The National Assembly on Tuesday approved N160 billion for the new minimum wage for federal workers and payment of severance benefits to civil servants , in the 2019 budget.

The decision followed the unanimous endorsement of the 2019 Budget presentation by the lawmakers at separate plenaries which held simultaneously in both houses and presided over by Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara at the National Assembly, Abuja.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that President Muhammadu Buhari had on Dec. 19 presented the 2019 Budget proposal of N8.83 trillion before the joint section of the National Assembly.

However, the Senate and the House of Representatives on Tuesday passed the 2019 Appropriation Bill and jacked the budget to N8.92 trillion, an increase of N90 billion.

The salary increase and severance benefits were contained in the service-wide votes.

N5 billion was also provided for payment of outstanding death benefit to civil servants/police.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Sen. Danjuma Goje, while addressing newsmen shortly after the budget passage, affirmed that the N160 billion was to fund the minimum wage increase and severance benefits as stipulated in item 90 of the report.

Goje, however, stated that if the amount budgeted failed to meet the demand, the Federal Government could present a supplementary budget to cover the shortfall.

NAN reports that the National Minimum Wage Bill, which was passed by the lower and upper house on Jan. 29 and March 19 respectively, was signed into law by President Buhari on April 18.

Presenting the report, Sen. Danjuma Goje said the increase of N90 billion in the budget is to cater for security challenges in the country, packages for lawmakers and support for Zamfara state.

According to him, N23.68 billion was earmarked for severance gratuity for outgoing legislators and legislative aides.

He added that the amount was also for allowances for incoming legislators and legislative aides and induction programme and inauguration of the 9th Assembly.

He further said the sum of N10 billion was earmarked for Zamfara State, while security agencies had their budgets increased to cater for security challenges.

There is a slight increase in the budget deficit.

This is as a result of provision for severance benefits for the outgoing legislators and legislative aides and the induction and orientation and inauguration of new lawmakers. It was not captured in the 2019 budget.

Mustapha Dawaki, Chairman House Committee on Appropriations said the budget will be transmitted to President Muhammmadu Buhari for his assent on Thursday

Source: NAN

By EricJames Ochigbo

The House of Representatives will proceed with the institution of sanctions against acting Chairman and Management of Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Rep. Mark Gbillah (PDP-Benue) has said.

Gbillah, who is the Chairman of the House ad hoc Committee investigating data collection processes, maintenance and usage in RMAFC made this known at a hearing on Tuesday in Abuja.

The chairman said that the committee was constituted in January, 2018 but had not been unable to finish its work as RMAFC would not comply with the demands of the committee.

He said that the committee had written to RMAFC several times and there were various reasons why the commission would not respond to the demands of the committee.

The committee intended to prevail on the speaker to halt the sanctions that had already been initiated against earringinstitutions if they are not willing to cooperate with the committee.

But from what we are seeing today, I want to assure Nigerians that the House of Representatives would proceed with the institution of sanctions against the acting Chairman and management of RMAFC, he said.

Gbillah said that the commission had erred fundamentally to have written to other agencies instructing them not to honour the invitation of the committee.

The legislator said that by that action, RMAFC did not respect the Constitution of theFederal Republic of Nigeria.

He said that the institution did not observe the principle of the Rule of Law and thought they were above board.

The lawmaker said that he wanted President Muhammadu Buhari and all the supervising officers to know what the committee had been going through with the commission in the last one year.

He said that the commission had degenerated to the extent of writing to the Speaker of the house demanding the removal of the committee chairman and casting all forms of aspersions on the committee.

He said that the new National Minimum Wage is hinged on the revenue that accrue to the states of the federation.

According to Gbillah,the committee is out to ensure an equitable allocation of resources to the state and prevent any state from being shortchanged.

The chairman said that the RMAFC has been unable to come up with a record and data to show that all the indices sent to the Accountant Generals office are correct representation of their changing realities envisaged by the Constitution.

He said the allegations against RMAFC before the National Assembly had not been unproven as the commission would not cooperate with the committee.

Gbillah said that the house was left without any other option than to engage the state and take far reaching actions against the commission.

Rep. Abdulrazak Namdas (APC-Adamawa) said that the committee could not afford to allow institutions vital to the investigation to hinder the progress of the committee.

He said that the commission writing to other agencies, instructing them not appear before the committee should not be condoned and serious actions should be taken.

Namdas said that the exercise was not a childs play as section 89 of the Constitution empowers the parliament to carry out investigations and institutions must respectit.

Also, Rep. Mohammed Usman (APC-Kaduna) said it was a sad day for him as the parliamentarians were accused of not doing their job in the media.

