The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday said President, Muhammadu Buhari was committed to reducing poverty in the country, after committing N500 billion to social Investment Programme (SIP).  The Vice President who stated this in his speech at the 10th Bola Tinubu Colloqium in Lagos said the administration's SIP was the largest pro-poor programme in Nigeria’s history,

and the largest social safety net in Sub-Saharan Africa. He noted that programme was being implimented despite 50% drop in oil revenue as well as reduction in oil production from 2 million barrel per day to about 700, 000 barrel per day in 2015.

“We have seen today the empirical evidence of the successes of this programme, and all of that is evident for us to see and listen to several testimonies and stories. 200,000 jobs for undergraduates employed under the N-Power programme, 300,000 more waiting to be employed;

they have been pre-selected; over 7 million children being fed daily in 22 States so far; beneficiaries of microcredit loans going to about 300,000; and almost 300,000 households benefiting from conditional cash transfers.

“In 2014, when oil was at between 100 dollars and 114 dollars a barrel, the actual releases for capital for three ministries – Power, Works and Housing – then they were three separate ministries, was in total N99 billion; while Transportation got 14 billion, and Agriculture got 15 billion. I’m talking about actual releases, not budgeted, what they actually got.

“Let’s compared that with capital releases to the same ministries in 2017, when oil price was between $50 and $60 a barrel, N415 Billion for Power, Works & Housing, N80 Billion for Transportation; N65 Billion for Agriculture; totalling N560 Billion, in a time when we were earning at least 50% less than we were earning in 2014.

“And when we say that this same government that spent N139 Billion only on all of Agric, Power, Works and Housing, Transport, etc; spent between January 2015 and the elections, the sum of a N100 Billion in cash and 289 million dollars, altogether about a 100 Billion in cash, was released and spent, shared. This sum of money was in excess of the amount of money that was spent on Power, Works and Housing.

“I will just give you one last example. Three billion US dollars was lost to something called the Strategic alliance contracts in NNPC, 3 Billion US Dollars, and never paid back. Now, the same 3 Billion dollars, the Minister of Finance sat with us at a meeting of the Economic Management Team, and we are proposing; in fact 3 billion dollars is about a trillion naira.

“We are now proposing foreign loans for the same 3 billion dollars: (to build the following roads): Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road, 2nd Niger Bridge, Enugu-Port Harcourt road, East-West road, Sagamu-Ore-Benin road, Kano-Maiduguri road, Abuja-Lafia-Akwanga-Keffi road, and Lagos-Abeokuta: the old road, all for the same 3 billion.

“Today we earn almost 50% less than five years ago and we are investing several times more. In 2017 we spent 1:3 Trillion on capital, the largest in the history of this country, despite earning 50% less. The majority of our people depend on the integrity of those who govern them because they don’t have the odds. They are far too poor, in many cases, far too vulnerable to be able to say anything for themselves.”

The debt stock data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that – Lagos State has the largest debt burden among all states. The state’s debt stock is 35.61% of the country's foreign borrowings. Kaduna (5.79%), Edo (5.64%), Cross River 4.08% and Enugu 3.23%, are all clustered behind Lagos.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday flagged off the construction of the Lekki Deep Sea Port in Lagos, pledging that the Federal Government would give the needed support to the project.

Buhari who was represented by his vice, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, said the project would become one of the largest sea ports in the region, and serve as a hub for port operations in the whole of West Africa.

According to him, the project, once completed, is designed to influence the generation of up to 170,000 direct and indirect jobs in the economy.

The National Chairman of Host Communities of Nigeria Producing Oil and Gas, (HOSTCOM) and member of the Board of Trustees of Hydrocarbon Remediation Project (HYPREP), Mr. Mike Emuh has explained the reason why the Federal Government is yet to commence the Ogoniland cleanup exercise.

A former vice president for Royal Dutch Shell sub-Saharan Africa, Peter Robinson, has been fingered in the $390 million sale of an oilfield in Nigeria. Shell, Reuters reports, has filed a criminal complaint against Robinson over suspected bribes in the sale of an onshore oilfield, Oil Mining Lease (OML) 42, to local company Neconde Energy Ltd in February 2011.

President Muhammadu Buhari has taken a further step to recover illegally acquired assets, including monies, taken to Switzerland and other countries by compromised public officeholders. The President on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Swiss government and International Development Association in a bid to secure their assistance in the recovery process.

Some major oil stocks recorded price depreciation on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday with Seplat leading the losers’ table. The report stated that Seplat lost N35 to close at N665.10 per share. Mobil came second with a loss of N7.50 to close at N177, while Total was down by N3.70 to close at N240 per share.

The Federal Government said it has saved a whopping N208 billion from Ghost Workers salaries following ongoing audit being carried out by the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA). The Secretary of PICA, Dr. K. Diwa who stated this over the weekend at a seminar in Abuja for finance journalists, organised by the ministry of finance said in 2016 the committee saved a total of N 97,939,974,344 and in 2017 the amount saved was N110,461,098,196.

The management of Dana Air has introduced special promo to reward its customers during the Easter holiday. The Accountable Manager of Dana Air, Obi Mbanuzuo who made this known in a statement issued on Tuesday said the promo, tagged ‘Buy one, Get one free’, is for guests who book a return ticket between Thursday March 29 and Friday March 30.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria said it has installed and commissioned two 60MVA Power Transformers in its transmission substations in Uyo and Kano. The General Manager (Public Affairs) Mrs. Ndidi Mbah, TCN made the disclosure in a statement issued to newsmen on Monday.