Shettima departs for Nairobi for IDA21

Vice-President Kashim Shettima is expected to depart Abuja for Kenya to represent President Bola Tinubu at the crucial International Development Association (IDA21) Heads of State Summit in Nairobi on Monday.

Mr Stanley Nkwocha, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications, Office of The Vice-President, said this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.

Nkwocha said the high-level gathering would be hosted by Kenyan President William Ruto.

He said that the event would see African leaders unite to call for an ambitious replenishment of the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) concessional lending arm.

“Shettima is expected to take a lead role in advocating for Nigeria’s vision of a transformative IDA21 financing package to accelerate development across the continent over the 2024-2026 period.

”In the draft Nairobi IDA Communique to be considered at the summit, African heads of state outline urgent priorities for IDA’s next three-year funding cycle, including building human capital, creating jobs, enhancing energy and digital access, building climate resilience, and promoting sustainable growth.

”While thanking donors for contributing 23.5 billion dollars to the current IDA20 cycle, the communique states that this level of financing is inadequate to meet the massive investment needs.

”It calls on IDA partners/donors to step up and ensure a robust replenishment for IDA21,” he said.

Nkwocha said Shettima was expected to emphasise that partners like IDA would be critical to realiing Nigeria’s economic transformation agenda.

”This is considering the country’s young population requiring substantial investments in sectors like job creation, energy access, and human capital development.

”The Nairobi summit follows previous IDA gatherings in Abidjan in 2022 and Dakar last year where African leaders united to call for an ambitious IDA20 replenishment from donors,” he said.

Shettima departs for Nairobi for IDA21

Fuel subsidy was removed for Nigeria not to go bankrupt – Tinubu

President Bola Tinubu has said that fuel subsidy was removed to save the country from going bankrupt.

Speaking as one of the panelists at the ongoing World Economic Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Sunday, April 28, Tinubu said he was convinced it was in the best interest of the people.

He said; “For Nigeria, we are immensely consistent with belief that the economic collaboration and inclusiveness are necessary to engender stability in the rest of the world.

“Concerning the question of the subsidy removal, there is no doubt that it was a necessary action for my country not to go bankrupt, to reset the economy and pathway to growth.

“It is going to be difficult, but the hallmark of leadership is taking difficult decisions at the time it ought to be taken decisively. That was necessary for the country.

“Yes, there will be blowback, there is expectation that the difficulty in it will be felt by greater number of the people, but once I believe it is their interest that is the focus of the government, it is easier to manage and explain the difficulties.

“Along the line, there is a parallel arrangement to really cushion the effect of the subsidy removal on the vulnerable population of the country. We share the pain across board, we cannot but include those who are vulnerable.

“Luckily, we have a very vibrant youthful population interested in discoveries by themselves and they are highly ready for technology, good education committed to growth.

“We are able to manage that and partition the economic drawback and the fallout of subsidy removal.”

The President who stated that fuel subsidy removal engendered accountability, transparency and physical discipline for the country, also talked about exchange rate unification.

According to President Tinubu, the management of the nation’s currency by the government was as well necessary to allow the Naira compete favourably with other world currencies.

He said; “The currency management was necessary equally to remove the artificial elements of value in our currency. Let our local currency find its level and compete with the rest of the world currency and remove arbitrage, corruption and opaqueness.

“That we did at the same time. That is two engine problem in a very template situation for the government, but we are able to manage that turbulence because we are prepared for inclusivity in governance and rapid communication with the public to really see what is necessary and what you must do.”

Fuel subsidy was removed for Nigeria not to go bankrupt – Tinubu

Indomie clears air on price reduction in spite inflation

Olawale Olayinka

The recent drop in the cost of indomie noodles is due to noticeable improvement in the country’s economy in recent times and not linked to reduced patronage, the producer of Indomie Instant Noodles, Dufil Prima Foods Ltd., has said.

Mr Temitope Ashiwaju, the company’s Group Corporate Communications and Event Manager, made the clarification in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Lagos.

Ashiwaju said that the clarification became imperative to correct the wrong narrative about the reason for price adjustment for the product recently.

He said that the company was also affected by the economic realities, hence the reason for increase in prices of indomie noodles in the past.

“For a listening company such as ours, we felt at some point in time, against our operational cost to adjust when things started to improve.

“We had a price reduction, which is not one of those characters that is usually found with some other companies.

“Nigerians are quick to adjust prices when it is going up and favour them, but when prices go down, they are slow to do that. This is not our character at Indomie,” he said

According to him, many firms do not have such habits of changing prices in record time when it goes down.

He added: “We are not here to rip people’s out. Of course, if you starve people and make the products out of reach, it will also affect us.

“Our goal is to make the products affordable for Nigerians and at the best quality you can find around. Reduction in prices came when the operational cost started to go down.

“We don’t have a choice than to adjust to realities of times and other indices as they improve because serving people are at the centre of our core value.

“The moment we realised that things started to stabilise, we all hope and pray the economy gets better, as a responsible company, we felt it was time to do a further price reduction.”

According to him, some other companies would rather just either reduce qualities and start cutting corners when operational cost was up.

He said that instead of doing that Indomie opted for price jump to be in tune with what the reality is and that was what necessitated price increment in the first place.

He reiterated: “It was not about patronage at all. People must eat and this is uppermost in our heart as responsible company. It has nothing to do with low patronage at all

“We have been in the country for over two decades and have have factories and installations all scattered around the country.

“Over the years, we are all aware of the exchange rate dollars to the Naira and most of these are components of determining prices. Machines and mechanical operators are things that are not produced locally.

“All businesses are set up to make profits, however, for us, in trying to make best quality products at affordable prices for Nigeria.

“We have kept that perspective in the last 20 years which made us to have a brand that is known to people and competing with almost all food brands to rice.

“Apart from maybe rice, the only thing people talk about is indomie and noodles,” he said.

NAN recalls that the price of Indomie noodles skyrocketed within a short period and the demand reportedly reduced following price increase.

In a market survey conducted by NAN recently shows that a carton of Indomie standard pack which is the smallest size, was being sold for between N10,500 and N11,500.

However, a carton of that same size is presently sold for between N7,400 and N8,000.

Also, a carton of the Super Pack was sold for between N17,800 and N18,700, and a cartoon of Hungry Man size was sold for between N16,800 and N17,500.

Presently, a carton of the Super Pack is sold for between N12,000 and N13,000, while a carton of the Hungry Man size is sold for between N11,500 and N12,500.

Indomie clears air on price reduction in spite inflation