According to him, here we are working for Nigerians and some institutions do not want to support to make Nigeria great and better than it is.

He said that there was no institution that was as significant to the state and Local Government as the RMAFC.

Usman said besides Lagos state, no other state in the country could function without revenue from the Federal Government.

He said it was sad that only three states out of 36 honoured the invitation to attend a hearing bothering on revenue allocation.

The lawmaker said that the house must come out strongly as Nigerians would not tolerate such sabotage.

Usman alleged that the right processes hardly works in the RMAFC, alleging that some members of staff allocate monies at will and illegally get a share of it.

According to the lawmaker, this is what necessitated the petition which came to the floor of the house as a motion and the resolution to investigate the matter and the institutions are not here.

The acting Director, Banking Services, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Mr Abubakar Kure said that the CBN keeps custody of the Federation account which is shared between the federal, states and local governments.

He said that the CBN is also empowered to monitor the inflows and the out flows of the account and to carry out reconciliation.

Kure said the CBN is not a revenue generating agency and that the bank only keeps custody of the account.

He said on a monthly basis, all inflows are collated and sent to the Office of the Account General of the Federation.

Kure said though the bank provides information and returns on the account to RMAFC, it does not have an interface with the commission.

He also said that the commission had not demanded for any returns of revenue collecting agencies from the bank in a very long time.

Also, Mr Abdulazeez Mustafa, the Deputy Director, Revenue Account Department, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) said that the service had submitted all documents requested for by the committee.

He said that details of disbursements by the CBN to the FIRS were also contained in the documents submitted to the committee.

He said that there was no existing electronic interface between FIRS and the RMAFC and that the details of all revenue generated by FIRS since 2014 to 2018 had be submitted to the committee.

Mustafa said that the issue of revenue sharing formular was outside the scope of the mandate of the FIRS.

Institutions that failed to appear includethe Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS).(NAN)

Source: NAN

An economist, Prof. Ben Aigbokhan has advised the three tiers of government to improve provision of social goods such as education, health services and infrastructure for workers in the country.

Aigbokhan, Vice Chancellor at Samuel Adegboyega University, Edo gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.

Aigbokhan, Professor of Economics spoke on the occasion of Workers Day usually celebrated every May 1 globally.

He said improvement in provision of social goods would reduce workers out of pocket expenses and make the minimum wage have a longer reach in terms of consumer basket.

According to him, the implementation of minimum wage will inevitably lead to inflation.

A new National Minimum Wage Bill of N30,000 was passed by the National Assembly on January 29 and March 19 and was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on April 18.

It will lead to inflation as employers attempt to pass on to prices the increase in cost of production, especially as fuel pump price has gone to N150 per litre.

It will cause some unemployment as employers resist new employment.

The purchasing power of the minimum wage is in real terms lower than the earlier minimum wage in view of inflation rate, he said. (NAN)

Source: NAN

The Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, has given approval to Green Energy International Limited, GEIL, operator of the Otakikpo marginal field in Oil Mining Lease OML 11, to construct a one million-barrel capacity onshore terminal in Rivers State.

In a statement by its Director of Corporate Affairs, Mr. Olusegun Ilori, Green Energy said the issuance of the Approval to Construct, ATC, was sequel to the DPRs review of the detailed engineering design for the onshore crude oil storage facility to be built in the proposed Industrial park in Ikuru Town, Andoni Local Government Area of Rivers state.

In the letter conveying the approval dated April 23, 2019, Green Energy quoted the DPR as saying,

We hereby communicate the approval of the Director of Petroleum Resources to you for the detailed engineering design of one (1) million barrels onshore crude oil storage facility project. You may therefore proceed to the construction and installation phase of the project.

In addition, the company disclosed that the DPR had also approved the conceptual design for the 40,000 barrels per day flow station for the field, noting that the flow station was being planned to handle the increased production envisaged in the second phase of the development of the Otakikpo Marginal Field and serve as a processing hub for other oil fields nearby.

The company noted that that the proposed Otakikpo Onshore Terminal would be the first indigenous onshore terminal and would also the first to be built in the country in the past five decades.

According to the company, construction of the proposed terminal was expected to start soon by a consortium of internationally reputable EPC contractors. It said,

The project is part of the robust development strategy to expand production and de-risk the evacuation of its crude from the Otakikpo field, thereby reducing drastically the cost of its

evacuation from the field. The proposed Terminal will be strategically located to also benefit several otherwise stranded oil fields in the Eastern Niger Delta axis by providing a commercially viable and operationally efficient access to the export market.

