At an overly publicised side-event towards the tail-end of the recently held 22nd Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP22) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the historical Moroccan city of Marrakech, the Akwa Ibom Government reached out to foreign investors to key into its burgeoning sustainable development initiatives.
Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State
At the event, which had “Climate change challenges in Akwa ibom State and opportunities for investment in Clean development” as its theme, state officials showcased government’s Strategic Roadmap to Sustainable Green Development, a somewhat ambitious plan that, among others, seeks to provide leadership for local authorities to efficiently guide and manage climate change.
Indeed, Governor Udom Emmanuel highlighted the state’s five-point agenda, which appears to be in line with the Paris Climate Change Agreement and Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The agenda is targeted at job creation, poverty alleviation, economic and political inclusion, wealth creation, infrastructural consolidation and expansion.
According to him, Akwa Ibom is interested in climate change issues as the largest producer of oil and gas as well as bearer of the longest coastal line in the country, spanning some 129 kilometres, making it susceptible to climate risks.
“We’re sacrificing our time and looking at the resources we have so that in future, we leave a legacy where our children will breathe cleaner air that would nurture them to live in a world that is entirely earth friendly,” he said.
Emmanuel stressed that the state needs private sector-led foreign direct investment and global environment fund to support its vision.
He said that projects already kick-started include a zero-emission vehicle assembly plant which, according to him, would pioneer the commercial transportation system for the state and country; a light-emitting diode (LED) energy bulbs manufacturing factory; and a green cargo facility, where perishable goods can be moved out of the state.
Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed, commended Akwa Ibom State Government for its foresight and for backing the NDCs. The minister, represented by Dr. Peter Tarfa, Director of the Climate Change Department, pledged Federal Government’s support for the state’s Strategic Roadmap to Sustainable Green Development.
Earlier, Commissioner for Environment and Mineral Resources, Dr. Iniobong Essien, said that the roadmap assesses the green development opportunities and challenges in Akwa Ibom State, determines the optimal pathways to green development.
The side event was graced by officials of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), Secretary to the State Government, Etekamba Umoren; Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Technical Matters and Due process, Ufot Ebong; and President of Ecologistics Integrated Services Limited, Dr. Paul Abolo.
Against the backdrop of global concern on the adverse health and environmental effects of mercury, stakeholders have underlined the need to embrace items that are mercury-free.
Some countries have banned mercury use in dentistry, as mercury-free dental filling materials are often comparable or said to be superior in performance
At a stakeholder sectoral workshop on “Mercury added products in Nigeria” held recently in Lagos, participants recommended the banning and phasing-out the importation, sale, transfer and use of mercury containing products and equipments.
“Beside strict prohibition of local and domestic manufacture, there should restriction on all importation, sale, transfer or distribution of mercury containing goods,” said Dr Michael Okoh, a consultant to SRADev Nigeria.
“The use of mercury in open-ended applications and partially enclosed applications should be discouraged and no longer be allowed. Equipment’s containing mercury should only be replaced with equipment that is mercury free. A set target date for prohibition of the importation, sale, transfer or distribution of mercury containing equipment as defined, under the Minimata Convention should already been agreed,” he added.
Leslie Adogame, Executive Director of SRADev Nigeria, described the gathering as an awareness raising and data gathering workshop on the process towards “Phasing out Mercury-added products in Nigeria” initiative, whose core objective is the develop strategies for phasing out mercury-added products and reducing mercury use. Nigeria is one of the four participating countries in the project, which SRADev is implementing.
“Its specific objective is to strengthen the implementation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) in the chemicals, waste and biodiversity clusters at the national and regional levels in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. It is important to state at this juncture that the outcome of the project is targeted at contributing to the Minamata Convention on Mercury,” said Adogame.
He pointed out that the SRADev Nigeria campaign effort is focused generally on the intentional mercury in products sources including mercury in medical devices (hospitals and health care settings).
“Our campaign work on mercury issues generally and dental amalgam commenced in 2010 with Lagos State institutions and since then it has gained tremendous impact at the national level, and culminating to this national stakeholder’s workshop,” stated Adogame.
In a presentation, he stressed that numerous countries have already phased out mercury in many of the products banned by the Convention.
“There are many examples and guides on what steps countries can take to ban products containing mercury. For example, the World Health Organisation (WHO) created a guide for phasing mercury out of health care. As more countries ban products, the markets respond and economies of scale increase availability.”
