Small scale food producers to get $790 million assistance
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, and several governments have announced financial commitments of $790 million worth assistance to enhance resilience of over 300 million small-scale food producers in the face of mounting climate impacts.
This commitment was made at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, recently.
Climate change, which is bringing more droughts, flooding and extreme weather events, is already taking a severe toll on farmers, especially in developing countries. Climate change may depress growth in global agriculture yields up to 30 per cent by 2050.
The commitment follows the recently released flagship report from the Global Commission on Adaptation that calls for global leadership to accelerate adaptation.
The Commission finds that investing in adaptation can yield significant economic, environmental benefits.
The Commission is led by Ban Ki-moon, 8th Secretary General of the United Nations; Bill Gates, Co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; and Kristalina Georgieva*, CEO of the World Bank, together with 31 other Commissioners.
The Commission and social will announce several Action Tracks as part of its “Year of Action,” which goes through 2020, including at the Global Adaptation Summit hosted by the Netherlands in October 2020. Enhancing the resilience of small-holder producers is one of the core initiatives of the Commission’s track on Agriculture and Food Security. The electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) have dismissed the claim by an official of PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PwC) that they don’t pay taxes because they record losses.
A statement by the Executive Director, Research and Advocacy at the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), Barr. Sunday Oduntan, on Thursday said the DisCos were reacting to the comment by the Chief Economist of PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PwC), Dr. Andrew Nevin last Wednesday.
Dr. Nevin, at a power sector roundtable organised by Mainstream Energy Solutions Limited in Kainji, Niger State on Tuesday said no DisCo in Nigeria has paid any tax to the Federal Government since 2013 when they were privatized, because they have been “on a lossmaking track” since then.
ANED which acknowledged Dr. Nevin’s effort to highlight the challenges of the sector however said his “claim was misleading, incorrect and not supported by the facts.”
DisCos said they are responsible corporate citizens and take their tax obligations to the federal and state governments, as applicable, seriously.
These taxes include the minimum Company Income Tax (CIT), Withholding Tax (WHT) and Value Added Tax (VAT).
“As a result, the DisCos diligently pay all necessary taxes that apply to their operations. We will like to encourage all parties interested in the growth and success of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) to constantly, diligently verify their information, to avoid creating more challenges than that which already exists in the sector,” they held.