Travel News

The electric power outage in Calabar and its environs has entered the 33rd day, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

An electricity tower at Itu, evacuating power from Ikot Ekpene to Adiabo plant in Calabar, was on April 8 vandalised by hoodlums.

The vandalism led to a power outage in Odukpani and Akpabuyo local government areas.

An investigation by NAN in the Calabar metropolis showed that many offices now close earlier in order to cut down the cost of alternative power supply.

Some residents of the affected areas, who spoke to NAN, expressed worry that the electricity tower had yet to be repaired after 33 days.

They called on the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHEDC) to repair the tower without further delay in order to restore electricity.

The residents regretted that the blackout was having adverse effects on their businesses.

A tiger-nut juice seller, Mrs Ada Francis, said that she spent more money on ice blocks to chill her products.

”This development has dealt a blow on my business. I spend about N1,000 daily on ice blocks.

”Making profit is now difficult. I urge those in charge to do something quickly,” she said.

A barber, Mr Edet Isaac, said that he spent more on petrol to remain in business.

”It is not funny at all. We cannot continue this way.

“The concerned authorities should be alive to their duties,” he said.

When contacted, Mr Collins Igwe, PHEDC Regional Manager, said that work was still ongoing on the vandalised tower.

He urged residents of the affected areas to be patient.

”We are not resting, we are working tirelessly to restore power,” he said.

 (NAN)

• NNPC to supply companies for three months amid cost complaints
• Fuel marketers dispute airline claims about price hikes

Nigeria’s state energy company will sell aviation fuel to domestic airlines at a fixed price for three months after some companies threatened to ground their fleets.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Co. agreed to supply the product to marketing firms nominated by the airlines at 480 naira ($1.15) a liter until August, Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the House of Representatives, told reporters on Monday, after a meeting in the National Assembly with the NNPC, central bank and aviation industry representatives.

The meeting took place after the Airline Operators of Nigeria, a body representing the country’s larger domestic carriers, on May 8 agreed to halt plans to ground flights due to the high cost of aviation fuel, which it said was crippling their businesses and making them unprofitable, and hold talks with government. 

Despite being Africa’s largest producer of crude oil, the country currently has minimal available refining capacity, leaving it reliant on energy imports. The airlines said the cost of aviation fuel had more than tripled over the past four months to 700 naira per liter as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered massive disruptions to energy markets.

A group for Nigeria’s biggest fuel marketing companies, however, have contested the airlines’ claims, saying that they have been selling the product for an average of 540 naira to 580 naira a liter in recent weeks. They in turn have been buying the fuel from the NNPC, even though the market is open to importers from the private sector, the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria said in a statement on Monday.

“The aviation industry is already benefiting from government’s intervention when local prices are compared to West African regional prices,” MOMAN said. The inability of the association’s members to access foreign exchange at the same rate as the state-owned firm leaves the “NNPC as the major importer of aviation fuel for now, even though the product is deregulated,” it said.

BY  Odinaka Anudu

…NNPC blames low loadouts, increased demand

Fuel queues persisted in the Federal Capital Territory on Monday as filling stations struggled to control desperate drivers waiting to buy the Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, at the official price.

Racketeers had a field day, selling a litre of PMS at N300 in different parts of the FCT.

In Kubwa, a litre of fuel went as high as N320, rising to N400 in Asokoro and other prime parts of Abuja, The PUNCH gathered.

One of the racketeers, who identified himself as Usman, said he stored fuel in several gallons, with the belief that fuel would be scarce at some point in the future.

Another racketeer, Bala, claimed that he was still selling his reserves.

“When there is scarcity, I buy from some filling stations at night. I usually pay extra N200 or more for a 10-litre gallon. I buy at N 2000 and sell N3,500,” he said.

Vehicle drivers told The Punch that they spent between two and four hours at various filling stations before buying PMS.

A commercial vehicle driver, George Akinsanya, said he spent three hours at Oando Filling Station opposite the NNPC depot in Abuja before buying the PMS.