Commending the DPR for its prompt approval of its proposed onshore terminal project, the Chairman of GEIL, Prof. Anthony Adegbulugbe, said the development of an Onshore Terminal is in synergy with the present administrations overarching strategy to boost oil production while at the same time reducing cost of production.

He noted that the cost of evacuation using the onshore terminal will significantly reduce the export evacuation cost for oil production in the Otakikpo field and other nearby production fields.

Source: NAN

Anthony Joshua will defend his heavyweight titles against Mexican-American Andy Ruiz Jr at Madison Square Garden on June 1, the British boxers promoter announced on Wednesday.

Ruiz Jr, who will be bidding to become Mexicos first heavyweight world champion, replaces Joshuas scheduled opponent Jarrell Miller, who was barred from fighting after failing drugs tests.

The chills Im really excited for this fight, said Californian-born Ruiz, 29, in a statement released by Matchroom Boxing.

He cited Mexican great Julio Cesar Chavez, a world champion in several lighter classes, and former heavyweight world champions Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis.

This is my chance to make history, I want to be one of those greats like Chavez, Tyson, Holyfield, Lennox Lewis. I want to be in that category.

Im going to bring the titles back to Mexico. Im going to be able to change my whole familys lives, my life and all my kids.

Ruiz has won 32 of his 33 professional bouts, with his only defeat coming in a world title challenge against New Zealands Joseph Parker.

Joshua, 29, who has won all of his 22 fights, will be fighting in the United States for the first time and defending his WBA, IBF, WBO belts.

Ruiz is a different kind of challenge but one I embrace, said Joshua.

We have worked in the boxing gym week on week and whomever is put in front of me at Madison Square Garden on June 1 will be dispatched in style. The rent will be collected.

Source: NAN

The Embassy of Russia in Nigeria, has urged Nigerians to explore opportunity through application for the ongoing Russian Government Scholarship programme, to improve themselves educationally.

Mr Ivan Lydkin, Press Attache of the Embassy, made the call on Wednesday in Abuja while addressing executive members of the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS).

He described the scholarship programme as Russias way to strengthen its bilateral relations with Nigeria, under its reunification intiative.

According to him, one of Russias missions here is to introduce Nigeria students to Russias academic opportunities, to enable them to improve themselves.

Lydkin said, We have organised interactive sessions in Nigeria for Russia Alumni in the country who are over 10,000.

We work with 30 courses and offers full educational programme and our programme has been growing bigger and better over the years.

The scholarship affords allowances from the Federal Scholarship Board of Nigeria (FSB)

We have 40 educational programmes across 32 Universities which offer courses based on candidates choice.

He explained the six conditions for the historic Crimea reunification with Russia, despite its undoubted legitimacy and lawfulness.

The Press Attache mentioned the six rationales to include Crimea referendum, international law perspective, and legal status of the city of Sevastopol.

Others include Russia military presence on the peninsula, geopolitical rationale and common law perspective.

Also, Mr Renat Yalyshev, Head of the International Students Office, lauded the scholarship initiative and urged Nigeria students to apply in order to secure better education in future.

According to him, we have Universities for all engineering, science courses and also in the humanities.

The St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University LETI for instance is the oldest University founded in 1886; where you can be offered all direction of computer sciences.

We have school of electronics and automation; we have very good experience in technology.

A Nigerian graduated there in 1972 and since then Nigerians have been graduating from the school, Yalyshev said.

Meanwhile, Mr Danielson Akpan, who led the delegation of NANS executive, commended the Embassy for the scholarship initiative and promised to disseminate the information to his colleagues.

According to him, what you are offering is quite commendable; our business is not just to coordinate students affairs, the complaints we received from some of them about discrimination border us.

We believe that there is no difference between us; we should see ourselves as one, we have received number of complaints from our members out there.

The concept of the exchange programme is important for us, but it is more important to address this issue, to allay fears by Nigerians wanting to study abroad, Akpan said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the programme designed for graduates and post-graduates under the auspices of the Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA), provides scholarship opportunity for Nigerians to studying Russia.

Under the BEA scholarship, the Russian Government takes care of the students tuition, while the Nigerian government pays each of the students 500 dollars monthly for their upkeep.

The scholarship provides for 100 students selected after applying via www.studyinrussia.ru.en where five successful applicants that qualify from each state make up total number of 250 persons that would be interviewed.

Source: NAN

.New minimum wage not reflected

By George Odok

Workers in Cross River have protested the payment of May salary on the first day of the month by Gov. Ben Ayade.

Ayade has consistently paid the May salary on the first day of the month in the last three years of his tenure.

But speaking to journalists, the state chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Clarkson Otu, said workers and the leadership of labour were unhappy over the early payment of salary.

