A destroyed refinery By Favour Ifeoluwa & Akinola Ajibade The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited( NNPCL) says it has destroyed 134 illegal refineries in the last few weeks. Also, the company said 63 illegal pipeline connections were uncovered during the the weeks . The corporation, In a visual report, stated that at about 2 am on Sunday, a joint team of security agents discovered a large wooden boat illicitly loading stolen crude oil from Barge AGS01 within the OML 18 operating area, noted intelligence report a large wooden wooden boat was caught receiving crude oil from the barge. According to the state-owned oil firm, while the barge was towed away with a tugboat in custody, five speedboats used in towing the large wooden boat to the illegal loading site were also detained and the particulars of the tugboats and barge used for the operation were reportedly seized for further investigation. It further said that two large boats, which involve
By Akinola Ajibade
Nigeria's e-commerce spending is projected to rise from its current $13billion to $75 billion in 2025, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Niyi Adebayo has said.
He said the $13billion was the yearly derived from e-commerce, adding that the figure would reach $25 billion, in view of the increasing interest in such means of transactions.
He spoke in Abuja during a stakeholder programme on e-commerce and digital trade policy for Nigeria.
According to him, the market outlook for Nigeria’s e-commerce shows that the number of online shoppers in the country, which was at 76.7 million in 2021, is expected to hit 122.5 million by 2025.
“The figures from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), also shows that Nigeria’s e-payment transactions increased by 85.5 per cent year-on-year to N171.99 trillion in August 2021,” he added.
Nigeria,he said,is currently working to establish a strategy on e- commerce that will boost growth of the sector.
He noted that there is no better time than now to diversify our economy away from the oil sector by building a dynamic, profitable and efficient non-oil sector to reposition the economy on a sustainable growth path.
He said Nigeria is actively participating in the on-going negotiation at the World Trade Organization (WTO), in order to boost e-commerce.
He said: “Nigeria is yet to fully harness the inherent opportunities in the e-commerce value chain, largely due to inadequate investment, coupled with inadequate information on the opportunities in the sector and the inability of Government to provide the required enabling environment.
“As such, government has identified e-commerce as a major priority programme that will play a critical role in the promotion of commodity trade, especially with the realities of the unprecedented COVID-19 global pandemic.
“The Federal Government is also committed to developing an e-commerce strategy in line with the Federal Government’s Post COVID-19 recovery plan, to encourage investment in e-commerce value chain,” he said.
He added that the Ministry is passionate about the growing investment opportunities in the e-commerce value chain which are capable of contributing significantly to the country’s Gross Domestic Product(GDP).
He said recently, the sector has grown from 14% in 2019 to 17% in 2020.
Adebayo added that the Federal Government will continue to strengthen collaboration with the State Governments and continue to build synergy among relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies(MDAs) through harmonisation and coordination of e-commerce activities under the National Advisory Committee on Electronic Commerce and Digital economy (NACEDE) platform.
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