Akinsanya said, “We need to find a solution to this perennial problem of fuel scarcity. It is looking like filling stations are looking for this type of opportunity to make money. Last time there was fuel scarcity, they sold at higher prices at night and limit sales to one or two pumps in the day.”

A driver, Mr Udoka Uzondu, who said he waited to buy PMS at an NNPC depot in Abuja, urged the government to put an end to the scarcity to reduce the plight of the common man.”

Fuel queues have become a recurring decimal in Nigeria, especially the FCT. In the first quarter of the year, fuel scarcity disrupted economic activities, leading to an increase in inflation to 15.92 per cent, from 15.70 per cent.

The PUNCH reported on Monday that most filling stations in Abuja and neighbouring states of Nasarawa and Niger that dispensed Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, were on Sunday greeted with long queues.

It was observed that many other outlets were shut as they claimed not to have products to dispense, a development that led to the crowding of the filling stations that dispensed the commodity.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has ascribed the sudden appearance of fuel queues in parts of Abuja to low loadouts and increased purchases that characterise post-holiday periods.

In a statement, the spokesman for NNPC, Garba Deen Muhammad, said on Monday that the company had sufficient fuel supplies to satisfy the demands of Abuja residents for over six weeks.

The statement partly read in part, “The NNPC Ltd notes the sudden appearance of fuel queues in parts of Abuja. This is very likely due to low loadouts at depots which usually happen during long public holidays, in this case, the Sallah celebrations.

“Another contributing factor to the sudden appearances of queues is the increased fuel purchases which are also usual with returning residents of the FCT from the public holidays.”

He further said the NNPC and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, in conjunction with our marketing partners, had taken necessary measures to ramp up loadouts from all depots.

He assured all residents of the FCT and Nigerians that NNPC had ample local supplies and national stock in excess of 2.5 billion liters, with the sufficiency of more than 43 days.

“The NNPC Limited hereby advises motorists not to engage in panic buying as supplies are adequate as will become increasingly evident in the  coming days.”

But the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Promotion of Private Enterprise, Dr Muda Yusuf, urged the Federal Government to deregulate the industry to avoid long queue recurrences.

Nigeria’s Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele has disclosed that the rising crude oil theft in the Niger Delta region has made it difficult to grant foreign exchange to aviation operators.

Emefiele disclosed this on Monday, during a House of Reps meeting between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), discussing ways of resolving the issues lamented by the airline operators of Nigeria which almost led to a shut down of operations.

He added that the CBN will not grant any concession to the airline operators because it would amount to giving subsidy to aviation operators.

What the CBN governor is saying

Reacting to calls by the airline operators to reduce the cost of aviation fuel, the CBN Governor said, “oil theft in the Niger Delta was exacerbating the unavailability of foreign exchange.”

He added that the CBN had no foreign exchange for airline operators and that since the landing cost of aviation fuel was N460 per litre, the price would come to N550 per litre at the pump. He added that the Bank would not grant any concession because it would amount to giving subsidy to aviation operators.

•  “I compelled some fuel marketers to take the loss and to sell aviation fuel at N480 per litre after getting a call from the Chief of Staff to the President that the operators were planning a strike and I promised to intervene,’’ Emefiele said.
• Also speaking on the matter, the GMD of the NNPC, Mele Kyari said aviation fuel cannot have a fixed price because it is a deregulated product.
• “It is our role to ensure we intervene. We did. We brought in products so that we can dampen the price. In March and April, we brought in cargo and made it available to the entire industry at N460.
• “There is a build-up to that price. When the customer takes marine at N435, he has to transport, he has to the charter vessel, bring it to his depot, to his fuel station and transport it. So there cannot be two same prices in Lagos and Maiduguri.
• “We cannot fix the price. We cannot ask for N500. We cannot say it must be below N600 or N700,” Kyari stated.