Adogame listed mercury-added products banned by 2020 to include: batteries, switches and relays, cosmetics (including soaps and cream); pesticides, biocides, topical antiseptics; non-electronic measuring devices (including barometers, hydrometers, manometers, thermometers, sphygmomanometers); and limit mercury content of lamps.
On mercury-free cosmetics, he stated: “Many countries have already ban use of mercury in cosmetics, even as mercury-free alternatives are widely available and used. Also, awareness and monitoring can reduce availability of hazardous cosmetics, while governments can tighten down penalties for illegal import, sales. Besides providing health alerts and effective communication to notify affected populations, products found to have mercury should be photographed and posted on the internet.”
Mercury-added pesticides, biocides and topical antiseptics are already banned in many countries as there are viable alternatives, Adogame disclosed, even as he called on governments to ensure that paints manufactured or imported into their countries should not have mercury added.
Concerning mercury-free non-electronic measuring devices, he submitted: “Many developing countries are already taking steps to eliminate the purchase of mercury-added medical devices (which comprise majority use in this category). In response to country bans, many manufacturers have stopped selling these products, as they only offer mercury-free products.
“Mercury-free products and devices are proven effective and widely available around the globe. The WHO-Health Care Without Harm have launched global initiative to shift global production of mercury thermometers and blood pressure cuffs by 2017.”
On the phase down of the mercury-containing Dental Amalgam, the SRADev Nigeria chief noted: “Some countries have banned mercury use in dentistry. Mercury-free dental filling materials are often comparable or superior in performance. Dental schools should train first in the use of mercury-free alternatives. During treaty negotiations, African Region took lead in calling for amalgam phase out.”
This article was written on the first day of the new year 2017, hence I seize the golden oppourtunity to greet numerous readers of EnviroNews magazine a Happy New Year. I extend similar greetings to my numerous professional colleagues under the aegis of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), the focus of this article.
Luka Achi, President of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP)
A new year connotes a new beginning and a time to advance new thoughts and ideas on how to make things work far better than the previous year. Literarily, I mean adding value to what one does as an individual or as an organisation. Applicatively, this writer intends to suggest this concept to the incumbent National President of NITP and members of his Executive Committee who were elected in November 2016, to manage the affairs of the Institute in the next two years under the leadership of Luka Bulus Achi, a Fellow of the Institute.
This homily will focus on the urgent issue of law and the constitution as it affects the Institute and on the need for continuity in order to improve its effectiveness as a professional body in the scheme of national development. For reason of space, this writer would serialise his random musings about what the focus of the present National Executive of NITP should be in subsequent articles. Readers may consider this one as the first installment of such intended serial articles.
On law and constitutional matters, the NITP still has many grounds to cover. Despite a subsisting national Urban and Regional Planning Law of 1992, which was dealt a lethal blow as a result of the Supreme Court landmark judgment delivered over 10 years ago, in which urban and regional planning matter resided as State function only, the inadvertent legal error is yet to be corrected. Commendable as it was then that the Institute pointed out the error in the judgment to the Federal Government that urban and regional is usually a tripartite matter all over the world…..a concurrent matter which all tiers of government (Federal, State, and Local governments) should participate, it has not gone beyond that point since 2006.
The Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Law of 1992, as it is presently, has been rendered ineffective by the apex court judgment. Some of the provisions of the law are not being complied with by either the Federal, State or Local Government most especially about the establishment of the Institutional machinery for urban and regional planning at different tiers of government. Specifically, the law prescribes for the establishment of certain Institutions to be in charge of urban planning at different levels such as the Federal Urban and Regional Planning Commission, State Urban Development Boards and Local Planning Authorities. Part of the primary functions of each Institution includes the preparation of hierarchies of development plans such as the national physical plan, regional development plan, and local area physical development plan respectively.
The aspect of non-compliance with the planning Act was recently echoed in the Communique issued at the end of NITP’s Golden Jubilee/47th Annual Conference held in Abuja between October 31st to November 4, 2016. The Conference observed the:
“ ….ineffectiveness and the evolving nature of the existing physical planning laws in Nigeria and the non-implementation of the1992 Urban and Regional Planning Act; also noted that many States are yet to domesticate the 1992 Urban and Regional Planning Act.”
