Energy Briefs
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THE federal government has said the awful performance of the power sector is due to its large number of incapacitated workers. It stated that prior to the privatisation of the sector no engineer was employed for more than 16 years, while its technical arms were manned by workers who were not equipped technologically to run the industry.
Chinedu Nebo, minster of power, said these in Abuja, on Wednesday, November 5, during the commencement of the training of 7,400 craftsmen, linesmen and electricity artisans under the National Power Sector Apprentice Scheme, NAPSAS. He said when he assumed duty as the minister of power, he discovered a near hopeless situation in the technical side of the sector with more than 16 years of non-engagement of engineers, dying, sick and incapacitated workers that existed in the sector, with no hope of being replaced by competent hands.
Nebo said the NAPSAS was conceived as a matter of necessity, stressing that the scheme would help bridge the technical gap in the sector’s workforce. “The implication of this ugly development is that we will be handing over to the private sector a totally deficient and incapacitated workforce that cannot deliver on the mandate handed down to us by Mr. President for us to ensure uninterrupted power supply nationwide,” he said.
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Spike in Oil and Gas Importations
THE Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has said that the amount of money spent on importation of oil and gas in the country has increased from $2.67 billion in the first quarter of the year to $4.01 billion. The apex bank in its external sector development report for the second quarter, which was released on Wednesday, November 5, attributed the narrowing of the country’s current account surplus to higher import bills on crude oil and gas, among others.
Other factors include increased dividend and profit repatriation from $4.66 billion in the first quarter of 2014 to $6.13 billion in the second quarter as well as lower performance of non-oil exports in the second quarter, compared to the levels in the first and second quarters of 2013. “The performance of the external sector was mixed in the second quarter of 2014 as evident in the decline in the current account surplus, some improvements in foreign capital inflows and relative stability in the foreign exchange market engendered by the reforms in the BDC segment of the market,” the bank said.
According to CBN, the current account surplus dropped to $1.55 billion (1.1 percent of GDP) from $4.59billion (3.6 percent of GDP) and $4.79bn (3.8 percent of GDP) in the first quarter of the year and second quarter of 2013, respectively. “Furthermore, the growth in oil sector imports was mainly facilitated by the low domestic refining capacity, which induced increased importation of fuel to meet domestic demand,” it said.
The country’s refineries have long been operating well below installed capacity as they are in different states of disrepair. They operated at an average of 10.46 per cent of their combined nameplate capacity of 445,000 barrels per day in June, according to data from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
— Nov. 17, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT
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