In case you missed it

Recall that Nairametrics reported in march that the crisis between oil marketers and airline operators was halted after the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and the National Assembly brokered an interim agreement among Oil marketers and Airline operators to allow the latter to import cheaper fuel.

Short on time? Here are the highlights:

• Affordability is a key concern for Nigerian students and institutions that can offer financial aid or flexible tuition payment arrangements will be much more likely to secure Nigerian enrolments
• The devaluation of the naira has had a serious impact on Nigerian students’ ability to study abroad, and many are considering distance learning with a foreign institution as a more affordable option than study abroad

An annual survey exploring Nigerian students’ perceptions of study abroad and the main motivations for their decisions about where to study finds that as many as 9 in 10 Nigerians are interested in pursuing a university degree with a foreign institution. At the same time, many Nigerian students cannot consider study abroad without financial assistance, and significant proportions are interested in the more affordable option of distance learning.

The Nigeria Market Sentiment & Study Motivations Report was produced by a consortium comprising the University of Sussex, The Student Coach, BUILA Africa, Culture Intelligence from RED and Vive Africa, and it is based on a survey of roughly 4,100 Nigerian students as well as on supplementary research. It was conducted in July through September 2021 across various regions in Nigeria.

Two-thirds of surveyed students were interested in undergraduate studies, and a third were looking for graduate programmes.

Preferred destinations

The UK, US, Canada, Germany, and Australia are the preferred host countries for surveyed Nigerian students. However, even more survey respondents indicated a preference for distance learning (46.6%) than in-person learning abroad (40.6%), perhaps as a result of financial constraints.

Scholarships, safety, and affordability are top priorities

The availability of scholarships and a country’s reputation for being safe, secure, and welcoming are the most compelling draws for Nigerian students. The ability to work part-time during studies, “low living expenses,” and the presence of family or friends in a host country also factor into Nigerian students’ decisions about where to study. As depicted in the chart below, Nigerian students consider many factors when choosing where to study abroad.

Professors are key influencers and scholarships are a hot topic

Roughly 70% of surveyed students said the opinions of their lecturers, career mentors, and advisors carry the most weight when it comes to which foreign institutions they decide to apply to. Also important to students were efforts by the foreign institution to engage with them one-on-one. The report notes, “students desire a more personal, focused relationship in order to be more motivated to attend a particular institution.”

Interestingly, students were not particularly influenced by institutional marketing involving alumni, and the report suggests that communicating with faculty is likely a better bet for universities recruiting in Nigeria this year.

The most important resource for Nigerian students to engage with a university and to apply is the institutional website. WhatsApp, Skype, and Facebook Messenger follow as most-used resources.

After they register, students prefer communicating with institutions through email (especially correspondence with course professors – preferred to emails from the international team or generic communications from the institution) and WhatsApp. Students find social media live sessions to be the most effective means of engaging with the institutions they have applied to; in order, Instagram Live, Facebook Live, and YouTube Live are their preferred channels for live sessions. In-person events, webinars, and “open days” follow as popular opportunities for engaging with institutions. Wherever the engagement happens, students want scholarships to be discussed, followed by academics and career opportunities. As shown in the chart below, 6 in 10 students said they were looking for a full scholarship.

Students search for ways to reduce financial burden

Most students indicated that they would prefer to pay their tuition in instalments and they look carefully at whether scholarships are available. The report emphasises that affordability remains a major issue for Nigerian students and says that this is a significant reason that many have chosen to study in China or Germany over more expensive English-speaking destinations. The report recommends,

“Universities need to innovate around providing suitable tuition payment terms and scholarship opportunities especially for students of African origin whose economic status may not be as buoyant as that of students from other continents.”

The government’s devaluation of the naira – brought on by falling oil prices during the pandemic – has had a significant impact on Nigerians, causing inflation and reducing consumers’ purchasing power.