It went further to recommend that all instrumentalities of planning should be established at all tiers of government as prescribed in the national Urban and Regional Planning Act. Here in lies the knotty issue the NITP has not be able to unknot over the past 10 years.
The Institute is in illusion of a subsisting Federal planning law; but, unfortunately, the Federal Government and the National Assembly pay very little cognisance to the said law. And if the Federal Government does not fulfill its own bargain about that law, how can it expect the State and Local governments to fulfill their own obligations by domesticating the Act against the Supreme Court judgment which has not been reviewed or repealed till date? This is the crux of the matter.
Therefore, the NITP must find a way to lobby the National Assembly to see reason why the legislative body must first accept the existence of a Federal planning law (no matter the imperfection of the law) and agree to amend it in order to make it implementable and enforceable on the part of the State and Local governments. Without making this deft move, planning would be at a crossroad, legally. No matter the repetitive calls by the NITP for the State governments to domesticate the law and establish the necessary institutions for planning purpose. There must be “force of law” to obey the Federal law, while the Federal Government must also comply with the provisions of its own law. Leaving the State governments to voluntarily comply would be wishful thinking as obvious in the content of the NITP communique referenced earlier in this piece.
The planning and management of cities are always legalistic and guided by public policy decisions in a democratic setting. The Nigerian Constitution which is the supreme law of the country does not put “urban and regional planning” under the concurrent list, but under the list of residual matters. This is an aberration and a damaging error while at the same time it is contradictory.
For example, Chapter 11, Section 20 of the Nigerian Constitution mandates “the State (i.e Federal Republic of Nigeria) to protect and improve the environment and safeguard the water, air, and land, forest, and wildlife in Nigeria.” It went further to classify this function as exclusive legislative power under schedule sec.4 part 1, item 60(a) of the law. If government is to comply strictly with the constitutional provision, the protection of the Nigerian environment cannot be treated in isolation from the proper co-ordination of land use and physical planning in order to create a conducive and healthy environment in Nigerian cities. This is one pious argument why the Federal government should partake in urban and regional planning with certain “first order” functions reserved for its actual implementation.
Most importantly, the Federal Government currently provides policy guidelines for housing and urban development in the country and plays a leading role in matters of bilateral co-operation with International Organisations such as UN-Habitat, World Bank, City Alliance, Shelter Afrique and African Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development. It is from these organisations that the Federal Government derives technical support and donor funding to address some of Nigeria’s housing and urban development problems. Through bilateral co-operation and direct Federal Government funding, some states have benefitted from urban development projects/programmes such as Urban Renewal and Slum Upgrading, Low-Income Housing, City Without Slum, Preparation of Structure Plans to eradicate slums and encourage revitalisation in some Nigerian cities. These are anchor projects which came from the initiatives of the Federal government. Most of the state governments have capacity issues in conceptualising these projects, but the Federal government provides regularly the capacity building to assist the state governments in that regard.
Given consideration to reasons advanced hereto and in order to stem regional imbalance so prevalent in Nigeria, Federal Government participation in urban and regional planning is inevitable. The Federal Government has the funds, expertise, and the constitutional mandate to protect the country’s environment. Therefore, the NITP, as part of its work plan in 2017 should intensify its clarion call to the National Assembly to review the current law for the purpose of putting urban and regional planning on the concurrent list in order to facilitate a tripartite participation.
Continuity is very important to whatever the new National Executive of the NITP does or plans to do in 2017. The incumbent National President is called upon to uphold the legacy of his predecessor in office, the late Dr. Femi Olomola under whom the former served as the National Vice President. When Dr. Olomola assumed the leadership of the Institute in 2015, he came up with a robust and commendable Seven-Point Agenda for the NITP. Albeit, he started the implementation of his agenda in earnest, but unfortunately, the journey was abruptly aborted due to his sudden death.
If the truth must be told, the relevance of Dr. Olomola’s Seven-Point Agenda to the survival of the NITP (which I crave the indulgence of readers to recapitulate in this piece for the sake of emphasis) cannot be faulted or overemphasised.
They covered the following pertinent issues:
Law and constitutional matters.
