1. Last year was the safest ever in terms of airliner crash fatalities, with only 265 casualties out of roughly 31 million flights throughout the world, compared to a ten-year average of 720 casualties annually.
2. Despite efforts by the Federal Government to improve the nation’s local rice production, a total of 179,682 metric tones of the staple food were imported into the country last month alone.
3. The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) on Thursday said it was expecting 48 ships to berth at Lagos ports from January 8 to January 25. According to NPA in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), 21 of the ships will arrive at the ports with containerised goods, while 12 others will sail in with food items.
4. CFAO NIPEN, manufacturer of BIC ball-point pens, BIC shavers, premium touch pens and other plastic products, recorded 16 percent turnover growth compared to N4.453 billion in 2013.
5. In line with the privatisation guidelines, NATCOM Consortium, the preferred bidder for Nigeria Telecommunications Plc (NITEL) and its mobile arm, Nigerian Mobile Telecommunication (MTEL), has paid $75,756,300 (N12, 727, 058, 400) being 30 per cent of the $252, 521, 000 bid price for the acquisition of the assets and business units of the enterprises.
6. The Federal Government yesterday said that sharing of $5.5 billion from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) between it and the 36 states governments in 2009 was aimed at financing some Independent Power Projects (IPPs) across the country.
7. Two Global System of Mobile communication operators, MTN Nigeria and Etisalat Nigeria, have said they will invest billions of dollars to improve on the quality of their services in the country amidst complaints from customers of poor quality of service. MTN said it would spend about $1.2bn (N216 bn) to upgrade its network this year, Etisalat said its network roll-out across Nigeria would continue this year with the $1.2 bn medium-term syndicated loan facility it secured from a consortium of banks in 2013.
8. The Federal Government may unveil some strategies to boost agriculture this year. A source told The Nation that the government would improve funding to agriculture to enhance productivity, market linkages and access to e-extension technology.
9. The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) will build Information Technology (IT) community centres nationwide to increase access to IT, its Director-General Mr Peter Jack, has said. The agency has concluded arrangement to kick off the project with about 48 community access centres, as pilot projects in the first quarter of this year.
10. The Federal Government has said about 800, 000 jobs would be created through the implementation of full scale mechanised farming. The government also noted that 4,800,000 metric tons (mt) of food will be added to the existing 21, 000, 000 mt under the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GES).