The pandemic has affected the popularity of certain study fields

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of students said that the pandemic has affected which programmes they apply to, and the report anticipates that interest in health-related fields such as nursing will continue to grow, particularly if there are strong post-study work rights available in host countries given “abysmal” career opportunities in the healthcare sector in Nigeria. These are the programme areas that surveyed Nigerian students cited the most frequently, in order of popularity:

• Law
• Engineering
• Health Studies and Medicine
• Business Management
• Computer Science and Information Technology
• Media Studies & Writing

A promising market with challenges

Nigeria remains a promising market for foreign institutions, but financial considerations are top of mind for students and without funding assistance, many Nigerians may not be able to study abroad in the near term. This reality may be the reason that significant proportions of Nigerians are interested in distance learning with a foreign institution. The survey findings also highlight the opportunity for universities of engaging with local Nigerian academics and of investing in personalised communications with students. Nigerian students are looking for more than generic communications from institutions and want to seriously engage with the staff at institutions they are considering.

By  Balarabe Alkassim

The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Ltd, airline operators and marketers have resolved on common ground in the interim to take measures that will keep the aviation sector functioning in the country.

The agreements were reached at a meeting with stakeholders and the leadership of the House of Representatives led by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila on Monday.

In his remark at the meeting, the speaker informed that there were three resolutions reached in the interim between the stakeholders

According to him, recommended ten marketers will get a steady supply of Jet A1 fuel for three months from the NNPC.

He said: “In the long term, you commence the process of applying for your own licence to be able to import your own Jet fuel. So, that will remove, whether it is middlemen or frontmen or whatever. You will know the landing cost to assist you in your business. Have we agreed on that? We have agreed on that.

“And there is the benevolence of the governor of Central Bank; there are six million litres available at N480, correct? You will get allocation for the next three months through the companies that you have nominated. So that you will not come back and say Jet fuel is a particular amount and is being sold by NNPC because you nominated those people that are selling to you.”

In the process of applying for licence, the Speaker said the midstream agency should as much as possible grant waivers that would not touch on the security and safety of the process while urging the committee chairmen on aviation and downstream to follow up.

Earlier, the NNPG Ltd GMD, Mele Kyari stated that it was agreed at the earlier meeting to make the marketers sell the product to them at N500 for three days pending the day they would sit down and agree on the pricing formula.

He said: “It is our role to ensure we intervene. We did. We brought in products so that we can dampen the price. In March and April, we brought in cargo and made it available to the entire industry at N460. There is a build-up to that price.

He said the only way to fix the price is to put a subsidy on adding that to sell for N500 in any circumstance, then somebody has to pay the difference.

He explained that there is a ForeX constraint. “There is a limit to what the CBN can provide. We are constrained because we are not able to produce dollars because of the dearth of oil in the Niger Delta. This is then reality. So we do not have. That means customers must source for FX from alternative sources.”

Also speaking, the Governor Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emeifile said: “The availability of Forex is very important and the issue of constraint from Forex arising from issues bordering on theft in the Niger Delta is a big issue. It is when NNPC is able to export that dollars can come in.

“We do not have FX to sell. It would be difficult for us to grant any concession. It means we would be taking a hit or we would be providing some sort of subsidy for the industry”.

Speaking on behalf of the Airline operators, Chairman of Air Peace, Allen Onyeama said, the operators were not striking. But they are fighting to save a very crucial industry being bogged down by unnecessary bottlenecks.

He said: “We did not intend to go on a strike. It was not a strike. What the AON was saying on Friday when we released our communique was that we do not have the money anymore to pay.

“Even spare parts, sometimes you take the spare parts and pay later, not to talk of aviation. You don’t have to carry loads of naira in your cargo hold to pay. We all owe these marketers, yes, but we are servicing them.

“What we are doing actually is that we are fighting for this government and the poor masses of this nation. We are subsidising ticket fares at N50,000.”

The jet fuel price increase has affected already debt-laden airlines that rely on the import.

The head of Nigeria’s state oil firm and the central bank governor have told the national assembly and the country’s airlines they are unable to help with soaring jet fuel prices.

However, in a resolution to the meeting, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) agreed to supply jet fuel to marketers nominated by the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON).

