Business

‘No PenCom employee earns N3m monthly’ — commission reacts to viral claim

Published

2 years ago

September 17, 2022 4:35 pm

BodexNG

The highest paid employee of the National Pension Commission (PenCom) does not earn up to N1 million monthly, the commission has said.

In a press statement shared with newsmen on Saturday, the management of the commission said it is “completely illogical and improbable that the least paid will earn a monthly salary of N3 million” when the highest paid does not earn a third of that.

It said the “mischief” might have originated from someone who calculated all staff costs — covering remuneration, training, staff exit benefit scheme, and employer’s pension contribution — and divided the sum by the number of employees to arrive at a monthly salary of N3 million.

“We understand that there is an element of mischief and possible blackmail on the Commission’s compensation package,” it said, adding that there is “a clear difference” between staff costs and staff salaries.

The commission also explained how the staff compensation is fixed, maintaining that although the salaries are to be reviewed yearly, no adjustment has been made since 2017 when the current package was approved.

It said this has affected the commission’s ability to attract competitive skills from the financial sector.

THE FULL TEXT OF THE PRESS RELEASE

Following the false and misleading information on the compensation package of the National Pension Commission (PenCom) being circulated in the traditional and social media, it has become necessary to set the record straight in the interest of the Nigerian public. It is being alleged that the least paid PenCom employee earns a salary of N3 million per month. This has fuelled all sorts of false allegations and unfair insinuations. The public is invited to note that the claim is absolutely false. The highest paid official of the Commission earns less than N1 million a month. It is therefore completely illogical and improbable that the least paid will earn a monthly salary of N3 million.

We understand that there is an element of mischief and possible blackmail on the Commission’s compensation package. From our understanding, it appears someone calculated all staff costs, including training, staff exit benefit scheme, and employer’s pension contribution, and divided the total by the number of the Commission’s employees and concluded that the least paid employee is on a monthly salary of N3 million. There is a clear difference between staff cost and staff salaries.

It is imperative to point out that right from the inception of the Commission in 2004, the Federal Government mandated the Board to adopt an employee compensation policy that favourably compares to comparator government bodies in the financial services sector, such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Section 25(2)(b) of the Pension Reform Act 2014 also empowers the Board of the Commission to fix the remuneration, allowances and benefits of the employees.

More so, the Presidential Committee on the Consolidation of Emoluments in the Public Sector headed by the late Chief Ernest Shonekan, former Head of the Interim National Government, made a number of recommendations which guide the PenCom Board in its compensation review exercises. One of the recommendations is that the pay structure of self-funded agencies should be benchmarked with their private sector comparators so as to ensure relativity in such agencies and attract and retain high-calibre professionals.

The Shonekan Committee, which was set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2005, also recommended that the pay structure of regulatory agencies should be benchmarked against sectors they monitor to avoid regulatory capture, and that an annual increase in pay should be undertaken to account for inflation/cost of living adjustment and establishments may strive to attain 50th percentile and above their comparators in the private sector.

We made all these facts known in a recently submission to the House of Representatives Committee on Finance over the compensation package of the Commission. We also stated that the last compensation package review was done in 2017 with the approval of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF). No review has been done in the last five years and this has affected the ability of the Commission to attract, hire and retain staff with competitive skills.

The public is, therefore, implored to ignore the false and mischievous information on the staff compensation package. The Commission has nothing to hide and will continue to run a transparent and accountable system.

Business

TikTok won’t be sold, says Chinese owner as US ban looms

Published

8 hours ago

April 26, 2024 10:58 am

BodexNG

ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, says it has no intention of selling the social media platform.

“Foreign media reports that ByteDance is exploring the sale of TikTok are untrue,” the company wrote in a statement on Toutiao, a news aggregation app that it owns.

“ByteDance doesn’t have any plan to sell TikTok.”

The statement was in response to an article by The Information on Thursday saying “ByteDance is exploring scenarios for selling TikTok’s US business without the algorithm that recommends videos to TikTok users”.

The development followed after the US passed a law to force ByteDance to sell the hugely popular video app or be banned in America.

The sell-or-ban measure was signed into law by US President Joe Biden on Wednesday.

The bill, passed by the senate on Tuesday, follows concerns among US lawmakers that China could access Americans’ data or use the app for surveillance.

In March, the house of representatives passed a bill to ban TikTok unless the app parts ways with ByteDance.

The lawmakers voted — 352 in favour of the proposed law and 65 against it — in a rare moment of bipartisan unity.

In 2022, the US house of representatives ordered its staff to delete TikTok from any house-issued mobile devices.