Promoting national security and reducing fraud
Improving the asset base of the Institute
Improving current operational modalities
Need for NITP Strategic/Master Plan
Sustaining human capital development, and
Extensive publicity and public enlightenment on the value of the planning profession.
first item on the list refered to above is a recurring decimal matter which the NITP has been battling with for too long unresolved. It is the very fundamental issue the current National Executive of NITP under the presidency of Tpl. Lucas Achi should address urgently by taking “stock of the near-zero implementation of the Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Law in states and at the federal level,” as Dr. Olomola expatiated in his address during his investure as the 21st National President of the NITP in February 2015.
It is to Dr. Olomola’s credit that he made valiant effort in this direction while he was alive. He personally met with the current President of the Nigerian Senate, Dr. Olusola Saraki, and made a formal request for a revisit of urban planning in Nigeria by harping on the need for the lawmakers to understand the importance of planning to national development; and essentially why urban and regional planning ought to be included in the concurrent list of the Nigerian Constitution so that all tiers of government in the country will have clearly stipulated and non-conflicting roles to play.
If Dr. Olomola went that far, it should be compelling for the Institute’s present National President to sustain the tempo of the dialogue with the headship of both Houses at the National Assembly (House of Representatives and the Senate) until something positive is achieved. This writer had, in previous articles in EnviroNews magazine and other Nigerian dailies (including informal discussions among professional colleagues), strongly canvassed the necessity for the NITP to up its visibility in the National Assembly by lobbying the legislators. This suggested tactic is for a purpose: to enable the Institute to be fully and legally recognised as a desirable professional Institute similar to the recognition accorded to the Nigerian Bar Association, Nigerian Society of Engineers, Nigerian Medical Association and Nigerian Institute of Architects by the legislative body.
Last word
To conclude this piece, let me counsel here that Tpl. Luka Achi already has his plate full on what his work plan should be during his tenure as the President of the NITP. He does not need to re-invent the wheel. Granted he may be nursing his own ideas on how to take the NITP to greater heights under his watch, it would be a great diservice to NITP and ignoble for him not to embrace part of the legacy of Dr. Olomola with regards to finding an enduring solution to the Institute’s age-long legal entanglement. It is when the NITP is legally recognised by the government will the Institute’s operational difficulties can be easily surmounted while public aversion and pent-up anger against town planners would gradually subside.
To be continued……
By Tpl. Yacoob Abiodun (Planning advocate; former pioneer Secretary, Federal Housing Policy Council, Abuja)
Nigeria’s environment ministers started the New Year on a serious note as it was all work and no rest on Sunday, January 1 2017. While people wined and dined in the spirit of the festive season, the ministers opted to remain on the field.
Minister of Environment (and Deputy UN Secretary General designate), Amina Mohammed, in the company of her assistant, the Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Usman Jibril, visited Ogoniland in the Niger Delta region in Rivers State to assess some oil pollution impacted sites, in an apparent readiness for the commencement of the much expected clean-up exercise of the environmentally degraded region.
The ministers at workThe ministers beside a water bodyAmina Mohammed interacting with local residentsAmina Mohammed making an observationThe ministers were guests in a programme at a local radio station, where they called on the youths in Ogoni and the entire Niger Delta to protect their environment and their future by preventing further pollutionThe ministers with security officialsThe ministers with state officials during the New Year day visit
Sudan’s sanitation sector (safe drinking water and adequate sewage disposal) is faced with serious challenges that deem it difficult to attain this sector’s strategic objectives. One of these objectives was raising the number of persons with access to clean and safe drinking water to 82% and access to hygiene services to 67% by the end of 2016, as stipulated in the national strategy for poverty reduction.Improve access to water, sanitation, hygiene.
Lack of safe drinking water is one of the world’s leading problems affecting more than 1.1 billion people globally. Most of these live in Africa.
At the moment, one out of three persons has access to clean safe water and one out of three persons does not have a sewage disposal service. About 50% of the country’s primary schools, in rural areas in particular, do not have sources of clean drinking water nor sewage systems.
According to the strategy, the clean water and sewage disposal challenges include inadequate implementation and management and absent coordination among the administrative units of this sector. There is also a shortage in the resources needed for investment in the provision of and the sustenance of water and sewage services supplies, added to the absence of public awareness about the water and sewage issues and the poor intervention procedures.
The sanitation sector is suffering an acute shortage of funding. Very little funding is allocated for drinking water and sewage disposal services at both the federal and regional levels. Federal spending on these services stands at a meager 0.5 to 1% of the spending on infrastructure.
