Lagos Set to Reopen Economy, Completes Register-to-Open Guidelines

Lagos State Government has set the process of re-opening its economy in motion, with the rollout of Register-to-Open guidelines.

Governor Babajide SanwoOlu said the state government daily battled the reality of balancing reactivation of economic activities and the continuation of the state’s response to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sanwo-Olu said this while speaking at a webinar organised by the FSDH Group, with the theme: 'A Global Pandemic: Local Realities and Peculiarities – A View from the Frontlines'.

The governor was a panelist in the online discussion that also featured governors of Kaduna and Edo states, Mallam Nasir el-Rufa’i and Godwin Obaseki.

The webinar had about 1,200 people who participated from across the globe.

According to the Lagos State governor, the battle to stop the ravaging virus in Lagos had subjected the state to a delicate

The World Bank expects to make a decision in late July on a $1.5 billion loan to support Nigeria as it fights the novel Coronavirus, Reuters quoted the Bank’s country director to have said in an interview yesterday.

The World Bank is working on packages that could provide more than $3 billion to Africa’s largest economy, which is facing what the lender says may be its greatest fiscal crisis in 40 years, set off by the Coronavirus pandemic and resulting oil price crash.

Barely three days after removing Professor Charles Uwakwe as the Registrar of the National Examination Council (NECO), President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Professor Godswill Obioma as the new Registrar/Chief Executive officer of the examination body.

Professor Obioma yesterday assumed duties at the Minna headquarters of the Council.

According to a statement made available to newsmen in Minna by Head Information situation of having to manage hunger resulting from weeks of slowdown in economic activities and also the movement of consumer goods to keep the economy afloat.

He said the four-page Register-to-Open guidelines were the major part of the measures initiated to achieve phased reopening of the state economy, adding that government had offered incentives that would affect its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in order to prevent job loss in critical industries that provide employment for a large number of labour.

Sanwo-Olu said the state government remained committed to tackling COVID-19 and breaking the cycle of its transmission, adding that there was need to address hunger and job loss that could arise from prolonged lockdown of the economy.

He said: “We have been caught in a very delicate situation between managing COVID-19 on one hand and managing hunger and sustaining

“We were hoping to present to our board by late July or latest early August, because the government will need the finance,” Shubham Chaudhuri, its Nigeria country director, told Reuters.

“The immediate challenge is a fiscal one: How does the government marshal the fiscal resources to keep basic government functions going?” Chaudhuri said.

On Thursday, Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed said the economy could shrink as much as 8.9% in 2020. and Public Relations of NECO, Mr. Azeez Sani, Professor Obioma's appointment was contained in a letter dated 15th May, 2020 with Reference No: FME/PS/396/C1/1/134 and signed by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu.

The statement states that the appointment was for an initial tenure of five years and with effect from 14th May, 2020.

Professor Obioma takes over from Mallam Abubakar Gana who had been acting as Registrar for more than an economy that is not only depended on commercial activities in Lagos alone, but also other states across the federation. We have had weeks of engagement with players in fast-moving consumer goods sector and part of the measures we are taking is that, we are giving them additional clearance to work for longer hours.

“Besides, we initiated what we called Register-to-Open, which is a thorough guideline to help the residents ahead of the full reopening. Some of the things we will be seeing in the four-page guideline is, how we want to manage space at various places of business and what numbers of personnel and clients we expect at a given period, which must be based on the sizes of the facilities. As we prepared for this phased re-opening, we are giving priority to sectors that have higher number of labour.” The governor, however, maintained that the re-opening would not be done in haste, but said construction and manufacturing sectors would

The World Bank expects Nigeria’s economy to shrink by between 3.2% and 8% in 2020, and government oil revenues could fall by a third or possibly more than half, said Chaudhuri.

The Bank’s lead economist on Nigeria, Marco Hernandez, said even if the outbreak were contained, the situation was “unprecedented, shocking.”

Nigeria’s 2016 recession sent 13 million people into unemployment; this crisis might be “much more pronounced,” Hernandez said. World Bank loans like the $1.5 billion often have conditions one year.