TikTok recently said it would challenge in court the “unconstitutional” law.

Business

Dangote refinery ranked above 10 biggest European refineries

Published

9 hours ago

April 26, 2024 9:40 am

BodexNG

A financial data and media company, Bloomberg, has ranked the Dangote Refinery above the top 10 biggest refineries in Europe.

According to data compiled by the business news platform, the refinery has more capacity than many European ones.

The $20bn-worth refinery located in Lekki-Epe Expressway, Lagos State, can refine 650,000 barrels of petroleum products per day.

The report sighted by newsmen on Thursday stated that this is over 246,00bpd capacity, more than Shell’s Pernis Refinery, which is located in the Netherlands.

It added that the Pernis Refinery, which has an installed capacity of 404,000bpd, is the biggest in Europe. The BP Rotterdam Refinery in the Netherlands has a capacity of 380,000.

Bloomberg also reported that the GOI Energy ISAB Refinery in Italy was built with a refining capacity of 360,000bpd.

Also, the TotalEnergies Antwerp refining facility in Belgium can refine 338,000bpd.

Others listed in the report were the Orlen Plock Refinery in Poland with 327,000bpd; Shell’s Rheinland in Germany with 327,000bpd; Miro Refinery in Germany with 310,000 capacity; and the ExxonMobil Anterwep Refinery in Belgium with 307,000 capacity.

It added that the Saras Sarroch Refinery in Italy had 300,000 capacity; the ExxonMobil Fawley in England had 270,000bpd capacity.

The Bloomberg report described the Dangote Refinery as a ‘game changer’ and said it was taking advantage of cheaper US oil imports for as much as a third of its feedstock as it started up.

According to analysts, the refinery has been shipping products in recent weeks while readying two units to enable petrol output, which will deliver a long-promised transformation of the fuel market in Nigeria and the region.

“Dangote is going to influence Atlantic Basin gasoline markets this summer and for the rest of the year,” an oil expert, Alan Gelder, told Bloomberg.

According to the average estimate of analysts at WoodMac, FGE, and Citac, the refinery is running at about 300,000 barrels a day, nearly half its nameplate capacity.

The complex has started shipping jet fuel, diesel, and naphtha as it widens to a full slate of products.

Reuters recently reported that the Dangote oil refinery could end a decades-long petrol trade from Europe to Africa, worth $17 billion a year.

Reuters, quoting analysts and traders, said the Dangote refinery was heaping pressure on European refineries already at risk of closure from heightened competition, adding that the refinery would be the largest in Africa and Europe when it reaches full capacity.

About a third of Europe’s 1.33mbpd average petrol exports in 2023 went to West Africa, a bigger chunk than any other region, with most of those exports ending up in Nigeria, Reuters said, quoting Kpler data.

Dangote Refinery has begun selling diesel into the Nigerian market, crashing the pump price from N1,600 to N940 in less than a month.

Business

FG grants Air Peace approval to commence Abuja-London flights

Published

10 hours ago

April 26, 2024 8:32 am

BodexNG

The federal government (FG) says it has approved the commencement of flight services from Abuja to London by Air Peace.

Festus Keyamo, minister of aviation and aerospace development, spoke on Channels television on Thursday.

Keyamo said he gave the approval for Air Peace to add Abuja to its London route on April 24.

“Just yesterday (Wednesday), I approved Air Peace for the Abuja-London route, not only Lagos-London route,” the minister said.

“British Airways also come to Abuja.

“So, let Air Peace block that path and start a war. It’s all for the good of Nigerians.”

Speaking on the British government’s refusal to grant operation access to Heathrow Airport, Keyamo said the federal government agreed to operate the Gatwick Airport.

He said Air Peace or any interested local airline should be operating to Heathrow Airport and not Gatwick.

The minister said the Gatwick Airport is only a low-hanging fruit and a starting point.

Keyamo said he has been reviewing the bilateral air service agreement (BASA) between the United Kingdom (UK) and Nigeria and some decisions would be made after the exercise.

On March 30, 2024, Air Peace began direct flight operations from Lagos to Gatwick Airport in London.

Bodex F. Hungbo, SPMIIM is a multiple award-winning Nigerian Digital Media Practitioner, Digital Strategist, PR consultant, Brand and Event Expert, Tv Presenter, Tier-A Blogger/Influencer, and a top cobbler in Nigeria.

She has widespread experiences across different professions and skills, which includes experiences in; Marketing, Media, Broadcasting, Brand and Event Management, Administration and Management with prior stints at MTN, NAPIMS-NNPC, GLOBAL FLEET OIL AND GAS, LTV, Silverbird and a host of others