National capital city, Khartoum, suffers from recurrent water supply cutoffs. Of late, the Director of the Khartoum State Water Corporation, Khalid Ali Khalid, had announced some plans to reduce water cutoffs as well as a medium term plan and a strategic plan to obtain all drinking water from Nile water stations, instead of bore water.
Khalid, an engineer, said the Khartoum State has 11 Nile water stations producing 48% of the National Capital’s water supply, in addition to 1,667 boreholes producing 45%. Both sources produce an overall 1.5 million cubic metres of water per day, while the actual need is 2 million cubic metres.
Water has a tremendous bearing on the situation of poverty in Sudan as the majority of local rural communities depend in their livelihoods on water for their livestock and to irrigate their small domestic farms.
Scarcity of water has adverse effects on education in rural areas, because children have to spend a lot of time to bring water to their homes. This leads the children either to refrain from going to school or quit education after enrollment.
Poor water sources incur diseases, among children in particular. Results of a basic probe indicate an obvious link between an increase in access to improved water supply and the availability of sanitation facilities on the one hand and a decline in infections with diarrhea in Sudan. Scarcity of water may oblige families to spend 50% of their income to buy water from vendors.
The importance of water increases when water is connected with tribal feuding. A lot of tribal clashes are directly connected with the scarcity of water sources, in particular between pastoralists and sedentary farmers.
The document and report authors, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning Consultant al-Fatih Ali Siddig and World Bank consultant Fareed Hassan, reaffirm the vitality of funding for this sector as an important vehicle for challenging these difficulties and for achieving the aspired objectives embodied in the Millennial Developmental Goals (MDGs), hand in hand with the rehabilitation and replacement of the aging infrastructure of the water and sewage systems as a result of the absence of adequate investment and the destruction of utilities in zones of unrest.
The authors say it is of paramount importance to strive to merge the water and sewage systems with other sectors; foremost health, nutrition and education. The schools and health and nutrition centres constitute useful inlets for such interventions.
Institutional reform aimed at sustainable water facilities is one of the preoccupations and worries that should be taken into consideration, say the authors. The specification of roles and responsibilities among federal, regional and municipal authorities and with the local communities should be clear with respect to the management, operation and sustainability of projects.
The strategy for Gradual Poverty Reduction has recommended a lot of procedures, including the rehabilitation of water and sewage facilities, the construction of new facilities, the enhancement of health awareness and the enhancement of capacity building and training.
Development of the energy, electricity, water resources and mining sectors had had a lion’s share in the funds earmarked for development in the country in the 2016 budget which is about to expire. The energy, water and minerals sectors had obtained $4 billion from the total of the new budget, estimated at $10.2 billion, $4.6 billion of it in local currency and $5.1 billion in foreign exchange. The water projects include the Upper Atbara and Seteet dam projects (now under construction) and the projected Dal and al-Shiraig dams.
Sudan suffers a clear shortage of pure water in its rural districts. The states of Western Sudan are the most to suffer from drinking water crisis, particularly in the summer. That is due to the absence of water sources other than boreholes which dry up after sometime. As well, inability to store rain water is responsible for water shortage in that part of the country.
Minister of Water Resources, Irrigation and Electricity, Mu’taz Musa, said his ministry is planning 5,083 water harvesting projects in the countryside, in collaboration with the Water Corporation, in implementation of President Omar al-Bashir’s directive to eliminate thirst countrywide.
Musa said his ministry had surveyed all the country’s villages and neighborhoods to this effect.
Women and children in rural areas of Western Sudan devote a lot of time to fetch water from remote areas. These long shuttles after water adversely affect their health and safety.
The Sudanese Government and the United Nations had announced the allocation of $1 billion for water funding. The announcement was made during a conference on water problems in Darfur, held in Khartoum in 2011.
Some 65 water projects are to be funded over six years within this endeavor. The projects cater for drinking water, sewage systems and projects for integrated rural development in the domains of agriculture, livestock and the environment.
As part of this endeavor, work is now underway in the implementation of the Wadi al-Koo’ for water harvesting in North Darfur. The locals have high expectations about this project that extends for 500km from Sarafaya area North-West of al-Fashir down to GoozBina, South- West of al-Fashir. The project is hoped to enhance the livelihoods of the citizens and resolve the scarcity of resources, considered one of the strongest causes of civil strife in that region.
