cleaning the road for the incoming chief executive officer.”

Emmanuel
Ikazoboh, the interim head of the NSE, had sacked 95 staff of the
Exchange few weeks after he assumed office, following the sack of Ndi
Okereke-Onyiuke last August on allegations of financial mismanagement.

Also,
while some of the senior staff with insider knowledge of the system had
to resign because of pressure from some quarters, Mr. Yaroe, one of
those supposedly pencilled down to head the Exchange if Mrs.
Okereke-Onyiuke had retired, remained in the market until his
suspension.

Some
market watchers said that the report on the investigation of the
affairs of the NSE under the leadership of its former director general,
Mrs. Okereke-Onyiuke, may indict some of its general managers,
including Mr. Yaroe.

NEXT
had reported that the yet-to-be officially released forensic report
showed that in 2008, the NSE expended a total of N186 million in
purchases of Rolex watches for long serving employees.

In
the mean time, the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, has adjourned judgment
till April 4, on the suit filed by Mrs. Okereke-Onyiuke, challenging
her sack as the director general of the NSE.

Money

Monument Bank enjoys N6b profit

Monument Bank enjoys N6b profit

Nigeria’s First
City Monument Bank said on Wednesday its pre-tax profit rose to 9.02
billion naira ($58 million) in 2010 from 856.6 million the previous
year, and declared a 0.35 naira dividend per share.

Gross earnings rose
to 62.67 billion naira from 35.79 billion naira in 2009, the bank said
in a filing with the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Money

Arsenal-Nigeria wins 2011 weekend football tournament

Arsenal-Nigeria wins 2011 weekend football tournament

The Nigerian Arsenal Supporters (Gunners) football club commonly known as ‘Arsenal-Nigeria’ has emerged winners of the six-a-side Babatunde Raji Fashola (BRF) Soccer Tournament among weekend clubs in Lagos.

The team beat Apapa/Ajegunle All Stars, 5-4 via penalty shoot-out in a pulsating final played on Saturday at the Campos Square mini-stadium,

in a thrilling encounter that was decided by penalty shoot out. Scores at full time stood at 1-1.

Arsenal-Nigeria opened scoring in the first half courtesy of a spectacular volley from one of its forwards; Apapa evened scores in the dying moments of the game to take the game to a shoot out.

The penalty shoot out that followed was entertaining and nerve-wracking with the first five kicks failing to produce a winner owing largely to the efforts of the two goalkeepers.

In the second round of the shoot-out, the Arsenal-Nigeria goalkeeper saved the first spot kick to pave way for his team captain to score and win the game.

Organised professionals

Commenting on his team’s performance, Antai Effiong, Vice President of Arsenal-Nigeria, said that though pundits did not give the team any chance of qualifying from the group stage, the victory did not come to him as a surprise.

“We are a very well organized group of professionals in diverse fields of human endeavour, who meet to play regularly on Saturdays and have developed a good understanding among ourselves over the years. We also participate regularly in tournaments of this nature, locally and internationally to sharpen our competitive edge. Some of the trophies we have won include the 2008 Best of Fans Trophy, 2010 NIFEX Charity Cup and the 2008 IFA WorldNet Trophy, which we won in Leeds, United Kingdom. We had actually used this tournament to prepare ourselves for the IFA WorldNet Tournament coming up mid-July, 2011 in Leeds. As the only team from Africa, we hope to win the trophy again this year” he said.

The 2011 BRF Soccer Tournament was organised in honour of Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola, who was on hand to present the trophy to the victorious team. The tourney featured ten weekend football clubs in Lagos including All Stars International, Managers FC, Ikorodu All Stars,

Jeunsoke FC, All Stars Family and Festac All Stars.

Sports

Arsenal-Nigeria wins 2011 weekend football tournament

Arsenal-Nigeria wins 2011 weekend football tournament

The team beat Apapa/Ajegunle All Stars, 5-4 via penalty shoot-out in a pulsating final played on Saturday at the Campos Square mini-stadium,

in a thrilling encounter that was decided by penalty shoot out. Scores at full time stood at 1-1.