The association will apply for a jet fuel import licence, the speaker of the house of representatives Femi Gbajabiamila, said.

“We cannot fix the prices … on a deregulated commodity. The only way we can fix the price of aviation fuel is to introduce a subsidy,” NNPC chief Mele Kyari told MPs.

Central bank governor Godwin Emefiele, who is making an unprecedented presidential run, said he could not offer the airlines a “concessionary rate” on foreign exchange to help with imports.

“If it is naira intervention that airlines want, they could approach their banks,” Emefiele told the lawmakers. “The banks would look at it.”

Dependency and ‘failed promises’

Nigeria’s oil refineries, relics of colonial times that have been mismanaged for years, are barely functional. As a result, Africa’s largest oil producer has to rely mostly on imports of refined fuel for its domestic needs.

But fuel prices have risen sharply around the world since Western companies began imposing a series of increasingly tight financial sanctions on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in late February.

The price increase has affected already debt-laden airlines that rely on imported kerosene or jet fuel, which is not subsidised, unlike gasoline.

The head of AON says this situation did not have to be this dire and that NNPC had failed to deliver on a promise to supply jet fuel at a fixed 500 naira ($1.21) a litre.

“NNPC told us the president has approved 25,000 metric tonnes for us (airlines) but we never got this fuel,” Allen Onyeama, vice president of AON and chairman of Air Peace, said, referring to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.

If you haven’t renewed your passport, and you’re planning a summer holiday, you’ll need to step on it, because you’re on borrowed time.

The Passport Office has been warning for the last month that it’s taking up to 10 weeks to process applications — up from its usual timetable of three weeks.

More and more tales are emerging of people who’ve been caught out and had to cancel their holiday.

It was only while reading one of these stories that it occurred to me to check the kids’ passports for our summer holiday, and the horrible realisation dawned that they expired last year.

Apparently I’m far from alone in failing to renew — about 5 million of us put it off during the pandemic, because when we weren’t going anywhere more exciting than the end of the driveway, it didn’t seem worth it.

Now we’re all clamouring to get back on a plane again, applications have soared. The Passport Office worked its way through a million of them in March alone — a new record — and still they’re flooding in.

If you’re in this position, you should also check whether you input the old passport numbers when you booked your holiday. If you did, you’ll need to get in touch with the travel company and see how much it will cost you to update them.

If you haven’t booked yet, wait until the new passport is safely in your hands, because the new number will be different.

If you’re travelling this summer, there’s no time to delay in getting the renewal in. The Passport Office says the quickest and easiest way to do this is online. However, their definition of ‘quick and easy’ is very different to mine.

The first stumbling block is the photo. I learned from experience that the best approach is to go to a photo booth or a shop offering a digital code.

Your photos will be taken in an environment where they’re more likely to be suitable, and getting it right using your own camera is bit of a nightmare.

It’s worth checking all the rules before you start, which range from having to keep your mouth closed and your face serious, to ensuring none of your hair has strayed in front of your eyes.

Even after checking the rules and trying to stick to them, after 30 photos and three photo shoots, I can vouch for the fact that getting a photo that the online application accepts can be tricky. Even now, I still won’t know if the photos are OK until they have been checked manually.

The Passport Office has also warned that applications will take much longer to process if there’s information missing or any mistakes. It means you need to check all the details properly — one false move when you’re inputting your passport number will set your application back.

It also means you need to get your hands on information that may be a struggle to track down. Not everyone lives in a straightforward nuclear family, and not everyone can easily get hold of their ex-partner’s passport number in a hurry when they need new passports for the kids.

Even once all the paperwork is sorted, you need to find the cash to cover the cost of an application, which at £75.50 for an adult passport and £49 for a child is not to be sniffed at. Unfortunately, if you want to apply using a paper form it’s even more expensive — £85 for adults and £58.50 for children.

If you’re travelling within ten weeks, you may need to go to one of the seven UK Passport Offices in person.