The Wadi al-Koo’ project is being implemented with EU support, in implementation of an EU commitment announced during the international donor conference for the rehabilitation of Darfur, held in Doha, Qatar, in April 2013.
The project’s integrated management official in the United Nation’s Environment Programmer (UNEP) said his agency was concerned with improving the natural habitats and the promotion and good exploitation of integrated management to maintain ecological balance.
He said the area of project, that neighbours al-Bashir, is densely populated. He said the project is capable of promoting natural resources management systems and of boosting them with suitable levels of scientific and technical analysis. It can also help with consolidating livelihoods and techniques of natural resources management at the community level, with a view to using and applying them in other districts.
Housewife and project resident, Um Kalthoom Adam, 37, said: “We and our children will be happy to produce our food all by ourselves, herd our livestock and access clean water with ease.”
President Muhammadu Buhari has assented to the Endangered Species Control of International Trade and Traffic Amendment Act 2016, earlier passed by the National Assembly.
The Cross River Gorilla is an endangered species in Nigeria
Nigeria is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), an international treaty drawn up in 1973 to protect wildlife against over-exploitation, and to prevent international trade from threatening species with extinction. Endangered species is a species of animal or plant that is seriously at risk of extinction.
Ita Enang, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), made the disclosure on Friday, December 30, 2016 in Abuja. He said that the Act was one of the 10 bills forwarded by the National Assembly to the President, adding that, with the approval, the President had completed work on all the bills sent to him for his consent.
Enang said: “The President has assented to the bill sent by the National Assembly, The Endangered Species (Control of International Trade and Traffic) Amendment Act 2016.
“This is one of the 10 bills that were forwarded by the National Assembly to Mr President and he has just assented to this, almost completing every action on all the bills that were forwarded to him by the National Assembly.
“The intent of this amendment is to bring the penalty provisions in line with economic realities and to act as a deterrent or deter people from trafficking and trading in endangered species because endangered are preserved of the country.”
The Presidential aide said the intent of the amendment was to bring the penalty provisions in line with economic realities and to serve as a deterrent to people trafficking in endangered species “because endangered species are the preserves of the country”.
According to him, the Act is to discourage trafficking in endangered species and will encourage the culture of the preservation of endangered species. He added that, with the assent, the President had increased the penalties for violations of the provisions in line with today’s realities.
With the signing of the Act, President Buhari had so far signed 17 bills into law in 2016. The President in November signed eight bills into law which included the Prevention of Crime Amendment Act 2016, the National Crop Varieties and Livestock Breeds (Registration) Amendment Act 2016, Telecommunications and Postal Offences Amendment Act 2016, the National Agricultural Land Development Authority Amendment Act 2016.
Others are the Produce Enforcement of Export Standards Amendment Act 2016, the Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute Amendment Act 2016, Bee Import Control and Management Amendment Act 2016, and Water Resources Amendment Act 2016.
The President also signed another eight bills into law, on Dec. 20. The affected bills included National Judicial Institute Amendment Act, 2016 and Advertising Practitioners Registration Amendment Act, 2016. Others are Utilities Charges Commission Amendment Act, 2016, Quality Surveyors Registration Amendment Act, 2016 and Small and Medium Scale Industries Development Agency Amendment Act, 2016. Others are Treaty to Establish African Economic Community Relating to Pan African Parliament (Accession and Jurisdiction) Amendment Act, 2016, University of Abuja Amendment Act, 2016 and Chartered Institute of Stock Brokers Amendment Act, 2016.
Commenting on the signed bills, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who had earlier met with the President behind closed door, assured that more progressive bills would be passed by the National Assembly in the coming years.
“It shows in part, what we have been able to do in the National Assembly and there are many more bills to come and the President is also responding to them.
“You are going to see more of that in 2017, there are a lot of bills lined up.
“For us in the Senate for example, in the last session just this last three months we did much more than what we did in the entire year.
“The National Assembly is settling down and as such you will see much more bill passed for the President to sign.”
Saraki, who joined President Buhari to perform the weekly 2-Raka’at Juma’at prayer at the Villa Mosque, described the fall of Sambisa forest as a great feat.