According to the labour leader, even though the government means well, labour was nonetheless not happy with the situation.

As labour leaders we do not support early salaries payment. We have told the governor that it is not proper. April salary was paid only last week and on May 1st he pays May salary.

We are surprised he still paid early this month in spite of our protest. We will continue to engage him on that, he said.

Speaking in a similar vein, the state Chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Ben Ukpepi, decried the early payment of salaries by the state government.

Ukpepi said labour would engage with the governor with a view to putting an end to early payments of salaries in the state.

Meanwhile, Ayade has expressed his administrations readiness to implement the new minimum wage recently passed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Speaking through the Secretary to the State Government, Mrs Tina Agbor at the May Day rally in Calabar, Ayade pledged to pay the new wage once the modalities was worked out.

In spite of the state receiving one of the least revenue allocation from the federation account and being the third most indebted state, Ayade always pay civil servant early.

Source: NAN

Applications are invited for the Leeds Scholarships Scheme which will be awarded to Excellent students who have interest in pursuing a degree program at the University of Leeds, UK.

The aim of the scholarship is to encourage students from under-represented groups to embark on a postgraduate qualification.

Eligible Countries:UK

Course Level:Masters

Value Of Scholarships:When you are registered on your course, the university will provide 5,000 in cash installments.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Applicants from across the UK are eligible to apply.
• Applicants must commence a full-time, part-time or distance learning Masters program as an MA, MBA, MEd, MMus, MPH, MRes, MSc or LLM qualification at the University of Leeds beginning September 2019.
• Applicants must be a UK student paying postgraduate tuition fees at the UK rate.

Method of Application:Applicants are advised to complete theLeeds Masters Scholarship application form. If you have any questions contact us on[email protected].

VisitThe Official WebsiteFor More Information

Scholarship Application Deadline: 12 noon on Friday 28 June 2019.

Source: Scholarships And Aid

The International Development Department, University of Birmingham, invites applications from Africans who are seeking to acquire a degree program at the Institution.

This scholarship program includes

• Full tuition fee
• Air fare to and from the United Kingdom and visa
• Monthly stipend of 950 for 18 months
• Arrival allowance of 950

Course Level:Masters

Eligible Countries:African countries

To be taken at (country):University of Birmingham, UK

Eligibility Criteria:

• Applicants must have a first class Honours degree, or equivalent, and be African nationals domiciled (or permanent residents) in an African country.
• Applicants must be living in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Applicants should reach at least level 6.5 in the IELTS or 580 /93 for TOEFL.

Method of Application:Applications must be received through the Universityonline application system,by19May 2019. In addition to the usual documents to be submitted, applicants should also upload a 500 word statement and CV. This statement should set out why the applicant is the best candidate for the scholarship.

Applicants must then send an email to Mrs Debra Beard ([email protected]) informing her of their wish to be considered for the Mo Ibrahim Scholarship and their ID number.Please include Mo Ibrahim Scholarship in the subject line of the email.

VisitThe Official WebsiteFor More Information

Scholarship Application Deadline:19th May 2019

Source: Scholarships And Aid

Applications are invited for theTuition And Accommodation Scholarship Program which is awarded to applicants who wants to pursue a degree program at University of the Arts London(UAL) UK.

The scholarship provides a 25,000 award to cover tuition fee charges and make a contribution towards living costs. Scholarship recipients will also be offered International Students House (ISH) accommodation for the duration of their study.

To be taken at (country):University of the Arts London, UK

Eligibility Criteria:To be eligible, applicants must;

• Be an International student from thelisted countriesfor tuition fee purposes;and
• Have Applied to study a full-time taught Masters course at UAL (Your course must offer either an M ARCH, MA, MFA, MRes or MSc qualification) starting in the academic year of 2019/20;
• have an household income must be 35,000 or less (or the equivalent exchange value in a qualifying countries currency) at the point of scholarship application.

Method of Application:Once youve submitted a fully completed application for a qualifying course well send you an email with details about how (if you meet the eligibility criteria) you can apply for a UAL International Postgraduate Scholarship.

In your application youll be asked to evidence with documentation that you qualify for the overseas category for tuition fee purposes. For example you may be asked for a copy of your immigration documents, ID card or formal evidence of your address.

Please note that you need to submit your fully completed course application by 4pm BST on Friday 24 May 2019 in order to have time to send you a UAL International Postgraduate Scholarships online application form.

Your completed UAL International Postgraduate Scholarship application form and supporting evidence must be submitted by4pm BSTonFriday 31 May 2019.

VisitThe Scholarship WebpageFor More Information

Scholarship Application Deadline:31st May 2019

Source: Scholarships And Aid