Arsenal-Nigeria opened scoring in the first half courtesy of a spectacular volley from one of its forwards; Apapa evened scores in the dying moments of the game to take the game to a shoot out.

The penalty shoot out that followed was entertaining and nerve-wracking with the first five kicks failing to produce a winner owing largely to the efforts of the two goalkeepers.

In the second round of the shoot-out, the Arsenal-Nigeria goalkeeper saved the first spot kick to pave way for his team captain to score and win the game.

Organised professionals

Jeunsoke FC, All Stars Family and Festac All Stars.

Sports

Mikel on Hamburg’s radar

Mikel on Hamburg’s radar

Nigerian midfielder John Obi Mikel’s days at Chelsea appears to be coming to an end as he has been linked with a move to German Bundesliga outfit Hamburg.

Frank Arnesen, Chelsea’s sporting director, will be joining the German side in June and reports in the German media suggests that Mikel is among a shortlist of players the Dane intends to lure to Hamburg.

While Germany’s biggest sports tabloid, Bild, reported that Arnesen is chasing after Mikel and young Holland defender Jeffrey Bruma, a report on a German based site (www.hamburgerabendblatt.de) stated that the former Denmark international is also keen on securing the services of Salomon Kalou and Brazilian defender Alex.

Mikel, who featured for the Super Eagles in last night’s international friendly against Kenya, hasn’t enjoyed the best of times at Chelsea this season especially since returning from a knee injury in December.

The 23-year-old Nigerian was a regular in Chelsea’s double-winning team of last season but has played only seven of the London side’s 17 games since his making his return from injury.

British tabloid, News of the World, recently reported that Mikel is upset at his lack of first team starts and is set to demand showdown talks with Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti over his future.

The £25million-rated star’s contract runs until 2013 but he will have a list of top clubs battling for his signature if he does go – with Manchester United and Real Madrid at the forefront.

Sports

Siasia plans for Ethiopian altitude

Siasia plans for Ethiopian altitude

Super Eagles coach, Samson Siasia is already looking at ways of preparing his team for their next 2012 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier against Ethiopia. Siasia is particularly focused on getting the Eagles ready to cope with the altitude of the East African nation.

The match comes up on June 5 in the Ethiopian capital city of Addis Ababa with the Super Eagles in desperate need of a win over the Walya Antelopes so as to keep pace with Group B leaders Guinea, who are expected to, same day, win their AFCON qualifier against Madagascar in Conakry.

But Addis Ababa is situated 2,355 metres (7,726 feet) above sea level which is likely going to affect the performance of players, especially those from low altitude areas owing to the decrease in atmospheric pressure.

Playing at high altitude, where the oxygen level is considerably lower, is often a strategy deployed by teams so as to achieve the desired result against oftentimes stronger opponents with one of the most celebrated instances being the 6-0 demolition of Argentina by Bolivia during one of the qualifying matches for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Ethiopia have, however, not had that much luck while playing at home as their last AFCON qualifier in Addis Ababa ended in a 4-1 defeat to Guinea. But if the words of the coach of the Walya Antelopes, Iffy Onuora are to be taken seriously, then the Super Eagles will have to be at their best in order emerge victorious on June 5.

Speaking at the end of last Sunday’s 4-0 loss to the Super Eagles, Onuora expressed optimism over his side’s chances of springing a surprise against the Super Eagles due to the city’s altitude.

A loss to Ethiopia, and a Guinean victory over Madagascar will virtually end the Super Eagles’ chances of qualifying for the 2012 AFCON to be co-hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, and Siasia isn’t quite keen on having the unenviable record of not qualifying the Super Eagles for the continent’s premier tournament.

The last coach to do that was Christopher Udemezue who failed to secure qualification for the 1986 tournament in Egypt.

Disastrous

“That will be disastrous,” remarked Siasia in an interview with NEXT. “Nigerians will be mad if we don’t qualify especially after placing so much faith in us. So we just have to be very prepared for that game and the ones after that.