“This is a great progress from where we are before. If you look at where we were a year and half ago, the challenges we had in that area for us to recapture the place, I think is a great feat.
“It shows what we can do as a country when we have the commitment, purpose and the leadership required to do that.
“As we have done that in the North East, I believe the other issue before us is the fight against corruption, the economy, providing jobs, peace in the Niger Delta,” he said.
Access Bank has affirmed its leadership of the Nigerian banking industry with its recent recognition as the “Bank of the Year” at the 17th annual Bank of the Year awards black-tie dinner in London.
L-R: Editor, The Banker Magazine, Michael Buerk; Group Managing Director/CEO, Access Bank Plc, Herbert Wigwe with the plaque for the Bank of the Year Award which the Bank won at The Banker Awards 2016 by The Banker Magazine in London
The award, which validates other nine international honours earned by the bank over the past 10 months for operation, responsible business practices and innovation, is unarguably one of the most coveted awards in the banking sector globally.
Presenting the award, Michael Buerk, BBC News journalist, commented, “In spite of the challenging operating environment and rapid changes in the industry, Access Bank has remained a formidable institution. Specifically, the bank has been a purveyor of innovation in the Nigerian banking space and consistently outperformed industry forecast. It is firmly believed that its operational model, risk management and governance framework, which enable sustained superlative financial performance need commendation.”
Although this view is consistent with analysts’ opinion on the bank in the past one year, but its Group Managing Director, Herbert Wigwe, who received the award for the bank, said: “While innovation, excellent risk and corporate governance framework might be the advantage we have over our competitors, the bank is propelled by a vision of becoming the world’s most respected African bank, and this requires us to do things differently to standout. He thanked the bank’s stakeholders for their support and assured them of improved performance in the years ahead.”
According to him, Access Bank over the year established a reputation as one of the most formidable financial institutions in Nigeria, adding that tThis is unconnected with its impressive growth trajectory and contributions to the development of the Nigerian economy through empowerment initiatives and practical SME schemes. He stated that, as an acclaimed innovative industry pioneer, the Access Bank has remained the choice of international financial organisations and multilateral agencies seeking partnership in Nigeria.
For some of its pioneering initiatives and outstanding performance, the bank has earned a number of recognitions in the past months. The recognitions include the “Karlsrushe Outstanding Business Sustainability Award”, “BusinessDay Banking Award – CEO of the Year”, “BusinessDay Banking Award – Best Bank of the Year”, “EMEA Finance Best Bank in Nigeria Award”, “EMEA Finance Corporate Responsibility Award (Pan-African)”, “EMEA Finance CEO of the Year (Pan-African” and “World Finance Most Sustainable Bank of the Year Award’.
The bank is particularly excited about its emergence at the “2016 Bank of the Year” because, according to officials, the award is renowned as a valuable reward for banking excellence, and recognition for achievements of outstanding individuals and exceptional institutions in the global banking landscape.
The Banker Awards is an annual event of the Banker Magazine, a publication of the Financial Times of London and world’s leading monthly journal of records for the global banking industry, with expertise in publishing developments in the African banking industry and beyond for more than 90 years.
Forget solar roofs. The world’s first solar road is here, in the small village of Tourouvre-au-Perche in Normandy, France. The 1km road was opened a week ago by French Ecology Minister Ségolène Royal and could generate enough electricity to power the street lights.
French Minister for Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy Segolene Royal walks on a solar panel road during its inauguration in Tourouvre, Normandy, northwestern France. The world’s first solar road was inaugurated in Normandy, a technology the minister hopes will develop in France and abroad despite criticism of its high cost and profitability. Photo credit: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images
That might not sound very impressive for 30,000 square feet of solar panels – and it kind of isn’t, especially for its $5.2 million price tag. The panels have been covered in a silicon-based resin that allows them to withstand the weight of passing big rigs and, if the road performs as expected, Royal wants to see solar panels installed across 1,000km of French highway.
There are numerous issues, however. For one, flat solar panels are less effective than the angled panels that are installed on roofs, and they’re also massively more expensive than traditional panels. Colas, the company that installed the road, hopes to reduce the cost of the panels going forward and it has around 100 solar panel road projects in progress around the world.