Until his appointment Prof. Obioma was the Ebonyi State Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The new appointee, a Professor of Education Measurement and Evaluation, was born on 12th December 1953 and hails from Bende Local Government Area of Abia State.

He was the former Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Educational Research and Development Council, be accorded high priority for full re-opening, given the large number of employment they generate.

He added that entertainment, hospitality and aviation industries would be considered in the second phase of intervention.

Continuing, Sanwo-Olu said the weeks of inertia in the economy also had significant impact on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs),

As predicted by industry pundits, the federal government has finally bowed to Canada High Commission in Abuja by cancelling the planned evacuation of stranded Nigerian in Canada by the indigenous carrier, Air Peace.

The airlift was in continuation of evacuation exercise, which has been ongoing since the attached to them - reforms that governments must enact to secure the money.

Chaudhuri and Hernandez declined to comment on any conditions for the loan, including contentious subsidies for fuel, electricity and propping up the naira currency that cost Nigeria billions of dollars a year.

“We have been recommending a move towards a unified exchange rate and a more flexible exchange rate for some time,” said Hernandez, adding that it would help the recovery and boost investor confidence. and was also the Director, Monitoring, Research and Statistics, National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB); Director Monitoring and Evaluation Universal Basic Education Programme; Director Monitoring and Evaluation National Primary Education Commission and Head, Department of Science, Mathematics and Technology, University of Jos.

An erudite scholar, Prof. Obioma has many scholarly publications to his credit.

He is married with children. stressing that millions of smallscale businesses operating in the state could completely fold up if the economy is not fully reactivated.

In addition to granting threemonth moratorium to MSMEs that applied for loan facilities at the Lagos State Employment Trust Funds (LSETF), SanwoOlu said the State Government had started to compile data of registered MSMEs in the state for outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, as Nigeria started evacuating its citizens from abroad over a fortnight ago.

After the initial airlift of Nigerians by foreign carriers, including Ethiopian Airlines, Emirates and British Airways, the federal government vowed that Nigerian airlines would subsequently be evacuating Nigerians, as many other countries have been doing.

But a letter from the Nigeria High Commission in Nigeria, dated May 20, 2020 with the reference number: NHC/OTT/ ADM.56/I with the head: Update on the Flight Postponement,’ and made available to THISDAY, said that the government opted out of the Air Peace arrangement because the Canadian Government expressed reservations concerning the granting of the necessary clearance/landing permit for Air Peace to fly into Canada, due to safety concerns.

The government in the letter agreed that Air Peace airfare was the most convenient and cost effective of all the airlines contacted for the airlift of Nigerians back to the country, but the concern of Canadian government compelled it to cancel the agreement with the airline.

The letter read in part: “The mission therefore engaged a number of airlines and eventually came up with an arrangement and pricing structure with Air Peace, which no other airline was able to match. You will operational support that would cushion the effect of economic slowdown on their businesses.

He said: “The other part of our intervention is our conversation with big corporations in various sectors on the requirements they may want from us to ensure that they do not retrench their staff in this emergency period. This conversation is very important. recall that in our Public Notice of 12th May, 2020, the High Commission announced that the Canadian government had expressed reservations concerning the granting of the necessary clearance/landing permit to Air Peace to fly into Canada, due to safety concerns.”

“Kindly be informed that after protracted engagement, the Canadian Government, has unfortunately reverted with what appears to be a final refusal. As a result, the Air Peace Limited arrangement is hereby cancelled.”

In response to this development, Air Peace management has reached out to the evacuees by writing to them and requesting that they should come for the refund of their money.

The letter said, “Dear Esteemed Guests, we regretfully wish to inform you that we have not been given landing permit by Canada as at today. We are not unaware of the trauma the protracted delay has caused you. We do not want to continue holding on to this for your sake. We truly care for our people hence the kind of fare we asked you to pay for your trip to which you did gladly pay.

“You have waited for this opportunity to fly, proudly, a Nigerian airline to this destination but it was not meant to be. We are a nation that believes in God Almighty. In this and, for everything, may we gladly be thankful to God.