However, you’ll need an appointment, and you have to be quick to get one, because new appointments are released daily, three weeks in advance, and they’re getting snapped up fast.

Even when you get an appointment — and trek across the country to get there — there’s an enormous additional cost. If you have an adult passport issued after 31 December 2001, you can get a premium appointment to sort everything in 30 minutes, for £177.

Alternatively, you can get a one-week fast track appointment, which can be used to renew adult and child passports, and costs £142 for an adult and £122 for a child. The passport will be sent back to you within a week of your appointment.

If you haven’t checked your passports for your summer holiday, you need to do it now. If they've expired, you can join me in the increasingly anxious wait to see whether they arrive in time.

Workers in the top pay bracket in the UK are more concerned about changes in the labour market compared to those who earn lower wages, a study suggests.

Analysis published on Wednesday from the Resolution Foundation found higher earners are more fearful of moving or losing jobs than low earners.

This was due to worries about getting less pay and flexibility when they find new jobs, while low-earners often see little benefit from upending the status quo, the report said.

In its Listen Up report for The Economy 2030 Inquiry, a collaboration with the LSE, funded by Nuffield Foundation, the think tank examined how the economy and changes in the labour markets affect workers amid a cost of living crisis.

High work intensity and bad management were identified as the main negatives at work.

Higher earners saw change in the labour market as risky, identifying the challenges of finding equally well-paid work, and losing the "flexibility earned" from current employers, according to the research.

Respondents were also fearful of unemployment amid worries around a lack of support from the government during any period out of work.

In contrast, low earners were less worried about the prospect of losing their job, seeing their skills as transferrable, and feeling that it was easy to find new work.

The foundation said that this view likely reflects the fact that the current labour market is tight, with vacancies currently at record highs.

"This report gives much-needed voice to people who are not often heard in economic debate. It highlights how people’s lives are about so much more than work and spending, including the importance of family and community, and the contributions that so many make to society," said Alex Beer, welfare programme head at the Nuffield Foundation.

"However, bad management, limited autonomy at work and rising costs are all detrimental to people’s quality of life and have implications for the successful functioning of the UK economy.

"Better management practices, training opportunities, an improved social security safety net and regulation in product and labour markets could all make a difference."

Despite this, employees reported little incentive to actively find new work as they expected jobs to be "more-of-the-same" in terms of levels of pay, work intensity and insecurity.

The financial gains from moving jobs were seen as too small, and the financial cost of undertaking training to enable them to find better paid work was too high.

The Foundation notes that the reluctance to move jobs is hugely problematic as the lack of job mobility can stunt the careers of higher earners, especially younger workers.

The think tank highlighted that low-earners, even those who found themselves trapped in an unsatisfying low pay, high insecurity working environment, still felt little incentive to escape it.

Karl Handscomb, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: "The big takeaway from our research is that people value work in far richer ways than simply their pay cheque.

"Choice was acknowledged as important to get better value for money, and to actively participate in wider society. But people warned that when money was tight, their life choices were limited.

"This suggests the cost of living crisis could have a wider impact on families than just their personal finances."

LAGOS – Aero Contractors has denied the claim in some quarters that it is planning to shut down operations over industry challenges.

The airline in a statement by its management said that the airline could not be isolated from the current challenges facing the industry and promised its clients, travelling public and stakeholders that it would continue to operate in the industry.

The statement hinted that high cost of aviation fuel, high foreign exchange rate; high maintenance cost, inflation and low purchasing power of the traveling public following the increase of fares were some of the challenges facing its operations.

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The statement added: “Like many airlines in Nigeria, Aero Contractors have been operating daily, and facing the challenges squarely.

“We categorically deny any plan to close operations as the airline is proactively taking necessary measures and strategy to continue operation and ensure a great travel experience to our highly esteemed customers.”

The airline said that it has one of the best Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO) facilities in West and Central Africa, adding that it remained the oldest aviation company with capacity to offer both scheduled airline services and maintenance for third party, licensed in over three countries.