“For the Ethiopia game, because of the high altitude, we can only do two things. We either go there a few days before the game and try to camp, or we get there on the day of the game.” The human body can adapt to high altitude by breathing faster, having a higher heart rate, as well as an adjustment in its blood chemistry, but it can take days or weeks to adapt.

Arriving hours before kickoff however reduces the effect on the body and is a strategy that has been deployed time after time in international football.

“That’s what we will do but we still have to talk to the federation and see how we can work out the logistics and every other thing related to the game,” he continued.

“It is a very important game and it is equally important to know all the details and how to go about it.”

Sports

POINT BLANK: When is football coming home?

POINT BLANK: When is football coming home?

In the evening hours, at the National Stadium in Abuja, Samson Siasia, the Super Eagles manager, will lead his players out in a crucial 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Ethiopia, his first competitive match since taking charge of the team in December.

Unsurprisingly, the Eagles’ performance in that game will be the topic of choice for football’s chattering classes, considering their parlous state since last year’s World Cup disaster and the country’s desperate desire to see the team return to the flamboyant form of yesteryear.

But besides hoping, of course, that they earn the needed win, the team’s ‘exile’ to that overpriced concrete contraption called a stadium in Abuja, a place without a football culture, ethos and soul, evokes deep and bitter feelings in me.

Any genuine connoisseur of our game knows the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos, criminally neglected by our federal government – as its decrepit, ugly form hauntingly reminds us – is our real theatre of dreams and Nigerian football’s spiritual home.

Who can forget the pleasurable and anguished moments on its hallowed but now patchy, miserable looking turf?

It staged our first Africa Cup of Nations triumph in 1980, when, to the delight of over 60,000 fans, Green Eagles captain Christian Chukwu proudly walked up to the arena’s state box to lift the Cup of Unity.

And who can forget August 12, 1989, when, amongst thousands of other fans in the terraces, I unknowingly watched midfielder Samuel Okwaraji convulse, collapse and die on its turf, in that unforgettable, tragic 1990 World Cup qualifier against Angola.

Or how Nigeria’s painful failure to win the 2000 Nations Cup final – after Victor Ikpeba’s penalty goal against Cameroun that never was – made captain Sunday Oliseh weep like a newborn baby?

“I cannot begin to recall all the important moments of my life, and in the lives of many great footballers, that took place in that stadium. That the ground is in its current state leaves me with nothing to say,” says former Nigeria captain Segun Odegbami.

And the dilapidated state of the stadium is made all the more poignant by its healthier, smaller next door neighbour – Teslim Balogun Stadium, the only decent football ground in Nigeria’s largest city.

After the Eagles’ unbelievable eight-year absence from the city, the recent friendly game against Sierra Leone, at the Balogun ground, served as a timely reminder, at least to me, of how the national team’s return to Lagos is the key to reviving its dwindling fortunes.

Given a bad rap

Rather than mollycoddle the present set of Eagles, some of whom are risk-averse and have to be pampered into doing their very minimum for the country – and hoping that they can get away with it in Abuja, where the crowd is quite temperate, putting the players feet to the searing Lagos fire will certainly improve the team’s work ethic.

Given a bad rap by previous FAs for their refusal to ‘blindly’ support the national team whilst playing at Sports City, as the National Stadium is nicknamed, Lagos fans are, unfairly, being given the proverbial bad name in order to ‘hang’ them.

The unadorned truth is that whilst a bit unruly at times, Lagos fans demand top draw performances from those wearing the colours of our country and are intolerant of sloppiness or an obvious lack of commitment. Lagos fans, at least most of them, can tell the difference between a national team that loses gallantly, after giving everything they’ve got and one that just couldn’t be bothered to deliver.

Why should their loyalty and support of the Super Eagles not come at the price of excellence and diligence?

The nauseating state of the National Stadium continues to offer an excuse for the Nigerian Football Federation, which points to the artificial turf at Teslim Balogun, admittedly not as good as a natural surface, as a reason not to stage competitive games in Lagos.

But until the real national stadium and Lagos fans – a microcosm of Nigeria’s various ethnic groups – are restored to their rightful pride of place, our national team may remain in the wilderness for years to come. Football just has to come home, if we are to prosper.