Solar Roadway is another company looking at building roads with solar panels, and it installed a small number of panels at the Route 66 Welcome Center in Conway, Missouri earlier this year. Still, they’re facing the same seemingly insurmountable cost problems as Colas and the French.
Maybe those solar roofs from Tesla are the better way to go after all.
France has submitted its long-term climate action plan under the Paris Agreement to the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It was submitted on Wednesday, December 28 2016.
Segolene Royal, Minister of Environment of France and COP21 President. Photo credit: zimblo.com
This makes the host nation of COP21 in Paris the fifth country to communicate its long-term climate strategies to the UN body, after the United States, Mexico (both submitted on Wednesday, November 16 2016), Germany and Canada (both submitted on Thursday, November 17, 2016).
The detals of this and other long-term plans can be accessed here.
Titled the “French National Low-carbon Strategy”, the highlights of the plan include a 40 percent target reduction in emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 and a 75 percent reduction by 2050 compared to 1990.
In accordance with Article 4, paragraph 19, of the Paris Agreement, all Parties to the UNFCCC should strive to formulate and communicate long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies, mindful of Article 2 and taking into account their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in the light of different national circumstances.
The COP, by its decision 1/CP 21, paragraph 35, invited Parties to communicate, by 2020, to the secretariat mid-century, long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies in accordance with Article 4, paragraph 19, of the Agreement
According to the UNFCCC, Parties who wish to communicate their long-term strategy to the secretariat are invited to send their submissions to NDCs@unfccc.int.
The overarching goal of the Mexican NAMA Support Project is to implement the New Housing NAMA, which promotes cost effective, energy-efficient building concepts across the housing sector with a particular focus on low-income housing.NAMA, implies Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action refers to a set of policies and actions that countries undertake as part of a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Similarly, NAMAs are voluntary emission reduction proposals submitted by developing countries to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The Mexico Housing NAMA promotes cost effective, and energy-efficient building concepts
The NAMA Support Project in Mexico contributes to the implementation of the NAMA in two ways:
It promotes the penetration of basic efficiency standards throughout the entire new housing market in Mexico by means of: (a) technical assistance to large public housing financiers and housing developers and (b) financial incentives and project-related technical support for small- and medium-sized developers and financial intermediaries.
It promotes the upgrading of energy efficiency standards to more ambitious levels.
Pilot project in Morelia
Concept and methodological approach
This NAMA Support Project combines technical assistance to Mexico’s National Housing Commission (CONAVI), as well as financial incentives and project-related technical support in cooperation with the Mexican development bank SHF to pave the way from the initial NAMA development towards a broad, sector-wide implementation of sustainable housing.
NAMA provides financial incentives to the private sector and enables the National Government in the mid and long term to decrease its national budget spent on energy subsidies in favour of incentivising energy-saving and sustainable construction, as well as retrofitting residential buildings to improve the living comfort and energy expenses of the end-users. In the last year in Mexico, 10% of new social housing are NAMAs.
Current implementation status
Mexico’s national efforts and initiatives to foster energy efficiency and sustainability in the building sector, supported by the international community, created a strong conscience and commitment among the diverse public and private key actors of the sector. Today, Mexico is on track to gradually transform its building sector towards a low carbon sector, contributing significantly to its mitigation goals at national and international level. Among some of the most important outcomes are the following:
Awareness and International Climate Negotiations, Policy and Financing
The NAMA development and initial implementation helped Mexico to achieve a high level of visibility within the international climate community and strengthened its position as partner in the international climate negotiations.
The Housing NAMA has led to the mobilisation of international co-financing (e.g. extension of ECOCASA, NAMA Facility).
New financing schemes and instruments for the private sector towards a low carbon economy are being explored (e.g. Green Bonds with CONAVI).
Mitigation Potential
The implementation of the Mexican Housing NAMA has so far resulted in almost 60,000 newly constructed NAMA housing units. The mitigation potential of these units is estimated at 28.339 TCO2e per year.
Capacity Development and Innovation
More than 1,200 people have been trained in energy simulations and sustainable housing. Mexico disposes of an energy and environmental certification system for new and existing residential buildings (Sisevive-Ecocasa) being operated by the National Housing Register (RUV).
By Carlos Carrazco Cota, National Housing Commission (CONAVI); Andreas Gruner, German Development Cooperation (GIZ) in Mexico; and Antonio Pelaez, GIZ in Mexico
